Buy a book and follow a plan (or get a coach, or join a club).
Buy a book and follow a plan (or get a coach, or join a club).
show up for practice
Ignore Jan Stensson.
Endurance and such wrote:
Any event really, probably the mile and up, what has led to success in the past for you or for others that you have observed? and tips you would give to people who want to be great.
Try to ingrain it to be light on your feet, quick off the ground, and develop a rapid stride turnover.
ImpaIa31 wrote:
Ignore Jan Stensson.
This is the correct answer
Here's some things I've learned and observed from running, my coaches, and letsrun
1. Live like a clock
-Try and adhere to a schedule and live by it day to day. You get up at x time and go to bed at y time, being in a routine helps a lot and keeps you on track for success.
2. Double
-I think doubling is a great tool for getting better. Getting a second stimulus in, shaking your legs out for a later run, also helps you get on a schedule just like tip A. Now not every runner has to double but I think that it honestly helps a lot and I think there's no harm in trying it, even starting with just 2 miles in the morning, it makes a difference.
3. Work on a multitude of speeds
-Don't just stick to doing your 7:30-8:00 easy pace day after day. It helps you improve a lot but you'll need to bridge the gap between easy running and hard running. While you train make sure you do things like hill sprints, strides, fartlek, short steady running, long steady running. Run over hills to get your legs strong, run faster when you want to. When you're fit you can probably finish near "marathon pace" 4-5 times a week if you wanted to, just let it flow.
4. Compete
-In order to bring the best out of yourself in races you need to compete and just get lost in the moment. You want to pass guys in front of you and you race to win, and if you really are outmatched then maybe your goal is 5th etc. Run to beat people and you'll end up with a time to be proud of.
5. Train to Compete
-Following up on a few of the points about training and competing. You should be doing this training to compete. Mileage, intervals, and everything can be useful when used for competing, but some people become training rats. People obsess over mileage numbers, split times. The effort is a lot more important than the pace sometimes. Train through the week and add the mileage totals later. Don't run yourself into the ground to make your notebook look good, train to race.
These are a few things I've learned and I hope they help you too
This is a great reply! Don't try to reinvent the mouse trap. Use common sense and try not to over engineer training.