5x100m freelap times 3m rest between 17.53, 16.64, 16.83, 16.66 and 15.46.
Last one gave it more effort, slight tailwind grass
gym sets walking lunges 6kg dumbells, 3 sets of stepups
treadmill 2.8km 8kmh
Do you find the freelap system to be accurate? I purchased a lower cost system (SKILZ) where the lasers are on top of the cones and I found that a few times I was mid-stride (so mid-air) during my stride as I passed the starting cones and the timer never started because I literally ran above the cone height (about 12”). I ended up building a custom set up to where the lasers are now at hip height and totally eliminated that.
However; now after video review, I’ve determined the low-cost timing system I purchased, even though FAT, is approximately 0.25 slow. Never expected that.
Friday: Weighted 6sec sprints towing a 25lb plate with a rope and a chest rig. I have a sled, but it's harder with just the weight and the sled is a hassle to carry around.
I reviewed my running journal from 2016-2017 and found my 100m time was faster than it is now even though I didn't do any sprint specific workouts back then. I noticed that I was doing weighted sled pushes 2-3 times/week and that I was doing air squats. I remember those sled workouts were hard! I'm going to experiment with different weights. I don't have a push sled. I have a tow sled, but a plate towed with a rope and a chest rig seems like a decent substitute.
I've also added air squats to my routine. I've started doing 8 sets of 12-15 air squats with a 15 second rest between sets.
Sat: 70 minutes biking at HR ~123.
Sun: 4x1200. I wasn't recovered enough to do this workout and it showed. Still, it was a good effort.
Monday: Air squats. Push ups. Maybe easy weightlifting day.
Just ordered Freelap today. Ready to get back to sprints, I ran hurdles the two years I ran track in high school and from the hand-timed 40s and 100s I've done it seems like I still have some fast-twitch. Running distance has always felt like a mismatch for my body type.
Also ordered a practice discus, but that's a different thing!
Just ordered Freelap today. Ready to get back to sprints, I ran hurdles the two years I ran track in high school and from the hand-timed 40s and 100s I've done it seems like I still have some fast-twitch. Running distance has always felt like a mismatch for my body type.
Also ordered a practice discus, but that's a different thing!
good luck with it. I also threw some discus and shot last season.
Wednesday is my medium intensity day, but on bike.
At lunchtime at work, I ride a fairly hard 10km. With a slight downhill which I ride at a higher gear, and lower gear when returning, my pulse gets up to low 160s (uphill) and 150s (downhill). Today I averaged 24.6kmh on a hybrid bike.
My maximum pulse is 184 (2022 tested).
It is a fairly hard ride given the uphill portion sends pulse high, but I feel fresh enough by Friday for my 200m reps on grass track session.
So my higher quality sessions are Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
The other days are easy bike rides, runs, or upper body strength which i don't really need to detail.
This post was edited 14 minutes after it was posted.
I've tied two 25 lb plates by a 15ft rope to tow with a chest harness. I'm doing about eight 15-20 meter sprints while towing the weights on a grass field with around a 90 second recovery. I've done it twice now. It's a surprisingly hard workout. I think it will help me run faster in the sprint events.
Question: My question is when should I do this workout? Should I do it...
a) immediately before a track workout? (Maybe)
b) After a track work out? (I don't think so.)
c) Or should I do it on a separate day?
d) Or, maybe do it before doing flying 30 meters or 50 meters as part of a pure speed workout?
I can't maintain sprint form with 50 lbs so maybe I should drop down to 35 pounds? (I know it sounds like not much weight, but dragging a plate through thick grass is harder than it sounds.)
Thoughts on when is the best time to do this workout? How many days per week should I do it?
I've tied two 25 lb plates by a 15ft rope to tow with a chest harness. I'm doing about eight 15-20 meter sprints while towing the weights on a grass field with around a 90 second recovery. I've done it twice now. It's a surprisingly hard workout. I think it will help me run faster in the sprint events.
Question: My question is when should I do this workout? Should I do it...
a) immediately before a track workout? (Maybe)
b) After a track work out? (I don't think so.)
c) Or should I do it on a separate day?
d) Or, maybe do it before doing flying 30 meters or 50 meters as part of a pure speed workout?
