running relaxed after your sprint …should you worry on running relaxed and try to ignore wheter you are running fast or not? by running relaxed I feel that my sprinting movements are slower! but might they be more effective?
mikas,
what do you mean by running relaxed after your sprint ?
would be while sprinting ?
Sorry after the sprint start…
Yes while sprinting.
We’ve covered this before and thee are some sections in Speed Trap that cover this topic very clearly. The more relaxed you are, the less interference there is between you and the action you want, making it easy to sense the action and making it seem slower even though it’s not.
Yeah, i found this on Speed Trap, i remembered too the “Wait for it” from CFTS…
I´m “dreaming” with the “relaxed sprints”, i mean, for me, it´s not so easy sprint relaxed, i don´t know why, i guess because of my nervous system, i´m that kind of guy that never stop, even for a second, even when i´m alone, i´m always doing something, gnawing nails, hiting my feet, etc, etc…hyper-activity i guess. So, i have a lot of problem to concentrate. The strange for me, is that, i “learned” how to run tense and now, to run relaxed i have to concetrate, can you believe this ? It is a paradox…i have to concentrate to run relaxed 
Yestarday, i did my first train focused on sprint relaxed.
It was so so, i did 5 shots of 100m and i believe none relaxed.
So, 100% tense !! but, at least, i felt different, i was not trying to beat the chrono or be more fast, i was just trying to run relaxed, all the way, and nonetheless i felt the sensation of a relaxed sprint ( my pulsation and my lung at end of shots was a little bit calm than usual ).
One interesting thing that happened was: i discovered that i have a tendency to run at right side of the lane, more i tried to run relaxed more i was getting the right side of the lane and this never happened when i was running tense. It is something wrong ? 
I cut off all the ACC and MAX V workouts, i resume my track work in 3 sessions per week, each session of 5x100m, total focus on relaxed and fast sprints.
This is the right way ?
Why the 5 x 100s as oposed to anything else?
Flying,you have got to learn to relax in oreder to get faster.if you try to force a movement it will back-fire whether its in sprinting,golf,tennis etc.you have to let the activity happen which we all have from an early age but poor management or trying to force something will have negative results.we have discussed running relaxed in great detail numerous times and as i said if you want to get faster you have to relax.
you maintain your running with tension and 1-you will get slower and 2-you will injure yourself.its your choice!!
I am wondering the same thing Flying, why 5x100s only. You can do 10x50m and keep the same volume, but have 5 more opportunities to work on relaxing.
Tks for ask Charlie,
because for me, relaxation is a constant fight between mind and body;
so, my body wants and need run relaxed, otherwise, my “brain” is telling body: push, push, push…so, apparently i have more space (100m) to conciliate both.
I´m not sure if some sessions of pure speed or ACC works could help me in this phase. Maybe i´m wrong here.
X-Man, i´m not sure if i understood this: the activity happen which we all have from an early age
well, i must tell something interesting & funny too;
when ain´t running but thinking that i´m ( visualizing thru the day ) i used to remind a particular phase of my life ( 11 to 12 y/o ). That was the phase where i used to beat every kid in races, even kids 2 or 3 years older, i was fast as a 16 year sports adolescent.
And now, with all this stuff and relaxation talks i feel that i have to find that
empty. I´m certain, that empty will allow my natural speed.
As in Last Samurai movie:
No Mind !!!
I think a lot of it has to do with confidence, too. It’s easier to relax if you’re confident that you’re going to win, or run a faster time, or whatever.
Try relaxing when you’re doing tempo…it should give you enough opportunities to try :). When running tempo, to me at least, when I’m running relaxed sometimes I will go faster without thinking about it. Once you run relaxed once you will know the feeling.
Have you ever been doing a just about maximal lift, and sometime while you’re fighting through the sticking point you realize that you’re definitely going to make the lift, and then you relax and you make it without any problem? That’s relaxation.
Just let go and let everything happen naturally.
Tks Sprint,
i agree with you about the confidence and relaxation,
and maybe you´re right too about practise relaxation in tempo sessions,
but then, wouldn´t me running the risk of learn relaxation just in “soft” sprints as tempo sessions ?
It’s just a suggestion…try it out if you want to.
Actually, i was thinking about the relaxation from Ben´s and that confident that you was talking about…
The more relaxed you are, the less interference there is between you and the action you want, making it easy to sense the action and making it seem slower even though it’s not.
Bud Winter made this point in his book Relax and Win. When he was teaching relaxation techniques to Navy fliers in WWII sports training was a large part of their program. When they timed the fliers in sprint tests they had them run with maximum effort and then at 90% effort. Of course the 90% run was faster even though the runners said it felt slower.
Charlie,
today i tried somthing different,
something that wasn´t in my basic plan.
I did,
2x100m ( 6 minutes rest ) i don´t know how much % from my PB, i did these 2 shots focused more on speed without forget the relaxed sprint, so…
then, i did 7x100m but now, focused on relaxed runnings and not so fast as the 2 first,
then, 1x110m just to test me against 2 5km runners that was runnin in lane 1 ( i was on lane 6 ), i wait to start util they crossed the 50m line, then i started…i get a 14.0s ( my Pb Tense time for this distance is 13.78s so…
Them, i went to 200m mark and start a smooth running totally focused on relaxed sprint…29.91s and my PB Tense time for this distance is 25.69s, so…
I felt relaxation in some of this shots…i guess in half of them.
I´m thinking in take some time until start sprint trains at full charge, i mean,
3 or 4 days without thinking much about relaxation…just running on the track without clocks, just me, my shoes, and my spikes, nothing more.
Hum, i forgot to tell something…
For the first time since i started, i felt the rear part of the leg,
i mean, after those relaxed sprints,
i felt my hamstring and my hips,
sometimes while sprinting i felt my legs turning down with force, not hitting the floor but aplying great forces while down, i was never felt this sensation.