My Top 3 Ways to Run Faster
Who has seen the exciting news yesterday, when it was announced that the Obstacle Course Racing World Championships is going to be held in the UK for 2018!
This is amazing news and a great showcase for the event, with it being held in Canada for the last couple of years.
So the hard work now starts over these winter months.
You might not have you eye set on such a big event as this but imagine what could be possible if you put the training in.
You might have a marathon planned that you haven't done before, so set yourself the target of a brand new race that everybody was talking about this year.
So this weeks blog I'm going to look at 3 ways you can run faster.
After you've been running for a while you can plateau and need that extra boost in your performance.
By now you'll be able to run at a steady pace and have a good aerobic capacity. Simply put means you can run at a steady pace for a long period of time.
To get faster you need to build up the your muscles, and a great way to do strength work is by lifting weights in a controlled way and by doing interval training. I know recently I've been banging on about mobility work and this will have a big impact too.
When you're strength training make sure you've built up a good foundation first. Lift weights carefully and controlled and a good place to start is doing a whole body session, once you've been training for a month or so then build what you've been doing and challenge yourself more with heavier weights, longer sessions or working on specific muscle groups.
Interval training is a great way to increase your speed. You'll need to train for a short intense period of time with a similar level of recovery. This will push your muscles, heart and lungs to adapt to the intense work. So when you transfer this back to running over longer distances you'll be quicker and able to push yourself that little bit harder.
Mobility is just as important to being able to increase your speed. You need to have a good range of movement at the joint, and all your muscles need to be functioning effectively, this will ensure the right muscles are working at the right time and you have them being as efficient as possible.
So imagine if you can combine these 3 elements into your training, how much faster, fitter and stronger you'll be.
That dream of achieving something just out of reach at the moment will feel all the more possible.
Thanks
Gemma 'setting a new dream' Spackman
PS. I'd love to know what your dreams and aspirations are for next year, hit reply and let me know.
PPS. Anybody got their sites on the OCR World Championships either as a participant, spectator or marshal?
