Pure Speed(Finishing Kick)- The Best Way to Improve It

Go to Bob Schul's website

www.bobschul.com

and order his training manual. Nobody has had a finishing kick like his from '64.

Basically, his training translates to intelligent intervals with good form. And lots of them. You will notice that not much is done over 400 meters because most people cannot hold form and speed for more than that distance.

Our team motto from many years back:

"If anyone outkicks you after all of this work, you are just a wimp."

Quite honestly I have never been asked to respond to a question that goes, ?ignore my training or performance leading up to the last 200m of a race, just teach me how to finish like greased lightning!?

I usually get guys who want to go from 17.00 for 5k to 16.00, or 16.00 to 15.00 and so on. They want to knock whole chunks off their PR?s, not save 2-3 secs in the last 200m. But what do I know, maybe you?re Paul Tergat and you?re fed up with that Ethiopian dude who busts yo? ass in the last 200m of every 10,000m final.

I knew two guys once like this. Runner A had a final kick like Coe wished he had, while runner B was an even-splits dude who couldn?t outkick my grannie. Their PR?s for 800m and 1500m were within 1-2 secs of each other?s, but when they raced together A beat B every time in the final sprint. Sha-zaam, and he?s gone. Didn?t matter what runner B tried, going out harder? kicking with 500m to go, all that stuff. Over 1500m he could not get away from B, who knew he only had to hang on till 200m to go and the race would be his.

Hills, drills? nothing worked. Runner B stood this for two track seasons and then upped the mileage and moved up to 5k and 10k. Turned out that was where his talents lay, very soon he was running 14.30 and 30.30. Not bad since he only ever ran 3.58 for 1500m at his best. Runner A never dared move up. Once or twice he showed up at low-key road races, but could never break 32.00 for 10k. In the end, each left the other to their best event.

Moral: if this is some guy bustin? your ass every time and you just want to beat HIM, and you don?t care about the finishing time? that might not actually be possible.

So, first question: are you running the right (physiological) event for you?

Next question: are you well-trained for the event in which you compete? Although this might not really be relevant, since you state that even if you finish in the same as your 200m PR time, you would still be slow as molasses (and presumably beaten by this other dude).

Why don?t I get to the point, you wonder and just give you the ?secret? training you really need?

The point is, I can think of a number of reasons why you might not be able to run fast. I would figure it out pretty quick if I could observe you, but? without that, here?s some possibilities:

1. You run like a marathon dude on your heels and have no idea how to get up on the balls of your feet and sprint. (Someone already suggested you work with a sprint coach)

2. Your leg muscles are weak and you run from your knees, not from your hips. (A good coach would confirm this, and you might need some weight work to strengthen your legs (esp: hip extensors) and some drills to improve your coordination. Even better, malmo?s ?heels? which do a pretty good job of combining all these.)

3. Your ?style? is horrendous, arms and legs everywhichway? (weeks and weeks or malmo?s ?heeels? and coordination drills with someone observing/videoing before slowly trying to transfer this into faster running on the track)

4. You haven?t a fast twitch fibre in your body (you say otherwise, without saying how you are so sure).

I coach a tiny little 15 year old guy who has legs like sticks? taking a long time to grow up, I guess. He started with me last Oct 01. He wanted to race 1500m and is full of piss and vinegar and willing to train (only reason I agreed to take him on, he's a gutsy kid). With a 5.36 PR, he had a dream to break 5.00 for 1500m, but he could not run 200m in 40 secs flat out. Not one. (5.00 for 1500m is 7.5 x 200m in 40 secs one after another without stopping. He could not run one.)

But he COULD run one hour long and easy. So we did lots of that, always within his capabilities. If there is a born marathoner, it might be this guy? run all day, but THIN. With his father following in the car, we had him running all sorts of hilly routes, but always aerobic, just miles and miles?

I even excused him from repeat 200 and 400s with the group, cause they all whupped his ass. By this July he ran 4.57 and I never saw a happier runner (and his father) in my whole life. I haven?t checked, but I doubt he could break 33-34 secs for one 200m all-out even now. But if he slows up just a little bit, he can now go round again and again at not much slower than this 200m best.

So, lotsa reasons why you cannot run fast. And I cannot tell which one is yours.

I am very aware that I have not contributed much, if anything here (and it bugs me too), but if you can think about it a bit more and can be more forthcoming with info? someone here might be able to offer some useful advice.

I know this is not what you wanted to hear. But on a message board, from one post, to expect anyone to guarantee they can knock 5 secs off your 200m time is optimistic. But there are many good points on all these posts (as I have shown) and by incorporating and working on the best of them you can find out WHY you cannot run fast, and then work from there.

