Thanks for the info guys.
Pioneer - How do you setup phases and such without the use of Int. Tempo since most people on here say they use it?
In my first year of coaching I did alot of intensive tempo work. I found that by the time the unloading phase came along athletes were either injured or peaked to early. My second year I did it for all of the indoor season and scrapped it for outdoor. When the unloading phase came around my second year I had better results. Not optimal results but better results. This year I am comletely getting rid of IT. My theory is that I’ll have optimal results this time around. Just my 2 cents.
Future Coach,
I encourage you to buy a copy of Charlie’s ebook. It will provide you with a solid foundation to help you get more from the forum, and it’s pretty inexpensive. It also saves the forum members from having to reinvent the wheel. The ebook also has a ton of great figures which address some of your questions (like periodization charts) and will help you better understand what everyone is talking about.
From the sample workout you described, I think the information in the ebook will come as quite a shock to you amd contradict much of what you’ve heard in the past about training. Therefore, it’s easier for you to understand the material if you learn the overall logic in one chunk.
I completly agree, Flash.
Future Coach - another thing to consider, if you are working with a sprint TEAM, who are these workouts geared toward? I have about 15-20 sprinters in a given season, maybe 8 to 10 of which are actually sprinters. I always gear the workouts to the top several (last year the top 5). In an instance of ext. or Int. tempo work, for the slower part of the team, an ext. tempo workout may actually be more of a int. tempo workout. Working “middle of the road” will give middle of the road results. With our tempo work (what for the top 5 would be ext.) we built up to a/b 400 med ball throws (divided) per practice this past year, which also seemed to improve results.
Given the resources (coaches) you could divde practices more/better(?) I suppose, but sometimes in HS the middle of the packers work their way up… And for me it’s 2 coaches for 40 kids and all events!
Just curious coachjohn, what school do you coach at? I am also from Ohio.
In regards to training high school sprinters, what do you do for those athletes who only start training once outdoor season starts? And do you put the ones who are in shape from indoor into the same workout, or how do you alter it for them? Could you run the same distances with less repetitions and make it into more of an SE workout?
anyone?
I’m asking this because there is a small number of us that train year round for track. The rest of the people who participate obviously are in not as good of shape, so the first couple weeks of practice are GPP for them. But that isn’t really beneficial for the ones who are in shape, is it? What could your typical high school coach do for this?
Thanks quik, I was gonna give misguided the same link.
thanks guys, that helped a little. But the one question it didn’t really answer is that I am an athlete that trains year round for track in a community where few people do. So come track season, the first couple weeks are devoted to GPP for those people who are not in shape. My question is, what can I do or ask my coach to do to alter my workouts? since another GPP would probably be counterproductive, but doing a different workout than rest of the team is frowned upon, I was wondering if doing the same distance they do with fewer reps and higher intensity might work for some of the days. And then of course, tempo days are tempo days anyway. In short, what can I ask or suggest to my sprint coach about altering workouts for year-round athletes?