How To Improve Your Running?
How To Improve Your Races? But what does it really mean?
If you’ve just started running, you probably want two things: to run longer and to run faster. The good news is that you are not alone: these are the fundamental goals of runners of all levels. The bad news is that there is no limit to these two ambitions: once you have achieved your goal, you will want to improve and improve and improve…
We will try to give you some tips that can help you at all times.
1. Increase kilometres every week
Take a look at the structure of some training plans (even if you are not yet training for a race). They are designed to gradually increase in distance and speed, which usually translates into a few short runs during the week, and then a long run at the weekend that gets progressively longer.
To see progress, it is necessary to keep subjecting the body to a stimulus it is not used to, which means longer distances and higher speeds. The principle is simple: gradually overload the body, let it adapt, overload it some more, let it adapt, and so on.
2. Listen to your body
You should not increase your total mileage by more than 10% per week, but there is no reason to limit yourself that much if you feel good. That doesn’t mean doubling the workload from one week to the next! You simply need to pay attention to how you feel and adjust your mileage accordingly. In short, it’s all common sense. Listen to your own body. What does this mean? Simple: if you feel pain, exhaustion, irritability, loss of appetite and loss of sleep quality, you are overdoing it. It is time to rethink training.
3. Increase the speed of your long runs
The weekly speed work is useful, but it does not exactly replicate a race. That’s why it makes a lot of sense to work on speed during long runs. How? For example, when doing a long run, accelerate during the last minute of each kilometre. It will also be a lot of fun, you’ll see.
4. Don’t stress
Another useful tip is this: every week, do four 500m repeats with 2 minutes of walking for recovery, and take your time. Try to take less time for each of the sets. When this happens, add one more rep. However, if this stresses you, change and simply concentrate on increasing the distance, progressively.
In summary: the best way to increase speed and endurance (especially if you are just starting out or if running is just a hobby for you) is to make running fun, not strenuous and stressful. You will continue to progress, but always one step at a time.
