Answers to the Question — How Long Does it Take an Athlete to Realize Optimal Supercompensation Effects from Different Types of Training?

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In supercompensation, the athlete can handle the same training load or a greater load with ease in the subsequent workouts if recovery is adequate and the new stress is timed properly.

This adaptive phenomenon is an ongoing wavelike process, with its high moments (when recovery has been fully realized) and low moments (the intense fatigue after a physically stressful workout or competition).

How long does it take an athlete to realize optimal supercompensation effects from different types of training?

Below is a chart with guidelines from "The Science of Winning" — a superb book on how to plan effective endurance training.

It is important to recognize that training adaption time will change with the particular quality being trained and the system that is being stressed.

The readiness of the athlete determines the response to the training stimulus.

For an optimal adaptive response to occur, some training task requires complete recovery before they can be repeated — others do not.

Here's a list of the highest fatigue levels under which an athletic quality can be successfully developed.

States of Fatigue and Training Stimuli (1).png

Activities of high neural demand such as:

  • Maximum Speed

  • Maximum Strength

  • Explosive Strength (or Speed Strength)

All demand complete recovery before the next exposure in training. This goes for repetitions in a single workout and from workout to workout.

High neural demand works maximally stress the nervous system resulting in fatigue.

Fatigue is generally defined as a drop in the capacity to produce strength. This is a result of an alteration in neuromuscular function, which usually causes the skeletal muscles to contract in response to electrical stimuli produce by the central nervous system.

Neuromuscular fatigue is generally divided into two types: Central Fatigue and Peripheral Fatigue.

Central Fatigue represents a drop in the recruitment of motor units by the brain or a reduction in the frequency of impulses.

Peripheral Fatigue is linked to an alternating in the nerve messages, to perturbation of the excitation/contracting couple and/or to a drop in the muscle fiber’s intrinsic capacity to produce strength.

Conversely, some training tasks can be trained with incomplete recovery. Those activities are of high metabolic demand such as Aerobic Endurance, Strength Endurance, and Speed Endurance.

Finally, recognize that every athletic quality has it own time for full adaption. As a rule of thumb, expect noticeable changes in the following qualities to be realized on the following time horizons:

  • Flexibility/Mobility improves and adapts from day-to-day.

  • Strength improves and adapts from week-to-week.

  • Speed improves and adapts from month-to-month.

  • Work capacity and endurance improves year-to-year.

Sources:

Progressing Workouts to Run Faster for Longer

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With simple things, sometimes we overthink them, making them more complex than it needs to be.

This can happen to runners and their training.

The SAID principle (an acronym which stands for Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demand), is one of the most important basic concepts in sport science.

It means that the body will try to get better at exactly what you practice.

Want to get faster? Frequently practice running fast.

Want to run longer? Frequently practice running long.

Want to run faster for longer? Frequently practice running faster for longer.

There doesn’t seem to be much confusion about how to train to run faster or longer, but when it comes to running faster for longer there is a lot of misguided approaches out there.

How to train to run faster for longer is actually very simple.

Here’s how you do it:

First, decide how fast you want to run for a given distance, like 15:00 for 5,000m.

Then take an honest look at how far away your current condition is from that goal. Let’s say last week you ran a 5,000m in 16:00.

That’s about a 6% difference (if the difference is larger than 10% and the goal is most likely unrealistic).

Decide how long you have to work towards your goal fitness, perhaps 3 months.

Make sure your time horizons for your progression are realistic, this is where a qualified and experienced coach can help.

Next, do some simple math.

Running a 5K in 15:00 is about sustaining 4:48/mile pace or 72”/400m for 15 minutes.

Key training sessions should be focused on running 4:48/mile pace or 72”/400m for a total of 15 - 20 minutes.

However, in their current condition, our 16:00 5K runner cannot accomplish this ask without mini-breaks, or recovery intervals sprinkled throughout a training session.

How frequent and long the recovery intervals are in a workout depend on the runner and the length & number of runs at 4:48/mile pace in a session.

For example, if you performed 16 x 400m @ 72” you might only need 60” - 90” recovery after each 400m rep to complete sixteen 400s on pace. If you run 8 x 800m @ 2:24 you might need 3’ - 4’ after each rep to run every step on pace.

More volume isn’t necessarily productive (goal race pace workouts don’t need to be longer than 1/3 of the target race distance) nor is a faster pace than targeted.

What is most important is teaching your body to run goal pace — and doing it with high frequency.

The two best ways to progress goal pace training workouts is to either 1) extend the duration the runner runs at goal pace without interruption or 2) increase the density of goal pace running by shortening the recovery intervals.

A progressive extension of repetition length on a 15:00/5k goal pace workout could look like:

16 x 400m @ 72” on 3’ recovery → 8 x 800m @ 72'“/400m on 3’ recovery → 6 x 1,000m @ 72”/400m on 3’ recovery → 4 x 1 Mile @ 72'“/400m on 3’ recovery → 3 x 2,000m @ 72”/400m on 3’ recovery → 2 x 3000m @ 72”/400m on 3’ recovery, etc.

Progressing the workout density of goal pace running by shortening the recovery intervals could look like:

16 x 400m @ 72” on 90” recovery → 16 x 400m @ 72” on 75” recovery → 16 x 400m @ 72” on 60” recovery → 6 x 400m @ 72” on 45” recovery → 6 x 400m @ 72” on 30” recovery → 6 x 400m @ 72” on 15” recovery.

My suggestion is to aim for running 2 - 3 goal pace workouts per week (that would total about 30 - 60 minutes weekly of practice at goal pace) and progressing a workout on the 3rd or 4th running of it.

In about 12 weeks, provided a runner doesn’t have any interruption and workouts are able to progress either in extension and density — or both, a runner should be well prepared to run stronger and run close or faster than their target time.

Good luck! | jm