Totally changing sprint training protocol

I kind of did this same this year. I trained all fall/winter to improve my vertical and my vertical alone. My power numbers went way up, higher than ever before, and my ego got the best of me causing me to try to enter some 100s this year. I jumped into two races so far without doing any block work or any real sprint workouts yet. The races didn't go well, but not any worse than the past few years have been anyway and I didn't run either 100 full go.

I've been afraid to do much real running because of my injury history, but I'm spending the next few weeks doing sprint workouts and then I'm going to let it fly in May. We'll see how it goes. The only problems I foresee is my weight is way up because of all weight training. I'm hoping the weight drops off a lot with the added running and the tapering off of weight training.

masters

Please put something like "I am totally changing sprint ..." that way I know I don't need to read it.

Rule of sprinting: If you want to sprint on the weekend (race), you need to sprint during the week.

Keep us updated it will be interesting to see.

When in your prime did you respond better to strength endurance or more power/speed?

Just curious as you said you've run 1:59 for the 800, correct?

Update: I will be outdoors for the first time this week, it will be around 70 on Friday.

STUPIDLY, I did a tiny bit of treadmill, just to "mix it up once". Now my left knee is sore, but I still managed a decent acceleration and drills workout yesterday. One-legged-hops were much more difficult with the right leg, however, the knee being tender.

Unfortunately, the accelerations I have been doing have only been around 20m.

I REALLY am going to suck come outdoors on Friday. I mean, REALLY. I can feel it even when I go around the 160m indoor track where I run. Like a previous poster, my weight is still up, around 185. Strong as hell, and have been working on maxxing, to get full recruitment. Box jumps, drills, etc. are great.

I was always a power/speed guy, I never really did strength endurance--which is why I thought I'd mix it up last year and do more 400m and 300m volume. It seemed to work well, although I did develop that achilles click (in both legs), which has since disappeared.

That sub-2:00 800m I did only a couple of years ago now. Wow, time flies, I think it may have been 4 years ago! Or 5? Anyway, yes. Could I get anywhere near that today? Absolutely not. I have zero middle-d fitness right now--for me, that comes with working out outdoors.

Stay tuned to hear how badly outdoors sucked. I want to stick to shorter power stuff, and ease into the longer distances (longer being 200). I think I will double my accelerations to 40m, and then cruise another 40m before I shut it down. I don't know how many I will do, I suspect that will be more than a long enough period of energy expenditure to kick my butt.

Weights high. 3-plate bench, 4-plate squat, and 2-plate clean again. Big militaries. 65-lb arm curls. Lots of core work, including lifters.

Big stuff, but even in my 20m accelerations, I don't know that I can feel any benefit--except, interestingly, in the arms. I do big curls, for reps--and I can feel it, especially in drills. Normally, when I would start to have some arm fatigue, I now just feel a tightness, which I can power through. I kid you not, I feel like I have Yohan Blake's arm power, judging by how he looks when he runs, and how I feel when I'm doing my drills. I can feel the pumping action.

If the arms follow the legs, I will be golden.

Sorry, I meant if the legs follow the arms.

Your knee was sore from treadmill running?

How old are you SGzer?

I'm still fine. Treadmill running has always bothered my knees.

I don't know why--I think I get lazy because treadmills are so slow, and let my foot hit the belt and then let the belt drag it backwards, with the inevitable jarring motion.

I can do anything I want on land, explosive stuff and everything--but put me on a treadmill, and not only my knees feel it, but my feet get sore, and my shoulders get sore, too!

I tried doing severe incline, 10-15%, on the mill, to change it up. That helped quite a bit, but it still wasn't great.

I find I have to do a minimum of 30 minutes on a treadmill, to work out the kinks. If I spend 20 or less, I end up stiff afterwards. 30 or more, and I feel good.

Probably that's how long it takes a sprinter to warm up aerobically!

So you've invented a brand new sprint training protocol called short to long?

lol, did I say that?

When I said "changing sprint protocol" I meant from what I did last year.

My first outdoor "workout" went...

...GREAT.

Unbelievably great. Did fast tempo, 110mx4, x3, x2, x1 plus drills. Absolutely no problems with the body, or with endurance. Concentrated on arm action and turnover. Slight, but only slight, sloppiness set in around 95-100m.

