Full Winter Sprint Program (Sept 2023)

[Fraser_9to5]

COMP 4

9 Feb

Drills – A walk, A March, A Skip, A Switch 2 x 20m
Dribble Ankle, Calf, Knee, SL scissor w runout 2 x 20m
2 x 40m Technical Runs
Track Tempo – 111,21312,111
100m in 16.8, 200m in 35.9, 300m in 54.7
A1 Pull ups – 7,7
A2 L-Sit – 15,15 secs
A3 Dips – 10,10
Mobility A

Drills (320m), Tempo (1580m), Circuit (34 reps), Core (2 sets), Mobility (9 sets)

Feeling so fresh, reflected in the times which were ~0.5 seconds faster per 100m.

10 Feb

Broad Jumps – 4, best of 246cm
Pogo Box Taps – 3 x 8
MB Throws – 2 x 3
Blocks – 20,30,40,50m in 3.15,4.22,5.45,6.50 freelap
70,80,90m in 8.80,9.82,11.00 freelap
Back Squat – 2,1 x 132.5kg
Bench Press – 2 x 2 x 105kg
B1 Sprinter sit ups – 1 x 8 x 20kg
B2 Bear dog w arm raise – 1 x 10
B3 Leg lowers – 1 x 15
Mobility B

Jumps (28), Throws (6), Accels (200m), Max Velocity (180m), Lower Body (397.5kg), Upper Body (420kg), Mobility (6 sets), Core (3 sets)

Wet track, 9 degrees, no wind. I will take any weather as long as there isn’t wind! Another strong session to back up the session 3 days ago. I had some new spikes which I tried out for some of the runs and felt decent. Lapse in concentration meant I failed my 2nd rep at 132.5kg in the squat. Still pleased with it all.

11 Feb

Mobility C
Drills – A Walk, A March, A Skip, A Switch 2 x 20m
Dribble Ankle, Calf, Knee, SL scissor w runout 2 x 20m
2 x 40m Technical Runs
Tempo – 2 x 6 x 100m in ~16.7
A1 Pull ups – 7,7
A2 L-Sit – 15,15 secs
A3 Dips – 10,10

Drills (320m), Tempo (1280m), Circuit (34 reps), Mobility (8 sets), Core (2 sets)

Cruising to sub 17’s and having to hold back a little to avoid running too fast on some runs.

12 Feb

Box Jumps – 3 x 3
MB Throws – 4 x 3 x 4kg
3 x 40m in 5.35 freelap
2 x 70m, 2 x 80m in 8.57, 8.70, 9.65,9.78 freelap
Back Squats – 2 x 2 x 132.5kg
Bench Press – 2 x 2 x 105kg
A1 Sprinter Sit Ups – 1 x 8 x 20kg
A2 Stir The Pot – 1 x 30 secs
A3 Bird Dogs – 1 x 10
Mobility D

Jumps (9), Throws (12), Accels (210m), Max Velocity (210m), Lower Body Weights (530kg), Upper Body (420kg), Mobility (4 sets), Core (3 sets)

Wet track, 9 degrees, +4 m/s tailwind. Wind was a big help today but I did feel fast too. Passing through 60m in 7.60ish again Freelap timing. Everything’s coming together nicely.

13 Feb

Mobility E

Mobility (7 sets)

14 Feb

Rowing Erg – 5km in 25 mins, 120 drag factor 22-23 strokes/min
Mobility F

Mobility (4 sets)

I’m ill so I tried “zone 2 cardio” instead of my usual session. Heart rate was too high but this was only a tester. I think knocking the drag factor down to 115 and not being ill would be enough to get me in the right zone. This was ~10 mins in zone 2, ~15 mins in zone 3.

15 Feb

Mobility G

Mobility (6 sets)

It’s only when I stop for a few days that I really appreciate the cumulative fatigue I’ve built up. Back at Uni I would have dragged myself through these workouts and then been surprised when I don’t run faster.

