In my attempt to run faster I have 20 things to help me achieve this. I’ve listed 16 things so far in the previous episodes and today I’ll share the last 4 with you.

First let’s list what I’ve talked about so far. Training, the number one thing to get better is by training, so I’m training my long runs, fartlek runs and speed runs in order to run better and faster.
I’m training for strength by doing strength training and for speed by doing speed exercises and as a special training I’m doing the Big 3, the 3 best exercises I showed you that are very beneficial for runners.
I’m watching my food intake to help with weightloss and making sure I get the proteins I need.
Check my hydration with my H2O palbottle so I’m hydrated every day.
I’ll drink beet juice to help me with extra stamina during the race and taking my suplements to stay in good health and to be energized.
I’m wearing good gear during the race to optimise comfort and perfomance.
I’ll be running in my Nike Vaporfly Next% to have light shoes and hopefully take advantage of the shoes that have helped a lot of people set new PRs.
I’m wearing compression socks to help with the blood circulation.
The Air Relax is going to help me with recovery during training and get me ready for the race.
And I’ll be running with Stryd to keep track of my power and performance on the run.

So that’s 16 items so far now on to the last 4 items on the list.
In order to run faster I’ll be watching my form. I’ve mentioned running form in a couple of videos before, but today I want to focus on two things. In order to run comfortably and lose the least amount of energy you need to run up straight and not hunch over. Specially when you get tired you might tend to hunch over a bit but this actually costs more energy in the long run and will hurt your performance.
The other thing is the swing of my legs, when you look at marathon runners like Kipchoge you will notice that when his foot comes back it goes up high, almost to his butt and then it swings forward again for his next step. This makes his stryd bigger and his pace faster.

Ok, so you might say now: “yeah, but that is cause he is just running faster!”. And you’re right, but it’s not cause he’s running faster or putting in more effort that his legs move that way. It’s the other way around. He moves his legs that way and that is what makes him run faster.

I find that if you pay attention to this and you bring your heels up more towards your butt you run faster, but it can actually cost you less effort and be easier to speed up your pace that way than to simply speed up your movement. The only thing is that it’s a lot harder on your muscles and you might run out of gas that way. That is why those exercises from step 4, 5 and 6 are there. You train your legs so this part gets easier and you can run with larger stryd and better form.

The next thing that will help to run a faster race is to mind the course of the race. I picked the CPC in The Hague because it’s a very straight and flat race, it’s known to be a fast course so that is going to help. Also when you’re running a race you want to take the inside of every bend and run in a straight line to the inside of the next bend. That way you will run the shortest possible distance durring your race.
The CPC doesn’t have a lot of bends so hopefully the fast course will give me a bit of an advantage.

Another thing that I hope to gain some advantage with during the race is that I’ll be running with a pace group. I’ve never done this before, but I’m hoping it will help me at the start to not go out too fast and further in the race to motivate me to keep going.

And that brings me to item number 20 on the list. You have to want it more. I’ve been a long time admirer of Bruce Lee and his philosophy. He was the best martial artist in the world and even though he’s been dead for over 45 years now, there hasn’t been anybody better since. The reason for this was his dedication, he put in the work, he stuck it out, cause he wanted it more.

Same with Kobe Bryant. I’ve always been a big Kobe Bryant fan. I didn’t post anything when he passed away, cause you post things on social media to get likes and views and I don’t want to do that over the back of somebody else passing away. But yeah, I used to love watching Kobe play. And the reason he was such a great player was cause he put in the work, he practiced, he studied, he trained and he pushed himself, because he wanted it more. And that is the mentality you need to succeed. You have to go out there and do those long runs, you have to push yourself and do your exercises, you have to put in the work to get the results and on race day push yourself to get the result that you want. And if you want it enough, you will put in the work.

So these are the 20 things that are going to help me run faster. My race is coming up very soon now, so make sure you don’t miss finding out how that went. Until next time, get out there and run.