- Running at speed trains your body and your mind to know what racing feels like. There's no better way to prepare yourself mentally for a fast race than knowing exactly what it's going to feel like. On a cellular level, running fast helps your body to better use the lactic acid produced by working muscles as a fuel source, making your energy systems more efficient. Speed workouts are also more taxing on your muscular skeletal system than easy distance runs, strengthening muscles and ligaments.
- The best place for speed workouts is a local track. Most high schools and colleges have a standard 400-meter track. Four times around, or 1600 meters, is a metric mile. The smooth, even surfaces of a track and well-marked distances make it ideal for speed training.
If you do not have a track available you can do intervals by fast running for a set time, such as intervals of two minutes fast, then thirty seconds of jogging slowly, six times. - Shorter intervals are best to train for shorter races like 5ks and 10ks. Longer intervals are good for races like half and full marathons.
Common shorter distance intervals are 200, 400, 600, and 800 meters. Longer intervals of 1200 and 1600 meters really train endurance and speed. You can do a mix of these distances for both long and short races. - Start off easy with mile warm-ups and cool-downs and up to one mile of intervals. For example, you could do 400 meters four times, or 200 meters four times and 400 meters one time.
Run at about 80 percent of your all-out pace. Always finish pleasantly tired, not totally exhausted. Do only one speed workout session per week, because it is very taxing and you need sufficient recovery to reap the benefits of this intense workout. Slowly increase your speed training distance by about 800 meters a month up to three miles for longer distance runners and two miles for 5k and 10k runners.
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