Peter Fletcher

  • About
  • Blog
  • Contact

Today I ran. And did chin-ups.

March 13, 2014 by Peter Fletcher

I ran this morning. And I did some chinups. The chin-up bar was wet from rain. It made it hard to grip. Still, I did sets of 3 chin-ups and 10 push-ups.

Afterwards, I ran for 600 metres at sub-4 minute pace. Running that fast feels great but it takes strength to maintain good form.

I’m going to run fast more often. Most of my running is done at a jog and that’s does little to activate my glutes and hamstrings. A smooth action needs strong glutes and hamstrings to rotate the feet higher at the back. With a higher rotation the runner spends more time in the air and the more time you spend in the air, the faster you run.

So tomorrow I’ll run intervals to improve my speed and efficiency.

I’m an average runner but I’m better at running than I am at chin-ups. That makes me pretty hopeless at chin-ups. But, I’ll persist until I succeed.

Never give up, right?

 

Filed Under: Personal Tagged With: interval training, running, running drills

6 things guaranteed to make you run faster and stronger

February 9, 2014 by Peter Fletcher

The Running Centre

There’s more to running than just pounding the pavement. Image: The Running Centre

If you want to run further, faster or both then the crew at The Running Centre have a course just for you. I attended their very informative running techniques course today. Here’s what I learned.

  1. Practice running drills. If you’re like me you’ve started running thinking that running is just walking faster. It’s not. To run well takes practice. Swimmers have known this forever. They practice with drills designed to make their stroke more efficient so they can go faster with less effort.
  2. Increase your strength. Running well demands a strong core, strong hip flexors and strong glutes. Individually a running stride does little to strengthen any of these muscles and that’s why you’ll need to activate them through plyometrics. Try squats, pushups, leg raises, a bridge, calf raises and ITB leg raises.
  3. Increase the flexibility of your hip flexors. Flexible hip flexors helps you to create that beautiful circular stride that top athletes have.
  4. Increase the flexibility in your achilles tendon and your calf muscle. Over 50 percent of  your propulsion comes from your ankle. The two things that impact that the most the elasticity in your achilles and plantar fascia (the tendon in the bottom of your foot). So make sure to do lots of calf stretches.
  5. Run less to run more. This is a trap I’ve fallen into. The fitter I get the further I want to run but that often leads to overuse injuries – like the calf strain I’m carrying right now.
  6. Forget about which part of your foot hits the ground first. Instead, focus on getting your foot to land under your body. If your foot lands to far in front of your body it spends too much time on the ground. If you have an efficient stride you’ll be in the air for about 60 percent of the time. Over-stride and your time on the ground increases and your speed slows.

I’m keen to learn more so I’ll probably invest in their advanced workshops.

Filed Under: Fitness Tagged With: fitness, running, running drills

About Peter

Speaker, trainer and coach. I write about living, loving and working better. Love a challenge. More...

Subscribe

Get the latest posts delivered to your inbox.

Recent Posts

  • Perth property market report
  • Mandating madness: The case against compulsory e-conveyancing
  • PEXA: Stop treating conveyancers like idiots
  • Page 1 of 365
  • Looking back, looking forward

Top Posts & Pages

  • Foucault on power relations
  • Why saying "You've got potential" can be the worst thing to say
  • Foucault on Confession
  • What Jack and the Beanstalk can teach you about the value of achieving goals
  • Blog
  • Mayorism: a different approach to hyper local domination
  • Why I'm interested in self-writing and the hupomnemata
  • Legends of Jacob's Ladder - Geoff Jamieson
  • Looking back, looking forward
  • My bounce rate is too high and what I'm doing about it

Location

You can find me at Residential Settlements in Burswood.

5/170 Burswood Road
Burswood WA 6100

Let’s catch up

If you're ready to take your business to the next level, get in touch with me now.

Send me an email using the contact form or call me direct on 0419 538 838.

Connect

Connect with me on one of these social networks.
  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • LinkedIn
  • Tumblr
  • Twitter

Copyright © 2021 · Agency Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in