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

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

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.