Another way to run faster, cut your risk of injury, increase your stamina and generally improve your running form is strength training.  Earlier on I lumped this in with “cross-training” as to be honest I just did not fancy it.  Doing squats and push ups and lunges and hefting weights about – no thank you I thought.  However there is one undeniable thread that pops up in every volume of Runners’ World, all training plans, running guide books etc. and that is doing some form of resistance/weight/strength training 2-3 times a week.  Mostly I skipped over this thinking well, I swim and that is sort of resistance-y.  Of course real strength training/resistance exercises are not swimming *sad face* and since I am on a quest to run a half marathon in less than 2 hours I suppose I ought to address this fundamental gap in my training regime.

So if resistance training is not swimming then what is it? More importantly, is it expensive? Good news! Actually most strength training for runners does not involve much specialist equipment beyond a step – or park bench in a pinch.  You don’t need any dumbbells or kettle-bells or resistance bands or anything really – just your own body weight.  Additionally they don’t look that hard on paper.  I picked a regime to follow from Runner’s World which involved stepping up and down, lunges, calf-drops, abdominal-crunches, push-ups, sit-drops and thought I would give it a go…  And yet… that was months ago.  Until December of this year I still hadn’t even tried it.  Was it the simplicity of it?  Because I could do it in my living room, at any time, that it just never occurred to me?  Or was something else playing on my mind?

I have a long history of failed sporting endeavours.  From school PE lessons, sports days, army recruitment retreats, Girl Guide camps, survival weekends, personal trainer sessions… Of trailing miles behind everyone else, of being mocked for being unable to do a single push up, of aching for days after doing only a few squats, of needing an adult sized harness when I was just 11, of breaking our survival shelters’ improvised bed and of only being able to hold a plank position for 2 seconds.  And whilst it may seem counter-intuitive, after all I got over my aversion to running, perhaps I think it is fair to say I still have a reluctance to participate in some other sporting activities.  Give me a mountain to hike for pleasure and I will do it, or to kayak along a river, or hell even to run a marathon but ask me to do 50 star-jumps on the spot or hold myself in an uncomfortable pose for 30 seconds… Yes, I know it is ridiculous but I just don’t want to.  It could be as simple as stepping up and down 15 times on each leg but somehow I just never got around to including it into my schedule.

Until now! Yes, so as of now I am about 6 weeks into strength training.  I haven’t – probably to my detriment – been following a plan, just picking and trying different activities to see if there are any I like.  In the rush of January sales I also went a little OTT on small gym equipment, buying a foam roller (still unused), resistance bands (used once) and a 65 cm diameter gym-ball complete with work-out DVD (used twice properly but bounced and sat on and played with more regularly).

The verdict: My memory served me correctly.  The first time I attempted the Runner’s World Basic Strength training session I struggled to complete anything involving upper body or core strength and ached enormously in the following days.  The second time (a few weeks later) was still not great.  The third time… I can sort of manage to do 10 half push-ups and I don’t ache as much anymore so there is some improvement.  I don’t think I will be competing in World’s Strongest Woman anytime soon but hopefully with persistence I may get some payback and improvement in my running.  I can’t say I enjoy it (except bouncing on the gym-ball is fun – space-hopper flash backs anyone?) but truthfully it doesn’t take that much time and with it being winter and dark and freezing when I get home from work I don’t mind the excuse to stay indoors with an attractive woman demonstrating on my TV how to do sit ups on a giant inflatable ball.