Hi Star61, good call. I probably should have mentioned that for the last four to five years I haven’t been training in any strenuous activity for a continued period. I am the least fit on my team, which does include a big burly goalkeeper. I started training for soccer last July and have been training three times a week since then; so, I thought that fitness wouldn’t be an issue. It would explain a lot.
Can you recommend a GPP program?
There are many, many versions posted on this forum.
Basically, when you are really unfit anything will work. But I will give you a few starting points to keep in mind. Of course much has to do with how many days you can train. Also, if you are practicing/playing soccer within any regularity, you should be getting a lot of work in there. I’m amazed that someone your age, height and weight who has been playing soccer for nine months can’t run a 20 second 100m…no offense intended. Just to make sure, after a really good warmup, run a 100m and get a time, even if you have to time yourself. You may be making a mistake in calculating your top speed. Anyway, here are some things you might do if this is a real priority.
WeightsLift at least three, and better yet four days per week. Building strength will help a lot. Two upper body days and two lower body days. If you lack time, drop a lower body day as you will be doing a lot of running. If you can only train two days, consider circuit training (a real compromise in my opinion) and do a total body workout twice per week.
Extensive TempoI would try to perform extensive tempo, running at about 70% of Max V, two to three times per week. Your overall fitness may be so low that you can’t train hard enough to make much improvement. If you are playing soccer, and actually running and not standing and watching, a good soccer match could count as one day. Another great workout is to find a shallow, not very steep, 200-300m hill and run up it at a very fast jog. Walk back and initially take a good rest, but eventually follow the fast jog with a walkback and let rest be just the walk back. Anywhere from 2-4 reps depending on how hard you run.
Acceleration TrainingAgain, if you find a shallow hill, use it to run 200-400m worth of 20-30m hard accelerations. This will also really help your fitness and help build strength in your posterior chain.
This plan is very simplistic, but at your age/height/weight its really as good as anything unti you can run something closer to a 14 or 15 second 100m.