Elitetrack: Sport Training & Conditioning

I have seen where Pfaff’s normal microcycle structure is as follows:

Day1 Acc Dev 8-10 x 20-40, hops, weights
Day2 Tech and GS, BB, medball
Day3 MaxV, hops,  weights
Day4 Resoration and GS, hurdle mob
Day5 Acc Dev same as Day1 except at 20-30% volume, weights
Day6 Spe End and GS

Can anyone go into a little more detail of what encompasses a standard Pfaff microcycle? Volumes, etc.

How do athletes handle the seemingly high number of high intensity days?

That is the template but it is much too simplistic and their are quite a few changes that take place depending on the phase of the training as well as the event the athlete competes in. For instance, acceleration work may go as short as 10m on Day 1, medball and BB are not always done on Day 2, Technique may be done on Day 4; Day 6 isn’t always a speed or special endurance day.

As for how athletes handle the intensity, the results speak for themselves. I guess it should be noted however that Dan is one of the best therapists in the world and treats most of his athletes himself which permits them to train at higher levels than most.

Good point Mike, Dan’s expertise and ability to provide preventative therapy is the key!

Thanks Mike.

I assume, following a short to long approach Pfaff would not have the Speed/special endurance day on Saturday until SPP, opting for another GS type day during GPP. Also that would explain the shorter accels.

Was that what you were getting at or does he favor an ends to middle approach?

the ability of Dan to do therapy and plan B is second to none.

Many times, in a panic when i’ve had “higher level” athletes dinged up i’ll ask for advice…. they often comeback within 5-15 days at or near PR levels.

one of his best sayings is something along these lines…

humans are animals and in the jungle if you break a leg you’d better get going or else you’re someone else’s food. you can’t afford to sit around and wait for it to heal.

Originally posted by LR1400
I assume, following a short to long approach Pfaff would not have the Speed/special endurance day on Saturday until SPP, opting for another GS type day during GPP. Also that would explain the shorter accels.

KT or JJ correct me if I’m wrong but if I recall correctly, the GPP setup would be generally the same except the running workout would be intensive tempo rather than speed/special endurance.

Kebba,

You had mentioned that you have had “higher level athletes” dinged up and with Dan’s advice they come back within 5-15 days at or near PR levels. 

I was wondering if you could elaborate on or give examples on how you utilized Dan’s advice to elicit these results?

Thanks in advance!

Some questions and answers from conversations I had with
Dan, he was the most helpful coach I have ever met. Also very patient because I had like a million questions and he could very easily have told me to go jump. If I was asking Charles Poliquin these questions It would have cost about
4 million bucks. (and of course not been real relevant to world class track)

Q. Do you Vary your weekly cycle during competition phase? A. yes…..
Q.If you compete on Sat does it still look like this
Dan has edited the below
m) Accel + Core lifts
t) Circuits sometimes speed dev here….6-9 runs
w) Vmax or speed end + Core lifts ...if speed on t then speed end. here
along with elastic end. work….
t) Circuits ....sometimes a total rest day…...
F) Accel + Core lifts
s) Comp .....sometimes we double or triple here or do runs after the
comp…...
s) Regen
Q. Would you still do accel + Core lifts the day before comp and if so do you
change the Volume and or type of lifts? yes,,,,we often do starts,
multi-jumps, and Olympics…...

A bit more, I dont think Dan would mind,

We work acceleration development sessions twice a week, all year long and
this is the base of our teaching philosophy. From there we introduce twice
weekly special speed endurance work which also happens all year long. These
four workouts form the cornerstones of our program. We classically do acc.
dev. on M&F with spd. end. on W&Sat;......We total 300-600m of acc. dev.
each day and total 1000-1200m of spd end. during the first few
mesocycles…..We start with 2 minute rest at the beginning of the year
and increase the rest by 1 minute each month so that by the end of the year
we may be taking 20 minutes or longer between runs. With women a sample
workout might be 6x200m in 36” for cycle one using 2’ recovery….the next
month hopefully we are doing the same in 34-35” with three minute
rec….and so on…...by comp peak we may be going 2x200 in 24.0 with full
recovery….I seldom go over 300m with the 100-200m types and do no road
work or classic tempo endurance stuff. I believe in gradual adaptation to
stress and progressive running. I am also a big fan of mastering a certain
level before moving on to more esoteric stuff….dan

Jacko,

Thanks for the info. Do you have anymore stuff on how Dan operates.

What’s the deal with twice weekly Accel and Speed End but no max velocity work, as mentioned above?

MaxV is ussually addressed on Wednesdays as in the first template. Often times it comes in the form of 90-120m SFS which could be considered acc. dev, maxV, and speed endurance work all rolled into one.

LR1400,
they start about the 4th or 5th mesocycle and do it as mike says on Wednesday, he used sessions like 2x3x60 or as mike also said varied speed runs like 120 as 40 accel 40 hold 40 flat out.

Sorry I didn’t clarify but if you didn’t pick it up from Jacko’s post, SFS stands for sprint-float-sprint, where the first section is essentially an all-out acceleration, the middle section is a maintenance section, and the final section is essentially a flying sprint.

Originally posted by juggalo
Kebba,

You had mentioned that you have had “higher level athletes” dinged up and with Dan’s advice they come back within 5-15 days at or near PR levels. 

I was wondering if you could elaborate on or give examples on how you utilized Dan’s advice to elicit these results?

Thanks in advance!

Basically when i first heard Dan speak in 1996 he said that Donovan sustained an injury in 96 a few weeks before the games…. they’re periodized the train from that point to the games but also **periodized the therapy** 

Dan said, “people are animals and in the jungle if you break a leg you can’t just sit there or you’ll be someone else’s food.“

made sense to me then and I use that philosophy as the starting pt in injury situations or when they’re just beat up. It also is why finding activities that are compatible and complimentary are so impt. you can do training that’s restorative (psychologically, endocrine-wise, etc) without going to complete rest…. so then rest became relative (some of this I got from listening to Loren Seagrave in the early 90’s as well).... 

so from a therapy/injury combeack perspective we’ve tried to stay active as possible and maintain the quality of the CNS/speed-power wk so that when whatver injury or problem is manageable we can perform at high levels…. this can take any and all forms of jumps, throws, lifts, and runs (if the injury permits).... but the key is you’ve got to maintain firing and synchronization patterns, rate of force development, propioception, amt of force production, eccentric, elastic, and absloute strength qualities….

hope that helps.

KT

So, Dan basically, when beginning to incorporate max velocity goes from 40m - 60m with full acceration progressing to 90m - 120m S-F-S sometimes 150m.

And refernce special endurance it seems it could actually be considered intensive tempo early in the season, progressing to SE1 and then to true Speed End.

I guess no negative effects from the intensive tempo?

Originally posted by LR1400
So, Dan basically, when beginning to incorporate max velocity goes from 40m - 60m with full acceration progressing to 90m - 120m S-F-S sometimes 150m.

The acceleration work is ussually left in the microcycle. The maxV work would ussually go on another day (Wednesday).

And refernce special endurance it seems it could actually be considered intensive tempo early in the season, progressing to SE1 and then to true Speed End.

Yes.

I guess no negative effects from the intensive tempo?

No and why would their be? Perhaps you’re referring to CF’s “no-intermediate worK” philosophy?