A Speed Workout

This post is brought to you by my little brother, Nick. Nick is a cross country and track runner for his high school and his personal best mile time is 4 minutes and 38 seconds. Yes, a sub 5 min mile. He knows quite a bit about how to improve your speed so he has done me a huge favor by featuring some of his favorite speed workouts here!

We all want it, but may not know how to get it. In order to gain speed, you will need to dedicate yourself to pushing yourself a little bit harder than you’re used to. It may be uncomfortable, but it will be rewarding if you push through!

Make sure you have a solid base. This means you’re running 4-5 times a week with a minimum distance of three miles, preferably one day being at least 6 miles. The reason you need to have a base is because it will ensure that you have built the strength needed to maintain your speed workouts.

NEVER do two speed workouts in a row, your legs need a chance to recover!

NEVER start a speed workout without being adequately warmed up!

NEVER finish a workout without cooling down.

Different types of speed workouts:

• Hills
• stairs
• repeats
• intervals
• negative splits.

Hills/Stairs:

Run up at an 8 or 9 out of 10 effort and come back down leisurely, but not walking. Repeat for 8-10 minutes.

Repeats:

• Run 4-400 meters and rest the amount of time it took you to run that 400. This is at an 8-9 out of 10 pace.
• Run 3-800 meters and rest the amount of time it took you to run that 800. This is at an 8-9 out of 10 pace.
• Mix it up a bit. Run 100, 200, 300, 400, 400, 300, 200, 100.

Always take the amount of time it took you to run the last segment as your break. If you need more, don’t feel afraid to add 10-20 seconds. You can be creative with these and make up your own repeats. Aim to do about 1600-3200 meters(1-2 miles) for your repeats. Record your times to track improvement.

Intervals:

Okay so say you’re running 4 miles, start by warming up a mile. This is where your interval starts, right after you finish the first mile pick up your pace to 8 out of 10 effort. Run at this pace for 2 min then run very relaxed for a minute and repeat that 2 min hard/1min easy sequence 8 times.

Just like repeats, you can be creative: 3min hard/2min easy, 2min hard/1min easy, 1min hard/1min easy. Repeat set 2-3 times.

Negative splits:

Pretty straightforward, but extremely helpful for speed and learning to go a little harder after you’re tired. It basically means coming back faster than you went out. Let’s say you are going for a four mile run. You run two miles out at 16 minutes and now it’s time to run back. On the two miles back, increase your speed so you come back around 15:30-15:45. The harder you come back, the more you will benefit from it.

REMEMBER: Speed workouts are one of the hardest challenges in running, get over them and you will find the success you want!

Thanks Nick for this great post! Can’t wait to start incorporating some of these workouts into my weekly routine. Let me know if you try any of these and what you think!

Oh Happy Day!

It is BEAUTIFUL today in Columbus! The shining sun has had me singing this song all day long..

It just honestly does not get any better or happier than that!

I’m going to recap my run for y’all today, but I also want to take you through my workouts on Sunday and Monday because they were strength focused and sweaty ones!

Today’s Run

Today’s run started at the gym and I ran along the Olentangy trail. It was wet and icy in certain spots, but as long as you took it slow and were careful it was a great day to run! The trail is much more cleared than all the sidewalks around here so it is the safest bet for longer runs. This weather is my favorite temperature to run in. I love running in the 40s — it has the crisp, refreshing feeling without being to bitterly cold or too warm.

My achilles felt great! A little tight, but nothing to complain about compared to how they were feeling. I spent a lot of time on Saturday reading forums regarding the Newton Energy and corresponding achilles tightness. There was a lot of information out there about how changing your running stride, specifically to a more midfoot strike, uses your calf muscles and achilles a lot more. Even though I’ve been running in the Energy since October and did experience calf soreness, my achilles never bothered me. I do think my achilles are sore (now in both legs) because of my strike change and the current running conditions. I’m glad I rested them when needed, iced a lot, and took it easy. Looks like I’m ready to get back at it! I ran 5.2 miles at an 8:09 pace (though I felt SO much slower).

Sunday

I did a mile warm-up and then 2 miles of speed work. The speed work looked like this: .25 mile fast run/sprint, .25 mile slow jog x4 — total of 2 miles. I loved this. It was fast paced, you could play with speeds, and you can do as many reps as you want. Typically I would have done 3 miles of speed work, but I was on a little bit of a time crunch.

I finished up in the weight room focusing on chest and back. I went with my good friend who is also a fitness instructor at OSU and knows how to work all the big scary machines. She taught me how to bench press 😀

^I have a few chins in the above picture. I realize that’s kinda gross, but look we can’t all be perfect!

A couple tips that my fabulous friend Anna gave me that I want to pass on:

• The bar weighs 45# (that might be obvious)
• Put your thumbs at the start of the grip, then close your fingers around the bar and bring your thumbs in. This just helps you place your hands correctly on the bar (See pic #1 for a visual)
• Bring the bar all the way down to your chest
• Breath out as you push up — this actually helps!! I always thought the guys at the gym just liked to grunt for fun. Who would have thought!?
• Challenge yourself

Monday

A Crossfit inspired workout + a bicep/tricep burnout. Will share more this evening 😉

See you back in a little bit! ENJOY THE SUN AHHH