Wow, 12.4 is awesome!!! I can't see myself breaking the 15 sec mark.... but I've never timed myself


hihosilva, I wasn't questioning your line of work hehe, just wanted to know......:p

I don't know about awesome, but thank you. I plan to be in the 11s this year, or if not, then definitely next year. It is going to take a lot of work.

In high school (4 years ago), I ran cross country, indoor track, and outdoor track. I was injured most of my junior and senior years but, I managed a PR of 4:44 mile and 16:50s 5k. I still couldn't hang with a few guys on my team, all of which ran varsity in college.

My HS track team would have beaten Univ. of MD in a dual meet :)
My HS teammates ran 3:18 in the 4X400m.

Good to see some fellow track people on here.

i bet that the best long distance people will be found on domestic forums, practice makes perfect..... (ouch, couldn't resist that one.. :D )

Wow, it's great to see people talking about track in this forum. I've been in trackand field for the past 12 years. I'm not really a very fast sprinter but my best 100m is 11.14s, I haven't run a 200m in years but my best 300m is 35.68s. My 200m is probably around 22 seconds flat.

If you ask me, any run over 50 meters is too long. That's why I love jumping(triple jump, long jump). My best LJ is 7.42 meters or 24'4". My TJ is 16.15m or 53 feet. Jumps are great because the max limit for your approach is only 45 meters ;)

If anyone wants to talk about track, I'm totally in!

eeterp, that 3:18 4x400m is good!! Thats a 49.5s average split for everyone. Not too shabby.

So Shawn, how do you improve your speed? I can't imagine improving your sprint times by just running, etc.....

I'm pretty sure that you gotta work on your explosiveness, etc. but what muscles do you train, do you work-out, or what do you do???

Lets see...I'll give my best hints.
1. I'm not certain as to your body type but obviously it's advantagous to rid yourself of extra body weight. Muscle is good but fat only hinders.

2. Do plenty of leg exercises. Full back squats, leg press, hamstring curls and calf raises should be enough. Rather than doing rediculously heavy weight, use a managable weight and be explosive when lifting the weight. THis way you train your muscles to be fast, rather than slower and stronger. I LOVE power cleans but these require a lot of technique. Do not attempt with much weight until you are confident you can do it properly.
I read an article a while ago where they did a study with average men. The test people timed the 40 yeard dash for these men then put them on a calf training regiment for a few months. Afterwards, they retimed the 40 yeard sprints. A noticable improvement was recorded. That being said, train your calves to be explosive. Do jumping workouts where you really blast your calves in an explosive motion, plyometrics come to mind.

3. Flexibility is SUPER important for sprinters. Besides the fact that many seem to pull hamstrings, good flexibility will make it easier to effortlessly take larger strides. If you can maintain your stride frequency but increase the length of each step by 2 inches, during a 100m sprint(~50 steps), thats 100", or 8'4". So stretch everything in your legs!! This is very important.

4. Core strength and stability. You are as strong as the weakest link and many people have very weak torso muscles. Do excercises for your lower and upper back as well as you abdominals and obliques. THis will help you to maintain form when sprinting.

5. Technique. To practise this, you will need a coach who can watch you and fix your mistakes one at a time. THis is probably the last thing most people will do because it requires joining an organized track and field club or hiring a personal coach.

The only way to be a faster sprinter is to sprint. This means lots of speed workouts at the track. Leaning to handle your body as it gets stronger is the most important thing. All of the above ideas can be done at a gym or home, but if you want to run fast, you need to practise all the time.

P.S. Don't forget to do a very good warmup.

Good lord. 53 ft.!?! was that in college? That's impressive. I think the women's world record is 50 or 55ft.

I jumped that last month in Montreal, Feb 22nd I think.

The woman's triple jump world record is 15.50 meters (~50'10"). Although I try not to compare my best to the performances of females ;) Afterall, that's just not fair. Someday I intend to jump over 17 meters.

11.14 is a pretty good 100M time. Good job man. At the end of this year, I plan to be in the high 11s, maybe low 12s if I don't work hard enough. But next year, after training over the summer, we'll see how things go.

Also, I'd have to agree that stretching and the warm up/cool down are a large part to running. Flexibility is definitely a must as he said. A few tips for the form....try to make sure your knees come to almost parallel with the ground, and keep your arms locked at 90 degree angles. If you let your arms hang all the way straight down, it is wasted motion!