Hey, I’m looking to improve my speed in the 10m-200m or so.
I am not a sprinter and don’t train like one. I am currently using a traditional Westside split for bench along with their reccomendations on back and pulling movements. My knees have given me such a hard time that I can’t continuously go heavy on squats, plus my lower back has problems from time to time and so I don’t do Westside for my lower body. I do Squats, Power Cleans, Romanian Deadlifts, Hypers, etc, but not with the Westside split.
I’m 18 years old, 6’3, ~225 lbs, around 12%BF with long legs and probably a lot more mass in my legs than my upper body thanks to genetics. I should also note that while I’ve become pretty strong and explosive I am not a genetically gifted runner.
I usually do sprints twice a week (Monday and Friday) and the main purpose of them has been to reduce bodyfat, improve GPP and improve lung capacity/VO2Max up until now I guess. I also do a boxing workout for cardio once a week.
Without making more than 1 more cardio day and without restructuring my routine I want to continue to lose bodyfat, improve my speed and get in “better shape” on the cardio days. What kind of workouts should I be doing?
Also, I’ve never had a sprint coach before. How should someone with my build be running (obviously I’ll have no starting blocks)? How should warm-ups/stretching work?
Thanks.
you might want to switch to Joe kenn’s tier system. Basically it’s modified westside program specifically for athletes. He does a great job. Personally, I find it tough doing traditional westside template and doing speed work cramped in 7 days. It’s very taxing on your central nervous system. Another way is cut out DE leg days since sprinting is your “DE” legs workout anyway. Another way is doing traditional westside template using 10 days cycle (M-W-F-M) instead of 7 days. You could do true speed work on ME upper days. You also could do 2 or 3 days of tempo running on non lifting days working on your running mechanics. this way you can get in more recovery.
For best information, you can go over to charlie francis’s website and go to the forum and read all the stuff about 100/200 program. I have to warn you this moderator David isn’t a big fan of westside and will try to downplay it and recommend you do alot of OLY. I don’t always think highly of him. I guess it’s his know it all attitude that gets on my nerves. Anyway I learned a great deal about sprint training through charlie francis’s book called speed training system, something like that.
Tungsten
Its actually called Charlie Francis’ Training for Speed, and you can buy an e-book version really cheap on his website, he always has a very good opinion of the info. and has actually written for T-mag. Keep in mind this is the man that coached the first man who ran 9.79 sec 100 mts without wind!! (Ben Johnson)
CHeers
PS. I’m a sprinter and I’ve learnt a helluva lot from the site!! It’s gold
[quote]ahgchile wrote:
Its actually called Charlie Francis’ Training for Speed, and you can buy an e-book version really cheap on his website, he always has a very good opinion of the info. and has actually written for T-mag. Keep in mind this is the man that coached the first man who ran 9.79 sec 100 mts without wind!! (Ben Johnson)
CHeers
PS. I’m a sprinter and I’ve learnt a helluva lot from the site!! It’s gold
[/quote]
Lol. I must be thinking about the other book. Actually CF has 2 books with different title but same stuff. BJ was pretty strong! I weigh about the same as him but still i don’t have his strength! Wait a min, i did bench 330 at 175. Squatted 405 for 6 reps (full squat). Ah good old days…
I am not entirely sure whether your aim
is pure speed or speed endurance or indeed VO2 max to which you refer but which is another matter entirely.
As regards the structure of an individual sprint session the usual format is:
-
Warm up jog or easy skip walking for 5-8 minutes or until you break a light sweat.
-
Stretch- traditionally static but a more dynamic stretch is now recommended although plenty of sprinters at my local track still static stretch.
-
Strides- 5-6 progressively faster runs over 50-100m staying relaxed
-
Main work
-
Warm down
Your main work depends what you are trying to achieve. Pure speed will require max effort over short distances with complete rest to maintain quality whereas speed endurance will require longer sub max efforts.
Perhaps try:
- Pure speed: 6-8 efforts over distances varying from 50-100m
2.Speed endurance: 6 x 150m with walk back recovery, 6-8 x 200m with 200m walk recovery, 5-6 x 300m with 2-3 minutes recovery or any combination. All run hard but not at max speed.
tungsten- where can i find Joe Kenn’s tier system?
Also, peterm, are those 2 (the pure speed and speed endurance) done on the same day?
They are separate workouts to be conducted on two different days to preserve the structure that the original post wanted.
You could do some pure speed work
followed by a limited amount of speed endurance work/anaerobic conditioning
especially if only working out twice a week on the track. Otherwise I would
separate them.
For variety consider adding in some hill sprints every 3rd or 4th session.
Under the CFS system you would do 2-3 high intensity days and 2-3 lower intensity tempo run days. Lifting is carried out on the same day as the high intensity sprinting.
Joe Kenn has published a book on his system although there is a limited amount of info I have come across on the net.
so what would be the better choice? Doing both types of running on the same day, twice a week on days separate from lifting? or would it be best to do only one type of sprinting 4 days a week, after lifting?
For info on Kenn’s program check out coach H’s training logs at elitefts. He has last years in season listed, and the first three weeks of this offseason program listed. I like Kenn’s tier system. You train 3x/week. You can do your speed work 3x/week on the lifting days and tempo/GPP work on the in between days. If you have any questions ask coach h at elitefts, he responds quickly and thoroughly
[quote]squattin600 wrote:
For info on Kenn’s program check out coach H’s training logs at elitefts. He has last years in season listed, and the first three weeks of this offseason program listed. I like Kenn’s tier system. You train 3x/week. You can do your speed work 3x/week on the lifting days and tempo/GPP work on the in between days. If you have any questions ask coach h at elitefts, he responds quickly and thoroughly[/quote]
I don’t think Kenn does 3 days of speed. I know that he does conduct speed work on monday and friday before weights but on wednesday it is ME Lower so you don’t need to do it. It’s tough trying to teach someone the oly lifts. I asked this HS soccer senior kid this morning if he know how to do PC and he said yes but it turns out his form was very horrible so it looks like we’re gonna start from stratch, take baby steps (apparently a lot of them) before doing full PC. It’s easier to teach box squat, that’s for sure.
For kenn’s book, you can get it at elitefs. It might be confusing at first but reading the whole book few times, it’ll begin to make sense. At elitefs Q&A, do a search for it FIRST to read his reponses to the questions already asked before you ask. He’s busy enough as it is.
Tungsten, CSCS
I guess that it depends on what you are trying to achieve. The original post seemed to want a multi purpose workout covering speed, fat loss, endurance etc. but retaining a twice a week format.
I think that either approach could work depending on what else you are doing during the week and what your needs are. If there is a specific need in your sport or your particular case for enhanced anaerobic endurance and you are training x 2 a week then you may well have to look at hybrid sessions including speed first followed by speed endurance so that you are working each attribute twice a week.
I am not sure what you have in mind regarding the four sprint sessions but do remember that under the CFTS there are only 2-3 high intensity sessions a week and that weights FOLLOW the track sessions.
One final point. I did not mention drills in my original post. They are normally a feature of a track sprinters workout but I did not think them relevant in the context of the original question.