- I’ve been distance running competitively for over 12 years and in those years, running became a part of my identity. For some of the years, running was the most important part of my identity, which definitely was a pretty unhealthy thing. But this year, I ran 74:37 in a half marathon (5:39 mile pace) and 54:58 in the 10 mile (5:29 mile pace). My most relatable personal best is a 2:39 marathon (6:05 mile pace), but this year, I’m aiming to make a big jump in my marathon journey, hoping to run sub 72 in the half and sub 2:30 in the full. This piece focuses on what works for me, and how I got faster and fitter as a distance runner. I will only count points that have helped me run faster with relative certainty.
- You will note what’s not on this as much as what’s on this. There are a bunch of factors I don’t think or have felt matter too much. I never tried to adjust my form or make myself run in a way that felt unnatural to me. Like most runners, I strike on my heel or midfoot, and to condition my stride to strike with my forefoot would have made me more injury prone and a much worse runner. I never felt like diet or hydration actually made that much of a difference for me, although many other runners would disagree. I never felt like the running shoes I wore really made that much of a difference (in training) either.
- I ran a lot of miles. It’s no coincidence the most fit I am in my life correlates to a period when I ran a lot of miles. You don’t have to run 120 miles a week to become a faster marathon runner, but you do have to stretch your horizons a bit and acknowledge you’ll have the occasional 20 mile long run or longest week of running in your life.
- I grew five inches from when I first started running. That undoubtedly helped me get faster too. I grew from 5’1” (154 cm) to 5’6” (168 cm) some time between my first and second year of high school and saw a jump in fitness and how fast I could run.
- That makes me glad I didn’t start running earlier, or at least I wasn’t pushed into running a million miles by a parent. I started running when I was 12, but I never ran so much my development was stunted or I ended up absolutely hating the sport. I had a friend whose dad pushed him into running at a very young age (like 6 or 7) — by the time we were seniors in high school, he didn’t want to do it anymore.
- I trained with other runners. I got through grueling long runs and mile repeats with them, as well as other kinds of workouts.
- I centered my life around running, hated it for periods, then de-centered my life around running and re-centered my life around it. Caring less about running has always made me a faster runner. Caring too much and obsessing over it has also made me slower.
- Everyone is different, and obviously if I’m waking up at 4:40 a.m. on some days to go on a run, I care about running. I just don’t care as much as I used to. It’s more for fun now and trying to fine tune the way I train and race like an equation. It also keeps me healthy. But there are a lot more important things in life than running. It’s priority number 4 or 5 for me now behind several other things, which really helps me keep it in context.
- I have a lot of bad days, whether it is how bad I feel on a run, how poorly I performed on a workout, or how much I underperformed in a race. I used to read into them a lot but bad days are just part of the human condition. A bad day is just a bad day. Nothing more. I’m just usually glad when a bad workout isn’t on the day of a race.
- My stride and running are what come naturally to me. I used to do really dumb things “running gurus” on YouTube tell you to do to run faster, like lengthening your stride or leaning forward more. You should have seen me try to run with a long stride — I looked like I was trying to long jump every time I took a step. If you’re running in a way that’s not natural to you, your body will compensate and you will run slower. Changes in form are long, very gradual efforts if they can be done at all. At some point, your running form is just your running form. I have a short stride, but also a quick one. Letting myself just run naturally instead of adhering to some Instagram reel telling me how I’m supposed to run let me just stop worrying about it.
- For that matter, just run. Don’t listen to any Instagram reel that tells you how to run. Just run, try to feel moderately comfortable and not like you’re dying, and try to have as much of a good time as possible.
- In general, the less you worry and have to think about in terms of running, the faster you run. That’s the case for me, at least.
- In the past, I would do weight training and lifting to help me run faster and avoid injury. I even did the One Punch Man challenge (100 push ups, 100 sit ups, 100 squats, and ran 10km a day for 100 days). I’m not quite sure lifting ever really made too much of a difference for me.
