Vibing…
Friday: 120/48/10
Warmup S
2(30; 4dist skips; 4bounds; 4st leg; 30)
MT: 5xohb, 5xblf
Cooldown: 3x100 (barefoot)
Power clean 18x1x70% r50
Db rev lunge 2x5 75
Glute drive 2x8/2s hold at top
Db bench 2x15
Row 3x8
Cooldown: Jump rope 200 (barefoot)
Typical first block of 3 speed sessions - not much juice today on the track.
Saturday:
Mobility A/C x10
GS: Willie 8x
GS: Spencer 12x
Recovery…
Monday: 210/700/20/140/20
Warmup S
3(30sled; 40no sled)
Jumps for distance 5x4
Cooldown: 3x100 (barefoot)
Clean pull 4x4x92.5
Back squat 3x2 385
Rdl 2x8 205
Pause bench press 5-4-4
Lat pd 3x8
Cooldown: Jump rope 200 (barefoot)
The track work went well today but the weights are becoming a little unpredictable with the jumps added to the program and longer/faster sprints. I’ll wait to see how the weights go next week before I decide how to handle the squats in the next block. It felt great getting some work at 40m today - after spending the past couple months at 0-30 the change was good. An idea I got from Boo is doing my highest volume jumps early in the cycle when the athlete is fresh/bouncy and reducing as the block goes on. It works great for me esp. at my age - allows me to get a good amount of high-quality bounce work when I’m fresh and backing off when the system is starting to blowup.
“I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it.” – Maya Angelou, Letter to My Daughter
Tuesday:
Mobility A/C x10
Upward leg raise 2x12
Russian lean 2x3
Stand hip flex 2x10/3s hold at top
Hip flexion 2x15
GS: Shola 30/30
Recovery!!!
Wednesday: 330/84/10
Warmup B
Sled: 2x3x55 3-4/6
Jump circuit: Louis x12 r30
MT: 5xhophop blf; 5xhophop ohb
Cooldown: 6x50 (barefoot)
Thursday:
Mobility A/C x10
GS: Willie 8x
GS: Spencer 12x
Recovery…
Friday: 160/36/10
Warmup S
2(40; 3dist skips; 3bounds; 3st leg; 40) video
MT: 5xohb, 5xblf
Cooldown: 3x100 (barefoot)
Power clean 16x1x75% r55
Db rev lunge 2x5
Glute drive 2x8
Db bench 3x12
Row 3x8
Monday: 240/800/16/136/20
Warmup S
2x30sled; 50no sled; 30sled; 2x50nosled timed
Jumps for distance 4x4
Cooldown: 3x100 (barefoot)
Clean pull 4x3x100%
Back squat 2x1 405 435
Pause bench press 4-4-3
Lat pd 3x8
Cooldown: Jump rope 200 (barefoot)
Overall great session. Ran 4.09 using the touchpad - fastest so far this prep. Went into the weightroom and hit a solid 435 - I decided to drop the final set of squats and the rdl’s and move on to upper body. Probably one more strength block with the goal of hitting 445-455 at a bodyweight of 173-175lbs.
I’m running the exact times I ran last year at this point. Like always health will be the big issue. My body seems to respond well to over distance training – for example if the goal is to improve 30m times getting some work in the 50-60 range seems to do me well. If the goal is to improve 60m getting some quality 70-80m work is a must. If the goal is to improve 100m getting quality work in the 120-150m range is a must. I expect as I start to do more 50-60s and introduce short flies my 30m time should take off. I’m starting to get in sprinters shape – I can tell because my times are getting more consistent every Monday and the final stage will be getting more consistent from day 1 to day 3 each week which should take place starting next block.
I ordered another tripod which will be a game breaker for me because now I’ll be able to time and film my sprints at the same time.
“Leaders can let you fail and yet not let you be a failure.” – Stanley McChrystal
Couple things I would like to share…
I was reading an old article from Joel Smith, and he hit the nail with the hammer with his statement below and I found it to be true regarding my training.