I can't maintain sprint form with 50 lbs so maybe I should drop down to 35 pounds? (I know it sounds like not much weight, but dragging a plate through thick grass is harder than it sounds.)
Thoughts on when is the best time to do this workout? How many days per week should I do it?
50 pounds is a MASSIVE amount of weight you’re pulling behind you.
Before answering your questions, why are you doing the weight pulls? What’s the specific reason? You mentioned that you think it will help you run faster in the sprint events. But why?
(Genuinely looking for your reasoning. A lot of sprinters definitely do sled pulls w/ weights, etc.).
Hey fisky, the way I see it (towing 50 pounds for under 10 seconds at a time with 90 seconds recovery) is what I would consider a strength endurance type workout. I think it is a good substitute for weight lifting or short + steep hill sprints
a) if it is hard then I don't think you will get a good track workout in afterwards. If you are looking to prime your cns for a track workout I suggest using a much lighter weight (less than 10% bodyweight) and doing a few starts/accelerations
b) after a track session would be preferred in my mind because this way it won't hinder your track session
c) separate day for strength endurance work is fine, you can probably do it the day after a speed day
d) of course you can mix a heavy sled day with max velocity, but I like to keep them separate. I would keep the fly to 30m or under, 50m fly is hard to maintain unless you are running at a sub max speed with extremely long recovery
The way I see it you can perform heavy sled drags many times per week because you are not moving that fast and taxing your hamstrings/sprint muscles.
I have always preferred light sled pulls (10% bodyweight or less) to work on my acceleration mechanics rather than as a conditioning tool
I sense that you are questioning this workout because you are unable to maintain form. I am in the same school of thought. I recommend dropping the weight to work on acceleration mechanics or preforming steep hill sprints for conditioning
Hey I have a freelap timing system and it is pretty darn accurate. There was a time when the app updated and I had trouble recording my 2nd rep of each workout for some odd reason but that has been fixed now. Freelap even has a starter speaker if you want FAT level accuracy. I use the thumb pad to test my block starts and 2 cones to record fly times. I add 0.15 to my thumbpad times to arrive at my "FAT" converted times. Camydunks on youtube often records both the freelap FAT as well the video frame counted time on his sprints. Pretty accurate except when he uses a 3 point stance with the thumb pad
I've tied two 25 lb plates by a 15ft rope to tow with a chest harness. I'm doing about eight 15-20 meter sprints while towing the weights on a grass field with around a 90 second recovery. I've done it twice now. It's a surprisingly hard workout. I think it will help me run faster in the sprint events.
Question: My question is when should I do this workout? Should I do it...
a) immediately before a track workout? (Maybe)
b) After a track work out? (I don't think so.)
c) Or should I do it on a separate day?
d) Or, maybe do it before doing flying 30 meters or 50 meters as part of a pure speed workout?
I can't maintain sprint form with 50 lbs so maybe I should drop down to 35 pounds? (I know it sounds like not much weight, but dragging a plate through thick grass is harder than it sounds.)
Thoughts on when is the best time to do this workout? How many days per week should I do it?
that is pretty good specific strength work. hard to know when to do it. I do not recover easily so I tend to do my strength work on Mondays after my speed work for week.
This post was edited 1 minute after it was posted.
50 pounds is a MASSIVE amount of weight you’re pulling behind you.
Before answering your questions, why are you doing the weight pulls? What’s the specific reason? You mentioned that you think it will help you run faster in the sprint events. But why?
(Genuinely looking for your reasoning. A lot of sprinters definitely do sled pulls w/ weights, etc.).
Thanks for all the great responses. I'm experimenting with weight pulls (tows) for two reasons. 1) I looked at what I was doing in 2016-2017 and discovered that even though I was doing no sprint training, my 100m times were faster than now. Of course, I was 68 then and 75 now, but I saw some training differences. One difference was that I was routinely doing heavy sled pushes... typically 4 to 8 reps of 15 seconds for two to three days a week.
