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Thread: Sprint finish

  1. #1
    Master Travs's Avatar
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    Sprint finish

    When I first started running competitively I had a mean sprint finish... I remember my first ever National XC in 2016 when I made up approx 50 places in the final knockings...

    But as my performances have no doubt improved, my ability to explode the final 200/400/800 metres appears to have declined... for example yesterday at the XC I managed to speed up and hold position whilst under heavy pressure, but it wasn’t rocket-like acceleration.... and last week at Cardington it was a gradual increase in speed over the final mile which kept me ahead of rivals, slowly grinding them away, as I had no confidence of a final field shoutout.....

    I can think of two contrasting theories/reasons...

    1) I’ve lost some of my explosive power from my previous sporting life, and the long miles in training mean I simply haven’t got the freshness in the legs to turn it on at will...

    or

    2) When I had a “good” sprint finish, it was more due to my lack of ability in other areas... for example lack of technique (fells) and lack of stamina (xc) meaning I was reaching the final stages of races with plenty of fuel left in the tank which I hadn’t been able to expend throughout the main part of the race, and I was blasting all my energy into a few hundred metres... possibly out of frustration... now I have more of an ability to push for a whole race, I’m hitting the final stages with much less in the tank.


    I don’t suppose it matters as long as I’m still improving, but anybody else had similar or any sprint-finish experiences...? Anything I can do?

  2. #2
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    It could be that, as all aspects of your running have improved vastly over the last 3 years, you are now nearer the sharp end and therefore sprinting against better quality runners than you were in 2016!
    Visibility good except in Hill Fog

  3. #3
    Master Travs's Avatar
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    That’s a good point Llani....

    I remember commenting similarly about my descending a while back... felt that it was getting worse, but when I looked at my splits year-on-year for Peris, it was actually getting faster, I was just further up the field and getting absolutely schooled by better runners...

    Notwithstanding that, my descending last week at Cardington WAS shocking...

  4. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by Travs View Post
    That’s a good point Llani....

    I remember commenting similarly about my descending a while back... felt that it was getting worse, but when I looked at my splits year-on-year for Peris, it was actually getting faster, I was just further up the field and getting absolutely schooled by better runners...

    Notwithstanding that, my descending last week at Cardington WAS shocking...
    Illustrating again that racing is all in the head.
    "...as dry as the Atacama desert".

  5. #5
    Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by Graham Breeze View Post
    Illustrating again that racing is all in the head.
    Plus you are ageing
    The older I get the Faster I was

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