The sport that I wish to train for during this time is the 100 metre sprint. I gave up this sport 3 years ago due to an injury and never got round to going back. I am currently 17 years old at 1.7m, I am between an endomorph and metamorph in build, and I wish to replace fat with muscle to balance body composition. At the beginning of he summer season I hope to have improved my fitness levels so I am able to compete in competitions again. As I was part of a club called the Colchester Harriers I would wish to rejoin this club. My personal best time was 12.11 when I was 13. I suspect that it has either stayed the same or decreased, so I hope that with the help of my personal exercise plan I will get back into shape and to competition level again.
When I was in training, I was training at the club for 3 times a week for 1 hour and would do my own training practice as well, so that I was training for about 5 hours per week. Now, however, I don’t really do not do much exercise apart from kick boxing for1 hour a week, so I would say that I have gone through reversal and am not at such a high level as fitness as I once was. As I’m no longer training for that specific sport I will describe my old training programme. Winter and summer time training differed as the Garrison could not be used in wet and icy conditions; so after September the coaches hired out Charter Hall twice a week and in the summer we were at the Garrison 3 times a week. I would not train as often at home because of the weather in winter.
The reason I gave up athletics is because I badly pulled my right hamstring and I wasn’t able to get back the motivation to return to serious training. Because of my age I cannot lift too much weight because I have not fully developed yet and do not want to damage my skeleton. Also my gender means that I cannot lift as much weight as males or compete against them because men have a longer and heavier bone structure and woman have a wider, flat pelvis.
Females also have more body fat then men; oestrogen is responsible for this. Males also have bigger muscles because of higher testosterone levels, which in return results in a basal metabolic rate, which is higher in males then in females because males lose heat through their skin more easily then females. I may also determine this as a factor that may help me work at a suitable intensity level Speed is essential in sprinting as the faster you can reach the end; the more likely you are to win. Also a problem with keeping up the constant speed in the 100 meters is that usually the speed at which you are running drops for the last 10 metres as your muscles begin to fatigue.
Strength is important at all time during the sprint as you need explosive strength to start and finish the race, with lower strength mostly needed for a short burst throughout the race to keep up a constant pace. Flexibility is useful in the 100-metre sprint as it improves mobility and prevents injury; also it increases the rate of skill learning. Sprinters also often get tight hamstrings, which can affect their performance, Power is a combination of speed and strength. Without power I couldn’t exert maximal effort at the start of the race. Reaction time is essential for the start of the race; without a fast reaction time you cannot get out of the blocks fast enough to get a good advantage in the race. With an advantage in the race there are better opportunities to get ahead and to stay ahead.
Testing
At the beginning I took part in several tests involving the components stated above, to see where I had to improve the most by looking at my weaknesses. By assessing my weaknesses I can focus on that area in order to progress towards a more acceptable level, Testing is important as it shows progression or regression in performance. By improving my weaknesses I hope to show some improvement over the next weeks and see an improvement in my overall performance. Without being tested before I started my PEP, I wouldn’t have recognised where my weaknesses were and may have improved on other areas that were not in so much need for improving as others.
It is important that the testing is effective because if the results from the test are faulty, then there will be no clear identification of the participant’s talents or indeed weaknesses. By doing this you can assess your performance in great detail and by having this detail of your results, you are able to improve on your training programme and to know what exercises you should use to reach your performance goals. Not only this, but it may help you learn your strengths in your sport and utilise these strengths in game situations whilst improving your weaknesses in training. I will be taking the ruler drop to test reaction time but this test is not really relevant to my sport, as although it measures reaction time, it doesn’t measure an audio cue, which is required in the start of a race and this test is visual. So I would question the result in this test .
I also am going to take the power jump (a vertical jump), which measures the explosive strength in the legs; I think this test is necessary because a good power ending or start in a race is very important. To look at speed I am going to perform a 30-metre sprint to read my speed. This is the most important test as I am not sure of my capabilities of a sprinter. The last test is the sit and reach test, which when administrated tests flexibilities in the lower back and hamstrings, and for a sprinter good flexibility is needed in the hamstring, so this test is relevant for my sport.