How to maintain or enhance speed during base?

Google: steve magness speed training

Sebastian Coe I believe did a workout that I enjoy, running 100 meters and increasing up to 200 meters, ten meters each repeat. Recovery is walk back to start, pace starts at mile pace and cuts down to 800 pace.

In the gym, you can do low rep high weight work, specifically cleans are very good as well as squats and lunges.

But the difference maker for me is doing drills, working on foot speed and power. Really any foot speed drill is good, and bounding does wonders (if you have a good dirt hill to go up, even better) This combination took me from running around 59 seconds for a 400 to around 54 over a winter. I was in 16:00 shape for five kilometres.

Drills, hills, weights, plyos, strides

come on experts

chime in

Find the training wisdom of John Kellogg on these boards. That document has some good advice and sample workouts for speed maintenance during base training (near the end of the document I believe). Sample workouts are:

2-3 sets of 6x100m buildup strides w/ a 100 jog back to start and a half mile easy between sets following an easy run

2-3 sets of 6x200 w/ 200 jog starting the first rep at PR 5k pace and cutting down 1 second per rep and then starting the following set a second faster than the previous set was started. Half mile jog between. Following a short easy run.

Right now in the middle of base training I'm doing the 200s workout once a week (in spikes) and then just one set of the buildup strides on another day each week. The goal of this type of training isn't so much to improve speed as it is to keep your body used to running fast so when faster workouts and true high-end speed training begin it isn't a tough transition. Just focus on doing all of this with smooth, relaxed form. You don't really want to focus on improving top end speed while you are doing base training as it is counter-productive.It's a good idea to add in basic form drills 2-3x a week, preferably on the days where you are doing this type of training, as this will benefit as well.

Strides are always helpful. Doing 4-6 ~100m strides (on the track, or barefoot on grass if you like) after a run can help maintain some speed. Don't treat them like a workout - there shouldn't be a set pace or recovery time. Just have fun with them, and take as much time in between each one as you want. They should feel good. They're also a good time to work on form.

They're not necessarily going to improve your speed, but they will definitely help to maintain some of it during the base phase.

needspeednotthedrug wrote:

Or should I just stick to strides twice a week and a weekly session of 60-80m hill sprints?

Other than this concern, my mileage is 80% easy with a weekly tempo and a "moderately" hard track workout.

Do a better job explaining this stuff more.

You're currently doing strides twice a week, a weekly 60-80m hill sprint workout, a weekly tempo run, and a weekly track workout? If you're doing all this, unless you have a very wonky definition for each of these elements, you're doing more than enough to develop speed in a 'base phase'.

It's real simple, do hill sprints twice a week. Hill sprints not only a more difficult than flat sprints and help build muscular power, but they also force you to develop better form.

My suggestion follows Renato Canova's training philosophy:

Hill sprints twice per week, prefereably after workout days (keep your easy days easy, recovery is important especially while building base). Find a hill that is not too steep, but challenging. For the first week do 6-8 @ 60 meters, progressively getting faster. Take as much recovery as you need in between reps, this is not an endurance test, it's about form and top end speed.

For each following week, add about 1-2 reps and also 10-20 meters. Once you get to 14-16 reps @ 150-180 meters, stop increasing the volume. It should take about 6-8 weeks to reach this level. At that point, you should be well through your base phase and into a more structured workout phase, but you will be shocked at your increased speed. Renato does this with both his 800 meter group and marathoners, and I have done it personally. It works.

explain wrote:

needspeednotthedrug wrote:

Or should I just stick to strides twice a week and a weekly session of 60-80m hill sprints?

Other than this concern, my mileage is 80% easy with a weekly tempo and a "moderately" hard track workout.

Do a better job explaining this stuff more.

You're currently doing strides twice a week, a weekly 60-80m hill sprint workout, a weekly tempo run, and a weekly track workout? If you're doing all this, unless you have a very wonky definition for each of these elements, you're doing more than enough to develop speed in a 'base phase'.

How on earth is this base? What is the objective from doing 5 speed sessions a week, trying to build from 60mpw to 61?

You're on track for underperforming!

Take out all speed except for 1-2 strides and building to 80-90 mpw will be a breeze. Stop being an amateur.

What is your background in running? What have you run for some mid distance races, as well as distance races?

It's more than likely that the simplest and most proven method of improving your 1mi PR is just to add volume. I doubt you're a 4:10 miler tying to get down to 4:00. Heck, I doubt you're even under 4:40.

Please give us more of your history or racing and training, otherwise every post here is pretty useless. What I mean by this is that you don't necessarily need more top end speed to run a faster mile. You just need to have better endurance.

This sounds amazing! Do you know where you read about this workout? I'd love to read a bit more about it. Thanks!

reed wrote:

What is your background in running? What have you run for some mid distance races, as well as distance races?

It's more than likely that the simplest and most proven method of improving your 1mi PR is just to add volume. I doubt you're a 4:10 miler tying to get down to 4:00. Heck, I doubt you're even under 4:40.

Please give us more of your history or racing and training, otherwise every post here is pretty useless. What I mean by this is that you don't necessarily need more top end speed to run a faster mile. You just need to have better endurance.

I'm a 4:08 miler. Similar questions to OP and curious how advice would differ?

I was in Kenya with Renato this past summer, studying and training with his team. This was one of the simplest and most beneficial workouts I observed. Speed is just like endurance, if you don't use it, you lose it.

Here is an article from Running Times. Obviously it's 5 years old, but the concepts are sound. There is a video that goes along with it as well. Happy to respond to questions tomorrow as it's bedtime. Note: My mechanics are bad - my frequency is too low, stride too long. Hope to get healthy and correct those in my 40s.

Bottom line is - and the person who referenced Steve is right on as the following is something he talks about - that you start with the two opposite ends of the continuum, then work toward the middle. So the speed development in this article is at one end, then solid aerobic running at the other. In the middle is your primary race distance - the mile. You move from either end towards the middle as the season progresses. Simple concept, but takes some decent planning to do. But it's not rocket science

Also, the Coe workout, if you do it correctly, may not be the best idea at this time of year, though I'm assuming you want to run your mile PR in Feb, then run some good 1,500s in the spring. I've only used it a few times, so others may have more experience using it with athletes 10-12 weeks out from the goal competition.

Article -

http://www.runnersworld.com/workouts/speed-development

Video -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3NOGp9lP1w

Former world record holder in the marathon, a three time Olympian for Australia and a big professional triathlete make appearances in the video too :-)

Writing while running wrote:

I was in Kenya with Renato this past summer, studying and training with his team. This was one of the simplest and most beneficial workouts I observed. Speed is just like endurance, if you don't use it, you lose it.

Training with Canova! WOW! (I saw him speak about 2-3 times over the years, but that's nothing like getting to train with him.)

But, your description above is one of the best posts I've read on this crappy board in a LONG TIME! Thanks.

I can provide no further insight than the article that Jay linked, but allow me to present myself as evidence of the success of this philosophy.

I'm a fairly gifted miler, but one of the slowest over 800m. Adding consistent hill sprints at the end of workouts and a max-velocity session every other week through the winter is the majority factor in taking my piddling 1:52 800m to a 1:49 in one cycle. I also saw a full second improvement in my flying 200m time.

10/10 Would do again.

Something that i do is just a short fartlek once a week that normally is

15-20secs up(fast) then 1 min down(easy pace). Usually do that for about 20-25 mins. This workout is just enough to help keep the legs rolling but not near enough to be considered any type of a speed workout, also is not really tiring at all.