Most People Will Never Sprint Again After ..

Sprinting behind our clinic

... they turn 30 for the rest of their lives.

Actually, I started doing a few 200 m sprints upslope along Warna Road once a week on Wednesday mornings about a month ago. This is usually after a 5 km warm up run. I have not done any sprints like this for a long, long time.

From Twitter (or now known as X)

Coincidently, I saw this 2 days ago (above) on Twitter (or X) and the title caught my eye. 95 percent of men and women will never sprint again by the time they reach 30 years of age. 

Do you think there's any truth to that claim? 

How's my running form?

Perhaps I should address why I started sprinting again after so many years? I felt my runs were stagnating. I only run twice a week now and though I entertain no dreams of competing, I long for the moments when I feel like it is 'effortless' to run. I also want to avoid sarcopenia.

I was never a high mileage runner previously. In the past when I was still competing, track intervals really helped me improve. So I thought it was a good time to restart some sprint work.

You can definitely improve performance by swapping distance for speed (Jin et al, 2025). In the quoted study, the researchers split well trained runners into 2 groups. These runners had an average VO2 max of 67 mL/kg/min and personal best of 14:38 mins for their 5k time. 

One group did sprint interval training (SIT). They did 10x30 seconds all-out sprints with 3.5 minutes rest twice a week for 6 weeks. The traditional training group continued running long distance twice a week.

Both groups also kept up their regular endurance base training (40-60 minute runs) 4 times a week other than the above sessions.

You can probably guess the results. After 6 weeks, the SIT group outperformed the traditional group in all endurance metrics. Their time to run exhaustion (which is a key indicator of endurance) was better.

They had a 5 seconds improvement in a 3000m time trial versus no change in the traditional training group. The SIT group also had faster 100 m and 400 m times, suggesting better speed and neuromuscular efficiency.

Surprisingly, there was only slight V02 max improvement in the SIT group even though running economy improved moderately. This shows that the SIT group became more efficient runners.

Now you know that sprint intervals are not just for sprinters. This study proves that endurance runners can gain real benefits when they add speedwork 1-2 times a week. 

You definitely don't have to follow this protocol in the quoted study. I started with just faster striding upslope before even attempting to sprint. Definitely not all out sprinting. I clocked about 50 seconds each rep when I first started and it's gone down to 40 seconds during my last rep 2 days ago.

All of us should sprint from time to time to recruit muscles that we don't normally use. I would also suggest jumping as high as you can too to build your explosive power. But not both at the same time. I do the jumps on my weight training days.

For those who still race, sprint training will definitely help improve performance without adding volume. You can improve your running efficiency while also improving your kick should you need to pass other runners at the last part of the race.

Reference

Jin K, Cai M, Zhang Y et al (2025). Effects Of 6-Week Sprint Interval Training Compared To Traditional Training On The Running Performance Of Distance Runners: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Front Physio. 16: 1536287. DOI: 10.3389/fphys.2025.1536287