The saying “built for comfort, not for speed” does not apply to runners. Whether you are training for a 5km race or a marathon, speed training should be an integral part of your training program.
Speed training is not only recommended when you want to run a PB for a specific distance. There is a lot more to speed training than running fast.
What is speed training
Speed training is a form of running where you run at a pace faster than your usual (“comfortable”) pace. Speed training focuses on strengthening muscles, joints, and ligaments in different ways to slow pace running. Slower running focuses on slow-twitch muscle groups whereas faster running improves fast-twitch muscle groups. Fast-twitch muscles are used for explosive movement and slow-twitch muscles take longer to fatigue and are used for endurance/slower running. The balance between fast-and-slow-twitch muscle groups is the winning combination.
Why runners should do speed training
Speed training builds speed! Always running at the same pace will not allow you to run faster on a race day (which seems like a runner’s tragedy).
- You build stronger muscles due to working different muscle groups than in endurance running. The combination of fast-and-slow-twitch muscles make for an overall stronger muscle group which will prevent injury while making you a faster runner.
- It improves breathing which improves your heart muscle/cardiovascular strength. Greater cardiovascular capacity makes for a better endurance runner. See blog post on breathing for runners.
- Speed training forces you to dig deep. It forces us out of our comfort zones and therefore physically and mentally you are exposed to some level of discomfort. This helps to prepare for race day.
- Teaches you recovery tools (and patience which no runner knows much about).
Determining the pace of your speed training
Knowing what exercise to do is as important as knowing at what pace to do it. Running too fast and hard on speed workouts can cause injury and therefore it is important to benchmark your pace.
How to do this? Easy! Do a 5km time trial and a 10km time trial on different days (and with enough rest in between the runs). The pace of your time trial should be used as the guidance of what pace you need to run at in speed training. A lot of programs reference your 5km race pace or 10km race pace as guidance for your pace in the runs and therefore doing a time trial will help you determine what YOUR race pace is.
Examples of speed workouts
I am listing some examples of speed training that I do on a rotational basis. I do this once per week.
- Fartlek is a great example for speed training. For beginners, I recommend 6 times fartlek. For more experienced runners whom already do speed workouts, I recommend 10-12 times fartlek. Workout: 1 min fast and 1 min easy. You run 1 min fast and then 1 min easy without any rest time.
- Tempo run – chose a distance and run at your race pace for that given distance. Not only does this help you strengthen muscles, but it also teaches you to run at a constant pace. For example, the marathon program that I follow varies tempo runs of 14km and 16km at a 10km race pace (once per week).
For new runners, I suggest doing a 6km or 8km tempo run based on your level of fitness. - Pyramids: 400m (5km race pace) (30s rest), 800m (10km race pace) (90s rest), 1200m (10km race pace) (2 min rest), 1600m (10km race pace) (3min rest), 1200m (10km race pace) (2 min rest), 800m (10km race pace) (90s rest), 400m (5km race pace).
For new runners – for the second half of the pyramid, run at a slower pace for the first few times. This allows you to get the mileage on your legs, while preventing overtraining. - Mental challenge: Running the same distance a few times over and over brings some mental challenges for me, therefore I called this category of examples “mental challenge”.
Examples: 800m x 8 times (10km race pace) (90s rest) OR 5 x 1000m (5km race pace) (2min rest/ recovery walk).
New runners should run less times (800 x 6) OR (3 x 1000m).
Tips for optimal speed workouts
- Speed training is an intense form of exercise and therefore it is essential that you allow for sufficient recovery time before your next run. For example, do your speed workout on a Wednesday and your long run on a Saturday. Incorporate slow recovery runs between Wednesday and Saturday.
- Build your speed training slowly over time. Prepare your body and add to your speed training as the weeks pass by and your muscles strengthen.
- Don’t overdo it! Dedicate one run per week to speed training.
- Every speed training session should start and end with a 10-20 minute easy pace jog to ensure you warm up and cool down. This will prevent injury and muscle stiffness.
For more content on different types of training take a look at some of these posts: