to winter of malmo or a more traditional base?

want to get fasterrr wrote:

So I was wondering what people thought of for basing up for spring track season. I was thinking I either do the "summer of malmo" pretty much 2 workouts a week (1 repeat fast stuff 300 and under and 1 tempo stuff). Of course when i do do these workouts I always go by feel and not time. bc time is not important during the base. Also would it be wise to start these workout immediately after my break?

Or I could do a normal base of just easy running, building up mileage with threshold and hills thrown in the mix.

I'm more of a strength runner so I think incorporating the summer of malmo stuff into my training will benefit me more. My goal is faster times across 800-5k.

while the fast stuff does benefit you, youve got to remember that your gonna be doing workouts from january to late may (or june if youre fast)

Ive always found I ran best when i just focused on mileage strides, the occasional threshold, and weights/core over the break

you wont race as fast in january but youll have a lot more gas left in may

I remember there was a tread a while back. discussing this issue. It was malmo training vs lynard training for base and which was better. I don't remember what the outcome was. Anyone remember this?

want to get fasterrr wrote:

I remember there was a tread a while back. discussing this issue. It was malmo training vs lynard training for base and which was better. I don't remember what the outcome was. Anyone remember this?

Was it a retread?

want to get fasterrr wrote:

I remember there was a tread a while back. discussing this issue. It was malmo training vs lynard training for base and which was better. I don't remember what the outcome was. Anyone remember this?

Is that Lynard, as in, Lynard Skynard training? Does that include copius amounts of whiskey and tobacco spitting?

mighty porn stache wrote:

Is that Lynard, as in, Lynard Skynard training? Does that include copius amounts of whiskey and tobacco spitting?

you must have been so excited when you thought of that joke

i think so im not 100% sure. but the tread got off topic bc ppl started arguing back and forth.

The "summer of malmo" philosophy doesn't really deviate from traditional base-building by very much. Even the fast stuff is supposed to be relaxed, so it's really just a structured fartlek workout (which Lydiard prescribed once per week anyways). Most guys I know do some sort of high-end aerobic work during their base-building phase. Heck, John Kellogg says you should do 2-3 sets of 3-5 strides twice a week--that sounds a heck of a lot like a Summer of Malmo-type "fast" workout to me.

Generally, it's good to get a few weeks of easy running in before you start anything fast. Daniels recommends this in all of his programs, and it's just a wise and prudent thing to do. Even if you take two weeks off now, it'll still be November when you start back up! PLENTY of time until May (or June or whenever your big track season is).