This topic has been mentioned before in the past on this forum, but i am just wondering what members opinion would be if instead of doing one full tempo workout a day e.g 2000m. If one could split up that workout into two short 1000m sessions done in the morning and afternoon. Would there be any additional benefits per se.
Anything is possible, provided you have a good reason to do so. Keep in mind that 2000m tempo in a single workout will have a different impact on cardio than a split 2000m over a day.
What differences would one see?
2000m over two sessions is not as “hard” aerobically as one full session.
My group did 1200m of ExT on Friday morning. This was due to our facility being unavailable in the afternoon. It was a quick and relatively easy session for all of them. They could have easily returned in the afternoon and repeated the same session, though I’m sure they would have thought that I was nuts.
By contrast they did 2200m of ExT on Wednesday afternoon at our normal practice time and found the session to be challenging. Same target times, same recoveries and more awake.
From experience I view ExT in the 1000-1500m range to best viewed as a form of recovery for even moderately talented + fit athletes. Sessions 2000m+ are for increasing aerobic capacity or power, even for reasonably accomplished athletes. Just my 2 cents.
My understanding is tempo runs are used for improving aerobic capacity, general conditioning and recovery. You want the athletes to maintain a certain speed (e.g. 60%) and generally not encourage them to go faster that that. By splitting the session, the athletes might be keen to run faster pace and also the additional impact of getting warmed up twice, defeats the purpose of it being a recovery session. In case you are keen on two sessions / day an option might be to have the first session as the running one and the second one being the Medicine Ball core strength one.
I agree with most of your statement above, I think for a pure short sprinter tempo volume in 900-1000 meter range can develop aerobic power esp if you are using long reps for example 3-4x300 with 3min rest at 75%.
Charlie and PJ,
Interesting points mentioned. Would be very interested in hearing your thoughts on this:
What long term effects would be seen if athlete A followed a 10x300 tempo and athlete B followed a 3x10x100 tempo program?
I mix all sorts of distances with my soccer players to eliminate boredom really (similar to above). Our goal is 4000-5000m/session 3x week the last month prior to reporting to camp.
And for palyer of Futsal volume 1400-1800 is good?100 and 200 mt?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futsal
For someone like me who sit behind a desk all day I think it would be good with two sessions instead of one.
It’s not like you need a warm-up program for a tempo session.
Instead of running two times I would do a short tempo in the morning, then play volleyball or basketball at the evening. Same same, but different.
Is it really necessary to warm up for a tempo session? For all intents and purposes, i suppose you could say the easy run thoughs or strides, i perform at the onset of a warm up for a speed workout, is what would already be considered tempo. So why warm up for an activity that is already of low intensity? Hope i made some sense. Anyway are there any thoughts on this?
Low intensity doesn’t mean it is easy.
Also, typically the day after a speed day, you will be stiff and may take longer to warm-up on tempo day than for speed days.
As a general rule: Do what you have to do. If you don’t need it; don’t do it.
For a minimal warm-up I would jog one or two laps to get the body temperature up and roll the joints so that they will move more easily.
Maybe some stretching is needed if you are stiff.
Personally I like to do some sprint drills too, like a,b skip and a-running. It feels like I have a better running posture after doing those.
Generally I’m a bit split about warm-up.
I think that warming up is very important, especially before high intense work, like a meet.
But sometimes I think it takes time and focus away from the real work.
Theoretically I think some light stretching and some walking would be good enough for any session.
Charlie Francis on Warm Ups:
http://www.charliefrancis.com/?p=137
Yes it is necessary. Although you don’t have to get them as warm, but making sure the athletes are loose is crucial, you don’t want them catching a cramp from any various amount of things that could occur when not warmed up efficiently. Plus the warm up reinforces technique.
But you must remember to include the warm up when doing total number of meters done per session. But I do see your plight considering that the warm ups do seem boring, a drag, and monotonous; so in that respect I agree with you.