Training

Warm Ups to achieve your Fastest Run yet

With over 10 years of elite coaching experience, Dan Stepney has been integral to the support and development of Britain’s next generation of world-class athletes. Working as part of the British Athletics Futures Academy programme and as assistant coach at the recently formed PHX TRK elite group, Dan works with some of the world’s best middle-distance running athletes such as Kyle Langford, Charlie Grice & Ellie Baker.

Responsible for the planning and delivery of key athletes’ training programmes, Dan recently caught up with SportsShoes and Nike to share some of his top training techniques for achieving faster runs. In the first of a 2-part series created by Dan and Nike athlete Ellie Baker, they focus on how to warm-up properly in order to achieve your quickest run time yet.

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Warming up for maximum speed

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In its simplest form, speed is how fast you can get from A to B. It is an integral element of training that helps break those PB’s and wins races. Whether you’re running a marathon and wanting to break 5 hours or want to run sub 2 minutes over 800m, one thing that is going to help you achieve these goals is speed.

It’s very important to remember that speed is relative. Speed is not the same for every athlete or every distance. It’s specific for the individual athlete and their event or distance. For the marathon runner aiming to run sub 5hrs, it could be going from a 11: 30-minute mile pace to an 11-minute mile. For an elite 800m runner wanting to break the 2-minute barrier it might be having the ability to run the last 200m in sub 30 seconds. Both are examples of speed, but are also completely different.

The best athletes I work with, work with intent. That’s not just whilst they are doing their reps but that’s also in the build up to it. Their warm up drills are done with purpose and precision and they do each drill to the very best of their ability. They think about their form, their ground contact, their breathing, everything.

Now, unfortunately not all of us are going to be Olympians. However, if you know the purpose for each session, focus 100% on drills in your warm up, and complete your session with intent. This will go a long way to making you a better, stronger, faster runner and you’ll be well on your way to achieving your own individual goals.

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Exercises

All of these are to be done over a 10-15 metre distance.

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Purpose:

• To get the body physically and mentally ready to perform optimally

• To enhance or reaffirm good running technique

• To help strengthen muscles, ligaments and joints

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Tip toes: Get onto the balls of your feet and walk forward. Do not let your heels touch the ground and keep a tall body position. Try hitting the floor with intent by flexing your toes to your shin and then extending just before your foot hits the ground.

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Heel walks:Flex your toes up towards your shins, get on to your heels and start to walk forward. Do not let your toes touch the ground and keep a tall body position.

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Walk throughs with knee drive: Walk forward rolling through the heel to the toe with each foot plant, holding the position on your toe for a second or two, really feeling the stretch in the lower leg. Make sure your toes are pointing to the shin on the free leg. Add in a knee drive with your free leg after a few strides. The aim is to have a 90-degree angle at your hip, knee and ankle.

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Knee hugs with quad stretch: Stand on one leg and hug your free leg towards your chest. Without returning it to the floor, then pull the same leg behind you to stretch out your quad. Keep tall with your standing leg straight.

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Hamstring walks: Start with your feet together. Take a step a forward on your right leg, keeping it straight. Bend your supporting left leg leaning back into your hips. Bring your hands through either side of your body trying to touch the floor on your way through. Stand up and bring your feet together before repeating this on the other side.

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Walking lunge stretching up and over: Aggressive knee drive into lunge position. Then reach up and over the knee that is in front of the body. Then, drive the other leg forward with an aggressive knee drive and repeat. 10 lunges in total.

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Toe grabs: Keep your front leg straight and reach with both hands down towards your toe. Jog a few strides and repeat on the opposite leg. Work into the stretch as you progress.

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Arabesques: Stand on one leg. Bend at waist and put your opposite arm towards your standing foot with your free leg extended backwards, parallel to the ground. Feel the stretch in your hamstring. Jog a few strides and repeat on the opposite leg.

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Leg pulls: Stand on one leg and pull from the lower shin on your free leg so that the knee points out to the side.

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Side Step: Start with your feet together. Take a large step to the left and then bring your right foot to meet your left. As soon as your feet meet, repeat the motion until you have completed your 15metres. Then, head back to your starting point leading with the right leg to ensure you have worked through both sides.

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Groin stretch: Stand with feet slightly further than shoulder width apart. Bend one knee and shift your bodyweight over to the same side. Do the same in the opposite direction and then shuffle sideways. Repeat this over the 15metre distance. Keep facing the same way and do the same thing until you end up back at your starting point.

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Ellie Baker wears the Nike Air Zoom Pegasus 35 running trainers. See here for PART 2 in the series.

>> Follow Ellie on Instagram: @ellienatashabaker

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Dan Stepney has been coaching for over 10 years. During this time he has gained vast knowledge and experience with both elite level and recreational athletes. He is the assistant coach at the recently formed PHX TRK elite group with head coach Jon Bigg. PHX TRK hosts some of the world’s best middle distance athletes such as Kyle Langford, Charlie Grice & Ellie Baker and Dan is an important part of the planning and delivery of their training programmes.

Dan has also been a British Athletics coach on several GB endurance altitude camps out in such places as Iten (Kenya), Font Romeu (France), Flagstaff (USA) and Potchefstroom (South Africa). Dan has previously acted as a British Athletics consultant to the Nike+ Run Club, a position he held for 2 years, and is currently working as part of the British Athletics Futures Academy Programme, which helps support and develop the next generation of world-class athletes.

>> Follow Dan on Instagram: @stepneydan

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Run fast with the Nike Pegasus 35

The Nike Pegasus is a classic, staple shoe and very well known and loved by the running community. This year, Nike are using that power to help people run even faster in their classic shoe with a new, fresh design that’s engineered to fly. Find your fast with the new Nike Pegasus 35 available from sportsshoes.com

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Looking for some training tips and advice? Then head over to our Training category where our athletes and experts explain everything you need to know.