If you're a runner, being able to produce a powerful kick at the end of a race is one of the most difficult tasks you're faced with. Basically, when you try to accelerate over the last 500-800 metres of a race, you're asking your muscles to work at their highest level - at precisely the time when they are most fatigued.Training to produce a great kick at the ends of your 10-K races is also a bit of a balancing act, since you're coaxing your muscles to have great endurance ('aerobic power') for the first 9200-9500 metres of your 10Ks at the same time that you're teasing them to develop a large 'anaerobic' capacity for the final push toward the finishing line.
Not surprisingly, many runners don't know how to maximise the kicking power in their legs. In fact, runners tend to believe that a powerful kick is a God-given talent, immutable to the training process. Fortunately, this belief is far from the truth. In fact, even if your current performance over the last 800 metres of a race is more like a staggering stumble than a formidable surge, you can boost your kicking power dramatically in just six short weeks. To do so, you simply have to enhance your muscles' abilities to work hard when they're exhausted and also improve their basic power - without sacrificing endurance.
Forcing you to run faster
The first part of the equation is fairly easy: you simply need to rely upon an interval workout which forces you to run faster as you become more fatigued. Here's a good one to try: jog easily for 15 minutes to warm up, and then run two 800-metre intervals at your current 10-K race pace, with just two minutes of recovery (easy jogging) between them. After the second 800-metre interval, jog easily for two minutes, and then run four 400-metre intervals at 10-K pace, with just 60 seconds of recovery between them.Now comes the fun part. After the fourth 400-metre interval at 10-K tempo, jog easily for 60 seconds, and then blast through an 800-metre interval, at 8 seconds per 800 faster than your 10-K pace.Jog easily for only two minutes, and then repeat the 800-metre effort (at eight-seconds-faster than 10-K tempo). After 10 minutes of cool-down jogging, you're done for the day!
This workout is fine for someone who is running about 25 to 30 miles per week. If you're at about 40 weekly miles or above, you can carry out four 800s and four 400s before you get into the two half-miles at 8 seconds beyond 10-K speed.
Repeat this workout once a week, substituting it for your usual track or interval workout (the session hikes your kicking power and has a positive impact on overall fitness, so don't worry about missing your normal interval session). As the weeks go by, make the workout more difficult by reducing the amount of time between the two closing 800-metre intervals. Specifically, the third time you do the workout, reduce the recovery time between 800-metre intervals to only 90 seconds. The fourth time, shave recovery to 60 seconds. For the fifth and sixth efforts, trim down to only 30 seconds of easy jogging between intervals. The overall workout helps you accomplish what you want - a higher capacity for faster-than-race-pace running when you are tired.
Once you can manage the workout successfully, you can also toughen it by shifting over to two one-mile intervals at 10-K pace (or three if you're running 40 or more miles per week) before you get into the two really quick 800s. Use about three to four minutes of recovery for the one-mile repeats, gradually lessening the recovery interval over time. And once you get really skilled at doing the 800s at the end, you can expand them to 1000 or 1200 metres.
Power-building
Now that you know how to develop the ability to run fast while tired, what about the other part of the kick-boosting formula - improved basic leg-muscle power? You need to put in some steady work on hills - the kinds of efforts we've described in these pages on different occasions. In fact, one great idea would be to carry out one hill session and one kick-boosting session each week for a period of about six weeks. If you do, you'll be rather amazed at the improvement in your kicking - and overall running - prowess.Another good strategy is to purchase a weighted vest. Load the sucker with 2 per cent of body weight and conduct an interval workout in which you complete 400-metre repeats at approximately your 10-K race pace, with 90 seconds of recovery. Progress over time by gradually increasing the vest load to 10 per cent of body weight. Also wear the vest during one of your weekly moderate runs. Once you've gotten good at both hills and vest training, you can combine the two by completing some rugged hill reps while wearing the vest.
Kicking the treadmill
Since it's wintertime, we should mention that you can also improve your kicking power on the treadmill. A good way to do it is to run three one-mile repeats at 10-K pace on the treadmill, with three minutes of recovery after the first two. However, after the third one-mile sizzle, don't stop! Instead, raise the treadmill inclination from 1 per cent (you should always run with at least 1-per cent gradient on the treadmill instead of using a perfectly flat belt) to 5 per cent and then grind out two more minutes at 10-K pace. If you're a 40-mile (or more) per week person, you can do this at the end of a fourth one-mile repeat, instead of just a third (but make sure you obtain your doctor's approval first before trying this scalding effort ).There's just one last thing for you to do to astonish your friends and family members with your newfound kicking prowess. For yet another workout (we've given you a few in this article), run steadily but moderately for about the amount of time it takes you to complete a 10K, making certain that your pace is at least 30 seconds per mile slower than your usual 10-K speed. Then, cap the workout by surging for one mile at a tempo which is 10-15 seconds per mile faster than your usual 10-K velocity. This session augments your ability to turn on the juice at the ends of your 10Ks.
Finally, use your mental power to become a better kicker.Before each of the above workouts and prior to every 10K, take a few moments to relax and visualise yourself running powerfully and smoothly at the ends of your races. Picture yourself striding purposefully past other runners near the finish line, and tell yourself that your training is making you stronger. Have confidence in your ability to run faster; the above workouts will definitely give you a big boost.
In fact, if you complete the workouts described above, you will become a crackerjack kicker in just six weeks, the kind of runner who consistently carries out furious closing drives in the waning moments of your 10-K races. Unless you tell other runners how to carry out your new kick-enhancing workouts, the days when they sizzle past you at the ends of races will be gone. You'll be the one who mounts a majestic surge toward the finishing line!
Owen Anderson