Hey sebastian,
I’m in a very similar place. All I’ve found that’s going in the right direction for me is to really focus on
1) dropping the pounds – fat don’t fly. Really, honestly, it means for rank novices like us a “super-long” to short (sprints) – start jogging and watching your diet. general strength work like push-ups (press-ups?), sit-ups, chins, dips, lunges, squats, lots of abdominal work , and using a light (3-5kg) medicine ball will help too. To start, frequency (how often you’ll do an activity) matters much more than volume (how much) or intensity (how hard it is on your central nervous system). You’re going for the sensation of feeling hot and flushed. For any of the running, I’d probably cap the volume of any session at 3km – which for sprinters does not have to be a 3km run at a super slow pace, nor should it (search for “Tempo”). If you can run on grass, do so. heck, for GENERAL development, if you’re playing regular soccer games, you may be in good enough cardiovascular condition to work at the sprint position with Hill sprints (find a hill, run up. the incline helps you get into positions you otherwise could not). Elite sprinters are in the 5% body fat range, and I’m shooting for the 9-10% range personally. If you can see your abdominal muscles, then:
2) gaining the strength you need – if it looks right it flies right! I’m really referring to your glute and hamstring development here. your butt extends the hip, which propels you down the track. Lifts like full squats, romanian dead lifts, reverse hypers, deadlifts all help develop these muscles the way you need. again, frequency > volume > intensity. then there’s the special strength that hurdle step over drills, bounding, skipping and jumping develops, which you’ll want to add in gradually from the very start. if condition 1 is met, and you start to look like a sprinter from the waist down (big butt and hamstrings that look like they go up to your ribs) then you can look at the schedules of what US collegiate sprinters do (see the clyde hart or Dan Pfaff pages).
3) consistency – which for you and me is actually more about being ABLE to train than the training itself, which means really focusing on getting good sleep, good food, and paying attention to nagging things that come up.
Speed Reserve (how Absolutely fast you are) is the ultimate determinant of how fast you’ll race. However, it’s not the only determinant and it’s the hardest to influence.
As far as a program goes, what I’ve found is that every time I write something down, life laughs at it. I’d have a plan, but not be afraid to alter or abolish it at any point and start over.
Here’s where I’m restarting myself.
1-3x a week –
Fitness session
Warm-up 15-20 minutes
main running work – really I’m just going for as close to 20 minutes of continuous motion, could be traditional tempo, or hill work or even running in place, but for each rep, I’m limiting myself to 30 seconds before pausing to recover so the quality doesn’t diminish too much.
General Strength 10 minutes of push-ups, abs, med ball work, lunges, jumps, hurdle drills – whatever I have available.
Cool-down 10 minutes
1-3x a week, alternate days from the fitness session
Strength
Warm-up 15-20 minutes
Strength I’m focusing on Deadlifts to the knee, Romanian dead Lifts, and Split squats with my back foot elevated. I’m doing 5 sets on these. Then I choose 2 upper body lifts like Incline DB Press and DB rows and try to get a good pump.
I’ll say it once again, I REALLY over estimated how fit I was FOR SPRINTING. it’s such a specific skill and requires such specific strength that if you’re late to it like me, you’ll need to practice a lot of patience and try to let your body adapt to the unique demands.
Best of luck!