"Peaking" at the end of the season and dropping mileage??,??

Just wondering if your workouts have changed dramatically during this time. Are you doing shorter faster stuff? Because I was doing about 80 in season last year, and during peak cut back to 60. However I felt like crap when adding in the shorter stuff, because I'd take it too fast for me.

This year, I was doing around 90 in the season, and again have cut back to 60. All my races have been faster but I have taken these shorter workouts slightly slower than last year and now I feel amazing.

I have introduced shorter faster stuff. I did my fastest workout of the season on Wednesday. Though it was very fast, it was VERY controlled and it felt VERY good. In the past, I think I may have pushed fast stuff TOO hard, more like racing it. This season I have been focusing on running controlled, and though some of my teammates "beat me" in workouts, I'm the top guy on the team. (I have wejo's article "Why I sucked in college" to thank for this, so thanks Wejo)!

Sorry, your coach is an idiot. Cutting back to under 60 for three weeks?

Why the hell would you do that?

And what was the volume of your faster workouts - shorter?

coach simmons from virginia intermont is a big proponent of NOT cutting back mileage a whole lot. Aerobically, he thinks it hurts you, and the coach at Kentucky basically says the same. I'll tell you this, I cut my mileage back for conference and felt completely awful. Sluggish wouldn't even begin to describe it. I bumped it back up to 70 the week of regionals and pr'ed by over 30 seconds and felt ridiculously good. At this point, now that I'm coaching, I don't cut their mileage back a whole lot, I just tone the workouts down.

I can't believe I am saying this, but there's actually a relevant article in Runners World, at least online. They quote both Gilmore and Sell on tapering less and feeling better for it.

http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-238-244--12123-0,00.html

maybe that PR was a result of the easier (reduced mileage) week of conference. In my experience it often takes the body more than one week to really respond to adjustments in training like weekly volume OR weekly intensity. Some people take 3 weeks of slightly lower volume, some two, some 4 or 5 depending on the person and their training/background.

I've found that a gradual increase (a couple miles a week) over a span of a month or so works best

perhaps that is the smartest way to train - no need for the supercompensation principle at all - just keep building slowly, always stronger, never in a hole. Of course, then you don't get stronger very fast.

All of the coaches I have had have been big believers in cutting weekly mileage and doing shorter, and sometimes faster intervals and it has never worked for me. What has worked, however, is keeping weekly mileage close to the same(probably a little lower due to a very easy day before the race) and decreasing the intensity slightly.

If you have been running good during the season, why change things drastically and possibly screw up the schedule your body is used to? I also don't see a point in some of the shorter speed sessions I have heard and seen coaches had at the end of the season. There is no need for really short intervals done at almost a sprint. Doing stuff like that will just make your legs feel like crap for the race.

shadow puppet wrote:

I've found that a gradual increase (a couple miles a week) over a span of a month or so works best

sorry, I meant a gradual DECREASE of a few miles a week for the last few weeks of a season

When I cut back for big races I only cut two days before. 20% less than normal two before and 25% less the day before. Seems to help me more this way than when I cut back for weeks. I try to keep my mileage consistant throughout the entire season and gradually increase intensity towards the end, not cutting miles.

this is how i feel right now, it's kind of like i don't even have a choice...

i ran around 70 mpw all summer, had some great races and PRed a couple of times at the beginning of the year running 55-60 with hard workouts, but now our coach has cut us back to 45 2 weeks ago, 40 last week, and this week is a 35-40 scheduled. We have state on the 10th of November

I hope my legs don't feel sluggish because I feel as though I run my better races without a taper, and it would be a shame if my state race goes bad because i drop to nearly half of my weekly mileage i did a month or so ago.

But coach has cut our morning runs and said we should do an 8 miler instead of the normal 12-15 miler i do on sundays.

what do you think i should dooooooo?

Coach Retard wrote:

Sorry, your coach is an idiot. Cutting back to under 60 for three weeks?

Why the hell would you do that?

And what was the volume of your faster workouts - shorter?

First of all, my coach is NOT a retard! I think you misunderstood what I was saying (or maybe I wasn't clear). He doesn't want me to cut back to under 60 for 3 weeks. He wanted a drop over a 3 week period from the normal 70 to 65, 60, then 52-55 the last week.

The volume of the workout I recently did was interesting. We did a 2k, 1600, 1200, 800, 400 with 3min recovery after the 2k, 2:30 rec after the 1600, 2 mins after the 1200, and 1 min after the 800. Splits were: 6:02, 4:44, 3:26, 2:16, 65. The workout was on the track so it was a little faster, but it was very controlled (at least for me, a few teammates were pushing hard and running a TAD faster).

After today I will have gotten in 72 miles for the week (only supposed to get in 65) and next week I plan to do about the same.

I have found similar responses to cutting my mileage back after doing high volume. I felt sluggish, tired and almost "overtrained". Why this is, I don't know; however, what I have found is that a profound decrease in volume many weeks out before competition may be a beter strategy then cutting back the week of or two weeks before.

Say if your average volume is 100 mpw, counting down, week 6 and week 5 may be the rest weeks, perhaps reducing to 50- 60 miles with easy aerobic running and perhaps one or two sessions at AT ( depending on how trashed the leg muscles feel).

After that resume the high mileage up to the race, making sure that the intensity is tapered back the last week to ten days, with the exception of one short high anaerobic session, two days out. After that stay high easy aerobic mileage and see what happens.