Coach Chuck Schwartz

NAIA National Championship-Azusa Pacific University- 1989. Great team! Joe Vigil far right. The legendary Tom Lionvale in the mix on the left!

THE COMEBACK RUNNER: DON’T START BY TRAINING LIKE THE RUNNER YOU USED TO BE

I’ll start with this:

There aren’t many things in running that I love more than a comeback.

I love working with comeback runners.

Maybe you were competitive years ago.

Maybe work and family took over.

Maybe you got hurt.

Maybe life simply happened.

And now something inside you is saying:

I want to run again.

I love that.

Because some of the greatest stories in sport—and in life—have been written by people who were willing to disappear from the spotlight for a while and quietly rebuild.

Think about a few of them.

Andre Agassi.

Once the No. 1 tennis player in the world, he fell all the way to No. 141.

He went back to the Challenger Tour—the minor leagues of professional tennis—and started over.

No glamour.

No pretending he was still the player he had been.

He rebuilt his fitness, rebuilt his game and rebuilt himself.

In 1999 he won the French Open, completed the career Grand Slam and climbed all the way back to No. 1 in the world.

Muhammad Ali.

Forty-three months away from boxing during what should have been the prime of his career.

When he eventually returned, he wasn’t exactly the same fighter who had left.

He had to evolve.

And years later, as a 32-year-old underdog against the terrifying George Foreman, Ali reclaimed the heavyweight championship of the world.

Monica Seles.

The dominant player in women’s tennis when she was stabbed by a spectator during a match.

She disappeared from competition for more than two years.

Then she came back.

She won her very first tournament back.

Months later, she won the 1996 Australian Open.

Bethany Hamilton.

Thirteen years old.

One of the best young surfers in the world.

Then a shark attack took her left arm.

She had to relearn something she already knew how to do.

Balance.

Paddle.

Stand.

Surf.

About a month later, she was back in the water.

Within two years she had won a national title.

Different sports.

Different circumstances.

Different setbacks.

But there’s a pattern worth noticing.

Sometimes the comeback is built when almost nobody is watching.

And there is an even older picture of this that I love.

After Paul’s conversion in the New Testament, he didn’t immediately become the public figure we remember.

He went away to Arabia.

Paul himself later wrote that it was three years before he went to Jerusalem.

There are seasons when something is being built in you long before anyone else can see it.

And then there are the fictional versions that have inspired generations of athletes.

Rocky training in the Russian winter.

Running through snow.

Chopping wood.

Dragging sleds.

Training far away from the lights of Las Vegas.

Adonis Creed disappearing into the desert after defeat.

Away from the crowd.

Away from the championship atmosphere.

Back to basics.

Rebuilding.

Obviously Rocky and Creed aren’t real.

But the idea they represent certainly is.

There are seasons when the work gets very quiet.

Nobody is cheering.

Nobody is posting your workout.

Nobody cares what pace you ran this morning.

You may not look anything like the athlete you remember.

That’s okay.

Because the comeback isn’t happening on race day yet.

It’s happening right now.

One walk.

One easy run.

One strength session.

One core routine.

One boring Tuesday morning when nobody is watching.

That’s where you start.

So if you’re coming back:

Have hope.

Dream.

Stay inspired.

But don’t rush the story.

Sometimes the greatest comebacks grow out of the greatest setbacks.

And almost every great comeback contains a period when the person had to accept where they were, stop pretending they were somewhere else, and begin rebuilding.

That’s the mentality I want the comeback runner to bring into training.

Because here’s the trap:

YOUR CARDIOVASCULAR SYSTEM REMEMBERS FASTER THAN YOUR BODY DOES

Within a few weeks, breathing gets easier.

Paces start dropping.

And suddenly…

the old runner starts showing up again.

That’s incredibly exciting.

But it’s also exactly when we need some patience.

Because your heart and lungs getting fitter does not mean your feet, Achilles tendons, calves, connective tissue, hips and postural system are ready for everything you used to do.

