Should I just focus on increasing speed and let the increased lung capacity come with it?
You may be misunderstanding energy systems. One cannot sustain a top speed.
Maybe weāre looking at different problems, though. Over what distance/ time period are you wearing out? Iād imagine youāre more asking how to hold a pace for longer.
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At this point my ātop speedā is 7 mph and in my last run I held it for 0.2 miles. It isnāt my sprinting pace, but it was my highest speed in that run.
I have been increasing my speed pretty steadily with success, but at those highest speeds I do struggle to get air in. I was wondering if there was something else I could do to improve that in addition to running.
Gotcha, so thereās a little bit of a language difference. āTop speedā typically implies the max speed youāre capable of hitting; youāre describing your best pace.
In any case, this is just going to be a case of āmore runningā. Two things I think would help are tempo runs and intervals.
Intervals youāre going to want to push yourself and run several āsetsā with near complete recovery. Youāre done when your performance drops by ~10%.
Tempo runs youāll pick a little longer distance than your goal and run sub-max, striving to maintain the same pace for the duration.
Letās say you want to run a mile, and you currently do it in 8 minutes.
A really, really easy schedule, starting from nothing:
Monday: 4-6 x 400m intervals at 1:30 each. When youāre no longer breaking 1:40, youāre done.
Thursday: Tempo run: 2 miles in 18 minutes. Run out 1 and back 1, keeping those two splits at the same time (9m each).
Saturday: Pace: just run a mile to 1.25 as hard as you can. Try to improve each week and work on your pacing so you improve your threshold over time.
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That you for the clarification and the tips. I will definitely be implementing them this week.
By chance, did you watch/listen to that video I linked?
I am planning to soon. The length means that I have to incorporate it into my schedule somehow.
Try playing it at 1.5x speed. Humans tend to be able to hear faster than they can speak.
Thatās a good compromise. I will still need to find a time this week. Probably in the evening today.
@enwar how many days per week can you devote to running ?
How long have you been running ?
How much time can you devote for each run - 20 mins, 30 mins ā¦ ?
Will you consider running to be your main sport or is it supplemental to strength work or another sport ?
You will have seen comments from @Zecarlo, @RT_Nomad, @TrainForPain and myself. There are no particularly right or wrong answers amongst them in IMHO, all have value depending on your perspective.
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For sure! Just like lifting, itās all just organizing enough exposure to improve
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I have been running for about 4 months. I can only devote two days, but I could probably give about an hour to it if necessary, which is how long I lift weights for. Running is supplemental to strength training for me.
@enwar If you have only been running for 4 months and only have time to run twice a week.
I suggest you do 1 or 2 months of steady state running twice per week. Aim to get comfortable running for about 30mins.
Then switch to a programme similar as recommended by @trainforpain of faster running with Monday every week = intervals, the 400m intervals use the same principals as my suggestion for intervals. And a 2nd run alternating between Tempo run or Pace Run on alternate weeks. Treat the fortnightly Pace run as a time trial to measure progress.
The @zecarlo frequent running programme will probably not work for you. Volume related training needs at least 3 or possibly 4 times runs per week to really work. Which does not fit well with strength training being the primary goal.
If the relatively high proportion of fast running starts to wear you down swap an interval or tempo session with a steady state run of 20-30mins. If this type of run suits you increase the duration further.
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If youāre running to get some cardio benefit, just run and donāt worry about time or pace or whatever.
Once you start having measurable goals, you have to be prepared to give up the time and effort necessary to reach those goals. You go from a lifter who runs to being a lifter and a runner.
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Should I expect to lose progress if I completely stop pace running for 1-2 months? Iād hate to struggle hitting my 1-mile time of 9:50 again because I stopped training for pace.
@enwar The idea iof 1-2 months of steady running is to get you used to regular twice per week running, to decide the best days on which to run so its fits in with your strength training and so on.
You will only lose running speed if you reduce your volume and/or speed during this period compared to what you normally run.
What is your current running programme ?
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@enwar what is your running history, for example at school were you more of a sprinter in athletics (or a fast sports person in a team sport) or a distance runner ?
How old are you now ?
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Yeah!
after 100+ posts, letās start at the beginning!
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You will only lose running speed if you reduce your volume and/or speed during this period compared to what you normally run.
If I run for 30 minutes, I presume that I will have to run at a slower pace than I do currently. My highest speed right now is 7 miles per hour, which I run in the last 0.25 miles of my one-mile runs. I imagine that I would need to drop that to around 6 or 5.5 mph to manage running for an hour. Is this true? And if I do this for 1-2 months, can I rebound to 7 mph or higher later on?
My current program is to run 1 mile twice a week, increasing my speed every session. For example, in my last session I ran at 5 mph for 0.10 miles, 5.5 for 0.15, 6 for 0.25, 6.5 for 0.25, and 7 for 0.25. The total time was 9:47. I have been doing this since last August.
I was trying to bring my time down to 8 minutes before increasing distance, but others have indicated that this is unnecessary. Since you recommended the steady running before doing interval training, I am considering switching to that for 1-2 months first. But I would hate to lose my progress thus far.
In school, I was the kid who was strong but had almost no cardio. I was closer to a sprinter than a distance runner, although I could hardly be called that. Iām 22.
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Oh boy.