Is picking up sprinting in adulthood a waste of time if you’re slow with no background?

If you really enjoy it I wouldn't say it's a waste of time at all.

Sprinting training can be really specific and you need to do certain things to get results so don't get disheartened. Doing 40s and 60s on their own will not be enough as a lot of what the 100m is about is maintaining your speed and slowing down the least.

You would need to do a variety of sprint workouts including some that are over distance eg 150 metres. So don't get disheartened. There is a tonne of good information online so I'd look up some basics of training for 100m and then try to apply that. The 40mpw would probably hurt your sprint time a bit but only a tiny bit at that level, I really think if you introduced 100m specific workouts it is then you would see improvement.

It's your own business what you do with your time. It's not a waste if it's something you enjoy doing and you're willing to run meets knowing that you won't really place that well.

Yes I was thinking the 40mpw might be a bit of a limiter, the thing is though I think (know) I have more potential at middle distance than I do at sprinting. Breaking 18 in the 5k seems more realistic for me than breaking 14 in a 100. I am not too sure if this counts but sometimes I do 150m strides, maybe about 6 of them after a run, sometimes more but sometimes less, the first one will be around 33 seconds and I will work my way down to 25 seconds on the last rep.

Breaking 18 would get to you win some races. Even if you broke 13 for 100m you may not win sprints. But you very much should go with what you enjoy, running is a hobby, not a career for most of us... if you love sprinting go with that, try the 200, 400... maybe you're cut out for 800.. who knows.

no more or less than training for any other distance. or lifting weights. or riding a bike. or doing yoga. etc.

Training are mostly event/category specific. So, if you want to improve your 100m speed, then set a block of 6 month with mainly speed training (with 10-15 mpw mostly under or around 5min/mile pace). Sprinting requires more technique and explosive power, while distance (including middle distance) focus more on aerobic and running economy.

You can mix them in long term, but each phase need to emphasis on one aspect. It will not work if you are running 7-8 min mile and 40mpw and at the same time to improve your sprinting speed - it is possible if you have not done any running before, but with your background, apparently that is not the case.

Hope that helps.

As from the sound of it you have access to a track and decent timing, and with your interest in a range of distances, I would be very tempted to race or TT every distance over the next few months as a one-off exercise, ideally more than once each, and plot out your times and equivalences (e.g. IAAF points). Actually I'd be itching like mad to do that. 100, 200, 400, 800 1500/mile, 3K, 5K, 10K. Even 60m if you can manage it.

I may be projecting a bit as I want to do that myself, but it would give you some data to base your decision on, which is a bit of a heart (what you love) vs. head (what you're best at) thing. And it could be a fun challenge in itself.

It hasn't really been said yet but sprint speed is almost completely natural talent. You either got it or you dont. If you are already in good shape and work on speed and can only run 15 seconds, no amount of work can be done to improve much more than maybe 0.5 of a second in my opinion. You have solid speed for a woman, just not exceptional speed.

Those guys you are talking about are fat/out of shape former 11.x guys from hs that can still run faster than you even though they are obese. That natural talent they had in youth is why then can still run fairly fast, nothing more to it than that. Get them to run a 400 however and you'd destroy them!

another perspective wrote:

It hasn't really been said yet but sprint speed is almost completely natural talent. You either got it or you dont. If you are already in good shape and work on speed and can only run 15 seconds, no amount of work can be done to improve much more than maybe 0.5 of a second in my opinion. You have solid speed for a woman, just not exceptional speed.

Those guys you are talking about are fat/out of shape former 11.x guys from hs that can still run faster than you even though they are obese. That natural talent they had in youth is why then can still run fairly fast, nothing more to it than that. Get them to run a 400 however and you'd destroy them!

Don't listen to this guy. He doesn't know what he is talking about. You can definitely improve a 15 second 100m even if you have "no talent" at sprinting. Yeah you're most likely not going to run sub 11 but you are probably are not aiming to do that. 15 secs is very improvable.

Sprinting should be trained starting from incredibly short distances. You should start by working on a distance as short as 10 yards. If you can, get a timing system and time you're sprints so you can see your improvement. Then when you're happy with your 10 yard time work on 20 yards then 40 yards, etc. 50-60m is when women reach their max velocity so any sprint intervals longer than that is just working on maintaining that speed (speed endurance).

