Maria's Running Blog

Maria~ I have never been a runner (Football & Rugby) until the last couple years.

What are stride workouts? guessing they help with speed? Are they something I should be doing in my training?

Thanks

Zack - stride workouts help develop raw speed and good leg turnover. They also may help with running economy. You run them fast, but not all out. The distance varies, but I think 100-200m is the most common. If you don't have a measured stretch of the road or the track nearby, just accelerate and hold your speed for about 20 seconds and then jog easily back to the start. I try to do them twice a week year-round, just add 4-5 strides after some easy runs (although some people incorporate them in the middle their runs, that's fine too). I found it's important especially in base building phase, when most of your runs are easy and you may forget how to run fast :). Try a few strides some time and see how you feel.

Maria - what is your all-out 100 m speed right now?

Sasha - I honestly have no idea. I didn't run an all out timed 100m since my college days. I guess it would be around 16 at best (which is really pathetic considering I used to be able to run 13.2!). It also depends, if I run in spikes and from the starting blocks, it would be faster than the way I run now - in heavy trainers from standing start. But these strides I'm doing now, at least on Tuesday, were done on the track, so it was accurate distance.

I can currently run 100 all out under the same conditions (no spikes, standing start) about 2 seconds faster than you. This would give me 1:40 advantage over 5 K if we had the same endurance, which would give you about 18:00 or faster for a 5 K. I do not have a super-endurance between 100 m and 5000 m, and in fact follow the curve of the average college track runner rather than a marathoner.

Clearly, you currently have some serious breakdown between 100 m and 5000 m. Some food for thought - your 400 PR should be about 59 seconds, not 62 with your 200 m speed. It probably correlates with your 200 m being quite a bit slower than your 2x100 PR. Unfortunately, I do not have clear answers on how to fix it.

I think there is very poor correlation between 100m speed and 5000m speed. Otherwise elite sprinters would have the same success in distance events. But we now it's not the case - was it Jackie Joyner-Kersee who announced she is going to run marathon after retiring, only to run 18-19 min. in her first 5K? Time extrapolation from shorter to longer distances only starts to make sense from 400m up. Pure speed required in 100m doesn't have the "speed endurance" component that comes into play from 400m. My 100 and 200m PRs are actually pretty consistent, but my 400 clearly falls behind as you noticed. I should have been able to run at least 59.

As for now, I don't know how to bring the speed I once had back. I'm sure I can't run 400 now faster than 80 sec. (because I run 6x800m intervals in 3:25-3:30 with 400m jog). Perhaps distance training detrains fast twitch muscles or teaches them to operate more like slow twitch .

This is something I want to bring up in the running camp I'm going to in June. Dr. Jack Daniels will be the keynote speaker, so maybe I can ask him directly.

I believe it was FloJo who announced she was moving to the marathon, and she ran a 20 minute 5 K. But I do not think her performance means anything in the way of showing what somebody with good sprint speed can do with proper distance training.

I think the distance training can slightly reduce your acceleration, but it won't hurt your top speed. In some cases it might even increase it. I run twice the mileage now that I did when I was 17, and still have the same all-out speed. Paul Petersen ran his best 400 while doing about 60-70 miles a week in college, and the improvement happened after he had stopped growing. Not sure if what Gerry Lindgren is entirely true, but according to what he told me when I talked to him, he could only run a 59 second 400 until he started doing his mega-mileage. After that, he could do it in 52, and it did not make a difference if it was a regular 400, or he was kicking at the end of a 5 K. He felt the extra strength for him translated into extra speed.

At this point, I do not think improving your top speed should necessarily be a priority. Rather you should work on your speed endurance. This is where you currently have a very serious breakdown. Maybe try something like this - run 90 second quarter pace (6:00 mile) until it becomes impossible to sustain it, and then a little more. Jog until you are ready for me, repeat. The idea is to feel some serious pain and get used to it. My theory is that being a natural sprinter, you probably produce a lot of lactic acid, but have never trained to clean it up. That training is very very painful, but it does pay off.

Maria, the quest for speed, hard work, hard work and more hard work. Good luck. B of BS Rools out.