25 Ways To Run Faster In 2025

I’m gonna give you 25 ways to run faster in 2025.

I promise it’s not all the usual BS. I mean some of them are, but that’s because most of the usual stuff WORKS.

I’ll get that out of the way first. Then we’ll get into the juicier stuff.

1 - Sleep consistently

Notice I didn’t say sleep more. I said sleep consistently.

There’s evidence behind this. But tons of people I’ve worked with report better overall recovery and energy when they go to bed at the same time and wake up at the same time.

Avoid trying to “make up” sleep as much as possible. I’d rather you sleep 6-7 hours/night every night than sleep 4 during the week and 9 on the weekends

2 - Eat whole foods

I have a lot of diet opinions. Some extreme.

But no matter your philosophy, you can boil it down to three words: eat whole foods.

That means unprocessed, unaltered, single-ingredient.

You mostly can’t go wrong if you do that. You’ll eliminate 99% of the junk in the standard diet. Seed oils, chemicals, additives, all that garbage.

3 - Eat enough

Yes, eat whole unprocessed foods. 

But make sure you eat enough of them.

I don’t like calorie counting anymore. It’s a fundamental misunderstanding of human nutrition. 

We eat for nutrients. Not calories.

But the principle is the same - you train more, you gotta eat more. As your output goes up, your nutrient need goes up.

Eat til you’re comfortably full. Eat as often as you need. 

4 - Run slower

People are starting to get this. But there’s still a ways to go.

You should be doing the vast majority of your running at a slow pace. More importantly, at an easy effort.

You’ll feel better, recover faster, and be able to withstand more volume.

Speaking of which …

5 - Run more

When you run slower more often, you’re able to run MORE.

You should run as much as you possibly can - without getting injured. WIthout burning out. WIthout sucking at your job.

That mileage for you is likely a lot higher than you think it is. You’re probably violating #4 (running too fast) and thus you can’t handle more volume.

The aerobic system is, for all intensive purposes, limitless. Train it!

6 - Threshold instead of speedwork 

I know some refer to “speedwork” as anything faster than easy pace.

Way too broad. Change your definitions here.

To the point - you should be doing more threshold training and less “speedwork”.

That means more tempo runs, more threshold intervals, more LT1 (steady) runs.

Less VO2 max intervals, hard 800m reps, mile repeats where you’re laid out on the ground after.

7 - Strides

Add in strides at least once a week. Twice a week is even better.

5 x 15 seconds with 1 minute rest.

Do ‘em at 90-95% effort. I avoid saying 100% because I want these under control.

These aren’t supposed to be hard. You should feel better after doing strides than you did before.

8 - Hill sprints

Once you’re consistent with strides, add in one session of short hill sprints per week.

These again are NOT hard! 

Find a fairly steep hill (exact grade doesnt’t matter). Sprint uphill for 10 seconds, fast as you can but with good form (knees up, arm drive, don’t lose control).

5 x 10 seconds with 1 minute rest. 

These do wonders for your power and efficiency.

9 - Strength work 2x/week

Yeah I know, broken record.

But it really is that important.

I’m not even going to tell you what routines to do. Yeah I’ve got some excellent ones. But I’ve found that people do best when they find a strength routine they at least somewhat enjoy.

Perhaps it’s a group class. OrangeTheory. Whatever.

Just do it consistently. 2x/week minimum. 3x/week even better.

10 - Leave one in the tank

Running is a game of volume and time. Not one of intensity.

The long, boring, dreary work gets it done. Not the stuff in the Gatorade commercials.

So with your workouts, always leave one in the tank - that means when you finish a workout, you could go one more rep (or mile, or km, or whatever) if you HAD to. But you don’t.

Ex: you’re doing 5 x mile at threshold with 90 seconds rest. After the 5th, you could take another 90 seconds rest and hit a 6th mile rep. 

You could. But you don’t.

Leave one in the tank. You’ll recover way better, be able to handle more overall training volume and workouts, and improve way faster.

11 - Work with a coach who knows what he or she is doing

Most of you are sharp. You can read up on training, binge podcasts, and implement a decent plan.

Let’s be honest - training plans aren’t rocket science.

But here’s the thing: a training plan is just a small piece of the puzzle. I’ll never sell just plans because that’s not what truly changes lives.

A great coach provides so much more.

For me, coaching isn’t just about helping you run faster - it’s about transformation. I want my athletes to turn their lives into the DREAM LIFE they’ve always imagined. Running is the vehicle, but the destination is so much bigger.

We’ll dial in your nutrition, optimize your habits, sharpen your mindset, and forge you into an absolute warrior.

If 2025 is the year you’re ready to level up - both in running and in life - I’m taking on clients now. Apply here.

12 - Add some barefoot running

Notice I said “some.” Don’t suddenly ditch the shoes and run barefoot on the highway.

But a little barefoot running goes a long way.

Start with the last 5-10 minutes of an easy run each week. If you can finish the run on a grass field of some kind, all the better.

Then work it up slowly - 20 minutes of running, some barefoot strides, all your cooldowns after workouts barefoot.

It’ll massively strengthen your feet, ankles, and the many tendons and ligaments down there.

13 - Stop fueling during 45 minute runs

Taking in gels for runs <60 minutes - it’s gotta go.

Really, I’d like to see more people going 90 minutes without fuel. Even 2 hours.

Metabolic flexibility. You don’t want to be exclusively reliant on sugary gels and drinks. 

14 - Eat the frog first

The “frog” in this case is your training. And eating it is doing it. I’m an over-explainer.

