here’s my plan:
before i begin running, i ‘m going to do some XC biking. Do u think it will help me on my performance in the 400m. Biking uphills works a lot on your quads and that is my really weak muscle right now. ADvice would be great. Thank u
Posted In: Sprints
To be honest with you, I don’t think it will help THAT much. Yes, it will strengthen quads which should translate to a “stronger” stride (aka….maintaining it longer), but the work in the glute/ham/ab area is minimal and those are the real areas that need to be addressed. Do it, but don’t get addicted.
If you’re going to bike, I’d use it more for the off-season than the pre-season. As 400stud said, I wouldn’t use it too much but in moderation it could be an alternative to running workouts. Also, are you sure that your quads are underdeveloped? This is very rarely ever a problem in runners.
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[i]Originally posted by mike[/i]
If you’re going to bike, I’d use it more for the off-season than the pre-season. As 400stud said, I wouldn’t use it too much but in moderation it could be an alternative to running workouts. Also, are you sure that your quads are underdeveloped? This is very rarely ever a problem in runners.
I’m not sure the term “underdeveloped” defines it but it is pretty weak since it is always the first muscle that wears out when i run. As for what 400stud had said, biking is not the only thing i’m doing. I also lift weights etc. but i don’t run. Which is why i’m wondering if biking will impede in my running capability. It’s… august right now and track season starts at around february. What i am planning to do is focus more on running at around.. november and not bike anymore, i am hoping that biking will also work on the endurance that i need.
Also, a little off topic here but has anyone ever tried the parachute resistance running? I had a friend, high school sophmore who has a PR of 11.5 in the 100 and after a couple of weeks of training with it, he knocked .3 sec off his PR. He is now telling me that by the time track season starts, he can run sub 11s . do u think thats possible?
ALSO, i have seen some of you guy’s name on the forum at charliefrancis.com and i was just wondering if someone can help me with this because i registered for an account but they never send me an activation key, yet i can log in on my acc but i cant create any thread nor post replies. SOS!
Thank you
be patient with charlie francis, it took me a week or so to get registered. you could also try a lot of gs stuff and weight work to work on your quads. front squats and narrow stance back squats are great. most kinds of bodyweight leg work will target your quads a lot. dont know anything about parachutes, i think fabio used them a bit and he dropped a second in the 100 in a year. BUT dont think theyre solely responsible for anything.
Please keep replies on topic (i.e. 400m pre-season training). If you have a problem with registering at the CF board, I’d start by contacting Rupert the CF website administrator. He will be able to help you out far more than anyone here.
ELITETRACK Founder
Is there any reason you’re not running at all?
As for parachutes, I’ve used them in the past for resisted runs and while I do like them, the fact that the resistance is variable due to wind conditions makes it a worse option than towing. That is, the magnitude of resistance can vary widely depending on if the wind is blowing very hard or not at all. Of even greater concern is the direction the wind is blowing and sudden changes in the direction of the wind which can completely throw an athlete out of their normal stride patterns (and potentially result in injury at top speed).
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How about some hills? If you can find a long hill about 200m that would be PERFECT I do a 150m hill about 10-12 times as a hill workout which is good during base training
[i]Originally posted by QuarterMiler[/i]
How about some hills? If you can find a long hill about 200m that would be PERFECT I do a 150m hill about 10-12 times as a hill workout which is good during base training
Sounds good to me but the length of those reps seems to be a little long, especially if the hill is quite steep.
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There’s a hill near my house that i use to run on, i’d say its about ..40-45 degrees, i use to run all the way up the hill, about 400yd, maybe a lil less but somewhere there. I run all the way up as my workout, and that’s it. Should i just do what you said and run 200yd instead, but do it a couple of times?
How long and how hard you run each rep will really depend on what you are trying to accomplish. I can tell you for cetain though that if you’re running 400m hill runs on a 45 degree hill you won’t be developing speed of any kind. Even 200m runs on a hill like that would be fitness or lactate work than speed work.
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If you keep the distance to less than 30m it would be ok (but not great due to the extreme steepness) for acceleration development. It wouldn’t really work though to develop top end speed. If you run beyond 30m it could be thought of as some type of tempo work.
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i doubt it. the hill is going to take too much out of you to do any speed whatsoever. if you want to use hills for speed, follow mikes advice, do them 10-30m.
[i]Originally posted by onk[/i]
What if i run the whole thing, by fartlicking? Do i get any benefits from that
In my best Butthead voice: “Fartlicking….huh-huh……..he said, FART-LICKING…..huh-huh.”
You’d get benefits out of it but it wouldn’t be seen in increased speed. You’d certainly increase your fitness but there are probably better ways than to do fartlek up a 45 degree hill.
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ok, so i was biking around the neighborhood looking for another hill to run on and i found one, this is is about 20 degrees..i think, somewhere in that range. So i believe it is more suitable to run here than on the other 1. About how many yards should i run to get a good workout from it if im going at like a 60-70% speed
Some random stream of consciousness thoughts
Another alternative would be to find a decent trail or field to train on. I would recommend that to a track in the offseason anyways.
What about some type of circuit training also?
Yet another suggestion is to play some full court basketball. Be sure to warm up properly and get some good court shoes.
Whatever you do, don’t neglect lifting and flexibility
I do play basketball, and there is a track near it, but i just thought that maybe i don’t always have to run on the track. Anyways i came across this :
https://www.nacactfca.org/articles/Hart-eng.htm
i was thinking maybe i will follow that plan, maybe have a little slight variations so it suits me. check it out.
I’m not sure if you’re still interested in this option but the 20 degree hill you mentioned would be perfect for some acceleration development work. A typical acceleration development workout would be running all out for 10-30m with about 2-3 minutes rest between reps.
If you wanted to only run 60-70% as you said, then you’d need to run much longer to get any real benefit out of it and even then I don’t know if the benefits would be very specific to 400m running.
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