I'd also recommend not doing anything else on the days you train sprinting or at the very least not doing any distance runs.

If you want to learn more specifics I'd recommend finding a good speed coach like Tony Veney, Tony Holler, etc.

Good luck

Also, Shaneen, your biggest problem seems to be that you are trying to do too much with distance work and not letting your body adapt to the sprint training you are doing. I don't know crap about distance running and how you would mix endurance training with speed training but I do know improvement in sprinting requires lots of rest. I would guess that too much long distance running would interfere with this.

Get some more mass, son.

Sprinters apply 4 times their body weight per step or something like that while accelerating.

Also do hill sprints. And also have a strong core.

It seems like I would have to reduce my mileage a lot in order to see some real results then, I have a few 5/10k races coming up in the upcoming months so I would have to focus on it properly at a later date I guess. I definitely feel like I could get faster, I feel like I have more speed in me but I just don’t know how to channel it, my BMI is not sprinter-esque at a mere 20 so I guess a few kgs of muscle especially on my upper body wouldn’t hurt. There is also posture improvement and muscle activation to consider, are they mega important things in speed development? Obviously it wouldn’t be a good idea to neglect those things because of injury risk etc but say somebody had a sub optimal posture, could they knock a DRAMATIC amount of time off their 100 or would it just be minuscule? My posture is satisfactory but not perfect so I was wondering if I would hit a speed improvement goldmine by working on that.

pics?

What exactly do you mean by posture? Are you talking about general posture or form when sprinting (back relaxed and straight, lifting knees high enough, etc.)

Having good form would definitely help and again, training distance simultaneously will make this harder to learn because the technique for sprinting and distance running is very different and running distance reinforces bad sprint form. But the biggest improvement will definitely come from doing proper speed workouts.

What is the amount of time you are using between your 40m and 60m intervals and how many intervals are you doing? If you don't want to stop distance running entirely at the very least you should not do distance runs on the days you train speed.

Also, I'm not super familiar with muscle activation. Can you explain a bit more to me what you mean by it?

Sprinting form has to be thought of in relation to the kind of training/workouts you are doing. If your body is always tired from high millage it is going to be impossible to hold good sprint form when doing sprint workouts at max velocity even if you use really good technique cues.

Looks like I would pretty much have to throw away my aerobic fitness in order to train for speed, I am not going to lie - that isn’t exactly something I’m entirely comfortable with. However if there was a way to maintain a fair portion on my endurance while working on speed, I would look into decreasing to 10 or 15 miles each week and doing so. 400/800 training would probably be best, I just doubt I would be able to shave a dramatic amount of time off without working on my top end speed, my endurance is already fairly good. Not perfect by any means, but good.

Would I be looking at a week that looked a bit like this?

M - total rest / pig out day lol

T - 6 x 50m with 5 minute rest @ faster than 100m pace OR

W - rest / leisurely cross training - light swimming or biking

T - 10 x 400m @ mile pace with 60 sec rest OR 6-8 x 400m @ 10 sec/mile faster than mile pace with 90 sec rest + 30 min weights (15 min lower body, 15 min lower body)

F - rest / leisurely cross training - light swimming or biking

S - 10 x 150m @ 800 pace progressing into 400 (30 sec rest)

S - 5 mile “long run” (tempo) + 30 min weights (15 min lower body, 15 min upper body)

Shaneen wrote:

T - 6 x 50m with 5 minute rest @ faster than 100m pace OR

Sorry, pressed post too quick.

*OR 3-6 x 25m @ absolute max speed with full recoveries (alternating weeks)

Again I don't know anything about endurance training so I feel uncomfortable giving you advice on how to best mix the two. I'm not sure how endurance work much is too much endurance work to make whatever sprint work you are doing irrelevant. I know Coach Tony Veney has talked about speed work for endurance athletes so if I were you I would try to get in contact with him/watch his videos on speed training for endurance runners.

The training schedule that you posted seems pretty logical to me. 5 min between 5 meter intervals is a good amount of time for rest. The only thing is I don't know what you mean by faster than 100m pace?? Because your acceleration to 50m would be the same in a 100m.

the 400m is really a race that you double with the 200m, not the 800m. Just like you said, it's your max velocity not your endurance that plays the biggest part in your 400m time.

5 min between 50 meter intervals*