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REPETITION TRAINING, HILL TRAINING - How to link your base phase to your interval phase.
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For those of you who have read along, I guess you could consider this part 4 in a series of threads I've started that merely draw attention to myself by paraphrasing what you could get out of a book.

; ^ ) Actually, I hope it does a little more than that......much like a math teacher does little more than paraphrase what is written in the text book (did I tell you I used to teach math?)



Anyway, my first thread was a discussion on the importance of LSD training (early season):

http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...t_reply;so=ASC;mh=25;

Followed by one on (V02max) interval training (late season):

http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...t_reply;so=ASC;mh=25;

And then one on Tempo Training (lactate threshold) (most of the year):

http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...t_reply;so=ASC;mh=25;



So, if you followed the training philosophy, you understood to 1) build your mileage in the easiest way possible, 2) add in tempo runs once you are fit, 3) and top everything off with the coup de grace, 4 to 8 weeks (or up to 12) of interval training.

NOTE: I am assuming you are training for 5K - 20K, sprint tri, Oly tri, OR are a faster HIM or faster marathon athlete. The slower you are and the longer the event, the more and more important LSD training becomes and the less and less important this faster stuff is (in a nutshell).

However, it's not black in white. You aren't doing 30-40 miles a week at X:XX per mile and then hammering 6K of track work and racing the next. There is a nice transition that should occur. Remember, when you train, you are actually damaging the body. You are breaking it down (please don't crucify me if this is technically not correct). This stress you place on the body stimulates it to build itself stronger. However, too much stress can cause it to break down.

V02max interval training are high stress activities. LSD and tempo running don't really prepare it to optimally handle this stress. There needs to be a transition.



THREE THEORIES FOR TRANSITION PHASE:

I have encountered essentially three different ways to transition your body into interval training and racing. All have their place and have been reasonably successful.

1) Repetition training (Jack Daniels) - Daniels recommends this type of workout. Essentially you will be running at speeds beyond which you will race coupled with long recoveries to help reduce the stress of the workouts. For those of you that have your JDF books on you, feel free to show examples of the workouts, but I will give you some examples that have worked well with myself and others I have coached. 6 to 12 X 200 meters with 200 meters jogging breaks, 4-8 x 400 meters with 400 meter jogging breaks, etc. The repetitions should be done at a pace that you could race for ~5 minutes. It will be fast, but not sprinting. This is not an all out workout. You should feel pretty darn good at the end of the entire session. Most people should be able to go right into a jog at the end of each rep.

These workouts serve a couple of basic purposes. Not only do they prepare you for the more intense interval training, but they also stimulate your neuro-muscular system to make faster running more efficient. It's kind of like a boxer who works out on a punching bag versus one who only lifts weights. You need to train your feet to hit the ground, spring back, hit the ground, spring back, over and over.

NOTE: Some people overestimate the importance of this workout. They think that THIS is what will give them that speed that those faster guys have. It IS part of the equation, but a very very small part. Volume, consistency, and lactate threshold training will still make a much larger difference in your speed than will weeks of 400 training.

2) Hill Training (Arthur Lydiard) - Before Daniels, Lydiard was successfully accomplishing this with hill training. The theory is that the hills will help "strengthen" your legs for the harder work yet to come. When doing hill training, don't simply run on a rolling course. Put together a workout. Run up a 30 second hill hard, focusing on good form, pumping the arms, and driving the knees. Alternate sets of hard running with some bounding type exercises. One hill can consist of over exaggerated high knee running (20 steps fast, 20 steps rest, repeat up hill), one hill can be long strides....as long as possible, one hill can be bounding for height on each step (again, 20 on, 20 off). You can make this workout pretty tough if you want as there won't be nearly as much pounding on your body.

3) Low Volume V02max Interval Training - Some people feel that it's more important to get in some specificity training. If their goal is to run a 5K in X:XX time at the end of the year, some early season confidence builders may help. Examples of thess workouts are 3x800 @5K pace (400 rest), 2x1200 (400 rest), 1x1600, or my favorite 400@5K race pace / 400 20 seconds slower, repeat until you're sick of the workout (anywhere from 1.5 to 3 miles....though we had a guy do a 10K of this once in college....he had a VERY good season that year).

WHICH ONE, HOW OFTEN, WHAT TIME OF YEAR?

These questions are hard to answer. I firmly believe that all of these should be done at some point during the year, but especially with tri training, it's very difficult to fit everything into one season. A lot of college teams solve the problem with a cross country season (hills) and a track season (rep training). You may want to do the same. You may want to do hills in preparation for a spring HIM and then do some rep training in preparation for a late fall 5K road race.

