Interview with Tudor Bompa

[pavel]

@fogelson

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?
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.

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).

I’d like to put some light on a fact. When bolt goes 150 or 250 with 85% effort, does not mean that he doesn’t do starts or sections to 60 meters with maximum effort or 95% effort. A difference between the 100% and 95% is really large … but we can still speak about maximum. Let’s say Bolt is able to run 60 meters to 6.40-6.50 right now. Which is for 95% 6.73-6.84, which should not be for him any problem. More jogging…
If you remember the document on HSI, and there were training where both Mo and Ato went flying 30 m sections and were run very fast, I would say with 100% efford.