Flying Sprint Workouts
Definition: A Flying Sprint (FS), for us, is a “full speed” sprint that is completed over short distances between 20 meters and 70 meters.
Types of FS: We will assign an acceleration zone and a sprint zone. These numbers vary almost weekly.
We could assign a 10m acceleration zone and a 40m sprint zone, totaling 50 meters. 7 reps.
We could assign a 25m acceleration zone and a 30m sprint zone, totaling 55 meters. 6 reps.
The combination of the two zones rarely exceeds 70 meters for us.
How Often: Weekly. We do this workout about 30-38 times per year.
How Fast: If the athlete is healthy with no hamstring problems we will get very close to 100% maximum speed. Our 5K and 10K athletes try to get very close to 99-100% speed (it would be foolish to lose a 10000m runner in season because we demanded 100% speed in this workout).
Video Example and Explanation
Who does this workout: Just about all of our runners, from short sprinters to 10,000m runners. Once the athlete demonstrates world class closing speed for their event, you can back away from this workout being done weekly.
What is the purpose: The purpose is to build athleticism and neuromuscular coordination.
How long is the rest between each sprint: 4-6 minutes walking rest (6 minutes for anything 60m or longer. 4 minutes for anything 40m or shorter). We are not looking for aerobic fatigue during this workout.
Is there a warm-up: Of course - dumb question:) We treat this workout like a track meet. The warm-up is nearly an hour. It includes, jogging, sprint drills, hurdle mobility, general mobility work, strides, and sprint build-up work. Never sprint without adequate warm-up.
Why is this helpful for 5K or 10K runners: Example - We’ll test all of the athletes that join our program. We may have:
A male athlete running 14:50 in the 5000m who struggles to break 90 seconds in the 600m, even though he runs 120K per week many weeks of the year.
A female athlete running 16:10 in the 5000m who struggles to break 1:40 in the 600m, even though she runs 120K per week many weeks of the year.
Either one of these athletes could stand on the side of the track at the Olympic 5000m. They could watch the first 10 laps of the 5000m, stretch, do some drills, and sign an autograph. The could jump in the final 1000 meters, race with all their heart, and still be beaten by nearly everyone.
Both of these athletes lack basic explosive athleticism.
Whereas, many of the elite 5000m runners also excel at the 10000m, 3000m, 1500m, and can even run a decent 800m and 400m. These people are versatile athletes.
When we apply the Flying Sprint workout, along with a reasonable weightlifting program, and some steep hill sprints we tend to see decent gains in athleticism in the first 12-18 months. These athletes already have a decent aerobic capacity and aerobic power. They are able to knock 6-12 seconds off that 600 time because of the increased coordination and power. We then place more of a training emphasis back onto the longer aerobic work, but we always do enough high speed work to keep the technique and sprinting ability strong.