Shocking. I have been training nothing over 25m, basically. My first outdoor workout is usually OK, though, as it seems like I have energy reserves that are used up by the second or third time out--but it has never felt THIS good.

Concentrated on arm action (pumping and limited range like Blake), relaxation in the arms/upper body like Gay, and cycling leg action with good recovery, like Owens. Seemed to work!

I will try not to get carried away, as I usually do. I'm going to really limit my track workouts, and stick to this weights/power thing, at least 50%, probably more like 66% early on, then "taper" to 50%.

I'm not fooling myself--although it felt pretty great, I know it was probably slow. I did no timing, it wouldn't have mattered at this point. It was fast tempo, not full out, but making sure the turnover was fast and cyclical. Did no driving out, I figure that's what acceleration workouts are for.

Not going overboard will be difficult. Achilles survived perfectly, but I went and bought new trainers today anyway.

The last time I trained and competed as a sprinter was 2011, and interestingly my Achilles went really bad, too. This year, as I mentioned before, I was basically training from September to March with the intention of improving my vertical. All I was doing was stuff in the weight room (powerlifting and olympic lifting) and playing basketball twice a week. My Achilles never bothered me once during that whole time.

Around March I started to try to incorporate sprinting into my regiment again as I decided I wanted to run in some spring outdoor meets over 100m (and only 100, I'm not even going to try to do 200). It's been hard to incorporate running into my training because the weather has been so bad, but the past few weeks I've actually been running outside again. Like you, I have tried to do sprint style workouts on treadmills with the factory settings still on them, but 12mph really doesn't do much. I have been to gyms where they removed the factor settings and could get the speeds of the treadmills way up, and that was very interesting as a training tool. Again, like you, upping the % upgrade helps a lot with the 12 mph limit, though.

Yesterday, while outside, I ran a 110-85-70 full go sprint workout (with full rest) and I felt OK. I don't feel as in-tune with the sprint position as I used to be. I'm not sure if that is due to age, my weight (I'm weighing in currently at around 175/177 and I'm only 5'6), the overabundance of surgeries I've had for injuries over the past six years, or the lack of sprinting over the past six years, but I can't say I feel terrible when sprinting. My Achilles kind of bothered me this morning, but I think the source of my Achilles issues over the past few years has been the introduction of sandals as my primary footwear once the weather turns. I started wearing them a day or two ago, and I might be feeling something coming on in my Achilles, so I'm not going to wear any sandals from now until the middle/end of May when all the college open meets dry up. If my Achilles holds during May, I'll heavily suspect sandals as being a primary cause of my own Achilles pain (in conjunction with bio-mechanical issues).

Sandals?!

I thought sandals would actually be easier on your achilles because they would allow a more natural foot movement than would shoes. Of course, everybody's different.

I was actually going to try some barefoot grass training this year, just to get that extra, "natural" mobility about my ankle joint. Don't know if I'll try it, though, since the track felt good. I'm probably just as likely to tear my deltoid ligament on an uneven grass surface, as I am to get any benefit.

Strained my neck/upper traps today doing militaries. I did big bench/curls sets, then rushed the militaries as I was running out of time. Hopefully the pain goes away, hopefully I can sleep. Plan to do 2nd outdoor workout tomorrow.

So how is your vertical? Did it actually improve with what you did?

I probably added about four or five inches to my vertical over six months of training. That's pretty decent, but the problem is that I started training again from a point where I was really out of shape, so by improving my vertical as much as I did, all I did was get back to where I once was. I still have yet to get above my "PR" vertical (I don't know my official standing vert PR, but it's probably around 33" or 33", but I know my run and jump vertical is 38" because of how high I've gotten on a 10" hoop.

After May I'll get back to trying to jump again, because I have a small personal goal of trying to dunk a basketball. Preferably a regulation sized men's ball on a full sized 10 foot hoop, but if I can at least pull off a mini-ball on a 10 foot hoop, it would be a decent consolation prize. And I'm 5'6".....and I'm white...and I'm pushing 30.....so, it might not be possible anymore. But I'm going to keep chasing it.

