Strength Training: The Evidence
I talked about the strength training I incorporate into my program in an earlier post: Lifting Metal . The actual program can be viewed here . There are many different view points on whether or not, how, what, why and when different forms of strength training should or shouldn't be included in distance running training. What is the evidence available to guide this type of training? Searching through the recent (last 3 years) of published science on the topic reveals a reasonable level of investigations into the question above. Here I present my brief summary of the findings out there. Running Performance Simply put the key peformance criteria for distance running is to be able to run a set distance, whether that be 5000m, 10km or 42.2km faster. Any other change probably isn't really worth it, if it doesn't result in a faster race time. That said, three important variables seem to be highly correalated with endurance race performance: Maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max) Anae...