Improving Running Times

Q: How would you train for a 2.4km run (about a mile and a half)? My goal is to run the aforesaid distance under 10mins.

A: Two basic methods:

1) Split the distance into four. So you'd run 600m intervals at a faster than race pace (so you'd be doing each one in well under 2:30). The idea being that you 'd run the entire distance in an accumulative time of less than 10 mins.

So you'd allow full recovery between efforts, and perform 4-5 sets.
Each week - maintain your speed, but reduce the rest period by 15s. This should be do-able but it will be difficult.

2) Determine how far you can run at that pace (10 mins for 2.4km). Let's say you can run 1.5km at that pace but then you start to tie up and slow down.

Then we work on running that shorter distance as fast as possible - full recovery, and repeating.

Once you can improve your time for that distance by 10% - we retest your ability to perform at that speed and start over.

The key to running faster is to spend time running faster :) Particularly when it's shorter distances such as this. Most people would approach this challenge by just trying to run 2.4km as fast as possible. The problem here is that it essentially "rehearses" and programs the body to perform at that slow speed.

We need to program the body to perform at a faster pace - so we break the distance up into more manageable "chunks" that allow you to run faster.

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AC
www.alwyncosgrove.com