How my training plan is going and my tentative start to core strength training

One of the things I like about blogging (and the Strava app) is that it makes me accountable to others for my training and performances. I have to admit I’m finding the training plan a friend of mine put together for me to help me record a sub 17 minute 5k time pretty difficult! Last week, I felt like a failure for not completing my fartleks session. This week, I struggled with some speed work and had to stop well before I really wanted to, due to my backside feeling like it was going to explode in an unpleasant way in the middle of a park…and I really didn’t want to be that person!

The plan had been to at least do two repetitions of the following (the training plan said to do three repetitions!):

2km fast, 3 min recovery, then 4 x 500m fast with one min recovery between each, then jog for 3-4 mins.

I did the 2km fast (check out http://app.strava.com/activities/51552299 – I got a PR on 1km – 3:10 and 1 mile  – 5:23 – doing this!)

Then I managed two lots of 500m sprint work (check out my first rep at http://app.strava.com/activities/51553117 and my second effort at http://app.strava.com/activities/51553779).

It was my third 500m that got the better of me and I am sorry to say I didn’t even walk the last bit of the 500m to complete it. Here it is, http://app.strava.com/activities/51554655.
So…in summary, I have a long way to go in order to deal with the training plan I’ve been given, but already I feel positive about what I am managing to achieve. My pace is pretty much on what I need it to be, it’s just that I need to be able to run at that speed for longer, and these speed sessions, interval training, hill sessions and keeping up my weekly long run will all play their part in helping me to achieve this goal.

I’ve also started doing some ‘core strength’ work which includes exercises called things like step downs, prone stabilisers, bridge, side stabilisers, supine stabilisers, the plank and fire hydrant. There are of course loads of variants of these that you can check out on youtube, and I also throw in some sit ups, press ups and squats. Apparently, this is pretty essential because it helps you avoid injury as you increase your mileage and enables you to keep the thigh going through the same range of motion (ROM) meaning you can run faster and farther for longer. There is a good article I’ve been reading on it here: http://www.runnersworld.com/race-training/lift-or-not-lift-why-runners-should-strength-train?page=single.

As I’ve said before, I am mostly an optimistic guy and despite these setbacks in not completing what was laid out for me, it gives me that extra determination to nail the next hard session.

Do you do any strength training? What did you think of the article?

I look forward to hearing all your thoughts on strength training for runners!

barefoottc

Next time on barefoottc…I’ll be talking about my longest barefoot run to date so far and the comments I’ve had about barefoot running from friends and family alike.