Speed With the Masters

Speed decreases with age. That’s a fact of life. Check the World Records in different age groups if you don’t believe me.

I call it "The Law of Attrition".

I used a random sample of the 2007 WMA results in Ricionne, using the M40 – M65 5 year age groups as my sample pool:

• 100m 0.4 seconds attrition
• 200m 0.8 sec
• 400m 1.6 sec

If you really want to get depressed, you can look at this at an absolute level and estimate an attrition rate of almost one-tenth of a second per year for the 100 meters, or 0.35 seconds in a 400m every year!

Yuck.

This is one reason why some masters athletes don’t bother showing up when they reach the tail end of their age group. Sure, injuries, scheduling and financial reasons also factor in the equation, but these statistics show just how difficult it is to compete with athletes even 4 years younger than oneself.

Some rare elite athletes like 40-year-old Troy Douglas of the Netherlands and 47-year-old Merlene Ottey of Slovenia (formerly of Jamaica) still competed at the elite level. Genetic freaks like Usain Bolt do exist.

You really have to forget your past if you want to run Masters Track. Muscles have a memory – if you sprinted before, the chances are you still "have it".

With the odd exception, the faster you were in your prime, the faster you’ll be as a Masters sprinter compared to other athletes. The law of attrition doesn’t lie. Of course, some Masters athletes like Holland’s Eric Roese or USA’s James Chinn could still run relatively close to their prime.

I get a chuckle when I hear good amateur golfers dreaming to join the Senior PGA tour when they turn 50. Sorry to break the news guys, but I think when Greg Norman or Tiger Woods turns 50, they’ll have the edge on you already.

Same with track. Bill Collins was an alternate in the 4×100m Olympic relay in 1972. And he just kept it up.

But I’m not here to discourage you. I believe in the "absolute" rule. It’s all about YOU improving relative to YOURSELF. No one else. Just you and the clock. If you win some medals, that’s bonus. The post-race beer taste just as good.

3 Considerations before Starting Masters Sprints

But seriously, in addition to the neuro-muscular facts of life, there are 3 important considerations for Masters sprinters for anyone contemplating a comeback:

1. Compare your fitness today to your peak in your Youth, College or Elite. Have you kept in good shape? How is your over-all fitness?
2. Flexibility usually decreases with age, unless you’ve been doing Yoga the last 10 years
3. Most people gain weight after College for a variety of reasons. Are you heavier than in your running prime? Sure, you may claim to be the same weight, but do you still have the same body composition in terms of muscle mass and fat?

By now, you’ve read hundreds of articles on this blog and other informative web sites. You may have purchased books and DVDs, too. You know WHAT to do, but HOW do you get there?

Focus on the Training Plan

Here are my 3 simple rules to consider in your training plan:

1. Maximize speed training
2. Maximize efficiency & technique
3. Avoid injury by monitoring your workouts in terms of speed and volume. Over-training is a natural reaction for the enthusiastic athlete.

Okay, those are just vague guidelines, so here are some helpful and specific tips:

1. Start with getting in shape, improve flexibility, and losing weight
2. The warm-up is even more important, as your body has to be ready when the gun goes off. Consider a dynamic warm-up over the traditional static stretching.
3. Instead of the traditional 3X per week hard workouts (with 1 rest day afterwards), consider 2X per week hard (2 easy or rest days after each hard workout)
4. Balance speed, speed endurance, and special endurance (see my article on the 6 types of workouts)
5. Train on grass surfaces (use old spikes with long needles) or simply use training flats
6. Spend more time (and money?) on recovery, regeneration, and staying loose and supple. Maybe incorporate Yoga? Since you have more money than in College (hopefully!), a good massage therapist cost $70-$90 an hour for a good session.
7. Alternate training methods: weight training and plyometrics. Weight training and dynamic Olympic lifts are great for CNS stimulus leading up to the big meets
8. Focus on technique, staying relaxed, reach top speed more efficiently more important
9. Really watch the diet and caloric intake, and if you must, consider extra supplements, including brain supplements like Tyrosine or Theanine.

Phil Campbell’s Summary

Phil Campbell’s summarized it best with his 4 tips on running a 40 yard dash:

1. Cover the First Ten Yards in 5.5 to 6 Steps in Perfect Acceleration Position
2. Stretching to Improve Range of Motion
3. Correct Technique, Especially when Squatting
4. Train for Explosiveness – Even in the Weight Room

BUSAN 2002 4x100 RELAY MEN THAILAND GOLD MEDAL

DOHA 2006 4x100 RELAY MEN THAILAND GOLD MEDAL

[1080HD] 2010 Asian Games - Sprint / Men's 4x100 Metre Relay Final 1/2

"Fly Ins"; "In and Out" Training

One of the main reason to post workouts from various top coaches is not to copy them, but to incorporate the ideas into your training program.

