You don’t have to be trying to get into the top 10 every week to be dedicated to shaving a few seconds off your best, self-improvement is a trait that parkrun inspires in everyone. Having a great community around you will always make this easier too.

If you want to lower your parkrun time, try the below tips. The first one might sound a bit simple, but bear with me.

1) Start faster. Or start slower

Not to teach you to suck eggs, but sometimes it’s just a case of starting faster and seeing what you’re capable of. Get uncomfortable and you’ll be surprised by just what your body, and mind, are capable of.

You don’t have to start like you’re on the run from the police every time, but experiment and see what happens every now and again.

On the other end of the scale, some can certainly benefit from a steadier approach too. Are your slowest kilometres four and five by a long way? Maybe a more conservative start and a stronger finish could be the answer. Overtaking people in the second half of a run makes effort seem lower to the mind and it’s bloody good fun.

2) Break it down

If you have a time in mind then try some intervals in training. Aim to run 5 x 1km or 3 x 1 mile at your target race pace, with set recovery intervals in between. Maybe at first you just do 4 x 1km with 2 minutes of rest between each one and progress to doing more or reducing the recovery interval.

When it gets to Saturday not only will you be physiologically fitter, but you’ll also be accustomed to the pace you want to hold. Get comfortable being uncomfortable.

If you are not used to it, make sure you don’t do a hard session like this too often or too close to a parkrun. Your body needs the subsequent rest to grow stronger and you may feel tired running for a couple of days of days afterwards.

Photo: Paul Stillman

3) Join a club

The links between parkrun and locals clubs are stronger in some places than others. I know that my club, the North Norfolk Beach Runners, organise the local Sheringham parkrun and it is a great recruiting tool for the club, which is growing year on year.

If you want to improve then look for a local club and join up. Not only will there be sessions run by experienced coaches, but you will meet loads of great runners with similar goals to you. The running club community might even be better than the parkrun community.

4) Consistency 

One major factor in improvement is consistency. Make sure that you’re dedicated to your running. Rather than doing 10 parkruns in a row and then taking three to four months off, be a regular, get into the parkrun 100 club, and training consistently during the week.

This doesn’t mean you have to run parkrun as hard as you can every weekend. Sometimes it will help consistency to have an easier week, skip parkrun or just go around with some friends at an easier pace.

You can even use the opportunity to get a friend who is new to parkrun to come down.

Photo: Paul Stillman

5) Faster shoes?

Now this may or may not help. Shoes do not maketh the man (or woman) but if you’re really getting into your running then it might be worth investing in some decent kicks.

This is coming from someone who’s a bit of a shoeaholic, but having lighter shoes for racing or grippy shoes if you have a muddy local parkrun can really help.

Even mentally it might be that you just feel faster. Some shoes certainly have that affect.

Having raced parkruns in a variety of shoes and posted a variety of times I couldn’t recommend the best for the job, but having a pair of racing shoes can make a difference. Just not as much as the consistent training though.

RELATED: The magic 40s: parkrun to international runner

6) Become a tourist

You may be unfortunate to have one of the toughest parkrun courses on your doorstep which just makes chasing that PB 10 times more difficult. Don’t sweat though, and certainly don’t consider moving you and your family to more flatter lands. All of this running on a more testing course will serve you better in the long run.

However, when it comes to running a quicker time than your home course allows, get onto the parkrun website and locate a flat and fast course where you can really get your legs spinning.

parkrun tourism is a phenomenon in its own right, with many travelling near and far to parkruns across the country or overseas. So join them and go find a super fast course, but don’t forget your roots at your local Saturday morning 5k.

7) What not to do

To finish here is one thing not to do in your quest for a faster time. As easy as it would be to swap your barcode with the guy or gal who leads the pack every week it only changes the number, not your performance.

So don’t swap your barcode, because just like bib swapping in road races, it’s against the rules. Don’t believe me? Just ask Jack Gray, a previous fastest parkrunner in the UK, about his bib swapping past.

RELATED: Jack Gray has his sights on more than tabloid headlines

The post 7 ways to run faster at parkrun appeared first on Fast Running.

There is a long list of things, that when added to your training schedule, will over time enable you to run faster. This could take a period of months or years, and will require a strict training regime and regular self assessment. Not seeing results straight away can be discouraging and it will take a certain level of commitment and determination to persevere with.

However, the good news is, there are immediate actions that can be taken that will give you a boost of fitness and a shot of running speed straight away.

Try making these 5 changes to your training and you will see improvements in a matter of weeks.

1. Add Strides at the end of runs
Strides are one of the best drills runners can do. They will not only help improves leg speed and turnover, but very importantly they will help develop proper running form.

To add strides into your training, run five to eight strides, each roughly 100m after 60% of your weekly runs.

To perform strides correctly, gradually increase your speed over the 100m to 90% of your maximum speed and hold that effort for 10m, before coasting to a stop. Lightly jog for 20 seconds, and go again.

2. Add a dynamic warm-up before your run
Before a run, most runners either don’t stretch, or do static stretching, such as standing and touching your toes. However studies have shown that static stretching before a run or workout is of little benefit and possibly increases the chance causing an injury.

So, forget what you have done before a run in the past, and start doing a dynamic warm-up. Dynamic warm-up drills could simply be, easy jogging on the spot, followed by dynamic stretching, such body weight squats or lunges.

3. Try adding a 15 minute core circuit
Runner’s have a tendency to neglect every type of exercise apart from running, but eventually this catches up, and injuries develop. Without delving to much into strength and conditioning for runners, (we could be here all day) an aspect of conditioning that must be worked on for runners, is developing a strong core. A simple 15 minute core circuit routine, a few times a week is more than enough. Doing this will not only develop core strength, but it will improve your posture, when increasing your running speed.

There is a multitude of core exercises that can be performed, but to get you started try, this simple plank circuit routine; standard plank – hold for 60 seconds, plank up downs – 20 reps, side planks – 30 seconds each side, and spiderman planks – as many as you can in 30 seconds. Repeat this drill until the 15 minutes is up. Do this a few times a week, after a run, and straight away you will notice the difference it makes to your posture.

4. Mix it up, try short and fast
Varying the intensity, and distance of your runs, is one of the easiest ways to get faster.

Many runners fall into the comfort zone of running the same pace all the time. Mix this up, and add one workout per week that’s short high-intensity intervals, this could be on the track, in the park or hills, and a tempo workout, increasing your pace as your run progresses.

These workouts will help engage fast-twitch fibers, and after a couple of weeks you will see noticeable improvements

5. Forget pace, and run how we feel
Today runners can depend too much on GPS devices and apps. This over reliance on technology, can lead to inaccuracies in the ‘actual’ effort you exert during a workout. For example when running over a hilly terrain, your pace will vary whether running on the flat terrain, or going up and down a hill.

Trying to maintain the same pace over this type of terrain is near impossible and will require different levels of effort throughout. One of the best ways to run, is to run based on heart rate, running this way gives an accurate assessment on effort, and after a few runs you will quickly learn how this relates to actual pace. So, try leaving the GPS device behind for a few runs and listen to your heart rate. The benefit of this, is that by accurately understanding your effort, you learn to take it easy on easy runs, which will leave you fresh for your actual hard workouts.

The post How to run faster: 5 simple tips appeared first on Fast Running.