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Whether you want to PR at your next race or just move up through the pack at your weekly run club, you have more control over improving your running speed than you might realize. By simply introducing some basic speed work into your routine, you can reliably become a faster runner.

You won’t have to wait very long to see results, either. “If you are consistent with your training, and you're not facing any setbacks with getting sick or injured, every single time you show up you should be making improvements,” says Noelle McKenzie, CPT, a former D1 track athlete and co-founder of Leading Edge Personal Trainers in New York City.

And it’s not just about pace. Speed training comes with a range of additional benefits to improve your running holistically—everything from better form to steadier performance as you age.

Why every runner can benefit from speed training

The obvious reason to incorporate speed training into your runs is to get faster. Doing the same moderate run every week is good for maintaining fitness, but it’s not getting you any closer to catching Noah Lyles.

“Oftentimes I'll get a runner that'll come to me and be like, ‘I don't understand why I'm not getting faster,’ and then when I ask them what they’re doing, they're usually doing the same run over and over,” says Frankie Ruiz, chief running officer at Life Time. “The key to all adaptation is variety. If you add enough variety, you're going to get adaptation.”

While speed training will make you a faster runner, an increase in pace is ultimately the product of improvements in other aspects of your running performance. “Speed training isn’t just about that time on the clock,” says Knox Robinson, iFIT trainer and co-founder of run club Black Roses NYC. “It's going to improve running efficiency and running economy. Greater cardiovascular efficiency. Your body's gonna tone up in a different way. And all those things will make you faster.”

According to Ruiz, speed training is also a low-key strategy to extend your longevity as a runner. “A lot of people, as they go over that hump into their 30s, they tend to accept that they’re just not that fast anymore. But there are ways to combat that natural diminished performance. It’s going to happen eventually, of course, but there are ways that we can offset it a little bit,” he says. “Through speed work, you're protecting the development and maintenance of those fast-twitch muscles; you're sort of holding back on that aging process.”

How to introduce speed work into your runs

At its foundation, speed training relies on a rotation of different kinds of sessions, each targeting a specific aspect of your body’s ability to build and sustain speed.

“That's where the workouts come in,” says Steven James, UESCA-certified running coach and founder of PFM Coaching. The drills below are widely regarded among elite running coaches to be the highest-yielding sessions for anyone looking to get faster. “From my own personal experience, the more you can incorporate, the better,” says McKenzie. “They each serve a unique purpose, and each is going to help your running speed.”

While the workouts themselves are relatively simple, the real challenge is consistency. In order to see progress, experts told GQ that runners should budget for four runs a week and commit to lacing up rain or shine. “You can get away with three runs a week, but four is ideal,” says James. “Depending on your baseline going in, you could even do more, as long as you’re leaving adequate time for recovery.” You'll want to mix in workouts, a long run, and recovery runs each week.

Four ways to do speed workStrides

A stride is the sequence of accelerating to a controlled sprint (about 80% effort), holding that pace for around 10 seconds, and then allowing your body to naturally slow back down. They’re usually done as a set of up to 12, with about 60–90 seconds rest between each. “What that does is it gets you used to the leg turnover and it helps improve your form,” says James.

Strides can be done at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of a run, or you could even build a session on strides alone. “Strides are secret sauce,” says Robinson. “Put 6–10 strides at the end of a run 2–3 times a week and you're going to see your efficiency improve. If your efficiency improves, your economy improves, and your speed is gonna improve.”

Hill repeats

Hill repeats involve—you guessed it—sprinting up a hill, repeatedly. “The idea behind it is that you're developing leg strength and you're improving your form.” says Ruiz. For each repeat, aim for a 20-second sprint, followed by a slow walk back down to your starting point, letting your heart rate and breathing come back down to normal. “It’s more about running efficiency and form than about actual aerobic or anaerobic fitness,” says James. “Going up the hill forces you to pick your feet up, forces you to keep that upright posture, and the recruitment of muscle fibers becomes more efficient.”

“Running uphill actually puts less impact on the body than running on flat, so it's a relatively low-risk way of introducing harder workouts,” adds James, who recommends doing hill sprints every other week—alternated with interval runs.

