How to become a faster runner

Hey everyone, this is my first guide I've written, so tell me what you think.

INTRO

Running is a skill that'll help you throughout your whole life. Being a good runner increases your physical endurance, lung capacity, strength, and body coordination. Almost every sport involves some sort of running, and if you're a good runner you're going to be a better athlete.

HOW TO BEGIN TRAINING

Depending on your age, you probably have a track team at your school. If you want to become better at running (even if you do many other sports), track is probably the best way to go. If you want to get better on your own, or don't have a team available, of course you can get better by simply training. Running is a skill that you can become very good at even if you have very little starting talent.

Always stretch before running. Why? There are tons of problems you can develop if you don't, such as shin splints, and hip and knee problems. Whether you are interested in becoming a distance/endurance runner (ideal for soccer and basketball players), or a sprinter (ideal for football and baseball players), you should always begin with a warm-up of about a mile (1600 meters or 4 laps around a track). This will help loosen you up to avoid cramping or pulling a muscle. After warming up, take 10 minutes to stretch and relax before you start your workout.

WHAT TO RUN IN/ WHERE TO RUN

When running, you want to make sure that you're wearing running shoes that fit you, and are comfortable. If you don't, it's going to be very painful on your feet, and all that pain is unnecessary if you want to forgo spending $50 on some running shoes. The best brands I can suggest are Asics and Nike,
These are the ones I use, I suggest them:


What clothes you run in isn't as important, just pick a light T-shirt and light shorts (under armor is good), nothing too sweaty or confining.

A school track is a great place to run, but it's pretty boring, I usually prefer to run in the city or my neighborhood, more scenic Just make sure you have a watch and you know where you're going

HOW TO TRAIN:

For sprinters (me), I would suggest a 20-25 minute run either through a neighborhood with not too much traffic; you don't want to stop every 3 seconds for a stoplight, that's not much of a workout:huh: . Next, return to your starting point and stretch and relax for about 15 minutes. You should then work on sprinting. I suggest (for short distance runners) to sprint around 200 meters (it's best to do this on a track), then slowly jog for 200, then return, wait 5-10 seconds, and start another 200. You should do about 8 of these if you want to get in good shape.
I drew it out here, should be clear:

Afterwards, stretch for 15 minutes, and do some strength circuts (suchs as 30 sit-ups, then 30 push-ups, something of that nature), and you're done. It's also very helpful to lift weights a bit to get your arm strength up, believe it or not, running requires strength in every part of your body, just make sure you leave a 4-hour gap between running and lifting, or both workouts are going to be stunted .

HEALTH:

Of course continuing this routine is going to make you a much stronger, faster runner, and you're definitely going to feel your speed improve after around 2 weeks of this. It's also a way to lose weight quickly if you're concerned with that. If you begin to have intense shin or hip pain, contact a coach or doctor immediately and stop running. Also, don't pig out on McDonald's right after you run, it cancels the whole thing out. Foods with high fiber such as pastas (without too much grease in them) will give you lasting energy, and are especially good to have near when you're going to be working out. Don't stress over every single calorie, of course you can eat red meat and things like that, but just keep it limited and not too near when you're going to be running. Eating fatty foods right before you run *WILL* give you cramps. Energy bars and things of that nature are great to eat a few minutes before or after you run/work out because they're not very substantial but provide lots of energy. Eat healthy while you're training and your results will be apparent more quickly.



I hope this guide was informative enough and that someone out there learned something or will be inspired. Running is awesome!

 

Nice guide!! I'm a 400 runner so I do either 300 or 400 sprints instead of 200. 10/10 this will help many fat kids or middle schoolers!!

 

thanks

 

Great guide man, thanks!

 

nice guide dude! will use

 

Very nice guide, I'm curious as to how much your shoes cost and where I could find a nice pair of shoes.

 

Great guide I think it could help many people. I especially like the diagram you made to show when to sprint and recover, I also think think the health part was good. Although I would have liked you to go into more about the right kinds of foods/wrong types. All in all good guide 9/10

 

I got Asics at a Model's chain near my house, they were around $65 dollars but they're very nice and I've had them for a long time now. I'm sure if you go to your nearest sporting goods store you're going to find something that works if you look around a bit.

I'll include that in my guide, and thank you

 

Very well done!

I Enjoy running , I Have 3 gold medals in a year from running competitions

I Know its not much , but we have like 7-10 a year

 

Not necessarily true, different training regiments work for different people even though its in the same category. Say I might want to become a sprinter but my body is built for long distance. I don't have endurance to build up for sprinting, so I would revolve my workouts on short "blasters" or very short sprints to build up my training. Instead of doing 200m hard and then 200m soft it may be better just to stop fully instead of going soft 200. Overall its a well written guide, you just need to consider other workouts as well. 7/10

 

That's true, and yes I only gave one example but I gave the most broad and useful example I could. Stopping fully is going to ruin your endurance; even if you are tired, jogging will improve it more than stopping will. For sprinting you have to learn to manage your tiredness so that in a race you will have the energy to technically keep running through the finish line, because you did, 8x, in practice. But yeah, I might even write an entirely new guide on endurance running to clarify that as well.

 

I didn't know about the 1 mile warm up for long distance. Thanks!

 

lol you obviously have no idea what you're talking about. This good man had it right and your trying to mess him up. All sprinters need a base to start from. Short blasters are useless unless you have a good base. You can do short blasters but they will not make you much faster. I reccomend hill work outs btw. We have a hill thats 250m long by our school and we sprint up it then walk down for like 8 times.

 

Asics ftw, I've never had anything else that has come close to how comfortable they are to run in. I do pretty much the same thing as your sprint training except I sprint up a hill/slow jog back down and also do some distance running twice a week.

 

Nice guide apart from the 1mile walm up,No way does a 100m Sprinter need that. I myself do 100m and walm up consists of 10 mins of Stretching/Drills/ Lenghts 30 40 60 70 then get into my Training program

 

Nice guide mate

 

Wow good guide! I'm on my ISSFHK championships tomorrow, this definitely helps me a bit!

 

Just depends on how much endurance you want to have, I tend to not want to tire at all during my races so I pick a med length warm up. But the warm-up isn't as much endurance building as it is just loosening up. But thanks for the feedback^_^

 

I used to be slow as fuck but now I'm pretty fast and all I did was try and get a lot of muscle in my legs(it helps a lot). I did this by doing leg presses at my school weight room. I also did a lot of sucides in my drive way and now I'm the fastest person in my team sports class .

 

I personally HATE running, but I had to do it a lot for soccer training. I'm taking a break from soccer now that I'm entering my sophomore year, but I'm planning on taking it up again my junior year if all goes well.
This guide will definitely be what I'll try first to keep in shape! Good job.