Improving pace

[Ali_Sonrisa]

Hello! I'm in week 7 and can happily run for the podcast + a bit up to 30mins. I used to run and feel like I'm really back in my groove. I've never really cared about my times before I just used to run and thoroughly enjoyed it.

This time I want to be more calculated partly as I'm doing this to stretch & build my stamina. I'm covering about 4km in 25 mins at the moment. Any tips on how to improve my speed and get a better result?

I map my runs when I get home on mapometer but it is too late then and whilst I'm out I've no idea how much ground I'm covering or my speed! It is all guess work at the mo!!!

Would love to hear how you measure when to push on when you're out & about! I'd love to reach 5kms in 30mins in the next few weeks!

Can taste graduation on the wind!

[tygfuz Graduate]

The new podcasts, when they come out, will be about improving speed.

[mrqwest Graduate]

I'm approaching Graduation (W9) and I'm hitting 5k in 33 minutes so I'm interested in speeding things up too.

At the moment, I take my phone with me using an app called RunKeeper which tracks my route as I'm going and tells me my vital stats as set intervals. I've set it to tell me time, distance, speed and pace every 5 minutes and I can remember rough distance / pace from the previous run.

I tend to get to the same part of my route at 25 minutes each time and I know the app tells me '25 minutes, distance: 3.8km' and once I hear that, I know I'm at my usual pace. I always try to speed up that last 5 minutes to beat my personal best but most of it is up hill and I inevitably begin to slow down.

[Joysmum Graduate]

Since I graduated, I've been aiming to do 1 longer run a week which I map a longer run but don't think about time, one short run of 2.5 miles which I aim to improve my time on. The last run is my version of interval training where I switch between easy jog and extending my stride. I aim to keep the same rhythm but just extend my stride.

This seems to be working for me.

I know there's no point in aiming for 10k as I don't have the time or patience to run for extended periods. Therefore, increasing my pace is my goal to keep me focussed and interested.