Episode Summary

Want to run faster but don’t have time—or the recovery capacity—to add more mileage? Paul Warloski and Dr. Paul Laursen explain how runners can improve performance by getting more from the training they already do. They discuss auditing training intensity, polarized training, high-intensity intervals, strides, hills, cycling, heat training, strength and plyometric work, running economy, recovery, and fueling. They also explain why one quality session per week may be enough to produce meaningful improvements and offer a simple four-day training framework for time-crunched runners.

Key Takeaways

• More mileage isn’t the only path to faster running. Training quality, intensity, strength, running economy, and recovery can all improve performance.
• Start by auditing your intensity distribution. Too many runners spend excessive time in the moderate “gray zone.”
• For someone running four or five times per week, a useful framework is roughly three to four easy sessions and one to two quality sessions.
• One high-intensity session per week can be enough for recreational runners to improve.
• Runners new to speed work should begin with strides, then progressively introduce sessions such as 30/30 intervals, tempo work, and longer VO₂-max-style intervals.
• Progressive overload matters. Don’t jump straight into demanding track workouts.
• Hill running can simultaneously challenge the muscular and cardiovascular systems while encouraging an effective drive phase in the running stride.
• Heavy strength training—including squats, lunges, and deadlifts—can improve running economy.
• Plyometric work can improve neuromuscular efficiency and potentially transfer to better running performance.
• Cross-training such as cycling can add cardiovascular stimulus without the same neuromuscular load as additional running.
• Heat or sauna exposure is discussed as another potential way to stimulate cardiovascular adaptations.
• Recovery is part of training. Making easy days genuinely easy can improve your ability to absorb harder sessions.
• For masters athletes, maintaining strength, intensity and adequate recovery becomes especially important.
• One of the episode’s simplest principles: “The most important session is the next session.”

• Try Athletica | Adaptive Endurance Training Plans Powered by Sports Science
• Dr. Paul Laursen
• Paul Warloski - Simple Endurance Coaching

Hello and welcome to the Athletes Compass Podcast, where we navigate training, fitness, and health for everyday athletes. Most runners assume that if they want to get faster, they need to run more miles. But what if you don't have time to run more miles? Or adding mileage leaves you tired, sore, or struggling to recover? The good news is that more mileage isn't the only way to improve your running. Today we're talking about how to run faster.

Without running more. We'll look at how intervals, strength training, strides, doing strides, hills, running economy, and better recovery can help you get more from the miles you're already running. So if your training time is limited, but you still want to improve, what should you change first? Let's find out. So, Paul, if I want to run faster but don't have the time or don't want to add more miles.

Can I actually improve and get faster without increasing my weekly running volume?

That's the the good news, Paul, is absolutely you sure can. keeping it really simple, you just need to improve the quality of the running that you're actually doing. there's things that you can specifically target, such as your training intensity, strength training, and also improving running economy.

Okay, so if more mileage isn't the answer of those things, what should I change first to get faster with the running I'm already doing?

So probably I think the very first thing that you can do is to audit the overall training intensity distribution that you're that you're currently doing. So when you look at when you look at the spread of your training, does it look like you are doing mostly easy sessions, mostly hard sessions, or are you sitting in that gray zone always in the middle? At the end of the day

We tend to want the science supports that we want this polarized training distribution in our training weeks. That is, you want to have the majority of your sessions running fairly easy. And that supports an aerobic base, a foundation, mitochondrial volumes in in all of the muscle cells that are doing the work. And then at least one quality work, quality bit of work in your week.

Maybe a high intensity interval training session, maybe a tempo or a threshold session. so first of all, very first first and foremost, do that audit and and then and reflect on what needs to improve first. And then after that, yeah, then start probably usually if it's all easy running, the answer is easy. Just add that key quality training intensity session. If all of them are in the gray zone.

sitting in zone th zone three, just break, really work on your intensity control. So work on saying, being being very s purposeful and specific with having three to four easy sessions and maybe one to two hard sessions in a week. Say if you were doing five five training sessions in that week.

Okay, so let's let's go back a little bit and and start to talk about the first step is doing the audit, but the second step is understanding why running more usually makes runners faster and which of these adaptations can we get through other types of training?

So that is that's a really good place to start. So the reason more running works is that it gives a greater signal to your muscle cells to tell them to make more mitochondria. That's that's the key one. And and also to change their running economy too, right? Where they the the twitch characteristics of the muscles are improved too. So that's that's the reason why more running j

work. So then you you can break that down and think of, well, what are some other means of getting those same adaptations? And that's where we move into some of these other other mechanisms, such as strength training that we know improves running economy, or high intensity training that we know improves VO2 max, cardiovascular control, and even the peripheral changes such as making more mitochondria in more muscle cells like the the larger fast twitch muscle fibers.