I’m still positive about running a fast time on either the 3rd or the 10th March, posting 7.60 freelap time when I still haven’t even dropped squats from the program is promising. Hope to pick up where I left off come Saturday.

[Fraser_9to5]

COMP 5

16 Feb

Drills – A walk, A March, A Skip, A Switch 2 x 10m
Dribble Ankle, Calf, Knee, SL scissor w runout 2 x 20m
2 x 40m Technical Runs
Mobility A

Drills (240m), Tempo (80m), Mobility (9 sets)

I’m still a bit ill but I had planned to do drills and tempo. A combination of being short on time and feeling my hamstring tweak during the Knee Dribble drill meant I stopped after the 40m runs. I hope it’s nothing, I was in a hurry so didn’t do my usual jogging warm up and it could be costly, though it didn’t bother me for the technical runs and feels okay now.

17 Feb

Broad Jumps – 4, best of 247cm
Box Jumps – 3 x 3
MB Throws – 2 x 3
Blocks – 30,40,50m in 4.35,5.52,6.62 freelap
70,80,90m in 9.00, 10.07, 11.32 freelap
Back Squat – 2,1 x 132.5kg
Bench Press – 2 x 2 x 105kg
B1 Sprinter sit ups – 1 x 8 x 20kg
B2 Bear dog w arm raise – 1 x 10
B3 Leg lowers – 1 x 15
Mobility B

Jumps (28), Throws (6), Accels (200m), Max Velocity (180m), Lower Body (397.5kg), Upper Body (420kg), Mobility (6 sets), Core (3 sets)

Wet track, 11 degrees, -2 m/s wind. Inconvenient time to rearrange the garage as it meant my broad jump is in a different direction on a very slight decline so not comparable to previous weeks. The wind picked up later on to a -4 or stronger, mainly pleased that I didn’t have any lingering hamstring issues after yesterday. I’m also not fully better after a cold so no surprise at the times. Squat wasn’t there again, didn’t even try the second rep this time, just based it off how much of a struggle the first rep was. It isn’t the time to be setting squat records as Monday will be the last 100% effort on squats for the indoor season.

18 Feb

Mobility C
Drills – A Walk, A March, A Skip, A Switch 2 x 20m
Dribble Ankle, Calf, Knee, SL scissor w runout 2 x 20m
2 x 40m Technical Runs
Tempo – 2 x 6 x 100m in ~16.7
A1 Pull ups – 7,7
A2 L-Sit – 15,15 secs
A3 Dips – 10,10

Drills (320m), Tempo (1280m), Circuit (34 reps), Mobility (8 sets), Core (2 sets)

Still not 100% but feel okay, after this session I went on a relatively long walk and felt pretty drained so it may hamper my speed tomorrow.

19 Feb

Box Jumps – 3 x 3
MB Throws – 4 x 3 x 4kg
3 x 40m in 5.45 freelap
5 x 80m (submax) in ~10.20 freelap
Back Squats – 2 x 130kg, 2 x 125kg
Bench Press – 2 x 2 x 100kg
A1 Sprinter Sit Ups – 1 x 8 x 20kg
A2 Stir The Pot – 1 x 30 secs
A3 Bird Dogs – 1 x 10
Mobility D

Jumps (9), Throws (12), Accels (240m), Max Velocity (280m), Lower Body Weights (510kg), Upper Body (400kg), Mobility (4 sets), Core (3 sets)

Damp track, 11 degrees, +4m/s tailwind. A little weary today, really pleased with the pace of my 80’s, I was aiming for 97% and was in and around 10.1-10.3 which is spot on. I eased back on the weights, I remember reading about how it’s close to 14 days to truly recover from weight training and I want to be fresh for the first race on the 3rd March (13 days time).

