I'm crap at sprinting, any ways to improve?

Anonymous

I crap at sprinting This is SOOOO frustrating? Every time I go out I have the intention of at least one part of my ride of doing a sprint, my ultimate 1st aim is to hit 40mph, well the reason it is frustration is I'm struggling to break 30mph? on or off the saddle, does not make any difference at all, even on the drops, I get to 30mph and cant break it, the best I've done in the past is 33mph off the saddle and 35mph on the drops but I'm struggling to do it now.

It pains me to hear people can average 28mph on whole routes and me just shooting up to 28mph and keeping it for 10-20seconds then having to slow down as I can no longer keep it up, it's doing me head in.

Is it winter? Is it my general fitness has declined? What could it be? I get irritated when I see signs I have lost performance or am not getting better :evil:

Any ways to improve sprinting? I'd like some way to improve.

I know it seems a stupid topic but it genuinely irritates me that my sprinting capabilities, and also holding a high speed ability is pretty poor at the moment for me

Thanks
Will.

whyamihere

It's often said that the best way to get better at climbing is to climb more. You can apply the same theory to sprinting.

SCR Pedro

whyamihere wrote:

It's often said that the best way to get better at climbing is to climb more. You can apply the same theory to sprinting.

+1
How many sprints do you do per ride? I would guess that doing 2-3 would be better than saving up for one huge sprint at the end like I did in the summer.

It pains me to hear people can average 28mph on whole routes and me just shooting up to 28mph and keeping it for 10-20seconds then having to slow down as I can no longer keep it up, it's doing me head in.

I treat most average speeds as lies. It's better just to ride your own circuit at your own speed and try not to think about what others are doing.

Is it winter? Is it my general fitness has declined? What could it be? I get irritated when I see signs I have lost performance or am not getting better

I asked the same question in this thread. The consensus was that it's the norm to go slower in the winter, and I should just keep getting out when I can.

Cheers
Pedro

Ricardo H

i was the same when i used to race, but one thing improved my sprinting almost straight away.

Track racing - After about 3 to 4 weeks riding the evening league at preston park i was a much faster rider. It gave me not just a kick for sprints, but i was also able to jump off the front of the bunch to go for a solo or to catch on to a break. I honestly felt like a different rider.
I would'nt worry too much about speed and sprints at the moment though, its still only december, just keep getting the miles in.

softlad

willhub wrote:

It pains me to hear people can average 28mph on whole routes and me just shooting up to 28mph and keeping it for 10-20seconds then having to slow down as I can no longer keep it up, it's doing me head in.

I've never met anyone who can average 28mph on a ride - unless the ride is downhill, or they are riding a short distance TT, or they are in a chain gang - or if they have programmed their speedo incorrectly

Treats claims like that with the skepticism they deserve. If you can average 19/20mph on a training ride, then you are doing ok.

The only way you will ever hit 40mph on your own is down hill, or with a tail wind - or both. I wouldn't let it worry you...

brownbosh

Softlad that isnt true i can muster 38 mph on a flat windless road for 300-400 metres IIF given a straight free run at it. The whole poit is sprinting is rarely a pure competition of out and out speed. Its more a tactical chess game combined with luck. The only way to get fast is to practice spirints,jumps and standing starts. Lookinto technique and practice hard and you will improve your sprint but you may just not be a sprinter. As far as averaging 28 mph on a training run, ive never seen it myself. For example the paris roubaix is raced at an average speed of 40-45 kph in the last few years. The best pros in the world on that manic day are doing 25-28 mph. It seems odd that your club mates can go at the top end of that on a training run. What are they on??? Mountbatten lap races last year were 25-29 mph ave speed events on a completely flat surface in a group.I reckon youve had some tall stories!!!!!

softlad

you may be right - certainly cycle technologies have moved on a bit since I last tried it..

I still think that 40mph is a pretty tall order for the average club rider though...

Tom Butcher

40mph is well beyond what I can do - I'd have thought 35mph would be a decent enough sprint for club rider even on a decent surface in calm conditions.

