The first time I did strides was when I raced a 5k with my coach. We did a warm-up together and I basically just copied what he was doing. We did a 2k jog and then did 4 sets of strides before heading to the start line. At the time, I had no idea what …
Continue reading What are strides and why should you do them?
If you've been running consistently for a while, can easily run 30-60 minutes continuously, and you are interested in 80/20 training, I would recommend that you do a 30-minute field test to determine your lactate threshold heart rate. What is a 30-minute field test? This test was developed by Joe Friel, author of Total Heartrate …
Continue reading What is a 30-minute field test and should I do one?
If you are someone who avoids hills like the plague, take a deep breathe and repeat after me... "Hills are good for me." "Hills are speedwork in disguise."Frank Shorter, winner of the 1972 Olympic marathon Back in the day, our runcrew leader used to make us run a "4x4+1" hills workout. It consisted of running …
Outside the world of running, the word tempo is usually associated with music. It's the speed at which a piece of music is meant to be played. Before metronomes, Italian composers would indicate the speed with words like: largo (slow, 40-60 bpm), andante (at a walking pace, 76-108 ), allegro (heartbeat tempo, 120-168 bpm), and presto (very fast, …
One of my athletes inspired this post this week. Her name rhymes with Fahra. 😝 Polarized training is a pretty established concept in the world of endurance sport. It's when you do >80% of your training at low-intensity and up to 20% at high-intensity. Many studies have found that this approach delivers a greater performance …
When I started training for my first marathon, I searched online for a training plan. I found a few free plans but none of them really fit my schedule. At the time, I was running 4 times a week with a couple of different groups on specific days with specific distances so I wanted something …
Gotcha with the click bait headline. Sorry to disappoint but there is no magic. You gotta run to be a runner. You gotta run consistently to be a good runner. But in order to run consistently and have longevity in the sport, you must also avoid injury. Trust me, I have first hand experience. I …
Continue reading How to become a better runner without running (as much)
By investing just 1% of your time to exercising, you will have a longer life expectancy.
Here we go again! Another training cycle! The Ottawa Army Run will be our fall goal race and we will be doing the Commanders Challenge which is a 5k and then 21k. Jim is putting together a training plan for us and today was the 2nd day (first run day) of the 12-week training cycle. …
I've been in Vancouver for a work event this week and took the opportunity to catch up with friends and enjoy all that the city has to offer. Day 1: Met up with Praise for lunch and ran with her in Richmond in between mom errands.Had dinner with JP, Louisa, and Kiefer. The sushi in …
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