1.How often do the Brooks Beasts do high altitude training? We normally do 2 camps, the first one is 4-5 weeks in January and February. The next one is 6-7 weeks in May-June. Sometimes we do a small third camp before the World Champs or Olympic Champs.
How do you break up those segments? Are they a week, ten days, what is duration? See above.
Is high altitude training just building mileage? By January they are at the high mileage, we start building that in October. So they do intensity here as well.
What types of workouts do you do at altitude? Long runs, tempo runs, sprint sessions, race specific sessions, recovery run and weight sessions.
Do you train 800m specialists different from 5,000m specialists at altitude? Yes. The metabolic demands of the events are slightly different. So 800m athletes do more sprint work relatively speaking and less volume.
Would you recommend high altitude training for high school athletes? It would not hurt them. Would I recommend it and say it is necessary? No. At that age having fun and training smart are more important.
How much time do you spend stretching and core work? 15 minutes every day before they run.
Do you use ice baths during the year? Rarely. If inflammation is really high later in the season, then we use them.
How do you incorporate recovery days in your programs? I individualize training. But in general, 3 days a week would fall into the “recovery” bucket. They fall after the very hard sessions. So normally after a long run, after a hard workout on Tuesday and a Friday.
How does indoor season play a part in your year long plan? Mentally it is good to have the races because that helps them sharpen their tools for the more competitive and valuable outdoor season. We also start to do more race specific sessions so they are not in total shock in April.