Your 5K runners are slow because they can't sprint.

Last meet of the season, we needed a body for the 4x400 and someone said the fatal sentence: "He's in shape, put him in the relay." My best miler split 64. A sophomore sprinter who has never voluntarily run more than 600 meters split 52 and made it look easy. Danny was fitter than everyone in that race. He was also, mechanically, slower than a kid who couldn't finish a two-mile.

That relay is this whole episode.

Speed reserve is the gap between how fast an athlete can possibly run and how fast they actually race. Two kids both running 75-second laps for a 5:00 mile: one is at 73% of his max, the other is at 90%. Same pace, completely different race. One is cruising with a gear left. The other has been redlining since the gun.

In this one:

• The two-athlete math that reorganized how I think about race pace
• Why Paavolainen's runners got faster at 5K with zero change in VO2 max
• The three rules that make sprint work actually work (and why cutting the rest ruins it)
• Wickets, flying 30s, and short hill sprints, with the freshman and varsity versions of each
• The high/low week that fits speed in without costing you a single aerobic mile
• The four mistakes that make coaches conclude "speed work doesn't do anything"
• Whether sprinting is actually an injury risk, or the vaccination against one

Plus what happened to Danny the following season, and the one sentence he said after his mile that I've never forgotten.

If you listened to Episode 6 and think this contradicts it, stick around for the intro. It doesn't. It's the other half of the sentence.

SHOW NOTES

Full article: Speed as a Skill, A Guide for Distance Runnershttps://coachsaltmarsh.com/speed-development-distance-runners/

Full transcript and show notes:https://coachsaltmarsh.com/salty-talks-podcast/salty-talks-speed-reserve/

Zone 2 training and the 4-year burnout crisis:https://coachsaltmarsh.com/zone-2-training-for-high-school-runners-solving-the-4-year-burnout-crisis/

When fatigue becomes overtraining:https://coachsaltmarsh.com/when-fatigue-becomes-overtraining/

Training Paces Calculator (LT1 / LT2), free:https://coachsaltmarsh.com/lactate-threshold-calculator/

The 22-Week Season Blueprint:https://coachsaltmarsh.com/store-coach-saltmarsh/