What do 50+ plus sprinters do for training?

Making some headway with recovery, but hip flexors still not recovered. Ran 5x100m a bit faster last night in runners on grass followed by 50 walking lunges bodyweight.

You must have dinged those hip flexors for them to still be giving you problems! There are some hip flexor drills and dynamic stretches that might help. Here's one I do.

Lay on back with legs extended and a dumbbell on its edge between ankles. Lift right foot and pass over the DB and down. Then up and back to start. Do several times. Repeat with left leg.

Yesterday, my 400m-specific workout was 3 sets of 150 (60sec) 150 (60 sec) 100 [6 minutes between sets]

I ran them in 26 27 18 and 25.4 26.8 18.8. Averaged 71 seconds/set. I DNSd the 3rd set. I'm not sure if I should have taken longer recovery or maybe ran each rep a second slower. I'll try again in a week or so.

Thanks Fisky. I like doing sets of 150ms too. I was just getting into them before I overdid it. Anyway i have a long offseason now to hopefully get my speed up. Look forward to seeing your results from upcoming season.

Still plugging along with base work, about 30-ish miles/week with a couple of great hill sessions. A week ago I PR'd by a few tenths on my short sprint hill (essentially 3x100 effort with one minute rest) which was a pleasant surprise. Bodes well for 400 prospects going forward.

Then on Friday I did an anaerobic capacity session, with 4x100 on hard-paced dirt decline, followed by 4x100 on flat pavement, then 4x350 steep hill which approximates flat 400 time. Average rest 3-4+ min, with 10 min between sets.

The short reps felt sluggish at first, then picked up well enough on a cold but sunny day. Went in to the long hills with an open mind, but knew they would be hard. First rep was shockingly fast and easy compared to the same session seven weeks ago. The the pressure was on a bit to complete the next three in the same range, which I did, the last putting me to the ground afterwards. 4-5 seconds per rep improvement since early January. Extremely pleased with the effort; I wasn't sure I could ever push again like that anaerobically as you need to training for the 800.

Easy yesterday with some small cones set at 5-foot spacing for wicket drills. I need to do these several times a week going forward, as they seem to really help clean up form and technical issues.

~12 weeks now to kicking off racing career #3, and optimistic, with healthy body and mind.

hip flexors getting better, but getting back into strength has led to different leg area soreness. I have never had five weeks of pain in legs like this, perhaps reflecting my age now as well as overdoing it.

last night 6x100m at 75% effort, light weights due to soreness. Did 6 sets of sled, stepdowns and singe rdls. My left leg is very weak with stepdowns as it struggle on a 6 inch height. Rest of week, one half run and many easy bike rides (60km)

This is going to sound ridiculous (unlike the other things I have posted😂):

I do weights almost every day.

Days I don’t feel great, I will go for only 30-40 mins, and do small movements, but still try heavier weights, like dumbell bicep curls with 50-60 lbs, or delt flys with 35-40 lbs. The important thing is stimulus, so heavy weights, lower reps. You get plenty of low-weight reps while sprinting.

Good days normal workout, like bench, etc—but usually for only 60-65 mins.

My big squats are now limited to usually only one day per week: Sunday morning, before the day has sapped my energy. Huge workout, incapacitated for the remainder of the day, and Monday is most often a rest day.

But I admit I need it, physically and psychologically, YMMV. I have been traveling skiing for a month, and I miss it greatly. Can’t wait to get back into the rhythm next week.

I have been doing more short speed stuff too (coming from long distance background).

One thing I have noticed for myself is I really like to be progressive in my sets: so If I run 300's..I start easy and get faster...once i feel I have topped out, I stop. On your 150's your first one is fasters than the seconds one...to me that means you might need more rest - or are going so close to top speed - you aren't able to get faster. and then the 100 at the end is same pace as well. I would expect your 100 to be faster pace since it is shorter.

I still don't take enough rest when I do faster stuff - how are you determining how much rest to take?

when I am able to run fast (my standard), I take 3 minutes between reps for distances up to 100m at 90% effort or faster. I will do this all year round.

During my offseason, i also take 3 minutes for longer reps 200-300m, but they are just 80% effort.

I also do upper body stuff, but dont consider it that important. Aim is to get 12 cadence pullups soon and 40 cadence pushups by end of March, both with very strict form. Injured my shoulder a while ago, so I have stopped doing bench press.

