I'm a very, very slow runner

You can do squats, but I think box squats are more important for explosive purposes.

Personally, if you've never been much of a weightlifter, I would build a solid base with box squats once a week, and regular squats once a week with plenty of stretching, especially after the excercises are performed.

Other than that, you can do some pylometeric excercise, IE box jumps, etc, and well.....just practice sprinting.

Don't beat yourself up though because not everyone comes equipped with a third or even a second gear.

 

You have to be careful with box squats, but it involves putting a "box" or generally a bench that allows you touch and go paralell with when you're squating, and then explode upwards, in a CONTROLLED motion.

Just be careful with it, and don't slam into the box or bench.

 

You should certainly work your legs.

You should be doing leg press and squats and also should by looking at plyometric exercises (including jumping squats)

Other good plyometric exercises include "depth jumps" and "cone jumps"

 

I agree with squats and plyometrics but no way should you use the leg press. Not functional in any way.

 

pylometrics are good for power
but with sprinting its stride length and stride frequency makes you fast

 

If sprinting speed is your main concern, work on mechanics. If you're used to running distance you probably let the majority of your foot hit with each stride, whereas when sprinting you should pretty much be up on your toes.

As someone as said, box squats are good for explosiveness. They break up the eccentric and concentric phases of the lift, so your muscles are forced to contract very forcefully from, at least relatively speaking when comparing to a regular squat, a relaxed position. This really stresses starting strength, which is the equivalent of exploding off the line in a sprint.

Plyometrics are very good for explosiveness, reversable strength and the likes, but I'd make sure to have a solid strength base in place because they can be a shock to your joints. They were originally called "shock training," after all.

Other than that, though, just get your strength levels up. While you can't really change the types of muscle fibers you have (type I slow-twitch or type II fast-twitch) there are some fibers that take on the characteristics of the training you've been engaging in, so if you've been doing mostly endurance-minded training, your intermediate fibers may have been taking on the characteristics of slow-twitch fibers, resulting in a general decrease in explosiveness. It isn't set in stone, though, so explosive-minded training can help amend the problems somewhat.

And, of course...get out there and sprint.

 

Wrong.

It helps to boost squat.

 

About core strength to avoid injury when performing plyometrics.

Ensure you can comfortably squat 1.5 * your bodyweight. Look to squat 2* your weight.

 

There are a lot better alternatives than the leg press if your goal is to increase your squat. Lunges, Bulgarian Split-Squats, pause squats and box squats, and the likes. Leg presses aren't that functional and there are a lot of other exercises where you can get a lot more benefits. More bang for your buck, I suppose.

 

Where did you learn that one? Many people can leg press over 1000lbs but can't squat 200. I don't see how what you're saying works.

 

Please do not contradict me.

I factor in as much as possible into the equation and I have worked out that the thread starter is unlikely to be doing much leg exercise.

Knowledge is one thing.

Wisdom is another.

 

To an extent, yes. Elite-level sprinters are predisposed to be incredibly explosive athletes. Their percentage of fast-twitch fibers is absolutely insane. But like I said, there is always room for improvement. It's all about how you train. And I think you'd be surprised the benefits sprinting has on your distance running, even if it doesn't work the other way around.