Marshall Burt’s
Velocity Focused Training
Part 1 –
Training Program Design
Marshall Burt, coach of the Elite Training Group in Austin, TX, has
some fascinating ideas on training. Marshall, a graduate of George
Mason University where he studied sport science, has spent most of his
adult life focused on advancing the state of the art of running. His
years of study and experimentation have resulted in the development of
a training program that is primarily focused on training velocity.
Marshall shares his velocity focused training program via a free ETG
training packet and his posts on the RunTex forum. Marshall and I
have been communicating regularly for several years and he has
generously granted me permission to publish to my web site any of his
writings from the RunTex forum. I find his velocity focused training
methods to be very interesting and wanted to share them with the
readers of my web site. I have gathered the following information
from Marshall’s posts at RunTex. The only modifications I’ve made are
formatting changes, with the content remaining as Marshall wrote it.
Controllability: Training Program
Design
The ability to move one’s fitness level forward on purpose, is the
definition of controllability. A training program should develop
running performance, and do so on purpose. To accomplish that task,
one should;
1 --- identify what the underlying mechanisms of running performance
are.
2 --- identify the required aspects of a workout necessary to address
the identified mechanisms of running performance
3 --- apply that information to design a training program that
develops running performance [on purpose]
Major Mechanisms Of Performance in Distance Running Events -------
One has to be
able run at the pace necessary to run a goal time for a race distance.
To do so, one must be able to create the required level of force or
power output during the drive phase of the running stride. To
accomplish that, one’s brain and nervous system must be able to do the
following…..
----- Recruitment
Be able to recruit many muscle fibers as to share the work in
producing the necessary power output to run a goal time
----- Recruitment Rate
Be able to quickly recruit many muscle fibers while the foot is on
the ground during the running stride as to share the work in producing
the necessary power output to run a goal time
----- Recruitment Duration
Be able to maintain the required level of recruitment and
recruitment rate in producing the necessary power output for the
duration of the race
Since the mechanisms of performance revolve around creating and
maintaining a given power output, this should be clearly reflected in
the training program one designs to address the identified mechanisms.
Physiological Premises:
Physiological Premise 1 -----
Improvements in recruitment, recruitment rate, and recruitment
duration are the result of causing/inducing the process of gene
transcription of specific genes in the brain, nervous system, and
muscles that are responsible for recruitment, recruitment rate, and
recruitment duration.
Therefore…..the workouts in the training program should be designed to
cause/induce the process of gene transcription of specific genes in
the brain, nervous system, and muscles that are responsible for
recruitment, recruitment rate, and recruitment duration.
Physiological Premise 2 -----
The only level of gene transcription one must induce is that which
is specific to the level of power output necessary to run a goal time.
Since recruitment, recruitment rate, and recruitment duration are
about power output during the drive phase of the running stride, which
in turn is largely about training velocity, it follows that inducing
the level of gene transcription necessary to run a goal time is best
done by training at or faster than the pace necessary to run the goal
time.
Therefore….the workouts in the training program should revolve around
the concept of training at goal paces. In other words, the training
program should be velocity oriented.
Physiological Premise 3 -----
The process of gene transcription in human cells responds well to
repeated, ---standardized--- workloads. And at some point, to continue
improving, one will eventually have to increase the standardized
workload. Therefore, it is wise to focus one’s efforts on designing a
standardized training program consisting of standardized workouts,
delivered on a standardized schedule, with standardized recovery
periods, with standardized progressions in workload over time.
Standardized Workload:
Standardized Workload-------
In a standardized, velocity oriented training program, the bottom-line
objective is to create a standardized workload, delivered through
specific workouts in the training program.
Hence the focus is simply on;
--- using as workout durations….standardized race distances [ie.
1500m, 10k, marathon, etc],
--- using as training paces…..standardized power outputs [ie. goal
pace].
The way to create a relatively high degree of controllability in
moving one's fitness level from point A to point Z, is to consistently
deliver a standardized workload to the human body.
This allows you to create a controllable, step-wise progression in the
manner in which you increase the standardized workload over a period
of time, with this as the underlying mechanism in the process by which
you move your fitness level from point A -to- point Z.
The human body adapts well to….
--- standardized training stimuli
--- standardized progressions in the durations of the standardized
training stimuli
--- standardized recovery periods
Standardize -Everything- Including The Recovery Periods-------
Design standardized recovery periods based on a “time course of
recovery” from the standardized workouts in your training program. The
standardized recovery period can be increased in duration if
occasional situations require [but never reduced].
Having recovery time periods programmed into the training schedule
facilitates figuring out temporary anomalies in recovery and reduces
the guess work involved with trying to decide whether or not to train
on a given day.
A Training program consistent with the
physiological information available to us in this century lives around
–3-- structural principles;
1. Velocity [goal pace]
2. Durations [Duration of each repetition (ie. intervals)]
3. Progressions [progress over time to where the entire race distance
can be covered using only [1] repetition]
--- Workouts are run in a manner where the race distance is covered in
a cumulative total of shorter repetitions [ie. intervals], with each
repetition run in selected Durations. The ultimate objective is to
make Progressions over time, to where the entire race distance can be
covered [in a workout or race] using only [1] repetition.
--- This type of progression oriented process is consistent with how
the process of stimulating gene transcription works inside the cells
of the human body. It provides one with a common sense, relatively
controllable manner of following a stepwise progression of
standardized increments of escalating the workload until one reaches
the goal time for the race distance.
Next: The Individual
Workouts