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8 Week Sprinting Programme
Who would benefit from the programme?
It’s particularly useful for a 200m sprinter of club standard and above. A 100 metre specialist might
drop session 2 in favour of a session similar to session 1. A 400 metre specialist could add an
extra repetition to the speed endurance elements of session 2, but would still benefit greatly from
including session 1 in the programme (see below for details).
Note: these are tough, high-intensity workouts and should not be performed by the unconditioned
or after a long lay-off from training. Ideally they should be performed after an appropriate
periodisation plan.
How to use the programme
The sessions should be performed once a week with a minimum of 48 hours (preferably 72 hours)
between session 1 and session 2. For example, session 1 performed on Monday and session 2
performed on Thursday. This is to allow for plenty of recovery and the reduction of accumulated
fatigue, which impairs training performance and so could lead to injury
Who puts the workouts together?
The Peak Performance team and elite coaches from various sports. For example, Peak
Performance Premium editor and international athlete and coach John Shepherd. Professional
football coach Simon Thadani. Professional boxing trainer Ian Burbedge. Elite speed and
conditioning trainer Mike Antoniades and John Monro, sports injury specialist, international
athlete and European master long jump.
Acceleration before speed endurance
I have included acceleration work before the speed endurance unit of each session. This allows
other elements to be trained during the remainder of the week, eg, weights, and of course allowing
for more recovery days when low-intensity training can be carried out.
I suggest that the acceleration work be performed from a falling start to begin with and progress to
a tripod (three-point) start as the volume of runs decreases. The lower the starting position, the
more demanding it is on the body. This will allow a progression into block starts towards the end of
the eight-week period. Acceleration runs to be performed at 98% effort (very close to maximum
effort but with control).
www.pponline.co.uk Page 2
A guideline for recoveries between maximal effort runs up to and including 30 metres - 1
minute for every 10metres run:
10m = 60secs
20m = 2min
30m = 3min
However, I believe that if 30-metre block starts are performed, it is wise to increase the recovery to
4-5mins to cope with the extra demands created by the low starting position.
Speed endurance runs – should be performed from either a 5 metre jog prior to sprinting, or a
standing start.
Each repetition should be run at 95-98%, but must be performed with control and good technique.
Kit and environment:
Make sure that you are wearing appropriate kit for the workout. Obviously this will depend on
climatic conditions but as the session is a tapering one it is most likely to be done in warmer
weather for the UK outdoor season. The crucial factor will be keeping warm between runs and
wearing clothing that will assist and not compromise the sprint action. Compression clothing could
provide benefits for both these purposes.
Warm up:
You must warm up specifically so that your mind and muscles are ready for the intense effort that
they will need to supply – see Need some speed? Speed workout 1 warming up for speed
Recovery between runs
The recoveries between runs are long - this is to allow the body enough time to recover to
reproduce the required speed on each run. Particularly with very long recoveries, I believe it is is
wise to have a cool-down walk as soon as possible after each repetition, followed by a period of
lying down (ensuring that the body is kept warm). Prior to the following repetition a short warm up
period of active mobility and sprint drills should be used to prepare the body for the effort to come.
To reemphasise: It doesn’t matter how painful the rep has been, it is not a good idea for the
athlete to lie down on the track or sit in the stands until some cooling down – ie, a walk or jog - has
been carried out. Movement helps to disperse the waste products (lactic/lactate) that are evident
in the bloodstream during/following prolonged high-intensity efforts.
