Lockdowns around the world have no doubt increased the number of kilometers run in the last three months. Running is without a doubt our number one primal thing to do. At one point in time, if you couldn’t run (and by run I mean long & fast) then your chance of survival wasn’t great.
I never grew up as a runner. I ran 100m and hurdles at high school. I posted some decent times for that age group but never took it further or ran for a club.
Anything long distance and I hated it! Pretty much all of my running as a youth came on the football (soccer) field.
Obviously, there was a decent amount of running done when I was in the military but I don’t ever remember going for a run under my own direction. We did have a lot of organized troop runs so it wasn’t really necessary.
In the last 12 months, I have run more than I ever have before. It started about this time last year in preparation for a Half Ironman in September and continued into a marathon the following month. I continued running throughout winter with the plan being to do a Full Ironman in July 2020. Since the lockdown, I have gone from approx. 40-50km per week to 25km total in the last 3 months.
Running is great but for me, it needs to be very goal focussed. I can not just go for a run. I need to have a distance in mind, a pace to follow and a reason to be doing it in the first place.
Over the years I have found other ways to be faster, stronger, and achieve a higher level of overall fitness than just running.
Running is absolutely something you should be able to do at pretty much any time of day, anywhere, anyhow. If you can’t just put on a pair of shoes and run 5km then you have something to work on. There could be a whole host of reasons as to why you can’t; injury, weight, current fitness etc. but it will do your fitness and life a world of good if you worked at it.
Here are some Pro’s and Con’s
Pro’s
- Easy access – just a pair of shoes needed
- Builds aerobic endurance
- Can get some quick results in your output
Con’s
- Doesn’t build muscle well and therefore not great for body composition
- Overuse injuries are very common
- Often the wrong prescription is used to get better
The Best Prescription
Most people who run for their fitness do one of two things:
- Try to keep running further over time, ignoring pace
- Run the same route all the time
The problem with this is that the body adapts to it pretty easily. The run further approach leads to overuse injuries, especially if you’re running three to five times per week without any other prehab/strength work.
It’s always important to mix up intensities in any form of training. We have three energy systems that need to be trained. To make sure we access all of these we need to:
- Run long and steady – for most people 60mins is long enough
- Run short and FAST – sprints are an unbelievable training tool and they will make your long runs much easier.
- Run hills – similar to sprints, running hills gets you very fit
When I trained for the Half Ironman and Marathon I never ran more than twice per week. One day was interval-based (run 4mins rest 2mins x6-10 etc) and one was longer. My longest run was 14km in training and I ended up running a 3 hour 20min marathon.
Here is a two-week running program you could repeat for quite a long time and see improvements:
Week 1:
Run 1: 30-45mins steady pace (should be able to talk)
Run 2: 8x 400m sprints rest 60-120s between intervals (push the pace)
Week 2:
Run 1: 45-60min Steady Pace (talking again)
Run 2: Find a hill that takes 60-90s to run up – jog or walk back down – repeat 5-10 times
That wouldn’t be the only training I would do. I would always and did do strength training also. We can discuss that tomorrow.
Feel free to ask me any questions or let me know above your love or hate relationship with running.