Shock Workouts...

The endurance of Australia´s Herb Elliott, the 1960 Olympic 1500m Champion was perhaps even more impressive. By 18 years of age he had run the 35 miles from Portsea to Frankston. Later due to the demands of his studies and work he often followed a weekly routine that comprised rest days on Monday and Friday, easy to steady 10 mile runs on Tuesday and Thursday, a very fast 2.5 to 5 mile run on Wednesday and a 60 mile (100 km) weekend at Portsea. The 60 mile weekend was composed of long steady to fast continuous runs, intense 30 metre sandhill repetitions, hard 800m and 1 mile repetitions around sandy trails adjacent to Cerutty´s camp plus weight lifting, swimming in the rugged Portsea surf.

Should add that I felt even better the following weekend, so go hard one weekend, spend a few days recovering, come back with a few quality workouts in your taper and then race 2 weekends after doing the crash training.

So.... hammer yourself but allow for full recovery... Sounds like it could be pretty effective. Could one apply this to an entire team or would it be better on a one to one basis. Again, I'm not asking for my team, coach pretty much has us wrapped up, but I'm just throwing out hypothetical situations. Would it be better to just take your top runner and hammer him, or let the whole team do it. What are your thoughts?

The process of shock-training works for all. However, it's important to keep in mind that the training that shocks one running and causes a super-compensatory response in his/her body could possibly lead to a crash-and-burn response in another runner. Take the knowledge ? based on sound, scientific studies, and contexualize it properly for each runner. All women and men are not made equal when it comes to bodies.

In short, let the whole team hammer away, but let them hammer wisely.