Marion Freijsen A blog about Sports, Fitness & Health

Keep on running…

A great run to do after a busy week is one that adds a little fun to your day. So rather then merely heading out, and pounding out the miles at your regular pace, let’s get some variety in there!

If you listen to music whilst you are running, then you can use that to alter your pace. If you don’t have music along …. which I don’t when I run in the woods, simply preferring to really enjoy the silence around me although I am sometimes rather disturbed by my own heavy breathing!!….  so if you don’t carry music, use the landscape as your guide to change your step. Now, I don’t just mean, go faster or slower then you’d normally do. But literally also make your steps longer or shorten your stride now and again. It’s not just good for the variety, altering your pace in length can help you stretch muscles you are otherwise not using and loosen your back (if you take shorter strides, you may hold your back more rigid)…

So for instance, go out and warm up for 5 to 10 mins. Then for the next minute, concentrate on elongating your stride, only half a foot-length is fine, then back to your normal pace for 2 mins. Then pick up your speed for 3 minutes, not a full sprint or you will struggle to recover after, but a bit faster then usual. On heartrate, you should increase your heartrate by 4-5 beats roughly. Then slow down and recover at a very comfortable pace for the next 2 mins. Now, shorten your stride, taking smaller steps but keeping your pace at the same level, so don’t slow down – another 3 mins. Back to a normal pace for 5 mins again. Repeat the sequence of longer stride, recover, faster speed, recover, shorter stride, recover one more cycle, and finally run at a normal pace for another 5 mins. You have now done 35 mins. excluding your warm-up and probably hardly noticed the time going by!

Have a great Saturday.