Increase speed or increase distance? (Read 1302 times)

I originally started running a few months ago, following the C25K program.  I finished that in October and moved on to the C210K trainer.  I've been adding distance on pretty rapidly; I went from barely running 3 miles in early November to running an awesome 5.25 miles today.  I'm finding the increase in distance to be pretty easy and really enjoyable.  However, I'm still slow as anything.  I only run a 11:30-12:00m/m, no matter the distance.  On a good day, I'll run my first mile in 10min, but then mile 2 is back to 12 min, and I'm cooked before I even hit mile 3.

So....my question for you:

Should I work on increasing my speed before increasing my mileage?  Does it matter if I'm a slowpoke, but I'm able to run for a longer period of time?

Short term, I'm looking to run a HM in May, with a bucket list goal to run a full at some point (no rush on that).

Thanks in advance!

milage.    until you get your weekly and long run distance up, you should just concentrate on getting out there and running.  After you've built a base you can work on speed.

 It's fun to dwell on tempos and fartleks and intervals. Those are best built on a body of work from your base. It's hard to have the patience to build a base though. 

 I find it hard to not run fast though. Speed makes it interesting for me. I'm self destructive. Hence a running drought from injury.

Running sucks

+1 to mileage.  

You'll need endurance far more than speed to run a half.
As Drake said, you'll get faster with time/mileage.  Your body will learn that just by running.

Agreed.  Increase your mileage and develop a good aerobic base.  When you get closer to race time you can start adding some speed work into your workouts.  But for now?  Add mileage.

I originally started running a few months ago, following the C25K program.  I finished that in October and moved on to the C210K trainer.  I've been adding distance on pretty rapidly; I went from barely running 3 miles in early November to running an awesome 5.25 miles today.  I'm finding the increase in distance to be pretty easy and really enjoyable.  However, I'm still slow as anything.  I only run a 11:30-12:00m/m, no matter the distance.  On a good day, I'll run my first mile in 10min, but then mile 2 is back to 12 min, and I'm cooked before I even hit mile 3.

 

So....my question for you:

Should I work on increasing my speed before increasing my mileage?  Does it matter if I'm a slowpoke, but I'm able to run for a longer period of time?

 

Short term, I'm looking to run a HM in May, with a bucket list goal to run a full at some point (no rush on that).

 

Thanks in advance!

I'd actually vote for BOTH.  But when I say "speed", I'm not talking about some gut-wrecking fire-sucking intervals like repeat 800m or 1km or something like that.  So you are about an hour right now.  You are in a perfect position to work on BOTH stamina by doing lots of easy miles AND learning to run fast by incorporating some nice and easy but FAST strides.  At your level, I'd keep it to something like 3-5 X 50m for now.  Even shorter, 30m???  But get up on your toes, lift your knees, push off well with your back leg...lift up your pelvis.  RUN TALL AND LIGHT ON HYOUR FEET.  This would teach you to "run correctly" so as to eliminate injury possibilities later once you start to stack up more miles.

The sooner you learn to be light on your feet and run tall, in other words, more economical and smooth, the better.  I don't give a damn about what anybody else might say; there's no fun in plodding.  

Just do this once a week.  Never ever get yourself in a breathless state.  If you start to suck air and your form goes out the window, reduce the distance.  Even down to 20m if necessary.  Just take plenty of recovery by walking back or very slowly jogging back to the start; even take some more--at least a minute; or once you lengthen the distance up to 100m, 2-3 minutes.  Don't rush it.  You don't want to be struggling--that's what most people who never learnt to run fast would do.  You want to learn to run FAST while RELAXED.  Rest of the week; just go for a nice easy long jog.  Never worry about how fast or slow you do those runs.  THAT, the time will come down as you get fitter.

Intervals are a different story.  That can wait till a month or so before the target race.  But speed, you need to start working on it from the get-go.  The sooner you can master it, the better.

+1 for mileage.  I've done nothing but base building since I started running 8 months ago, zero speed work, every run I do is easy.  My easy pace has dropped from around 11:30/mile to around 8:00/mile, and I averaged 6:37/mile at my 5K last week.  Keep logging the miles, the speed will come.

Speed work should be very limited at this stage in your running but you do need it. The way I see it is building up your mileage is building a strong foundation for you to handle tougher workouts later on. You can't build a house with a weak foundation or it will crumble. Base training doesn't always mean slow easy running. Strides and pickups in the middle of a run will help you learn to run faster, smoother and more efficiently, but will allow you to do it aerobically. Like Nobby said when doing any speed work at this point just don't let yourself get gassed.

Increase mileage.