Tuesday 3 september
Slow 2laps jog
Dynamic stretches, running drills and strides over 30m
1x30m - 3.72 (pb)
2x50m - 5.84, 5.95 (didn’t go all out, was surprised with the time)
1x60m - 6.94 (same as above)
1x80m - 9.23
1x120m - 14.23 (should have gone a little faster, target time was 13.60)
By the sensations I have while running I can tell my speed is where it needs to be, but the speed endurance needs some work
Neseinc, Regarding this knee pain, was it where the bicep femoris attaches to the fibula head right near the knee?
Interesting times
was that 30m on the move?
Just a thought.
Dan Pfaff during one conference was talking about Bruny Surin, for some reason he couldn’t finish his runs the way he supposed to, every one around was blaming poor speed endurance however Pfaff did a number of tests (as he always does) and found that Surin had a poor “elastic endurance”.
Keep the good work.
There could be a few thighs in my opinion which you should take in to account.
body posture and foot contact with the surface during high intensity elastic strength exercises and during low impact elastic endurance exercises. During execution, your foot strikes the ground being in the neutral position or is there dorsiflexion/plantarflexion?, maybe there too much of supination (video would be nice)
Also, tendon adaptations takes a lot of time,
therefore number and volume of high stress elastic strength exercises has to be taken into consideration during GPP and early part of SPP I.
For your longer sprints/reps(250m-600m) altering your start position(foot spacing + posture(less bending at waist more upright)) and shortening your initial strides out of this new position(but still maintaining 4 stride per second frequency) may allow you to finish your workouts. As well, it may mitigate the foot fatigue(transforming to pain) that is occuring for these longer runs.
I see that there is shorter faster runs( 40m, 60m, 120m), during the weekly microcycle as well as during the macrocycle. Im assuming based on your 100m ability(high 10.0x, low 11.0x) that you’d be executing these shorter faster runs from a 3 point or lower crouch standing start(foot spacing similar to the 3 point). My experience is when in a phase/cycle(microcycle or macrocycle) of shorter faster sprints combined with longer runs(300m - 600m), i cannot complete the planned session of ‘X’ amount of longer reps, if i accelerate in a similar nature(start position and stride length) to that of the shorter faster runs
Yes the time was on the move. I’m usually in the 3.82 - 3.90 range so I was glad.
What do you mean byelastic endurance? I tried to find what that means on google but no results, all I find is elastic strength
Thursday 5 september
Slow 2 laps jog
Dynamic stretches, drills & strides
Acceleration:
2x30m
2x40m
I felt really really good on them. Today was a light session as I have a 100m saturday, last meet before my biggest meet of the year, national junior championship the 15th.
Pfaff “low grade, repetitive elastic endurance” “at top speed they are (talking here about 100m sprinters) in the air 1.6 longer than on the ground, so obviously there is a huge vertical component to high speed sprinting”
In GPP Essentials Charlie is talking about “positive vertical displacement” 40’50’’-41’10’’ and also in Key Concepts Elite (Chapter RACE DYNAMICS
AND SPRINT TECHNIQUES the whole Positive Vertical Displacement is on p19 with graph on the p18)
Back to Pfaff
Very often in Pfaffs programs you can find whole segment of exercises which are working towards improving this specific ability.
After speed end. once a week athletes performing low impact elastic exercises talking here about “Rudiment” Circuit (series of skipping for hight and distance, straight leg etc… ) rep around 40-50m, volume between 400-500m
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CGWCZ9Q47o&list=PL522399EA8A738722&index=1
or during recovery days but very low skips no jumps for hight or distance (RL + LL, FF, BW, Medials and Laterals plus DL FF, BW, Laterals on both sides) between markers 10m apart that will gives you 120m in total. If you have a skipping rope in your program or hurdles walk-overs and under just like Charlie did in his program, than you have to take that volume into consideration.
I believe that those exercises will contribute to elastic endurance improvement as well as to your foot strength, consequently to better and healthier running of your 100m
regards
wermouth
Hi there neseinc,
It’s great that you like working in the pool, it’s another way to do some fitness work without hitting the joints hard. Pool tempo is shown in “The Jane Project” video. Ange takes a young athlete through a typical pool tempo session. You can also search the archives here for discussions Charlie contributed to about pool tempo.
