It's all wrong.
And it's been this way for far too long.
Just....stop.
Now.
Most endurance looks like this.
Run hard, get puffed ON PURPOSE and repeat for x amount of sets or time.
Now I've been there and done this in past years, we've all been there.
Footy coaches are footy coaches, not fitness coaches but they are passing on what they used to do and it the cycle continues..but hopefully gets broken after reading this.
So you're doing a running session and you go as hard as you can straight out of the gate until you feel like throwing up, you rest just to get your breath back, and then you go again.
You might be doing sets of 100m, 200m or 400m, regardless of the distance you will rarely cover a distance like that in a game footy without having to decelerate and re-accelerate or to stop all together.
In most cases, there is no timing of sets, but a lot of players time the rest.
Why?
If you're not timing the activity then why are you timing the rest period?
The rest period can only be decided once you know what the activity period is.
This means you have absolutely no idea what you just did.
You have no idea of the volume you covered, you have no idea what the activity:rest ratio was (and thus what actual energy system you trained), you have no activity heart rate information (so you don't actually know how hard you work, just that it was "hard') and zero recovery heart rate information (timed rest periods are not ideal if you have a sub-par aerobic system which most of us do).
You might be doing sets of 100m, 200m or 400m, regardless of the distance you will rarely cover a distance like that in a game footy without having to decelerate and re-accelerate or to stop all together.
In most cases, there is no timing of sets, but a lot of players time the rest.
Why?
If you're not timing the activity then why are you timing the rest period?
The rest period can only be decided once you know what the activity period is.
This means you have absolutely no idea what you just did.
You have no idea of the volume you covered, you have no idea what the activity:rest ratio was (and thus what actual energy system you trained), you have no activity heart rate information (so you don't actually know how hard you work, just that it was "hard') and zero recovery heart rate information (timed rest periods are not ideal if you have a sub-par aerobic system which most of us do).
The other part of this whatever you end up doing, you do it hard (which is great) so that you get tired, and then you try and do as much as you can while fatigued.
Sounds like a good idea, but it isn't.
Apart from 3 - 5 efforts in a game maximum, you'll rarely need to repeat high intensity efforts over and over like that, if at all.
The game style at the local/amateur level just doesn't require it.
If we did attached some data to this type of session this might be how it looks:
Distance Per Set - 200m
Set 1 - 200m in 25secs, 30secs rest
Set 2 - 200m in 28secs, 30secs rest
Set 3 - 200m in 32secs, 30secs rest
Set 4 - 200m in 38secs, 30secs rest
Q1 - From those numbers what changes here?
Q2 - What is the most important number out of all 3?
If you answered the time per set and output then you're correct.
This players time has dropped close to 75% from set 1 to set 4 which isn't the red flag but what would happen if you're speed dropped this dramatically in a game?
You'd probably get dragged because you're not getting to the ball or the contest AT ALL.
The work:rest ratio has changed each and every set during this session from just under a 1:1 ratio for set 1 to 1.2:1 in set 4.
Minor alterations in work:rest ratio can alter the benefits of the workout greatly so it's crucial that it is maintained throughout the session, if that's what you're working off
So is this the type of fitness for footy then?
Probably not.
So why train it that way?
Here's the solution.
Instead of trying to do as much work once your fatigued, where along with decreased output also comes decreased speed, decreased efficiency with decision making going to the shit, how about you train your energy systems in a way that allows you to do more work BEFORE you hit fatigue?
In the words of Bob Ryan from Entourage, Is that something you might be interested in?
From the above example, your times decrease because of fatigue but that's no surprise.
What you need to know is why this level off fatigue decreased your times this dramatically.
If you just jogged the 200m in a slower time, then you could maintain them each and every set. A little bit of fatigue builds up but you are able to buffer, recover between sets and continue.
What happens with an increase in speed/intensity, is that sooner or later you'll hit what's called your anaerobic threshold and it's what you want to avoid at all costs if you plan on doing a lot of running volume because once you hit, there's no coming back from it.
Let's take a treadmill run for example, simply because it's easily quantified in regards to speed and duration.
You jump on and start at speed 10 for 1 minute and you increase the speed each minute. By speed 17 you're going pretty fast but you are able to keep pace with the treadmill and probably could for another minute or so but you increase to speed 18 for the next minute as prescribed.
What happens at speed 18 is a completely different story.
What felt more then doable in the previous minute at speed 17 is not at all doable at speed 18, just a 1 speed difference.
You only manage to get 20secs of the way into that set at speed 18 but why?
You hit your anaerobic threshold.
At speeds 10 - 17 you were running a pace that allowed you to continually fuel the activity and to maintain pace but at speed 18, you hit your end point where you simply can't keep up without a decrease in speed.
OK so from this point you actually can't keep going because you cannot maintain speed 18 and compared to above where you simply take longer to complete the set distance of 200m, you'd have to decrease the speed to continue on the treadmill.
Getting back to our game situation, you'd have to run slower to the ball and contest to keep going, again failing to make an impact on the game.
So to try and do more work while you're tired is a futile effort as your output will decrease dramatically for every effort you complete once you hit this point, rendering you pretty much useless for the rest of the game.
So what if you could increase your anaerobic threshold bu doing more work before fatigue, and being able to reach speed 20 before tiring out?
This is where raising your anaerobic threshold is THE key.
I've talked about this before here and here.
Another aspect of endurance training is measuring output where usually it's how far you can run in what time which only tells you what you did, not how you did it.
A better way to monitor your endurance is by converting your running activities into meters per second.
