Long Distance Speed Training (GUEST POST)

YAY!! Another Guest Post!! I know you're all excited, I know I am! 

Meet Carolyn. I met this lovely lady back almost 2 years ago, on a little Island named Dominica where both of our husbands were attending medical school. Carolyn is a mother of two beautiful doggies!! She is a hard working, intelligent, very sweet and giving person. She amazes me that after running 4 miles one time she up and decided to run a marathon!!! I asked her to help me out it with this post as she has given me great advise in the past while I was training for my half marathon.

My question for her was about shaving time off long distance runs. Here was her response:


Well when Jamie asked me to do this post I was honored, especially when she said considered me a great runner. I believe we all can be great runners, it time and dedication that brings us to this point. My running career has been short at this point, I started just over 2 years ago down in lovely Dominica, where Jamie and I met. If you want a running challenge go there! Any way she asked me to discuss speed training and long distance running. My running experience started from none, to one day deciding to do the 2010 Chicago Marathon after running 4 miles without “much” effort. I don’t know why I thought I could 26 after I only ran 4 but I did it! I accomplished it well. I didn’t have any additional goals for that race besides completing the marathon, but this year I had aspired to run 2 full marathons with time goals in mind. Hence, I will discuss my tactics and practices for increasing my time in my long distance running.


The first thing that I identified was my average mile pace. I had kept between a 9:40-10:00 min pace over long distances (i.e. over 10 miles). I also identified the distanced where my body found its running “grove”, for me that was 7 miles and then again at 15 miles. 


There is an exercise called Fartlek (fun word!) that many running coaches, websites, and book refer to this is as the speed training exercise. Fartlek is Swedish and “is a free-flowing format in which you run faster for however long (or short) you want to.” (http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-238-263--12081-0,00.html ) The goal of the Fartlek in long distance running was to increasing a mile pace for a distance of time to help you achieve a time goal. Fartlek is great because you can use anything to determine your stopping point. 


So here the scenario that happened regularly for me: I am running a long run (10 miles or more) and I know that my body and pace haven’t been where I want them to because it’s adjusting and finding it’s “grove” so I want to catch up on time. I pick an object that is some distance in front of me, i.e. stops light, fire hydrant, driveway; I increase my pace until I reach that object. If you have a gps watch, you can name the pace you want and accomplish that. If you don’t, it’s a pace that you would consider running in a race, faster than your normal pace, i.e. an 8 min mile instead of my 9:40 min mile or faster. Then once reaching that object I drop back to the pace before but I not slower, this is a way for my body to learn how to increase speed over a short distance yet continue to run at a regular pace afterward. Let me say, I don’t like doing this! However, I realized I naturally did that in my first marathon training and race when I would say well I only need to get to that pole and then I can continue to the next and so on. This just includes increasing pace and overtime your body will adapt and increase its pace generally. I would tend to do this exercise in my “grove” miles where my body was calm, heart rate at good rate, and not feeling like I’m just struggling to the next mile. That way I gave my body something new to do. Like I said about fartlek is that it is nice because this could be a time interval, a distance interval, and object interval. It can be a short or as far as you’d like. However the key is to not slow down even more when you’re finished but rather to keep your original pace. I encourage you all to give it a try, and yes if you run shorter distances you can still perform this exercise. It’s just great for long distance running when you still must continue after that 5 k mark, 10 k mark, even 15 k mark. Good luck to you all and thanks again Jamie.

(Medal from Carolyn's first Marathon)

Thanks Carolyn!! That was great advise. What sparked this was over the past few weeks I've been (lazily) getting ready for a 10K and after I did my Half I made a goal to shave time off my 10K. I do the Fartlek, it definitely helped!!! The only other thing that Carolyn didn't mention that helped me was strength training. I know a lot of runners who do not strength train. Let me tell you-- DO IT! The more muscle mass you have the more fat you burn when you're not working out. The more you strength train the stronger you are and the longer your legs will carry you. Thanks Carolyn!!! Happy Running everyone!