[quote author="davan" date="1361667485"]Are there really any practical implications to this? At the end of the day, you’re still going to have to run 60m/100m/200m and try to be competitive, at least relative to your level.
It could be applicable for designing training for these events…
ei. Whether an acceleration workout for a HS athlete should be something like 6x30m(4 seconds) or 5x45m (6 seconds)[/quote]
I fail to see the practical benefit of adjusting that. At the end of the day, your athletes must run 55/60/100/200/400m or whatever the distance is and they need to be competitive. If the athlete is such a low level, then they should be doing longer reps relatively anyway because there is simply more to gain from improvements in that area of the race. The only time I can see this adjustment being relevant is with age group athletes where the goal isn’t pure performance anyway.
Most elites accelerate to 50-60m, but rarely in training is this considered ‘acceleration’ work, but rather speed work. If you’re talking the difference between focusing on 20s vs 30s, you’re talking about the difference of at most a few steps, and frankly, not something worth worrying about.