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I was wondering if any body could throw their two cents on the subject of over training. I respect my coach, and understand that he has a detailed plan for our conditioning...but lately I've been thinking that we are over training. I recently learned about periodization, and think that it makes good sense. So I'm not supposed to be fresh for the first meet of the season (coming up on Saturday) but my body is SPENT and my hamstring is really sore!!! ALSO, sometimes we have intense speed workouts the day before a vault session. By the time I'm on the runway the following day, my run is lathargic, my pole drop is obscure, and my timing is all off because I'm fatigued. I believe that we should be well rested so that our legs are fresh and able to bring the heat down the runway. Afterall, this event is seqential, and one needs to be consistent and strong on the runway for everything else to come together. Should I chill out, have faith and go with the flow, or do I make a good argument here?

The biggest key no matter what is listen to your body, ask any distance runner (they seem to overtrain more than anybody). Also, if ur soarness is affecting ur jumps, it best to take off because ur form wount be perfect and u might end ud hurting urself. Are u in high school or college???

Try not to think of it in right and wrong, the fact that your coach wants to push you means he cares for his athletes, So I would take your coach aside and tell him your problems, tell him you are hurting and would like to make a personal schedule to let you rest but still keep training. If you are respectful and show your dedication to the sport im sure he would be willing to help out.

As a college coach, this is my philosophy and plan:

This week my vaulters do not have a meet, and it is the first full week of training after our indoor conference meet, so the training load is the heaviest of the year. High volume, lots of everything - long sprints, short sprints, plyos, weights, high bar, medball, stadium steps, sandbags, and yes, even vaulting. The vaulting, however, is expected to be poor since they're beat up, so it's mainly drills and short runs (1-3 lefts) in flats. When you take away speed and strength, what's left? Technique. You have to be technically perfect to make things work. That's hard to do when you're sore and sluggish, but it can be done on short runs. I wouldn't attempt long runs on a week like this or you'll just frustrate yourself.

After this week, we'll gradually taper off the volume week by week with the easiest week being that of our conference meet. Our long-run vaulting day is monday, after they've had the weekend to rest and are fresh. They lift after they vault. Then a speed day on tuesday, short-run technique day on wednesday followed by long-run pole runs and weights, speed endurance on thursday, rest friday, compete saturday, rest sunday.

I feel that you should be fresh for your long-run vault sessions, which is why we do them on monday after resting sunday, and also fresh for a saturday meet, which is why we rest friday or just do a warm up and some striders to loosen up.

Also, Are you eating the right foods. ( nutrition ) plenty of water and sleep at night ( also naps during the day ). you train how eat and rest as well as pole vaulting.
Going to school also gets mentally fatigued causing your body to do the same.
A FRESH MIND WITH A RESTED BODY GO A LONG WAY.

I'm guilty of both Junk food and no rest.
Remember I said ALSO, There could be other factors.

PS. keep a food log and reflect how you are feeling the next day.

There are a lot of good comments to your question. I particularly like what 'lonestar' has to say. Your coach may be doing just what 'lonestar' does, working you hard because it is early in the season. For safety's sake, you shouldn't be jumping from a long run when you have trouble getting your legs to turnover fast enough during the last steps of your run.
I'm a masters vaulter (I'll be 59 next week) and I have learned that if I listen to my body, I can avoid injury. When I can't do full-out jumping, I either do short run jumps or find an activity that I can do to help me gain consistency with some aspect of my jump.

Well I can say that REST REST REST and eating the right foods is a bigg roll even to i am a victiam of not getting it like you should. Food log book works. You have to make sure you dont over eat....eat slow and you will consume you're food better it takes the body 20mins for you to know offiacily when you are full anyways.

During the Week depending if the meet is going to be on a saturday or friday.. we jump twice a week once a tuesday. and thurday (saturday meet) and the ohter monday and wed (friday meet) We run sprints everday day.... we vault we have a sprint workout right after we are done jumping.. the day we dont jump running... drills and leifting weights and ..usualy im stuck doing vault drills and then hurldes drills then my running workout. We only get one off day that's the day before a meet..well if you're strickly a vaulter i am not so i dont get one.

I think it's mainly important to take care of you're body like icing everday taking advil to help keep you' from getting sowre or causing any other paine. In my case i have to take advil everday b/c of shinsplints and get taped. i at least ice everday and heat before working out if need too. But i take and "ice bath" every other day it makes you're legs feel amazing. I was over worked last year by the time state rolled around i was dead it was like i had no energy or strength left lol... b/c i didnt know how to take care of my body at least i think that what it was....My coaches view it the same way who cares about the first 3 so meets...they see that as more practice anyways and time to find out who needs to be on what relay what event..etc.....

lonestar wrote:As a college coach, this is my philosophy and plan:

This week my vaulters do not have a meet, and it is the first full week of training after our indoor conference meet, so the training load is the heaviest of the year. High volume, lots of everything - long sprints, short sprints, plyos, weights, high bar, medball, stadium steps, sandbags, and yes, even vaulting. The vaulting, however, is expected to be poor since they're beat up, so it's mainly drills and short runs (1-3 lefts) in flats. When you take away speed and strength, what's left? Technique. You have to be technically perfect to make things work. That's hard to do when you're sore and sluggish, but it can be done on short runs. I wouldn't attempt long runs on a week like this or you'll just frustrate yourself.

After this week, we'll gradually taper off the volume week by week with the easiest week being that of our conference meet. Our long-run vaulting day is monday, after they've had the weekend to rest and are fresh. They lift after they vault. Then a speed day on tuesday, short-run technique day on wednesday followed by long-run pole runs and weights, speed endurance on thursday, rest friday, compete saturday, rest sunday.

I feel that you should be fresh for your long-run vault sessions, which is why we do them on monday after resting sunday, and also fresh for a saturday meet, which is why we rest friday or just do a warm up and some striders to loosen up.

That's alot like our workout expect for the short approach from 3-4 lefts

very good topic sebes!

I have this problem also, Our AD revolves around football so I get to do drills every day of the week and get wiped out before I vault and also get such bad leg pains that I can not run in spikes so I just do short 2-3left runs in flats maybe in spikes....

Along the same lines, what are your feelings about taking time off. This is the end of our Indoor season and there is @ a 20 day gap between now and the first outdoor meet. Many athletes are have taken a week off or are planing to. But with springbreak coming up I figure that would be the best time to rest. What would be the right amount of time to rest between seasons and how much low level training do you plan for during that time?
Thanks