Speed Time Trial

I have given you the workouts for four weeks and if you are ready for a bit of a test to see how you are doing you could try to give yourself a time trial.

A lot of people like to see how their workouts are going for them and if they are getting faster. We haven't done a time trial yet, so it would be hard to really judge how the workouts are going for you.

A time trial is a way for people to know where they are at in their workouts. This is our first one, so this will be a beginning point. In another five weeks, I recommend that you do another time trial to see how you compare to the one that we do this week.

A time trial is an all out intense run to see how far you can get. You can do time trials in distance or in time. For a distance time trial, you would decide how far you really want to test yourself. A lot of athletes will run a 400 all out to see how fast they can do it in. You can do this in any distance that you like.

What I recommend, and what I did for my time trial was to run 45 seconds all out and see how far you can get. This is what I call a timed time trial. Choose a time you want to run. Maybe you are training for the 200 meters and your goal is to run a 24 seconds. You could run for 20 seconds and see how far you could get. 45 seconds is a good amount to run if you are training for any type of sprinting event.

It would be more benefitial for you if you had someone come out with you to time you. It is hard to start and stop your watch while you are sprinting. Sometimes a lot of people who wear their watches while sprinting focus more on their time rather than their form and the actual race. If you can not get someone to come out and time you, it is not a problem. Just make sure you mentally prepare yourself to focus on how far you can get in the quickest time possible.

If you do have someone out there to help time you, what would also be benefitial is to have the person time your first 100 and 200 meters. Do not have them stop the clock as you go through the 100 and 200 meter mark, but just have them clock down how many seconds it took you to get through that mark.

Good luck and remember to stretch and do the complete warm-up before you attempt this. It would be horrible if you did not warm up and you ended up pulling something. If you do this, make sure to comment and let me know how you did!

Here is one of my favorite quotes to end this entry. It was said by famous runner, Steve Prefontaine and helps me get through the tough times in this sport...

"To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift."