How to train between meets

Expert Discussion Planning and Periodization
21

I am late responding to this thread but would like to share my thoughts since I had success with planning summer track workouts…

4 race
5: rest
6: 4x20-30 and 1x150 submax (hard for 30 - maintain 120) squats/bench and any other aux lifts
7: 2x5x100 tempo on grass
8: 4x20-30 and 1x60 submax (hard for 30 - maintain 30) bench/jump squat and any other aux lifts
9: rest
10: 2x20-30 starts, ohb+blf x3, hurdle hops 2x5
11: race 100/200
12-13: rest
14: 3x30+3x60 (4-5mins on 30’s and 7-8 on 60’s) squat/bench and others
15: 2x5x100 tempo
16: 3-4x30+2x150 (rest 20mins)
17: 2x3x200
18: 4x30+1x60 (hard 30 - maintain 30) bench/jump squat and others
19: 2x3x100 tempo
20: rest
21: 2x20-30 starts, ohb+blf x3, hurdle hops 2x5
22: race 100-200

The tempo volume is only there for guidelines because I’m not sure how much volume you have worked up to. I prefer performing a neural day before race day esp if it’s a final only race.

22

Looks good. For me I dont like going fast the day before a meet. Everytime Ive done starts even if its just 2 I run like ass a th mee. I feel better when I do a long warmup/tempo session the day before.

23

The neural day has to be performed correctly.

Always rest the day before performing the neural session… No stims or music on the neural day… Stay relax-smooth-calm. Neural days are great if you need to be sharp for prelims or a final only race which most summer races are “finals” only.

24

Hmm Neural day, Any more info on that? Cant get those types of days often because of work, but during the summer its feasible. Today I did a warmup and stretched. DIdnt get to do drills because of rain.
Got a meet this weekend with multiple 100’s possible plus a 55m.

saturday is 100 pre, sunday 100 semi and final (if i run open) or a masters 55 and 100 final. Either way im running three times.

25

Neural days are nothing special, i even think Charlie recommended them more so for lower level runners. If you are running in a tough meet and must be sharp early or final only race then they are good otherwise if you have several rounds you may not need them. Very important to stay relax and not get all jacked up. Also early season i may use the neural days as another training day - train through the early meets etc.

26

My impression is that…as far as speed works are concerned, you’ve done longer sprints (d6) then cut it on d8 and then a stim day on d10, then afterwards, you did shorter sprint (d14), then longer sprint (d16), then shorter sprint again (d18), then stim day on d21, and the reason is because you had more time between race on day 11 and day 22 (11 days) vs. day 4 and 11 (7 days), right? Plz correct me if I’m wrong

Also, day 17 is tempo I’m guessing…

Would you also tell me what ohb and blf are??

Thank you

27

2x3x200 tempo on grass… ohb/blf mb or shot toss. You are correct for most of it. You have to be the judge and design the workouts based on your goals… My goals were to always train through the early meets because I wasn’t ready to run fast anyways. I ran the 100/200 every week and if there was a meet around i was there - lol… RACE RACE RACE!!! Race - rest - and stay sharp…

28

Meet today. Did not go well, compared to my recent meets. I’d rather not have to post actual
times because it’s embarrashingly bad…it was the worst one compared to my meets in April, May,
and one last week. It was 0.35 worse than last week, which was the best of them all.

It was my first 3 hour drive to a meet, which I initially expected to be 2-2.5 hour drive. I did
rush the warmup at the beginning, but had more time later as meet was running behind the schedule
and that gave me a little extra time, so I don’t really think that was the problem. I actually
rushed my warmup more last week.

