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Tue Jan 08, 2008 6:44 pm

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Senior Masters Athlete
Joined: Tue Jan 08, 2008 6:26 pm
Posts: 12
Location: Mountain View, CA

Hi!
Recently I moved to the SF bay area from Germany, and this good weather and all inspired me to start with track&field again. Ten years ago I was quite succuessful on state level (PB: 100m 10.90s, 60m indoors 6.93s, long jump 7.12m), but now that I'm 31, of course things have faded a bit. I only did some occasional distance running and some weights in the past 10 years, and had a one year period of being a really bad basketball player.
Things are improving now, though my Achilles tendinosis held me back a bit, but the Swedish eccentric calf weight training really helped.
Now my question is: I know how to do speed work, tempo runs, weight training and plyometrics. Should I start with all these at the same time, low intensity first of course, to train in a balanced way? Or should I start with only one or two of these things, so that I can add a new stimulus once I hit a plateau?
I'm planning to do this schedule (and sort of already do):
Tue: tempo runs (something like 5x150m in 22s, 5 minute breaks)
Thu: plyos
Sat: speed work
Weight training anywhere it fits, once a week.
Does this make sense?

My goal is to compete in the Pacific Masters Championship in June. Is it a problem that I'm not a US citizen? I read somewhere that the rules are more open on the Master's level.

Thanks,
Lars



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Tue Jan 08, 2008 9:10 pm

 
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Master Masters Athlete
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Joined: Thu Sep 07, 2006 1:36 pm
Posts: 102
Location: Folsom, CA

Hi Lars --for info on competing in the PA Masters Championships, you can visit the website at www.pausatf.org.

Here is the contacts page. http://www.pausatf.org/data/pacontacts.html

They can answer your questions. See you there!



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Tue Jan 08, 2008 10:44 pm

 
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Master Masters Athlete
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Joined: Mon May 14, 2007 10:03 pm
Posts: 317
Location: Eugene, Oregon

Hej Lars, welcome. Th answer to your training question is yes, what you're planning is reasonable IMO. The truth is there are so many approaches and philosophies, they go way beyond the scope of this information medium. I mean, people have written books on this stuff. I would suggest considering hooking up with your local Masters group for some info and possible training partners. It's a lot more fun to train with someone than alone (especially on those cold, foggy days). Good luck, avoid injury, have fun!

P.S. lpalmer, thanks for those links!!

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M45 PRs: 100: 12.04, 400: 54.83, 800: 2:23.5, 5K: 19:27



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Wed Jan 09, 2008 2:00 pm

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Master Masters Athlete
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Joined: Thu Sep 07, 2006 2:01 pm
Posts: 250
Location: Chico, CA

There are many meets in and around the Bay Area. Most college meets are available to open athletes and there are all-comer meets during the winter and summer at Los Gatos, San Jose City College, Berkeley (winter), Diablo Valley. Check out the Pacific USATF site for the schedule. There are more masters meets in Southern California and Arizona. Check out the Hayward Classic in Eugene. They know how to host a track meet!

Tom Fahey
M60



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Tue Jan 22, 2008 6:07 pm

 
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Junior Masters Athlete
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Joined: Tue Jan 22, 2008 5:57 pm
Posts: 6
Location: London, UK

Lars,

Given the length of time you have been out, I would avoid plyos like the plague. It takes much longer to recover from wear and tear once you are beyond your twenties. Add it later, very progressively, once you have some speed and power back in your legs.

I personally believe that the only way to get your speed back and maintain it is to work on quality sprints, maximum lifts and lots of recovery. Check out the websites for Charlie Francis and Barry Ross for a wealth of information.

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Pat



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Fri Jan 25, 2008 9:21 am

 
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Senior Masters Athlete
Joined: Tue Jan 08, 2008 6:26 pm
Posts: 12
Location: Mountain View, CA

Hi Pat,

Thanks for your advice!
Maybe I'm confused about what plyos are, but I think certain excersises are less dangerous than others. For example, I totally know I can't do bounding right now, not even on grass. Alternating split-squat jumps however are perfectly okay, as the impact on joints and tendons is almost limited to body weight. The latter are my favorite excersise to develop "explosiveness" for sprinting, by the way. I can feel it's impact almost always in the next unit.

But right now, a bad flu struck me and threw me back a couple of weeks. :(

Lars



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Sun Jan 27, 2008 9:09 am

 
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Junior Masters Athlete
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Joined: Tue Jan 22, 2008 5:57 pm
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Location: London, UK

Skurry,

It's a relief to find that you are not doing a session of just bounding every Thursday. The tempation is to do the same plyos you used to do in your twenties and to keep the same intensity. It worries me that you spend a whole session on plyos though, whilst only doing one sprint session a week. Perhaps you intend to increase your speedwork as you get closer to the track season?

You might consider a weight-training session that includes plyos. Sets of 10-12 x split squats work well with 3-5 heavy squats. The trick is to rest just long enough, perhaps 60secs, between each set of squats before doing the plyos. Check out Brian Mac's site for more info:
http://www.brianmac.co.uk/complex.htm

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Pat



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Fri Feb 01, 2008 6:20 pm

 
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Senior Masters Athlete
Joined: Tue Jan 08, 2008 6:26 pm
Posts: 12
Location: Mountain View, CA

plogan wrote:
It worries me that you spend a whole session on plyos though, whilst only doing one sprint session a week. Perhaps you intend to increase your speedwork as you get closer to the track season?


The truth is: My sessions currently are very short. For the first ones, I just did my warm-up routine and that was it, I was smashed. After getting used to the training a bit more, I can totally see combining speedwork or weights and plyos. Thanks for the link, I'll check it out!



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