How To Train For Middle Distance Running

Training for middle distance running requires that you have a good aerobic base, but also that you run it in a fast time, because it's all about the speed, and particularly in the final lap. So, you need to break down the distance in quarters and start training it in quarters as quickly as you can. So if you're running the 1500, for example, you split it into five laps, and you try and train running the five laps as quickly as you can.

That will increase your overall time. So, you need to do a long-ish run, at least once or twice a week, of about three to five miles at a steady pace, to build up your aerobic base. But you need to do a lot of interval training, as it's called, which is running shorter distances with repetitions, trying to keep to a certain time.

Technique is also very important, so the way the arms move, the way the legs move and the way you land, but also your core. You don't want to be leaning too far forward. You want to be upright to get the most efficient running technique.

So if we look at middle distance runners, they are running in excess of about nine, ten miles an hour. So they will have almost a sprinting action. So, their arms will be pumping.

They'll be moving back and then coming forward to propel the body forward, and their legs will be cycling and landing underneath their center of gravity and their feet will be landing either heel-toe, or flat, or on the balls of their feet. So if you look at this runner, his arms are moving backwards and forwards. His posture is upright, so he's not leaning forward, and his heel is coming up almost to his backside.

Two other very important areas are nutrition. Most middle distance runners are very lean and therefore they look after themselves, and don't eat a lot of junk food. The second one is flexibility and agility, so you want to be doing a lot of stretching, particularly at the end of your sessions, stretching every muscle group, so they don't get shorter and tighter and cause you injury.

So to summarize about middle distance, you've got to work intervals, you've got to work fast but you've got to have a good aerobic base. You've got to look after your nutrition, and you've got to do lots of stretching and flexibility work. .