fisky wrote:
This is an outstanding thread. Thanks to all for sharing your expertise.
I'm training with several runners ages 63-80 for the National Senior Games next summer in distances from 400m to 1500m. The younger seniors are in the 14-16 second range for 100m. The 80-year-old hasn't run this short, but he's probably 18.x with some training. How would you modify the 5x60m workout for them?
Would you go shorter distance? Or fewer reps? Or stay as is? None of us are currently doing anything this short.
Hi Fisky,
Thank you for the kind words and I admire that you and the group you train with are still on the grind.
This falls a bit out of my expertise, I've helped out a few runners in their 50's but in the very limited capacity of giving advice because they knew I was a runner, not sure if they even knew I was coaching at the time.
I would shorten the reps and do them uphill to start. you want to ease them into this and even though going uphill seems harder it takes away velocity which means you can do them with more control. 60's aren't great as an opening workout for this kind of work, even as distance runners we need to work on the acceleration component in isolation otherwise we aren't going to get much out of the top speed portion of a longer sprint (40-80m).
It will also be reasonable to lower the total volume and lengthen the recovery.
6x40m uphill with 3 minute recovery
8x40m uphill with 3 minute recovery
6x40m on the track with 3 minute recovery
2 sets 4x40m on the track with 3 minute recovery (5 minutes between sets)
These all address acceleration and usually I do one macro cycle with only hills (acceleration), one macro with 40m reps or less on the track (acceleration), then start speed development on the track with 50m reps. So typically in cross country my athletes aren't getting out of acceleration work for 2 months; essentially doubling the workout progression I have above.
See how they respond throughout that progression, if you don't notice anything by the end of the 5th week then it may be that accelerative power isn't adaptable enough at that age just due to muscle response. In that case, and for when you move to speed development in general, try doing reps with a rolling start. set up cones that are 30m apart and let them gradually accelerate so that once they hit the first cone they are ready to accelerate that last bit to top speed (should happen within 10m of passing the first cone). This just shifts the focus to the tope speed component and away from acceleration.
With an older group whose 100m times are longer than athletes I have you have to factor in a loss of coordination and CrP fatigue earlier since they are running the reps for a longer period of time. Our bodies have no idea what a meter is, our energy systems only care about how many seconds it can do something. The magic number for these sprints is between 7-8 seconds. If anyone in your group is running longer than that at a hard effort then its no longer alactic and means they will be slowing down to some degree.
Here's my disclaimer:
I haven't dealt with athletes in your situation so these are just my thoughts. There is definitely some variables for muscle elasticity that I just don't know enough about. I'd venture to say that a more senior group would be treated closer to a very young group in that they hit top speed much earlier (maybe 30m) because their top speed is lower. I also don't know how muscle responds to stimuli like this at that age and I have a strong suspicion that it might differ very greatly from senior male to senior female possibly in a unique way from how we traditionally think for males and females in general.
It wouldn't surprise me if the better way to go is to eliminate this kind of work and shift to slightly longer sprints that have a stronger metabolic component just because of limitation is muscle adaptations toward power or explosiveness.