Once you start running, eventually you’d reach the point where you begin to ask yourself how you can run faster and achieve longer distances without overworking your body. As you continuously do it, you may have that desire to beat your personal record and achieve more. The goals of every runner may not all be the same. But all runners may have one common question: how to improve their endurance.
Endurance is the body’s ability to tolerate and sustain prolonged hours of physical activity, like running. Generally, endurance has two components: muscular and cardiovascular endurance. In this article, you’ll come across some of the strategies in tackling both so you can achieve the overall goal of improving your running endurance.
Aim For At Least 150-Minute Aerobic Exercise Per Week
To improve your running endurance, you have to train your body to withstand a good and thorough workout. This means aiming for a minimum of 150 minutes of active aerobic exercise per week. This is necessary so you can strengthen your heart and lungs and reach your intended fitness goals.
In aiming to reach this goal, however, avoid shocking your body with sudden strenuous exercise. Try to take it easy and do it one step at a time. You may start doing exercises a few minutes and then later on increasing your duration until you reach 150 minutes.
Run Long And Slow
When runners train for marathons, the common approach taken is to focus on easy-paced but consistent training. By doing this, you can strengthen your endurance without hurting your body. Surely, you wouldn’t want to hurt your body by overtraining it. This is what it means by focusing on an effort-based training program.
Run Yasso 800s
The Yasso 800 system involves running ten 800-meter repetitions around the track, with a few minutes of rest. Essentially, this workout simply involves taking your target marathon time and running that for 800 meters.
Many runners around the world seem to follow this strategy and swear by it. If you want to try if the exercise routine works for you, the best way to start is to run it at least once a week. Start with a series of four to five runs while taking account of your pace and recovery time. Then once your body gets used to this routine, you can slowly add one day more per week to increase the frequency of your routine.
Try HIIT Training
While this exercise is quick, it gets your body going, simply because it’s high intensity. It’s made to train your body to get used to doing more and moving more. For example, one routine may have 10 seconds of sprints, followed by 30 seconds of rest.
HIIT training has many potential benefits to the body, including the following:
- Improving cardiovascular fitness
- Improving blood pressure and glucose levels, which you can regularly check using a continuous glucose monitor
- Losing abdominal fat
Make Every Workout Count
Not all your workout exercises have to be so difficult to the point you’d start loathing and dreading exercising. You can make each of your workouts count by doing an alternating routine. For example, you can do a challenging exercise today, followed by an easier one the next day, and so on.
On the ‘easy’ days, find exercises you actually enjoy doing. Think of those days as a reward or treat while still giving your body good exercise.
Stay Hydrated
In every workout and run you do, be sure to take water breaks. Your body can never function to its full potential if you’re dehydrated. Especially if you’re exercising in humid or hot conditions, your body would be losing a lot of electrolytes. It would also not be healthy for your body if you’re dehydrated.
To keep hydrated without adding unnecessary calories, drinking water is always a no-fail way to do so. But if you love taking energy drinks, be sure to read the ingredients list first to be sure you’re not drinking any sugar-filled beverage.
Conclusion
There are so many ways to improve your running endurance. From doing workouts to following a proper training plan to staying hydrated, it’s all up to you to make the necessary changes so you can achieve your personal endurance goal. If you follow this, you may be improving your health in general, too. Just remember to take it easy when doing the strategies above. And whenever there’s anything you’re unsure of, always ask a professional for advice.
