With Coach Alexa, Online Running Coach and in-person coaching in South Oxfordshire
What’s the Best Way to Improve Your Running?
I had somebody ask me a question recently. It was a friend of a friend at a social event over the weekend. I hadn’t met her before. We were chatting a little about who we were and what we did for our jobs.
I always get questions when I say that part of what I do is running coaching – particularly if the person is a runner.
She asked me a very interesting and quite insightful question:
“What is the one thing that you think is the most important for people to improve either their running or their fitness in general?”
Why Consistency Is the Secret to Running Better and Staying Injury-Free
It didn’t take me too long to think of the answer, actually, because it’s something I talk about with my runners a lot: consistency.
Our bodies – and our brains, for that matter – are very good, very well-designed, at adapting to things that we ask them to do regularly.
It’s like when we learn to drive a car – we’re all a bit awkward and jerky at first. But then our body just learns that movement pattern, learns that skill.
How Your Body Adapts to Running and Strength Training Over Time
Using a physical job as an analogy: your body strengthens the muscles, bones, joints, and tendons that you use most.
As a sports massage therapist, I treat people in physical jobs, and you can see how their bodies have adapted – sometimes even with one elbow joint larger than the other from repetitive use.
What Happens to Your Body When You Run Regularly
When we train, we’re giving our body a stimulus. We’re telling it: this is a thing we are doing now.
With consistent stimulus and good recovery, that’s how we make progress.
Structured Plans vs Simple Routines: What Actually Works for Runners?
You can get as fancy as you like with different training plans, but the majority of progress comes from doing something regularly.
One of the joys of working one-to-one with clients is tailoring things to their needs. But even then, the foundation is consistency.
How to Get Faster, Stronger and Fitter: The Power of Repetition in Running
If you want to get stronger – strength train regularly.
If you want to get faster – do speed work consistently.
Whether you take a scientific approach or a more intuitive one, consistency is the key to progress in running- or any skill-based activity.
Happy running!
