Vary your training to improve your running times!

Running is a fantastic activity that many of us throughout the world undertake and enjoy on a regular basis. Whether you are a professional marathon runner or an amateur 100m sprinter there is always that part of us which wants to improve our pace and therefore time. Even if you just enjoy going for a casual run in the morning and don’t worry about setting the world alight with your pace, deep down you would still like to be able to run a little bit quicker. Think back to when you first took up running and how you felt heavy on your feet and experienced a stitch within a couple of minutes because you hadn’t learned how to efficiently control your breathing. Now just imagine that being a few months down the line and thinking back to how you currently run. Your running style, pace and breathing efficiency is something that will slowly develop over time without you even really noticing it. We are however able to speed up one of those attributes and that is the pace at which you run.
Many people get into a comfortable routine of going out for a jog in the morning and although this is obviously doing your body a world of good, by making a few slight changes to your weekly plan you notice the rate of which your pace improves will begin to quicken. To fun ways of not only adding a bit of variance in to your training but to also improve times is to introduce a couple of Interval and Fartlek sessions in to your training schedule. 
Interval training is where you run at different paces during intervals and the aim of this is to alter you training level to and from an aerobic and anaerobic state. The next time you go out try running at a slightly slower pace than normal but now pick landmarks such as lampposts and sprint between them. To start with try jogging between three lampposts and then sprinting to the next one, repeating for the majority of your run. Allow a minimum of 5 minutes easy jogging before and after the training for your body to warm up and down.
Another fun way to vary your daily runs is to introduce some fartlek training. Similar to the interval in how you are adjusting the speed of your runs through the entire journey, however this time the intervals are not quite as intense but for longer periods. For example, if your regular distance is 5kg (3.1miles) then try running for 5 minutes at your 1.5mile pace, then 2 minutes at your 10km pace, then 1 minute at your  1 mile pace, and then repeat.