RB34
August 2, 2010, 4:46pm
40
That’s the key we are not Ben Johnson or Gatlin, normal people like us don’t need 2000m 3x per week. You can get all the benefits of tempo by keeping the volume =<1500m.
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. 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.