According to a recent article, Allen Webb, premier US miler, often trained as follows: warm-up, stretching and workout, then a general strength session with push-ups, sit-ups, and so on, plus medicine ball, wobble board, plyometrics, and strength training in the weight room. Total time was between 5 ½ to 6 hrs.
Is this an effective program? In reality such a workout may be good for overall fitness and endurance, but it does little to improve speed. In fact it can lead to slower running! There are several reasons for this.
Foremost is that the integration of all of these training methods into one long training session means that none of the physical qualities being worked on will get a quality workout. If the workout was started with stretching and warm-up and ended with general strength training including push-ups, sit-ups, medicine ball and wobble board, the quality could be fairly good.
However, to then include plyometrics and strength training after this is definitely poor. Plyometrics must be done only when you are fresh and energetic. Doing true plyometrics, (shock training) which is the kind needed by milers, is very dangerous and loses its effectiveness when done in a tired or fatigued state.
In addition, medicine ball training should be differentiated in regard to training for explosiveness and training for strength. Typically, medicine ball training is used for training quickness and explosiveness not strength.
Strength training, after doing many other activities can never be a quality work-out. Pure strength training requires a high level of energy in order to be effective. It is possible to do general strength exercises, a combination of strength and endurance, when you are fatigued, but the results will not be as good as when you strength train in an energetic state. In addition, you will not be able to do as many exercises or as many sets of the different exercises, nor will you be able to do running specific exercises that require total concentration and maximum muscle energy.
What is perhaps most lacking in this long-duration workout is the role of specialized strength exercises that have the greatest carry-over to running performance. General training has minimum transfer to improved running. You may have more energy to continue a run or better running efficiency, but it will not improve how well you run (technique) or your physical qualities as they relate to your run technique. Only specialized strength and speed exercises can do this. Understand that specialized exercises couple strength together with technique. They are very unique and distinct from general strength exercises.
A word must also be said about the warm-up and the static stretching that was included in this workout. If increased flexibility with stretching of the ligaments is not needed, there is no need for the static stretching. Understand that static stretching, as most runners practice, does not warm you up nor does it activate the muscles to prepare you for running or exercising. Static stretching in such a long workout is a waste of time. If the stretching was active then it would serve as a warm-up and additional time for warm-up would not be necessary, especially for the calisthenics or strength workouts that followed.
Note that the long 5 1/2 to six hour work out is not unique to Allen. It is possible to find many athletes in other sports, as for example in football, that have similar workouts. The guiding criteria appears to be the level of fatigue achieved. According to the athletes on such programs, when they feel completely exhausted they believe it was a great workout. In addition, they often feel soreness and pain on the following days. This too is considered a sign of a great workout. These are two erroneous myths.
As I have asked many times before, when will athletes and coaches learn more about the science of training for more effective workouts? There is much information available that has been developed and proven in practice by some of the leading sports nations. It only takes reading and understanding it. Several readily available sources include:The Secrets of Russian Sports Fitness and Training, Transfer of Training, Build a Better Athlete, Block Training, Explosive Running and back issues of the Soviet Sports Review (later the Fitness and Sports Review International).