I’m a 400m runner looking for some advice about offseason training.
I already talked to the strength coach at my school about helping me to improve my strength since that’s what I really seem to be lacking (especially my hamstrings).
Anyway so far my plan is to lift 3 days a week (monday, wednesday, friday) then rest saturday and sunday, which leaves tuesday and thursday open.
Right now I’m thinking, maybe running 2 miles, running hills or bleachers or doing sprint drills on those days, but I dunno which one so that’s why I figured I’d post this on here and see what some of you guys have to say.
Any and all advice is welcomed, I want to improve my strength and speed too, but I don’t want to do too much that I’ll burn out before or during the season, so let me know what you all think.
Oh and by the way my off season is about 3 months…I’ll probably still be competing until mid June (even though there is a strong possibility I could be competing later than that) to mid September (that’s when conditioning starts for my team).
what about long runs tempo style? over the summer i did workouts of jog for 5, sprint/fast run for 5, jog for 5, sprint 4, jog 4, etc down to 1, plus cooldown. all in all it worked out to around 4 miles or so, and this was something recommended to me as a 400 runner. i assume you mean just don’t go out and jog a few miles…?
During the off season I never did anything, but lift, stretch and play other sports for my conditioning. The off season is where you can make some of your biggest improvements that can set you up for success when you begin training. You run for 9 months out of the year, your body could use the time off to recover. I know of quite a few elite 400m runners who do the same type of thing.
I did all of that except lift weights, which I now wish I would have done, regardless I should still run well this year. This is the longest I have gone in 3 years without any injuries that required me to rehab for a whole month and miss out on training.
Like I said before I plan on lifting 3 days a week over this next summer, but I’d still like to do something besides lift in order to improve since I’ve heard countless times that the summer (the offseason) is when you improve the most.
If you just add some weights into your off season you should be set. I would be very leary about running during the off season, but I don’t know how long your off season is. Something else to consider is test out your standing lj and 3 consecutive every other Friday or something like that. It will measure your power output. You will find that there is a nice corelation between your strength/power and the distance of your jumps. I might also add that take the off season and play basketball, volleyball things like that to stay active. Occasionally go out to the track and do some light striding, starts or something like that. I don’t see a reason to workout over an entire summer with track workouts. Main thing, just stay away from the pounding that you put on your body through during a track season.
This is what I would do;
Take a week or two off from doing anything after your last meet. Following that test out my standing lj and 3 hop to see where I am at before I started lifting. I would then begin the off season lifting which should be very aggressive. Determine based on your lifting when you should test out those standing lj and 3 hop. You’ll get an idea of how your lifting is working for you. Towards the end of the summer I would fit in some light striding, biking, sports, etc. Something just off the top of my head is consider doing form drills in the pool or a pool workout of some sort. Just some things to throw out there. Let me know what you think or what you are looking for.
I am going to have 2 weeks off totally. Then I am going to do 4 weeks of training away from the track and pretty much anything I want. THis will include long bushwalks, surfing, running (including fartlek and easy 20 minute jogs), bike riding, rowing, weights, yoga, dancing, pilates and kickboxing. Just doing different things and have fun. After that I will get into a more formal GPP of 4 weeks.
People might agree - but this will recharge my batteries and at least maintain some fitness.