In the last couple of weeks I've added a new dimension to my training - plyometrics. About seven or eight months ago when planning my training for 2011 I read a book entitled Running Anatomy and got a few ideas and suggestions which I incorporated into my training.
These included four plyometric exercises and the suggestion was to do one to five repetitions of each, one or two times a week, in the final 10 to 12 weeks before an important race.
After just two sessions my quads have become very sore indeed ... in fact it's had me searching around trying to identify the problem. I've now identified the problem as Delayed Onset of Muscle Soreness (DOMS) and the main causes apparently are too much plyometrics or too many hill reps. I've been doing hill reps all year with no problems at all so I can rule that one out.
My sore quads has barely interrupted my training but it is something to be aware of. Further research, eg the book Run Further edited by Kevin Beck, has suggested that plyometrics be used during base training not speed training.
Very contradictory but in the meantime I'm not doing any more until further research provides the answers to exactly what to do, how many to do and when [in the training cycle] to do them.
Can anyone out there help ?
ps ... short reviews of both of the above mentioned books can be found on this page.
1 comment:
I do plyometrics but only once a week. This session is followed by a short distance run with a 16llb pack on - it's all about conditioning for me. I wouldn't do this in the last few weeks before an event though as I would tend to concentrate on just running alone by that stage.
This session of plyometrics is viewed by me as a priority. I have two priority sessions in base and three in base 2. All other sessions around these are recovery based. Hope this helps but given your track record and mine I doubt it ;-)
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