The speed endurance workouts
Week Acceleration Speed End 98% Recovery
1 4x15m 60 80 100 8min 10min
2 4x15 2x20m 60 80 100 10 & 12 min
3 4x20 2x30m 70 90 110 12 & 14 min
4 4x15m 70 90 110 12 & 14 min
5 4x15 4x20m 80 100 120 12 & 14 min
6 4x20 4x30m 80 100 120 12 & 16 min
7 4x20m blocks 90 110 130 12 & 18 min
8 4x20m blocks 90 110 130 14 & 20 min
www.pponline.co.uk Page 3
Week Acceleration Spec End 95%
RecoverY
1 4x15m 2x300m 10min
2 4x15 2x20m 300 250m 12min
3 4x20 2x30m 2x250m 15min
4 4x20m 2x250m 20min
5 4x10 4x30m 250 200m 20min
6 4x15 4x30m 250 200m 25min
7 4x30m blocks 2x200m 20min
8 4x30m blocks 2x200m 25min
About Phil Gardiner:
Phil is a level 4 UK athletics sprints coach working in the North East. ook out for more workouts on
Peak Performance Premium and for an interview with top Team GB 200m specialist and 20.08sec
man Christian Malcolm.
Thursday 8 December 2011
Conditioning and physiology: how to train and compete in hot weather
Why hot-weather training is a delicate balance between staying cool and hydrated while performing at a competitive level
Alicia Filley explains why hot-weather training is a delicate balance between staying cool and hydrated while performing at a competitive level.
When training in hot weather, it’s likely that you’ll feel more sluggish. This is because your body regulates your activity level based on its ability to keep itself cool. However, whether this heat-based fatigue is a reactionary event once a critical core temperature is reached (somewhere around 40°C), or a feed-forward response where the body selects a pacing strategy that avoids the critical temperature, is a matter of debate among researchers. What everyone agrees upon is that training the body to take a longer time to reach this temperature will delay fatigue and provide a performance edge.
Excess heat generated during exercise is carried to the skin where it is lost via radiation, conduction, convection and evaporation. When nude and at rest, 60% of the body’s total heat loss comes from radiating heat in the form of infrared rays(1). Conduction is the transfer of heat from one object to another along a temperature gradient. In air, this accounts for only about 3% of the body’s heat loss, but becomes more important when exercising in water because water is a far more efficient heat conductor. Convection is what makes us feel cooler on a windy day. As air moves across the skin, heat is transferred to it.
Evaporative heat loss is the most important cooling mechanism during exercise and occurs primarily through sweating. Evaporation accounts for 25% of the heat loss while at rest in a comfortable room(1). While that percentage increases with exercise, the exact amount varies based on weather conditions and individual tendencies for sweating.
In the summer, your weather bureau probably forecasts an apparent temperature (AT) or ‘heat index’, along with the actual air temperature. The AT adjusts the ambient temperature to reflect the level of humidity. What this produces is a ‘feels like’ temperature that allows the athlete to make judgements about the activity level appropriate in that environment (see table 1). However, the AT does not take into account the effect of radiant heat or wind conditions. Common sense dictates that staying on the shady side of a course or field will reduce your radiant heat load.
Heat related illness
Heat cramps, heat exhaustion, and heat stroke are all signs of the body’s inability to cope with the heat stress of the environment. When the environmental heat load is great, the body attempts to cool itself further by sweating more. Sweat is composed primarily of water and sodium, but the exact composition of sweat varies between people and circumstances.
Doctors at the University of Oklahoma believe that those who suffer from heat cramps are ‘salty sweaters’(2). When they matched five National Collegiate Athletic Association football players with a history of heat cramps with five without a history of heat cramps, the composition of their sweat was the most significant difference between them. The players with a history of cramping showed more than twice the amount of sodium in their sweat than those who did not cramp. The researchers concluded that heat cramps are a result of the loss of sodium through increased sweating, and encourage players prone to cramping to consume healthy salty snacks or add salt to their food.
When the fluid lost from sweating is not replaced, dehydration results. This can trigger heat exhaustion, despite a core body temperature that is still within normal range. Signs of heat exhaustion include pallor, excessive sweating, and complaints of weakness, dizziness, thirst, nausea or fainting. Treatment in the field includes rest in a shaded area, cooling with water-soaked towels, and re-hydration, preferably with a sport drink to replace lost sodium. If the athlete is unable to keep fluids down, complains of other symptoms, or loses consciousness, emergency medical attention should be sought.
