Periodization discussion

Unfortunately, working in the private sector does not give you the luxury of “time”. When I coached 100m sprinters, a running workout could take 2.5 hours or more. Most of this time was to allow for a gradual progression in warm-up, therapeutic interventions and, most of all, recovery between runs. And, when we performed block starts, I found very quickly that more time was required for recovery to ensure the athletes could repeat the quality of their runs. This is why Charlie used standing starts for all runs other than specific block work. The amount of energy expended from a deep position would dilute the quality of longer runs (i.e. 60m and above).

What it adds up to is that in order to optimize speed gains, you must give the recovery time identified by Pioneer and Pakewi. This point is not debatable. The “private sector gurus” will give their excuses and rationalizations for their programs, but they cannot burn the candle at both ends. In the final analysis, their programs become glorified calorie burning sessions.