I don’t do this often on this channel and that’s to give you one little trick in a video. So, today’s video is going to be short, but I’m going to give you my number one running hack to run faster, even when you’re feeling fatigued.
Let’s go to the intro real quick. Subscribe, I’m Jesse Funk, all those things, but let’s keep this video short. This is my number one trick, I actually used it today on my run. A couple days ago, I got my second vaccine dose so I knew I was going to feel not great for what would normally be a running day with a little bit of speed, I had to take that day off and move it to today.
Taking that day off, having the immune response from that second vaccine kind of left me down in the dumps. I had an okay run today but I felt more fatigued as I got towards the end. And that’s where this tip came into play. When you’re going faster, you need to keep your legs moving, but you’re feeling tired.
My running hack here is to focus on your arms. Forget about your legs. Now I’m a big proponent of knowing how your body feels. But this is a, you know, make or break kind of situation. It doesn’t work for the long term. It is okay to use to keep your body in rhythm. But this little trick is the only way you’re going to get the most out of your body right at the end of a race, right at the end of a workout, just kind of like turbo boost, and then it’s over.
It does not work over and over and over again. So, keep in reserve, but focus on your arms. And when I say focus on your arms, I mean, think about your arms and the cadence that your arms are doing. Speed your arms up. When you speed your arms up, naturally, your legs are going to speed up. By distracting your brain, by focusing on your arms, you can kind of mitigate some of the pain and fatigue that you’re feeling in your legs and kind of push them a little bit harder, just a little bit more to get the most out of them.
This is something I’ve used for a long time, the last 10 plus years and it has not failed me down almost ever. Maybe once when I was absolutely blasted and just could not go anymore. It’s very, very hard to get to that place. So, most of the time, we have another little gear in us and you can use this tip again, focusing on your arms, focusing on the cadence that your arms are going, pumping them just a little bit faster right at the end.
This is only going to last you a minute or so at most. So, save and reserve, use it when you need it. That’s my number one tip for running faster when you’re already fatigued. What other running hacks do you have? Leave them down in the comments below. Share them with me, share them with your fellow runners. And together maybe we can collect all of them and become a weird hacker collective. Can we stop saying hacker, by the way? Anyway, diatribe over. I’ll see you next time on the next episode of Runner’s High.