I follow a more eastern block and/or Charlie Francis style of periodization.  Which, in sprint42.com language, means that I train both Anaerobic Speed and Anaerobic Fatigue concurrently.

My basic weekly microcycle is made up of Anaerobic Speed on Mon and Thurs and Anaerobic Fatigue on Tues and Fri.  On top of that, I alternate my weekly volume so that one week is focused towards speed and the next towards fatigue.  Here is an example four-week block of my “running” workout: Continue reading →

In my last post, I ranted about posted/printed workouts missing key information (usually intensity and often rest) and the need for a  standard for describing sprint training (and proposed one).  I have since learned there is already an IAAF standard syntax that covers 90% of what I was looking for.  Since I’m someone who learns best by examples, I thought I’d print a handful of common workouts to get your juices flowing.

Here’s the IAAF format with two additions: “Classification” at the beginning to include any general information the athlete may require and “Modifier” for clarifying any additional information about the distance, e.g. “b” for blocks, “f” for flying, “c” for crouching…  Here’s a link to the IAAF standard.

Classification – Sets x repetitions x distance<modifier> (intensity/pace) [recovery between reps, recovery between sets]  

In general, I don’t like using time for my intensity — the first example in the IAAF document does exactly this: 10 x 400 (72”) [2’].  I think this is a mistake.   Continue reading →

I read a lot of coach’s workouts online and in books and it absolutely drives me crazy when the sprint workouts are vague.  I continually have to make assumptions on what the workout means by filling in information like rest and intensity.  Honestly, in a standard sprint workout, there are very few variable.  In general, these variables are sets, reps, distance, rest, intensity.  Sure, there are non-standard workouts (e.g. change intensity mid-run, run for a specified time instead of distance, use a heart rate monitor instead of specific rest time…), but 9 out of 10 workouts fall into the “standard” category.  And thus, we should be able to create a basic vernacular for describing these workouts.

Just today I read an overview of some training for the young start sprinter Adam Gemili (http://speedendurance.com/2012/11/15/adam-gemili-sprint-training-workouts/).  The first sprint workout just says — Track work: 4x350m.

What does that mean?  Without intensity and rest, this workout could be classified (using UKA-Michael_Khmel&Tony_Lester_CLASSIFYING_SPRINT_TRAINING_METHODS) as Specific Endurance, Special Endurance, Intensive Tempos, or Extensive Tempos.  All of these classification have very different goals.  The reason I read other coaches workouts is to try to find nuggets of information that I may be able to apply to my own training.  Forcing me to assume aspects of their training obfuscate the true meaning and leads to potentially massive misinformation. Continue reading →

This post is a Do-It-Yourself Anaerobic Speed Reserve (ASR) spreadsheet tutorial.  If you don’t know what the ASR curve is, then please see my posts I take it back…Weyand was right and Bolt can run 42.80 and Dr. Peter Wayand’s study High-speed running performance: a new approach to assessment and prediction.

I’m not the best Excel guy, so I’m sure my approach can be greatly improved.  But, my spreadsheet works and it doesn’t use any tricky Macros, so I think it will be very useful to you.

Now, a quick tutorial on the ASR equation before getting into Excel DIY.  The basic ASR equation is as follows:

You won’t find this exact equation in Weyand paper.  I’ve done some basic variable replacements to make it, in my mind, easier to read.  The closest version of my derivitative can be found on page 8 (1961), equation 7.

The equation states that the maintainable maximum speed for a specified time (Spd(t)) of an athlete is equal to that athlete’s maintainable Aerobic Speed (Spd_aer) plus that athlete’s exponentially decayed Anaerobic Speed Reserve (Spd_asr).  I know, that’s a huge mouthful.  Feel free to completely forget it!

The import thing to note is that an athlete’s Spd_aer and Spd_asr are unchanging from one sprint to the next. Continue reading →

In a previous post, I doubted that Barry Ross’ training methodology was adequate for the 400m runner.  My reasoning was that only training at distances of less than 70m did not tax the longer anaerobic metabolisms (Lactate/H+).  Since then, I’ve had an epiphany about why this training would work for the High School athlete and I’ve written about Weyand’s study on anaerobic metabolism and how terms like “Lactate Tolerance” may not be correct (thus I’ve begun to use the terms Anaerobic Speed training, Anaerobic Fatigue training, and Aerobic Fatigue training).  So a revisit was in order.

While I still believe that you couldn’t successfully train a world class or even collegiate athlete by only sprinting repeats of 70m or less, I do believe that it has a lot of merit at the high school level for athletes who only train during the track season(s). Continue reading →

Peter Weyand and Matthew Bundle recently published their research paper entitled “Sprint Exercise Performance: Does Metabolic Power Matter?” which calls into question how we look at sprinting metabolism.  Their conclusions immediately make a lot of sprinting books, articles and websites out-of-date.

So what exactly does “Does Metabolic Power Matter?” mean?  Well, first it means  all those charts and descriptions that describe how your body “fuels” the sprints are wrong.  Here’s a few links that need updating:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_systems

http://www.athletesacceleration.com/sprinttrainingenergysystems.html

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/sprint-vs-marathon-energy-demands.htm

http://www.brianmac.co.uk/energy.htm

and the list goes on and on…

All of these articles are based on the old theory that the body’s ability to maintain sprinting velocity is controlled by anaerobic fuel limitations.  And that old theory is dead wrong. Continue reading →