Speed Development For HS Runners

Sprint-training in distance runners is one of the most interesting topics, because little research/studies have been done (in the US the grant system is very bad for sport studies), and there are so many different coaching philosophies.

For example,

Magness - huge believer in hill sprints for any distance, for any runner, even marathoners

Hudson - only believes in all-out hill sprints, to gain muscular strength, core strength and for injury prevention. no flat sprints

Tinman - against any all-out sprints

Daniels - does not recommend all-out sprints

The list would go on. Even on the D1 level, I'm sure there are coaches who love weekly sprint sessions, even cooperating with the sprint coaches (which I think is necessary/great) and others who never do them.

Now about the necessity of sprints, Tinman was the coach of Drew Hunter. His main rival in HS, was Grant Fisher, who was a senior while Drew was only a junior. Fisher had great, natural sprint speed, and played a lot of soccer in his life, doing lots of drills and accelerations. Fisher's running coach did not prescribe him sprints, because he thought soccer gave him enough. As a result, Fisher often won races with a devastating last 100m kick. Drew on the other hand, had a bit less natural speed, and did not sprint all-out under Tinman. Lots of strides at 400m pace, and 200s at 800m pace, and longer hills of 20-40s duration at 95% effort (800-1500 effort).

If sprint speed was the deciding factor, Fisher would have had the upper hand more often. But Hunter, due to focusing on CV and running more mileage, was able to win many direct confrontations by dropping the hammer 500-600m out and "running" the kick out of Fisher. Fisher's top end speed didn't matter.

Also think about it that way - there were many HS kids who did all-out sprint training. Let's say they could run 100 fly in 11.3, and Drew Hunter could only run it in 11.8. But does their top-end speed really matter, when they run the mile in 4:05-4:15, while Drew is running 3:57 and 3:58? It would have been interesting to see Drew Hunter in college run the mile and 2-mile, and see if his lack of sprint training would have been an issue.

Tinman thinks that all-out sprinting is great for sprinters. He has watched mile races over 30+ years, and says the winner never gets close to 100% of their max speed, that they could run fresh in a 40 fly. They typically close a mile at their 400m speed. That's why Tinman prescribes lots of "speedwork" at 400m speed for mile specialists, because that's the mechanics milers use at the end of the race, and being relaxed and fast at 400m speed is very important.

Fully agree with that. It's almost impossible to get injured during hill sprints, and they promote running with good form. It's a lot less technical than flat sprints, and doesn't require anything near the coordination flat sprints require. Magness for example recommends runners new to all-out sprints to do some hill sprints for a few weeks first, and then slowly transition to the flats. He also differentiates between ST runners and FT runners (ST would do more on hills, less on flats and fewer, FT would do more, more flat sprints and can handle more volume/intensity).

V-

Thank you very much for your response. I have a few more questions

The progression you outlined in the previous thread is as follows:

2 sets 5x40m with 2:30 recovery, 5 minutes between sets

2 sets 6x40m with 2:30 recovery, 5 minutes between sets

2 sets 5x50m with 3:00 recovery, 5 minutes between sets

4x60m with 3:00 recovery + 4x50m with 3:00 recovery, 5 minutes between sets

2 sets 4x60m with 3:00 recovery, 5 minutes between sets

3x80m with 3:00 recovery + 4x60m with 3:00 recovery, 5 minutes between sets

6x80m with 4:00 recovery

So you would spend 4 weeks at each stage? This would take 24 weeks to get to 6x80m which seems like a long time.

Once you’ve reached 6x80m how long can this be held for?

Should the recovery be jogging or walking or standstill?

You mentioned about a 5 mile cool down being counter productive - what is the ideal length for warm up and cool down?

How long should you be decelerating for afterwards?

Should plyometric drills like skipping and bounding be included on this day, if so are they best before or after?

Is there a sprint specific drill set that you recommend using in the warm up?

What are the key technical pointers that I should be looking out for in my form whilst sprinting?

