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Short Runs
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Educational
Personal Best site |
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Short Runs
Question What do you have to do to reach a reasonably fit level for sprinting in comparison to distance running?
Faya Sprinters don't need the distance to prepare for their events. You want a general level of conditioning. The longest run a sprinter will ever go on is two miles or twenty minutes. You want a chance to recover from the repeats that you've done. You're doing two hundred repeats you want to be able to cover before you do the next repeat.
Question For sprinting, how many workouts a week are reasonable?
Faya Personally, I like to go one day with a workout, two days recovery, not rest, but recovery. I refer to them to runners as 'shake down days.' Allowing their muscles to repair and regenerate and prepare for the next workout.
Question How many days should you take off during the week?
Faya Usually one. Most of the time it usually follows the same plan as distance running. Being sedentary does not help. Rest is really necessary but after workouts and meets it's really important to get the lactic acid out of the muscles because if you don't you really risk injury and cramping and soreness.
Question How often should you weight lift for sprinting?
Faya Even though it's really important with distance it's even more important with sprinters because of deliberate body actions. Three days a week.
Question What type of weight lifting should you do for sprinting?
Faya A lot of upper body. Higher weights. As in distance you use lower weights, higher reps, you want to do that but you want to incorporate building of weight, building of muscle, building strength. Not bulk, but that physical strength you need there, powerful explosive muscle strength.
Question How often should you practice starts for sprinting?
Faya Starts are real important because you need to feel comfortable coming out of the blocks and starts should be done once a week and towards championship season much more frequently. Two, three times a week on non-workout days.
Question And how often should you go through pliometric drills?
Faya Plios are really good, depends on high impact, low impact, what you're doing, because high impact drills tear the muscles down and are really hard on the joints and pretty difficult on the body. It's important to work on your flexibility, your agility, and your coordination
Question For both sprinting and distance, how many events should you prepare for?
Rafferty Depends on how good you are. You are allowed to do up to four events if you're a high-schooler in the state of Maryland. And that's asking a lot of a runner especially if it's a distance runner if they're running things like a mile or two mile. It's going to be strenuous on the body. Sprinters have to keep in mind that they may have trials, depending on the size of the meet, so they may have to run a hundred two or three times. If you have them in a few other races that might also get them fatigued. But I think sprinters in the shorter distance can run a few more events than distance runners can. Two to four.
Question What would be a typical workout for a sprinter?
Faya Depends on what part of the season you're in. In the beginning of the season I like to go with much more condition building workouts. Such as longer distance repeats with less recover in between each repeat. As the season goes on I want to raise the intensity or the time becomes quicker and there's more recovery time between whatever interval or repeat they're done. For example, today we did two sets of four two hundreds with a two hundred recovery but the two hundreds were at 85% or 90%. Later in the season I'll ask them to hit a target time, not just an intensity.
Question Race day preparations and techniques. What race-day preparation is needed for runs and relays?
Jenny Baton passing practice.
Rafferty Mental preparation is huge...for sprinters, definitely. Because their events are so short, I think they have to focus on a mental picture of what it is they're going to do coming out of the blocks, keeping their form. The sprinters often really need to be focus and you'll see that as you see the sprinters getting read at the line. That they are picturing what they're going to do. Physical preparation...warming up, then stretching. Especially with sprinters, they're going to want to do faster strides, stride out to get their legs ready. You'll see them doing some short speed bursts where they can get their legs moving. Because if you try and do a sprinter at a competition and you're cold, you're not going to make it halfway through the sprint and you're going to pull something.
Elizabeth Water's also important to drink beforehand. Not just the day of, but the day and maybe two days before if you're running cross country. Water is essential if you're running.
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