I talked with Dr. Mann quite a bit this weekend about this very subject and he said that from his research, he is certain that runners will make the same mistakes at 80% as they do at 100% but perhaps to a lesser degree. We both agreed that there was obviously a cut off where sprint mechanics were clearly different from say jogging but the % of intensity at which this occurred could not be agreed upon (perhaps 60 or 70%). Assuming his conclusions are true, would it then matter from a sprint mechanics standpoint if a sprinter did tempo runs seeing as it should have minimal or no effect on 100% mechanics because they would essentially mirror each other with the only differences being a matter of degree. On the flip side of that argument, would running at lower intensities be inadvisable for the reason that if top end speed mechanics were poor, the same problems would also be present at lower speeds, and thus running the larger volumes that tempo permits may only serve to better ingrain those bad habits :?:. Finally, based off prior experience do you agree or disagree with his conclusions?
ELITETRACK Founder