Speed Development is breaking me

1. You probably have some type of muscle imbalance. Doing isometric glute and hamstring exercises will help. The good is thing is that these will improve your speed also.

2. Instead of doing 60m all out. Maybe do 80m progression. With the first 20m at 50% and the last 20m at 90-95%.

3. see #2. When you sprint, think of it as like a prelim or a semifinal, not the Olympic final for example. You want to be relaxed in your sprinting and not tight.

4. Post sprinting care: cool down, rollers, ice bath.

How old are you ?

How much time do you spend warming up ?

Hill Sprints and Weights could be a safer alternative to Flat sprints

How's your form, your mechanics when you sprint? Have you ever done little wicket drills that work on front side mechanics? Distance runners often have horrible sprinting form with their leg cycling too much behind them; many often reach out in front of them with their landing foot as well.

Thanks for the responses. To answer a few questions from different posters.

I mostly do speed development on a hill due to the injury issues.
I lift weights regularly and have for a few years. Basic stuff. RDLs, hex bar DL, weighted lunges, step-ups. I pick 2 exercise and do 2-3 sets of 3-5 reps. Band work and mobility a few times a week as well. I don’t do much isometric work, except for calf holds. What glute and hamstring isometric exercises are recommended?

My mechanics are solid. I’m in my late 20s and ran collegiately. I do wickets once a week. Have done them twice a week previously.

Warm-up has varied quite a bit. At this point, I do 3-4 miles of easy running, 10-15 minutes of drills and dynamic stretching. Two build-up strides. I take the first hill sprint a bit easier as well.

I do 6 x 20s hill strides another day during the week and haven’t had issues doing those. It’s only the really fast stuff of 10s or less in duration that injure me. I’ve been trying to add speed development for several months but I continue to get injured.

You seem to be doing everything right-- you're not overtraining.

It's often said that the biggest predictor of an injury is a previous injury. It seems that you need to find a great medical team to figure out why you're getting injured. Until then the heck with pure speed development.

What in the world?

It’s been frustrating and a bit confusing. I wonder if, as another poster alluded to, I should be giving myself more time to accelerate. When I do 20s hills, I build-up for 12ish seconds, striding out, and then try to really hit it for 6-8 seconds. I’m wondering if that has the same affect as a 6-8s hill sprint? Or does the long fly-in of 10-12 seconds take away from the speed development aspect of it?

How do you injure your hamstring on hill sprints? I'd suggest next time to pick a steeper hill. And for speed work you don't have to max out, try to get that leg turnover at a good 70-80 percent max without going overboard. Personally as for someone who gets injured easily with speed work I stick to strides (on a grassy hill up a slight incline) and short steep hill reps. Is this as effective as doing something like 60m sprints? No, but I'm going be slower if I can't train due to injuries.

Interesting. Sorry to hear about your problem. Maybe try backing off the weights for now, and substitute some bodyweight stuff. Walking up hill (or treadmill) backwards, nordic hamstring curls, tibialis raises... (see kneesovertoesguy for more info). This stuff helped me with injuries.

What is your age and training background, PRs, recent times etc?

I am familiar with kneesovertoes guy. I do tib raises and have recently incorporated the ATG split squat. Nordic hamstring curls are fairly controversial. I’m also a big fan of Vern Gambetta and he hates Nordics hamstring curls.

29 years old. Been running since high school. Ran collegiately, division 1. Just off All-American. PRs are low 4:0x for the mile, sub-14 5,000m. I was more of an 8/15 guy in high school. Bumped-up in college. Tried marathons after college but I’ve always struggled with the longer stuff. I think I’m more fast twitch. Ran sub-50 open in high school as well. Since I went to much higher mileage throughout college and right after, and didn’t enjoy it as much, I’m pivoting back to middle distance for a few years to see if I can get some PRs on the track. Hence the focus more on speed development.

Haven’t been able to race in several months now due to the chronic injuries from the speed stuff. Never did this kind of work before. Maybe a little in high school but never in college.

kotguy has some posts where he says the walking backwards (pulling a sled, but can be done just on treadmill backwards) is the most important thing in his programs. Personally I get a nice burn in hamstring and glutes. Easy to add to your week, once or twice. Good luck!

I've watched hundreds of distance runners try to sprint and many, admittedly younger ones, reach and land with their foot in front of their center of gravity rather than underneath their center of gravity. Lack of muscle coordination and poor mechanics is often a reason for injuries.

Literally every single runner ever reaches their foot in front of their center of gravity on every single stride taken. Now if you had said, "distance runner tend to overstride a bit when sprinting" sure, no problem.

You are aging my friend.
Take injuries as a sign to take things a little slower.

Your very fast times are over.

He said he is late 20s. Prime. Take injuries as reason to investigate and correct a minor problem.

I understand

What is your protein intake and from what sources?

Also, try longer recovery and stop the session as soon as you feel fatigue, NOT on a preset report number. Mid distance people tend to push too hard into fatigue. Tony Holler's Feed The Cats program conveys just how to approach this with fresh eyes.

Another key component is sleep and rest. Only run fast when completely fresh. Baby step the sessions with short drills and very short accelerations. Sometimes you will have to pull the plug and go home having done only the warmup and a few strides. This requires a more organic, "steering by feel" approach that rewards a reduced work ethic and higher inside focus on all your internal systems.