- When I first started running in 7th grade, I ran a 9:50 mile. Every run I ran was all out. The warm up was always a race. Every run was a near death experience (not actually, but I pushed myself to where it felt like I was going to die every run. Part of this was just being a kid who had poor cardiovascular fitness, part of it was my own stupidity).
- I kept up the “go all out every run” mindset for my first season of running. No one would breathe as hard as me by the end of the warm up. I did actually get a lot better that season — I got my mile time down to 6:45.
- However, that’s just not a smart or sustainable way to train, at all. Eventually I had to stop that, and actually take most of my runs easy, like I do now.
- I have two hard efforts a week. I use them judiciously. It’s always better to slightly underdo it than overdo it to avoid burnout.
- A lot of running is about restraint. I’m not just talking about restraint in terms of not eating potato chips. It’s restraint from training too hard, restraint from going out too fast in a race, restraint from making your move too early during a race.
- I do my best not to go out too fast in races. In long distance, you can recover from a slow start. You don’t recover from using up all your energy in the first 1/10 of the race.
- I don’t change up my diet or hydration habits before a race. I keep it consistent with what I’ve been doing during the week. While conventional wisdom says you need to load up with carbs like pizza, it’s best not to throw your body any surprises.
- Likewise, there are food and drink I wholesale avoid before races, like anything with too much dairy. It’s not about the food railroading my race. It’s about the food destroying my digestive system and making me need to go to the bathroom five times before a race. I knew a guy who had super spicy Indian food the night before a race, and he wasn’t used to eating Indian food. Needless to say his body wasn’t ready for how often he had to use the bathroom before and during the race.
- I don’t think you have to overcomplicate hydration. I drink water when I’m thirsty — that’s about it. I used to really overdo it and drink 100 fluid ounces before workouts and races. One time I had an awful experience where I felt lightheaded and felt like I had to pass out during a race, and had to drop out after forcing myself to drink too much water. Not fun.
- I use energy gels for any run above 17 miles. For the full marathon, I use two or three. Any race 17 miles or above is also when I need water during the race.
- When I run by myself, I tend to run very slow. Other people tend to go super fast while running alone, but I find I usually follow the pace of the pack whenever I’m in a group. Running solo, I actually get to run the pace I’m feeling.
- I avoid any unnecessary surges during races, which helps me save my energy for the rest of the race.
- When someone passes me during a race now, I don’t feel the need to respond usually. I just let them. I run my own race and might catch them later and might not. Trust me, I didn’t used to be this way. I used to treat every workout like a race with my teammates.
- I run up hills slower than everyone else to conserve energy. I maintain that same effort running down hills and usually end up running faster as a result.
- I try not to be too obsessed with the watch while running. It’s better to be dictated by effort than pace.
- Likewise, when I’m running a workout, effort level is the better gauge that’s actually within your locus of control more than pace. I have goal paces for workouts, like running six mile repeats at 5:20. However, I will base the workout more on the amount of effort I should give and feel like I’m giving on a given workout.
- For a hard effort, running with people is almost always better than running solo. For me at least.
- No music. I don’t like listening to music any time besides the treadmill. Podcasts, however, are a great way to learn something new while on a casual run.
- I save my best efforts for the race, never for a casual run or workout. As a runner I always lacked this “race gear” where you can run faster in a race than you ever did in any workout or training run. It’s like a mental switch I felt like I never had. Well, part of it is a mental switch to perform well under pressure, but a lot of it is that a lot of the best performers on race day aren’t giving workouts or training runs their absolute everything either. A race is the only time where a max, all out 100% effort is warranted.
- Still, you never want to feel like you’re dying or giving it everything you have during a long distance race, maybe until the end. Eliud Kipchoge doesn’t look like he’s straining and extremely uncomfortable most of the race. You want it to just feel slightly to moderately uncomfortable because it’s a long race, and you want to pace yourself accordingly. I used to look like I was in extraordinary pain in all my running pictures. Now, it’s not like I always look like I’m on a Sunday stroll, but I look a lot more comfortable than I used to.
- I sleep more than most people I know. I need 7–9 hours to function as a runner and with all my other activities.
