How to Chase Speed and Gain Endurance

One question coaches struggle with in every sport, at every level, is how to ensure players have the right mix of speed and endurance. 

As part of this, coaches usually have to consider a series of sub-questions that spin-off from this: 

• How do I achieve the right balance of speed and endurance training? 
• What if I need to sacrifice one for the other: Speed vs. Endurance?
• Will endurance take care of itself during the on-season? 

In this article, we’re taking a look at how to balance the competing needs of speed and endurance and how to find the optimal minimal effective dosage for cardio workouts.

Dangers of overtraining 

Far too many athletes show signs of overtraining. Although it’s crucial that players get enough training during pre-season and the main seasons of your sport, there’s a risk that too much training will produce negative consequences. 

And while there are numerous ways to counteract overtraining, simply telling an athlete to power through it isn’t the answer. 

It’s better to avoid overtraining, to begin with rather than having to send athletes to a physio so they can heal. Or worse, a player has to miss out or be taken out of a big game because they’ve been over-trained and aren’t able to play for as long as you need them. 

Here are several dangers that come with overtraining: 

• Joint pain: Putting excessive strain on an athlete’s joints can lead to inflammation and injury, and this is even worse for players who need to jump a lot, such as in basketball and volleyball. Joint pain also makes it harder for athletes to accelerate and decelerate. 
• Stress fractures: Overtraining contributes to repetitive stress on the bones, especially in the feet and ankles, creating stress fractures. Over time, these fractures can weaken the bones and cause injuries. Stress fractures are quite common in high-impact sports, such as soccer, football, rugby, basketball, hockey, and track and field. 
• Muscle strain: Over-used muscles can cause strains, weakening the muscles that are being called upon too many times to generate movement. Athletes that play sports such as baseball, swimming, and tennis are more likely to experience muscle strain. 
• More likely to become unwell: As you probably know, when you’re over-tired, overworked, or doing too much (including physical activity), you’re more likely to become unwell. Your immune system is weakened, making it easier for diseases and viruses to overcome your natural defenses. 
• Mental exhaustion: In the same way that doing too much can cause mental and emotional exhaustion, this can make a big difference to how an athlete performs in competitive games. It also means they’re more likely to make mistakes or get injured; when athletes are too tired to concentrate, no amount of Lucozade is going to drag them into a place of mental alertness. 
• Tendinitis: Inflammation of the tendons can cause tendinitis, a common injury for pro running, jumping, and throwing athletes. 

With all of that in mind, it’s time to think about how to implement the optimal minimal effective dosage for cardio workouts. Check out how Handball Hamburg playing in German Bundesliga monitor their training load and training status with XPS Reports & XPS Health.  

What’s an optimal minimal effective dosage for cardio workouts? 

In other words, “How to chase speed while gaining endurance?” 

It’s a constant balancing act that coaches need to think about. Giving your athletes enough training, especially when it comes to speed and endurance, without overtraining them. 

And as a coach or head coach, you’ve got to factor in the whole coaching staff and consultants. You might even have strength, speed, and endurance coaches on staff. If so, and you’ve noticed signs of overtraining in your players, it could be helpful to take a holistic review of the entire training program. 

Speed and endurance are so important in almost every sport. But sacrificing one for the other could backfire, causing your athletes to suffer from overtraining, even contributing to injuries.

The concept of “minimal effective dosage” is popular in certain sports, such as sprinting, and applies to numerous others. In 2012, Martin Gibala (et al.,), the Chair of the Department of Kinesiology at McMaster University, published a paper in the Journal of Physiology titled “Physiological Adaptations to Low-Volume, High-Intensity Interval Training in Health and Disease.”

In this paper, he compared the effect of high-intensity, low-volume training to steady, lower-intensity training. The results are corroborated by numerous other studies into speed and endurance training. 

All of them point to one conclusion: High-intensity training, provided it’s done at max speed (in other words, chasing speed), will improve endurance. 

Optimizing for speed also improves endurance, providing you don’t over-train your athletes. Finding the right balance is crucial and will help you achieve the desired results: faster athletes that perform better for longer. 

We’ve explored this topic in other articles, too, if you want to consider balancing speed and endurance from different angles: 

• How to Keep Cardio Training Simple With Minute Intervals
• How to Improve Movement Literacy and Training Relationships 
• Why Eccentric Training is Crucial for Improving Speed and Movement

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