This is probably the wrong place to be asking this question, given Athletica is for endurance, but I will anyhow, as I am curious & I value your perspective.
Long story short, way back at school, I was a very fast sprinter ( ~ 10.5 seconds for 100m), but as I grew up with life, work & then parenting my sprinting days became a distant memory.
Well, I’m now fitter than I have ever been, race when I can & have started taking part in some track events to see what my ability is & recently raced a 13.8-second 100 m (4th for my age group) & came second in a 200 m race, both races untrained other than off the back of the running I do & without stating blocks or correct track spikes (I used my regular trainers)
As I approach 50 I’m looking ahead & thinking what I can do next. My 5k time has come down from 30+ minutes to ~ 22 minutes & have a couple of 10ks booked for later in the year & a half marathon in March 2026. I don’t have the time to train for a marathon due to work commitments & I’m thinking what I can do next.
Obviously as I age, my fast twitch fibers will reduce further so I’m thinking - can I reduce my 100m & 200m time & if so how?
Keen to get the feedback of the Athletica team & also a view on how useful the Athletica tool is (if at all).
Well thanks for reading this & curious about your feedback
First of all congratulations for reducing your 5k time.
Second, my big question for reducing your 100 and 200m times is are you lifting weights?
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Thanks @SimpleEnduranceCoach , so I started recreational running back in 2018 (I was very unfit) then slowly built up fitness getting to where I am today & incorporated general strength training from around 2020(?). The strength training (body weight, kettlebells & dumbells) hasn’t had a focus, other than using apps & has always been at home. For the past 2 years, I’ve used freeletics, which has different strength journeys (focus areas).
I generally get about 4-5 hours of strength training a month, but for several reasons, it’s been lower than this over the past 3 months.
The question behind my question is what’s got me here isn’t going to get me to where I want to be, so what do I need to change & do you have any recommendations?
If you have access to a gym, I’d add in heavy squats and deadlifts to your full-body strength routine. Start slowly with eight to 12 repetitions and then gradually build, over weeks, to four to six reps that are tough.
That said, you mentioned some free weights, so there’s some research to suggest that working to fatigue, regardless of weight. So that means that as long as you lift to fatigue - so you could do two more reps - you can do 30 reps or six reps.
For sprinting, I would lift three times a week, like Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
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