How to run faster and further?
When we take up running we want to run faster and further. For this we need efficiently working muscles, and this is connected with a properly trained nervous system, which controls them. The way the muscles are activated plays an important role. We have a specific pool of muscle fibres, but they are not all active all the time. They activate in rotation, alternately, additionally some fibres switch on only at higher intensities, and others only at the highest intensities. So there is a good chance that there is a pool of muscle fibres that, although they exist, are not actually active at all during most of our activities.
So it is worth doing something to teach our body to engage more muscle fibres. Training can go in several directions: towards increasing the involvement of muscle fibres during one contraction, towards increasing the speed of fibre activation or towards lowering the intensity threshold of muscle fibre activation. As far as the latter direction is concerned, in this way we improve the threshold of activation of fast contracting fibres, which, although characterised by low endurance for a long-lasting effort, may play a key role at the time of increased demand for strength. Moreover, they are the muscle fibres that are most difficult to force into action.
The benefits of sprints
Performing sprints is precisely one of the ways in which we train the degree of engagement of muscle fibres. This is what muscle strength training is all about. A larger pool of muscle fibres that are ready for action can mean you can maintain your pace for longer or finish better. In addition, sprints are a great opportunity to induce adaptation of the central nervous system to work at higher loads. This will allow you to cope better with fatigue in the future, as everything related to our activity starts and ends in the brain.
In addition to the issue of muscle engagement, sprints also bring benefits in terms of better movement mechanics. They are a great foundation to work on and improve correct, economical running. Many athletes land on their heel when performing sprints just as they do when running more slowly. It is therefore possible to develop correct movements during sprints and to transfer some of these to longer runs, although of course not everything that is economical during sprints will be right and correct during slower running. But it is easy for us to realise some positive patterns in the mechanism that governs the movement of our body.
Another advantage of sprinting is that it improves the way our body's elastic energy storage and return system works. Our body will become more proficient at bracing the lower leg during ground contact to store as much energy as possible in the leg to give back later in the movement. We can also reduce the duration of contact with the ground. It is known that the smaller it is, the more flexible our step is and we don't lose energy resulting from elasticity. Here, of course, the element of our body that plays the biggest role is the Achilles tendon and the gastrocnemius muscle.
Building a base
By base for further, more specific training we usually mean long, slow running in the low oxygen range. We often spend several tedious winter months on very quiet, longer runs. An aerobic base will later allow the athlete to do workouts that are more related to their target competition. Running lots of calm, aerobic runs builds a foundation for safely and effectively performing aerobic training in higher intensity ranges such as threshold training or at 10km running tempos (or, depending on the approach, in the second or third aerobic range). When “doing the base” we can also allow ourselves more training volume at the expense of intensity.
However, slow running is not the only course of action if we want to build a solid foundation for further specific training work. The missing link in our base may be a general neuromuscular preparation and preparation in the field of correct running mechanics and its economy. Purely speed exercises will give us a foundation on which we can build further training during the season towards the specifics of a particular distance or competition. They will give us great benefits in the scope of increasing the engagement of muscle fibres, which was mentioned before. After obtaining such a foundation further trainings can go towards speed endurance and at the end towards anaerobic speed endurance. It can also go towards strength endurance, for example if you are running in the mountains and need a lot of strength on the uphill runs.
So if you start with 60 metre sprints, you can then progress to 150 metre intervals (speed endurance) and then 300 metre intervals (anaerobic speed endurance) during the season. Without a foundation of short sprints, 300 metre intervals, which will be extremely important for a runner competing in 800m or 1500m events, will not be effective enough. Similarly, before we get to longer sprints or intervals on a run, which will build our strength endurance, it is worth starting with short 8-10 second sprints on a run.
But does it really work?
A team of researchers from the Sports Science Centre and the National University of Singapore published a paper in August 2016 describing a study they conducted on a group of 14 moderately trained athletes (male) who were divided into two groups of 7. The athletes did 12 training sessions, twice a week, in the first group it was sprints. In the second, plyometric training, a type of explosive strength training that relies on very dynamic movements to generate a lot of force in a very short moment.
The sprints used in this study were between 30 metres and 50 metres in the last six weeks and were performed in 4 series of 3-4 repetitions. The breaks between sprints were 1 minute for repetitions and 3 minutes for series. The athletes also performed other running workouts during the week.
The results of this study firstly showed that despite reducing the weekly training volume by an average of 4 kilometres, the athletes improved their 10 km running performance by an average of 2 minutes. In addition, an increase in maximal power during the jump was observed.
Another study conducted by researchers from the University of Zagreb on 93 university students of physical education is also interesting. They were divided into three groups. The first control, in which they were told to maintain their current activity. The second, in which training consisted of sprints, and the third, in which plyometric training was conducted.
The group that did sprints trained them for 10 weeks, three times a week. The sprints ranged in length from 10 metres to 50 metres and included 3 series of 3-4 repetitions. Intervals were 1 minute between repetitions and 3 minutes between series.
In the final tests, it was found that the sprints group performed significantly better in terms of hip extensor strength (10% increase in strength). Sprints proved to be more effective here than plyometric exercises. Similarly, when muscle power was measured, it was found to increase by 7-10% and this increase was significantly higher compared to the control group. The results in the drop jump or depth jump increased by 11%. There was also an improvement of about 15% in the results of muscle performance during the stretch-shortening cycle, i.e. a concentric movement of the muscle immediately following an eccentric movement (SSC, stretch-shortening cycle). At the same time, sprints not only shortened the time of contact with the ground, but also lengthened the time of flight after rebounding (plyometric exercises only shortened the time of contact with the ground).
These studies lead us to believe that thoughtful training in the form of sprints allows us to improve the dynamic characteristics of the muscles responsible for movement. The more elastic energy we need and the more important correct movement mechanics are, the more beneficial sprints will prove to be in our training. However, as I mentioned earlier, they will also be important as a base for speed training, which long-distance runners also do. They will allow us to enjoy these workouts and minimise the risk of injury.
In the next part of this article we will go into more practice. You can read it here.
Sources:
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2095254616300643
- https://cpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/sites.marjon.ac.uk/dist/1/212/files/2016/03/0046352d146576530f000000-1zo9u5p.pdf
- Novacheck, Tom F. The biomechanics of running. Motion Analysis Laboratory, Gillette Children’s Specialty Healthcare, University of Minnesota. 1998; 77-95.
- Vaughan C.I. Biomechanics of running gait. Crit Rev Eng 12: 1-48
- Weyand, Peter G., Deborah B. Sternlight, Matthew J. Bellizzi, and Seth Wright. Faster top running speeds are achieved with greater ground forces not more rapid leg movements. Journal of Applied Physiology 89: 1999-2000.