I think a corollary to both of these would be, which is safer and can either be done safely (and numerous other off-shoot questions)?
Overspeed seems incredibly risky the way it has been discussed here. Regarding intensity peaks, I have personally had a difficult time seeing people match competition times in training. As I mentioned before, I personally know of elites (granted, not Bolt level, but fast enough to be discussing this) who can simply not approach their competition times or speeds in practice, regardless of the effort and even when deloaded. For these reasons, it seems logical that going a bit submax (controlled speed if you will) and using more volume would be a logical way to go about things. It also seems like it might be easier to calculate/expect things if you aren’t trying to push where you have never been before so close to a bit meet.
The only exception I may add is if you were also using the weightroom to heighten this stimulus, which tends to be both safer to peak intensity and easier. If you are a person that uses olympic lifts and have typically been doing say 3-4x2 @ 85%, a session of 8-10x2 in addition to some sort of track adjustments may give enough of a stimulation here? What do you think, Charlie?
3: What is the injury risk of both approaches? I personally had less injuries relative to most groups with the peaking stimulus methods I used.
4: Is Bolt now at a level where he has no other option? Is Gay as well?
The workouts reported are still really submax. Talking 90% and even under. I don’t think he would be limited to only going at that speed.
5: Both these athletes are ‘doublers’. Even if the over-speed approach could be used for maxV, it would seem less likely to shift performance in the 200 relative to the volume approach. Would some kind of combination of the two be desirable or even possible?
A combination would require a two day stimulus into the final taper with day one height and day two vol. Would these be more effective if back to back or separated by a tempo day as normal? (I would think that the first option is doable and possibly more desirable.)
A 2 day stimulus (intensity and THEN volume)? That seems insane for mortals, but maybe with the right physios, coaches, doctors, diet, etc. it could be done… Not sure if it is worth it though considering how injury prone many of these guys appear to be (ie Asafa, Gay, even Bolt not long ago and Mo in years past).