A month out, this year, for Noah these were our priorities in a quasi-outline format.
Calendar Layout
June 18 - 27: Aggressive high volume training (~20 sessions per week) to simulate games level volume and stress
June 28-Jul 1: Deload/Taper (low volume, easy work)
July 2-4: Re-training and getting prepared for final push
July 6- 18: Another aggressive high volume training push
July 18-25: Taper and return to Miami to hang with family and put some final touches (Primary priorities were: 1- strength work, 2- touching anything that has been released, 3- Getting movement exposure to anything that has been tested from a games/open/regional level in the past that i worked on from a spreadsheet)
July 26th: Travel to Madison and get some final training touches in
Priorities by Training Category
Strength
Weightlifting
- Primarily tested under fatigue (ladders, tested in short time windows, in met cons)
- Hit > 275 snatch (what he hit a week out last year of the games), hit 335+ clean and jerk
- Deadlift/back squat progressions
- These were priorities for us all year. he has since PR'd both of these at 6# lighter bodyweight so excited to see what he can convert on game day for the total
Strongman
- Variance, no real progressions here and focus more on just touching all the components of the sport and getting him comfortable with each implement.
Cyclical Energy Systems
- Running variation and volume building (sprinting, long up to 6 miles, 400-800 repeats in Metcons after high power movements)
- Swimming variation (short interval work, longer open water, in met-cons, paired with running, etc)
- Blended energy system work on the machines (c2 bike, row, etc) - by blended I mean non 'classifiable' and difficult
Gymnastics
- Volume accumulation of Kipping (Last year he had a torn pec prior to regionals, so we didn't get to train these as much. Tried to ensure he had higher volume exposure this year)
- Practice of higher level skills (pegboard, HS walk obstacles, strict muscle ups, L-sits, legless rope climbs, etc)
Miscellaneous
- Grip training (just to address whatever happened last year on the 2223 intervals and ensure it wasn't 'in his head' in the event something similar comes up)
Met-cons
- No real structured progressions here and was aiming for variance and appropriate approach meaning strategizing each workout, ensuring the end of the workout he had enough energy to sprint finish and close out sets unbroken, etc.
Mindstate
- Cultivate willingness to attack any workout style in any physical condition (this is stressful to prescribe as a coach cause you never know if an athlete will 'break' from being extremely beat up and sore and having to do a hard met-con, but it's something we both agreed needs to be trained to excel at the games)
- Practice bouncing back to a positive frame of mind as fast as possible after a negative training session.
- Acceptance. Of bad outcomes, or changing circumstances, of changing schedules, essentially this is my best guess at how you would 'prepare' for the unknown. You can't really prepare for it so it's better to just accept there will be unforeseen challenges (like a marathon row!) and you must accept it and figure out how to do your best and maintain emotional balance so that you don't drain yourself throughout the weekend.
Credits:
@ctpcam