Thank you

Sam

What's missing from this theory is the concept of speed reserve. Forgive me if I'm oversimplifying, but consider one runner can max out (top speed, etc, whatever you want to call it) at 59s per 400m (4 min pace). Another runner can max out at 63s per 400m (4:15 pace). Presumably both could go faster in a 40 sprint. Now consider both are racing at 15:30 5k pace (74s). One is racing at much closer to max speed than the other. Wouldn't you rather be the athlete than can run 59s trying to hold 74s than the one who can run 63s? Wouldn't the runner with the faster max speed be likely to run longer and more efficiently at that pace than the other? Basically like saying you're not running in your top gear. You have another gear in reserve that the other runner does not. Similar argument for training. If you can only train so fast, you can only race so fast. Training at a higher percentage of your max speed is harder, and takes longer recovery, right?

LateRunnerPhil wrote:

Tinman thinks that all-out sprinting is great for sprinters. He has watched mile races over 30+ years, and says the winner never gets close to 100% of their max speed, that they could run fresh in a 40 fly.

Also should these be done from a standing , crouch or flying start?

I must have missed this in your earlier thread , but here’s you mention about a hills - flat - fly progression- could you please explain more about this? Do you have to use hills before doing them on the flat?

The theory makes sense, but practice has shown that especially for distances like 5k, the 400m ability is primarily important for the ability to close well, but not for the average time.

5k is a race where slow-twitch runners can be VERY fast, and crush many guys with much better 400m speed.

Some interesting runners:

Alberto Salazar - 57s 400m max - 13:11 (probably a bit faster in 400m, but not much)

Paula Radcliffe - 58.9 400m max - 14:29

Carlos Lopes - 54s 400m max - 13:16

Reed Fischer - 57s 400m max - 13:43

These guys are very slow-speed wise, and have 90%+ ST fibers. But their 5k times are pretty good, comparable to runners with good speed (~50s).

Now would these runners ever win a slow 5k race? Hell no! They probably get last in a 15 min 5k. But if you were to calculate their 5k 400m average pace, it's extremely close to their 400m all-out ability. They just can't run much faster, but are so developed aerobically that they can hold a very strong pace for a long time.

Why is this relevant? Well, I think that all-out sprints benefit some runners more than others. FT runners, with lots of fast fibers and explosiveness benefit a lot from them and like them and can also endure them better. But a ST monster probably won't respond too well to this type of work, their legs just aren't made for it. But you can definitely make the counterargument of "work on your weaknesses" as well.

So Sam needs to find out where he falls in the spectrum between ST and FT. Maybe he is a 50/50 mix, like most runners and will respond well to this type of work.

You're probably much more knowledgeable than me about Hunter or Fischer's training. I'd just be cautious trying to use 2 athletes at the barometer even if they compete together often. Their training likely differs in many ways beyond how their coaches view sprinting. Just the differences in two human beings on a genetic and developmental basis likely account for more than what one relatively small piece of the training pie we're zeroing in on in this thread.

Truth be told, I don't think this has the biggest bang for your buck out there. It's just an area I've seen underdeveloped that has a pretty small barrier of entry and has changed my athletes quite a lot. Some don't respond to this all that much, others it's like flipping a switch.

I like a lot of what Tom does. He had a pretty interesting idea from a video recently that said mentioned why he combines training types within a workout. (I'm going to paraphrase the hell out of this by the way) Essentially doing a 3 mile tempo gets you a majority of the benefit that a 5 mile tempo might, let's say 80% of the benefit. If you then add another stimulus you can get another 80% that you would working on mile pace by doing 200/300's after without the total workout being much harder than your 5 mile tempo would. So by combining half the workout to focus on tempo and another half to focus on VO2max or Mile pace or whatever you decide, you'd still getting the bulk of the improvement from each, but getting to cover more bases and be more dynamic.

We can usually tack on this stuff in subtle ways for out longer distance athletes so that, while not as strong a stimulus as having in a stand alone session, it still get's done most of what we're trying to accomplish and makes us more dynamic. Most distance kids aren't gassed by doing a few of these after an easy run and getting their double in later that day.

There is another reason why Tinman does these "layered workouts" - it teaches the body to run fast when tired. One staple in his program is 7x1k @CV (10k pace), 200m rest, and then 5x200 @mile pace, or 800m pace later in the season. I've repeated this workout for many months, and was able to close races extremely fast, very close to my all-out 400m ability.

