If you cut Mileage by 25% but improve Sprinting, You will become faster at every distance

That is the well-known Paavolainen paper on explosive strength training. In that paper, they had a group of subjects (competitive runners) with ~18 min 5K times reduce running volume by 25% and replace that volume with explosive strength training (including plyos and weights lifted rapidly, not just sprinting). They improved performance in 5K by roughly 30 seconds.

But that was 5K. That may or may not translate to a marathon or distances much longer than 5K.

coach d wrote:

That is the well-known Paavolainen paper on explosive strength training. In that paper, they had a group of subjects (competitive runners) with ~18 min 5K times reduce running volume by 25% and replace that volume with explosive strength training (including plyos and weights lifted rapidly, not just sprinting). They improved performance in 5K by roughly 30 seconds.

But that was 5K. That may or may not translate to a marathon or distances much longer than 5K.

Do you have a good link for that study? I've seen it mentioned in the past, and have always wondered what specific plyo and weight exercises they used in the study.

Thanks.

coach d wrote:

That is the well-known Paavolainen paper on explosive strength training. In that paper, they had a group of subjects (competitive runners) with ~18 min 5K times reduce running volume by 25% and replace that volume with explosive strength training (including plyos and weights lifted rapidly, not just sprinting). They improved performance in 5K by roughly 30 seconds.

But that was 5K. That may or may not translate to a marathon or distances much longer than 5K.

Yeah, all those studies with their "well trained 18 min 5k runners"...

coach d wrote:

That is the well-known Paavolainen paper on explosive strength training. In that paper, they had a group of subjects (competitive runners) with ~18 min 5K times reduce running volume by 25% and replace that volume with explosive strength training (including plyos and weights lifted rapidly, not just sprinting). They improved performance in 5K by roughly 30 seconds.

But that was 5K. That may or may not translate to a marathon or distances much longer than 5K.

Sounds like the experimental group was training harder in general.

Logic is fun... wrote:

Do you have a good link for that study? I've seen it mentioned in the past, and have always wondered what specific plyo and weight exercises they used in the study.

Thanks.

It is surprising that in order to run faster one must at some point run fast.

I'm sure the study mentioned this (didn't read the whole thing), but you can't just say to cut mileage by 25%...depends on where the mileage is. If you are only running 5 miles a week, you likely need to run more distance.

Also, let's not forget that distance running (base training) is what helps strengthen everything in preparation for the late season speed work.