Wow - try adding some muscle and getting stronger.
Largest I ever got was 186 when playing semi-pro football. I was a hell of a lot slower at that weight. I don’t target a weight; I train to be fast, strong, and in-shape. I also don’t hold back when it comes to eating. The weight is just what it is.
My golden zone ends up being 167-170. I was 169-170 when I hit all my PBs at age 30 (7.06, 10.81, 21.69).
I worked with a sprinter with similar numbers, I increased his bodyweight to 175-180 and added 75lbs to his squat while keeping the sprint volume on the low end = major gains in his speed. The second year we had to do something different. With your lower volume training I would have expected for your strength and acceleration numbers to be smoking (450+ and 3.9 from 3pt). Several coaches on this site had success with similar type of training with smaller/weaker sprinters. “If it looks right - it flies right!!”
I believe it’s mostly a maxV thing right now, which has always been my strength. I mean, look at my PRs of 7.06 and 10.81. That season, I ran 7.06, 7.12, 7.16, 7.17, and some 55s that converted to the same 7.14 area. Compare that to my 100s of that year: 10.81, 10.83, 10.87, 10.90, 10.91, etc. I was covering the last 40m in 3.7-3.8 seconds that year with a terrible 60m. I’ve never been good at accelerating. In fact, I worked at improving it after that season with more strength work, more accel work, and some additional plyos. I ended up injured that season in the second meet and took a couple years to get back (hamstring tendinopathy).
My accel is probably where it usually is right now, but I am not turning it on during the transition through maxV phases at the moment. Watching video of my race, it looks like I am trying too hard. Another guy commented that I am really focusing on “pushing,” which makes sense given the plyometrics I’ve done (acceleration bounds, skips for distance). It appears that I am spending more time on the ground trying to generate force than quickly springing off of it. This is all based on watching video, but it makes sense compared to what I’m feeling. Going forward, I am going to drop pushing-based plyometrics in lieu of those elastic in nature (e.g., depth jumps, hurdle hops, etc.). All else will remain the same. I’ve learned that it’s best to make small changes in your program and to introduce them slowly.
Sounds good - hopefully you can turn things around.
How’s your indoor season ending?
Consistently mediocre. I basically replicated the last times I posted in every meet. My SBs were 7.19 and 23.37. All meets here are on a 200m flat track.
The frustrating thing is that I hit a couple practice PBs this winter. One of them came only about a month ago when I timed the 30-40m segment of an all-out 40m (hit 10.2 m/s). I’ve had 3-4 days of PB-level output over the last half year. The problem is that they are spaced apart by a month or more. The other days are never all that good either–rather sub-par.
I’ve proven to myself that I can still hit the same levels that I could a few years ago. The struggle is having consistently good workouts and meets. There have just been occasional great days that pop up here and there. And, unfortunately, they never fell on a meet day.
Something you’d support is that I’ve brought tempo running back the last 6 weeks or so. I am trying to round out the picture with the hope that consistency and balance pay dividends come outdoor.
How many indoor meets did you have? I use to chat with Tyrone Minor back in Minnesota he was late 30’s - early 40’s and dude was still flying 6.2 55m etc and long jumping. He had several older white men in his track group they had to be 50’s+ and they were fast also. He sent me some of their workouts - oh boy they had some serious volume. I believe you need to train harder - put in more hours etc.
I agree with you. The way I’ve been describing it is that I am finally healthy, but the reduction in volume that it took to heal up has left me under-trained.
The positive part of all of this is that I have nothing holding me back from ramping up. The most frustrating times are when you want to really hit it, but have an injury or pain forcing you to put the brakes on.
RB, what type of volumes were these old white men doing?
I’ll post a week from several of the training phases later (gotta find the old flashdrive). He sprinted and jumped at University of Minnesota also trained Roman who ran 10.2-10.3 and later competed in the olympic games when he was washed up for his small country.
Would be interesting to compare with the only (?) published details of Steve Peters training.
4x100 staring at 14.0 and dropping to mid 11`s - close to his 100m race pace.
Then 1x300 at close to 400m race pace.
No aerobic, no weights, no plyos.
very similar to another guy I know who is ranked in top 8 of the country every year at 100/200 and good at long jump when he does it. 2x per week SE at race pace and nothing else.
Wow, I had never heard of that guy. He’s fit too.
I’d have to throw in some upperbody work, like pushups and pullups to keep a little mass up there.
Then you’ve got Bill Collins(100-200m) who is similar speed to Peters who trains the exact opposite with very high volume. This is taken from his book
Week 6 of a 52 week program
Mon: 6 x 800m with 6 mins rec
Tues Weights
Wed 20 x 60m stairs or hills
Thurs weights
Fri 4 mile run
SAT AND Sun Rest
I’m not sure most masters would be able to handle that workload. It seems a lot of masters train at race pace but with very low volume and only a couple of times a week of running.( I may be wrong on this) I know a guy that only runs once a week at race pace and is ranked in top 3 in the country in Australia.
