Best way to increase running speed?

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dydn11402
dydn11402 Posts: 98 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I'm finishing c25k next week on the treadmill. Right now I'm going very slow but hope to increase my speed and was wondering the best way to go about it. Should I increase the mph by a point or two every week (like from 4.5 mph to 4.6) or do intervals at a higher speed (like go for one minute every five minutes at 5.0)? My goal is to be able to run at a decent speed for 30 minutes.
Any advice appreciated!
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Replies

  • BrianSharpe
    BrianSharpe Posts: 9,248 Member
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    My advice to any new runner is to focus on endurance first and the speed will come, to a certain degree, as your aerobic fitness improves and your body makes the necessary adaptations.

    Think of endurance as the foundation of a house.........you can build on sand or you can build on rock.

    Once you have the base you can start thinking about adding some intervals etc to build up speed but for now slow and steady.
  • Cannon_G
    Cannon_G Posts: 77 Member
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    After finishing my first half marathon in January I was burned out on running and so I focused on spin classes. I did at least one and sometimes two classes a day for a few months. When it was time my first official 5k in May I was able to drop my PR from 25 to 22 minutes. So I would recommend working on improving your cardio stamina.
  • Briko3
    Briko3 Posts: 266 Member
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    Start with week 1 and jog the walking part and run the jogging part. Go through the whole program that way.
  • bluefox9er
    bluefox9er Posts: 2,917 Member
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    For me, speed came with logging more miles..and more, then more miles and then more miles than that...but increase them sensibly on a week to week basis!!

    I have never tried speed work , fartleks etc...but my 10k time dropped by 10 minutes inside of 4 months....simply by running more miles...
  • RobynLB83
    RobynLB83 Posts: 626 Member
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    The best way to increase your running speed is to run faster. I wouldn't increase it numerically. Some days, you will naturally be faster, and that number bump won't be representative of what you can really do. Do it by perceived exertion. Run at a pace that is uncomfortable. I mean, a pace where you feel like you're really working, and you're hating the run, and you have to push each stride forward because your body wants to stop. Do this for part of your run or for all of a short run once per week, and your "comfortable" pace will increase.
  • squirrlt
    squirrlt Posts: 106 Member
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    Weekly sprint sessions will increase your speed!
  • besee_2000
    besee_2000 Posts: 365 Member
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    Mix in some strength training.
  • Capt_Apollo
    Capt_Apollo Posts: 9,026 Member
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    congrats on completing C25k. if i were your trainer, i would have you ditch the treadmill and go outside.

    find a hill, and run up it. hills are speed work in disguise.

    there is a saying in track "you can only run as fast as you can move your arms." i have heard from distance runners that when their legs start to give up on them, it's their arms that carry them through the race. so do some strength training on your arms, like push ups.

    squats and dead lifts. enough said.

    build your endurance little by little. increase your distance about a half mile every week. no need to rush things.

    one run a week should be speed work. either hills, or intervals. i personally don't like intervals myself. what i do is run a mile out, and a mile back, as fast as i can.
  • healthfulnow
    healthfulnow Posts: 245 Member
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    BUMP
  • NavyKnightAh13
    NavyKnightAh13 Posts: 1,394 Member
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    bump.
  • CarsonRuns
    CarsonRuns Posts: 3,039 Member
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    The best way to increase your running speed is to run faster.

    Sorry, wrong.

    The best way to run faster is not to run faster, it's to run more at an easy pace. It's been said a couple times by some other posters in this thread. You have to have a aerobic base (or foundation) in place before running fast has any benefit.

    To the OP, don't worry about how fast you are running. Just try to run a little further or a little longer each week. As your distance pile up, you speed will naturally start to decrease as you gain aerobic fitness.
  • helpfit101
    helpfit101 Posts: 347 Member
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    Yes I agree with what someone else said. Best way to run faster is to.. run faster.

    That means if you want to run 5k then try to run 1.5-3k of those 5k at a speed you are distinctly uncomfortable at. That means run faster than you can sustain for a long period of time.

    I also think doing sprint intervals is a good idea, once or twice per week.
  • CarsonRuns
    CarsonRuns Posts: 3,039 Member
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    Look up Arthur Lydiard, Jack Daniels, Pete Pfitzinger or any other distance running coach and you'll see that they all advocate base mileage to gain the fitness required to run a fast 5K. Without the base, the speed work will only give you incremental gains and then you will plateau.

    The answer is NOT to run faster. It's as simple as that. It will give you ONLY short term gains.
  • RobynLB83
    RobynLB83 Posts: 626 Member
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    Look up Arthur Lydiard, Jack Daniels, Pete Pfitzinger or any other distance running coach and you'll see that they all advocate base mileage to gain the fitness required to run a fast 5K. Without the base, the speed work will only give you incremental gains and then you will plateau.

    The answer is NOT to run faster. It's as simple as that. It will give you ONLY short term gains.

