I am working with a high school female (17yr) who is just getting done with basketball. She has approx. 9 wks until regionals, with a meet at the end of almost every week. She runs 100m, 200m, 400m (which is her dominate run), 4x100m, 4x400m and Long Jump. She is in great shape, and has been playing about 20 mins/game at Varisty and probably 25-35 @ JV the whole BB season. I am kind of at a loss as where to start her at and how to get her rolling and winning a state championship because I think she’s more than capable and I don’t want her ill-knoweldged track coaches screwing up her season and dreams. I’m not looking for a hand-out here, just looking for a little help as where to start and how to work around the meet days. As always, thanks for your help
With only 9 weeks, I would have two speed sessions a week, assuming there’s a meet once a week. The meets will probably need to provide the special endurance she needs. Devote speed session days to acceleration, max velocity and speed endurance. You likely will emphasize one or two aspects more, depending upon what her needs are once you see how her training is going and her racing. You can find plenty of information on what to do for acceleration, max V and speed endurance by using search. Just be careful not to load her up too often. She will need time to adjust to the different demands of sprinting and jumping even though she has been active in other sports. While her general condition is likely good, she will need specific conditioning to meet the requirements of her track events. I would focus on max speed and speed endurance where I think you’ll find the greatest gains in the time available, but I wouldn’t ignore acceleration – that’s usually in place before the other two components.
when starting out doing tempo runs, I’m thinking about going long to short (300-600) runs, what type of volume would be a good place to start and at what work:rest would be optimal?