A.M. 10.1 with Jeff in 1:12:59. Did explosions. No fat miles, resting for DesNews 10 K.Started out slower than 9:00 in the first mile, then sped up to 8:00, then ran sub-7:00 the rest of the way because Jeff needed to get to work. HR was around 132 at 6:40 pace, 126 at 7:00. Discussed a training idea - one week of 5 mile tempos at 6:00 pace every day followed by two normal weeks. I tried three weeks like this in 2006 aggravated by Wasatch Back Ultra in the middle, and it gave me neural fatigue at the end. However, a week later I ran a PR for the 3 mile downhill Provo Canyon tempo (15:15), had a decent performance in Draper Days (16:00 on the old course), and did not totally lose it in DesNews (2:31:47). After DesNews I had severe neural fatigue for a while, but then recovered to run St. George in 2:25. So a milder version of this, backing off timely, might actually work. The theory behind it is to make the slow twitch fibers work very very hard to cause myofibrillar hypertrophy. That is the type of hypertrophy that gives the muscle the strength without the volume, exactly what a runner would need. Nobody quite knows how to do it yet. I think the consensus is that you cannot do it. Fast twitch is easy - weight training, 90-100% of the max reps. Slow twitch does not do it. But maybe it can. You just have to pick the right volume, frequency, and intensity. Possibly you need to have enough aerobic support in the muscle itself and in the cardiovascular system, and be healthy otherwise to even be able to train at that load without getting injured. Which would make it next to impossible to scientifically prove unless you really really know what you are doing. Ran 2 with Benjamin immediately after in 17:19. P.M. 2 with Jenny in 18:06. Julia ran 1.5 with us in 13:33. 0.5 with Joseph in 5:10.
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