How To Run Faster And Longer

Running tips to help you run faster and longer! Want to increase your overall speed and endurance? It's definitely possible.

Want to learn how to run faster and longer? Try these simple old time-tested methods below but with a new attitude.

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See how being relaxed, increasing flexibility, and building your mental endurance can help you run faster and longer at the same time.

1) Run Relaxed

A relaxed muscle has the most potential for moving faster. Not only does a relaxed muscle move quicker it uses less energy. So what does it mean to be relaxed? There’s a fine line between being relaxed and being lazy.

To run in a LAZY manner means for you to let go of your entire body just allowing your limbs to flail anyway that they like.

To run in a RELAXED manner means for you to guide your limbs as you release them into your running strides. For example, to move your arms in a proper RELAXED manner would mean for you to release the tension throughout the entire arm as you allow it to swing without constantly pulling and pushing it. You’re letting the arm swing freely yet at the same time you are controlling the direction and angle of its swing.

So why relaxed? Why not be stiff?
Being stiff and constantly trying to control your running form means you’re wasting energy and using your counter-muscles. Think of a stiff runner. The reason why his arm will not swing forward as freely and as relaxed is because his counter-muscles in the back of the arm are trying to pull the arm back as it’s moving forward. The same is true for a runner with stiff legs. He will tire out faster and run slower because his muscles are constantly counter-acting against each other.

Although the runner may FEEL as though he’s exerting a lot of force, the reality is that he’s just wasting energy in muscles that are moving against one another. It won’t be long before he tires out and when he does his performance will drop even further since his tired muscles are STILL counter-acting against each other.

So what’s the trick to staying relaxed?

More Rest
Don’t start another day of intense workouts if your muscles are still stiff from yesterday. Give them a few days to heal and fully expand into their regular flexibility.

Don’t Go 100%
For some reason going 100% takes twice the energy and twice the effort as going 96%. Worst of all, putting 100% effort doesn’t always guarantee that you will actually be faster than 96% effort. Instead of throwing away all your concentration on doing things with max effort. Relax a little and pay attention to everything else. Save your best for when it counts the most. Chances are, you don’t need to go 100% RIGHT RIGHT now. (Unless you’re in a 100meter race.)

2) Increase Flexibility

Being flexible is more than just staying warm, preparing the muscles, and preventing injury. Being flexible increases your range of motion, increases your energy efficiency, and actually helps you run faster and longer!

Stretching – Stretching is a great way to increase your flexibility and range of motion. Why is RANGE-OF-MOTION so underrated? Because people don’t understand how having poor range of motion can burn energy faster. Imagine yourself running a race and trying to extend your leg further to increase stride length. IF you have great flexibility, this extra movement will have no problem since the leg will extend easily. I highly recommend that you stretch a lot on off days. On some of my easier workout days, I like to just sit there and stretch every part of my body for 2 hours and do nothing else. Stretching is that important.

However, if you have poor flexibility, the back muscle will try to pull back the leg if you extend too far. Now if you still want to extend the leg further, your front leg muscles will have to give the leg a little extra push to increase the stride length. Although the back leg muscles aren’t actively working against the front leg muscle, they will still be hampering your efforts! It’s also important to muscle that a muscle can be worn out if you’re constantly stretching it beyond it’s comfortable range of motion.

3) Build Mental Endurance

One of the best tips I’ve ever heard for learning how to run faster, longer is to run for time, not for distance. In other words, when you run… just try to keep yourself running for a certain amount of time. Don’t bother trying to count laps or miles as you train. Instead, try to consistently keep your legs moving as you run for 30 minutes straight, or 45 minutes, or 1 hour. Start small, of course. The problem with people failing during races is not that they were too slow but that they didn’t even finish. For shorter races, it’s not that runners fail but that they run out of energy at the end of the race.

If you know your average pace will finish a race in 10 minutes, then train yourself to run for 20 minutes. When the time comes, your mental attitude and body training will be prepared to endure the full length of the race. Instead of worrying about fading out at the end, you now just have to worry about maintaining your pace throughout the race!

Give the 3 tips above a try and see if you begin running faster and longer!
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