Will this workout help me with my speed

Expert Discussion Advanced Sprint Training
21

Herb,
For a beginner, I think there’s two things weighing against each other and it’s a judgement call. Like you said, their power output is lower, so they don’t need as much recovery. On the other hand, if they’re new to sprint work, their work capacity is pretty low. So you have to balance increases in work capacity versus increases in intensity. Depends on the person in question. Also remember that most newbies are in school, and have other stresses competing with training. Then you throw in work for another sport, and you hit the limit pretty quickly. Always start very conservatively until you have an idea of what you can handle. Better to do too little than too much.

I was also trying to give Irishdago a quick lesson in the basics to get him motivated to study the archives.

22

Originally posted by Herb
Flash,

Nice post. Would you say however that lower level athletes could get away with less recovery than 48 hours due to their inability to perform at the higher output levels of the elite athlete? Running the 100m in 12 seconds is nothing compared to running it in 10 seconds. Or, do you think that it is relative to the tolerance level of each athlete…to the degree that a 12 sec 100m athlete taxes his untrained CNS the same as the 10 sec 100m sprinter just because of the fact that he is untrained?

What exactly are you defining as output? Seeing how tensioned most beginners run I’d say they’re doing a much higher effort then an experienced sprinter (albeit the efficiency is definitely much lower then 95% if you run tensioned … so do you mean lower output in terms of results? ie the beginner doesn’t train the functional area properly/with the same intensity as the experienced athlete, thus the output/effect from the exercise is lower?)

23

Excellent post Flash. You say that the nervous system takes about 7 times longer to recover than the muscles. Do you have any references which supports this?
Thanks.

24

Neo,
Not off the top of my head. I’m sure Clemson could track it down, but it looks like he’s been tied up with other things. I’m not going to get hung up of the research literature. Long rests between reps and workouts, that’s all we need to know.

25

Flash,
Great post. So in your opinion, if recovery takes approx. 48 hrs than where does strength training fit into a model like this? (for both a beginner and an elite sprinter)

all the best

26

RE: Strength training and sprinting
We’ve covered this before, but it’s best to perform the high intensity components on the same day and leave the alternate days for low intensity work and recovery. Needless to say, this can make for long workouts on the high intensity days. Depending on how many speed workouts you plan on doing, you might be able to spread the training over more days.

For example, the ideal training model for a full time athlete might look something like this:

Monday: Speed, plyos, med ball, weights
Tuesday: Tempo
Wednesday: Speed(or Special Endurance), plyos, med ball, weights
Thrusday: Tempo
Friday: Speed, plyos, med ball, weights
Saturday: Tempo

All of the high intensity components are performed on the same days, three days a week. However, from a time/fatigue management viewpoint (for part time athletes, or beginners) this might not be ideal, since the workouts on M, W, and F might be 3 or more hours longs, while the tempo workouts on T, Th, and S may be only an hour or so.

An alternate (scaled back) approach might look something like this:

Monday: Speed, plyos, med ball
Tuesday: Tempo
Wednesday: Weights
Thursday: Tempo
Friday: Speed (or Special Endurance), plyos, med ball
Saturday: Weights

In this approach, each component is reduced from three to two units per week, and the high intensity components are spread out over more days, while still maintaining 48 hours between them, except for the last two days. The back to back high intensity workouts on Fri and Sat are a compromise, but it’s easier to get away with since it’s occurring on the weekend, which usually allows more rest time (unless you’re a party animal like Clemson). And if the Friday workout is special endurance, the intensity will be slightly lower, which will leave more CNS reserves available for weight training the next day.

27

hmmm…I guess my last post disappeared. Oh well. This might have been asked before, but how long does it take for the CNS to recover depending on what is done? i.e. if one does a speed workout and then does weights, how would the CNS recovery time be different than just a speed workout? With this in mind, could one do multiple, short speed sessions in less than the 48 hours without overdoing the CNS? Just some questions that are on my mind that this post reminded me off.

28

Quarkthedark:
Good Questions.
Q1: Does sprinting, then lifting require a different recovery period than sprinting alone?
A: Generally, No, because the overall demand will be the same on the muscles and the CNS, however you achieve it. Whether you use up your training capacity via sprinting alone or divided up among multiple stressors- sprints, plyos, weights. If there IS any difference, it is likely that it will be easier on the whole organism when divided among various stressors (tendon stress for example).
Q2: Can the sprints be divided up into multiple sessions on the same day?
A: Yes, certainly, if you have the time. The whole day’s output is counted as the stress. The only tricky part is the time differential between the last speed sesion of the day and the first speed session of the next speed day- you’ll have less than 48 hours, but there’s usually a bit of leeway in the formula, though you may need to play around with the timing. If a 3x/day setup doesn’t allow enough time for you, a 3x/day set up with the first session being light tempo/warm-up and the 2nd and 3rd sessions speed should work out. With a 2x/week speed format, either set up could be accomodated.
BTW, this is Charlie. Rupert was over and we didn’t re-set. I’ll call him.

29

Thx for the response Charlie. The reason i asked about multiple short session per day is that with work this summer it might be more convenient. (Once before work, Once during lunch, Once right after work). This would allow me to have sufficient time for lunch and enough sleep. :slight_smile:

30

Clarification:
The second schedule I proposed, uses the same volume per unit. Therefore, the speed workouts would be the same, but without the weights at the end. Therefore, the overall volume of CNS work per training day is reduced, as well as the time commitment.