But for sprinting after a tempo or main workout, that wouldn't work. For sprints athletes should be 100% fresh, so they can have perfect mechanics. I would do that on an easy day, preferably before a hard workout day.

You are right in that sprint session shouldn't be super tiring for the distance runner. It's usually not a hard lactate tolerance session, but mostly focusing on form and neuromuscular benefits, in addition to gaining leg strength. Also high cadence might transfer to longer distances too. So short sprints with long, full rest are definitely beneficial.

So if I think that, why did I still recommend against it? Because I think sprinting mechanics are high-skill, compared to distance running. Coordination and technique is very important, so is strength. If a distance runner can get a great sprint coach (or someone who knows about perfect form), who does not just all-out sprints on hills and track but also speed drills and maybe some light plyos, that would be perfect.

But letting someone sprint by himself always worries me. You made the comparison with "it's not that hard, like an easy run" - true, if executed correctly. How many HS kids run their easy days way too fast? How many turn workouts into races? How many would sprint so hard that their body breaks apart, trying to force the speed and thinking they would go faster if they tried harder? A lot.

I've seen it often in distance runners, they often have the mentality "I'm super tough, the harder I try the faster I will be!" only to see it backfire in sprints. They might be max hurting trying to run as fast as possible, but they don't run with skill anymore, form falls apart and certainly aren't relaxed. Instead of getting faster, they are just as fast when they ran with better form and less effort or even slower, and they get a whole lot more of fatigue. Usain Bolt on the other hand, even as his "best form max speed" still looks extremely relaxed at his absolute best speed. That's what distance runners need to learn that in sprinting, harder is often not faster and definitely not better!

I refuse to believe Salazar could only run 57. Where is the evidence for this?

Sam,

That thread evolved a bit as it went on and fortunately taught be a few things that I still use today. Here you can see a reply from me to JRinaldi about halfway down:

where he gives a single workout session that looks like this:

- 3x30m

- 4x60m

10 min rest then a long rep

- 1x200m or 1x250 or 1x300 for example. The 1:44/45 guys would hit 21.7 with a standing start when if peak shape.

- 10 min cool down jog

This would be a later season practice that I tend to use now as well. We touch on the short stuff then progress into the things that make our newly developed speed more functional (200-300m rep)

That progression that you quoted me on:

2 sets 5x40m with 2:30 recovery, 5 minutes between sets

2 sets 6x40m with 2:30 recovery, 5 minutes between sets

2 sets 5x50m with 3:00 recovery, 5 minutes between sets

4x60m with 3:00 recovery + 4x50m with 3:00 recovery, 5 minutes between sets

2 sets 4x60m with 3:00 recovery, 5 minutes between sets

3x80m with 3:00 recovery + 4x60m with 3:00 recovery, 5 minutes between sets

6x80m with 4:00 recovery

Was just a basic example to show people how to move through practices. Each line could be a practice that happens once then move on or you might notice that your athlete isn't clicking with it for some reason and repeat a session a time or two before moving on. This also doesn't have much periodization built into it . Since I haven't looked through the old 5x60m thread in much detail recently here's the basics of how I might set up something now.

1- Short speed/acceleration: 10x40m w/ 2-3 minute recovery

2 - Hill sprints: 8x50m hill sprints w/ 3-4 minute recovery

3 - Speed Development: 6x60m w/ 4-5 minute recovery

4 - Speed Endurance: 2x40m + 2x60m + 2x120m + 2x150m w/ full recovery

5 - SE1: 2x60m + 2x120m + 250m + 200m w/ full recovery

Each of those could be 4-5 weeks of training. You can throw in wrinkles within each month so each session is a little different, but the idea is to first get good at hitting top speed (or at minimum getting to top speed safely and efficiently), then works on learning how to hold top speed and make it useful. Block 4 is the first time you'll probably see significant lactic acid build-up. Keep in mind, in college I have a lot of time with my athletes to be patient. In the fall acidity is the enemy and interferes with building endurance so only starting to see it in September or October is totally fine. by the time track hits we've laid enough ground work in that I can probably abbreviate some of those things and start off with hills then alternate hills and speed development if I'm worried about the later stuff being too much for my kids to handle.

