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9 Mistakes Sprinters Make Before the Championship Meet

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June 28, 2010 by Jimson Lee 12 Comments

Last Updated on June 9, 2014 by Jimson Lee

You’ve trained for 46 weeks 5 or 6 days a week.   You’ve done your 7-10 day taper.  You are injury free and ready to rock and roll.

Yet sometimes we all make mistakes prior to the big meet.  It doesn’t matter if it’s a Provincial meet or the Olympics.  Your big meet is your big meet.

NOW is not the time to try new things.

But life is not perfect and stuff happens.  Here is a quick list from experience, both from myself and other athletes.

  1. Changing your start – after 8 years of practicing blocks, why would you change anything at the last minute?  Especially the 100m or 110m hurdles where it’s 8 steps to the first hurdle.  Inches (or centimeters) matter or else you will crash.  (sounds familiar?  **cough cough PF cough cough**)
  2. Practicing starts the night before – I’ve heard stories of athletes totally wired for their race, that they were practicing starts in their hotel room (using a mattress for a crash pad) the night before the big meet.  This will trash your CNS the next day.  Plus, your hotel neighbors will wonder what’s going on.
  3. Changing your gear – you should never wear new shoes or spikes, unless you forgot or lost your pair, and you are forced to use new spikes.  Yes, I know Tim Montgomery wore Marion Jones spikes in this 9.78 WR, but we know the whole story now.Same goes with bodysuits.  Always test your new bodysuit at the hotel and bring a spare to the track, as they are known to rip if too small or tight.  (Remember the Women’s Bobsled “wardrobe malfunction” video on YouTube that went viral?)  You would think this is obvious, but I can recall this happened to a world class 400m sprinter (who wishes to remain anonymous for obvious reasons!)
  4. Changing your diet, especially on the road  – try to eat the same way you do all year.  It may be tough with travel, and you might think pasta the night before will be healthy, but watch out, it may make you feel bloated.  Anyone who has travelled with me knows my pre-race superstition meal (for night meets): a Club Sandwich (preferably no fries and unbuttered whole wheat bread)
  5. Not enough warm up, warm up too soon or warming up too late – I always advise starting 30 minutes earlier in big meets because you have extra check-in times, marshalling, sitting around in the control area, stadium PA speakers announcing the field, etc.When you do 2000 meters of tempo 3 days a week, your body has a good cardiovascular system right down to the capillaries.  Staying warm will be easier because your system is more efficient.  I’m not promoting 100 miles weeks like Arthur Lydiard. Just good old fashion low intensity volume.
  6. Changing practice times – this is tough especially when travelling and access to the practice tracks.  Something can be said about biorhythms or HRV (heart rate variability) about the time of day that is best for you.  Track finals at big meets are always at night.  So try to find a practice time that is close to what you are used to.
  7. Shopping, sightseeing or laying in the sun on the European tour – sightseeing and shopping is the worse thing you can do being on your feet all day in the hot sunshine.  First year newbies on the European circuit always fall into this trap.  Seasoned professionals read novels in their hotel room.When I was at the Rome Sheraton, several athletes were in the lobby on their laptops and netbooks. Others, such as Dayron Robles were just sitting and chatting inside for hours.  Of course, he had the odd interruption of asking for his photo to be taken.
  8. Sleeping in – since you can’t shop or do sightseeing, I can see sleeping in as the only thing to do.  Again, this may be a bad thing if it leaves you too groggy.
  9. Too much energy drinks – Let me reiterate, NOW is NOT the time to double up extra energy drinks like Red Bull, Vitalyze, or 5-hour shots.  Even at Starbucks where you can get an extra espresso shot added to your 20oz venti size drip coffee, this may be a bad thing.  Better be close to the bathroom, and bring toilet paper, as mama used to say.
See also  Asafa Powell Debuts Nike Zoom Aerofly at Beijing

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Those are my nine.  Can you add a few more?

