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Putting One Foot in Front of the Other – A guide to Running (Chapter Four)

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Chapter Four – Over the Hill and Far Away

It has been a while since I last blogged about running or anything else for that matter. Needless to say I’m excited and ready to post another couple of chapters related to getting into running, in addition to sustaining and improving it. The previous chapter was devoted to keeping motivated and some top tips towards doing so, and because of chapter three I believe it would be invaluable to provide you with an alternative style of running that has a positively significant impact.

Hill Intervals

Since I took up running a couple of years ago I have been victim to running the same routes over and over again while aiming to beat my previous time until deciding I needed something different to spice it up a little. That’s when I read Scott Jurek’ best selling book Eat and Run, an autobiographical documentary of one of the worlds greatest ultra-marathon runners (I recommend you read it). As a sport student I’ve known of interval training as a means of cardiovascular training, however after trying it for myself I recommend you give it a go. Find a hill at a gradient approximately of 30-45 degrees and 150-250 meters long.

Basic Interval: Three sets of three.

In the first set you will ascend up the hill at gradually increasing speeds; for example, slow (regular jogging pace), medium (faster than slow but not quite a sprint) and fast (all out sprint). After each ascent descent the hill at a slow pace. It is essential that you use your slow descent to get your breath back, but don’t walk. At the end of the set take a 1-2 minute rest. Repeat the first set twice at first to welcome your body to the change of training style and be careful not to overload yourself!

The great thing about hill intervals and other interval protocols is the diversity of the training application, for instance; intervals can be supplemented as a single training mode of a session. Intervals can also be inserted before, during or after continuous runs.

Top Tip – Reduce the length of your stride while increasing cadence (how quickly you take each stride). This acts to maintain balance by taking the strain out of your back and arms and transferring it to the calves and gluts. 

This approach, I hope liberates your groundhog runs with a change in pace, and also helps you understand that continuous running isn’t the only running form available to your training toolbox. The next chapter will introduce another interval protocol, which is applicable to the treadmill.



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