If I recall correctly, I’ve done
6/5 rest
6/6 speed 4x30, 2x80 (submax), 120 (submax) (400 total)
6/7 tempo 1600 total with 100s and 200s
6/8 speed 4x30, 3x80 (submax) (360 total)
6/9 rest
6/10 stim 4x30

I’ve done a little higher volume because I need to maintain some volume to keep me stimulated for
longer…probably until mid July. I’m desperately trying to run shave off 0.3 off of what I ran
last week (that would be my short term goal for this summer). Still very humble goal compared to
most of people here, but gotta start somewhere. It will be very difficult, but (unfortunately) I
have passion no lesser than world class athletes, even though my performance is nothing like it…

Although last week I had a strong tail wind and some head wind this week, that’s only about 0.25
second difference…As novice as I am and with meet experiences accumulating, I should be improving,
but I got worseby such a big margin.

Does my schedule seem like it would cause me to crash because of lack of training or overtraining??

I am not good at judging how I feel, but I actually feel great. I’m sleeping well, and I feel minimal
to no soreness, my muscles feel loose, other than the effect of long drive.

29

If you are racing 100-200 every week that vol looks slightly high.

30

Bit of everything is my opinion.

Stress from the travel, causing rushing etc… High training for the week.

Was the competition important? You have another four weeks of the season, how many competitions left

31

If I recall correctly, I’ve done
6/5 rest
6/6 speed 4x30, 2x80 (submax), 120 (submax) (400 total)
6/7 tempo 1600 total with 100s and 200s
6/8 speed 4x30, 3x80 (submax) (360 total)
6/9 rest
6/10 stim 4x30

I agree, volume looks a bit high and travelling 3 hrs before a race is not ideal either.
On the speed days, I would go with 4 x 30m and only 1 x 80m run at 95%
Tempo days would cut back to 1000-1200m.

32

May not be a problem here necessarily.
If your times are relatively slow (absolute values) compared to other athletes then a 0.3 sec drop in performance for a slower time is not such a big deal. Dropping from say 10.5 to 10.8 is a bigger drop than from say 13.0 to 13.3.
If you are less experienced than some of the other athletes around here your ability to execute in a consistent way for a consistent finish time will be lesser.
Also depends on whether your other times this season suggest you should be approaching a peak now, holding fastest times (at a peak) or even passing your season peak. Maybe previous seasons will give indicators here.
So its only 1 race and a few reasons why it could be a one off.

If the problem persists you could consider the slightly lower volume/intensity as suggested by the other guys above.

33

WHy are you afraid to post your times? We dont know your real name or what you ran in the past. Plus the goal of this site is to help you run faster.

Ive been stuck at 11.6 for since my injury return and so far its been 4 races all at 11.6, if I go wide open 11.6, if I slow down 30 meters before the line 11.6. lol
THe goal is to get better and figure it out. I found this site a decade ago as a 10.3 guy now im 11 guy. It is what it is

34

Different people are affected differently by wind. I’ve experienced a difference of 0.7s between two races that were a week or two apart and the only difference was the wind. (I think it was -3.7 vs +3.0). On the other hand, I have a friend who is of similar performance level to myself but is hardly affected by wind at all.

35

I don’t want to post bad times for random people to see. I can message members if that’s important to disclose. 10.3…man, I’d do anything to be that good like you.

36

Hardly affected…huh? that’s a bit weird. Of course I agree it can affect people to a different degree though. I think I read somewhere, I think from one of the CF materials, that stronger people tend to be less affected by wind.

Would you say your physical condition or actual performance was equal on both races?? no more fatigue or stumbling, or tightening up or anything else on your slower race?

37

Not every week, I have 11 days before my next one, and then I’ll have like 3 weeks before the one after that. Would you say it’s still too high?

38

I’ll probably have 3 more competitions this season. Every competition is important and I really got to shave 0.3 off of what I did week before.

39

I’m actually thinking about trying to get there a day before and make a huge investment in staying overnight before the meet. Really hope it works out and helps.

40

I’ve improved 0.2 from April to May, then 0.05 from May to last week, then got 0.35 worse this week. Does this indicate that I’ve pretty much crashed and my peak is over? or is there anything I can do to peak and improve? I’ve tapered for both April and May meet, but for 4 weeks of 5 between the two meets, I trained through it.