Been meaning to write an update for ages. I have been reading everyone's training and it's great to see most people smashing it, but also hard because my season has been a complete disaster!
Around the time of the last post my testing results started going bad. Went from 247m to 240m in the last 30 seconds test, jumps weren’t very good etc. I did get ‘fitter’ running a 4min 1200m and 13min 3km run – but who cares about that and it sucks anyway. Also lost 20kgs on my bench and about the same on squat once we moved to back squats, probably due to not getting into the gym for 6 months!
September/Oct training:
Sun: a 3.2km run around a park before heavy power pulls, squats with hurdle jumps and bench. Yep.
Tues: block starts, multiple re-accelerations, 300m sprint. Not a bad session by itself.
Wed: same as Sun but with a 2400m run instead, so not much different. By this time last year we had dropped the long runs but the coach was experimenting. He’s sort of lost a bit of enthusiasm this season as a lot of people left and it was really just me and a few other girls training consistently.
Thurs: Speed endurance. Each month we do a session on three consecutive Thursdays. The first month was [120m, 150m, 180m] x 3 with 6-8 minutes rest. Most people dropped out of this one by set two. The next month was [120m, 150m, 180m] x 3 with same rest. By this stage in the week I was fucked and not running very good times.
Sat: sled drags - 6 sets of [2x40m] with gun, then 400m.
First run was in late Oct, 200m running a 25.17sec…which is not terrible but not anything close to what I was hoping. And in context, completely shit and not competitive in any sense. 100m in mid-November…12.92 (!!!)…I eased off a bit at the end because I could tell it was a pathetic run and just gave up. Start has gotten worse due to lack of power, got beat off the line and just died as usual from 60m to the line. I was pretty furious as I ran a 12.52 off one easy session a week for 3 months two years ago, and I thought that was bad at the time! Next run I ran all the way hard and had a bit of a tail. But I still only ran a measly 12.72. WTF. It’s like I hadn’t been training at all! Incredibly frustrating.
The pro (handicapped) runs haven’t been much better, not running near my best times obviously. It also seems like because they know I’ve run faster, the chance of me getting any handicap boost is miniscule. So that’s another waste of time really. Finally in the last month or so I’ve been given a reprieve and am doing wimp weights and lightening the load a bit with track work. My latest 100m was 12.58sec with +1.4m/s, so there has been very slight improvement, but given last year I ran 12.01 at the same race with a cold, I’ve gone backwards majorly.
In hindsight I definitely hit an overtraining phase. I was running well in June/July but then the wheels fell off. Was doing every session consistently but it just became too much to recover from. I remember being fairly tired each training and demotivated, especially when the shit results started pouring in. I haven’t agreed with how the coach has been training everyone this season at all. Too much time committed to long runs and fitness circuits at the expense of speed and strength. Part of it was we got into the gym a month later and the season started earlier. So I just got weaker and have fallen into a ditch speed-wise. I should have just done my own gym from the start. I had planned to do it but because I’m incredibly stubborn and won’t quit things I decided to just do the training as written until the end of the season before making any decisions.
Injury-wise…I really haven’t had anything major. I had a bit of patellofemoral pain in my R knee for s bit which affected my SL bounds. My L Achilles also has been sore, but only for about 5 mins during warmups. It’s probably low-grade Achilles tendinopathy but again, nothing that has stopped me. We never do any calf strengthening, which probably has something to do with it.
Anyway I hope this isn’t an incredibly depressing post but that’s how it’s been. Just feel like a complete hack…very demoralising given that I felt I could (and should have) run well this season. The coach has been open to change but I also feel he doesn’t really care that much – he’s getting older and his heart isn’t always in it. He hasn’t been charging me which is nice, but I don’t care about getting free training if it’s not worth the time/effort. It’s just caused me a ton of anxiety that I really don’t need!
I think from here I’ll do my own gym, start building my squat and bench back up and just run the track sessions…maybe. Nothing much to run for the rest of the season, won’t be entering state champs. I’d still like to do another season despite all of that but on my own terms, definitely will do my own off-season. I’ve learnt enough and definitely have become more knowledgeable, if not any better of an athlete. Plus now Toddday is posting again I might be able to get some input on my training plans 
That sucks man. If it's any consolation you're faster than me atm, and I have one friend (10.94 100 & 21.69 200) who hasn't improved since he was 17- he's now 22 and he's been training with a coach similar to yours the whole time.
You definitely need to ditch that coach. 3.2km runs on Sundays and 2.4km runs on Wednesdays??? As for the speed endurance I"m not surprised that people would drop off by the 2nd set. Speed endurance is usually 90-95% so if you're exerting that kind of effort you really need to have about 15-20 minutes rest at least- 6-8 minutes is just ridiculous.
The Tuesday session sounds decent, as does the speed endurance; however, like I said you'd definitely want to incorporate more rest if it's true speed endurance. Same as the sled drags once again it just seems like a complete overkill on volume. Than to top it off he has you guys running a 400m to finish off the session
How did the rest of the squad go? Juniors might be able to handle that sort of volume and make improvements- but that wouldn't be due to good coaching it would be due to going through puberty. The reason you didn't get injured was probably because your body knew it couldn't handle the volume so instead of ceasing the volume it lowered the intensity as a natural defence mechanism. Hence, your times deteriorating and lack of power.
It seems clear where all the mistakes were this season. Sometimes less is more, which sounds completely counter intuitive (it's probably different if you're juiced to the grills or have built up the volume over many years though) but it all depends on what your body responds to. The high volume approach doesn't work for you, and I don't think it would work for most people either. Anyway I wouldn't dwell on it bro it's just an unfortunate learning experience.
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