Heavy Strength and Low Reps for Fast Twitch Types: Just because you take a look at the programming of the fastest and strongest professional athletes don’t mean it will work for you. Slow and moderate twitch athletes can get easily overloaded by low rep, powerlifting style work. For fast-twitch and neurally “wired” athletes, lower rep training means under 5 reps and training loads over 80% of one’s maximal ability will be highly stimulating to this population.
I was driving to the track several weeks ago and was thinking since I made my comeback starting in the spring of 2018, I haven’t been able to train for one full year yet!!! I decided to make it a primary goal to see can I put in a full years of training.
Spring of 2018: May till August. Got injured on the first day and my season was over in late August. Sept to the following April I did nothing but powerlifting training – couldn’t run. Injuries (plantar fasciitis and lower hamstring tendon)
Spring of 2019: May till December. I was never fully healthy and same injuries ended my season in early January. From Jan to July no speed/power training. (plantar fasciitis and lower hamstring tendon)
Summer of 2020: July till December. My season ended mid-December. Injuries (patellar tendonitis)
Found out sled pulls was the cause of the lower hamstring tendon tightness. Plantar fasciitis was most likely caused from poor footwear.
The number 1 goal is to stay healthy and get a full years of training. I’m not looking for that one great session or week instead I’m trying my best to “slow cook” the process. I started this prep from the first block by taking the 4th week totally off. I’m pushing it a little more than I wanted to in these first 6-7 months because I must get all my speed work in place before winter sets in November.
you constantly seem to do MORE.
My guess without meeting you is you can so you do.
Number one masters athlete problem is they do too much.
I did not read Joel’s article but the recipe for one is not the recipe for all. That is not one person’s idea but it is HOW to train effectively over the long run over and over an over again.
I have found the toughest thing is judgment in training for self. My brain is always saying more and go and comparing to the former self who was x year younger.
Hormones change for men not just woman.
Balance is a Huge thing and some come by it honestly and some do not.
Are you able to tell when you are tired or strong or energetic? I find and have found that was a big juggle when I was competing but much more of a juggle as I have aged. What you eat, when you sleep, how you sleep the quality of your sleep and you don’t need to buy a million gadgets to tell you what is going on. Gadgets are fun and gamification of wellness is big now but knowing how you feel and knowing how to acclimatize for varied scenarios is key to staying healthy let alone wishing to compete which over a certain age.
Just my opinion based on a life time of coaching, training and aging. 
by the way I am not trying to knock you.
You are hard working, diligent and very interested and keen and seem to study what is going on out there.
Where is and what is your anchor regarding what you do? ( you don’t need to answer that out loud)
Something is causing you to have so many injuries that you are not able to move ahead as you wish.
Staying fit and healthy is a different category completely than competing and the nature of competing requires a well supported, consistent and ongoing set of circumstances which is tricky at best especially if you are juggling marriage, work, and raising kids.
the knock I will get for saying this is I don’t know and for me it’s all about rest and not the work.
Well I can not know from second hand information. Unless I see I am not able to understand full stop what exactly is going on.
Missing the signs of what to do and how to train is a classic problem for many and this is why coaching is so hard when done correctly as one must be watched most of the time.
One of Charlie’s key strengths was his understanding of the CNS and rehabbing injuries due to his serious disappointment having had to quit the sport from over training. Imagine he was ranked 5th in the world as a white guy in the early 70s and stopping your career ( and your parents supported you) before you hit the ripe age of 25 years old.
Rehab, regeneration, actively regenerating and proactively regenerating are boring, time consuming and no one likes to do it.
My guess and bet is almost everyone reading this could improve their training overnight by installing routine regeneration into their training plan.
The training is working. I ran 7.08 over 60m (only 3 races) last year as a 40+ yr and I know why the injuries took place had almost nothing to do with training but prior things in my life. One of the main things that has bought about success has been dropping the non sense tempo runs.
Also read again closely if you think I’m doing more… Sent you a PM.
THat’s great your training is working because you say it’s working but is it really working? ( because you say it is?)
NO.
Spring of 2018 May to August and you got injured in the first day.
I don’t care what powerlifting you did or do from May to August but there are countless auxiliary exercises to do outside powerlifting that have relevance to speed training.What about pool or bike or medicine ball circuits.