Cardiovascular fitness does not give the musculoskeletal system permission to do something it isn’t prepared to do.

So stay inspired.

Absolutely dream about where this comeback could take you.

Just give your body enough time to catch up with your ambition.

That’s why I think a comeback should follow a progression:

CAPACITY → STRENGTH → FORCE → PERFORMANCE

1. BUILD CAPACITY FIRST

Before worrying about fast intervals or big workouts, rebuild your ability to tolerate running.

That can include walking, hiking, easy running, gradual increases in volume, basic foot and lower-leg work, ab/core and postural strength, and progressively full-body strength training.

This is where I would begin incorporating basic strength exercises such as squats, lunges, single-leg movements, hinges/RDLs, calf work and other simple movements appropriate for the individual runner.

And I think ab/core work can begin almost immediately in some form.

Because we’re not simply rebuilding legs.

We’re rebuilding the entire system that has to maintain posture and transfer force while the runner gets tired.

Early strength work may be extremely basic.

That’s fine.

As capacity improves, loads can gradually increase.

Eventually, strength becomes part of the foundation that allows us to introduce more explosive force-production work.

And if you used to be a serious runner, this part can be difficult.

Your brain remembers what eight-minute miles felt like.

Or seven-minute miles.

Or six-minute miles.

Your watch remembers your PRs.

Your body doesn’t care.

It has to rebuild.

But don’t mistake patience for a lack of progress.

Every easy run.

Every strength session.

Every core session.

Every week you string together.

Every little bit of capacity you regain.

That’s the comeback happening.

Your comeback might not look impressive yet.

Neither did Agassi playing Challenger tournaments ranked No. 141.

The rebuild comes before the result.

2. ADD ISOMETRICS

One of my favorite ways to begin rebuilding the lower leg is with very small doses of isometric work.

For example:

• Anchored plantar-flexion/toe hold — 15–20 seconds
• Standing plantar-flexion isometric — 15–20 seconds
• Isometric quarter squat
• Seated plantar-flexion/toe press

Why do I like these?

Because you can expose muscle and tendon to substantial tension without immediately asking the runner to absorb and redirect the high forces associated with jumping and sprinting.

That makes them an excellent bridge.

And these don’t have to become another giant workout.

A couple of isometrics can be attached to a normal running day, movement-prep routine or strength session.

Supplemental work should support your running—not become so large that recovering from the supplemental work becomes the problem.

3. THEN TEACH THE BODY TO PRODUCE FORCE

Eventually, being strong isn’t enough.

Running happens fast.

The ground doesn’t wait for you.

So once the runner has developed adequate capacity and strength, we gradually introduce things such as low-level pogo hops, small bunny hops, strides, short hills, rear-lunge-to-single-leg-hop movements and eventually more explosive bounding and force-production exercises.

And we don’t stop strength and core work when force production begins.

We’re layering training.

The strength and postural work remain underneath the increasingly dynamic work.

A runner who hasn’t jumped in five years probably shouldn’t begin with aggressive weighted bounds.

But that doesn’t mean you’ll never bound again.

It means we’re going to earn our way back to it.

Train the athlete you are today—not the athlete you remember being.

Because if we train today’s athlete correctly, you might be amazed by the athlete who shows up six months or a year from now.

4. RUN FAST—BUT EARN THE RIGHT TO RUN FAST

Eventually we want strides.

We want faster running.

We may want hills.

We may eventually want intervals.

And yes…

I want you to feel fast again.

That’s one of the great parts of a comeback.

There’s something pretty special about the first day when you open up into a stride and suddenly recognize the runner you used to be.

But don’t force that moment.

Let it arrive.

Research increasingly shows us that strength and plyometric training can improve running economy.

We’ve even seen research in middle-aged recreational runners where resistance training and plyometric training improved running economy.

And improvements in calf strength were associated with improvements in economy.

That matters.

Because the calf-Achilles-foot complex isn’t just along for the ride.

