Desire to Train

Editors Note: My new site is now at www.just-fly-sports.com Check it out for a wealth of information on jumping higher and running faster, all backed by research and practical experience!

This year's track season will soon be over, and a new season of training will soon begin. I always enjoyed the prospect of "starting over" in training, just because you no longer had to worry about what you felt like on meet day, you can just go train and that is the end of it. After nationals/state meets, most athletes take between 2 weeks and a month off before they get back to training again. This a pretty good idea, and the rule of thumb that I typically use in a transition period is just to go until I can't stand not training.

When you think about it though, the desire to train is often a great gauge regarding overtraining and fatigue. Aren't your best workouts typically on those days when you just wake up and all you can think about it getting to the weightroom or track? This is your body's system which is telling you that, yes, you are really ready for today's workout. Desire to train is definitely a good thing to keep track of when you are working out through the training year, and ESPECIALLY in the competitive season. If you go into a heavy jumping or plyometric session without really feeling enthusiastic about the workout, I GUARANTEE you are going to pay for it in a good week or two of dead legs. I have seen this in myself and also the jumpers which I coach. Now in coaching frameworks where a structured and unwavering microcycle is king, this can be a hard thing to deal with, but this is the "art" portion of the art and science of coaching. You need to know when to back off and let your athletes (or yourself) regain a strong desire to train.

A general rule of thumb with this, is that the more CNS intensive the activity, such as plyometrics, the more not being physically and mentally fresh into the workout is going to hurt you. (by plyometrics I am talking about depth jumps and heavy plyos) You can get away with being a little dull in activities such as 3 week blocks of lifting around 60-75% 1RM, because this is a little easier on the CNS and will allow fast recovery once you back off, while the training effect of depth jumps and heavy plyos can be monstrous if you dont allow enough recovery.



Joel

A short/medium length rant

Editors Note: My new site is now at www.just-fly-sports.com Check it out for a wealth of information on jumping higher and running faster, all backed by research and practical experience!

If you have been following my youtube videos lately, you might have noticed that I have had a fairly decent depth jumping and two footed jumping session recently. Based on this, I figured that I would at least have a DECENT high jumping performance at my latest meet, which was yesterday at the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh. As much as I would have liked to do well, I did not, and I no-heighted at 6'4.25". The cause of this was only partly technical, but was mostly due to just a lack of single leg jumping ability (couldn't even scissor 5'8 in warmups).

Now my training has been excellent up to this point, I have been having fairly good high jump practices.......almost as good as I ever have had, but it seems like every time I get to a meet, I am just flat. Now compare this to my record season where I had good practices, but then GREAT competitions. The big difference between these two seasons is really just one thing.

Volume.

I don't train as much as I used to, partly because of work, and other factors, but I feel that when I hit the gym or the track, I really take care of business. Regardless, my adaptation rate and work capacity are down (over 2 weeks for the same depth jumping session that took me only 3-4 days to recover from), and this really hurts when you have competitions to take care of. I do, however, have a running 2 leg vertical that is just as good or better than ever. So what is the point of all this................


Research has shown that in order to improve from year to year, training volume must increase. I know there are special situations where this is not true, such as Jonathan Edwards WR triple jump, but as far as my personal experience goes, this is definitely the case. Every time I look back at my training log from my record breaking season.......I am surprised by how much volume I had, and how in the world I was able to tolerate it. Here is a typical fall training week from my PR year back in 2004-2005.

Monday:

Warmup
Forward Overhead Med Ball Throws x50 total
4 step high-jumps: x8 reps, work up to 6'2
standing triple jumps x6, around 28' (note: not the greatest distance!)
1x30m alternate leg bounding
Hang Snatch, 4x95lb, 4x115lb, 4x125lb
Cleans from Floor, 4x135lb, 4x175lb, 3x195lb, 3x195lb
Jerks, 3x6, 115lb
Overhead Lunge, 2x6, 95lb

Tuesday:

8x200m sprints: around 30-32s each, 3 minute recovery

Wednesday:

Hurdle Drills
Forward Overhead Med-ball throws x50
3 Step-Javelin Throws
17" squat (about 3/4 squat) 225x6, 275x4, 300x3, 300x3
Incline Bench Press, 125x6, 135x4, 145x3
Deadlift: 225x6, 275x4, 295x3
Reverse Hypers 2x10, 25lb+band
Abs

Thursday:

5x300m at 48-50sec with 3min recovery

Friday:

2x33" double leg hurdle hops w/30m acceleration
1x30" single leg hurdle hops
1x33" single leg hurdle hops
2x36" single leg hurdle hops
Incline pullovers 5x40,50,60lb
Hurdle stretch goodmornings: 65x2
abs

Saturday or Sunday: 1-2 mile easy jog and stretch

(Note: I never really felt great on any of these training days, and I worked on a 3:1 cycle or hard weeks to easy weeks. I think I just kept pushing through the volume and adapted.......something that is hard to do when you are training by yourself.)

Well, there you have it, nothing special, and certainly not anything to write home about regarding the weights or distances, although the hurdle hops weren't bad. I feel that part of what may have made that specific season successful was just the large volume of training in the fall, and then the largely reduced training in the winter/spring. Regardless, it is annoying when you know way more about training than you did 4 years ago and still cannot produce jumps in the region that you used to be able to.

My advice to you would be this..........if you are a track athlete, it is hard to sacrafice volume, because every year I have had a low volume season, I have failed! My work capacity and adaptability rates were just too low. Of course, not everyone is like this, but I feel that the majority of athletes will fall into this category.

Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice!