Want to get faster? We talked to several athletes who are known for their speed to find out how they do it.

Jeff Jonaitis

Chicago runner Jeff Jonaitis has some unfinished business in the marathon. Jonaitis, 27, who attempted qualify for the Olympic team at the New York Marathon, did not meet his mark this past fall.

“I went out just under 2:20 pace, but I wanted to negative split—when I started to pick it up, my body just shut down at mile 16,” he said.

Being only the second marathon, Jonaitis admits there are still things he has to learn about the marathon. “It’s frustrating, but there’s no one really to blame,” he said.

Jonaitis qualified for the Olympic trials at his first marathon, Green Bay, in May 2007. Just a few months later, he was toeing the line with some of the country’s top runners.

“I like setting goals and then fulfilling them—it’s what keeps me going,” said Jonaitis, whose next goal is the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. In the meantime, Jonaitis is concentrating on shorter distances like the 5K and 10K.

“I raced the 5K a lot in college,” he said. “I had a high goal but I just couldn’t achieve it.”

At Eastern Illinois University, Jonaitis ran 14:53 in the 5K six times in a row. Finally, he ran 14:31 at track meet in May. “If I really focused on it like I did the marathon this year, I think I could run 14:15,” he said.

When he trained for the marathon, Jonaitis averaged 110 to 120 miles every week. He spent many days training along trails at Argonne National Laboratory and Palos Forest Preserve.

Jonaitis models his workouts after information he finds on the Internet, developed by famous running coaches like Terrence Mahon and Jack Daniels.

“There’s just so much stuff out there,” he said. “With times getting faster and faster, I think a lot is owed to the amount of information available online.”

One of his favorite workouts during his marathon training was a long run of about 18 to 23 miles. During the first half, Jonaitis runs at 6-minute pace and picks it up to 5:20 pace by the second half.

For speed training, Jonaitis likes to model a workout after a former Oregon runner, Brad Husdon. The workout, is a 7-mile track workout, alternating between a 400-meter at race pace and then a 1,000-meter done at 80 to 90 percent effort.

“I usually repeat it eight to 10 times, just getting the body used to the pace,” said Jonaitis. Despite Jonaitis’ easy-going attitude, he admits he is very competitive.

“When I see my competitors get faster, it makes me want to get faster,” he said.—AS

George Wendt

For George Wendt of River Forest, it’s all about keeping up with the competition in the water. “I don’t pay attention to my time in this race [Big Shoulders 5K swim] but how I place relative to swimmers who are better than I,” Wendt said.

And then surpass them. “Sometimes I think that if I trained better, I could go faster than I did when I was younger,” he says. “I am placing higher in my age group as I get older so I am getting faster relative to my competition. I’m trying to get slowing and hope my competition gets slower faster.”

At 60 years old, Wendt still tops a majority of the field, most recently at the 2007 Big Shoulders 5K swim, where he won his age group and finished 30th overall, even beating one son by nearly 30 seconds and his other son by seven and a half minutes. “I’ve won my age-group at all 17 Big Shoulders races and in my 40s I was the overall winner two times,” Wendt says. 

But that just makes Wendt swim harder and smarter. “Every year my wife sends me off to the lake saying, ‘Swim smart,’” he says. So instead of following his pool race technique to pace the first half of the race and negative-split the second half, Wendt strategizes to pace the leaders. “I have to go fast at the beginning to get up with a fast pack,” he says.

Wendt got his start in the pool when his parents joined the Riverside Golf Club. He and his five siblings learned to swim and began competing in the summer. Wendt has since garnered a rap sheet any swimmer would be lucky to boast, including three USMS records, three YMCA records, six USMS national relay records, nine world top 10, four All-Time World Top Ten, and 60 USMS national top 10 times.

So what are Wendt’s secrets? He says it all comes down to training, technique and competition. He’ll swim roughly 4,000 yards five or six days each week with Chicgao Masters out of University of Illinois at Chicago led by the school’s head coach, Paul Moniak. The team’s workouts consist of swimming all four strokes combined with drills, kicking and pulling, and using various energy systems. “This variety provides excellent training and minimizes injuries due to overuse,” Wendt says. “We train hard, train smart and have fun.”

Wendt has learned the importance of technique to his swimming. “Too many of us just like to pound out the yards and get in our aerobic workout,” he says. “I don’t train enough at race pace or work on my starts and turns enough.”

If he can’t train enough at race pace, Wendt uses competition to get faster. “As I age up into another five-year age group, I get more motivated to go to meets,” he says. “Nothing in practice can really replicate competing in a meet.” —KB

Emisael Favela

Emisael Favela was one of the only runners who managed to keep his cool during record-high temperatures at last year’s Chicago Marathon.

Favela, 31, placed 35th overall in a time of 2:36, and was the second runner from Illinois to cross the finish line. “I did a lot of training in the heat so I think my body was able to adjust better,” he said.

The key, he said, was telling his body to slow down.

“People asked me how I finished, and I told them I felt like I jogged the second half,” Favela said. “I knew if I didn’t slow down I was going to faint.”

Months later, Favela shed more time off his marathon, running a personal record of 2:28 at this year’s Boston Marathon.

“I didn’t expect to run that fast this early in the year,” said Favela. “Considering Boston is such a tough course, I think I’m going to get faster.”

During the summer months, he trains at Palos Forest Preserve every Sunday morning for the trails and scenery. “I also enjoy the cool breeze and soft ground—especially during the hot Chicago summer,” he said. “A lot of times it’s just nice to be around nature and see a deer first thing in the morning.”

He mixes his miles up with long runs along the Lakefront on weekends, and occasional hill and track workouts. His favorite workout is a fartlek run, where he alternates between one minute hard and thirty seconds easy for a total of 40 minutes.

“You’re not concerned about the distance, but it’s more of an intense workout that pushes your body,” said Favela.

Favela joined the cross-country team his junior year at Benito Juarez High School in Humboldt Park after his two friends convinced him he could run fast. The next year, the school won the Chicago Public Schools Cross Country Championships.

Over the years, Favela has worked his way up from 5K runs to half marathons and marathons. Though he has run a handful of marathons, his favorite has always been the half.

“So many things can go wrong in the marathon, and you only get one chance,” he said.

When Favela started running a few weeks after the Boston Marathon, he was surprised how tired his body felt. Now he is mostly concentrating on shorter races, like the Chicago Distance Classic in August.

Favela never expected to run his personal best a couple months ago at a half marathon in St. Louis.

“A lot of times you end up surprising yourself when you least expect it,” he said. —AS