serious thread on how to improve my speed

What is your 400 pr?

I only ran 800+ in high school. 800 was 2:18. I've ran as low as 67 in practice in the last " training block " that I'm currently in. 200's are usually 32

I'm posting from my phone and having difficulty cutting and pasting at the moment, so Google "Pure speed finishing kick the best way to improve it". It's an old letsrun thread. There is an anecdote about a guy who can't run any faster than 17:30 for 5k because a 2:30 800 is a race to him. His coach puts him on a speed program and it helps. Sounds like what you need.

That thread is awesome!

:)

Thank you for that!

One more question. Do you think I was stuck doing the same average pace, essentially base miles, for too long? Even in high school it was mainly all tempos and hills until the last 2 weeks of the season. Idk if you can be " stuck " slow?

How many easy miles a week are you running?

About 35. I average 7 for 5 easy days. One long run of 11-14, and then a workout on Wednesday

Confused guy wrote:

I've done 60-70 mpw for a while now, ( 5 months ) but haven't been able to go very fast. Are some people just psychologically challenged? I just don't get it. Speed work, temps, hills, fartleks.. How do I get fast?!???!

I'll answer all questions! Much appreciated.

Do some 100 sprints in 14-15 seconds with a full walking recovery once a

week, and concentrate on sprinting form while you are doing them.

Find the Canova thread on ramps, and do that after 3 weeks.

He's going to need a bit of a warm up before he can run that fast fred.

Whatever warmup he did before the 200's in 32 seconds.

And if he's really serious he could work in some Veronique Billet after 6

weeks.

Ah oui, la mystérieuse madame Billet, petite Reine de la Ballet.

Try this. After your normal warm up and drills, run

3 sets of 3x200m with 60 seconds between each rep and a lap slow jog between sets.

Run the first 200m of each set normally for 130m, then over the last 70m, swing your arms faster, chop your stride a little shorter, and speed your cadence up a lot.

For the second 200m, run normally for 130m, then over the last 70m, push off forcefully with each step. Cadence can slow down a little. The purpose of this drill is NOT to go faster yet. It is to increase stride length.

For the 3rd 200m, run normally for 130m, then over the last 70m, increase your cadence by swinging your arms faster AND pushing off harder. This time you will speed up... a lot. You will be tired, but don't worry. After the 3rd rep, you get a one lap jog recovery before doing the second set. Your form will break down a bit. Try to maintain good form as best you can, but don't worry about it. Your form at speed will increase with practice.

If you need a little more rest than 60 seconds, take more rest.

The next week, repeat this workout, but increase the drill part of the distance from 70m to 80m. You want to build up to 100m and then to 150m.

Wow! Sorru for the delayed response I just got out or class. I'll definitely post back in a couple weeks and let you guys know how it goes! Thank you all for the help. Its much appreciated! :)