Dear Runners....advice???

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2

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  • KatieJane83
    KatieJane83 Posts: 2,002 Member
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    - leg workouts - squats, lunges, etc.
    - fartleks, intervals, track workouts, repeats, etc.
    - keep increasing your distance
  • cbu23
    cbu23 Posts: 280 Member
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    You have to run more to run faster. If you haven't built an appropriate aerobic base, all the speed and hill work in the world isn't going to make a whole lot of distance.

    How long have you been running and what is your current weekly mileage?

    I've been running for 2 years. I'm doing around 15-20 miles a week. There is this yearly 10k that i have done the past two years and both times I come in at 1hour 15minutes. I REALLY want to do an hour this year!
  • SassyCalyGirl
    SassyCalyGirl Posts: 1,932 Member
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    interval training
  • Maridelsol82
    Maridelsol82 Posts: 90
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    bump
  • cbu23
    cbu23 Posts: 280 Member
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    Thanks everyone for the comments!
  • Il_DaniD_lI
    Il_DaniD_lI Posts: 1,593 Member
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    I found that incorporating stair running into my workout routine has helped improved my speed/endurance in running.
  • cbu23
    cbu23 Posts: 280 Member
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    I'm a big fan of..... if you want to run faster then you have to run faster!! I would start doing some speedwork. That could be tempo runs, intervals at a track or on the treadmill, or even informal speed intervals such as fartleks (where you pick up your pace for a period of time - ex: I'm going to run all out until I reach the next phone pole).

    Another good way to get speed work in is to enter a lot of races. People generally run faster in a race than on a training run - the adrenaline, competition with other runners, etc. So I do a lot of 5Ks in the summer for my speed work.

    ^^^I like the idea of running all out to a certain point! Thanks!
  • zakkthebear
    zakkthebear Posts: 52 Member
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    slow down to go faster. get a good, long time of LSD runs to build a big base. once you have a few months of solid base, that is where the really benefit of speed work will come into play and lessen the chance of injury as well.

    Running speed work done right is about the most challenging this you can do, IMO. threw up afterwards on more than one occasion...
  • CarsonRuns
    CarsonRuns Posts: 3,039 Member
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    You have to run more to run faster. If you haven't built an appropriate aerobic base, all the speed and hill work in the world isn't going to make a whole lot of distance.

    How long have you been running and what is your current weekly mileage?

    I've been running for 2 years. I'm doing around 15-20 miles a week. There is this yearly 10k that i have done the past two years and both times I come in at 1hour 15minutes. I REALLY want to do an hour this year!

    Okay, so you have an appropriate aerobic base to work from.

    The first thing you should do is start to do strides at the end of one of your runs each week. These are short bursts that are run fast, but under control. Not a full out sprint, but something around mile race pace (you may not know what that is for you, but I'll get to that in a second). 4 repeats of 40 meters is a good place to start. Do that once a week for a month and then do 6x60m and build that way monthly to 10x100m.

    The second thing you should do is incorporate a tempo run once a week or every two weeks, depending upon how frequently you are running. If you are only running 4 days a week, do this every two weeks. 5 days and up, do it weekly. This is a 10 to 20 minute section of a normal easy run that do at a pace that you can reasonably hold for an hour. If you're not there, yet, don't worry.

    The third component is the Long Slow Distance run (LSD). Once a week, you should be doing a run that is at least 90 minutes, up to 2 hours. Now, don't just go out and do that. You'll need to build up to it by adding a mile at a time to this long run. Be aware that this shouldn't exceed about 1/3 of your total weekly mileage.

    The last thing is, you need to run more. More miles, more days a week. Just run more. And it doesn't have to be hard. Lots of easy peasy running.

    Okay, now to the pace question. Take a recent race time and plug it into this calculator and it will tell you what your training paces should be.

    http://www.mcmillanrunning.com/index.php/calcUsage/calculate

    Also, a note about hill work. Hills are good for the strength portion of your training. They would replace strides, but I wouldn't do hill work for more than once a week for 6 weeks. After that, you reach a point of diminishing returns.

    Hope this helps!
  • oats4breakfast
    oats4breakfast Posts: 225
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    There are many different ways and methods but basically, you have to learn how to pace yourself and build your endurance. You also need a "base" of work to build from. Before doing some methods over others. Fartlek and hill repeats are all good, but don't always translate into faster when you don't have a good mileage base (endurance) to work from in the first place. That is paramount.
    Endurance is simply your weekly mileage. Don't try to run these fast because all you'll do is burn out or injure yourself. If anything, run then slower. You should also be trying to increase this overtime if you actually want to be able to run longer faster too. Then you also need to do some speed work to learn how to actually run fast. This is best done on a track over short distances.