- I also eat more than most people with all the calories I burn. Usually, I need to eat within an hour of my run to ensure optimal recovery — otherwise I feel super tired and like my stomach is hollow.
- I try not to overcomplicate running. Is just putting one foot in front of the other. It’s a very simple sport.
- I’ve gotten the same if not very similar running shoes to what I had when I was 13. The first time I got fitted by a running store was when I learned what I needed as a runner. Afterward, I was able to just order similar shoes online.
- For most of us, regular shoes will work well. Boring is usually better. Fads like barefoot running and maximal cushioning will come and go — someone at a running store who can analyze your foot, stride, and more can get you the best shoe.
- I replace my shoes about every 400 miles, once a lot of the cushioning wears off. This means I get new shoes once every two to three months. They’re not cheap and the expense adds up, but once you know the shoe that works for you, it’s easy to find discounted options or older models of the same shoe (which are almost exactly the same as the new model) for cheap.
- I also ran faster as a runner by getting faster shoes to race in. In the running world, there’s a lot of differentiation of shoes. “Trainers” are the normal training shoes you do most of your miles and easy runs in. “Flats” are lightweight shoes meant for faster workouts or races. “Spikes” are racing shoes meant for running on a track or cross country course, and quite literally have spikes in them to help you get better footing. Recently, there are also “super shoes” that have revolutionized the sport. These shoes, most notoriously the Nike Vaporfly, have carbon plates and other technology to help you run faster. I have a pair of these and they have, most certainly, helped me run faster. But they also cost me $200 when they came with a 20% discount! It isn’t a cheap sport and obviously takes a certain amount of privilege, energy, and time to engage in.
- TL;DR: fast shoes = running faster.
- I got older and more mature as a runner, even if I haven’t had as much time to run.
- I wasn’t running all the time. I had to take long periods of time off running, like the year I graduated from college or the various times I had extended injuries. There were just more important priorities in my life at those times.
- When I get injured, a lot of people would advise you to swim, bike, or do other kinds of exercise to maintain fitness. I didn’t enjoy any of that, but my favorite was the elliptical. I just enjoyed my time off usually.
- The best I ran is when I had a great group of training partners or had the most fun. I can definitely get through great breaks in improvement and push though a very demotivating day with a great person to run with.
- The biggest part of running improvement is being able to get long stretches of running. This has come with a lot of luck to be largely injury free and healthy, which is not what everyone else has.
- Getting three weeks of running 20 miles has always been more beneficial to me than running one week of 60 miles then not running for two weeks. The consistency really matters, and sometimes you won’t see the fitness gains for weeks.
- Soft surfaces help too. It shakes things up and they’re much softer on your legs. If you live in a city like me, these can be hard to find.
- I’ve hard great coaches throughout my career, in high school, college and post-collegiately. Trust your coaches. They almost always know their stuff.
- Running is less like an inspirational movie where all you need is more and more effort. It’s more like a strategic chess match, where you have a finite amount of energy and resources and need to choose wisely how you expend that energy. Races especially are like this.
- Sheer effort matters, but it only really gets you so far. The moment I learned to stop putting in unnecessary surges, pace myself accordingly, and hit the right effort zones while running, the better I ran. Learning how to appropriately expend and conserve energy is the other half. Over time your instincts on energy conservation and race tactics will improve.
- If you’re running a race on a track or road, don’t try to be a hero on the course. You don’t get extra points for running wide turns or taking lane 2 or 3 on the track. Take the path of least resistance and try to run the least distance possible and not extra. If it’s a road that curves, see if there’s enough room to run the tangents if the course isn’t very strict about where on the road you have to run. On a track, you don’t want to get boxed in or cut off, but being able to run on the inside means you run less distance, despite it being crowded.
- Running is an ultimate form of self-improvement. There really is no exhilaration better than running a time and covering a distance faster than you ever had, and aiming for faster! I don’t know whether this is psychological or mental, but if I’ve run a time, it’s always possible for me to get back to where I was. Because I ran a 2:40 marathon in my first marathon, I was able to get back into 2:40 shape years later. It is difficult, however, to run faster than you ever have before because that’s uncharted territory of what you have and have not achieved.
