Now we're getting a little ahead of schedule. This program is only in phase II, peaking occurs at the end of phase IV. But, since the issue is being pressed, let's get to it.
What peaking is not: Decreasing mileage, intensity, and overall work output in the week (or two) prior to a target race.
What peaking is: Decreasing mileage, increasing intensity, maintaining relative work output with more time to spend recovering prior to a target race.
My high schoolers think that when we say "taper week" it means taking it easy to rest up for competition. They do this every. single. season. and every. single. season. they say "I thought a taper was easier than this!!!!". So here's what makes up the taper:
1. Decreased mileage. In the 1 to 2 weeks prior to a target competition mileage is decreased by about 10-20%. This seems like a lot. If you're running 70 miles each week, you're decreasing to 56. If you're running 40 miles a week, you're decreasing to 32. It's not some monster break before a race where you spend more time on your couch than on your feet.
The reason for the decreased mileage is echoed in Bill Bowerman's phrase "The hay is in the barn". You are not going to increase your fitness by leaps and bounds in the final week before a race. What you ARE capable of doing is getting yourself injured if you're overdoing it. The reality is you can do more damage than good in the week prior to a race.
So can you do ANYTHING good the week before a race?
Naturally.
2. Increased intensity: this does not mean going out and killing yourself in a workout to the point that you can't walk and you're puking on the side of the track. Intensity in running is measured through acceleration and speed. So rather than staying high mileage at slower paces (i.e. 20 x 400m repeats) you drop down to lower mileage at much higher speeds and usually at a specific fraction of the target race (i.e. for a 5k you would run 1 x 2 mile time trial or 2 x 1 mile time trials).
The reason for this is developing what is termed "sharpness". Sharpness is really just high intensity nervous system activation while performing specific movement in specific metabolic pathways. So you can taper and perform high intensity movements like clean and jerks for the same amount of time as your race, but that is going to do little to aid in developing nervous system activation WHILE RUNNING. The best way to imagine a season in picture form: an inverted triangle going from general fitness and activity, to more specific movements and precise training.
3. Maintaining relative work output: as mileage decreases by 10-20%, intensity is going to increase by 10+%. This will even out your work output while running. In the phases prior to taper, you should be busting your butt at an even distribution of intensity, mileage and recovery. So it's not like life goes from low intensity to high, or from long and slow to short and fast. Prior to taper, you are burning through every metabolic pathway multiple times a week, so as you decrease mileage and increase intensity you should be evening out, with more time to recover.
Now it does get a little tricky, because in a taper you really have no business cross training in any serious way. So if you're hammering out in the weightroom and trying to allow your musculature to heal, you're at zero and you are not tapering. But if you were hammering in the weightroom and hammering on the track, then you suddenly drop the weight room, your overall output will decrease. So it's important to be temperate once you get into phase III of training.
As the taper sets in and you increase intensity and decrase the amount of time training, you recover and prevent any future injuries in order to allow yourself to run totally unrestricted.
History lesson: There was a track club in the 70's based in California that balked at the concepts brought into running by the likes of Bill Bowerman, Arthur Lydiard and several other coaches who promote a base to peak training cycle. They ignored LSD and ran tons of intervals and repeats in order to just make themselves fast. They were cutting edge and talked a ton of shit and claimed they were the new order of training methods.
They ran GREAT times early in the season... and that's it. Early on, they win one or two races. Then when it comes time to run at a championship or a trial, only three things happened. 1. The best thing that happened: they ran the exact same time at the end of the season, that they ran at the beginning. 2. They overtrained and embarrassed themselves at the championships because they hadn't touched their qualifying time since week two. 3. They were injured and couldn't race anyway.
Where is that track club now? Gone. They got sick of being laughed at and disappeared into the black abyss of inconsequentiality. History and pendulums my friends.
3k-10k: 2 miles easy + 5-6 x 1 mile threshold (1 min rest b/t thresholds) + 1 mile easy
10k-21k: 2 miles easy + 3 x 1 mile threshold (1 min rest) then 20 minute tempo, then 1 mile threshold + 1 mile easy
21k+: 4-8 miles easy
Strides: 6 x 150m
Post run: collect 240 seconds of hollow hold position
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