87#][p78o6ijthg wrote:
In my experience as a 5000m sub-elite/county medallist 3000/5000m British athlete, who moved to Germany and then The Netherlands mid career, there was far too little emphasis on speed compared to typical British training in those countries. I have never ran so slow on the track, in fact I was encouraged to run slowly. Endless slow laps with the emphasis on holding the exact same slow pace the whole way. I have no idea what they were supposed to achieve. I ended up training on my own to a programme set by a UK coach. I can understand why those countries now produce so few top athletes.
The standard British club set up emphasises speed, speed endurance and having fun for child athletes. The speed endurance is gradually increased with harder workouts and supplemented by cross country in the winter. Jake Wightman comes from a background of running track and cross country from a young age. In 2008, for example, as an under 15 athlete, he ran in eight 1500m races on the track and 9 cross country races. It seems that he actually came from a general endurance background and then worked on his speed.
Seb Coe Progression
16yr8mo…..1:56.0
18yr9mo……1:53.8
19yr8mo……1:53.0
19yr9mo……1:50.7
19yr11mo…..1:47.7
20yr10mo….1:46.8
20yr11mo…..1:46.3
21yr0mo…..1:44.95
21yr11mo…..1:44.25
22yr0mo…..1:43.97
22yr10mo…1:42.33
So what is the kind of training that takes a 1:56 16yr-old kid to a 1:42.x 22yr-old adult? The kind of training that will burn a guy out with illness and injury? Maybe.
But oh what might have been, if only he had instead stuck to 2-3mmol double-threshold training all of those years? Or maybe if only he had tacked on an additional 40miles/week of easy running to his already arduous program?