Does anyone have any experience with this type of training? (Read 1079 times)

Actually this kind of workout has been used by runners since, as far back as I can remember (not that I saw if first-hand), in 1950s.  The great Hungarian coach, Igloi, used what is sometimes called as 50/50 (sprinting 50m; floating 50m) to coach several world record breakers.  He has since moved to the US and coached, among others, Bob Schule who is the only American to ever win the gold medal in the Olympic 5000m (in 1964) as well as the first indoor sub-4 minute miler in history, Jim Beaty.  Lydiard used this quite extensively toward the end of the program.

This kind of workout actually stimulate body’s anaerobic metabolism without affecting the overall pH level too much – in other words, because the stress accumulates so quickly, lactate level in the working muscles, in this case, mainly legs, goes up very quickly and creates neuromuscular breakdown before it reaches throughout the body.  Lydiard liked to use this toward the end of the program because it would allow the athlete to maintain his/her anaerobic capacity (=ability to tolerate oxygen debt) without adversely affecting overall fitness level.  Plus this kind of workout sharpens you very quickly and effectively.  Also, it has the double value of teaching your body to handle surges. 

Very well-conditioned athletes can handle this type of workout (50/50) up to 3-miles, or 5000m.  But, if done correctly, one mile (4 laps around the track) to 2000m would be more than enough.  So, yes, somewhere around 5~8 minutes would be plenty.  I said “if done correctly” because, if you’re not used to this, many runners who don’t understand the concept of “sharpening” in a true sense might simply do some short “strides” with “recovery jog” in between.  You simply “float” between “sprints” and you just don’t get much breather at all.  This would work your breathing pretty much to maximum and you would get pretty close to the max HR as well.  I had this very talented young girl (24 years old) who, 6 months earlier, ran her first marathon in 3:41 (good stamina as well) perform this workout.  I eased her into this so I gave her 1200m of 50/50.  She stepped off the track after 2 laps (800) because she just couldn’t handle any further.  This workout SHOULD be that tough.

I’m not quite sure about this kind of workout in relationship with the increase in VO2Max.  If some researchers say that it actually increases VO2Max “more than long slow running”, fine.  It may very well be.  And if your goal is simply to increase your VO2Max, go ahead and do this kind of workout instead of long aerobic running.  If you have a beginning runner who can barely handle 15 miles a week who wants to seek a shortcut “to increase his/her VO2Max” based on this research, go ahead and advise him/her to do this instead of a nice hour’s easy running.  Of course, you’ll have to realize that, in a practical world, with running, you should ALWAYS work from low volume/low intensity work to high volume/low intensity work to low volume/high intensity work.  In other words, you should NEVER attempt to sprint as fast as you can (like Tabata would suggest) before you prepare your body to be able to sprint all-out.  THAT, to me, is common sense.

This being a message forum it is hard to judge fact from opinions, and I, unfortunately, don't know you well enough.  You seem to make the assertion that all this is crap.  Do you have life knowledge / life experience / studies to back that up, or is it just common sense.  If it is common sense I can respect you opinion, but frankly common sense is frequently wrong.  For a good example of this see "If you want to run a faster 5k log a whole lot of slow miles" or any of the other training ideas that seem counter intuitive at first. 

Dgrosenberger:

Certainly, I don’t know enough about you either.  But you seem to have done your homework of “running a lot”.  If you try something like this workout (I know this “Tabata” has hit the internet in the past 6 months or so and it has become THE workout among, well, fad; but, like I just said earlier, this kind of workout has been utilized by runners for ages), assuming you actually gradually worked your body to handle full-sprint safely, you would most likely PR (and assuming, once again because I don’t know you, your previous PRs had been set on more or less random type of training of just mixing up some long runs and fast runs here and there).  The danger lies when people start to think; “Ah!  Why spend hours and hours on slow slogs when we can just do intensive workout for 8 minutes a day and, look, I improved so much!?”  Many, particularly young high school runners, had fallen in this trap and eventually burn out very quickly.

haha! I wouldn't worry about it. There are so many "authorities" out there, how would you ever know? Your original post was very interesting, and certain to stir up opinions. I'm wondering if their training was intended more for 800m/1500m runners?

Dorunrun:

If you think I’m just one of those “internet authorities”, and I’d be the first to agree that there are a lot of them out there, that’s perfectly fine – I don’t get hurt or offended.  You can find that out yourself.  But if you are responsible for many young aspiring runners, it would pay a little to do a little more research on the sport of running.  This would be the quickest and surest ways to improve kids’ time – I’d admit that.  But that would also be one of the quickest and surest ways to burn them out too.  They’ll most probably improve their times within 2 weeks; but just wait and see what happens in 2 years time.

Dorunrun:

 

If you think I’m just one of those “internet authorities”, and I’d be the first to agree that there are a lot of them out there, that’s perfectly fine – I don’t get hurt or offended.  You can find that out yourself.  But if you are responsible for many young aspiring runners, it would pay a little to do a little more research on the sport of running.  This would be the quickest and surest ways to improve kids’ time – I’d admit that.  But that would also be one of the quickest and surest ways to burn them out too.  They’ll most probably improve their times within 2 weeks; but just wait and see what happens in 2 years time.

Nobby415

      Certainly didn't mean to offend you! I think you misinterpreted my post to dg. Was simply trying to comfort him in the fact that he questioned your opinion BEFORE he knew of your credentials. That's all.

   And I don't condone the Tabatas plan. Just never really heard of the name, and I never rule out someone else's approach without knowing all the facts and original intentions. Many roads to Rome.