Makes sense. I’m not sure how I will go about it exactly. I guess I’ll keep going by feel though. Going to be doing 10m flys for now though.
Top speed is my strength so I guess it would only help to introduce it a little early, especially with a smooth gradual progression. Should help me to get an edge as I love fly work and respond well to it.
Rest today. I’ve honestly decided to cut out SE split reps, at least for the moment, as I feel like I will benefit more from 2x accel sessions during the week, which are now going to include fly work. Quality above quantity.
Then did 3x10 fly with 30m gradual build-up - no times, focusing on form once again.
As for the 3.07, it is legit. The reason that happened was that one of my opponents from the state university’s team starting doing stuff in the lane next to me. He was in my sights on that one rep and apparently it pushed me to make an almost 5% drop. Pretty crazy how much faster you run when you’re chasing someone. Makes me really wish I had people to train with.
Overall, there were some good things about the session, some not so. Inconsistent indeed though. Nothing special on the 10m starts, then a 20m PR from incidentally chasing someone, 25m I equaled my PR, and 30m I technically PR’d by .01, of course, it’s the 2nd time I’ve went out to 30m this season so obviously that’s nothing short of expected.
Overall, I give the session a B. Need to start stabilizing the faster times and be more consistent about it.
2 days HI seems like it’ll work out, at least for now since all I’m working on is speed. May go to 3x once the components start spreading more, but like I’ve been saying, I’m judging it all on my own recovery so that way it’s optimal.
So I played flag football yesterday, sunday, and have some soreness in places I usually don’t get - back, shoulder, etc. So I’m gonna do tempo today and see how I feel tomorrow. Some soreness in the hip flexors as well. Didn’t really run very fast or for very long but it is what it is. Erring on the side of caution for now though. Quality above all.
As the day went on, I realized I’m pretty sore. Mostly in the hip flexors and even in the quads a little. Might have to do tempo again tomorrow. I’ll see how I feel.
Brett,
Soreness is not bad. Too much soreness is bad. Soreness all the time depending on the season is somewhat normal. Think about the degree of soreness and when it appears.
If soreness shows up the day of training it’s a sign of a lot of work that is new. If soreness shows up the morning of the next day than that says something different again. Ideally , the soreness from work shows up the furthest away from your instense session or the day of your next intense session. Soreness of this nature is what will likely happen as you get more experienced.
So what to do?
You can’t just keep doing tempo until the soreness goes away.
You need to stick to your plan but perhaps it’s modified?
GEt your self doing some contrast baths , or a massage or maybe doing something light in the morning of your speed/ high intensity day to get your metabolic rate going? I used to do a lot of sit ups in the fall and spring in the mornings. You could add some push-ups in smaller numbers as well and mix them with the sit ups . You don’t need to spend too much time and you can inter disperse these easy exercises with your normal morning routine.
F
I see. I just have been afraid of being too sore and running slow because of it. Especially from doing flag football, which I haven’t done since last year, it’s going to happen no matter what.
But I totally get what you’re saying. I don’t play very hard or for very long, and I could tell my CNS wasn’t trashed, just my muscular system.
I think I will try doing that light running. I’ll try not to be afraid of soreness and since I play on sundays, I’ll try and consistently go HI on Tues+Fri.
I think you are being smart by being careful with HI sessions when you’re sore from a new type of exercise. Most of my injuries came shortly after having introduced new training elements (achilles tendinipathy from tyre pulling, hamstring strains after throwing javelin or adding long jump into my sprint training, torn adductor tendons while squatting with a sore adductor… The achilles injury affected my training for four years and the adductor injury one year. That’s five years of training limitations I could have prevented had I been more cautious.
There is nothing wrong with caution and it’s good advice to practice judgement which will error on the side of less not more.
Should you be playing Flag Football? How serious are you about your training? If you need or want and enjoy FF great but you can’t be too surprised as well that injury prospects are increased with activities you spend less time doing.
If you insist on playing football you need to make sure you are doing a full warm up and warm down before and after you play.
Part of successful long term training includes daily regenerative rituals. These include all the things you are able to do yourself without spending heaps of money unless you have it to spend. Espons salt baths after training, Targeted supplementation for strength and recovery in the form best suited to you. Protein shakes are no brainers for almost the entire population let alone athletes. Any minerals and vitamins that assist absorption or improve sleep make sense as well.
Do you routinely do contrast baths?
If possible running 2 sets of 10 x 100 on half speed of the 1000 meters with half as much rest is possibly better in terms of giving you a well needed flush if routine soreness persists.
