Running workouts for speed do more than help you hit a faster pace. They teach your body to move efficiently, build strength, and make everyday runs feel easier. When you sprinkle the right speed sessions into your week, you can improve your race times, boost weight loss, and feel fitter in less total training time.
Below, you will find fun, beginner friendly running workouts for speed that you can plug into your schedule right away. You will also see how to balance them with recovery, so you gain speed without wearing yourself out.
Why running workouts for speed work
Speed workouts are any runs that are faster than your usual steady pace. This can include strides, intervals, tempo runs, hill sprints, and race pace efforts. Running faster helps you recruit more fast twitch muscle fibers, build muscle, burn more calories, and improve your form and efficiency at all paces (Runner’s World).
These sessions also challenge your heart and lungs differently than easy runs. High intensity efforts improve your anaerobic capacity, which is your ability to run hard even when your body is producing more lactate. Over time, that means you can stay strong at higher speeds instead of fading late in a workout or race (Runner’s World).
Most runners only need one or two speed days per week, with easy or rest days in between, to see results while staying healthy (Runner’s World).
Start with simple speed: Strides and minute intervals
If you are new to faster running, you do not need a track or a complicated plan. You can begin with short, playful bursts of speed tucked into normal runs.
Strides: Low stress speed practice
Strides are short accelerations that take you close to your top controlled speed for 20 to 30 seconds. After each stride, you jog or walk easily for about 90 seconds before the next one. You can add 6 to 10 strides in the middle or second half of a regular run to gently train your body to move faster without a big stress load (Fleet Feet).
Strides are helpful if you are nervous about speed work because they are over quickly, and you choose how hard you go. You simply build up smoothly, hold that fast pace briefly, then float back down to easy running. Over a few weeks, you will notice that steady runs feel lighter and your form feels more natural when you pick up the pace.
One minute on, one minute off: The One-Ones
The One-Ones workout is a simple way to wake up your speed and improve fitness in a short time. After a 5 to 20 minute warm up, you run 1 minute at a fast pace that feels challenging but controlled, then 1 minute at an easy pace, and repeat this pattern for 20 to 60 minutes (Fleet Feet).
Because you get an equal amount of recovery, this session teaches your body to handle frequent surges of speed without burning out. It is especially useful if you have struggled to hold a steady tempo pace, since the on and off rhythm keeps the workout mentally manageable but still very effective.
Build strength and power with hill sprints
Hills are like a natural resistance machine. Running them quickly builds leg strength, explosive power, and cardiovascular endurance, and it can make you feel smoother and stronger on flat terrain too (Runners Need).
Short hill sprints
Hill sprints are brief bursts of maximal or near maximal effort on a steep incline. A common workout is 6 to 10 sprints of 8 to 12 seconds on a hill with an 8 to 12 percent grade, with an easy walk or slow jog back down for recovery (Fleet Feet).
Because you are running uphill, impact forces are lower than they would be in all out flat sprints, so the workout is kinder to your joints while still demanding from your muscles and lungs. This makes hill sprints a smart choice if you want to build speed safely.
Hilly tempo runs
Once you are comfortable with basic hills and steady runs, you can try a hilly tempo workout. Here, you choose a loop or route with rolling hills and run at a tempo effort, which feels “comfortably hard,” throughout. You keep your effort no harder than tempo on the uphills and no easier than tempo on the downhills, so you push a bit more on the descents to maintain that effort level (Runner’s World).
This kind of run builds both strength and stamina, and it teaches you to manage effort instead of obsessing over pace when the terrain changes.
Use tempo runs to build speed endurance
If you want to hold a faster pace for longer, tempo runs are some of the most effective running workouts for speed. A tempo run trains your body to handle and clear lactate more efficiently, which lets you run at a strong pace without blowing up.
What a tempo run feels like
Coaches define tempo runs in slightly different ways. Jack Daniels describes tempo as “comfortably hard,” around 85 to 90 percent of your maximum heart rate, or roughly the pace you could hold for about an hour in a race (Reddit). The Marathon Handbook notes that tempo runs typically last 20 to 40 minutes or cover 5 to 8 kilometers, at a moderate to hard intensity (Reddit).
Hal Higdon describes a classic tempo as a continuous run where you gradually build up to near race pace in the middle, not faster than your 5K or 10K race pace, then ease back down to finish, for a total of about 30 to 40 minutes including the warm up and cool down (Reddit).
You should feel focused and working, but not sprinting. You can say short phrases, but not chat comfortably.
Beginner friendly tempo options
You do not have to jump straight into a solid 20 minute tempo. You can build up in segments that feel more approachable and still give you the same benefits.
