Mike smith “T mile” cool down

The hypothesis is that finishing with a threshold mile will help the legs feel better and recover quicker than finishing with a super fast rep on the track. NAZ elite does the same thing. They’ll admit that there isn’t any science to back it up but anecdotally have found that they recover a little quicker by doing so. I’ve tried the same thing after more aggressive 800-1500 type sessions and think that at the very least there is a placebo benefit to it. It’s worth trying out. Just be careful not to dig too deep or run too hard which is tempting at the end of a workout especially after doing some faster stuff.

Or because getting an additional ~5 minutes (slightly under) of aerobic stimulus helps?

We generally always finish with threshold here in Australia. Particularly after quality session when we want a little more volume. It's not special.

I was kinda going to say that. Say your a 5k guy and your doing 8x400 at mile pace. Adding a tempo whether its a mile or more your getting more volume in and more threshold. I have done hill repeats finishing with some short tempo after as well. Lactate must be high and your body is trying to clear it while your running your normal tempo pace. I used to have my high school athletes run 4x400 fast into a 2-3mi tempo and finish with 4-6x200. We only did this 2-3 times during the season replacing our normal tempo run or tempo intervals workout.

I remember hearing Inigo San Millan say that he has his cyclists do a 15(ish) minute cooldown with some tempo after a hard stage. I think the rationale is that lactate clearance peaks around 80% of threshold so adding some tempo begins the clearance/recovery process. It seems like Smith is applying this to running, remember he has his athletes run T well below their actual threshold, with the added benefit of more volume per session.

I’m training for a 10k and a half marathon right now and early on I’m doing smaller sessions like 12x300@5k just for leg turn over, do you think a mile at threshold ish afterwards would be useful?

back in 93 one of my favourite sessions 8-10x1min hill followed by 3 mile threshold on track back at the University Richmond.

Landshark here is a session my elite female (1:09 half pb) did yesterday preparing for 10k Cross country and half in October.

1500m threshold + 3x2k as 300 on 200 float on 8min cycle + 1500m threshold the 300m on was at 2:55-3:00k pace and the float at 3:20-3:30. Now the reason we do a 1500 threshold because that is the length of our grass circuit. The first effort was at 3:19k pace and the last one a 3:13k pace. This is a very manageable workout and based on recent 14k race she is in low 1:08 half shape. For context she beat Sarah Hall by 90 seconds over a half in early July in windy, wet conditions.

Good luck!

I can recall Steve Magness talking about this; I think he referred to it as a "flush".

The reasoning seemed to be that this would better rid the legs of lactate than just a standard plodding cool down, and so recovery time would be reduced to the next workout.

I don't know if it's backed by empirical evidence, but it could be.

Thank you! I appreciate the insight.

For crying out loud.

Based on Olympic results, if Australia is doing it I would prefer to stay far, far away.

bro shut up. Aus are much better at distance running than the US per capita anyway. Aus have 1/13 the population of the US. reply when the US have 13 jess hulls.

What’s Australia’s per capita relative to Norway? Let me know when you have 7 Jakobs?

That's a Jack Daniels thing-

I tried this once and could barely hold marathon pace (~:20 slower than my threshold). Didn;t even go to the well in workout either.

Yes it would be beneficial!

The total volume of that workout, 3600 meters, is pretty low. For faster neuromuscular leg turnover work you wouldn't want a ton of volume. But since it is quicker you would want to allot the appropriate amount of recovery in the day(s) following. However, dedicating a workout day + recovery day(s) to that workout probably wouldn't be the most economic structure for a person training for a half marathon. That's where some threshold work would help.

Maybe even something like: 4x300, mile @threshold, 4x300, mile @threshold, 4x300, mile @threshold. As for the so-called flush toward the end that threshold reps provide, I think it is only really be in play for fast intervals like mile race pace or faster.

Not a lot of science needed here.

Nothing wrong with an up-tempo mile at the end of a track session (repeat 200's, 300's, 400's). It's the simple science of clearing lactate build-up through pushing blood through the muscles. The quicker pace tempo/threshold moves blood through the muscles more efficiently to "flush" out the waste. Follow up with an easy 15-20 min slow jog.

If you're doing 12 x 300 @ 5K for leg turnover, I personally like 16 x 200 @ mile race pace better (200 jog).