Success in running truly boils down to two factors: consistency in training and maintaining good health. The first aspect, consistency in training, relies on your dedication to your running goals. It's simply a matter of commitment. However, ensuring overall health, particularly in preventing soft tissue injuries, can be challenging for athletes. Incorporating general strength routines as a consistent part of your training can greatly lower the risk of injury.
Achieving your highest goals in running requires you to put in the mileage over months or even years. Long runs, easy runs, and quality sessions—all of this entails pushing yourself to your limits regularly. To succeed, the total volume of your running, the frequency, and intensity of your workouts must be tailored to you as an individual. These are the founding principles of The Run Plan. In fact, this is the first thing we address with all of our athletes during the sign up process. It's that important to your success.
For your body to handle the training load necessary to improve, it must be strong enough to endure the pounding and soft tissue breakdown that naturally occurs with running. Think of it like a civil engineer would. Just as a structure needs tensile strength to endure fatigue, your body must establish soft tissue connections throughout every plane of the body. Simply put you need to connect the top to bottom, front to back, and both sides.
General strength routines, which predominantly incorporate bodyweight exercises targeting all planes of the body, typically consist of 10-16 exercises. For optimal results, I recommend integrating them consistently into your routine, aiming for 3-5 times a week, ideally after a workout or run.
All of our training plans include the exercises you should do with easily accessible instructional videos o how to perform them with proper form. Its designed so its as simple as finishing your run on the trail and opening an app on your phone and your list of exercises are ready for you to follow. Rule #1: Just show up!
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