Digital Running Club » Entries tagged with "Training"
Overnight Relay Training
Like most people, I didn’t even think about training when I ran my first Ragnar Relay. That was partially because I was recruited to the team so late in the game; but also because the whole idea sounded so absurd that I wouldn’t have known where to start if I wanted to develop a training plan. Unlike most major races, you may not known how far you’re going to run in an overnight relay until a … Read entire article »
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Improving Aerobic Capacity
Aerobic capacity is the maximum capacity of a person’s body to transport and use oxygen during exercise. It is also referred to as VO2max and it’s explained in our previous article. In order to improve your aerobic capacity, you have to stress your body’s systems for delivering and processing oxygen to the limit. The key is to stress those systems to the limit, but not beyond. In other words, you have to practice running right … Read entire article »
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How to Run a Faster 5K
Hi, I’ve recently started running again after a ten year hiatus. Initially I just wanted to get fit and to lose some weight, but now that I’ve achieved that I’m interested in running as quickly as I could when I was a teenager. Off the top of my head I was a 2.12 800m runner and I could run 5k in under 20 minutes when I was 15, 16 years-old. Now, at 28, I posted 22 … Read entire article »
Filed under: Ask the Experts, Columns
Ask the Experts: Treadmill Running
It looks like I will be racing the Princess Half Marathon (eeeek!) – which means I will be training during a Michigan winter. Do you have any advice on training on a treadmill (since running in the snow doesn’t sound ideal…or safe…)? -Megan B., Michigan The main thing to know about running on a treadmill is that you need to put a little incline on it to make your effort equal to what you’d experience outside. Generally, … Read entire article »
Filed under: Ask the Experts, Columns
What is threshold training?
If you’ve ever felt your legs start to burn and get heavy during a race, then you’re intimately familiar with your lactate threshold, but what is it really and how can you improve it? Generally, running is an aerobic activity. For any given runner, the muscles are fueled mostly through aerobic metabolism during low intensity efforts. As you pick up the pace and the intensity of your effort increases, the aerobic system cannot keep up with … Read entire article »
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Ask the Experts: What’s a Fartlek?
“Can someone explain what a fartlek is in layman’s terms?” – Deanna, New York, NY You’ve probably heard a million times that “fartlek” (pronounced: fart-lick) is a Swedish word for “speed play”, but that doesn’t really help you do a fartlek workout does it? A fartlek workout is similar to an unstructured interval workout. You may have done track workouts where you ran a lap (or more) hard, then jogged a lap to recover, and repeated that process … Read entire article »
Filed under: Ask the Experts, Columns
Basic leg strengthening routine for runners
Legs are important to runners for obvious reasons. Strong legs improve speed, help prevent injuries and provide the power needed for a finishing kick at the end of a race. Still, all power is ultimately derived from the core, so remember to give priority to strengthening your core muscles by following our basic core strengthening routine for runners. The following is a similar routine geared toward strengthening your legs. All of the exercises require nothing other … Read entire article »
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