Expert: Ken Alan - 1/10/2011

Question
Hey,

Im a 13 year old girl. I have been dancing for 10 years. Ballet,Jazz,and tap. I am currently dancing every friday from 6:30pm to 8pm. I have just started snowboarding and drums. I join every sport in school, and i am 95 to 100 pounds. I would like to be able to run faster for longer though. Track and feild is coming up in June, and i want to kick ass in running. How do i improve? I have a tredmill, should i use it and how long for and when?

thanks

Answer
Hi Jessica,
Glad you're so active.  If you want to improve your running speed and distance, you can use your treadmill. To increase speed and distance, you need to find out where you're starting from. Warm-up on the treadmill for about 5 minutes, walking for a few minutes, then increase the speed so that you're jogging or running easy for a few more minutes until you feel warmer and your breathing is faster than normal, but you're not breathless.

Then, increase the speed by 1/2 mile per hour for 2 minutes. Every two minutes, increase the speed by a half of mile per hour. Continue until you are running at a pace that it is too difficult to run any faster. This is a test to find out your fastest running speed. Don't just stop when it becomes too hard, gradually slow down to an easy run, jog, then walk for a few minutes to cool down. Now you will know how fast you currently can run, so that over time, you can test yourself for improvements. Make sure you can run on the treadmill fast without losing your balance or slipping. Accidents do happen when you run as fast as you can on a treadmill so be very careful, okay?  You should have a parent or other person with you when you do this test, okay?

To test distance, you have to choose a speed that you can run comfortably for a long time. Say it is 5 miles per hour (mph). Test yourself to see how long you can run at that speed. Keep notes on the results.

For training, you should start with about 1/2 the amount of time you did on your 2nd test above.
Say, you found you can run for an hour at 5 mph. Your training should be 1/2 of that time which equals 30 minutes. Training should be 2x a week with the amount of other things you do.  Each week, increase the speed you run for those 30 minutes by 1/2 mile per hour.  This will make you run faster as you get more fit.

Be aware with the amount of dancing you do, you could possible start to have some discomfort or pain becasue running is high impact exercise and if you do too much of it, some people get injuries in their legs.  You may want to cut back a little on your dancing if you want to become a better runner so that you reduce your chance of having any problems. If you love dance, and it sounds like you do, you probably don't want to cut back even a little bit! But even though you may feel fine now, you don't want to get injured from doing too much high impact activity in the future. Make sure you have good running shoes too.

Hope this helps.