Sprint Workouts

Sprinting utilized a different energy delivery system than other forms of racing. Your muscles use mainly creatine phosphate when sprinting.  This form of energy allows for very high power output, but it is gone  in 10-15 sec. To replenish creatine phosphate stores in your muscles  requires a relatively long time - 5 min. or so. This is why it is important when doing sprint workouts to recover fully in between efforts. You don’t want to train yourself to go slow.  You should do your sprint workout early in the week when you are freshest. Sprinting also requires coordination and upper body strength and therefore must be practiced.

A good sprint workout consists of a thorough warm-up, maybe with a few short, small-geared jumps and then 5-8 all-out sprints of 15-20  sec. with 5 min. or so between efforts. To work on pure speed, get  yourself rolling (say 18-20mph) and then sprint as hard as you can  in the gear that allows you to go the fastest.  To work on strength  and acceleration, you can do “power sprints”. This is where you start  at very low speed (5 mph) in a big gear (53x13 or 53x14) and accelerate  as hard as you can for 15 sec.  Sprinting requires a lot of strength  and a winter weight program can really benefit here. Track sprint specialists hit the weight room year around.  It is good to do sprint workouts with a partner or a small group for extra motivation. You can also look at max. speed on your cycling computer for each effort to gauge progress.