Very early in my running life, I was introduced to hill repeats. Over the course of my life, I’ve done all kinds of different hill repeat workouts. While I haven’t always loved the workouts (they can be brutal) I’ve always been a fan of the results.
What makes hill repeats so valuable? A few answers can be found here, as well as some ideas for workouts.
Why do sprinters peak in the evening, while marathoners don’t? My first thought was weather. While I’m sure that plays a role, it appears the answer may be more complex and still not fully understood. I’d love to see more research on this topic. Maybe, if we understand the reasons, we can do things to optimize our preparations for different race times.
What’s more important, exercise or staying in when the air quality is bad? Generally speaking, if the air quality is bad, you’ll still get more benefit from exercise than the detriment of breathing bad air. However, you may not want to go real long and you may want to consider an indoor workout with truly clean indoor air instead if possible.
What’s better, single limb strength training or double limb? First, what’s the difference? Single limb is something where you’re working one leg (or arm) at a time. Double limb is when you work both of them together. So squats would usually be a double limb exercise, lunges a single limb exercise. So what’s better? After reading that, it appears the answer isn’t clear cut but I’m a favor of variety in strength training so why not do both? If there are benefits to each, try to get the best of both worlds.
We lose power as we age, that’s well known. But is it strength or speed that we lose? Power is a combination of the two. If we lose one and not the other, then we can train as we age to try to maintain what is lost in order to maintain our youthful power. Well, as it turns out, you maintain your speed as you age but lose strength. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t train your speed also but the focus should probably be on maintaining strength.