At what pace or excertion should you run the segments? Charlie
I think Kiwi John is on the money: it doesn’t matter much what is in the circuit, how many stations, how far apart. I just put it in there originally because it was a gut busting session based around power and certainly endurance. I just divided up a grass field (using the outlines for a soccer, hockey etc. field).
The circuit usually takes around 8mins to 9mins for someone who is not very advanced in their endurance training but it can be done in under 7mins by someone not too torn down but already very fit for this kind of training.
I introduced the circuit because I felt “my” sprinters sometimes became a bit too precious, fine-tuned, delicate. I wanted to rough them up a bit, make them a bit more rugged, disturb any complacency they may have about their place in the world of the toughest sports. Footballers do this sort of primitive circuit endurance training all the time.
In terms of “effort” the first time athletes do the circuit there is no pressure. They just need to complete the distance. Then as they get fitter they can think about racing the clock. We do the circuit twice with a full recovery between, in the same session, on a back-up day during weeks four and five of the GPP. So that’s 4-times per basic 6-week GPP. And the GPP cycle is repeated. So the power circuit will be done a total of 8 times over the course of the 12-weeks of GPP.
** “kiwi John”, if you read this could you please re-post that photo transfer website link you gave me years ago. I have left my job and all that kind of stuff unfortunately I left on the office computer system which I no longer have access to. Thanks John.
Does anyone use a treadmill for any lactate training? The cold winter keeps me indoors and can’t always get to an indoor track.
Trevor, I know there are some here who have successfully used the info from http://shop.charliefrancis.com/products/no-excuses-basement-tempo-advanced and http://shop.charliefrancis.com/products/no-excuses-basement-tempo-advanced-two for tempo but not sure about lactate work specifically.
KK, here is the site http://imageshack.us/ if you require a hand flick me a PM.
Here is another session I used for a while, I did out to 50m but you could extend beyond that. Each set took me just under 5 minutes but a good athlete will be between 4 and 4.5, they will be sucking air like a vacuum cleaner though 
Medball throws
Hurdles
6 x 10 hurdles
walkovers
over /under
Conditioning on grass
markers at 10m, 20m, 30m, 40m, 50m
fast jog to each and back and do burpees (10m = 1, 20m = 2 etc) before next rep. Work up to 50m and back down to 10m. Repeat 3 times with 2 min rec between each set
abs 10 x 30 sec on / 30 off various exercises
medball circles x 10 each way
10 min run
How cold? We train outside all winter. Hills, and repeats with short recoveries work well.
Ted, it be anywhere well below -15 to -27 degrees C
In the past when not able to get to indoor track I have used treadmill on occasion and/or bike/concept2 rower just to get the specific energy system work in. Not the same as feet hitting the ground though.
Not sure if it belongs here, But there are claims that lactate does NOT cause muscular fatigue.
The story can be gound here: scientific research document
any thoughts?
Who said it causes fatigue?
What’s the date of this article? I didn’t notice…
Nik,
its an article from: Journal Of The International Society of Swimming Coaching March 2012, Vol 2, Issue 2
KK just recently discussed on another blog, that researchers in Australia have come to the conclusion that it is better to do no cooldown after hard speed endurance sessions. This is new info. I wonder if he could go into a bit more detail on this site.
Link to result or blog?
Yes, please post a link to the blog…
speedendurance. article about last 100 of a 400 race
No link because he saw it in a dream…
I looked at this article, and didn’t see any mention of cool-down. Everything in the article “How To Improve Your Last 100m” is covered in extensive detail in the Lactate Threshold thread / ebook.
Did you read part 2?
I just returned from France where I was able to spend a day observing PJ with one of his athletes sessions. He also said the same thing about cool down. Maybe he will have time to comment more. It was along the lines of allowing natural adaptation occur and the slow cool down has an opposite effect as a speed session and could reduce adaptations.
However, there are times when a cool down might be needed to speed up recovery, such as at a championships with multiple rounds over several days, then do it.
After PJ mentioned it, I said my athletes don’t cool down either, but it is because we are getting kicked off the track or I have to go pickup my kids before daycare closes and I just tell the kids to go home.
My sprinters don’t cool down in training, and rarely at meets. My distance group cools down after every race.
Is this is the same for others? (Or am I the lone guy who does all range of track events? )
You are a bit tough.
Part 2 read the comments part where mike adds a few tidbits.
This is a common thing in the uk for some time, I remember an old session similar to Charlie’s depletion press ups but with light squats and in between sets you would sit cross legged on the floor
Killer!!!