This Guy Trained Like an Olympic Sprinter for 30 Days
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YouTuber Laurie Shaw has undertaken a wide range of 30-day fitness challenges, most recently training in Krav Maga for a month. In his latest video, inspired by the legendary performance of Olympic runner Usain Bolt, he decides to try and get as fast at sprinting as he possibly can, using the 100 meters as a gage of how much he is able to improve.
On the first day of the challenge, Shaw runs 100 meters in 13.94 seconds, and sets himself the goal of hitting 13 seconds or under by the end of the month. He also enlists some help from former world champion sprinter David Isackson, as he admits that he is "a bit of a beginner when it comes to sprinting."
Isackson divides the month of training into two sections: for the first two weeks, Shaw focuses exclusively on building leg strength and power through drills like hill sprints—or as Shaw soon comes to know them, death sprints. These help develop the explosiveness that Shaw will need on the starting line, as running at such a steep angle helps to recreate that position.
"It was a full-on first two weeks, with a lot of technique correction and information to take in," he says. "One thing I've come to appreciate is just how impressive a sport sprinting is. What fascinates me is the amount of work and more specifically hours of training top sprinters have to put in to shave off literal milliseconds from their time." He cites the mind-blowing stat that despite having trained for over 20 years, Usain Bolt has only run for 115 seconds over the course of his Olympic career.
In week three and four, Shaw then turns his attention to getting his speed up using everything he has learned. Then on Day 30, he performs another 100 sprint, and reaches a time of 13.23, improving on his original PR of 13.94. According to Isackson, it can take up to two years to get to your peak as a sprinter, and being able to swipe almost three quarters of a second off your time in just a month is impressive.
Before he concludes the challenge, however, Shaw is keen to see what time he might be able to get while wearing sprint spikes, and so he attempts the 100 meters again, and finishes at 12.96, achieving his original goal of under 13 seconds.
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