running pace

So what did you do to increase the speed of your runs? I'm kind of stuck right now.  If I keep the pace at around 4mph I can do the 5k. If I increase my speed to 5 mph or more, I can barely do 1 mile. Any specific training tools to increase your speed while not losing the distance portion. Thanks Scott

Scott,

I read in a past Triathlete magazine article about doing speed workouts to improve a 5K. I cant seem to find it right now, but it had something to do with doing sprints for like a minute every 5 minutes or so. Maybe some other fine person will help me with my information.

Also running hills will increase a 5 or 10K time. Find a street or road that has some sort of hill on it, and then just up an down it for a period of time...

If I find the article, I will try and give you a better cliff notes version.

Curt

Scott,   Make smaller jumps in your speed.  If you normally run at 4, try doing 15 minutes at 4, 15 minutes at 4.1, and 15 min at 4.2.  That way you're getting used to smaller speed increases.  Another way to do it is to go 10 minutes at normal speed then do 4 reps of 5 min at say 4.5 if you can followed by 2 minutes at normal speed in between.  This will get your body used to running faster.  Then you can try increasing your normal speed by .1 or .2 mph the next week.  That's largely how I've gotten faster.  When I started my marathon training I was only running at 5.5, now I'm at 6.5 or 6.6.  You have to run faster to get faster, but if you do it in smaller rate increases it's a lot easier for your body to handle and get used to.  When I post my workouts, I try to list what I do so others can have an idea of ways to go about speed training.  I got these workouts in my marathon training plan and still try to incorporate at least one speed workout each week.   Hope this makes some sense.  It's kind of hard to explain on the keyboard.    LInn

I increased my speed with sprints - when I began running last fall I was at 4.5 mph, now I'm at about 6mph. I try to do sprints 1-2 days a week, for about 30 minutes each time. What I do is start with a warm up, then run at a low speed (for me it's 5.0mph) for 2 minutes. Then I walk for a minute at 4.3, then go back to running, but up my speed by about .3. I keep doing this, increasing my speed during my running portion until I get to the highest I can do for 2 minutes, then work my way back down. Great interval training and it's really fun - I love my sprint workouts! I saw a big difference within a month of starting this. I also noticed a big difference when I added spinning to my workout routine 2 times a week - in a month I had shaved off a whole minute from my mile. I think it's the whole interval aspect to working out that does it. I remember when I was at 5mph and I thought I would never be able to go faster! But it does happen, eventually. Just be patient and try to vary your workout with different workouts like interval training. Good luck!

I took a running class at my Y and for our speed work, we'd run a block (about 0.1 mi) as fast as we could.  Then jog or walk (recover) for a block.  Then run 3 blocks (0.3 mi) as fast as we could, then jog/walk a block.  Then do 5 blocks, and recover, then do 7 blocks, then recover.  Then count down - do 5 blocks, then 3, then 1.  Recover one block in between each.  He just said as fast as you can - which for 1 block is going to be faster than 7 blocks.  That way you don't need to worry about if you are going 4mph or 4.3mph or whatever.