hallo,
Mr. Canova I am wondering what is the physiologic effect of mixed intervals, or what is the effect of this training.
On Message from mzungo, you posted something about Mo Farah, and you said : He maintained the workouts used before, adding something new, for me very significative :
a) short sprint uphill -
b) long and fast run (the global increase in volume was about 20%) -
c) mixed intervals on track (for example, sets of (2000 + 300) + (1600 + 300) + (1200 + 300) + (800 + 300) + (400 + 300), with 2' recovery between tests inside the same set, and 5' between sets, at pace in altitude of 5'25" - 4'12" -3'06" - 1'58" - 54", with all the 300m between 40" and 41")
You also used mixed intervals with Stephen Cherono and probably with other your athletes aswell, but you used also training like this
20' warm-up - (Track)
5 x 400m in 58" rec. 1 min - (rec. 5'/6')
1 x 1600m in 64" per lap (4'16") - (rec. 5'/6')
5 x 300m in 42" rec. 1 min - (rec. 5'/6')
1 x 1200m in 64" per lap (3'12") - (rec. 5'/6')
5 x 200m in 26" rec. 2 min
Which is mixed intervals, but short intervals are in sets..
So what is the difference between this two workouts, what are effects, and how you decide wheather use first or second. I understand you must use what your athletes needs at the time, but there must be some reason when use first and when second...