20 Feb

Mobility E

Mobility (7 sets)

21 Feb

Trek – 3 x 20m
Alternate Bounds – 3 x 60m, best of 24 strides
Accels – 30,40,50m in 4.55, 5.75, 7.15 freelap
3 x 80m in 4.40/5.60/8.00/10.50 freelap (30/40/60/80m)
Mobility F

Drills (480m), Accels (180m), Max Velocity (180m), Mobility (4 sets)

Wet track, 9 degrees, – 8 m/s wind. Atrocious weather, driving rain and more like 6 degrees with the wind chill. I had sodden rugby shorts and a hoodie, plus a waterproof jacket. My first two 80’s were closer to 11 seconds and then I ditched the wet clothing, which I weighed later at 2kg, not to mention the added wind resistance, and dropped half a second. I tweaked my back earlier in the day so opted out of squats & bench, I had poor sleep and a stressful week (mass redundancies in my day job) so trying to double down on recovery.

22 Feb

Mobility G

Mobility (6 sets)

Weather has made this a difficult week and that’s set to continue, with rain forecast for most of next week and temperatures down to freezing. Mentally I’m very distracted by redundancies at work, with the process set to extend beyond the end of the indoor sprint season. I’m finding sleep hard to come by and a negative mindset creeping in.

The positives I can take are the amount of momentum my winter prep will have, as I now stop lifting weights and reduce the volume of sprint work. I May have mentioned this somewhere already but slower than 7.70 in my first race and I’ll feel pretty dejected, 7.6* I will feel I could do better, and 7.59 or faster is really where I think I should be given the effort I’ve put in.

[Fraser_9to5]

COMP 6

23 Feb

Drills – A walk, A March, A Skip, A Switch 2 x 20m
Dribble Ankle, Calf, Knee, SL scissor w runout 2 x 20m
2 x 40m Technical Runs
Track Tempo – 111,21312,111
100m in 17.1, 200m in 36.3, 300m in 56.4
A1 Pull ups – 7,7
A2 L-Sit – 15,15 secs
A3 Dips – 10,10
Mobility A

Drills (320m), Tempo (1580m), Circuit (34 reps), Core (2 sets), Mobility (9 sets)

24 Feb

Mobility B

Mobility (6 sets)

25 Feb

Broad Jumps – 4, best of 252cm
Box Jumps – 3 x 3
MB Throws – 2 x 3
Blocks – 20,30,40m in 3.15,4.28,5.42 freelap
70m in 8.82 freelap
B1 Sprinter sit ups – 1 x 8 x 20kg
B2 Bear dog w arm raise – 1 x 10
B3 Leg lowers – 1 x 15
Mobility B

Jumps (13), Throws (6), Accels (110m), Max Velocity (50m), Mobility (6 sets), Core (3 sets)

Wet track, 4 degrees, no wind. I had something on later in the day so this session was at 9am. I felt pretty sharp in the warm up, possibly a personal best in the broad jump. The blocks felt average, this was the first time I’ve used the starting gun app on my mobile and I’m super twitchy in “set” which is a concern going into the weekend. I skipped bench press as I didn’t have time, and I’ve had a minor bit of tightness on my left chest/upper arm so it helps to rest it. I went through 60m in 7.70 from blocks, when you add in reaction time it becomes 7.90. I did this last year but I’m still questioning how on earth that’s going to translate to 7.6* when I race at the weekend. I’ll be more rested, in warmer temperatures, on Mondo track, and not at 9am. Hard to know how much faster each of those variables makes me but we’ll see.

26 Feb

Drills – A walk, A March, A Skip, A Switch 2 x 20m
Dribble Ankle, Calf, Knee, SL scissor w runout 2 x 20m
2 x 40m Technical Runs
Track Tempo – 10 x 100m with stretching

Drills (320m), Tempo (1080m)

Very relaxed with a race on Sunday, pace was high 17’s and after each rep I held a different 30 second stretch.