In general, this phase should be at least half as long as your final "interval phase." Some people complain that they go nuts running slow all the time. Feel free to do these workouts during your base building LSD phase.....just remember that volume is your priority that time of year and that these faster workouts should not be taxing. Early in the season they should serve as nothing more than "teasers" of what is to come later.

SOME people will, instead, mix in rep training in at the end of the season to try to add a little extra "oomph" into their races. That's ok as well.



The main gist of this post is to understand that you should think about some sort of transiton into your interval phase. Don't simply go from an intensity level of 2 to a level of 10 in less than a week. Your body will appreciate gradual changes. Also keep in mind, as I have said many many times, that you must beware of the tradeoffs. The harder you make these workouts, the more you are going to compromise the rest of your training.

Runtraining16

-----------------------------Baron Von Speedypants
-----------------------------RunTraining articles here:
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...runtraining;#1612485
Last edited by: BarryP: Dec 26, 07 13:14
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Re: REPETITION TRAINING, HILL TRAINING - How to link your base phase to your interval phase. [BarryP] [ In reply to ]
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Great read as usual,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

t~
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Re: REPETITION TRAINING, HILL TRAINING - How to link your base phase to your interval phase. [BarryP] [ In reply to ]
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This as all of your running threads deserves a bump. On second thought, mayb not since I like people not to outrun me!

Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

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Re: REPETITION TRAINING, HILL TRAINING - How to link your base phase to your interval phase. [desert dude] [ In reply to ]
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Brian,

Agreed. If there ever was, or ever is a secret running weapon/work-out it has to be hills. I REALLY don't like them. Was never good at them when I was a full time runner, but it's been my personal experience that when training for a triathlon and in particular the longer races like IM, you can never run too many hills in training!

Fleck


Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog
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Re: REPETITION TRAINING, HILL TRAINING - How to link your base phase to your interval phase. [BarryP] [ In reply to ]
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Keep the posts coming, this stuff needs to be pounded into all of our heads. This question came up in the Base period thread earlier this month too, but that thread died quickly. Here is what I wrote to the OP, I think it adds to what you have already stated:

You will want to inject more intense workouts (LT intervals, LT tempo) into your training training after two things occur, (1) You have maxed out the gains from your sub Aet training, i.e. your pace at Aet hits a plateau, (2) You have enough miles under your legs so that your body can handle the demands of LT type of running, i.e. you can take the pounding without getting hurt.

Making the switch will depend on your experience (athletic age as some call it) and your "existing base". You should think of the move to more structured intentisy workouts as a transition. I like to do a month of high frequency Aet type running--nothing over 80% max. In the seocnd month I will introduce fartlek runs and 2-3 minute threshold efforts here and there. I also will throw in a 5k running test on the treadmill. Mileage is building throughout these two months and intensity is sprinkled in where appropriate--this is more to get my legs, joints, tendons, ligaments, and muscles ready for the real work which happens in either month 3 or 4 depending on my fitness at the time. Once you start to introduce LT work you apply the same priciples--tempo runs of 15min, progressing up to an hour. LT intervals of 3min, trending toward 6min, reducing the rest interval as you get stronger. Tune-up races should enter the picture now too. Everything should increase in a step-function like manner, not exponentially as many runners do. Patience is key and staying healthy is paramount. And if you get through these stages in good health, then you can think about doing the "real" intensity work--V02max intervals, etc.

"I really wish you would post more often. You always have some good stuff to say. I copied it below just in case someone missed it." BarryP to Chainpin on 10/21/06

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Re: REPETITION TRAINING, HILL TRAINING - How to link your base phase to your interval phase. [BarryP] [ In reply to ]
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I wonder if Dan would consider moving your posts and maybe the entire threads to the training page after a while. That way they'd be easy to find for reference later.

Just a thought, thanks for the good info.

Kevin
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Re: REPETITION TRAINING, HILL TRAINING - How to link your base phase to your interval phase. [BarryP] [ In reply to ]
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Re: REPETITION TRAINING, HILL TRAINING - How to link your base phase to your interval phase. [BarryP] [ In reply to ]
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Barry:

Terminology varies from coach to coach on different workload levels, which I'm sure you have experienced over the years. I know I have. Anyways, I was at a clinic listening to a coach who referenced Daniels often yet never mentioned rep training. However, he had his team do striders in small amounts very often (as a teaser like you said) during the summer on pre-determined marked courses. This caught my attention and finally I asked what is the difference between striders and reps. He said, "Not a damn thing." The interesting thing was, they always did them before their distance. Less risk of injury and it was a pre-determined time to run fast, which you might not be able to do as well after a long run. Duh, that makes sense.

