Getting Stronger to Run Faster

My goal is to get to a 19 minute 5K. While it would be great to reach that this year, realistically it may be 2015 before I can achieve it. To help me get there I have been working on my speed by following prescribed methods and will be increasing my mileage overall. I am looking long term as I am not trying to speed this process up and get injured. Especially at 58 years of age.

Another thing I have been working on since my Marathon is my strength. I figure if the experts say get stronger to run faster and reduce the chances of injuries that’s for me. This includes upper body and lower body. My leg strength has been lagging behind and this is one thing holding me back.

My butt muscles have gotten pretty weak over time as I have been doing a lot of sitting at my job. There was a time I was in pretty good shape being I was running so much, riding bike and swimming. I did a lot of hiking back in the 1980’s and early 1990’s when we lived in California, lots of great places to go. Getting stronger is an integral part of my plan and it will help me get faster and hopefully reduce the chance of injuries.

I have also just gone ahead and accepted the fact that I am a Masters runner and not a youngster anymore. In fact I guess I would be considered a Grand Master runner. Accepting this notion I have started doing more reading on training for masters and how we need to pay more attention to ourselves and watch out for pushing too hard least we injure ourselves. In other words be more careful. Having said that it’s great to see how well many over 40 runners are competing at such a high level.

If you are getting back into running after an extended period of time or you are starting for the first time, it would be worth your time to work on your leg strength. Even a couple times a week would be of help. You really do not need any weights or special equipment if you think that would be an obstacle. There are plenty of exercises you can do with just your body weight.