e- wrote:
Isn't VO2 work specific to the 5k? From what you said at the outset, that it often only take 4-8 weeks for someone to get in PR shape, it would seem that they could come off the True Base phase and hit PRs 4-8 weeks after that.
Thanks again.
Maybe I should qualify a bit. The 8 weeks or so when we emphasize VO2max development the rep length is pretty modest for all paces. So 200-400's at 1500 pace, 400-800's at 3k, 800-1k's at 5k pace, 1k's maybe up to 1600's at 10k. The length of the intervals is what most would consider pretty mellow, we want to build fitness but not over do it, so we make the workouts higher in volume for work performed, but the length of intervals is a no brainer really. We'll stick to the pace charts and make sure the workouts are at current fitness pace (date pace for those Bowerman fans), maybe slower - try to avoid as much as possible going faster. The emphasis is on maintaining the rest intervals and volume of work, not on bustin butt workouts.
The final 4-8 weeks is when we hammer stuff and push the envelope to try and get the athlete as fit as we can. Some call this peaking, I tend to say get as fit as we can get so the kid doesn't freak out cause he's "peaking". Emphasis is on longer reps (notice, NOT intervals) at race pace or faster (goal pace for you Bowerman fans) than we were doing previously. We want people running hard race specific workouts for the final 4 weeks or so here knowing that if they do this too much during the season, the wheels will come off before the big meets, so we keep it for a relatively short period of time near the end of the season so we reduce the risk of falling into the valley of fatigue mid season or developing an injury. We allow the athlete as much recovery time as needed to hit the splits. We give pretty broad ranges for the volume of work done and the rest periods between reps.
Examples:
In the VO2max period we'll do the following:
8 x 200 at 800 pace with 400 jog in 4 min.
8 x 400 at 1500 pace with 200 walk/jog in 2 min.
12 x 400 at 3k pace w/ 200 jog in 70 seconds.
6 x 1k at 5k pace with easy 400 jog in 3 min.
In the last 4 weeks it'll look more like this:
2 x 600 at 800 pace or better with 12-15 min recovery
3-4 x 800 cutdowns at 1500 pace with 4-6 min recovery.
4-6 x 800 cutdowns starting at 3k w/ 2-4 min recoveries
3-4 x 1600 cutdowns starting at 5k pace w/ 3-5 min recovery.
Not exactly what we'll do, but close enoug for an example. Does this make more sense now what I'm talking about? I guess in a large sense it's the difference between intervals and reps, date pace and goal pace, general build up and peaking.
Joe