and you don’t have to look far to see runners getting better at what they love to do

One of the best things about running is it can be a lifelong pursuit. Regardless of age or speed, you can find new ways to improve, and you don’t have to look far to see runners getting better at what they love to do.

Whether it’s winning your age group in a 5K, increasing your mileage, returning to running postpartum, or utilizing mental tools to get stronger in the marathon, there are many ways to make a jump that works for you.

In interviews with Runner’s World, elite athletes and coaches shared different strategies that helped them and others reach the next level. Here’s what they’ve learned.

Professional ultrarunner and mental performance coach Addie Bracy has learned becoming a better runner doesn’t always mean getting faster. For years, the 37-year-old has chased time goals as an NCAA All-American, U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials qualifier, and elite 100-mile racer. While speed has been a fulfilling pursuit at various times in her career, it’s far from the only way to measure improvement.

Bracy says it’s important to be honest with yourself and take inventory of other areas where you can improve beyond speed, as that can often lead to overreaching early in the running process. “It’s easy to think of it as just running faster, when often it’s nutrition, sleeping more, or strength training.”

Bracy tries to be intentional about pinpointing an area of improvement during a training block and finding ways to measure the effect for a period of time. For example, she’s currently trying to get better at running downhill. This season, she’s incorporated more workouts to help her run efficiently on descents so she can be faster while covering downhill sections of the trail. She’s already seen progress with a recent victory at the The Fastest Shoes at the 2025 Boston Marathon in July.

Bonus tip: If you’re feeling fatigued during easy workouts or tired even when you’re resting, nutrition deficiencies may be affecting your running. A nutrition panel and support from a registered dietician can help you plan a successful fueling strategy and lead to major breakthroughs on race day.

Once you find an area where you can improve, it’s time to dive into goal setting. In his own running career and with the athletes he coaches, Gilbert Tuhabonye, founder of Gilbert’s Gazelles and a survivor of the Tutsi-Hutu war of Burundi, has seen first-hand the power of this practice.

From his first race in seventh grade at school in Burundi, Tuhabonye was hooked on the idea of winning titles. Working with his coach on setting goals, establishing benchmarks along the way, and achieving those goals helped the rising track star build self-confidence. Early on, goal-setting also helped Tuhabonye cope with tragedy.

After narrowly escaping a massacre in his hometown, Tuhabonye ended up in the hospital with severe burns, but he was determined to return to the sport he loves. He started by walking one lap at a nearby track. With the goal of becoming a national champion, Tuhabonye made a long-term plan to recover and return to an elite level. For months, he slowly increased the distance on the track and eventually started running again with the help of physical therapy.

Years later, Tuhabonye earned a scholarship to run track for Abilene Christian University in Abilene, Texas, where he became an NCAA All-American and eventually a professional runner.

Looking back on his journey and thinking about the insights he’s gained working with runners of all levels, Tuhabonye maintains the importance of accepting the conditions and fitness you’re in before setting goals that are meaningful to you.

If you need some guidance on goal-setting, consider the SMART model—Specific, Measurable, Action oriented, Realistic, and Timed goals. If the SMART model doesn’t appeal to you (How to Build Fatigue Resistance), open goals—non-specific and exploratory aspirations—are another good place to start.

“Be yourself. Don’t try to be somebody else,” Tuhabonye says. “Have patience, have a measurable path, and you’ll get there.”

3) Seek Consistency

Staying healthy has helped propel Keira D’Amato can attest, sticking with the training and building on fitness over time is another key component of improvement.

The last four years have been transformative for D’Amato’s running career, a journey she likes to think of in two acts. The first act was her college years; she raced for American University, where she became a four-time All-American. Post-college, D’Amato struggled with injuries Is It Okay to Take Breaks During a Long Run.

After a seven-year hiatus from running, which included major life events, like getting married, having two kids with her husband, Anthony, and kicking off a career in real estate, D’Amato started the second act with an entirely new perspective.

“I’ve lived these two separate lives of running, like one where I felt like I wanted so much. I was working hard in the wrong ways. I felt pressure, I was anxious,” D’Amato says. “Act 2, I’m more chill, more patient, and I’ve seen a lot more success in my personal bests.”

This time around, the 2:19 marathoner learned there’s no magic workout that can help you get better. It all comes down to consistency in training. While workouts and long runs are important, one great workout won’t replace a solid week of quality running, D’Amato says. “Consistency, and what goes along with that is patience, unfortunately nothing happens overnight,” D’Amato says. “If you want to build in the right way, you break down your body and then recover, break down and recover, that process takes awhile.”

