Here is a collection of some of my posts in a thread on the DB Hammer Forum about my upcoming offseason. The conversation got a little sidetracked at times so sorry for anything that is a little off topic but its kinda long to go back through and reword, etc.
Hockey season is coming to a close so I am trying to get a handle on this upcoming offseason…
As I recently reported about in my training log I competed in my first ever track meet on Saturday and ran 8.01 FAT 60M. Obviously its not a great time and I think I am currently capable of a little bit better but it was a blast and I would like to compete on a regular basis. I still plan on playing hockey but I would also really like to improve as a sprinter and get to the point that I can hang with if not beat the sprinters at my school (between 7.0 and 7.5).
As far as hockey training goes speed has always held me back from taking my game to the next level so increases in sprinting speed will no doubt have at least some carryover to skating and improve my game and I am not too worried about the specific conditioning aspect because I haven’t paid too much attention to it in the last two years of club college hockey and I have been able to “play myself into shape” for the most part.I have talked with Davan for a little while about planning my offseason and I’ve talked briefly with adbrauner on CF.com regarding the same issues. Both were in favor of CF style GPP phases in the initial stages of the offseason with my intention to transition into something resembling the weekly strength/sprinting split that kellyb outlines in his Simpleton’s Guide to Speed Training. Also, having read as many of CF’s own posts on his sites as possible I found that he is in favor of shorter, more numerous training phases for athletes whose competions are of shorter distance. Since hockey and sprinting (with my focus being on the 60 and somewhat on the 100) are primarly accelerations with some top speed, I would fall on the side of short, numerous training phases in the annual plan. As a result, my plan is to move back into a shorter, slightly more intense GPP period mid-summer and then have one more high intensity phase at the end of the summer before I go into maintenance for hockey season.
I know this isn’t exactly in line with DB’s system as its laid out word for word and violates the rate/dur “fence” rule (which I’m not sure I really believe in- but we’ll save that for some other time ) but I would like to hear what you all have to say. Specifically what do you think of a GPP period, how important is it to have specific training phases or even to plan ahead for that matter. Also I’d love to hear from some other sprinters with tips on training or planning or anything they have done in the past that has or has not helped them.
Another thing I have been kind of pondering is the frequency of sprinting. There is a ton of talk about beginners and lower level athletes not being able to tax themselves anywhere near the level of elite athletes. Well I realize that, at least in terms of sprinting, I am a lower level athlete and therefore (according to CF and lots of other coaches and athletes) sprints aren’t as intensive for me as they are for other sprinters. If I’m not mistaken Ben Johnson and most of CF’s other elite level sprinters would have high intensity sprints and weights on M/W/F and obviously made progress and were able to compete with the best in the world. Granted they were genetic freaks and I’m obviously not and they worked up to the volumes/frequency over a number of years but it seems to me that I should not have a problem sprinting 3/wk. I think, as a result of furthering my knowledge of the training process, I have (as have a number of others) been deathly afraid of overtraining and with AREG (which I find to be genious in theory, but maybe not as great in practice ) and everything else I have maybe been undertraining and not getting as strong a training effect as I could safely handle. Now this is obviously better than overdoing it but I’d like to make some good progress. I’ve also noticed that a majority of the time I feel like I can train ever other day if I am not sore. If I’m sore than I really don’t feel up to it but otherwise I’m rearing to go. Anyway… my question is: if I feel like this is it better to go with say 900m of speed work per week split up into 450 on monday and 450 on friday or 300 on M/W/F? OR would it be even more beneficial to go with 350 on monday and 550 on friday or 300, 200, 500 M/W/F or some other type of weekly periodization of volume?
Ok, that was crazy long and kinda rambling so I’ll leave it at that for now. I’d like to get your thoughts and thanks in advance for the help. Also I’m happy to get more specific with my tenative layout or with other thoughts.
