Sprints or Distance?

NeahF
NeahF Posts: 49 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
And why?

(Personal preference + achieving fitness goals)

Replies

  • KimiAR
    KimiAR Posts: 117 Member
    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
    goatg Posts: 1,399 Member
    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
    Shortgirlrunning Posts: 1,020 Member
    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
    Duck_Puddle Posts: 3,237 Member
    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
    spiriteagle99 Posts: 3,740 Member
    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
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    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
    yirara Posts: 9,906 Member
    I can't sprint as my blood pressure crashes and my HR won't come up. Hell, I can't even run faster.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    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
    goatg Posts: 1,399 Member
    @cwolfman13 I really enjoyed reading your perspective. I have minimal experience with true sprinting. Thanks for taking the time to share.
  • littlegreenparrot1
    littlegreenparrot1 Posts: 702 Member
    Distance, I'm not bothered about time.

    It's quite meditative when you get into the right head space.
  • dewd2
    dewd2 Posts: 2,445 Member
    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
    jjpptt2 Posts: 5,650 Member
    Distance - I like to be able to explore new areas, routes, whatever... and being able to go longer/further makes for better exploring.
  • goatg
    goatg Posts: 1,399 Member
    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
    amorfati601070 Posts: 2,890 Member
    edited May 2020
    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
    goatg Posts: 1,399 Member
    edited May 2020
    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
    Kedikat Posts: 5 Member
    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
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,102 Member
    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 :lol: : 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
    GiddyupTim Posts: 2,819 Member
    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.

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