Graydon Snider of McGill University, Montreal, has the following query about improving speed.

Hi. I’m a long distance runner looking to gain some extra “speed” for middle distances. ( I can run 21.1k in 70min but struggle to run sub 9min in a 3k). After years of neglecting the gym ( I usually do only bodyweight resistance), I’ve decided to try some weight training appropriate for endurance athletes. From what you and others recommend (in the early pre-season), the goal should be to lift heavy weights (deadlift & 1/2 squats) 4-6 times with good recovery between sets.

Q:

My question concerns what comes next! After successfully improving your 1RM, would you then leave the gym and replace weights with alactic hill sprints, eventually doing the Lydiard Hill circuits?

Or assuming you still go to the gym, do you recommend next focusing on low weight, high rep exercises to improve muscular endurance? i.e. 20RM with shorter rests, then later 30RM with even less recovery. Looking forward to any advice!

A:

Good question, Graydon.

You don’t need to leave the gym! And you certainly don’t want to switch from low reps with near-maximal lifts to many reps of light weights! By doing that you’re going from specifically training fast-twitch fibers to specifically training slow-twitch! ( Why would you do want to do that? ). Those fast twitch fibres need to be stimulated regularly to maintain their development and not atrophy!

Heavy near-maximals should be done in low-rep sets, with plenty of recovery. Start as heavy as possible, after warming up briefly with the exact movement pattern with a much lighter weight. Do your weight training at night, when fully warmed up from the day’s activities, and AFTER an earlier running session. Weights should never replace a running session. If tired and low-energy, “can” the weights session as it won’t be productive.

I used to plan a tough weight workout after a tough running session, having re-carbed and topped my protein in between. My thinking was that the tough training stimulus from the running would fire the anabolic hormone systems of the body, and I could avail myself of them while the blood levels were high, before a (usual) scheduled easy and slow recovery day. The recovery day would flush any metabolites from both sessions away and back to the liver, and allow some resynthesis of new muscle protein.

The best all-round exercise would be deadlift, however failing that, half-squat, with heaps of padding over shoulders. Other exercises can be core exercises. Unless you want to look good on the beach, there’s no need to do excessive upper-body work like bench-press, as the muscle groups involved don’t aid running speed.

The amount of work required to lift your strength to a higher level is much more than that required to maintain your strength at a high level. Initial strength gains will be very good due to neuromuscular recruitment rather than new muscle synthesis. So let’s say you double your 1RM half-squat by the start of your track preparation, and you want to maintain this strength. You want to maintain or slightly improve that right through your competition period. However you’ll also be doing a significant number of “tough” anaerobic sessions designed to increase your efficiency at VO2 max speeds and above. All these tough workouts will increase acidosis and the general stress level or “allostatic load” on the body.

So rather than do lots of light weights with more reps, just MAINTAIN HIGH INTENSITY for FEWER SETS. ie: if you were doing 4 sets of 5 reps with 85% of 1RM pre-season, you might drop back to 2 sets of 2-3 reps with 90% of 1 RM on selected nights in-season. Each week, if competing on Saturday, you might do an intensive 2-set session on Tuesday, and a 1-set version of the same on Thursday night.These short, sharp, high-weight/low-rep sessions will NOT tire one excessively, but will certainly keep those fast twitch fibers firing. Alactic lifting can actually be done 4-5 days a week while maintaining improvement, and it’s “safe” as acidosis does not get too involved. But it all has to be balanced out according to the individual’s other training and lifestyle demands.

Short sessions of hill-bounding, and even hill sprints, will maintain fast twitch activity and leg strength too. One could fiddle around with doing Hill-bounds and hill-sprints in an afternoon session, then later at night doing the alactic weight training.

High-rep low weight exercises tend to train only the less powerful muscle fibers, due to the 85% 1RM threshold not being reached to stimulate fast twitch IIB.

I would not do low weight, high rep exercises to improve “endurance” once I’d improved my absolute strength. Past about 20 reps, we’re getting into training Type IIA fast twitch oxidative and Type I slow twitch fibres and not even getting anywhere near the intensity to selectively recruit fast twitch Type IIB. You’re actually de-training fast-twitch fibres once you start to introduce weights below the summation threshold. A muscle fibre not recruited for weeks will atrophy, and because of the size principle, the best options to keep the IIB fibres stimulated are by

1.lifting very heavy

2.Hill Resistance Exercises/Bounding/plyometrics/ballistic movements that can by-pass the “size principle” and its normal sequential recruitment from Type 1-Type IIA-Type IIB. very fast for a very short time

3.Very fast relaxed sprints over very short distances

4.( Indirectly by exhausting the IIA and IIB fast twitch muscles of glycogen in the closing stages of long runs, and increasing muscle volume that way ).

• Lifting very heavy weights will increase maximal muscle tension capability (strength).
• Hill bounding will translate this into POWER.
• Very fast relaxed runs over very short distances will translate this power into SPEED. (By training increased neuromuscular coordination: the millisecond muscle recruitment switching between agonist and antagonist muscles ).
• Long runs give an endurance capability to the IIA fast twitch fibres so that more anaerobic work can be performed when the time comes.

The way I look at it, endurance is a function of strength. The higher the 1 rep maximum, the higher the rep maximums at each percentage below 1 rep maximum. This seems to go all the way down the strength pyramid. For instance, your 5-7-rep max is about 85% of your 1RM, and your 2 RM is about 95%.However, all the way down the line, a stronger muscle can do more repetitions with a given weight. So I’d say endurance is improved. I’ve also discussed this in the book where a study was done with low-rep high intensity weight training with trained orienteers and it improved 5000m time significantly WITHOUT any change in VO2 max, threshold, etc. Increased leg-strength confers endurance advantages unrelated to measurable cardiovascular change. Some boffin will tell us why, some day, but it’s a fact nevertheless.

Hope that helps! On another note, probably the best running training to get your 3000m time down a lot with your proven endurance base is to do VO2 max sessions once a week leading into competition. These can be safe and effective at 95% VO2 max pace (5k pace) or more intense at 3k pace.

Cheers!

Keith