2) Also, when I looked at slow motion videos of the top sprinters in my age group, I noticed that they pushed down with their lead foot whereas I tend to reach out and roll forward on my lead foot. The sled push (or weighted tows) require a forceful push into the ground. My thinking is that I can teach myself to push down with less risk of injury on the grass than by doing flying 30m on the track. I have a chronic hip injury that sometimes limits my ability to do flying 30 meter type workouts.
Finally, I don't currently have the strength to come out of the blocks as fast as I would like. I compensate by taking little choppy steps out of the blocks. I think the sled will make me stronger and allow longer steps out of the blocks.
I have a lightweight sled that I can use with a 10 lb weight for more of a sprint movement. I haven't used it recently, but it moves with a lot less resistance. I can actually sprint while towing it for maybe 30 meters or so.
50 pounds is a MASSIVE amount of weight you’re pulling behind you.
Before answering your questions, why are you doing the weight pulls? What’s the specific reason? You mentioned that you think it will help you run faster in the sprint events. But why?
(Genuinely looking for your reasoning. A lot of sprinters definitely do sled pulls w/ weights, etc.).
2) Also, when I looked at slow motion videos of the top sprinters in my age group, I noticed that they pushed down with their lead foot whereas I tend to reach out and roll forward on my lead foot. The sled push (or weighted tows) require a forceful push into the ground. My thinking is that I can teach myself to push down with less risk of injury on the grass than by doing flying 30m on the track. I have a chronic hip injury that sometimes limits my ability to do flying 30 meter type workouts.
Finally, I don't currently have the strength to come out of the blocks as fast as I would like. I compensate by taking little choppy steps out of the blocks. I think the sled will make me stronger and allow longer steps out of the blocks.
I have a lightweight sled that I can use with a 10 lb weight for more of a sprint movement.
Excellent! Great reason for doing what you’re doing! I’d lessen the weight (about 25#? to be able to get the benefit of the weight but allowing you to have proper form).
At your younger age, you could probably do those before an actual sprint workout. Nowadays? You might want to do those 1x per week on a day that you’re doing some light plyometric work (such as bounding in the grass, etc.) when you’re NOT doing any other work.
Hey I have a freelap timing system and it is pretty darn accurate. There was a time when the app updated and I had trouble recording my 2nd rep of each workout for some odd reason but that has been fixed now. Freelap even has a starter speaker if you want FAT level accuracy. I use the thumb pad to test my block starts and 2 cones to record fly times. I add 0.15 to my thumbpad times to arrive at my "FAT" converted times. Camydunks on youtube often records both the freelap FAT as well the video frame counted time on his sprints. Pretty accurate except when he uses a 3 point stance with the thumb pad
Well I guess my cheap option I have at 0.25 accuracy isn’t too awful bad then considering the Freelap is pretty pricey and still has 0.15 accuracy issues it seems.
Hey fisky, the way I see it (towing 50 pounds for under 10 seconds at a time with 90 seconds recovery) is what I would consider a strength endurance type workout. I think it is a good substitute for weight lifting or short + steep hill sprints
a) if it is hard then I don't think you will get a good track workout in afterwards. If you are looking to prime your cns for a track workout I suggest using a much lighter weight (less than 10% bodyweight) and doing a few starts/accelerations
b) after a track session would be preferred in my mind because this way it won't hinder your track session
c) separate day for strength endurance work is fine, you can probably do it the day after a speed day
d) of course you can mix a heavy sled day with max velocity, but I like to keep them separate. I would keep the fly to 30m or under, 50m fly is hard to maintain unless you are running at a sub max speed with extremely long recovery
The way I see it you can perform heavy sled drags many times per week because you are not moving that fast and taxing your hamstrings/sprint muscles.
I have always preferred light sled pulls (10% bodyweight or less) to work on my acceleration mechanics rather than as a conditioning tool
I sense that you are questioning this workout because you are unable to maintain form. I am in the same school of thought. I recommend dropping the weight to work on acceleration mechanics or preforming steep hill sprints for conditioning
This is great information! Thanks for posting. This gives me a lot of ideas that I'd not considered yet.
I think I'll add a few lightweight sled pulls to my warmup routine on my speed and 400m-specific workout days. Or, I might do both light and heavy drags on the same day as a substitute for a hill rep day.