Time for a little training experiment

Expert Discussion Advanced Sprint Training
1

I am taking a different approach to my training now and want to see how things work out for me going into indoor.

Some of you have been following my training and while I have made decent progress the combination of sprinting, lifting heavy weights, long work hours and too little sleep completely cooked my CNS.

Basically I am giving up weights (except for bodyweight movements) and going to try in get in as good shape (fitness wise) as possible

I have started playing soccer again and have been basically following the program outlined below. I have noticed a BIG increase in my fitness and speed/strength endurance.

I have lost mass but not a lot of strength.

Previous PBs since returning from 7 year layoff: (Times are pathetic I know. All times listed are FAT)
100m - 12.05
50m - 6.68
60m - 7.80
Bodyweight: 205 pounds

Goals: 100m = 11.XX FAT, 50M ~6.4x FAT, 60m 7.5xFAT

Here is my workout schedule:

M - GAME
T- Cycling/Upper body/Core
W - Hills/Plyos or GAME
TH- Cycling/walking
F - Circuits - Full Body
Sa - REST
Su - REST

M - GAME
Full 90 minute soccer game - mix of sprints/jogging
cooldown

T- Cycling/upperbody
30 minutes of cycling, mix of fast/slow pace
3 sets pushups
3 sets chins
3 sets situps
3 sets floppy fish
cooldown

W - Hills or GAME
2 x 6 x 50 meter short steep hills with walkback recovery
3 sets squat jumps for height
3 sets squat jumps for distance
3 sets lungewalk
cooldown

Th- Cycling/walking
20 minutes of cycling (mix of fast/slow pace)
stretching, cooldown

F - Circuits - Full Body
Giant set or triples followed by stretching
3 x (squat jumps, situps, pushups)
rest two minutes
3 x (burpees, dips, floppy fish)
rest two minutes
3 x (lunge walk, alt knee situps, running A’s 30 meters)
cooldown

Sa - REST

Su - REST

Thoughts?

Good luck to everyone with their training!

Chris

2

Chris,

Is your goal to get faster at running/sprinting?

If so, then why aren’t you doing more running in your workouts? For example, why not do tempo runs instead of cycling/walking?

Also, I would try to find some time (at least 1x/week) to do some high quality sprinting. Doesn’t have to be a lot of volume, but if your goal is to get faster, then you should run fast as least once in a while! I don’t think that soccer is a good substitue for this type of work.

Good luck!

3

Thanks for your feedback.

First goal is fitness then some speedwork.

The soccer I am playing is very intense, I would guess I am sprinting flat out about 60-70% of the time with jogging in between.

Hills have a decent short acceleration component and plyos are there too. I could hit some tempo on off days but I am honestly dead after soccer and the cycling gives me a good flush. My work schedule makes intensive weights difficult and I actually feel better now than when I was lifting and running.

When I followed a similar program in highschool I ended up running 11.20 and 23.30 electric as a walk on. (I also did some weights)

With 5 years hard sprint training went to 10.8’s and low 22’s but averaged low 11’s FAT. I dont have the recovery options or time to really train that way anymore. (6 hours sleep a night and 55-60 hour workweeks)

This is helping me stay fit and that is my main goal at the moment.

BTW Scored another goal tonight. That is 3 goals in 4 games. Not bad for a fullback hehe :slight_smile:

I played forward for half the game tonight and had 4 great chances but didn’t capitalize. (good saves, and one off the post)

It isn’t conventional but I am interested to see how it works out :slight_smile:

Cheers,
Chris

4

At best, that will be more like intensive tempo…not optimal for speed development, but if your goal is “fitness” then that may be ok.

Hills have a decent short acceleration component and plyos are there too.

Why do the hills? Instead, you could use that time to run some quality short sprints/acceleration work on a track. Better carry over for indoor season.

I could hit some tempo on off days but I am honestly dead after soccer and the cycling gives me a good flush.

Exactly. That is the problem with intensive tempo (the soccer work you are doing) too hard to easily recover from, but not fast enough to really improve your speed. As fitness improves, I would try to move some of the cycling to running extensive tempo.

This is helping me stay fit and that is my main goal at the moment.

That’s great, if it works, then stick with it…and there is nothing wrong with having fun playing soccer! Just understand that there are always tradeoffs and compromises - and this may not be the best way to optimize your training for indoor track this winter.

BTW Scored another goal tonight. That is 3 goals in 4 games. Not bad for a fullback hehe :slight_smile:

I played forward for half the game tonight and had 4 great chances but didn’t capitalize. (good saves, and one off the post)

It isn’t conventional but I am interested to see how it works out :slight_smile:

Nice job! 3 goals for a fullback!?! Let us know how your training progresses.

5

I think I understand your approach, being at a similar level in a similar situation. (started track age 32, now second years training - but no return to track, first time sprinting)

I think I would use that experiment more as a “extended GPP” - mabe even for 1/2 a year to a year, but I would not drop speed training completely and later slowly change back to more sprint-specific training, like other members recommended - swiching from cycling to tempo, from hill-runs to more speed training.

From beginning I desperately tried to improved my vert, my 30m acceleration times, my 1 REP strenght my top-speed and the overall improvement was not so great - had to find out that simply forgetting about strenght for a while and concentrating and relaxing my muscles, doing a lot of streching, increasing my ROM made my times drop 0.35 secs.

Another important lesson I learned was to go into competition fully recovered,
as relaxed as possible. Actually I’m following Charlie’s 10 day “supercompensation” theory with a very hard set of 100% sprints with full recovery inbetween on day 10 before comp but then maybe just 200m (tot.) of sprints (like 80m-120m) at 90% each time on two days within the last 9 days before comp. and just keep my CNS “activated” by one day additional heavy benchpressing. Nothing else

Probably for athletes clocking >11.50 for the 100 (like me being a starter) general fitness/more GPP is the key.

Good luck and keep us informed about your success.