Let’s talk about how to actually get faster.
Not just “a little faster.”
Not just “keep up with the crowd.”
I mean the kind of faster where you’re setting the pace on group runs and other people are struggling to keep up.
Here’s the hard truth.
Most people are training too much, too often, and too chaotically to ever actually give their body a chance to change.
So let’s see what we actually need for speed.
Speed requires strength.
Speed is strength in motion.
Now obviously there’s an upper limit to this – if not, the world’s strongest man would also be the world’s fastest 100m runner – but we still need to be substantially strong if we’re going to get faster.
Unfortunately, most runners don’t train for strength.
Instead, they just turn their “strength training” into another cardio session by:
- Doing random workouts that chase “the sweat” and “the burn” over actually getting stronger
- Lifting the same pair of dumbbells they’ve been lifting for years and never increasing the weight
- Never actually giving their body the time to recover
This type of “strength training” doesn’t actually make you stronger.
It’s just another cardio session that we use to check a box.
Instead, if we’re going to train in a way that really makes us stronger, we must:
- Lift with the intention to stimulate muscle growth
- Progressively add a little more difficulty to increase the stimulus over time
- And actually allow the body to recover
Strength work – real strength work – isn’t another opportunity for cardio.
We’re not there to burn calories.
We’re there to build muscle and teach the body to move more efficiently so it can perform better out on our runs.
If our goal is to get strong, then let’s please put down the brightly colored dumbbells, stop doing sets of 30 reps, and start appreciating rest periods.
It might feel weird.
It might be different.
But I almost promise it’ll actually start creating results.
PS – This is part one of a multi-part series. Thursday we’ll be looking at putting that strength to work in speed sessions.