Faster running times

Cutting down your running times can be a way to motivate yourself to keep up your fitness and for people that enjoy the exercise, it can be the main way that they monitor their progression.

There are many ways that you can reduce the amount of time it takes you to run a certain distance, and a number of factors that affect how you are running, which some amateur runners may never have considered.

We’ve listed a few of the most important things to look out if you are trying to run faster and reduce your times.

Look at your nutrition

As with most forms of exercise, what you eat is incredibly important to how well you will perform. Your food is the fuel that you need to be able to complete your run and your nutrition in the couple of hours before your run is especially important.

Ideally, you should look to eat three or four hours before you go out for your run and make sure it is high in carbohydrates as these will give you the energy you need.  You should make sure you are eating meals like pasta or rice, which you can digest more easy. Try to hydrate enough over the whole day, that your water reserve is full when you start with your training. In normal weather conditions and under normal circumstances you should drinking around two liters of water or sugarless tea. After the exercise you should refill your water storage.  To find out how much you have to drink, just weigh your self before and after the training.

Check your form

You may think that all you need to do is put your shoes on and run but the position that you run in is very important. There are a number of things you can do to improve your form, which will in turn reduce your running times. When you run you should do your best to maintain a good body position – head over shoulders, shoulders over hips, hips over the mid-foot upon landing and arms swinging directly ahead. This will use less energy to run and will ensure you don’t injure yourself while you are training.

If you are suffering pain or discomfort when you are running, it’s likely that you have bad form and should try and improve it. In that case professional help in terms of a gait analysis might help to improve your own running style.

Get the right shoes

Having the right running shoes is the best way to ensure that you are safe when running and that the activity will be as beneficial as possible. There is a wide range of trainers out there and if you are serious about running and reducing your times, you should invest in a decent pair as this will help support and protect your feet while you run. Running shoes also encourage you to have good form and posture, while making sure you don’t injure your feet. Professional advise is here very helpful, as you have many products and brands advertising their goods.

Track your run

Tracking your runs over a period of time can help reduce your running times in more than one way. Being able to see how long it has taken you to complete a route and each section of your run will help you determine where you are being slowest and where you have the most room for improvement.

Once you know this you can help find ways that you can increase your speed during these periods. For example, a lot of people struggle to run in a regular pace, that they could go for a longer duration. The tracking helps to get to now the distance and the time and it help in the beginning to set the pace not to high.

Using Foresters Go also makes it easy for you to set yourself goals, which could involve reducing your time or increasing the length of the route that you run.

Analyze your route

When trying to decrease your running time you should pay close attention to your route. If you are running different paths but the same distance you may struggle to reduce your running times, especially if different gradients are involved. Try and make sure you are using the same, flat route when trying to improve your run and save minutes off your time.