A CFTS approach to 800's?

Expert Discussion Advanced Sports Sciences
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Perhaps the issue is that many (most?) middle distance runners don’t truly periodise to maximise their track performance. Maybe that is the biggest impact a CFTS philosophy can have. :cool:

It appears they (by this I mean many / most) don’t have a GPP, SPP, Competition setup they have summer (track) and winter (Xcountry and road racing). Certainly it appears speed development is not in place all year. From what I have read lately many don’t use any sort of high / low set up. A recovery day may be 2 a day runs of 45 minutes or a 75 minute run.

Lets take a hypotheical situation. The track season finished 4 weeks ago and you are a national level 800 / 1500m runner whose goal is to get to Beijing in August next year but still have a way to go to achieve the qualifying standard. You usually run Xcountry and road in winter, because well that’s what you do (no other reason). Speed development has been negligible in your training.

You could use Fall / early winter for GPP then do some road races over 5-10k as SPP than another GPP in Spring including some 200m & 400m races building to the critical races post Christmas? Speed development would be throughout as per CFTS.

What about weights? Do you see that as a part of the training of a middle distance runner?

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Most distance runners just run! They give little thought to much else than just running!

Your right in your comments John.

Weights for body strength are crucial to any running program, enough said! No need to convert those reading/contributing this website.

Periodising your program toward the specific goal is often aspired to but who really looks more than 1 year- 1.5 years- 2 years ahead? Rarely the distance runner.

My programs are periodised yearly but never forgetting the concept that the following year, then the one after and so on accumulate for a yearly improvement. A further consideration is the accumulated uninjured years of training.

The uninjured years are hard for the distance runner to achieve when they are weak!

Thoughts?

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we are in agreement.

Some distance runners I know (at a pretty high level) believe the best way to overcome injury is a good run :rolleyes:

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Movement ALWAYS helps!

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Yes it does but if you have an ongoing heel / achilles issue is going for 60-90 minute run at least 6 days a week a better treatment than physio or some other treatment? That was what I was referring to.

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Clear.Right.

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the following article can be downloaded from
http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~pweyand/ ==> go to selected publications downloadable pdfs in the menu on the left

Weyand, P., Lee, C, Martinez-Ruiz, R., Bundle, M., Wright, S., and M. Bellizzi. High-speed running performance is largely unaffected by hypoxic reductions in aerobic power. J. Appl. Physiol. 86: 2059-2064, 1999.

For european season:

Based on the above, limited (though not negligible) contribution of aerobic metabolism to 800m performance, I would go for double periodisation for 800m, in general: long to short in winter (so that all middle and long distance guys can train together for an extended period) and short to long in spring==>summer.

in winter: maintenance of speed, by doing max strength work and plyo’s mainly
in spring/summer: maintenance of aerobic side by extensive interval, and longer runs.

Both in summer and winter during SPP go to interval only work (Gerschler?Igloy) approach in order to increase neuromuscular efficiency. Why run slow in SPP in order to run fast? Very relaxed interval might be well worth. Volume should be lowered, because impact on the lower legs increases as intensity rises (compared to doing longer easy runs)

For 1500m: I would go for double periodisation, twice long to short. Double periodisation, provides more specific work to be done, with the same amount of base work.

Max strength work and plyo’s / short hill work are maintenance work for speed. Once you can do speed work, drop the plyo’s.

The main problem in a concurrent plan maybe that the overall training load will be too high. The middle distance guys are still distance guys and love to run a lot of miles. However in a concurrent plan intensity will be on average higher than in a more traditional single (linear) periodisation plan. The main thing is to keep the athlete healthy, and make sure that he/she is motivated, also when mileage is low for their own standard.

Interesting concurrent plans:

regards
stefan

regards,
Stefan

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Sooo true, was talking to a good level one about why the 2 a day runs.
I enjoy just doing an easy 25 minutes in the morning and over the week it adds up nicely

I have managed to track down a copy of Peter Coe’s book so will have a read and report back.

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hello John, for the basis of the Coe and Martin system, you might visit the following website,

http://www.serpentine.org.uk/advice/coach/

regards
stefan

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Stefan,
thanks for that. :slight_smile:

I’m working my way through those articles and so far have found this one of particular interest.

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12 steps to beating the kenyans was a good one.

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Certainly some interesting opinions.

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article on tapering

not bad.