Inspire to Run Podcast
Inspire to Run Podcast
Boosting Speed Secrets: How to Run Faster in 2025
#128 - Are you a runner looking to level up your performance? Whether you're training for your first 5K or aiming to PR in your next half marathon, strategic training is key to becoming a faster, stronger runner; I share training techniques that can help you run faster and with more confidence.
We will break down essential training techniques that can transform your running game while guiding you through my personal journey of setting ambitious goals for 2025, having a well-rounded training plan, and addressing the mental aspect of training.
Topics Covered:
- The role strength training plays in your running performance
- How the right mindset can be the key to success
- The types of runs that help with speed and endurance
Your Host
Richard Conner
Richard is a strategic marketing professional with experience in B2B marketing. Richard is the founder of Inspire to Run and is passionate about helping others reach their goals. He is a Connecticut native, a husband, dad, writer, Star Wars fan, and, of course, a runner!
Resources:
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Hey, my friend, are you looking to improve your running speed this year but don't know where to start? Or maybe you're struggling? Maybe you're like I run all of my runs fast but I'm not getting faster. Well, I'm going to cover that and talk a little bit about endurance and mental toughness as well. I'll also share my personal experience and endeavors as I look to improve in all three of these areas this year, in hopes that it helps you in your journey. Hope you enjoy.
Speaker 2:Welcome to Inspire to Run podcast. Here you will find inspiration, whether you are looking to take control of your health and fitness or you are a seasoned runner looking for community and some extra motivation. You will hear inspiring stories from amazing runners, along with helpful tips from fitness experts. Now here's your host, richard Conner.
Speaker 1:Hey, my friend, welcome to Inspired to Run Podcast. I hope you're doing well, as 2025 is swiftly moving by and I want to give you a little bit of an update on my goals and my training, but really also talk to you about how to get faster as a runner, how to build endurance and how to also build mental toughness, and I have a number of tips to share with you, as well as my personal experience. But, just as a recap, some of my goals this year is well, the first one is to get stronger and faster, and while I admit it's not a very smart goal, if you will, it's somewhat specific and somewhat time-based, but you know my measurement around that is really just to get faster in my races, right so to be able to PR in my 5K, 4-miler, 5-miler and half marathon, as well as qualify for DECA World Championships this year. So there's a little specificness, I guess, in my goals, but in general, what I'm looking to do is get stronger and faster this year, and it's something I've struggled with, at least over the last couple of years, because there's a whole list of things that I should be doing, but I really focused on, I would say, the endurance part, because I really focused on, I would say, the endurance part, because I was running longer races, I was running half marathons these past few years, which I never had done in my life, and then last year I ran my first marathon.
Speaker 1:So I really prioritized working on endurance but I deprioritized some of the other areas just because I just felt like I didn't have as much time to work out and fit in everything that I needed and, honestly, that kind of worked against me during the year. So this year I said you know what I'm going to start the year right, I'm going to build my plan. So I have a more holistic plan and I'm going to address all of these things in terms of getting faster, getting stronger and still maintaining the endurance that I built and also kind of building that mental toughness. So what I love to do is share with you some of the things that I'm working on and some of the things that I think I do pretty well and kind of how I do it, and again, in hopes that it helps you. And I'm really excited because I have a couple of races that are coming up very soon, so I'm really excited to kind of see where I am as I kick off the year and what I need to do to get better during the year.
Speaker 1:So the first one is and, by the way, none of these are going to be groundbreaking new for anybody. I think it's a matter of being reminded of, kind of what's important in your training and some tips on how to do that. So the first one is around strength training. So, again, not groundbreaking, but this is really going to help you with your power, it's going to help you with your form when you're running and it's going to help prevent injuries, but it's really important to implement strength training as part of your workouts. So, again, I was running 30 miles a week when I was peaking for my marathon training and I just felt like I was putting in so many miles and so much time. I didn't have a lot of time for strength training, so I was very inconsistent with it, kind of throughout the year. So this is something that I made a priority for this year.
