When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Home / Training / Run / The run leg: how to build speed and stay fast

The run leg: how to build speed and stay fast

Build killer speed to blitz your races in style with coach Joel Enoch’s track-based session

You’ve built base fitness, developed your strength and upped your threshold. Now it’s time to put a fine edge on your run performance by adding speed.

For many triathletes, especially those newer to the sport, run training tends to consist largely of building up the fitness required to cover the distance you’ll be racing over. Alternatively, you may have focused on increased volume, intensity or frequency. But to run faster, high-quality, short reps of speed development work are needed to improve the recruitment of muscle fibres – to produce more force – and produce neuromuscular adaptations – so your brain can tell the muscles to move faster.

Quality speed development work is rarely incorporated into training plans, but can bring huge gains for triathletes of all levels. These sessions are best done at your local running track due to the softer, consistent surface, but be warned, this is stressful training so only try this session if you’re injury free.

Warm-up

10mins easy


10mins

Running drills, e.g. heel flicks and straight leg runs


4 x 50m

Acceleration runs at 5km race pace with slow walk-back recovery

Main Set

80m max effort sprints

Maintain good running form

2-3mins easy recovery


Repeat 5 times

Take an extra 3mins after the 5th rep, then repeat this set once or twice more. Stop if you feel any discomfort in your leg muscles

Cool-down

3-4 easy laps

Afterwards use a foam roller to lightly massage your calf muscles. Don’t over-stretch your leg muscles in the 24hrs after this session as the muscle fibres will be recovering

Adapt for beginners

Reduce the amount of reps you do in each set. It’s best to do too few and build up over a few sessions.

Adapt for Ironman

This is still a good session for long-course athletes. Increase the length of the reps to 150m and run slightly slower, still looking to maintain form. You can also increase reps or sets but don’t overdo it, this is speed work, not threshold or endurance.

Profile image of 220 Triathlon Team 220 Triathlon Team Journalists, reviewers, coaches and athletes

About

The 220 Triathlon team is made up of vastly experienced athletes, sports journalists, kit reviewers and coaches. In short, what we don't know about multisport frankly isn't worth knowing! Saying that, we love expanding our sporting knowledge and increasing our expertise in this phenomenal sport.