On Sunday 6th October 2019 many members of Andali Fitness family successfully completing the wonderful Cardiff Half Marathon having completed a few months of different run training methodolgies building up to it. On the back of this I thought it would be quite fun to take a look at the potentially confusing terminology used within the running community.

Like all other sports there are various new terms to learn when undertaking a new activity. For example with strength training we have sets, reps, intensity, volume etc

The running world is no different so I have penned some of the most common terms and explained what they mean just for a bit of light reading on the build up towards Christmas.

ALTITUDE TRAINING - at altitude the amount of oxygen in the blood is reduced because there is less oxygen in the air. Therefore our body being the wonderful machine that it is increases the amount of red blood cells, improving oxygen delivery to the muscles.

CARB LOADING - preparing for an endurance event such as a marathon or possibly half marathon by increasing the amount of carbohydrates in your diet.

FARTLEK - meaning Speed Play in Swedish, the runner will vary the duration and intensity (speed) of sections of a training run.

HILL REPEATS - a workout that includes sprinting fast uphill and jogging slowly downhill at a recovery pace which helps to build leg strength, speed and aerobic capacity. The lower impact forces of uphill running make this ideal for reducing the risk of impact related injuries.

INTERVAL TRAINING - a mix of fast bouts of running and long recovery periods (either walking or resting)

LONG SLOW DISTANCE - a ‘longer than normal’ at a steady pace to help build endurance and mental strength.

NEGATIVE SPLIT - running the second half of a session/race quicker than the first half.

PACE - basically the speed at which you are running. This is different for different distances ie if you ran your 100m pace for a 1500m race you wouldn’t get much further than 100m.

RECOVERY - walking or easy jogging between faster-paced segments. The recovery allows your heart rate to return to the point where you are ready to run fast again.

SPECIFITY - the majority of your training should be relevant and appropriate to the sport / distance you are training for ie running for hours at a steady marathon pace will not help you improve your 100m sprint time.

SPLITS - the time it takes you to do a specific distance in a run ie 3 x 5k splits over a 15km run

STRIDE RATE - the amount of times your feet hit the ground every minute. Typically a good stride rate is between 160-180 (each foot hits the ground 80-90 times a minute).

STRIDE LENGTH - the distance between heel strikes when running. For example Mo Farrah travels 1.75m - 2.25m between strides.

TEMPO - a pace which is about 15-20 seconds slower per kilometre than a runner’s best effort 5km pace. This is also known as an anaerobic threshold run and you should be able to maintain this pace steadily albeit uncomfortably for at least 20 minutes.

TEN PERCENT RULE – an injury reduction strategy that suggests a runner doesn’t increase their distance / intensity / time by more than 10% on a weekly basis.

VO2 MAX – a measurement of the amount of oxygen that a person can consume per minute when exercising.