Garfield Cat

On your sprints, even a quarter mile warm up is not enough. Try a 2 mile warmup but slow.

If you're on a track (440 yards) break up that track into quadrants of 110 yards. Run a 110 followed by a very slow jog of the next 110. Do that for 8 laps. The speed of the 110 run will vary with your age, intended goal. As fast as a 5 minute mile pace may seem, its only 18.75 seconds per 110 yards. That's still kind of slow but maybe that's what you need right now.

These 110 yard drills will get you accustomed to running faster but still running well within yourself. Then as you get used to this and your body says "I can do this", its time to stretch out that distance to 220 yards with 220 jog but picked up.

The whole thing will be 2 miles warmup followed by 2 miles of 110's, followed by 1 mile warmdown = total 5 miles. To me, that's a quality workout.

I don't know how old you are, whether you're the drill sargeant, or just a peer motivator, or what. But listen to your body. Its better to workout with peers than doing it alone. Stay focused, use the jog inbetween the run to recover, that's your mental safety net.