My Training Tips

old photo hence old running sneakers!

My training is a lot of me reading, trying, learning, and then going back to the drawing board to see if whatever new thing I've added into my training schedule for the month has been helpful in getting faster in my races. If not, bring something else in to the training schedule and see what happens, and repeat.

If you've been keeping up with my racing life, I recently went from running a 5K on November 2nd @ 8'09 pacing to running an 8K on November 28th @ 6'36 pacing. That is a massive time jump and to be fair I was extremely surprised when I finished racing how well I'd done, but I also thought of the changes I've made since the November 2nd race - as well as things I've been consistent in! - without those changes I wouldn't have jumped from an 8'09 pace to a 6'36 pace.

So I'm sure you've probably skimmed straight through those two paragraphs so let's get onto the changes I've made so if you also run, you can see if perhaps your own training needs some tweaks!

Core Workouts

I've mentioned I did Stacey Irvin Jr's 10 min ab workout every day for 30 days a few months back and did it every other day since doing it for that one month. Since I've grown stronger core-wise the workout started to seem too easy. Even if I did on loop twice, I felt like I needed a change of movement for core workouts.

Enter, Chari Hawkins USA Heptathlete.

She is primarily on Instagram (@_charihawkins) and more recently Youtube. She did a 10 Day Ab Challenge and I decided to tag along - doing her 10 Day ab workout in addition to my running workouts I had planned. The first time I went through the days, I did each video only once - even the videos that seemed a little on the ~easy~ side for where I was ab wise. I didn't know what she planned for the next day(s) so was pacing myself with what she was doing.

The variation was just what I needed. After doing one ab video on loop for so long it, it was nice to have a change.

Want to know the best thing?
Each video is only 10 minutes. Get all the intense ab work in 10 minutes.

What I do now that I've completed the original 10 day Challenge- is: Go in order again but do it ever other day instead and do each workout video twice (depending on how I'm feeling - some were easier than others.)  and then the next time I go through the order again see if I can add an extra repetition of the video based on the previous week.

By having 10 different 10 ab workout videos to rotate between from, I'm constantly doing a different ab movement not just the same movements as I was doing previously.

Speed Workout Mile Increase

This is something that's been the most help: Make sure your speed workouts are either equal to the distance you're racing, longer than, or near it. My speed workouts (which I do with the Nike Run App) used to always come up at around 1.5 Miles, 1.8 Miles, 2.5 Miles. So now, I opt to choose their tempo runs and longer speed workouts. Since doing this, I've noticed I was more confident maintaining my pace for a longer period of time.

The way I run up and down a hill

I learned this tip from one day going to a local running club! I only went once (I know I know, I should probably make more of an effort to attend but it's a bit of a distance away from me) but anyways I was chatting to a runner for 7 miles and she mentioned this tip to me.

When you're going up a hill: keep your arms in that runner-bent way as you normally would.

When you're going down the hill: lower your runner-bent way arms to your torso, KEEP THOSE ARMS BENT!

How does this help?
It's to ensure you're not wasting your energy. You can kind of think of it similar to driving a car up and down a hill. When you're going up a hill you need gas - in running when you're going up a hill, you have your arms bent and level with your chest-area. When you're going down a hill with your car, you're pressing the breaks a bit - in running when you're going down a hill, you should keep your bent arms level/near your torso to conserve your energy.

Running on high elevation for all workouts

So I no longer have specific days for hill sprints in my schedule. Now, I make sure that all of my runs have some sort of incline/hills sprinkled throughout. What I noticed was that by having hills sprinkled throughout my run rather than having specific days for it, I was more prepared come race day when a random hill appeared on a relatively flat race course.

All of my runs - including easy runs - are now run on 150/180 - 200+ elevation.

Taking my training runs easy

This is easier said than done, I KNOW. But here's what I learned by only doing easy runs and tempo runs leading up to the 8K Championship race: run them comfortably and relaxed. All of those runs done leading up to the race were done at 8-9 pacing per mile. My body is relaxed and comfortable at this pace and come race day, I knew I had a lot of energy. I've been saving all that energy, all that speediness, for the race.

I came across this on twitter a couple of days ago - Joanna did easy running and zero speed work for 5 months, come race day for her half marathon and she was flying! Take a look at her tweet to see her times! Almost all were in the 5 minute per mile range, and her last one was a 4:55.

Building my leg strength without a gym

Now on my blog I've mentioned there were times when I was able to go to the gym, when I'm not able to and right now we're back to not having a gym membership (I'm pretty chill with this, actually). So, how does one build leg strength without a gym?

Well, here's one way.

Chari Hawkins recently did a few takeovers of her sponsor On Running where each week she'd give new tips/workout! Now, me being me, I screen recorded all of them so I could do the workouts continuously.

Sadly her takeovers aren't available as a highlight, however, here is the screen recording which I saved to a google drive because we're all in this together: Chari Hawkins Leg Workout.

The great thing about this workout is that it's buildable. The first time you do it, you'll feel you've gotten a great workout done, two weeks later your body will be strong enough to do the entire workout twice! Trust me! You'll love doing it and feel your legs getting stronger!

