Speed Endurance Workouts for Sprinters & Jumpers
Have you ever seen an athlete be unable to make their 5th jump in a long jump competition?
Or completely phase out at the 250m mark in the 400m?
These situations often come down to the athlete lacking speed endurance.
Endurance is what allows an athlete to continue to execute with power and speed over time.
Sprinters and jumpers need to have this endurance in order to maintain top speeds and power for all the flights of jumps or the entire run.
Accordingly, speed endurance is essential in any sprinter’s or jumper’s training routine.
There are two different aspects of speed endurance: long and short.
Short Speed Endurance
Short speed endurance deals with building endurance for short sprints. The focus here is developing an athlete's ability to repeatedly sprint at high speeds with minimal fatigue. These sessions have athletes sprint distances less than 100m with full recovery between each run. This targets the anaerobic energy system to build endurance. This type of training is especially critical for jumpers and 100m sprinters.
As for all workouts, make sure to warmup for about 30-45 minutes with dynamic drills and static stretching. Following your workout, cool down appropriately as well.
Workouts
2-4 x 80 m sprints
6 min recovery between each run
3 x 2 x 40m sprints
2 min recovery between each run
6 min recovery between reps
3 x 2 x 60m sprints
4 min recovery between each run
6 min recovery between reps
4 x 3 x 50m sprints
3 min recovery between each run
6 min recovery between reps
Overall, when training speed endurance it is critical that you are running at about 90-95%. One cannot develop speed endurance without running very close to their top speeds. Make sure to get the full length of recovery.
Long Speed Endurance
Long speed endurance is concerned with building endurance over longer sprint distances. These workouts are used to develop an athlete's ability to sprint at maximum speed over a long duration. Accordingly, these sessions have athlete's sprint distances between 100-400m with less than a full recovery between reps, making them rather difficult. This will target both the aerobic (most) and anaerobic (to a lesser extent) energy systems.
This training is essentially for 200m & 400m runners, and will be a focus of training all year round. Long speed endurance is important for 100m sprinters and jumpers to make sure they have endurance to continue over multiple jumps and be able to run the reps of 100m required for pre-lims, semi-finals, and finals. For jumpers and purely 100m/60m sprinters, long speed endurance workouts should be used intermittently and essentially phased out of training sessions during competition season.
As for all workouts, make sure to warmup for about 30-45 minutes with dynamic drills. Following your workout, cool down appropriately as well.
Workouts
300m-200m-100m reverse-ladder sprint
12 min recovery after the 300m
10 min recovery after the 200m
8 min recovery after the 100m
4-6 x 150m
5 min recovery between each run
2 x 100m, 150m, 300m ladder sprint
10 min recovery after the 100s
12 min recovery after the 150m
15 min recovery after the 300m
For long speed endurance, still be sure to run at top speeds, with about 90-95% effort. By increasing or decreasing the amount of effort, you can significantly change the intensity of your workout.
Again, make sure to get the full length of recovery. The recovery will feel shorter due to the intensity of a longer sprint, but it is critical that you time it properly.
