How do you increase speed?

[rayagirl]

I just completed week 6 run 3. I ran for 24minutes (instead of 22) and covered 3.25km. Pretty slow I know, so the question is what is the best way to improve on speed? Thanks everyone

[crox Graduate]

They say not to increase your stride, but to increase your cadence, that said it's easier said than done.

I'd say don't fret about it until the end of the course, then change your plan so that you run 1 long at a steady pace, 1 short at a fast pace and one at your usual pace

[rayagirl in reply to crox]

Cool, thanks for the great advice crox.

[Oldgirl Graduate]

I agree with Crox, don't worry too much about how far you can run at this stage, the aim is to run non-stop for 30 minutes, once you can do that you can then work on increasing the distance by lengthening your time. This will in turn increase you strength and stamina and you will be able to go faster. There are good Podcasts out there to help with all of this too. Good luck for weeks 7,8 & 9 you are well on the way to becoming a graduate, well done.

[rayagirl in reply to Oldgirl]

Oldgirl, you have been so helpful and supportive, thanks so much. You always manage to answer my questions (with really informative answers) and I appreciate it. You're right, I think I'm almost there. ^_^

[crox Graduate]

The one thing I forgot to say was once you get up to 5km you really should give parkrun a try

[rayagirl in reply to crox]

What is parkrun?

[crox Graduate in reply to rayagirl]

It's a free, friendly, non-competitive (or as competitive as you want it to be) 5km run in a park. You'll find lots of friendly like minded runners of all abilities. You'll find it amazing how having sometime in front of you encourages you to run that little bit faster.

parkrun.org.uk

You need to register for a barcode, that's it.

[crox Graduate in reply to crox]

I'd recommend it even if you're not up to running 5km yet, they don't mind as long as you give it a go.

[rayagirl in reply to crox]

Ha, now I know why I haven't heard of this before...... I'm a Canadian girl, we don't have that in my area. It does sound really cool though. We do have some 5k fundraising races coming up in October, so I'll probably start with that. Thanks so much crox for your response

[crox Graduate in reply to rayagirl]

Ah, it's a shame because they really are ace. I think they have them south of the border, so maybe they'll head north sometime