How much endurance training before speed training? (Read 964 times)

Hi Everyone, I am a 22yr old female who has been running for a couple months. I can run 4K in 21 minutes. My goal is to run 5K in under 20 minutes. Right now, I am increasing my distance by .5 K every week, until I get up to 5K, then I am going to work on speed training. Is this a good plan? Should I perhaps do more endurance training before I work on speed training? Any help would be great. Thanks.

I remember the old Galloway rule of thumb for new runners was to do some hill work before doing speed training. Intense speed work can play hell on legs so just approach it with respect and very gradually. Since you're a very new runner your speed will naturally increase as you become fitter without speed work. Even with speed training it takes several years before you reach your genetic maximum so be patient and enjoy the ride. The great thing about being a new runner is you should set new PR's every year. Also during your first couple of years of running and racing you will make the biggest advances time wise. My point is that it's much easier to go from 5k times of 25 to 20 minutes, then it is to go from 19 minutes to 17 minutes. Just keep at it!

Some will disagree with me, but I think that all runners should do speed training, at all times of the year. The type of speed training is what varies. For you, I would recommend a gradual increase in the frequency and duration of runs over the long term. Don't worry about reaching your goal within a specific time frame, just continue to improve your consistency. Kick up the pace when you feel like it. Once or twice a week, finish a run hard, but not so hard that you're exhausted. You should feel energized by the pace. Also, consider adding strides to your routine. Start with 4 strides of about 100 meters, once/week. Build up slowly to 10. Go fast but smooth. You don't want to be straining, you want to be teaching your body to move efficiently. At this point, there's no telling what your talent level is. You may find that you surpass your goal without hardly realizing it, you may find that it takes years. In any event, I would wait 4-6 months before doing truly hard interval workouts.

I'd have to admit; when I first read your first line about "...all runners should do speed training...", I thought, oh, no, Power Running...!!! Then I read on and actually liked pretty much everything you said! Spot on, mate. I guess the only problem is that MOST people don't look at "speed" training as such. They would look at speed training as HARD training; in other words, you go out and run hard till you puff and huff and their hearts are ready to pop out their mouth. Very few people ever consider doing some sort of "real" speed training; they don't even think about going on to track (it doesn't have to be track) and do things like fast relaxed striding; get up on their toes and get their knees high, arm swinging vigorously, pushing the ground hard... No, most of, say, 10-minute-mile people think about going on a track (again, it doesn't have to be on track) and do Yasso 800 repeats at 9:45 pace and repeat them till they can't suck air any more and think of that as "speed" training. Unfortunately, running 4:50 for 800m (2:25 per lap) is hardly "speed". In other words, you can achieve that by never getting their knees up high enough; consequently they end up never learning to run fast. This, I believe, is one of the major problems of people getting injured--their posture is wrong, landing is wrong and all sort of things. In other words, they never to run properly. So going back to the original question of how much endurance training one should do before throwing some "speed" (and here I'm assuming she is talking about "anaerobic" training)... You are only 22-years-old and you're already running 8-minute pace (for 4k); that, to me, shows you already have a decent level of fitness. What you haven't quite developed is, actually, endurance. Running 20+ minutes at a time and "increasing" it by 0.5 km a week is not that much at all. Endurance comes from going the distance. By going far (or long), your body would try to retain more oxygen; particularly, the development of capillaries and mitochondria (energy power house in the muscles) depends mainly on the duration of the exercise. The best benefit actually comes from continous exercise of 1:30 to 2:00 hours. Of course, it's not like you'd have to run for 2-hours or more or you won't get any benefit. But I'm just giving you an idea that you still have quite a long way to go. My suggestion actually is to slow down a bit and work more on going the distance. First, get it up to 40 minutes or so; then an hour; then 1:20 and so on. Always go back to shorter runs of 30 minutes or so. Don't worry about how fast you're running; just concentrate on going far. However, you already seem to have a fairly good "speed" (8-minute-pace) and you don't really want to lose that completely either. Runing over hilly courses would help you maintain good range motion and power in your legs. Once a week or at least once every other week or so, either go over a hilly course or do an easy fartlek (speed play) for a half an hour or so. Work to see how far (or long) you can go. As you keep within your limitation, you'll improve much more than you'd imagined. And this actually reflects in your starting to run faster with the same perceived effort. In other words, to a certain degree, "speed" would come from going slower and further initially. As the late Ron Daws used to say, "Don't run hard until you can run easy."

This is the only thing about your post that surprises me. I've always tried to stride as fast as possible without switching to a true, sprinter's stride in which the toes are the only thing touching the ground. This is just my personal instinct, but it's always seemed to me that true toe running is such a different stride that it wouldn't transfer well to running at distances over 3k. Thoughts?

Well, I might have not explained well enough. I meant; not landing hard on the heel. That I don't like. I like mid-foot landing, or whatever people might call it. "Get up on your toes" means, or at least I tried to get the feel of, get upright and bring your Center of Gravity high; NOT like hunching back, shoulders forward, knees hardly lifted up, sticking your lower leg forward and landing hard on your heel. However, I don't see anything wrong with immulating the sprinter's form. In fact, I would like, when people do strides or fast "speed" training, you to think you're Carl Lewis or Tyson Gay and not Penguin or Joe Jogger. And get your "circular" motion of your legs going... I know you won't run the distance beyond 3k (or whatever) like that; but by exaggerating your form, you'll get the correct form--I mean, more powerful, more efficient movement.

The key to running fast is learning how to relax at fast paces. If you practice hurting while running fast, then running fast will hurt.

Those two sentences are everything I've learned about my own running in the last year, and the key area I work on in every run.

I guess the only problem is that MOST people don't look at "speed" training as such. They would look at speed training as HARD training; in other words, you go out and run hard till you puff and huff and their hearts are ready to pop out their mouth.

Last Summer I was doing the Pfizinger 70m Marathon plan and that is how I did my speed work. I got burnt out and stale before my race. Did a 3:22 marathon while aiming for a 3:10. I think I had the capacity for a 3:00 or close to it and revised it down when I was getting burnt out. I was just not smart enough to have asked Nobby while posting on the old CR board.

Also, I guess I caused some confusion using the term "speed training". I guess I didn't know what it meant I meant decreasing my overall time, which it seems I can acheive by focusing on distance. Interesting comments about running styles as well. I never really think about where on my feet I am landing, but it seems like I should!