Best Track Workouts

There are a lot of different types of track workouts that you can do but through my time in track I have found some workouts that I really like depending on what you are trying to accomplish. 

If you are looking for some good lactic threshold training then some of my favorite workouts are split 500s, 400s, or 300s. What that means is you break apart the distance into 2 parts, for example a split 500 can be broken into a 400 and 100 or a 200 and 300. Then in between the parts you put a 100m jog as a mini recovery. So if you were running a split 500 your rep could look like: sprint a 300, jog a 100, then sprint a 200. Then, to build the full workout, you do 1-2 reps of split 500, 400, or 300, and then finish it off with 2-3 split 200s. This workout will build your lactic threshold by pushing you to sprint with little recovery in between. It will also help a lot with the last 150m of a race by getting your body and mind used to the lactic pain and being able to push through that. 

Another one of my favorite workouts is a straight set of 6-8 200s at around 28-30 seconds. This will be a little bit more speed focused but will still work on that speed endurance that is important for all sprinters to have. In order to really do this workout well, it is important to not take too much time to rest in between reps. I would suggest only 4-5 mins of rest so that you are making your body sprint when it is not fully recovered. Similar to the last workout, this will build your mental and physical strength against lactic acid.

Finally the last good track workout is a pure speed day. This workout will feel short and your body shouldn’t hurt too bad after completing it but it is necessary to have some speed days built in to offset the speed endurance days. For these days you can do anywhere from 10-50 m and if you are able to, you should use blocks. Make sure that on these days you don’t do a ton of reps, I usually do 2 sets of 5 reps with full rest in between. These workouts will help you build pure speed and work on your block start.

There are many different variations of these workouts that you can create and also many other workouts in general that are great. These are just a few of my favorites and ones that I have found work really well.