Tips For Running Faster: Intervals And Tempo
You have just finished your first 5K race, or maybe you have been running or racing for years, but now you really want to run faster. More specifically, race faster! If you feel that you are ready to move up to the next level, here are a few tips for running faster.
There is more than one philosophy on how do accomplish this feet (pun intended!), but what it comes down to is training the body to function comfortably at a faster pace. I often suggest for conditioning that you need variety in your workout because your body adapts to what you have been doing. Now, I am going to recommend repetition!
Interval Training
For the body to run at a faster pace, it will need to learn how to get enough oxygen to the muscles, which means training at the pace you will be racing. 
Since you can’t run at race pace for your entire workout, you need to take breaks in between your faster intervals.
For example, if your training day calls for a 30 minute run, try running every other minute near goal pace. That is, the pace you want to run for your next race. At first, your recovery minutes may be fairly slow, but as your body acclimatizes you can shorten these rest intervals, increase the goal pace intervals, or even keep the recovery pace closer to the goal pace. This gives the body a chance to adapt to running that pace.
Tempo Training
You also need to train the muscular system to react (move) at the speed you are hoping to race. Basically, this is called tempo training. One of my favorite ways of doing this is by running downhill intervals. Find a hill that is not too steep and at least 400 meters long. After you are thoroughly warmed up(especially important on this workout), you can run your first interval down slightly faster than your goal pace. Since it is downhill, it won’t feel that difficult, but your muscles are learning to contract at a faster tempo. Your recovery should be jogging back up the hill before your next interval.
I like to follow this workout (the next week) by doing it in reverse. Running the hard intervals up the hill (with quick steps) and recover by jogging down the hill. Here you are just working on the speed of your turnover. These intervals don’t need to be timed!
Training Diary
I’m sure you must be wondering how many intervals you should be doing. One basic rule of thumb is to time your “race pace” intervals, add them up, and the total should be close to your goal time for your race. Obviously, this will depend on the length of the race (5K vs. Mile vs. Marathon) and your individual conditioning.
For the best results from interval training you need to keep a training diary. Then, you can refer back to previous workouts, times, conditions, etc. so you can modify future workouts when you find the ones that are most effective for you.
Have fun and happy running!
-by Andre Kaokane
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