Middle Distance & Distance Running & Speed

Speed
First! Yes you must work on speed first and foremost. It must be part of every
training cycle. I find it quite amusing when I hear a runner say that I have
been working on base work, but I have not started speed work yet. The problem
with that approach is that they are not training to run fast, they are training
to run far, and they hope that the fast will come. The inevitable result is
undue soreness and greater risk of injury because of the abrupt change in the
training program when they do start to run fast. The key is to never get too
far away from running fast. It should be part of the first training cycle of
the year and be a part of each subsequent training cycle. Speed development
work can be as simple as sprint drills, light acceleration drills, or simply
finishing each run with 8 –10 x 100 meter fast strides.

It
may be a coaching cliché, but the winner of the race is the person who slows
down the least. Therefore I think it helpful to think of running at a
percentage of the individual maximum velocity. The goal in training is to
continually strive to run longer at a higher percentage of peak velocity.
Rather than focusing on pace, it is better to focus on distribution of effort.
Races at any level are seldom run at the physiological ideal of even pace. The
goal should be to distribute the effort as efficiently as possible over the
entire race distance.