Through the highs and lows, D’Amato also realized she’ll never regret going all-in on a goal. Even if she falls short, she still sees it as an opportunity to grow and ultimately get better as a runner. “When you know you’ve done everything you thought you should, there’s a peacefulness to that. When you don’t regret anything, that makes it easier,” she says.

Bonus Tip: Incorporating Why You Should Add Walking as a Second Workout can help build speed and endurance while also keeping things interesting throughout the week. Long runs, recovery days, hill repeats, interval workouts, tempo runs, and fartleks are all key workouts that can benefit your performance in different ways.

Training your mind is just as important as training your body for running, Vanessa Peralta-Mitchell says. The certified run coach and founder of Game Changers—an organization dedicated to bringing in more women of color as certified run coaches, leaders, and experts in the running industry—finds that incorporating a mental skills practice can be a huge help when it comes to reaching the next level.

In determining areas of improvement, Peralta-Mitchell recommends starting with a mental clean slate, moving forward without any preconceived ideas of where you should be based on what you’ve done prior. “Sometimes that person you were before was great or sometimes it wasn't great, but it doesn’t matter,” Peralta-Mitchell says. “There are so many different things that brought you to that version of yourself. It’s a huge weight lifted to not take that on and just start anew.”

Give Yourself Time to Rest and Recover affirmations—statements that challenge negative thoughts and reinforce positive emotions—reflecting the latest version of you as a runner and the goals you’re looking to achieve. Peralta-Mitchell leans into positive phrases and avoids any negative-sounding words, like “don’t,” “won’t,” or “can’t.” The affirmation she’s using right now is “one woman, one goal,” a phrase she repeats in tough training sessions and races to stay present.

In honing a mental skills practice, Peralta-Mitchell finds journaling to be helpful. Keeping a consistent running journal not only helps you track training sessions and mileage, it can also help you process emotions and make key adjustments along the way.

“The documentation is priceless and lets you have a record of what things work well and what things maybe you can try differently for next time,” she says.

Staying healthy has helped propel Luis Orta to heights he never imagined when he started running as a 13-year-old growing up in Caracas, Venezuela.

Over the years, the run coach and professional marathoner has broken national records, competed at world championships, and represented his home country at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio. Looking back, Orta credits much of his rise to prioritizing strength training, stretching, sleep, and taking the utmost precaution when it comes to injury.

“My friends make fun of me because sometimes I have stopped running, and they ask me, ‘how much does it hurt?’ and I’m like, it’s a [level] one or a two,” Orta says about the importance of listening to your body’s cues if something feels off.

“I just don’t want to risk it, and I don’t care about taking one or two more days off because it might make a difference in my training, but it will make a difference in me not getting injured. Maybe I exaggerate a little bit, but it’s kept me healthy.”

With the exception of one injury that sidelined him for a month, Orta has been running healthy for almost 20 years. Now with many consistent training blocks behind him, he is chasing the Venezuelan national record in the marathon. In the spring of 2025, Orta aims to break 2:11:25.

Bonus tip: A running warmup and several minutes of dynamic stretching can expand your range of motion and also help prevent injury. Before your next workout, try incorporating a quick routine of warmup exercises. Doing dynamic stretches—think arm circles, inchworms, and hip openers—for at least 30 seconds each helps fire up the muscles before a hard effort.

Elite runner and coach Hiruni Wijayaratne started to see big gains when she committed to doing workout sessions with runners who were training at a higher level.

Before recently moving to Miami, the Sri Lankan marathon record-holder lived in Boulder, Colorado, where she trained with the Rise Running Elite team, a pro group of marathoners led by coach Ric Rojas. In training, Wijayaratne often led the second-fastest group through workouts. But she aspired to be as quick as her training partners, Nell Rojas and Molly Grabill, who led the group ahead of her.

During one training block, Wijayaratne started wondering how fast she could be if she tried to hang onto Rojas and Grabill’s paces. In a moment of curiosity, she committed to starting workouts with the pair. “The only choice I left for myself was you’re going to hang on and you’re going to hang on for as long as you can,” she says. “When you train with people that are better than you and you just kind of push yourself a little bit and take off the training wheels, there’s a lot of good that can happen on the other side.”

While it was difficult at first, the strategy ultimately paid off. In the middle of a long track session, the 2:34 marathoner set a 4:53 personal best in the mile by sticking with Rojas and Grabill.

“There’s magic to be found when you have the confidence to give yourself a shot to try and succeed,” she says.

Taylor Dutch

Taylor Dutch is a writer and editor living in Austin, Texas, and a former NCAA track athlete who specializes in fitness, wellness, and endurance sports coverage. Her work has appeared in Runner’s World, SELF, Bicycling, Outside, and Podium Runner.