10 Sprint Workouts to Make You Faster

LOTS OF GUYS think of running as a monotonous slog—nothing more than a means to an end to check the cardio box off their fitness checklist. These narrow-minded meatheads, however, are only thinking about one very specific type of running workout. If they’d expand their training horizons, they’d have a much better time trying to keep up with one of the most quick-hitting, challenging styles of running protocols: sprint training.

If you’ve ever trained your way to a road race, you already know there’s way more to running than just clocking dozens of miles at a steady state pace. That’s a useful strategy to train to build your cardiovascular endurance, or as a means to ramp up your overall training volume. Speed, however, is another matter.

Speed training (sometimes known as interval work) can help you to develop into a stronger runner. This is done by alternating short bouts of varying speeds with rest periods. This type of protocol is also a bit more engaging than just logging a handful of miles at the same pace for your training, too.

Benefits of Sprint Workouts

Sprint training will allow you to build up your capacity to run faster, yes—and there are other benefits. You’ll also build power and athleticism, and have more of an aesthetic impact than you might expect as you push yourself to max effort.

You don’t have to think of yourself as a runner to benefit from sprint training, either. Incorporating sprints into your fitness routine can improve cardiovascular health; small studies have shown that including sprint protocols in your training can improve heart health and cardiovascular function. Sprint workouts have also been seen to improve aerobic and anaerobic capacity.

If you’re someone who gets bored at even the thought of a long run, you’ll also appreciate that a sprint session doesn’t take several hours. An interval workout can be a time-effective way to incorporate cardio into your next gym session, or can work as a standalone workout when you only have a little bit of time on your schedule.

“A good speed session is exactly the same thing as a hard lifting session, and brings the added benefit of being a great cardio workout,” says Steve Finley head coach of Brooklyn Track Club in New York City. “Small segments of interval work can make a major difference if you add them into your training, whether you’re an avid runner or someone who would rather be lifting weights in the gym.”

Here, Finley and Nike+ Run Coach Percell Dugger share some valuable sprint workouts to improve your pace and get you running like the wind. Start with a dynamic warmup, then get ready to hit the road.

One quick note: if you’re not a seasoned runner, you might not be familiar with the pace estimates in these workouts. That’s okay. You can use a calculator tool to figure out what this means to you, or run by feel. Feel free to adjust any of the pace estimates to whatever is manageable to you— after all, it’s your workout.

Sprint Workouts at the Track

Workout 1 – 10 x 200 meters

• Rest: 60 seconds
• Pace: 5K

Finley says: “This is a great workout for you to get to know the track, feel how it feels to accelerate around the line and the turn and ride it out for a steady pace, striding down the straightaway. The 60 seconds of rest will add up quickly. Done in this format, this workout is a cardio fitness, aerobic effort. If you were to go for 2:00 rest instead, I’d suggest really picking up the pace working down toward your goal mile effort, which makes this more anaerobic.”

Workout 2 – 8 x 400

• Rest: 90 seconds
• Pace: Start at 10K and working down

“This is like the advanced version of workout one. Your goal is to get progressive as time goes on. Ideally by the end of this workout, you should be hitting at or below your best mile time.”

Workout 3 – 5 x 800

• Rest: 60 seconds
• Pace: Start at 10K and working down

“This is one of those workouts where you’re in the effort for a solid amount of time, and you want to turn your brain off. Get into a rhythm. Think of this like a tempo run that feels super relaxed and calm.”

Workout 4 – 6 x 300, 4 x 150

• Rest: 2.5 minutes between each

This workout takes a different approach than many workouts, according to Dugger. “[You’ll make] true gains… in these non-traditional distances. So instead of doing 400 meters [one lap around a standard track], I would actually have somebody do a series of 300 meters. The reason why is because those two straightaways [the straight 100 meter stretches on the track] will really allow you to open up your stride and lean in. It’s simultaneously helping to prepare your nervous system to move fast to decrease the amount of turnover you can get when you’re running those curves.”

Sprint Workouts for Running on the Road

Workout 5 – Hills, 8 x 45 seconds

• Rest: Jog down hill
• Pace: Hard effort, about a 7 our of 10 on the RPE (rate of perceived exertion) scale

“This workout is all about working on explosiveness, as your goal is to get farther and farther up the hill you’re working with for each rep. Think about driving your knees and working your arms. Hill work is speed work in disguise. By working the muscles in your posterior chain, you’re actually becoming faster. A lot of runners feel guilty that they don’t do big lifts, but often times if they’re doing hill work, they’re reaping a lot of the same benefits.”

Workout 6 – 12 x 1:00

• Rest: 1:00
• Pace: 7 out of 10 on the RPE

“You could call this a fartlek. This is an easy workout you could do after traveling, after work, if you’re not feeling that great — because the intervals are really manageable. It’s really about just getting your heart rate up, and then on the one-minute rest, you’re bringing it back down. Don’t go into this with any big expectations or pressure. Just enjoy it for what it is.”

Workout 7 – Segment Run x 6

• Rest: 90 seconds
• Pace: 7 out of 10 on the RPE

“Segments, or specific areas in your neighborhood, can be great for repeat work. I would prescribe this segment to be done at a decent effort, but really, you can make this what you want. Similar to the hill workout, see if you can get farther with each repeat. If you really want to crank intensity, find a segment with an incline.”

Sprint Workouts for the Treadmill

Workout 8 – Ladder: 5:00, 4:00, 3:00, 2:00, 1:00

• Rest: 90 seconds
• Pace: Progressively working down from half-marathon to goal mile pace

“I love ladder workouts. Your goal here is to start conservatively. You definitely don’t want that first 5:00 block to be too hard. So, start at something slower, like a half-marathon mph pace, then bump it up about .5 or 1.0mph with each rep, depending on how you are feeling.”

Workout 9 – 4 x 4:00

• Rest: 90 seconds
• Pace: Start at half-marathon and progressively pick it up

“With the increase from rep to rep here, bump it up only about .2 to .3 each time. This workout is about turning your brain off, you could even call it a meditation style run. You’re zoning out, purposely trying to listen to your breath, and focus on not being the space you’re in. This is what makes tread running beneficial. This zone out, it’s something we teach through long runs as coaches, but it can be taught through long intervals.”

Workout 10 – Power Development Workout

• 2 rounds of 6 to 8 MPH at 6 percent incline for 90 seconds
• 1 minute rest between rounds
• 4 rounds of 8 to 9 MPH at a 3 percent incline for 45 seconds
• 1 minute rest between rounds
• 5 rounds rounds of full sprint (10 to 12 MPH) at 0 percent incline for 20 seconds
• 1 minute rest between rounds

“This is a great one to do to get the nervous system primed and ready for a workout that you would be primarily working on power development,” says Dugger. Many will start this workout thinking, “wow, this is hard. But as the incline lowers and the speeds get faster, and it will be shorter, they’ll have more confidence to go faster,” he says.

It can be difficult for some people to understand pacing on the treadmill versus the road, which is why Duggar prefers to give MPH ranges. Remember, though, that these are not all-or-nothing ranges. If you need to adjust these numbers down—or up, if you feel like you have more to give—go for it.