SPEED ORIENTED COLLEGE DISTANCE PROGRAMS

Many good college teams focus on tempo and steady state running. They don’t do 100mpw. The question pertained to the type of work, not the volume. Some of the best college distance runners are doing 75mpw. Poll the top 100 finishers after nationals this year and you will find less than 5% doing less than 50mpw. Most are probably around 80mpw. These guys advocating for low mileage and year round speedwork on here have never run 14 flat for 5k.

Remind me again what is the main energy source you use in the 5k and up?

Laydhard wrote:

Who have no need to pound their bodies into oblivion trying to do 100 mpw with slow twitches.

Ever heard of Peter Snell, Haile Gebrselassie or Steve Ovett?

Laydhard wrote:

You may call it the lottery, but it would probably surprise most distance runners that those soccer, LAX, hockey and basketball studs are just like Knight. They just never got into distance or mid distance running.

No, we tried this bs in the 90s and it only made America slower.

Laydhard wrote:

Training 100 mpw, LSD-style. is lazy training by slow twitch runners with no other athletic skills. Those with talent optimize their training and don't need 100 mpw to be a miler or even 5ker

Are you saying that because most people aren't genetic freaks they are lazy for putting time on their feet to increase their aerobic capacity?

One don't need to be speed oriented to do intervals all year.

The Ingebrigtsen brothers do intervals all year. No traditional base phase.

But, they use treshold training with lactate-meters religiously and so treshold intervals truly are treshold and aerobic, not hard.

Outlay of their week is two days with two treshold workouts, intervals am and pm, and one day with 20x200m uphill. Thats a bit harder, but sub 10 in lactate.

Croze wrote:

One don't need to be speed oriented to do intervals all year.

The Ingebrigtsen brothers do intervals all year. No traditional base phase.

But, they use treshold training with lactate-meters religiously and so treshold intervals truly are treshold and aerobic, not hard.

Outlay of their week is two days with two treshold workouts, intervals am and pm, and one day with 20x200m uphill. Thats a bit harder, but sub 10 in lactate.

I never said you shouldn't work on your speed year round. And, I agree with you that you should do some speed work during your base phase. To quote what I said here:

(in response to someones comments on weight training) Almost 60 years since Herb Elliott won Gold in the 1500m, how are we still debating the benefits of weight lifting? As others have said you can do both as far as developing your aerobic and anaerobic system. As your body is more of a continuum, than distinct categories. Just the emphasis on which one you are trying to develop more depends on the training phase. I.e. off season/xc season focus on building up your strength and endurance. Than during track season reduce total volume and focus on working your speed. A excellent example of what a good winter base phase looks like is Steve Ovett, here is a example: (I than posted a typical week of Steve Ovett's winter base phase)

Can somebody explain why speed oriented program is the best way to train?

Or at least the rationale for why is should be the best?

But why is it better??????? wrote:

Can somebody explain why speed oriented program is the best way to train?

Or at least the rationale for why is should be the best?

It's not, OP is just stuck in the 90's.

Lemon Lime 5000 metre runner wrote:

But why is it better??????? wrote:

Can somebody explain why speed oriented program is the best way to train?

Or at least the rationale for why is should be the best?

It's not, OP is just stuck in the 90's.

But what was the logic? Why did people think it’s better?

But why is it better???? wrote:

Lemon Lime 5000 metre runner wrote:

It's not, OP is just stuck in the 90's.

But what was the logic? Why did people think it’s better?

Probably from the mythology of Seb Coe and his father Peter Coe Who famously said long slow miles makes long slow runners. But people forget that seb Coe did 70+ miles a week in the winter time. Also, as a side note you shouldn't look at what Seb Coe did as far as training as he blood doped. And if you're blood doping you don't need to run as many miles. And, you should not base your training off of dopers. And people don't understand how periodisation works. That is in order for that base phase to pay off you have to cut down on your volume and increase your intensity. Just look at a sample of Steve Ovett training during track season vs his winter base phase.

Sand Dunes wrote:

But why is it better???? wrote:

But what was the logic? Why did people think it’s better?

Probably from the mythology of Seb Coe and his father Peter Coe Who famously said long slow miles makes long slow runners. But people forget that seb Coe did 70+ miles a week in the winter time. Also, as a side note you shouldn't look at what Seb Coe did as far as training as he blood doped. And if you're blood doping you don't need to run as many miles. And, you should not base your training off of dopers. And people don't understand how periodisation works. That is in order for that base phase to pay off you have to cut down on your volume and increase your intensity. Just look at a sample of Steve Ovett training during track season vs his winter base phase.

Alternatively, look at samples of what Jim Spivey did. He has posted a lot of his training and thoughts on training on LR.

I never said anything about speed, just commenting on the fact that somehow in the states many seem to think that intervals equal hard effort, when here in europe intervals at threshold are more normal.

Regarding speed year round, completely agree. Doesn't take much time or effort.

This is true. The conference that I coach in routinely has NCAA qualifying teams and most of the coaches claim their top guys are hovering somewhere around the 80s mpw. For the girls it is in the 60s. That is, if they are telling the truth. Some of them have the odd guy who will eclipse 100mpw but it is because he needs it specifically. I think most programs nowadays are focused on aerobic development, but not to the crazy extent that people were back in the 60s-70s. At the same time, we have learned our lessons from low mileage years too. Most programs focus on aerobic development with **enough** speed work to aid in support of race pace. Mileage is done more moderately to allow for ample recovery. Things are much more optimized now.

I do know of some successful programs who use a lot of interval training but, believe it or not, these coaches in particular are disciples of Igloi. From the outside looking in his approach would seem like lots of speed work year round because he uses intervals a lot.....but it is far from it. He was just clever with his workouts and what he wanted to achieve with them.