- I’ve avoided burnout to this point. Burnout is physical, when you work super hard just to run slower, and emotional and psychological. There were points I came close and just needed to shut down and come back to running weeks later. There were other points I fell out of love for the sport for a bit. But I always come back and mature in my approach. I’m not in college anymore and can’t center my life around running, so I need to just run when I can and try to barely squeeze it into my schedule.
- It depends on your reference point and personal experience for how you can best improve. I used to be the hardest worker on any team I was on. I would push the most, destroy workouts, and encourage others to run and train as hard. I had to actually scale it back and work less hard to become a better runner of late, and it’s a lesson I learned way too late as a runner. For you, that could be different. But you know yourself and your body best.
- Always adjust your running accordingly to the conditions. You won’t run as fast when it’s hot and humid as you will on a cool day with no wind. If the conditions of a race are awful, you probably won’t run as fast. It’s still important to compete and do your best even on a not ideal day. This matters on training days too. In America, there are days so hot it’s unrunnable outside, and you have to wake up super early to beat the heat.
- Above all, I’ve been trying to keep a growth mindset. Running 74:37 in the half marathon was a major disappointment to me because my goal was to run under 72 minutes, but goals are helpful because they give direction. They are less helpful when they become all or nothing guidelines, and I forced myself to keep up a pace that was too fast so I could hit the time, instead of running the pace that was comfortable to me. I was disappointed, but I still ran a personal best of 90 seconds. And I’m giving the distance another go next week, where I can hopefully run a similar improvement.
- If you feel a certain way during the race, like struggling through a rough hill and on a difficult course, it’s important to contextualize the fact that a lot of other people probably feel the same way. If you doubt it, look around. It’s really easy to get down on yourself and ruminate as a runner and think “I’m the only one this is hard for right now!” or “I’m the only one struggling right now!” Most of the time, this isn’t true.
- I stopped looking for quick fixes. There were plenty of things I thought would magically make me a better runner, like taking iron pills or drinking a ton of water. But there is no quick fix. It’s long term, steady work and thoughtful strategy that produces great improvement.
- I take recovery as seriously as the actual running now. I didn’t used to, but running is not a sport where you can just run five hours a day (your body would crumble). Instead, it’s one where you have to take care of yourself, sleep a lot, eat to make up calories lost, and hydrate well.
- This might not seem like it’s super important on TV, but it is super important as a runner and especially on race day: bathrooms. It’s really hard to really plan out when you’re going to use the bathroom, but always build in enough time to get to a porta-potty before a race early. 20 minutes before start time, the line will pile up. And the last thing you want during your marathon or half marathon is to lose several minutes having to use the bathroom. It can really be a hassle to stop mid-run searching for a bathroom to use too. I don’t have great answers on how to navigate the nuances of bathrooms and running, because it’s not an art I’ve mastered myself. All I know is before every morning run, I will use the bathroom first to make sure my system is cleared.
- The most important thing was the experience I gained. That’s how I learned all these lessons. That’s how I made all these mistakes and put myself out there. I used to be a “you have to run every day!” kind of guy to improve as a runner, but now I’m less certain. Different things work for different people. Different people run for different reasons. But most importantly, only runners can understand the fun and excitement that comes with running a time you’ve never run before, shaving minutes off a personal best, and proving to yourself you’re capable of better than you expected before.
—
This post was previously published on In Fitness And In Health.
***
You Might Also Like These From The Good Men Project
Compliments Men Want to Hear More Often | Relationships Aren’t Easy, But They’re Worth It | The One Thing Men Want More Than Sex | ..A Man’s Kiss Tells You Everything |
Join The Good Men Project as a Premium Member today.
All Premium Members get to view The Good Men Project with NO ADS.
A $50 annual membership gives you an all access pass. You can be a part of every call, group, class and community.
A $25 annual membership gives you access to one class, one Social Interest group and our online communities.
A $12 annual membership gives you access to our Friday calls with the publisher, our online community.
Register New Account
Need more info? A complete list of benefits is here.
—
Photo credit: iStock