You should tailor the number of reps, sets, distances and recovery to each individual athlete, including yourself, if you run in the Masters.

If you are not familiar with the name Lance Baumann, you can read a quick bio on Lance Brauman: Speed & Power Drills For Sprints & Hurdles.

The 30 meter “Fly in” drill (2 x 3 x 75 meters)

This is 2 or 3 sets of 3 x 75m where it’s broken down with cones at 15m, 30m, 30m. 3 minute recovery between reps and 5 minute recovery between sets.

The first 15m is the “head-down” acceleration phase, followed by 30m of transition to get into a full upright position with increasing acceleration. The last 30m is all out, hence the term “fly in”, keeping an eye on good dorsiflexion and landing your foot directly under your hips. No over-reaching or over-extending.

Thoughts: 3 minutes is barely enough time to slow down from top speed, stop, turn around, and walk back to your blocks. With limited recovery, you are turning a high intensity workout into an upper end medium intensity workout. The price you pay might be in degrading technique, which would be bad. Highly conditioned athletes may find this sufficient, but if you notice their form dropping, you may want to either add more recovery or shorten the distances.

In-and-out Drills (2 x 3 x 55 meters)

This is 2 sets of 3 x 55m where it’s broken down with cones at 15m, 10m, 20m, and 10m. 3 minute recovery between reps and 5 minute recovery between sets. A 3rd set can be added for elite or advanced sprinters later in the season.

The name implies moving “in and out” of top speed sprinting. Like a car, you are constantly shifting gears as follows:

• 15 meters of acceleration
• 10 meters of an aggressive turnover phase
• 20 meters of “floating and relaxed running” but don’t slow down nor accelerate
• 10 meters of an aggressive sprint

Thoughts: This is a good workout for a 400 meter sprinter to teach them to accelerate into the curve at 200 meter mark. Even 200 meter sprinters should learn to accelerate when they reach the straightaway at the end of the curve at the 100m mark. The thought of “picking up speed” when you are already running full speed may sound confusing.

This drill or workout is also good for the 4×100m relay when used in a desperation attempt to catch the outgoing runner!

Like the above 30 meter “Fly in” drill, 3 minute recovery may be too short. So you will want to modify it to make sure technique is not compromised. When it does get shoddy, stop the drill.

Conclusion: the overall concept of these 2 workouts or drills will definitely help you & your athlete. Just add seasoning to taste.

Paris: Paul Faber Sports Centre

Dear Friends & Sportsmen,

Bonjour from Paris. Hope this email finds you well.

How is your training coming along?

If you ever get to Paris and staying at the Le Meridien, Etoile, (opposite is the Concorde Exhibition Centre), you can get to a nearby Paul Faber Sports Centre.

It's a fabulous place to training, with beautiful weather. Unfortunately, yesterday was windy and cold about 10degrees Celsius.

But my guilt of laying off too long, got me the compulsion I should skip this training opportunity.

So, I walk to the below stadium and had an hour's training, just by doing "Dynamic Training" (comprising of In-Place Dynamic Warm-Ups, Drills & Runs all at once).

I didn't dare do too much as my last training was in the Weight Room in Auckland, about a week ago. But my run training, had not taken place since my return from AMA Meet, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Thus, I am struggling to get back my fitness level.

But the secret is to be "SPECIFIC", and work on the Biomotor Abilities of the Sports/Event.

So, the following were my training workout:-

WARM UP:-
DYNAMIC In-Place Stretch:-
In-Place Calf Stretch
Jumping Jacks (Forward/Side/Diagonal)
Reverse Lunges
Half Squat Stance (60 seconds, then Up & Down 10x reps)
TRACK DRILLS:-
Skipping (High/Forward) 2x
Butt Kick 2x into a 20-30m run
A Drill 2x into a 20-30m run
High Knee 2x into 20-30m run
RUN WORKOUT:-
5x Fly Runs (because it was my first run training)
WARM DOWN:-
Half Squat Single Leg
Calf Stretch
Hamstring Stretch

After the training, I rewarded myself with a meal (Mee Pok Ta - Dried Flat Noodles with Seafood) at the nearby Chinese Vietnamese Restuarant (pictured).

Felt good after that.

Hope you will learn to be Discipline and Specific, which can be of great help to get you started.

'au revoir, salut, à la prochaine, à bientôt'
(Good-Bye)

All the best,

PAUL SU

How To Race And Train For The 200m: Part 2

Part 2: How to Train for the 200 Meters

Generally, I follow the flow of their training schedule.

Assuming a 12 week season, the training focus is generally going to look like the following. Now keep in mind, this schedule breakdown considers that the athlete competed in a sport or did some degree of organized training the previous season, even if it wasn’t track. Therefore, the prep periods are not as long or as general as they would be, say, during winter track (if you compete indoors in your area):

Weeks 1-3

During this time we’re going heavy on the acceleration development, speed drills and mechanics. We’re also going to start in the weight room immediately and focus on improving work capacity and pillar strength on recovery days. We’re doing 2 days of low intensity, double leg plyos.

