What do you mean when you say Speed Work?

Posted on August 29, 2011 by CoachJay

This originally appeared on August 18th at NikeRunning.com.

“Speed work” may be my least favorite training term because, for most runners, it does not accurately describe the workout in question. Most runners use the term incorrectly because they use it to describe running that, while faster than their normal easy day pace, is not speedy. For example, repetitions – regardless of the distance and rest – done at 5k pace is not speed work. A true speed workout has you running near your maximal, yet most runners refer to track workouts done at 5k pace as “speed work.” Repetitions done at 5k pace, 10k pace or half marathon pace are can’t be considered “speed work” because you’re not running near your maximum. Think about this scenario: What could you run if you had to race across a busy street to save a loved one? The sprinting you’d do to save the loved one is speed work, running that’s at or near maximal. Obviously you couldn’t sustain that sprinting pace for a 5k (or even 400m) so you shouldn’t call you your 10 x 400m workout a speed workout. Instead, refer to workouts done at race pace and be familiar with your race paces for 5k, 10k and half marathon distances. While there is a place for speed development in competitive distance running, most of you will be well served to simply run some strides (100m or so) that are faster than 5k pace a couple of times a week, then run race pace workouts as your training schedule suggests. So take “speed work” out of your vocabulary and simply do workouts at race pace and strides faster than 5k pace.

This entry was posted in Nike Posts. Bookmark the permalink.
  • Nowhere Coach

    Thank you for this post.

    I hate when people talk about speed work, esp. for the kick at the end of a race.  I always tell my runners, “You only need a kick at the end if you haven't been faster than your opponent the previous 3 miles.”

    You can waste a lot of time in practice focusing on the last 100 meters of a race.  I'd rather use my practice training the whole race with aerobic running.

    So many people forget how AEROBIC our sport is (800 and upwards in distance).   You only have so much time in a day to practice.  How are you going to use it?

  • http://coachjayjohnson.com CoachJay

    Thanks for your thoughts.  I do believe in speed development and I also believe in some sort of speed maintenance during the summer.  In my opinion too many kids are simply putting in the miles in the summer and lossing speed.  

    My friend Oscar Ponce has an easy solution for this.  All of their summer training is aerobic, but they have some 40m barefoot strides that they run hard.  The do 6 reps.  Eventually they build up to 6 x 150m on the track.  To me this is speed maintenance and would allow the athlete to maintain the speed they developed in track.  Oscar was frustrated with his kids getting kicked down or getting left in the final 100m or 200m of cross country.  Since he's implemented this type of neuromuscular stimulus, his kids are doing the kicking and they're rarely getting outkicked.

    The final thing I would like to add is that we need to find a balance between speed and speed endurance and endurance (see Vern Gambetta's post.  I'm not an advocate of speed endurance during the summer, but I do think that if we're going to spend a lot of time on the end of the endurance end of the spectrum that we need to spend some time on the speed end of the spectrum too.

    Thanks for the comments.

  • http://runningwritings.blogspot.com/ John D

    I always used to think that, to build sprint speed, you had to do sprinting–real “speed workouts” in your parlance.  But I did sprints, hard strides after easy runs, etc. etc., and still had a mediocre kick and mediocre footspeed.  My college coach finally convinced me that the way to build speed is by running SLOWER than all-out, learning relax when running fast.  He told me, “even when I was running 48 seconds [in the decathlon 400m], the fastest I ever went in practice was 30-sec 200 pace.”  Amazingly, when I backed off the pace on strides and “speed work,” my sprinting speed and kick got much, much faster.   

    Tom Donnelly, the coach at perennial D3-powerhouse Haverford College (also coached Marcus O'Sullivan), has a saying: “Fast guys respond to fast training and slow guys respond to slow training.”    I think this also applies to speedwork.  If you're a distance runner looking to improve your finish (or even raw speed), the way to go about doing it is NOT to do all-out sprints.  Nearly every male high school or college track runner can run a 28 or 29-second 200, but how many can do it at the end of a mile or a 5k? Everyone knows how to run HARD, but that is very different than knowing how to run FAST.

    This is the same philosophy that Clyde Hart uses with his 400m guys-practically zero work at full-speed.  Thoughts?

  • Matthew Barreau

    Distance runners/coaches often make fun of sprinters for their short workouts. But I'd challenge any distance runner to go through a week (or even a couple days!) of proper sprint training and see where their soreness levels are. :-)

    On a serious note, I probably made the biggest advancements as a distance coach thus far in my young coaching career after spending a year coaching sprinters. Learned SO MUCH about how to truly develop speed properly from fall to spring, how that is applicable even to distance runners, and how a “kick” or finding that “last gear” isn't really just developed by doing a few 150's later in the track season… it IS important for even 10k people to get some 30-60m true speed development/acceleration work in.

  • Matthew Barreau

    In dealing with the “every runner can do 28-29 sec 200's” scenario… I believe it is still possible to teach this person how to run very close to a 28-29 sec 200m at the end of a 5k/10k by developing their strength and aerobic abilities to a point where they can still run that 'fast' at the end. However, I do still believe there is great merit to attempting to develop their top end speed, even if that means they only run 27-28.

    I haven't spent a year with Clyde Hart and all I've heard from him is in clinics and on a couple page handout from him. And while I tend to train long sprinters along the lines that he does (more aerobically, more strength, etc.), I would still venture to say that he does incorporate things that help their top end speed. If nothing else, his races are those opportunities. In distance running, races don't provide for those opportunities because they are sub-maximal efforts. So, I would argue, it is even more important to make sure to hit on it with distance runners in training since they lack that stimulus from racing.

  • http://coachjayjohnson.com CoachJay

    Wow.  What a great comment.

    I'm going to answer in detail in a separate post because you bring up some really good points and I want to make sure that my response is equally good.  

    Thanks for your patience.

  • Pingback: Running less than your best | CoachJayJohnson.com

  • Pingback: Faster than you think | CoachJayJohnson.com

  • http://www.twicethespeed.com/ sprint training

    It is important to have good foot function and for this reason it is useful for athletes to spend as much time as possible barefoot. Walking on sand is very good. Training should be conducted in very light simple shoes. Racing flats from the Runners Shop are much better than joggers for training in.

  • saisha

    but wot do u actually mean by sprinting??