Sprints, Jumps, Acceleration

Tom Butcher

Anyone got any good sessions that have worked for them to improve sprints and jumps for road racing ? It's something I've always neglected - when I do train it I tend to do 30 second efforts with 90 second recoveries normally times 10 - road or turbo - but would I be better doing shorter/longer intervals with shorter or longer recovery. Also what's the thinking on whether to do them fresh after a decent warm up (which is what I tend to do) or do them at the end of a longer ride to mimic sprinting at the end of a race ?

Alex_Simmons/RST

Most people neglect sprint training.

Neuromuscular power is best trained when relatively fresh. Similar with training Anaerobic Work Capacity.

Can suggest several types of efforts, i.e. relatively short (<10sec) efforts such as standing starts and seated sprints, short hill sprints and those that focus on the longer efforts (NMP + anaerobic work capacity) such as 15-30 seconds efforts, generally all out, either from a slow speed or from cruising speed.

If I had to pick one: standing starts over approx 250 metres / 20 seconds.

varno

15 min warm up at least

4sets x 4 sprint seated efforts on 95 inch leaving at least 10 mins between each set and about 3 mins between each sprint.

Efforts should be around 90 metres and if possible a slight down gradient....

Tom Butcher

Is that from a standing start ?

varno

Tom Butcher wrote:

Is that from a standing start ?

Sorry mate......

Very very slow rolling..... alternating the start leg...

andrewgturnbull

Hi there.

I find it easier to sprint for a physical target, rather than a time - it gives you something to aim at, as if it were an imaginary finish line.

Hence the classic lampost session - sprinting from one to another, probably works out similar to the 90m, 5 to 10 seconds mentioned above.

Cheers, Andy

ps Level 7 training is very, er trainable. By which I mean improvements come on very quickly and then tail off quickly when you stop these sessions. For this reason I tend to only do this stuff in the summer when I've got some grass track events coming up. Doesn't do me that much good if I'm targetting triathlons or time trials - although it does help a little.

Alex_Simmons/RST

training neuromuscular power is not very fatiguing if the efforts are kept relatively short. That is less than 10 seconds. Hence, this type of training can be readily done weekly, and not interfere that much with the training of your general aerobic conditioning.