What is everyone’s experience here involving how temperatures affect sprint speed? It’s been cooling down here recently and my sprint times have been getting slower with the temperature. I’ve gone from running in 18 degree C weather to 0-4 degree C weather and I’ve lost about .15-.2 seconds on my 50-60M time alone.
Is this normal? How much time is usually lost while running in temperatures between 0-4 degrees C? It’s kind of disheartening to be getting stronger and more powerful and watching your times get slower.
There’s a direct and huge correlation between speed and temp, as you’ve noticed. That’s one of the reasons I dislike these wind tables so much- no consideration of humidity, temp, etc.
RJ, didn’t you set a pr in the 60 m in your last workout?
Anyway, yea, my speed and vertical are all much better when its warm and I can get very loose so I’d certainly assume you’ll do a lot better when you’re in good conditions but it doesn’t really seem like you’re falling apart at all. A pr is a pr.
Yeah, I did set a PR over 60M, but it was relatively slower than my 50M sprints a few weeks before hand. 6 weeks ago I went 6.06 over 50M in 18 degree C weather. Yesterday I ran 7.24 for 60M in 3-4 degree C weather. So while I’ve never actually run a 60M that fast, I have gone relatively faster over 50M.
A little off topic, how cold is too cold to do speed work outside? I’m training in 40F degree weather similar to rj but I really don’t have an access to an indoor track. Indoor track is starting but I can only run in the hallways in my high school and obviously we can not use spikes. I will have to train in my running shoes. I like training outdoors because I feel better with my spikes and I can have the wind at my back. Also, the workouts we do in indoor track are not the greatest. We don’t do tempo runs for recovery we do longer distance runs for example 8x1000s. Also, for speed work, we sprint maximal speed out of blocks but only a walk back recovery. We do many reps out of these. Oh, and if anyone can recommend an indoor track around my place is great. I live right around the University at Buffalo.
Hey RJ, there’s definitely a difference, but we have trained in snow (cleared lanes) and cold down to about 33f. Today was the coldest yet at 43f, and two of our group pr’d in flying 30’s. We have learned which spikes work best when the track is not warm, and we dress about 1 and 1/2 to 2 hrs before practice to start the warming process. We sprint in UA or Addidas cold gear and keep our heads covered. Funny all pr’s were in the fly yet best 30 accels were only like 3.89-3.91 in the cold.???
Thanks for the input kidscoach. I bundle up too, but I just don’t run well in the cold. In fact, I moved indoors for last session and knocked ~.4 seconds off of my 100M times just due to the change of venue.
Same situation here in NYC. It’s 43 and getting cooler as the days go by. I do not have access to an indoor track outside of meets. I will train in school hallways with the rest of the team when indoor season begins. But the thing is, school has breaks in between. How will I train during, say, Christmas break? Winter break?
As long as the track/ground is clear of snow/ice you can train even when it’s very cold out. When it gets to the point where your feet start going numb then I’d say it’s too cold to do any speed work. Then you have to find somewhere to train indoors even if you only have a 15m area. I PR’d last year in the 60 running mainly 20m sprints in our gym due to cold weather (PA).
i’ve run in some cold weather as well. 0 degrees and under at times and the windchill much colder. this is too cold, but i should say whether i should have or not, i was still able to do all speed work accels and some max vel but the shear amount of clothing layers was enough to make me flat out slower. when i would leave the workouts sometimes, my water bottle would be frozen. i never got injured, but never ran particularly well in meets either, maybe my max speed in cold weather isnt anywhere near max speed in warm conditions and so it doesnt translate as well? now i sneak into local indoor tracks, hallways, and b-ball courts. i miss the snow covered sprint days though sometimes.
That’s great advice mort. I dont know if I will be going to the track when it is under 40 degrees during the winter. The school hallway is approximately 350m in perimeter. The widths are 60. and lengths are about 100m
a great volume of 15m + vertical plyo and mobility wo.
can you post a type of this schedule, i’m interested because in november here rain a lot. so If one day i don’t go to track i can train in my garage.