Chris, how is your sleep and protein intake from animal sources? If I am getting enough of both I rarely get soreness from hard efforts even at 66. When I was low-protein/high carb/plant-based I fought inflammation and soreness constantly (in my 20s-50s).

I have plenty of protein, around 2g per kg and complete protein mostly from milk, eggs, fish and meat. However, sleep is a big problem although last two nights have been ok waking up just twice both nights.

Hmm. The other things I do for recovery: 1) intense roller and trigger point massage work in acute areas. 2) Backwards walking and jogging, variety of terrain, at least 400m a day on average 3)Light stretching and mobility all day. 4) one, maybe two days a week no running (but easy spin 30 min on fixed bike 30min most days upon waking).

i do a lot of walking, have increased stretching sessions greatly, try to do 100 reps of half supermans twice per week to get some thoracic flexibility improvement. Will be doing two to three easy runs per week, but very slow 8kmh pace. My main aim for the next ten months is to get my leg power up.

One of the best 65+ masters sprinters does 2 sets of 15x15lbs on the leg press machine with plates and cables. When I started last fall, I struggled to do 2 sets of 10x15lb with each leg. A couple of weeks ago, I did 15x75 and followed with 8x100. I also do a lot of the X-factor drills in my warm up routine... 10x1 leg hops, A skips for height/distance, stadium stairs in a skipping push off instead of just a step, and the boom boom boom march. My speed has improved, but I still lack enough speed to be competitive in the 100. The 100m talent is too deep in my age group.

Easy/recovery week, with only one workout, which ended up being on the worst weather day of the week. Needless to say, the watch was not my friend! Cold, wet and windy, I did ten reps just having to suck up the sucky times, except on one rep where the wind briefly stopped and I ran a somewhat respectable 100 split.

However, there was a silver lining: I noticed that a hurdle had been left out and I set it up, intending to do a few run-throughs. I ended up doing 12 reps, all with clean clearances. What made this notable was that I have never jumped a hurdle in spikes before, much less on tired legs and wet conditions, not having jumped a real hurdle in six months! Taking this chance and succeeding gives me heart that I might be able to do the 300H this summer after all. I'll take it one low hurdle at a time.

One of my policies is that when one thing gives unsatisfying results, it is time to pivot on a lateral move and see what you can gain elsewhere. I am definitely feeling a little uplifted, despite one of the gloomiest winters in memory.

Cheers to any other stalwarts braving the winter for future promise of sunny and warm track days.

Last week a bit better. Hip flexors almost ok, but rest of legs still getting used to strength exercises again.

Apart from riding bike most days 10km, 8x100m at 80% on sunday followed by single leg work (stepdowns, leg extensions, leg curls, calf raises, and hip thrusts).

Riding a bike was how I hurt my hip flexor years ago. It was from pulling up really hard on the pedal while going up a steep hill. Afterwards, I could feel a twinge even when cycling easy. You need to be careful with cycling.

I spin 30min each day on an exercise bike, but without cleats or footstraps. I also spin in reverse 5-10 min each time, and vary between sitting and standing.

I swear by wicket drills for getting knee lift and drive as well as cadence. I feel they will help me when it comes time to do full hurdle sessions as well.

Also do not use foot straps. Bike 2x per week for an hour each time, minimum 90rpm, finishing at 130rpm, avg probably 100rpm

I don't have a very rigid plan. I do what I feel like doing nowadays. I just slapped stuff together from misc. research; it's not vetted. Here's an unordered list of things I do over a few weeks:

- A lot of joint and tendon work. Most of your explosiveness comes from your tendons.

- I do a bit of weight training (loaded carries, power pulls).

- Long-ish (say, quarter) repeats with slow jogs or walks inbetween. General fitness.

- Extremely slow jogging, 2 to 4 miles. General health and fitness.

- Lower-impact variations of sprinting, e.g., hill sprints (which also puts me in my drive phase).

- Cross-training, like sprint intervals on the erg rower.

- Plyometrics: a lot of hopping and jumping.

- Mobility drills and stretching.

- Body-weight exercises: pull ups, push ups, pistol squats, a lot of dead hangs

Sprinting isn't an old man's game, but I reckon it's good for you.