How effective is sprinting?

[GrayPatriot]

20 minutes later, it doesnt feel like I exercised.

I keep hearing how wonderful and effective sprints are for overall endurance and increasing your metabolism.

Or are there other ways?

If you run 6 days a week only one day should be set aside for sprinting and usually before your rest day.

The other days are for recovery runs, tempo runs, intervals and fartleks...

I wouldn't sprint 50m. I ran the 100m in HS and the only time we ran less than 100m was practicing our starts.

On your sprint day you are going to run 1.5 to 2 miles warming up at a slow pace before your sprints.

You can sprint in increments of anywhere from 100m, 200m, 300m, 400m all the way to 1600m depending on what you are looking for. Most of us train for the 1.5 mile so closer to 100m would benefit us.

Here is what I do lately (always mixing it up):
After a 2 mile jog I sprint a mile (not really a sprint but flat out running). Slow jog a lap and then 1200m... slow lap and then 800m, slow lap, and then 400m, then to 300m, 200m, and lastly 100m. I then do 5-8 100m as a sprint, which is on the balls of your feet running. If you are flat footed you are not sprinting you are simply jogging fast. After you 2nd or 3rd 100m you legs should be like jelly or you are not trying. You may be walking 300m between these sprints too I know I do. Remember that there are HS girls that can run the 100m in close to 11s so you want to keep you time at least under 14-15 secs per 100m.

Lastly you need to jog 2 miles to cool down.


This is just what I am doing now. People pyramid up and down and mix it up all the time.

Check out the running websites for great tips.

www.runnersworld.com
www.coolrunning.com