Skuj wrote:
Back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, I did 12x100m with 60sec rest almost every week. And look how I turned out.
I'm pretty sure that Coe was a fan of 100m runs.
This doesn't need to be a sprint session. I'd say we should be talking 800m race pace or slightly faster. The rests could be 30sec.
Or it can be hills (mild incline) with jogbacks, of course.
What's wrong with 100m repeats? Why "must" it be 200m+ for most distance runners?
Discus.
On a more serious note, I think this is what Mihaly Igloi would do with his runners. Also, Zatopek would do work like this, although he often would get up to repeat 400s.
I think there is no love because many folks have moved to high mileage at Z2 (five Zone range) coupled with a mix of threshold for strength and some 400s for speed sharpening.
Still, I coach my two kiddos and I plan to try using Igloi's 100 meter repeats of this stripe (at 800 meter Race Pace; 10 meter walk turn to turn around for rest between; longer rest between sets) this summer for one of my kids who is more speed-based.
The other is a 9th grade half-marathon/ultra-marathon runner with her mother (who does half marathons, marathons, and ultra races herself). The high mileage/sharpening approach has worked well for her and she is more of a strength/endurance runner.
But for my younger, video-game playing boyo, the smaller chunks may be better. Attention span and all. (Plan to keep some weekend longer runs for him with me. Longer being 35 to 45 minutes, so not *really* long, TBH.)
We'll see how it goes.