There are many benefits of running. From favourable adaptations to your physiology, such as: improved cardiovascular fitness, improved lung capacity and improved bone health. As well as psychological benefits, such as: providing a sense of freedom, reducing stress and helps fight against illnesses like depression. This post will help you plan your run, give you some cross training ideas to improve your running and also touch upon some running nutrition.
Plan Your Run
If you want to progress in your running it is important to plan out your sessions and taper to any events. It is also important to warm up and cool down correctly prior to and following any runs. This section looks to help you plan a running routine to help progress your running to new improved heights!
As with all activities it is imperative that you warm up and cool down. This is often overlooked when running or even performed wrong! A good warm up will help prepare your body for the challenge of the session. A good warm up will follow the RAMP principle (explained in the warm up blog – coming soon!). A warm up ought to:
- Increase your heart rate – this increases the flow of oxygenated blood to your working muscles which is needed to reduce lactic acid build up and produce energy
- Increase your muscle temperature – this makes your muscles more malleable which reduces the risk of injury and ‘pulled’ muscles
- Allows you to prepare mentally and get ‘in the zone’
After you warm up, you need to decide what sort of session you want to perform. We have picked 5 to discuss here, but there are many more to try with a little research online!
Long Slow Distance (Continuous Training) –
Continuous training means that you perform an exercise for an extended period of time with no rest or large change in intensity. An example, would be going out and running half marathon distance. This training is fairly low intensity and a good way to get your body used to increased distance. These sessions should last at least 30 minutes.
Interval training
Interval training means that you alternate between bouts of high and low intensity during your run. You can adjust the intensity of this by planning out your rest to work ratio (low to high intensity). For example, you could perform 1.5km at a comfortable pace then perform 0.5km at a greatly increased pace and repeat. This form of training is more intense than continuous training but helps your body deal with lactic acid and stress that you would experience on a longer run, but in a shorter time frame.
Fartlek Training
Fartlek training is similar to interval training. You break down your run into stages (for example: Walk, Jog comfortably, Run race pace, and sprint). Then you would plan to alternate which stage you perform throughout the run. For example: Run 5min, Sprint 30sec, Jog 3min, Walk 1min, Run 3min etc. This is again more intense than continuous training and also a good way to put your body under stress when time is limited. It is more structured than interval training and a great way to mix up your running!
Building
Building refers to you increasing your pace continuously after a set time or distance. For example: First kilometre run in 5min, 2nd in 4.5min, 3rd in 4min etc. You can also perform this in reverse or as a pyramid (Gradual increase to max, then gradual decrease back to comfortable pace). This is a good way to mix up your training and push your body in a new way and work on your speed as well as endurance!
Specific Training
Specific training is, well, specific. This is when you highlight a weakness in your running and hone in to train that weakness. An example of specific training can be hill running. These sessions are generally shorter during and focus on your technique and adapt your approach to obstacles that you may encounter during longer or new runs.
To see how your diet should change to match your training and on competition days check our performance nutrition post!