Yet another way...

One of the members of Rybinsk GS forum shared his training sessions causing some arguing over it as the result. The thing is, he trains with 40 kg bells doing short sets. When asked why he responded that – in his opinion – if he could get 100 reps with this weight, he could do the same number of reps non-stop with 32 kg bells. And the most interesting part is that his belief is supported by his previous experience: he trained with 32 kg bells and then performed according to his expectations with 24s.

I am not going to start argument about best ways to train. After all, 40 kg every session may be a bit too demanding on the body. But the principle is interesting and it reminded me of training methodology of Zatopek who, as is well known, preferred intervals. His famous workout is 50 - 100 sets of 400 meter sprints! For the purpose of the discussion on the forum I needed to find something about Zatopek’s training in Russian and accidentally came across an interesting article. The original is here: http://www.irc-club.ru/faq/training_andrew.html and abridged translation by yours truly follows.

My training

How it began.

It all started from the person who posts under the nickname Luna on the Novosibirsk [runners’] Forum, a.k.a. Alexander Shimko.

It started even earlier. When after rapid progress from unranked and injured runner (October 2004) to healthy runner with 2nd rank (March 2005) the progress slowed down. Or stopped. Or reversed. Something was missing. Searching for solutions ended with the communication with Luna.

What is it about

From the point of view of traditional training system for runners his thoughts seem… crazy. Before, when I come home from studies I would run and.. wouldn’t want anything else. Now though after running I have accumulated (now spent) energy which I want to direct into doing something useful. Let me tell you about my training. First, let’s get through some important definitions.

Minimal Sufficient Rest. (MSR) You did an acceleration, stopped and are now waiting when you are capable of running again. First when thinking about running you feel: “oh, leave me alone!”, then: “Don’t want to, but can if I really have to”, then: “I don’t care”, then:”I can, actually” and finally: “let’s go!” That’s when you should run again.

Subjectively Enough (SE) and Subjectively Not Enough (SN) – when talking about regulation of load. — как речь заходит о регуляции нагрузок, так сразу можно выделить несколько порогов. Just like during rest you can feel stages. Say you started accelerated running: “Going well”. A bit later: “Not bad, I am gonna get going!” Then: “Maybe enough? – No, a bit more!” And then: “Should be enough! – Well, a little more.” And finally: ”Enough, stop. Should have stopped already!” You should stop at the first doubt. When you feel like shouting at the top of your lungs: “I can run forever!!!” and not when you can just exhale: “Oh boy, what have I done…”

Therefore SN means such condition when load is lower than you would like it to be, when the emotional state during training keeps on hitting new highs. And it always feels that the load is not enough. Well, more running should be done in SN state, not SE and rest MSR.

Which way is correct?

Let’s say I want to improve my 10 km from 60 to 30 minutes. I have two ways to do it:

1. Run 10 km in 50 minutes, then in 40 minutes, then 35 and finally 30 minutes

2. Run 500 meters in 1.5 minutes, then 1 km in 3 minutes, then 3 km in 9 minutes, 5 km in 15 minutes and finally 10 km in 30 minutes. The speed of running is always 1 km in 3 minutes.





These principles are shown on the figure above. Y axis is the distance in km, X axis is the speed of running, minutes per kilometer. The traditional way is represented by the blue line on the top of the chart: gradually increasing the speed while running the same distance of 10 km. The red line on the right represents the other way: running at the desired speed while increasing the distance. The curved diagonal seems to be the mixture of the two methods; the heading accompanying it says: "We wanted to do better, but it came out as always..."

The less you deviate from the competition speed the better. The more – within SE boundaries – you run at the competition speed the better. Faster or slower running is not good.

The author touches on the necessity of variety in training. The rest of the article is the author’s ideas on training, motivation and life. Interesting, though not particularly relevant for our purposes.

What now? Few posts ago I compared two approaches to running and extrapolated them to GS training. These approaches were very close to the ways described above. Then it seemed that building the volume followed by decreasing time spent for getting through it is the way to go. It was compared to running for the determined (desired) time and then trying to build more distance into it; that seemed less rational. Now there is yet another way: run at the desired speed and then work on increasing the duration.

In GS these methods would be represented by the following ways.

First – volume. The key is constant reps. Build the reps per workout, then decrease rest interval between sets until you can do it non-stop. This is the way I believe is best for beginners.

Second – timed sets, AKC way. Constant time of 10 minutes. Work on staying with the bells for 10 minutes at low cadence first. Then gradually build the rate of lifting until you reach the desired number of repetitions.

Third, new way. Should we call it Set Speed Method, as the speed of lifting is constant? Start lifting at the desired cadence until you start getting tired. Stop. Repeat several times until there is still fuel in the tank. With every session try build the duration of the set until you can last for the full 10 minutes at the desired cadence.

Which one is the best? First, most obvious answer would be that the choice is individual: some trainees will respond better to long timed sets, some to speed work and some to volume. But I think the correct one is that each method has its place in different stages of training. Build the volume at the beginning, then get some idea of GS set with long slow sets. Finally, to get your reps, follow the set speed work.

Frankly, the more I read the less I know, traditional curse of learning. Something similar happened during my medical training: I knew everything when I was in year three; by the time I graduated I knew twice as much. Then, after the next couple of years - and a few disasters - I realized that I know very little. And now, with more than two decades of experience behind and being able to turn a few life saving tricks I believe that we know very little about the workings of the body.

Go figure.