100m in 13.05 secs. I got some more beginners gains whilst doing 40-50mile weeks

Seriously, Sam stands for Samantha? At 19 you are pathetic for a boy.

I've only been seriously sprinting for one-two months, and the last 1.5 years has been mostly 5k type training. I got my 100m from 15.62 to 13.05 in a month; probably just neural-muscular adaptions to the dashes. Yea, I know 13's pretty lame, hence why I'd like to improve. Even if I'm not the best, hobbyjogging's still fun.

We get it. You enjoy being a mediocre sprinter AND distance runner. You don't need to update us.

I'm going to sound like a douche-nozzle but if you started at ~15.5 you don't have much innate talent for the event. I think you can get down towards 12 easily enough with some drills, starts and weights but I would stay focused on distance running and getting towards 60+ miles per week whilst focusing on 5K and up as far as goals and races are concerned.

Also focusing on 400m to some extent will have more carryover to distance running while still getting peripheral improvements at 100m.

Joel Przybilla wrote:

Also focusing on 400m to some extent will have more carryover to distance running while still getting peripheral improvements at 100m.

This--the second 200m of your 400m is what matters, not the first 100m of a fresh 100m.

If you want to be a sprinter work on sprints. If you want to be a distance runner work on distance.

At a hobby / amateur level, just focus on the distance where you enjoy the training. If you don't have a realistic shot at a professional athletics career or athletics scholarship, you can just pick you want.

I agree with this. Personally, I was thinking my sprint plans would simply be to, after the distance work, do some dashes. The long term plan would be like 100m til plateau, 200m, 100m, 200m, 400m, 200m, 400m over the course of years. Yes, I'd love to find my work capacity in mileage, I'd love to work up to 50-70miles by this time next year if my body allows for it.

I'm thinking working on this 100m would not only be a vehicle to engaging/adapting the muscle fibers for dashing, eventually translating to a great 400m, but out-kicking some other hobbyjoggers at the local 5K's is always fun :) Thanks for responding, and no you don't sound like a douche-nozzle; your advice is very helpful and a lot more than what most of the posters here offer.

True this. Once the person gets into the habit of getting their heart and bone healthy exercise, it''s really about just having fun from there and being consistent. There are many, and much more effective and safer, ways of exercising, improving the vital signs, and body composition. I just happen to really like running ever since middle and seeing what my limits are; I just so happened to enjoy the Weightlifting team in high school when I was obese and thought I was "big boned" You're only young once.

"If I could hit a 11-12 100 ..."

Classic LetsRun training post. Similar to when people here write "I just did 4 x 400 @ 56-59" as if 56/59/59/59 is the same as 56/56/56/59.

You do realize that 11.00 and 12.99 are in different universes of times. Right?

Yes to the 11.00 and 12.99. I suppose people, including myself, make those kind of posts they could a.) get additional perspectives on a subject to ensure no bias or misinformation and b.) perhaps confirm their own bias. I'm hoping I'm leaning towards a.) more. As a young lad with very little real life experience, I'd like to dream that I can be great, maybe even world class, at something.

My Mother and I talk about this sometimes, I love information (I bought a hard copy of Better Training for Distance Runners; received it and skimmed over all of it last night in an hour) and reading and speculating, so perhaps becoming a professional researcher or detective would be a good idea. Of course, as I grow up and learn more, like anyone else, I realize more and more where I stand as far as life matters are concerned.

Sorry, but is there a cohesive question somewhere? I'm feeling an urge to help you but don't know where you're looking for help.

The original question was: I got my 100m time from 15.62 to 13.05 after only 8 sessions (or 4 weeks worth). Could this mean potential in sprints? If not, would it suggest any level of talent in mid-distance? Does it just simply suggest "Congrats! You have NO aerobic base these gains are just 'beginner gains'."? Thanks for reading.

Speculator Sam wrote:

The original question was: I got my 100m time from 15.62 to 13.05 after only 8 sessions (or 4 weeks worth). Could this mean potential in sprints? If not, would it suggest any level of talent in mid-distance? Does it just simply suggest "Congrats! You have NO aerobic base these gains are just 'beginner gains'."? Thanks for reading.

I think its mostly beginner gains from an improvement of general fitness but I've been wrong before. If you're interested in seeing how much of a drop in time you can get over 100m I'd suggest dedicating one or two 6 week training blocks towards GPP while still putting in a few miles of easy running and then rest for a few days after finishing the cycle and time trial 60m and 150m to see whats there.

All that said I don't think you'll be running sub 12.00 with reliable timing and your 5k fitness will probably backslide because your energy systems will get confused if you work just on sprints and you might just overtrain if you work on both simultaneously.

I understand your desire to be great at something I went through a phase where I thought if I outworked people I'd be better than them in track reality is I was never going to run anything of note because I wasn't as talented; case closed. Although a lot can be said for finding the proper event in track and field as far as maxing out one's potential.

For most folks if you're not displaying a lot of potential around puberty you're not going to be a truly great athlete. Doesn't mean you can't win some Turkey Trots and Charity 5k's or get a Boston qualifer or what have you.

You're missing about a decade of training so you're not going to the Olympics. Unless sports is how you make your living then its a lot more important to have fun than worry excessively about performance relative to your peers.

Once again thank you so much for responding and elaborating. This was the kind of answer I was looking for. What you said about staying away from specific work for three months would certainly give the running muscles the true rest from tedious work they need. Yeah, the two second drop's not gonna happen again.

I think we all have/have had a desire to be great in something. I believe Bill Burr said it best "...most normal women have a dream of being a princess, even if just for one day... and they get that feeling on wedding day of being in the white dress and the doves and the flowers... most normal men wanted to get a Superbowl Ring. Normal men don't get to feel like a princess... where's my MVP ring!?".

Don't the West Africans start off 6 Miles twice a day on the best dirt terrain barefoot since 10 years of age?

East Africans. That's a bit of an old wives tale though.

Best of luck. If you've got any more questions fire away.