TAKE A SHORTCUT

T HEY SAY THERE ARE NO SHORT CUTS TO IMPROVEMENT.WE DISAGREE.HERE’S OUR GUIDE TO HOW TO RUN FURTHER AND FASTER WITH HALF THE EFFORT…

WORDS: RACHAEL WOOLSTON

RUN HACKS

HALVE YOUR TRAINING RUN

Do you always knock out the same run and get frustrated that you are not getting any faster? The trick could be as simple as cutting the length of your run in half. “Try some fartlek sessions, which means increasing your pace for parts of your run, such as running fast between lampposts, and then taking a few minutes to recover,” explains Tara Shanahan, a run coach for the online women’s running community girlsruntheworld.co.uk. “By challenging yourself out of your comfort zone, it forces your body to adapt so you get fitter and faster.” You could also vary your routes to include some hilly and off-road runs which will all force your body to work harder and make you fitter.

Try shorter, faster sessions to improve your speed

BEAT BOOSTER

Your cadence is the number of times your foot hits the floor, usually counted per minute. Most runners take 160-170 steps per minute, compared to elites who hit the floor around 180-200 times per minute. But you don’t have to follow an Olympian’s training plan to emulate it. Instead, try using songbpm.com, where you can input any piece of music and find out the tune’s beats per minute. Count your own cadence first, then choose a piece of music that’s about 10 beats higher and slowly work up.