Heat stroke results when the body can no longer handle the heat load and the core temperature begins to rise above 40°C. Early signs of heat stroke include disorientation and memory loss. The athlete may not be sweating, and complains of chills, flushing, weakness and dizziness. Complete collapse usually follows and emergency medical care should be implemented immediately.
With heat stroke, the faster the body is cooled, the less damage occurs. To initiate cooling in the field, wrap the athlete in ice soaked sheets or towels. Place ice packs under the arms, in the groin, and around the neck and head. While heat stroke can be fatal, the prognosis is usually good if cooling is implemented immediately.
Optimising performance
To appreciate the delicate balance between the physiology of exercise and the physics of heat transfer to the environment, consider these three facts:
The resting body temperature is 37°C;
Optimal metabolic function occurs at around 39°C (hence the practice of ‘warming up’ prior to exercise);
Heatstroke occurs at body temperatures greater than 40°C(3).
The obvious question, therefore, is how do you maintain a safe body temperature while exerting your maximal effort in competition?
The first thing to do is to acclimatise yourself to the weather conditions where your competition is held. This may mean travelling to train in a similar climate. Acclimatisation requires 14 successive days of training at 50% or more of maximal effort in the heat, for 100 minutes each day(1). Simply being in the heat is not enough for the necessary physiological changes to take place and adaptations will be lost if the heat stress is no longer present (see table 2).
The second is to make sure that you rehydrate properly during activity. Dehydration increases core body temperature and negates any advantage of acclimatisation(1). Hydration should begin 20-30 minutes before the competition does so that you start your work with a positive fluid balance. For activity longer than 30 minutes you should drink at a rate that closely matches your fluid loss. Your sports drink should be composed of 6-7% carbohydrates to maximise fluid absorption and at least 50 mmol/L of sodium for optimal fluid retention(1).
The third way to make the most of your effort in the heat is by pre-cooling. Pre-cooling lowers your body temperature so that you are able to store more metabolic heat before reaching the critical temperature that signals fatigue. Although the theory has shown promise in the laboratory, practical applications are challenging due to the inability to reproduce outdoor environments in the lab, and the lack of indoor precooling mechanisms (full-body ice baths, cooling rooms, cooling jackets) in the field. Two recent studies, however, examined ‘real life’ techniques that any athlete can use.
Pre-cooling strategies
The first study was performed by researchers at Charles Sturt University in Australia who sought to bring precooling techniques to team sports players(4). Prior to a 30-minute session of training sprints in outdoor temperatures of 32.4°C with 44% relative humidity, seven male lacrosse players were either pre-cooled for 20 minutes using a cooling vest, cold towels to the neck, and ice packs to the quadriceps, or not pre-cooled. When the subjects were pre-cooled, they covered more distance during timed sprints at a moderate speed (7-15 km/h) and had a smaller rise in core body temperature with activity.
The second study, conducted at Edith Cowan University, also in Australia, evaluated the use of drinking slushy ice as a practical way to increase core temperature capacity and improve running times(5). The rectal temperatures of the runners were significantly lower after drinking the ice slurry than when they drank the cold water. Core temperatures remained lower during the first 30 minutes of running. However, at exhaustion, rectal temperatures were significantly higher after the ice slurry ingestion trial, suggesting a greater capacity for heat storage before fatigue. In addition, after ingesting the ice slurry, the runners ran longer than when they drank the cold water.
Considering the body of work conducted in the laboratory that shows the effectiveness of pre-cooling on performance, and the ease and safety of the techniques, there’s no harm in implementing these strategies into your own training regimen and monitoring your results.
