I'm am looking for ANY track (sprints-100m & 200m) training advice, can you help???

[fitrue]

I just found this forum this evening so I'm hoping to get some help from it :-)

I have been training for the 2007 State Games of America for about a month now. They are being held in Colorado (my home state) and I thought I would set a goal for myself to compete in the 100m and 200m sprints. The event will be the first week of August.

I competed in high school but am 22 now and haven't sprinted much since then. To make a long story short...I am in good shape and am pretty quick but I'm not sure exactly how to train. I obviously want to gain strength and speed.

Any suggestions? Anything is much appreciated :-)

[HeWhoIsMetal]

I'm a middle distance runner, but I'd occasionally see the short distance workouts at my school. For the most part, they were between 100m and 400m intervals with full rest between all of them, since you're not trying to build endurance for the 100 or 200.

I'd say look for a book, as crappy of a response as that is. I trust them more than the internet simply because it's easier to get something put online than it is to make a respectable work published.

[fitrue]

Thanks! Like I said, any help is much appreciated :-D

[farzamk]

As a sprinter you want to develope these things:

Maximum Speed
Speed Endurance
Muscular Strength
Flexibility
Coordination
Reaction
Technique

and of course: power

If you visited my website you would get endless amount of information on sprinting so visit it after you read this reply at: track.createmybb.com

However if you want to learn to improve you need to read ALL of this information.

So I'll start with the simpler things to harder.

First lets look at reaction and coordination.

You can develope coordination by doing drills, strength training and just by regular training. This is the easiest to train for because everything you do helps. Do more drills and more advanced strength training exercises.

You can improve reaction by having someone to say "set" and "go" when you are in different positions (on your back, push up position, regular sprint stance). This is also something you can improve every session when you do sprints or any type of running.

Here is some info I have for speed, strength, flexibility, speed endurance and technique.
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Form and Technique

Technique while sprinting allows for your neuro muscular system to fire motor units at a faster rate, gain more speed and maintain more speed.

Carl Lewis an excellent example, greatest form ever in history by a athlete.

Developing good technique and form involves many things and is a very long term progress.

Of course a evaluation is needed first by a coach.

Simple ways to develop good form and technique are going through speed drills (A's, B's, fast leg) and other speed drills in order to improve good leg form.

Core Strength is a big part of core stability and good form in the upper body.

Good hand form is moving through your shoulders, arms coming until just past your hips and up to infront of your face. THIS NEEDS TO BE PRACTICED!!!

When all of these are straightened out (although you must continue them and be evaluated by a qualified coach) you must learn proper sprint mechanics.

In a 100m it goes as follows:

0-15m: Head down, low body, legs and arms driving together.
15-40m: High pressure while keeping body low and gaining speed.
40-60m: Body should get straightened out by the end and maximum speed should be reached.
60-100m: relaxation with good form and maintaining high speed.

The entire point is that you are able to conduct the above perfectly.

Once you have gotten to know sprint mechanics in the above, you need to do tempo runs (60-80% speed) through 100m-300m maintaining perfect body, arm and leg technique.

When doing sprints you need to work on the first 15m keeping very low and driving WHILE KEEPING HEAD DOWN LOOKING AT THE TRACK!

Short 20m tempo runs are very useful as well.

Drills must be done at almost every workout, while tempo runs once in a while, and good form should be used ALL THE TIME!

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What Speed Training is.
Speed Training is often mistaken for long sprints, tempo runs or other types of running.

The truth is speed training is something that is conducted at 100% speed, full recovery in between runs (1 minute per 10 meters), and ONLY LASTS 2 to 8 seconds per sprint.

Training things like your acceleration, and maximum speed are developed in that form.

Training over 8 seconds still may increase speed over time, however when conducted evenly, you get best results of your potential in speed.
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Elements of Speed Training
As I mentioned earlier, any speed training done involves a 24-36 hour rest period in between sessions.

48 hours is even better.

During the session, sprints usually shouldn't exceed 80m and best to stay at 60m or 50m.

Using blocks, technique and power is very essential.

For each 10m you sprint, rest 1 minute at least while walking or doing a dynamic stretch.

Never go anything less than your very best speed until the finish.
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Overspeed Training and Maximum Speed
How to increase maximum speed?

Well the best way to do so is overspeed training.

Overspeed Training is forcing your neuromuscular system to fire motor units at a faster rate than it's fastest rate, sounds wierd but yes.

