How to run faster: intervals, lifting and jumping, sprints, and weeks of it

"Faster" means two things in running. One is pace over a distance: a quicker mile or 5K. The other is top speed over a few seconds: a sprint. They're trained differently, and this page covers both. For distance, a 2000 review explains that VO2 max, the highest rate your body can take up oxygen, sets the upper limit for endurance performance, and that running economy and how much of that ceiling you can hold also affect it.¹ Running economy is the oxygen it takes to run at a given pace below your maximum, as a 2017 meta-analysis defines it.² The list below works on those.

It's a page about how runners get faster, not a promise about your next time. The trials below measured groups, many of them already trained runners or athletes; your pace depends on where you start and things a page can't see.

1. Run one or two interval sessions a week

Hard intervals raise the ceiling. A 2015 meta-analysis of 28 controlled trials in 723 healthy adults aged 18 to 45 found interval training raised VO2 max by about 5.5 mL/kg/min against no exercise, and steady endurance training by about 4.9.³ In 40 moderately trained men, three days a week for 8 weeks, intervals of 4 minutes at 90 to 95% of maximum heart rate with 3 minutes of active rest raised VO2 max 7.2%, more than steady running matched for total work.⁴ That 4-by-4 shape is the hard day in the week below. More sessions and how long they took: how to improve VO2 max and the HIIT workout.

2. Lift and jump twice a week

A 2018 meta-analysis took 28 of 554 studies that added strength training to running, cycling, cross-country skiing or swimming, and found moderate improvements in middle- and long-distance performance, along with a more economical energy cost of moving; training with heavy loads, for maximal force, did more than other intensities, and the benefit held across athletes' levels.⁵ In runners specifically, a 2016 meta-analysis of 5 studies in 93 competitive middle- and long-distance runners found that 8 to 12 weeks of strength and jump training two or three times a week had a large beneficial effect on running economy.⁶ Where to start the lifting: how to get stronger and the leg day workout. The jumps: plyometric exercises.

3. Put a few minutes of jumping in the warm-up

The jumping doesn't need its own session. In 96 amateur endurance runners, the group that swapped 5 minutes of its usual warm-up for jump rope, two to four times a week and 10 to 20 minutes a week in all, for 10 weeks, improved its 3-km time trial and its jumping; the control group's measures didn't change significantly.⁷ How to skip and what to do: the jump rope workout.

4. For top speed, sprint, with full rest

A 2016 review of 48 studies, 1,485 people from a range of athletic backgrounds, found sprint-specific training, including free sprints and sprints against a sled, band or hill, had a moderate effect on sprint times, about 3% faster on average, and that strength and power training could also help.⁸ A 2019 review of how elite sprinters train sets two rules: runs at 95% of top speed or more to improve performance, and full recovery between each sprint, so each one is done without a drop-off.⁹ It was written about elite sprinters; for anyone else the two rules are a practical starting point, not a tested result. The session, the rests and the week: the sprint workout.

5. Keep the rest easy, and add time before pace

A practical rule, not a trial result: the interval day only works if the other runs leave you fresh for it, so run them at a pace you could talk through, and add minutes before you add speed. Why most of the running is easy, and how to build it: how to build endurance and zone 2 cardio. New to running: running vs walking.

A sample week

A practical layout of the list above, not a protocol from a trial. The interval day is the 4-by-4 shape from the 8-week trial,⁴ with effort standing in for heart rate.

Keep the interval day away from a heavy leg day; cardio and lifting covers how far apart and in which order.

Common questions

How do you run faster and longer?

The same list, with more of the easy running: the long easy run is what lets you go longer, and the interval and strength days are what make the pace faster. Building the longer half is on how to build endurance.

How do you run faster without getting tired?

The research ties holding a pace to two things: running economy, the oxygen that pace costs,² and how much of your VO2 max you can hold.¹ Intervals work on the ceiling,³ and strength and jump training worked on economy in trained runners.⁶ On the run itself, a practical point: start slower than you think, and save the faster pace for the second half.

Can you run faster in 1 day?

Not by training: the changes on this page came from programs of weeks, 8 weeks for the intervals,⁴ 8 to 12 for strength and jump training,⁶ and 10 for the jump rope warm-up.⁷ No page can promise a faster time tomorrow. What a day can change, practically: a proper warm-up, a pace you can hold, and turning up rested.

Will lifting weights make me slower?

Not in the studies on this page: added to endurance training, strength training improved middle- and long-distance performance in the 2018 meta-analysis,⁵ and the 2016 sprint review found strength and power training could also benefit speed.⁸ Fitting the two into one week: cardio and lifting.

How do you sprint faster?

Sprint all-out and rest until you can run as fast again, as the elite-sprint review sets out.⁹ Practically, stop when the runs slow down. Strength and power training on other days can help too.⁸ The full session: the sprint workout.

The other goals

Running faster is one of the goal questions on this site with an answer like this one. How to build endurance is the longer version, how to jump higher the other athletic one, how to get stronger the lifting behind both, and how to get a V taper the upper-body one.

If you'd rather have the week planned

Intervals, easy runs and lifting days only work when they land in the right order, and that's a scheduling problem as much as a training one. Coaching is the version where your workouts are built around the days you actually have, and a weekly call looks at the week you just had and rebuilds the next one around what's coming. Coaching for a week that doesn't hold still explains how that works, and apply is the first step. Otherwise: run one 4-by-4 interval session this week, and keep every other run easy.