Designing a Track Running Program
Designing a Running Program - Energy Systems
Now when we talk about quality work, the anaerobic ATP-CP energy system is going to be the one that we spend the bulk of our time looking at. Why? Because we have to spend the bulk of our time developing acceleration in our athletes. The ability to accelerate is going to be the absolute key to success for our 100-, 200-, even 400-meter runners. And if the athletes don't know how to accelerate properly and efficiently, they haven't understood or developed the skill of sprinting and acquired those skills, we cannot expect to get maximal results out of them even if we are using this appropriately in terms of volume and rest, etc.
So it's extremely important that we spend a great deal of time in this energy system at the beginning especially, not just of the season but of our athlete's career. This is where we're going to spend a lot of that time and it's going to dictate how much success we have down the road being patient using this energy system and improving this energy system and taxing this energy system. And so that is obviously a very critical element that we must address.
And so what does the ATP-CP system do? It provides enough energy for the first four to six seconds of muscular contractions. Now why is that? Adenosine triphosphate is the immediate useable form of chemical energy that all muscles use for muscular contractions. Okay? So there is enough ATP in the muscle cells to last about four to six seconds before the ATP is depleted from within the cells. So after four to six seconds of intense activity, ATP is shot and has to be replenished.
So creatine phosphate replenishes the ATP for another four to nine seconds. So if you have a really young, inexperienced like 13-year-old, 14-year-old, 15-year-old, training age of one or two, athlete, their ATP stores are going to be depleted after four seconds. And then creatine phosphate's going to replenish them for another four seconds. We're not talking about the high end. So by eight seconds, they're going to run out of ATP or their system is not going to be able to replenish ATP, and then it becomes lactic acid workout.
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This is why you often hear me say two to eight seconds of high intensity work is speed work; after that it becomes speed endurance work. This is where I get that eight seconds from. It's not about a distance traveled because a 100-meter runner who can run 10/5 in 100 is going to cover a lot more distance in eight seconds than a 12/500 meter runner. And so we have to understand this from an energy system standpoint and a physiological response.
So that being said, creatine phosphate is going to – and, again, I'm giving you the simple version. This is not a scientific class. This is not a college class I'm trying to teach you here. After about four to nine seconds, creatine phosphate stores begin to deplete again, but they'll continue to replenish ATP at decreasing rates till about 20 seconds. So just keep in mind that ATP will continue to be restored, just fall down. So we'll talk about that later.
And so we want to develop this system with high intensity efforts of 4 to 12 seconds. So on the high end, we're going to have 12 seconds really. On the short end, about four seconds. And so this is where we talk about anything that goes beyond this is no longer a pure speed or acceleration workout because ATP stores are depleted. And though they're being replenished, they're being replenished at decreasing rates. So long story short, it becomes a lactic acid workout of some form. Whether that's a lactic or electrolytic is a whole other conversation.
Now what are some examples of workouts that are going to challenge this energy system? First, very basic, again, think about what kind of stuff you can do during this time. Ten times 20 meters with two minutes recovery between reps. Okay? Two minutes will give roughly – with that short of duration, you can have athletes running three-ish seconds at 20 minutes. Give them two minutes recovery between reps, maybe go three minutes rest between the rest of that distance. That is going to challenge the energy system.
Why? How much time is it going to take 20 meters? So think about it that way. So this is where it doesn't matter if you're working with a 9 year old or a 19 year old. When you understand what the workout actually does to the body and how you can relate that specifically to their events, then you can think about how to write workouts for your athletes.
Another example, 5 by 50 meters with 5 minutes recovery between reps. Standard sprinter's workout, 100-, 200-meter workout, even like a 400-meter runner's workout on a speed day. We'll probably add some stuff to this on the back end. Very basic. Come out of blocks, come out of a crouch, from a three-point stance, whatever, but, again, at 50 meters, it's going to cover that range.
And here's another one just to switch things up a little bit. One set of five reps of squats at 90 percent of one rep max. Now this entire program is talking about how to put the program together and not go into the intricacies of every possible element of training, teach a class on that, and be far beyond the scope of this program. But, for example, think about energy systems. Once again, this is why I use this example. If you're going to at high intensity 90 percent of your one rep max in a squat and you're going to for five reps, how long is that going to take? That's going to keep the athlete in the energy system, the ATP-CP system, that's required.
So when we're doing our quality work, we want to challenge this energy system. So if we're going to do acceleration work, we're going to do our heavy weight lifting on that same day so that we're not doing speed work on Monday challenging the system and then coming back Tuesday challenging the same energy system with heavy weight lifting. The body will not be able to recover and will not super compensate. They will over train and get injured, worn down, burnt out.
So, again, take the science and think about how to apply it. And, of course, this will get covered later on.
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