How can i improve my speed?

Hello again,

So i have so far completed 2 10k races and a half marathon, i have 3 races coming up before i go to do my full Marathon next year. My current time for 10k is 59 minutes, im obviously no Jess Ennis and i dont intend on sprinting round the full Marathon, however i want to know if anyone has any tips which could help me knock a few minutes off my current time?? Iv started doing sprint intervals in the gym and take part in boxing sessions which include alot of circuit training, i keep signing up for races to keep my motivation high and training consistant however this weekend i was a little dissapointed that i hadnt even knocked a minute off my previous 10k time. The last 10k i did, i walked every now and then and still acheived a time of 59 minutes whereas the 10k i most recently ran (this weekend) i didnt walk once and felt i could go on for longer so i feel my fitness has improved which has made me determined to go for a pb in my next race.

Any advice?

 Thanks

It'd be better to do speedwork/intervals that actually involves running, rather than gym classes. 

I must admit, I'm abit of a gym rat myself.......and really enjoy boxing training (Bag work, floor work, shadow boxing, speedball and jump-rope).

But its not an ideal way of improving a 10K time.

The best way to bash your 10K time to the lower 50s would simply be to increase your weekly mileage. I wouldn't worry about speedwork/intervals yet, until you have developed a good running base.

I'd aim to start with a weekly diet of 15 easy/conversational paced miles......and to increase this by 10% each week till you are up to about 25 miles a week. Then you could start intervals/speedwork.

Maybe 6 x fast paced 1/4 miles with 3 mins rest between each would be a good start.

Even without the speedwork, I'd imagine that with a diet of 25 weekly miles you'd decimate your current 10K time.

Best of luck...

PetHead- Thanks... my gym sessions are made up of running and sprint intervals on treadmill....does that not help me at all?

Thank you for your advice Jamie, il give that a go...seen as your more clued in then i am...would you happen to know what sort of watch i could use to track time and distance?? i dont want anything that talks about splits or other confusing stuff...just simple time and distance thats not wayy over priced?

Thanks again

Hey Claire, what running sesions and mileage are you doing each week?

claire morgan 18 wrote (see)

PetHead- Thanks... my gym sessions are made up of running and sprint intervals on treadmill....does that not help me at all?

 

Thank you for your advice Jamie, il give that a go...seen as your more clued in then i am...would you happen to know what sort of watch i could use to track time and distance?? i dont want anything that talks about splits or other confusing stuff...just simple time and distance thats not wayy over priced?

Thanks again

Not really - it's a lot easier to go fast on a treadmill, and you won't ever race on one. A simple stopwatch (£10 or so from Argos) keeps time very well, so your intervals can stay on track. 

Hi Clare,

I swear by my Garmin 305 watch. It is a satelite watch that many runners use. It comes with a heart rate monitor too.

It measures distance, current speed, heart rate and current time on the screen at once. They cost around £120 from memory, mine was a Christmas present!

A £10 watch from Argos will not do distance.....so you'd be stuck doing measured laps of your local track. Lap after lap can get very monotonous! A Garmin will measure distance anywhere except under a roof or underground.

I was nervous about getting a Garmin and thought they'd be complicated. But they really are a doddle to use. One will really help your training!

Best of luck.....

Jamie Newton 2 wrote (see)

A £10 watch from Argos will not do distance.....so you'd be stuck doing measured laps of your local track. Lap after lap can get very monotonous! A Garmin will measure distance anywhere except under a roof or underground.

Ever heard of this website?

Hi Pethead,

If you seriously use Google maps as a guide to the distance of your runs, good for you. Starting points and finishing points are very arguable and I'm guessing that offroad running, scurrying across a field, crossing roads could leave many training runs woefully inaccurate.........not to mention, you have to remember your exact route.

Plus theres the hassle and time of working it all out and the corresponding maths/pace per mile etc.

For £120 ish a Garmin does this without any additional work. It loads into Google Earth and shows you your route as well as how fast you are running at any point. If you are stat minded, that is shown automatically too.

Why don't you try borrowing one from a friend.....or if you are a keen runner buy one? I think you'll kick yourself for not doing it earlier......

No thank you Jamie. I'm not the kind of runner that needs to know the distance of every easy run to the nearest meter, or the exact pace of every mile to the nearest second. To be honest, if any runners need that to keep them on schedule, I'd question their motivation, and if they're only satisfied after reviewing a whole bunch of statistics I feel sorry for them!
Having said that, I find google maps easy to use (although I do live in a town - not much off-roading to be done) and I don't find basic pace calculations difficult. Running without technology's gotten me 16:36 and 27:32 thus far, so do forgive me for taking the "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" attitude.

Claire ... stage 1 would be to make sure your training fits loosely into the rules within the first 3 posts here...

http://www.runnersworld.co.uk/forum/training/training-for-the-right-distance/166480.html

Hi again Pethead,

So what distances were those times for? (16:36 and 27:32). You'd know if you had a Garmin. Only Joking

But I wouldn't judge sat-watch users as runners to be felt 'sorry for' with 'no motivation'. One of the best keys to running improving times is showing discipline in even pacing and one of the best ways to do this is with a sat-watch. Too many blow races by starting too fast. Indeed all our local elite use Garmins in races and training runs, I wouldn't question their motivation!

Sat-watches are very useful for easy running too and keeping in your aerobic heart rate zones. Its well known that many people run their 'easy' runs too fast. You can keep an eye on pace at a glance and heart rate on a Garmin.

I can understand you not wanting to change what you do. But I bet your training would benefit from using one. Just imagine, you can do your 1/4 mile and 1/2 mile reps fairly accurately on a sunny promenade rather than on a track. If you want to do a 10 mile training run, you don't have to plan it out with Google maps. If you want to run each Km of a race at a certain pace you can track it. If you want to do a 5 mile tempo run, you can do it anywhere.

Only disadvantage is the cost. But compared to most wristwear, lets be honest......whats £120?

£120? Let's see...

• More than a month's worth of food and drink
• Almost 2 week's rent or tuition fees
• A year's supply of trainers 
• Entry fees for 3 triathlons

If you're earning good money I'm sure it's small change. But for me it'd be a big luxury.
I'm a member of a club anyway - I prefer company for speedwork - and I'd far rather have company and run on track than be alone and run, well, anywhere! Suppose out of all runners, I'm one of the ones who has the least use for technology. I wonder if your "local elites" the same as my ones, who instantly finish a race and start complaining it was 16.3m too long, when their Garmins did not cycle round the course twice with a Jones counter!
The only thing I can say is - if you can listen to your body, know how you're feeling and how hard to push yourself on any given day, don't rely on a machine to do it for you. Maybe it's hard at first, but it ought to come with experience. 

Clearly a Garmin/sat-watch isn't for you.....and thats absolutely fine.

I hope you can see that they do offer plenty of advantages. But hell, I'm not a Garmin representative, I couldn't really care less. But I do think that I have improved as a runner by using one and I'm sure there are others who would agree.