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Strength Training for DistanceRunnersDrills, core and workouts to keepyour athletes healthy and strongBy Forest Braden‐UCLA Track and Field

Overview Drills‐TeamDrills Team Indiana Elite Drills.Drills Core‐Medicine ball and body weight exercises. Workouts‐Workoutskkthath makek athleteshlstrongand keep healthy.

Drills Developed by and arranged in part by DrDr.Robert Chapman, exercise physiologist atIndiana University and coach of Team IndianaElite. Active stretching routine implemented beforepractice to get body warmed up and musclesfiring.firing Also helps to maintain core fitness.

High‐KneeHighKnee Hold As you walk, bring knee ashigh as it can go, then grabwith hands and pull lightlyto chest. Hold 2 secondsseconds. Get up on your toe. Bring down to ground andcontinue with other leg.

Butt‐KickButtKick Hold Start with a high‐kneehigh kneeBring the leg back into a ‘butt‐kick’Holdld forf 2 secondsdWalk into the same thing with the oppositeleg.

High‐KneeHighKnee Side Holds As you walk, bring knee ashigh as it can go, then grabwith hands and pull lightlyto chest at a 45 degreeangle.angle Hold 2 seconds. Get upp on yyour toe. Bring down to ground andcontinue with other leg.

SupermanStretches Hamstring Quads Groin Works on core strength aswell. Walk into a high knee. Swing your leg back Extend opposite arm andopposite leg. Finger‐tip to heel should bestraight.

Walking HandsStretches Hamstrings Calves Achilles Works on core strength.Start in push‐up position.Slowly walk legs toward hands.Walk all the way to hands.Walk hands back down topush‐up position.Repeat 5 times.

Zombie Keep arms stretched out infront of you. Bring straight leg up to toes. DO NOT SWING LEG LIFTLEG.

“A”A Walk/ “B”B Walk WalkingWalking, bring heel up to butt.butt Extend leg and put a light snap into the knee. ContinueC iwalkinglki alternatingli llegs.

“A”A Skip/ “B”B Skip Same as walk but add a skip into the drill.drill Make sure arms are moving with the legs. QuicklyQ i kl butb strong andd efficient.ffi i

Butt Kicks Running butt‐kicksbutt kicks. Standard, classic drill that gets quads firingand joints movingmoving. Should not cover that much distance.

Karaoke Running side waysways, crisscross left and rightlegs. 30‐5030 50 metersmeters. Switch directions.

Big Skips Powerful skips off the groundground. Focus on height rather than length. Adddd bibig arm circlesi l forwardfd andd backwards.b kd

Hamstring Walk Walking, bend down andtouch your toe. Keep the leg straight thatyou are stretching. Bendd theh legl thath you arenot stretching

Key Points of Drills Drills should be done for a length of 10‐2010 20meters except Karaoke and Butt‐Kicks whichwill be longer (30(30‐5050 meters).meters) Be quick, but don’t hurry (John Wooden).Applies to these drills as well.well Fast,Fast Strong,StrongEfficient. EveryEdrilld ill isi ini control.l

Medicine Ball/Core Exercises Most of Medball/Core exercises influenced byDr. Chapman, Jay Johnson, Morgan Bonds,David Welsh, and Pat Tyson. Core is designed to get the athlete strong inorder to prevent injury and increaseperformance. Strengthen the entire body to preventweaknesses. Keeps athletes tough and disciplined.

The Christian Smith Drill

What hehe’ss doing Sit on back of your buttbutt. Scissor legs up and down never touching theground.ground Bring medicine ball through legs. Work up to a minute at a time. Very difficult atfirst. My favorite core exercise!!!

Russian Twist Sit on back of butt.Bring medball from left to right side.W k up tto a minute.Worki tTwist at core.

Morgan Bonds Drill Layay flatat oon ggroundou d witht MedBalled a in youyour handsa dswith arms stretched out flat behind you.p to feet. Bringg MedBall up Lay back down and repeat. Bend from the core. Strengthens your muscles from your quadsthrough your abdominal and up into arms andwrists. Strengthens lower back muscles as well.

MedBall Bridge Place hands onMedball, feet on theground. Keep back straight.p both feet on the Keepground. As you get stronger,move medball furtherout over your head.

Advanced MedBall Bridge From regular Medball bringknee towards arms andhold. Switch legs as fits. Once you get strongenough, switch straightfrom MedBall Bridge toAdvanced MebBall Bridge. One minute regular bridgeto 30 secondsd eachh legladvanced bridge.

MedBall Pushups Place one hand on ball,one hand on theground. Go down and dopushup on ball. Roll ball to other handrepeat.

MedBall Pushup Variations Placeace botboth handsa ds ono medballedba aandd do repeatepeatpushups.pushupp and pplace Place medball on gground, do pleft hand on ball, quickly pushup and place yourright hand on the medball. This pushup is fast andexplosive.l i Put feet on medball/exerciseball/bench/chair/whatever you can put you feetup on and do pushups. KEEP YOUR CORE TIGHT/FLEXED.TIGHT/FLEXED

Exercise Ball Squeeze Place exercise ball betweenyour legs. Squeeze exercise ballrepeatedly. Worksk insided off your legsland groin.

MedBall SquatsGet in squat position.positionHold medball out in front of you.Keep feetfshoulderh ld widthid h apart, toes straight.i hMake sure knees do not come past feet as yousquat. Basic squatqtechnique.q

Other Classics Pull‐ups PushPush‐ups‐Hundredsups Hundreds ofvariations! Dips Plank Side Plank AtomicAt i dropsd Lunges Wall sitsBicyclePenguinBox Step‐ups– Step onto box and driveupwards.– Get upp highg on yyour toe andarms follow legs.

Keys to Drills Get in tthee habitab t oof dodoingg moreo e aandd dodoingg ittbetter! Discipline and toughness come fromcallusing your body to feel the pain. In running,pushups,hsit‐ups, stretching,hd lldrills. Put enthusiasm into everything you do! Keep everything tight:– Must be in control. KeepKabdominalbd i l flexed:fl d– Should feel like you are bringing your bellybuttontowards your backback.

Workouts Running great is about finding the balancebetween doing to much and not doingenough.enough There is a fine line between greatness andinjury.injury An athlete cannot run fast if they are not ontheh track.k

Finding the balance Intensity will get you hurt before mileage will. If you are smart with mileage you can runmore. As you get stronger you can run more.As the years go by without injuries, you canrun more. BUT to run fast you need to feel race paceturnover. You need to do fast track session. Your legshave to turnover.

My Principles Barefoot grass strides 4‐5 days a week.––––Get some turnover into your legsGet your feet stronger.Shakeout the gunk in your legs.IIncorporatet racingi spikesik intoi t stridest id tot gett your calveslandd feetf t useddto them. Workout hard 2 days a week and use long run as “medium‐hard” I never put my athletes on the track during the cross countryseason.– You can run very fast off of strength training especially over 6 or 10thousand meters.– Longer reps on grass or dirt and the occasional longer steady state onthe roads gets the legs and body ready for the pace of a cross countryrace.– Keeps them hungry and excited for the track.

Lactic Threshold Runs Earlyy in the season Increase your bodies ability to combat or hold off lacticacid. Builds aerobic strength and helps maintain throughoutthe grueling season. Bread and butter of summer and early season trainingtraining. Incorporate them throughout the season Start at pace your body can handle cut down everymile. 6‐10 miles.

Long Repeats 1k X 8‐108 10 with jog recovery (Men)1k X 5‐8 with jog recovery (Women)Mileil repeats.2k repeats.Long repeats very little recovery continues tog but getsg bodyy used tomaintain strengthmoving at race pace or faster.

Recovery Days Take a couple easy days a week to run howyou want to. Make sure you take advantage of recoverydays.

Typical Training Week Sunday‐Longyg Run. Drive as team to trails. Monday‐AM: 3‐4 miles easy PM: 8‐10 miles 5‐10 grassstrides. Core in the weight room. Tuesday‐AM: 3‐4 miles easy PM: Hard workout plus teamstretching. WednesdayWednesday‐PM:PM: Medium Long run 88‐12 5‐1012 5 10 grass stridesand team stretching/pushups/situps. Thursday‐AM: 3 miles easy PM: 8 miles recovery. Run how youfeel. Friday‐Am: 3‐4 miles easy PM: Hard workout team stretching. Saturday‐0‐8S t d 0 8 OnO YourYOOwn.

In Closing For an athlete to maximize his/her potentialhe/she MUST minimize the occurrence ofinjuries.injuries Confidence BaseB Experience Our responsibility to keep athlete on thetrack/course/as much as we can!

Tuesday ‐AM: 3‐4 miles easy PM: Hard workout plus team stretching. Wednesday‐PM: Medium Long run 8‐12 5‐10 grass strides and team stretching/pushups/situps. Thursday‐AM: 3 miles easy PM: 8 miles recovery. Run how you feel. Friday‐Am: 3‐4 miles easy PM: Hard workout teamstretching.