Speaker 1:So, kind of ending 2024, moving into 2025, I said you know what? I'm just going to plan my weeks, starting with the strength training and then build back in my miles as things progress. And that's exactly what I've done and I feel great. I feel stronger, I feel like my kind of base has been restored and now I can kind of go from there and build in more miles each week as I build up for my races. So what do you do for your strength training? I mean you could focus on leg exercises and core and hip exercises, which makes a lot of sense for runners. But I take a more holistic approach, which was taught to me by my coach. So you know I'm working all the major muscle groups. You know I'm doing full body workouts and I don't only focus on leg but I do make sure that it's like it gets the time and attention that it needs and I have the appropriate training for that. And, like I said, in terms of time timing, I will build in my schedule according to my strength first, and then I'll fit in my running as part of that. But as time progresses and I feel like I've built a good base, you know, then I'll start to kind of combine my strength training. So I've made you, instead of four days a week I may cut it down to three days a week and then I allow more time for my runs and then I may start to prioritize or cut down on some of the actual exercises that I do to focus on what's important, but really more so to have that holistic approach to my strength training. So for me, that's number one. For me, that's non-negotiable, and I feel like I'm personally off to a great start for the year.
Speaker 1:But it's really important for you to have your strength training as part of your workout and if you're relatively new to running, this is actually a lot easier to fit in. So if you follow, let's say, like a couch to 5k program, there's going to be three or four days of running. There's probably going to be a couple of days of active rest and recovery and then you have one day of rest. So for those active days and recovery, those are days where you can get in your strength training or you could get in cross training. But I would recommend prioritize your strength training and then you can also get in your cross-training on other days.
Speaker 1:Next is incorporate interval training, or also known as speed work. So this helps improve running speed by training the body to run faster. And you may say well, I'm already doing that, right, I'm already doing all my runs fast, and this is not me saying do every run as interval training or a speed work, but you need to build that into your workout, and then I'll talk about other types of runs that you need to do. So for me personally, I do one speed work day a week and what I try to do is 500 meter sprints, and I try to do them faster than my race pace, than my 5K race pace. So my 5K race pace is about eight minute miles and what I try to do is probably around seven and a half minute miles or 745, just kind of depending on how I'm feeling. So right now I'm probably closer to that eight minute mile as I'm building these back into my workout. But you really want to do those as fast as you feel like you can do it. I personally try to do it faster than my race pace. So this is something that you'll need to figure out what works for you, but the idea is that you're running it faster than your normal kind of running speed to train your body to run faster.
Speaker 1:Now I also like to do these workouts on the treadmill. For me, I feel like the treadmill keeps me accountable, so if I do it on the track or if I do it on the road, number one, I may do it faster than I really want and then it's not sustainable and it's hard for me to finish my workout, or I might do it too slow, I'm not pushing myself hard enough and then I'm not getting the full benefit of it. So running on a treadmill is not always easy to do, and especially if you're doing speed work. But for me I really like doing it because I can dial in the specific speed I wanna do and then it holds me accountable because that treadmill is just gonna keep going right. So I wanna make sure I keep up. So that, for me, works really really well.
Speaker 1:And the other thing to keep in mind is, you know, when I'm doing speed work and when you're doing speed work it's a hard workout, right? You're pushing your body to run faster, move faster than you normally do, so it ends up being a hard workout. And I want to make sure that I complete it, that I put in my full effort into that workout and I complete it. So I may not do any strength training that day, or I may do just light strength first, so I have the energy and the will to go ahead and do my speed work. So I go out and I do you know a 45 minute strength training session, and then I try to do speed work Like I'm not going to have the energy or the desire to do it. Know a 45-minute strength training session and then I try to do speed work like I'm not going to have the energy or the desire to do it. So that's kind of how I manage interval training or speed work.
Speaker 1:Now the next workout is your long, steady state runs for endurance. So again, you know, if you're doing all of your runs, hard runs, really fast, you need to think about scaling back some of those runs, and this is one run to do that. So you're going to run these long runs, you're going to run it at a slower pace and that's going to help you build your stamina and it's something that you're going to gradually build to over time. So for you, if your long run is, let's say, three miles, right, you're not going to go out the next day and run 10 miles. You're going to build up those long runs gradually over time, week over week, and that's what I've done. So I've done, when I trained for my first half marathon and then for my full marathon, my long runs went from eight miles one week for my long run, nine miles. The next 10 miles for the week after that and kind of progressed from there, depending on what I was training for. And that's how I built my base.
