Just curious as my Sons high school coach has hard workouts Monday with track meets Wednesday or hard work outs Thursday with races Saturday. I always remember having a serious two day lag after workouts and would be heavy legged. Is this typical of HS track these days? Also, there are generally two workout days on the track on race weeks
Bump, cuz I need to know
As usual, it depends: on the athletes, on where they are in the season, on the nature of the workout, on the importance of the competitions, and on the events contested.
I found that a lot of my athletes who were in the (so-called) "lactic acid" events--300/400/500/600/800/1000/maybe 1200/1500/mile--seemed to benefit from a brief anaerobic session two days before their races. We wouldn't do high volume but might do something like sets of 150m @ 400 pace, 50m walk recovery, and start the next rep 60 seconds after starting the previous.
People in the short sprints and the longer races, on the other hand, often seemed to respond well to a workout three days before their event(s) BUT ALSO
1) the short-sprints folks would often do a very brief session (mostly stuff like starts and accelerations, maybe some relay handoffs) the day before the meet or even the morning of an afternoon meet;
2) some of the longer-distance folks seemed to benefit from a short race-pace session the day before the meet, maybe 3 x 600 @ 5k pace, just to get the feel for that rhythm.
Is it an important meet or some random mid-season small meet? When I was in high school we would normally do workouts two days before less important meets (i.e. one recovery day), knowing that we wouldn't be at peak form for the meet, and basically use the meet as another workout as part of our training schedule. For the important invitationals or state series we would take more recovery.
Give them enough turtle soup and they'll be good.
Fried Okra wrote:
Just curious as my Sons high school coach has hard workouts Monday with track meets Wednesday or hard work outs Thursday with races Saturday. I always remember having a serious two day lag after workouts and would be heavy legged. Is this typical of HS track these days? Also, there are generally two workout days on the track on race weeks
Hard workout Monday
Meet Wed
Hard Workout Th
Meet Sat
That sounds like a recipe for disaster.
Luv2Run wrote:
Fried Okra wrote:
Just curious as my Sons high school coach has hard workouts Monday with track meets Wednesday or hard work outs Thursday with races Saturday. I always remember having a serious two day lag after workouts and would be heavy legged. Is this typical of HS track these days? Also, there are generally two workout days on the track on race weeks
Hard workout Monday
Meet Wed
Hard Workout Th
Meet Sat
That sounds like a recipe for disaster.
No it’s either or
M hard wo
W meet
Th workout
Or
Thu hard wo
S meet
Of those weeks there is also another
This might be a big deal in May or June, but it's April right now. It's not the end of the world if your son's legs feel heavy in a dual meet or small scale invitational.
What I found is there should be a minimum of two days of complete rest days before a meet. The day before should be really hard, the kind that takes it all out of you. Ideally four days is best. Five days cam work too. This is assuming there is a high level of fitness for at least 3 months prior.
Depends on the meet wrote:
Is it an important meet or some random mid-season small meet? When I was in high school we would normally do workouts two days before less important meets (i.e. one recovery day), knowing that we wouldn't be at peak form for the meet, and basically use the meet as another workout as part of our training schedule. For the important invitationals or state series we would take more recovery.
exactly-in high school or college at mid-season small meets there would be no taper since the Saturday race part of a harder block anyway with normal Thursday afternoon workout prior-no point peaking for a race that is treated as a building block anyway rather the peak part of the season...
if we were peaking, usually do a couple lighter volume workouts week prior with last one 3-4 days prior..and walk-through and some strides day before big meet.
Normally this is a normal week for me with a less important saturday meet.
Sun - 12 Mile Long run
M - Shorter Intervals @ Tempo Pace (600s, 400s,) then 4 x 200 to open up legs
T - Longer Intervals @ I Pace (1000s, 1200s) then strides
W - Long Easy Run(35-45 mins)
Th - 20 Min Tempo or Mile Repeats @ Tempo Pace
F - Rest and Ice/3 Mile Easy
S - Race
More Important Meet (Distance Meets aimed for PR)
Sun - 8 Mile LR
M - Shorter Intervals @ R Pace (600s,400s)
T - Easy Run (30-35 Mins)
W - Longer Intervals @ I Pace (1000s, 1200s) w/ strides
Th - Tempo Run/Mile Repeats @ Tempo Pace + 4 x 200
F - Rest/3 Mile Easy
S - Race
District Schedule
Sun - 6 Mile LR
M - Long Moderate Run
T - Easy Run + Strides
W - Rest + Ice
Th - District
F - Long Easy Run
S - Rest
Our district is not very hard, so I am not really sure why he is cutting so much intensity from our week, I mean I think I will do a workout on saturday to prepare for the area meet that is next week after this one.