Examples of it are:

Downhill sprints (most popular)
Being Towed
isometrics (very complicated) Visit http://www.athleticquickness.com for more info.

These all increase maximum speed and the fastest speed you can possibly run, the most effective way.

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Resisted Sprinting
Resisted Sprinting is conducted in a few ways.

The main purpose for this is to develop explosiveness and stride length.

Your acceleration also gets affected by this.

Resisted sprints are conducted on either a track or up hill/down hill.
They last up to 100m almost always, and usually 10m-60m only.

They are done by long resistance bands attached to your body with someone holding you back.

You can wear a heavy jacket.

You can tow a parachute or tow a sled with weights.

All of these are what resisted sprinting is and the resistance ones are found to be the more popular ones.

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Lower Body Strength
Strength is always important.

Sprinting uses the lower body and needs a strong one too.

Lower body in other terms, your legs.

There are certain muslce groups that must be trainied:

Hip Flexors
Quadriceps
Upper Thigh
Adductors
Abductors
Groins (inner thigh)
Hamstrings
Calves

These muscles either provide power or stabilize your legs.

Developing these muscles takes time, and is essential to sprinting and further on to do more complicated exercises such as plyometrics.

Leg Strength's main purpose is to improve stride length, by providing more strength to push off from.

Many exercises such as squats, lunges, calf raises, hamstring curles and hip flexor raises all increase strength and must be done regularly.

Using weights and doing powerlifting exercises with heavy weights can be done once you have conducted regular exercises at 2 years and have a strong core, and are at least 15 years usually.

Strength and Speed must be trained in parallel.

Good to have them on seperate days as well.

[farzamk]

Plyometrics
The use of Plyometrics when done is to improve your power in your muscles.

For your upper body, clapping push ups are best.

Lower body plyos have a huge variety.

You should ONLY DO PLYOMETRICs if ONLY you have a strong core, and strong muscles in your ENTIRE LOWER and UPPER body.

Remember, technique and form must be PERFECT in order to do safe plyos.

Jumping on and off boxes, or jumping over them, jumping hurdles are usually most popular.

One leg jumps over a certain distance have proven to be effective plyos for developing stride power as when you push off the ground, you only push off (while running) with one leg at a time.

A variety of jumps have been done over certain heights and lengths adjusted to the athlete's strength and power, remember plyos aren't something you can over do to get better, you must stay at your own level and develop over time to increase your muscle's elastic strength.

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Upper Body and Arms
When you thinking weight lifting, you think bicep curls and lifting those huge dumbells and barbells. Well that isn't really what a sprinter would need.

Your arms is what is discussed throughout this article, and is not part of the core training mentioned earlier.

These are the main muscles trained in your arms:

Shoulders
Biceps
Triceps
Forearms

Of the above shoulders and triceps are essential to strengthen. Biceps and forearms will not assist you as much, however may help you, and must be done in order to avoid muscle and strength imbalances.

REMEMBER, the objective of your arms is to stabalize your core and your body and allow for your body's motion to be in place. In other words, make you feel and run faster, and keep your body in a proper position and form.

However depending on your strength, endurance and coordination which also is based on your age, your training will differ.

There are a few ways to train your muscles.

1) Weight Training
2) Isometric
3) Plyometric
4) Own Body Weight

Weights are the most popular, and for sprinters you must use heavier weights and few reps, as well complete reps quickly in order to build more power rather than endurance in your muscles.

Isometric Strength Training is different from the isometric speed training I mentioned earlier. This of course involves reps with resistance bands, and the more force used the better.

Plyometric arm exercises aren't very variable and not too many to do, in fact very few. Pyometric push ups are a good one, with doing a push up and clapping before going down. You can also try going in a 4 point stance, and coming into your set position and clapping.

Your own body weight gives you a variety of exercises. For smaller kids and teens this is good to always do. Push ups and dips are indeed very popular and must both be done. You can adjust the reps, sets and rest time as well with these. Remember there are exercises you can do using resistance bands and behind your back doing push ups. There are tons of types of push ups and adjusting to do with them. You can use your fingers, fists or knuckles as well. Putting your arms out wide and circling allows for endurance in your shoulders which can be helpful later on.

Remember that how strong your arms are, is valuable but not something to spend more time on than on the track or for your lower body. In your upper body, your core should get more attention than your arms.

Best exercises I'd reccomend for a young adult to a pro sprinter, is powerlifting. Powerlifting involves olympic lifts, bench presses, clean and jerks and all other exercises which can be done quickly and powerfully.

