Whether you're a beginning runner or a veteran marathoner, you can get faster by incorporating speed workouts into your routine. There are a variety of popular training methods that can help you improve speed and slash your race times, and each program can be tweaked to suit your fitness level and running goals.
Interval Training
Interval training involves intense bursts of speed alternating with periods of rest. Runners do intervals for distances ranging from 200 meters to 1,600 meters. You can adjust your interval distance according to your running level and goals. If you are training for a 5K, for instance, you may want to try 400-meter repeats. If you are training for a marathon, you could try longer intervals, such as mile repeats. The number of intervals you do should also depend on your endurance and fitness level, and can range from four to 10. A general guideline is to rest for twice as long as your intervals, according to the Runner's Resource. If you run 800-meter repeats, you may recover between each interval by jogging 800 meters at a pace twice as slow as your interval pace.
Fartleks
Fartleks -- Swedish for "speed play" -- offer an effective speed workout in a format similar to intervals. As with intervals, runners do intense bursts of speed for fartleks. Fartleks are usually shorter distances than intervals, however, and they are done during a regularly paced training run. Running coach Greg McMillan recommends all levels of runners do sprints ranging from 20 seconds to one minute, depending on the distance of the race for which you are training.
Tempo Runs
Tempo runs can also help increase your speed by simulating racing. To do a tempo run, pick up your speed for the whole run, running faster than your usual training pace. Cool Running recommends doing a tempo run at about your 10K race pace. Tempo runs help your body adjust to running fast for extended periods by increasing your lung and muscle effectiveness while you are fatigued.
Benefits
Speed workouts can help runners of all experience levels improve race times and become stronger and faster. Adding a speed training program to your routine can help increase your VO2 max, power and stamina all at the same time. VO2 max is a measure of the maximal amount of oxygen your body can process to produce energy. Doing speed workouts builds your lung capacity, increasing your VO2 max, which helps you run faster for longer periods.
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