PLEASE HELP ME PEAK FOR STATE?! Malmo?..ANYONE?!

. my email was just added

I'm assuming that you are a girl, so don't understand the "balls to the walls" line. But the general rules of peaking are to reduce mileage slightly, but keep some intensity in workouts. Without knowing the training you have been doing this season, it is hard to advise on what to do now. Generally I would recommend not making huge changes.

i hope the girl reference was a joke, any freshman girl running 17:-- is insane

99%er wrote:

I'm assuming that you are a girl, so don't understand the "balls to the walls" line. But the general rules of peaking are to reduce mileage slightly, but keep some intensity in workouts. Without knowing the training you have been doing this season, it is hard to advise on what to do now. Generally I would recommend not making huge changes.

Reduce mileage but keep up speed. Try to rest but make sure you don't get lethargic. Peaking properly is a hard pseudo science art. What ever you do take mental notes and see how you do then adjust off of your expiriance next year.

I was never great, but learned how to peak well for late-season meets.

It's as much about OFF COURSE as it is ON. STAY HEALTHY. You are coming off intense training and are an illness magnet. Lots of sleep and eat well. Also, lots of visualization. Begin seeing your most important races in your head. Believe in your peak, and don't fret that you aren't do enough--don't worry about backing off volume (as long as you keep some intensity). It's better than continuing hard training that will beat you up and leave you stale.

If you trim volume, which you should, you'll notice you'll have some extra nervous energy. Don't do anything dumb with it and get hurt. I've seen lots of high school froshes do something dumb to get injured b/c all of a sudden they aren't so worn out from training!

Good luck, and have fun! This is a year to learn and enjoy the experience while running your @$$ off!

thanks for the imput, how long does a peak last? or when should I start the real taper and back off the intense intervals?

This is what worked for me, but most of it is based on physiology, and it's what I do with my athletes. The maximum physiological gain of a workout is only accrued after 10-14 days. Therefore, it is seen as a waste to work out hard enough to really injure yourself outside of the 10-14 day window. Obviously, the closer you get to your target race, the more you back off. A sample schedule might be:

3 weeks from target: 80% of typical volume, with intervals shortened in distance and increased in intensity (i.e 400's instead of 800s, and only do 2/3 the total distance of previous 800 workouts, but do them quicker)

2 weeks from target: 60 % of typical volume, with intervals shortened in distance and increased in intensity like in week 3

1 week from target: 50% of typical volume, with only short interval workouts that don't tax you too badly. Up to 4-5 days before the most important meet you can get away with a tough workout, but after that... BACK... OFF.

You'll find what works for your body, and make sure you talk to your coach about it. My body wasn't very durable so I erred on the side of caution. A well-executed peak can last for about 2 weeks (2 meets), in my experience. If you have a hard meet a week before state (probably districts), be sure to back off for a few days afterwards to fully recover. Good luck!

Excuse me, I meant inside of the 10-14 day window. You want almost all your hard work to occur outside that window (earlier in the season, not right before the meet).

[quote]typical highschool frosh wrote:

thanks for the imput, how long does a peak last? or when should I start the real taper and back off the intense intervals?[quote]former mediocre hs runner wrote:

Keep up a quality long run every 10-14 days with the last long run being about 10-12 days before your final race. Long runs are essential to maintaining strength. My experience is a lot of runners abandon the long run in the final 6 wks of training and live to regret it.

The best I advice I can give to a highschool frosh asking this question is simply, Go ask your coach.

Come on man wrote:

The best I advice I can give to a highschool frosh asking this question is simply, Go ask your coach.

Works if you have a knowledgeable coach. Unfortunately, a lot of HS x-c coaches are just filling shoes, don't have a clue what they are doing or talking about, and in the end are really not that interested.

I agree, ask you coach; that relationship is invaluable and you should trust him. There are many avenues and training philosophies but as a young runner they all eventually end up in the same place at the end of your 4 years. The key is to run every day and commit to the journey you will be just fine. "If you eat today, you run today."

That said the "reduce your volume and keep your speed" never worked well for me, or the majority of the athletes I have coached (it has worked for some though). Every individual is different. I know many top US runners and Olympians who don't believe in the "peak." A peak is to get to the start line in top fitness, feeling good and most importantly, healthy. Unfortunately the culmination of those is often in the mid-season as that is when fitness and "freshness" meet.

The way we prepare for top meets is to actually maintain our mileage until 3 days before the race. For a Saturday race we do a 5-6 mile run instead of our 7-8 miles; Thursday is real easy recovery run at the athlete's discretion or maybe even a rest day. Friday we travel and jog the course the day before. The mileage drop is there but not over the entire week, just the last 48 hours leading up to the race.

In the past when we have done a 2-3 week reduced volume many of our athletes when they peak feel sluggish and tired for some reason (I'll let the exercise physiologist explain why). So what we do is keep the mileage but reduce our speed and intensity of our "hard days." For example: instead of 16 x 400 @ 3k-5k pace we do 10k pace. We supplement our training with strides to maintain the turnover.

Ideally you want to finish the season feeling like you wish you had 1-2 more weeks rather than it went 1 or 2 weeks too long.

This process begins in the summer and required years of running experience. The variables are greater for first year runners who have only been running for 2 months. I wish you the best of luck!

your best idea is to listen to your coach...you're a freshman, you don't know anything compared to what he knows...even if he's an idiot

You don't need to drop your volume much in the last week (maybe 20%).

The biggest mistake runners make is too much intensity in the last 4 days. Take it easy the last 4 days.

Don't listen to the guy who set it takes 14 days to get the effect from your workout. That is not true at all. Where do people get this stuff?

There seems to be a very strong correlation among the senior athletes at Olympic and WC level that their best races have followed a very intense workout 9-11 days out from the race. This is their last trip to the well before the big race. They do other workouts, but these are controlled and NOT trying to prove their fitness.

For a 5k, this last big session would be longish pace work at 3k to 5k pace. For instance, you might do 3k,1k,2k at 3-5k pace. Take long rests of 3-5 minutes. Finish it up with 3X400m. Get yourself good and tired and take a few days of easy jogging afterwards.

The last week should be pace work and strides with reduced volume. The key is not to try to hammer. Don't suddenly think that you need to do a ton of sharpening at 800 pace...unless you want to be good and sore.

The bottom line is that 80% of peaking is mental confidence and 20% is resting up. Believe, believe, believe! Doesn't matter how rested you are or how sharp you feel, if you dwell on the negative, you will race poorly.

A 1500/mile time trial 7 to 10 days out is what I'd suggest.

We did the 1 mile time trial... Its an old Adams State thing where they cut down from 2 mile repeats. I hit a PR (4:06 hand timed, which was sweet) but I left it on the track in the workout. We did it 6 days out, should have been 10 for me.

Might work for some though. That said what the above poster said: believe, believe, believe.

If you are posting here you don't have that yet. Or you are a coach posing as a HS-er to get advice.

You needed more than 6 days to recover from a 1 mile time trial? I doubt it was the time trial that led to a slower race. What else did you do that week?

The Reality of It wrote:

Works if you have a knowledgeable coach. Unfortunately, a lot of HS x-c coaches are just filling shoes, don't have a clue what they are doing or talking about, and in the end are really not that interested.

Guess this depends a lot on your area. I'm a coach in the Midwest and just about every coach I've met or come across cares about the sport and has a decent knowledge. Most high school coaches aren't just doing it for the money. The two grand a year isn't worth the hours unless you really love to do it.

Bottom line, ask your coach. You got to where you are with your coach's help. Keep trusting your program.