Sprinters need to maintain a high level of speed all year. Over the past few years, I have found that the best way to develop sprinters is to do a double-periodized year. This is because they can then be trained with high levels of speed all year & work on every area of development more effectively for a higher percentage of the year. What follows is the outline of a yearly plan:
Yearly Plan – 44 weeks
Conditioning Phase A 8 weeks Every 4th week is a recovery week
Weight training initially targets hypertrophy & general conditioning. It is usually performed 3 times per week. Interestingly, when athletes lift in sets of 8-10, they stay much fresher in their nervous system than later in the year when they lift more intensely with sets of 3-4. This means that during the conditioning phase, it is much easier to perform quality running without it being affected by flatness from the weight training sessions. Late in the phase, sets should decrease from 3 sets of 10 to 3 sets of 8. Athletes should lift upward fast & down slowly; they should not lift to the same tempo as a bodybuilder even though the aim of this phase is to attain some muscular hypertrophy.
In this phase, Plyometrics should aim to develop power with the longer contact varieties. Standing start bounding, e.g. 4 alternate leg bounds & a jump into a sandpit, can be performed. Standing long jumps & standing triple jumps can also be performed.
Hill training can be performed over distances of 60-100m, and some can involve alternate leg bounding. e.g. run 60m bound 20m.
Athletes should perform two relaxed tempo sessions on grass per week & a total between 1200m-2200m in each session. It is essential to keep tempo sessions slow so that they do not affect the quality of training the next day. This means running 100m reps, not within 4s of maximum effort. A good tempo session may be like four sets of 6 x 60m with a set of pushups & crunches before each rep. Athletes can rest after each run for 30 to 60 seconds, then start the exercises & have 5min between sets. These sessions build good general conditioning & are a much better alternative for sprinters than jogging for 20 minutes.
Speed development sessions initially focus on improving performance over 30m from a 3-point start. Often, what happens is the athletes will find that improvements in strength, bounding & 30m times will occur concurrently throughout the phase.
Strength Phase A 6 weeks.
During this phase, weight training changes to smaller sets, e.g. 3-5 sets of 3-6 reps, to target maximum strength development. This move can easily negatively affect the running quality, which can be performed the next day. It is ideal to do fast track sessions in the morning & then weight training straight afterwards or later on in the same day. In this way, it is easier to balance the recovery in the week and maintain quality in faster track sessions. Weights should be continued 3 times a week.
Maximum speed work should be expanded to include the 30m runs longer distances of 40m, 50m & 60m. It is best to shift emphasis to 40m, then to 50m, then to 60m. In the second period, the emphasis can start longer & be built up to include some 80m sprints. It is also a good idea to do some flying start runs of 15m to 30m or in & outs over longer distances. Speed sessions can be performed twice a week. Aiming to do only as many sprints as you can accomplish with quality while at maximum effort is essential. Ensure the athlete can back up from the session to the next one & still perform good quality—time everything. If the athlete or coach finds that they can’t back up for the next session, do fewer reps, do the runs sub-maximally or do fewer weights. Balancing this area is a key problem when coaching sprinters.
Plyometrics should progress toward varieties that have shorter duration ground contacts. A good way to do this is by performing running start bounding. e.g. 10m running start, then four alternate leg bounds & a jump into a pit. They should continue to do longer contact bounding as well. Plyometrics should be done once a week. Measure the distances and monitor improvement. It should happen.
Hill training can be continued by decreasing to once every 2 weeks. The hill session should have a lower volume of shorter hills with some bounding, e.g., 2 x 3 x 40m hills with a run of 20m and then bound 20m. These can be done like a tempo session with exercises in between sets. At this stage, it is also a good idea to start getting used to some speed endurance on the track by doing just two fast, relaxed 150m reps on the track after the hill session. This will make transitioning to more work on the flat easier in the next phase.
Athletes should continue performing two simple tempo sessions on grass per week & a total between 1200m-2200m in each session.
Power Phase A 4 weeks
Weight Training 2-3 times a week moves toward a power focus. A small volume of strength lifts are maintained. One gym session a week is aimed at developing power with exercises such as:
- stiff-legged bounces with a lightweight e.g. 20kg
- jump up onto a box with less than 30% of 1RM half squat.
