You should be able to keep the volume of tempo pretty constant throughout the season. Just keep the intensity low.
so ive heard that to prepare for a l-s one should do like 4000m+ tempo like 3 times a week, would it be necessary to keep such a high volume of tempo? or would dropping down to like 2000-3000m be fine?
Yea going to be doing that too as soon as I get my other laptop up and running.
Hey, so I was more conscious of being natural so to speak and I did find that I landed more flat rolling the balls of the feet. Maybe I was trying to go too fast before or confusing technique with full out sprints or whatever. Also, how do tempos relate to increased or stablilizing speed. Is it a neurological pattern or fiber firing up? Thanks in advance all.
question: Why can’t tempo be done after a speed workout? Is tempo basically just conditioning?
Tempo has little to do with speed development. It serves two main functions: 1) to develop general fitness, and 2) to act as active recovery from the speed work. The gentle rhythmic action of the tempo work helps flush the muscles.
You could conceivably do a little tempo after speed work as a cool down I guess. But if you’re trying to get everything in on the same day it’s going to produce some problems. One is that you will have an uneven distribution of work over the week. Even with the reduced CNS demands, doing a full volume of tempo after speed work is a lot to do on one day, and then doing nothing the next day would represent a rather large swing in workload from day to day. Because of that it is also unlikely you would be able to perform the full volume of tempo consistently. Alternating high and low intensity day to day, rather than all on one day and nothing the next, provides a more even distribution and variation of work for the body over time.
A second problem relates to the recovery effects of tempo. If you watch The Jane Project video, Charlie mentions that recovery methods are more effective if you apply them during the upswing of the recovery cycle rather than trying to reduce the downswing. This naturally implies that as a recovery method, tempo will have a greater benefit the next day when the body begins to recover from the previous day’s speed work.
Is that the question you were asking?
not sure how accurate this is, but tom green seems to do both same day -> http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/tomgreen.htm
So does doing tempo kick your guys butt while doing it? I know I am sucking air and it is intense while doing it. I am so happy today as I was able to do 2 sets of 4 tempos today. ( 2x100+100+100+100). That is an accomplishment for me. But I do feel the need to stretch, try and get some massage and do some contrast. Thanks all
It may feel like work when you are doing it, but if you feel more fatigued the next day, then you need to either build your capacity or dial down the intensity, or both.
The low intensity general work like tempo will make you huff and puff and sweat like a pig while you’re doing it, but an hour or two later you’re fine.
In contrast, the high intensity training usually doesn’t feel like you’re working that hard because there isn’t much endurance involved, with some exceptions (i.e. SE). But a couple hours later it will start hitting you. That’s what usually gets most people in trouble. They don’t stop the high intensity work until they start to feel it. Way too late.
Summary:
Low intensity work: significant acute fatigue, little if any residual fatigue later.
High intensity work: little if any acute fatigue (ideally), significant residual fatigue for a few days.
Note: Everything is high intensity if you’re not used to it. So start easy no matter what it is.
Thanks guys, I really appreciate your responses and helping me.
ok, so here is another question i am having. If I do the tempos too slowly (under 60%), will I be training or making myself to run slow? Example. long slow runs slow down your top speed. Thanks all.
The only danger with tempo is doing it too fast.
If you do it slow, then it will be easily handled by your slow-twitch muscles and thus shouldn’t have a negative impact on your speed.
However, if you do it too fast, then your fast twitch muscles might need to be recruited to help out and this could potentially cause fiber down-conversion over the long term.
Also danger in doing too much!!! Most people shouldn’t have to go over 1500.
what are the negative side effects if the volume is too high? if someone does the 2200m circuit then they are already well over the 1500 u r recommending
Answer your own question, go out and perform 2000m of tempo 3x per week and report back.
i have been… and i’d rather have someone warn me of what bad things could happen as opposed to experiencing them first hand…
You get tired and can’t recover then proceed to suck. Start with ~1000m then move up.
Ben Johnson and the rest of Charlie’s top sprinters routinely performed 2000m+ tempo 3x/week and it certainly didn’t hurt their speed. But they built up to that. You don’t begin there. The key is management of CNS workload. If you keep the tempo work below 75% of best time there should be no significant CNS fatigue. The danger is running it too fast rather than too slow.
I think one of the major problems most people have with tempo work is that it’s not incorporated properly. If you don’t have a tempo foundation, that’s where you need to begin (to the right of the F/T curve), not with speed work. That’s probably one of the biggest mistakes I made, and I know I’m not alone on that point. Lay the tempo/general fitness foundation first. If you are not properly conditioned for tempo, it will wipe you out, especially if you try to ramp up the volume too quickly. Tempo is quite challenging when you first begin it. It only becomes low intensity recovery work after your general fitness levels are in place. If you begin with high intensity work first and then try to incorporate tempo after the fact, the fatigue from tempo will hamper your HI elements until general fitness is established.