I attended a talk by Michael Johnsons coach Clyde Hart at Loughborough University on Saturday. Some interesting ideas but nothing amazing.
Here are some of the sessions from the coaches mouth.
GPP grass 15x200 in 35sec as part of continuous relay of 5 per team recovery is other runners time to run the 200m
This session progresses by taking off 1 rep and 1 second
ie
14x200 in 34 sec
13x200 in 33sec etc
down to coming into racing season when 3/4 or 5x200 in 23/24 or 25 seconds are used
others are 2x800 with only the 400m being a target time and holding form the rest of it.
2x800 400m split in 70sec
progress to 2x750
2x700
down to 2x450 with 400m in sub 50 these are all with 8 to 10 min rec
There were some other bits and pieces that I will post when I check my notes from the day.
Those are very effective workouts. I use a variation of that. Mine are with female athletes so I will type this as if it were for guys. I start out with 16x100 in 12.5. This is done every week until each runner can successfully do it. Then I’d progress to 10x150 in 18.75 until it can be done. Then I’d move on to 8x200 in 25 sec. Then 6x250 in 31.25. Then 5x300 in 37.5. Then 4x350 in 43.75. Then do 4x400s. By then you should be able to successfully run repeat 400s in 50 sec. or better. You woul start these workouts in the middle of your Pre. Comp. phase.
That doesn’t give a whole lotta time to adapt to be able to complete all the workouts in the goal time. How long do you have left in your season b4 you start incorporating those type of workouts? What type of workout do you consider that? Seems too much volume for anything too fast, so I’m curious as to what you consider them.
Yes prophet it can be considered int. tempo. But it would also depend on how fast the walking is being done. Meaning the recovery could be anywhere from 2-6 min., which of course would make a huge difference in what kind of training this would be.
Not really. That’s still Int. Tempo. For it to be considered SE or Speed End. you would want to have a minimum of 10mins rest…MINIMUM.
Prophet…if you consider it an Int. Tempo workout, I don’t think the volume is too high, do you? However, for SE/Speed End. the volume is astronomical, I agree.
We’ve discussed this elsewhere. The thought was presented that Hart’s workouts spent a great deal of time in the intermediate zone and there was a suspicion that this caused a lot of injuries BUT MJ transcended some of these problems because of his speed, moving much of the intermediate work to the low intensity catagory for him (depending on the method used, MJ’s low intensity catagory for 200m ranged from 25.4 to 23.8!)
Well, since he said in the above post that he considered it “part speed end part special end” i was assuming that intensity would be around 95%, so the volume would be extremely high. But as an int tempo workout i guess volume wouldn’t be too high. I don’t know about doing it during the pre-comp phase though. Wasn’t it said somewhere on the forum that int. tempo should only be used during GPP?
No prophet, the workout I suggested is for the pre. comp. phase. The workout that tinsoldier suggested is for GPP. tinsoldier’s workout starts off as extensive tempo and concludes with the last 4 weeks being intensive tempo. I just looked at my workout very closely and you know what. I have been wrong. That IS in fact a workout that should be done during GPP. Forgive me for suggesting otherwise.
I have a question though. What if you were to do intensive tempo during any or all other phases. How would this negatively effect a runner?
In GPP, the focus is prepping the body for making improvements upon prior performances so Int Tempo could be done b/c relatively little high intensity work is being done. But as one moves into SPP and beyond the focus is more and more on high intensity elements of training and there is little use for int. tempo b/c the intensity is too low to make improvements in speed , yet too high to recover from. So if one used int. tempo in SPP, Pre-Comp or Comp, overtraining or injury would most likely occur.
So even if during one more more of the other phases you were to sneak int. tempo in there for a couple of workouts (maybe once every 8 weeks for example) that would still to overtrain you?
If intensive tempo replaces a speed session, it lowers the CNS demand overall for the week, while replacing extensive tempo with intensive tempo and leaving the speed sessions in place will raise it, allowing insufficient recovery for the subsequent speed session. If this additional demand is maintained, speed work will suffer.
TinSoldier:
Remember that the first sessions that you put up there are for very early season. September , and if I remember, even back into August for the athletes to do on their own. Everything early is on grass, which there is plenty of around Waco. They don’t get onto the track until just prior to Christmas break, and once they get back, it’s a quick tune-up, and indoor season starts, though they do seem to train through most of the early meets.
Remember guys, this is a tempo program, both Ext. and Int. Everyone in the group has the same pace goals, no adjusments for ability. There is some SE towards the end of the season, but no Sp as we would view it. It really would be very good prepartion for running the 600m. In terms of recovery, Coach Hart will tell you that it takes place in the 22-23 hours a day that they aren’t around him. For alot of athletes his program is just too much.