They’ll likely spend one day per week with the 2/4 group (through the whole season) and perform a rep or two of short end Special Endurance II or long end Special I. I know that once the season is in full swing, with many 2 and even 3 meet weeks, we’re not going to be able to do a ton of formal training. So building a ‘base’ is important now, just not a base of excessive low and middle intensity training.

We’ll probably have our first competition at the end of this period. Ideally, I’ll run the athlete in the 100 and 400 or 100/4×4 plus field event/s. Trust me I understand that most times athletes run what you need them to run to win meets.

Weeks 4-6

During this mesocycle, things are starting to get a little bit more specific. We’re still doing the things we did during the first 3 weeks, except I’m reducing the volume of tempo work on recovery days and I’m moving from 2 days per week of speed to 3 days over the 6 day schedule. I’m also transitioning to single leg plyos only if athletes have proven themselves.

Now I’m adding maximum velocity work (fly 30s – 40s, sprint/float/sprints), working out of blocks and starting to work on running the turns.

We’ll also move from Special I runs to some long Speed Endurance runs at the low end of intensity (90%), most likely with the 200/400 groups, assuming their speed work is on schedule.

In meets they’ll see their first open 200. In this time I like the 200/400 double and probably a 400/4×4 double toward the end of the cycle as things will be getting much crisper and faster in the coming weeks. This is the hardest part of the season from an energy system and psychological standpoint. Kids are sore, they can smell the end of the season and they’re running lots of meets. On recovery days and days where you’re competing, say, Tuesday/Thursday or Wednesday/Saturday you have to break the monotony of doing the same old thing, especially since there isn’t the possibility of getting in a workout. That’s when I break out the movement based games. Ultimate Frisbee, speed tag, split the cone and other games are really fun and your athletes will request them on the next recovery day.

It can breathe new life into a long season.

Weeks 7-8 – Pre-Competition

We’re now getting to the early stages of the part of the season my athletes call ‘Fun Track’. Fun track is when we’re not doing tempo work or GS circuits every recovery day, but we’re still doing aerobic capacity work and GS work. Practices are shorter and contain less drills, reps and exercises.

The weight room is still going strong (3x per week), some athletes have graduated to single leg bounding drills and they can hold Swedish Ab (plank) positions for a good 2 minutes before threatening to kill you or quit the sport forever.

We’re doing fly 40’s and Speed Endurance transitioning from the turn to the straightaway. Blockwork is taking place on the turn from all lanes and we’re learning to how to drive for the 5-6 seconds out of the blocks before going into a float.

We’ve mostly left ‘intervals’ behind us in favor of ‘reps’, meaning that our rest periods are much longer, we’re doing far fewer total runs and all speed days require spikes.

Athletes can now hit their times within a tenth or two in either direction and can generally tell you what their workouts should be (if you’ve taught them well) and by week 8 they aren’t complaining about feeling so ‘heavy’ all the time.

In meets, athletes are running more open 100s and 200s. The 4×4 is still part of their lives, generally at least 2/3 meets during this time.

Weeks 9-12 – Competition

True ‘fun track’ has arrived. The League Championship or first major meet is just a week or two away. Recovery days consist of extended warm up routines and a few strides. Non-CNS days are done in 45 minutes and people either take off right away or stay to socialize. Athletes are smiling in the warm weather and talking about where they’re going to be seeded for the upcoming championship meets. There’s a good chance there’s a few seeding sheets going around and people are talking about the PR’s they’ll run and how their relays will do.

Speed work is all full recovery and you generally let athletes run when they’re good and ready. Additionally, speed work is all various elements of race modeling:

1. The start and drive phase
2. floating the turn
3. the transition from the turn to the straight or sling shotting the turn
4. lifting over the last 50meters
5. even learning how to time the lean at the tape

We’re still in the weight room of course. Generally we’re in there until athletes start to peak. Some athletes prefer to keep lifting a couple sets early in the week of a major meet, others don’t.

At this point of the season, as the saying goes:

The hay is in the barn.

You’ve either prepared your 200 runners to get through the rounds and run a good relay leg or you haven’t. But there’s nothing you can really do about it now.

Meet events are all business and athletes are trying to prime themselves for a big PR at their biggest meet. So they’re running their post-season events now.

If you follow this general format for your season, the timing of your progressions should all come together at the right time. Of course, this is all dependent on your writing your athletes’ training plan starting from Week 12 and working backward to Day 1, Week 1.

You have to know where you want to go before you can figure out how you’re going to get there. But by teaching your athletes how to run the race the way I suggested and following this general outline, your 200 meter sprinters will run their Personal Best.