Category iconCoaching,  Featured Story,  Success,  Track & Field,  Witty Tag icon5 hour,  Arthur Lydiard,  Caffeine,  coffee,  Heart Rate Variability,  Red Bull,  sleep,  speed suits,  Starting Blocks,  Vitalyze

About Jimson Lee

I am a Masters Athlete and Coach currently based in London UK. My other projects include the Bud Winter Foundation, writer for the IAAF New Studies in Athletics Journal (NSA) and a member of the Track & Field Writers of America.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Jared says

    June 28, 2010 at 1:07 pm

    10. Make sure to do one or two all-out sprints anywhere from 60 – 150 meters to make sure all systems are ready to go

    Reply
    • Jimson Lee says

      June 29, 2010 at 3:57 am

      True story – when Kip Janvrin was trying for the Master decathlon record (with 42″ hurdles) he did an all out 150m 20 minutes prior to his scheduled 400m. This was standard practice for him. However, the offcials decided to run the 400m 15 minutes early – I guess they wanted to go home! Needless to say, he didn’t get a great 400m time.

      Reply
    • Jimson Lee says

      June 29, 2010 at 9:27 am

      11. Forgot the obvious… running the rounds too easy to conserve energy:

      https://speedendurance.com/2010/04/13/never-take-anything-for-granted/

      Reply
  2. Jad Adrian says

    June 29, 2010 at 11:11 pm

    12. Last Minute Travel- It can be worse when traveling by plane or if your meet held too far from where you are. Traveling would make your muscles fatigue and sore. Tips: Travel at least 48-72 hours earlier when your meet is over 1000km away. OR 84 hours earlier for over 3000km. This is the way if you’re on the budget. You may travel earlier when competing in the big meets like Olympics.

    Reply
  3. Jad Adrian says

    June 29, 2010 at 11:16 pm

    13. Baton Practice- NO MORE relay practice at the last minutes!

    Reply
    • Jimson Lee says

      June 29, 2010 at 11:42 pm

      @Jad – I can write a whole book on relay politics!

      Reply
  4. Jad Adrian says

    June 30, 2010 at 10:56 pm

    @ Jim… Of course and that one had been killed me many times! I’m looking forward surely interesting!

    Reply
  5. Harri Heimonen says

    July 3, 2010 at 3:13 am

    Good advice. The Brit Coach Malcolm Arnold had taught his people to be self-sufficient, ie to take care of themselves while on the road. It’s a good practice. But then again we all know the human nature, there’s always the grass greener on the side…maybe I need to practise my starts one more time, at 3am, in my hotel room. The best solution to prevent this is to have a travelling coach with you, keeping an eye on you, as we know…when the cat’s away…

    Reply
  6. Harri Heimonen says

    July 3, 2010 at 3:26 am

    Basically, when you start thinking about what the modern sprinter does in his hotel room, you basically don’t want to think if he’s practising his starts, nailing his starting blocks in the carpet, putting his tongue out in front of the mirror to see how big it is,popping male enhancement stuff, or what ever he’s doing in his hotel room, but like Ray Norton said if they’d had the same spikes and tracks back then they’d run better times than the modern guys, and if Bud Winter would have had a modern day baby monitor installed in the hotel rooms with a cctv facility then he could have prevented his guys doing unnecessary practice in hotel room, but then again I believe they followed Bud’s instructions to the point and that was that.

    Reply
    • Jimson Lee says

      July 3, 2010 at 3:35 am

      @Harri – I remember a Dartmouth Relays meet, and one JV coach (or was it HS?) would put a piece of tape on the door to the wall at 9pm curfew time. In the morning, he would do an inspection for any broken tapes! But that still didn’t prevent the kids from staying up late watching TV or playing video games. These days, with WiFi in the rooms, kids stay up late on Facebook, iPhones or SMS.

      Reply
  7. Harri Heimonen says

    July 3, 2010 at 3:41 am

    Yes, exactly, and it is individual, how to tolerate stress, but that was what Winter’s education was all about, and as we know he did this already in the 40s when trying to get pilots relax when subjected to this awful machine gun noise, but like according to Winter, relaxation is the name of the game.

    Reply
  8. sophia s says

    June 17, 2013 at 2:48 pm

    Before you run your race long or short distance, remember not to eat food at least 2 hours before you race, if not try something like a banana or peanut-butter. Also stretch, drink plenty of water and breath through you nose and out your mouth. When you go to drink water during a track meet, before or after a race only take small sips. Get plenty of sleep and have foods very high with carbs (a good idea is pasta or chicken). Follow these steps and your sure to place high! Im an 11 yr old track star.

    Reply

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