How to Develop as a Great Coach: Have a Plan, Part II
Have a Plan, Part II — The Specific Training Period
*** Note: If you have not read Part 1, you can do so here. Reading Part 1 will result in Part 2 making more sense. ***
The Specific Period lasts 3 - 12 weeks. For most high school runners it will be about 3 - 4 weeks. Most post-collegiate runners should plan for 8 - 12 weeks depending on competition time horizons. College runners will be somewhere in between.
In the Specific Period, only 2 biomotor qualities, or paces, are mixed in a workout. This results in a higher overall intensity per workout. If workout intensity in the Foundational period were classified as “moderate,” then workouts in the Specific periods are “high.” Therefore, at least one recovery day follows each workout day in this period.
Here’s what the weekly training pattern in the Specific Period could look like for our hypothetical emerging elite 5K runner:
Monday — 5 x 2K @ 10K pace w/ 60” recovery + 8 x 300m @ 3K pace w/ 60” recovery
Tuesday — Easy Recovery Running
Wednesday — 6 x 200m @ 1500m pace w/ 90” recovery, 6 Miles Steady (Heart Rate of ~150 bpm), 6 x 200m @ 1500m pace w/ 90” recovery,
Thursday — Easy Recovery Running
Friday — 5 x 1K @ 5K pace w/ 3’ recovery + 4 x 400m @ 800m pace w/ 3:00 recovery
Saturday — Easy Recovery Running
Sunday — Hilly Easy Longer Endurance Run
You’ll notice 10K, 5K, 3K, 1500m, and 800m paces are emphasized. General Stamina, or Steady Running, now takes a backseat. It’s no longer an emphasized quality but a maintenance quality. So a single weekly bout of 6 continuous miles at a steady clip are enough to maintain General Stamina.
Why?
Since the runner accumulated 30 hours of General Stamina in the 10 week Foundational Period the Residual Effects of this quality are high and will last several months, provided a modest training stimulus is repeated regularly.
Plus, in the Specific Period we no longer want to improve General Stamina, but build the bridge to upgrading Specific Stamina capabilities of the 5K runner which will be later realized in the Performance Period. To accomplish this entails a lot of short, but dense, reps at 3K, 1500m and 800m speed. Paces faster than 5K Goal Pace will make the runner a better 5K runner. The effect of repeated exposures to faster than 5K Goal Pace results in Goal 5K Pace feeling more manageable.
Why?
Because the body overcompensates when faced with a repeated stress. Essentially, what we want to achieve in this period of training is an overcompensation of 5K Goal Pace.
Some may resist this style of training because it’s not a straightforward, linear Cause & Effect relationship. They erroneously think to get better at 5K pace you need to only practice a lot of 5k pace.
It’s a nice thought, but it’s just not true.
When you fatigue, you want your default pace to be your desired race pace, not slower. If all you do is practice Goal Race Pace, and nothing faster, when you start to fatigue in a race you will run slower because your force output ability will be attenuated to Goal Race Pace only, nothing faster. We know that fatigue dampens rate of force development in all athletes, runners included. More specific periods of training should be focused on raising a runner’s overall rate of force development so when they start to fatigue they can maintain desired race pace, rather than fall off of it.
Strength training and plyometric exercises are performed on Recovery Days in this period, ideally before the recovery run. This may be a shocking prescription to some readers: Lift then run. But the goal of recovery runs in this period is simply to act as springboard for the recovery and repair process. Nothing more. Running fast on recovery runs doesn’t make you a better runner, only a less recovered one.
One could bike or swim on recovery days if desired. The modality doesn’t matter, all that matters is the oxidative recovery activity is: 1) light intensity and continuous 2) is between 130-140 bpm 3) is 30 - 50 minutes in duration to prevent cardiac drift.
Provided your athletes are not handcuffed to the cult of “Weekly Mileage Totals,” there shouldn’t be any resistance met to these alternative recovery modalities presented.
I know I said I’d cover the Performance and Transition Period in Part 2, but for the sake of brevity and focus, I’m going to extend this series to include a Part 3 (Training Blocks Explained) and Part 4 (the Performance Period), and Part 5 (the Transition Period).