Recently I wrote about how to run a 5K, so today I want to talk about how you can actually run that 5K, but Faster.
If you are just starting out and you can’t run a 5K yet make sure you check my other post first and get comfortable running a 5K distance. For now I’ll assume that you can run at least a 5K.
In order to get faster at the distance you want to run there are two parts you will need to train and I’ll explain both of these.
The first thing is you need to run the distance of the 5K, but you want to run it at a faster pace, so what we’ll do is start at the beginning. Figure out what the time is that you want to run the 5K in, now of course you have to be realistic about this too. If you run a 5K in 35 minutes it is not really reasonable to want to run it in 15 minutes, not right away anyways.
Set a goal that is faster than you can do now, but should be within your grasp with some training.
Now figure out the speed you would need to run at to achieve this goal, so say you want to run the 5K in 30 minutes you will have to run it at 10km per hour or 6.2 miles per hour.
Whatever the speed is it will be faster than you are normally used to running. Hopefully you didn’t set your goals to high so it’s a speed that you can’t run at at the moment for a shorter distance, cause that is where you’ll start.
Run a shorter distance, like 1K or a mile at the speed you would need to run at to reach your goal. If you can’t keep up the speed do a shorter stretch and start from there, but run this distance till you are comfortable running this distance at the speed you need to run. Once you feel comfortable you build up the distance slowly by half a km or half a mile and just build up at the speed you need to run. If you can’t keep up the speed you might want to shorten the distance and take smaller steps in increasing the distance, but you slowly build your way to the 5K.
The second part of running a faster 5K is doing strength training, there are some great exercises that you can do that can actually help you become a faster runner. I’ve made some videos with great exercises to help you with this that I will link down at the bottom. Also doing speed exercises with a speed ladder can really help make you faster and will help you move your feet faster, I also have a video for these exercises to help you out.
If you keep running and keep training you will get better and faster, but if you really want to improve you will have to put in the work and do specific training to see actual change. The same goes for longer distances.
If you have trouble running at the right pace and maintain a steady tempo to reach your goals you could use a gadget like Stryd. I’ve written a post about how I use it during my training, so this might be helpful for you. You can find the article here.
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