Neuqua Valley Men's Cross Country

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The following is a post on an online chat room from Olympian Jim Spivey. The topic is speed work vs. long intervals/mileage.

First, I disagree it is easier to build strength than speed. This depends on the individual . . . Mark Nenow, before his AR for 10k, ran almost entirely on the roads around Lexington - no track workouts. When he toyed on the track, he would sometimes get injured. If anything, as Dr. David Martin would say, Speed kills. Comment: Spivey is talking about doing hard, short intervals when he says “toyed on the track.”

It is much easier, I think, to run 6x300 or 8x400 than to run 4xmile. We actually enjoy running 8x4, and find the miles boring. A true 10k runner would say the opposite. Many colleges run loads of speed work from January through May to be ready to run fast at the conference meet. Some one running 1:45 or 13:22 now - where we will they be on August 31st . . . my guess, is not racing in Europe at that time. They are trying to peak now, and in June.

Dr. Martin, who treadmill tested me for 8 years and has written the excellent book "Training distance runners" and "better training for distance runners" with Peter Coe, Seb's dad, showed me on my vo2 testing that I could keep doing the base work and slower intervals, up until 4-6 weeks before I wanted to peak. Running slower in training could also mean less injuries. I could also hold a peak for around 6 weeks. So all of my base training had to be put in from January through late May and into June, if I wanted to race well on Sept. 1.

Running a 3:51 or 3:52 mile on July 4th at Olso may sound fast, but that was usually before major speed work had been completed, tying to delay the true peak for the championships. Some would say, that I sacrificed this at times, and did not race as well at the 88 Olympic Trials (4th), 91 USA champs (4th), '93 USA champs (3rd), 94 USA champs (6th, 5k) and '96 Olympic trials (4th). But in each of those year, I peaked in 88 on August 31 (3:31.01), 91 in mid-July, '93 at the Worlds on Sept 1 (5th); '94 in Sept running a 5k pr in 13:15 and '96 in July at Stockholm running 13:24 to qualify for the Olympic games. Sometimes, including me, we are so eager to run fast that we cut back on mileage and run faster to reach that peak. Then, what next after 4 weeks? flat.

Is Sage training correctly? Ask again in two years, or 4 years. If he is having fun while training that is the key. He is still only 20, and a lot of room for improvement. Remember, he struck me as someone with a plan.
Craig also ran excellent times, but after college. His coach thought he was a miler/5k runner, and also one to race the 10k. He ran his AR at least 5 years after college. The Big Ten was into winning the 4xmile at Drake relays and running shorter events. Steve Plasecenia (from Minnesota) was one who was in this mold. Ran great 10k's but much later in life, like Mark Nenow.

In looking at the threshold pace for HS, and then increasing it for college, look at what Dr. Dave states. The body has either a high vo2 max, or high lactate tolerance. Ideally, we want both to be at their highest. But the body says, hey, if I have a vo2 of 80, I don't need to be lactate tolerant. Thus I can run forever at a fast pace, but when it comes time to kick, I can only run for 40 seconds above 100% lactate until I get tired. The other side is when you train and have high tolerance to lactate, but lower vo2.

In 1992, I could run for 4 mins at above 100%, but a very low vo2. Dr. Dave said, you are starting to peak to early, as this was May 1st. He suggested that I run 6x800, 4xmile, etc at 5:00 pace per mile instead of a speed workout, for the rest of the summer (!). I and my coach did not think this was right, but we decided if he is the genius we both think he is, we should try. I ran slower, very slow intervals, even through August, while other athletes were running 6x200 in 25, I ran 3 miles in 15:00 or 800's in 2:30, once a week. ran my #2, #3, #4 and #5 best ever 1500 meters that year. Remember, as soon as we start doing speed work, our vo2 starts to drop. EVEN if we keep doing one long run a week, our vo2 will still drop. I actually raised it 3 points in '92, but normally, when tested on May 1st, it would drop 2-4 points during the course of the summer but my lactate tolerance would go up. The ultimate athlete? Dr Dave said in 1992 that he had only tested 6 athletes that showed the amazing process of building latate, then actually having the body process it out, so your end test numbers were lower than expected. Your lactate peaks 4-5 minutes after a hard interval or treadmill test, and I had lactate numbers from 115-165% post test. One time, only 98% - Dr. Dave said this is the key - getting rid of the lactate as you race. Of course, Coe had achieved this at various times of his career - but I only once.