Does CF suggest that the peaking micro cycle distances be the same for all events up to the 400m including the hurdles
Can you expand on your question. Do you mean running distances or time with each training element or phase?
With respect to distances. I think I understand the effort to be @ 95% on the speed days(every other day) and tempo inbetween but the distances throw me for a loop. I run the 400H and am not quite sure short speed work at 30m- to 150m is sufficient.
As a 400m hurdler, you need speed qualities going out to 600m. so a weekly schedule might include one SE day with 3 x 300m (or 300m hurdles) with full recovery, and one SE day with 3 x 600m with full recoveries, or a 600m breakdown (600,500,400,300 - both SE examples total 1800m). You might have a third speed day with shorter work or you might incorporate starts into the other two sessions, prior to the SE.
Wow! So would SE (3’s & 6’s)be consrewed as the speed work. If not, then what do you consider speed work? For some reason I always thought SE was (ie. 2 X all out 320m w/ full rec) low volume/high intensity once a week. Also, would the 3 sets of 600’s/or Breakdowns be done at 95% effort as well?
invictus,
Pure speed work is catagorized into accelaration and max velocity work. You hit you max velocity (max speed) at around 40-50 meters and can only maintain it for 1-2 seconds. Anything past this point is speed endurance since you are not running at the top speed your body is capeable of moving.
Getting even deeper into it “pure speedwork” and “Speed endurance” uses different energy systems. Anerobic Alactic for accelaration and max velocity work and anaerobic lactic for speed endurance work.
When working on various qualities, the pure speed work will be the hardest element to reconsile, so it should be used judiciously. (also it’s 3 x 600m, not sets)
Charlie, in setting up a program for the 400H would you generally go long to short due to the extra special endurance requirements requirements.
Generally yes, but it depends if the athlete has a hurdle background. With less experience, you might need to work from shorter to get a higher number of hurdle runs over shorter distances for learning purposes.
wow… 3 x 600m is a lot. I’ve had some 2:04 type women who couldn’t do that – although i think that the ability to do 3x 600m at race pace indicates a very high state of readiness. for a 55.0 female hurdler what type of paces would you be looking at 6-8 weeks out from the major meet?
Depends on the speed of the 600s. This would be far from competition. By the season and as performance rises, it would drop to 2 x 600, then1 x 600. The long SE can be a little slower, as the execution time of the race itself is slower than the 400m, and would never have to reach the times needed for the 400m flat, leaving more CNS energy available for the shorter SE over hurdles, where the margin of error is low to nil. Thoughts?
I assume this set up for the 400h would also require a slower progression on lower volume with weights to accomodate the longer distances covered at speed OR
is this really only the case when your trying to hold maximum velocity for longer periods (Ie 150’s)
Someone please correct me if I’m wrong; but as it stands for a male hurdler if the times capable of being run are 80% for… lets say 2 reps of his max in the latter part of the season … wouldn’t that indicate that adaptation has occured due to repitition over the microcycle and not solely due to weights. As for Shorter SE over hurdle I definitely agree with ya Charlie. I think that is a very good way to train the CNS over hurdles instead of the traditional, long slow repetitive method of building endurance on the hurdles.
Charlie:
I agree that more experienced male athletes should approach the 400/400IH, Long to Short. Female athletes, whether novices or experienced, may need to take more of a Short to Long approach. Just my perception.
What about using a form of split 600m run in the GPP as the guys at Univ. of Minn. do. They call them breakdowns: 200m in 30sec.-200 in 45sec.-200m. in 30sec. In any case what type of recovery would we be looking for in the GPP? Would 5-6min be @ correct in the run was done at 80-85%?
I’ve had good results with 400IH’s when doing long bounds (40-100m) and hills. How could these be integrated?
The idea of do a reduced speed session prior to SE is interesting to me as well.
Thanks
5 to 6 min would be an OK recovery for the GPP runs at 80 to 85% of best time and they can be set up as split-runs, but I wouldn’t want to spend more than a few weeks at that pace before moving into the Special Endurance runs, as unfavourable fibre changes might result from a prolonged exposure. Long bounds and hills can certainly be incorporated into a good program.
Charlie, would you place the long bounds in the high intensity category, and therefore include them on speed days?
Yes, for the long bounds, as it becomes a “height vs breadth” issue of CNS stress (You can see a graphic illustration of this in the Forum E-book). Shorter bounds could be done on the tempo days as the overall height x breadth CNS exposure is much lower.
That was the answer that I was expecting.
So the following are viewed as high intensity activities (H.I.):
Speed
SpE
SE
Long Jumps
Hills
Weights (low reps, 85%+ of max.)
Low intensity:
Extensive Tempo
Circuits
Short Jumps (non depth jump)
Since most of us would be locked into a 7 day ( 1-week) microcycle, that allows for 3 H.I. sessions. It becomes clear that in order not to neglect any single quality, all of the H.I. sessions will have mixed themes. It would also seem to me that it would be difficult for a long sprinter/hurdler to get more than 2 heavy weight sessions in a single microcycle. What are the most effective “mixable” methods. Could we ever go back to back days of H.I. work (ie: weigths one day speed on the next)?
Thoughts?
I personally do not like piggy-backing high intensity work, even if it is H.I track work, followed by H.I. weights the next day, unless it is a press. For one obvious reason, you compromise the following day’s hurdle session due to postural/ technical problems that could stem from fatigue set in from the two high intensity days.
Dlive11 I totally agree with you. If am under the belief that 1 SE session per week was sufficient comapared to 3. There would not be any reserve left to get the max out of a fast tech day. Furthermore, the split runs are an excellent way to get a hurdler in shape. I actually would like to see an 800m split rather than 600m w/30sec rest, but Charlie is right … gotta watch out for fiber conversion. my issue is once 85% is achieved it gets tricky to get the athlete to that next level. Any thoughts??