Sprint Training for Marathon Performance: Does It Help?

For many people, running a marathon is the ultimate display of fitness achievement. To be clear, many serious runners have contended that anyone can either walk a marathon or walk-run a marathon, but running the entire 26.2-mile distance is always an accomplishment that is worthy of respect regardless of who is completing it.

Dedicating the four-and-a-half hours it takes many first-timers to run on the day of the marathon is demanding enough, but pouring yourself into the battery of multi-hour runs that you’ll be advised to complete to condition yourself for a marathon is another thing. So if you don’t want to sweat your way through all of those runs, but you can find the time to sprint, can you sprint your way to a conditioned running body?

What sprint training can do for your marathon time

Here’s the good news: It is absolutely possible to make major strides toward most of your distance running goals by focusing primarily on sprint training. This is the foundation for the Tabata training regimen, which is one of the first methodologies used to prove the efficacy of high intensity interval training.

During the original study of Tabata training, Olympic speed skaters exercised as intensively as they could for 20 seconds, followed by 10 seconds of rest, for eight cycles. The total workout time was four minutes, and Tabata’s training subjects completed this workout routine four times in one week, along with a single one-hour steady-state training session.

At the end of six weeks, the Tabata group had similar cardiovascular improvements to a group that completed one hour of steady-state cardio five days a week, but had superior gains in anaerobic capacity. All of this was accomplished while engaging in more than three-and-a-half less hours of total training throughout the week. Therefore, it is a proven fact that even trained athletes can make massive aerobic improvements through sprint training.

What sprint training can’t do for your marathon time

One of the overlooked aspects of the original Tabata training regimen is that it used Olympic speed skaters as their pilot group. In other words, it featured a group of athletes that already had years of aerobic training and fitness-specific adaptations under their belts.

The adaptations in question include the strengthening of muscles, tendons, and ligaments in ways that are specific to handling a certain type and duration of physical exertion… not to mention the fact that you also need to develop a certain level of familiarity with how your body responds to strenuous exertions that are atypically lengthy.

To put it another way, while HIIT-based workouts have clear benefits when it comes to the fitness improvements they are capable of promoting, a training regimen consisting primarily of sprinting simply can’t prepare your body for everything a 26.2-mile run entails.

Sprint training can still help you

The good news is that the marathon-specific portion of your annual calendar is unlikely to last year round. This means that during the months when you’re not actively preparing for a marathon, but still desire to remain within a respectable range of beginning the escalation workouts that will condition your body to complete a marathon, switching to a sprint-heavy approach can help you to remain in a state of general preparedness. This will leave you in a state of cardiovascular fitness that can help you rapidly flip the switch when it’s time to get back into marathon mode.

Summary

1. Serious marathon training calls for many lengthy training runs that some people may not have time for.

2. Many Tabata training regimen proved that focusing primarily on sprint training can still cause improvements to aerobic capacity.

3. Training for a marathon requires your body to make physical changes that will enable your extremities to endure several consecutive hours of pounding.

4. Short sessions of sprint-focused training are incapable of preparing your body for the rigors of a marathon.

5. A Tabata training regimen is probably an ideal off-season training method for marathon runners looking to remain in decent shape while scaling back their workout mileage.