Hehe.

Sorry for mathematical error (although we are always asking athletes to give 110%).

Not a dig at you. Just correcting the physiological theory.

Cheers for the percentage of aerobic/anaerobic, I am aware of the figures.

Some speed is always going to be there - just not the first 4 or 8 weeks, but the major emphasis is getting the athlete to get 4 sessions a week in of running and his other sports he plays - soccer and rugby.

Cheers RUNx4xLIFE at least I have an idea on the volume. It is going to be a learning curve for both athlete and myself, as he has been doing sprint bassed sessions with me for 2 years just to train, and only the last 6 weeks of training was he learning the ropes of 400m based training.

First week of training on the track.

Last night he did (metres are a reasonable guess)

1 x 450m
1 x 900m
1 x 1,350m

Recovery was 1:1

Finished with 3 x 110 easy strides

Last night it was about 6 degrees.

Thursday (if he is at training)

3 x 200 with 50m acceleration, 2-3 minute recovery
10 x 100m extensive tempo with push ups and burpees too finish.

He is easily doing 2 x 30 minutes run, going to extend one run to 45 minutes and the other to 60 minutes over next few months.

DMA is it on grass?

I like the direction you have taken with this guy, how is he finding it?

You speak of extensive tempo, do you mean at a good pace focusing on how his body is moving through space, technique etc or something else?

One of the guys in my squad may adopt those easy run progressions too, his weakness has always been the endurance side but for he has a great affinity for speed work.

Time for me to get off my slack ass and go for a run too I think. Thanks to o9v0e0r0 for snapping me out of it!

Winter training is on grass, have a grass sports complex about 3 minutes from my place. We will possibly do 3 time trials on track, only because I have a exact distance to work off.

I talk of extensive tempo as being about 70% of pb pace for that distance, sprinting and racing technique is not important. Extensive tempo is the interval approach to the continuous runs I take - Easy.

This athlete, is one who will either go hard or do nothing. I am trying to teach him to run hard with his interval work and run easy with his continuous work. I would sooner see him run 5km in 30 minutes and train well in the intervals then run 8km in 30 minutes and the quality in the intervals are low.

Hope that makes sense.