One thing that I'd like to mention before I get to your other questions is that this has mostly been discussed in a vacuum. If you have a 5k/10k runner you might not be able to dedicate a full day of training to this. I wish it could be done, but the reality is to run +80 miles a week, it's hard to do that in 5-6 days. I've relaxed a lot on these having to be totally fresh. Speed development is a tool like anything. In my 10k guys they're fine going out for an easy 5-7 mile run, take a long break then sprint like they just did a mile warm-up. Those are also the guys that jog ever recovery even if you don't ask, they're just built that way. If they only get 90% of the benefit because we did 7 miles + 5x60m then a 5 mile double later in the day, I'm okay with that. It's still better than them not knowing what sub 60 pace feels like for 10 months of the year.

At the end of the day we have to accept that some things we just need good enough.

Should the recovery be jogging or walking or standstill? Keep them moving, but it's up to the athlete. If they're warm and pliable enough for you to not be worried then it's fine. My distance kids love to jog everything, my 400/800m runners I just ask that they don't sit/stand still.

You mentioned about a 5 mile cool down being counter productive - what is the ideal length for warm up and cool down? I mentioned it above a bit. Warm-up I'm okay with being long as long as it's easy. For your distance kids you are sort of at the mercy of their mileage. For your middle-distance kids I'd keep it under 3 miles if you want this to be a key session. Cool-downs I'm more particular about. If it's tacked on after a run we don't cool-down at all with running. If it's a stand alone session then we'll use 20 minutes just to get in a little bit of mileage. My 400/800m runners it's a mile. Some research out there has shown that whatever the last stimulus is in your sequencing of a session will be the thing that you adapt most to. I have been talking with an old friend of mine at the HS level that coached a few national title and national record 4x800m teams who even incorporates speed work into his cool-downs and skips all the extra mileage. I'm playing around with the idea of how to weave that into things with my group and our demands.

How long should you be decelerating for afterwards? Longer than your athletes want to. You're very smart to be thinking about this question. I put cones out to give them a visual cue for how long their deceleration should last. 25-30m is adequate for most athletes.

Should plyometric drills like skipping and bounding be included on this day, if so are they best before or after? I include most of that with our lifts in the evening. Just a personal choice. After is fine in the right dose, skipping can also be a good warm-up. I've muted our plyometrics a lot over the years, we seem to battle shin issues the moment I get too excited about plyos. So I haven't found the right balance, but I'd love to hear some other peoples thoughts.

Is there a sprint specific drill set that you recommend using in the warm up? We stick to the basics. It it get's them moving and learning coordination I'm pretty happy. B-Skips are the biggest problem I see in sprint drills so just make sure if you do them they're getting taught well. So many kids start the movement like an A-Skip, then kick their foot out like in a can-can line instead of it being an extension of the knee coupled with a downstroke of the femur.

What are the key technical pointers that I should be looking out for in my form whilst sprinting? There's a longer version of this, but it's a fantastic watch and can do a much better job than I can at explaining how to teach an athlete to sprint.

And that's what I think he does best in his program. I've borrowed this idea of his as well and had some success with it. I haven't found a balance I like with 3 distinct paces in a workout set up like his, but I'm sure that'll come with better balance. Tempos are pretty common for us to start out a workout or interweave it into a workout so an athlete learns how to clear out acidity as they've built it up.

I don't use CV, but in your experience, what combinations have you found that work well for you as an athlete?

Both base endurance and base top speed are GENERAL traits to be trained from the very beginning of training and programmed with maintenance throughout a program.

Base endurance is critical, but no coach would prescribe massive volumes without proper progression. "you wouldn't send a 15 year old newish to running out for 100 mile weeks."

Top speed isn't started by sprinting all out for 60 meters. There is a progression there as well. Good coaches understand the importance of elastic strength, resisted runs (hills), etc. A good coach will teach and prescribe a thorough, specific and appropriate warm up for "speed skill." Early sessions can be a 400m feel. And within a month be at near "max velocity" safely.

there a myriad of other running benefits to top speed sprinting including being "more durable and healthy" because of the variance in force application, and range of motion.

