If you’re still running four days a week, your: run faster or run longer. Both will make you a stronger, fitter athlete—but training for one looks a little different than the other.
Should you focus on running faster to build power and strength, or should you go the distance to test your physical and mental stamina? There’s no right or wrong answer, but understanding the differences between these two approaches can help you make the most of your training.
on the other hand, acts almost like?
Like so many questions in running, the answer depends on your current fitness level and your goals. But for most new runners, it’s generally better to start training to run longer.
“I think sometimes runners are quick to jump into trying to run all-out, whatever their goal race is, instead of just working toward being able to feel okay completing the distance first,” says Ruth Atkinson, VDOT-certified McKirdy Trained running coach based in Dallas. That means you probably want to think about the distance you want to cover first, whether you’re vying for your first 5K or have some shorter distances under your belt and are considering a half marathon or marathon.
There’s a saying in running: Start where you are. In other words, don’t put a time goal on a race when you start training. Instead, start training, see how your fitness improves as you get closer to race day, then set a time goal. Some research even indicates that building up your easy mileage will lead to better long-distance run performance compared to focusing on speed workouts: A study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research in 2021, involving 84 male runners, found a correlation between volume of easy runs—not tempo runs, not interval training—with world-class long-distance running performance scores.
Hopping May Help You Run More Powerfully volume is training your tendons, ligaments, joints, and bones to withstand the repetitive impact of running without overtaxing them, which might lead to overuse injuries. “Starting with distance gives your body a chance to catch up to the muscular capacity you need to develop to stay healthy and move forward,” says New York-based Nike running coach Rebeka Stowe. It’s generally easier and faster for beginners to build aerobic capacity compared to muscle strength, so you have to give your muscles enough time to build that strength.
intervals at goal pace aerobic base—the foundational fitness you need to sustain your training—you could shift to more of a speed focus.
Is It Okay to Take Breaks During a Long Run
Not all running has the same effects on your body. When you’re training for distance, most miles will be at a low-intensity effort. (When it comes to rate of perceived exertion, this would be about a 4 out of 10 effort, or lower, with 10 being all out.) That easy, conversational pace may not feel challenging—although it will help you develop mental toughness by teaching you how to push through fatigue and discomfort as the miles add up—but it’s stimulating important physiological adaptations that will improve your performance at faster paces.
For starters, you’re improving your cardiovascular capabilities. “Your heart is a muscle,” says Stowe. “By running at a slower pace, you’re building that muscle’s capacity to pump blood to the rest of your body so it can handle higher intensity work later.” As your heart’s stroke volume increases with training, it beats less frequently to supply the same amount of blood to the body—meaning it’s becoming more efficient.
Slower runs also train your slow twitch (type I) muscle fibers, which allow you to sustain your pace over longer distances. These muscle fibers have a higher density of mitochondria and greater capillary density, both of which help you maintain your energy level.
In fact, aerobic exercise increases the number of mitochondria in your cells, according to research published in the American Journal of Physiology—Endocrinology and Metabolism, and can increase capillary density by more than 25 percent, an older study in How to Run Longer found. The more mitochondria you have, the more energy you can produce, and the greater your capillary density, the better blood flow to your working muscles. Both of those benefits translate to improved performance at faster speeds.
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Speed work, Why Trust Us strength training, developing your muscles as you work against increased ground reaction forces.
“Challenging your body to run at a faster pace is going to call on more muscle fibers,” says Stowe. In this case, you’re working fast twitch (type II) muscle fibers, which are best suited for short, explosive efforts. These fast-twitch fibers also come into play at the end of a race for your finishing kick.
Picking up the pace also improves your cardiovascular capacity, but in a different way than easy running. Working at a higher intensity increases your VO2 max, “the maximum amount of oxygen that your body can use during exercise,” explains Atkinson. “The more you practice running at this pace, the easier it will be to translate that into holding faster paces for longer periods of time.”
Leg Turnover is Key to Faster Running lactate threshold—the intensity level at which lactate accumulates in the blood faster than you can remove it, leading to fatigue—so you can improve your endurance at faster paces.
To gain these benefits, you can base the pace needed off of your 5K time. If you don’t know your race pace for that distance, you can just go out and run 3.1 miles as hard as you can—it should be an 8 or 9 effort level on a scale of 1 to 10. VO2 max pace is a bit faster than 5K pace, while Why Run Longer Than the Race Distance in Training is a bit slower than 5K pace. (Keep in mind speed workouts aren’t always built around just these specific paces. A good training plan will have you holding speeds from mile pace or faster all the way up to marathon pace and slower, depending on your goals.)
Speed training also positively affects the density and structure of your bones, and may potentially prevent age-related bone loss, according to a research review How to Run Slower on Easy Days CA Notice at Collection—further bulletproofing your body against overuse injuries.
Another benefit of speed training: It requires a lot less time than building volume, which helps runners who are balancing training with other obligations.
even 2K repeats—you can work your way up to holding that
When you train for distance, your workouts will focus on gradually building up the time or mileage you run. Long runs at a conversational pace will be the cornerstone of your plan, along with some moderate-intensity runs and recovery days.
“If you’re running four days a week, you’d have one day of speed and three easy days with higher volume, including a long run,” says Atkinson. Your speed workout would typically include longer intervals at goal pace, adds Stowe. “You should do a good majority of your speed volume at half marathon or marathon pace so that you become more efficient—and more comfortable—holding that pace,” she explains.
The goal, when you’re training to run longer, is to improve your aerobic endurance and teach your body to handle the physical demands of extended activity. As you progress, you’ll increase your weekly mileage to build the stamina you need to go the distance.
Training for speed generally aims to improve your pace over shorter distances. You might run shorter, more intense workouts but with more recovery time between efforts. Let’s say you’re training for a fast 5K race: “You would ease into it by doing 200-meter and 400-meter reps at goal 5K pace, because you’re not going to be able to sustain that pace over longer distances yet,” says Stowe. “As your training continues, you progress to 800s, mile repeats, even 2K repeats—you can work your way up to holding that goal pace in smaller chunks.”
If you’re still running four days a week, your training plan might include three easy runs and a speed workout, or two days with speed and two that are easy, Atkinson says. Your focus will be on maximizing your cardiovascular capacity, running form, and the ability to push your body to sustain those faster efforts. “The quality of your workouts will be a little bit harder, which means the quantity will be a little bit less to keep everything balanced,” she explains.
Why You Need Both Distance- and Speed-Focused Workout on Your Training Plan
A good training plan incorporates speed and The Benefits of Training to Run Faster vs Longer.
“Think of it like a recipe,” says Stowe. “If you’re supposed to mix salt and sugar into something but you forget to do one, you’re not going to get the desired outcome. The taste is going to be off, right? If you want to optimize your outcome, you have to have speed and volume as part of your training, so you’re developing all of your systems.”
Starting with distance will help you build the foundation you need to develop speed. “If you spend a dedicated amount of time increasing your volume, you’re going to build a pretty robust aerobic system,” says Atkinson. “When you add speed work to that, you’re learning how to turn your legs over faster and become more efficient at faster paces. Then, you have the aerobic system in place to be able to hold the faster paces you can now run.”
For most runners, it’s a cycle. You may spend four to six months training for distance, and then two to four months working on speed; then you layer endurance back in and combine the two.
Both speed and distance training have their own set of benefits, and you can always mix and match, choosing what fits your current goals and lifestyle. Whether you’re training to run faster or longer, each step will bring you closer to becoming the strongest version of yourself.