So yeah, I I like that reverse engineering thinking, Paul.

Okay. So all of those will help, improving VO two max, latte threshold, running economy, durability, muscular power. Which of those can we improve without adding more mileage?

Well, one of the one of the ones you could you consider are the effects on the cardiovascular system and thinking about let's just look at the heart. Let's just look at how could our heart pump more blood to the working muscles and and do its job there. And there are a bunch of different means we can we can add on without having to add more miles.

And we could supplement that training with cycling, say for example. So we could do more, more bike training, which is not, very taxing on the neuromuscular system, but it is a little more taxing on the cardiovascular system, which is going to strengthen the heart and allows for more cardiovascular adaptations. And of course, there's famous Olympians such as Niels Vanderpool, this the speed skater that set the world records.

There is Mahe Drysdale, who I got to work with in the rowing program, who won two single single skulls Olympic medals in in London and Rio. In both cases, they those athletes added more cycle bike training and less of the specific training that they were actually doing to enhance their performance. You can do the same as a runner, improve the cardiovascular,

capacity, your cardiac cardiac output, and therefore VO2 max, and and enhance your running performance without actually doing more running. So that's one means. The other one might even be heat training. So you can do the same the you we know that heat training or sitting in a sauna would actually it it really enhances cardiovascular control. it improves the plasma volume, the water component in your

in your blood and then shortly thereafter it enhances your blood volume. So if you get if you're gonna make more red blood cells and expand your blood volume, this is another trick or tricky way to enhance your overall delivery of oxygen to those working muscles. So those are two interesting means, Paul, of enhancing

Hmm.

cardiovascular performance without having to run more miles.

Yeah, that those are good. I hadn't thought of the heat training, but that definitely makes a difference. if someone runs four or five times per week, how much of that running should actually be easy? zone zone one and zone two?

Yeah, I think it probably depends who we're talking about, Paul. But

Yeah.

in general, if we want to just a blanket approach and we think about that polarized distribution that we're trying to target, it tends to be three to four of those running sessions, might be zone two or below, right? To just give us that base. And then one to two of those sessions would be a high intensity interval training session or a a tempo sweet spot.

type of session, sub-threshold kind of work that Marius Bakken promotes in his Norwegian method apply. He does them of course double double, but that's that's more the the elite context with more time on their hands. But nevertheless you can still we still get similar concepts there in in our mind as as the everyday athlete that's trying to enhance our performance. So yeah w three to four and one to two on the

intensity.

Is one high intensity session a week enough to make a recreational or everyday athlete faster?

surprisingly it really is, Paul. That's really

Yeah.

all all you need. you more you can do more, but if you if if you can just do one in that week, you will make gains. And yeah, it's it's pretty exciting actually. It's the it tends to be the the signal that your body needs to make these nice adaptations. Remember we are recruiting the larger fast twitch muscle fibers when we do that high intensity session.

And because we've done all of that base training in the week, those the because the other sessions are zone two or below, the it it it gives us this adaptation energy that to take that high intensity session and and make good of it and adapt to it. And you'll pick up the next week. You'll you will see you'll be able to do more work the next week in that high intensity session. And that's a really good.

And those that I help when I in my coaching.

Mm-hmm. So I'm gonna ask you to put your your HIIT science hat on for a moment. what kinds of intervals or is there a difference with kinds of intervals that give runners the biggest bang for their buck with their training time? VO two max intervals, threshold intervals, short, hard thirty thirty kind of intervals, or sprints?

Yep. Well that's I think if you're a time crunched athlete, Paul, like I think a lot of people coming to this one might be, then short sprints are actually a great a great one to actually put in there because you can put those into a one of your low intensity days, right? You could actually

Yeah.

do five strides or, short sprints done quality. And even that is just this little it's a little means of

giving your body the signal to improve to recruit those larger muscle fibers and we enhance your running economy, et cetera. But then as you go down the list, we we can continue to add and tinker with these these improved sessions. One of them might be a a tempo session, right? So this is almost like a zone three just below your below your threshold, your your your your second threshold, all right, sitting around zone three.

And doing a l a a a bit of work in that tempo, kind of race pace, I'd almost call it race pace or below for something like a like a 10k. That would be a another place to start. And then wanna can continue to move move forward. We might do a set of short intervals, like I was just describing before. Three sets of six short intervals, 30 seconds hard, 30 seconds really easy. And then last but not least,

as especially as we get more towards the the pointy end where we're going we want to perform, we could add a VO2 max classic workout in there. say f six by one K on the track is is the classic one that yeah, but again as we become

Ouch. Yeah.

more and more fit, right? I mean that might start with two or two or three of those, right? Say if you're building

Mm.

up to a 10K

and and these would be around race pace, say for example. And everything is individual to the person, but all of these are little spicy means and ways that we can add to our existing training program to improve our our feature performance without necessarily running more miles.