Interval workouts

Just like an interval workout you’d find yourself doing at a fitness studio, an interval run consists of alternating timed periods of effort and recovery. The duration of each interval will vary as you progress, but a good starting point is 30 seconds of work followed by two minutes of recovery, repeated for a total of 10–12 rounds. The work periods will be your hardest running of the week, so be sure to warm up beforehand. James recommends a 10-minute jog with four or five strides thrown in, and then the same thing repeated as a cooldown at the end.

“The work interval should be at an effort that's got you breathing hard; you can't talk. And then the recovery interval is a very gentle jog” says James.” After your first session, make a note of your average pace for the work intervals and then use that as a baseline for next time. Now you’re ready to start tweaking the interval durations.

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“Next week, go for 45 seconds on, two minutes off. Or stay at 30 seconds on, but only 90 seconds off,” says Robinson, who recommends only changing one variable each session. After six weeks, return to your original interval lengths—now you’ll be able to hit those work periods at a faster clip—and start the cycle again.

Threshold sessions

One of the things that holds us back from running faster is lactic acid—the culprit behind that burning sensation you feel in your legs during high-intensity efforts. The point at which that occurs, when your body is unable to process lactic acid as fast as it produces it, is known as your lactate threshold. So the purpose of threshold runs is to nudge that threshold higher and higher each week, allowing you to sustain a harder, and subsequently faster effort without crossing that tipping point and burning out.

“You are running at a speed that is challenging, but it's not like you're sprinting. You want to find that zone,” says Leo Harmon, Jr., PT, DPT, clinic director at Pappas OPT, who holds the Middle Atlantic Conference and Widener University record in the 800 meters.

James prescribes threshold runs as two bouts of 15–20 minutes, separated by a five-minute easy recovery. If you’re just getting started, you could even break it into three rounds of eight minutes. “Your goal is to be able to increase the length of time that you're doing those week after week,” says Dr. Hamon. “You're also learning how to run while you're uncomfortable, and how to maintain that pace without feeling mentally like you need to quit.”

Two more types of runs to know aboutLong runs

A long, slow run might not seem like something that would be useful for increasing speed, but covering a long distance once every other week will help build stamina and also contribute to your overall training volume, which will support your speed sessions. Mentally, getting used to longer distances will also help you put shorter runs and races into perspective.

“You want your body to get accustomed to running for longer distances than you're going to actually race at,” says McKenzie. “If you're training for a 10K, but you're working your way up to running 15 miles at a time, that 10K will feel much easier. So you always want to have at least one long and steady distance day. You're not trying to push the pace, you're just trying to keep going and not have any breaks.”

“Getting speed is about getting faster and stronger for longer. Those are the three principles that we're talking about,” says Robinson. “Faster: That’s your interval training—the shorter stuff that's going to increase your economy. Stronger: Those are your threshold runs. And then longer: That's your long run.”

Easy runs

“Speed training is a dance,” says Robinson. “It's important to have those three principles as the bedrock, but if that's all you do then you’re not including any recovery runs.” Taking your foot off the gas a few times a week to run a relatively short distance at a casual pace is not only a good form of active recovery, but also a good way to stay in touch with what you love about running. These can be fun runs, or even social runs, says Robinson. “That's what's great about this explosion of run clubs. In addition to meeting new people and unlocking our urban environments, the social aspect of running actually makes us better runners—and potentially better people.”

Just remember to keep your easy runs easy. “Taking it easy on the easy days will allow you to run hard on the days when you're supposed to run hard,” says James. “Otherwise it all just becomes a moderate effort, because that's all you can manage, because you're still tired from the run before. Each run should have a purpose. It might just be that it makes you feel better—and that's a perfectly valid purpose.”

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Dean Stattmann is a writer for GQ, where he covers health, fitness, and wellness. An award-winning magazine editor and writer with over a decade covering men's lifestyle, Dean has profiled A-listers like Hugh Jackman and Jamie Foxx, reported from behind the scenes at the Tour de France, and skateboarded with... Read moreInstagramRelated Stories for GQRunning