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There has been much debate about how to best train for all endurance challenged events from 400m to the Marathon. Much of it seems to always end up in a simplistic argument i.e.. Speed vs. Distance .
I have heard of 400m athletes in the 44s range doing 80+km a week on the one extreme and others that try to do minimal jogging and almost never track reps longer than 350m. Some of this can be explained away as "individuality" being catered for etc. But there are certainly a range of ways to get a similar effect. The key is doing it in a way that is best for the overall long term development of the athlete.
Having compared the training of many sprinters there is certainly a great variety of methods out there and also comparing to methods that are being used by Endurance athletes that are recently seeing the most success - there are a few obvious areas worth focusing on that are possibly being neglected by many athletes. Many new areas that are impacting positively in sprint training should also be used with endurance athletes.
All runners need to develop as much "ease of speed" as possible. Why do male athletes have an easier time running sub11s in a 100m or sub1:50 in an 800m or even sub2:10 in a Marathon ? The reason is obvious - it is strength that is the factor and more specifically power.
All athletes need to optimize their strength and power levels. The key is to do this in balance with basic endurance development. It seems that many endurance athletes neglect the need for power by focusing far too narrowly on putting in the miles/km. The real need exists to DO BOTH .
The problem in doing both is that the high volume training depending on how it is done will increase the risk of injury from power/strength training. The two areas may also inhibit each others development depending on how the training is planned. This is where most difficulties exist for a coach trying to both develop speed and endurance in an 800m athlete for example. Women wanting to run sub2:00min need both good ability at 1500m eg <4:20 and at the same time the speed/power/strength to run sub54s for a 400m. The typical method would be to build-up to high volumes and accumulate volume which will result in improved 1500/5000m ability and then late in the preparation doing some short term speed work to improve speed levels so that the athlete can arrive in race season with a good mix of both speed and endurance. The problem with this is that by neglecting the speed/power development for a big part of each year that a typical 200/400m athlete would do this athlete will never really develop to reach their potential level of "ease of speed". On the other hand if the same athlete was to work too exclusively on developing power/speed they may eventually develop great 400m speed but be poorly prepared in the long term aerobically eg 53s in 400m but 4:35 in 1500m. This would stop them from reaching their potential in the 800m as well.
It may be smart to focus some seasons on a greater emphasis on the 400m and then the following season the opposite. It is common that when athletes change coaches for them to then experience a large shift in training emphasis from endurance to speed or the opposite and then improve by a large amount in race performance in their next race season, which they attribute mostly to the new coach. The truth is the combined effect of both methods may have produced the improvement.
I am gradually arriving at a way of combining everything. Some of it goes against tradition especially in Australia. A few years ago I coached (for a short time) a very talented Moroccan athlete who shared some valuable information with me about they way they train. The ideas surprised me at first because there was no basing their training around long runs of 75min+ . They did many 40min runs eg 3 days of 40min morn and night, 3 days 40min morn and Track afternoon and 1 easy day with one 40min run. Even 10000m athletes were reported to do no more than 60min runs. From looking at the logs it seemed that as many of these 40min runs in the week were built up to be fast paced runs in the last 20min as possible WITHOUT COMPROMIZING their track session quality. The track sessions were of a great variety.
My squad follows the above principles over times that are appropriate to the athlete. Many start at just 15-20min runs (after a warm-up) and we do slightly longer runs at faster paces up to an hour about every 3 weeks when the athlete is moving along well in the shorter runs and track sessions. The goal is to do a good mix of runs over varying distances in a way that does not spoil quality in the track sessions. This is something that extra long runs and too much volume can do very easily for a number of reasons outlined below:
1. Low muscle fuel - low anaerobic energy output. Athletes may be able to chug along for another hr run but will not be able to run fast easily.
2. Athletes are practising in a 90min run taking something like 7000 low powered steps - often running with bent legs and in a collapsed postural position.
3. Muscle soreness from incomplete recovery from the accumulated volume of all recent training.
All endurance athletes should be fresh enough to regularly be able to do some good quality faster work , power/strength improving gym training, event specific Plyometrics.
The Marathon has moved to a new level because the athletes that are now doing it have improved levels of "ease of speed" than the previous generation. The emphasis needs to be on blending all the necessary ingredients of training in a way that creates improvement in RACE PACE EFFICIENCY. This is something that is very difficult measure in faster events but at Marathon pace it is easy. How can athletes improve efficiency the most at Marathon pace?? They need to do a good balance of volume AS WELL as a smart long term amount of gym, Plyometrics, core/postural training, hills, race pace practise.
This email ends with the conclusion that there is no argument between speed training and distance. All athletes need to do both for as much as possible of the year. The real problem is improving the ability of athletes bodies to cope with doing more with better quality. This is where recent developments in sport science can help eg massage, hot/cold recovery techniques, dietary methods, core/postural strength, Electro-muscle stimulation, etc.
It is amazing just how much people can improve their strength > power and therefore speed. It is also amazing just how much anyone can improve their aerobic system given enough volume over a long enough period of time.
PS.
Some exciting new areas to enhance quality in training are emerging including the use of EMS stimulation to stimulate increased mitochondria and capillarization in muscle. This is the prime benefit attributed to the use of long runs and long slow distance. This is an area I will be investigating further this year.
regards
Steve Bennett
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