Sprints Without a Track page 2

[Forever Young]

Ideally you want to sprint all out as fast as you can possibly run. When you start to slow at all and you will, that is when you stop and walk. You can only go all out for so long. Of course as your conditioning gets better, you will be able to increase your distance.

As was said above, find a good long and steep hill. Simply run up it as fast as you possibly can. It should take all you have to reach the top. Walk down and repeat. Done regularly, the first few "reps up" should get easier but each subsequent rep will be harder until its taking all you have.

I wouldn't get hung up on distance. Its all about intensity of effort. HIIT is about max effort. This is where the magic happens.

[fat belly frog]

Don't over think it, find somewhere to sprint, run as fast as you can when your pace starts to drop stop, turn around and walk back to where you started from, repeat as many times as you can.

If you haven't sprinted in long time, take it easy the first few times. Go at 50 - 75 percent, do rolling starts and finishes ( start at a jog increase to 50 percent then to 75 reduce to 50)

Cheers

[iniQuity]

If you haven't sprinted in long time, take it easy the first few times. Go at 50 - 75 percent, do rolling starts and finishes ( start at a jog increase to 50 percent then to 75 reduce to 50)

Yep, definitely heed this advise. I had to humble myself and do the same because I was coming dangerously close to puking and one time I also was pretty close to fainting. None of those things are appealing. I'm all for pushing yourself, but once you've gathered some sort of conditioning base, no need to kill yourself right off the bat. Besides, your body will be literally crying the next 2 days from muscle soreness alone, so work your way up to harder sprints.

[dgreenwood]

I think that time is a more important factor than distance. I almost always sprint on hills; run up as fast as I can, walk down, repeat. I have two different distances on that hill and I alternate those distances each workout.

The shorter one takes about 16 seconds per sprint after the first couple warm ups. When I slow to about 18 seconds per sprint I know I'm cooked (usually about 20 sprints).

The longer sprint takes me about 25 seconds and I stop when I slow to about 28 seconds (about 10 sprints).

I don't know the distances but I'd guess the first one is 60-70 yards and the second one is about 100. I don't really care because I know I'm getting a serious workout.

I read somewhere that shorter sprints (15 seconds) are good for developing speed and power while sprints of 20-30 seconds improve fatigue resistance. That's why I do both.

[sbhikes]

What I do is sprint as fast as I possibly can for at least 20 full in and out breaths. If I'm slowing too much before I get there, then I stop. If I think I can keep up the pace for a few more breaths, I do it.

[Coach Palfrey]

It's not really that important. 50 metres isn't some magical distance. But a long stride is around 1m so stride out a distance, set a marker down and then run to and from it.

[MissJecka]

Thanks, everyone! I think I'll try those hill springs and go for time, first... maybe use my Garmin to figure out how many meters (approx) they are, but maybe not. I have a lot to work with now. Thanks again!

[Leida]

I go on a grassy field that I roughly measured from the arial photo. Then I run like hell till I can't run any more. Then I walk back to the starting point. Rinse, repeat.

[Gary Conway]

I use street lights when running on the pavement. Sprint 2, walk 1, jog 1, repeat. Also will sprint on grass if not to wet. Just pick a point, usually 50-75m and run.

[DeeDub]

Don't have to worry about distance. Just pick a direction, and start running as fast as you possibly can. When you start gasping for air, keep going, count to 10 and stop.

Close enough...as long as you truly are going as hard as you can...