I've been reading the things Pavel and others have written about AGT, and it seems to make sense. In particular, it seems that AGT is clearly a good way to get strong, and clearly a good way to gain endurance.
There are some athletes in my household, however, that will be competing in events that particulaly use the glycolytic system -- the 400m and 800m run.
Would you modify AGT in such a case? Or would you maintain AGT for strength training, and trust that the track-specific training would take care of any conditioning of the glycolytic system?
I have had good success w/ AGT and mid distance high school athletes. I have had two Colorado 5A state champions and two Simplot games champions in both 800 meters and the mile. (I've also had good success with post collegiate pros in mtn running and road racing as well as masters track athletes in various events. Most of what I describe here applies to their programs too.)
In event training itself, too much glycolysis too often is a problem. But the athlete needs to be prepared mentally and physically for the discomforts, and my goal with AGT is to help get them metabolically fit enough to push back that threshold so they can go faster at the same or, ideally, less levels of discomfort.
I try to plan AGT to sync up with the competition calendar and periodize accordingly. We do our AGT after weights (power cleans, squats, push presses, etc) which has become more and more to function as the general warmup for AGT. In the preseason, usually 4 weeks or so, I have my athletes do "slow"AGT (band assisted pullups + goblet squats, although slow pushups are good too) gradually adding to the number of rounds. This is analogous to building base mileage. My take on AGT for runners is that they have plenty of MT "batteries" and transport proteins in the legs and hips, but by adding "batteries" and transport proteins to the upper body, we are building a more capacious lactate sink.
As we get into the early meets we phase into more fast twitch AGT, usually one day of two hand swings for "fast tens" with generous active rest and then a second day of unilateral work: snatches or one hand swings. As we get closer to State we will go shorter breaks, increasing that lactate burn a bit more. (Peaking.) When my 5A athlete doubled Gold in the 800 and mile at State last year, her last AGT workout three days out from the meet was just 3 minutes long: 2 hand swings, 10 seconds on 5 seconds off. (120 seconds of actual work: about the same as her personal best 800: 2:03)
As far as 400 meter training goes, this same athlete would run 200s and 400s at earlier meets for speed training and she was right around 55-56 for those efforts. So, I don't know as if I would change much for 400 specialists.
Of course, you need to assess the needs of your particular athletes, but working slow to fast, longer rests to shorter and deciding which meets you will train through and which you will peak for are all key. I am not a running coach, so I have to interface with both athlete and coach to implement and adjust as we go.
A couple of things to keep in mind and watch out for, from an article by Aussie swim coach Bob Treffene on LTAD: Muscular adaptations occur daily, but MT mitosis can explode up to 10% seemingly "overnight". Because it can take up to 10 days before these MT are fully integrated, they are a drain on the athlete's system, resulting in higher than expected heart rates during training, extra fatigue and so on. The recommendation is to back off the intensity of the training from onset of issues for the next 10 days. So don't freak out if after a month of training the athlete experiences a little downturn, just adjust until it passes.
Also: Be aware there is a glycogen and transport protein replenishment lag time after hard training. Type 1 Fibers 36 hours., Type IIA 12 hours and 3 days for IIB. So plan recovery time between loadings appropriately.
Hope this was helpful.
-Randy