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Running and strength training
If I were to go back and change one thing about my running career, it would be to change how I approached I approached strength training and “core” training. It’s not that none of my coaches had me avoid strength training, in fact, I think all of them knew it would be beneficial. The problem was, that I don’t think any of them truly understood how to approach the idea with an endurance runner. Really, you can’t say it was their fault, as the idea at the time I started running is that endurance runners purely needed to be skinny. At that point, I’d say looking frail was a precursor to how well you would run!
Now, as a coach, and as an athlete trying to preserve my career, I can see the benefits. Being strong and light are exponentially better than just being light. Being strong allows you to handle higher training loads and be more resilient. This allows us to be more consistent and continue to progress at steady rates.
Getting strong takes a commitment, but I certainly don’t think the time commitment that many of us feel is necessary. Since experimenting with this myself, I have it down to an efficient set of exercises. IF we do a little bit every day, in some capacity, we barely notice that time commitment. We don’t need to sacrifice our mileage or our desirable weight. Nor, do we need to sacrifice our hard earned performance.
Alright, give me stuff!
At our camp last weekend, I presented a few slides on the subject: Running & Strength Training
My notes are on there too, so hopefully it makes senses. For our Training Supplements members, I have added pdf’s of two specific routines that I have made.
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