RunningAHEAD - Topic: Improving raw speed

LuckyLindy

posted: 9/2/2009 at 9:42 PM
modified: 9/2/2009 at 9:55 PM

I don't have easy access to a gym, so wanted to hear if anyone has had great success improving their raw speed (short distance sprints).

I've always been a slow sprinter. 15s in the 100m, and 63s in the 400m, was my top speed for all but 3 months of high school. For those 3 months I did low rep heavy deadlifts/squats, and my 100m time went down to ~13s and my 400m was ~56s - a pretty significant improvement. My XC times improved by about a minute as well (to just under 17m for 5k), but by track season (after 6 months of no lifting), I was back to my relatively slow sprinting, which translated into slower running throughout all distances.

Recently I tried sprinting and my times were the exact same as most of HS ... 15s 100m, 63-64s 400m. This sets a rather definite limit on my top speed for longer distances, so I'd love shave off 10-15% w/o buying a gym membership and going back to the deadlifts/squats.

Thanks!

marktman

posted: 9/2/2009 at 11:43 PM

Try pylometrics. They seem to have been helping me the past few weeks.

LuckyLindy

posted: 9/2/2009 at 11:53 PM

Quote from marktman on 9/2/2009 at 11:43 PM:

Try pylometrics. They seem to have been helping me the past few weeks.

I can tell by your avatar.

spaniel

Feeling the growl again

posted: 9/5/2009 at 4:51 PM

Well, I would disagree that it limits you for longer distances. My best times 400m ever (and I tried) was 60 flat. By best 800m ever was 2:06. My best mile was 4:34, yet I ran 30:57 for 10K.

Raw sprinting speed doesn't mean a whole lot at 5K and longer. When I was running 15:30s for 5K, I regularly raced a guy running 1:52 800m at that time and in 5Ks he was a full minute behind me.

That being said, increasing your raw sprinting speed is relatively easy. Sets of 200m sprints with long recovery. Then when you're tired add some 100m accelerations onto the end.

At the end of easy runs, do a bunch of 100m accelerations to full speed with good recovery over the last mile.

The key is to actually get decently regular usage out of the fast twitch fibers most of us ignore.

I used the above method to take my 800m time from 2:12 to 2:06 in 3 weeks.

"If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does. There's your pep talk for today. Go Run." -- Slo_Hand

I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills

Improving raw speed - ideas? (Read 694 times)