This rule implies that peak racing performance only occurs when a period of high-intensity, low volume training (peaking or sharpening) follows a prolonged build up period consisting of low intensity, high volume training.
The godfather of this approach to training has got to be Arthur Lydiard. Greatest of all the runners coached by Lydiard was the double Olympic champion and multiple world record holder Peter Snell. Although Snell was predominantly an 800m runner, during his base period, he would regularly run 100miles per week. The Lydiard approach would then have the runner adopt a period of hill training before a brief sharpening phase to prepare for the main competitive races of the season.
Peter Snell winning Olympic gold
Following this style of training provides the following benefits:
• It develops robust health
• It conditions the cardiovascular system
• Its slow pace keeps injuries to a minimum
• It fosters a continual slow improvement
• It has a desharpening effect and conserves “adaptation energy”
• It provides strength to run multiple rounds of an event and peak for the final
(adapted from Tom Osler)
So, at the beginning of the base phase, a comfortable pace for our runner might be 7 minute miling. After nine months base building, that comfortable pace will have reduced considerably, say to 5 minute miling. From there, it takes little sharpening to race at 4 minute miling.
When Osler talks about “adaptation energy”, he is referring to that undefined extra that runners get on race day. Osler (and many others) would suggest that this is a finite resource and that if you spend too long speed training, you will burn out and have nothing to draw on come race day.
For many years, this has been the dominant thought in running training circles. However, in recent years, there have been some dissenters. Some coaches would now have runners running hills and speed work in the initial phase of their training as strength work. There is also an argument that although there is a low risk of injury during the base phase of training, this is more than overshadowed by the huge risk of injury when untrained muscles start to do speed work during the sharpening phase. There is a very powerful argument that you never get too far away from speed.
So, where do I stand on all this?
Well, as I have mentioned on several occasions previously, the biggest flaw I see in runners on a regular basis is a lack balance in their training. Many race too often and also run sessions which should be recovery runs as races. I totally understand why this happens and during my running career, I frequently committed similar mistakes.
Why?
For many runners, the thing that keeps them running is turning up and racing. Going out and training is a necessity to enable them to get to the start line in reasonable shape but all the excitement comes from the race. Law 7 looked at whether to race when training for longer races and this law dovetails nicely with that. However, for many runners, the idea of training for nine months to have a six week racing season would be inconceivable!!
My personal view is that most runners would benefit most from adopting undulating or wave periodisation.
What this means is rather than having specific periods devoted to base training, sharpening and racing, you would incorporate all three over a much shorter period. An example would be to spend week one concentrating on base training, week two on tempo training and week three on sharpening with a race at the end of it and week four recovering.
I’ll talk about this in greater detail in a later post.
Until then, train SMART