Training advice for the Fit Pros

Can you improve running in your own home?

My high achieving clients want to be the best at everything, even park runs. Sometimes they will have a few weeks where they need to train hard and end up sacrificing other things just to improve their times. If they don’t do this, then they could end up being beaten by someone like Dave who eats keabs, smokes, drinks and yet always has time to train for running. 

The main problem is to fit in the running, you are going to risk sacrificing home life, social life and work opportunities. Equally another problem to solve is that even though you might taste the sweet success of a park run victory, over Dave. He might not even know you are racing him! In this article I am going to show you three easy-to-do at home exercises, in a programme, that might solve all these issues so you can claim victory over Dave. 

How can you run better when you have not time to run more? 

At school you were probably one of the best at cross country, maybe you even represented the county, then slowly you took on more social activities, your job got more intense and you had a family.  All these responsibilities then eat into that running practice time, first you knock a couple of runs and the sprint session out, and now you rely on pure talent to just turn up and run one Sunday a month. 

On the other hand, Dave has no kids, does not volunteer for local committees (hockey club secretary, PTA accountant etc), he has no family, so he runs just to kill time and stop boredom.  He says it’ss so he can stand out in the pubs at the weekend, but I think his shirt choice does that on its own. Dave used to finish in the middle of the cross country runs, and he is older, with bad knees and a dodgy back (well that’s what he says, it might just so he gets the best chair in the office). 

It would be nice to be able to beat Dave at park run, and yet is it worth dropping some of your other jobs to do this? My client faced this dilemma, and luckily for him, we got chatting about it online. 

My clients problem is that park run training when performed optimally would be to practice running in the park.  On a technical note, that would help because one of the complexities of fatigue (avoiding that wall), can be overcome by getting experience of the event.  Also training has to have a carry over, and that requires the exercise to look like the movement, Doing training running in a gym at lunch is not as easy as sitting on machines and pushing a couple of weights. 

Running is hard to do when you have kids, wive’s (most people just one), and pets, “my dog won’t leave me alone`” (is what one of my clients said).  On top of that they often have to bring work home so they can get promoted and earn more to support their growing family, plus they love their work! it’s a passion as well as a job. Finally the cricket club needs their secretary to take notes, and he hates to miss out on his Friday evening in the pub, even though Dave often turns up lecturing on how to be a better running with a Kebab pre-meal smell lingering! 

Exercises

I have put together a progression of exercises that look like running, for my client.  Initially they had to learn the first one, then move to the second and third.  I needed them to perform the exercise well, so we added them in to my clients weekly Zoom workouts (45 minutes that they could squeeze in between a dog walk, and the cricket club meeting).  

Exercise 1 

Balance with reach, important to hold the core so that the leg movement can drive you, this is especially important towards the end of runs when you can find yourself slumping rather than running. 

Exercise 2

Jumps with high knees have good carryover to running, they can raise your heart rate, improve your hill runs and most importantly help you sprint through the winning line. 

Exercise 3

Hopping, like jumping but the next level because in reality, running is a lot of hopping on alternative legs! 

Make it a programme! 

When you have mastered these three techniques then I suggest doing them in this programme format, one after another, which will take about 18 minutes allowing you to sneak it into your morning routine, your lunch break or if you need a Dad poo!

What you could do next

This is as much as I can show you on a blog post, if you want to do more then you should sign up to a set of zoom calls by contacting me on the website! 

If that is too much for now (I know, kids, dog, Cricket and Dave showing off in the pub), then download my free ebook and get a load of exercises to help you, AND, some tips each month from my newsletter.