For many of you, this advice doesn’t matter. You have jobs, kids, busy schedules. You have to run first thing in the morning.

I’m in that boat right now. 2 young ones who get up right around 7am - I gotta be done by then.

But even then, it’s easy to delay. 

“I’ll have time tonight!” says man who didn’t end up having time the last dozen times he said that.

Get it done first thing in the morning. That way you always get it done.

15 - De-prioritize long runs

Hang on, relax. I didn’t say to axe the long runs.

Just … stop putting so much stock in them.

If you’re deep in marathon training, I get it, you have to do some quality long runs. Indisputable. 

But for most people at most points in training, long runs are overrated.

I’d rather have someone running 7-10 miles throughout the week - who then only does a 10 miler on the weekend - than someone who runs 4-6 during the week and smashes a 15 miler on Saturday.

YES there are benefits to going 90+ minutes. Mitochondrial density, capillary development, more red blood cells, better fat adaptation.

But there’s a downside - often recovery from a long run spills into the next week. Especially with people doing long runs on Sundays (heresy in my opinion - Saturday is long run day).

IN: high overall weekly mileage.

OUT: excessive long runs.

16 - Run hilly routes

I love hills. 

My athletes do a lot of ‘em. A guy I coach in south Florida - he does his in a parking garage!

The easiest way to incorporate hills into your training - just run hilly routes.

“But my heart rate gets too high on the uphills!” - run slower. Walk a bit if you have to.

Such tremendous benefits - strength, power, injury resistance.

17 - Run on soft surfaces 

This is like barefoot running. In fact, you’d do well to combine the two.

Once or twice a week, get out to some trails or grass and do some soft surface running.

I once heard it explained this way - take a basketball and drop it on asphalt. See how high it bounces. Then drop it on grass and see how high it bounces.

That’s what’s coming back up to your legs.

Now it’s not that simple. I don’t really want my athletes doing all of their running on soft surfaces (complicated topic, I’ll talk more about it later).

But a little goes a long way. Do an easy run or two on soft surfaces, even if you have to drive a bit.

18 - Say hi to other runners

OK, this may not actually make you faster. But it’s great for the running community.

And if you improve someone’s day as the only person out of 100 to smile and say hello to them - you might just get a boost yourself!

Your workout isn’t too important to give a quick smile and wave. Don’t be too cool for it. Don’t be shy.

19 - Internal recovery > external recovery

Cold plunge, sauna, massage - these are all hot right now.

I call those “external recovery”.

Internal recovery is your nutrition, your sleep, your lifestyle. And it dwarfs all that other stuff.

Take care of the internal recovery and you’ll solve 95% of recovery issues. And you’ll feel way way better as a result.

Do that before shelling out for a massage.

20 - Don’t constantly try to up your mileage

I know I said earlier to run as much as you can handle. And I maintain that.

And yet, the same mileage can take you a long way.

Let’s say you’re running 50 miles/week - which, in my opinion, is the minimum you should aim for to really maximize your aerobic system, anything less and you’re leaving fitness on the table.

You can do that for weeks, months, even years, and you’ll still improve.

Yes, your improvement won’t always be exponential like it can be at first. It’ll taper off. But you will continue to get fitter.

Same goes for intensity - harder is not always better. CONSISTENCY is better.

21 - Don’t get sick

… like me. Hey, both my kids got sick, my wife got sick, I was the last holdout but perhaps it was inevitable.

Try your best to avoid it. A head cold is no biggie, but anything more serious will knock you out of training just like an injury.

How?

#19 - good nutrition, good sleep, good lifestyle. Strengthen the immune system.

You’ll never avoid all illnesses (unless you become Bubble Boy) so give your body the ammo it needs to fight whatever comes.

22 - Look at every day as extremely important and a blip on the radar

Let me explain.

If you miss a run - ideally due to a legit excuse - it’s not the end of the world.

No one run will make or break your training plan.

But don’t skip a run with the excuse of “it’s just one day.” 

It ALL matters. Every single day matters. 

Anything great worth pursuing is crafted in the margins. Every single day. Then you wake up 3 years later and you’re a totally different human being.

Every day matters.

23 - Get your gut health right

I won’t go too deep into this here.

But if you’re having ANY sort of gut/digestive issue - any - fix it. Do whatever it takes to fix it.

You’ll recover better, run faster, race better, and feel absolutely fantastic.

Fix your gut.

24 - Reward yourself sometimes

When Galen Rupp was breaking American records left and right, I’d see him eating Swedish Fish after some of those incredible performances.

Now it’s possible it was just some quick fuel before doing his insane post-race workouts.

But I saw it as a little reward for himself. Something small to make him feel a bit giddy after running so fast.

You of course don’t have to reward yourself in the form of candy. But the point stands - don’t hesitate to reward yourself for a job well done.

And it doesn’t have to be a race - perhaps a night out after a great training week. A little reinforcement.

Don’t just be a grumpy grinder. <— I wrote that out, realized it sounds weird, but I’m keeping it anyway.

25 - Have some fun

I’m noticing a trend on social media - the caption or text on the screen says “Where were you Friday night?” and the video is the creator’s bedtime routine. The chamomile tea, the meditation, the eye mask.

I respect the hustle. Discipline indeed requires sacrifice.

But humans are not robots. We require more than eat, run, sleep.

Someone told me once, “sometimes it’s better to have a couple beers with your friends on Friday night than to tuck in at 9:30pm.”

Be dedicated. Be disciplined. Follow your routines.

But don’t let running be an excuse to be antisocial, or to not have any fun, or whatever. 

Have some fun!