I always hear the term "peaking" thrown around with the sport of running. And I've always wondered exactly what "peaking" is? I would like some insight on this is it real or just some made up myth to make people believe that they can really run fast out of nowhere? Is it just a mental trick coaches use to make you feel like you'll run faster?
Peaking is a Jedi mind trick.
In reality you can run the same workout every day, every week and every month and have the same results as someone who builds strength over a certain period and then tweeks speed and then actually rests before a big race.
BS. if you think it is a mind trick then you have never hit a peak or coached someone to hit a peak. its the real deal baby
I have always wondered about this. If I get into a certain shape, and I "peak", if I keep training as hard as I was, I will get slower because I passed the peak?
Peaking is very real. However, it has to be combined with a carboload.
peaking is real - every season there is a two or three week period where I feel in top shape and bulletproof. Then it slowly fades away.
The trick is having that two or three week period coincide with a big race. That takes a good coach.
Peaking isn't a magic track and you're not going to jump into this unreal shape out of nowhere without previously doing the work. I'd say it
Is a combination of a few things, those being: freshening up, increased speed, late season fitness, not overtraining.
After months of handling a full workload, if a coach has trained his athlete properly, then he should experience his fastest times at the end of the season. This is obviously because more time spent training should equal better fitness. However, if you push too much too quickly than you will "burn out" or have your best times before you want to (like going prematurely). So peaking is avoiding this phenomenon combined with backing off mileage (both in a week and the volume of a workout)slightly as well as adding in a bit more speed work so that the athlete is feeling light on their feet and fast come race day.
So yes peaking exists if you have ever seen an athlete finish off a season with his best race. But there is a lot more to the process than doing the right workout in one week--the whole season is geared towards it. The key is patience.
plus, peaking involves a certain amount of constant sharpening. for instance, at the beginning of the season you'll probably be doing more strength, getting your aerobic and anaerobic base ready for the load of sharp, fast work--and once you have that base, you start whittling away with faster work, shorter intervals, that sort of thing. You definitely do some speed work in the beginning of the season, but you see the emphasis shift when you're closer to the end of the season: this is so that you can peak, so that you're running your fastest for the most specific distance.
^good point. I want to add that there are a few different theories on the best method for peaking. The most common way by your average coach is more speed work right at the end of the season. But probably the most effective way that is used by most elite coaches is specific endurance pace work.
You begin the season with strength work through long intervals, tempos, and then you transition into neuromuscular work and vo2 max type
Workouts. And then you begin to run workouts at race specific
Pace and as the season goes on you run this pace for longer intervals with less rest. Eventually you are prepped to run full workouts at goal pace with short rest. The more you run at a certain pace the more efficient you will be at it. Come race day, one hopes to be the most comfortable at the pace you want to run. That's how pr's are set.