I’m posting a link to a training plan I’ve put together for my daughter. It’s in the form of an excel spreadsheet, and I thought it would be easier just to post it on the web and supply a link. That way changes can may made and the plan changed without having to repost the same big document over and over.
First, credits are due. Everything I know about sprinting and track, whether a lot or a little, I have learned on this forum. My primary sources have been Charlie’s comments, Charlie’s GPP download, and kitat1’s input on the Lactate Threshold thread. I have also learned from posts by pierrejean, Nikoluski and several others.
Her info:
Age: 16
Height: 5’8"
Weight: 130lbs.
Squat PR: 225 parallel
200m PR: 26.5
400m PR: 60.xx
Experience: Never ran track until sophmore year, and then only last half of season. Played basketball year round for 6 years. First full season of track this year. Had problems with shin splints and bad coaching (800 ladders 3x week and no, I repeat, no Max V or accel work. In fact, they never once ran a sprint under 150m in pratice.
Her first and only 200m time came at the end of this season, the 26.5. She was hurting and had not trained well at all for a month due to shin splints.
Only ran 400m twice…64.xx and the 60.xx. She is now very healthy and ready to train.
I’ve put together a plan and posted on a website. Here is the link…
you dont need to do speed or special end. in gpp, Charlie’s gpp which for you should be like at least 2 months is short speed, tempo, short speed, tempo, short speed, tempo. if she wants to be a sprinter, get the acceleration, then work on top speed then speed end.
I did see that Charlie doesn’t do true speed until late in the GPP. Also, keep in mind she just got home from regionals last night, and is in very good shape…really in race shape. After a short rest, we’re back into it. I keep thinking about something kitkat1 said in the Lactate thread…that it takes up to 10 months to build the endurance needed to run a proper 400m with a first split about a second faster than her 200mPB and a come home 200m within two seconds of the first. I’m not sure we can spend 8 weeks with no speed end or special end and still have time to build that up. With her shins feeling good she should be able to run 25.high easily, and possibly 24.high which means she should be running around 53-55 for the 400m, but she’s not…so I’m wanting to work on speed end/special end as long as possible, unless doing so for the whole period will actually be too much.
The speed end is pretty short in the GPP, and if you notice, there are only two days with reps over 100m the first GPP cycle… two sets of 150s on day 12 and two 200 reps on day 23.
Is the lack of speed end in the GPP so that the focus can be general conditioning and accel, or is it because 10 months of endurance training is too much, even if you ease into it and allow for recovery and adaption every three weeks?
KitKat will no doubt answer better than me but I would be inclined to go with tempo on grass (shins) hill sprints and the acceleration work as in the GPP charts. Perhaps by about week 6 you could substitute a speed endurance session and take out one of the hill sessions. Keep in mind her age and training experience, the general fitness work is more important to her than the high level athlete that the GPP graphs are base on.
Thank you for your input. Yes, we’ll be doing everything we can on grass to avoid the shin splints. I do have some hill work in there but there really aren’t any good long grass hills around here…I’m still looking.
i would definetly do tempo on grass on one of the off days each week. plus, why do you have max velocity and speed or special endurance back to back days?
i just read your 400M training. Am asking cuz i really want to know, if a 100M sprinter where doing that work load, what parts of the workout would be changed. i really thought it was for a 100m sprinter workout.
it really is a 100m program except for the later months the SE workouts like 200+200 rest 30sec/20min or the 2x300m at >95% are not neccessary for 100m runners but certainly neccessary for a 400m runner. what about the back to back days of max vel and SE? anyone.
Thank you for your coments. I realize that it’s a lot of high intensity, the speed endurance after the max speed day. For that phase, I tried to follow one of kitkat1’s examples from the Lactate thread. The quote below is actually a cut and paste of things I’ve copied off the lactate thread…I’m not sure what page of the Lactate thread it comes from but I can find it if needed…
kitkat1 said…
Anyway, in the program structure I have used it is possible to work on all elements concurrently.
