How to increase my speed

G-Money

At the moment it takes me about 42 minutes to do a 5k distance and according to the MacMillian running calculator, that puts my predicted marathon time at 6hrs 51 minutes.

I'm currently following Hal Higdons Novice Supreme Marathon plan:

http://www.halhigdon.com/training/51143/Marathon-Novice-Supreme-Training-Program

Aside from losing weight (about 4-5 stone overweight), I was wondering what else I can do to increase my speed? I'm guessing losing weight will help but that may not be enough to see a significant increase in speed.

I want to stay injury free so I don't want to dramatically up the mileage. Would doing some intervals help? For example the runs at the moment are short enough in distance (I'm on week 2). So like very half mile maybe run a bit harder for say 50 or 100 metres?

Thanks!

RayCun

If you stick to the plan, four runs and a walk every week, you will get faster.
Leave the intervals for now and concentrate on consistency.
(Besides, if you're worried about injury you should avoid intervals)

G-Money

RayCun wrote: »

If you stick to the plan, four runs and a walk every week, you will get faster.
Leave the intervals for now and concentrate on consistency.
(Besides, if you're worried about injury you should avoid intervals)

Cheers, thanks for the advice!

Pisco Sour

At the risk of sounding negative, if you are only running 5k in 42 minutes then should you really be looking at training for a marathon.? You are clearly not in the shape to run a marathon right now. Master that 5k distance first, that would be my advice. You've gone much faster than 42 minutes before I recall from your log?

G-Money

My best 5k time to date was in training about a year ago when I ran 39 something.

I see your point, but at this stage the marathon is about 6.5 months away so there is time to improve. I haven't registered for it yet anyway so I plan to see how it goes and decide later in the year.

Pisco Sour

G-Money wrote: »

My best 5k time to date was in training about a year ago when I ran 39 something.

I see your point, but at this stage the marathon is about 6.5 months away so there is time to improve. I haven't registered for it yet anyway so I plan to see how it goes and decide later in the year.

You need to race. You wont improve unless you race. This goes for people at all levels in the sport. There's one guy in my club who runs 1:59ish for 800m. Has trained hard all year, but ducks out of races constantly at the last minute, much to the coach's frustration. You don't improve if you don't compete. Get running a 5k race in the next month, and then another, then another. Learn from your mistakes, and give yourself a target to beat next time, and enjoy the progression, and the satisfaction which that brings.

Focusing on an enormous target like the marathon, so far in the future is not the way to go about it IMO, when to put it bluntly you are not close to the fitness levels required to do it. Sure have a goal in the back of your mind that some day in the next couple of years you'd like to achieve that, but in the short term, my advice would be to forget about the marathon and just focus on getting consistent training and racing in, two areas which you have struggled at badly from reading your previous log.

Baby steps.

elvis jones

From your post i noticed two things

1. you don't want to up mileage
2. want to run the marathon

I agree with Raycun just stick the plan and improvments will happen. I've gone for 32 min to 25 min for 5k without any speed work at all, my fitness just improved as i kept up the work.

HelenAnne

G-Money, do you run with other people? I think you said somewhere you were in a club? If you run alon, I'd really advise getting some company.
I've knocked about 4 minutes off my 3 mile & 5k race times since last year and I put it down completely to running with others & racing -- running with a group keeps me chatting & running longer distances than I might on my own, and running with people faster than me gets me to push myself to keep up. I also joined a club and signed up for race leagues, so I got into the habit of racing at least every 2-3 weeks.
I haven't done any formal speed training or intervals yet, but just getting out of my comfort zone both in training & racing made me improve, I think.

CoachDudie

I know it might be a while off but when the OP does get the fitness levels up and you reach a level then how will they improve speed.
I know they shouldn't be thinking of it yet but I'd be interested to know for myself and i'm sure they'd like to know for future reference.
When I was younger it was either you had the speed or you didn't, what can be done to improve it?

couerdelion

G-Money wrote: »

Aside from losing weight (about 4-5 stone overweight), I was wondering what else I can do to increase my speed? I'm guessing losing weight will help but that may not be enough to see a significant increase in speed.

Most of the running sites suggest that you gain 2 seconds per mile just from fat loss. That could make a pretty big difference if you could lose 1/2 your target.

Training wise, intervals are the way to go to increase your speed, but keep them down a small percentage of your overall mileage.

RayCun

CoachDudie wrote: »

I know it might be a while off but when the OP does get the fitness levels up and you reach a level then how will they improve speed.

At that point he (or you) could start doing faster intervals at various distances.
But from where he is (or you are) at the moment, there are massive gains to be made just by running consistently.
And losing weight of course.

CoachDudie

RayCun wrote: »

At that point he (or you) could start doing faster intervals at various distances.
But from where he is (or you are) at the moment, there are massive gains to be made just by running consistently.
And losing weight of course.

Thanks. Yes, getting fit first is the priority. Doing faster intervals wouldn't be possible currently.
I suppose it's something the OP and myself have to aim for, get fit then you can get fast.

ger664

G-Money wrote: »

Aside from losing weight (about 4-5 stone overweight), I was wondering what else I can do to increase my speed? I'm guessing losing weight will help but that may not be enough to see a significant increase in speed.

I want to stay injury free so I don't want to dramatically up the mileage. Would doing some intervals help?
Thanks!

Lose the weight first. It will have the biggest impact in your speed and ability to up training mileage without suffering from injury.

Do not up your mileage or introduce fast stuff until the weight is gone. It is difficult enough to lose weight but if you get injured and cannot run, it will be a lot harder.

It is going to take possible 18-24 months to do this, its a long hard road but one very much worth taking.

tunguska

ger664 wrote: »

Lose the weight first.

Agree 100%. Keep running consistantly and your speed will improve so long as you sort out your diet aswell. Weight loss is actually 80% what you eat and 20% exercise.

rom

I am a stone overweight and losing weight is the best/easiest/quickest way to increase my speed. If I lose that stone it would be like a few years of training to improve that much if my weight stays the same more so for long distance.

mcmillian is just a guide and the marathon pace is normally slower than what it says. if your a 60 min 10 miler then is more accurate but not if your slow like myself.

http://www.runningforfitness.org/calc/diet/weighteffect