Run Long, Run Healthy — May 23, 2024
How To Ramp Up From FIT to FASTER; When Is Too Old To Keep Running? The Best Marathon Training Plan
PLUS: A new carbo-loading formula; Why the Air Force loves Topo shoes; How sub-4-minute milers outrun The Grim Reaper; Magical red juices
You’re Already Fit — Here’s How To Get Even Faster
How can you keep improving, even after you are already in very good shape? It’s not easy. After all, the “law of diminishing returns” sets in at some point.
Some believe you need to apply a little “shock therapy” at this juncture. A dash of sprint training could be just what you need.
That proved to be an excellent decision in this experiment with 19 college runners. As varsity athletes, they were already in top shape.
Researchers put roughly half of them in a “sprint training” group. They did sprint sessions twice a week for six weeks. The control group continued their normal training.
Result: The control-group runners didn’t improve during the 6-week period. But the sprint-trained runners got faster at distances from 100 meters to 3000 meters.
