Can run/jog but cant sprint?

Question

when i do some moderate running just for endurance i can run for around one hour and sometimes even more with ease, but when it comes to sprintin full force, i cant even last 40 seconds.

one night i did 5 sets of 30 seocnds sprints with 1 minute 20 seconds beetween each set, after this i was dead, but i can do some moderate run for 1 hour plus.. is that normal?

Answer 1

i think it is because your muscles were trained for endurance. make sure your form is correct when sprinting. you should use

more arm power to pump yourself, keep your leg distance short and keep your body slightly leaned to the front. you need a little pacing while training for sprinting. start at 80% of your top speed and do 100% at the final stretch while training.

Answer 2

I don't know how to tell you to condition yourself better, but I can tell you why there's a difference.  When you run/jog, you are excercising aerobically, that is, you are using oxygen to do the work.  Sprinting is an anaerobic excercise, basically not using oxygen to do what is being done.  It may be because of the way your body is built or the types of excercise you've done in the past, but like any other type of excercise, you'll get better at it the more you do it.

Answer 3

it's your rapid fire muscle strands that are not fully developed, I'm the same way.  I can run for miles at an easy pace but within mins of picking up speed I'm on the verge of vomitting and sore the next day.  I don't know how to fix it except gradually increasing speed for only short periods so you don't injure yourself.

I do intervals at top speed with a good recovery. so my training is:

20 mins at 6.0 warm up

1 min at 7.0, 1 min at 5.5 to recover,

2 min at 7.0, 2 min at 5.5,

3 min at 7.0, 3 min at 5.5 etc.  

I'm not an expert though. i'm actually a swimmer but it seems to work with increasing my speed during outdoor runs.

Answer 4

I'm not sure to be honest. but maybe you should just try sprinting alone to get your endurance up.

Answer 5

Your body does not have the anaerobic capacity to sprint all out for 40 seconds. Unless of course you are running the 400m which is a speed-endurance based event. You can do speedwork to get faster, but you aren't going to be able to go ALL OUT 40 seconds.

Answer 6

Yes that is perfectly normal. The body was not made to run all out for extended periods of time. For sprints that last more then 30 seconds, it isn't about sprinting faster, it is about who slows down the least. It is physically impossible to run an all out sprint for more then 400m. You would drop dead if this were to be the case. Even 400m olympians do not go all out sprint on there runs. like I said before, its all about who slows down the least.

Your endurance is fine, so it seems, and the only thing you could hope to do is to be able to cover more ground then you previously would have been able to in that 40 seconds.

keep up the good work though. you sound like you got your head on straight. Just keep on training and you will become more efficient at sprinting.