Strengthening legs for running longer times?

Nekrachael

I am on week 10 of cp210k, and it has all gone smoothly. However, the most recent jump in running time makes my legs so tired. I have added more cycling in the last month to help strengthen my legs, but I am wondering if there is anything else I can do. OR, with the longer times, will I notice my leg strength improving? I did repeat week 8, which is the 5k point, before moving on toward 10k, but that had more to do with my mental game than any strength issues. For the record, week 10 is when you start running 50 minutes.

thavoice

Nothing will really be able to do better than just continuing to run.

The more you run, the more the muscles you use in your legs will strengthn up.

You can do weight exercises for your legs, those will help you get stronger, but for the most part the best way to combat that leg fatigue from running is simply putting in the miles.

It does get easier, but ya just gotta run more.

Sam_I_Am77

Your running will help you for sure. There are two components to consider for your running, endurance and ground force contact (GFC). GFC is simply how much force your legs apply to the ground for propulsion; improving it is one of the things that will make you faster. We can discuss stride-length, stride-rate, later.

You will largely get your aerobic conditioning from running, but to help get you faster you will need to improve your GFC and it can be incredibly simple. You need some strength training and possibly vary your conditioning, slightly.

Strength & Speed
- Squats for 4 - 5 sets of 3-5 reps (heavier weight) rest 20 - 30 sec, do a set of 3 Box Jumps, Broad Jumps, or even Squat Jumps.
**You can look into something simple like StrongLifts 5x5 but I would still add the Jumps as I indicated above. Plyometrics helps build speed & power.**

Strength Endurance
- I think walking lunges with a pair of DB's is great, shoot for 15-20 reps with a long stride, knees should touch the ground

Aerobic Conditioning: Many endurance athletes actually split their conditioning between approximately 90% to 85% aerobic (distance running) and anerobic between 10% to 15% (sprints, high-interval training).

Nekrachael

Thanks!

MeanderingMammal

However, the most recent jump in running time makes my legs so tired.

So that's endurance rather than strength, and what'll improve that is running. As your times increase you build capacity.

Tiredness may also relate to your nutrition, as you're getting towards a sixty minute session then your fuel is important and it may be that you're inadequately fuelled.

That said, I'd agree that some resistance training will help with injury prevention, and speed, but as you're already in a plan I'd avoid messing about with it until you're more experienced. Speedwork won't help you at the moment.