Pick Up the Pace

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Tips to help you put some Speedy Gonzales in your step.

When trying to speed up your running, the key to success can sometimes seem counterintuitive. To reach your goals, you may be spending more time with a pen and paper than breaking in your new running shoes.

So to help you pick up the pace this racing season, whether you’re chasing the competition or simply racing against your own clock, we’ve compiled tips from several local coaches.

Ric Rojas is a Ph.D. candidate in sports psychology at the University of Northern Colorado, U.S. Women’s Olympic Trials Marathon qualifiers coach and the founder of Ric Rojas Running, a coaching organization that focuses on adult, youth and sports training programs. Rojas offers the following tips for runners who are looking to pick up the pace.

Use a day planner to schedule your running workouts. Writing your personal running commitments into a planner will almost guarantee that they will happen. This scheduling technique gives your running a higher priority in your daily schedule. Be sure to allow at least two hours for each workout.

Write out your workouts in detail for at least one month in advance. Reducing the daily decision-making process will allow you to focus on the workout itself, rather than what the workout will be. 

Document your workouts in detail. Include total mileage, interval or tempo run detail, heart rate information and a perceived exertion score on a scale of one to ten. Also include any comments on weather conditions, injuries or other health issues. Tracking your workouts allows you to design a more effective future training plan by establishing a personal training baseline.

Denise Tryner is an ACE-certified personal trainer and group fitness instructor, NESTA-certified sports nutritionist and founder of Denise Tryner Fitness Consulting, LLC.

She believes the best way to increase your speed is to “work on one goal at a time.  If your goal now is to increase speed, then do not work on increasing distance at the same time,” she says. “If you focus you will accomplish more.” Tryner offers the following insights for those who have “conquered the never-ending hurdle of endurance,” and are now asking how they can speed up.

Try plyometrics exercises, which involve a jumping movement. When a muscle is rapidly contracted and lengthened, and then immediately followed with a further contraction and shortening, this is a plyometric exercise. Tryner trains all of her clients using plyometrics to increase speed; however, if your body is not conditioned to these types of exercises, she recommends that you build up strength first.

Work jump-ups into your routine. Try jumping up onto a bench or step that is a little less than knee height. When landing on the platform, be sure to land with knees bent and soft to absorb the shock. Step back down to the lower level and jump again. Repeat for 45 seconds to one minute. This can also be done up a staircase or up a hill.  Then try squatting with three pulses and jump. Sit low into a squat and pulse (little movement) for three counts, explode straight up into the air and land in the same spot in squat position again. Repeat.

Finally, try the lunge jump. Stand in lunge position with right leg behind. Lower into a lunge about 8-10 inches driving that back knee toward the ground (but do not touch). Explosively push off your front leg straight into the air landing back into a lunge position with knees soft (to absorb shock). Repeat 10 times, then switch legs.

Combination drills are important to strengthen leg muscles while adding quick movements in different directions to cross- train your legs. This will also help your endurance, which in the end always helps with speed. Begin with a forward hop into a sprint. Then sit into a squat with feet shoulder width apart. Jump forward landing in a squat. After 10 solid jumps forward (don’t sacrifice your form when you get tired), take off into a sprint for approximately 50 yards.

Combine forward lunges and a hill run. After alternating forward lunges for a count of 20, sprint hard forward up a hill. Walk back down and repeat.

Next time you’re out for a run, time yourself. On a scale from 1-10, if 1 is sitting and 10 is sprinting, run your familiar route at a level eight. Track how long it takes you to complete the course. From the first day moving forward, be sure to always run that same course faster than the previously recorded time. This will keep you motivated and challenged.

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