Improving Sprint Speed/Stamina

Newaglish

I do a fair bit of middle distance running (5k, 10k and 10 miles) and I'm fine for stamina with those, and can happily keep running the whole way.

I also play tag rugby, and as that is starting again in the summer I was hoping for some advice on sprinting/high intensity workouts.

Despite the fact that I can happily run for 90 minutes without stopping, one thing I find with tag is that I can have to sprint a few times and I'm dying after about ten minutes. I'm also fairly average when it comes to speed so if there was some sort of workout or program I could add into my general gym work to improve both stamina and burst speed, that would be great.

Not sure if I need to focus on leg weights (I do none of these) or just do lots of sprinting? I have no idea how to structure this!

SanoVitae

Newaglish wrote: »

Not sure if I need to focus on leg weights (I do none of these) or just do lots of sprinting?

It's a combination of both.

Regarding sprinting, you need to find a program which develops your ability to recover between maximum efforts (sprinting) - there's no use being able to run a record 100m time in a rugby match if you can only do it once. So your program would be structured so that you're doing things like sprinting all out for 10-20 seconds, taking a 30 second rest, and then doing the same again.

The closer you mimic the demands of your sport the better the results you'll get. Obviously rugby involves plenty of all-out sprints so middle distance running won't prepare you properly. The reverse is also true.

Hope that helps,

Paul

token56

Regarding sprinting there are two things really you need to work, power and your anaerobic fitness. From what you say you have good aerobic or cardiovascular fitness, i.e. your body uses your oxygen efficiently when you are being supplied with enough oxygen. Buts it what your body does when you dont have enough oxygen coming in ,i.e. anaerobic exercises like with sprinting, that you need to improve on. The simplest thing you could probably do is sprinting intervals, like 6-8x100-200m sprints with a short recovery, e.g. 30-45 secs, but this is something you need to work towards. This probably isn't purely anaerobic though and to be honest I dont know enough about exactly what exercises you need to do but I'm sure if you look around for some anaerobic fitness programs or even some fitness drills for soccer or rugby teams you'd find something useful.

Goin90

Plyometrics are a good way to increase speed, particularly acceleration. Things like box jumps, I find really help to increase speed and explosive power. But as has been said sprinting and mimicking the environment in which you'll be sprinting will probably be your best bet. Some leg weights couldn't hurt either though.