How to improve your sprint finish by Orlando Pizzolato in June 2004
Foreword
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Producing a sprint finish at the end of a race is always considered an
indication of how well we can tap into our deepest reserves - a true test of
competitive spirit. Some athletes can produce a final spurt time and time again
while others, despite a concerted effort in the final stages, can only produce a
modest increase in pace. One might say, then, that producing a good sprint
finish is mainly a question of natural gifts, a situation that would be
frustrating for those who don't have the capacity to open out in those dramatic
dying moments of a race. Yet, with targeted training, you too can become a fast
finisher.
The three factors that contribute to a sprint finish are: physical, biomechanical and psychological.
Amongst the physical factors, the prevailing one is muscle-fibre composition: the white fibres (which sprinters are especially gifted with) being more specific to speed than the red ones (which prevail among long-distance athletes). Then there are also the intermediate fibres that, with proper training, can be made to work like white ones, and thus bring an improvement in the sprint finish.
Muscular strength, responsiveness and flexibility also contribute to an improved finishing burst. It's also very important to have good joint mobility.
Among the biomechanical factors to be considered is running technique, which is strongly influenced by the physical factors. So by improving your strength, responsiveness and flexibility, you will be able to run more economically and efficiently. While on the pyschological side, determination and motivation are very important. Indeed, I believe that the sprint finish starts more in athletes' minds than in their legs.
These, then, are the aspects you ought to concentrate on if you want your finish to become a real weapon.
When attending to the technical side of sprint finish (important though not essential at amateur level), it's important for the long-distance competitor not to neglect endurance workouts. Why? Because if fast-finishing athletes can't keep up with their rivals during the race itself, having a good sprint finish at the ready when your rival is already on the podium is not a lot of use. Some athletes aren't particularly fast but they can produce a finishing spurt of 300-500 metres. Others find they can wind up a progressive acceleration from even farther out. Both these methods can be effective in forcing fast finishers into an oxygen debt that cancels out any potential advantage.
You can therefore train to build speed, but there are limitations, due above all to age: on reaching the threshold age of 40, muscles tend to lose the efficiency necessary to sustain high running speeds. Also, given that with the passing of years, athletes tend to prefer endurance challenges (half marathons, marathons and ultra-marathons) speed training (which realistically can only clip a few seconds off a 3-hour race, but which may well lead to injury) is of limited use. It's much more productive, instead, to concentrate on improving your anaerobic threshold, i.e. the running intensity at which muscles begin to rapidly accumulate lactic acid. An increase in anaerobic threshold of only 0.2 km/h, from 14,8 km/h to 15,0 km/h, for example, would cut about 40 seconds off a half marathon time. This reduction obviously being doubled over the marathon distance.
Training methods to improve your sprint finish
- 10-15 x 50m uphill sprints; 95% exertion; recovery: 30 seconds walking + 1 min. jogging;
- 3 sets of 5 x 50m at 100% exertion; recovery: 2-3 minutes walking between sprints and 5 minutes between sets of 5;
- 8-10 x 200m at your 1,000-1,500m race pace; recovery of 2-2'30" minutes walk and light jog;
- 4-5 x 300m at your 1,500m race pace; recovery of 4-5 minutes walking and light jogging.
Before every session, you should do a warm up of 15-20 minutes slow jogging and 10 minutes of stretching.
Italian to English translations by Ivor Coward
