Overdistance, or sumbmax…or programming a race performance??
If you go back to Usain last year, he ran four 100m races before his first 200 on 6/12, and he already had the WR in the 100m before he ran his first 200m. During his 100m-only competitions he said that his prep for 200 hadn’t started yet–not surprising if he was doing short to long–so if he’s following the same plan, what you see is not 200m prep.
But if you went to HSI workouts the last week in March (3 weeks before Mt Sac) you would have seen some interesting parallels. During this period people only go to max once a week and John Smith tries to get top people running a 300 in 34-35 (or faster) 3 weeks before comp starts, and there are workouts like 300-200-100 (or 400-300-200 or 400-200 for people with 200m emphasis). The rest intervals used are 8-10 minutes.
After these types of workouts (300-200-100 for me and only one set), your next workout is affected by the depletion overload, but AFTER you’ve given yourself the opportunity to digest the depletion effect (that’s the second workout after 300-200-100 for me)…you fly on the track.
The performance times for the workout and the timing of this in the 3rd week before Usain’s first 100m of the season in Kingston are eerily familiar. I’m guessing that at Bolt’s level, he needs the extra volume to get the same stimulus.
I’m very curious about not this workout, but what the NEXT TWO workouts are.
I’m also curious as to whether they may have done this 3 weeks before Usain’s performance in Beijing.
BTW, confirmations for Mt. Sac have just come out, and Dwain Chambers is entered in the 100m and 200m .
Very interesting post- and this type of stimulus concept was used by Carl Lewis as well although I’m not exactly sure of the timing- but most likely the same.