Day 199: Power Speed and Pure Speed (Hill Training)

Hi readers, I’m back. Well as with previous day, my usual nap took longer than usual. If not for me setting the alarm, which is out of the usual, I would probably woke up much later.

Usually my body would be awake after a short power nap, but it seems and I believe with my increased intensity of my training load these few weeks, I needed as much recovery time as possible.

Indeed the nap again served its purpose again, physically I’m at 90 per cent, it would be a complete hundred if not for my lower left leg which was still tender. I’m not sure if it’s a strain or an inflammation, but I’ll know in a few days time of observation.

Hill Training near Woodgrove Secondary School – View Larger Map

Since I’m doing hill training today, it’s back to the spacious open field near Woodgrove Secondary School. The slopes there is really ideal for such training.

The incline is less than 15 degree, and there is ample room to run around. Furthermore, not many people frequent the place, so basically I have all the place to myself.

The open wide space is a nice change from being coop-up in a tightly dense packed environment we Singaporeans are accustomed to. When I’m there I feel like I’m in a scene of The Sound of Music. I really do feel ALIVE! Haha.

Workout of the Day

1) 5×10x15m Uphill Sprints
Distance covered = 750m
Recovery is walking back for each repetition sprint
Each set has 1 minute rest after walking back

2) 3×5x80m Downhill Sprints
Distance covered = 1200m
Slope around 15 deg. incline
Get up to full speed 40m, then try to maintain the next 40m
My rest time is walking back
Last three reps skipped due to drizzle, fear of slipping while running

3) Unassisted Sprints on flat ground
5 repetitions of 20m burst, 20m coast, 20m last burst
Distance covered = 500m
To be done within 10 minutes of Downhill Sprints for conversion
Recovery is walking back

Well I choose the side of the slope that faces the highway. It’s a better choice, as the other side tends to have more people using it, and it is facing a nearby school, roads and bustops. So there tend to be people gawking at times, and I like my privacy please.

For today, I decided to experiment and implement both power speed and pure speed training together. I’ve read that the former East German block put their superhuman athletes through the paces of hill training week after week.

One week it is uphill, the next is downhill, and the next is unassisted flat sprints. So I thought why not combine all three in one training, so as the conversion is there.

The uphill focused on the first phase of sprinting, which is the acceleration, the downhill trains oneself to maintain their top speed, while the unassisted flat sprints translate the previous hill training into a complete sprint training conversion.

Uphill training I observed forces me to use more range of motion at my hips and ankle, and there is also a need to my joints to move fast during pushing off. This I believe results in greater and improved neuromuscular activity in my hip and knee extensors. With that my speed is greatly enhanced.

While downhill training albeit studies have shown mixed results, I still believe in it, as it increases my limb speed, recruits more muscle, improvements in my stride length and frequency. I believe aside in physical improvement, my neural components are also trained.

You can’t go wrong with overspeed training I believe, as it has been around for more than 50 years, so there’s still benefits in doing such workouts. But take note to run unassisted sprints after overspeed, as there’s a need for transferability to your on-the-flat sprinting.