Week 03 - Workout schedule

Some of the visitors of this running blog might have noticed the weekly volume that I`m mentioning. Some of them might wonder why this was increased in such a significant way. Looking on all parameters and results of the series of tests, the team around me believes that my physiologic system reacts heavily on shorter (and faster) stimulations.

The lactate testing by Dr. Jan Olbrecht (the High Performance Running Team training advisor) helps the trainers Dirk and Tim to realign my training schedule. It needs to have several adaptations in place in order to maximize my full potential. Jan believes that – if I would have started Track and Field in my childhood – I should have become a sprinter.

This all leads to a workout plan that hammers down on my VLAmax. In my third winter season with the High Performance Running Team, my body starts reacting on these stimuli. Since the start-up of the team, Dirk and Jan explained me it could take up to 2-3 years before we would notice a significant change in my adaptation. I must admit that the process I`ve gone through was a challenging one. However, I`m glad that all the hard work is starting to pay off. My VO2max is increasing and my VLAmax starts dropping :-)

The rest of this cold winter - mainly in Detroit ;-) - the workout schedule is aiming to enhance my endurance a little bit more. Besides that, the specificity of my trainings will only increase. The current plan is to do maybe one single race purely on the endurance trainings so far in order to check where we are in the process. This winter, I have no ambitions at all. My focus is set on the summer season where I want to break my PB on 1500m. Any other distance race will be run as a workout/benchmark.

In case you`re interested in Dr. Jan`s scientific lactate testing background, I can recommend his book “The science of winning”. 

Sportive regards,

Wout