How do I get faster?

[ultraslacker]

What do I need to do in order to increase my speed?

(besides colour-coordinating my running gear, of course)

[Monk]

some folk would highly recommend that you put in some speed work into that plan. (i.e. fartleks, intervals, etc...) but make sure that you have a good solid running base to start with, and that you pay attention to how your body responds to doing 'speed work'. don't overdo it, or you risk missing out on your next race (not just a PB).

[TheBman]

.......................run downhill?


TheBman

[Dstew]

Fast is fast. There is one study I read that suggested with the proper endurance training one's 30 m speed could be used to predict the finish times for any race up to and including a marathon.

So speed work is the answer - 100 m strides - start slow and work your way up to about 80% of max. for 100 meters, recovery and repeat a total of 10 times.

Do intervals - 200, 400, 800, 1,200, 1,600 - pick your poison. You can go on the net and find various charts, etc as to what you should run for what pace you want. Or when do what I did - run as hard as you can for 200 meters, walk to complete recovery and do that 10 times.

Hills or stairs - attempt to go up at your normal pace and the flats become so much easier.

Farleks - run hard between two light standards, easy job between the next two and repeat until bored.

[jacob42.2]

.......................run downhill?


TheBman

Actually Bman this is a good idea!

It's called overspeed. You run your legs down that hill as fast as you can, and it will help. There is a science to it, but I'm too tired to detail it now. I read the article in RW's I think...ahh I'll explain later if need be, but it does help. I do it often

[Jwolf]

"How to get faster" depends on where you're starting from. Speed work is important for those who have a high endurance base and are trying to push their body's speed limitations. But for those with less endurace base, you will get faster if you build that base. That means lots of aerobic training at slower than your goal pace in order to make your heart stronger and build mitochondria (the cells' powerhouses) while putting in as many miles as your body can handle.

You can use shorter races or time trials to predict potential long race times using a variety of predictors. A good site with race predictors is http://www.runningforfitness.org/ (thanks, dstew). If your short race times predict faster long race times than you've done, then endurance work will help you meet your goal. If you can hit the long race times but not the short ones, then speed work will likely get you faster. Of course, if you do a combination of speed work and endurance work, you'll do even better.

[Peronal example: I wasn't able to do any speed work or hill training during my last half-marathon training cycle because of an injury. I did about 90% of my running at 15% slower than my goal race pace, with the rest being faster runs at or near race pace. My total mileage during this training was about 30% higher than for the same period last year. I was able to improve on my last year's half-marathon time by almost 13 minutes (from 2:09 to 1:56). Yes, I probably would have done even better by doing speed work. But I probably wouldn't have made it to the start line.]

Another way to get faster is to lose any extra pounds that your carrying around... each pound of weight lost roughly correlates to one minute off your marathon time (or about half minute of your half-marthon time, etc.). So even if you need to lose only 10 pounds or so, that can make a huge difference. Some people try to train at a little higher than their race weight to use the difference to their advantage. Be careful not to put on pounds during your taper period before races, where you'll be running less and you have to make a concious effort not to eat as much as you were eating at high mileage. (A couple of the the 13 mintues in my story above were probably due to the fact that I was about 6-7 pounds lighter this year.)

[paulg]

Great post Dr J.,

Nice review of the factors that influence speed.,

Thanks,

Paul

[Run26.2]

"Of course, if you do a combination of speed work and endurance work, you'll do even better.
.)

Yep...I posted essentially the same question, "how do I get faster", on the RR training forum last October after the Toronto Marathon where I had run 3:44 and wanted to get down to 3:30. The learned colleagues over there (many of whom are here) weighed in with much advice that boiled down to two things:
1. Increase endurance: The fitter I became through increasing my endurance, the longer I was able to sustain runnning at a faster speed. I added 20kms a week to my spring (Ottawa) marathon training session from my Fall one, and I ran at least 21km every Sunday from New Year's until taper time in May.

2. Speed Work: Tuesday tempo runs became hell night for me...on these runs of up to 10km I would empty my cannons and run as fast as I could...I really pushed myself on these nights and over the weeks became much faster over distances up to 10km. I honestly believe that if someone really wants to get faster they have to be prepared to suffer.

Anyways, I made these two significant changes to my training program and have no doubt that they were instrumental in me running much faster as I was able to hit 3:30 in Ottawa.

[Jwolf]

Yep...I posted essentially the same question, "how do I get faster", on the RR training forum last October after the Toronto Marathon where I had run 3:44 and wanted to get down to 3:30. The learned colleagues over there (many of whom are here) weighed in with much advice.

I learned a TON from that thread, Dave. I remember asking, "so which is it? do you get faster by running fast, or do you get faster by running slow (and long)? it can't be both?!" In fact, it is both.

I guess I should clarify what I said above... when I said I did no speed work, I meant that I did no speed intervals. I did do tempo runs and some race pace runs, but only about every other week. But I think these runs helped me to know my pace, prevent my body from getting too used to running slow, and have the confidence to run faster during the race.