( You run the 100 meters and walk half as much as you might otherwise but you need to slow the speed down on the runs or you won’t be able to sustain 2 sets). Most people under estimate the value of the volume even if it means super low speed tempo . I know I’ve heard members here talk about the speed of tempo. I’ve done very fast tempo ( it’s relative to your capacity don’t forget) and I’ve done very slow tempo. We have used tripling or bumkicks in place of tempo runs.
Haven’t done a contrast shower/bath in a long time.
No supps, as I’ve done quite bit of research on this, and find my diet optimal. But I will try slowing the tempo a bit (normally I would say I go about 70%) and see if I can get more volume from it, and try contrasts after sessions. I was really getting a ton of tempo volume during this summer when I was racing, and during this GPP, but yeah, lately I find the soreness limiting the volume on it as I feel more form breaking down sooner. I would do something like 2000-2400 one session, and 1200-1800 on two other sessions, around 5000 a week, which was pretty high for me. Now I’m struggling to get 4000 a week.
(I’m about to post films on my other thread for Tslow in case anyone cares)
3x10 - 1.87, 1.85, 1.83
4x20 - 3.15, 3.16, 3.23 (realized I needed to increase the rest a little from 3-4 minutes to 4-5 mins), 3.14
2x25 - 3.73, 3.72
Then… I apparently hit a wall and had to stop - 2x30 - 4.42, 4.39…
Did 2x10 fly, sub max focusing on form again. Will emphasize flys of Friday/Sat though.
What are your opinions on when to include flys in a workout (first/last)? During the summer, I did fly work first, before block starts, and it worked well. Would it work better at the end though?
Overall, it was a good session up until I tried 30m. Looks like I’ve begun to stabilize my 20m a bit. Just was surprised at the lack of volume I was able to handle today.
That being said, I did do a total of 11 starts, which I think is pretty modest.
So maybe my next session’s focus (looks like Fri or Sat) will be the longer accels (focus more on 25-30) and flying 10’s. Thoughts?
So, tried implemented the block technique that was suggested to me. (closer to the line, hips higher, blocks closer together)
3x10 - 1.93, 1.92, (then I decided I should “split the difference” and go inbetween what was suggested to me and what I have been doing, then ran) 1.87
2x25 - 3.77, 3.76
Then, here’s where it really blew
2x30 - 3.47, 3.46 … ??? fml.
Well, not sure what’s going on there, I was running in the 4.2’s last week. But I did a bit of fly work after.
4x10m fly
2x15m fly
If I’m gonna suck, might as well try and suck less by focusing my strength, which is, max v.
I think you mean 4.47 and 4.46 on the 30m starts. I agree with the others in regards to these issues with your starts. I think you lack the strength to achieve those positions. I would make sure to include more strength work including medball work. I would also stop doing block work for a little while. I would do some prone starts, push-up starts and falling starts. Let the positions take care of themselves, then move back into block work.
Brett,
Would you be curious to know how many arguments I used to get into with my coach about not getting instant results? There were many.
I am not saying that it’s not frustrating to not get a result.
But what you are meant to do is take in as much information as you are able and try and make sense of it on your own. This is not an easy task to do this without someone watching you.
And try to focus on the things short term you can control like contrast baths as one example. Why wouldn’t you do them?
Water is regenerative in nature and contrasting temperatures help tightness and soreness and hydro therapy is a natural way to ensure accelerated CNS recovery.
The suggestions you receive here are meant to be helpful but there is a longer process of trial and error that may be needed especially if you are training alone and relying on 2rd and 3rd party contributions.
I know it’s hard to not get discouraged at times but you need to keep trying and not draw rapid conclusions and I think the advice about staying about from block starts right now is excellent. It’s a tad early anyway to be dealing with blocks if your first comp. is not until December.
I have been doing epsom salt baths but I’ll try and implement contrast showers too. I’m thinking about doing some mobility exercises in the pool on some recovery days.
So… should I still be using push up starts? Or are you suggesting 3 pointers
Maybe someone can help me with this but 3 pointers are football kind of starts right? Not quite a falling start as we always did almost for all speed.
We won’t talk about the falling start right now because first you need to back up a little bit.
T-Slow’s advice about getting someone to look at you is something to think about as well but think first and create a plan don’t just act.
Yes, we mean the push up start.
Do you understand why it’s better for you right now?
I can’t know 100 percent where the issue is except I can go by some of the things we know for sure. We know you are or your muscles are in decent shape.
Then we know there are issues with the start.
That is all we need to know right now.
So stop doing the block starts for a bit.
I would like to see a series of runs over 10 meters with the push up start and look at your mechanics from that start position.