Speed Kills – all those who don’t have any !!!

Speed – Part 1

Train First for Distance, Only Later for Speed

 

Since it is always the speed (pace), never the distance, that affects your overall time, it is the distance and not the speed that has to be acquired.

ALL of your speed must be built off of a solid aerobic base, if you don’t have the base you won’t be able to handle the workload for gaining speed, and without the foundation of solid aerobic conditioning any workouts you perform at the track will not have the desired effect.

If I am training a 10K runner they will do long runs of 10 miles, a half-marathon runner will do long runs of 15 miles, and a marathon runner, depending on level of ability, will do long runs of 20-23 miles. During these long run segments I will have the athletes run up to 50% of the distance at the pace they will run in their event. By doing this we build the neuromuscular pathways necessary to hold the correct pace during the event. If you always train at a slow pace how can you then expect to be able to run a faster pace in your event? Also during these long run sessions we are developing additional mitochondria (the engines that drive the muscles), and laying down additional capillary beds to provide oxygen rich blood to the working muscles.

Your body wants to be in a state of “homeostasis” which means it wants to be comfortable. You have an internal “governor” which regulates your effort. If you begin to push beyond your comfort zone this “governor” sees this as a danger and resists by testing your will, trying to convince you that the effort is not necessary. If you push beyond this comfort zone slightly you can convince your “governor” that the extra effort can in fact be accomplished safely and will reset to a higher level.

By continuing to push beyond your current limits with faster pace running, and allowing adequate recovery time between hard efforts you will now be in a position to go to a track and run some intervals. Speed work is not without risks, there are twin dangers of running speed sessions too often and running them too fast. This is a natural trap that many runners new to speed training fall into, they think if one speed workout a week has “X results” then two workouts a week will have “2X results”, NOT TRUE!!!

I have mentioned in the past that a Sports Psychologist friend of mine had on his business card “The Mind IS The Athlete” and this is where going to the track can have a big benefit. By pushing ourselves through short intervals of high-intensity work we train our minds to the fact that we can handle a higher physical and mental stress and the body responds by increasing the amount of endorphins that are released into our body and we get the feeling of being able to work harder and still be comfortable.

Speed – Part 2

While you have probably heard about slow-twitch (ST) muscle fibers and fast-twitch (FT) muscle fibers and Type IIa and Type IIb fibers and how this has a determination on just how fast you can run, all of this probably doesn’t help to answer your question, “How much speed work should I do? How often? How intense? How much volume? What type?”.

Too much, too often, too intense will not accomplish your goal but will only set you up for a potential injury. The primary key to success is doing the correct amount of the type of training that best promotes the desired outcome. In the case of distance running, more endurance and more speed.

The objective of training is to bring the athlete to a peak fitness level at the proper time, with all the requirements for good performance brought along in balance. What this means is that every race can’t be an “A” type race, you need to chose a primary goal and use the other events as tune-up or marker races.

Fundamentally speed is developed in two ways, stride length and stride frequency, there are no other options, look at the stride length of Carl Lewis in the photo above, he has a tremendous stride length. To increase stride length you have to increase the power and flexibility of the legs. This is where weight work and stretching exercises can have the biggest impact. To increase stride frequency you need to develop faster reflex action and better coordination, relaxation, and technique as well as flexibility. This is where track workouts can help.

As noted above, All of your speed must be built off of a solid aerobic base, if you don’t have the base you won’t be able to handle the workload for gaining speed, and without the foundation of solid aerobic conditioning any workouts you perform at the track will not have the desired effect. So to improve your speed you need to run as much as you can in your aerobic zone, which if you are using a heart monitor as I recommend, you will be doing most of your running at 70-75% of your max heart rate (MHR).

Although it is advisable to keep some faster paced workouts in your training throughout the year, the amount of hard speed work your body is capable of handling is limited. If you are training for a marathon you might be able to handle 10-12 weeks of speed sessions but if you are training for 5K, 10K or 15K racing then 6-8 weeks is probably all you will need to reach your peak speed.

Marathon runners should focus more on 800, 1200 and 1600 meter repeats while short distance runners should focus more on 100, 200 and 400 meter repeats. How much volume should be based on your base aerobic conditioning and shouldn’t exceed 10% of you total weekly volume or about 4800 meters for novice runners, 6400 meters for intermediate runners and about 8000 meters for more advanced runners.

See you at the races.........

Coach Will