So if you covered 2kms in 8mins 37secs it looks like this:
Distance - 2000m
Time - 517secs
2000 / 517 = 3.85m/s
Now that you have your baseline score you can then plan your training off of it so if you want to train at 60%:
3.85 x .6 = 2.31m/s
If you want an 80% session:
3.85 x .8 = 3.08m/s
This is extremely helpful because it can let you know that you are keeping pace with your other runs of different distances.
You can also set how far you should be able to cover in what time without hitting your anaerobic threshold, essentially training at or just below your anaerobic threshold, which can help you raise it and thus do MORE work prior to fatigue.
Every run you do from now on will have a purpose to actually improve you a footballer, streamlining and increasing the efficiency of your training.
I might do a post on data collecting soon but if you're serious at all about your football, then you MUST keep training data from year to year otherwise you're probably just the same footballer each and every year, no worse but no better.
Right now in my Women's Football Training Private Group I have a 19 day endurance training program designed to raise your anaerobic threshold but if there's enough interest from the blokes then I'll run one from the ART Facebook page too.
Get in ASAP as there's a test that needs to be don that I have to develop your program off individually which will take me a little bit of time to do for everyone.
Sounds like a good idea, but it isn't.
Apart from 3 - 5 efforts in a game maximum, you'll rarely need to repeat high intensity efforts over and over like that, if at all.
The game style at the local/amateur level just doesn't require it.
If we did attached some data to this type of session this might be how it looks:
Distance Per Set - 200m
Set 1 - 200m in 25secs, 30secs rest
Set 2 - 200m in 28secs, 30secs rest
Set 3 - 200m in 32secs, 30secs rest
Set 4 - 200m in 38secs, 30secs rest
Q1 - From those numbers what changes here?
Q2 - What is the most important number out of all 3?
If you answered the time per set and output then you're correct.
This players time has dropped close to 75% from set 1 to set 4 which isn't the red flag but what would happen if you're speed dropped this dramatically in a game?
You'd probably get dragged because you're not getting to the ball or the contest AT ALL.
The work:rest ratio has changed each and every set during this session from just under a 1:1 ratio for set 1 to 1.2:1 in set 4.
Minor alterations in work:rest ratio can alter the benefits of the workout greatly so it's crucial that it is maintained throughout the session, if that's what you're working off
So is this the type of fitness for footy then?
Probably not.
So why train it that way?
Here's the solution.
Instead of trying to do as much work once your fatigued, where along with decreased output also comes decreased speed, decreased efficiency with decision making going to the shit, how about you train your energy systems in a way that allows you to do more work BEFORE you hit fatigue?
In the words of Bob Ryan from Entourage, Is that something you might be interested in?
From the above example, your times decrease because of fatigue but that's no surprise.
What you need to know is why this level off fatigue decreased your times this dramatically.
If you just jogged the 200m in a slower time, then you could maintain them each and every set. A little bit of fatigue builds up but you are able to buffer, recover between sets and continue.
What happens with an increase in speed/intensity, is that sooner or later you'll hit what's called your anaerobic threshold and it's what you want to avoid at all costs if you plan on doing a lot of running volume because once you hit, there's no coming back from it.
Let's take a treadmill run for example, simply because it's easily quantified in regards to speed and duration.
You jump on and start at speed 10 for 1 minute and you increase the speed each minute. By speed 17 you're going pretty fast but you are able to keep pace with the treadmill and probably could for another minute or so but you increase to speed 18 for the next minute as prescribed.
What happens at speed 18 is a completely different story.
What felt more then doable in the previous minute at speed 17 is not at all doable at speed 18, just a 1 speed difference.
You only manage to get 20secs of the way into that set at speed 18 but why?
You hit your anaerobic threshold.
At speeds 10 - 17 you were running a pace that allowed you to continually fuel the activity and to maintain pace but at speed 18, you hit your end point where you simply can't keep up without a decrease in speed.
OK so from this point you actually can't keep going because you cannot maintain speed 18 and compared to above where you simply take longer to complete the set distance of 200m, you'd have to decrease the speed to continue on the treadmill.
Getting back to our game situation, you'd have to run slower to the ball and contest to keep going, again failing to make an impact on the game.
So to try and do more work while you're tired is a futile effort as your output will decrease dramatically for every effort you complete once you hit this point, rendering you pretty much useless for the rest of the game.
So what if you could increase your anaerobic threshold bu doing more work before fatigue, and being able to reach speed 20 before tiring out?
This is where raising your anaerobic threshold is THE key.
I've talked about this before here and here.
Another aspect of endurance training is measuring output where usually it's how far you can run in what time which only tells you what you did, not how you did it.
A better way to monitor your endurance is by converting your running activities into meters per second.
So if you covered 2kms in 8mins 37secs it looks like this:
Distance - 2000m
Time - 517secs
2000 / 517 = 3.85m/s
Now that you have your baseline score you can then plan your training off of it so if you want to train at 60%:
3.85 x .6 = 2.31m/s
If you want an 80% session:
3.85 x .8 = 3.08m/s
This is extremely helpful because it can let you know that you are keeping pace with your other runs of different distances.
You can also set how far you should be able to cover in what time without hitting your anaerobic threshold, essentially training at or just below your anaerobic threshold, which can help you raise it and thus do MORE work prior to fatigue.
Every run you do from now on will have a purpose to actually improve you a footballer, streamlining and increasing the efficiency of your training.
I might do a post on data collecting soon but if you're serious at all about your football, then you MUST keep training data from year to year otherwise you're probably just the same footballer each and every year, no worse but no better.
Right now in my Women's Football Training Private Group I have a 19 day endurance training program designed to raise your anaerobic threshold but if there's enough interest from the blokes then I'll run one from the ART Facebook page too.
Get in ASAP as there's a test that needs to be don that I have to develop your program off individually which will take me a little bit of time to do for everyone.
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