Get Faster with Moderate Workouts

As I ran a series of hill repeats up a fairly large incline this morning, I wondered if there was actually a downside to pushing myself with such high intensity. Sure, the obvious pitfall of the high-intensity workout is injury. But, my thoughts were more along the lines of, "Am I somehow forcing too much of a workout right now to reap all the benefits?"

For instance, the potential downside of gut-busting intensity might be similar to dumping the remaining crumbs of kettle chips from the bag directly into your mouth: Yeah, you get a bunch of the crumbs in your mouth more quickly. But, some crumbs miss your mouth and fall onto the floor. And, you're not going to eat those crumbs off the floor, FFS! Whereas, if you'd just taken your time by using your nimble fingers to extract those crumbs from the bag, you'd get more crumbs in your tummy.

So, I resisted the urge to run my legs into a shuffle.

I then congratulated myself when I turned on my computer and read Coach Jeff's fascinating article "Why Running Harder Won't Help You Get Faster". He provides compelling evidence that the same increase in speed can be attained with moderation, patience, and a lower risk of injury.

So, since finding this article on my news feed is so coincidental with my thoughts during this morning's workout, I figure I should share it with you fine runners!

I recommend that you take a few minutes to read the article on RunnersConnect.