Can sprinters take days off and not worry about it?

Well technically distance runners don't lose fitness after taking two or three days off in a row either. They just lose the ability to gain more fitness. So no these guys will be fine, but it might hurt them long term.

In general most high school sprinters are all talent anyway, not because sprint speed can't be improved, but more because high school sprint coaches are typically woefully ignorant.

FreeAnalysis wrote:

[quote]crazy streaker wrote:

In general most high school sprinters are all talent anyway, not because sprint speed can't be improved, but more because high school sprint coaches are typically woefully ignorant.

Amen to that!!! Most sprinters in hs succeed in spite of their coaches rather than because.

not my coach. My coach knows how to bread 400 runners. How else can u explain roughly 15 sub 55 guys, 7 of which have gone sub 53 and 6 of which have gone sub 51 in the last 2 years. Weve only had 2 sub 50 guys but this year the 400 runner im talking about is a senior and ran 50.2 last yr.

Remember that Bannister took five full days off before the first sub-4:00 mile. Your 400 guy, with his eight short runs today and a light, loosen-up workout tomorrow, should be fine the day after (unless he ran *really* hard today, in which case he might get some DOMS limitations two days later). The 200 runners may be best off with another light (or nothing) day tomorrow.

Yeah, the sprinters haven't been gaining fitness, but they'll probably race just fine. Can you expect a 51 from your 400 guy? Not if it's his first race of the season, but if he's been running 51 in the last couple weeks, he should be good for something in that range in this meet--assuming it's not a slow track, etc.

[However, the sprinters may be *really* sore the day or two after the meet. Their missing a few days now is more likely to show up then, rather than at the meet itself.]

Good luck to your team. Let us know how it comes out.

I could take a decade off and still kick your ass in the 100.

This is from Carl Lewis' log for 1988, going into the first heats of the 100m in Seoul:

Fri16: 1x400(48.)

Sat17: Relay work

Sun18: Relay work

Mon19: 3-4 quality starts

Tue20: Rest of warmup

Wed21: Rest

Thu22: Rest

Fri23: 100 R-1, R-2

400 meter runners need more work than pure sprinters (and there is an aerobic aspect for 400 athletes that can't do sub-47), but the amount of quality work needed during competition season is more or less along the lines of what you see here.

It is quite common during comp periods for sprinters to use races as speed endurance, and have only one pure speed session mid-week and no other quality work (though there is extensive tempo to maintain fitness). The day before a competition is always off (if the coach knows anything at all about sprinting).

I wouldn't expect their performance to decline much with the small deconditioning that might have happened.

If anything, their recovery will be poor, but their runs should be fine.

As to your question, I don't know, but is this SMR the first relay of the season? If it is--what does it matter? The biggest fish are in May, right?

YES, crazy streaker, Sprinter can take 3 days off and still run great. They can take 3 WEEKS off and still run great. That is because sprinter are not like us. Have you ever seen a sprinter put his pants on one leg at a time? The reason you have not observed such a phenomenem is because it never happens. Sprinter evolved from a different animal than we did. Next time you see a sprinter doing his thing on the track, watch his legs. You will see that often sprinter can take 2, even 3 steps with the left foot before the right foot comes up to take a step. Distance runners can't do that. We take one step with the right, than one step with the left. To control such a right-left style you have to train often and consistantly. Sprinter can train haphazzardly or not at all and still move just as fast.

crazy streaker wrote:

not my coach. My coach knows how to bread 400 runners. How else can u explain roughly 15 sub 55 guys, 7 of which have gone sub 53 and 6 of which have gone sub 51 in the last 2 years. Weve only had 2 sub 50 guys but this year the 400 runner im talking about is a senior and ran 50.2 last yr.

mmm. sprinters are delicious when they're breaded.

your coach may be the next clyde hart, but it doesn't take much to run a sub-55. i am a slow-ass distance runner and i ran 53.5 in high school.

Hrm wrote:

As to your question, I don't know, but is this SMR the first relay of the season? If it is--what does it matter? The biggest fish are in May, right?

we are trying to make nationals so we dont have to worry about trying to make it the rest of the year. Also sub 55 is impressive if you have 15 guys who are not really dedicated and do no training on their own except when they come to practice. Of the 15 sub 55 guys we have had many of them were freshman or sophmores who will run faster as they get older

crazy streaker wrote:

Hrm wrote:

As to your question, I don't know, but is this SMR the first relay of the season? If it is--what does it matter? The biggest fish are in May, right?

we are trying to make nationals so we dont have to worry about trying to make it the rest of the year. Also sub 55 is impressive if you have 15 guys who are not really dedicated and do no training on their own except when they come to practice. Of the 15 sub 55 guys we have had many of them were freshman or sophmores who will run faster as they get older

I assume these are guys? If they were women, I'd be impressed. We only had two women at 55 on my high school team. It seems like every Joe coming out of high school these days in the 400 is a 53/54 guy. It's solid, but to be useful you need to be 52 or better.

BTW, you could do nothing but lie perfectly still for 7 consecutive days and not lose any fitness. I wouldn't recommend it, but you could.

wow, you contrdict you previous statement quite well. Does your coach breed 400 runners or are they young undedicated naturally talented runners with little training.

The most important day in a sprinter's "life" is the day of conception. The groundwork laid on this day will not be undermined by missing a training day. LetsSprint.com staff.