Calling All Decathletes

i am calling all decathletes-kings of track&field to give us some insight into their training.
how do you balance training for 10 different events?
recovery modalities?
monitoring overall fatigue?
priorities in weight room?
diet?

developing mental toughness to endure 2 days of competing?
thank in advance!
long live T-Nation!!!

I don’t train. I just turn up on the day and hope it all happens for me.

Oh man where do I start…

Balancing training for ten different events? Well, you have to understand the similarites between some of the event to maximise in your training for them. For all of you who don’t know, the Decathlon consists of
Day 1: 100 meter Dash, Long Jump, Shot Put, High Jump, 400 meter dash.
Day 2: 110 meter High Hurdles, Discus, Pole Vault, Javelin, 1500 meter run.

Similarities occur in some of these events. To get the most out of your training, you have to build it around events that have the most carry over to other events, while addressing your weaknesses. The 110 High Hurdles has a huge carryover, the sprinting ability involved helps in the 100m, the 400m, the Long Jump approach, the Pole vault approach, the Javelin approach, and in my opinion, the final kick in the 1500 meters. So training the 110 m hurdles is in a way helping prepare for 6 other events.
My recovery is helped by careful planning of events and what days I practice them. I take a maximum of one day off a week, usually Saturday, This depends on how I’m feeling though. If I’m whipped on a Friday I’ll take that day off instead, and do what I was going to do on Friday on Saturday. It all comes down to paying attentin to your body, knowing when to push and when to stop. I think that monitoring overall fatigue, recovery modalities, and diet all go hand in hand. Eat good, and you’ll recover faster and not be tired.
Weight Room is important, but it gets less and less important as the season gets closer and closer. During the season, you’re supposed to just be keeping your lifts steady, without losing strength. I do all functional lifts. You have to remember that lifting is your second priority, I do all form work etc. before I lift. Medicine ball throwing is much more important than lifting during the in-season, it helps your throws and keeps your core strong preventing injuries.

[quote]BALBOS wrote:
i am calling all decathletes-kings of track&field to give us some insight into their training.[/quote]

My college roommate is decathlete,last time I checked, he had the 15th highest score in D1 (second highest for a freshman). The following is just info I’ve gotten from him

how do you balance training for 10 different events?
for the most part the decathletes trained with the sprinters, and on certain days throughout the week they worked on technique for different events (seperate from the sprinters)

recovery modalities?
Not sure, typically they do CNS intensive work (full sprints/heavy lifing) on Tuesdays and Thursdays (they typically have have meets on weekends - he competed in the decathelon every few weeks, other weeks he would do one or two different events (like hurdles and 400m at one meet)
The rest of the week they did runs or lifts were not (from how he explained them) CNS intensive

monitoring overall fatigue?
Like I mentioned above, only did CNS intensive work twice a week. Also, they do not compete in the decath every week.

priorities in weight room?
he said they did a lot of: squatting, benching, hanging snatch, push press, power cleans, RDLs, GHRs. Sometimes at 90% (on tuesdays or thursdays) other times they did complexes.

diet?
he eats shitty cafeteria food and lucky charms (seriously)

developing mental toughness to endure 2 days of competing?
thank in advance!
long live T-Nation!!!

guys,thanks a lot!
stay strong!
balbos

guys,thanks a lot!
stay strong!
balbos

Training: I sit on a computer and ask as many questions as possible.

Bear

It seems that there is a huge difference between training routines of European and American decathletes…
American decathletes use more weightlifting while Europeans use more plyometrics.
what do you think is better?