I don’t mind the extracurricular discussion but I would appreciate any more thoughts on the plan itself. I am not overly concerned with what terminology is used or who has influenced the program or what kind of “chemistry” they practice, etc. I’d rather discuss principles and progressions. With that being said here is a little bit of a breakdown of my current plan:
-31 week offseason following hockey playoffs the weekend of Feb. 24-25
Will be comprised of four distinct training phases or macrocycles: GPP1, SPP1, GPP2, SPP2. The names are CF influenced but I think you could look at it as accumulation/intensification cycles or hypertrophy-strength-power loop or whatever. In terms of intensity SPP2>SPP1>GPP2>GPP1, so there is a general trend of intensification of training throughout the offseason with the initial period (GPP1) being least intense and acting at least in part as an active rest and deload period.
The GPP periods will be comprised of less intense sprinting (hills, short accels, maybe med ball accels), box/stair jumps, and lighter weights (8-12 reps or Dur An2/3). These periods will build specific work capacity and hypertrophy to be peaked out in the SPP periods- moving back and forth from efficiency to proficiency to keep the gains coming.
The SPP periods will be comprised of longer accelerations and some top speed work (60s and flying 10s and 20s) as well as heavier weights (3-5 reps or Dur An1/2 lower bound).
The outline looks like this:
7wks GPP
11wks SPP
5wks GPP
7wks SPP
1wk maintenanceDo you think the GPP periods are completely unneccesary as well as annual planning in general? Should I just jump right into a template similar to the one in Simpleton’s Guide to Speed Training and ride that all offseason? Do you think I’d be better off with a longer GPP, longer SPP, change the intensities, more macrocycles, less macrocycles, etc?
Just a note on the topic of Jack’s post- I do not plan on doing very much tempo at all. Instead I plan on continuing with the general conditioning circuits that I have been doing for a while now. These consist primarily of BW exercises and mobility work with some tempo and med ball stuff thrown in there. I feel that they are good for improving recovery/active rest as well as working on hip mobility, glute activation, and all that other stuff that I otherwise overlook without adding a ton of volume for the legs which tempo might otherwise do.
Plan (so far) for GPP1-
Tempo/Mobility/Medball Circuits- Tues/Thurs/Sat throughout the phase, volume will start of med-low and build up to what I would consider medium and hold there pretty constant
Explosive Medball/ Medball Accels- Tues/Thurs/Sat for weeks one through five. Volume will start off med-low and be gradually lowered.
Hill Work/Grass Sprints- Mon/Wed/Fri throughout the phase. Distances will start out at <20m and move out to about 40m. The rest periods will start at just a walk back recovery and increase to about 4-5 minutes by the end of the phase. The volume will start low and move up gradually throughout the phase to about 2/3 the volume that CF outlines in the GPP video. In the beginning it will be primarily hill work and then it will move toward more grass sprints. For example-
wks 1-2: 3 hill, 0 grass
wks 3-4: 2 hill, 1 grass
wks 5-6: 1 hill, 1 grass
wk7: 0 hill, 1 grassUpper Weights- I will not really even be performing upper body weights during this phase because of shoulder issues. I am still trying to get them in order, so I plan on going solely with push ups, fat man rows, face pulls, and some external rotations. This has been helping lately. This will be Mon/Wed/Fri for weeks one and two and Tues/Thurs/Sat for weeks three and four. Finally they will move back to M/W/F for weeks five through seven
Lower Weights- Tues/Thurs/Sat for weeks one and two and Mon/Wed/Fri for the rest of GPP. In general weights in this phase will be hypertrophy oriented (8-12reps) with short Iso’s in the CJC. I may add some slightly higher intensity weights at a low volume maintain strength.
Track Work- Wed in weeks five and six and Mon/Fri in week seven. Distances will be <40m and the volume will likely increase from low to medium.
Then SPP1 will have the following format
Mon- speed + lower weights
Tues- tempo + upper “weights”
Wed- off
Thurs- speed + lower weights
Fri- tempo + upper “weights”
Sat- off
Sun- off
I’m sorry that its so long and thanks in advance for the effort. I would love to get some feedback from those more experienced in the world of T+F. I also want to note that I play club hockey in the south… so its not that competitive 
and the season consists of two practices and one or two games per week for about 7wks in the fall semester and 4wks in the spring semester.