Pmoax's 400/800 Training

I will expand a bit on my other post. Say you end indoor the 3rd week of March. Take the next week to recover /regenirate. Now you use April and perhaps a few weeks in May as a mini GPP. Now here is the tricky part. You don’t need to go back and do exactly what you did in the fall. What you need to do is use certain elements of the first GPP. So for instance in the fall we may have worked up to 4x400/500 hills with a jog recovery. but in the begining we may have started with 2 sets of 3x150 hills.

Now we don’t need to go right back to the begining but we start with maybe 2x200 1x300 and 1x400 and do a period of maybe 4 hill sessions over the next 5-6 weeks coming back to 4x400. probably not going out to 500.

the same holds true for work on the track, A typical 200 wo during early fall for us is 12x200 @32 with a 2 min rest, By the time NCAAs come around we may be running 3x200@23.

In an abreviated gpp we may only go back to 8x200@28. I could go on but I think you get my point. Running through early season meets should not be an issue. They are not important, Also when you start a mini gpp your speed component is already in place and at its top level. You are also quite fit so a mini gpp will not be as taxing on the athlete like it sometimes is early in the fall when the athlete is just getting started.

If your championship is in late june you still have about 6 weeks,that is plenty of time for a second peak.

Another important point is that in our program there is no real barrier between gpp,spp and comp. Things kind of bleed togeather. So you actually start getting elements of what many call spp late in the gpp cycle.As intesity rises volumes start to lower. Pretty basic stuff.

Experience and knowing the athlete will really come into play. Each year things become a bit easier.