Overspeed.High.Performance.Street.Racing Tournament Hack
Nichelle Gruger
What sprinters did 10 years ago is completely different to what most of
the top sprinters are doing now. The critical factors that determine success
or failure have changed. Tactics have changed and the tournament formats
have changed. Training that would win 10 years ago is generally not as
successful today, but every dog has his or her day and some old-school
trainers still come out on top now and again, but it is happening less and
less.
Aerobic Capacity (VO2max, AT) is the base for enduros, strength is the
base for sprinters. We do three gym sessions and two track sessions for most
of the year. Road is just for recovery, to keep them a little bit lean and
to keep the sprinters out of the pub and out of trouble. It is generally a
max of 2hrs, but mostly only 1 and is very easy - talking the whole time.
Single-leg Press is our bread and butter. Different foot and hip positions
for different phases of pedal stroke, standing, seated, etc. I use high
speed video to match joint angles and velocities for each rider. We mainly
do it ballistically for power - throw the sled as far as you can - at
different percentages of max to match up to different muscle contraction
velocities for different phases of the acceleration (different cadences). We
do a lot of single-leg plyos on boxes, stairs, bunjee sleds, etc during
speed phases. Strength and power gains are extremely specific and do not
necessarily transfer well. When Ryan Bayley beat Sean Eadie in the
Commonwealth Games sprint final in 2002, Sean was tripling 250kg for a
parallel back squat and Ryan was tripling 120kg. On single-leg press, they
were much closer (20kg) and so was the racing.
Coming up to the major comp for the year (Worlds or Olympics), we slot
in a speed endurance block. This involves the addition of some longer
sustained efforts or sets of short efforts with low recovery once or twice
per week, usually one on an ergo and one on the track. This increases the
muscles ability to buffer hydrogen ions from the anaerobic glycolysis energy
pathway that you have to rely on when the phosphates run out and increases
the enzyme capacity of that pathway as well, so it can run at a higher
level. Adaptation is relatively fast and 6-8wks will usually give a massive
increase in this capacity.
I reamin unclear about the performance implications of the conversion of muscle fibers from IIB to IIA alluded to in the article. Some commentators have suggested that the conversion is not significant.
Endurance athletes have to be efficient otherwise they burn out before the end of the race, a sprinter has to be proficient i.e. good at what they do, for only a short period. I think the whole point of the article is that the cyclists are training to be able to put everything into one short burst of speed.