27 Feb

Mobility E

Mobility (7 sets)

21 Feb

Box Jumps – 3 x 3
MB Throws – 2 x 3
Accels – 3 x 40m in 5.45 freelap
5 x 80m (submax) in 5.55/7.95/10.40 freelap (40/60/80m)
Mobility F

Jumps (9), Throws (6), Accels (240m), Max Velocity (280m), Mobility (4 sets)

Dry track, 9 degrees, -4m/s wind. I felt a little off the pace today, I’ve had a few days in a row with poor sleep and my Whoop recovery reflects that. I’ve also resorted to eating more than I need as a form of comfort from life stress.

Looking back on my training times, I hit a purple patch at the end of Comp 3 / start of Comp 4, then I was ill and I’ve not had a decent session since. My local track is a “slow” track, so while I’m slightly pessimistic about the weekend I still think I can get under 7.70 again.

29 Feb

Mobility G

Mobility (6 sets)

I saw an encouraging post from a fellow Masters sprinter which stated that his training times are ~0.3 seconds slower than competition. Given I’m on a slow track and will be running on Mondo I’m inclined to believe that something in the region of 0.20 seconds or more is possible. This would put me at 7.60 for 60m which I’d settle for right now.

[Fraser_9to5]

COMP 7

1 Mar

Full Race Warm Up
Blocks – 20, 30m in 3.15, 4.33 freelap

Accels (50m)

Last year my warm up was very lengthy and caused issues with timing before a race. What I did today ended up being 40-45 minutes, which gets me to the point of a flat out 10m run. I would want to add in 2-3 sprints before a 60m race so overall perhaps an hour. My 20m start was a similar time to what I’ve been running, then the 30m was poor and I was bolt upright on the 2nd stride. I used an app as a starting gun which meant my attention wasn’t focused on my usual cues and instead was on not twitching (I deliberately selected a really long hold). Things usually come together on race day so I’m not worried. Even if I get a poor start I’ll know that on a good day I can take an extra 0.05 secs off my 60m time.

2 Mar

Mobility B

Mobility (6 sets)

Felt good this morning, no exercise today but I’ve been tracking my finger tapping CNS score and it’s the highest it’s been in a month. I’m taking any positives I can get. Really focusing on activities that facilitate recovery, based on how my legs feel I think they’ll need another full week of reduced workload to truly peak.

3 Mar

60m Open Race

Race 1 – 7.68 secs

I felt okay in the warm up, there were a lot of false/faulty starts in the heats before me so I had to go back outside twice and do additional warm up runs. I don’t think my start was great, and I got left at 40m but everyone else was a 7.4* runner.

Race 2 – 7.66 secs

My left hip felt tight until about halfway through the warm up. This time I left far less time to get ready, my warm up was 50 mins and I did a Freelap timed 30m 3 point (4.26 secs), then after 6 mins a flying 20m (2.18 secs). I thought I would then have a decent amount of time before my race but when I went inside my race was next. It ended up being 12 minutes between a flat out flying run and my race, which is borderline. I got out much better in this and transitioned better too. I was very pleased to improve my first time.

If I take it easy this week I can hopefully run a similar time at the County Champs.

5 Mar

Drills – A walk, A March, A Skip, A Switch 2 x 20m
Dribble Ankle, Calf, Knee, SL scissor w runout 2 x 20m
2 x 40m Technical Runs
Track Tempo – 10 x 100m with stretching

Drills (320m), Tempo (1080m)

Driving rain wasn’t fun, running ~16.8 secs per 100m, feeling really good despite poor sleep.

6 Mar

MB Throws – 2 x 3
Blocks – 10,20,30,40m, 30m in 4.32, 40m in 5.42 freelap
A1 Sprinter Sit Ups – 1 x 8 x 20kg
A2 Stir The Pot – 1 x 30 secs
A3 Bird Dogs – 1 x 10

Throws (6), Accels (90m), Max Velocity (10m), Core (3 sets), Mobility (2 sets)

Damp track, 9 degrees, +2 m/s tailwind. Legs are still quite sore from Sunday, warming up I thought I might pull something and I felt very flat out of the blocks. My 40’s are rarely under 5.40 so 5.42 is not bad, I only have a few block starts on Friday and then the race on Sunday so plenty of time for my body to rest up. I didn’t want to do all my mobility so I focused on the hip ones. I just want to eat and sleep.