So you're advocating for someone who has not done speed work that they do s they start with strides. Okay. Yeah, yeah.

Absolutely. Yeah. Notice the notice the progression that I made in that that example,

Paul. Started with the strides and just touching into the high intensity area

Yeah.

first, right? And then, the next after you've got the strides established, then you might be sampling in with something like a like a 3030 and just maybe, just a just a few. And but we we never violate the principle of progressive overload in the exercise physiologies. We we don't go,

guns blazing right out the bat and start with that, eight yeah, eight one Ks on the track. We don't start there. That's that's

Yeah.

never a good idea. It doesn't make any sense at all. You've got to work up to that bit by bit, rep by rep. and and certainly with when we th there's an old co old adage in coaching the intensity kills. So we we know that we respect it. But if we progress there with big long bases first

Then, sure enough, with if you keep showing up and you keep adding on, beautiful things happen. And and and you can all of a sudden that intensity doesn't feel hard. And that is in all of this, we should be walking away from our training, what that we do, that always feeling like we could we we left something out there a little bit. We could we could have done more. That's okay. The old a old the no pain, no gain adage.

doesn't apply with the maybe the exception of racing itself, but consistency of training and showing up time and time again is is what we want to be doing for good, successful, productive endurance training and a and adapting.

Leave enough in the tank to be able to do tomorrow's workout. Yeah. Is

Absolutely. The most important session is the next session.

the next one. I if if there's anything that I've learned, that that is the key from you. So it's like, that's that's

ha.

awesome. So we've got an episode coming up about doing hill repeats and hill intervals, but briefly, why might hill intervals be especially useful for runners who want to improve their fitness without adding a lot of mileage?

Yeah, I love hill intervals. And you think about a runner and when they're doing

Mm-hmm.

the hill sprints, they're engaging this muscle called the vastus lateralis. It's the same one that you, your cyclists use, Paul. And it's in predominantly, of course, in all of these contractions, we're we're using a a bunch of muscles, but there's a predominant one in both cycling and uphill running. This is why the i it's it's remarkable, but if you just have like a

an uphill race, a cyclist can come in and actually win a a straight, like a vertical challenge. there's it's but they've been won by cyclists many times because it's the same recruitment pattern and it's really the the highest VO2 that wins. So hill sprints, to your to your question, they really engage the vastus lateralis, coupled of course, with the when if they're done prolonged enough, then it's a good cardiovascular stimulus as well.

So and and this also improves our running form. So if we are, lifting, sometimes we we don't lift enough when we when we run and we can be a little sloppy. So it's it's really working on that, that that forward stance and and for and drive ultimately. So it allows the drive phase of your running stride to to occur efficiently.

We did an ep episode last week on running economy. and we'll link to that in the show notes. Can we improve running economy without running more?

Same thing. Absolutely we can. So, all the main means, of course, r running more does improve economy, but the other means of improving it were also the the the strength training is a big one. And when we look at heavy resistance training, so thinking about, if we are going to do let's just focus on the leg exercises as we should, squats, lunges, and deadlifts, say for example.

these these exercises would be done in a when we do when we do these heavy we're doing three to five repetitions where it's you that you really feel good quality in those three to five repetitions and that's almost enough and in doing so you recruit the larger fast twitch motor motor units and this studies have shown that the this format improves not just running economy

But overall time to exhaustion at at your at your threshold. So there's something about it basic ultimately, as we spoke about in the episode, it improves your fuel efficiency or your that

Mm-hmm.

that's what running economy actually is. So you wind up using less oxygen for the same forward movement, which winds up transferring to improved performance. So that's the heavy lifting, and the other one in the strength training realm would be

Pliometric training. So the plyometric training ultimately recruits what's called the in exercise physiology the stretch shortening cycle. And it's ultimately this reflex that happens when we land. And of course, running is this frequent, constant landing. You're jumping, jumping, jumping, and landing all the time. And in you by by doing the plyometric exercise, say falling off a

They looked at elite runners and they did a series of plyometric training interventions across two groups. One did it, one didn't. The the group that in did the plyometrics improved both the running economy and their 5K running time significantly. So

Hmm.

strength training and plyometrics are the big ones. And of course, the high intensity interval training that we already spoke of as as well is a form of all of that. And that's another means that you could do outside of just running more.

So if I only have five or six hours a week, should I be taking some of that time that I would be running and doing lift do my strength training and plyometrics instead?

absolutely. I I think it's just

Yeah.

like it's exactly how we frame the whole conversation, Paul, around the auditing of the plan and making sure that it's polarized. So if we audit the plan, we've d we now we've polarized it. Well, let's audit the plan as well. And just to your example with that six to seven hours available or whatever it might be, do we have, could we do two strength training sessions in that week, maybe maybe only thirty minutes each for a total of an hour.

