Block 4- The final block of intensification starts tonight.
I’ll be doing:
4x20m blocks
4x60m blocks (15 minutes break)
In the gym:
3x3 squats
3x5 hypers
3x5 pull ups
3x5 bench press
I expect this block to be quite demanding on the CNS and so my max speed workouts are dropping to 2x per week instead of 3. I’m adding in a speed endurance workout inbetween for some filler and so that hopefully it will make these 200s I will be running a little less painful.
I’ve been doing a lot of reading, searching and chatting with my weights coach about how to proceed during the competition period and what competitions are important and when exactly I want to be in peak form.
My championships are at the beginning of march and so its pretty important for me not to drop the volume off too quickly or else I’ll hit my peak too early and then the purpose of doing my final taper will be useless. From what I’ve read is that its much easier to drop volume and allow for adaptation to occur but its more troublesome if you need to add it back on.
Volume will drop during this period but I will proceed cautiously over the course of the competition season. Gradually taking away volume. Hopefully it wont take much decrease in volume for me to qualify for the championships. And so we’ll play it by ear, and if its getting too close to the Champs and I still need to qualify then additional volume may need to come off. The plan will be to start off quite conservative, dropping maybe 30% for the initial month and doing a mini taper for an important qualifying competition at the end of January. If this goes well then I’ll know that I can maintain a slightly higher volume then planned and let the final taper take care of things. If it doesnt I may need to chop slightly more volume in Feb. Maybe 20% of the new total, and see how that goes.
Its going to be my first competition season under this new program design and I think experimenting like this will prove to be useful in knowing how my body responds. My overall goal for this season is to make the final at the championships and then have a successful outdoor season ultimately.
Well when I say 15 minutes its never 15 minutes, its 15 minutes if you need it. And so often when I’ve said 10 minutes recovery we typically are at 8 minutes, because we’re fully recovered. We haven’t been strictly measuring it either, we dont have a timer and just go when we feel is right. So I guess its a little misleading to put 15 minutes rest because we probably will never get there.
We’re typically recovered at 8 and go then. But we dont feel pressured if we need the extra time.
yea 15 is way too much for a 60. I like the 1 min per 10 meter rule. If I still feel a lil tired I will take a few more but unles your dropping 6.2s hand no need for 15
yeah, like I said, we go 8 mins, but dont feel bad if we take a 10 or more if needed once in a while. I think this works out pretty good.
Our last rep yesterday we took 12 minutes by accident (got caught up talking) and got fairly cold and definitely felt as though it was too long. I think rest is pretty intuitive when it comes to complete rest intervals.
In any case:
The workout went well, everything feels as though its starting to fire well and my starts have been coming along. Tonight will be tempo:
The 150’s were clocked at 16.9s and 17.0s ht. Which is an indoor pb for me, with my pb from last year being 17.3s and my outdoor pb being 16.5s.
So not bad for the first Speed endurance workout of the season.
Tomorrow morning is:
3x3 cleans superset with drop jumps
3x5 jerks
A few upper body exercises
At this point probably .2s. In a season I’ve usually gone anywhere from .1-.25s in a season. I’m hoping that because of the large loads I’ve been doing in training when I go to maintenance mode it will be towards the higher end of the spectrum. Usually difficult to tell. I’ve seen guys go 7.17s in January to 6.89 in february and Ive also seen guys go 7.19s in November and 7.17s in Feb.
in season will be a low maintenance volume, a couple accels and a couple top speed runs, slightly sub max. Save it for the competitions and hopefully some good performances will come through in a few weeks.
Yeah, they have been quite short lately. Some more so then others.
Those squats were at 315lbs.
I usually have more on the list, but am so wiped I usually end up skipping it.In general though there has been less lifting this season than previous seasons.