Fall Training vs. Spring Training: What It Takes to Be a Spring Season Athlete
By Leila Metres
Content
Track athletes may compete during the spring, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t train during the fall. In fact, the difference is not that training is less of a commitment, but that the focus of training is shifted. It’s impossible to continuously stay sharp and increase your speed without a solid base of hard training. These fall workouts may leave you sore and fatigued in the short term, but build conditioning after months of consistency. The most important time to be fast is at the end of the year during championship meets, but the journey to get there starts early.
Lifting
In the off-season, we lift three times a week. Our lifts are more focused on heavy weight, more reps, and tempo (holds and slow reps). While there are still aspects that are meant to be explosive to support speed and force production, the overall goal is shifted more to building a strong base. In-season, we only lift twice a week, and our lifts are tailored more to high speed, low reps, and lower weight. This is to isolate the speed and power needed to compete because we’ve already built the muscle base to sustain it.
Workout Focus
Similar to the weight room, the track workout focus in the fall is more concentrated on building strength and endurance through higher volume and longer reps. However, aspects of speed still need to be incorporated into the workouts we do—for example, going out for a jog isn’t going to help our training. Instead, there might be a number of 400- or 500-meter reps at a reduced intensity compared to race pace. In the spring, workouts are usually at a higher speed to mimic what we do in racing (for example, our runs are more often within 80-100% of top speed). Finally, at the end of the season, there is a taper, or a decrease in training before a championship. This may seem counterintuitive, but it’s important to remember that fitness doesn’t disappear overnight…but fatigue or soreness from a workout too late in the season can hinder your performance in a race.
Starting Blocks/Spikes
Two other ways sprinters optimize their performance in races are by using starting blocks and spikes. Starting blocks hold your feet in the proper position to drive out with as much force as possible at the start of a race. Spikes are track shoes with metal spikes screwed into the bottom for optimal traction. While these two things make some of the biggest differences in running fast, we hold off on them until well into fall training because wearing spikes can put a lot of strain on your feet and legs. These shoes are lightweight, have negative heel drop (which can significantly change your gait), and lack the support and cushioning necessary to support your feet for continued use. It’s important to try to avoid injuries that can come from wearing spikes too much (like Achilles tendonitis and shin splints) when you should be building your fitness base. Also, athletes often only do block starts while wearing spikes because spikes completely change the way you push out of the blocks.
Training Hours
At the beginning of the year, before blocks and spikes are even incorporated into workouts, we only train a maximum of eight hours a week. Late in October, we transition to a maximum of 20 hours, and blocks, spikes, and more technical coaching follow. We stay at 20 hours for the rest of the year, excluding a short period in spring that goes back to eight hours between the indoor and outdoor competition seasons. These maximum numbers come from NCAA CARA regulations (Countable Athletically Related Activities, including mandatory training, lifting, and team meetings/film review). However, there is a loophole where you can train over the maximum number of hours as long as it’s not mandatory—for example, a coach can send an optional workout to do on your own, but they can’t punish you for not doing this extra work.
Off Days
Because we train fewer hours in the fall, it makes sense that we have more off days. During the fall, we have two guaranteed off days (during fall 2025 they were Thursday and Sunday). During the spring, we may only have one off day (typically Sunday because meets fall on Saturday or Friday). Sometimes we’ll also have additional off days or recovery-focused days throughout the week. This can vary depending on how hard our workouts have been, competition schedules, and injuries. However, though we have more guaranteed off days in the fall, there are still more workouts per week. This is because in the spring, two days of workouts are knocked off for a pre-meet day (just a warmup and block starts) and a meet day.
Testing/Competition
Meet days are what we structure training around in the spring—so what does that mean for the fall? Although we aren’t competing in the fall, we do have measures to track our progress through training. We have a series of tests to complete both on the track and in the weight room. During fall 2025, we tested our overhead backward eight-pound ball throw, standing broad jump, 45-second sprint, 30-meter fly (30 meters measured after a running start), and max pull-ups, push-ups, and sit-ups in 30 seconds. In the weight room, we tested our one-rep hang clean max (an explosive lift where you hang a barbell at your knees and then pull it up to catch on your shoulders), three-rep back squat max, three-rep bench press max, and vertical jump. In the spring, our numeric feedback comes from our results on the track.
As you can see, it takes a lot of energy and time management to balance training (in every season!) on top of being a college student. However, it’s always worth it because I get to work towards my goals on the track and in the classroom every day. Each season, just like each facet of my life as a student-athlete, is important in its own way.
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Leila Metres
