Speed Work

For those of us looking to get a little faster this year, its time for the dreaded speedwork to begin!

Increasing speed benefits even the average runner, who might not be trying to win, but would like to get something more out of the race. Speedwork will increase your fitness, strength, and agility for more technical runs. It has even been shown to reduce risk of injury by strengthening bones and connective tissues, if done properly. 

So if you want to get a little faster, what should you do?

Well its simple, run faster!

"The reasons to do speedwork are so simple they almost seem simple-minded. In order to run fast, you have to run fast. Slogging through one slow, long-distance session after another can only help you improve so much. You need to do something as quick, or quicker, than your targeted race pace.
That merely means that an athlete hoping to run 46:00 in the 10K, approximately a 7:30-per-mile average, needs to run something faster than a 7:30 pace in practice. That means half-miles in better than 3:45 or quarters under 1:52. When broken down into those kind of segments, the task of doing speed sounds less daunting, doesn't it?" -Peter Gambaccini

There are many different strategies to utilize in speedwork, but if you are new, the best way to begin is to ease into it. Dont try to go all out in the beginning, this is when injury could happen. Start out with one speed session a week. Focus on running at race pace for short bursts, or try some hill repeats. Tough track workouts can come after you get a little more fitness built up.

Always warm up and cool down. Start and end with an easy mile or some strides. Make sure you are stretching and staying loose before you try to run any sprints.
Take this part seriously runners, you won't get any faster if you are injured sitting on the couch!

Here is a list of popular strategies:

Repetitions/intervals
Periods of hard running at 5K pace or faster, between 200m and 1200m in length, or 30 seconds and five minutes. Recovery periods can be short (30-90 seconds), or of an equal time or distance to the reps. 

Tempo intervals
These are longer than ordinary intervals in that they take between 90 seconds and 10 minutes (or between 400m and two miles) and are run a little slower than your 5K pace. These work a bit like threshold runs – they raise the point at which lactic acid builds up in the muscles.

Fartlek
Fartlek is Swedish for ‘speed play’ and is the fun side of speedwork. Best done on grass or trails, you simply mix surges of hard running with periods of easy running. Run fast bursts between phone boxes, lampposts or trees when you feel like it, and as hard you like. Great for newcomers to speedwork.

Hills
Simple: find a hill that takes between 30 seconds and five minutes to climb at 85-90 per cent effort, and run up it. Jog back down to recover. A great alternative to track intervals.

-runners world (speedwork for every runner)

While speedwork will always be an uncomfortable experience, it doesn't have to be something to dread. Try out some of these strategies and see what you think! 

-See you on the road!