Speaker 1:And for me, you know, I have been training based on heart rate over the last few years. So for me that's a zone two run is what I try to stay in and honestly, I wish I knew this when I did my first half marathon, because I was probably running all of those runs faster and harder than I needed to and it probably didn't give me as much benefit. So for me I know my heart rate zones. I train in zone two to the best of my ability, especially for my Sunday long runs, and it's actually kind of fun. I get out there on a Sunday. I have my favorite trail that I run on. I may put on my music, I've got my gels, I've got my hydration and I just go out there at my easy pace at my zone two pace I may run. My 5K is an eight-minute mile, so I'll try to do my long runs. Maybe around 11-minute miles is about a zone two for me, so I try to keep it there Then. That's what I do, just about a couple of weeks I'll start to do my build, where I get back to my long runs on Sundays, kind of at that zone to heart rate.
Speaker 1:So again, instead of running all of your runs hard and fast, you can do one of your runs as kind of that long endurance run to complement your workout. The next one is a tempo run. So the tempo run can help improve your lactate threshold and this run is kind of in between what we just talked about, right? So you have your long run that you're running slow, your easy run at a zone two pace, and then you have your speed workout. So this one's kind of in between. So you're going to run at a pace that's slightly faster than your usual but you need to be able to sustain that pace. So whatever feels comfortable for you. So again, you know, if you're training by heart rate training, for me I tend to do like a zone three as my base and then I may flow up to a zone four for my heart rate training and that's what I would do for my temper run. So if I do like an eight minute 5k, you know, 11 minute per mile is my zone two. Nine to 10 minute miles is like that zone three, zone four for me.
Speaker 1:So I just kind of keep an eye on my watch. I use Polar and it has excellent heart rate monitor. That goes with it. I love the display, the user interface For me. I love Polar. I know there's a lot of other popular watches out there, but this is the one that I use and it works really well, especially for this heart rate training.
Speaker 1:Now I prefer to run the Tempo runs outdoors because, again, for me, these tend to be a little bit longer, so they tend to be a little bit longer than an hour For me. An hour is kind of my cutoff for treadmill runs. But I will do this kind of workout on a treadmill if I also need to do strength. So I'll just go and I'll just do my strength workout first and then I'll hop on the treadmill and then I'll do this run. But again, my preference is and I'm going to do it outdoors I'm going to do it outdoors.
Speaker 1:The next one is hill training. So you're going to use hill training for strength and speed and this is really important because it's going to help you build explosive power and improve your running economy, and this is really best if you run it outdoors, especially if you have nice hills in your area. I have some hills are not great to do kind of hill training and then if I want to go to to do other hills or a little bit farther away. So I tend not to do them outdoors but I do sometimes. So if you have that option, I would say, do that outdoors. If you don't, you know, treadmills have a cool hills workout feature that I use sometimes. So that's super helpful because then I could do it at my home gym or I could do it if I'm traveling and I don't know the area very well, then I could just hop on the treadmill and then I could use that kind of hills workout feature. And this is really important because a friend of mine told me that running hills was the single most effective type of training that improved his performance, and that was very telling. And it's something that I incorporate sometimes in my workout. But to be honest, I'm not consistent at all with doing hills as part of my workout. So this is something that I'm trying to do better this year and something that I would recommend that you incorporate as part of your workout as well.
Speaker 1:The next one is cross-training, just for your overall fitness, and you know we talked about this in a previous episode that cross-training helps you in a lot of different areas, but one of the areas that it helps you is reducing the risk of burnout. So I shared my story, you know, late last year and we've had some guests on the show to talk about it as well. So cross training is a really important part of your overall fitness. So cross training is obviously could be strength training if you're a runner, but it could also be cycling, it could be swimming and it could be other things. And you could see that I have a Peloton bike that I bought to help me with my cross training, but I also do workouts specific to Spartan Deca. So for me, that also becomes my cross training, which is super helpful because I feel like it really helps and complements my road riding. So that's something that I am really excited about this year because, you know, in the past I felt like I tried to do two different things, or too many different things, and I didn't get really good at any of them. So this year I'm really focused on my road races 5K, four-miler, five-miler, two half marathons and then, as well as my DECA races, which, you know, those two complement each other because there's, you know, running and DECA, and then the training for DECA serves as really good cross training for my road races.
