With indoor season finishing up, there is an opportunity for a shortened GPP cycle before jumping into SPP for outdoor competitions. My questions:
In the GPP DVD, there is a 7 week GPP plan given however, for the spring, 7 weeks seems like too long. I will need to shorten GPP to 2 or 3 weeks. How does one go about doing that? Should I try just do the last few weeks of the plan on the DVD or should I try to get in all of the elements from start to finish but spend less time on each? Or should I just focus on weaknesses and dedicate the entire GPP to that?
The focus of the DVD GPP plan seems to be acceleration with all of the hill runs, etc but presumably, after indoor, acceleration is in pretty good shape, so how does GPP change (if at all) to help get ready for more top speed and speed endurance work?
Charlie pointed out that the technical qualities of max speed can be worked on at a sub max pace during gpp. I would guess, that you can replace the acceleration work with flying type sprints from a short approach so as to control velocity and focus on correct mechanics.
Everything is shortened in the second GPP because of the relatively short indoor season- typically 2 or 3 weeks. When you include a short break (3 to 5 days, depending on the level), the period becomes too short to loose the qualities you developed in the SPP,so you can be VERY FLEXIBLE, and, if your athlete seems particularly tired, you can start pretty much from the beginning of the last GPP, or anywhere in between.
So essentially, since the GPP is so short, we do not have to worry much about detraining effects. Therefore this is simply a bit of time for freshening up and the focus can vary widely depending on the athlete’s needs. Thanks!