Elitetrack: Sport Training & Conditioning

i am still confused whether speed endurance compliments max speed? Maybe thats why my accel and max speed are platueing since i’m working on them so hard, and have been neglecting speed endurance for a long time, doing only when its to late in the season. Is it best to do a session of accels/maxv or can one do speed endurance for 3-4 weeks as a priority on all sessions of the week? IN my case 2 sessions a week of high intense sprinting. Or is it just best to do accel and top speed one day and another day do speed endurance session?

Speed endurance will compliment the time you finish with.  This is especially true with the 200 and 400 meter races.  This allows you to maintain that top speed for a longer duration which will result in a faster time.  So doing speed endurance will not make your maxv faster, just able to sustain that or close to that longer.  Since its early in the season right now it would smart to start some special endurance work and speed endurance work, and reduce the amount of high intense sprinting until a little later in the season.

Speed endurance does compliment max speed, but speed endurance does not EFFECT max speed.  Max Speed and Speed Endurance are two entirely different entities.  As mentioned, speed endurance is the ability to sustain MaxV over a longer period of time.  Max Speed, or MaxV, is just that—the maximum rate of speed in which you are able to travel. 

Now, with all that being said, what you want to work on and when will determine how you develop your training regiment.  Most training regiments start off the season developing acceleration, moving into MaxV and finishing the season off by working on Speed Endurance.  In this case, the early part of the season, the part in which the athlete is the freshest, MaxV is developed and you go into the end of the season, or towards the more important meets developing speed endurance.  With this training plan, the CNS gets saved when most important (speed endurance training is actually less CNS-intensive than MaxV training) and peak MaxV can be utilized. 

Be advised, just because you focus more on speed endurance in the aforementioned training regiments, there is still at least 1 day a week spent sustaining MaxV training.  Also be advised that meets are considered speed endurance days in a training regiment as well and should be taken into consideration when developing a training regiment.

I believe speed endurance work does help max speed.  I say this because there are a ton of programs that do an extremely small amount of true speed work but get great 100m improvements.  My answer is based on practical observations and not the literature.

But that could also just be because they are able to sustain a faster speed for a longer period of time, but not necessarily increase their maximum velocity.  None the less it is all about what the time reads when you cross the line not what your peak velocity is.  I personally love working maxv and acceleration all summer long and then early fall while maintaining some sort of Max V even if its very little throughout the year.

i have gone through aprox 8-12 weeks of maxv and speed work, which is why i think i’m plateuing. Might as well introduce the body to speed endurance sessions.

Mortac,

I have to go with John on this one.  I believe in a program with little speed work and lots of endurance work that equates to faster times, the underlying point is that the athletes obviously had good speed to begin with.  Look at Clyde Hart’s program in Baylor….he takes athletes who already have good 200m and speed and is able to turn them into outstanding 400m runners because of SPEED ENDURANCE training.  He doesn’t work on developing more speed but, rather, sustaining the speed they already have.  He brings down the gap in that 200+200 split. 

John,

As much as the time is important, if you have no MaxV, it will read slower, regardless of training.  Likewise, if you have excellent MaxV but are unable to sustain it for any distance or period of time, you are also going to see slower times as well.  Speed comes from a nice blend of running form, power, MaxV (affected by power output) and speed endurance.

I’ve always been amazed when people say that pure speed endurance work (80-120 or 150m or so) has no affect or potential to improve max speed when it is in fact a short sprint that reaches maximal velocity. You could go into the studies with Locatelli and all of those guys discussing leg stiffness/glycolysis/etc. and get into the theoretical aspects of why speed endurance work can enhance max speed, but speed endurance alone does include max velocity training (albeit only in part), so I don’t understand why is explicitly can’t work.

I think 400stud may be confusing special endurance and speed endurance work when referencing the 400. While I don’t know how running repeat 300s/350s/whatever can improve top speed for the 100m, speed endurance on its own should definitely have some sort of effect.

I primarily follow short-to-long setups and in this scheme I always find that speed IS improved by speed-endurance work….especially short speed endurance work (55-90m). In fact, I almost get the impression that I couldn’t maximize top end speed development without moving on to speed endurance.

See, maybe it is me being naive, but I would think that in order to maximize MaxV you should be running at MaxV.  If, during speed end, you are slowing down AFTER you achieve MaxV, can you honestly still be improving MaxV just by running at MaxV even with a deceleration period afterwards?

If you’re only doing reps where you accelerate up to and run at max velocity (basically just reps 60-65m and under), how much time are you spending running fast and upright? I think there may be an effect on top speed seen there since you are getting more training, at very fast speeds (near maximal velocity) and upright. This goes without even getting into the effects seen on stiffness and other qualities via longer reps.

I would argue that most athletes can’t reach top speed in practice.  Personally I will guarantee you that I never hit the 10m splits in training that I hit in meets.  So is running flying 20s at 2.05 in training helping me run 1.95 in a meet?

Mike Young - 12 March 2008 09:23 PM

I primarily follow short-to-long setups and in this scheme I always find that speed IS improved by speed-endurance work….especially short speed endurance work (55-90m). In fact, I almost get the impression that I couldn’t maximize top end speed development without moving on to speed endurance.

this is how i feel, in my experience I seem to be stuck on not improving my top speed and accel, and I always thought to go at it in some fashion to adapt to it. By the time i notice there is no further improvement its too late to start speed endurance.