To be a faster racer, you have to be a faster trainer. That means speed work. Weekly track workouts are your best ticket to lower times on the race circuit this year, and if you're really serious about this, there's no time like now to get started. You've got to do intervals. You might not like it, but you've got to do it.
Intervals are a way of training the body to run at close to race pace.
For instance, you might do eight 400s, running each at 90 percent of your maximum heart rate with a 200-meter jog in between, maybe at 50 percent of your max. Sometimes, you might even run the workouts at faster than race pace. Once you're on a program, most likely with one of the many training groups in the Chicago area, you will begin seeing results as early as one month into your new training regimen. This will vary by the runner. Generally, it's within a month.