Be sure to give Chari Hawkins a follow over on Instagram, she's always giving tips on recovery/stretching etc.!

Foam rolling pre workout

I don't think I even run without foam rolling anymore, it such a game changer to roll before running to get your muscles ready for the workout. I think of it as a massage for your muscles. There is a specific warm up routine I do which I screen-recorded from Chari Hawkins one day - Warm Up With Chari Hawkins.

It's reallllly sped up, so you just have to keep pausing it. I tend to do 12-15 reps/hold a stretch for 15 seconds.

Letting the distance come to me rather than chasing the time

So I learned this tip after watching Chari Hawkins Instagram story (if you haven't taken the hint yet, I really think you should follow her, she's amazing!) Someone sent in a question saying they're trying to run a distance in 12 minutes - so she gave this tip: At the end of every week, set your phone/watch to run for 12 minutes (no more, no less), let the distance come to you in that time frame, don't chase the distance instead let it find you.

So for me, I'd like to run a sub-20 5K in the very near future - so every week, I should (ya girl is slacking okay!) set my phone to 18 minutes and run to see how much distance I can cover. You can kind of think of this as a speedy tempo run!

Icing every day

Recovering is the queen in this household, without recovery you may as well be a walking injury. I always ice my calves because shin splits are very much almost always 3 seconds away from entering my life on loop. I opt to use ice cups, and ice blocks for my calves. If I'm doing an evening workout, I ice my calves the morning for 20+ minutes and then after the workout I ice again. If I'm doing a morning run, I ice after.

Ice Cups: Fill a paper cup with water and put it in the freezer. When frozen, you rub it on your calf and keep pealing away at the paper cup until you've finished the ice.

However, there are also a few other alternatives to ice cups/ice bags:

Recoup Fitness - CRYOSLEEVE  | $89.99

I saw this on Georganne Moline - you can get this for your calves as well as your arms too. Here's how it works: You place it in the freezer for 2 Hours and it's guaranteed to stay cold for 1 hour. As is in the name, it's a bit like a sleeve you put your arm/calf through, think of it as compression and ice heaven.

Here's their full description on their website:

The Recoup Cryosleeve combines ice + compression for up to 1 hour of cold relief. Use on multiple body parts with sizing for leg and arm. The Cryosleeve + Boa® Fit System provides micro-adjustable compression while forming to the area. Great for reducing inflammation, speeding up recovery, and general pain relief for injuries such as carpal tunnel, shin splints, golfer's elbow, knee injury, etc. If you are in between sizes, size UP as the BOA Fit System can compress your sleeve down to size.  

I don't personally have one but wanted to share it with you all if you're looking for an alternative to ice bags/ice cups.

If you're looking for a more budget friendly one, I saw Chari Hawkins talking about this one:

Freeze Sleeve - Freeze Sleeve Black | $49 - $75

Depending on your size, the price changes. So if you're a small it's $49! I wasn't able to find out how long it stays cold for, but Chari mentioned they are great for shin splints!

Doing specific sprint mechanic drills to make sure my foot is hitting the ground the way it's supposed to

I mentioned earlier that Chari Hawkins did a takeover on On Running for a few weeks, one of those takeovers was this track warm up drill. There's A-Skips, B-Skips and something else I don't really know the name of but was actually the most beneficial one.

Here is the screen recording to that on my Google Drive: Sprint Mechanics With Chari Hawkins

It really solidified - well for me it did! - how your foot should be hitting the ground as you run.

Strengthening my arms with planks

So let's bring you back to the 10 Day Ab Challenge I did With Chari Hawkins. Throughout those days there were also a lot of planking involved which let me know that my spaghetti arms are in need of some help. Planking - the standard one as well as some different variations like side plank and back plank - really helped my arms get stronger.

You may or may not be wondering: Why do I need strong arms if I'm a runner?

Your arms guide your run, trust me when I say moving your arms front and back does a lot more than you think. Strengthening your arms with your own body weight will make your running be that much faster, trust me!

Jumprope

And drum roll please, the last section! Let's talk jump rope and box jumps without actual boxes. As you probably already guessed, during Chari Hawkins takeover she did a jump rope week which I myself do 2 times in one day and should really up it to 3. The thing jump rope teaches you is coordination and thing jump rope gives you is strong calves, hamstrings, and Glutes and! it's great cardio!

Here is the screen recording of jump roping with Chari: Jumprope with Chari Hawkins

In terms of box jumping without an actual box - this is a lot of fun and challenging. Just find something high off the ground and jump up with your two feet off the ground at the same time. It's harder than it looks but! great way to strengthen your legs!

And there we have it my top training tips at the moment that helped me move from an 8'09 pace to 6'36/mile!

There's also something else I've been doing a lot of: recovery and stretches. Next up will be my top recovery tips / stretches paired with of course the videos I use whether that be from Instagram or Youtube! From night time stretching, Glute warm up, IT band help to ankle strengthening, I've got you covered!

How's everyone else's training going?

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