Using Your Arm Power – 5 weeks to go
I hope your Ciry2Surf preparation is going well. If you’ve been following along with my training plan, you should be feeling a lot fitter by now.
The last two weeks we have been working on improving your speed by concentrating on lifting the knees when doing fartlek work and improving your breathing technique.
The third key to improving performance is in the arms.
When we think of running, most of us tend to think of our legs and feet, yet it is the arms that can be used to completely alter your rhythm and set your pace.
When I was in my early teens I remember going to an athletic club training night and someone came up to me and said ‘concentrate on your arms’. And I’ve never forgotten that.
Your arms play a very important part in your running style, yet most people tend to forget about them. When we jog, the arms tend to swing along aimlessly as they counter balancing the body, yet when we run quickly, we naturally put more power into swinging our arms.
‘Occasional runners’ often don’t use the power they have in their arms at all. Yet your arms can be used to adjust your rhythm or to set your pace.
Because your arms counterbalance your body, when you swing your arms faster, your legs have to follow. Try running along swinging your arms at twice the speed of your legs’¦ you can’t do it. By swinging your arms faster, your legs will naturally speed up too. This is one of the reasons runners do upper body exercise in the gym.
I’ve found that when my legs are tired and I get to that point where I feel that I haven’t got anything left in the tank, if I concentrate on swinging my arms and I think about nothing else, it can induce a ‘second wind’, that extra boost of power and energy I didn’t know I had.
So now it is time to put it all together.
The task for this week is to focus on getting a good rhythm in your breathing, then shift your attention to your arms, followed by shifting your attention to your stride and leg technique.
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City2Surf Training Plan – Lifting Your Game – Overview
- City2Surf Training Plan Stage One
- City2Surf training plan ‘“ Stage Two
- City2Surf training plan ‘“ Stage Three
- Week 11 – Introduction to a routine (Rest Day) (First gym day)
- Week 10 – Start off Nice and Easy
- Week 9 – Continue at an easy pace
- Week 8 -Â Noticing changes in yourself
Jogging and Running : what’s the difference? - Week 7 – Step it up a notch
Calculating your Ideal Training Level - Week 6 – Focus on Breathing
- Week 5 – Arm Power
- Week 4 – High Effort
- Week 3 – Steady as She Goes
- Week 2 – Focus on Endurance
- Week 1 – How to Cut minutes of your City2Surf time with 24 Hours to go
- City to Surf 2009 – We are off
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About the Author
Chris Edwards is a Leadership Coach and Communication Strategist. He is a City2Surf Legend who applies the same focus and dedication to his clients that has powered him over the line year after year.
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