Elitetrack: Sport Training & Conditioning

I’m a 5’5 135lb sprinter. This is my GPP. It will last around 10 weeks. I’m going to be doing the 55m, 55mh, and 4x200 this coming indoor season. I’m going to do the 400mh in outdoor so I need to get my conditioning up. This will also help my role in the 4x200. If anyone has any suggestions or questions PLEASE post. I’m new to all this.

My weekly setup:
Day 1 - Hurdle Start, ME Lower
Day 2 - Extensive Tempo, ME Upper
Day 3 - Rest
Day 4 - Hurdle Start, Intensive Tempo DE Lower
Day 5 - Extensive Tempo DE/RE Upper
Day 6 - Hurdle Start
Day 7 - Rest

I’m only going to be doing intensive tempo once a week on day 4.
day 4 80-90% 2’ rest between reps and 4’ between sets.

I will add 200m more volume into every extensive tempo workout.
30 second rest between runs 1 minute between sets.

6/30
Was going to the track but it rained hard on me.
Weight room:
ME Lower from 6/27...still sore.
Box Squat 5rm PR 2nd time box squatting.
95x5
115x5
145x5
165x5
185x5 (10lb pr)
Split Squat 2(35)x6x4
45 Degree Back raises 45x10x3
Unfortunately basically no training done on 6/30.

7/1
AMTrying to make up a little bit of 6/30 sprint workout.
Done with spikes:
4x40m pushup starts
2x13.72 3point stance. Perfecting my 8 steps to the first hurdle. I need to be able to sprint at it if I want to 3 step.
1000m Extensive Tempo
Barefoot on grass
100+100+100/100+200+100/100+100+100
PM
ME Upper
~5rm Dumbbell Bench 45x4, 45x7
+Straight bar low row 100x8, 120x8x3
+Rear delt fly db 12.5x8x4
Shrugs db 40x15x2, 45x15x1 (Someone had to take my 40lb dumbbell!)
Preacher machine curl 25x15x3

7/2
Rest
I’ve recently bought a foam roller and I am using it every available moment.
I’m actually really sore in my hamstrings and sore in my calf.
Upper body is only a tiny bit sore from yesterday.

How old are you?  How long have you been hurdling?  You mention 13.72 M to the first hurdle, so I take it you are male.  No offense, but at 5’5” are you really able to deal with 36” and 39” hurdles (assuming you are in high school)?  Pardon my ignorance, but what do ME, DE and RE signify?

Sorry.
16 and Male.
I am able to deal with the hurdle heights but not really effectively as the coach really didn’t do anything about it during the season. We practiced at regular heights and spacing all the time. I was 5 stepping and the times I got were terrible. So I dropped hurdling in the middle of the season and ran the 100m. After 3 times running the 100m, my pr was a 12.3. Not good but it was only my 3rd race.
Basically this summer I’m taking the advice from this thread and finally get good at those hurdles!
http://www.elitetrack.com/forums/viewthread/6601/
Maximum Effort, Dynamic Effort, and Repetition Effort.
I’m following the westside for skinny bastards 3 program by Joe Defranco.

All the advice on the thread you referenced is good.  Do not be afraid or embarrassed to move the hurdle spacing or heights.  You must get them to where you can feel the correct rhythm.  I am currently working with a 5’5” 16-year-old hurdler, but a female one.  She has run intermediates for two seasons and is now starting on 100H.  We are mostly working 3 steps with the hurdles moved in almost a meter for now.  Also one-stepping with hurdles at 4.25 meters (i.e. an additional hurdle halfway between the regular hurdles).  Although we have the 3-step hurdles moved in a lot, I believe we can get to real 3-stepping in Spring.  My hurdle “guru” Steve McGill (see below) opines that 16.0 (girls) is about the limit for 4-stepping.  My girl and I have decided that 16.0 is not a goal worth training for, so it will be 3 steps or nothing.  Your situation may be different.  Quite the opposite of you, we are working entirely on technique and rhythm, not strength or conditioning, this summer.  I find that there is just no way to get the necessary technique work done during the school track season, which in our case is 12 weeks. 

Steve McGill’s very useful website is hurdlesfirst.com.  A wealth of info, ideas and inspiration.

hurdlesfirst is a great site. Once I get to the 1st hurdle effectively, I’ll add more hurdles in. They’ll definitely be moved in and lowered. I’ll try to master the 1 step drill as well. Once I get a video camera, I’ll ask my friend to film my hurdling for critique. The three major articles on hurdlesfirst that is helping me the most are Checklist of Hurdling Necessities, No coach no problem, and From the Starting blocks.

7/3
Intensive tempo
5x150 2 minute rest in between.
I was going for 8x150 but my left hamstring felt like it’s going to explode. It is very sore. Last night sucked, couldn’t fall asleep. finally asleep at 2.30, woke up at 5.30 then went back to sleep and slept til 9.30.

7/7
12:00
Many, many, many starts over the 1st hurdle started from 30”. 3 pt stance.
8 steps. Each time I raised the height I cleared it with my lead leg to make sure I’m good over the hurdle.
I probably did 10-15 starts before moving on to the 36s…
36” bad things started happening.
Stuttering..clear sign I’m afraid of the hurdle…
Last 3 steps before 1st hurdle are overstriding....
The occasional heel strike on the 8th step.
Significant pause on the top of the hurdle..
etc, etc, etc
Extremely long layoff (3-4 months) from hurdling when I wasn’t even good to begin with = bad.
Maybe it was just way too many reps. Maybe I was just tired towards the end.
Although it’s frustrating...I will continue persevering

Open sprints:
4x20 push up position..These felt great. I love the push off angle that this position enables me to do.
3x30 3 point stance.