Powerlifting is NOT the cornerstone to speed training and it is for sure not the cornerstone to how I trained or watched how Charlie trained countless others for more than 2 decades.
Spring of 2019 May to December = you were never fully healthy why?
I want to make sure those reading your thread understand there are many variables we know little about regarding your training and injuries and how you got the injuries and how you recovered ( or did not recover ) from your injuries.
People get injured and they also heal. The body needs to heal and wants to heal. Unless maybe too much work is getting done in the wrong areas of the training to allow healing?
If you are not healing and not recovering why?
I don’t know why. There is something you want to understand if you have seasons ( plural / more than one and especialy when they are consecutive seasons ) where you are not able to train effectively.
As far as tempo which can be done in countless ways I will say that few want or like doing tempo and anyone can say what they wish about it but It is and has been a cornerstone idea and method of how Charlie trained. I am good with anyone re-inventing their training and then we get to hear about their results (or lack of results)
Once again go read very slowly.
My role here is not to teach you what I know.
I have done okay with coaching. Exceedingly well coaching as it pertained to what was going on but I am here to make sure people read the material from Charlie.
Read his books.
Watch the video footage.
Study the information
Reinvent the wheel if you want.
His results were indisputable and are able to be replicated.
Sounds good… Always remember there’s more than one way to skin a cat. I have stolen form many great coaches besides Charlie.
This information is based on the dominance in the track world of an entire group of people.
One could assume as many do that drugs have been a reason for this.
Assumptions are not facts.
Small amounts of Olympic lifting requires more than 48 hours to recover joint space for the very best adapted individual.
It’s very difficult to become your best sprinting self unless you perform proper speed training 3 times a week in some shape or form. We don’t need to look too much further in a program once we see the lifting dominance out does the speed training for what ever said reasons.
Doing speed Monday and not returning to speed until say Thursday is already pushing the outer limits of gaining the correct stimulus to progressively digest the speed work.
Yes, there are right ways to skin cat and ways that make less or zero sense.
The list of coaches who’ve achieved Charlie’s status is how long? And we don’t have the advantage of knowing what they did for the most part as I have mentioned already for varied reasons.
I am not attempting to say Charlie was the only guy on the planet who understood how to do things but I am saying there more than a life time of knowledge of development which is well documented and available. If someone is wanting to educate themselves about speed training I would suggest investing in a ~10 dollar e- book ( mind you it is 10 USA dollars LOL) like Speed Trap or The Charlie Francis Training System it better to do that than to watch some self professed Instagram show off or read a reddit thread.
The governing bodies that be have allowed the world to accept that certain countries are the only countries who are breaking rules. Collectively we have a political war within the sport that has zero to do with speed and power but has to do with bullshit, egos and other non training issues.
There has to be a basis of quality as a starting point with education.
I guess the issue here and now is that Charlie attracted those willing to learn from him and in return he gave endlessly. Now that he is gone who has stepped up to continually contribute?
I miss handled fostering the site in the early days after we lost Charlie. Hard to blame me for that. What has been disappointing is how some of the male members gave up on the site. I will take some of the blame for how I dealt with some of the members but they too must have wanted cooperation for the quality of posts and information.
As expected people are as Charlie used to say most interested in themselves and once they get what they want they are gone. Charlie had his feet strongly planted in the earth and did his bit and then he left and he owes no one anything and none of us are getting out of here alive.
History is wonderful for this even if it takes multitudes of decades to see the pattern. It’s not a surprise that Coach Charlie Francis loved history, studied it and was old fashion with his values.
I encourage those interested in learning about speed training to look at the store and content in the store.
Gather a base of info from the list of coaches who have done the most and accomplished the most. Be selective who you study from and understand the reasons why you are going to accept the training or not.
And if you need my help I will also do my best to help and support you as best as I am able.
Ange you really don’t know anything about me… You would know I am one of the few people left who still credit Charlie for everything I have learned about speed training. I had most of the products from the store before you sent me all the products, I believe in 2010 or 2011 through email. I have read all of them and often go back for reviews.
I totally disagree with this comment >>> It’s very difficult to become your best sprinting self unless you perform proper speed training 3 times a week in some shape or form.