My girlfriend won't sprint

[Andrew Saltz]

My girlfriend is super-cool. She's jumped on the crossfit wagon, and has joined me in sport-leagues. The problem is that she can't sprint. Like...it's all one speed. She's not terribly slow! But it's all one speed.

We've tried:
Sprint practice (ok)
Intervals
Working on her form (I'm not good at this)
Me telling her to run fast
Me imploring her to run faster
Tasteless jokes

Help!

[Frederic Giraud]

Time is your friend...

How long ago did she jump on the wagon? Don't push her too much in my opinion. Let her run as she can. It will speed up.

[Jared Ashley]

I'm with Fredric... don't worry about it, especially since you say she's not slow. If she likes CF she'll figure it out, it's just part of the mentality. But if you push too hard, she might get turned away. Remember, it's a lifestyle, not a 12-week program. If it takes a year, who cares? In the meantime, she'll get all the benefits of the rest of the workout (and probably some from the single-speed running too).

go to the beach and get intoa playful game of try to unstrap her top / untie the top of her bikini. she'll sprint away more than likely, without even realizing it

then you just have to explain it to her to do that during the workouts!

[Phillip Garrison]

She may never be good at sprinting, some people don't have very many fast twitch genes. If you took 100 random people and made them run 100 meters, 10 will be really fast (under 12 seconds) 10 will be really slow (over 15 seconds) and the rest will be somewhere in the middle.

[Elliot Fuller]

Originally Posted by Matthew Vassallo

go to the beach and get intoa playful game of try to unstrap her top / untie the top of her bikini. she'll sprint away more than likely, without even realizing it

then you just have to explain it to her to do that during the workouts!

Ahh, the ol' "I can run faster horny than you can scared" methodology

[Derek Maffett]

She needs better shoes. My speed seem to increase without a problem when I slip on my minimalist shoes. More than that, running becomes enjoyable.

Unless I start running obscene distances like 400 meters, that is. At that point, I just become miserable.

[Scott Kustes]

400m is an obscene distance? What do you consider "long distance"?

[Brandon Oto]

Race her.

[Rayna McGinnis]

I HATE running... or I Did...

When my boyfriend got me into crossfit and then introduced me to Helen ( what a b*t#@)... I wanted him dead. :-)

Everytime a work out with running came up.. I hated it, because I didn't know how to run. I did some research on my own and learned a few things I'd never realised before.

http://www.tryingfitness.com/common-running-mistakes/
http://health.rutgers.edu/healthinfo...ngmistakes.htm

I went out and bought a pair of running shoes that fit well ( I actually found a pair of New Balance Trail Runners for 30$ at Gab's.. can't beat that). The shoes really make a huge difference, I had decent tennis shoes, but they weren't for running and over supported my feet.

Then i got on a tread mill, turned up the speed and worked on form... three things i realised from reading that I was doing wrong and was slowing me down and making me work twice as hard:

1) learning forward
2) taking too big of steps- therefor causing resistance
3) heal striking.

Now that I fixed these three things, I run faster, more efficiently, and it's fun!!