CCF,
Speed and endurance are two separate goals.
Many, who only have a casual understanding of exercise physiology, commonly presume that as they build endurance, they will also get faster. This is true to only a very limited degree and to a greater degree, false.
To get faster, one needs to do speed work.
From junior high school through college I was a competitive runner. After college and my running "career", I became interested in recreational cycling.
Permit me to use a different sport, cycling, where endurance and speed play similar and competing roles, to illustrate the relationship of speed and endurance and what you may need to consider for your training to improve your speed.
Perhaps you are familiar with the cycling event called The Race Across America, often called RAAM. This is an annual non-stop coast to coast bicycle race where the shortest elapsed time wins. There are many divisions but the division that captures the most publicity and notoriety is the solo division.
One of the greats in ultra marathon cycling and the current speed record holder for this event is Pete Penseyres.
The first year that he won RAAM, 1985, he trained for endurance with some weekly mileage totals of over 1200 miles per week. His commute to work was approximately 30 miles which he rode on his bicycle every day. This was a minimum of 60 miles a day. On the way home, he would often take a longer route.
The following year he wished to compete again, but unfortunately his lifestyle would not permit him a similar training opportunity to accumulate the mileage he had the previous year while training for RAAM.
Pete rode significantly fewer miles the following year, but he balanced the reduction in mileage with an increase in speed work. The net result...he won RAAM again in 1986 and set a speed record, 15.4mph average speed, that still stands today!
What this means for you is that you will not get significantly faster by only working on training for endurance. You must train to run faster!
You would definitely benefit from working with an experienced long distance running coach, if you could afford one and could locate one. Barring this, you should study up on long distance running and training and you will definitely improve your performance by modifying your training to achieve your goals.
Good luck.
Ben Cline
Better to aspire to Greatness and fail, than to not challenge one's self at all, and succeed.
Last edited by:
Wants2rideFast: Jan 27, 05 6:00