I've posted my go-to aerobic/anaerobic threshold training program before (level 2 membership) but here's what it looks like in real time for me.
I don't usually do fatigue-ish running during the season as there's more then enough of it in games and at footy training already, instead opting for specific speed work.
At 43 years of age I'm down to training 1/week with the team these days so I can have more control of my training volume to ensure I'm tip top for games - if I have to do 2 relatively high sessions during the week then it's not gonna leave much to work with on a Saturday and anything after that is simply compounding my fatigue levels which can increase injury risk dramatically.
During planned weeks off during the season put in by the league, I usually try and get some extra sessions in while we don't have footy training/games where now I have 100% over my training volume and thus, schedule.
Obviously this year we've into our 2nd mid-season lockdown here in Melbourne so I've had 2 opportunities to insert fatigue-ish running into the mix which is my performance limiter.
So we went into lockdown on the 27th of May I believe at which time my coaching gig went south so I was off back to my old team in a playing capacity so I wanted to do some extra running with the extra gamer time I was facing (half game v full game).
Since then I've done 8 running sessions and here's how it played out.
June 4th - 9 x 60m every 20secs x 2 rounds with 2mins rest
June 8th - 9 x 60m every 20secs x 3 rounds with 2mins rest
** I decided to take my heart rate 1mins after each rep for another metric to gauge progress on going forward where I got 138, 144 and 144bpm)
June 10th - 9 x 60m every 20secs x 4 rounds with 2mins rest @ 144, 144, 144 and 156bpm
** This was a 2 week lockdown period so I squeezed these in over a week in the hope that we'd be training by the 2nd week, which we could have been, but we only trained the Thursday that week then straight back to games.
As stated I usually do speed work on a Tuesday in my own time but I wanted to continue with this so I attempted to.
June 22nd - 9 + 8 x 65m every 20secs x 2 rounds with 2mins rest @ 150 and 144bpm
** I did this at an away venue on the windiest day in history and the extra distance coupled with the wind and a slog-fest the weekend before just too much for this old soul to the point I couldnlt even get 9 reps on the 2nd set in the fuill allotted time per set of 3mins (I could only get 8 as it says above).
Deciding that trying to run with this during games on heavy tracks wasn't going to work for me I went back to speed workouts on a Tuesday.
On the 13th of July we went back into lockdown so again I was given full control of my schedule and training volume and decided to go back to them while I could, even with only 3 games remaining once we return to footy.
I also went with the increased distance of 65m per rep, up from 60m in the previous 3 session block.
July 16th - 9 x 65m every 20secs x 2 rounds with 2mins rest @ 144 and 144bpm
** I also decided to take the total time of each set too which should take exactly 3mins if I'm keeping pace with my 20secs distance time determined pre-program which today was 3:08 and 3:05
July 19th - 9 x 65m every 20secs x 3 rounds with 2mins rest @ 138, 138 and 150bpm in 3:01, 3:03 and 3:02
July 26th - 9 x 65m every 20secs x 4 rounds with 2mins rest @ 144, 150, 162 and 156bpm @ 3:04, 3:01, 3:05 and 3:07
I had originally planned to just 2 and 3rounds of 65m but after hitting very close to 3:00 on all sets at lower heart rates then normal I thought let's try and see what 4 sets provides which I just completed about 90mins ago.
All sets felt relatively harder than normal which could be from residual fatigue (I've trained 15 straight days up until this point) and you know, just being 43 years old!
After set 3 I still felt OK though knowing that there's just 1 x 3 minute set to go.
I started off on set 4 and felt OK for most of the first 4 up and back reps but at the turn of the 4th into the 5th rep, I felt an almost instant burst of leg fatigue and knew I wasn't going to be able to hold time, which I was for those 1st 4 sets.
My time blew over by 7secs and I instantly dropped the grass for a quick death although I still the inages of Ariarne Titmus' coach Dean Boxall running through my mind got me through the finish.
From the 3rd session of each 60 and 65m block this is what my results looked like:
Block 1 - Total Distance x 2,160m @ 100% max aerobic speed of 3 meters per second with a 1min recovery heart rate average of 147bpm
Block 2 - Total Distance x 2,380m @ 100% max aerobic speed of 3.25 meters per second with a 1min recovery heart rate average of 154bpm
My pure sweet spot is probably 62.5m per rep which I reckon I could do without an increase in average heart rate which I was planning to do originally but when lockdown came I went for 65m knowing I had recovery all to myself.
Lastly as a sprinter-type my resting heart rate usually sits at about 60 on average but when I do htese running blocks it drops rather dramatically down to the low 50's and at 1 point a few days ago 48bpm!
And top effort to my 10yr old Archie who did all these sessions with me but at 45m reps each time.
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