Good news, one of my athletes ran in the Junior Nationals this weekend (SAT), ran a PB by 0.4 in the heats of the 400m and has the final today (SUN).
The problem is that her time qualified her for the Senior Nationals which is next Saturday (9th July) and while I was expecting a PB I wasn’t expecting her to qualify. This means I only have 1 week to help her CNS recover and get the knots out of her calves and I would appreciate some help.
Notes: From my record keeping it takes about 4 days before she can handle any speed work and about 5-8 for her to bounce back to good 200/400m form after a PB.
With this in mind it will be hit or miss which side of the compensation peak she is at next Saturday and I was wondering what the best course of action would be to make sure she is as primed and ready as she can be.
Here is my plan:
SUN: Final of Junior Nationals
MON: Tempo - 1500m with PU/SU at 70% > Heavy Massage.
TUES: Race Modelling (50,100,150,200,250) at 95% of her projected times for these distances under race conditions. Full Recovery between runs > Light Massage.
Wednesday: Short Circuit Tempo 75%: light Med ball work/SU/PU > Heavy Massage if needed
Thursday: Race Modelling at 100% of projected times over 50,100,150,200,250 > Light massage.
Friday: Rest and Light Massage
Saturday: Light massage if needed > RACE!
Hmm. Well you know her better than I, but I would consider a complete rest day early in the week (Monday) and maybe only 1 speed session that’s at or above 95%.
I would consider maybe a slight fly run-up, maybe 3 or 4 steps for the start to reduce the stress even more (assuming you do the runs at the same pace).
Depending on what she was doing before, you could possibly drop the volume on the race modeling on the last HI day a bit. Maybe a 50m and 150m rep or something else very low volume to help with the recovery process a bit.
I saw your other post, too. Quik and PJ made good comments, her level is such that she can’t afford to hold back and repeating good performances round after round will come via training itself well before.
As for this, since it’s something “unexpected” and because you know what’s going on with her recovery, I would put more emphasis on the latter rather than trying to “fix” things in the last minute…
She knows what to do now, so give her some good rest and let her enjoy the occassion! Ask her on Mon/Tue how she feels after this weekend… With all the excitement and anticipation for next weekend, things might shift a bit…
Very poor showing on Sunday like i expected. 0.8 off her Saturday performance. I managed to get the knots out of her calves and her endurance was there (same time for the last 100m) but the 200/300 times were off pace. I assume CNS burnout. Still, she now understands the postion she is in regarding performances after a PB so she was just pleased to make it all the way round (her time was still significantly better than what she was running 6 months ago anyway).
I think I’ll drop the volume of THUR 100% race modelling to 50/150 and add the run ins. Thanks for these ideas. Also I’ll drop the volume on Monday to 800m. Just enough to flush out the legs.