Stop Just "Running Faster"; Here's How Speed Work Actually Works

If you're fairly new to running and hoping to improve your pace, you might think that what's required is simply running a given distance a bit faster each time. In this article, we'll explain why that's not the case, and what you should be doing instead.

To bring you the best information on speed work, we spoke with Amanda Brooks, founding coach at Run to the Finish, an online coaching and gear review platform with a virtual running club, and co-host of the weekly Tread Lightly Running Podcast, which provides coaching tips and insight for non-elite runners.

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Why Incorporate Speed Workouts?

"One of the most common things is this idea that, 'I'll just run a little faster,' instead of blocking out easy days and harder days," Brooks said.

Unfortunately, that approach tends to make each run a little bit harder. "If every run now is just a little bit hard, it's also harder to recover from." And, she explained, rather than building the adaptations your body needs, a training program like that wears on the body and can lead to burnout or injury.

A better approach is to keep most of your runs easy and pepper your training schedule with high-quality speed work, AKA hard days. "Alternating really easy days with truly hard workouts actually helps you recover better," Brooks said.

Alternating really easy days with truly hard workouts actually helps you recover better

"And those truly hard days help you practice a faster cadence, a higher knee drive, and prompt the physiological adaptations essential to getting faster."

Some of those adaptations include improved VO2 Max and lactate threshold, recruitment of fast-twitch muscle fibers, and improved neuromuscular coordination.

There are also key mental adaptations a hard workout provides. "Maybe you can't run an 8-minute mile," Brooks said, "but you can run that pace for thirty seconds or a minute, so that's a glimpse into what's possible, which is incredibly motivating." She also noted that after you have a few hard workouts under your belt, those easy run days feel oh-so-enjoyable.

Speed Work 101

So you're interested in incorporating some speed work into your training, but how to get started? Coach Brooks has a few pointers.

First, you must have built a decent base level of running fitness. Brooks says this requires at least three months of running a few times a week, so that your body's muscles and ligaments adapt to the rigors of running. Once you've been doing that and you feel pretty decent (no lingering aches or niggles in your muscles or joints), you may be ready to add some speed work, but you don't have to.

"Many new runners can run for a year and keep building speed because their body is still making adaptations to running," Brooks explained. But if you've been running for months and feel like your usual easy pace has plateaued, it's time to consider speed workouts.

Here are a few key types of speed workouts:

Strides

"Think of each stride as an arc, ramping up and back down, for very short durations, with a long recovery in between each so your heart rate can get back down to that easy level again," Brooks told us. She recommends working up to five sets of 30 seconds tacked onto the end of an easy run. "The key," she noted, "is not to turn this into a hard workout."

Strides can help quicken your cadence, recruit fast-twitch muscle fibers and create the neuromuscular pathways needed for fast running. They're also generally less punishing on the joints and connective tissue than longer tempo runs or near-max effort intervals.

Tempo Runs

Tempo runs essentially involve running at a comfortably hard pace (about a 7 on an effort scale of 1 to 10) for a sustained period of time, after you've warmed up at an easy pace. To start with, limit these runs to 15 or 20 minutes, and increase the duration and pace as you gain fitness.

Over time, tempo runs can help your body clear lactate more efficiently, delay fatigue, and boost VO2 Max, increasing both your speed and endurance.

Intervals

Intervals are similar to strides, except that they are typically done at a sustained, hard, or all-out effort, rather than that arc Brooks described. They can be shorter or much longer in duration than strides, depending on the type of interval. Most importantly, though, rather than putting them at the end of an easy workout, they would immediately follow an easy warm-up and be the main focus of that day's training. A few examples of intervals might be:

Sprints:

• Warm up for 10 minutes
• Run at max effort for 20 to 30 seconds
• Recover at a slow jog or walk for 1 to 2 minutes
• Repeat 2 to 4 more times
• Cool down for 5 minutes

Track Workout:

• Warm up for 10 minutes
• Run 400 meters (one lap) at 10 to 15 seconds faster than 5K race pace
• Slow jog for 400 meters
• Repeat 1 to 3 more times
• Cool down for 5 minutes

For more structured options once you're ready to progress, see this guide on using track workouts in endurance training.

Some types of speed workouts may be more beneficial than others, depending on your current level of running fitness, the race distance you're training for, your age, your past injury history, and more.

A good place to start, though, is with strides. This lets you tack on a tiny bit of speed work at the end of an otherwise easy run (but not on your long run days, please). As your body adapts and you feel strong (rather than spent) after four or five sets of strides, you can think about trying other types of speed work. Working with a coach to establish a training schedule can really dial this in for your unique situation.

Precautions, Injury Prevention, Recovery

With speed work, a little goes a long way. While the age-old advice is to follow the 80/20 rule — 80 percent of your training time should be easy, and 20 percent hard — Brooks advises runners who are new to hard workouts to only do one speed workout per week. It's also best to keep that workout very short at first, and to make small progressions over time.

To ease newer runners into hard workouts, Brooks uses terrain rather than speed to increase workload. "When we have athletes new to speed workouts, we start them with hill repeats," she said. "You have better alignment uphill, you can't over-stride, and you can't go as fast as you can on flat ground." All of that goes a long way toward preventing injuries.

Another way to avoid injury is to pick only one running variable to work on at a time, either intensity (pace and/or terrain) or volume (distance times frequency of workouts), not both. In other words, you'll be much more susceptible to injury if you try to increase mileage while also running faster, so just focus on one until you have more running experience (and better fitness) under your belt. For more on staying healthy as you build intensity, check out these tips to prevent running injuries.

Finally, speed work requires that you pay attention to recovery. If your week gets hectic, rather than try to cram all of your runs into a compressed timeline, it's better to skip one or two. Remember that nothing will derail your training faster than an injury, so respect those rest days!