Have you ever wanted to get inside the head of an Olympic Athlete to figure out how they do it. How do you become the best of the best? The September issue of Runner’s World published a great list if tips from Olympic athletes, and I figured i would share it with you.
- Kara Goucher, a 33 year old 2:24.26 marathon runner shared this. “Running should be tough; One day we did a workout that was a 5 mile tempo run on the roads, then we went to the track and did 5 x 1 mile, and then went back to the roads and did a 5 mile tempo.” Simply put, if you are serious about running a great marathon, you are going to need to train hard.
- Pace Your Workouts – 2:25.38 runner Shalane Flanagan says that she leaves 2 days between hard workouts. This allows your body time to recover. It does not mean that you always take 2 days off. It means that you do something more like long, steady runs on those days.
- Shalane is also a big fan of running on grass. Running on a slower surface forces your legs and core to work harder. Running repeats on grass is a great way to build up your strength.
- Speed Up To Gain Confidence. Abdi Abdirahman, a 2:08 marathoner from Tuscon ran 10 times 1 mile in a workout. That may not sound to bad, but when you are doing them at 4:30 with a 1 minute rest in between, you are talking about serious training. Get your body used to running fast.
- Practice patience. Desiree Davila took 2nd in the Boston Marathon in 2011. How? According to her, it was the next logical step. She worked hard for a long time, was patient, and her hard work paid off. Do not expect to start running, and suddenly you are a world class marathon runner. But, if you work hard, and you stay consistant, expect to become better and better, and who knows where you will end up.
- Ryan Hall, a 2:04 runner from California stresses the importance of being flexibly. “Your body is dynamic; What works for you today may not work for you in 3 months or 6 months or a year.” If you are being stubborn, and you are sticking with the same old routine, you are going to plateau. Be flexibly with your workouts. Pay attention to your body, and how it is responding to the demands taht you are placing on it. Chances are that you are going to need to be running, lifting, doing plyometrics, stretching, and you never know what else.
Pretty much everyone out there has heard of P90X. Most people have never heard of it being used by marathoners though. There have been many successful marathon runners that have used the program, and there is good reason for that. The combination of strength training, plyometrics, and even yoga that are included in the program will make ANYONE stronger. If you are serious about becoming the best runner that you can, I suggest either P90X or Insanity The Asylum. Both programs will have you running better times!
