A Year-Round Speed Program for Mid-Distance Runners, Part III

by Luke Watson

LACTIC CAPACITY TRAINING, OVERSPEED TRAINING, AND SHARPENING/TAPERING

LACTIC CAPACITY TRAINING

The key to a great 800m race is building on the previously outlined aerobic and anaerobic components, then increasing the athlete's lactic capacity (technically, lactic capacity is a laboratory term; in practice, it is also known as anaerobic capacity or anaerobic power, but I will generally use the terms interchangeably here) to its maximum. The best way to do this is with the burning-calves, failing legs, booty-lock repeats at about 800m race pace. These workouts will train the athlete to produce a maximal effort resulting in extremely high blood lactate levels. Training to run fast even with high blood lactate will enable the mid-distance runner to finish races without "tying up", "dying", "rigging", "hitting the peanut butter", "doing the skeleton dance", or having "the wheels fall off". These are all terms for muscular failure exhibited when the body's cells produce so much lactic acid that it causes the muscles to essentially shut down. To be clear, if one runs hard enough, this will always happen. By training for lactic capacity, though, one can both delay the onset of that muscular failure and make it less extreme.

Some great lactic capacity workouts (all except the TT done at about 800m race pace):

600m Time Trial: the classic test of anaerobic power, a practical test of one's lactic capacity. Under Stillwater HS Coach Scott Christensen, we would do this weekly or biweekly during the track season. This is when he'd sometimes yell, "BALLS TO THE WALL" and you knew you had better get after it! After a 6 to 8 minute recovery, I like to finish this up with 4 fast 150m strides.
6-8x300m (2-3 minutes rest)
4-6x400m (5 minutes rest)
2x500m (10 minutes rest)
2x600m (15-20 minutes rest)
2x4x200m (30s rest, 5 minutes between sets)
200, 300, 400, 400, 300, 200 (rest = 3, 4, 5, 5, 4 minutes)
500, 400, 300, 200, 100 (rest = 5, 4, 3, 2 minutes)
Maximum total volume in this workout group is 1800 to 2000 meters and as a very general rule the rest will equal 1 minute per 100m run.

OVERSPEED/SHARPENING TRAINING

Overspeed training for the mid-distance runner is just what it sounds like. Training at a faster pace than one's race pace enables the athlete to feel more comfortable at race pace. For the miler, lactic capacity training will provide a fair amount of overspeed training, so further supplementation, while recommended, can be fairly limited. For the 800m runner, the lactic capacity workouts will only address race pace, so some specific overspeed training is a must.

I generally allow the "light speed" sessions described in Part I of this series (such as 150's and 200's with plenty of rest) to serve as overspeed training for the majority of the year. However, there will be some more substantial overspeed training in February/March during indoors and during May and June outdoors (April for the athlete whose peak is at conference, but also realize that some of this athlete's overspeed will be done at a similar pace to the superior athletes' lactic capacity paces, so a little bit of customization will be all that's needed).

Overspeed workouts are done between 400m race pace and 800m race pace. They include:

6-8x150m (3-4 minutes rest)
4-8x200m (3-5 minutes rest)
2-3x400m (8-15 minutes rest)
2x400, 2x200m (8 minutes rest)
2x {300, 200} (3-5 minutes rest)
Note that the MAXIMUM total volume will be 1200 meters, even for strong veteran athletes. Exceeding this will risk injury.

SHARPENING AND TAPERING

Tapering is a touchy subject. Do too much, and you won't achieve the freshness desired at the end of the season. Do too little, and you will lose fitness. I advocate taking recovery days at an easier pace and slightly reducing volume. While during the regular season the athletes might run 50 to 60 minutes on a recovery run, in the final 2-3 weeks of the season they might only run 40 to 50 minutes. Anecdotally, I find that beyond 47 to 50 minutes, tiredness starts to set in at a more rapid rate, so I try to cap the athletes' late-season recovery runs at 47 to 50 minutes. To maintain aerobic fitness during this period, we will use Jack Daniels-style cruise intervals. This means that we may do a workout such as 2-4x 1 mile with 45s-1:00 rest at just slightly faster (10s/mile) than lactate threshold pace in lieu of a tempo run. Alternatively, during the post season we often begin speed workouts with 2-3x 1000m or 1200m with 45s rest at just slightly faster than lactate threshold pace.

The workouts during this phase are lower volume so that the athlete feels he hasn't "left it all on the practice track." We try to avoid doing anything that reaches extremely high blood lactate levels within 5 to 7 days of a race.

The workouts look very much like the lactic capacity and overspeed workouts above. For the lactic capacity workouts, cut the volume by 20% to 40% from what you did in the heaviest workouts.

One of my favorite late-season workouts is:
2x {300, 200, 100} (2-3 minutes rest). The 300 is at 800m race pace, the 200 and 100 are a bit faster.

We will also do some gear-changing workouts during this time where the athlete has to change gears around race pace every 100m or 200m.

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SUMMARY

By intelligently and progressively training for speed throughout the entire training cycle, you can become faster and more efficient. For the mid-distance athlete, it is critical to address a range of speed training effects, some of which are more neuromuscular and some of which are more energy-system based/physiological: basic speed, hills, accelerations, flys, lactate tolerance, lactic capacity, and longer overspeed training. Properly including all these stimuli into one's training routine will never leave the athlete too far away from racing well, and will have the athlete primed for his or her best performance when it counts most.

Once you've done all this, you'll be in that race, and there will come a moment... a moment that will ask you if you'll bend, which will be easy, or if you'll commit, which will appear to require something superhuman. A competitor will pull up alongside you, and go like hell trying to beat you. This is your moment. The moment when you reach into the bottom of your soul and pull out something special. The moment when you throw it down, go by your opponent, and take a little piece of his or her soul with you. You will break their souls, and you will own that race.

Until next time,
BREAK THEIR SOULS!

- Luke