Do you want to know how to run faster? Well it’s lucky you stopped by because I’m about to reveal the secret of speed. Are you ready for it? The secret to running faster is: running faster. You’re welcome.
In all seriousness we all, at times, think there must be a secret technique or method to make us run faster and we buy products, read books, trawl the internet looking for it. Essentially, if you want to run faster in a race you need to run faster in training, it’s as simple as that. Oh, and you need to be patient.

I’m still no Usain Bolt or Paula Radcliffe and I’m still very much a mid-pack runner, but gradually over the past four years of running I’ve got a fair bit quicker.

My first marathon took me 4 hours 31 minutes, the most recent took me 3 hours 59 minutes and the next one, I hope, will be somewhere around 3 hours 45 minutes. I’ve also taken my 10K time down from 57 minutes to 45 minutes. I’ve been asked a few times how I did this. Well, there’s two things that have made it happen.

Firstly speed work – interval training and tempo runs make you faster by making you run faster. But you need to do it at the right speed. This is where a lot of people get it wrong. I use the McMillan pace calculator to tell me how fast I should be running in a given session. Before this I did interval sessions way too fast, couldn’t complete them and had to take a day off because I was too stiff to run. So get the speed right.
Secondly is running with other people. Running with people who are faster than you makes you run faster. So whether you join a club (where you’ll also be able to pick up some speed sessions with coaches) or you run with faster friends or do some Park Runs, run with others and get faster.
But patience is important too. There’s no use in being a fast injured runner because you’re not going to set any PBs sat on the injury bench. So take care of yourself, don’t push too hard too soon, work at paces that are ‘fast’ for you and don’t compare yourself to other people. Also, I’m pretty sure that beer helps.