HS Short Sprinter's Training Journal

March 13

Squat 3x8x205,225,225
RDL (Slow Tempo) 3x6
3a. Bench Press 2x6x150
b. Lat Pulldown 2x10
c. DB Shoulder Press 2x10
d. DB Upright Row 2x10
abs- 200 reps

My season with my school team begins on Monday, and my first meet is on the 29th I think. For outdoors I am going to try to have a better attitude about training with the team, I think believing in what you are doing will go a long way. Also right now my fitness sucks basically all the qualities needed for sprinting are low right now (besides my strength in the weight room). I am expecting poor times at the beginning of the season but they should improve drastically as my fitness, speed and SE fall into place.

March 15
Wasn’t allowed to do anything because my physical was too old, i think they lost my most recent one or something. I was fine with sitting out, it will allow me to ease into this week more.

March 16
Dysfunctional Weight Room*
2x (Hell Week Circuit** + ~550m Jog)

*Dysfunctional Weight Room is exactly what it sounds like, I didn’t get anything worthwhile done
**Hell Week Circuit is a circuit with 15 stations each lasting about 30 seconds and they are a mixture of abs, bw exercises and low intensity plyos

March 17
I did community service during practice time, so I lifted on my own after.

Squats 4x5x205,205,215,215
Bench Press 4x5x150,150,140,140
Hamstring Curl 2x10
RDL 2x10
Lat Pulldown 2x10
Shoulder Press 2x10
Seated Row 2x10
abs- 400 reps

March 18
1x Hell Week Circuit
2x Suicides

abs- 200 reps

First week of track is always like this, its as a team but then we split up into more specific groups, I think and hope that that will start tomorrow.

March 19

(100m,200,300), (300,200,100) R: 200m Walk/5min

This was brutal and ugly. My first rep was good, second rep was decent and after that they were all ugly. There is no practice on Saturday, Sunday and then Monday my coach wants to do a brutal workout, like something completely over the top, he said like 3x600m but I am not sure if that’s what we are doing. I’m toying with the idea of doing real speed work (similar to a GPP Speed workout) on Sunday along with weights and then working with the Javelin coach on Monday because I would also like to try Javelin and I know I need some actual running fast.

March 22

Javelin Technique
Core Workout (~200reps)

Squat 4x5x225
RDL 2x10
Shoulder Press 2x10
Pull Up 2x6,8
abs- 200 reps

I ended up playing ultimate Frisbee on Saturday so I decided not to try and squeeze a speed workout in. I’m not sure, but it appears like the sprinters at my school have a new coach, its a young guy right out of college, who ran at my high school and graduated in 2005, who ran 1/2/4 his most impressive PR is 21.87. During the indoor season he was kind of the assistant coach but it appears like he has taken over writing the workouts and being with us while we do them, they ended up doing a 600m Breakdown. He treats things like that as the important workouts, but i guess if the program includes everything then it doesn’t really matter what mentally is viewed as more important, only time will tell, hopefully he includes speed work too.

March 23

2x (Jog, Walking Lunges, Forward Skips, Walking Lunges, Backwards Skips, Walking Lunges) ~50m Each
Ab Series(240 reps)

March 24

1 Mile Jog

March 25

Weights with Team (I did Upper + Core and skipped Lower stuff)
4x200m @ 31
2x20m Submax

March 26

Hill
20m, 40m, 60m, 40m, 20m
8x60m
20m, 40m, 60m, 80m, 60m, 40m, 20m
4x80m, 4x40m
*estimated differences
Rest: Jog Back/ Few Minutes

I think this was supposed to be a “speed workout” :confused: hahaha. It ended up being good general conditioning, I never got moving fast simply due to such short rests. I didn’t have any lactic build up so I’d consider this pretty close to extensive tempo. If its nice out this weekend I might try to fit in some speed work since it doesn’t appear ill be getting any with the team.

I was supposed to have a meet Monday but it already got canceled and I might have one Thursday. Luckily I have a lot of meets so those will help me race into shape (build speed and specific endurance). I will be doubling a lot mainly a combination of two of these: 100m, 200m, 4x1 but I am also planning on doing some shorter stuff as a semi workout before the race in my warm up to help fit some speed work in (a few 30s or 40s). Does this sound good, or should I stay away from this? Thanks

What do you mean semi workout?

Just so instead of warming up and doing my two races, make it look more like a speed endurance workout
ex. 2x30m, 2x40m, 100 + 4x1

100 and 4x1 are about 10-15 minutes apart so it works out nicely

this wouldn’t be for all meets, just some of the earlier ones and only if im feeling up to it (depends on the work load around the meet)

That should be part of your warmup. I do 3x60 builds, 2x30 starts, 1x70 submax…

if you don’t already do that, you haven’t been warming up properly…some people, mainly long sprinters, may do up to 200m at a submax pace during their warmup, you probably wouldn’t need more than a 80-120m run. You have to judge what you need and what you can handle.

i do do build ups in my warm up and then usually one or two full speed runs before a race, i guess its not all that different, i was just wondering

March 28

On Grass
8x10m
6x20m (Alternating between resisted and unresisted)
2x(15mE/15mF)
–Stopped workout due to Shin pain–

abs- 300 reps

Exactly, stick with your coaches program and stop adding stuff…

Dear RB34,
I just want to show you exactly what we were supposed to do this training week just so you can see a little where I am coming from.
There is no need to respond to this, you can think what you want. I have appreciated the advice you have given before and used it but for this case, I think our argument/discussion will lead no where.

M- 6,5,4,3,2,1
Rest: Walk what you ran
Pace: As fast as you can manage

T- Weights + 2x(50m jog, 50m lunge, 50m skip, 50m lunge, 50 backward skips, 50m lunge)

W- 3.5 mile jog on asphalt roads

Th- Weights + 4x200m @ 32 + Block Starts (no amount just told us to do starts)

F- Hill Workout
20m, 40m, 60m, 40m, 20m
8x60m
20m, 40m, 60m, 80m, 60m, 40m, 20m
4x80m, 4x40m
R: jog Back/ few minutes
Pace: As fast as you can manage

*This is what all sprinters do, 1,2 and 4, even though our group has maybe 1 200/400 runner

What is it to argue about, your coaches are doing what some people may call shitty training. On top of all that volume your trying to do more work on your own which is leading to overuse injuries (shin etc).

I’m sure you are doubting everything your coaches are telling you instead use that time/energy towards workouts and enjoy being a student athlete. Trust me you will have your whole life to train yourself and experiment with CFTS…

Half of the battle is believing!!! As you may know my workouts are a lot different then CFTS but I believe in what I’m doing, only time will tell if it will work. LOL

well said, I thoroughly enjoyed reading that, thank you for the humor.

jordan, u also forgot to mention that the weight program that fails to include bench, squat or cleans or any similar exercises and is based on 15 reps with 30 sec rest…