I’m heading into week five of the GPP plan with a small group of athletes. The gains have been very impressive, especially from the hill work. The combination of hill, med ball, and hurdle work has the feel of a magic bullet.
As we’re into week five, it’s time to introduce track work, and I’m wondering about recovery times. I know the standard amount is one minute of recovery for every 10 meters of sprint work, but my question is whether this proportion holds for younger athletes and/or those who are early in their development.
I understand the need to manage the specificity of CNS stress along with the more generalized balance of intensity and volume, but I also know that younger and beginning athletes lack the technique and strength to stress themselves as much as older athletes.
So I’ll make my question specific to the primary athlete in the group (he’s my son, so he shows up every day).
He’s nearly sixteen (a HS soph), 1.80/58.5 and has trained consistently (six days/week) for sixteen months. Prior to this, he had been active, moving from youth soccer to basketball to baseball, but didn’t train in any formal sense. Track PR’s: 11.5h, 23.49, 51.59. He has not done any heavy weight work (yet), but has done a considerable amount of body weight, md ball work and some light dumbbell work. He is mostly physically mature - he’s grown only one cm in the past 16 months, but he’s also gained 1.5 kilos (all muscle) in the four weeks of the GPP program.
So for an athlete with this background and training age, does the ususal 1 min per 10m recovery hold? And I have the same question with the specified recovery times for the hill work on the GPP video.
Thanks in advance. This site and the videos and CFTS have been a wealth of information for me.
It really depends on the temperature and the individual level of speed in the workout itself- you need to have flexibility in assigning break times. the 1min per 10m is a general guide.