Dave Wottle wrote:
Speedwork is not bad, you should at least touch on speed in your training all year round. But the anaerobic system only takes 4-6 weeks to completely develop, so if you do hard anerobic workouts too early, then you run the risk of peaking early and becoming stale.
This answers your question but to give you more depth as to what you may be looking for i will share my phases for this track season. its based on 800-1500 meter runners but can easily be adjusted up or down. this is based on this season and when the guys came back from XC.
Weeks
1-2 Intro- very easy and light running
3-4 Base- easy running and returning to normal mileage
5-7 Base- easy running with reintroducing workouts back. very easy workouts. "rustbusters" for every system.
8-11 Base/Power- Increasing mileage but adding short hill sprints (6-10secs) and hill reps (45-90secs) with long recs on both. Each every 7-10 days and Threshold runs the same.
12-16 PreComp/Speed Endurance- Working longer reps, intervals of sustained, controled effort (ie: 8x400, 5x1k) weekly and thresholds every other week
17-21 Comp/Race Specific- Short recoveries. Mixed intervals to simulate the race needs. (ie: 2x4x400 or ladders of something like 1k, 800, 6, 4, 3, 2, 2)
22-25 Championships/Taper
and of course strides are always in the mix. intensities and amount are adjusted throughout the season.
hope this gives you a good idea of how to use speed in the season. It's basics (although it's been refined) have worked for many sub2 guys and got one guy down to 1:52 in HS