the sprinters ; the principles of muscular tension plus recovery of the central nervous system. The sprint group of Alnes has almost perfected these two elements (in addition to their sprint training in general) and it gives me a constant challenge as I know I have alot to learn from this being a distance runner.
When a distance runner “rests” he either runs very easy runs or just rests totally. Then he just feels “dead” during that period and not really rested coming out of the recovery part and feels “out of shape”. The sprinters on the other hand have understood that the nervous system needs rest but the muscular system needs just small stimulus on a regular basis to be sharp. Those two combined you can almost rest totally while at the same time keep your “shape” (muscular) very, very sharp. Extremely effective and hopefully I can use this even more in the future. We know TONS on training but very little research has been done of recovery on the other hand – even though training is really just about breaking down, while the recovery is the building up part!
I feel fine and rested now after the post altitude period. So gradually increasing stress now 🙂
Out around beautiful and sunny Sonsvann,
Marius