[Scott Johnston]

Nick;

Great questions. The longer shallow sprints are good for building actual leg turnover speed that a sprinter might want to develop.  They do entail much more injury risk, especially hamstring.  Which is why we don’t advocate them for mountain athletes, almost all of whom will not have a sprinting background.  We recommend minimum of 20% grade in the books. The mountain athlete is looking for leg power. The steep sprints give you that without nearly as much injury risk.

The 5 second sprints are going to pay off better for steep uphill mountain running or mountaineering.  Don’t worry about the work rest ratio. That kind of advice is only applicable to an endurance training session. That ratio is not important here because we are not training endurance but power. All that matters in max efforts like either one of these is that you are fully recovered between reps.  Notice that I specific at least a 3 minute rest between sprints in the books.  As soon as you feel the power drop of from one rep to the next, try lengthing the recovery. If that does not allow you to reach the same high point on the next rep, the workout is over.

See if you can find some steep stairs, like the fire stairs in a bulding that you can sprint up for 10 seconds or so.  I think those will be more effective than the 5 second version you’re using.

I hope this helps,

Scott