Funnel periodization: A high-success modern training approach
There are many different training avenues that can be taken to reach high performance, but funnel periodization has certainly asserted itself as one of the more widely effective ones in this era.
WEEKLY WISDOM: THANK YOU, RENATO CANOVA <3
WHAT IS THIS FUNNEL PERIODIZATION JAWN?
Funnel periodization is a popular, modern training methodology, popularized by the likes of Renato Canova, which involves approaching training from two sides, the aerobic/endurance side and the anaerobic/speed side. Training for any peak race starts as very generalized and non-specific, becoming more and more specific over time as the paces narrow in closer and closer to the goal race distance.
An important concept in this approach is maintenance; leave nothing behind. This way, by the time you've reached your peak race, you're equipped with an arsenal of pacing abilities, allowing you to get the most out of the race distance. This does not have to be complicated. Maintenance could simply mean throwing in a dash of whatever you want to maintain every two to three weeks following the period of high emphasis. Maintaining an adaptation is always easier than building it.
Steve Magness in the Science of Running describes the below training classification system in which the range of paces is as slow as "recovery" and as fast as "neuromuscular," narrowing in from there to three race distances above and below the peak race distance, to two race distances above and below, and so on until we've reached the final period of training where we're fully race-specific, while of course maintaining all the adaptations developed over the course of the training block. You have Renato Canova to thank for this beautiful crescendo'ing training style...
THE RACE DISTANCES
Here are the race distances that can be used as guidelines for establishing your PCs:
800m
1500m
3000m
5000m
6000m (women)/8000m (men)
10,000m
15,000m/10-mile
21,000m / half marathon (or threshold)
42,000m / marathon
HOW MUCH TIME DO I SPEND IN EACH ZONE?
The amount of time that you spend in each pacing classification (we’ll call it PC) will ultimately depend on you and when you feel you’ve sufficiently adapted both mechanically and physiologically1. These adaptation timelines may look different from one athlete to the next, and learning this about yourself (or your athletes if you’re a coach) can take time. Generally, it’s good to spend more time than you think in the first four PCs of recovery, neuromuscular, general endurance, and general speed. These PCs will make up the majority of your base phase, one of the most important phases in establishing that solid foundation of general fitness. Across the board, though, you might spend three to four weeks for each PC, with more time dedicated to the race-specific work as that peak race nears.
However, believe it or not, you don’t need as much time as you think on the race-specific work. For example, my one friend and mentor, Juris Silenieks, who ran for Syracuse University and currently is a coach for Robert Morris Universities’ track and cross country programs, only advises that you get truly marathon specific in the last six to eight weeks for a 16-20-week block. He actually leans more towards six weeks over eight, putting more emphasis on the faster-than-marathon-pace work. A shorter timeframe can be applied to shorter race distances. It may be that you only need a month to dial in at race pace, or feel really good at that effort.
Importantly, though, the above chart does NOT mean you shouldn’t do any race pace work earlier into a training plan. It’s good to run dashes of race pace work starting as early as the middle to late base phase, perhaps every two to three weeks to start, solely to improve from a mechanical and coordinative perspective. This way, by the time you’re trying to make physiological adaptations at your goal race pace in the final stages of a training plan, your body is already mechanically tuned; the pace does not feel foreign. This gives you the opportunity to reap maximum rewards from the physiologically-inclined work.
AN EXAMPLE 8K TRAINING BLOCK
Having said all that, here is a visual showing how you might distribute the PCs across a 12-week 8-kilometer training block…
Mind you, this is not an ideal build-up to a peak 8k cross country race. I’ve simply truncated things to illustrate a point. To put it in words, we have the following breakdown…
Two weeks emphasizing easy to steady paces and neuromuscular work
Two weeks emphasizing marathon pace and 1500-meter pace
Two weeks emphasizing half marathon to threshold pace and 3k pace
Two weeks emphasizing 12k to 10k pace and 5k pace
Four weeks emphasizing 8k pace
As you can see, the cells following periods of high emphasis have color through the end of the plan, meaning we’re never leaving behind those adaptations. That means that you’re still running dashes of marathon pace beyond weeks one and two; you might do a 10-minute pickup to marathon pace at the end of an easy run or throw in some 200s at marathon pace at the end of a speed session, for example.
Importantly, how much emphasis is put on each PC during its adaptation period will depend on the athlete, so it’s not just a matter of equally distributing workouts to both the aerobic and anaerobic sides. For instance, if we feel the athlete needs more emphasis on developing the endurance side, there may be two heavily marathon-pace oriented workouts, one mixed marathon pace and 1500-meter pace workout, and one heavily 1500-meter paced workout over the course of weeks three and four. Here is an example spreading of workouts over two weeks for the first example:
Week 3
Tuesday: Marathon-pace workout
20’ at marathon pace with some undulation
Friday: Mixed workout
5’ steady, 1’ rest, 8x200m at 1500-meter pace w/ 200m jog, 1’ rest, 5’ steady
Week 4
Tuesday: 1500-meter pace workout
3x(4x200m at 1500-meter pace w/ 100m jog) w/ 400m jog between sets
Friday: Marathon-pace workout
3x(2x(3’ at marathon pace, 2’ float)) w/ 2’ jog between sets
On the contrary, the opposite can be said for an athlete who needs more emphasis on the speed side.
EXCEPTIONS TO THE PACING CLASSIFICATION BREAKDOWN
There are some exceptions to the general pacing classification breakdown, specifically for the half marathon and marathon where there aren’t three race distances above the distance. Training must be approached differently for these distances to where the emphasis is almost entirely on developing the underside of the race distance with a large focus on threshold work. I won’t get into specifics here; you can read the Science of Running by Steve Magness for details on that (sorry, hehe).
If you have further questions, please ask me of course! See my contact information at the bottom of this post; I would love to help.
Next up on All Things Running… The importance of daily journaling in learning about yourself.
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If you’re properly adapted, you’ll notice that pace feeling much more comfortable than it used to.