If you’re interested in improving speed, you’re probably a runner. Going for personal best times and competing in races are great motivational tools for fitness. Your job will be a lot easier if you’ve already got the drive to do what it takes to become faster.
Improving your speed will benefit people other than runners, such as those who need more energy to keep up with their children, those who pick up basketball games with their friends, and even older people. In this article, we will discuss some training methods to improve speed.
Improving Speed with Running Workouts
You will be able to build speed, endurance, and fitness over time by pushing your limits at least once a week. There are several simple drills you can use to build speed, and today, we’re going to go through a few of them.
Fartleks
Fartlek means speed play in Swedish, and fartlek is a basic form of long-distance runs. It was popularized after World War II by the Swedish Olympic coach Gosta Holmer. The concept of Fartlek is to rotate jogging and running, but not necessarily following any specific plan. For example, you might run hard for three minutes, jog for two, run again for six minutes, and then jog for four.
Another way to do this is to pick something you can see from a distance, such as a tree, run hard towards it, and then do a jog to recover. The goal is to switch between running and jogging in a way that isn’t so formal but instead fun. This type of exercise is very helpful for runners who do marathons. This unstructured speed workout leaves a lot of control for the person running, so you can mix a wide range of lengths and paces as necessary.
Fartlek workouts are an amazing way to introduce more intense and faster running into your routine. Fartlek workouts can be especially useful in the early stages of a new training plan since they can ease a person into more psychologically and physically demanding running sessions. Moreover, by forcing you to keep running during your recovery, they can aid your body in reusing lactate as a fuel source.
Even though there isn’t a right way to practice this method, we will share some guidelines. You need to make sure that you keep running. If you need to walk or stop between the periods when you’re running hard, then chances are you’re doing them too hard.
It might feel uncomfortable or hard to remove the structure and certainty out of running, so make sure to remember that running is a learning process and give it some time. You may find it helpful to keep a training diary where you write down what didn’t work and what did, enabling you to shape your approach over time.
Interval Runs
With interval runs, you run hard for a short period of time, jog or walk to recover, and then run hard again. You can even use a track for your interval runs. Since interval runs are highly customizable, anyone who runs or jogs can do it. Depending on your fitness level, you can adjust the following basic interval workout:
- Run with high intensity for 50 meters, then jog or walk for another 50 meters.
- Run with high intensity for 100 meters, then jog or walk for another 50 meters.
- Run with high intensity for 150 meters, then jog or walk for another 50 meters.
- Run with high intensity for 200 meters, then jog or walk for another 50 meters.
- Work back down to 50 meters and repeat once or twice if you feel ready for this.
If you are a more experienced runner, your intervals can be easily adjusted to suit your fitness level. At high-intensity intervals, your goal is to become out of breath. At jogging intervals, you should be able to form sentences and be comfortable having a conversation with a friend. Before starting an interval training session, make sure to always warm up with 5 to 10 minutes of light logging.
If you’re a beginner, you can start by doing this three times a week, and then as your fitness improves, you can go from there. Besides improving speed, interval running is beneficial for decreasing risk factors for cardiovascular disease, decreasing blood pressure, decreasing resting heart rate, and improving capacity to use oxygen.
Hill Sprints
This method involves a speed workout somewhere where you can find hills. Even though going outside is much more exciting and fun, you can always use a treadmill with an adjustable incline if this isn’t an option for you. Uphill sprints between 10 and 20 seconds should always be followed by bringing the heart rate down through a brief recovery time.
We recommend that you start with a smaller hill and avoid steep hills in the beginning. Later, you can build on that with less recovery time, more reps, and steeper inclines. Your running economy and efficiency will be improved by hill sprints, which will result in faster running. After you’ve built an endurance base, you can incorporate hill sprints into your running program.
Our recommendation is to include hill sprints into your training once a week and make sure that you always do a warm-up. The advantages that hill sprints offer resemble strength or resistance training or leg day at the gym. Not only will hill sprints help you improve your speed, but they will also kickstart your metabolism, boost your stamina, build mental toughness, reduce injuries, and strengthen practical running muscles.
One of the mistakes that are often made is choosing a tough terrain. Hill sprints are best done on smooth trails, roads, and tracks. The goal of a hill sprint is to run as fast as possible, so make sure that you find easy terrain for running.
Tips for Improving Speed
In this section, we will provide some additional tips for improving your speed.
- Run more often – In most cases, you will increase your overall speed by increasing your weekly mileage. Even though some runners run every day of the week, we recommend that you have at least one rest day. If you choose to run every day, to avoid burnout or injury, we recommend that you vary the intensity and distance of your workouts.
- Leave time for recovery – Rest is crucial to your injury prevention and recovery efforts. As we’ve mentioned in the previous point, taking one day off each week can be beneficial. You can still do physical activities on your recovery days, but keep them fun, enjoyable, and easy.
- Use a treadmill – Even though most runners prefer the open road, you can also use the treadmill if you want to improve your speed. Generally speaking, running on the treadmill is easier than running outside. There is less effort required from you because the belt moves independently underneath your feet, and there aren’t any obstacles such as variations in terrain or wind that can be a challenge. One of the advantages of running on a treadmill is that you can teach yourself to turn your legs over faster with greater ease, and then you can translate this skill to your outdoor runs.
- Don’t forget to stretch – Inflexible joints can hinder a faster running pace. If your body has a limited range of motion, you’re probably not going to move efficiently.
- Improve your diet – Research has shown that improving your eating habits can also help in increasing your running speed. Are you consuming the right type of fat to maintain your joints in a healthy condition? Are you eating the right number of complex carbohydrates to provide proper fuel for intense workouts? Get rid of foods that don’t provide your body with good nutrition, and consider scheduling a session with a nutritionist who specializes in sports performance to make sure that you’re getting the micro and macronutrients that you need.
Final Thoughts
Speed is critical for success in racing sports (running, cycling, and swimming), court and field sports, bat and ball sports, racquet, field and court sports, combative sports, and power sports like track and field. Regardless of your current performance, following training methods to improve speed can make a drastic difference in your daily routine.
Keep in mind that it takes a coordinated and sustained effort to make a real change in developing speed. So, if you’re looking to improve your speed, start taking a smarter approach to your training.
