Run Faster

RunningDVDs.com has just released their first video: Building a Better Runner: Building from the Ground Up. I was fortunate enough to receive a review copy a few days ago from Jay Johnson, the middle distance coach at the University of Colorado, who is one of the creators of the DVD.

Building a Better Runner: Building from the Ground Up is the first in what is expected to be a series of DVDs intended to give coaches and athletes the information they need to keep healthy, improve running performance, and avoid injury. In their words, “The goal of RunningDVDs.com is simple - to provide athletes with resources to run faster.”

The DVD is broken into 4 sections: the Introduction, Preventive Strategies, General Strength Routines, and Bonus Features. All of the exercises shown on the DVD are also shown in photographic sequence on PDFs that can be viewed and printed from the disc.

The DVD

Introduction

The DVD starts with an introduction by Mike Smith, the head cross country coach and middle distance coach at Kansas State University, one of the co-creators of the DVD. The introduction is divided into 3 subsections:

• Preventive Exercises Rationale
• General Strength Rationale
• Tempo Warmup Rationale

These introductory sections seem to be targeted more towards coaches, although they do provide a good advice on how to progress with the exercises that are shown in later sections of the DVD.

Preventive Strategies

This section of the DVD shows you balance exercises as well as exercises that target the lower leg, patellar tendon, and hamstring and hip. The balance section shows exercises such as the ‘Alphabet Routine’ (spelling out the alphabet in all caps with each leg) that are meant to improve your efficiency and running economy.

The lower leg exercises includes a routine that should be done barefoot in the sand and is intended to strengthen the lower leg, ankle and foot. There are also exercises that can be done on the track or any flat surface that are intended to strengthen your feet and reduce ground contact time. One great foot strengthener that I hadn’t seen before was the foot crawl, which is done by standing straight and using only your toes to propel you forward.

The patellar tendon exercises focus on strengthening the quads and hamstrings. Some of the exercises in this section require a partner to provide resistance, while others just require you to have a wall or steps to work with (such as walking up steps backwards).

The hip exercises include resistance exercises that you need a partner to do as well as a couple of exercises that require very basic equipment. One exercise that I’m sure would be helpful to a lot of people is the ‘Hip Drop and Raise’ because it works the glutes and strengthens the IT band, which seems to be a trouble spot for a lot of people.

General Strength Routines

I think this section of the DVD will be the most beneficial for me, as I’m really trying to make more of an effort to incorporate some strength work into my running program. I’ve been relying on the exercises in Brain Training for Runners, but now I’ll definitely be adding some of these.

There are six different general strength routines shown in the section: pedestal, back, dryer, teak, mahogany, and helsinki. The emphasis here is on core work, with a little bit of upper body work thrown in. Most of the exercises here can be done on your own without any equipment, although there were a few that require a chin-up bar or a medicine ball.

You may have seen a lot of the exercises here in one form or another, but what’s different here than in most programs is the number of variations of each exercise. For example, the single leg raises were shown in the supine, lateral, and prone positions, on the hands and on the elbows, with straight legs and with bent legs. Now that’s some good core work.

Bonus Features

There are 3 different segments in this section of the DVD. In the first, you are shown a fairly long tempo workout sequence (demonstrated by an unnamed female athlete Morgan Bonds, a championship middle-distance runner from Kansas State who was recently accepted to Johns Hopkins medical school). The same sequence is gone through in the second segment, this time demonstrated by Christian Smith, a NCAA record holder in the 1000 meters with an 800 meter PR of 1:44.

Coach Smith explains that the tempo sequence should take you about 20-30 minutes. The sequence is designed to increase blood flow and work capacity. It starts with warm-up exercises such as wrist, ankle, head and hip rolls, and then moves on to exercises that are more geared towards improving leg and hip strength. Most of these exercises are dynamic, and the sequence is designed so you can move easily from one exercise into the next. It definitely looks like a tough workout; in fact, Coach Smith recommends that beginners start with just the tempo sequence and that they only follow it with actual track work after their work capacity has improved.

Also included here is an interview with Christian Smith which covers his high school training, his college highlights, his recovery from major health problems in 2007, and his plans to run the 800 and 1500 meters in the upcoming 2008 Olympic Trials.

My Overall Impressions

What could be improved

There were a couple of minor production-type problems which won’t even bother most people. For example, there were a couple of sections in the DVD where it seemed to me that a few words were accidentally clipped from the beginning of a segment, and in a few places, I noticed that the section titles said ‘General Stength’ instead of ‘General Strength’ ( I think this was in the ‘Teak’ routine?). Obviously not a big deal, just a minor annoyance.

A second (and in my opinion, more important) area I’d like to see improved were the PDFs that were included on the DVD. I really liked the idea of having something I can print out and take with me to the gym or track to remind me of the exercise sequence; however, these PDFs they are picture-only. Personally, I think it would be helpful to also include a brief description of the exercises along with a recommendation on the number or repeats to do of each.

What’s already great

Although I’m sure that some of you that were track athletes in high school and college will be very familiar with many of these exercises, this is probably the most comprehensive set of preventive/strength exercises that I’ve seen that are targeted directly towards improving your running performance. And, even the most hardened track athlete may find some new exercises or variations that they haven’t done before. I was also quite impressed at the sheer volume of exercises that are shown here, and how well they are incorporated into routines that can easily be added on to the end of any workout.

The athletes used in the DVD demonstrated the exercises quite well, and the commentary provided by Coach Smith was very thorough. I think almost any runner would be able to find some helpful exercises here that would target the areas that they need to work on.

Where to get more info/purchase the DVD

To learn more about this video and the plans for the rest of the series, visit http://runningdvds.com.

To purchase the DVD, go to http://www.createspace.com/241352. After you click ‘Add to Cart’, enter TE5R2JLV in the discount code field to get 20% off the DVD price (regularly $34.99).

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