7:00PM
Heavy Box squat Singles
95x3
115x3
135x2
165x1
185x1
200x1 PR
200x1 PR
200x1 PR
These squat singles were fast and with decent speed so I am happy about that.
Abdominal Circuit:
Sprinter Situp x 20
V-ups x 20
Toe Touches x 20
Hip thrusts x 20
Repeat once more.

After repeating the circuit.. 
Abdominal Plank
60 seconds

Extensive tempo for tomorrow and wednesday!
I’m adding ext tempo for day 3 instead of just resting and day 6 the ext will go after the low volume hurdle work..

AM
1200m Extensive Tempo
100+100+100/
100+200+200+100/
100+100+100

I add volume every extensive tempo day.
Today was one more rep and 200m more than the last ext tempo workout.

PM
Light DE Upper
Felt weak, probably because of yesterday.
Push Press 45x5, 55x5, 55x5, 60x5, 70x5 Fire up the CNS

DE Effort Bench 55x4x3 +
Clapping Push ups 3x4 +

Incline Bench 30lb dumbbells x 10 x 3+
Chin ups 3x6 +

Incline Rear delt fly 2x10

+ means superset.

I’m weaker in the upper body compared to my lower body but they are both pretty weak over all.

Intensive Tempo
2 x (3x200)
Me and my training partner both puked..

Is throwing up bad?

edit: forgot to mention...3 minutes between reps and 6 minutes between sets

I don’t know that puking is good or bad.  I’ve had athletes who never did and a few that puked after (or during) every tough workout.  And what you did was a tough workout.  I would say don’t worry.

thanks ex400. It’s always encouraging to have someone read and respond to this thread.

7/15

Total = 300m
4x20 pushup stance
3x30 3 pt
2x40 3 pt
1x50 3 pt
I couldn’t fit in any hurdle work unfortunately. Moved it to tomorrow before the extensive tempo.

7/16

-Hurdle Drills
-Starts over the first hurdle. The first 8 steps were much more aggressive today compared to the last hurdle session. Steve McGill on his website said that 6-6.5 feet was the recommended take off for the 39” hurdles. I worked on the 36” hurdles but taking off in that zone. I know I was taking off in that zone because I brought some chalk and colored the track for takeoff. I could feel that I’m not using my arms aggressively enough..and that’s probably why I landed a little off balance. I needed to kinda twist my hips to get back sprinting again. Also, I had a pretty bad shin catch and it’s probably because my arms weren’t moving fast enough.
This session was good but I was sore from yesterday’s workout. So this means that there are better sessions to come. 
- 1600m Extensive Tempo
100+100+100
100+200+100+100
100+200+100+100
100+100+100
Barefoot on grass

I think 7/15 looks good.  Be careful of the pushup starts because they may not put you in the correct positions for good acceleration mechanics.

tkaberna - 16 July 2008 04:04 PM

I think 7/15 looks good.  Be careful of the pushup starts because they may not put you in the correct positions for good acceleration mechanics.

Why is that?
I used push up starts because that’s what my coaches did for the acceleration workouts.
Also Charlie Francis uses them. He says the farther forward you are in your acceleration, the harder you have to pump the arms to save yourself.
Here’s where I got it from:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=UoCZ-bOwhgw

4x(20m, 1H)
2x(30m, 1H)
1x30m
2x40m
1X50m

I tried combining both hurdle work and open sprint work on the same day. It didn’t work that well. 1 hurdle start was exceptional,everything felt like where it should be. 2 were okay, and 3 weren’t good. That’s why I stopped doing the 1st hurdle with the 30meters and beyond.
The open sprint runs felt pretty damn good today though which is a plus.

I’m changing up my weekly setup so I can have two speed sessions a week (1 hurdle, 1 open).
I think 2 intensive tempo days will do wonders to build my work capacity and conditioning. This will be a good base for me to do my speed endurance/special endurance runs in the future.

Day 1- 1st hurdle
Day 2 - int tempo
Day 3 - ext tempo
Day 4 - accelerations
Day 5 - ext tempo
Day 6 - int tempo
Day 7 - rest

7/21
intensive tempo
2x(3x200)
Same workout as last time, but didn’t puke. Awesome.

7/22
absolutely pouring rain..
30 minutes bike

Sprints
4x20
4x30
3x40
2x50
It’s either I’m getting faster or my training partner is getting slower because I’m beating him more often on reps now. I’m gonna have to say I’m getting faster. Also, I wish I had blocks to use instead of just 3pt stances but they’re too damn expensive. Probably too heavy too since I ride my bike to the track, gym etc.

45 minutes later…

Box Squats
3RM
95x3
135x3
155x3
175x3
195x2 Almost failed the 2nd rep so I racked it. I had to go at it again. I’ve never failed a box or back squat before without coming back and crushing it.
195x3
205x3 PR
I’m not going to lie, but squats reps were going up slow today. Probably because of the track session so close to the weightlifting workout. Also, I found that getting really focused, clapping, swearing, grunting can really help your lifts. I started doing that after I almost failed the 195.

Gym closed on us early but what a day. I wished I had more rest between the track session and the weight room session but I can’t dictate the gym hours and I had to go to church.

how do you guys train when you go on vacation?
I know for the gym, you just buy a day pass.
How about the track? Do you just go to the nearest college or high school?
I’m going to NYC and D.C.