A Sample Week:
Eg: Day 1 (Rest Day);
Day 2 (Speed, maybe 3x block, stand, fly, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60m);
Day 3 (Specific 400m endurance, such as 6x200m in sub-24sec with 2mins jog-around recovery);
Day 4 (Rest Day);
Day 5 (Special Speed Endurance, such as 300m, 250m, 180m all max with 15min> recoveries);
Day 6 (Endurance, maybe long hills with jog recoveries);
Day 7 (Maybe temp, such as 2x5x100 for form, rhythm & relaxation, or pool session);
then the cycle of rest-train continues, hence Day 8 would be a Rest day again.
Here there is a max speed day followed by special endurance, then again on Days 5 and 6 Spec. End II is followed by what looks like lactate work.
My thinking is that I need to get two Max Speed days and two Speed/Spec. End days into each week. Is that asking too much?
I purposely geared the earlier training phases toward a 100m/200m sprinter in order to really hit max speed and get her 200m time up. Also, because she is 16, I didn’t want to get into much heavy lactate work until later in the season.
To count as special endurance, the runs need to be at 90% or better of your PR for that distance. If running 200’s, take your current 200mPR and divide by .9. You need to run at least that fast. For shorter speed endurance runs, shoot for 95% of your PB or faster.
Charlie says that only one SE session a week is enough. So, i think 2 SE’s a week is too much especially for a 16 yr old girl. although, you may be able to do 2 SE sessions a week if you cut out the pure top speed work.
SE of any type needs to be at >95% to be considered as true SE unless the distance is like 500m in which case 90% is ok. so, i think it would be more advantageous to have a schedule like:
Sun: off
Mon: Max Velocity
Tue: Tempo on grass (i.e. 8-10x200m at 75% r2-3min
Wed: SE 1 or 2
Thur: Tempo --big circuit on grass
Fri: mix of accels and max v
Sat: int. tempo
Thank you. How do you feel about alternating weeks of Max Velocity focused with SE focused weeks?
Week 1
Sun:Max Velocity
Mon:Tempo on grass
Tuesday:Off
Wednesday:SE 1 or 2
Thursday:Tempo on grass
Friday:Mixed Accel/Max Velocity
Sat:Off
alternating with…
Week 2
Sun:Max Velocity
Mon:Tempo on grass
Tuesday:Off
Wednesday:Speed End (shorter runs, incomp. recovery)
Thursday:Tempo on grass
Friday:SE 1 or 2
Sat:Off
I’m not a big fan of intensive tempo…I think the CNS penalty and overall drain is very near SE, and I really like the idea of training at race pace or faster for everything but recovery work. I think I’d rather have one SE day at race pace or faster, than two tempo days.
In other words, I’d like to get in three, and possibly four “race pace or better” workouts, either Max V or SE. That leaves three or four days for recovery. It sounds like four HI days may just be asking too much, hence the idea of alternating the focus each week and sticking to three HI days, with two tempo days and two days off. How does that work?
that seems better, just dont do the SE and max vel back to back. i have a difficult time seeing that as feasable with any athlete. you will probably be ok with a schedule like week 2 thoughout the season, as you are giving 48 hrs between hi cns workouts. to make week 2 better, switch the SE to Wed and Speed End to Friday. that way you dont need to worry about fatigue from the fast runs with short recovery.
i was thinking, since she was doind insane amounts of volume w/ the 800 ladders, that amount of running is probably what gave her shin splints, especially since she had never run track before. therefore, she will probably be shin splint free with a CF program. also, starting at SPP3, i think it would be a good idea to do 1x450 or 500 at 95% with >30 minutes rest then do the 4-5x200 at come home pace.
yes, it was definitely the volume, and continuous tempo on concrete, that gave her the shin problems.
I also like your idea about switching the days and not running Max V and Speed End back to back. Thanks for your input…I’m going to make some changes and repost the plan.
do you know if she has a high cns capacity cuz if she doesn’t seem to respond then Long to short may be the way to go. your revisions look better but there are still some max v and speed end or SE days back to back. this may not be a problem since most of the mv work is flying 20’s at low volume.