Running - Speed Work

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jhall585
jhall585 Posts: 61
in Fitness and Exercise
So here's the deal - i'm at a 9:38-46 avg mins/miles, and now i'm ready to bring on the speed work. Here's a little background.

I run outside almost exclusively, I HATE treadmills: they are wobbly and hurt me and scare me so I avoid them at all costs.
I believe I can access a track - I live in Boston, home to many universities.

I cross train regularly
I am healthy with no injuries. Just typical soreness.

How do I do this without hurting myself? I loooove long distances, but speed is something that does not come natural to me in running. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
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Replies

  • RGv2
    RGv2 Posts: 5,789 Member
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    I do all my speed work on a football field or empty parking lot.

    I use the lines to do different sprints, shuttles, and other plyo exercises.
  • CarsonRuns
    CarsonRuns Posts: 3,039 Member
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    How many days a week are your running?
    How many miles per week are you running?
    How long have you been running?
  • bostonwolf
    bostonwolf Posts: 3,038 Member
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    I'm a Bostonian as well and tracks are the best way to do it IMO. Look on the Runners World site for some programs that start easy.

    I did them right after I finished C25K (before a knee injury shelfed me) and would just lightly jog a lap, then sprint one, jog then sprint, etc. Just find the balance that is comfortable for you and do it once a week.

    http://www.runnersworld.com/community/forums/runner-communities/beginners/interval-training-beginners
  • brandyk77
    brandyk77 Posts: 605 Member
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    good stepping stone into speedwork is to run the straight aways on the track harder and then recover on the turns. NOT SPRINT....just harder.
  • arc918
    arc918 Posts: 2,037 Member
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    How many days a week are your running?
    How many miles per week are you running?
    How long have you been running?

    all of the above and what are your goals

    At the very least, start doing some fartleks.
  • GiddyupTim
    GiddyupTim Posts: 2,819 Member
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    My wife does her speed work with a watch -- one minute fast and hard, two minutes rest, repeat.
    There was an interesting article I just read on the blog Training Science that said that speed work, or hill running, or intervals, is really important if you want to get better. The article said that you can actually lose physical conditioning when you are increasing your mileage if you are just running on flat ground and not pushing yourself hard enough.
  • RGv2
    RGv2 Posts: 5,789 Member
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    ya, I do hills a twice a week. Those are solid as well.
  • Fred4point0
    Fred4point0 Posts: 160 Member
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    Running hills once a week and everything everyone else stated will shave some time off your runs. After running hills, my flat runs seem almost effortless.
  • jend2679
    jend2679 Posts: 6 Member
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    I've been interval running/walking for a few months and have recently increased to mostly running but I'm having a lot of knee pain. I also zumba, 20/20/20, half calf, kickboxing, and cardio bootcamp. I am going to get new shoes soon(as advised) but I've read that increasing your core and glute strength will also help. I know tons of moves for these muscles but wonder which ones are really the most effective. Any favorites??
  • jeffrodgers1
    jeffrodgers1 Posts: 991 Member
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    There are a few drills you can do to help speed and yes Hills are also a form of Speedwork. Hills are often regarded as Speedwork in disquise as you are really working on strength... the stronger you are the faster you go.

    Some drills you can do include Cadence drills, Acceleration Gliders and Intervals.

    For a Cadence drill, do 7-8 of these a workout a couple of times a week. Time yourself for thirty seconds and count the number of times your left foot hits the ground. In each successive attempt, try and beat that number. ie. on the first one, my left foot hits the ground 42 times. The next time I want to try and hit 43, and then 44... If you hit a wall or plateau that's ok. Just be consistent and try to do this 7-8 times a run a couple of times a week.

    For Acceleration Gliders -> Somewhat like a Fartlek... you'll do your warm up and then run a fixed distance. Try to slowly accelerate as you run until you are at your peak... Hold your maximum peak for 30 seconds or so and then allow momentum to carry you until you decelerate.

    Intervals -> Find a 1/4 mile track and run laps. Alternate a fast lap with a slow lap for recovery. Try to maintain a consistently fast pace on each fast lap... i.e. if you run a 1:45 on the first lap, try to run the third and fifth lap at 1:45. Use the 2,4,6th laps as recovery.

    A word from the wise... I've been coaching for a few years now and it never fails that injuries follow those who do too much too soon (myself included 2 marathons in month of May\June resulted in a stress fracture).

    Running is about adaptation... in order to adapt, Your body requires recovery time. When first starting off, only do one speedwork session or hills session per week. Your body will thankyou in allowing you to continue training on a regular basis. Build your speedwork in gradually and you will see your performance increase... do too much and your progression will end with crutches.

    Hope it helps!
  • MorganLeighRN
    MorganLeighRN Posts: 411 Member
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    Running hills also works. Sprint up the hill and than recover when you run back down. Try to find a long hill that you can run up.
  • doobabe
    doobabe Posts: 436 Member
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    Fartleks (Google)
    Hills- Speed work in disguise
  • kylTKe
    kylTKe Posts: 146 Member
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    It's just my silly opinion but you may benefit more from increasing volume rather than intensity. Lots of people seem to get caught up in specialized running workouts when they're not at a point where it's necessary or even helpful.
  • brianfmatthews
    brianfmatthews Posts: 22 Member
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    Create a training plan on the Runners World site. I believe easy or long runs are suposed to be run at 90 - 120 seconds slower than race pace, speed workouts are 30 seconds faster than race pace, and tempo workouts 30 seconds slower than race pace.

