Sprints or Distance?

NeahF

And why?

(Personal preference + achieving fitness goals)

KimiAR

Personal preference: sprints. I work harder when I know it doesn’t last long. Like one minute repeats.

Fitness goals: distance. There’s something physical and mental about a five miler 🙄😂

goatg

I do distance —just got into tris. Love the feeling of being able to go forever, killer endurance, going for a bike for 4-5 hours on a whim like it’s nothing. Plus, a well conditioned heart makes the hard efforts easier.

Actually enjoy the feeling of short, strong bursts, and having the time to do more vanity-related strength workouts (e.g., not just squats but yay triceps!). More time in general, less fatigued long days, less collapsing after a Saturday and blinking to find the night over...

They’re both great. Interested in reading others’ responses too.

Shortgirlrunning

Distance. It’s a good way to clear my head. It’s especially great when I have anxiety. I feel so much better after a decently long run.

I was training for my second half marathon but that ended up being a total nightmare (I was sick on and off for almost all of Jan/Feb) and then my half got canceled because of coronavirus and I haven’t found another to sign up for so I don’t exactly have a specific fitness goal right now.

Duck_Puddle

Distance.

1. I am a distance runner. Running for a lengthy period of time (more than 90-120 minutes) causes some adaptations that are a great benefit to this goal.
2. Distance/Time clears my head
3. Distance/time typically burns many more calories than a proper sprint session. I don’t workout to burn calories-but managing my calories is important and I like food.
4. Proper sprints are incredibly taxing on the body and nervous system. This requires a lot of recovery. Recovery means reducing other training or other training isn’t getting the full benefit.
5. Sprints are good for boosting Vo2max near an event (if you have an aerobic base), they do help with speed/leg turnover and the mental fortitude to embrace suffering (although lengthy distance is also important for that). They have a role. Just not a huge one for me.

spiriteagle99

My preference is neither. I like best running for about an hour, mixing easy to moderte pace with more challenging workouts. Six to eight miles is my happy place. I run longer runs because I like racing HMs and marathons. I don't enjoy long runs, hate them actually, but I know they are necessary to build my endurance and strength. I do rather enjoy speed workouts, but try to only do them about once a week because of the risk of injury. I have chronic hamstring pain/tightness, which gets worse with hills and sprints.

janejellyroll

Distance.

I love the feeling of running long distances. I do speed workouts because they're useful for meeting specific goals, but I don't enjoy them as much as I do my longer runs.

yirara

I can't sprint as my blood pressure crashes and my HR won't come up. Hell, I can't even run faster.

cwolfman13

NeahF wrote: »

And why?

(Personal preference + achieving fitness goals)

As a former competitive sprinter, this isn't even really an apples to oranges comparison...it's like an apples to some other completely different food type comparison. Distance running is aerobic....all out sprinting is an anerobic activity.

For increasing aerobic endurance and fitness you want to do longer, moderately paced efforts. You would want to build up distance slowly to avoid injury and recovery issues...but a novice distance runner is likely going to be able to run several times per week without issue.

Sprinting is going to train speed, explosiveness, and power...it's not going to do a whole lot for you in regards to aerobic endurance. When I was competing, part of my warm up to sprint was a 1 mile run...which pretty much did me in where aerobic endurance was concerned and I struggled with mileage beyond that...I could do it, just not very well and was pretty maxed out at a slow 5K.

Also, because you are giving an all out effort sprinting, you're only going to be able to do so much in a training session and throughout the week without substantially increasing the risk of injury and having recovery issues. When I was competing, a typical practice would really only have 2 or maybe 3 all out efforts because sprinting is very hard on the body...and even then, it wasn't really all out for every rep. I specialized in the 100 and 200 meters and equivalent relays. So in one practice I might do 3x 100 meter sprints with my first rep being at about 70%, my second at 85%, and my final rep being all out. There are long rests in between to allow for recovery, so if you're looking for calorie burn, it's not going to be a ton for a few all out or almost all out efforts as your active training time is minimal, but you will be very fatigued.

The bulk of a practice was generally spent warming up with a 1 mile run and then some more dynamic warmups that usually included block work, doing high knees for the distance to be sprinted, etc. If you're going to sprint you are going to want to give more time to properly warming up...popped hammies and groins are common injuries among sprinters, especially if they haven't properly warmed up. Also, giving that kind of effort everyday isn't really a good idea...you're looking at maybe 2-3x per week to allow for proper recovery.

I don't run or sprint anymore, but when I first started up with this I got into running. For the most part I did distance, but I would throw in a day of sprints as well. Distance running allowed me to run most days of the week. Personally a combination of the two is probably pretty good for your average person trying to get or stay fit unless you want to actually specialize in one or the other which I wouldn't bother with if you're not going to compete.

I mostly cycle now and I vary my rides between long, moderate paced road rides and fast short rides, and interval riding, along with some trail riding and mountain biking thrown into the mix. As a matter of general fitness, I think it's better to be well rounded than specialize in any one particular aspect unless you are going to compete.

heybales

Both.

