Training

Marathon Quest: You have to run fast to be fast

July 26, 2011
By Megan Brown

Speed work is an important component of any long-distance training program. It only seems logical that to race a faster half-marathon or marathon, you need to teach your body to run faster. But what exactly is speed training?  And how should you include it in a training schedule to allow for your best performance on race day?

The first step to grasping the concept of speed training is to think of your running velocity on a giant spectrum. On one end of the spectrum, you have your ‘low-end aerobic pace’ - the pace that you run at for extended periods, chatting with training partners are you go. At the opposite end of the spectrum, you have your top end speed - a maximum effort that you could only sustain for 20-30 seconds at a very high exertion level before slowing down substantially. Between this low-end aerobic running and maximal effort full-out speed, you have a whole range of paces that you could sustain for varying distances.

This leads me to the definition of speed training, which involves very-high-intensity to high-intensity bouts of running that one can sustain for 30 seconds to 8 minutes. This often equates to running at anywhere from max effort to 10K pace. Training at these higher intensity paces improves your running economy and fatigue resistance, adaptations that will come in handy on race day. Running economy sounds like a fancy word, but essentially it’s the energy cost of running at a given speed. What if I told you that by training at higher speeds (for varying distances), you would end up using less energy (calories) per minute during your marathon? And we all know that energy is precious in the longer distance races. Furthermore, in addition to becoming more economical, training your speed also helps build more fatigue-resistance for the longer distances by virtue of improvements of your neuromuscular systems.

This is why your training program has speed workouts woven into your entire half-marathon and marathon build-up.  This speed, complemented with the ever-so-crucial threshold running (next week’s topic) and the long run will help you to be fully prepared come race day on Oct. 16.

Megan Brown runs for Athletics Toronto and won the 2011 Canadian half-marathon championship in 1:14:08. She also coaches runners of all levels and can be reached at megan.brown2012@gmail.com