🏃‍VARIETY🏃‍♀️ PART 2

“Without variation, there is no evolution,” said Percy Cerutty, the unconventional Australian coach of Herb Elliot (1960 Olympic Gold and WR in the 1500m and mile) and John Landy (1956 Olympic Bronze 1500m and WR), to name a few. The idea of breaking up a running routine with a supplemental exercise was a crucial component of Cerutty’s training philosophy.

Give one of his workouts a try to add some variety into your running routine. His hill running workouts were a variation of strength training workouts for runners. To recreate the workout, find a hill of a grade 1 or 2 in incline. The hill at Portsea, where his runners trained, was 80 feet of sand on a steep incline. Start with 20 minutes and work up to 30-45 minutes of continuous hill running. The uphills should be run hard, followed by a controlled descent before starting the hill again. The important thing to keep in mind is that the uphills are run at maximum effort to get the neuromuscular benefit of working on recruiting more fast twitch muscle fibers. Try incorporating it and supplementing it with some strength work during the conditioning and pre-competition period of training, but a variation is recommended during the height of your race season. Baker Beach sand ladder anyone??

Follow along on Instagram here for #InstaCoach October series on variety