Hi
I have an adult athlete capable of posting quality times for 100, 200 and 400. I want to set him up for a s-to-l programme but have a few questions before I do this. To be honest I can see how this works L-TO-S but am struggling to work this out for S-TO-L even though intuitively I feel that the short-to-long system is superior (building endurance at the required speed, greater speed reserve, etc). The reason I have come to this decision is that I have this athlete (200m runner mainly) who at the back end of ‘last’ season in August was inspired to train and race. He had not trained for 5 months having done a winter with another coach from October to February. I gave him sessions such as 2x6x60; 2x5x50; 2x6x100 all with short recoveries (ranging from 45secs to 1 min between reps and only up to 3-5 mins between the sets for his special endurance with one 300-200-150 session thrown in during week three. His speed consisted of 2 sets of 30-60-30 one day per week. No weights were done. He felt like he was really ready to run, but being that it was the end of August we were struggling to find a 200m competition and so entered a 400m instead as this was all that was available. He smashed his PB, taking it down from 50.8 to 48.70 FAT in wet and very very windy conditions with a strong headwind down the home straight (this after a five month layoff and only 4 weeks of training at mainly short speed endurance)! Now I must say that he has run a last leg in a relay at 48.8 so the 50.8 hardly represents what he probably was capable of but it still is an impressive performance. Unfortunately we could not find a 200m race.
He has come back to train with me permanently and is just finishing his GPP. With not much time left for the season to begin (8 weeks training) I want to prepare him again for the 200m but this time properly using a s-to-l strategy that I could transfer to a full winter training.
Below is my take on this for the remainder of this season:
m- speed (30-60)
t- Tempo
w- Split runs 3x (4x50) 1/10 mins recovery- moving through 3x2x100; 3x150+50 to 2-3x200
t- Tempo
f- Smooth 60’s
s-Tempo
s-Rest
For the winter onward I was thinking of the following:
SPP1
m- Speed (runs from 30-60)
t- Tempo
w- SE2 2x(3x200) 90secs/20mins recovery- eventually building to 2x600
t- Tempo
f- Speed (smooth 60’s)
s- Tempo
s- rest
SPP2
m- Speed (runs from 30-60)
t- Tempo
w- SE1 2x(2x150) 90secs/30mins recovery- eventually building to 2x300
t- Tempo
f- Speed Endurance(80, 100, 120)
s- Tempo
s- rest
SPP3
m- Speed (runs from 30-60)
t- Tempo
w- SE1 2x200 40mins recovery
t- Tempo
f- Speed Endurance 5x120@95% (smooth) 20mins recovery
s- Tempo
s- rest
OR should I focus on speed and short speed endurance in SPP1, followed by speed and speed endurance in SPP2 and then longer SE1 and SE2 in SPP3 and for the rest of the outdoor season (with appropriate modification for competitions). For example:
SPP1
m- SE 3x(4x60) 2mins/7 mins recovery
t- Tempo
w- Speed (runs from 30-60)
t- Tempo
f- SE 3x(4x60) 2mins/7 mins recovery
s- Tempo
s- rest
SPP2
m- Speed (runs from 30-60)
t- Tempo
w- Speed (smooth 60’s)
t- Tempo
f- Speed Endurance (80, 100, 120, 150)
s- Tempo
s- rest
SPP3
m- Speed (runs from 30-60)
t- Tempo
w- SE1 2x200 30mins recovery
t- Tempo
f- SE2 300-350 40 mins recovery
s- Tempo
s- rest
My dilema is that in focusing on the necessary speed to run a world class 200m will I be robbing him of too much endurance training necessary to run the 400 adequately at the same level?
