Increase Your Running Speed and Endurance

By Rick Morris

One of the many reasons that running is such a great sport is the ability to tailor the activity to your specific goals, needs and desires. Some runners enjoy cruising through their daily run at a nice, relaxed pace. Other runners like to run at a faster pace. They may be training for competitions or they may just love the feeling of challenging their body and minds to overcome physical and mental barriers. Many runners want to run a few miles to reduce stress, maintain their weight or stay fit. Some others like to build their endurance to higher levels with a weekly long run. You can do whatever you want to do and meet any goal you desire.

If part of your goals are to build up your speed and endurance there are a number of specific running workouts that will help you get there. You will improve your endurance by simply including a weekly long run in your distance running training program. Increasing your speed is slightly more complicated. There are six primary components involved in increasing your ability to run farther and faster over long distances. The six main components of endurance and distance running speed are:

• VO₂ max - This is a measure of the maximum amount of oxygen that you body is able to process. Theoretically, the more oxygen your body can process, the more energy you are able to produce. A higher VO₂ max usually means you are able to run at higher intensities or speeds.

• vVO₂ max - Don’t let all of these fancy looking terms throw you. This one is really simple. It is your running velocity at your VO₂ max. In other words, how fast you are running when you reach your body’s peak oxygen processing capacity. This is a more reliable indicator of how fit you are than VO₂ max alone because it factors in all of the other components of running performance.

• Lactate Turn point - Your lactate turn point is the level at which lactic acid begins to be produced faster than your body can process it. While accumulating lactic acid doesn’t directly cause fatigue, there are a number of physiological events that take place at the same time. When that happens you begin to fatigue and are forced to slow down. You can raise your lactate turn point through proper training. That will allow you to run faster for longer distances.

• Speed and Neuromuscular Conditioning - Your brain controls your muscles by sending signals through a system of nerves and nerve receptors in your muscles. High speed training will condition that system and increase your overall speed.

• Running Economy - This is a measure of how efficiently you run. A good comparison is the gas mileage of your car. A highly efficient car will get more miles to a gallon of gas. In the same sense, a highly efficient runner will able to run faster and farther using less energy. There are a number of components involved in running economy including lactate turn point, neuromuscular conditioning and running strength.

• Endurance - This one is really a no brainer. It is fairly obvious that you need to continue to build up your ability to run long distances to improve as a runner. Improving your endurance builds the strength and stamina of your muscles and connective tissues. Endurance is best built up through the use of long runs.

OK - those are the running systems that you will need to train in order to improve your running speed and performance. There are a number of specific types of training runs you can do that will help train all of those systems. None of these workouts train only one system. Each of the following types of workouts concentrate on one system, but each will contribute something to building speed and endurance.

Easy Paced Long Run

This is a basic endurance training long run. The pace of this workout will vary from runner to runner, but should always be comfortable and “conversational” in nature. You should be running easy enough that you can carry on a conversation but you should not be able to sing. The distance of your first long run should be the distance of your longest run in the past three weeks. The distance of each subsequent long run should be increased by one or two miles depending upon the amount of time until your goal race and your fitness level. You should do a long run from one to three times per month. Once you reach 10 to 12 miles you should do these no more than every other week. These runs are performed at an easy pace, but should not be considered an easy run. The amount of time and distance involved make long runs a hard run and appropriate recovery time should be planned both before and after a long run.

Hill Blasters

This is an intense hill workout that uses short runs up a moderate to steep grade. This training run is very good for building strength and power and well as boosting your lactate turn point. This workout is much easier to do on your treadmill because of the specific incline requirement, but if you have a trail with a variety of inclines you can adapt this to free range running. With your treadmill incline set at 1 percent or level 1; warm up with 10 minutes of easy running. Now set the incline 10 to 12 percent elevation or the highest elevation available on your treadmill. Run for 1/10th of a mile at a pace that feels very hard. You should run at a pace that you can maintain for the entire workout, not just one repetition. You should not feel exhausted after one or two repetitions. If you are excessively fatigued, slow down your pace.

After running uphill for 1/10th of a mile, reduce the incline to 1 percent and decrease your speed to an easy pace for one minute of recovery. The uphill run and level recovery make up one repetition. Repeat that pattern for your desired number of repetitions.

The Hill Climb

Here is another type of hill workout. This one is a steady uphill run. This is a difficult workout that will challenge you both physically and mentally. If the shorter workouts are considered hill workouts, you may think of this one as a mountain workout. This workout will improve your strength, speed, power, lactate turn point and running economy.

This workout is a very simple one that you can do on the treadmill or an adequate outside hill Warm up with 10 minutes of easy running at 1% incline. Now set the elevation between 5% and 8%. Run at a pace that feels moderately hard for between 2 and 6 miles. Your exact amount of mileage will depend upon your experience and fitness level. Use your own judgment. This workout should be difficult, but be careful not to over estimate your fitness level. It is better to start with less mileage and monitor how your body reacts than to injure yourself with excessive mileage.

400 Meter Repeats

This is an oldie but goodie classic track workout that always works well. These are short repeats which are performed at a pace that feels very hard, but not quite all out. If you have participated in 5K races, your pace should be about 5 to 10 seconds per mile faster than your 5K pace.  After a warm up, run 400 meters or ¼ mile at a very hard pace. Recover with 400 meters at a very easy pace or rest completely for 2 minutes. Repeat this 4 to 12 times. Start your training with fewer repeats and gradually build up the number of repeats as your fitness level increases.

One Mile Repeats

One mile repeats are another popular track workout that is also very effective at improving performance. Warm up with 10 minutes of easy running. Now run 1 mile at a hard pace. This should be a strong but not all out pace. Then slow down to an easy, comfortable pace for 1/4 mile to recover before speeding up again for the next segment. Repeat this 2 to 6 times depending upon your experience and fitness level. This workout can be done progressively over the course of your training cycle. Start with 2 repeats and gradually progress to 6 repeats as you become fitter.

Lactate Turn Point Cruiser

This is a speed endurance workout in which the goal is to maintain a pace that is just below your lactate turn point. Similar workouts have been called cruise intervals, steady-state running and anaerobic threshold runs. This is a key training run that is used for all long distance race training and trains your body to maintain a quality pace for an extended period. This workout also toughens you mentally so that you can keep up a good tempo when fatigued.

After a 5 to 10 minute warm up, run between 15 and 45 minutes at a pace that feels moderately hard. This is about 10 seconds per mile slower than you did your one mile repeats. Perform this workout without stopping or slowing for recovery. The idea is to maintain your pace for the entire duration of the workout. Cool down with 5 minutes of easy running.

Go Farther and Get Faster Training Schedule

There are a nearly unlimited number of ways you could combine all of these speed and endurance workouts to go farther and get faster. It could be a simple as adding a longer run one every few weeks or as complex as a detailed weekly or biweekly schedule using all of these workouts. Any time you push yourself past your current limitations with a longer or faster run you are improving your running abilities. The key is to strike a balance between pushing yourself enough to improve but not so much that you get injured or burned out. In the following table, I have outlined a training schedule that is challenging enough to improve your performance but still provide sufficient rest and recovery.

This is a 14 day schedule that includes one long run, one speed workout, one speed endurance run and one hill workout every seven days. Each of these workouts plays a role in improving your speed, stamina, endurance and strength. Each time you repeat this cycle add more repeats or decrease your recovery time between repeats. You want to challenge yourself with each workout. Don’t forget the rest and easy run days. You need sufficient rest to make sure your muscles get enough recovery time. I would also suggest rotating other workouts into your schedule.

Running Planet

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