Lastly, the races are won by the fastest to the finish line. To ignore making yourself "your fastest" at every pace from sprinting to jogging is handing victory to your competitors.

Thank you very much for your advice.

As there is no season at the minute( and won’t be till at least September here in the uK) , I don’t think that a periodised approach would work best at the minute, but rather a progressive but repeatable approach to speed developments( it is the top end speed that I would really like to improve) instead of moving through to speed endurance etc. For this reason I really like initial progression you laid out to build up to the 6x80m . Itjust seems like a simple progression that can be repeated week after week without trying to lead to a peak. Would it work if I followed the initial progression and just held the 6x80m until the season starts? ( I understand that during a season the periodised approach helps the speed to be transferable to racing)

Also , although I referred to myself earlier as a ‘ middle distance runner’ , I started to explore some strength over xc this winter and improved a lot on the endurance side of things. Before then , my 800/1500m times were far superior to my 5k times, and however they have evened out slightly. However I seem to have lost quite a lot of my top end speed this winter and would like to gain it back. I am a smaller athlete ( 5 ft 3) as well so as I get older I might not fare so well over the shorter distances , however I would like to keep my opportunities open to all distances. For this reason , do you think it might be a good idea to alternate weeks between a standalone speed development day ( with shorter warm up and cool down) and a speed day with some endurance running as well(a longer warm up and cooldown to reach then volumes of a normal easy run) to allow for me to develop speed but also not neglect aerobic endurance so that I can keep my range of distances open?

Thank you

Sam

One progression is by Steve Magness (book Science of Running), one of the biggest proponents of sprints in distance runners:

6x8sec HS

8x8sec HS

10x8sec HS

4x60m flat sprints

8x10sec HS

5x80m flat sprints

10x10sec HS

2x60m, 2x80m, 2x100m

8x10sec HS + 1x20sec

4x60m, 1x150m

8x10sec HS +2x25sec

2×60, 2x80m,100m, 150m, 200m

4x100m, 150m, 200m

Maintenance- Every 2-5wks (depends on athlete/season)- depends on if it’s more speed or speed endurance, but an example: 3-5×60-80m sprints, 2x150m OR 2x60m, 100m, 150m, 200m.

It's somewhat less complex than the schedule from V, but might be more appropriate for a HS kid. Also the hill sprints in the beginning would help transition to the flat sprints (hills are safer, and give you a lot of power).

Also, you need to find out where your strengths are. When you raced your best at middle distance, did you really win sprint finishes vs the taller guys? Maybe they just have more natural/innate speed and are more fast-twitch. If you got success in longer races and XC so quickly, maybe you can train better than them, and become so strong and fast over longer distances that you will be finished long before them. I'm one of the taller guys with decent speed (for his performance level) and I've got destroyed by some smaller runners before who finished a 5k well under 15 min while I struggled to run 16:15 (outkicked all runners from my group with a 59s 400, but the top 3 prizes were all long gone!).

It mostly depends on what your goals are and what time frame that falls in. If racing starts in September following that progression you'll be spending a little over a month doing 6x80m, that's fine but maybe a little redundant. If races return much later then your body won't really improve much from doing the same workout for that long. Periodization is less (to me) about planning for a specific peak and more about making sure you have enough of a change in stimulus to keep your body adapting. 40m sprints on the flat vs 50m sprints uphill both train similar things, they're just different flavors. Will replacing the last rep of the 80's with a 150 peak you? No, it's just a wrinkle to throw in so you body doesn't get too complacent.

Everything's a tool, you decide how you use them.

Your idea to alternate workouts each week is fine, I don't see anything wrong with it. You can even double on these days and still not get so much interference that I'd be afraid of wasting time with the workout. Even with a Speed Development workout there, you still have 6 other days int he week to lean into the aerobic work. And there's no rule that says you cant do a 7 mile run, take a long break then knock out a few hard sprints just to stay in touch with being fast. Is it as effective as a stand along session? No. Is it more than what most people do to train speed? Probably.

Sometimes good enough is good enough.

