plateau-ing

i was wondering if anybody could help me out. So far this season my times for the 100m and the 200m have dropped by .30 (for the 100) and about .4(200m). I am getting really frustrated because i put in a full winter of training and train about 6 days a week, whereas last year i was only training for 4 days a week (and my times were better). I know this is fairly general but is there anything obvious to explain why sprinters times might slow down, even with increased training. (i also have started running the 400m this season)

5400 first of all a drop of 3ths is good over 100m so don’t get too frustrated.increasing the workload in training days can affect different athletes different ways.some athletes can tolerate more work/training than others.you may actually be training too much with a slight possibilty of over-training.whats your training schedule like,have you easy,medium,hard days?

Actually by drop I think he meant they went up (got worse).

I’m assuming when you say you’re training 6 days per week, you mean 6 actual high intensity days. This is too much, you’re not giving your body a chance to recover.

Yep, you’re probably putting way too much strain on yourself.

thanks for the replys,
yes by 6 days of training i’m talking all fairly hard workout days. For example we are on the track going full out in spikes day after day, and if there is a day off the track we are doing downhill work or plyos. I think that all the consecutive workouts on the track has made me “stale”, but i feel guilty not going to practice. What would anyone suggest for an “easy” day workout?

Also i noticed when i run the 200 and 100 this season i feel like i’m never reaching my top speed during my race, sort of like there is a wall that i can’t seem to break through…
very frustrating, any suggestions?

An easy day can include some tempo, abs, general strength work, flexibility stuff, etc. etc.

Well first off, with all the high intensity work you arent giving your body (especially your CNS) time to recover, which is where you get stronger, faster, etc. Now this might be building up to the point where you are overtraining. Another thing that might contribute to slower times before meets is that you arent tapering or allowing yourself to recover in order to “supercompensate” before the meet. Again, it all boils down to too much work and not enough recovery. See if you can work in some low intensity tempo days, and dont do high intensity work for at least 3 days before minor meets and give yourself a 10 day taper for major meets. Of course, if your workouts are set by the coach its gonna be tough to do all this, but see if you could work something out.