Nomore4s wrote:
For those like Paul Luttrell who are stagnating and looking for ways to increase load or add a different stimulus, has anyone considered adding periodization to the mix?
For example doing small blocks similar to the special marathon block. Where you trade one of the sub T sessions for a session with more intensity and/or more mileage. But only doing it for a 3-4 weeks, then reverting back to vanilla NSM for 5-6 weeks to recover and absorb the training and then repeating the process.
I do something similar leading up to my half marathon races, as I find I run better with some specific work leading up to goal races. These small blocks are manageable because they generally don’t last more than 4 weeks and lead into a 5-7 day taper before the race. It works well for me.
I’m I think a series of these mini blocks could provide some extra load and a different stimulus without absolutely burying yourself, and give you time to recover, absorb and adapt.
I have tried this. In fact, I try for 6 weeks. I traded the Saturday for hard hills. maybe only after 3 weeks I started really to feel bad. Session very much harder, long run became a problem and even by Monday pm I was carrying fatigue. I did run a 5k pb, but I think like somebody else report, I then got worse after. I needed 2 week downtime from NSM and then performance noticeable worse. This is the sort of cycle I look for avoidance and why I did nsm in first place.
Then has taken me around 3 months to build back up to the level of consistency I did before and have just started to again see my faster time in all sub t sessions and beat my 5k again (16:21) and instead of trying intensity I have been adding in two bike days which seems to be more success than the intensity. Make sense as I think on 6-7 hour week that volume is probably still going to create gain. But maybe for me and lifestyle I cannot add too much more running demand.
I think we do not understand sometimes how delicacy the balance is between this method and others. You need be very careful. Quite quick things become unsustainable. The balance is real, especially if your life is extra demands.
Sorry for my bad English.