KEY RULE: Powerlifting involves heavy weights. In fact, one way to tell is you should never be able to complete 7 reps with good form. 4-6 reps is the maximum range. 3 reps would be best using the very heavy weights, for example if a person could only manage to lift 220 pounds on a bench press, and can only bench it once. Then he should lift 180-190 pounds to allow for 3 reps with good form.

The heavier the better, and REMEMBER ALL exercises MUST be done in perfect form. NEVER do powerlifting at your maximum at a young age. Even for beginners, they should be in pretty good shape, flexible, warmed up, dynamically stretched out. These are key things, however core strength and core stability must be there. THE MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL, is perfect technique and form during the lift. You must do these lifts with and without weights, light at first before doing the heavy lifts.

Upper body and arm muscle strength are things that should always be a part of your program. The best time for you to focus on the upper body (also the lower body) is of course the off-season. This is the time, especially early, to do your lifts. ticking to powerlifting only allows for more power, strength, speed and fast twitch only exercises.

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The Importance of Flexibility
Flexilibility took me from 13.2 to 12.7 in only 1 month.

There are no huge secrets to flexibility other than dynamic and static.

Static: holding a stretch
Dynamic: while in movement

Dynamics should be done after warm up prior to training, or competitions.

Static, done after every practice, competition AND every single day.

Stetching should be done 1-4 times a day.

Done after a short warm up, going from any muscle, each muscle should be stretched evenly at 20-35 seconds.


Here I'll talk about the Hip Flexor muscle, the most important muscle to have flexible:

Hip Flexor Muscle
Flexibility and range of motion is important in all muscles. However in your hips, range of motion is what, out of all muscles, will be the most important.

Your hip flexor muscle located above each thigh is the muscle, while it seems small and not important, is the most important muscle, at least to have flexible.

This muscle's flexibility affects your stride length (the most) and also your stride frequency. Once you have a flexible hip flexor, you will notice a huge increase in your stride length. In fact, if you are very tight right now, once you get flexible, usually after 5 weeks, you will notice a huge increase in speed. This is more of stride length, however your speed also has increased.

There are a few ways to make this muscle more flexible however the main two ways you should stick to is, static and dynamic. Of course the flexibility of this muscle, no matter how or what, will deal the same effect. However it should be done every way to get the best result.

The most common way is the static stretch where you hold the position for 30 seconds. You can do this two ways. One step over knee and land in a lunge position and lower your hips down while keeping your back straight and leaning foreward. You will feel the full in your hip flexors, and hold this for 30 seconds. You can also do the same thing, except on a soft surface, with the back leg on the ground and doing the same stretch, this one is a little bit better and has no difference any other way from the other one.

If you are looking for other ways to improve flexibility of this muscle, you have to go to dynamically of course now.

Leg swings are the prefered way to do it, hold onto a wall, or anything you can hold onto while stanidng parallel to the wall and facing straight ahead (not the wall). One hand on the wall, you move your leg back and forth, you want to start out a little slow and then gain speed and eventually after you have loosened up, you will be able to push back with more force and feel a hard stretch each time. This can be done for no longer than 25 seconds usually, however whatever you want is best.

Of course, other than these couple ways, there are exercises that can help increase the flexibility of very part of your hip flexor. Such as lunging over and leaning quickly to get a quick stretch in your hip flexor.

Also you can raise your leg and knee up to 90 degree angle. Then raise it by a little bit and lower back to 90 degrees, repeat for 10-30 reps with 2 sets, this also strengthens the muscle.

Try sitting down with your back against the back of the chair and hnds on the sides of the chair seat. Raise your leg one by one and lower down, 15-30 reps with 3 sets. This also strengthens the muscle as well as strengthen parts of your upper thight muscle and help with lower ab muscles too.

Dynamic stretching of this muscle should be done prior to competition or race. While static can be done after, and at the start of especially after each and every workout. Static stretching of this muscle and other methods MUST be done daily, in fact more the better, up to 8 times a day can be a huge boost in flexibility increase.

Remember this muscle should get more attention than some other muscles like your neck when it comes to stretching.

