Speed Demons

Those who know my running style know that ‘fast’ has never been my thing; I’m a fairly slow runner and never really thought much of it. However, lately I’ve felt that I need a new challenge to re-energize my running, and inspired by the Monday night 5Ks I’ve been participating in, I decided to focus on improving my speed.

Not knowing where to start, I solicited feedback from my friends and other running enthusiasts through Facebook and LinkedIn. (As a marketer who’s increasingly using social technologies professionally, I must admit I’m growing quite keen on leveraging social networks for information).

The advice I received on how to run faster covered a wide spectrum, ranging from the humorous: the “oh sh*t a bear is chasing me” approach, to the technical: e.g. “try to improve your per-second pace by 6-8%”, to some advice that I first thought was a joke and then realized I was simply lacking some key running vocabulary: fartleks, anyone?

I'd like to thank everyone who took the time to give me their recommendations, and I wanted to share a few of these with others:

• Break running speed into two components: Turnover (strides per minute) and the distance each stride covers. Runners should first focus on improving turnover rate, and then on springing off their feet more and more. For more details on this approach, contact athletic coach Steve Bentley or visit his Website.
• Fartlek (interval) training: Varying pace throughout the run—including quick bursts of high intensity running (around 30 seconds each time), followed by a slower recovery pace. Active.com (as well as many other sites) has some easy-to-follow examples of fartlek programs.
• Pace workouts: After choosing a specific distance to train for, break that distance into intervals and set a target time for each. Then aim to run the interval at the target pace and recover with a slow jog in between. Pace charts can be helpful for this, and Runner’s World has a few of these on their site.

A common theme across all of the advice I received was to listen to your body and not take on too much too soon in order to avoid injury. I also feel obligated to add a disclaimer that I am by no means an expert (or even have much experience yet) with these approaches, so take from it what you will (and I am planning on doing the same). I will keep you posted on my own progress in an upcoming post.