Now that we are staring down the barrel of Spring and the longer daylight hours are much more noticeable (and welcome!) many of you will probably be dusting off the old lace ups and tentatively setting off around the streets of Ludlow.

I thought it would be a great opportunity therefore, to take a look at some of the sometimes baffling terminology used within the running community. Like many other sports there are various terms that you might want to become more familiar with. So, without further ado…  

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, thereby 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 in the preceding days before the race.

FARTLEK - derived from the Swedish word for speed play, the runner will vary the duration and intensity (speed) of sections of a training run.

HILL REPEATS - a workout that includes sprinting fast uphill followed by 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’ run at a steady pace to help build endurance and mental strength. Also known as Long Steady Duration.

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

PACE - essentially, the speed at which you are running. This is varies 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. Also used to describe the period after a run.

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 probably 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

STRENGTH TRAINING - an exercise form that designed to improve strength and/or power for more efficient running economy, and also offset the risk of running-associated impact injuries by making the body more robust and able to handle higher loads.

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, transport and utilise per minute when exercising.

Article by Andy Silvey, Andali Fitness