Sunday, August 21, 2011

My Sprinting Regimen

 Today I finalized my sprinting regimen by locating a good location that offered a decent surface that was a good compromise between comfort and efficiency. It was also close to home and since it was a junior high school soccer pitch it was well maintained. The bonus was there were two orange cones left at the bleachers so I was able to determine a definite start/end point.

  The field was grass but the tendancy hereabouts is to mow the grass more frequently along the soccer sidelines to facilitate chalking the lines. As a result I literally have a "lane" that is short(er) grass and a chalk line to follow.

  After some stretching and pre sprint drills I ran several untimed 70 metre warmup sprints. The new track shoes feel much better on the short grass although I didn't notice any difference using the stainless steel spikes. Well until I did my first timed sprint anyway.......shattered my personal best @70 metres with a 10:73 time. Holy track shoes Batman! Thinking I mis-timed the effort I re- ran the sprint (but from a four point track stance) to record a 11:31 time. Still an improvement over my previous best time.

  I then opted to finish my workout with a set of Tabata style sprints on the large soccer field. 20 second sprints/10 second recovery X 8 reps. After a little water I was still surprised my 70 metre sprint was so improved that I decided to give it one more attempt. From a standing start I set a second personal best time within an hour with a 10:65 clocking! Yeah baby! I guess the traction garnered from the spikes do make a huge difference. I should have run a barefoot sprint for comparison sake but neglected to consider it at the time.

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