By BRUCE OAKLEY
Women Run Arkansas — Batesville Co-director

So you want to be faster, do you? Not satisfied having fun and getting fit, now roadrunner's gotta fly besides, eh? Fine, then, let's beeping get to it! (Eight-week advanced plan below)

To be faster, you must practice faster. To avoid going to pieces, however, you do this a little bit at a time. You let your body teach itself how to be efficient. One day a week, take about a third of your workout time to go much faster than your usual jog. Warm up with your usual jog, maybe even a little slower, for about a third of your usual workout time. Stretch, especially any trouble areas you might have (tight hamstrings, calves, Achilles, IT band). Then, for what totals about half of your usual workout time, do some hard running in "repeats": short bursts, with equivalent walking recovery time. Cool down jogging about a sixth of your workout time. Stretch again; rehydrate with carb and protein drinks.

A sample plan if you normally work out 30 minutes (as we are doing in the Women Run Arkansas clinic):

Jog for 10 minutes
Stretch
8 repeats for 15:00 — Run for 1:00, walk for 1:00 (begin cooldown after 8th run instead of doing an 8th walk)
Jog for 5 minutes
Stretch; rehydrate

As your fitness progresses, you can modify the repeats by how hard you run them, how long you run hard, how long you rest in between and even where you run them (hills, trails, track). Every change will improve your conditioning in some way: muscle tone, lung capacity, stride efficiency, mental toughness. You'll learn to be comfortable moving fast and your usual jog will seem easier all the time.

I've got an eight-week training plan prepping for a fast mile. I'm assuming those trying this plan are running 20-25 miles a week and don't think a 5-6 mile day is an especially big load. One training day will be shorter, raw speed repeats and another will be longer repeats working on developing comfortable pacing. Target pace is set by your goal mile. If you want to run a 5:00 mile, we'll be running 400s (1 track lap) in 75 seconds or faster. 100s/200s are always fast as possible (AFAP).

We'll always warm up jogging 2 miles, then stretch, then do our repeats, then jog a mile and stretch again.

First day: 3 or 4 x 800, current max mile pace
Week 2, day 1: 200-400-600-800-600-400-200, target mile pace
Week 2, day 2: 4 x 800, between current/target mile
Week 3, day 1: 8 x 400, target mile or faster
Week 3, day 2: 800-1600-800
Week 4, day 1: 400-800-400-800-400-800-400, target mile
Week 4, day 2: 1200-1600-1200
Week 5, day 1: 4 x 100, 4 x 200, 4 x 400, 4 x 200, 4 x 100, AFAP
Week 5, day 2: 6 x 800, target mile
Week 6, day 1: 10 x 400
Week 6, day 2: 3 x 1600
Week 7, day 1: 2 x 400, 2 x 800, 2 x 400, target mile or faster
Week 7, day 2: 2 x 1200, target mile
Week 8, day 1: 3/4 x 400, AFAP
Week 8, day 2: Mile race day — Go fast!