running faster

[hoarsewhisperer]

hi there

I've been lurking on here for a while, and there seems to be alot of experienced runners. I have recently returned to running after a long long gap, but am now managing 10k most sundays and another 5 - 6 during the week. I have signed up for a road race in October. However, I AM TOO SLOW. fastest i can manage 10 at the moment is 64mins and i really want to get below an hour. can anyone give me some tips on how to increase my pace without killing myself.

thanks

[gallery]

Hi Hoarsewhisperer,I am not the experienced runner who does fast, I am a slow plodder but when training for a triathlon, I wanted to increase my hill time so used fartleg. It is basically a technique around running as fast as you can over a set distance and then slowing down again to get your breath back, then pushing your speed up again. I have used it on a variety of sports- swimming, rowing, cycling and running. It works for me I knocked nearly 2 mins off my time for running up a steep hill from 12 mins to 10 mins something. I do my training on set milestones- push my running up to get to that tree, bend lampost whatever, then slow down to next mark, then ramp up again. I would be very happy with your speed time of 64mins! But then that is cos I am a slow plodder!
Other things that get my speed up are running mates who are faster than me- it pushes my speed up and they can chat away while i slob along panting

[ShellingPeas]

Some ideas for improving speed:

fartlek session as Gallery has said

interval training - on a similar vein to fartlek you run very fast over a specified distance, then take a recovery period, either walking or resting. For example, in training for a 10km you could do 400m reps by running 400m at a faster pace than you would normally, then resting for 1 minute, then repeating, say, 4 times initially. This will help your leg speed and turnover.

hill sessions - again an interval based session you run up a (fairly steep) slope, then jog back down, repeating this between 4 and 10 times. This builds up strength and stamina so will help you run faster for longer.

With all of these make sure you warm up with a jog first, then stretch, and the cool down with a jog at the end.

I found that one speed session and one hill session combined with a couple of steady paced runs really helped my times come down.