With regard to the osteopath checking your piriformis and one of them testing weak- this sounds like a perfect example of one of your piriformis muscles appearing “weak” simply due having high muscle tone. If a high percentage of muscle fibre is already contracted (what we often call tightness), it will often test “weak.” If he was able to fix it right away, it couldn’t have truly been weaker- it was probably too tight.
This is why I think it is always wise to have a professional investigate (as you wisely did) before attempting to strengthen a “weak” area. Often the muscle is simply tighter. If you try to strengthen an already tight muscle, you run the risk of doing far more damage than if you left it alone!
As for bounding- if you look in Key Concepts, Charlie has a chart showing intelligent plyo progressions in an advanced program. Bounding is far more aggressive than simple two foot hops, and if it is being done early in the season it doesn’t sound like the progressions are intelligent. If in doubt, leave it out. Your training doesn’t need to be fancy.
These ‘altra torin’ shoes may help provide some relief from a harder running surface(asphalt, concrete) for your longer runs. They’re a 20millimetre thick trainer, with a barefoot style shape. Mine came with 2 soles with each one measuring 4mm so you could possibly have 28mm in total cushion. They were superb for executing relatively high speed runs(4 strides per second style) on a asphalt concrete surface.
I left bounding out of my programmes years ago due to the injury risks. I stick with vertical 2 footed jumps leading into drops from a low box with fast contact off the ground and landing on another box of similiar height. Eventually I add in a couple of hurdles, it does not need many ground contacts to develop elastic strength, particularly if you use power medicine ball drills as well in the programme.
I know that Vince Anderson doesn’t have any form of bounding in his programme. He said that even thou its a great exercise he does not know where to put it in his program. On the other hand we have got Kim Collins who does lot’s of elastic strength/ endurance exercises and running injury free.
Agree with you that to develop elastic strength “not need many ground contacts” around 30 foot contacts in total. In my opinion elastic abilities of your body are very important in regards of force production/application as well as maintaining (elastic endurance) high level of “elastic recoil” through the race.
I think everything is up to your plan/ programme, your KPIs and how do you rate them in your program accordingly to your objectives.
Kim Collins reportedly does not lift weights, so he has more space in the energy envelope to utilise, if that makes sense.
Thanks for the great tips T-Slow. Thinking I had alot of strength differences I was often overdoing myself in the gym, which led to even tighter muscles.
In the off season I’ll make sure to get everything checked so that I can have a healthy season
I don’t think they sell them here in Belgium. At first glance they don’t really look like they have much cushion, so I would have preferred to see them with my eye instead of purchasing off the internet. Do you know any other ‘popular’ shoes with alot of cushion?
The ones I have now are the Saucony Triumph 10
Saturday 7 september
Raceday
100m: 11.29 (+0.3)
I’m not disappointed with the time. Training volume has increased and had only 30 minutes of warm up before the race started
Sunday 8 september
Raceday
300m: 35.17 (PB)
That is totally unexpected. My legs were a little tight from yesterday and I was a bit groggy… didn’t sleep too good and ate bad stuff.
Usually I start the 300 fast but not this time, I had alot left in the tank in the last 100. That’s where gained up on the winners
Oh and it was out of lane 1 aswell.
I’m quite pleased I must say, I might just hit a new PB on the 200 next week !
Tuesday 10 september
Slow 2 laps jog
Dynamic stretches, drills etc.
4x40m w/ 5min. rest
1x80m w/ 10min. rest
1x150m
I purchased mine through the internet from www.runningwarehouse.com . To be fair and do you justice
regarding the barefoot shape, their is more toe space for your toes to move, which generally for most sprinters may cause more uncomfort since higher speed runs seem to require a tighter toe box for stability and balance.
For myself I bled ,‘looser toe box barefoot style’ shoes into my training throughout winter training
runs in the soft packed snow (only 1x a week)(4x400strides, 6x300 strides, 8x200 strides) of rural country roads. The weather was typically -5 to -15 degree celcius
Will you attempt the 2.70m stride length again before your ‘seasonal break/rest’? Are you stable at a 2.50m stride length this year?