I actually really like Magness' progression there. He's got some out there ideas with bounding segments in the middle of reps that I'm not crazy about, but I like that he tries to tackle problems from more than one direction; us coaches can get very myopic. He gets a lot of flak from some people but his coaching is solid and his resources at Houston are probably a lot less than people realize. He does well with what he's got.

For reference my Personal bests at the minute stand at ( all form last summer ) as we don’t races over measured courses in xc)

800m 2:13.72

1500m 4:34.9 ( only race day 3 last year)

5k 18:17 ( intended as a tempo run and didn’t even have time to do a proper warm up)

Some background to help you decide what type of runner I am:

From the age of 5-12 I played a ton of football( soccer ) and was always the fastest guy on the pitch. I was a winger so I would be running around all of the time but also outsprinting everyone. When I moved to running( started at age 11) I would do almost all of the running events at a track meet and was the fastest guy from my club in all of them. Although I wouldn’t win the sprint races, I was still competitive in them ( about 13.5 for the 100m and low 28s for the 200m at age 12)usually after winning the 800/1500m , usually a sit and kick type of race where I would destroy the field in the last 200m. My 1500m and 800m times were good (4:53 and 2:24 in competitive races at age 12, off of just 2-3 runs a week + football)however i found that i would get beat in xc races by runners who I could destroy in track , my 5k time wasn’t bad at the time (low 19s) but it certainly wasn’t a typical the same level as my track times. After that it became too much for me to do both football and running and started getting a lot of injuries in 2018. I decided to quit football after that to focus on the running. I got my injury problem sorted out and now have a good s and c / prehab routine ( I haven’t been seriously injured since late 2018). However , since doing just run training, I seem to have lost my explosiveness and quickness that I had when playing football. I have only recently started to do some proper top end speed work and can hopefully get my speed back. Although I do not know much about ST Runner’s and FT runners, I think that I am probably an Ft runner but just an untrained one. I just haven’t properly used my Ft fibres in a while. For that reason I would like to see where I can get by doing some speed development work . And also I do not want to neglect my aerobic base. Does that answer your question?

V-

Thank you for your reply. If i focus the day on speed development I will have 5 ( one rest day) other days to work on aerobic development, and I do a good amount of volume on these days.( building up to about an hour) Do you think this is enough?

If I were to double, is this safe to do so for someone of my age?

What should the double look like?

Should this be every week?

Once racing season starts how do you fit speed development into a week ( Saturday race)?

My schedule at the minute is very similar to the one that you laid out in the previous thread, all that is different is that I do Cv instead of your Vo2 max day. Did you do Vo2 max work year round ? What did this look like ?What kind of runners were you working with for this schedule? For a 1500m / 3k Runner were they doing a stand alone speed development day?

I mentioned in my previous post about my natural speed. When I am older , I definitely don’t think that’ I’ll be an 800 runner but I’ll probably be a 1500/3k runner , which you certainly need some speed for. I definitely think that some speed development work could really help bring down my track times.

Sorry, I'm a bit late to this thread. I used to be firmly planted in the "they'll never run that fast in a race, so why do it in training?" camp. I read the 5x60 all out thread last year and decided to give something similar a try with my track team this spring. Of course, we got kiboshed in mid March, so the results are inconclusive, but they were promising.

First a couple of caveats.

I'm still a firm believer in the concept of doing the stuff that is LEAST race specific early in the training cycle. So, for milers, top end speed would be very early on.....as would the higher volume base building type of training.

I work with high school kids, whose top end speed, muscle elasticity, is pretty good relative to their aerobic capacity / aerobic endurance. So starting with speed in a way is designed to "meet the kids where they are at".

I've been at my school for 22 years and during the track season kind of have to go coach whatever event needs coaching that year. As a result, I don't get much of a chance to work with the distance kids too much during track season, even though I'm the cross country coach. Fortunately, I've been able to get quality help with the distance crew and for the most part, we've communicated well. This year, I had the opportunity to jump back in and work with our mid distance group. Team wise, we had been pretty week in the 400/800 range the last few years, so it was my goal to develop my mid distance kids to be able to run a good mile, but be able to drop down and give us a leg on the 4x400 if needed. Our distance coach last year was also firmly rooted in the "they're never going to run that fast in a race" camp and the mid distance kids really only ran fast, the last 3-4 weeks of the season.

