Aerobic & Anaerobic Speed Training

When you want to get faster, use both aerobic and anaerobic training methods to boost your speed. How quickly you finish a race is influenced by your speed endurance, but strength, power, technique and flexibility also play a role in how fast you are, says Brian Mackenzie, performance coach and assessor with United Kingdom Athletics.

VO2 Max

Working at 90 to 100 percent of the pace at which your body can take up and utilize oxygen during intense exercise, or your maximum oxygen uptake, is one aerobic training technique that helps to build speed. Maximum oxygen uptake is commonly called VO2 max. Improving your VO2 max helps you sustain higher speeds for longer time frames. VO2 max training typically involve 35- to 45-minute workouts that feature bouts of running at your 90 to 100 percent level followed by active recovery phases in which you walk or jog slowly. Estimate your VO2 max pace with your personal-best 2-mile run time. For example, if your personal best is 12 minutes, then performing half-mile intervals in a three-minute time frame, followed by a half-mile recovery walk or jog, would make for a good VO2 training workout, according to University of Washington professor Greg Crowther. Alternatively, run at your top effort for three minutes and note your time and the distance you covered. Then alternate bouts of running that same distance at a pace that is 5 percent slower with recovery periods.

Anaerobic Threshold Training

Anaerobic threshold training is conducted at a pace that is just below the threshold where lactate begins to accumulate quickly in your muscles. When using the rate-of-perceived-exertion scale, which goes from a 1 to a 10, this pace would be a 6, meaning it's somewhat difficult. Working at this level is marked by when your breathing starts to get heavier, though you should still be able to have a conversation. If using pace as a guide, it's about 15 seconds per mile slower than your 10k race pace. Anaerobic threshold training is sometimes referred to as lactate threshold training. Runs done at this pace commonly are called "tempo" runs. This type of training increases your speed endurance, or stamina, according to "The Complete Guide to Running" by Earl W. Fee. Despite the name -- anaerobic threshold training -- this type of training promotes development of your body's aerobic energy system, Mackenzie notes.

Anaerobic Work

Strength training such as squats, lunges, leg extensions and calf raises is anaerobic work that helps you get faster. For example, muscular strength is one important component in improving stride length, which translates to faster speeds, notes Mackenzie. Flexibility training like stretching is another form of anaerobic work that improves your range of motion, which makes for a faster run. It also reduces your risk for injury. To improve flexibility, hold stretches for 30 seconds as opposed to the standard 10 seconds used during a cool-down.

Expert Insight

Do your speed training, such as interval work, when you do not have muscle fatigue for best results, Mackenzie recommends. The energy your body uses for absolute speed comes from the anaerobic alactic pathway, meaning a system that operates without oxygen and without lactate. This speed component of anaerobic metabolism is present for only a short time -- about eight seconds -- with fuel coming primarily from the body chemical adenosine triphosphate, or ATP. Fuel for aerobic activity primarily comes from muscle glycogen, which your body uses to resynthesise ATP. When you do interval work, you activate the anaerobic alactic pathway with each burst of speed.