colder and wiser wrote:
Outside of the marathon special block, periodization really isn't part of NSM. It's just building up and then sustaining the same workouts each week over a long time horizon. People have latched onto that as a weakness, but it's also a critical part of what makes the system work.
That's the only thing about NSM I somewhat disagree with.
If your A race isn't a marathon but a 5K, why shouldn't implement a small special block for that once or twice a year? Doesn't have to be much but 3-5 "x-factor" workouts over the course of 6-10 weeks where you switch the 10x3 against a fast 30x45/15 or whatever seems reasonable to me and barely impacts load. (Or drop the long run after x-factor, and load is probably the same or less.)
Only speaking from my own experience obviously, but I did three parkruns over the course of 6 weeks on vanilla NSM last summer and the first one felt mediocre at best, the second one a bit better, and the third one was ~50 seconds faster and at a lower average HR.
I'm well into my 40s though -- maybe younger people can handle faster race paces easier without practicing them.