First of all, let me say how happy I am about the way that the running has gone so far this winter and I am very proud of they way that you've all been self motivated. I know that we haven't had the same family type vibe that we had during cross and that the extent of coaching you've gotten recently is basically, "Go run, follow the guidlines I set out". I hope you understand that when it is just me and 16 events, that I have to put my trust in you guys to go out and execute the training plan with very little coaching. The start of official practice will bring us our full coaching staff and you guys will start feeling like you are part of a team again.
I'd like to start by posting the two training templates from which we've been working and from which we will continue to work.
I'd like to give you a little more insight into the differences between the distance groups and mid distance groups when it comes to the top 3 focuses of our early season training: Aerobic Endurance, Aerobic Power, and Anaerobic Power
This training focus will be similar for both groups. So far, this has been the main focus for both groups and will remain so. However, the aerobic endurance work you will be doing will now start to become a little less emphasized. The mid distance groups will drop back to probably having only 3 Aerobic Endurance sessions per week, which will mostly be as maintenence. The distance groups will have 4-5, with at least one of these sessions still being a primary focus of the week.
Aerobic Endurance will continue to make up the foundation of your training, but we will start to bring in more Aerobic Power and Anaerobic Power type sessions.
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| This surge at the midpoint of TVL finals took a large amount of Aerobic Power |
Simply put, aerobic power is the trait you want to develop if you want to run fast for periods longer than 2 minutes. In order to most effectively train our aerobic power, we must run at or near maximum heart rate. The way in which we get to maximum heart rate will differ between the distance and mid distance group, but for both groups it is important to bear in mind that, from a resting state, it takes at least 2 minutes of hard exercise to get your heart rates to maximum. Therefore, intervals for aerobic power will be at least 2 minutes in duration.
Mid Distance Group
Since your events will end at or right around the 2 minute mark, we can focus on running at intense paces that will bring us to maximum heart rate by the 2 minute mark, or slightly there after. Because your events begin from close to resting state and end soon after you reach maximum heart rate, your interval sessions can be similar to that in nature. You will run your intervals with slightly longer rest than your friends in the distance group, but you will run them at an higher intensity.
Examples:
- 6 x 600 @ 2 mile race pace with 3-4 minute recovery
- 4-5 x 800m cut down, starting a bit slower than 5k pace and ending a bit faster than 2 mile pace. 4-5 minutes recovery
Distance Group
Your events will be lasting, for the most part, longer than 4:30 and perhaps all the way up to 13 minutes. Your interval sessions should also bring you to maximum heart rate, but we will use paces and distances that will bring you there more gradually over a longer period of time. Your mid distance friends will be running hard enough where they are hitting maximum heart rate by the 2 minute mark. In your sessions, you might not hit max heart rate until the 3:30 or 4:00 mark of each interval.
Examples:
- 5 x 1200 @ 5k pace or slightly slower with 2 minute recovery.
- Progression run of up to 1 hour with the last mile being at 5k pace.
- 6-8 x 3 minutes fast, 2 minutes easy inserted into an 8 mile run.
Anaerobic Power is what you need if you are going to be able to run significantly faster than 2 mile pace for any period of time. Anaerobic power training does not require you to get to maximum heart rate, so each repetition can be relatively short (usually up to 600m, but mostly reps of 300-400 will be used) and can have relatively long recoveries in between.
Training at mile race pace is a great stimulus for developing Anaerobic Power. Since almost all of you will run the 1600m this season, you will likely do your Anaerobic Power sessions together. You can develop Anaerobic Power by running faster than 1600m race pace, but then we run the danger of having a training stimulus that is harder than needed to produce the training effect we are looking for.
Examples:
- 8 x 400 with 400m easy recovery jog
- 5 x 4 x 200 with 30-40 sec. between reps and 5 min between sets
- 10 x 30 seconds fast, 90 seconds easy on the whistle.
- 5 x 500 with 4-5 min recovery.
