Best definitions I’ve seen yet! However, capacity and power seem to walk a very fine line. What attributes, for example, would each one give a runner? Also, which would you deem more of a characteristic of Moses, to Matete, to Bronson. One thing is for certain; all are different in their own respects.
I tended to adapt well to long to short by definition. In recent years I’ve been coached from the opposite standpoint with very little success. Now the speed that I developed over the year has now wained and I’m back to the old method. As the saying goes, “do what you do best”, right.
It cleared it up for the both of us 400Stud. That is actually what I was trying to say. The only thing I didn’t understand was what to do for the unloading week of the IT meso. I didn’t ask the question properly I guess because I already understood the concept of gradually increasing intensity during a meso.
What about if the only testing you were to do was maybe a 300 or a 400 on Friday of the unloading week. Couldn’t you still do IT on Monday and MAYBE Wednesday at lower volume? Or is the safest bet to just completely increase intensity all week and drop volume all week also?
Hold on a minute. This is a recovery week. This means that both intensity and volume are reduced- but mainly intensity. So save the testing for the Monday of the next week, if it’s needed.
So if this is the unloading week of the Int. Tempo meso, when you say intensity decreases, would the intensity go under the 80-89% range, or just decrease into the low 80s range?
Charlie, why not just lower volume and maintain/increase intensity? I don’t see a problem with that if you wanna test during the unloading week. Why waste a good training day during a loading week when you can just drop volume and test during the unloading week…kills two birds with one stone.
Also, since you say intensity drops, it would probably drop into the 80% range, isn’t that intermediate work…something you don’t really advocate using too well?
Just to make sure I read you right 400Stud, you’re essentially asking what I asked (“Also, since you say intensity drops, it would probably drop into the 80% range, isn’t that intermediate work…”), correct?
Yes, but my bigger question is why he’s saying to drop intensity into the intermediate range when he doesn’t like a lot of intermediate work to begin with. I just think I’m missing something here.
Really? I thought that in a 3-1-3 cycle, on the 4th week in the middle (‘1’), you would keep the intensity of the weights the same but drop the volume by 25 - 30%. So for your lifting, you would still push the same weights but do less reps. Did I miss something?
Are you talking about the speed portion of the program? In that case, I think I can reconcile that with the Vertical Integration charts I have seen…it looks like the volume of speed work stays pretty consistent for that middle week, but we up the number of plyo foot contacts. Do we also drop the intensity of the speed work to 95%? I guess the question here is how much do we drop the intensity?
3-1-3… the 1 repersents the fourth week. When you need a recovery week, it is mainly recovery from intensity, as tempo vol, abs and other low intensity elements are easy to tolerate and can be maintained pretty much right through training without any problem. It doesn’t have to be a huge drop in intensity to make a huge difference in recovery. Always do any testing after the recovery week is over.
OK, so to summarize. On the fourth week in a 3-1-3 cycle (which is the recovery week), you will keep the low-CNS-stress elements the same as always.
The high-CNS-stress elements are speed, weights and plyos. You will drop the intensity of all of these elements? For speed, you keep the volume the same, for weights you drop the volume by 25% and for plyos, you increase the volume?
I’m inferring this from the Vertical Integration chart in the eBook… it shows the speed work curve to peak at about 2400m/week right before the fourth week and only drops slightly in the 4th. It shows the weights dropping and it shows the plyos peaking in this week (from less than 100 foot contacts up to 200 fc/week!)
Sorry for the confusion. The plyo diagram shows a transition across the fourth week (as plyos are slightly less CNS intensive than the speed work), but the highest number isn’t achieved and maintained untill the 1st week of the next high intensity block (week 5).