    If you have never run a race, warm up, and then run a mile at a pretty hard pace. Then you can use that as your 1 mile "race" time to create your workout plan.

    You run at about the same pace as me, my speed workouts are 3 800s (half a mile or two laps around a track) followed by a 400 (quarter mile / 1 lap) recovery. I run a mile warmup and a mile cooldown.

    I run them at 3:45 per half mile or 7:30 per mile

    I run 25 miles a week over four days: 2 easy or recovery days, a "hard" day (either a tempo run or speed work) and a long run, which is currently 11 miles.

    I follow a training plan for every race (six years now) and run on a treadmill, but my predicted finish time is usually right on.
  • jhall585
    jhall585 Posts: 61
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    How many days a week are your running?
    How many miles per week are you running?
    How long have you been running?

    I run when I feel like it - an average of 5 miles 3x on the week days, and anywhere from 8-10 miles on a weekend day. I'd chalk it up to 25-30 miles per week.

    I've been running REGULARLY for 2 months. 5-6 miles is comfy and anything more pushes me a bit.
  • jhall585
    jhall585 Posts: 61
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    Running hills once a week and everything everyone else stated will shave some time off your runs. After running hills, my flat runs seem almost effortless.

    GAH I avoid hills like the plague, but actually decided to run up one this morning. Perhaps I should more often.
  • jhall585
    jhall585 Posts: 61
    Options
    My wife does her speed work with a watch -- one minute fast and hard, two minutes rest, repeat.
    There was an interesting article I just read on the blog Training Science that said that speed work, or hill running, or intervals, is really important if you want to get better. The article said that you can actually lose physical conditioning when you are increasing your mileage if you are just running on flat ground and not pushing yourself hard enough.

    I almost always run fast and flat courses. :(
  • jhall585
    jhall585 Posts: 61
    Options
    There are a few drills you can do to help speed and yes Hills are also a form of Speedwork. Hills are often regarded as Speedwork in disquise as you are really working on strength... the stronger you are the faster you go.

    Some drills you can do include Cadence drills, Acceleration Gliders and Intervals.

    For a Cadence drill, do 7-8 of these a workout a couple of times a week. Time yourself for thirty seconds and count the number of times your left foot hits the ground. In each successive attempt, try and beat that number. ie. on the first one, my left foot hits the ground 42 times. The next time I want to try and hit 43, and then 44... If you hit a wall or plateau that's ok. Just be consistent and try to do this 7-8 times a run a couple of times a week.

    For Acceleration Gliders -> Somewhat like a Fartlek... you'll do your warm up and then run a fixed distance. Try to slowly accelerate as you run until you are at your peak... Hold your maximum peak for 30 seconds or so and then allow momentum to carry you until you decelerate.

    Intervals -> Find a 1/4 mile track and run laps. Alternate a fast lap with a slow lap for recovery. Try to maintain a consistently fast pace on each fast lap... i.e. if you run a 1:45 on the first lap, try to run the third and fifth lap at 1:45. Use the 2,4,6th laps as recovery.

    A word from the wise... I've been coaching for a few years now and it never fails that injuries follow those who do too much too soon (myself included 2 marathons in month of May\June resulted in a stress fracture).

    Running is about adaptation... in order to adapt, Your body requires recovery time. When first starting off, only do one speedwork session or hills session per week. Your body will thankyou in allowing you to continue training on a regular basis. Build your speedwork in gradually and you will see your performance increase... do too much and your progression will end with crutches.

    Hope it helps!

    greatly helpful.
  • ejwme
    ejwme Posts: 318
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    I love the results of intervals, but I hate doing them. I typically just settle in to a rhythm and go forever - fast isn't natural for me. I'll do hills by myself (in fact my regular workouts consist of several wicked hills - topography mandates it if I run my neighborhood for more than about 200 feet).

    I didn't start doing intervals for real until i got a training partner. He too hates intervals, but we push each other to do them once a week together. We do fartleks (we trade off picking our start/stop points), and something we call "no-me-firsts" [not sure what other people call it, but quick little bursts just to get in front of the other person, then slowing down to a normal pace, trading off who's in front]. We'll do a mile warm up, then two or three miles of fartleks and no-me-firsts, then a mile cool down. We're wasted by the end, but it has made a huge difference in our pace. We usually do them on a flat down by the river, but we both have to drive to it (his neighborhood is also too hilly for it).

    edited to add: we mostly stick to this kind of intervals, as opposed to the laps/distances/stopwatch kind described above, because neither of us go in much for that kind of thing. just figured I'd mention you CAN do intervals and benefit from them without a stopwatch or track. But if stopwatch/track works for you - work it, have fun!
  • tmccutcheon
    tmccutcheon Posts: 66 Member
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    I hate doing intervals and have found that I often get injured when I do so I stopped doing them and now prefer Fartlek and hills when wanting to increase my speed.

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