When middle distance coaches cluster socially or professionally, and the inevitable training talk ensues, the topics generally fall into three broad categories: training mileage, peaking strategy, or warmup routines. While these are all fun to talk about and defend, the reality is that there is no right answer to any of these discussions. Mileage talk…
Archives for speed endurance
Speed Endurance Work for the Middle Distance Athlete
Speed endurance work is often overlooked by middle distance coaches. The theoretical concept isn’t, but the workouts done to directly address it, is. Speed endurance is understood to be the ability to maintain a very high percentage of maximum velocity over the greatest distance possible. Many different workouts touch on the concept, with repeat 500-600…
Specific Preparation Period Workouts for Middle Distance
Ideally, a typical middle distance training macrocyle is set up to be between fifteen and twenty weeks in length and divided into four training periods. The difference in macrocycle time lies in the number of training sessions dedicated to the first period, or general preparation period. Once general prep is completed, the next stage is…
Speed as a Primary Physical Component in Cross Country Training
Despite what it is intuitive to the training of cross country runners, absolute speed is a critical primary physical component to five kilometer (k) racing success. Many studies have linked the 40 meter maximum velocity performance in a runner to success in events all the way out to the 10k. Speed generally involves three…
The Training Environment – The Forgotten Stimulus
The training environment, depending on the situation, lies on both ends of the spectrum of control and influence we as coaches have on a practice session. The real art is managing the environmental factors that are both active and passively affecting what is taking place and what is being produced during the session. What can…
Cross Country Workout Themes
One of the most important chores that a cross country coach does is to set the workout themes for the many daily sessions during the season. The workouts must be compatible with the other workouts that are sequenced around each other, and themes must be appropriate for the time in the macrocycle in which they…
Speed Training Starts Early
A coach once accused me of being one of those “speed coaches” who does speed work all year round. Initially, I didn’t know if he was insulting my coaching style or if he was just curious to know more about speed work. “I resent that remark,” was my response, before I began to school him…
Speed Endurance Workouts For Jumpers & Combo Sprinter/Jumpers
Jumping events are defined as acceleration to an optimal speed, followed by an attempt to maintain the highest level of that velocity through the point of takeoff. Speed Endurance workouts gives jumpers the confidence and capacity to challenge the intensities they use in competitions. But what do speed endurance workouts for jumpers look like? …
Speed Endurance for the Sprint Hurdles
Every sprint race has a period where the ability to hold off the effects of fatigue hurts overall performance. In the 100 meter and 100 meter sprint hurdle races, the transition from acceleration, to top end and speed endurance are almost identical. Both races hit max velocity at almost the same location in sub-elite and…