How can I run faster?

Charlie, how can I run faster?  I get this question from many of the fighting squirrels.  The VWIL ladies want to increase their times for their military fitness tests and the athletes want more sprint speed so they can compete at a higher level.  We can talk about a lot of different ways to increase speed.  In this article I will discuss one important step to take.  Are you ready?  RUN FASTER. 

The next question I get is, "I know that, but how?"  Most of us like to stay in our comfort zones.  I have talked about this in previous blogs.  To run faster you must, well, run faster.  If you want to increase your time for the 1.5 or 2 mile military run you should not just keep adding miles to your runs.  Too many VWIL ladies keep adding miles to their runs, but they plod along at the same slow pace.  One way to decrease your run times is to increase your run tempo.  To do this is to get a stop watch and time your runs.  I often tell the VWIL ladies.  Get on our track and jog .5 miles to warm up.  Take a few minutes to stretch and then get ready to work.  Run a 1/4 mile as hard as you can, time the run.  Walk the straight away.  Jog around the corner and the next straight away.  Walk the next corner.  When you get to your start point, run another 1/4 and try to beat your last time.  Run 4 quarters in this way.  Jog another .5 miles to cool down and then stretch.  Do this speed work 2 or 3 times a week with easy longer runs in between.  Please remember to get a day of rest also.

The same type of training applies to sprint work.  Run your sprint with a stop watch.  Take a break walk back to your start point, take some time to recover and try to beat your last time on your next sprint.  Another way to improve your sprint speed is to downhill run.  Find a moderate hill, this should not be a problem in Staunton.  Run down the hill at a sprint.  This will force you to over-run; that is run at a faster pace than you are used to running.  Jog or walk back up the hill and get ready for your next sprint.

There a many other things that can improve your run time.  Increasing your strength through weight training and perfecting your form are ways to increase speed.  In this blog I wanted you to get the easiest way to increase your speed without getting too scientific or specific.  This type of training is hard work.  You will probably hate it at first, but you will get results.   I think the best and easiest way for you to increase your speed is; RUN FASTER.

Sprint on Squirrels.