For 20 minutes prior to activity in the heat, apply cold packs or towels soaked in ice water to your neck, underarms, and quadriceps. Make your own ice slurries by blending crushed ice with your favourite recovery drink in the blender, or pre-freezing your recovery drink for about one hour prior to ingestion. Remove drink from the freezer and shake vigorously to break up the ice crystals. The objective is to drink the actual ice crystals so that heat is required to melt them internally, thus making more room to store the metabolic heat generated during exercise.
Alicia Filley, PT, MS, PCS, lives in Houston, Texas and is vice president of Eubiotics: The Science of Healthy Living, which provides counselling for those seeking to improve their health, fitness or athletic performance through exercise and nutrition
Alicia Filley explains why hot-weather training is a delicate balance between staying cool and hydrated while performing at a competitive level.
When training in hot weather, it’s likely that you’ll feel more sluggish. This is because your body regulates your activity level based on its ability to keep itself cool. However, whether this heat-based fatigue is a reactionary event once a critical core temperature is reached (somewhere around 40°C), or a feed-forward response where the body selects a pacing strategy that avoids the critical temperature, is a matter of debate among researchers. What everyone agrees upon is that training the body to take a longer time to reach this temperature will delay fatigue and provide a performance edge.
Excess heat generated during exercise is carried to the skin where it is lost via radiation, conduction, convection and evaporation. When nude and at rest, 60% of the body’s total heat loss comes from radiating heat in the form of infrared rays(1). Conduction is the transfer of heat from one object to another along a temperature gradient. In air, this accounts for only about 3% of the body’s heat loss, but becomes more important when exercising in water because water is a far more efficient heat conductor. Convection is what makes us feel cooler on a windy day. As air moves across the skin, heat is transferred to it.
Evaporative heat loss is the most important cooling mechanism during exercise and occurs primarily through sweating. Evaporation accounts for 25% of the heat loss while at rest in a comfortable room(1). While that percentage increases with exercise, the exact amount varies based on weather conditions and individual tendencies for sweating.
In the summer, your weather bureau probably forecasts an apparent temperature (AT) or ‘heat index’, along with the actual air temperature. The AT adjusts the ambient temperature to reflect the level of humidity. What this produces is a ‘feels like’ temperature that allows the athlete to make judgements about the activity level appropriate in that environment (see table 1). However, the AT does not take into account the effect of radiant heat or wind conditions. Common sense dictates that staying on the shady side of a course or field will reduce your radiant heat load.
Heat related illness
Heat cramps, heat exhaustion, and heat stroke are all signs of the body’s inability to cope with the heat stress of the environment. When the environmental heat load is great, the body attempts to cool itself further by sweating more. Sweat is composed primarily of water and sodium, but the exact composition of sweat varies between people and circumstances.
Doctors at the University of Oklahoma believe that those who suffer from heat cramps are ‘salty sweaters’(2). When they matched five National Collegiate Athletic Association football players with a history of heat cramps with five without a history of heat cramps, the composition of their sweat was the most significant difference between them. The players with a history of cramping showed more than twice the amount of sodium in their sweat than those who did not cramp. The researchers concluded that heat cramps are a result of the loss of sodium through increased sweating, and encourage players prone to cramping to consume healthy salty snacks or add salt to their food.
When the fluid lost from sweating is not replaced, dehydration results. This can trigger heat exhaustion, despite a core body temperature that is still within normal range. Signs of heat exhaustion include pallor, excessive sweating, and complaints of weakness, dizziness, thirst, nausea or fainting. Treatment in the field includes rest in a shaded area, cooling with water-soaked towels, and re-hydration, preferably with a sport drink to replace lost sodium. If the athlete is unable to keep fluids down, complains of other symptoms, or loses consciousness, emergency medical attention should be sought.
Heat stroke results when the body can no longer handle the heat load and the core temperature begins to rise above 40°C. Early signs of heat stroke include disorientation and memory loss. The athlete may not be sweating, and complains of chills, flushing, weakness and dizziness. Complete collapse usually follows and emergency medical care should be implemented immediately.
