A need for speed

A confession: I ran my first marathon in 2006 when I was 20 years old and full of enough crazed enthusiasm to fuel a crowd of One Direction fans. With a beginner’s knowledge of marathon running, I avidly followed the training guide that came free of charge with the London Marathon magazine – a manageable fusion of regular runs and progressive weekly mileage. Nothing too painful. And when race day came, I ran the 26.2 miles in moderate amounts of comfort and a respectable time. Feeling a little too fresh, it was clear that I could do better. The next time I ran a marathon was in 2009, and I ran it 50 minutes faster. The secret? One word – speedwork.

So here’s the running 101 – if you plod everywhere at a moderate pace, you’ll only ever run at a (surprise, surprise) moderate pace. If you’re happy with that, turn the page now – it is, after all, an enjoyable way to train and, for the long-distance runner with oodles of time, high volume training can bring about a decent performance. But if you’ve got an ambition to improve without dedicating your life to running hordes of miles day-in, day-out, you need to start pushing through the lung-busting pain barrier and do some of your training at a faster pace. It’s time for you to say ‘hello’ to speed training.

DO I HAVE TO RUN FASTER?
So you’ve seen runners sprinting around a track or gasping for air while lying on the ground of your local parkrun and, quite frankly, running fast looks hellish. And yes, it is painful. But the gains of doing some running at a faster pace are H-U-G-E. I’m not talking about turning you into a shortdistance athlete with 30m sprint training but, rather, developing your speed ability for a specific distance with bouts of faster running.

Whether you’re targeting a half or full marathon, or have a 5k or 10k on the horizon, speed training works. As running coach, George Anderson at runningbygeorge.com, explains: “Speed training works the body in a different way (it forces your body to recruit fast-twitch muscle fibres that power speedy activity) compared to longer but slower running. So, for all-round running fitness, it’s not an aspect any runner can afford to skimp on.” As an added bonus, running fast encourages a more economical running style, helping increase stride length and frequency – a sure-fire way to improve your performance over all distances. But there’s more to the benefits of speedwork than muscle power and technique gains – high-paced running has a significant effect on the heart and lungs, too, increasing oxygen consumption and improving your VO2 max (the maximum amount of oxygen used by working tissues, and a good indicator of your ability to sustain running performance).

“Speed training not only increases the strength endurance capacity of your muscles, but also boosts your all-round aerobic capacity,” explains Ben Staines, co-founder of Project Fit (project-fit.co.uk). “If you train your muscles to work at a faster pace than normal, they will be far more efficient at the lower speeds of a longer run, even when the distance is increased.” Yes, you read that correctly – running faster for short periods of time will help you run well for longer periods of time, no extra miles required.

Science backs up this theory. One of the most popular areas of sports science research at the moment is HIT (High Intensity Training, or doing bouts of highintensity – or, in running terms, fast-paced – efforts). Contrary to the long-held belief that endurance can only be gained by doing endurance-like activities, such as slow and long runs, pioneering HIT experts from McMaster University report that endurance can be achieved through a series of high-intensity efforts. In fact, one study in the Journal of Applied Physiology shows that six minutes of all-out exercise can be as effective at improving stamina as 300 minutes of steady-paced activity.