100m training tips, advice, equipment, gear, and more.

The quick answer is you don’t need to get another set of spikes to run indoors since the surface will be similar to what is used outdoors. The main thing you will need to account for is that there are no weather conditions affecting the track since it is indoors.

So a few things that you should keep in mind is that:

• The surface will always be dry.
• The surface won’t be affected as much by heat changes compared to tracks that are in direct sunlight.
• Wind won’t affect the way that you are running.

You will mainly need to think about the way your foot and spikes strike the ground.

It is worth practicing in your spikes in an indoor track. If you do want to get a separate pair for indoor competitions, you can if it is a preferance.

Many people that start running find themselves short of breath and unable to maintain the intensity that is required for their run. There are a couple of things to this.

1. Your body will adjust and you will develop a breathing pattern that will suit your running style and intensity demand.
2. You will use a rhythm to control your breathing while running.

How can you improve your breathing technique while running?

Inhale through your nose

You want to inhale as much oxygen as possible in through your nose. This will go into your body and muscles, which will help you perform.

Inhale steadily so you can feel the air fill up your lungs.

Exhale through your mouth

Exhale air through your mouth (not your nose). Exhale as much of the carbon dioxide out through your mouth so you can inhale the new oxygen through your nose to fuel your body and your muscles.

Inhale and exhale based on your stride pattern.

You want to inhale and exhale steadily. E.g. 1 second in, 1 second out. 4 seconds in, 4 seconds out, etc.

You will need to train your body to control your breathing pattern.

It is easier to inhale and exhale based on your striding pace. So inhale on steps 1-4, then exhale on steps 5-8. Then repeat.

As you build up your cardiovascular endurance, you will be able to increase the inhale and exhale timings and pacing.

It’s really important that you understand how your body works so you can minimize the risk of injury. One of the things that runners will experience is lower back pain.

Unfortunately, runners won’t understand why or how they are getting the pain in their lower back. And when the pain comes, what they need to do to resolve the pain.

When lower back pain comes, people think that they need creams, ice packs, pills, or physio.

It’s more likely that the lower back pain is coming from tightness in your muscles. There are things that you can do to prevent this, without having to opt for expensive treatments.

If your lower back is sore, check for tightness in the following muscle groups.

Sore lower backs usually occur from tightness that pulls the muscle attached to the lumbur spine. The muscles pulling muscles that will affect the tightness will either be:

• Hamstrings
• Glutes
• Hip flexors
• Quadriceps

The first thing you need to do is work out if the muscle groups are tight and if they are responsible for pulling the muscles in your lower back.

If you have tight hamstrings, it isn’t the hamstrings that need to be stretched. It is actually the hip flexors or the quadriceps that need to be stretched since they are rotating the hips forward.

Stretch your hip flexors

You can do this by doing lunges on the ground. If you are unable to go forward, your hip flexor is too tight. So you need to work on getting the muscle to relax.

Stretch out your quadriceps.

A quadricep stretch will help. Sometimes, you need to keep on stretching and waiting for the muscle to relax over a few hours or days so that it stops pulling on your spine.

Stretch your glutes

Stretch your glutes and also get them to relax.

Do dynamic stretching with lunges.

Simply lunge forward until your knee touches the ground. Then stand/power straight up so that the movement goes through your glute. This will dynamically stretch the hip flexor, quads, and glutes.

Do weight training to help you overcome any lower back pain.

Squats, Deadlifts, Bulgarian split squats, and reverse lunges are great for strengthening the core and stretching out the muscle groups. Even though you will feel the pain and you think you won’t be able to do the exercises, it is actually one of the best ways to help you recover.

You will need to strengthen your abdominals and hip flexors for running.

It’s likely that you’ve got a sore back because you are weak in your abs and your hip flexors. This means you need to do core exercises that will allow you to build the strength endurance with these muscle groups.

Hanging leg and knee raises will be key, but you will need to train them so you can do them at a high volume.

Once those muscle groups fatigue when you are running, it will incorporate other muscle groups including your lower back, which will lead to lower back pain.

Train yourself to run with high-knees

You can focus on developing your running technique so that your abs and hip flexors won’t tire and start using your lower back muscles. A simple trick is to keep running with your ankles going over your knees.

Pay attention to make sure that your lower back isn’t being used. If you find that your lower back is being used, lower your knee movement and running pattern. Make sure that your core remains engaged at all times.

