Worried about overtraining

Expert Discussion Advanced Sprint Training
1

Hey Guys,

I recently had a bad workout on monday and am a little worried about overtraining. I thought what I would do is outline what I have been doing and people can point on possible problems. I will give this past week as an example:

For the weights my bench max is 5@240 and my squat max is (now) 5@335, but was 5@315 before this past week.

Monday:
Speed
Warmup - 3x60 (flats)
3x60 (spikes)
3x30 (from low)
Blocks: 2x25m (2-3min btw reps)
2x40m (2-3min)
Weights:
Squat (past parallel) :
10@205, 8@225, 6@275, 5@295, 2x5@275
Bench:
10@135, 8@155, 6@175, 5@205, 2x5@215
Chinups: 3x8 (all the way down)

Tuesday:
Warmup (same as Monday)
Speed Endurance (95%): 2x(80+80) (took it fairly easy)
Tempo Intensive (85%): 3x(80+80)
Massage, Ice tub

Wednesday:
Ancilliary Weights (Obliques, abductors, adductors, lower back)

Thursday:
Warmup (same as Monday)
Speed (100%):
3x(80+80) “Flying 60s” (hard)
Weights:
Squat:
5@225, 5@245, 5@275, 5@315
Bench:
5@135, 5@155, 5@175, 5@205, 5@235
Chinups: 3x8

Friday
Off

Saturday
Circuit includes 20m blocks, med ball throw and go, air runs, stick drills
Tempo intensive (90%)
3x5x60m turnarounds (7min btw sets)
Weights:
Squat:
5@135, 5@225, 3@275, 3@305, 7@325, 5@335
Bench:
5@135, 5@185, 3@225, 3@245
Ancilliary weights (same as wednesday)

Sunday
off

So this past monday the workout was:
Blocks, 3x25m, 3x40m, 3x60m. I called it after the first 60 as I had nothing. My times were .3 slower than normal in the 60m. The 25m times were alright, and the 40m were pretty weak. I just didn’t feel like I had that ‘pop’. In the weight room I did the 10,8,6,5,5,5 again but kept it really light not going over 245lbs in squat, or 205lbs in bench.

Is this overtraining or did I just have a bad day? Saturday was a really big squat workout (destroyed my old bests) so that could have contributed, but I also felt bad doing speed on Thursday.

I let my coach know about my condition and today (tuesday) I am going to do some light tempo 10x100 instead of the speed endurance, and see how things go on Thursday.

Is there anything inherently wrong with the program that shouts out overtraining? I am not to crazy about the speed endurance on Tuesday but it is supposed to be fairly light. Also my training partner is doing a little less than me on Tuesday and he is fine.

Should weights be curtailed a little bit. More workouts like 3x3, 5x2?

Sorry for all the questions, any thoughts will be appreciated. I just hate feeling so crappy when doing speed now.

Juggies

2

I think there maybe a couple of problems with your workout design.

First I would drop Speed Endurance on Tuesday and only do extensive tempo and core/med ball work and a light weight circuit on Tuesdays.

Let your CNS rest. Muscularly you might feel ok after Monday but your CNS will be fatigued. This will be especially true if you have hit PBs in training over the past 10-14 days.

I would put Speed/Strength endurance on Saturday (only at 90-95% on Saturday) with weights but at less volume (ie: 3 sets of squats and bench) you can also add running A’s for distance etc into this workout as well.

so you would be looking at:

1 Short Speed/weights
2 Ext. tempo/med ball etc
3 anc. weights
4 top speed/weights
5 REST
6 speed/strength endurance
7 REST

Personally I would put the top speed work on Monday when you are most rested instead of the middle of the micro.

I hope this helps. I have missed a couple of workouts lately due to work. Worked 16 hours yesterday and only managed 4 hours sleep last night. Feeling dead on my feet today…

3

I think how you handle this one week depends on what the other weeks around it look like, and how you adapt your sessions depending on how you feel on the day.

If say you were to do this sort of thing for 5 weeks then you may get stale. Depends on your recovery program, the other weeks, and how you monitor your sessions.

Could give more details if you gave more info.

cheers

4

Thanks for the input, guys.

I knew the tuesday speed endurance presented a problem. In my own defence, this really wasn’t my idea. My coach believes that the monday short speed work has a stimulating effect for the next day. So far, all I’ve felt is completely flat that day. Looks like back to slow tempo extensive for me.

Again, appreciate the help.

5

It might be CNS stimulating if you did only a few starts and no weights the day before. (Much like you would taper for a meet) but with the volume of speedwork and weights you are doing it would be detrimental to perform Speed end on that day.

A good rule of thumb is to have an inverse relationship between CNS intensity and muscular intensity throughout the micro. At the beginning of the micro have your most CNS intensive elements (top speed etc) and work your way to the least intensive CNS element (speed/strength endurance). That way you will get maximum CNS recovery between micros.

Good luck,
Chris