Sharpen Your Speed for A Faster Sprint Triathlon

The triathlon world devotes a lot of attention to the long-distance events, so much so that athletes often come to me thinking they need to train like Iron-distance athletes for local sprint triathlons. While many of the concepts are the same, success in sprint tris is all about speed, and your training needs to build speed instead of day-long endurance.

For everyone who wants to PR in your next sprint triathlon, incorporate the following run sessions into your training. These workouts are best added in the 2-4 weeks leading up to your race. This is the time when you’re using the fitness you gained from endurance and lactate threshold training for high-intensity workouts that put the finishing touches on your training before you begin your taper.

Even though the workouts themselves aren’t very long, and the efforts within them are even shorter, they’re very taxing. They’re also very effective, so you don’t need to do too many to reap the rewards. Include them in your training program one to two times a week, and you’ll be flying through the run at your next sprint triathlon.

Power Up With Hills
Hill intervals will not only prepare you for the minor undulations in your next race, but they will also help you build leg strength that translates nicely greater power on the bike. An additional bonus to working the hills is that it helps dial in your running efficiency. Your body naturally minimizes extraneous movements while running up a hill, thus quickly figuring out the “easiest” and most efficient way to make it to the top. Running up and down hills will not only make you faster on the hills, but it will make you faster on the flats as well because you will learn how to be a more economical runner. So while you may dread the incline, revel in the challenge and know that with each climb you are getting faster and faster!

Your Hill Workout (35 minutes)
• 15 minute warm up
• 5x2 minute hill repeats with 2 minute walking recovery
Even those of you who live in Florida have a two minute hill- even if it’s an overpass! Go ahead and find that hill and get to know it well. Think about running from your core; strong abs and back and a rhythmic arm swing will help you motor up those hills. Jog or walk down the hill for a full recovery and have at it again and again.
• 10 minute cool down.

Get Quicker Turnover with Speed Intervals
Ever feel like you just can’t run any faster, not because your heart is about to explode in your chest, but because your legs can’t keep up with you? What would happen if you put the treadmill on the highest setting? Would you need a padded wall behind you, or could you keep up without holding on? Believe it or not, leg turnover speed is actually a primary limiting factor in running faster (especially for shorter distances). Assuming you have a solid foundation, your lactate threshold and aerobic fitness might not be the reason you can’t crank out 5-minute miles, your leg turnover might be the impediment. What are you shooting for? Well, elite runners can achieve a turnover of about 100-105 strides per minute. I try to get amateur and age-group runners to bring their turnover up to 90 strides per minute or higher. The following workout will help you break your personal barrier.

Your Speed Interval Workout (45 minutes)
• Warm up 10 minutes
• Speed Intervals 6x2 minutes with 2 min recovery (walking or easy jogging)
• Cool down 10 minutes

These intervals are all-out efforts, as fast as you can go, for 2 minutes. While the weather is nice and you are hot to trot to bask in the sun of the outdoors, these workouts are actually best done on a treadmill. I know not what you want to hear, but hey, it’s a great workout for a rainy day! The treadmill belt will force you to turnover your legs faster than you would on your own so by threat of expulsion you learn incrementally to run faster. Nothing like being pushed beyond your limits, right? Start slowly and safely though. Begin at a speed where you can complete the entire 2 minutes without holding on to the treadmill. The next time you do this workout see if you can bump the speed up a little faster. So if you maxed out at 9.8 mph on your first attempt at this workout, shoot for 9.9 or 10mph next time.

This workout will push you out of your comfort zone, and it will make you faster! Quicker leg speed translates to faster run splits, so head to the gym or the basement and see how fast those feet can turnover, it will pay off come race day when the belt isn’t pushing you, but your competitors are. You’ll have that little extra kick to hold a faster split and run down anyone in your age group.

Abby Ruby is a Senior Coach at Carmichael Training Systems, Inc. who’s currently coaching triathletes who range in age from 22 to 83. To find out what CTS can do for you, visit www.trainright.com.