How to do Sprint Workouts on Suburban Streets

Just a short training tip for your Friday!

I don't live in suburbia, but I have spent summers there, and therefore I developed a way to measure sprints without having to worry about calculating distance.  If you are running outside, and want to incorporate sprints (a/k/a interval training) into your routine, you might get frustrated as to determining when to sprint and how long the sprint should be.  You might wind up not sprinting as long as you think you are and as a result, shortchange yourself inadvertently.

I assume your suburbia has telephone poles, right?  Telephone poles are generally evenly spaced from one another.  Use these poles as landmarks!  Decide in advance how many telephone poles you will pass as you walk or jog, and then how many poles you will pass as you sprint.  You can keep it even, such as "jog three poles, sprint one pole," or mix it up, such as "walk one pole, jog one pole, sprint one pole" and then "walk one pole, jog two poles, sprint one pole."  If you have a watch, you can time your sprints from pole to pole and make a game of beating your prior sprint times.

Counting telephone poles does something else important -- it prevents boredom, and my guess is that boredom stops many people from completing a work out and giving 100%.  You are always counting poles and pushing yourself, often in short bursts.  Before you know it, 30 minutes will have passed and you will have completed a successful interval training!