Description

Most runners know they should be doing strength work. Far fewer are doing it, and of the ones who are, plenty are doing the wrong things — high-repetition circuits that leave them sore, tired for tomorrow’s run and no stronger than they were in January.

This is the opposite of that. Four sessions, built for distance runners, written specifically around the answers you give

What you get

Four complete sessions — Foundation Strength, Single-Leg Strength, Maximal Strength and Reactive Strength — that you cycle through for eight to twelve weeks. Every session comes with sets, repetitions, rest and the effort level to work at.

Alongside them, a full exercise guide. Every movement in your plan gets its own entry with an illustration, the muscles it works, why a runner in particular needs it, three coaching cues to get it right, and a concrete starting weight rather than a vague instruction to “use a challenging load”.

You also get the reasoning: a page on how the loading system works, and a page on where these sessions belong in your running week so they support your training instead of wrecking it.

How it is personalised

After you buy, I send you a link to a short form. It takes about three minutes.

Your injury history changes what goes in and what stays out. A history of Achilles trouble, shin pain or plantar problems removes the jumping work entirely and the plan explains why. A recent hamstring strain removes the heavy eccentric loading. Every injury you tell me about also gets its own written note in the back of the plan.

The areas you think are weak get pushed to the front of every session. If you tick glutes and calves, that is what the plan prioritises.

Your equipment decides what is prescribed. Bodyweight only, a few dumbbells at home, a full gym, resistance machines, or any combination — nothing appears in your plan that you cannot actually do. If you have machines, the guide tells you which machine does which job and when it is the better choice.

Your experience sets the loading. If you have never lifted, you start conservatively and meaningful weight is deferred until weeks five and six. If you have been training for years, you start where you should.

And if you have followed one of my plans before, tell me on the form and the new one picks up where the last finished — heavier, lower repetitions, harder variations — rather than starting you again from scratch.

The thinking behind it

The programme follows the principles Richard Blagrove sets out for endurance runners. Heavy, low-repetition work rather than circuits, because the running economy improvements found in the research come from neural adaptation, not from building muscle. Plyometric work for tendon stiffness. Bent-knee calf work, because the soleus takes six to eight times your bodyweight every stride and standing calf raises alone do not train it properly. Eccentric hamstring work, which has the strongest evidence behind it of anything in injury prevention.

Two or three sessions a week of twenty to forty-five minutes. That is the dose that works, and it is the dose the plan is built around.

Who this is for

Runners of any standard, from someone training for a first 10K to someone chasing a marathon time. It works whether you have never touched a weight or you have been lifting for years — the form sorts that out.

It is not a rehabilitation programme. If you are currently under the care of a physiotherapist or a doctor, follow their advice ahead of anything in this plan.

Delivery

Buy the plan, complete the form, and your PDF arrives by email within 24 hours. Any questions after it lands, just reply to the email — it comes straight to me.

Written by Gareth Cooke. Marathon best 2:24:35, coach and personal trainer since 2010, and running every single day since 30 November 2015.