A Runner’s Tale: The Unexpected Journey

The mission of today’s Coach’s Corner is to highlight three training facets that I’ve seen make fast runners in my career as a triathlon and running coach. When I say “runners,” I mean every athlete who runs, including triathletes, ultrarunners, marathoners, track athletes, soccer players, Spartan racers, etc., etc. 

Nowadays, most training plans tend to cherry-pick specific elements from elite runners’ regimes, then mash them together to create a “program.” All coaches are guilty of it, and there’s nothing wrong with throwing in a few key workouts you’ve learned over the years. However, most people don’t have the time (or talent!) that elite runners possess. It’s important for a coach to tailor a program to the needs of the client. I have seen some very consistent results with the more common athlete, the competitive age-grouper, or the lifestyle athlete using the three training facets outlined below.

Let’s dive in:

1. Become a better swimmer. I have clung hard to this one for most of my coaching career, and it keeps proving true.

• Swimming improves the efficiency of the cardiovascular system without putting unnecessary stress on the muscles and joints used for running. 
• Swimming is an incredible recovery tool. It stimulates blood flow throughout the body without the risk of injury. 
• Finally, swim workouts help strengthen your mental “pacing muscles.” You learn to gauge an effort without the aid of metrics. 

1. Get stronger. It bothers me that runners still have a stigma against lifting anything heavier than a bag of groceries. Breaking the mold and hitting the gym has never yielded a negative result in my 12 years of coaching. Why?  

• Stronger muscles are more resilient. Running places a lot of stress on your body, and avoiding injury is a massive predictor of long-term success. 
• Lifting heavy improves posture. Weak posture typically hinders you and breaks down as you run faster or longer. Strong posture equals faster running. 
• Lifting heavy things ingrains coordination and encourages movement from your center. When athletes learn to generate power from their center (hips and core) and not their feet, efficiency improves, and speed follows.

1. Do your drills. I recently read something very disheartening, a 16-week Marathon program with 96 running sessions and no mention of technique or drills. So the logic of this program is that regardless of your technique, increased volume and effort will lead to improved times. Ridiculous…

• Running is a skill. Treat it as such. It is a counter-rotational, explosive, single-legged plyometric exercise performed 80+ times a minute! How is that not something that we should spend some time perfecting?
• Drills are an efficient use of time and are often more valuable than your daily “easy run.” Running technique is not something you can correct overnight, but, like steering an elephant, you can gradually get smoother, more connected, and more efficient over time.  

While these facets may not be what is taught in general running coaching media, I can tell you I’ve personally watched hundreds of runners in the last dozen years benefit massively from employing these three strategies.

Thanks,

Coach Mike