Ep 24. Women's Running Workshop. 4: Strength training

Welcome to episode 24 of the Women’s Running podcast, and our fourth Women’s Running Workshop. In this I speak to Holly Taylor, Women’s Running digital editor, about how her training for her half marathon is going. We’re both signed up to do a virtual half marathon in the middle of March, and we’re working together to make her feel confident and strong ahead of that. If you’d like to train alongside us, that would be great! Do please drop me any questions about your training, if you have any.

In this episode we talk about Holly’s endurance and strength. We’ve got about six weekends ahead of the half, and Holly is at around the 6-8K stage. So I’ve asked her to add ten minutes to her long run at every weekend run. Which might seem like a lot, but we also talk through walk/running. At the moment, the most important thing is time on your feet. And it’s great to be consistent if you’re walk/running, rather than running as far as you can and then slow down to a walk. So I’ve suggested that Holly runs for her preferred length of time – say 10 or 20 minutes – and then introduce a short walking section, before running for the same length of time, and so on. If you’ve been following along with us, hopefully you’re at the comfortable hour stage. So this is something you might want to think about, if the idea of running for more than an hour feels a bit worrying. Just give it a go on your next long run and see how it goes. Equally, if running for more than an hour seems fine to you, then please just go for it. And this week run for ten minutes longer than your last long run, and next week, run ten minutes longer than that. Meanwhile, run a further two times during the week as per usual: one of them a steady, easy run, and keep that technical run for the third one – and that can either be speedwork or hills, your choice.

The other thing I’ve asked is for Holly to begin some strength work, and to continue doing it three times a week, every week up until her half. Strength work sounds scary, but it’s not, I promise. 

Do my special TV Workout three times a week in front your favourite guilty pleasure. It’s just three exercises, all of which are very simple to do. Do them all three times over. The three exercises are press ups, planks and squats. And this is them:

10x press ups: these can be completed on your feet or on your knees. Keep your hands shoulder-width apart, lower your body slowly and push up, keeping your elbows as close to the side of your body as possible. Whether you’re on your knees or on your feet, keep the rest of your body in a tight, straight line, from ankle or knee up to the top of your head.

30 second plank: you can do this on your elbows or your wrists. Keep your body as straight as possible, push up through your arms, keeping them solid like iron bars, push through your toes, and slightly protract your shoulder blades while sucking in your stomach. Hold for 30 seconds – or a minute if you feel you can.

10x squats: stand with your feet hip-width apart, hands in prayer position. Lower your body so that, if you can, your hips go lower than your knees while your feet remain flat on the ground. Keep your torso straight and upright. Use your glutes and hamstrings to fire yourself back upwards. If it’s all too easy, hold a weight or wear a backpack full of books.

Now repeat two more times. The whole thing should take less than 10 minutes. Easy. So add that in just three times a week to help strengthen your core, which will, basically, make running feel easier and make you less prone to injury. Nothing good ever took a week, mind, so stick with it! In our next workshop, we have a very special treat for you: a guided interval session to listen into for 30 minutes while you’re out on a run. Keep your eyes peeled for that one.

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