[farzamk]

Finally I will provide you WITH THE MOST IMPORTANT type of workout you can do for developing your sprinting

Speed Session
Here is a example speed session for the average sprinter, who is in good shape with all average to good attributes.
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Warm up:
1km jog at very slow pace.
Dynamic Stretches
Drills starting at A's and then B's (marching, skipping, running) fast leg for each leg over 20m. Karoake, 3 times over each side, over 20m. Backward run over 30m, extending leg. Bounding over 20m, twice.
Slow movement using your arms as if sprinting for 10 seconds.
*stretch dynamically a little between drills*
Tempo running at 50-60%, 3 times over 30m with good form and proper technique.

Now at this point you'd want to get into your shorts/rights and get on spikes or your very light running shoes. Also all starts must be done from a 4 point stance, better to use blocks if you can.

Workout:
3x10m with 1 minute rest in between
3x30m with 2:30-3:00 minutes of rest in between
4-5x50m with 4:00-5:00 rest in between


All of these sprints must be done at full speed and with proper form and technique. During the rest period you should dynamically stretch out tight muscles a little bit, and walk around (do not sit or lie down) and drink a little water in between.

Make sure you are dipping and putting your head ahead at the finish line (this should be done oer the tempo runs as well).

Get track pants and sweater/shirt back on and rest for a couple minutes.

Cool-Down:
3 minute jog
Static Stretching every muscle for a total of 10-15 minutes at least, 30 seconds each muscle

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That is the perfect speed session on the track which is your speed developement training. This can be conducted every other day (you must rest a day in between by doing anything not involving all out sprints).

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Well if yuo want to drop your times and make your training useful, you need to be well prepared, so read about this dieting information.

Pre-Competition Diet
This will cover what you should eat and drink the day before and on the morning.

Carbohydrates has been seen as something to load on for a runner. However carbohydrates for a 100m/200m sprinter haven't been proven really to make you faster or provide more speed endurance.

I find carbos are actually good to eat, because they provide more energy for your muscles to be able to operate a little better with all the warming up and cooling down that you have to do during the day of the meet.

Carbo loading doesn't have to be done endruance style at all.

For sprinters I reccomend just eating the carbohydrates, and now a good list for this:

bread
cereal
SPAGHETTI
rice
other grain products

Spaghetti is the number one food to eat as your dinner the night before.

Breakfast should have cereal and bread.

Lunch should have rice and some bread along with foods with higher calories.

Remember the day before you want to eat as much as possible.

Fatty foods, foods with high fibre (fruits and vegetables), foods with gas (beans or lots of meat) all should be avoided and/or minimized just for this day. Fruit juice should be drank only at half a glass and that should be it all for fruits.

WATER AND LIQUIDS!

Water is perhaps even more important than carbos the day before. It keeps you hydrated to the maximum. A bottle should be carried and 3 bottles should be drank through the day.

Tea and/or coffee should be drunk twice during the day if you are a regular tea/coffe drinker. If not, stay away from caffeine until the next morning.

A good glass of milk and a glass of fruit juice along with a glass of protein shake is essential to drink during the day as well.

Walk around a lot and stretch before eating and to make yourself more thirsty, don't nap and sit around the entire day, or you wont have an appetite.

ON THE DAY!

On the day of the competition, your morning breakfast is of course the most important part.

Breakfast should consist of 2 glasses of coffee, this is a arguement for some other time, however caffiene is very useful. A good bowl of cereal or one fried egg with bread should be eaten along with a little cereal.




ANY PRE-RACE MEAL!

Any pre race meal should be ate at least 2 hours before, which should consist of something sandwhich size which is not any type of heavy meat or anything. Generally more calories and carbohydrates is best, no food containing fibre or gas.

A snack can be ate 45 minutes before depending on size, even 30 minutes later on in the day is fine.

[farzamk]

Speed Endurance.

Speed endurance development is different than lactic acid tolerance, you need to be focusing on getting full recovery (likely up to 8-10 minutes between runs) especially for longer sprints. For 100m speed endurance training, run a 150mx6 at full speed with full recovery in between. For 200m run 250mx4 and you can throw some 150s and 200s in there too. Also occasionally throw 300s in there and a 90% speed 400m. Keep these sessions seperate from speed sessions with shorter sprints.

[Russia25]

Wow. Great stuff!

[fitrue]

Wow, I don't think I could have asked for more help! What great advice, ideas and workouts. I have been doing a series of the exercises you have suggested but nothing quite so in-depth. Thank you for taking the time to help me with this. I have added your website to my "favorites".

[farzamk]

No problem, if you have any other questions, just ask me.

[SMac2347]

damn i run track, and i agree, top-notch advice!