An emotional justification for training a sprinter short to long.

(A screenshot of a comment from Flotrack’s Youtube coverage of Florida State’s Sprint workout video)

Throw the X’s and O’s out the window for this read. Ignore for a moment whether you believe from a physiological or technical standpoint that a sprinter’s offseason should be spent building a base of tolerance to lactic acid, leading into speed work closer to competition; or whether you believe a base of speed should be built, and then stretched over longer distances. This article gives consideration to the possible benefits in appealing to the emotional side of a sprinter (yes, the emotional side exists, you sadistic vomit fetish devil coaches).

From my experience thus far in Track and Field (growing up in Sydney), I observed that most sprint coaches tend to favour a long to short approach. With Australia’s track and field season usually concluding in late March, Sydney Olympic Park morphs into a graveyard for sprinters during the months of May through to September, with a lactic sniper peeping over the fence shooting down anyone coming around the 300m bend. It’s an expected and inherent part of being a sprinter. Pain, agony, head spins and vomits. The pain and agony is something which I thought I enjoyed every offseason, but after training by myself for almost two years now, I believe I’m becoming more honest and in touch with myself. I’ve begun to realise that I fundamentally don’t enjoy that type of work. Sure, I liked it because I believed in its necessity for results further down the road and I liked to tell myself I was working hard, and perhaps that’s why coaches also feel obliged to subscribe this kind of work – this offseason your athlete has built a big base , (but a “big base” in what?!). In my own training over the last two years, I’ve completed big lactic sessions by myself (4x300m, 6x 200m, long hill sprints etc) and I’d plan up to 8 week blocks with ‘speed endurance’ as an emphasis. But what I found is that even if I was excited to train initially, after a few weeks, intent in each run begun to lack and my wanting to run longer distances dwindled. Originally, I thought I was just being soft. Now, I think that if my willingness to train was fading, it was not a reflection for my motivation to become a better sprinter, as I’ve always been a committed athlete, but perhaps a sign that I should consider remodelling my training to increase intent and motivation by finding the origins of joy in being a sprinter.

Sprinters are excitable and explosive, and at their core, sprint because they enjoy running fast. They get off on the idea of making others look slow, are adrenaline seekers and generally wired people. However, during an offseason, even a committed athlete’s motivation is at its lowest point. The most important event or competition is its furthest away. So, when an athlete’s motivation is at its lowest, instead of completing work which sprinters innately do not enjoy doing, attempt to retain intensity and intent, or potentially even attendance for that type of athlete who always has more homework on a night of speed endurance, by running athletes fast. Tony Holler, a high school chemistry teacher in Illinois, made Track popular in his school by getting sprinters to sprint, not run. It's so simple. He titled this ideology “Feed the Cats”, with the idea that sprinters are more like cats (reactive, springy, more on/off) than dogs (hard workers, can be run around on a farm, empathetic) in nature.

If a sprinter likes being flogged, maybe they should not be a sprinter, they should be a 400m runner (which is completely fine, just totally not my thing).

I'm not suggesting to complete no longer running work. When competition season begins, motivation increases. Now may be a time to dabble in longer work. Sprinters will apply themselves to work that is instinctually uncomfortable at this time of the year as the environment and time of the year is conducive to do so. Speed endurance becomes speed endurance. From a logistical standpoint, it may be a better idea to run longer, albeit slightly slower (perhaps 88-92% max velocity) over longer distances during competition time of the year anyway, as competition is a maximum velocity exposure in itself. Without going down a rabbit hole into my own ever-developing coaching philosophy from a logistical and technical standpoint, I’ll finish here. Train sprinters like sprinters for longer periods of the year. Help sprinters find joy in ‘the process’ by doing what they love (by the way, ‘the process’ doesn’t have to suck ass and you don’t get more points if it does). Appeal and utilize the emotions and disposition of a sprinter to create more intent, attendance, excitement and ultimately results through training.

As always, I’d love to converse with any thoughts or reflections. Please get in contact.