WHEN YOUR RUNS feel strong—your pace is solid, your stride is smooth, your energy is on point—it can be tempting to dial it up and go further, or to add another run to your weekly schedule to recapture that feeling. And everyone from your run club buddies, coaches, and exercise researchers agree: To get stronger, faster, and overall better at running, the simplest thing to do is run more miles. A 2021 study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research found that training...

1. Hit the Sauna Postrun You’re sweaty enough postworkout, what’s another half hour of schvitzing? When study participants followed their easy or long runs with 30 minutes in the sauna three times a week, they improved their time to exhaustion by 12 percent on average, research published in 2020 in European Journal of Applied Physiology determined. “The performance benefits are linked to the thermoregulatory stress of the sauna heat,” explains Micah Zuhl, Ph.D., a professor in the School of...

Jump to: What Your VO2 Max Number Means How to Determine VO2 Max 3 Ways to Test Your VO2 Max at Home What to Do With Your VO2 Max Stats If you’re part of the online running community, you’ve probably seen runners flexing their VO2 max numbers. If you wear a running watch, you’ve probably also aware of your own VO2 max—maybe you’ve been proud (some devices equate a higher VO2 max with a lower fitness age!) or maybe you’ve just been confused as to what this number even means. VO2 max has long...

We earn a commission for products purchased through some links in this article. Why Trust Us? Running workouts are never really supposed to feel easy—the point of a long run or a speed session is to elicit adaptations that will help you push your limits. But what if you could convince yourself you’re not working quite as hard as your screaming muscles and gasping lungs might imply? Science says you can. From priming your brain prerun to dropping a well-time expletive, researchers have...