And maybe we've added in now the heavy lifting and the plymetrics. that's a good use of our time that is going to be put towards enhancing not only running economy, but running performance.

Okay. This question seems a little obvious given what you've said so far, but you talked about training distribution earlier. Can simply reorganizing the same weekly mileage into more purposeful, easy and hard sessions improve performance? Can that actually make the difference?

it really can and it's it it's crazy to think, but the reason it does it is because it it's it just seems that our beings and our rhythm tends to be more enhanced by this days of easiness and days of hard. We we adapt

Mm.

better to stress. The easier days are almost adaptive days because you're we you know that

one or two hard sessions, we're actually able to absorb and and and and and make adaptation in the time and around that time that we are going easy as opposed to always smashing it, right? We're we're

Mm-hmm.

we're we're in this mindset sometimes where it's the no pain, no gain mentality, it's we always gotta smash ourselves and you're not it's if if it's doesn't if it doesn't hurt, it doesn't work, that kind of thinking.

And that keeps us up in a stressed format all the time. If we audit, change our our overall training balance to a more polarized format, then we're all of a sudden now adapting. And then that quality day, we can just really go out and and truly smash it. And and and it's just it tends to be a more adaptive profile when we do that, Paul.

Mm-hmm. And that segues great into my next question about recovery, sleep, and fueling. I mean, how does that fit into it? Can someone get faster simply because they're finally adapting to the training they're already doing?

Yeah, they they absolutely can. And this is this is just it. So they if we if we do the audit, we make the change, we're now in the more polarized format. Now now we are recovering better. We're not we're sleeping better at night. We're not we're not waking up in the middle of the night, deciding to get up anyways because we can't sleep and and then getting through the day, all the all the time, just in a in a stress sort of format.

And and and yeah, the ultimately stress makes us makes us make bad choices in our in our diet because that's what cortisol does. It makes us crave a lot of the processed food and sugars that that can be cripp that can cripple our adaptations. And it's tends to be a a constant spiral. So one of the things you can make concerted effort doing is saying, all right.

I'm gonna make sure that I have my three to four sessions easy and they're gonna truly be easy. I know where my zone two lies. I've had that calibrated and I'm gonna make make the easy training easy. I'm not gonna let my heart rate drift drift off. I'm gonna give that a try for a while and then I'm only gonna have say to start out one good quality session and then and see how that goes. And then and and one or two good strength training sessions. Audit that, see how that goes, see what happens to sleep.

and recovery and and then maybe your cravings as well go away a little bit and that's another thing we can think about doing too is trying to trying to take a more whole food approach to our daily eating and and and lowering sugar and process just a little bit.

Does the equation of this kind of schedule for training to get faster, does that change for masters runners? Do we should strength, power, intensity, recovery become more important than simply in chasing additional mileage?

Yeah, I think I think it does, Paul, especially as as we age. And as as we've spoken about before, the and again, we've both observed this as aging masters athletes ourselves, where we just don't seem to recover like like we used to, even though we're trying to do all the same things that all the all the things that we know can help us for whatever reason, we're just not like we're not like the twenty year old we we we used to be. So

I think the overall format that we've put forth is is still a good one, but you you just have to be certainly still mindful of that that recovery. I think it it may maybe it means it's more even more important to do the polarized approach compared to compared to not doing it.

Okay. And you you kind of said this in your in your response to the last question, but a as a way of summing things up, if someone came to us and said, I have four days a week to run and I want to get faster, how would you start that schedule?

here's what I would do. If I

did if I had my four days and I would I would make three of those days easy and I would make one of those days hard. and then on one of the easy days I would also have a lift involved.

So I'd try to also get and even if I had to couple a lift right after it, I'd use maybe the the start of that session for a warm-up. I'd I'd make it a warm-up, warm-up run and would raise my overall body temperature and I would follow that session with a lift. The other two days would be easy as long as as much time as I actually had available. And when I say easy, it's it's zone two or below.

And we've done lots of episodes on zone two, we know where that sits. And then the last day, the fourth day, that would be my quality work. And that would depend on where I'm at with doing those quality. We spoke already on the podcast about where we start. And that could just start with a couple of strides. And if you're net brand new to intensity, and that could progress up into 30 30s, to tempo efforts to

repeated one K efforts on the track, depending on where you are, always never violating the progressive overload rule. Never never you know only just adding on it a little bit each time.

That sounds good.

Thanks for listening today to the Athletes Compass Podcast. Take a moment now, subscribe, share, and let's keep navigating this endurance adventure together. Improve your training with the science-based training platform Atletica and join the conversation at the Athletica Forum. For Dr. Paul Laursen I'm Paul Warloski and this has been the Athletes Compass Podcast. Thank you so much for listening.