What you do this winter can set you up for a breakthrough spring.
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Raise Your Foundational Pillars
As a coach and a runner I've seen how structured, smart training can improve race-specific fitness and race times throughout a season, whether the goal is a mile or a marathon. But that focussed training usually only moves a runner up incrementally within the part of the pack he or she started the season in. Every race-training plan builds a small tower on top of existing pillars of endurance, strength, control and speed. That starting location is determined by runners' gifts and their foundational fitness.
We can't do much about our gifts (or lack of them), but we can raise the height of our foundation pillars. To do so we have to train during the off-season. Runners who make real movements in their position within the pack, who remake their running bodies and redefine their running ability, do so with consistent work over time. If you wait until the beginning of the next training plan, idling through the off-season with a run here and there, you'll start about the same place as you did last season and either build to a similar height, orâif you try to push higher and harderârisk injury and burn-out.
Every top runner I've ever met runs significant miles. You may say they can because they are gifted, and that is true. But they also can because they train year-round and have made that volume normal. That consistent volumeâalong with the regular strength, mobility and neuromuscular work they all also doâstands as a wide, solid base upon which they construct their training. Too many of us try to build the foundation and the structure at the same time, then watch it collapse because the foundational pillars are too narrow and the mortar still wet.
If you really want to make a leap to a new level, now is the time. Time to take seriously the core and stability work you need to improve your posture and gait. Time to finish your easy runs with strides to improve your neuromuscular coordination and leg speed. Time, most of all, to build consistent daily miles that are as normal and comfortable as walking the dog, miles that click off with ease and leave you fresh for the next day's workout. Now is the time, while you have the time to build these foundations gradually so they grow strong and solid and will stand as established, default platforms on which to build spring towers stretching to PRs that exceed your dreams.
The articles below will provide you with priorities and specific work toward building those pillars. It falls on you, however, to seize the opportunityâwhile goal races are still far enough wayâto focus on the fundamentals and redefine yourself as a runner.
âJonathan Beverly, Editor
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[Off-Season Training Priorities](
What you need to focus on when you don't have a race looming depends upon your goals, your history and your weaknesses.
Carl Leivers
[Build Running Durability In Your Garage With Your Crew This Winter](
A fun plan to build the essential mobility, strength, control and power you need to be a better runner come spring.
Jay Dicharry
[Train for the Training](
Off-season training gets you to the starting lineâof a more advanced training plan that will take you to new heights.
Jason Fitzgerald
[Build Your Foot Foundation During Training Downtime](
5 Exercises to Strengthen Your Foot Core During the Off-Season
Jon-Eric Kawamoto
G E A R
[Gifts For Runners Guaranteed to Fit](
Runners are the hardest people to buy gifts for. But the runner in your life will love one of these editor-chosen gifts guaranteed to fit.
Jonathan Beverly
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