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Most of the "fast before far" coaches I've read are some variation of Daniels, who feels that R-pace training (i.e. 200s and 400s at mile race pace, full recovery) offers a better adjustment to the harder threshold (T-pace) and vo2 (I-pace) running that occurs later. Daniels feels that it helps build economy, improve mechanics, and prepare the muscles. OTOH, going from what Daniels calls the Foundation (i.e. "base") period directly into threshold & vo2 work would be stressing both the mechanical and aerobic systems at the same time.
I can't speak for JD personally, but Id' always felt the same could be accomplished with lower effort T and I workouts. ie...to prepare yourself for a 20 minute T run at 5:45 pace, you can start off with 10 minutes of intervals at that pace, OR you could do 20 minutes at 6-6:15 pace.
What I gathered from his program was essentially, you need to train at all speeds. Adding an extra mile of T-pace will yield negligible results if that system is already well trained, while doing an extra mile to a system that is undertrained will yiled greater results. ie don't neglect anything. My football analogy is that an extra million on a QB isn't worth it if its at the expence of *completely* disregarding your 2nd string deffensive backs.
Okay, two bad analogies later, though you need to train at all speeds, save your race specifc speeds for later in your training as your races approach, therefore the stuff that gets left out later is done earlier.
That's one way to do it. The other that I've seen is to be generally fit year round as a distance runner. For a typical runner, this might be 8% at T pace, and 3% at I pace, 1% at R pace, and 88% at E pace. This would be done for *any* distance 3K -45K. Then, as your A race approaches, the training gets tailored to that specic event....lots of I & R if 3K, lots of E and T if longer.
And *THIS* is exactly why the term "general to specific" bugs me. These are two completely different philosophies, yet both will call them G2S.....and, as evidenced by two posters in this thread, and by a different poster in a former thread, people who are confused get mocked for being ignorant or stupid. Only the latter is a G2S training regime, if we are using the terms to mean what they actually mean. However, I'm starting to understand that most people who say G2S really mean opposite to specific.....or least important to most important....or, as I like to call it, doing the training that needs to be done when it needs to be done, finishing with race specific training.......or when talking about long course....wait for it......wait for it.........Reverse <traditional> Periodization (did you see how I stuck the word "traditional" in there?......Does this keep me off the ST shit list, or do I have to call it
Reverse of the way people utilized Periodization in the 70s......TM. (big smilley)?) This is why I was trying to get MarkyV to explain his rationale. Wasn't sure which philosphy he followed and why......still not sure.
-----------------------------Baron Von Speedypants
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