In the end, though, I'm always a sprinter. So anytime I'm not injured and relatively fit, I'll probably find myself trying to enter a meet here or there. As far as the sandals issue goes, there are two things that I think lead to instigating possible Achilles issues for me personally; first that sandals don't provide any arch support, which can be an issue for my left foot (which is the Achilles that gave me issues in 2011). Secondly, when I wear sandals, there seems to be a concerted effort on my part, during walking, to make sure the sandal doesn't fall off, which I feel like causes some kind of tensing dorsiflexion while walking and seems to put extra strain on my calves when doing a lot of walking. Tight calves produce all kinds of issues, of course. Sandals themselves (for me) don't lead to Achilles issues, but when I combine what they seem to do to me with the heavy contact of running in spikes and such, my Achilles seems to develop a lot of inflammation. This is just all my personal theory, and because of whatever bio-mechanical issues I have (particularly my left foot excessive pronation) it likely only applies to me or anyone with a similar bio-mechanical profile.

When do you plan on entering a meet? First weekend of May?

First weekend of May? Not a chance! Middle of June, maybe.

I have been on the track exactly twice at this point.

Second workout was yesterday. As expected, fatigue played a part--I was lucky I didn't injure myself. Started to feel something like a bit of fasciitis in the left foot, it might have something to do with my new trainers; also, left achilles felt a bit strange--no problem, but I did notice some feeling in that area. I can do all the drills, jumps, and ballistic stuff I want, but with fatigue, comes bad form, and with bad form comes achilles issues for me, I think.

Also, like you are thinking, these new trainers have no arch, which I think might be a problem. I try to stay up on my forefoot, but I still prefer to have an arch for those times when I'm walking. I have considered moving to various spikes at all times while on the track, IDK.

Did the same speed tempo stuff, 110x4x3x2, bailed on the last one. Mixed it up a bit, worked on the turnover and smooth cycling, but laid it out a bit on 2 or 3 of them, which was horrible. I don't have the leg speed at range yet to accommodate the greater speed over the track, so things get sloppy. I brought it back in, and things went better.

I will continue weights and accelerations, and try to do longer-type workouts maybe only once or at most twice a week. I was thinking of doing a 3-day cycle, consisting of track, then weights, then rest. Track would include longer stuff, as well as acceleration workouts.

Day after 2nd track workout, did a huge leg/squat workout.

Decent weights, but total fatigue. Could barely walk afterwards. Took elevator DOWN instead of stairs.

Didn't use de-loading yet, but I will next time.

6-9" of SNOW--yes, SNOW--is forecast here today, May 1, 2013

Unbelievable. There is essentially no chance that it will be melted from the track by tomorrow afternoon/evening, so the "training" schedule I just started is already upset. Looks like I'll have to do more 20/25m accelerations indoor.

Do you live in Iowa??? Where I live (in Iowa) got hit with 6/9 inches as well. I already did my running workout this week, though, and I'm hesitatingly still planning on running in a meet this Saturday in an area that will be really cold, but hasn't/won't seen any real snow.

No, Minnesota.

The big stuff missed where I am, but I gave my wife a lift to work since her car's in the shop, and there was snow all over the place.

I missed my workout yesterday due to work commitments.

Today, May 3, and it is snowing outside as I type this. It will be an indoor accelerations and jumps workout today.

I can only imagine what it would be like to have year-round training. I would either be a full half-second faster, or injured from overtraining!

3rd workout outdoors yesterday, hooked up with others and did 4x150, ending in 18-19, just striding with them, after lots of drills.

This was about the farthest distance I wanted to go while working tempo. Did a couple more afterward, but slower, just as a warm-down.

Survived fine, R rotator cuff bothering me from dips with heavy weights. Stupid. Indoor accelerations 2 days ago felt excellent, however. Tried some half-axxed outdoor accelerations from blocks, and they felt absurd for some reason.

Hopefully weights today.

I was talking with a girl from the U team, who was working out, and she said it was her third workout of the day!! WTF? OK, she does more than 1 event--PV and LJ--but it made me remember when training was very serious, not like now, where I just try to get in a workout.

It also made me pretty happy about my life being as varied as it is.

this is turning out to be a really interesting thread, and I am enjoying reading it.