I had my 400/800 boys follow KK this winter as well. They are currently in week 10 of GPP and have already neared their season best 800m outdoor runs from the spring. One workout has been anything fast over 300 meters, yet their 800 times have dropped quite a bit. No 400m meet races have been done yet. They did run fairly well in a 200 and 4x200 a few weeks back.
Based on the summer group I had, T-Slow, and now the 800 guys, it’s quite remarkable the range of improvements KK’s program has shown for athletes in the 24-25 sec 200 range and mid to low 50 sec 400 range, not to mention the 22.3 and 48.9 kid I had in the spring off KK concepts.
It’s not the greatest for accel work because it isn’t until the transition you do any. However, you will find the 30-60m improvements are quite stunning. The same for my athletes as well this summer. Obviously there is an importance of lactic work for the 60 for the mid 7-8 sec 60 runner.
Following the transition, the thinking is to keep some long elements and some lactic workouts to continue on the 200 focus, while incorporating some faster runs traditionally seen in a s-l, as well as accel work.
Following KK’s program, I feel the athletes at this level can certainly tolerate a great deal more work at higher levels. One athlete I had followed a 6 wk GPP this summer, the 4 week transition, then took a 2 week break, before starting a GPP s-l followed by 8 weeks of s-l SPP. A year ago ran a hand timed standing 7.65. This year has run low 7’s standing in workouts, and has run 7.5x FAT in indoor meets this winter. He was able to handle 3x4x60 s-l progressions very well.
T-SLow is very tall and hopefully draws an outer lane at some of these indoor meets. I’m sure some of the 200 times will drop given these circumstances, but nonetheless, I expect a nice drop in 200 times over the next few weeks.