I have always been a casual runner, but I got to the point where I wanted to feel confident telling people, “I am a runner,” so I decided to push myself to run faster. Ironically, I write this after becoming a two-time Ironman, completing two full marathons, seven half marathons, three 70.3 IMs, and many shorter-distance races. I have even been on the podium multiple times.
However, I never really felt like a runner. It was just happening.
I used to only focus on distance and never on speed or time. I have now shifted my attention to speed and time as I slowly increase my distance, making me feel more competitive and comfortable in the sport.
Adding rest and reducing distance is essential to avoid pain and injury while getting faster. Because this has taken me some time to perfect, I wanted to share my top 5 tips for increasing speed and performance and seeing results.
Tip #1 — Interval training is vital: To become faster, you must run faster. That is what they tell you, which is common sense, but what does it mean?
To accomplish this, I took my base pace and added to it gradually. I started with a 5.5MPH base pace and slowly added, increasing my base to 6.5MPH and 7.0 MPH. Below is how I did it.
Week 1:
- Run base at 5.5MPH for 30…
