I’ve been INSIDE the running science these past few weeks…

Mostly because I wanted to refresh my PT brain. There’s so many things rolling around in there, but occasionally it gets kind of dusty.

But I also wanted to understand the marathon better as a physiological process. Like what does that final 10k suck so much?

Because let’s be honest: there’s a lot of garbage and bad advice on the internet.

And I had a running coach explain to me that past mile 20, there’s a lot of pacing involved and it’s fueling strategy.

Cool, cool. I’m frantically taking notes…

But in the back of my mind, I’m also wondering “how do we optimize training for this?”

So down the rabbit hole we go of the purpose of long runs, glycogen depletion, training your gut, how the longs train your body to store more fuel inside your muscles for next time…

And from a running coach perspective, it makes sense why THIS is their bread and butter, their main focus. Their sole job is to train someone to run really far, progressively, and prepare their aerobic / running fitness for this ONE event on ONE day.

And make sure their heart doesn’t stop and legs don’t fall off. Check.

But the PT in me was like…this is only half the story. I can’t put my finger on it, but I know there’s more…

That’s how we got last week’s newsletter about the fatigue your nervous system goes through and how that contributes to the cramping you might experience late in your race.

And the major suck-age of the last 10k.

Ok cool. So we know another potential stumbling block on our way to a fall PR. But how the heckin’ heck do you train your nervous system as a runner?

That started this week’s rabbit hole.

And if you’ve been around here a little while … you already know the answer.

Strength training. (no, you may not hit delete on this email yet. I ain’t done…)

Because just saying “lift heavy” has been a very common theme on the running-interwebs for a few years now but it’s been…lacking.

I wanted to be able to tell you WHY it matters and what specific kind strength training from the perspective of exactly HOW it helps your running.

Yes, the basics are it helps reduce risk of running injuries. It makes you a stronger runner. You’re more efficient etc…

But did you know that explosive strength training (plyometrics, appropriate weighted jumping exercises) results in not only running becoming more efficient, but your endurance improves, and maintaining race pace costs less energy.

I don't know about you, but if race pace can cost less energy…

And after mile 20 is a glycogen vs muscle game of hungry-hungry hippo..

AND this potentially helps me PR my fall marathon without breaking in the process…

Sign me up!

Especially because you all know, I’m never going to hand you an hour long strength workout that requires crazy specialized gym equipment (unless you really want that).

What I want you to walk away with from this week's blog post is understanding you can achieve all these fancy-shmancy scientific, running specific fitness gains with what you having in your garage gym, your apartment workout center.

You just need the plan to do that.

(This is my shameless plug to learn HOW to do that with Project PR which is 100% FREE and happening VERY soon on June 9. It’s my brand new, live workshop where I teach you the science backed method for hwo to build legs strong enough to hold up past 20).

Tap here to be immediately signed up:

But if you’re like, girl, show me the science first, here’s this week’s blog post about how gravity is rude, rate of force production is cool, and how to actually not hate the final 10k of your upcoming fall race:

I’ll see you over there!

Dare to Train Differently,

Marie Whitt, PT, DPT //@dr.whitt.fit

P.S. Don’t forget to sign up for Project PR ;)

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