Set a goal and sprint ahead

What I am about to say is nothing new and you have probably heard it all before, but setting a fitness goal is a great way to help you stay motivated to exercise regularly. It always surprises me when people go to the gym with no real objective in mind. If you have made an effort to go… surely you would want to get the most from it. A goal will give you direction as you will have to plan what you need to do to achieve it. This will lead to a more efficient and effective workout and keep you on the straight and narrow. To put a tick next to your goal is a great feeling and you will remember it forever, so give it some thought over the weekend and let me know what your goal is!

I like to practice what I preach so I set myself a challenge to improve my 100m sprint time. By the end of February I would like to be able to run 100m in 15 seconds. This is no easy feat for me as previously I have focused my attention on endurance distances. I need to be able to explode out of the blocks and accelerate to top end speed quickly, and then maintain this speed for as long as I possibly can (ideally the entire distance). Over the next 12 weeks I will be undertaking complex training for more strength and power, as well as specific sprint training out on the track such as resisted sprints (using parachutes and sleds). I will keep you posted on my progress and I will share my training methods and activities here.

I went down to the track today for a sprint session and I have detailed below “the main event”: (It goes without saying that I warmed up to prepare my body for the hard work that followed, and cooled down to slow my breathing and bring my mind and body back to a resting state). It is basically a ladder workout set over a 100m and at each interval the sprint distance increases. You need to put maximum effort into each sprint so it is important to have adequate rest periods. I would suggest a work:rest ratio of 1:5 so you can fully recover before you begin the next sprint. The focus here is on quality not quantity and I would love to know how you get on.

Interval 1: 30-meter sprint / 70-meter jog… interval 2: 40-meter sprint / 60-meter jog… interval 3: 50-meter sprint / 50-meter jog… interval 4: 60-meter sprint / 40-meter jog… interval 5: 70-meter sprint / 30-meter jog… interval 6: 80-meter sprint / 20-meter jog… interval 7: 90-meter sprint / 10-meter jog… interval 8: 100-meter sprint