Speaker 1:Next is work on your mental visualization. So you want to visualize those race day scenarios or tough workouts to mentally prepare for those challenges. And I'll tell you that, you know, I don't realize this often, but I do tend to have a lot of negative thoughts. So this really helps me think about, like, if I'm doing my workouts or if I'm doing my speed work. Think about, you know, this is what's going to help me on race day, right, by doing this specific exercise or the specific speed work. It's going to help me in these different races that I'm doing, and I'm going to visualize kind of what that day is going to look like. So I'm going to show up, I'm going to feel great, I've, you know, rested well, I've hydrated well and I'm going to perform well on that day. So it's really important to do, you know, have that visualization kind of ahead of time, and it's something that, again, admittedly, I don't do very well and it's something that I am working on this year.
Speaker 1:The next one is around mindful breathing techniques, and this one's really interesting because, uh, uh, I tend to breathe with my mouth and I was just actually reflecting on this. You know, sometimes when I'm in races, runners would turn around and they would look at me and I'm thinking, you know, maybe they just hear me coming, but I realized it's just because they're probably breathing in a very chaotic way. So I've been a little self-conscious about that. But, you know, having good breathing techniques is just going to help you have better oxygen intake, especially when you're breathing through your nose in a controlled way. And that's something that I've not done a very good job of over the years. And there's a number of devices out there that can help you. We talked about one on the show a couple of years ago, and what I've just been doing is I've really just been practicing breathing through my nose. You know, even when I'm not running like a easy pace at a zone two pace, even when I'm running at faster paces, being thoughtful and intentional about breathing through my nose, and I'm actually kind of excited. So this is an area that I've actually gotten a lot better at. You know, of course, if you're running zone five and you're running your heart out, that's's really hard to do. But if you're running that easy pace at zone two, zone three, zone four, you could definitely practice breathing through your nose, having the better breathing techniques, and it is going to be better for your oxygen intake. So there's benefits in doing so, not just so you don't sound like a noisy breather, like me mouth breather, you know, when I'm running my races. But I'm very excited about this because I feel like I've gotten a lot better and it has definitely helped me kind of with my performance.
Speaker 1:And some of the tips and tricks we talked about on the show was, you know, there's a lot of different things that you could do. I haven't necessarily tried any of these, but these are techniques that you know others have talked about. Sometimes they have. You know, if you just take a little sip of your water or hydration and just kind of hold that, you know that kind of helps you keep your mouth closed, you're breathing through your nose, and I'm sure there's a lot of other. You know techniques that people talk about again that I've not personally used, but there's a lot of things that you can research in terms of breathing through your nose. But honestly I would just say, just do it, just keep your mouth closed when you're running, start at a slow pace and then do it as you build up your speed and then continue to breathe through your nose.
Speaker 1:The next one I absolutely love this topic. It's consistent recovery and sleep, because I absolutely love to sleep and this is an area where I think I do a pretty good job of, you know, recovering and sleeping. But I may have mentioned before that I don't, I didn't feel like I got restful sleep. So what I've done over the last year or so is I bought an Oura Ring which has really helped me kind of monitor my vitals and helped me understand when am I getting good rest or good sleep and when I'm not, and then helps me reflect on well, why not? What did I do the night before that prevented me from getting good sleep? Maybe I had alcohol, maybe I ate dinner too late, maybe I wasn't hydrated, maybe I was traveling. There's a whole host of things that you could do that will interrupt your sleep or cause you not to have good sleep, and you can't necessarily prevent all of these things. But what I love about it, it makes me actively think about those things and then it helps me make better decisions going forward to make sure that I optimize and I get the best sleep, and it's worked out really, really well for me to have the Oura Ring and get all that information.
