Who is “V”

I've had the pleasure to talk with Coach Holler a few times. I've stolen ideas from him quite often. His "X Factor" stuff is really worth looking into if you want some extra supplemental work for just about any athlete.

We don't really have the luxury to follow all of his stuff to a T, but if I coached sprinters it's probably the way I'd gear 80-90% of our work

I thought I picked up on a similar vibe. I think his approach to keeping athletes hungry and "not burning the steak" and "minimum effective dose" are especially valuable when looking at speed-side 800 peeps, although it conveys to all events. I have been thriving since I adopted a lot of his views. And yeah the X-factor stuff is a fun, regenerative form of play while developing key elements of speed and athleticism. No doubt your athletes are benefitting big time, as are mine.

A volume of Velocity at vo2 max for vicious victory.

He does a better job of it than I do. I still have to remind myself to take the step back and trust that enough is enough for a lot of those things. Sprinting I'm good with keeping tame. I worked with a sprint coach few years ago that I consider one of the best in the country look over my shoulder on a lot of those things and it was a huge help for me to have someone more knowledgeable in that world spot checking out volumes and giving suggestions on how to dial it to our distance athletes

Hey V, questions about 400/800 training:

How much volume should acceleration stuff have? Is something like 2x3x60 too much or too little volume?
How much of a part do aerobic runs play in 400/800 training? Are long runs still done? What is the average weekly mileage for a high school 400/800 runner?

Additionally, do you have any resources for 400/800 training you can recommend?

Thank you!

I know I'm not adding anything useful, but I thoroughly enjoy all of V's posts. I've incorporated a lot of what he has said into my own training program and I've found it very beneficial. Thank you for all the quality posts and sharing your knowledge

Thank you for pointing me in the right direction regarding speed development. Hope you have a fantastic New Year!

Will you ever tell us who you really are? I’m sooo curious as are some others!

Isn't it obvious? It's Chris Solinsky. Valbymania!!

His full name is V ‘O Tumax, appears to be of Irish origin.

OP, could you please share some of these threads? The only one that I am familiar with is the 5x60m thread.

That volume is fine for speed development, I only go higher than that when we start focusing on speed endurance

The 400/800 can be tricky to pin down. It seems to really be split between two groups:

1) The genuine runners that are actually competitive in the 400m and the 800m (rare) and;

2) The 800m runners that just can't (or don't want to) run longer than 2 laps

The guys that are actually 800m runners that can also score in the 400m or be in the 4x400m don't need to put much emphasis on aerobic runs. They'd get their aerobic capacity from other workouts. I had a few a little while back that would do 400's and 500's with short rest at about LT when everyone else was doing their long runs. Their easy days we'd sometimes have them do intensive/extensive tempo days with the sprinters. At most they'd have 1-2 relatively short aerobic runs a week. Clyde Hart's training plans are kind of the realm you want to be operating in.

For that second group, I think you still need to keep mileage days in there. It might be toned down and occasionally swapped with what I mentioned for group 1, but these runners usually aren't fast enough to train like sprinters and get away with it.

As far as mileage goes, I'd first just find the blend of workouts and volume that you can see results from and then every year just take a small step higher. Mileage takes a back seat to workouts when that's what you're really using to drive those energy system adaptations.

Probably not. It's mainly an NCAA thing. Once I'm a coach attached to a school then writing in a forum where we could be encountering recruits becomes a red flag as it should be. I wouldn't want to overstep that line and turn any writing I do into ad advertisement to run for me.

I'm not some legendary coach divulging the great secrets of the running world, I just happen to like talking shop and writing about this stuff.

Got to have periodization in your training no matter what to peak correctly. If you want or like doing alternations as a threshold workout thats great but I would still rotate with others like tempo runs, cruise intervals etc. Keep the body guessing and adapting. You could have a three week rotation of types of threshold workouts. And again doing something fast at the end like suggested (eg 4-6x200(200m jog)).

When in (ancient) Rome it would be pronounced quinque (queenkway)

I've assumed it is Vin Lannanna (sp?)

It's JV.

V,

Thank you for all that your contribute to the boards.

Would you be able to share how you’ve balanced sprint work with high mileage runners? You talk about it a bit in the 6x50m thread but you also mention that how you do things has changed. What is the max amount you would have somebody run before doing something like short hill sprints? I know Renato often schedules them after a 40 min PM run when the athlete has done a 60 min run in the morning this seems like it would be too much slower running prior to a sprint session. Would something like 4-6 miles, drills and hill sprints in the AM + 4-6 miles in the PM be okay?

Thanks for your responses! I have a couple more questions for now:

1: How does your maximum all out speed factor in to how fast you can run for an 800/1600. It is not raising your anaerobic capacity cause it’s to short to do that. Yet developing your maximum velocity is obviously very important. Basically, what does development of your all out speed actually do for you scientifically for mid distance events. Like scientifically, how is it making you run faster times?

2: What is your opinion on LEGAL supplements in running for nutrition and/or making you run faster? What ones do you recommend?