9:30 a.m. 8 miles easy. Had intended doing 10 Benjamin Buttons but the legs were having none of it: they're tired - in a good way - from yesterday's Power of Threes and Crazy Cubans. So, I've moved the Benjies to tomorrow and I'll do the Forever Youngs and another session of Power of Threes on Saturday.
After I've done my second run, I'll post some stuff about strength building that carries little risk of injury, takes little time, and is very specific to the actual act of running - unlike most strength schedules that runners follow. The three exercises (The Power of Threes - I know Bret's anxious to know about the Crazy Cubans, but I'll explain them after I've dealt with the Power of Threes) improve co-ordination and leg muscle power, and after several weeks the legs feel much stronger, resulting in an improvement in stride length and frequency - something I suspect that we'd all like a bit of...
7:00 p.m. 4.5 miles. 800m jog to pub, 3.5 miles easy with Tom and 800m jog home. Nice run legs felt much better than this morning.
Following on from the necessity for strength training to develop stride length and frequency, I have set out some of the basics below - these are not original ideas of mine, they come from research carried out by a variety white coated chaps. I've just mashed the stuff together from articles to make them more accessible.
Now, although I spent a good part of my life overseeing the nutrition, physical therapy and fitness training (including strength and power training) of 56 sports clubs at the University of Oxford, I never did any strength training for my own running. I was old school; I didn’t believe. But my recent research and sessions have shown me what I was missing.
Many runners hit the gym and do general conditioning work in the belief that it will improve their running, while many think the best thing is to just get out there and run. And to date, much of the research exploring the link between strength training and endurance performance has focused on standard exercises. Overall, the exercises do a good job of developing generalised muscle tone and strength, but despite their popularity, no research has ever determined that they improve endurance running capability. In fact, it is difficult to understand exactly how these standard resistance exercises would promote better endurance performances.
Running involves multiple joint actions and forces, numerous muscle groups in the hips, legs, ankles, and feet (think about your injuries and niggles)to work concurrently to maintain control and balance. Weight training tends to focus on isolated muscles and ignores the complex, coordinated motor patterns required for running.
Since traditional resistance routines are of doubtful value because of their lack of similarity to running, what kind of strength training should you employ? To answer this question, it's important to remember that all competitive running events require the development and maintenance of speed over a specified period of time. Running speed is largely dependent on the amount of force applied to the ground during each foot strike, and the time over which that force is applied. The greater the force of a foot strike and the shorter its period of application, the higher the power of an individual step and the faster the speed of a runner. By increasing the power exerted during each step, runners raise their speed.
A lot of the power produced during running depends on the mechanical "energy return" properties of a runner's feet and legs. The muscles and tendons of the lower extremities act like springs during running, mainly by storing energy just before and during the compression associated with foot strike and then releasing ("returning") this energy during take off. This return of energy is influenced by both the elasticity of the muscles and tendons and by nerve cells which control muscle and tendon flexibility.
Better nervous system control of the muscles of the lower limbs should produce higher levels of elasticity and improved energy return. Resistance exercises aimed at improving running performance should not just attempt to increase general muscle strength, they should enhance specific activities of the nervous and muscular systems, which promote faster, more coordinated movements.
What is really needed is specific strength training for runners, exercises that target the muscles and neuronal pathways responsible for actual energy return during running. Although this may sound complicated, it should not have to be in actual practice, and it is not. Tomorrow, I'll show you three key power building exercises that are easy to carry out, will not take much of your time, and will rejuvenate your running because they replicate key motor movements involved in the process of running. | 