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TRAINING "LEVELS"
The team is divided up into Training "Levels" which can be seen on the Workouts for the Week prescribed minutes. The "Levels" represent the amount of training experience an athlete has. The longer someone has been training the more minutes and distance within workouts they can handle LEVEL 1 - New Athletes/ 1st year of focused training LEVEL 2 - 2nd year of focused training LEVEL 3 - 3rd year of focused training LEVEL 4 - 4th year of focused training LEVEL 5 - 5th year of focused training In order for an athlete to move up in Level they should be able to handle the previous Level without significant injury. SHORT STRIDES 60 meters @ 80% sprint effort (around 1600m/800m pace) LONG STRIDES 200 meters @ 75% sprint effort (around 3200m/1600m pace) TEMPO - Includes Long, Medium and Short Tempo paces The effort level is just outside of your comfort zone—you can hear your breathing, but you're not gasping for air. If you can talk easily, you’re not in the tempo zone, and if you can’t talk at all, you’re above the zone. Tempos can be done as one long segment, multiple segements or in a negative split format. NEGATIVE SPLIT/PROGRESSIVE A negative split effort involves making each segment of a run faster than the previous segment (example: 4 mile negative split tempo, mile splits are 7:50, 7:42, 7:31, 7:19). When encountering hills a negative split should be based on effort not time. Also referred to as a "Progressive Run" ALACTIC SPRINTS 60 meters @ 90-95% sprint effort (focus on excellent form!) The goal of Alactic Sprints is neuromuscular development. This trains the muscles to recruit the maximum amount of muscle fibers (developing top end speed). Alactic sprints should be no longer than 10secs to avoid lactic acid from building up in the muscles and should have 3 min rest between reps. |
TRAINING "PACES"
The Workouts for the Week prescribe a variety of paces. Each pace trains different systems within the body. Each pace is needed within a training program to become the best athlete we can be. EASY PACE - a recovery effort, slow enough you can have a conversation EASY/AVG PACE - in between easy and average pace. AVERAGE PACE - a comfortably hard pace for the majority of miles LONG TEMPO PACE - the equivalent of an athletes Marathon Pace MEDIUM TEMPO PACE - the equivalent of an athletes 1/2 Marathon Pace SHORT TEMPO PACE - a pace based on an athletes "Lactate Threshold" STRONG PACE - a pace used for "Fartlek" style workouts (depending on the length of the rep its between Short Tempo and 5k pace) RACE DISTANCE PACES - These paces include paces based on race distances: 10K Pace, 3 Mile Pace, 2 Mile Pace, Mile Pace, 800m Pace HILL SPRINTS Hill sprints should be a "progressive" effort which means you should start with a fast yet controlled effort and then gradually add more and more effort until you reach a full sprint. The goal is to start with excellent form and then keep it throughout all of the efforts. This helps reinforce proper sprint mechanics. Typical Hill Sprints are 100m or 150 FARTLEK - Swedish word for "Speedplay" - a typical fartlek uses half-time recovery Fartleks alternate between an average pace and strong pace. The strong pace is between Short Tempo to 10K pace and the average pace is half of the time (example: 4 min strong, 2 min average). The average pace is considered the "recovery" portion of a Fartlek workout but should not be a slow pace. SPEED CHANGES - a Fartlek done with shorter, equal segments - the most common segments are 100m or 200m Speed Changes are typically done on a Track using the straightaways and curves as separate segments of effort. Athletes run the straightaways at a strong pace between 10k to 5k pace. The curves are used as a "recovery" segment at an average pace. LACTIC ACID/LACTATE THRESHOLD When oxygen levels in the body are normal, carbohydrates breaks down into water and carbon dioxide. When oxygen level are low, carbohydrates break down to produce energy and make lactic acid. The presence of lactic acid in the muscles produces a heaviness or burning sensation. The moment when there is a sharp increase in lactic acid production is called your Lactate Threshold (in between 10k and 1/2 Marathon paces). |