- Stomping step-ups with less than 30% of 1RM half squat.
- power cleans
These are often done in a circuit-type situation with some heavy ¼ squats included for a contrast effect.
Plyometrics should progress toward even quicker ground contacts. This is done with the performance of alternate leg speed bounding. These are done with a 10m running start, and the aim is to get as much power into the track as quickly as possible, e.g. taking the minimum number of strides to go 30m but also in a minimum time. The athlete needs to aim to strike the ground well underneath the body.
Hill training is replaced with small volume speed endurance sessions, e.g. 150m rest 8min 150min rest 8min 150m rest 2min 150m.
Maximum speed sessions should be expanded to include sprints of up to 60m. They can also include over-speed using a strong tailwind or an assistance system. These should be performed in small volumes that the athlete is used to using.
Athletes should continue performing two simple tempo sessions on grass per week & a total between 1200m-2200m in each session.
Competition Phase A 3 weeks
Weight training sessions can be performed once a week with a minimal amount of complex lifts to maintain strength, e.g. power cleans, as well as ¼ squats to maintain strength.
Plyometrics are stopped to enhance the athlete’s nervous system freshness.
Maximum speed sessions are performed of the same variety as the power phase, but the emphasis needs to be on racing. The 72 hours before the race, you need to be free of anything that could affect the nervous system on the day of the race. This means almost no intense high cadence training, plyometrics or heavy lifting.
Tempo sessions are once to twice a week, with 800m-1600 m each.
Conditioning Phase B 6 weeks
Like Conditioning A, the athlete should enter this phase at higher speeds. They should do the smaller volume hill session from the strength phase, e.g., e.g. 2 x 3 x 40m hills with a run of 20m, then bound 20m with full recoveries and exercises between sets.
Maximum Speed Development can be of a greater variety between distances of 20m & 60m. But most work should stay at 40m.
Plyometrics should be of the long contact variety and can be combined in a session with block starts.
Some alactic capacity speed sessions should be performed using larger numbers of short repetitions, e.g. 3 x 4 x 60m, at less than 95% effort with 2min between reps and 10min between sets.
Strength Phase B 6 weeks
Similar to Strength A. The athlete should aim to become even stronger in this phase.
Hills should be replaced in this phase with speed endurance sessions that initially have longer repetitions, e.g., 2 x 300m, but progress toward shorter repetitions of 100-150m.
Maximum speed development should stay the same as in Conditioning B.
Plyometrics should progress toward quicker contacts.
Some alactic capacity speed sessions should involve more significant numbers of short repetitions, e.g. 3 x 4 x 60m, at less than 95% effort with 2min between reps and 10min between sets.
Power Phase B 8 weeks
Similar to Power A
Plyometrics is speed bounds & some higher intensity plyometrics in low volumes, e.g. over hurdle bounces, e.g. in my squad, an athlete did 6 x 2 plyo-hurdles at heights up to 107cm.
Maximum speed work should increase in distance & could re-introduce over-speed.
It is crucial to do block starts & reaction time practice during this period.
Speed Endurance should focus on progressively shorter repetitions down to sessions like two sets of 2-3 sets of flying start 60m-80m runs with rests between 3min and 20min between sets.
Some competition but not so frequent that the training plan is disrupted.
Competition Phase B 8 weeks
Mental & physical freshness for races is the highest priority.
The gym should focus on strength maintenance once a week, with a small range of complex lifts.
Speed sessions should focus on technical aspects, or extra speed may be chased using over-speed methods, but this is not a good time of year to sustain an injury.
Appropriate amounts of racing should enhance speed endurance.
Tempo sessions of 800m-1600m should be continued once to twice a week.
Recovery Phase up to 8 weeks
Summary
The aim is to perform the following simultaneously as the competition phase approaches during each half of the year:
- Decreasing contact times of plyometric activities.
- Decreasing the total volume of weights & aim finally for improvement in power.
- Extending the distance of sprints from blocks.
- Decreasing the distance of speed endurance.
- Reduce the volume of relaxed tempo sessions.
- Decreasing the total volume of all training for major races
- introducing some over-speed when appropriate late in the preparation. It can launch the athlete to a new level. They need to be used to it, though.
- Build confidence & mental preparedness for racing with block starts, reaction drills, etc.
