#157: How To Run Faster

Brad lays out a master plan to improve your running performance, looking beyond the obvious and sometimes misguided insights to push harder, add more speed workouts, or run more miles. Endurance athletes often overlook the importance of technique, and often exhibit horrible technique. No excuses are such a simple sport! Golf - plenty of excuses for a lousy swing (it’s very technical and hard to develop), but not running! Some discussion of technique ensues, emphasizing balanced center of gravity at all times and good posture. The listener is urged to dive deep into the running technique instruction, drills and sprint workout videos in the Primal Endurance Mastery Course at primalendurance.fit. Sprinting is great for technique development because the penalty for a poor technique is severe. Ditto for running barefoot on concrete - you very quickly learn how to strike the ground and absorb shock optimally, and generate explosive force with each stride. In contrast, cushy running shoes ruin your proprioception and enable lousy technique to become ingrained   When you sprint, make sure it’s an actual sprint. Even reps of 100-meter sprints are great for the hormonal, musculoskeletal and technique refinement benefits. Brad rarely goes further than this. Sprints are quality over quantity, both in the frequency of workouts (3x/month during intensity phases is plenty) and duration of efforts. Most endurance athletes make their “speed” workouts a suffer fest (ahem, 6 x 800m and so forth). They just get exhausted, don’t really run explosively, and lose out on the benefits of actual sprinting. This show will be a real eye-opener for how to integrate high intensity into your schedule the right way and get you thinking more about good technique instead of just shuffling along.  QUOTES: “The penalty for technique errors and not properly absorbing the impact is severe.” SHOW NOTES: How does one build aerobic base efficiency? [00:00:58]  What is the cut-off point 50-50 performance? [00:05:30]  What are the benefits of doing super hard sprinting? [00:07:19]  Dorsa flex foot is like imagining pedaling your bike over hot lava. [00:08:40]  A good way to teach people how to run is to have them run barefoot on cement! [00:10:58]  How does one rewire the Central Nervous System to be more efficient? [00:13:59]  How often should a person sprint? [00:16:09]  What are some good workout suggestions? [00:17:23]    LINKS: Barefoot Ted Primal Blueprint primalendurance.fit.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.