Guides

Sprint training, in plain words.

Plain answers for runners who want to get faster: how to time a sprint with an Apple Watch, how fast people actually run, speed charts, interval sessions with evidence, and how to start sprint training without getting hurt.

How to time a sprint with your Apple Watch, with no track and no timing gates

A sprint timer normally means a track, timing gates and a helper with a stopwatch. Here is how the watch on your wrist times your 100, 200 and 400 m sprints anywhere, what it measures, and how far to trust the number.

Read the guide

How fast can you run? Sprint speed from a jog to the world record

What is a good sprint speed, in metres per second and km/h, and how a 100 m time turns into a speed. The world records, what footballers hit on a pitch, a few animals for scale, and how to find your own number.

Read the guide

Sprint pace chart, metres per second to km/h, mph, pace and 100 m time

A sprint speed conversion chart. Read any speed in m/s as km/h, mph and minutes per kilometre, and see the 100, 200 and 400 m time that speed gives if you could hold it the whole way.

Read the guide

A high-intensity running trainer with the evidence attached, 4 x 4 and 10-20-30

Two interval sessions from published studies, with the sources named. What each session is, what "hard" means, why they build the engine that sprinting and the 400 m need, and how to run them with a sprint timer and cadence metronome on your wrist.

Read the guide

Sprint training for adults, how to start running fast without getting hurt

Sprinting is the most rewarding thing a runner can add and the easiest to overdo. How many fast efforts a week is safe, why the last rep is the dangerous one, what a stress fracture feels like before it hurts, and a first month that works.

Read the guide

Does Apple Watch show your top running speed? How to see your sprint speed on the wrist

Apple's Workout app gives you pace and splits, not the top speed of a sprint or your best 100 m. Here is what the watch records on its own, what it does not surface, and how to get your peak speed and per-distance bests from the same sensors.

Read the guide

So how fast are you, actually?

Requires an Apple Watch. iPhone companion included.