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Those of you that want to go longer distances than you are currently going right now need to add endurance training. It doesn’t matter if you are a professional or a beginner, you still need to have the same amount of endurance if you want to finish a long distance race in a decent amount of time. Below we are going to talk about some easy to remember tips on how you will be able to build your endurance.

Strength Training

It’s important to understand that training with weights actually teaches your body to push beyond its set limit or “muscle memory.” Muscle memory will allow the memory in your muscles to be instilled to push even further when you feel like dropping to the ground with fatigue.

Strength training also teaches you how to deal with and how to recover from pain and stress which will occur when your body reaches its limit of physical capability. Why do long distance runners feel that sense of satisfaction after completing a marathon? Because they’ve just won the battle mentally and physically, which is huge.

Running does a good job of building leg muscle, but not so good a job at building upper body strength. Upper body strength is also important to running longer distances because your upper body works at driving you forward while you run. Plus, your upper body will help maintain a good posture while running which contributes to good running form. A great workout program for your upper body is the P90X workout routine. Personally I followed the P90X program and was pleasantly surprised at the increase in my upper body muscle and strength.

Warming Up

Your body is going to need some time to warm up before you start pushing it too far. If you get going too quickly and don’t warm up, you may find that you are having to deal with an injury. Some runners will actually go for a short, slow run so that they can warm up before their long distance race. Walking is also a good idea. Whatever you can do to loosen your muscles and get your body going before you begin running is beneficial.

Recent studies have shown that runners don’t need to stretch and say that muscles can be over stretched if they are cold. Yes, this could be true but a brisk five minute walk will do wonders at getting those muscles warmed up. You also should not forget to stretch after you have run as well.

Know What You Are Capable Of

There are strengths and weaknesses in everyone. You should play up your strengths and ignore your weaknesses when it comes to running. Different people will be able to go different speeds and you should make sure that you find one that is good for you. If you have a friend that goes at a similar pace as you then you may want to run together to keep each other motivated.

Do Not Overdo It

If you have pushed yourself too fast, your body will let you know in a number of ways. If you are feeling exhausted on the next day after a run, take the day off. Don’t push yourself too much as you may very well be doing yourself an injury. A good rule of thumb is to add no more than ten percent of your previous week’s mileage.

Hill Training

Even if the events that you are going to be competing in don’t have hills you should include hill training as part of your running program. The same action it takes for sprinting is the action that you do when you are running uphill. This action will build up the strength and stamina in the muscles as well as strengthen your heart. When it comes time to run on flats it will seem a whole lot easier because you are used to running up hills.

Endurance – Not Distance

Although the way you build endurance is by running great distances, you must be concerned with boosting your endurance, not necessarily on hitting a distance goal. Veteran runners always think of increasing their endurance so that, whatever they do, they can always push themselves to the limit. Including hill training and speed work will take much more endurance even if the distances covered are not too great.

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