Improving Your Running Speed

What is the best way to become a faster runner? Well, run faster of course. From a very generic standpoint, it actually is that simple. If all you did was keep trying to improve your time for a specific distance, you will start getting faster. However, there is usually a plateau point or a point that the gains are so minimal, they don't really seem to exist. Therefore, you will need to put a little more into this effort.

Intervals

Interval training basically handles it all. I will touch on some other stuff later, but it plays such a small role it's not even worth mentioning before I explain intervals. To start, you will want to incorporate 2 interval runs into your weekly running routine. You can decide when to do this, but I recommend not the day before or after your long run.

The purpose of intervals is to run shorter distances at a faster pace. For example, if you only run 5k races, then your interval sessions will probably only total a couple miles. So, you may run a bunch of 200m sprints, with 50m recovery walks or jogs in between each sprint. If your current 5k race pace is 10 min/mile, then you will probably try and shoot for your 200m time to be in line with maybe an 8:30- 9 min pace. You can of course go as fast as your body will let you without getting hurt, but I am trying to be conservative here. So, this 9 min pace turns out to be about a 1 min 8 second 200m sprint (200m is 1/8 of a lap at a track, 400m is a lap or a quarter of a mile).

On your other interval day you may want to do a mix of 200, 400, and 800m sprints, with maybe 50, 100, and 400m recovery walks or jogs. Then, after doing this consistently for a while, you will start noticing your mile time drop significantly. The change doesn't happen over night, but most people start seeing noticeable changes in speed within 4-6 weeks after incorporating the intervals into their current schedule.

You still need to do your pace runs and long runs, so you will have to fit the intervals into that mix.

Weight

Weight is an awkward variable that doesn't really play a lot in your speed unless you are already getting into the professional level or you are starting from scratch and are overweight. If you are conditioned to run a certain pace at your current weight, and shave off a significant amount of weight, you should naturally become faster, because you have less weight you are carrying. For example, a 300lb person running a 12 min mile could potentially see their mile time drop to 10 min if they dropped to the low to mid 200's. However, this assumes all other things stay constant; which is almost never the case.

Slow vs. Fast Twitch Muscles

Let's face it, some people were designed to be short distance runners, and others long distance runners. Speed for these 2 types of runners depend on different things; fast twitch and slow twitch. The goods news is that the body is usually pretty balanced on slow and fast twitch muscles. This means most people are capable of sprinting a short distance at a pretty fast pace for a short period of time; and likewise, can run a much longer distance at a much slower pace for a much longer duration. Slow twitch muscles are more geared toward endurance, as they fire slower, thus allowing better use of oxygen consumption. The key here is your fast twitch fibers.

There are two types of fast twitch, Type IIa and Type IIb. The key to improving speed revolves mainly around the Type IIa, which combines the use of aerobic and anaerobic metabolism. You can pretty much call this a sort of hybrid twitch fiber, as it's basically a mix of slow and fast twitch.

Performing intervals for a cumulatively longer distance allows you to improve the efficiency of these fibers. Therefore, as you improve, they are more efficient at fuel consumption, thus allowing you to run at a faster pace for a longer distance.

Summary

There is a lot more to running fast. But this hopefully wets your whistle and gets you interested. There is a lot of science and many more details behind each thing I mentioned above, so feel free to learn more. Have fun, run safe, and speed things up!