Also, why not rolling courses? I grew up in Western PA where there is no flats. High school coaches in that area refer to them as hill fartleks. To sum it up, push the hills and recover on the downhills. It also gives exposure to different inclines, which could be more race specific if training for a hilly course. So if you've got'em...why not use'em?
Last edited by: dustdevil: Oct 20, 06 23:34
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Re: REPETITION TRAINING, HILL TRAINING - How to link your base phase to your interval phase. [dustdevil] [ In reply to ]
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Also, why not rolling courses? I grew up in Western PA where there is no flats. High school coaches in that area refer to them as hill fartleks. To sum it up, push the hills and recover on the downhills. It also gives exposure to different inclines, which could be more race specific if training for a hilly course. So if you've got'em...why not use'em?
_________________________________

That's great. Thanks for the input. What I meant was don't just lolygag along a hilly course and call that a "hill workout." As you said, push up the hills!

-----------------------------Baron Von Speedypants
-----------------------------RunTraining articles here:
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...runtraining;#1612485
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Re: REPETITION TRAINING, HILL TRAINING - How to link your base phase to your interval phase. [etocaj] [ In reply to ]
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I really wish you would post more often. You always have some good stuff to say. I copied it below just in case someone missed it.

The funny thing is, once I start writting and then rereading my post and the replies, I begin to think "when the hell was the last time *I* did a hill work out?"

I've got another post coming soon to cover the "ingredients" of good running ; ^ )



__________________________________________________________



You will want to inject more intense workouts (LT intervals, LT tempo) into your training training after two things occur, (1) You have maxed out the gains from your sub Aet training, i.e. your pace at Aet hits a plateau, (2) You have enough miles under your legs so that your body can handle the demands of LT type of running, i.e. you can take the pounding without getting hurt.

Making the switch will depend on your experience (athletic age as some call it) and your "existing base". You should think of the move to more structured intentisy workouts as a transition. I like to do a month of high frequency Aet type running--nothing over 80% max. In the seocnd month I will introduce fartlek runs and 2-3 minute threshold efforts here and there. I also will throw in a 5k running test on the treadmill. Mileage is building throughout these two months and intensity is sprinkled in where appropriate--this is more to get my legs, joints, tendons, ligaments, and muscles ready for the real work which happens in either month 3 or 4 depending on my fitness at the time. Once you start to introduce LT work you apply the same priciples--tempo runs of 15min, progressing up to an hour. LT intervals of 3min, trending toward 6min, reducing the rest interval as you get stronger. Tune-up races should enter the picture now too. Everything should increase in a step-function like manner, not exponentially as many runners do. Patience is key and staying healthy is paramount. And if you get through these stages in good health, then you can think about doing the "real" intensity work--V02max intervals, etc.

-----------------------------Baron Von Speedypants
-----------------------------RunTraining articles here:
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...runtraining;#1612485
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Re: REPETITION TRAINING, HILL TRAINING - How to link your base phase to your interval phase. [BarryP] [ In reply to ]
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I'm shamlessly bumping my own post to the top. I think this transition period is especialy important for those who fit into the "hammer all season" category. Its OK to hit the track for most of the season, but don't make it a hammer fest for most of the season.

-----------------------------Baron Von Speedypants
-----------------------------RunTraining articles here:
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...runtraining;#1612485
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Re: REPETITION TRAINING, HILL TRAINING - How to link your base phase to your interval phase. [BarryP] [ In reply to ]
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BarryP

Some things to add to the mix:

Downhill running increases the load through the muscles/tendons. But I seem to remember reading a study suggesting that the impact-stress conditioning from downhill significantly outweighed the damage, and produced a 'boosted' impact conditioning effect for six to eight weeks.

Uphill running causes the muscles/tendons to store less energy for recoil, so they work harder. This doesn't make them 'stronger' as such because the forces are still slight, but it does apparently increase their aerobic efficiency.

Running a constant 1/2 marathon pace up and down short hills is perhaps the easiest way to do a redline fartlek session, which is a great intermediate between tempo and VO2 intervals.

My understanding of the neuromuscular benefits of very fast 'rep' efforts is that they come very quickly relative to the effort put in. To my mind that makes them an ideal thing to do 'in season' where recovery is a prime consideration.

Just some thoughts...


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