Reply To:Training less, better results?

When I ran my pb on 400m (51) my schedule was looking like this:
No strength or plyos

m:easy slow jog 40 min
t:16x60m
w:easy slow jog 40 min
t:7x150m. 3-4 min rec
f:easy slow jog 40 min
S:easy slow jog 40 min
s:5x200m 5 min rec.

I guess this is not according to the guidelines for 400m training. Long slow runs on easy days and high volume on intervall days with speed mostly slower than race pace. And no real speed work. Still I felt in my best shape and had always energy and explosivness in my legs on the intervalldays.

This season I have changed to trying to be more specific and added also 1 more session.
Also added strenth training (got much stronger. But have not turned into more speed.
The results has not been good. I would guess 52-53 on a 400m this year on a good day, and also many small nagging injuries

Schedule like this:

m:10x100m slow/medium tempo
t:6x60m+strength
w:15 min easy
t:5x150m fast. long rec 7-10 min+strength
f:easy tempo 20 min striding
s:6×30-40m sprint+strength
s:3x300m fast. 10-15 min rec.

Even tough I have not felt overtrained I guess maybe only 3 quality sessions will be better for me (like the first schedule) and less focus on strength work)
In teory I guess schedule 2 would be better, but the result says 1!

Any comments to this? If It is suffient to stick to nr 1 I would not have anything against it 🙂

Hi,

These are two totaly different microcycles. First one is of a lower intensity and your interval sessions where usually slower than race pace. It would guarantee that you won’t overtrain, but doesn’t mean that it’s best microcycle to bringing you to your best performance. Anyway if to choose, then I would choose the first one instead of second b/c I know that I couldn’t keep with four sessions a week of fast running like in a second weekly sample. Main reasons for it could be: tuesday-6x60m+strength (if strength work is intense so no chance to fully recover untill thursday, even after fast 6×60 sprinting alone). Now thursday – 5×150 FAST + strength (might be that your legs didn’t fully recover after tuesdays workout and you did FAST again). Saturday 6×30-40 fast + strength and next day 3x300m FAST again, it means you have just one easy monday’s workout and tuesday again FAST.

Of course it depends on preparation period, but if I do 2 training sessions a week of max speed + strength, so my other 2-3 interval sessions usually are run below 80% of max speed, it guarantees that my fast twich muscle fibres won’t be in a fatiqued state. Energetically I get same or even greater sensation (if I need to) when I run intervals at slower pace, but higher volume and limited rest periods. Later in the season I leave just one max speed session a week, but add speed endurance session of fast pace as well.