GPP1 to GPP2: what changes between training blocks and why
The transition from general preparation to specific preparation, or GPP1 into GPP2, shifts the training from a broad, high-volume base toward fewer, faster, more event-specific efforts. Volume drops, intensity and specificity climb, recoveries lengthen, and accessory work gives ground to the main quality. The weekly skeleton usually survives the move. What changes is the prescription inside it: distances, percentages, rest, and which session is the priority.
Periodization organizes a season into phases that move from general to specific: a preparation period (subdivided into general and specific prep), a competition period, and a transition (Bompa & Buzzichelli, 2018). GPP1 and GPP2 are two consecutive blocks inside that preparation period. The first builds a wide base. The second narrows it toward the event. Knowing what changes between them is the difference between a plan that progresses and one that just repeats.
What GPP1 is actually for
General preparation builds the capacities everything later sits on: aerobic and anaerobic base, general strength, work capacity, technical volume at submaximal intensity, and tendon and connective-tissue resilience. The defining feature is volume over intensity. You run more total meters, lift more total tonnage, and accept slower speeds because the goal is adaptation breadth, not a fast time in October.
Block periodization frames this as accumulation: a concentrated load on a few trainable qualities, developed to a level that holds while you shift focus in the next block (Issurin, 2008). GPP1 is where you bank that work. The athlete should finish it tired in a deep, structural way, not sharp.
What changes when you move into GPP2
GPP2 keeps the same broad goal, general readiness, but tilts every variable toward the event. The clearest single principle is specificity: as the season advances, training increasingly resembles the demands of the competition itself in speed, distance, and movement pattern (Stone, Stone, & Sands, 2007). Four things move together.
Volume comes down. Total weekly meters and total lifting tonnage drop so the body can handle harder individual efforts. Intensity goes up. Speed sessions get closer to race pace, special-endurance distances shorten toward the event, and lifts move toward the heavier end of the prescription. Rest lengthens. Faster work needs fuller recoveries, so a tempo session with thirty seconds between reps in GPP1 becomes a speed-endurance session with six to eight minutes in GPP2. Accessory volume narrows. General circuits and high-rep work give way to fewer exercises that feed the main quality directly.
The week's structure is the constant across the transition. The prescription inside each day is the variable. That is why coaches copy the GPP1 week forward and then edit it, rather than rebuilding GPP2 from a blank page.
A concrete before-and-after
Take a long-sprint group. In GPP1, a Tuesday extensive-tempo session might be 8x200m at 70 percent with a 30-second walk-back recovery, total volume 1600m, the point being capacity and economy. In GPP2 the same Tuesday slot becomes a special-endurance session: 4x300m at 90 to 92 percent with full recoveries, total volume 1200m, the point being race-specific tolerance. Same day of the week, same broad category of work, different distance, intensity, rest, and intent.
The weights day moves the same direction. A GPP1 strength-endurance circuit at 3x12 across several general lifts becomes a GPP2 maximal-strength prescription at 4x4 on the primary lifts at a higher percentage, with the accessory list trimmed. The athlete's reference max is the anchor: prescribing by effort percentage keeps the relative load honest as the absolute weight rises.
| Variable | GPP1 (general prep) | GPP2 (specific prep) |
|---|---|---|
| Volume | High (broad base) | Reduced |
| Intensity | Submaximal | Higher, toward race pace |
| Specificity | General qualities | Event-specific distances and patterns |
| Rest between efforts | Short (capacity bias) | Longer (quality bias) |
| Accessory work | High variety and volume | Trimmed to support the main quality |
| Weekly skeleton | Set the template | Usually preserved |
Why the weekly skeleton survives the transition
Coaches keep the same day-of-week structure across blocks for good reasons. Athletes adapt to a rhythm: speed on Monday and Thursday, tempo on Tuesday and Saturday, recovery on Wednesday. Holding that pattern steady while changing the contents lets you see progression cleanly, because the only thing that moved is the prescription. It also protects the spacing rules that matter most, such as never stacking a heavy speed-endurance session the day before a max-velocity day.
This is the practical case for copying a block forward rather than authoring each one fresh. The structure carries the intent. When GPP2's Tuesday is literally the GPP1 Tuesday with edited distances and rests, the coach reasons about a change instead of reconstructing a week and risking a stale prescription or a forgotten subgroup.
How this looks in Sprinting
Sprinting is training periodization software for track and field coaches, and it treats the block as a real object rather than a label. You plan the GPP1 week once. When GPP2 begins, copy the whole week forward in one action: every session, every exercise, and every set carries over, including the subgroup targeting, into the weeks you select. If the target weeks already hold sessions, you choose to add the copied work alongside them or replace what is there, so a copy never silently destroys an existing plan.
From there you edit toward the event. Each set holds load, reps, rest, tempo, RPE, distance, height, resistance, plus velocity, power, and effort as fields you can fill. Set a reference max per exercise and prescribe by effort percentage; Sprinting computes the working weight against that athlete's max as you type, weight over max for lifts and personal best over time for sprints. Adjust the percentages and distances per subgroup so short sprints, long sprints, and hurdles each get the right GPP2 dose from one edited week. If your GPP2 plan already exists on paper or in a screenshot, paste the text or upload up to ten images and the AI parses it into structured exercises and sets you can correct, so moving a block in does not mean retyping it.
FAQ
- What is the difference between general prep and specific prep?
- General preparation (GPP) builds a broad base with high volume at submaximal intensity: general strength, work capacity, and technical volume. Specific preparation (SPP, or GPP2 in a two-block prep) keeps the base but tilts every variable toward the event, lower volume, higher intensity, event-specific distances, and longer recoveries. The goal narrows from broad fitness to race readiness (Bompa & Buzzichelli, 2018).
- Should volume go up or down from GPP1 to GPP2?
- Down, in most models. Total volume falls so the athlete can handle harder, faster, more specific efforts. The work that remains is closer to race pace and gets fuller recoveries. You trade breadth of volume for quality of intensity (Stone, Stone, & Sands, 2007).
- Do I rebuild the week for each block or copy it forward?
- Most coaches preserve the weekly skeleton across blocks and edit the prescription inside it. The day-of-week rhythm keeps athletes adapted and lets you see progression cleanly. Copying the previous block forward and then editing distances, intensities, and rests is faster and less error-prone than authoring each block from a blank page. In Sprinting, copy-week moves the whole structure, including subgroup targeting, in one action.
- How long should GPP last before moving to specific prep?
- It depends on the athlete's level, the event, and how many competition phases the season has. The principle, not a fixed number, is that you move on once the general qualities are developed enough to hold while you concentrate on the next block (Issurin, 2008). Younger or less-trained athletes spend longer in general prep; advanced athletes shift to specific work sooner because their base is already established.
- Does the same logic apply to the weights room across blocks?
- Yes. The weights progression mirrors the track: GPP1 favors strength endurance and higher-rep general work, GPP2 moves toward maximal strength on fewer primary lifts at higher intensities, with accessory volume trimmed. Anchoring to a reference max and prescribing by effort percentage keeps the relative load consistent as the absolute weight climbs.