The benefits of sprinting eluded me for man years in my training. I wanted to focus on running farther, not puking my guts out. Silly, silly me. If I’d known then what I know now, I would have started doing short intense intervals even while marathon training!
As a running coach, I love that I can share what I’ve learned in my own experience over 20 years as a non-elite who still has goals to be the best runner that I can.
When we think of sprinting, the first image that comes to mind might be of Jamaica’s Usain Bolt, arguably the greatest sprinter of all time. Other well known sprinters include Justin Gatlin and Allyson Felix.
In other words, we visualize a professional!
But that doesn’t mean the average recreational runner can’t sprint. In fact, sprint training offers a lot of benefits!
We don’t need to focus on them day 1 of our running journey. We do need to learn to embrace a different kind of discomfort for some pretty radical benefits. Adding sprint interval training (SIT) to your training can provide a wide variety of benefits from improved speed and increased endurance to better heart health and metabolism boosts.
Sprints are an intense effort that require a LOT from your body and mind. Before adding them, you need to understand how to do them and when…
