Sprint training is of some benefit even to long distance runners - there is even an anaerobic component in the marathon, albeit only 1% they say. I am not sure if that is for the finishing sprint or for that matter the race to the massage tents afterwards, but it certainly isn't for the start, where every "effort" should be made to run conservatively. Our training group of middle and long distance runners moved into a phase of speed sessions - perhaps not true sprinting, but sessions designed to turn over the legs faster. There were ten people there to do this: Bronwyn, Craig, Joel, Margaret, Miranda, Neil, Roger, Ruth, Suzie & Yelena, plus me, but I "passed" owing to niggles following a leg-strengthening late morning session. We started with continuous shuttle relay teams of three, with batons, on the 100m straight, each person running 10x100m, where Margaret+Ruth were "one person" so ran 50m each instead of the 100m everybody else did. The teams were so well balanced that all three teams finished together, in no way due to Craig's tactics of "resting" during a couple of the sprints. Then we reformed into two teams of five runners each and did 10x50m shuttle relay on the 100m straight. Again the two teams finished within a bee's whisker of each other, owing to Roger pulling out sore towards the end and at the very end Joel having to make a dash from a fair way away to grab the baton and sprint to the finish, not quite making it, after their team having been somewhat ahead.
Aerobic/anaerobic
Aerobic/anaerobic