Some examples include:
- High Five Tempo Run, where you break tempo into shorter blocks that still feel challenging but let you check in often with your breathing and effort, ideal if you are newer to tempo running (Runner’s World)
- Magic 8 Tempo Run, which uses 8 minute tempo segments to extend your speed endurance once you are comfortable with shorter efforts (Runner’s World)
- Break It in Two Tempo Run, which builds on Magic 8 by using 10 minute tempo segments, so you learn to sustain a faster pace even longer (Runner’s World)
You can do these on roads, trails, or a track, and they are flexible enough to match your current fitness level (Reddit).
A simple starting point: after a 10 minute warm up, run 3 sets of 6 minutes at tempo effort with 2 minutes easy jog between, then cool down for 5 to 10 minutes.
Try interval training for faster gains
Interval workouts are another powerful category of running workouts for speed. They involve alternating short, high intensity bursts of running with slower recovery periods in the same session. This style of training improves both your aerobic and anaerobic systems, and can make you faster more efficiently than long steady cardio alone (Verywell Fit).
Classic interval workouts
A popular example is 10 x 400 meters, where you run 400 meter repeats at a strong, controlled pace with consistent recovery times. This session is known to build speed endurance and improve performance in 5K distance and shorter races (Runner’s World).
Another option is a simple Fartlek style session, such as Light Pole Pick Ups. You run a continuous 2 to 3 miles, alternating stronger efforts at about 85 to 90 percent of your maximum heart rate with easier segments at 60 to 70 percent, using landmarks like light poles to cue the changes (Runner’s World).
Research supports the payoff. A 2018 study found that sprint interval training improved 3,000 meter race time, increased time to exhaustion, and boosted power, showing that interval workouts can make you both faster and fitter more efficiently than steady state training (Runner’s World). Intervals can also increase mitochondrial function, which improves how your body produces energy during runs, especially for older adults (Runner’s World).
How hard and how often
High intensity interval training typically pushes your heart rate to 85 to 100 percent of maximum, with short all out work intervals followed by rest intervals that are usually about twice as long. An example is 30 seconds sprinting followed by 1 minute of very easy movement, repeated for about 20 minutes after a warm up (Verywell Fit).
If you are a beginner, you should start with intervals under 30 seconds, fewer repetitions, and longer rest periods. More advanced runners can increase intensity, duration, and frequency, but even then, interval sessions are best limited to about twice per week so you can recover properly (Verywell Fit).
Strength training that makes you faster
Speed is not only about how fast your legs turn over. Your muscles, tendons, and core need to be strong enough to support repeated fast steps, especially when you are tired. Strength training builds that foundation so you can hold form, stay powerful, and protect your joints and bones from injury (Runners Need).
Why strength work matters for speed
Studies have shown that strength exercises can improve running economy by up to 8 percent, which means you use less energy at a given pace and potentially cut several minutes off race times (ASICS). Runners who added strength work performed 3 to 5 percent better in time trials across multiple distances, and up to 3.4 percent faster in short sprints (ASICS).
Strength training helps your body use elastic energy more effectively, increases fast twitch muscle fibers used in acceleration, and improves neuromuscular efficiency. It also supports the health of your muscles, bones, and tendons, which lowers injury risk and improves stability when you run fast (ASICS).
Key exercises to include
Helpful strength moves for speed include:
- Squats and weighted squats, which target your quads, hamstrings, glutes, and core, all critical for maintaining speed and form over distance (Runners Need)
- Weighted lunges, deadlifts, and step ups, which build hip and leg strength
- Box jumps and jump squats, which develop explosive lower body power
- Calf raises, tibialis anterior work, and Nordic hamstring curls, which support your lower legs and hamstrings during push off and landing
- Upper body moves like push ups and reverse flys, which help you maintain posture and arm drive at higher speeds (ASICS)
If you are just getting started, keep things simple and gradual. For example, you might begin with three sets of 10 bodyweight calf raises, then over several weeks progress to holding weights when you are comfortable (ASICS).
Putting it together in your week
To get the most from these running workouts for speed, you want a mix of easy runs, speed days, and strength sessions, plus rest.
Most runners do well with 1 to 2 speed workouts and 2 to 3 strength sessions per week. With consistent training, many people notice speed and performance improvements within 3 to 4 weeks (Runners Need).
Here is one way you could organize your training:
- One day with strides during or after an easy run
- One day with intervals, a tempo session, or hill sprints
- Two or three days of short strength workouts, preferably not right before your hardest speed session
- Easy runs and at least one full rest or very light cross training day
If you are aiming for weight loss as well as speed, this mix can help. Speed and interval work burns a lot of calories in a short time, strength training builds metabolically active muscle, and easy runs keep your overall activity and fat burning high without overwhelming your body.
Pick one new workout from this guide to try in your next running week. Pay attention to how your body feels, adjust the effort to your current fitness, and give yourself a few weeks to adapt. With steady practice, you will feel your legs turning over more quickly, your breathing settling at faster paces, and your confidence growing with every run.
About the Author
