Peaking for State Championships

Firstly, I apologise for only getting one blog done in Jannuary - life got a bit busy.

The season is getting towards the pointy end, with the following events happening the next six weeks

25 February 2011          State Meet

24 March 2011              State Championships

As I write this, we have another two weeks of SPP to go, prior to a 4 weeks competition peak.  The State Meet on the 25th is a competition.

According to Charlie Francis, depending on your training the number of races to achieve peak performance is as follows;

100m                   5-6

200m                   4-5

400m                   3

At this stage the athletes are competing at local meets, looking at 300m worth of races, which is their special endurance session for the week.  Currently the athletes are working off slightly different schedules, due to lack of training, and ability to train. 

A sample week, is like this

Monday          Specific Endurance

              Example Session: 2 x 2 x 200m,

              200m jog recovery between reps and

              10-15 minutes rest between sets

Tuesday         Extensive Tempo

              Charlie Francis Big Tempo

                                      100, 100, 100

                                      100, 200, 100, 100

                                      100, 100, 200, 200

                                      100, 200, 100, 100

                                      100, 100, 100

Thursday       Speed

                                      Example Session: 4 x 20m Blocks, 2 x 4 x 50m, 4 x 20F, 20E, 20F

                                      2 minutes, walk back, 5 minutes rest between reps, and

                                      8-10 minutes rest between sets

Saturday        Special Endurance

                                      300m of racing

Sunday           Extensive Tempo

                                      “See Tuesday Session”

It isn’t an ideal programme, it is compromise of what I would like to do and were the athlete is at this time.  The next two weeks, will have the highest volumes in this phase, whereas I would like to be dropping the volume to compensate for the higher intensity being achieved.  Monitoring the athlete before, during and after sessions is going to be a very important key in the next three.

This athlete will have two to four more 400m races before the State Championships, with only one or two being in the competition phase.  They will do two 100’s and 200’s as well.

All squad members have achieved personals bests in the 100 and 200, and have been consistent in the 400 times and hitting the 200m in a reasonable manner.  It is the aim of the last part of the season to convert the 100 and 200m personal bests into a personal best in the 400m.

Fingers crossed.

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