    Have a target distance that you want to run too. Say you want to run 8 min miles for 3 miles as a goal. You need to work off of this number now. So over the next number of weeks, build your endurance so you know you can handle this type of distance. So, running at ~10 min miles, go for 2x1.5 mile run in week 1, with 1x2mile run.
    Week 2, do 2x 2mile and 1x2.5 mile
    Week 3, do 2x2.5 mile, and 1x3mile
    Week 4, do 2x3 mile, and 1x4mile
    Week 5 do 2x3 mile, and 1x5 mile
    Week 6 do 2x3 mile, and 1x6 mile
    Week 7 do 2x3 mile and 1x6 mile.
    Week 8 do 2x2 and 1x4mile.

    Now that will build your endurance, but each week, do some speed work. Running 8 min mile will require you to run 400m in 2 minutes. Go to a track and do 400m repeats each week too. Week 1 do 4x400@2min. Week 2 5x400m@2min. Week3 6x400m@2min, Week 4 8x400m@2min, week 6 10x400m@2min, Week 7 12x400m@2min (this was your goal) Week 8 do 6x400m@2min.
    Always rest 2 mins between 400m, no ifs ands or buts, and try to run that 2 min pace +/-2s even if you can bust them out faster - this should be within your abilities, not at the extremity - say 80% or less. Obviously, if you can't run that fast, then choose something more achievable.

    Once you get here, you can test and see how you do. From there, keep your weekly mileage up and you can drop the 400m stuff (if you want) and introduce fartlek or hill climbs into your runs. Fartlek would be good once your at your desired pace and endurance, that way you can learn to go faster with "less effort". Hill runs for a beginner will just kill you.

    This type of programming is everywhere. There are plenty of books and websites on how to run a faster 10k or 5k or whatever.
  • cbu23
    cbu23 Posts: 280 Member
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    I'm for sure gonna check out some the suggested websites and try out some of the suggestions. I should have gave a little more of my history. I have been running for 2 years. I have done two 10k's and a half marathon. Both of the 10k's I have done in 1hr 15min. I really want to do my 10k coming up in July in an hour. I am currently running 4-5 times a week.

    Again, thanks for all the advice and responses!
  • Juliet_622
    Juliet_622 Posts: 165 Member
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    bump!

    I can run 15km+ at my slow-ish pace (7:00min/km) - but as soon as I try to increase the pace, I can barely make it 4km. I feel like I'm permanently stuck at this pace.

    Thanks to everyone providing suggestions!
  • dsjohndrow
    dsjohndrow Posts: 1,820 Member
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    I use a simple program.

    Day 1 - Run intervals. I go to a local track and run 100 yard dashes and walk the end and run 100 on the other side. I do like 8 laps and 16 sprints.

    Day 2 - I just run the distance I want to run. (5K for me) at the pace I am at.

    Day 3 - I run 2/3 of my total distance at 1 mile per hour above my pace for a 5K. For me 2 miles at 8.0 MPH. I take a 1 minute break and then run as fast as I can for 2 minutes. About 11 MPH

    Day 4 - I run 25% longer than my race. For the 5K I run 4 miles.

    For training you should have an easy pace, a speed pace, a long run pace and a VOX (pace the winds you). Google race paces and there are calculators you can use based on your last time for a specified distance.

    Here is one that I used.

    http://www.runworks.com/calculator.html
  • Jarnard
    Jarnard Posts: 497 Member
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    interval training.
  • arc918
    arc918 Posts: 2,037 Member
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    My usual three tips:

    1) more miles
    2) more miles
    3) more miles
  • bluefox9er
    bluefox9er Posts: 2,917 Member
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    bump
  • brandyk77
    brandyk77 Posts: 605 Member
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    You have to run more to run faster. If you haven't built an appropriate aerobic base, all the speed and hill work in the world isn't going to make a whole lot of distance.


    This
  • CarsonRuns
    CarsonRuns Posts: 3,039 Member
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    You have to run more to run faster. If you haven't built an appropriate aerobic base, all the speed and hill work in the world isn't going to make a whole lot of distance.


    This

    Just realized I mistyped that last sentence. Should be "difference".
  • KristieJC
    KristieJC Posts: 243 Member
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    bump
  • cbu23
    cbu23 Posts: 280 Member
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    You have to run more to run faster. If you haven't built an appropriate aerobic base, all the speed and hill work in the world isn't going to make a whole lot of distance.


    This

    Just realized I mistyped that last sentence. Should be "difference".

    Lol, thank you so much for all of your input!

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