Changing emphasis - long v short

[Tony Cook]

What effect have people found on their times when changing emphasis?
E.g. someone works for 6 months for 2k and gets a 2k PB. They then train for 6 months for a marathon and gets a PB. Bearing in mind that 2k is reportedly 80% aerobic and, theoretically their aerobic fitness will have improved a lot for the FM will they be able to match their 2k PB?
I can see the FM time dropping if you went the other way, as while strength and power at higher rates and shorter distances improve that’s not so important for the FM.
Even more difference the greater the change? E.g training for 1 minute sprint v 100,000k?

[Tandstad]

I guess it all depends if you are also doing your weekly spicy intervals to keep the speed. What I know is that I have not prioritized 2k training for a long time(april 2020), instead I have gone for 30 minutes up to half marathon. There is no way I could beat my 2k now without probably a couple months of dedicated work "down there".

[macroth]

You can probably get relatively close to your 2k PB on "strict" marathon training, but bridging the last 5-10% will always require repeated effort at high intensity. And 5-10% in watts is the difference between 6:20 and 6:27-6:34, or between 6:30 and 6:37-6:44. In my experience, 4-6 months of focused 2k training can get me down from 6:40 to 6:25 (+10% Watts).

Training for a 100k will definitely give you a piss-poor 1 min compared to 6 months of specific sprint and strength training.

[Dutch]

I recently tried a 2k tt after 5 months of pretty much ss training 30 mins up to hm and probably only 3 intervals in the 5 months. I thought all the extra fitness would carry me through and I could just turn up and row a pb.
But I did not account for my leaking energy through poor stroke technique. I feel all the ss and no intervals caused me to be lazy on the leg drive and layback. Even my breathing had become haphazard.
I am now restructuring everything from the bottom up as they say and becoming aware of every part of the stroke and trying to work to a minimum average spi for each stroke at a set distance or at least an idea of what I should be hitting.

[Tony Cook]

I guess it all depends if you are also doing your weekly spicy intervals to keep the speed. What I know is that I have not prioritized 2k training for a long time(april 2020), instead I have gone for 30 minutes up to half marathon. There is no way I could beat my 2k now without probably a couple months of dedicated work "down there".

The thing I wonder though is how do you know that you couldn’t get close to your old 2k time? What would prevent you? Your lungs? Your legs? Or that bit between your ears?
If you are aerobically fitter then that bit of the equation means you should be faster. I can understand that if you’ve worked for months at 25 SPM and below then 32 SPM for 6-7 minutes is unpracticed but could you make up for that elsewhere?
I’m not saying you, personally, but all of us. You’ve just been the first to respond, thank you.
We work at plan A and achieve X. That proves to us that plan A works. We then think we couldn’t possibly achieve X without plan A, but maybe we could?
“The man who thinks he can and the man who thinks he can't are both right.”

[btlifter]

I guess it all depends if you are also doing your weekly spicy intervals to keep the speed. What I know is that I have not prioritized 2k training for a long time(april 2020), instead I have gone for 30 minutes up to half marathon. There is no way I could beat my 2k now without probably a couple months of dedicated work "down there".

The thing I wonder though is how do you know that you couldn’t get close to your old 2k time? What would prevent you? Your lungs? Your legs? Or that bit between your ears?
If you are aerobically fitter then that bit of the equation means you should be faster. I can understand that if you’ve worked for months at 25 SPM and below then 32 SPM for 6-7 minutes is unpracticed but could you make up for that elsewhere?
I’m not saying you, personally, but all of us. You’ve just been the first to respond, thank you.
We work at plan A and achieve X. That proves to us that plan A works. We then think we couldn’t possibly achieve X without plan A, but maybe we could?
“The man who thinks he can and the man who thinks he can't are both right.”

On one hand - particularly for a beginner- I want to say that both a 2k and a marathon are primarilybaerobic so there is no doubt an enormous amount if carryover.

On the other hand, as one approaches their own potential, specificity matters increasingly more.

Practically speaking, I would not think that somebody who has just completed a marathon training cycle would be well equipped to pn their 2k. On the other hand, I do that that same person may only be a few weeks of dedicated speed/V02 work away from pb'ing their 2k.

[Dangerscouse]

The thing I wonder though is how do you know that you couldn’t get close to your old 2k time? What would prevent you? Your lungs? Your legs? Or that bit between your ears?
If you are aerobically fitter then that bit of the equation means you should be faster. I can understand that if you’ve worked for months at 25 SPM and below then 32 SPM for 6-7 minutes is unpracticed but could you make up for that elsewhere?
I’m not saying you, personally, but all of us. You’ve just been the first to respond, thank you.
We work at plan A and achieve X. That proves to us that plan A works. We then think we couldn’t possibly achieve X without plan A, but maybe we could?
“The man who thinks he can and the man who thinks he can't are both right.”

I have done very little speed / interval work over the past 12 months, but have done lots of distance, and when I did a 2k x 3 r3 in Sept I was significantly quicker in the last rep than I have been before, when I was training more specifically for a 2k, albeit it was still only generally specific.

It's all speculation atm, but I'd say that I could have possibly got a 2k PB, and there was defo fitness gains that transferred across. There is of course the need to get accustomed to the sharp end of a 2k that longer distances don't quite prepare you for, but I don't suffer badly from lactic so it's not quite as much of a problem for me. I just need to stop being a wimp.