How to improve your running speed?
Improving your running speed is a challenging thing to do. The training usually takes a lot of mental strength to accomplish because every training you need to push yourself. I came across this 3-week plan to improve my mile time. After doing the program, I can confidently say that this program will improve your speed significantly and in the end you can maintain a high pace more easily.
After my vacation, I felt a bit out of shape. The increased eating and the less training caused a drop in my endurance. I needed to get my endurance back to level because I had a fitness test planned for the Dutch Marine corps, so I needed to act quick.
That’s when I came across the 3-week training plan to run your fastest mile. I found it on the Men’s Journal website: Link. This plan is not only focused on running but also on body strength training. I really love the workout split that they’ve implemented in this program. The program is challenging to accomplish, but it helps a lot.
But, I think that this will be a journey that will take some time to come to its conclusion. I need to learn to listen to my body and (most of the time) react to that, and then also be content with the decisions I make based on my feelings. When I do that, I will actually use my body to the fullest potential.
In the beginning, I had a hard time maintaining a 04:30 minutes/km pace for just 200 meters. But at the end of the program I felt like my endurance was back up to level, and I could easily maintain a 04:30 minutes/km pace for a few kilometers. I felt a breakthrough at the speed and endurance run on day 6 of week 2. That was the first time that I felt back at my old endurance level, it felt really good.
I must mention that this program really works if you stick to the plan. The trainings are hard and you need to push yourself to your max to gain the improvement of performance in the end. Even on the days that you don’t feel like training, you need to get up and do what has to be done.
Like I said earlier, I love the workout split that they used. The combination of strength training, Power Runs and Endurance runs push you to the max and work well with each other. I never did this kind of training before, so this opened my eyes to the world of improving your running speed. I struggled most with the hill repeats, running up an incline is just something that sucks all the energy out of you in a very short period of time. But every week I managed to finish all of my workouts.
This program showed me once again, that if you put in the effort and the work, You’ll benefit from it in the future. I can’t recommend this training program enough, and I’m curious to see how my endurance is going to be at the fitness test of the Marine Corps.