What is the best way to better sprint times? Would distance running mixed in with sprints help? Or should I just work on sprints?
Thanks!

jwb72,
the biggest problem with sprints is the recovery. you can honestly give 120% for a few repetitions but then you may become semi-worthless. You know that feeling where you swear your lungs are collapsing? well you can't just quit or take a blow while you're pt-ing or in the field somewhere. My advice would be to keep up a normal distance-running routine 3 days a week, while on your days off, sprint sprint sprint. sprinting up a 40 to 60 yard incline will strengthen your step a good deal, and you'll be sure to feel it! stadiums also work to improve quickness as long as you really push yourself. the same goes for quick-jumps on and off steps-either one or two at a time. you could also find some rubber tubing and excercise your hip flexor muscles with resistance. you can also do a similar pool excercise to get the 'flexors. other than that, just stay commited and work your *** off. run with somebody to keep up the intensity. there are actually alot of things you could do but personally i feel that recovery is paramount when considering sprints.

You don't need to be a good sprinter as much as you need to be able to run a fast pace for 3 to 6 miles. The best way to improve your speed in these distances is to do intervals of 400 to 1600 meters one day a week and fartleks of 10-30 minutes on another. Run easy for 20-60 minutes two to four days a week for endurance and recovery. Take one to three days a week off for recovery.
You should start with four 400 meter intervals with a 400 meter jog in between and work up to 3 miles of inetervals, say six 800 meter intervals with 400 meter jogs in between. Try to keep all of your interval times consistent with less that 10 seconds difference from fastest to slowest. Intervals will improve your ability to hold a fast pace and more importantly, they will teach you HOW to pace yourself.
On fartleks, run sprints of 50 to 800 meters at random and jog in between for a recovery. Have fun with it. Fartleks teach your body to respond on demand, just like the instructors will make you do in the pipeline. They're also more fun than most speed work.
The easy days will improve your endurance but let you recover. The days off will also help with recovery. Try this program for ten weeks and see what happens. Repeat program and modify as needed.

Cool, thanks for the advice! I was mixing the two together and was just getting tired before I felt like I got anywhere. Thanks again!
Mike

If I'm reading the thread right it said 3 sprinting days a week and 3 LSD days (HooksX). I could not disagree more. You should not do two hard days in a row if you can help it. And definately only 1 sprint day a week. Just make sure to schedule your active recovery days with the same attention you give hard days.

You are reading me wrong or I did not make myself clear. Two hard days, two to three easy days, two to three days off. Best bet is to run hard on day one, easy on day two, take day three off, hard on day four, easy on day five and then take day six and seven off. You can vary the schedule as you like, just don't run two hard days in a row. Serious distance runners will sometimes run two hard days in a row in the middle of the season with the second hard day being more of a fast pace for a longer distance rather than intervals or sprints. This is for advanced runners who are not training for anything other than running, not for people who need to be good at Cals and Swimming as well. MC

Now that IS good advice. I was refering to HooksX post MC.

Seraphim,
I fgured out you meant HookerX AFTER I had submitted the post but figured I should clarify my statement anyway as it was not as clear as I would have liked.

I think the most important thing in speed training (or any other) is to be consistent. If you keep all your intervals with in 5 seconds or so of each other, you'll be OK. (as long as your not slacking) The next is not to overtrain and kill yourself. The schedule posted previously should help with this. MC