Five for Friday: Running Faster

The Conquest (Hoka One One) is amazing. It's a fast shoe. It has a lot of spring to it - Slowtwitch.com Forum Post

Are shoes fast or runners fast? The one thing I always say talking about Zoot shoes is we want them to FEEL fast. There is a huge difference in feeling fast and being fast. One is a state of mind the other is a true number against a clock. There is no fast shoe without a fast runner. 

I don't talk about my PR's. To me they are mine and how I judge myself. I know how fast I once ran and I know how fast I run today. They are different. The current fast is not close to the old fast but the way to both is close to the same. How to get there. 

1. Run Often - It's the same as my view on running form. You have to run often to improve efficiency and strength which are keys to running fast. Right now I'm running every day. My longest run is one hour and my shortest is 20 minutes. All buy one of the runs has a purpose. 20 minutes is reserved to recover. Enough to get the energy from running but not enough to do any damage. 
2. Build strength first and keep it strong - The most common way to build strength is hill repeats which work really well early season to make you hard. I walk away from hill repeats once I start racing and incorporate on hilly run each week and a couple days of leg work in our park. (Uphill bounding, frog jumps, squat jumps to one leg and more) 
3. Rule for Speed is 80/20. 80% easy (Old term LSD- Long Slow Distance) 20% Quality. My quality this summer is racing. Over the next 30 days I have 3 races two triathlon and one road running. I will build run speed by racing often. I may throw in an Ultra at the end of the year and If I do that my running will change. Racing a 10K hard will not really help me in running and ultra "Fast". 
4. Rest - This is a no brainer but it's as important as any training. If you can't recover from your running, you are only doing damage. Most will say you can only recover while sleeping so get good quality sleep. Personally I go to sleep at the same time every night and wake up with the sun. Right now that's getting up at 5am. I don't use an alarm. 
5. Consistency - This and #1 are tied together. Run often over time. To stay consistent you have to stay injury free and how I do that is posted all over this blog. Consistency is also how my friend Craig runs. So consistent is he that it's now 9+ years of running one hour a day. He's a really fast runner. 

It's a good life…..