Let’s be honest: we all want to run faster. Nobody signs up for a 10K thinking, I really hope I take as long as possible to finish this.
But getting faster isn’t about just running flat-out like a lunatic every time you hit the pavement. No, no. That’s how you end up:
❌ Injured
❌ Crying on a curb
❌ Googling “Can you die from running too hard?”
Instead, we need a scientific (but also not soul-destroying) approach: speed workouts! So let’s talk intervals, hill sprints, fartleks (yes, that’s a real word), and how to get faster without burning out like a poundshop firework.
Intervals: Sprint, Suffer, Recover, Repeat
Interval training, where you run fast, question your life choices, then jog slowly and pretend everything’s fine.
💨 How to Do Interval Training Properly:
- Sprint for a short distance/time (e.g. 400m, or 60 seconds of pure regret).
- Recover with a slow jog (or a dramatic sigh, your choice).
- Repeat until your legs hate you.
✔ Beginner version: 30 seconds fast, 90 seconds slow, repeat 6-8 times.
✔ Advanced version: 800m at a challenging pace, 400m jog, repeat 4-6 times.
✔ Masochist version: Run until you hallucinate.
💡 Pro Tip: Start small and build up gradually. Running your fastest 400m once won’t make you quicker. Doing it consistently? That’s where the magic happens.
Hill Sprints: The Closest Thing to Hell on Earth
Want to build power, strength, and speed? Run uphill. Hate yourself. Repeat.
Hills are nature’s brutal, character-building treadmill, but they work. If you can run fast uphill, running on flat ground feels like a cheat code.
🏔 How to Do Hill Sprints Without Crying
- Find a short, steep hill (not Everest, just something mildly soul-crushing).
- Sprint up for 20-30 seconds (or however long it takes for your quads to file a complaint).
- Walk/jog back down. Try not to fall.
- Repeat 5-10 times.
✔ Bonus: Hills also reduce injury risk, probably because your body is too busy panicking to overstride.
💡 Pro Tip: Imagine you’re being chased up the hill by something terrifying, like a mugger, or a vegan trying to convince you tofu tastes like steak.
Fartlek Training: The Fancy Swedish Word for "Messing About"
Yes, "Fartlek" sounds like something you’d hear in a school playground, but it’s one of the best ways to build speed and endurance, without feeling like you’re doing a formal workout.
🚀 How to Do a Fartlek Run (Without Laughing at the Name)
- Run at normal pace for a bit.
- Randomly pick a landmark (lamp post, tree, dodgy-looking pigeon).
- Sprint to it.
- Slow down.
- Repeat for the entire run.
✔ Why it Works: It mimics real race conditions, bursts of speed, moments of recovery, and an overall feeling of what the hell just happened?
💡 Pro Tip: If you do this in a park, people will think you’re insane. Own it.
How to Increase Speed Without Destroying Your Body
You can’t just do speed work every day unless you want to wake up one morning feeling like you’ve been run over. Recovery is just as important as effort.
⚖️ Balancing Speed & Recovery
- 1-2 speed sessions per week MAX (Intervals, hills, or fartlek).
- Easy runs between hard sessions.
- Listen to your body (unless it’s saying "stay in bed, eat biscuits", in which case… ignore it).
- Strength train to avoid injury (squats and lunges now, fewer physio bills later).
💡 Pro Tip: If you start every run already feeling like death, you're probably overdoing it. Or you're hungover. Either way, slow down.
Final Thought: Train Smart, Run Fast, Stay Alive
If you:
✅ Sprint in short bursts,
✅ Run up hills like an absolute beast,
✅ Throw in some sneaky fartlek training,
✅ Rest enough so your legs don’t fall off,
…then you’ll cross that 10K finish line faster than ever. instead of crawling over it, swearing you’ll never run again.
Or, you can ignore all this and just hope for the best on race day. But let’s be honest… hope isn’t going to make you any quicker.
See you next Monday for "The Role of Sleep & Recovery in Training" or as I like to call it, "How Lying in Bed Can Actually Make You Faster."