May dread the sprints coming up on it as that doesn't happen with going out for normal distance run.
But after several hill sprints just feels great to have pushed that hard - even though I have no idea at that point if it was better than last time, and certainly can't feel right then the beneficial aspects of doing them.
After a long run I'm not really reviewing how great it was.

During the run same focus but on different things, running city streets usually so can't zone out really.
So either focus on immediate next steps and trip hazards up the hill, or cars at intersecting roads, which is every 1/8 mile in one direction, 1/4 maybe better in other, music doesn't even work for needing to hear cars.

goatg

@cwolfman13 I really enjoyed reading your perspective. I have minimal experience with true sprinting. Thanks for taking the time to share.

littlegreenparrot1

Distance, I'm not bothered about time.

It's quite meditative when you get into the right head space.

dewd2

Both (sorta). I run distance (marathons and looking at possibly an ultra). But, to be the fastest I can be in the marathon requires speed work. And that often involved sprints - not all out 'til you die type sprints but 5k or sometimes faster pace.

jjpptt2

Distance - I like to be able to explore new areas, routes, whatever... and being able to go longer/further makes for better exploring.

goatg

jjpptt2 wrote: »

Distance - I like to be able to explore new areas, routes, whatever... and being able to go longer/further makes for better exploring.

Funny. That’s how I always explore new places too. The “first out, get to know this city/island/etc” run.

amorfati601070

Distance...coz...runner's high..I had it once, its like morphine but better. I sorta wish I knew a sure way to induce it but that would sort of dissipate the experience.

I was watching an interview with Courtney DAuwalter, what a freak of nature. She went blind and started to hallucinating during an ultra. I'd love to experience something like that.

goatg

amorfati601070 wrote: »

Distance...coz...runner's high..I had it once, its like morphine but better. I sorta wish I knew a sure way to induce it but that would sort of dissipate the experience.

I was watching an interview with Courtney DAuwalter, what a freak of nature. She went blind and started to hallucinating during an ultra. I'd love to experience something like that.

I have a few friends who do ultras. One buddy did a 100 mile race through the mountains and had different pacers with him. Apparently, according to one pacer, he was having a full-on deep conversation with someone who wasn’t actually there.
“I learned a lot about you that day” -pacer


I can’t even imagine 🙊

Medium-long + sprint intervals = 💰

Kedikat

I think both. Mostly easy / recovery runs and one or two sprint / HIIT workouts. I'm reading a lot lately on 'running slower to get faster' and finding it very useful. Running 'easy' means less risk of injury, potentially more fat burn and building up fitness and muscles. Then the sprinting becomes easier.

I'm doing incline walks on the treadmill and some light jogging with only occasional all-out runs.

AnnPT77

You didn't specify sport, so . . .

It isn't a distinction with a clear definition in my preferred sport (on-water rowing). Competitively, "sprints" are 2000m, which even among elites is too long a time to be a true sprint (as cwolfman13 has accurately and clearly explained them). It's 5 minutes plus (plus lots, in my W 60+ lwt competitive class, especially the way non-elite part of it where I am : 2K is usually 8 minutes and change, or more, in that class). For masters rowers (a.k.a. old people ), sprints are ususally 1000m, so 4 minutes or so, still too long to be a true "sprint". Typical "Distance" competitions, with a few notable exceptions, are twice that long (-ish) but sort of vary in length depending on the body of water, maybe 3000-5000m.

So, the model is all short-endurance kind of stuff, competitively, pretty much.

For pure fun (fun is a reason, right?), I like one of two general things best. The first is intervals in the double (or bigger boats). That'd be something like 20 strokes hard, 20 easy kind of thing, repeated for a a few thousand meters, especially if it isn't super hot and it's far enough into the season that my technique doesn't suffer too much when I try picking up rating (i.e., increasing strokes per minute). The second is moderate steady state bridge to bridge (where we turn around, and usually take a quick water break), which is usually in about 3500m chunks. That's more congenial when it's hot, early in the season (because technique), choppy water, or after a storm when there's often floating debris to watch out for (we're going backwards, remember).

Training (for competing) is a whole different matter, with a structured plan of different intensities and distances at different times, quite varied. I don't do that anymore: Now, I just have fun.

P.S. Just as an academic point: In competition, a 2K race is usually performed as a (near-)sprint for the first few hundred meters, i.e., close to anaerobic, and another sprint (all you have left) in the last few hundred meters (definitely anaerobic). The middle chunk is whatever pace your boat can sustain, though that's affected by what boats around you are doing, a bit.

GiddyupTim

I do both.
Why?
Probably mostly because I played soccer most of my life. In a soccer game, many of the individual runs you do are flat out sprints. At the same time, a player can cover up to 5-6 miles in a game. (Professional midfielders will cover 7 miles -- sometimes up to 8 miles -- in a game.)
So, it really is a distance, sprinting sport.
Now that I just 'jog' for fun, I do both.
My longer runs are for the calorie burn, keeping up my lung capacity, and the meditative aspect of locking in, tuning out the discomfort and watching the trees go past.
My sprints are for strength and fun. I feel like sprinting probably helps strengthen my legs in a way long runs do not. And, I find it very freeing when I sprint, which is fun. You're not thinking at all. You're just going all out, with everything you have. There is a joy in that kind of intense movement. For me, anyway.