After cross (which ended thanksgiving weekend for our varsity boys), the progression looked like this. This is for the mid distance group

1-2 weeks: active recovery, I have them in a P.E. class so they did normal P.E. type of stuff.

2 weeks: easy running + strides (until fall semester ended).

2 weeks: Christmas break. I encouraged them increase their mileage 5 mpw higher than their peak mileage for cross. So, kids that had build to 50mpw during cross were encouraged to get to 55mpw during the winter. Some did this to the letter, most got solid mileage, some did very little (the kids in the distance group were way better about getting their mileage up).

5 weeks: First day of school to first day of organized practice. 1 speed session per week, one CV type session (something like 4-6 x 3 min at CV effort, 1 min jog), No tempo runs. Instead, athletes would either do a long run with strides embedded OR a shorter session of something like 8-12 x 30 seconds at "relaxed stride" (somewhere between mile and 2 mile pace) with a 90 second float in between reps.

Progressions for the speed sessions during this 5 weeks were:

5 x 50

5 x 60

5 x 70

5 x 80

5th week was a 6 minute time trial to establish vVO2 max. Recovery was a 3 minute stand/walk recovery. Speed was top controlled speed

The next 3 weeks, the speed sessions went

10 x 100 @ 400ish type speed with a 300 jog

1200@CV + 800 @ CV + 2-3 x 250 pretty much full go (8 minute recovery)

10 x 100 (my top guys were running mostly low 12s on this workout, rolling start).

These 3 sessions were followed by strength endurance type lifting sessions (3 sets of 30 seconds with 1 minute recovery: Squats, Bench, Bent over Row, Med Ball Sit ups)

This brought us to our first race. Everybody PRed over 800m. Of the 3 boys who had well established PRs from the previous season all PRed, despite having focused on and trained for the 800 all year the year before. (granted, other factors are at play, maturation, improved aerobic capacity from an additional year of training, etc...). I had 2 boys that ran 2:08 high and 2:09.00 at our league finals meet last year. This year, they opened with 2:07, 2:08 respectively.

From there, it would have been 3 weeks until our "County Meet" the first big varsity meet of the season for us. Things were progressing very well. We were starting to transition to a little more race specific stuff, but I want to focus on the final "non race specific" workout we did. This would have been 10 days out from the county meet.

Warm up, 3 x 50 @ 70%, 80%, 90%. Change to spikes, 1 x 50 @ 100% + 1200, 800, 400 @ CV + 2 x 300 at pretty much top effort (8 min recovery). 2 of my 800m boys, who had finished last year with PR's of 2:08 and 2:09 and 400m relay splits of 55 and 57, ran the 2 x 300 pretty damn well (39,38 for one kid and 39, 41 for the other kid (who blew out a shoe on the last one). The kid who had only split a 57 the year before was able to split a 55 in a 4x4 at a low key meet and I'm pretty confident that the kid who had split a 55 the year before would have been able to split at worst a 53 at our county meet, and was probably ready to run 2:04-2:05 in the 800.

Granted, none of those times are great AND I don't know what they would have done the rest of the way. However, they were handling the training well. Nobody was finishing workouts completely dead and it felt like they still had lots of room to grow as we began to bring in more stuff like 400-600 @ mile pace or 600-1k at 3200 pace. Up until the 1 week before we split for the season, we'd only worked WAY faster than race pace and WAY slower (the CV stuff) than race pace.

So, I don't know where we would have ended up, but the early results certainly are exciting for me and I plant to build sprint training into my cross country build up, as soon as we can start meeting as a team again.

If you're getting up to an hour on a run then that's plenty for a 15 year old. When you begin averaging an hour a day then doubles begin to make more sense. Since you likely won't double during the year (school and homework don't make that easy) then I'd probably hold off.

I don't do VO2max work anymore. There's a lot of research out there on VO2max and I'm sure people smarter than me have figured out how to use that magical number effectively, but I do a lot more tempo work now and am much happier with the results. We still have workouts with 3k pace (roughly vVO2max) but the goal with VO2max in mind. CV isn't something I use much, but I'd be willing to bet that it's also a better move in most situations than "VO2max workouts."