I’m looking to try a short to long training program this year however im not sure if it i possible without indoor facilities or warm weather.
I live in the UK so during winter time it get very cold so im wondering if anyone has tried a S to L program in cold conditions and has it been successful?
Thankss !
Don’t have warm weather or indoor track where I’m at. We ended up using a long hallway for our speed work (0-40m) during the winter and still had good success (see 10-Day Taper Video: Peaking When it Counts).
Did you roll out rubber matting? How long was the hallway? What were the effects on lower leg soreness?
Yes - roll out matting (helped me maintain my fitness rolling those damn thing out). Double layered. Had to roll out about 60m worth with a high jump pit against a wall to help with deceleration. Lots of work, but it did help.
Just ask Kevin Tyler (who is now coaching in the UK). He did the same thing when he was in Vancouver. Moving closer to the equator tends to yield faster sprint times (unfortunately). Probably cheaper than building an indoor track.
ok thanks number two ! if just say you couldnt get hold of those two things, and an outdoor track was all you could really work with, would you say a long, correct warm up would be sufficient enough to be able to use a short to long program in cold conditions?
I don’t think it would be possible. I know of one coach who attended one of Charlie’s Vancouver seminars in 2004 - he was coaching a group of athletes outdoors. After the seminar he adopted a strict short-to-long approach in an outdoor setting (rainy and cold) and ended up having athletes with lots of injuries and poor results.
Another coach did a mixed program (short sprints 1 x per week in a gym (10-20m), plyos 2x per week, and some SE runs outdoors - bolstered by weights and tempo) and had much more success.
If you have no indoor options, you can do a long-to-short program and emphasize plyos and box jumps for your high intensity elements. Your weights will also serve as a high intensity stimulus, but your lifts would not be as heavy as in a short-to-long approach. I would also include a higher volume of power-speed drills (i.e running A’s for 10-20m).
I wonder how did Marion Jones follow a S-L program in north carolina with the lack of indoor tracks etc and cold winters.
How cold are we talking about - I know Mort did a S-L program with his athletes and they had very cold winters.
Our discussions with Marion told us that she did everything: hoping for good weather, shovelling snow off the track and I believe there was some time at NC State on a jogging track above a basketball gym. Wasn’t ideal, but the results were still good. I’m not absolutely certain of this, but I believe CJ was the resourceful one and did his best to make sure she was taken care of (despite the portrayals of him).
during december it gets pretty cold, the past couple years we have had fair bit of snow. so it probably is around 0 degrees give or take and october november probably about 2-6 degrees average. so do you think this would be too cold for it?
I can probably get down to lee valley indoor track once a week.
so lets say i have access to a outdoor track, indoor track once a week, gym, sleds, hills and plyos. How would you organise a weekly training regime with those weather conditions?
By Dec-Jan most of phase 1 work is done and you are inseason which is very easy work throughout the week while racing on weekends. Example Phase 1 SPP Week:
Mon: Track work-wts
Tue: Bike tempo
Wed: Short sprints OR SE 2x300-jumps-throws-wts
Thur: Tread tempo
Fri: Short sprints-jumps-throws-wts
Inseason:
Sat: Race
Sun: Rest
Mon: Easy tempo
Tue: Track speed
Wed: Tempo
Thur: Starts
Fri: Rest
Sat: Race
ok thanks RB34, my friend has had great success this year with short to long program so would like to see if it would suit me too. So with regards to october through to december what sort of distances/ emphasis be on?
i know my friends coach is going tobasically put him in the gym for the major part of his weekly training sessions during this period with only 1 actual track day to get him used to running relaxed. do you think this would be a good idea?
Isorobic in a gym would be an option with a high jump mat finish.
I grew up on the East coast and most of my blood relatives live in NC/SC and I can tell you that it does not get as cold for months at a time as it does, say in, NYC/NJ.
Too cold to perform true speed work - trust me I know.
GPP 8 weeks - mostly hills - 0-50meters
SPP 12 weeks 0-200 meters EX:
Block 1 of SPP: contrast sleds/long hills/accel
Block 2 of SPP: FEF+EFE/accel/60’s
Block 3 of SPP: accel/SE/Flys