    I guess I was making the assumption that this person could already run distance. I disagree about running distance to get speed though. I've been a distance runner for over a decade (i.e. I'll go pop out a 10 mile leisure run for funsies even though I only run like once a week these days), and the only way I have ever gotten faster, is by running faster.
  • froeschli
    froeschli Posts: 1,292 Member
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    I've done no speed work, just worked on getting up to 10k, running between 18-25k a week. I took a break in winter, but my 5k time is about 10min less now, than it was last year.
  • Bouneschlupp
    Bouneschlupp Posts: 29 Member
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    I also did the c25k on the treadmill, starting with 5,5km/h which is very slow. I noticed that with time my speed increased, so now I'm often running 7km/h.
    But from my personal experience I would recommend trying to run outside on flat ground: I discovered that it seems a lot easier for me to run faster if I'm not on the treadmill, that way I listen more to my body and run as I enjoy it. I use an GPS based running app to monitor my speed, but I'm not concerned about it while running, I just check it afterwards and then I'm amazed about how fast I was running (fast for me ;-) and that it was much easier as on the treadmill.
    Another way to increase speed is the forefoot-running-technique.

    Keep on running!
  • CarsonRuns
    CarsonRuns Posts: 3,039 Member
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    Look up Arthur Lydiard, Jack Daniels, Pete Pfitzinger or any other distance running coach and you'll see that they all advocate base mileage to gain the fitness required to run a fast 5K. Without the base, the speed work will only give you incremental gains and then you will plateau.

    The answer is NOT to run faster. It's as simple as that. It will give you ONLY short term gains.

    I guess I was making the assumption that this person could already run distance. I disagree about running distance to get speed though. I've been a distance runner for over a decade (i.e. I'll go pop out a 10 mile leisure run for funsies even though I only run like once a week these days), and the only way I have ever gotten faster, is by running faster.

    Just because you can run 10 miles anytime you want to, doesn't mean that you have developed a proper aerobic base. It takes months and years of consistent mileage to develop a base upon which you can add speed work. Consistent means 4-7 days a week for months on end. It means 20+ miles per week. To really get the benefit, 40 miles per week seems to be a breakthrough point for many runners. Also, just to clarify, I'm not saying don't ever run fast. I'm a proponent of base building that includes a once weekly tempo run (20 to 30 minutes at LT pace) and a set of 100m strides once a week. So, there is some faster running involved. My point here is that, easy runs should always be that, easy. Running every run a little bit faster to try to get a little bit faster is not the way to go.
  • Garthamatic
    Garthamatic Posts: 84 Member
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    Another reason to be careful... I'm a novice runner (finished C25K program) and after about a month of running 5K distances I decided to increase both pace and distance incrementally week over week.

    After 2 weeks of this, I injured my calf. In retrospect, I was doing something stupid. :embarassed:

    I was trying to push the pace by pushing harder off the ball of my foot, which stressed musculature that wasn't developed to handle it (i.e. I was running differently than I had in the past). Calf got sore and I ignored it until something "happened" during a run and it didn't feel right. Took 3 weeks of rest (no running) to heal up and I'm easing back into it again with a focus on not re-injuring the leg.

    Lesson learned: listen to the advocates of distance first. Pretty sure if I had done that, I would be better off today and wouldn't have missed out on my runs (man, I missed them). Guess I paid my tuition to the school of hard knocks this semester...
  • tappae
    tappae Posts: 568 Member
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    Running every run a little bit faster to try to get a little bit faster is not the way to go.

    Agreed. I tried that for years and only got a little bit faster. When I slowed down (<70% max heart rate) I was able to run more and have been really pleased with my aerobic fitness gains. Also, I've gotten faster more quickly. This year, I've set PRs at almost every race, but most of my runs are "easy."
  • RobynLB83
    RobynLB83 Posts: 626 Member
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    Look up Arthur Lydiard, Jack Daniels, Pete Pfitzinger or any other distance running coach and you'll see that they all advocate base mileage to gain the fitness required to run a fast 5K. Without the base, the speed work will only give you incremental gains and then you will plateau.

    The answer is NOT to run faster. It's as simple as that. It will give you ONLY short term gains.

    I guess I was making the assumption that this person could already run distance. I disagree about running distance to get speed though. I've been a distance runner for over a decade (i.e. I'll go pop out a 10 mile leisure run for funsies even though I only run like once a week these days), and the only way I have ever gotten faster, is by running faster.

    Just because you can run 10 miles anytime you want to, doesn't mean that you have developed a proper aerobic base. It takes months and years of consistent mileage to develop a base upon which you can add speed work. Consistent means 4-7 days a week for months on end. It means 20+ miles per week. To really get the benefit, 40 miles per week seems to be a breakthrough point for many runners. Also, just to clarify, I'm not saying don't ever run fast. I'm a proponent of base building that includes a once weekly tempo run (20 to 30 minutes at LT pace) and a set of 100m strides once a week. So, there is some faster running involved. My point here is that, easy runs should always be that, easy. Running every run a little bit faster to try to get a little bit faster is not the way to go.

    What is being able to run 10 miles anytime if NOT a proper aerobic base?

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