Would doing a lot of your speed work on steep hills or a treadmill at high incline be bad? Or does the slower rates of contraction & cadence negate the benefits?
For instance,I do not have access to a track, but have tons of hills and a treadmill that can go up to 10% incline at 12 mph. Could I conceivably increase top end speed (e.g. 12s/100m) using the inclined treadmill and hills? What about adding over-speed work and strides on the downhill to improve turnover?
I don't get the title.
Power = Force x Distance / Time or
Power = Force x Velocity
Therefore power is the rate of force but your title says power vs rate of force?
How do you run downhill of a treadmill?
You need both heavy work and fast work to succeed. Cross training for an injured sprinter typically involves sessions of very heavy load (high gears) and very high cadence using low gears. Just using one of them won't cut it.
I don't know...but I feel that doing my long runs on very hilly courses make me very strong but I'm not running nearly as fast since it is so hilly.
Yes, hills are good.
Bump.
I should have said "maximal velocity vs.maximal force" or something along those lines. But my main question I would like answered is about the treadmill.
According to the oxygen uptake theory, after accounting for air resistance, you recruit energy systems as fast at 12 mph w/ 13% incline as 18 mph on flat ground. How does this transfer, if it all, to sprinting power application? Or are your feet just moving to slow for it to do anything for your sprints?
Integrate decline sprints on slight downhill to work on turnover, mixed with various hill inclines and some flat work on both harder and softer surfaces. Work all motor units and fibers in one session.
Strength (maximal force) can lay a foundation for power (work/time).
Can steep hill sprints improve strength? Maybe in some untrained individuals. But for highly trained sprinters? I'm doubtful. It would be more practical for an athlete to train for maximal force production by lifting very heavy.
THEN, hills can serve as a mode of power training - aiding in the transfer of that strength to the running stride. Yeah, people will argue that hills increase ground contact time and that's not necessarily what you want when your training sprinters. BUT, sprinters will also lift heavy - where the concentric phase may last 1-3 seconds. When was the last time you saw a sprinter, in the middle of a 100m dash, plant his foot for 1-3s and push off? That doesn't happen. So, much in the same way - hill sprints may not be specific to flat-ground sprinting in terms of ground contact time, but that doesn't mean you can't trigger adaptations through their use.
Start with max sprints on very steep hills and gradually work down to shallower grades and eventually flat-ground and over-speed running. Treadmills will be hard to use for maximal sprints - you may not get a true max effort, or you may kill yourself trying.
You don't want to go too steep, in the neighborhood of 3-6% max. It's very important to not sacrifice the stride LENGTH. You don't worry about turnover/cadence when doing hill work, it is the stride length that is most important. Your turnover will still be quick if you are sprinting, of course, but not at the expense of distance covered; big knee lift generated from the core, "stepping over" the opposite knee and then driving down/back to create a very fast bounding uphill run.
Your treadmill speed is sufficient for a middle distance runner, given that the incline should be at 3-4% to start these, but not a real sprinter. Keep the efforts in the sub-20 second range.
When it comes to the downhill work, 1-2% is very effective. Much steeper than that and you can not sprint maximally without a serious change in your mechanics, which is needed to keep from falling. This (downhill sprints) will create very high loads and test your elasticity, make sure you have no muscle soreness when beginning these and no recent tendon issues.
Steep incline wrote:
Bump.
I should have said "maximal velocity vs.maximal force" or something along those lines. But my main question I would like answered is about the treadmill.
According to the oxygen uptake theory, after accounting for air resistance, you recruit energy systems as fast at 12 mph w/ 13% incline as 18 mph on flat ground. How does this transfer, if it all, to sprinting power application? Or are your feet just moving to slow for it to do anything for your sprints?
Maximal velocity and maximal force are the same thing.
On a steep hill you are using a lot of power but producing very little force because your foot is on the ground for much longer.
MIC ITW wrote:
You don't want to go too steep, in the neighborhood of 3-6% max. It's very important to not sacrifice the stride LENGTH. You don't worry about turnover/cadence when doing hill work, it is the stride length that is most important. Your turnover will still be quick if you are sprinting, of course, but not at the expense of distance covered; big knee lift generated from the core, "stepping over" the opposite knee and then driving down/back to create a very fast bounding uphill run.
Your treadmill speed is sufficient for a middle distance runner, given that the incline should be at 3-4% to start these, but not a real sprinter. Keep the efforts in the sub-20 second range.
When it comes to the downhill work, 1-2% is very effective. Much steeper than that and you can not sprint maximally without a serious change in your mechanics, which is needed to keep from falling. This (downhill sprints) will create very high loads and test your elasticity, make sure you have no muscle soreness when beginning these and no recent tendon issues.
I think that stride rate and stride length are pretty much related to speed so that if you sprint uphill at 12 mph on a 3-4% grade, your stride rate and length will be the same as running at 12 mph on the flat.
What is the benefit of hill work? I don't think anyone really knows, it's just another way to train hard.