Running is an excellent exercise to keep excess weight at bay.
Runners should engage in varied routines during their time running. Doing the same distance in the same time is beneficial, but to keep your fitness on the increase, you need to run faster for longer periods of time. Start by incorporating some speed training techniques into your sessions, which all aim to get you running faster over greater distances. These techniques also introduce some fun into your workout, keeping boredom at bay and making you more likely to lace up your running shoes.
Instructions
1. Start by doing interval training when you are out running. These are perhaps the most important of all the speed-training techniques. Interval training involves running faster for short bursts, followed by light recovery jogging. There are three basic techniques to try: repeats, where you repeatedly run fast for 440 yards and recover for 220 yards; and pyramids, where you increase both the speed of your running and the recovery time by increments of 220 yards, and then decrease them both again. For example, you would run fast and recover for 220 yards, 440 yards, 660 yards, 440 yards and 220 yards. Over time, build this up until you are running fast for 1,780 yards. The final interval training technique is called ladders, where you run faster and recover for increasing or decreasing amounts. For example, run fast at 220 yards, 440 yards, 660 yards and 880 yards, or 880 yards, 660 yards, 440 yards and 220 yards, recovering for the same amount of time. Again, build this up to 1,780 yards.
2. Incorporate fartleks into a session. Fartleks is Swedish for speed play, and consist of short bursts of speed. Warm up and run at a steady pace. Then run at different fast paces for differing lengths of time. Pick a landmark and interject a burst of speed to reach it. To recover, slow down to a pace that is two-thirds of the fast pace, ensuring this is faster than the interval recovery pace.
3. Find a hill and start running up it. The muscles involved in getting you up that hill are the same muscles you need to run faster. Hill workouts also help the frequency and the length of your stride, to make you even faster. So eventually, with enough hills behind you, you'll cover the miles in shorter lengths of time.
4. Warm up and run at an easy pace for 10 minutes to prepare for a tempo run. This is the easiest to incorporate into your training because you don't need to judge distances and yards. You need to make one sustained effort to run faster. Pick up your pace until your heart reaches 80 to 85 percent of its maximum rate. If you don't wear a heart rate monitor, maintain a faster pace than you would normally. Find a pace that challenges you toward the end. Tempo runs should be hard but achievable.
5. Build a long run into your training and complete one at least every two weeks. Increase your distance by only 10 percent each time to ensure your body is able to cope with the longer distances. Long distance running builds and maintains stamina.
6. Listen to your body and have a least one or two days where you give yourself an easy time. Recovery is as important, if not more so, than the training. Run at a pace that seems too slow to you for a gentle distance. If your legs feel too heavy to move, give them a bit of rest and relaxation and take the day off.
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