Why is core strength important to your running?

Having a strong core will help you avoid injuries. If you have ever gained injuries whilst running this could be because your legs were running more quickly than your body was able to deal with.

Your core will also keep you balanced so if you do trail running or cross country running then having a strong core will be even more important. You will need to build up the core muscles to keep you upright on these surfaces. If you have a weaker core your legs will help stabilise you however you pace may drop as they cannot focus on your pace / speed.

There is a common misconception that your ‘core’ is only your abdominals, but this is not the case. Your core is all round your back, top of the legs and down your sides too.

The muscles that need to be trained to strengthen your core are: -

• The abdominals (centre of tummy)

• The obliques (muscles on the sides of your belly)

• The lower back (that’s all of your back muscles below your rib cage and above your bum)

• The glutes (your bum) and 

• The hip flexors (muscles that connect your hips to your upper leg)

By strengthening all these muscles together your running will vastly improve. A combination of running, weights training and core training will be the best mix to enhance your running ability.

Top tips: Include the following movements in your core workout: - Bending your trunk forwards, backwards and to the side - Extending your leg backwards from the hip and also up towards your chest.

Exercise tip: Start regularly doing the ‘plank’. You can start on your knees and work up to being on your toes but make sure the back remains flat. The plank helps work all areas of the core. Start will 30secs x 3 and work towards 1min x 3. Keep increasing the time and gradually lower the rest between each plank

First of all, I’d like to thank Azurah for the £100 in cash I received for writing this for the newsletter. Secondly, I’m not sure quite how interesting my running journey is, but in case I go too long, I’ve left out the stories about the time I beat Mo Farah over 10K, and when I taught Usain Bolt how to sprint more efficiently. They can wait for another time.

Right, picture the scene. A short, bald, slightly overweight geezer with a newborn baby girl and a BMI that could easily pass for a mobile phone number. Not too different to how I am now, you may suggest. Well, that was in fact me at the start of 2011, and when I think back, a polar opposite to a 13 year old Dave back in 1990. 

Back in the early 90’s, as well as having some hair, I was really into sport, as a member of a boxing club, a cycling club and I represented my school at both 800m and Cross Country, so I suppose my running journey should have begun there... but sadly, after an ice skating accident had put pay to my boxing days, after leaving school, my attention soon turned to girls, alcohol, and cigarettes, and thus you could say my fitness took a bit of a hammering.

Let’s quickly fast forward to 2011 as, aside from maintaining a near on 18-year smoking habit, not much in the way of health or fitness had been achieved up until that point. I wasn’t in great shape to say the least and my lungs were like antique bagpipes. I’d moved to Devizes from Swindon, and our first child, Grace was about 6 months old. 

I’d never in my life weighed in at anything more than 9 stone, but when I decided to step onto the weighing machine in Boots, it broke the tragic news to me that I had massively overdone it on the cakes. I was 11st 2lbs and my BMI was ‘Obese’. I was stunned and I felt it was probably time to do something about it. 

Running seemed like the easiest and best option for someone who was too lazy to consider going to a gym. So, I gave it a go. After a few short jogs round Green Lane, I realised that the battered pair of Nike Air Max I wore weren’t doing my feet any favours, so I stupidly bought the cheapest, and it turns out, crappiest pair of running shoes I could find on Sports Direct (half a size too small, too - bonus!) and started going out for 2-3 miles every Sunday morning. As I knew nobody in Devizes (I had no local mates - cue the violins) or anyone that ran, my motivation began to fall away, and it soon became a once in a blue moon thing. 

Then out of the blue in Christmas 2016, for some spontaneous reason, I decided to enter the Devizes Half Marathon, as I felt I needed a challenge. I’d never run any further than 10K until then, but I began to build up distance slowly over the next few months right up to 11 miles. I wasn’t particularly confident, but felt I had the beans to at least make it to the finish line. I had taxi money on me just in case.

I stood on the start line on what was the hottest day of the year so far, totally unaware of two words that were waiting for me. Monument. Hill. I’ll spare you the details, but I finally collapsed across the line that day in 2hr 17min, with a black toenail and blisters all over the side of my feet. I had no idea of pace, let alone training, hydration, or what shoes to wear, and it certainly felt that way on the Monday morning.

Still not completely sure what I was doing, and still training alone, I decided to run the New Swindon Half Marathon that October to raise money for Prospect Hospice, with the aim of beating my Devizes Half time. My fitness had started to get a little better now, and as i was running more regularly, my pace was beginning to improve. A friend at work, who runs Ultramarathons was offering me good advice as well as recommending footwear and some training ideas which helped me hugely. Poncey new shoes, and an idea of how to pace myself meant I was able to run a better race and finished in 1hr 52min. Having no Monument Hill or Gypsy Patch to contend with this time obviously helped.

During the Swindon Half I had my first taste of the legendary DRC Support Crew - thanks to Louise and Hannah for the standard screams of encouragement!

I’d known Louise for several years, and she kept nudging me to join DRC... and I kept putting it off! I was just nervous, not just because of DRC’s hardcore reputation, but I hadn’t actually run with anyone before and didn’t really know what to expect. 

I finally bit the bullet and went along to my first club session, under Louise’s wing - a Windsor Drive Speed Session, deep end or what - on a cold Tuesday evening in February 2018. I loved it straight away. 

I ran my first ever race at Castle Combe in March, wearing the hallowed Red and Black of DRC. Not the best race to sample crowds or course variation, but I was happy with my time and gave it a bag of leg speed in the home straight, an effort that would prove to be a bit of a habit. 

After 12 weeks of training with the club, my times were tumbling, and I entered the Devizes Half Marathon again, this time with the hope of a PB, and I was absolutely buzzed to complete it this time in 1:43. 34mins quicker than the previous year, and a 9min PB on a course that’s not necessarily one for personal best hunters.

It continued to be a hell of a year, PB’s in every distance and 2nd place in the club Race Series underlined what a great decision it was to join DRC. Outside of running I had now shed over 1.5 stone in weight and was in the best shape of my life at the age of 40.

2019 was less of a success mainly due to injury, but I managed to steal back a little positive in the way of a distance PB in the Marlborough Downs 20 Mile Challenge. There were many highs and lows, aches and pains, but I guess in our sport that is just one of those given things.

Like many, I’d made plans for 2020 before COVID struck. The only milestone left for me to hit is the marathon, so I signed up for, and trained for the Manchester Marathon, with huge help from Simon Veitch and the usual Sunday morning suspects. As you know, a couple of weeks before race day it was cancelled which was absolutely gutting, but it was actually a positive thing in different ways. The slower long runs increased my shorter distance pace considerably. Since then, I’ve smashed my personal best times at every distance. Just waiting to see if I’m able to complete a 2020 marathon on Salisbury Plain in December (fingers crossed) and put the icing on a year I’ll feel immensely proud of. Then I might just retire or something.

So, my running journey has lasted nearly four years so far, and in that time I’ve seen my 5K fall from 27mins to 19mins, my 10K from 61mins to 42mins and Half Marathon from 2:17 to 1:35. I’ve lost 1.5 stone in weight, got more medals than a war veteran, gained a whole load of great friends, sacked off an awful habit and replaced it with an amazing one, swapped lay-in’s for long runs and built a good knowledge of both running and health and fitness. Oh, and I now know exactly how far a mile is from my front doorstep. Prerequisite, right?

Not a bad start I guess... thanks to all the legends who’ve been a part of my journey so far, and those that have inspired me to achieve what I have, there are too many in our club to mention names. 

Now, let’s see where it takes me in the next chapter.

Dave McKenna