If you’ve been following elite running over the past year, Mo Farah, Galen Rupp and Mary Cain are athletes you know well. Mo Farah won double gold in the Olympics in the 5k and 10k. Galen Rupp set two American Indoor Records (5k & 3k) on back-to-back weekends, while at the same meet Mary Cain set a junior world record.
What is it that these athletes are doing right? The answer is never simple but there does happen to be one common denominator between Mo, Galen and Mary. They all share the same coach, Alberto Salazar. Recently, Outside Magazine interviewed Alberto where he shared his 10 Golden Rules of Running.
While I believe all of them should be followed, I’d like to highlight four that I personally believe to be absolutely essential for all runners.
“BE CONSISTENT Find a training plan that you can stick to long-term. If you can run four days a week, every week, you are going to get 90 percent of the benefits of training seven days a week.”
“TAKE RECOVERY DAYS SERIOUSLY The day after a tough workout, the most you want to do is jog lightly or do some form of cross-training, like cycling. You need a recovery day after a hard day. No exceptions.”
“RUN FASTER It's hard to race faster than you train. However fast you want to run a race, you've got to do some shorter intervals—what we call speed work—at least that fast.”
"STRENGTHEN YOUR WHOLE BODY Good runners condition their whole bodies. The arms drive the legs. Keep your upper body and core toned with a lot of push-ups, pull-ups, sit-ups, and back raises (don't forget that the back is part of the core). Stay away from machine weights and stick to Pilates, climbing, and dynamic flexibility work like yoga."
You can view the entire 10 Golden Rules by Clicking Here.