Running skills

If your autumn end goal is to increase your speed, or if you’ve always pootled at the same pace and fancy a change, these tips will set you off on the right track. Ready, steady, GO!

Words: Anna Harding

Whetheryou’re eyeing up a new parkrun personal best or you’re keen to mix up your running routines, unlocking your top speed involves a combination of mixed training, proper nutrition, and mental focus. From perfecting your stride and boosting muscle power with hill sprints to dialling in your diet for optimal energy, there are proven methods that can turn any dedicated runner into a faster one. Ready to give it your best? Here’s how to take your speed to the next level.

1 Run faster

It may not come as much of a surprise, but in order to run faster, you need to get used to running faster! One of the best ways to do this is interval training. It enhances both your aerobic and anaerobic fitness which, in turn, boosts speed and endurance. Speed work also develops fast-twitch muscle fibres and improves your maximum speed.

There are many different structured ways to run faster. You can practise running faster by doing short bursts with slower intervals of recovery, such as sprinting for 30 seconds, then jogging or walking for 1 minute and repeating for 20-30 minutes. After a while, you’ll be able to build up the duration of the faster sections and reduce the time spent recovering, until you can string them all together into one continuous, longer and faster run.

Another form of speed work is running laps on a track. For example, 400m or 800m efforts, with oneminute walk or jog recoveries.

|| Interval training enhances both your aerobic and anaerobic fitness which, in turn, boosts speed and endurance||

Or you could try a more sustained block of running faster, also known as a tempo run. That is running at what’s called a ‘comfortably hard’ pace, usually around your lactate threshold, for an extended period. Tempo runs increase your ability to sustain a faster pace for longer periods. An example of a good tempo run would be to run easy for 10 minutes, then run at a tempo pace for 20 minutes, followed by 5-10 minutes of easy running to cool down.

If you don’t want to be as prescriptive with your running, then fartlek runs could be for you. Fartlek is a Swedish word which means ‘speed play’, and is a really great introduction to intervals for beginners as well as being an easy way to add speed work into your runs, no matter your level.

The beauty of a fartlek session is that it is completely unstructured and you don't even need a tracking device. You just use street furniture like lampposts, benches or bins, or trees, hedges or cars to run your intervals. The unstructured nature of Fartlekking means that on any run, you can be running hard from one lamppost to the next and then taking it easy from that lamppost to the next bin.