Slow-Poke Saskie...

saskie78

Ok, y'all are really fast in my books! I've been running for 5 years and am still a slow, slow turtle. I started around a 12 minute mile. Ran my first half marathon a year later with the goal of finishing and finished in 2:12. Ran my first marathon 2 years later and finished in 4:28. Blah, blah, blah.... here's my athlinks page if you need the details? https://www.athlinks.com/athletes/cfaye/Profile

Lately, got into ultra running and love that, but am also wanting to speed up my road pace at all distances. I'm comfortable at a 10min mile. Pushing at a 9:30. I run between 35 and 60 miles per week, with up to half or more of it on trails. Ran a half at 8:30 pace last year (Cleveland: no hills). Would be happy with sitting comfortably around a 9 min mile.

Broad question, but how did you all pick up speed? Were you specific about intervals and tempos? Did you just try to run faster in general? Did you follow some kind of set program? Wing it? Did you find a magical unicorn track?

Much appreciated!

SonicDeathMonkey80

First, I call shenanigans on your no hills at Cleveland thing. There was a decent one at the end!

My formula for success (and this varies with everyone) was 2 days of speedwork per week, and a run at a race pace. I hate intervals, so I would swap out track work with either a trail run/race, hillwork, or road race. Also, I got into the habit of monitoring my performance with an HRM so I know if I'm pushing myself or just being a baby. I haven't diligently worked with my HRM since March, but I'm technically not training right now, but rather goofing off.

_Josee_

I haven't experienced a plateau in my improvements yet (I've only been running for 13 months)... But I do push myself on 2-3 workouts a week. It's hard, it's not comfortable, I wanna puke, I wanna quit, I wanna die... but eventually those hard pace become easier. I think you do have to get out of your comfort zone whether it's in a tempo run, hill repeats or track intervals.

You gotta get comfortable with being uncomfortable

Good luck!!!

Carrieendar

These were some workouts I liked when I was first getting into speed:

2 min ON, 1 min OFF x 10

5-8 x 200 with 200 rest

200,400,800,1600,800,400,200 (rest between each....I think I did like one full lap of the track rest or so)

1 mile warm up, 1-3 miles tempo swift run, 1 mile cool down

Jog the curves, sprint the straights for a set period of time

CarsonRuns

The staples of my success are high mileage, tempo runs and strides. These three components exist in all phases of training, be it base building, race training, sharpening, taper or race recovery.

High mileage for me means 2500 to 2800+ miles per year. I realized great improvements at that level. Right around 50 miles per week on average seems to work. Most of that mileage, probably close to 85%, is done at my easy run pace. My easy run pace has not changed over the last six years staying at around 9:30 pace, sometimes faster, sometimes slower, yet I've dropped my race times significantly.


Improvements:
5K - 24:00 --> 19:18
HM - 1:57 --> 1:28
Mara. - 3:38 --> 3:10

I do some sort of tempo work once every week. These runs fall between LT and AT pace. It may be 20 minutes @ LT pace, or longer sessions closer to AT pace or mile repeats somewhere in the middle. All of it designed to work the AT.

I do strides once per week, usually at 5K pace and faster. This works on running economy and form while training the body to recruit fast twitch fibers to help the slow twitch fibers when the become fatigued.

When I'm in a race specific training phase, I'll usually do one workout every week or every other week that incorporates some type of race pace workout.

KateRunsColorado

Following because I kinda sorta someday want to try and BQ...even though the idea of it scares the sh#t out of me!!!

Carrieendar

I am also a big fan of strides! McmIllan also has a great workout I like in his 10k plan: 10x30 seconds with one min job in between.

SillyC2

I guess my bigger question is..... why do you want to be faster?

I'm looking at your times, and they are similar to mine. I wanted to be THIS fast because it puts me into the middle of the pack at ultras, and not typically having to worry about cutoffs.

With ultras, though..... there's a bit more going on. I did a race with a lot of climbing, and a harsh cutoff. Leg turnover wasn't something I needed as much as climbing speed. I did a lot of hills. A lot of lot of hills. My uphill pace improved, but my leg turnover / flat speed didn't improve much at all. (Sorry, folks who say hills are the same as speedwork. I don't agree).

A year before that, I wanted to take home an age group prize at a 5k. So I hit the track and did some traditional speed workouts. It worked. I didn't keep the speed for long, though.

If I want to keep up leg turnover in the winter, it's treadmill time. But I never want it that bad.

julie_emma1

Thanks for posting this, OP! Some great tips in here

saskie78

I guess my bigger question is..... why do you want to be faster?

I'm looking at your times, and they are similar to mine. I wanted to be THIS fast because it puts me into the middle of the pack at ultras, and not typically having to worry about cutoffs.

Yeah, ultras are a whole 'nother bag of tricks. Hill repeats, hill repeats, hill repeats. I suppose I want to get faster because I don't think I can go further. The 50 miler seriously did me in. I'll run another, but not 'til next year. I'm still trying to ditch some of the little injuries I picked up getting ready for that. If I get the notion that I can go further one day, I will shoot for 100. But for now, I need a different kind of challenge. I suppose that challenge is faster!

