Sprint training is all well and good if you are an amateur but what happens when you reach your peak speed, the stage when you cannot physically sprint any faster no matter how many hours of sprinting you carry out week in week out.
The first thing to look at would be the technique of the runner, are they technically sound is everything moving in the right direction are they efficient.
The second factor would be to increase muscular strength and power, which in turn will increase sprint performance.
The second factor would be to increase muscular strength and power, which in turn will increase sprint performance. [/quote]
I think this is one of the biggest things amateur athletes ignore in their training. It is so obvious if you simply look at olympic sprinters VS. olympic distance runners. Sprinters have monstrous legs due to strength training and distance runners have twigs for legs, because there training involves only running for miles and miles.
Sprinters have to focus a good majority of their training on weight lifting to build up their fast twitch muscles in their legs. Fast twitch fibers can be further categorized into Type IIa and Type IIb fibers. Both these types of fast twitch muscle fibers are imperative to strengthen for any sprinter. And they can only become stronger by lifting heavy weights.