Final point: if you race the 5k and are repeatedly getting ?jumped? in the final 200m, train to be better aerobically and kill this dude half a mile before the finish and it will not matter WHAT kind of final sprint he has? you?ll be gone.

Or move up in distance? it cannot be coincidence that Paula?s annus mirabilis began with a winter?s base training that enabled her to frighten the marathon world record first time out of the box. And she was someone who was ALWAYS getting jumped up to that point. She may even have had more 4th place finishes that anyone in the sport, and NOW look at her.

Good luck.

Fester -

Nice workout. How much rest between sets?

Dear original poster,

I hope you can see from all this that you problem is either:

1. Neuromuscular/coordination, call it what you will, getting all your appendages moving in the same direction at the same time. That you might need to learn the biomechanics of HOW to run fast. Get that brain-to-leg-muscle connection up to blistering speed. And a number of people have posted ideas: hills, working with a sprint coach who will begin with drills and wayyyy long-term eventually might even go on to "assisted sprinting" towed with a bungee cord, or downhill sprinting, etc.

2. Inadequate leg power. Through a lifetime of inaction, you are unable to generate enough power to physically move fast. Again, there have been a number of ideas; hills (again, and excellent), getting a coach to identify that this is the problem, working with a coach in a gym to develop the required musculature to run fast.

3. Or (more unlikely, but still possible), you are just like young Matteo in my example above. In an all-out sprint his legs just don't move any faster and he can't make them, he's like a young foal, all spindly legs. He's a tireless dude, but fast twitch fibres? Near zero (but I wouldn't biopsy him to find out!)

And that's IT. There is no secret here.

Note that I am not a big believer on improving at a thing simply by repeatedly doing that thing. Like basketball players don't get better at basketball simply by playing the game over and over. (They need physical training too) That's good for skill-learning (No1, above), but if that is NOT your problem, all the skill learning in the world will only take you so far.

While I'm on that subject, note that skill-learning is a lifetime process. Go to the World Champs warm-up track next year and you'll see Marion doing her drills, even after all these years. Talk to swimmers, they gotta get in the water every day or they lose the "feel" of the water.

All this just to say

a) don't give up on the 150s if you don't see an immediate result. But note that they will really only be helping technique. Keep refining that technique (first, get someone to confirm you're doing it right).

b) repeat 150s might not do a whole lot for you if your legs are just plain weak. Either hit the (up)hills or get a knowledgeable person to check you out in the gym and, if need be, get you on some kind of simple weights programme, at least to start (and I am not a big fan of plyos, either).

Hadd-

Do you have an e-mail? Could I send you some questions?

Raw speed is good for finishing kick only in very slow races.

In fast races, the guy that slows down the least is the one that looks like real fast finisher.

So you've got to work on that.

1. do 10x60-100m in the middle of every run.

2. run the last 200 of the last repeat as fast as you can

most beneficial:

3. find a longish hill(600+m) preferably with increasing grade towards the end. Run repeats there with the last 100 at full sprint. Essential: run the repeats fast so that you feel like dying right when you start the final sprint. Slow jog down w/near full recovery.

Malmo remembers my Rono stories.

Every time we discuss kicks and getting fast and all of that stuff, one out of every 100 will say run hills, everyone else doesn't want to here it. The kenyans are handing us Gold and we continue to ignore them.

I'll say it again. I asked Henry what was the biggest reason he was better than everyone and he didn't think for one second he just said HILLS. Then he said, "Salazar, Tuesday Track; Thursday Track; Saturday Track; No All Wrong!

Do hills 2,3,4 times per week then come to the track to test yourself then go back to the hills.

Think about it, seriously, really give it some thought.

This is not rocket science.

Does anyone know Hadd's e-mail?

I'll bump this so Hadd can see it. I think he said he was gone for the weekend.

Running, what are you doing asking for anyone to give you "Hadd's" address? Hopefully, no one does that as it would not be their place to do so. The best, basically only, way to contact someone is to put your own e-mail (just establish a different Hotmail/Yahoo account if you don't want your address to be known) address out there and see if "Hadd" (or whomever) responds. Personally, if I were "Hadd", though, I would think twice before responding to you, though, as I wouldn't want to just give my e-mail address (the one I use) to someone who thinks it's cool/proper to simply freely give another's address to any who ask.

everyone must behave the way we want them to.

At this point in the season - I was basically racing full-on, and the rest here was untimed - it was just when I felt good to go again. In saying that - I would guess it was somewhere between 6-8 minutes just from past experience - though - I actually wished i had taken longer. After I ran 49 for the 3rd rep, my trainer asked me if I wanted to call it quits - just for the fact, i didnt want to overtrain, and I had proven my point - but I decided to do the last rep (remembering El G's training, where if he doesnt complete a session, he comes back the next day to do it again) and it maybe was a little too much, as it took me probably 3 days longer to fully recover from it.