SillyC2

I guess my bigger question is..... why do you want to be faster?

I'm looking at your times, and they are similar to mine. I wanted to be THIS fast because it puts me into the middle of the pack at ultras, and not typically having to worry about cutoffs.

Yeah, ultras are a whole 'nother bag of tricks. Hill repeats, hill repeats, hill repeats. I suppose I want to get faster because I don't think I can go further. The 50 miler seriously did me in. I'll run another, but not 'til next year. I'm still trying to ditch some of the little injuries I picked up getting ready for that. If I get the notion that I can go further one day, I will shoot for 100. But for now, I need a different kind of challenge. I suppose that challenge is faster!

For what it's worth, my first 50 miler felt awful. My next two were MUCH harder technically and were absolutely dreamy.

runner475

Jus' poking

saskie78

Thanks for all this good advice gang! Take-away: run faster more and suck it up, buttercup

I think I may also have to schedule more solo runs. I run with groups and partners nearly every run and the runs are social, which is not all that conducive to specific pace work. May have to start doing a couple double days this summer to get paced workouts and social workouts in.

Thanks again!

SillyC2

Thanks for all this good advice gang! Take-away: run faster more and suck it up, buttercup

I think I may also have to schedule more solo runs. I run with groups and partners nearly every run and the runs are social, which is not all that conducive to specific pace work. May have to start doing a couple double days this summer to get paced workouts and social workouts in.

Thanks again!

Are your social runs with women? If so, I feel for you here. It's so hard to get women to run faster! But, it might be worth sharing that you want to run faster with a couple of them. I did a few years ago, and one of the women wanted to split off with me for some runs and go a faster pace.

vmclach

Thanks for all this good advice gang! Take-away: run faster more and suck it up, buttercup

I think I may also have to schedule more solo runs. I run with groups and partners nearly every run and the runs are social, which is not all that conducive to specific pace work. May have to start doing a couple double days this summer to get paced workouts and social workouts in.

Thanks again!

Are your social runs with women? If so, I feel for you here. It's so hard to get women to run faster! But, it might be worth sharing that you want to run faster with a couple of them. I did a few years ago, and one of the women wanted to split off with me for some runs and go a faster pace.

This. Run with guys. Period. As fun as it is to run with women, most of the time, it's not fast enough.

Hold yourself to the high standards. Don't name excuses & say "I can never be that fast".

How old are you? How bad do you want it?

I dropped my marathon Time from 4:09 to 3:27 in a year... When I ran my 4:09. I was 5+ years into running. I thought I was doomed to be slow. Then, I woke up. Stopped limiting & feeling sorry for myself. I found other wen who started from MOTHING and are now elite.

The first non-elite woman to finish boston this year with a 2:44 was overweight until she was 21 she decided she was sick of it. I follow her blog and Instagram. She's ran multiple 100 milers in the process..

Not far behind her 2:44 was another woman I follow on IG & her blog who started running after having her first kid. She was in her early 20s... 2 more kids later, she's take her marathon tr from 3:38 to 2:44. These are real people who put in real work.

You didn't have to start running when you were 6 or 12 or 16 to be fast. It's a line. If you want it. GET IT!!!!

DonPendergraft

I wish I was as "slow" as you are! But I have a coach now and I should be getting faster. I used to just do the same thing every day. Long slow distance equaled an always slow runner I guess. Now I do track work, plyometrics, hills and of course the long run and an easy day. I also elliptical now once a week and one day a week is dedicated to powerwalking. For example, on tap for Sunday is 75 minutes of powerwalking hilly terrain and I am supposed to cover 5 miles. I can do it, but it's still hard for me. The lady who coaches me does her powerwalking at a 12:30 pace and she thinks I will get faster at it. After all, a lot of what you do in ultras is powerwalking up hills, so you had better get good at it I guess. I'm curious what happens to my 50K time when I run my next one in September.

saskie78

Long slow distance equaled an always slow runner I guess. Now I do track work, plyometrics, hills and of course the long run and an easy day. I also elliptical now once a week and one day a week is dedicated to powerwalking. For example, on tap for Sunday is 75 minutes of powerwalking hilly terrain and I am supposed to cover 5 miles. I can do it, but it's still hard for me. The lady who coaches me does her powerwalking at a 12:30 pace and she thinks I will get faster at it. After all, a lot of what you do in ultras is powerwalking up hills, so you had better get good at it I guess. I'm curious what happens to my 50K time when I run my next one in September.

Helpful! I'm beginning to mix it up a bit more and I'll start following prescribed speedwork in my road marathon training plan this month, so hopefully improvements will come with that. I look forward to hearing about that September 50K! I want to do another 50K this year, but I don't think it will fit with my other goals... next year! I did indeed master the power walk training for my first 50K on a beast of a hilly course