Tips from my weekly running clinic. Last week, Bryan Smith of the Running Room came to speak to us about goal-setting. Here’s some of what I jotted down:
- Don’t wait until after your spring goal race to start thinking about what’s next. Start thinking now so you can start crafting the plan that will set you up to reach your next goal. You’ve already reached a certain level of fitness so don’t just let it drop right off.
- If it’s your first time doing a half-marathon, you may not want to have a certain time goal in mind given it is your first time running that distance.
- If you’re considering training for a marathon, consider how much time you have to devote to training, and know that you will slow down, and that there will be a bigger discrepancy between your long runs and short runs (and you will feel like you are working much harder at it).
I have already decided I want to train for a fall half-marathon. And I’ll see how these May races go in terms of helping me make a decision if a full marathon (gulp) is in my near future. Even just thinking about the possibility of doing a marathon scares the begeezus out of me–although I found it interesting to learn that the Running Room marathon clinic brings you up to a distance of 32k. I’ve run 32k before–really, really slowly and with much, much, much effort, but I’ve run it…
April 25, 2011
Tips from my weekly half-marathon clinic. Last week I was just plain late to my clinic–I didn’t budget enough time to pick up my race kit–so I just ended up running on my own. (And yes, this post is late, too!)
Anyhow, my very trusty running buddy shared with me tips from our clinic leader (no guest speaker that night). Here are some highlights–she touched on hill training and after two killer hills in my 8k race on Saturday, that’s what I’m focusing on here.
The clinic leader spoke about proper form for running hills:
- Run with your head up, it makes it easier to breathe.
- Strengthening your core will help with your hill training–with a stronger core, you’ll have better posture.
- Keep your shoulders down and relaxed.
- When running uphill, look at top of hill and pump your arms to gain momentum. This will make it feel like the hill is flattening out. (I have to say that this seems to be a bit of an overstatement!)
- When running downhill, lean slightly forward and shorten your stride so you maintain control.
After two hills kicked my a** in the Harry’s Spring Run Off 8k this Saturday, I started researching how hill training makes you faster–I’d also recently told my running buddy that she must include hill training but I didn’t have specifics as to how it’d makes us stronger. I found out that you recruit more muscle fibres to get you up that hill than when running on flat land. Plus, because you’re at an incline, your foot touches the ground more quickly than it does when running on a flat surface. That shorter distance means your tendons don’t get as big a boost of energy to propel you forward. Both of these things mean you are working harder, so over time your muscles will adapt, ie. become stronger.
Faster, better, stronger.
April 5, 2011
