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Strength training for runners in 2021

April 8, 2021 / Training / 3 minutes of reading

I’m going to tag the date on this because our knowledge changes and I’ll probably post an update every once in a while. Hopefully, more than once every 20 years.

I’ve been having discussions with a few runners on strength training recently and I’ve realized that my very old post about strength training, while not entirely invalid, is outdated. Of course, I wrote that somewhere around 20 years ago so what should we expect?

So it’s time for an update. Is strength training good for our running and, if so, what should we do?

The answers are yes and it depends.

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What competitions matter to you?

April 1, 2021 / Training / 2 minutes of reading

Strava is a wonderful tool. It’s a great way to share your training with friends as well as keep up with what your friends are doing. It’s loaded with great ways to challenge yourself and your friends. It also has kudos. Who doesn’t love getting that little virtual pat on the back for a run well done?

Garmin Connect and others also have great ways to challenge yourself and your friends, from pre-built challenges you can join to the ability to create challenges with friends.

However, there are things to be careful about with these tools.

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Strength training, “running is my drug of choice”

March 25, 2021 / Roundups / 2 minutes of reading

We all accept that strength training is beneficial for runners, right? But what to do? There are so many different forms you can do. What ones really help for runners?

Well, a couple of things I read this month drove the point home: Yes, strength training is beneficial for runners. The key point, though, is that almost anything will help if you have been doing nothing.

Personally, while I do believe anything is better than nothing, I believe the combination of runners more likely sticking to the routine plus working multiple muscles in coordination makes “complex” body weight exercises like squats, lunges and push ups for the upper body are probably best for most runners.

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Compare yourself to your current self

March 18, 2021 / Training / 2 minutes of reading

This past week, I got in some very solid training. I had my highest volume week in some time, I put up three consecutive days of double digit mileage and I had a good workout earlier in the week. What a way to end a very solid block of training.

The only problem was that, by the end of the week, I found myself thinking a lot about what I was doing 15-20 years ago.

“This is a challenge? I used to knock out twice this volume at a pace 2-3 minutes per mile faster and call it an easy day.”

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Enjoy the little things

March 11, 2021 / Training / 2 minutes of reading

Things are still hectic for me so I’m going to be writing a shorter post today. I promise I will make every effort to spend more time writing next week’s post.

I wrote about this topic recently but I can’t stress it enough so I’m going to write about it again.

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