Sprint Training Program - The Ultimate Blueprint for Speed

Sprinting is about more than just being fast. It is the synthesis of form, force, and endurance.

Likewise, a sprint training program is about much more than completing drills and honing sprinting technique.

It takes specific training done with the right timing, intensity, and focus to achieve top-end speed.  

As an Olympian and veteran sprints coach, Ken Harnden has created and refined sprint training plans that have been proven to get athletes across the line faster.

In this guide, you’ll learn how to build your own sprint training program using the some of the same philosophies and sprinting workouts Coach Harnden has developed for his 100m & 200m sprinters. 

Why Not Just Use A Sprint Training Program PDF?

Despite what many websites claim, there is no one-size-fits-all plan for speed development. 

Individualization is the most important concept to consider when formulating a sprint training program. 

Sure, you can quickly search for a sprint training program pdf and get hundreds of paid and free options.

If you are going to trust your performance with any plan (even the one we're providing), it's helpful to ask a few questions:

Who wrote the plan?

Is it someone who has "studied the best coaches," or have they actually put in the time on the track and delivered tangible results?

The most successful sprinting coaches have years of first-hand experience working with different athletes that have unique strengths and weaknesses.

Experience develops the competency and wisdom required to maximize a sprinter's potential.

Who was the plan written for?

A first-year high school student will have substantially different needs than an elite college athlete. You want a program that takes into account where you are in your career and your individual abilities.

Do I have the knowledge to change the plan?

This is by far the most important question to answer.

No matter how good a sprint training program is, you will need to make adjustments.

As the military strategist Helmuth von Moltke said, "No battle plan survives contact with the enemy."

In this case, the 'enemy' can be anything from a virus that knocks you out of training for two weeks, a strained hamstring, or something as common as a slight change to your track meet schedule.

Even if you stay perfectly healthy, understanding the 'why' behind each element of the plan is critical to optimal training.

Some athletes will benefit from high-volume sprint training, and others will require an approach that fosters injury prevention and recovery. 

Athletes that fall into the latter category must have the ability to prioritize and maximize their training.

As a coach or a self-coached athlete, you must balance multiple factors when designing your own sprint training plan.

Skill, training experience, recovery ability, prior injury, and lifestyle will affect the success of your program. So plan accordingly.

In the video below Coach Harnden talks about two sub-10 second sprinters he coached that required vastly different types of training and volume.

Building a Sprint Training Program

“If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll end up somewhere else.”

Yogi Berra

Planning is everything. Disorganized, random sprint training will undoubtedly lead to random results.

Great coaches and athletes know what they need to do to perform well, and they deliberately work towards it.

There are well-thought-out reasons behind every repetition and each recovery session.

It is calculated planning and purposeful work that drives progress. 

Over his many years of training elite athletes, Coach Ken Harnden learned that identifying a finishing point and working backward to plan the phases of training is the best way to ensure a successful season. 

As you plan your season, identify your finishing goal first.

• Do you want to improve sprint times by a specific percentage within a set timeframe?
• Do you need to work on a specific skill such as improving your block starts?
• Do you want to achieve peak performance at a particular time?
• Is there a meet where you could break your personal record?  

Find your target on a calendar and formulate it in reverse from there, working back to the first day.

Watch coach Harnden talk about the importance of building the plan from the destination in the short video below.

Five Sprint Training Program Phases

We’re not talking about acceleration, maximum velocity, and deceleration.

The structure is divided into five phases or training blocks to formulate your own sprint training plan.

Each of the five phases should focus on distinct objectives that will progressively lead to reaching your finishing goal. 

Phase One - Training to Train

To begin sprint training, you must first build a level of fitness to handle sprint training.

In this first phase, training is basic and focused on overall fitness rather than sprint-specific work.

Progression during this phase is achieved through increasing the volume of training each week.  

The emphasis of Phase One

• Basic training to build general strength and technique.
• No overloading. Intensity and volume should be progressed slowly.
• The goal is to gain enough fitness to train at a high level without causing injury. 

Phase One Sprinting Workout Week

Phase Two - Event-Specific Preparation

After building general fitness in phase 1, you are ready to train specifically for sprinting. Intensity and volume are increased in this phase, and recovery becomes more active.

Plyometrics and hill work increase in volume, intensity, and/or variety, and the recovery day is active non-impact work in the pool.

The workouts in this phase are designed to prepare athletes for competition training and should remain constant throughout the season to measure progress from phase to phase.

Emphasis of Phase Two

• The goal is to prepare the athlete for event-specific training.
• Increase overall work by 40-50% from phase one.

Phase Two Sprinting Workout Week

Phase Three - Speed Phase

Phase three is a speed cycle specifically designed to make you faster. In this phase, pure speed training and more intense sprint workouts replace the tempo work in the previous phases.

On the track, traditional speed work forms the core of the training plan.

Sprinting technique is practiced every day from the warm-up through the end of the workout. During phase three, efforts should be timed to measure where you are and establish goals to chase.

Emphasis of Phase Three

• Increase speed.
• Replace tempo work with pure speed development training.
• Begin training block starts.

Phase Three Sprinting Workout Week

Phase Four - Pre-Competition/Competition Phase

Phase Four is the pre-competition/competition phase. Preparation and planning during this phase is done in micro cycles (i.e. training for 2-4 weeks leading up to the next competition). 

Ultimately, to get the timing right, more than a week between competitions is necessary to do the training needed to improve.

In this phase, race performance is fine-tuned, nurturing strengths and adjusting faults from previous races.

Technical speed work is the focus and measuring efforts through timing, setting timing goals, and evaluating/adjusting to reach those goals.

Emphasis of Phase Four

• Pre-competition/competition training
• Ideally, two weeks between competitions
• It should be tailored to each individual athlete

Phase Four Sprinting Workout 2 Weeks

Recovery Phase

Recovery is crucial to the foundation of every training cycle and should be purposefully built into every phase of your sprint training plan. At the end of each phase, a recovery week should follow.

Quality recovery is active and includes low-impact, low-volume, or low-intensity workouts.

Off the track, there must be a focus on recovery through lifestyle as well. Proper nutrition, hydration, and sleep should also be thoughtful and monitored to ensure full recovery between training sessions.

Emphasis of Recovery Phase

• Active recovery that is consistent with the training structure
• Hydration, nutrition, and sleep are critical

Recovery Workout Week 

Conclusion

We hope you enjoyed this sprint training program guide.

The basic structure we have laid out has proven to produce substantial results when tailored to the individual.

To learn more about developing and fine-tuning an annual training plan, check out Sprinting Smarter, Speed Progression.