SCR Pedro

This might be of some help. I knew there was an article on this somewhere.

http://www.bikeradar.com/fitness/articl ... hing--1044

Cheers
Pedro

Anonymous

No none of the members in the club can average 28-29mph, although someone did a 27mph av 10 I think.

Plenty of people in the club can do 24mph av 100 miles though.

It seems weird really, 30mph is like a wall, even if there is a 15mph headwind I can sprint into it at 30mph, out of it I could most likely 30+, if it was a REALLY strong headwind then I certainly could hit 40mph, just I tend to do it with no wind, using my own power not the winds power.

I heard of a guy a long time ago did a 28mph average 100mile TT?

I tend to be someone who tries to keep an eye on the average speed most of the time, I haven't done much sprinting, the only sprints I do is accelerating to speed, like from standing start to 25mph-28mph which only seems to take seconds.

Maybe it's because I was out today trying to do these sprints and yesterday I did 98 miles and I should have rested?

I don't like to think of myself average even though I probably am, I'd like to be above average personally.

I don't know what I should do first, try raising my average speed of trying to do sprints, at the moment I mostly do 18-18.5mph average on my own, that is over 40-50 miles, only once did I manage a 50mile at 20mph average, on good days I might be able to do 19-19.6mph average over 30miles maybe but it is like a wall, the only times I've got over 20mph is in a 10mile TT, 22. something mph, was around 26mins I think, I managed a 5mile 23mph average, on a hilly course I did a 10mile TT averaging 19.2mph

But thing is I've also being working on distance, in a short year I quickly started doing single rides up to 160 miles, I've lost some of the endurance and 100miles is my current limit. I managed an 18mph 146 mile once, that was in an Audax and it was all flat, around Hull and York.

Maybe I'm trying to do too much at once?

Thanks SCR Pedro I'll give that link a read once I got this PC banged to rights

Alex_Simmons/RST

SCR Pedro wrote:

willhub wrote:

Is it winter? Is it my general fitness has declined? What could it be? I get irritated when I see signs I have lost performance or am not getting better

I asked the same question in this thread. The consensus was that it's the norm to go slower in the winter, and I should just keep getting out when I can.

Well it might be a "consensus" or "normal" but that doesn't mean you should accept it.

There are ways of building/maintaining fitness in the winter. It's called doing some hard work. This is a hard sport and there's no point complaining about falling fitness levels if you aren't prepared to do some hard work.

The OP wants to improve their "sprinting" but it's not quite clear to me what exactly they mean. Holding high speeds for long periods is not sprinting. That's time trialling. Sprinting is something that typically takes less than 30-seconds.

There are many elements of sprinting (physiological, mental, tactical, skills etc), in the end it is about doing the hard work to train the relevant physiological characteristics and getting the experience to deal with the other elements.

So if the OP isn't devoting some regular training time specifically for developing their sprint prowess, then that is the first place I would start.

Finally, our ability to sprint is also somewhat determined by our physiological makeup, so if you are natural born slow twitcher, then there's only so much sprint speed you'll find. Doesn't mean one shouldn't work at improving it. I can't aways win the bunch sprints but I have a lot more chance if I'm in a small breakaway. Then all you need to be is the best sprinter of a small group.

jimycooper

+1 for track racing. i had no sprint but after also racing the fantastic! preston park track league it has improved sooo much.

give it a try anyway

mclarent

http://www.bikeradar.com/fitness/training/article/technique-big-ring-sprints-17451

andrewgturnbull

Hi there.

From my memory of the Coggan power training book, top end speed (level 7) responds to specific training the quickest of all the levels - and also falls off the fastest. i.e. if you don't use it then you'll lose it!

I usually do a handful of grass track events at the end of each summer which are the only races I generally need to sprint in. Two weeks of sprint intervals leading up to these events are all that I find I need.

By sprint intervals I mean things like the classic lampost workout - sprint from one lampost to the next (ideally 15-20 seconds), recover until the next lampost then repeat. Say 6 to 10 intervals per session. Apart from that I also sprint for every traffic light, passing bus etc on my commutes during that period.

Not that I'm the best sprinter... but a short period of training goes a long way hear. One sprint per ride won't get you anywhere.

Cheers, Andy

ps 28.2mph for a 10 this year!