Concurrent Short to Long and Long to Short in SPP1?

Hi,

I think the 200m indoors is crazy and therefore normally focus on 60m during SPP1. However in 2006 I will have an athlete who has a chance of winning his age group at 200m and insists on competing indoors.

To maximise his chances I need to do some kind of longer special endurance runs in SPP1 and was wondering if a concurrent short to long and long to short program would be the best option availible?

I am considering doing one 60m SL session a week and one SPE1/2 LS session a week starting at around 500m and working back to 150m over 13 weeks.

Anyone have any experience with this kind of format?

It know the idea of concurrent SL-LS training was discussed briefly on the Van’04 dvd, and PJs name mentioned but I can’t seem to find threads about it on the forum have they been archieved?

EDIT:

Just thought i’d post to say that a lot of the information regardin this topic is in the Lactic Tollerence Thread. I couldn’t remember where i originally saw it but there it is! Read that for more info:

http://www.charliefrancis.com/community/showthread.php?t=7593

END EDIT

Thanks

TC

Extra Information

At the moment the breakdown for 2006 in weeks is as follows:

8 weeks GPP
13 weeks SPP1
1 week taper
Indoor University Champs
1 week GPP
7 weeks SPP2
1 week taper
Outdoor University Champs
1 week GPP
7 weeks SPP3
1 week taper
Outdoor National Champs
1 week GPP
7 weeks Rest of season (club comps almost weekly athlete out of my hands over the summer)

TC sorry for ambushing your post, but could you just clarify is the short to long and long to short programs separate from the GPP. The GPP dvd gives an example of a GPP program is that short to long?

Thanks

Your program seems very sensible from what i have been able to understand so far.

Steve, great question!

Short to long (S-L) and long to short (L-S) usually refers to the Speed Endurance (SE) and Special Endurance (SPE1&2) component of the programme. The GPP is somewhat separate from SPP1. However, I would alter the GPP somewhat depending on whether I was intending to use L-S or S-L in SPP1.

Keep in mind: the GPP prepares you for the work that follows.

In S-L programmes since we are working mainly on 0-60m in SPP1, the most important factors will be acceleration and top speed. To build acceleration you need to be able to achieve lower angles out of the blocks and become accustomed to driving the knees to the chest so it would make sense to do more Hill work to prepare the body for the high levels of acceleration work to follow.

With a L-S programme you are going to start off running reps of around 600m at the start of SPP1 so strength endurance is more of a factor. Therefore, perhaps a slight shift of focus towards tempo, strength endurance drills (running As and Bs over 50-200m) and slightly longer hills at a shallower gradient may be more appropriate (I would like people’s ideas on this).

In the GPP DVD you can see the scedule towards the end of the 7 weeks moves into something like 2x(3x60) with a 20-30m intensity limit which is really a transition towards a S-L
style SPP1. So i would say that the GPP DVD’s scedule is for an athlete preparing for a S-L programme (I think it might even say that somewhere in the DVD).

Obviously Speed work has to be S-L because you simply can’t maintain form over long distances at max velocity.

Does this answer your question? Anyone like to comment this is a really interesting topic, IMO.

TC

I’ve just spoke to one of my colleagues and he was of the impression that the S-L and L-S were apart of the GPP. He mentioned that on Van 04 Charlie draws an example program commencing with the GPP:

              GPP block                            SPP

S-L 4 weeks
L-S 6 weeks

Or is it just an example of the length of the GPP block if one was using the S-L / L-S program. The GPP block being smaller if the S-L is used.

If you will be using a concurrent system I’m not entirely sure that the longer hills at a shallower gradient would be required. As you have stated strength endurance is your goal from L-S. The S-L and other components of the program will help you achieve the lower angles out of the blocks.

Anybody else?

Tco,

I would keep the GPP hill work the same. The only thing I would change to make the GPP work for a longer sprinter is possibly add more tempo and some low intensity interval training days. For SPP I would pick the shorter day from the long to short program and one day from the short to long program (the speed end. day)

Yes. The GPP is usually longer for a L-S programme, presumably because the higher levels of strength endurance involved require the athlete to have developed thier work capacity to be higher level through more general conditioning work.

I’m just wondering if it is necessary/may be a good idea to alter the focus in the last few weeks of a longer GPP programme towards Strength Endurance work so the athlete is more prepared for the 600m runs in the first weeks of SPP1?

Basically, is the content of GPP the same regardless of L-S or S-L?

Sorry, can you just explain what you mean by the “shorter day”?

Thanks,

TC

If you have the vancouver 04 dvd you’ll see the L to S has two speed days. One of the two speed days has shorter distances than the other. The shorter of the 2 days starts off with 300’s and towards the end of the SPP you are doing 150s…

That makes sense to me.

I am presuming the content is the same but as you have mentioned the length is altered slightly.