Having problems with message search?
In Australia we are just entering our peak season. Quite often this is a stressful time for a coach as many of you will know. The athletes need to be ready to peak.
What is done in this period is critically important. So this email will present some of my ideas and questions that are unanswered.
Volume has already dropped considerably and most steady runs away from the track are now shorter than usual by 5-10min. I favor the athletes do a few faster short runs a week eg warmup then 15min quickish (at near AT pace) then warmdown. I am talking about 800/1500 athletes. Some of my squad have a course that they run hard 15min runs on and they test their AT ability by running these courses at the "usual" effort. The goal is to maintain the standard with as little as possible.
Gym & weights - are put into maintenance mode. They do a small amount of core work each week. But stay away from heavy lifts - some 400m types may do a very small volume of lifts to maintain. But I favour doing none. I have noticed a great increase in speed from athletes when they have stopped legs gym for a few weeks. But we also need to minimize nervous system fatigue at this time of year from things other than racing so any weights work needs to be minimized.
Plyometrics. We stop all plyometrics in this period. Interestingly if I did a test session at the end of lasy season many of the athletes have performed PBs for bounds when they have not done any plyos for 8 weeks. I believe stopping plyos allows better freshness for other quality sessions and races.
Preparing for races. I like to have athletes rest 2 days before and the day before do a warmup-drills fast- a very small amount of relaxed tempo runs over 60-80m and a warmdown. The last quality session at race pace is often 5 days before. The last solid aerobic session is at least 3 days before.
Athletes need to recover well from races and get maximal adaptation out of them. Consider each race like a another step in a staircase. With each one being the ultimate training session.
Massage a few days before races and throughout the race season can help improve performance and prevent injuries. Just dont let it cause quality in training or racing to decrease. Sometime massage can produce soreness the next day etc.
Do some long rep sessions with long rests. Some of the best qulaity sessions I have heard of a prominent 1:43 athlete do the session 600-400-200-200 in 1990 in 74.5s for the 600 then sub50s for the 400m. The recoveries between intervals would most likley have been 12min at least. I have had athletes do sessions such as 3 x 400m rest 20min in sub50s on grass before racing to 1:49 in 800m. One of my female athletes last week did 800 - 600 - 400 - 200-1min200 with 15min between in 2:19, 93.0, 56.7, 29.0,29.0
The above sessions can send an athlete to a much higher level and give them peaking levels of sustainable speed. Combined smartly with races athlete will reach a peak.
I believe that some athletes never do the above sessions and never reach a peak. There is much more to 800-1500 training than doing aerobic development and relying on races for speed development.
400m athletes who are speed deficient at the start of this period can improve this area by being willing to do less total volume and allowing high levels of freshness then doing a balanced amount of max speed development eg a common session for some of my squad lately has been something as simple as 5 x 40m sprints rest 5min between then 2 x fly80 rest 3min, another good speed development and rhythm development session for 400m athletes is 8-10 x fly100m rest 3min as fast as is manageable. This type of speed work is also valuable for 800 athletes.
To maintain a peak athletes cannot afford to rest poorly or they will get sick and this can cause loss of form.
______________________________________________________________
Steve Bennett
www.oztrack.com
__________________________________________________________________
Steve Bennett
www.oztrack.com
__________________________________________________________________
Offline 
Send Email