You are putting in the work and the times will not move. It is one of the most frustrating places to be in this sport, and it almost always means you are training hard at the wrong things. Speed does not come from doing more. It comes from doing the few things that actually move the clock, and recovering enough to run them fast. Here is why you are stuck and what to change.
Speed is built by running fast, and you cannot run fast when you are fatigued. If every session is hard and you are always a little sore, your top-end work happens at 90 percent, which just trains you to be good at running 90 percent. Real speed sessions need full recovery, two or three quality days a week with easy or off days between, not five grind days in a row.
Long, grinding reps and high mileage feel productive and build the wrong engine for a 100 or 200. They make you better at being tired, not at being fast. The 100 is won by acceleration and max velocity, so most of your hard work should be short, fast, and fully recovered, not 300s on three minutes rest.
Past a point, fitness stops being the limiter and technique takes over. A sprinter who overstrides, stands up too early, or has a lazy arm action leaves speed on the track that no workout fixes. If you have trained consistently for a year and stalled, the next gains are almost always mechanical, and you cannot feel them. You have to see them.
When the clock stops moving, the cause is usually a mechanical fault you cannot feel at full speed. Film a sprint from the side, the AI grades your acceleration posture, max-velocity mechanics, and arm action against the standard, and tells you which one is the ceiling. That is where your next tenth lives.
Follow up in chat and ask questions. The AI remembers your analysis and speaks the language of sprints coaching.
Sprint times move most when you fix mechanics and train true max velocity with full recovery. Piling on volume sits at the bottom of the payoff chart, which is why it rarely breaks a plateau.
Common questions athletes and coaches ask about this topic.
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