To anyone who has had serious, major improvements in basic speed over 100-400m; How did you do it ?

I regularly do 10-15 second hill sprints, about once a week. I usually do six or seven of them. I do them flat out after 2-3 warm up strides.

Short sprints don't have a negative effect on your endurance.

I use the same stride in a short sprint as I do in endurance running, the difference is I stride much quicker and longer in the sprints.

I used to try too hard in sprints with arms and legs flailing, but now I relax my shoulders and neck and I run much faster and it feels so much easier.

undaunted wrote:

Short sprints don't have a negative effect on your endurance.

Alactic short sprints don't have a negative effort on your endurance.

And by "effort" I clearly mean "effect."

I believe the original Q was about how much IMPROVEMENT you've had. No point in spitting out workouts if there is no evidence you've improved by using them. I could easily say "Do plyos" and not reveal that my 100 time has not come down even a tenth by doing so (hypothetical; I've not actually done plyos)

2wu + 10 x 100 w/ 300 jog in 3:00 + 2wd. Did this for about 25 weeks and saw my 800 drop from 2:06 to 2:03 without much speedwork. Was also in high, high mileage.

Short speed (60, 100 and 150m) intervals will help with this. Just balance out the recovery for speed development, not aerobic fitness. Lots of folks confuse recovery lengths for speed development and fitness. Yeah, everyone runs these short sprints as fast as they can. If you take too short a recovery you are drawing on your aerobic engine, not allowing the anaerobic recovery to occur. Check out Charlie Francis for some more in depth discussion on recovery lengths and speed development.

original question wrote:

I believe the original Q was about how much IMPROVEMENT you've had. No point in spitting out workouts if there is no evidence you've improved by using them. I could easily say "Do plyos" and not reveal that my 100 time has not come down even a tenth by doing so (hypothetical; I've not actually done plyos)

Did you actually read the original post?

Also, take hope in this. One of Arthur Lydiard's athletes ran mid-8 minute 2 mile with 57 400 speed. It took lots of miles, but he started at 18 years old running 11:00 for 2 miles. Now, 57 is as fast as I run, but he developed his endurance tremendously. Would have almost lapped me in a deuce. Speed is not all that necessary if you develop your aerobic capacity to its MAX.

STOPPED using sun block

The easiest way to increase speed is strength training (weight lifting). The best lift for increasing speed is the front squat. Of course, if you incorporate the front squat into a workout routine- then you need to do some type of hamstring lift as well (preferably leg curls). The secret to increasing speed is using a managable enough weight that you can perform the lift explosively (but under control). Doing the lift in a slow, methodical manner will do nothing to help you increase your speed. Doing the lift in a fast, explosive manner helps develop your fast twitch muscle fiber. There are many other things you can do, but since you stated that you didn't have a lot of time to spare- I would do front squats and then follow them up with some 100 M strides for flexibilities sake. Do this two days a week to start and after your quads get used to it, three days a week and I guarantee you you will get faster.

will wrote:

Also, take hope in this. One of Arthur Lydiard's athletes ran mid-8 minute 2 mile with 57 400 speed. It took lots of miles, but he started at 18 years old running 11:00 for 2 miles. Now, 57 is as fast as I run, but he developed his endurance tremendously. Would have almost lapped me in a deuce. Speed is not all that necessary if you develop your aerobic capacity to its MAX.

I agree with you, but I need to get to 57 first, and I'm not there.

When I was your age my speeed was as bad as yours. Just after the initial base training period 20.5-21.0 was all I could manage for 150m standing start. By that time I started to include 30m sprints in sets of 6-8 reps with 3-4 min rest. I did this session 2-3 times/week after some kind of easy aerobic running. When I felt I was getting faster I included the odd 120m all out sprint maybe once/week. 5-6 weeks of this kind of training got me down to 17.5-18sek for 150m. Then I couldn´t improve my time much more but it was good enough for running 1500m i high school so I didn´t care much about it