Speed advice

[Wagper08]

Finally managed to run my first 5k. Wondering what I can do to increase speed rather than distance. Was thinking 20min farlet once a week, 35min run once a week and then a long 5k once a week. Does that sound okay?

[nowster Graduate]

The safest way to increase your speed at this stage is not to try to increase your speed.

Increase your endurance and general fitness by gradually increasing the amount of time you run for. The speed increase will naturally happen with the extra miles.

It sounds counter-intuitive, but it's true.

Yes, throw in some fartleks and sprint intervals, but the bulk of your runs should feel easy and unrushed. Pushing too hard risks injury.

[UnfitNoMore Graduate]

Congratulations on the first 5k.

This article mensrunninguk.co.uk/trainin... goes into what nowster says. It has an explanation as to the biology that happens when we run fast and slower and thus explains why we do most of our running at less effort. It is aimed at people starting their marathon training, so I’d go longer than a couple of weeks of slow running at the start.

There are many 5k plans out there, if you look at a race plan, that long run can go to about 16km and then you have fartleks, intervals, tempos and sprints… but the dominant run type is recovery (conversational pace) in the best plans. An internet search will let you see how these plans are formulated… and there are some apps which offer such plans too.

In general though, of the speed focused runs, fartleks are the most fun, and so yes, they’d be the ones I recommend trying first.

[Cmoi Graduate]

Run longer distances, that'll help build the aerobic base you need for speed!

Here's another article for you: womensrunning.co.uk/trainin... though why she bangs on about race day is beyond me.

There's also: womensrunning.co.uk/trainin...

[John_W Graduate in reply to Cmoi]

"though why she bangs on about race day is beyond me."

Can I hazard a wild guess?

😂

[misswobble Graduate in reply to Cmoi]

😁😁😁😁

[IannodaTruffe Mentor]

This FAQ Post about getting faster may help healthunlocked.com/couchto5...