Speed Work

les_steaks

Hi, I play a lot of football where speed/ pace is very important. I like to do some extra training myself and used to do a lot of running. However I found that this 'deadened' my legs and took a lot of the speed out of them. At the minute I'm doing 15 x 10 second sprints with 50s recovery a few mornings a week but find that even this tires my legs. Can anyone suggest a routine that will improve speed and fitness without tiring legs?

Cheers,

Les

justsomebloke

les_steaks wrote:

Can anyone suggest a routine that will improve speed and fitness without tiring legs?

no i can't, but i know somebody here may.

*jsb goes and turns on the because_I_can bat sign knowing that he has quite a bit of knowledge in this area*

edit: his answer by the way may involve a trip to argos

because_I_can

impossible to say off hand without knowing lots more about you, your level of training, schedule, diet, strength, imbalances.

often the removal of certain obstacles in a schedule improves speed.

15 x 10 second sprints with 50s recovery - this is definitely an obstacle. No benefit whatsoever. It will only make you slower.


In general i would advise things like hill sprints, weights, resisted sprints, flexibility work etc. But its high season for Gaa etc so starting a new program that you havent used before would be another obstacle.

For the time being to improve speed:
Do a complete dynamic warmup every session.
Work hard on flexibility both dynamic and static.
Keep up the sprints but shorten the distance to max 40m. Increase recovery a lot and concentrate on quality runs. Up on the balls of feet. Full extension (or at least more extension) at the hips
Work your core like never before. 100s of situps using hip flexors

les_steaks

Thanks a million for that because_I_can, makes sense. Doing a lot of core work at the moment, pilates, stability ball etc.. Always do dynamic warm up etc. so will continue that and shorten sprints and work on form and quality.

Thanks again,

Les