I trained one day with Nico Motchebon, and I was running 2x200 just to get my legs going over before a race. He was doing 2x400, and asked me if he could jump in behind me for the first 200m. Well, I ran something like 23.3 - and he was right up my backside! I thought - this guys nuts - but he went on to run 48.3! in training! Then he had 20min rest, and did his next rep. This time, he was moaning about his spikes - so took them off, and chucked on his HUGE chunkster training flats, proceeding to run 49.1

.... impressive....

BUMP MOTHER FUCKER~!

i find doing accelerations helps (gradually getting faster and faster during a stride)

back when i used to have a wicked kick i would "kick" the last 100m of every interval on the track.. worked well for me.

Best way to improve speed...hmmmmm...let me think. Wait. I have it.

Run faster. Seriously.

Do some actual sprint training (NOT anaerobic work) during your base. 10 x 100 at 400 goal pace (:50 400 = 12.5 100's) is good place to start.

Best way to work on closing speed (I am assuming you already have done all the aerobic work and mileage possible to allow you to be able to access your speed late in a race and that your question is centered on improving speed and speed access) is get tired, then run fast. Try doing a long threshold run ending at that track, then try to blow out 2-3 FAST 400's. After the last interval in a workout, take a double recover then run some FAST 200's. In other words, practice what you'll actually have to do in a race.

bump

I have a middle distance guide that I've been monkeying with for some time. I just add stuff here and there to remind myself what's worked for milers in the past. Most of it you might be able to use as well. I'll probably get it PDF'd and put in on our site sometime this summer if I ever get around to it. But in the meantime, here's some stuff that will probably help in your search for a kick. This is taken directly from the guide. Seems like you have the you have the easy miles down and you have the short, fast stuff down, it probably means you need focused work on VO2max, then follow up with focused tempo work.

Here's the stuff from my guide. All fitness terms such as "aerobic capacity" are referenced directly from Martin and Coe's guide, so go there for definitions:

"The basic tenet of competitive distance running is that a poorly conditioned athlete will make the greatest gains in performance by focusing on developing their aerobic capacity. Those athletes who are already highly conditioned will realize their greatest performance gains through a program designed to improve anaerobic capacity, running economy and fractional utilization of VO2max while maintaining their already well developed VO2max (Vigil, Road to the Top p.18). Stated another way, the best way to improve your race times as a competitive runner is by first focusing on maximizing your VO2max before placing the training emphasis on tempo work, speed work and drills."

"To fully develop the VO2max of an individual athlete may take as long as several years or as little as several months, it really depends on the level of training that the particular athlete was exposed to previously. During the time when we are focused on developing VO2max we must still address the development of the other energy systems through tempo work, speed work, long runs and speed drills but we do not make these elements the emphasis of the program until we are fairly certain that we have fully addressed the athlete?s VO2max and developed it to the highest level possible for that season. Early in a career it will take more time to accomplish this task than in subsequent seasons, but it still must be done. Developing the VO2max of the athlete invariably provides the largest performance gains and is generally the area that college middle distance runners are found to be weak in, which is why we start the recent post collegiate athlete here."

"Once the VO2max is developed through a solid 4-6 month program of progressive work that focuses on 3k, 5k and 10k paced workouts, we can begin to give greater emphasis on runs performed at half marathon pace in the form of consistent tempo runs as well as the ensuring the pace of most runs away from the track (ie weekly long run) are run at a pace slightly slower than marathon race pace for good percentage of the run. These runs performed at 70-80% of VO2max increase the athlete?s ability to utilize a greater percentage of their aerobic capacity developed the previous fall. Development of an athlete?s VO2max, tempo runs and longer runs at faster than recovery pace work together to provide the aerobic conditioning necessary for the athlete to improve dramatically in the 1500m. The 8-10 weeks immediately following XC season are the time to take the fitness acquired during the previous XC season and apply that fitness directly to running a base the way in which it was intended, specifically a higher volume of weekly miles at very solid paces."

