I only had about 40 minutes available last night to do my strength work, so needed to get my skates on. Usually I’d attend a group class for this, but there isn’t one on a Monday. It was down to me to decide what to do.
After a brief warm up with bands, I moved into some matrix curls, heel raised squats (these really help get so much deeper into the squat), and deadlifts. It was going well and I was feeling strong.
Knowing I needed to do a good amount of leg work for the upcoming 2-day Ultra I’m running, I next hit the sled push. Loading it up with 75kg of plates, I was faced with a heavy back and forth – six times. After push 5 I was resting and got chatting to another gym goer. It turns out he’d been to University and read Sports Science, and opened the conversation with a “That looks heavy”.
“For a runner, yeah”, I replied, and we got chatting about different training for different events and outcomes. We discussed the importance of running for running events, and then moved onto why I was pushing the sled. It was then that he nodded and understood what I was up to. Leg strength, in fact all over body strength, is so important for these longer events (mine will be 110km over 2 days), and he described how difficult he found convincing people that this is the case and that incorporating it into a training plan is just as important as getting in the miles, the “time on your feet.”
But when you are out on the trails, climbing over great big boulders or navigating a steep, root-ridden hill, it’s not your running ability that’s being tested, it’s your strength. In many ways these sections are a relief from the relentless running, but only if you’ve done the strength work.
Otherwise they can be grim!
It was great to hear that my strength training was being validated by someone who knew (and yes I knew it already but hearing it direct helps), and I then strode over to the leg press, feeling rather motivated. Of course I then overloaded it a little, and my 3 sets of 12 reps made me realise that I really needed to do rather more of this type of training for my legs. I’ve got 4 months to go.
I’m sure I’ll be fine. And tonight I shall run. My legs don’t quite feel like pumping any more iron…