How to run faster

Discover what to eat before a run, what to eat during a run, and how to recover after a run

How to run faster

Start with a warm-up

As the name suggests, warm-ups are designed to stimulate your muscles, joints and circulatory system ahead of movement, preparing them for the activity ahead, which can reduce the chances of injury. It can be helpful to think of blu-tack: when you stretch blu-tack initially, it’s tight and rigid, but after repeated stretching it becomes warm and far more pliable: this is exactly how we intend a warm-up to work for the muscles in our body.

Warm up exercises for running typically include dynamic stretching and functional movements which replicate the motions of running and muscles used, such as high knees, jogging on the spot, and lunges. Speed sessions in running are notably more intense than other sessions and place more stress on the musculoskeletal system, so a good warm up beforehand will be particularly important.

Interval training

Some people get stuck in a running rut, adopting the same comfortable pace each time they go out for a run. There is a place for this type of comfortable run in a training schedule – it’s typically named the ‘long slow run’ in a plan as it’s designed to target distance and follow a slower pace than other types of running sessions to develop aerobic fitness. However, running at a slower pace all the time won’t help you to develop your speed.

Interval sessions involve running at higher speeds and target anaerobic energy systems. There are endless combinations of interval sessions to try and all are designed to make your body get used to running at faster paces, improve your endurance, increase your body’s efficiency at clearing lactic acid from muscles (a waste substance produced when running at a higher pace) and increase the rate at which oxygen travels to your muscles. With regular interval sessions, the aim is to gradually be able to run faster for longer.

Check your form

Good running technique can optimise your running economy and speed, and reduce the chance of injury. Your running form includes aspects such as foot strike positioning, stride length and cadence, plus your overall posture and the alignment of your feet, knees, hips, spine, shoulders and head when you run. Running drills may help to hone your running form, while strengthening exercises can help you to maintain your form when fatigue sets in.

If your running form is an area of focus or concern for you, some running coaches and sports physiotherapists run gait analysis clinics in which they will examine your running biomechanics, identify where you could potentially make improvements, and advise on exercises and drills to help.

Plan your runs

A well-designed running schedule aimed at developing speed will incorporate different types of sessions spread throughout the week. What a schedule looks like specifically will very much depend on what your starting fitness level is, the distance you are training for, how motivated you feel, and how much time you realistically have each week to train.

As an example, a weekly speed-building schedule targeting a 10k race could incorporate an interval session to develop running at faster paces, a hill session to develop strength, and a longer, slower run which progressively builds up to the 10k distance to target the race goal distance and develop aerobic fitness.

Recovery days are also important to factor into a training week, too. However, slumping on the sofa may not always be the best option: researchers have suggested that active recovery involving some light exercise could be better than passive recovery when you need to perform in a race or training the next day.

Fuel correctly

Fuelling your body with the right nutrients at the right time is also key to unlocking your running speed potential. Understanding what types of food to eat when will depend on the intensity and duration of your training sessions. A balanced diet filled with macro and micronutrients will fuel lighter running days and benefit your overall health.

On days featuring more intense sessions, protein and carbohydrate will play a leading role in fuelling running performance. Carbohydrate foods are typically used before and during exercise to provide your body with adequate energy to sustain a run, while protein foods are typically eaten after exercise for muscle repair and growth. Staying hydrated during runs also helps to maximise performance.

Discover our meal plans for runners

Don’t forget to stretch

While dynamic movement-based stretching has a place in the warm-up routine before a run to prime the muscles and joints for the movement ahead, static stretching comes into play afterwards. Whether static stretching after a run actually improves subsequent running performance is under debate, however it has been shown to improve flexibility, which will assist with good running form, and also helps muscles to recover from injury.

Overall, can you learn to run faster?

Yes – while we may not all be contenders for the next Olympics or London Marathon, there are a number of measures we can take to help improve our individual running speed. Eating carbohydrate and protein foods at the right time as part of a balanced diet can fuel performance, while warm ups before running and stretching afterwards may also help. A well-devised weekly running plan which incorporates specific speed sessions and running drills to develop technique will also be valuable in helping you to unlock your speed potential.

Read more:

Electrolytes: what are they and do I need to replenish them?
The benefits of exercise on mental health
See our marathon nutrition hub
Carb-loading explained
The 10 best vegan protein sources

All health content on bbcgoodfood.com is provided for general information only, and should not be treated as a substitute for the medical advice of your own doctor or any other health care professional. If you have any concerns about your general health, you should contact your local health care provider. See our website terms and conditions for more information.