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I am a M65 sprinter and long jumper of sorts. Sometimes I participate in a local 10km town fun race with my family. It has ups and downs and I do it in about 53 mins (a target time). Previous years I have trained for that 10km by running the distance on roads and tracks. But pounding asphalt in the sun is not fun and it takes the edge off my sprinting. I normally train three times a week, mostly speed, 30-40m dashes and max. 400m (about 68 sec) with 10 min. intervals, not quantity. I think that my sprint training is enough to get me around the 10km in my target time. So this year I don't intend to train distance for that 10km. This is probably quite a common situation for us sprinters and family men. Any experiences, comments or advice?

Hi --I am a W46 sprinter/hurdler. I like to do road races for fun. My husband does 10ks and 1/2 marathons so I will join him occasionally. I've noticed that road race training gives me endurance for my sprint workouts but does nothig for my speed, in fact it tends to shorten my stride. Every September I participate in a 10 mile race which is by far the longest race I'll run. Track season is over for me and I use my track conditioning to get through it. I do 9 min miles and it's a fun event I get to share with my road racing friends. So road racing is fun but in my experience it doesn't help with sprint training. If you just relax, view it as fun and not overly competitive, and share it with family and friends you can keep a decent pace and surprise yourself with how well you do.

"lpalmer" - I agree entirely. I also enjoy my 10km road training, sometimes. I forgot to mention that I have had some unexpected and persistent injuries from training distance on roads and cross country. So less road mileage for this sprinter. I'll certainly just relax and view that 10km race as fun. Thanks.

For what it worth, from my view, I can not see the harm of training for/or competiting in a road race. One thing I find, which I mentioned in earlier post, is a lack of meets. I like to focus on track (various events most that I did in HS or College) more than road racing, but when you can go months without a track meet and find the time hard to join a track club, what do you do to keep motivated ? Hence I think an occasional road race is a good idea.

I had the versatility in HS and College where I did cross country in the fall and then did the sprints in the winter and spring some 20 to 25 years ago. I don't have the speed now that I had back then (and I probably could improve with a little more speed work) but I have fun on the track and I truly enjoyed it and more importantly have not been seriously hurt since resuming running 14 years ago.

I remember back in the 70's when Allen Page of the Minnesota Vikings,was an all pro bowler in the NFL. He was the first NFL player to run a marathon, this was late in his career and he was still playing in the pro bowl. I remember him saying at the time that running the marathon helped his endurance and he thought that it helped him continue to play at that high level so late in his career.

Training for a 10K improves the wrong muscle fibers and energy systems needed to be a sprinter. The training that you would do for a 10K is counter productive to sprinting.

I think it would depend on what class level sprinter that would we be referring to. A highly ranked nationally masters sprinter who does no other events would most likely not benefit from 10k training, However a local master athlete who occasionally hops on the track for various sprints and does other events and road races, I can't see the harm in it.

I agree that training for 10K trains the wrong muscle fibers, etc. for sprinting but to say it's counterproductive is too much. I think it could expand your versatility in terms of conditioning, biological pathways. This is a guess. Don't know if there are any data to back it up.

I agree with PDelis50. It does depend if it is a local guy that just jumps on the track every now. I still stand by that it is counter productive for a sprinter to train for the 10k. There have been a few studies done and if I can find the articles I will post a like to them so others can read the information for themselves and make an informed decision.

That'd be great!

Here is one link discussing muscle fiber types in detail. Hope this helps.

http://www.coachr.org/fiber.htm

Thanks for the link!

tphit - thanks. http://www.coachr.org/fiber.htm was very interesting. Clearly, not even a masters sprinter should train distance.

I was offered an by a researcher in my Swedish club a long time ago. I refused - scared of the needle - and regret it to this day.

Do you think athletes should take this test to establish their aptitude for the events they have chosen?

At what amount of distance training does it become counte-productive?

Can a 100/200 sprinter jog/run say, 6 miles a week, or is that counter-productive to his sprinting?

No pro here but from what I've been reading it's counterproductive. I don't think it'd be all that bad though if you're only doing it once a week. It will, however, offer you one less speed workout a week, but sometimes a little break/variety is a good thing. My 2 centimos!