Imagine a typical recreational runner.
Let’s call her Linda. Linda is a 50 year old working mum with limited time due to work and family commitments. She can only spare 6 hours a week on her main love – running. She’s trying to get faster over 5k. How should she train optimally to achieve her goal?
Well, if the evidence from my Running Gym groups is anything to go by, she will get significant improvement over 5k in a short space of time by following a run specific gym programme.
We have been using a combination of mobility work (esp. hips), some targeted strengthening of weak muscle groups, some foot and lower limb drills, including stability work. We have discussed lifestyle pieces, like nutrition and sleep too. Finally, we have done some guided interval training on the treadmills and a regular 5k park run. They have done various amounts of running in their own time too, of course, but not all that much.
At the outset one group was given a 2.4k treadmill time trial at 1% gradient and their times recorded. Approximately 6 weeks later they were retested and their progress is very striking indeed. Here are their times and percentage improvements;
Early December 18th January Improvement
William 9:04 8:22 0:42 (8%)
Lucy 18:56 16:32 2:24 (13%)
Paul 15:30 12:40 2:50 (18%)
Even Nichola, who has only been with us a couple of weeks, improved her time by 22 seconds.
Attending the small group run sessions each week for 6 weeks has cost them £90 in total.
Would you pay £90 to improve your PB for 5k by between 8-18% in 6 weeks or not?
Looks like a no-brainer to me, but you could choose instead to just keep knocking out more miles and, who knows, you might get lucky! On the other hand, you might just get injured or ill, miss training and see no progress or even regression.
This method works – the results prove it. Real results, real people.
Join up now for a February start – limited daytime and evening slots available.
NOTE: this does not involve heavy weights or brutal gym workouts, but movement practice and improvement so you run more freely and with less injury risk.
Call David on 07504439555 or email: info@roadstofreedom.net.
Not sure? Then why not just come along to our friendly park run group and meet some of the other runners of all standards.
ultrafit50plus 