With heat stroke, the faster the body is cooled, the less damage occurs. To initiate cooling in the field, wrap the athlete in ice soaked sheets or towels. Place ice packs under the arms, in the groin, and around the neck and head. While heat stroke can be fatal, the prognosis is usually good if cooling is implemented immediately.
Optimising performance
To appreciate the delicate balance between the physiology of exercise and the physics of heat transfer to the environment, consider these three facts:
The resting body temperature is 37°C;
Optimal metabolic function occurs at around 39°C (hence the practice of ‘warming up’ prior to exercise);
Heatstroke occurs at body temperatures greater than 40°C(3).
The obvious question, therefore, is how do you maintain a safe body temperature while exerting your maximal effort in competition?
The first thing to do is to acclimatise yourself to the weather conditions where your competition is held. This may mean travelling to train in a similar climate. Acclimatisation requires 14 successive days of training at 50% or more of maximal effort in the heat, for 100 minutes each day(1). Simply being in the heat is not enough for the necessary physiological changes to take place and adaptations will be lost if the heat stress is no longer present (see table 2).
The second is to make sure that you rehydrate properly during activity. Dehydration increases core body temperature and negates any advantage of acclimatisation(1). Hydration should begin 20-30 minutes before the competition does so that you start your work with a positive fluid balance. For activity longer than 30 minutes you should drink at a rate that closely matches your fluid loss. Your sports drink should be composed of 6-7% carbohydrates to maximise fluid absorption and at least 50 mmol/L of sodium for optimal fluid retention(1).
The third way to make the most of your effort in the heat is by pre-cooling. Pre-cooling lowers your body temperature so that you are able to store more metabolic heat before reaching the critical temperature that signals fatigue. Although the theory has shown promise in the laboratory, practical applications are challenging due to the inability to reproduce outdoor environments in the lab, and the lack of indoor precooling mechanisms (full-body ice baths, cooling rooms, cooling jackets) in the field. Two recent studies, however, examined ‘real life’ techniques that any athlete can use.
Pre-cooling strategies
The first study was performed by researchers at Charles Sturt University in Australia who sought to bring precooling techniques to team sports players(4). Prior to a 30-minute session of training sprints in outdoor temperatures of 32.4°C with 44% relative humidity, seven male lacrosse players were either pre-cooled for 20 minutes using a cooling vest, cold towels to the neck, and ice packs to the quadriceps, or not pre-cooled. When the subjects were pre-cooled, they covered more distance during timed sprints at a moderate speed (7-15 km/h) and had a smaller rise in core body temperature with activity.
The second study, conducted at Edith Cowan University, also in Australia, evaluated the use of drinking slushy ice as a practical way to increase core temperature capacity and improve running times(5). The rectal temperatures of the runners were significantly lower after drinking the ice slurry than when they drank the cold water. Core temperatures remained lower during the first 30 minutes of running. However, at exhaustion, rectal temperatures were significantly higher after the ice slurry ingestion trial, suggesting a greater capacity for heat storage before fatigue. In addition, after ingesting the ice slurry, the runners ran longer than when they drank the cold water.
Considering the body of work conducted in the laboratory that shows the effectiveness of pre-cooling on performance, and the ease and safety of the techniques, there’s no harm in implementing these strategies into your own training regimen and monitoring your results.
For 20 minutes prior to activity in the heat, apply cold packs or towels soaked in ice water to your neck, underarms, and quadriceps. Make your own ice slurries by blending crushed ice with your favourite recovery drink in the blender, or pre-freezing your recovery drink for about one hour prior to ingestion. Remove drink from the freezer and shake vigorously to break up the ice crystals. The objective is to drink the actual ice crystals so that heat is required to melt them internally, thus making more room to store the metabolic heat generated during exercise.
Alicia Filley, PT, MS, PCS, lives in Houston, Texas and is vice president of Eubiotics: The Science of Healthy Living, which provides counselling for those seeking to improve their health, fitness or athletic performance through exercise and nutrition
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