My last combo workout

When you do a high force activity like hills, your body needs to recruit more muscle fibers to complete the activity. So it makes sense that a relatively low-force activity like a threshold pace would feel easier as your body is using more fibers to do a lower-force pace. Doing short, fast reps before a threshold sounds like a great way to train a greater variety of muscle fibers as well as just breaking up the monotony of threshold runs.

Yes I think along the same lines.

I have read somewhere that one can do 5x10s hill sprints in the start of a long run to get such an effect. But curious if someone have some knowledge to back it up.

"Subsequent per-formance in an 800 m time-trial was 1 % faster when a race-pace effort was included, with pacing differences in the latter part of the effort. It appears that completion of at least one race-pace effort (of at least 25 % of the distance to be raced) is necessary to sufficiently prime runners for a middle-distance event"

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/282153814

Generally, some race-like efforts are needed to be at your peak. I have used strides to prepare for longer distance races to feel ready. It is nothing special really, other than that it also feels activated even after a lot more of high intensity prior work.

I will experiement with some hard short efforts prior to or at the start of thresholds and in general for rep-work.

The better performance, the faster paces, the more adaptations, I guess

I have seen it done, but it is usually at (slow) tempo. Not sure you want to run yourself to the ground....

Did 3x15s hill strides in the WU a couple of minutes before the start of the 1k threshold reps. Felt OK/normal, but I did easily run the first rep 5s faster than averages pace of today. But I normally run faster the first rep anyway due to being used to just 20s jog rest between my threshold reps.

I couldn’t tell you the scientific reasoning for it, I think muscle fiber recruitment like someone else said is a large part of it.

Very easy to think of it this way...

Running at fast speeds without exerting too much effort will leave you accustomed to that speed.

That’s why people do strides before workouts, many coaches do 200s before a workout to get people used to running fast.

For the people I help coach I always have them do 2x200 at mile pace before a race.

yessirskiii wrote:

I couldn’t tell you the scientific reasoning for it, I think muscle fiber recruitment like someone else said is a large part of it.

Very easy to think of it this way...

Running at fast speeds without exerting too much effort will leave you accustomed to that speed.

That’s why people do strides before workouts, many coaches do 200s before a workout to get people used to running fast.

For the people I help coach I always have them do 2x200 at mile pace before a race.

Yes, good advice. I think I will stick to the idea that some short and fast pre workout could activate more muscles to increase adaptation and increase pace slightly. Anyway, it won't hurt.

Yeah, it's a very well known fact in lifting that a maximal effort or even supra-maximal effort (negative) will boost a number of reps for your subsequent sub-maximal effort. You prime your nervous system and activate some motor units that would not get activated otherwise. Same with running. One drawback is that your efficiency is going to suffer, so for longer races you don't really want to activate those faster-twitch fibers until the later stages. For workout, it's a non-issue.

Darby wrote:

Yeah, it's a very well known fact in lifting that a maximal effort or even supra-maximal effort (negative) will boost a number of reps for your subsequent sub-maximal effort. You prime your nervous system and activate some motor units that would not get activated otherwise. Same with running. One drawback is that your efficiency is going to suffer, so for longer races you don't really want to activate those faster-twitch fibers until the later stages. For workout, it's a non-issue.

Yes, I picked that up somewhere lately, that too much activation in warmup before races is detrimental. Some is good, For training it would just be great to increase the active muscle fibres and increase adaptation

I think the second tempo is faster because you weren't warmed up enough for the first one. The first tempo and short sprints were more warm-up than wear out. There may also be a little mental factor in that you can push yourself harder when you know you are finished (like a kick in the 1500 is often the fastest 300 meters).

I would start by focusing on 'core exercises'. These work your abs, obliques, hip flexors, and back muscles around the waist, and I've found them highly effective for tightening up 'dad bod'. Once you see everything becoming 'sculpted', then you can add work to bulk up selected areas. Maybe some work with weights, sticking to lower weight but with high rep count (chest press, fly), and perhaps some cycling for leg muscles. Also I love to combine them with cario like https://careyourbodynow.com/7-belly-fat-burning-workouts-you-can-do-at-home/

"Train lactate clearance"

"Feeling more activated"

"Prime the legs more actively."

"Recruit more muscle fibers"

"Increase adaption"

"prime your nervous system and activate some motor units"

"Push yourself harder when you know you are finished"

"Once you see everything becoming 'sculpted', then you can add work to bulk up selected areas."

"Tightening up dad bod"

"You don't really want to activate those faster-twitch fibers until the later stages"

So what sport are we discussing? "Dad bod" is my favorite.

Yup, OP needs to do some endurance training.

Endurance Daddy. Use it or lose it.

I think that such a training program is suitable for my body. Just six months ago, my goal was to improve my muscle mass and build a well-defined physique. I don't remember exactly on most likely on https://www.drworkout.fitness/workout-programs/bodybuilding/ I found a training program thanks to which I gained 10 kg of muscle mass.

Interesting, I too often run home after workouts.

However, my heart rate is usually elevated well above normal. Therefore, if I take my heart rate up to threshold, my pace is well below threshold pace.

Not sure what this means for me, in terms of training effect?