According to Cabral/Hadd, the "two types of runners" are Fast Twitch types (kickers) and Slow Twitch types. A Fast-twitch guy doesn't have to look too far for training advice on how to improve his endurance, but advice for improving fast-twitch muscle function is much more sparse. Here's what I've gathered so far:
*Lydiard develops speed by hill running, sprint drills, and what he calls "fine speed" workouts very near the racing season, which consist of something like 3mi on the track alternating sprint/float every 55y.
*Jack Daniels recommends short intervals at "R" pace (~mile pace) with lots of recovery fairly early on in the training cycle (after 6 weeks of easy mileage).
*John Kellogg recommends drills, along with doing 2-3 sets of 15-50sec strides and buildups with 5-10 min between sets year-round. near the beginning of anerobic training, he recommends a few sets of very short, all-out sprinting with 10 minutes of walking recovery to train the creatine phosphate system. He also says you can follow this training with some more traditional sprinter workouts. He also recommends a 2-7min time trial at 95% once every 2-3 weeks in the base phase.
*I've also read that some people recommend explosive plyometric training and/or lifting to improve sprinting speed at the end of a race.
*In the "Summer of Malmo," Malmo recommends doing ~16x200 at a fast, relaxed pace every two weeks or so with "FULL recovery." I like how he says this: "I've always been amazed at the number of runners that think that they can 'get speed' during the last three weeks of the season. It doesn't work that way."
This is essentially why I'm making this post. A lot of guys, myself included, keep thinking about that end-of-season track race where you're leading with one lap to go, then finish 5 seconds behind the leaders because you can't drop a 60-second quarter. It's important to realize that, even if you DO develop great speed, you need to be FIT enough to USE it (this was lydiard's reasoning behind 22-mile runs for 800m runners), but as I said at the beginning, there is PLENTY of information on getting to that point.
Anyone had success with any of these approaches, or do any of you have your own approach to recommend? I'm particularly interested in the strides/lifting/drills/plyometrics approach.