So I was wondering that during a world championship or olympic meet… how do the guys doubling up in the 100/200 and also running the relay… or even 100/relay or whatever… going to be able to maintain their strength throughout competition?
So 100m heats… you’d want any heavy strength work done 10 days before or 5-6 days for med. intensity strength, then the 200 a few days after… and then relays couple days after that… quite some time, so about 18 days ish before heavy strength work? Or do these guys do something during competition days? If so, then what?
Don’t try and get all complex, last squat workout should probably be 10-14 days out, last heavy upper probably 3-4 days. I think during the comp if the athlete can handle the additional stress I don’t see a problem with low volume BP 2x2 or 2x1 etc. Remember the races along are high intensity and will do a great job maintaining strength for this short block of work.
Dan Pfaff has said numerous times that he did this and I have audio from a seminar where he explained exactly what they did and the context. He said he did this in large part because the “tone” was not right and he knew electroacupuncture or something like that the day of the event wasn’t going to get the job done, so they did cleans.
Donovan and others used weights in part to facilitate tone and as part of a warm-up type routine. Would you classify this as strength maintenance? I wouldn’t.
We actually have 3 good meets going on in Los Angeles on Mt. Sac weekend. One of these, run by Cal State Long Beach on a very fast Mondo track at Cerritos College, is pretty popular with UK sprinters–Christine Ohuruogu ran 100/200 there last year. Since everybody was scratching from relays at Mt Sac like crazy, I drove over to the Cerritos meet (30 min drive).
I saw Christian Malcolm warming up towing a sled. It was a very small sled, no rails, a metal base of only about 8" X 15" and a single 10 pound weight on the sled. The weight PJ was using with spectacular SE results following 30m sled pulls: 5kg.
The problem I have duplicating what PJ did or what I saw is finding a sled small and light enough. Most sold in the US seem to be 30-60 pounds without weights.
Ya I know, just on the topic of strength during meets.
How would you know or “judge” how good the tone is? and what reason would it have to not the right? And how heavy were those cleans btw?
Sprint training is strength training as well. Weights (or other resisted methods like sled, hills, head wind…) are support to it.
Ikh : As for sled, yes that’s the type of sled we use in Paris and Athens. In the beggining of the fall, while in NGR, the only sled available are simple tyres, that’s cheap but Olu made good use of it obviously. These are light but we’ve used them on hills as well.
Dan explained that Donovan injured before Atlanta, it happened during his last meeting in Nice. They had to find ways to get him through with weights i guess, and had to keep weigths even during the games to prevent detraining syndrome?
Whenever I read stuff like this I marvel at the resourcefulness and creative thinking of coaches under pressure. It is also a tribute to the magic (faith, trust) of a relationship shared between athlete and coach.
I never really thought about doing this for race prep until I saw it being done. But when you think about it, this is about the only kind of strength setup that you can be sure of using at meets (no weights, no hills).
That image reminds me of mortac’s comment, that still has me laughing, regarding the speed cinder block- in reference to the hundred some dollar metal box that sparq is selling.
In regards to ‘strength training’ void of training apparatus, the following books illustrate an enormous amount of exercises that may be performed with only the aid of a partner. (I highly recommend them)
This particular device is listed for $59.95, but not available until May. The interesting part to me is that the weight is listed at 3 pounds. The sleds I see for sale in the US seem to be way too heavy compared to what PJ was using and what I saw being used last weekend.
Agreed: but that said, creativity after is often necessary if you don’t pay heed before.
The reasoning for a 10 day taper is, in part to allow for recovery in time if something happens. Donovan was injured while racing within the 10 days as I recall. Scary all around.
