The 4 Key Components of Training

The act of running involves putting physical training stresses on your body. Adding in speed work, strength work, hills and increasing our mileages all helps with building our endurance and performance. We all love the physical side of running and we all have our reason WHY.

Running well involves more than just physical effort. My aim is to focus on your training using a more holistic approach. I believe that if we develop and train more than just the physical side of things your overall running ability and enjoyment of running will improve.

The 4 main areas that I want to cover are:

Physical Training, Mental Training, Nutrition/ Hydration and Rest/Recovery.

1. Physical Training: This part is the obvious one. The part we are all after, the training side. Pushing speed, doing the longer runs, upping our weekly mileage, adding in hills etc. It also means the strength training and yes, even the yoga side of things. In this category we will also cover Form: Form is such a massive part of how you run and will impact your abilities so much.

Form tips:
  • Ensure you are using your running muscles;
  • Activate your glutes- Especially if you work at a desk all day, ensuring that your glutes don't become lazy. Lazy glutes are the cause of many running injuries.
  • Ensuring that when you are running, it is head up, run proud.
  • Shoulders back and down, soft face, soft hands. Drive forward.

2. Mental Training: This is about practicing mindfulness or a form of mediation at least once a day for 10 minutes. I will go through different ways in which you can practice this and its importance.
3. Nutrition and Hydration: Ensure you are eating the right foods (eating for performance) and hydrating - pre-run, during run and post-run.

Why? Your muscles are made up of 80% water. When you muscles are full, hydrated, you perform better. Electrolytes also fall into this category. When your electrolytes are imbalanced your performance will suffer. Again, I will cover how to properly cover your electrolytes and the signs to look out for if there is an imbalance.

4. Rest and Recovery: All of you are on a training cycle; the reason I work in training cycles is to allow the body and mind to rest and to maximize adaptations. What does rest look like? It means getting your legs up and watching TV or reading a book, getting enough sleep every night, 7-9 hrs. It means allowing yourself the time to reset and get ready for the next training cycle.

Why? This process ensures that there is a balance between training and recovery, and ensuring that you have a balance with your training, work and family life. This area will also cover rolling and massage ensuring that the muscles are kept supple.