I recently heard the term “training age” to help describe someones training progression.
I am turning 40 next month and have only been sprint training for one year seriously. So I am a one year old in terms of training. In that time I’ve improved from a 12.8 to a 12.1 in the 100m, and from a 27 to a 24.8 in the 200m. Also, without training for it, I ran a 56 400m.
If I continue training properly, will I get down to a low 11, low 23 and low 50 in these events? Can a prediction be made on my potential based on my “training age”? Is this a useless term?
I hear you, but since I’ve started this quest at 39 years old, I’m a little short on time and patience.
Putting technique aside for a moment and all other variables, how many years does a sprinter have to train to peak in terms of speed endurance? 2,3,4…8?
Because we are the same age, and I have been doing this for one year as well, I will tell you that in one year you speed endurance can be WAY WAY better. My 200 dropped 3.5 seconds! It’s that 0-60m pure speed that’s the bitch to improve!
Can someone who never ran until age 40 expect to get as good as someone who did it their whole life? or is something lost that just can’t be captured when starting late?
I’m just trying to predict where I’m going with this. I would really like to be competative some day soon, but don’t know if that is realistic.
Impossible to answer as we don’t know the nature of your physical activities over the years. What I can suggest is that I don’t know anyone who has been successful by setting time-limits and pre-conditions on their pursuit. As an older athlete, there is no doubt that you need more therapy than a younger one, and that is the first area to look into.
Training age is a useless term unless you’ve been under the same sane coach. There are plenty of trainees busy reducing the effectiveness of advanced methods by performing them before they are even under 11 seconds (for men).
From a therapy standpoint, keep in mind that you probably have a lot of remedial work to do to account for past training as well as normal wear and tear over the years. Someone starting at 15 with concurrent therapy from the beginning isn’t going to have this problem.
Although I’ve been doing some type of track/sprint training on and off since I was 16, I still have a ton of remedial work to do from years of training without concurrent therapy, and I’m only 32.
It sounds like I need to take one step at a time and not get frustrated. The guys I run with are considerably faster. They have been doing it either alot longer, or they had done more running than me when they were young. I’m just hoping for considerable improvement this year. I will be concentrating mostly on the 400.
Thanks Charlie for your honesty. On another subject, what will Crawford run in the 200m when he learns how to focus and execute his start?