Try picking up the pace for the last minute of every mile. “I’m a big proponent of throwing speed work into long runs to prepare your body to push through the inevitable fatigue you’ll experience in a race,” Grosicki says. Weekly speed work is helpful (see next), but it doesn’t exactly replicate a real-life race. Some signs you need a rest day? “Besides any obvious aches and pains, feeling like you’re getting sick, irritability, loss of appetite, and poor sleep all signal that you’re overdoing it,” Grosicki says. “Most hard training sessions should be followed by at least one-and probably two-easier recovery days.” “The best rule of thumb is to use common sense and listen to your body,” Grosicki says. That doesn’t mean you should double your mileage over the course of seven days (that’s a one-way ticket to shin splints)-it just means you should pay attention to how you’re feeling and adjust your mileage accordingly. In fact, an American Journal of Sports Medicinestudy found that runners had the same injury rates regardless of whether or not they followed the “10 percent” rule. So, how many miles should you add to your DIY training plan each week? Common running wisdom says not to increase your total mileage by any more than 10 percent a week, but Grosicki says there’s no reason to limit yourself that much if you’re feeling good. “You gradually overload the body, let it adapt, then overload it a little more, let it adapt, and so on.” Before you know it, you’ll be up to a mile, 5K, 10K, half marathon, and so on. “To see progress, you need to keep subjecting your body to a stimulus it isn’t used to, in this case longer distances and faster speeds,” says Matt Lee, Ph.D., certified exercise physiologist and a professor of kinesiology at San Francisco State University. They’re designed to gradually increase your distance and push your speed-without overdoing it-which usually translates to a few short weekday runs, then one weekend long run that gets progressively longer each week. Take a quick look at the structure of a few training plans (even if you’re not training for a race just yet). → No matter what you’re looking to improve in your running life, find it with Runner’s World+! 1.
“Gradual and consistent training will continue to enhance your performance potential from there.”īut what should that training look like, exactly? Keep these training tips on how to increase running speed in mind as you embark on your speed-endurance mission. That goes for your first 5K and 50th marathon, but you’ll notice the biggest changes during your first two to three months of training, Grosicki says. “You need to do a mix of speed work and slower endurance training to develop both your aerobic and anaerobic energy systems,” says Greg Grosicki, Ph.D., an assistant professor and director of the exercise physiology laboratory at Georgia Southern University. The good news is, the same training principles will hold true for the rest of your running career-so learning them early is a solid first step.