The Speed and Endurance Dichotomy
How to maximize your speed without being "out of shape"
The balance between speed and endurance is something that I find a lot of people don’t understand.
It is especially prevalent among athletes but there are quite a few coaches who fall into that category as well.
Misunderstanding which of these is more important and programming them incorrectly is a huge mistake.
It can have a detrimental impact on the development of athletes and harm their progression throughout their season.
Once I started understanding this, I had the biggest athletic transformation of my life. I am still seeing and feeling the benefits of figuring this out, and I have never been faster.
The first thing to understand is that there are multiple different kinds of endurance. Some people dive into these with quite a bit of complexity but I will share the simple version.
Speed endurance is your ability to maintain maximum speed, and would be trained by running all out or close to it for 7-15 seconds, which is short enough to avoid the buildup of acidity but long enough that full max velocity cannot be maintained.
The next type of endurance has multiple different names and classifications. Some people would call it anaerobic endurance, anaerobic capacity, or special endurance just to name a few. This boils down to using the glycolytic system, or in other words using carbohydrates to produce energy in the cells. It does create a burning sensation due to by-products of the production of lactate such as hydrogen ions which increase the acidity in the muscles. It would be trained through high-intensity reps of 20 seconds to even 1-2 minutes.
The last main type of endurance is aerobic endurance. It is your ability to use oxygen to create energy in the cells over extended periods.
These different types of endurance are all important for different athletes and situations.
Aerobic endurance is important for being able to recover efficiently both within a workout in between reps and between workouts themselves. It can also increase your ability to utilize other fuel systems such as the anaerobic system. It sounds great, and it is, but there are a couple of things to keep in mind.
First, training any of the other energy systems, even the a-lactic system which I didn’t mention (used for high-intensity activities for 6 or fewer seconds), will also train the aerobic system. I think it is nearly impossible to be in good sprint shape without having at least decent aerobic development as a by-product.
Second, specifically training aerobic endurance can have downsides. If you choose high-impact cardio like running, it can be very taxing on the body, especially on the lower legs, and wear down athletes instead of helping them to recover.
On top of that, if the duration of the exercise is too long, it could theoretically start converting some fast-twitch muscle into slow-twitch muscle, although not everyone agrees that this is an issue because muscle fiber types don’t always reflect performance.
Anaerobic capacity is important for some field athletes and people who compete in the 400m-800m (this includes longer events as well but to a lesser degree). Essentially, it’s vital for anyone competing longer than 30 seconds and less than 2 minutes. Training your anaerobic capacity is also a huge aerobic stimulus and brings many if not all of the same benefits while staying much more sport-specific for anyone who isn’t a distance runner. It also has the benefit of maintaining or even increasing fast-twitch muscle fibers instead of reducing them. The downside, however, is that it is highly taxing for the body and nervous system.
Speed endurance is pretty self-explanatory. It is important for most athletes in my opinion, but most relevant to runners from the 100m to the 400m. It is also a fantastic supplement to sprint work because it helps to teach relaxation and rhythm over a longer duration.
Where most people go wrong is by thinking that endurance of any of these types is the foundation of their training program.
I see this all the time in the younger athletes on my team. They worry that they’ll be “out of shape” and that they aren’t doing enough endurance work.
What I try to explain to them is that having the ability to run miles or do long track reps is almost completely unrelated to the abilities we are trying to develop.
The people who can run 1 mile fast are great athletes, but there’s a reason they aren’t competing in the 100, 200, or 400, and most of the time not even the 800m.
They don’t have the necessary speed development.
That brings me to my philosophy on this topic.
Speed is the foundation.
For almost every athlete and almost every event, I think speed is vital. And, for athletes from the 400m down (maybe even the 800m, but that’s outside of my area), speed should be developed FIRST and PRIORITIZED for the entire year.
Why is speed the foundation?
Even if we look at the 400m, which is the longest distance that is still officially a sprint, speed is easily the biggest key performance indicator, and it isn’t even close.
Imagine there’s an athlete who runs a 25-second 200m. If they had insane efficiency and endurance with really smooth form, then at BEST they might run a 52-second 400m with 200 splits of 25-27 or 26-26. (For the record, I’ve never seen an athlete who is that efficient. Most guys who run 25s run closer to 55 or slower)
Now imagine there’s an athlete who runs a 22-second 200m. Even if they didn’t have very good endurance or efficiency, it is pretty safe to assume they could go out in a 24-second first 200 and come back in a 26-27, leaving them with a 50-51-second 400m.
The first athlete spent months developing their endurance, running long reps and maybe even mileage, and developing the ability to maintain near maximal speed for quite a long time. The issue is, that they didn’t take the time to develop that maximal speed in the first place. This would leave them ineffective in any shorter events and not great at the 400 either. It doesn’t matter if you can run all day long if you can’t go fast enough to be competitive.
This is especially true if you consider that the second athlete just as a result of all the speed and power training would probably have good aerobic development regardless of never focusing on it. In all likelihood, they could go out in 23 and come back in 25 seconds, running a 48, or even a 23.5 and a 25.5 to run a 49.
And, the second athlete would be pretty effective from the 60m to the 400m, giving them more versatility and better performance.
Even more important than aerobic development, though, is the concept of speed reserve.
Speed reserve is the difference between the fastest speed you can run and the speed you are currently running.
The faster athlete could run at the same pace as the slower athlete at a much lower effort. So, even though they don’t have their endurance developed, they would be stressing their body to a lower degree making it feel easier and less strenuous.
This becomes less relevant as you move up in events but it still applies. If you can’t run a 55-second 400m or faster, you’re probably never going to break 2 minutes in the 800m.
The trap that gets people, especially younger athletes, is the grind and hustle culture. For athletes, spending hours upon hours of hard work to craft themselves into the perfect competitor is glamorized in movies, TV shows, and across social media.
To compete at the highest level, you undoubtedly have to work hard for long hours.
However, you have to spend that time focusing on the right things. It may be hours analyzing your form, studying your competitors, working on mobility, studying about an injury you have, or learning race tactics.
It should not be hours breaking down your body and doing endurance work you don’t need while wearing down your central nervous system and burning yourself out.
On top of everything I have already mentioned, speed is relatively fragile.
To train it properly, you need to be if not fully, then MOSTLY fresh and recovered. Otherwise, you won’t be able to run fast enough to create the necessary adaptations.
And, speed does not last very long.
Studies show that max speed starts to decrease after only 5 days of not training it.
That is in stark contrast to aerobic endurance which can last up to 30 days after you last focus on it.
Speed is also pretty hard to develop. It requires very consistent stimulation over long periods.
Endurance, on the other hand, is pretty easy to develop. Not to the level of elite distance athletes, of course, but you can build a decent base of aerobic endurance and even anaerobic capacity in just 3-6 weeks.
If you put all of this together, a few things become clear:
Speed is harder to develop
Speed is harder to maintain
Speed is more important for performance
Speed creates endurance through speed reserve
Speed training also develops the CNS which elevates your baseline for any type of performance
That leads me to the conclusion that speed training and development should be the main focus for most athletes, especially those competing in the 60m-400m, for the majority of the year.
And no, sprinters, you don’t need to worry about being “out of shape”. Getting into shape will come on its own.
That is my take on the dichotomy between speed and endurance. I hope you found this useful and informative.