Subject: RE: Comfort Zone - Running Faster Plan Does your plan have speed work in it? Keep up your hilly runs...even better if they are trails.
If it's a mental thing, the best bet for you is to incorporate some "strides" into your usual runs. Run fast for about :20-:30 seconds, focus on a perfect posture, use your arms, breathe every 2 foot strikes. Feel light on your feet. It shouldn't be hard like a sprint, just very fast (faster than your 5K pace ). Keep it casual - start out with a handful during your run. Later, you can incorporate these into a track workout: run the straight sections fast, jog the curved sections. Don't over do it; do as many as you can, but the point is to make you feel comfortable running faster. Increase your fast runs to half the track (200's ) and keep your recovery jogs the same distance (halfway around the track ). You can gradually increase to 400's and 800's. You should only do this workout once per week.
The other important aspect is to work on keeping your speed for longer distances with threshold runs. These should be about 90% of your race pace. Easiest way to do this is with a GPS watch. Start out with 2 x half mile (800 ) at this pace. Work your way all the way up to 3 x 2-miles. Again, you should only do this once a week.
Good luck! |