The above just means you'll race faster and consequently have a better kick with a greater developed VO2max all other things being equal, then after it's developed, we do a large percentage of faster miles for 8 or so weeks a la Lydiard and we get one fit dude/dudette. You can almost push a baby stroller after this tyype of buildup and race faster than snot. VO2max can be manipulated greatly by training, but is limited by your parents. While you are developing this aspect of fitness, it's best throughout the year to do some short, fast work focusing on all-out, RELAXED efforts of about 5 seconds to work on the neuromuscular aspect of the equation, which is what Irv and Benson say in Run with the Best - my progression is just more gradual than theirs but it's the same concept. You progress these accelerations throughout the year so they start in August at a pretty mellow effort and by the time outdoors comes around you're doing all out 80-100's. Here's the basic progression I've been working on. This will be my middle distance athlete's Saturday workout the coming fall/winter:

Once weekly turnover sessions:

Aug: 6 laps of stride the straight/jog the turns (2 laps at 3k effort, 2 laps at 1500 effort, 2 laps at 800 effort)

Sept: 6 laps of stride the straight/jog the turns (2 laps at 3k effort, 2 laps at 1500 effort, 2 laps at 800 effort). 4-6 x 60 acceleration (last 10m at best RELAXED top end speed). Walk back recovery.

Oct: 6 x 80-100 strides (2 @ 3k, 2 @ 1500, 2 @ 800) w/ easy jog back, 4-6 x 60 acceleration (last 10m at best RELAXED top end speed), walk back. 4-6 x 40 at best RELAXED top end speed, super easy walk back.

Nov: 6 x 80-100 strides (2 @ 3k, 2 @ 1500, 2 @ 800) w/ easy jog back, 4-6 x 60 acceleration (last 10m at best RELAXED top end speed), walk back. 4-6 x 60 at best RELAXED top end speed, super easy walk back.

Dec: 6 x 80-100 strides (2 @ 3k, 2 @ 1500, 2 @ 800) w/ easy jog back, 4-6 x 60 acceleration (last 10m at best RELAXED top end speed), walk back. 4-6 x 80 at best RELAXED top end speed, super easy walk back.

Jan: 6 x 80-100 strides (2 @ 3k, 2 @ 1500, 2 @ 800) w/ easy jog back, 4-6 x 60 acceleration (last 10m at best RELAXED top end speed), walk back. 4-6 x 100 at best RELAXED top end speed, super easy walk back.

Feb: 6 x 80-100 strides (2 @ 3k, 2 @ 1500, 2 @ 800) w/ easy jog back, 4-6 x 60 acceleration (last 10m at best RELAXED top end speed), walk back. 6-8 x 100 at best RELAXED top end speed, super easy walk back.

In March, we add a new warmup routine that incorporates all the previous 8 months work into a tidy little package that maintains fitness with every speed while we focus on race specific training. Remember, this is designed for a miler:

Add new warm-up routine:

To maintain the previously developed components of AE, tempo, 3k, 1500, 800 and 400 speeds, we want to incorporate these speeds consistently within the warm-up routines to maintain these systems while we focus more attention to 800 and 1500 specific workouts. These should be maintained throughout this 8-10 weeks of training to help bring fitness levels to their highest for the season before the competitive season.

Warm up A: For all out speed, 400, 800 or 1500 paced workouts

-20 min progressive run (10 min easy, 5 at AE, 5 at tempo)

-1200-1600 of stride the straight/jog turn

-1 x 150-200 at 1500 pace

-1 x 150-200 at 800 pace

-1 x 150 acceleration (1500/800/400)

-1 x 150 Sprint/Float/Sprint (400/800/400)

-5-10 minutes, then proceed with scheduled workout.

Warm Up B: For 5k, 10k or tempo workouts

-25-30 min easy

-4 x 80-100 light strides

-6-8 x 120 diagonal accelerations (1500/800/400) on grass field, walk across recovery

-5-10 minutes then proceed with workouts.

All the above are done in addition to the regular workouts on the track, they just make running fast a regular part of the routine. No way you can repeat in a race what hasn't been practiced A LOT beforehand. Oh yeah, the above is for someone with 6-8 years of experience as a competitive runner under their belts. Young athletes need a different focus, the above really is for post collegiate athletes.

Hope it helps.

Joe

Mr. Rubio, thanks for the very informative post.

A note about Hadd's story of his slow twitch runner Matteo who could not sprint to save his life.

While one cannot grab Joe Schmoe off the street and train him to break MJ's 400m world record, ANYONE can improve top speed.

Some of you may know of Sammy Lelei, a Kenyan marathoner from a few years back with a 2:07:02 PR.

He was biopsied at 99% slow twitch fibers (!) yet could run a 48 second 400m.

Clearly, this shows the HUGE importance of coordination when it comes to sprinting, something Sebastian Coe worked on tirelessly to improve his own speed.

This is the real way in which slow distance guys can improve- better corrdination. This comes from drills, hills, and plain sprint work.

Not all runners with lots of ST fibers can run 48, but they can certainly improve their top speed.

A very easy way of building speed is doing strides after all your runs.