Speaker 1:Now you could also do that with your running watch, so I've did that in the past. I use my running watch for that. It doesn't give you as much information, but it's still pretty good. The reason why I don't use my running watch is just because I kind of sleep on my arm and the watch gets in the way and I just don't like to do it. So that's why the Oura Ring worked out so so much better for me. It's far more comfortable for me. But if you want to use your running watch or your Apple Watch or whatever the case is, it's going to give you pretty good information. Again, it's only going to be helpful if you reflect on if you got good sleep, think about why. If you didn't get good sleep, also think about why and start to make adjustments in your life to optimize to get good sleep adjustments in your life to optimize to get good sleep.
Speaker 1:Now, in terms of the recovery part, you know, in terms of stretching, I use so I do that sometimes and foam rolling. I use an IncrediWear sleeve for my knee. I've got some challenges with my knee so I use that and that's super helpful. I also get massages, which in the past I didn't like to do, but that's also, you know, very helpful as well, especially as I was doing very demanding workouts and very demanding races. The massages would help me as part of my recovery. So consistent recovery and sleep is definitely a way to help improve your performance. Get better, get faster, improve your endurance, so on and so forth. Get better, get faster, improve your endurance, so on and so forth.
Speaker 1:And then the last one is around positive self-talk. So I mentioned this before, but I know this about myself, that I tend to have a lot of negative thoughts and I tend to have, like that negative self-talk. Sometimes I verbalize it and sometimes, even recently, I've been called out about it on that, which kind of caught me by surprise, because I tend to think of myself as a pretty positive and optimistic person. But when it comes to me, and it comes specifically to, let's say, physical or sports related activities, I tend to have, more often than not, have those negative thoughts. And you may have heard this saying you know, your attitude determines your altitude, which you know is paraphrased from Zig Ziglar and it's so so true. Like if you have negative thoughts, if you don't think you can, then that is going to manifest itself into your outcomes, into the things that you're doing.
Speaker 1:And this is the journey that I've been on over the last few years is to go from the things that I couldn't do, or thought I couldn't do, to actually doing them. And you know this is I've made a lot of progress, I'm more positive, I say self-talk, but it's still a lot of the negative thoughts are still kind of there. So that's something that I'm still actively working on. But it's something you want to be mindful as well. And I can tell you what some of my best races you can correlate with me having a positive and upbeat attitude, going into the race Like I feel good, I'm going to do well, I trained well, I hydrated well and I know I could do it. So those times I could tell you that I've had some of my best races where I really felt good. And then other times where I didn't feel as good, maybe mentally, I just wasn't really there you could tell in the outcome of those races.
Speaker 1:So those are the tips that I wanted to share with you as kind of the year is just getting kicked off and I'm trying to achieve my goals of getting stronger and faster. That will lead to good outcomes in the races this year. And if you have those similar goals and you're looking for ways to improve, here are some of the ways that you can improve, you know, other than just running all of your runs really, really fast or doing all your workouts really hard. Like really having that balanced approach across. All these things are going to help you, you know, get faster as a runner as well as improve your endurance as well as your mindset. So that's what I'm working on.
Speaker 1:I have my first few races of the year that's coming up soon. The first one's on Super Bowl Sunday. I'm trying not to take them too seriously because it's the start of the year, so it's a little bit of a reset as I'm getting going. But the nice thing is that they'll gauge where I am at this point in my training this early in the year and tell me how I need to adjust and kind of improve as I continue through my other races, as we kind of move through the year. So I hope all this was helpful. You know, what I wanted to do is have more episodes where I'm sharing more tips and tricks and best practices, but also share my own personal experience and hopes that it helps you in your journey. So with that, I appreciate you listening, tuning in and listening and if you're racing soon, I wish you well in those races and, with that, have a good day.
Speaker 2:That's it for this episode of Inspired to Run Podcast. That's it for this episode of inspire to run podcast. We hope you are inspired to take control of your health and fitness and take it to the next level. Be sure to click the subscribe button to join our community and also please rate and review. Thanks for listening.
