Getting faster

[Deleted User]

I'm interested to know how other beginners managed to increase their speed. I feel that over the past 6 months my stamina has increased a lot but my pace hasn't I do three runs a week and over the past two weeks have been doing fartlek on one of these. Should I be running four times in order to increase my speed?

Stav78

I'm in the early days - still on c25k. My times have been improving week on week though. I've been revisiting earlier intervals (e.g. Started day 1 again), but run as fast as I can therefore steadily increasing pace and time. I do this once weekly as a minimum, I try for twice though.



My "plod" times seem to just improve naturally.



I try to get out 4 times a week with one trip being long and slow (by long I mean longer than the others-short plods for most)

Hog-mouse

You don't need to run four times a week in order to improve your pace however it won't hurt if you do. The more running you do the stronger you will be at running.

Improving your endurance will improve your pace. It's early days yet but you are probably getting faster you just haven't noticed. Don't worry too much about how fast you are running in training, that isn't a real measure of your pace.

Structured training is one way to improve your pace. Running intervals or farlek or tempo will obviously help. You need to be patient, improvement doesn't usually happen overnight but consistant running will get you there.

Many runners find that joining a club or running in a group helps as there is often someone that will help you push your pace, get you out of your comfort zone for a short bit. (like fartlek) vary the pace. It will all help.

[Deleted User]

Thanks for the replies.