div style=”text-align: center;”div style=”text-align: left;”I received a question about a specific speed workout via email recently. On paper, the workout looks like this: 3(6x30s) start, drop-in, transition speeds.br //divdiv style=”text-align: left;”br /Many teams (including the USST and SV ODT) do this or a similar workout to reinforce technique, tempo and reaction time during specific parts of a race. It is a series of short sprints that practice taking off quickly, changing technique and tempo with an emphasis on speed.br /br /We do each of the 3 specific intervals 6 times (3 sets of 6) and run each set to completion before starting the next. We take 3 minutes rest between each interval and 10 minutes rest between sets. Each interval is between 15 and 30 seconds and the entire workout takes about 2 hours.br /br /span style=”font-weight: bold;”Starts/span begin at a complete stop and often use a mock starting gate (complete with starting wand and exact world cup geometry). These spanspeeds/spanspan style=”font-style: italic;” /spanget the athlete use to reacting quickly to a gun or voice command, training fast-twitch muscles to go from zero to top speed as quick as possible. They are the shortest interval in this workout, around 15 seconds total. This video is cropped short but shows the actual start.br /div style=”text-align: center;”br /object height=”344″ width=”425″param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/HDtQ6pWpAYgamp;hl=enamp;fs=1″param name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”param name=”allowscriptaccess” value=”always”embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/HDtQ6pWpAYgamp;hl=enamp;fs=1″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowscriptaccess=”always” allowfullscreen=”true” height=”344″ width=”425″/embed/objectbr /span style=”font-size:85%;”span style=”font-style: italic;”Kate Whitcomb – classic speed, starts/span/spanbr /br //divspan style=”font-weight: bold;”Drop-ins/span start by going down a slight hill, using gravity to help reach a higher speed than our own propulsion allows. Drop-ins reinforce technique at high speeds and teach one to ski at a faster speed than attainable without aid. The interval starts once you are up to speed, moving as fast as possible to keep the momentum. These can also be done by getting pulled up to speed (slightly more dangerous, perhaps) and should ideally be done on a nice stretch of road with little or no traffic.br /br /div style=”text-align: center;”object height=”344″ width=”425″param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/mjK3QW_JEoIamp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;”param name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”param name=”allowscriptaccess” value=”always”embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/mjK3QW_JEoIamp;hl=enamp;fs=1amp;” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowscriptaccess=”always” allowfullscreen=”true” height=”344″ width=”425″/embed/objectbr /br /span style=”font-style: italic;font-size:85%;” Colin Rodgers/span – span style=”font-size:85%;”span style=”font-style: italic;”freestyle speed, drop-in/span/spanbr //divbr /span style=”font-weight: bold;”Transitions/span are speeds that have either a sharp enough corner or grade-change to force technique or tempo to adjust. In lake placid, the team went from a flat, double pole, into a steep enough hill to run (or stride), shown in
