what are some thoughts on training on hard packed mulch for some slower work?
KK I like your style.
I think I read somwhere the East Germans used to do that. Has anyone tried working on cinder tracks or disused railway tracks (without the rails of course) as an alternative ?
Well done if you find a disused railway line that you can run on - great surface. The line at the bottom of our garden closed in the 60s and was a readymade track when the rails were lifted. However, this track and is now long-since developed or grown over and I assume others will be in the same boat.
Ash pitches and cinder tracks are disappearing fast as well - you can get some sprint work done on them in the winter when grass is too soft although lighting is often the problem … just be prepared for the sceptical looks from athletes who don’t like getting their spikes dirty!
I’d assume, from the youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7elFWASSr0, that the accel distances run would range in between 10-40. It looked like powell accelerated up that hill for 12 strides than coasted for 5 (for a total of 17) before that portion of video was cut off.
On a flat i’ve estimated powell at roughly 12 strides to 20m, 17 strides to 30m, 22 strides to 40m.
Judging from the video they warm up with high knees and a-skips on that incline. Wonder if that’s it. Also, wondering what the volume of this warm-up is.
If your interested in Powell’s competition warm up, I posted on this site 2 years ago. If he runs at Gateshead at the end of August I reckon he will break the world record again if the conditions are good.
I refloat this thread because I have trained exclusively on grass for the last month after a layoff and the two times I tried to run on a track I struggled miserabily. I felt uncoordinated, my mechanics were extremelly off, lacked power and frequency and the day after I get very sore. I believe I couldn’t mantain leg stiffness at all. Interestingly if I run on a grass track I run extremelly well.
Just my 2cents.
PhilG, i looked for Powell’s competition warm up you posted on here, but could not find it. Would you mind posting it again, that is if you can remember, cheers 
good input thanks. Maybe this is why it was suggested to use grass (apart from tempo) mainly in GPP / early SPP.
kind of along these lines i remember in high school after a whole football season which was played on grass (no turf) and then making the switch to basketball i felt like i could push off the floor so much harder and just running on harder surfaces felt like i could apply much more power. Then after an entire basketball season i would go into the spring playing 7 on 7 football and can remember how slow i felt in the beginning because of the softness of the grass.
I will see if I can find it, if so will do.
Its like anything you do, you have to give the body time to adapt. In the Steven Francis in Sydney thread was it not reported they make the switch to Mondo in March but then still include some work on grass.
Hi glimpes, I’m struggling to find it on the site as well. Rupert !!! help 
It was posted in the summer of 07
So the older style dirt tracks could be an option along the same lines?
I wouldn’t suggest going straight into a race with no time at all on the track. Just that my experience has been that the transition is quick and the results fast. Just a couple of weeks after Ben returned from grass, he ran a 6.51 60m followed up by a 9.7ht wa 100m and then 6.44 60m.
The other thing is that the time it takes to switch from grass to track is related to how long you were on grass in the first place. Ben went grass to track, then to grass and then back. Not continuous for the whole training phase. Also interesting wass his ability to go almost straight from the track to run well on grass.
From what I understand the effect on tendon stiffness is instant when running on a softer surface. Would mixing grass and track in the same workout be benefitial? Espiecially in the competition phase?
For me personally, I have done some speed work on grass in sprint spikes and then done SE on the track in LJ spikes straight after, in the same session. You do feel fast when coming off the grass and onto the track right after… almost an overspeed effect!
Well I was forced to run due to conflicts with my federation so it wasn’t the ideal. I had been on grass exclusively for two months. Last year I used track for accels and grass for max v during my comp phase and it worked extremely well.
I had a similiar experience Charlie, some years back one of my athletes had been going really well, ran pbs for 100/200 then suffered an achilles tendon problem. She rehab’d for a few weeks by drilling then eventualy striding and sprinting on grass. She had entered a championship at 400m (her main event) so we did about 10 days or so of track for speed and recovery on grass. She ran a pb for 400m in the championship, so yes I agree it can work. 
If you live somewhere where weather is permitting, is 1 week on 1 week off a good idea? i.e. speed done on track one week then grass the next.
I would prefer a longer period on grass and then a gradual transition to the track ( Wk1: 2 sessions on grass/one track, Wk2: 1 grass/2 track, Wk3: 3 track. That way there isn’t a constant adaptation requirement.