You Can’t Run as Fast as the Flash, But You Can Make Your Body Think It Can

Running can be a tricky thing. For some aspiring runners, increasing a mile time or general running speed is their main goal. That can be tricky, but it’s doable. There are several techniques and tips that you can do to work in this goal, though I will warn you that it won’t be a walk in the park. Interval workouts are a great way to start your training to run faster. Work on some track workouts, such as doing a one-lap routine. Essentially, you run a standard track repeatedly, but you alternate speeds of your pace. Some runners suggest you run lap at your 5k pace and alternate that with a recovery jog.

Start with lap reps as low as 3 and work your way up. This way, you can build up strength and endurance for a better run. If you’re the kind of runner that hates the repetition of a circular run (I’m exactly like that) then you can use the street as a means to mark your laps. You can use stuff like the ends of the block or lamp posts to mark your laps to switch up your pace-whatever helps you out the most.  The objective is to repeat this process for about a mile and continue this training at regular intervals. I’ve been told that hill training can also help kick up your running speed too. Like the interval workouts, you’ll want to do this training periodically with reps. Pretty much, what you do is look for a pretty steep hill and hard run it to the top and jog it back down. You’ll want to start with about 3 repeats per week unless you already are pretty strong. In that case, you’ll want to up your repeats to about 5 reps per week.

Regardless of your capabilities, you’ll want to increase you repetitions to about 7 reps. Making sure your stride is quick will help you out too. The number of step you take per minute while running, or your stride frequency will affect the speed you run because it dictates how much distance you can cover. Interval workouts will help you improve your stride frequency, all you have to do is make a count of how many times your right foot hits the ground. You’ll want to improve it by making lighter, quicker steps rather than hard, firm hits to the ground. Finally, weight is a big factor on your running.  Studies have shown that the less weight you have on you, the more seconds you can run faster.  As it stands, the research showed that for every pound that is lost in the runner, he or she runs a total of two seconds per one pound lost. Don’t forget about your rest days though. If you don’t let your muscles rest and heal, you won’t get much progress, but you will get a ton of hurt so be careful.