Speed endurance the key to *all* 11/12second sprinters?

[pierrejean]

@fogelson

From PJ:

Rough translation:
Usain had 3 hours interview on Monday morning. Then he had this workout in pm : 6x180m without starting blocks in 20"5 with 8min rest, which is described as moderate tempo. Mills estimates that Bolt’s level that day before the workout was 75%, and Patrick Dawson was the timer : 19’’6, 20’’6, 20’’5, 19’’9, 20’’3, 20’’1.
On Tuesday, the workout is planned to be 2 sets of 300m, 180m, 150m with 8 and 12min rest. Pace is 35", 18-19" and 16". This is described as Speed Resistance.

Pardon me, but how are either of these workouts extensive tempo? The breaks are far longer than any recommended, relatively fast, and done on the track, in spikes IIRC. I think they are about as clear of an example of intensive tempo as one could get. If that isn’t intensive tempo, then nothing is.

Also, Bolt as consistently behind at the start UNTIL the WC. I am not talking about his first few races, but all of them.

This 180m workout was described as “moderate tempo” by the coach, i guess it is mid way between extensive and intensive tempo. I would tend to think it is extensive due to the quite long rest (8min). The journalist wrote : “il ne s’agit pas de forcer”. Thus the workout was by no mean difficult.

@fogelson

How does this change though that he ran relatively faster in the 200m than the 100m in the season? He ran a lot more 100s and never had any performances that really can compare to that 200, which was likely good for 19.1 (in good conditions) at least.

His reaction times were poor during the season, and curiously were good only in Berlin. This affects more the performance at 100m than 200m. Lausanne (the 19.5 race) was suppose to be a peak performance as Bolt announced the days before the meeting that he would run full out.

@mreoyn09

Charlie-

I haven’t seen the 300-180-150m type workouts but the times do seem like intensive tempo pace for someone of Bolt’s level. I think the video below was also posted here previously and although its tough to get an accurate time, the effort and apparent speed of the runs make it seem like intensive tempo to me. How would you classify it?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IglPzinau7g&feature=player_embedded

The 300-180-150 is described as speed endurance by the coach. I think he eventually only did one set but not sure. On the video, this is not a workout, just his usual warm-up before races, these are acceleration build ups, not tempo.