What do you guys think of the use of extended flying runs for the purposes of developing SE? An example of this would be anything more than a flying 20. I think that this is a good idea for a few reasons. First, flying runs allow you to attain a higher max speed than you would in a race (this was established on the old board I believe, and was evidenced by one of Ben’s runs (Zurich?) where he got a relatively slow start then went onto split .81 later in the race). Because of this flying 20’s could be considered a form of ‘overspeed’ as in many cases you hit a higher top speed than you would in an actual race.
My reasoning for using extended flying runs is this. If you attain a higher speed than you would in a race, if the run is extended, you would be maintaining this new found higher velocity. Because of this, it may be more effective (or at least a solid alternative) to regular SE runs. You could start with a flying 30, until you perfect your ability to maintain as much speed as possible throughout the whole 30 meter segment, than gradually increase the distance. Thoughts?
In any flying run, you must consider the top speed achieved and the average achieved during the run. In longer flying runs the average must be lower than it could have been in a flying 20m, therefore likely no better than race pace. It would be better to work above pace- or, at least, at pace with ease more often (ie more reps).
So the answer, i take it, is to do flying 20’s or 30’s, run them as relaxed as possible as fast as possible and do lots of reps? lots of reps being what, 3-5? 6-8?, or just till you start loosing form and getting sloppy?
And try to what, increase average time across the rep and or increase the top velocity during the actual rep?
In any speed session, you must stop if you start losing form whether you reach your planned number or not. The number will always depend on the velocity of execution and the level you’re training at (the higher your speed, the lower the number) At SUB-Max speed, you might handle 2 sets of 4 x flying 20s, but at max (supra-max really!) you’re probably going to have to stop by 4 reps. Any such workout requires complete recovery between reps and must only be done when your feeling completely fresh.