I just don't have the speed is it better to cut my miles and time all my runs or more slow miles

High School Running High School Training

3 years ago 12/15/2020 10:57pm EST

For starters l am 49 years old and making a comeback. I have been training hard a few months, and my speed sucks. I am doing doubles twice a week, and workouts, and all that. I am doing about 60 miles a week. Should l drop that, skip the doubles and time all the runs? On my easy days l never time my runs,l just run. It's early in the morning, so l time easy run. Should l cut the distance and start timing runs, not racing, just timing my easy runs. Should l run a 5 mile run timed vs 8 easy? 80 second pace just feels hard, to hard.

3 years ago 12/15/2020 11:15pm EST

re: speed not there old

You won’t get any more speed by running your easy runs faster. If you want to run faster then you need to do things like economy reps, strides, or intervals. I would suggest staring with strides and economy reps, and if you still want to kick it up a notch then you could add intervals, I’m not sure of your goals but if you are racing then I would highly suggest doing some kind of intervals. Economy reps are reps at about race pace or faster with full or nearly full recovery in between. (Like 4x400 @ 5k pace with 3 min rest or 4x200 @ mile pace with 2 min rest). I doubt you would have any use in doing sprints unless you were looking to run at a pretty high level. But you could do 5x50m sprints with full recovery in between if you wanted too (about 3-6 min is fully recovery depending on the person). Sprints will maximize your speed but is not really essential. Simply speeding up your runs sometimes might get you in better shape but you won’t develop any speed that way. You do not need to sacrifice mileage to do this either. You can easily add in economy reps and strides an probably feel more recovered and fresh after your runs. Adding intervals may tire you out more but if you are allready well adapted to 60 mpw then you could probably stand adding a workout or two.

3 years ago 12/15/2020 11:41pm EST

re: speed not there old

How do you define speed? 100m flying speed, 400m speed, 5k speed? What event are you trying to improve?

3 years ago 12/15/2020 11:54pm EST

re: Another giver of +1

Another giver of +1 wrote:
How do you define speed? 100m flying speed, 400m speed, 5k speed? What event are you trying to improve?

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I just don't have the speed is it better to cut my miles and time all my runs or more slow miles

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