INSIDE THE TEAM: training theory with coach Tim Moriau
2016_eliteA short explanation with the training schedule of Isaac Kimeli, Simon Debognies and Thomas De Bock as a practical example.
Below you will find a representation of what Isaac, Simon and Thomas already trained in 2016. All three had a long rest period. For example, they significantly reduced their volumes in December and January in order to calmly digest the exams and the European Championship cross.
At the start of the season we had already made the choice not to put everything on the Joker + Crosscup, but to focus on the summer season. So no altitude training or full training, but a planned rest period to slowly resume the build-up to summer. Perhaps this puts the lesser achievements of Isaac (Rotselaar) and Thomas (Hannut) into perspective for some. BK Cross is also only an intermediate goal for which they did virtually nothing of specific work. Life is about making choices, otherwise the story won't last until the end!
2016_dour_isaac Also striking is the relatively low volumes that they run compared to most athletes. I do not believe in the rapid advance of athletes, but in a patient multi-year plan in which you do not skip steps. It is better to train less sharply at the beginning of your career and avoid injuries. An injury quickly gives you a loss of x weeks, in short, the lesser kilometers will always yield a profit against the overtrained athletes who sustain an injury time and time again; Not to mention the mental puffs ...
The trick is to tailor schedules and workouts to the athletes' level and give their bodies time to adjust. It is important to give the right incentives at the right time and to vary enough over the years.
In the meantime, I am 2016_dour_thomas that I have been able to work with several top athletes. One tendency was very noticeable in all these athletes: all of them naturally had an (too) strong anaerobic capacity and they fell short in terms of aerobic capacity.
What many people forget (or don't know?) Is that your aerobic energy system is the predominant energy system at 1500m and is therefore much more important than your anaerobic energy system in the early stages of athletes' careers. Only when your aerobic capacity & power are sufficiently strong do I find it useful to start training the anaerobic system. Physiologically this is easy to explain because your aerobic energy system can convert part of the produced lactic acid (*) back into aerobic energy. Simply put: the better your body learns to convert part of the lactate into aerobic energy, the more energy you will be able to generate during your effort and the longer you will be able to run at a certain speed.
In practice, however, I see the exact opposite. Many athletes train their anaerobic energy system excessively, which will increase the imbalance between them and their performance will deteriorate and deteriorate over time.
* For the purists and academics: I have explained it here in a simplistic way so that it is clear to everyone, including those without any knowledge.
Legend with explanation of training:
Recovery duration run
Main goal to recover from heavier training stimuli or competitions.
Smooth endurance run
I consider it a quiet incentive to improve aerobic capacity.
Tempoloop
Just like the quiet endurance run, this endurance run is an incentive to improve aerobic capacity. With these runs, however, the athlete runs a little smoother towards the end, so the stimulus is somewhat "more intensive" than the quiet endurance run.
T2
Heaviest incentive to improve aerobic capacity without aiming for high lactate values, as the abbreviation says towards tempo 2mmol.
T4
Training incentive to improve the aerobic power (direct effect on improving performance) of the athletes. These are all tempo workouts above 2.5 and below 6 lactate. Depending on the type of athlete and the level of the athlete, the anaerobic threshold will be higher or lower. The 4mmol is only a reference, but in many cases often not the exact anaerobic threshold.
Race
Number of kilometers the athletes cover in competition form. (All cross in this case)
Anc
Anaerobic capacity training, of course, serves to improve anaerobic capacity. In this case it was distances of 100m where they had to cover the distances at a fast pace with long rest in between. Since they were still training in winter, they did not have to do this to the maximum, in addition to stimulating the anaerobic capacity, the aim was mainly to insert a few smoother faster pieces according to running technique. Isaac did not do this as he just came back from a minor injury.
In addition to all these training forms, w