Is it really effective to do running exercises to lose weight?

The quick answer is yes. But it isn’t as straightforward as running and losing weight.

You can maximize the intensity of your exercise by doing running activities. The more intense you do the running, the higher your heart rate will be. The longer you can maintain the exercise, the more calories, fat, and weight you will lose from your body.

However…

You will only be able to lose weight from the running exercises that you are doing if you do the following.

1. You track what you are consuming in your nutrition. You need to know the macros and the calorie intake and burn that you are doing to ensure that you are in a calorie deficit. If you are not in a calorie deficit, your body won’t burn the calories which will make you lose fat.
2. You need to track the amount of estimated calories that you are burning from your running activities. This means you need to track the time, the distance, and work out the intensity of your run. Ideally, you will be able to track your heart rate to see the rate that you are able to maintain during your run. Ideally, you will be able to keep your heart rate above 160bpm to burn your body fat aggressively through running.
   
   However, you should still be able to achieve good results with a 130bpm.

There are a few things that you should consider when running to lose weight.

It will originally be difficult on your joints.

Because you will have to put so much stress and intensity on your muscles, you will get aches and pains. You need to progressively load the muscles and the joints so that they become used to the intensity that’s required to run.

You will get better over time.

As your body becomes lighter and you start to get used to the biomechanics of your body, and you will end up running with better technique, efficiency, and intensity.

If you are keen to improve your 100m time, but don’t know where to start; you can use the information from this post as a starting point to develop your speed, explosiveness, and power. All three of these will help you improve your 100m time.

I want you to focus on the factors that can help you improve your 100m time as quickly as possible.

Whether you want to improve in 2 weeks, 2 months, or over the course of 2 years, the following information will help you improve your 100m time quickly.

Develop your speed endurance.

Your body actually slows down during the 100m race due to the muscles getting fatigued. You can improve your speed endurance pretty quickly by doing interval training over a 120-300m distance.

Maintaining your top speed over these distances will allow you to hold your technique, and it will allow you to run more powerfully during the race.

Develop your speed endurance by doing interval training.

This will be very tough on your body. However, you will improve quickly since the body will adapt to the athletic demands from interval training.

An example of interval training will be the following.

• 120m sprints at 80% of your maximum speed x 10 repetitions with 30 seconds rest.
• 120m sprints at 80% of your maximum speed x 5 repetitions with 30 seconds rest.
• 200m @ 30 second pace with 30 seconds recovery x 5 repetitions
• 300m at 80% pace with 60 seconds recovery x 3

Increase the explosive power in your hip flexors.

You want to improve the horizontal force that you can generate from your hip flexors. You can do this by:

• Doing Bulgarian split squats
• Deadlifts
• Squats
• Bounding plyometrics

Skipping

Skipping will help develop explosive power in your calves and ankle flexion. Do these until you reach the point of failure.

If your body feels tired when you are running, you want to stop and give up. And you need to avoid doing this if you want to achieve your running goals.

People will say that it is the power of the mind that will allow you to keep on running. This is half true.

We want you to have the tools to keep on running, even if you feel really tired. This will allow you to keep your body moving, even if you feel that your body is starting to fade on you.

Focus on the end goal.

Whether you set a time or a distance, focus on completing the original goal that you set for your run. In some cases, you may have to reduce the intensity of the run (average running interval time and your heart rate) in order to complete your run.

Drop your heart rate.

You might find that you are running at a heart rate that is making you feel tired. Instead of maintaining that heart rate, drop it so that the body recovers. Even reducing the heart rate by 20-30bpm can be enough for your body to recover.

Run with technical efficiency.

This is important because as your body starts to tire, you want to maintain the running rhythm and pace. This means you need to rely on the technical running style to use as little energy as possible to maintain your running pace.

This will see you rely on your core strength, minimise your arm movements, and focus on maintaining a stride length (running with your feet coming over your ankles or knees) so that you can maintain the running pace even if you are tired.

Run with motivational music.

You want to pick-up a second rush of energy that will allow you to run well. Set a playlist with songs that will get you ‘charged and energized’ to run. Then maintain the pace in line with the music that you are listening to during your run.

Focus on putting one foot in front of the other.

When you are tired of running, only focus on putting one foot in front of the other. One step forward is another step closer to finishing your run.

Some other things to keep in mind are:

• Your performance will improve after each run.
• Your body will condition itself to not be tired for the next run.