Get Your Feet Moving: Quick Feet Drills
Part of running faster includes completing short, swift intervals, but another equally important piece of the puzzle is to train your neuromuscular system to fire faster.
Even with added strength and power, a muscle can only respond as quickly as the message is relayed from brain to foot. To teach your legs to cycle faster takes some work: You need to create those nerve channels and get those synapses to fire at a faster rate. This is why you see runners doing ladder and other quick feet drills. These movements condition your feet to fire off the ground as quickly as possible—that's neuromuscular training.
Combine these drills with speed workouts, which give your muscles extra power, and you'll work both pieces of the puzzle. You'll soon reap the benefits of faster times.
More: 4 Power Drills to Improve Running Performance
Ladder Drills: Using a standard ladder, complete two sets of passing up and down the ladder. Step with one foot per rung; alternate which leg you lead into the ladder for each set. Then complete two sets of stepping with both feet onto each rung. Work on getting those feet moving as quickly as possible.
Chili Steppers: See how quickly you can get your feet up off the ground, back down again, and off again for 30 seconds. Quickly tap the ground before raising each foot again and keep your feet low to the ground. The goal isn't to clear much air but rather to aim for quickness. Count your steps and, as you progress, see how many foot taps you can do in 30 seconds.
A-Skips and B-Skips: These drills also get your legs and feet up off the ground and conditioned to cycle more efficiently. For the A-Skip, pull your knees up high as you skip. As you bring your leg down, finish with a slight pawing motion as you pull your leg backwards. Initiate the pull with your glutes and hamstrings—this will teach your muscles the backward pull motion, which is important for efficient running propulsion.
More: How to Improve Your Running Cadence
The B-Skip is very similar to the A-Skip, but after you raise you knee up, extend your leg straight forward. This extension of the leg dynamically stretches the hamstring, and emphasizes the backward pawing motion as your foot lands on the ground and pulls through.
Use the same arm motion during these drills that you use during running. Complete two sets of 30 meters for each drill, alternating the lead leg per drill.
With all of these drills focus on quality over quantity, so if you need to start slowly to do them correctly, that's fine.
More: The 4 Best Form Drills to Improve Your Running Technique
Run More Hills
Your 5K training plan most likely includes 200- and 400-meter repeats, and shorter intervals to work on your pace. Another way to increase your speed is to complete hill repeats. Hills build strength, which is the definition of explosive power.
More: 3 Hill Workouts for a Faster 5K
Hill Blasts: Pick a short hill of 150 to 200 meters and do sprint repeats. When working on building raw power and speed, distance runners need to shift their usual "more repeats are better, less recovery is even better" way of thinking. The anaerobic sprinting system needs more recovery than the endurance-based, aerobic system, so start with only six to eight repeats and make sure to take full recovery between each—you can even walk instead of jog between sets to catch your breath. The goal is to be fresh enough to run as fast as you can for each one.
Long Hill Repeats: Doing longer hill repeats of 400 meters to a mile will also build strength; the recovery on these can be a jog back to the start. Be careful jogging down, as the extra force of running downhill can make some runners more prone to knee and lower leg injuries.
More: How to Strengthen Your Lower Legs to Avoid Injury
As with every training aspect in running, it's incredibly important to only add one new variable at a time. Overload the body all at once and you'll increase your chances of injury or dig yourself into a bit of a hole, which can lead to overtraining.
Implement each new element slowly into your training regimen, giving your body at least one to two weeks to adjust to the new variable before adding a new one. A general rule of thumb: Add more quality or more quantity at one time. For example, if you add more speed intervals, don't increase your mileage that same week.
If you're smart about adding these new training tools into your routine, you'll chase faster 5K times in no time.
More: How Advanced Runners Can PR in the 5K
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