With age it is the joint wear and tear personally, not so much recovering from high intensity. I always have a knee or elbow issue form boxing these days and would have similar from sprinting.
I follow a rough hi-lo plan for boxing and use principles from James smith and joel Jamieson that include more lactic work over time.
I intersperse fight paced days/sparring days with lower intensity very high volume technique/cardiac output days.
I could do the training plan like Steve Peters but would include very low intensity high volume work for long term health reasons.
I honestly think this is ideal for a lot of sports. You’ll see James recommend similar structures for most any sport.
For example in boxing:
2-3 days of very high intensity sparring or fight paces heavy bag/mitts interspersed with very high volume (20 rounds) low paced and or technical/tactical work. Could be specific moves to counter, close distance step around and work inside, keep distance and move outside, etc. staying in that average 120-130 hr range the whole time ideally.
Cycle I
6-20 Monday: 15x100m Tape Drills
6-21 Tuesday: 15xDiagonals
6-22 Wednesday: 3x5x60m Turnarounds
6-23 Thursday: 10x150m Ins and Outs
6-24 Friday: Circuit/Cross Training
6-25 Saturday: 15x30m Tape Drills & Plyometrics II
Cycle II
7-18 Monday: 15x100m Tape Drills
7-19 Tuesday: 3x5x30m hurdle pushes & Plyometrics II
7-20 Wednesday: 20 minute tempo run
7-21 Thursday: 10x150m Ins and Outs
7-22 Friday: Circuit/Cross Training
7-23 Saturday: 15x30m Tape Drills & Plyometrics I
Cycle III
8-15 Monday: 15x100m Tape Drills
8-16 Tuesday: 8x200m Hills
8-17 Wednesday: 15x60m Tape Drills and Plyometrics I
8-18 Thursday: 10x150m Ins and Outs
8-19 Friday: Circuit/Cross Training
8-20 Saturday: 10x80m Ins and Outs and Plyometrics II
Cycle IV
9-12 Monday: 15x100m Tape Drills
9-13 Tuesday: 20 minute tempo run
9-14 Wednesday: 15x60m Tape Drills and Plyometrics I
9-15 Thursday: 10x200m Hills
9-16 Friday: Circuit/Cross Training
9-17 Saturday: 10x70m Ins and Outs and Plyometrics II
Cycle V
10-10 Monday: 15x100m Tape Drills
10-11 Tuesday: 3x400m w/12 minutes recovery
10-12 Wednesday: Circuit/Cross Training
10-13 Thursday: 15x60m Tape Drills and Plyometrics II
10-14 Friday: 8x200m hills
10-15 Saturday: 15x30m and Plyometrics I
Cycle VI
11-7 Monday: 6x200m w/ 30 seconds recovery and 5 min. between sets
11-8 Tuesday: 20 minute tempo run
11-9 Wednesday: 5x60m sleds and 5x30m sleds then Plyometrics I
11-10 Thursday: 4x350m w/10 minutes rest
11-11 Friday: Circuit/Cross Training
11-12 Saturday: 10x30m Ins and Outs and Plyometrics II
Cycle VII
12-5 Monday: 12x20m-40m/starts/resistance/open
12-6 Tuesday: 6x100m-150m w/walk back recovery
12-7 Wednesday: Hurdle Mobility/Plyometrics I
12-8 Thursday: 8x30m-40m/starts/flys
12-9 Friday: 10x50m tape drills/plyometrics II-III
12-9 IOWA STATE HOLIDAY CLASSIC
12-10 Saturday: 4x150m or 1x250m, 1x200m, 1x150m
The weights were nothing more then bodybuilding stuff etc…
I think we all can agree on the need for high and low intensity work. The problem here is the frequency and volume. I feel athletes of our ability regardless of age need higher frequency of skill work. The higher frequency work doesn’t need to be done year round but there should be blocks of higher frequency work. If you wanna squat more you need to get as specific as possible and squat at least 3-4 days per week. If you wanna get faster you need to get on the track at least 3x times a week and practice the skill of sprinting (drills and submax sprinting). Of course we all can give examples of Joe Doe sprinting 1x weekly and setting records but most of us aren’t Joe Doe…
Thanks. Cool stuff.
What do you think about his workouts?
2-20 Monday: 6-8x10m-40m starts/4-8x50-60m sleds/4-8x100m
2-21 Tuesday: 6x200m @23-25/Plyometrics III
2-22 Wednesday: Hurdle Mobility/Recovery
2-23 Thursday: 5x30m starts/Plyometrics I/5x30m overspeed
2-23-26 USA INDOOR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS
2-24 Friday: Rest or 10x50m tape drills
2-25 Saturday: Compete or 4x120-150m @13-14/16-17 sec.
I would die