7 Mar

Mobility G

Mobility (6 sets)

I had a very low intensity day, barely leaving my office chair except for my mobility drills.

I’m happy with this week and my races went as well as could be hoped given the build up to it. This week I’m expecting to run faster but also happy just to get another electronic time to compare to the Freelap times I’ll take during the warm up. I have plenty planned for the outdoor season and the outdoor County Champs are only 9 weeks away.

[Fraser_9to5]

COMP 8

8 Mar

Full Race Warm Up
Blocks – 20, 30m in 3.19, 4.39 freelap
Mobility C

Accels (50m), Mobility (8 sets)

Dry track, 7 degrees, cross wind. My race is at 11.20am on Sunday so I did this warm up at 9am. Worryingly I felt good out the blocks both times and yet the times are really poor. I was 0.06 seconds faster over 30m last Friday and that was a poor start, then 0.07 seconds faster in midweek from a 3 point start. It feels unlikely that I tapered too soon and have started being deconditioned so I’m not ruling out a fast 60m on Sunday.

At the very worst I can run a 60m and then do a few more timed runs on the warm up track outside before calling an end to my indoor season. That would leave my season’s best at 7.66 seconds, with last year’s being 7.63 seconds. I have to give a lot of weight to the redundancy process at work which has been a really stressful 10-14 days. I should really be looking to get 7.57-7.59 on Sunday if everything comes together perfectly.

9 Mar

Mobility B

Mobility (3 sets)

Did everything I could in terms of active recovery.

10 Mar

County Championships – 60m

Semi-Final – 7.62 secs

There was light rain the whole time we all warmed up which was a bit miserable. I woke up feeling good and timed my warm up to perfection, again choosing a timed 30m (4.20) and flying 20m (2.14) with a 15 minute break before the race. I reacted well and maybe 20-40m was the weakest part of my race, but pleased with the time as it’s 0.01 seconds better than last year. I wasn’t expecting the final but two people were ill so there were only 7 of us for a 6 man final and I made it through.

Final – 7.79 secs

Let me explain. The final was 45 minutes after the semi-final, which worked really nicely for me as I did the last part of my warmup, put on spikes, and only did a 10E20F, working on that transition to upright running. The starter was waiting ages before calling “set” and then firing the gun quite quickly (I only realised this in hindsight). Rather than a gun, it’s speakers and a noise that sounds _very_ similar to the sound of someone’s starting blocks when they move. So we finally get to the word “set”, I rise up, I hear a noise that I registered as someone false starting, so I didn’t move, and what seemed like an eternity passed as my brain processed the fact that everyone else was moving, cursed at the fact there’s no way I’m running a good time, and then kicked into action and started running. I’d love to see footage but I don’t think anyone recorded it. To be honest it could have been 8 flat given how long that delay felt, everyone had done a full 1-2 strides before I started moving out the blocks. Part of me is angry that I felt I had 7.60 or even 7.59 in me, part of me doesn’t care because even without the time I knew it was possible, and part of me is annoyed that my race profile is going to have a 7.79 on it.

Lesson hopefully learned. It was a short enough time between semi’s and final that I wasn’t _that_ frustrated, though I was probably in my car on the way home before the next race started. If you’d offered me sub 7.63 that morning, in other words an improvement on last year, I would have said yes, and that’s what I got. Also really pleased with my Freelap times, if you do 4.20 + 0.20 RT, then use 2.14 20m to say 1.07 secs per 10m, you get 4.20 + 0.20 + 3.21 = 7.61 secs. I can now use this in training to tell what shape I’m in and possibly even forego some of the 100m opens in favour of a Freelap timed run following a short taper.

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