How to Improve as a Runner: The Only 6 Tips You Need!
If you’re wondering how to improve as a runner and shave time off your runs, you’ve come to the right place.
Cards on the table: I am not an amazing runner. Maybe not the best thing to say when promising to provide you with the best tips ever for how to run better…but bear with me!
I am not an excellent runner but I am pretty good, and this is because I have trained consistently over the years.
The first time I ran a half marathon, I did it in 2 hours 8 seconds. Fine, but not particularly impressive.
The last half marathon I did I completed in 1 hour 24 minutes! That’s over half an hour faster than my original!
Some people are naturally gifted at running and will have been excellent runners through their teenager years. I wasn’t, and I know the journey when it comes to how to improve as a runner…
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6 Tips for How to Become a Better Runner
So, in this article I want to talk you through 6 key areas of advice when it comes to how to improve as a runner.
Following these should help you learn how to increase running speed and stamina and generally how to improve distance running times.
I specialise in endurance events, so marathon-ers and triathletes, this is aimed at you!
1. Consistent Training
My first big tip for improving running speed is to train consistently. I have always improved most when I have managed to stick to blocks of regular training, and not missed any due to illness or injury.
You should try to follow a structured training plan that gradually increases mileage over time.
Don’t fall into the trap of suddenly increasing your mileage or smashing out a hard run when you were scheduled for an easy one. This might be tempting, but pushing your body really hard repeatedly actually does nothing to help your overall improvement.
It is better to have consistently good sessions where you don't miss any, leading to an overall brilliant block of training, than a few brilliant sessions with an overall block that's littered with missed sessions because you’ve run yourself down.
2. Take it Easy: The 80:20 Rule
Leading on from my last tip, keep the majority of your training easy and don’t train too hard too frequently.
This might sound counterintuitive but it is really important. There’s this idea that if you’re not training really hard, then it’s not worth it, but that truly isn’t the case.
Everyone benefits from easy endurance training. By easy, I mean the kind of running pace where you can still hold a conversation!
This might seem tedious but if you want to improve your running, this is just as important, if not more important, than any intervals or high intensity training.
You may have heard about an 80/20 split where 80% of your training should be easy, and 20% should be hard.
One study showed that athletes who follow this rule showed a 5% improvement in running times, whereas athletes that followed a 50/50 intensity split only improved 3.6%.
Personally, I've found this is a great rule of thumb for managing training intensities. Try it out!
3. Focus on Recovery
I used to fall into the trap of prioritising my workouts over my recovery, but now I've swapped those two around.
You actually get better and make adaptations to your training during the recovery period, so if you aren't giving yourself enough recovery time you won't make those improvements.
Get enough sleep, take plenty of down time, eat plenty of good food and if you need to, reduce the intensity of your training sessions.
Ask yourself: do you prioritise getting 8 hours of sleep over your scheduled high intensity sessions? If the answer is that you get the sessions done and let your sleep suffer, my advice would be to change that.
Remember consistently good is better than occasionally amazing!
4. Eat Well Day To Day
The next thing to cover is good daily nutrition. This has such a significant impact on improving running speed, but it is so often overlooked!
You might think that buying some new gadget, like a running power meter or the latest carbon shoes, will show you how to run faster in a race.
However, the far more influential factor in your performance is the food that you eat everyday!
Think about it. Training consistently over time is probably the number 1 thing you can do to improve your performance. In order to train consistently, you need to fuel your body with a healthy balanced diet.
If you put as much effort into eating well as you put into your training plan, I guarantee you will be on the right track.
Focus on getting a good amount of fresh fruits and veggies, plenty of protein to help with recovery, enough carbs to match your training volume and enough calories overall to replace what you burn.
For specific nutrition guidance, check out my articles on what to eat before a half marathon and what to eat before a marathon!
5. Fuel Your Long Runs Well
Your day to day nutrition is important but it’s also important to think specifically about how you fuel your longer runs, both before the run and during the run, if you really want to know how to improve as a runner.
I'll always encourage food before a long run, but I have noticed that many athletes I work with are hesitant to eat before a run, because they often experience stomach upset when they do.
However, if you eat the right foods, you can dramatically reduce the likelihood of tummy upset and benefit from the extra fuel!
Before a run, you want to minimise the amount of fibre, fat and protein you consume, because those nutrients are harder to digest and are therefore more likely to cause tummy upset.
Go for something like a banana, some fruit juice or a simple bowl of cereal. Different foods work for different people, so you can experiment and find out what is best for you.
Why don't you let me know in the comments if you've got any pre-run food ideas and I'll let you know what I think of them!
When it comes to what to eat during runs, my rule of thumb is that if the run is over 90 minutes long, eat 30 grams of carbs per hour as a minimum.
This is because your body only has carb stores for about 90 minutes of hard exercise, so after this, you will need to top up!
These carbs should come in the simplest, least fibrous, easiest to eat form possible, like sweets, energy gels or a banana.
My carb loading guide should give you an idea of what foods are best for this kind of fuelling.
6. Sensible Progressive Overload
Not sure what this means? Don’t worry! It basically means gradually increasing the intensity and mileage of your runs over time.
What I want to highlight is that you shouldn't suddenly do much longer intervals or keep trying to up the pace every week, because any of these are a recipe for disaster.
Keep intensity, duration and reps separate and only increase 1 of them each time. By that, I mean pick one of them as something to create progression.
If you add another rep, your intensity or duration of the reps should stay the same. If you increase the duration of your reps, you shouldn’t add any more or increase the intensity.
Aim for no more than a 10% increase in total mileage per week and this should keep enough training stimulus for improvement while also keeping you safe.
This gradual build up of both intensity and distance is exactly how to increase running speed and stamina long term.
There you have it! My 6 top tips for how to improve as a runner! Hopefully you have found them helpful and will see an improvement once you put them into practice.
And remember, there’s not much point focussing on quick fixes like how to increase running speed in two weeks - all these tips are to be implemented over longer periods, to see real, sustainable improvements!
Drop me a comment below if you have any more questions about how to become a better runner long distance.
