Speed First: Why Building a Base Doesn't Work for Sprinters

DEEP DIVE

I often see the same pattern repeat itself.

Athletes show up to early season training ready to get fast. And their coach sends them on a 30-minute run.

"We need to build your base first," they say. "Speed comes later."

Six weeks of distance running. Circuit training. High-volume tempo sessions. All in the name of general preparation before the real sprint work begins.

The problem? By the time they're ready to work on speed, they've spent two months programming their nervous system to move slowly.

Speed isn't a fitness quality you build on top of an aerobic base. It's a neural skill that has to be practiced at high velocities from day one.

When you sprint at maximum velocity, your nervous system recruits massive numbers of fast-twitch motor units in a precise sequence. Ground contact times shorten to milliseconds. Your foot strikes the ground directly under your hips and pulls through immediately.

None of that happens during a 30-minute run or high-volume tempo circuits.

Those slower movements create different motor patterns. Longer ground contact times. Different recruitment sequences. Movement patterns that feel easier because they are easier, but also fundamentally incompatible with maximum velocity sprinting.

You can't learn to move fast by moving slowly.

The technical model for sprinting only exists at race speeds. The precise timing, the aggressive ground contacts, the front-side mechanics that make elite sprinters look different from everyone else? Those patterns don't transfer from jogging or tempo running.

Research backs this up too. A 2025 review in Frontiers in Physiology showed that getting faster comes down to neural adaptations. Your nervous system learns to recruit motor units in the right sequence at the right time. Not aerobic capacity. Not endurance.

That learning only happens at maximum velocity. You can't practice it by jogging.

I've seen this play out personally. Early in my athletic career, I followed a rigid long-to-short program. Months of base building before we touched serious speed work. The theory sounded logical. Build the foundation, then add the speed on top.

What actually happened was I got really good at running at moderate intensities while my actual sprint mechanics deteriorated.

By the time we got to the "speed phase," my movement patterns had adapted to months of slower work. I was practicing the wrong model, getting really good at it, and wondering why my times weren't improving.

But here's where this gets confusing for people.

I do use extensive tempo in my programs. Year-round. So am I contradicting myself?

No, because there's a massive difference between extensive tempo for active recovery and traditional base building.

As we’ve learned over the past few weeks, extensive tempo means running at 75% intensity or below. For a 10-second 100m sprinter, that's about 13.3 pace for 100m reps. Low enough that the nervous system isn't taxed. Easy enough to recover from while staying active.

The purpose isn't building an aerobic base. It's managing fatigue between high-intensity sessions. Keeping blood flowing. Maintaining work capacity without destroying the CNS.

Traditional base building is different. It's high-volume aerobic work with the specific goal of building endurance first, assuming speed will come later. Long runs. Circuit after circuit of tempo. The kind of training that makes sense for 800m runners or middle distance athletes, but actively interferes with sprint development.

The volume matters. The intent matters. The timing matters.

When I program extensive tempo, it's 1-2 sessions per week with maybe 2000-3000m total volume in early season. It sits between high-intensity days as active recovery. It's part of the high-low structure that allows the nervous system to recover.

That's fundamentally different from spending the first two months of a training cycle doing primarily aerobic work before introducing speed.

Maximum velocity work needs to be present from the beginning. Even in general preparation phases, even when volume is low, speed work has to happen.

It might only be 2 sessions per week. The distances might be short, 20-30m flying runs with full recovery. The total volume might only be 300m per session.

But the intensity is non-negotiable. You're rehearsing the movement pattern you actually need when it matters.

This is especially critical for 100m and 200m athletes. The energy systems for these events are almost entirely alactic. Aerobic capacity contributes almost nothing to race performance. Building a huge aerobic base does nothing to make you faster over 100m.

What it does do is take time away from practicing the actual skill you need to develop.

The coaches who understand this structure their programs differently. General preparation still exists. You're still building strength, developing work capacity, establishing technical fundamentals.

But speed work happens throughout. Short, high-quality sessions with full recovery that keep the nervous system adapted to maximum velocity movements.

The volume is low early on, but the quality is always there.

As the season progresses, speed volume increases. The distances extend. Speed endurance work gets layered in for 200m athletes. But the foundation was never slow running. It was always speed.

This doesn't mean you can't get hurt. Jumping into max velocity work without proper strength development and tissue preparation is stupid. But that's a separate issue from whether you need an aerobic base.

Build general strength for 6-8 weeks. Start with acceleration work before max velocity. Manage volume appropriately. Use proper warm-ups and full recovery between reps.

But don't spend months teaching your body to move slowly under the assumption it will magically get fast later.

Speed is a skill. Skills require practice. And you can only practice sprint mechanics at sprint speeds.