When should Max V sessions be started, during early SPP or later on?
My understanding is to start them in SPP. I would suggest to begin them as flying 20s, using a 20m fly-in. You also could do some standing 50s or 60s. As you progress through SPP, you can move to longer accelerations, 30 or 40 meters, for the flying 20s and then later flying 30s. You also could extend the standing sprints to 70 or 80 meters. Keep the total volume somewhere around 300 to 400 meters. Use full recovery and keep the quality and intensity high.
Work on the technique of top speed can begin in the later part of the GPP and continue into the SPP. If you want to see this type of work in action, check out the GPP DVD available from the site store.
Does extending the “Accel zone” from 20m to 30 or 40m really let you go any faster in the fly zone?
Also, I just usually go semi-fast in the accel zone, maybe 80-90% then I just take off at the fly zone…is this fine?
The length of the zone makes a considerable difference because in the shorter zones, you never reach top speed. In the longer zones, you get closer to top speed. Once you hit that point in the zone, the emphasis is just to relax and maintain whatever speed you attained at that point. In effect, you are then working at maintaining a higher speed.
Whether you use a 20, 30 or 40m zone to accelerate, you want to keep the quality high so it is near max velocity work.
That’s a good question… By extending your approach to the mark, say in one session your accelleration distance was 20 meters before the mark, then during a following session your accel distance is now 30 meters, an so on… what are you looking to improve- Max V. or is it speed endurance?? Example: Timmy runs a flying 20 with 20 meter run in. His “flying” time is 2.0 seconds. Next week little Timmy extends his run in to 30 meters. His “flying 20” remains at 2.0 seconds. How would this performance be evaluated? And I am assuming the approach to the mark is not timed, right??
Gotcha.
I do my flying sprints with a slow-sprint for the accel zone, then just go as fast as I can for the fly zone…is this fine? I never actually sprinted in the accel zone,…I thought the point was to work up to a good, comfortable speed(somewhat fast but not “trying”) in the accel zone, then really blast away in the fly zone?
I dunno, it just sounds like maximal sprinting in the accel zone would make a flying sprint more of an acceleration development tool.
They key isn’t so much what you do while accelerating, it’s what you do in the final 20 to 30 meters after the fly zone – maintaining speed, form and relaxation. If you accelerate slowly in the fly zone and then blast the rest of it, you are accelerating after the zone and not emphasizing the relaxation and technique of max speed.
The fly zone, whether 20, 30 or 40 meters isn’t a full out effort right from the start but you do want to build speed quickly so this is a speed workout and not just a series of build ups.
Ahh alright, thanks!!