Speed Work Training

[HCcD]

An interesting article on speedwork training ...

http://www.runnersworld.com/race-training/when-speed-work-sabotages-your-gains#.U-TR567hqBY.facebook

[Ered]

Interesting. Thanks for the share.

[ROW]

It makes sense for the most part. That's why I hate how a lot of running clubs consist of an XC season, indoor, outdoor and summer track which leads to no break and not a lot of time to build a base. I think some speed should be introduced after a large part of the base building phase is done. This doesn't mean running at 1500-3000m pace. But I don't think it hurts to run at 5-10km pace for intervals after building a base for 3-4 months. For example I have been building my base for just over 3 months now. My first race will be in March and my goal is to be at my peak around the end of July and early August for nationals. Most of my running was very easy (4:20-5:00 per km, 4:20 when I felt good based on feel and heart rate) with some negative split runs going just under 4:00 per km for the last couple of kilometer of a run or some pick ups at 5km race pace. This past week I got on the treadmill and went 10x 400 leaving every 2:00 at roughly 5km race pace. I think once a week or once every 2 weeks running at 5-10km pace is beneficial after building a base because even though you are in base, remembering to run fast is beneficial because when you only run one pace your body only gets used to that one speed. But that doesn't mean you have to be doing all out 1000m repeats. I think a certain percentage of speed work should be done around 7-8 months a year depending on the runners season. Different percentages of weekly mileage depending how close you are to the race season or your peak race.

[MichaelMc]

Good but I suggest many people skimming the article might come away with the wrong impression. McMillan is using a very specific definition of "speedwork" here, not the more common and general definition.

"For this article, speed work refers to reps performed at your VO2 max pace (pace for an 8- to 10-minute race) or faster. A typical speed workout in this range would be 6 × 800m repeats at VO2 max pace with a 400m recovery jog between.]"

I think he is correct then, that a LITTLE bit of that goes a long way for a distance runner, and too much is harmful. The biological explanations in the article are well out of date, but it doesn't really matter.

Near the end of the article he writes "On the other end of the speed scale, neuromuscular or leg-speed training offers runners the chance to run very fast year-round with little to no buildup of lactic acid." The article ignores hills, Tempo and MP runs.

My definition of speedwork is any effort at or above MP effort, so the "only for a few weeks before a race" suggestion would be nonsense connected to that.

[Dstew]

Good but I suggest many people skimming the article might come away with the wrong impression. McMillan is using a very specific definition of "speedwork" here, not the more common and general definition.

"For this article, speed work refers to reps performed at your VO2 max pace (pace for an 8- to 10-minute race) or faster. A typical speed workout in this range would be 6 × 800m repeats at VO2 max pace with a 400m recovery jog between.]"

I think he is correct then, that a LITTLE bit of that goes a long way for a distance runner, and too much is harmful. The biological explanations in the article are well out of date, but it doesn't really matter.

Near the end of the article he writes "On the other end of the speed scale, neuromuscular or leg-speed training offers runners the chance to run very fast year-round with little to no buildup of lactic acid." The article ignores hills, Tempo and MP runs.

My definition of speedwork is any effort at or above MP effort, so the "only for a few weeks before a race" suggestion would be nonsense connected to that.

From the 80 / 20 running plan:

Heart Rate Breathing Perceived Effort (on 1-10 Scale)

Low Intensity <77% max HR You can comfortably breathe through your nose 1–4

Moderate Intensity 77–92% max HR You can comfortably speak in short sentences 5–6

High Intensity >93% max HR You’re breathing as hard as you can after a few minutes 7–10

Full article and some interesting conclusions. http://www.runnersworld.com/race-traini ... sity-ratio

Essentially most recreational runners or "slow" runners are 50/50 with 50% slow and around 50% moderate to high and yet the limited studies seem to suggest that going the 80/20 route will double the performance benefits.

It is interesting in that when I slowed down on purpose for the 50 K race because the higher paces were killing me I had a very enjoyable 50 K race. And when tired and still recovering did almost no speed work had a great trail race. But when recovered enough to do speed work, as that rose my speed in the races decreased. Now I am not being an advocate of this approach and merely in an attempt to be less punishing on my body I am going to try and follow this but from a intellectual curiosity point of view, what your thoughts?

[MichaelMc]

Successful Endurance athletes from a wide variety of sports seem to have that in common: a much wider range of training paces than "average" athletes.

Over the whole year 80-90% of their training is quite low intensity, and most of the rest is pretty high intensiy, with not much training in the middle. Even in peak training most Elite and Junior Elite athletes seem to do less than 20% of their training above "easy".