It’s part of the propulsion system.

And that’s part of what we’re rebuilding.

THE COMEBACK RUNNER DOESN’T NEED MORE BRAVERY.

Most former runners already have plenty of that.

What they need is patience without losing the fire.

Those two things can coexist.

Be patient with today’s body.

But stay excited about tomorrow’s runner.

There may be months when almost nobody notices what you’re doing.

That’s okay.

Keep training.

Keep building.

Keep dreaming.

The goal isn’t to prove that you can still survive the workout you did ten years ago.

The goal is to progressively rebuild a body capable of training consistently for the next ten years.

And maybe longer.

I’ve coached long enough that I will never underestimate what a motivated runner can accomplish when they train consistently and give the process enough time.

That’s one of the reasons I love comeback runners.

They already know what running can give them.

They’re not discovering it for the first time.

They’re rediscovering it.

So if you’re starting over right now:

Don’t be embarrassed by where you’re starting.

Don’t get discouraged because the pace isn’t what you remember.

Don’t rush because your old PRs are staring at you from somewhere in the past.

They’re part of your story.

They’re not your training plan.

Build capacity.

Build strength.

Strengthen the core and posture.

Add force.

Run fast when you’re ready.

Then let performance emerge.

Be patient—but stay inspired.

Do the quiet work.

Have hope.

Dream big!

Don’t train the runner you used to be.

Build the runner you’re becoming.

Because some of the greatest comeback stories begin during a season when almost nobody else can see what’s being built.

And maybe—just maybe—

your best chapter hasn’t been written yet.

I’m going to keep expanding this series and show exactly how I would structure a sample week for a comeback runner using running, strength training, ab/core work, isometrics, strides and small doses of force-production work.

Share this with someone in the midst of a comeback!

And if you need any advice, let me know! I’m here for you.

ARE HILL REPEATS THE ORIGINAL FORCE-PRODUCTION WORKOUT?

I’ve been writing quite a bit lately about what I call building the runner’s Natural Supershoe.

Strong feet.

Strong plantar flexors.

Useful stiffness through the foot-ankle-Achilles complex.

Core and postural strength.

And most importantly, the ability to hit the ground, accept force, stabilize and rapidly redirect that force into the next stride.

We’ve talked about developing those qualities with:

Isometrics.

Strength training.

Plyometrics.

Loaded bunny hops.

Rear-lunge-to-single-leg hops.

Bounding.

And fast running on grass.

But there’s an obvious question:

What about hills?

Coaches have been using hill repeats forever.

So how much of this force-production work can we accomplish simply by running uphill?

After digging deeply into the research, my answer would be:

A LOT.

But not everything.

And that’s where this gets really interesting.

HILLS ARE RUNNING-SPECIFIC RESISTANCE TRAINING

Think about what happens when you run uphill.

Instead of adding a dumbbell, weight vest or sled, gravity becomes the resistance.

Every stride has to move your body forward AND upward.

Research shows that as incline increases, the amount of positive mechanical work the legs have to produce increases.

But here’s something even more interesting:

The distribution of that work changes.

The ankle remains enormously important, but increasing incline tends to shift more of the additional work toward the hip.

So hills aren’t simply making level running “harder.”

They actually change the mechanical problem the runner has to solve.

AND UPHILL DOESN’T NECESSARILY MEAN MORE IMPACT

Running uphill can actually REDUCE certain impact forces compared with level running.

At the same time, the runner has to produce substantially more propulsive force to overcome gravity.

That’s an important distinction.

We’re not necessarily trying to create the biggest possible impact.

We’re trying to teach the athlete to:

PRODUCE FORCE IN A USEFUL DIRECTION.

That’s exactly where hill running becomes extremely interesting for distance runners.

BUT NOT ALL HILL REPEATS ARE THE SAME

A 10-second hill sprint…

A 30-second hill…

A 60-second hill…

And a 3-minute hill repeat…

are four very different workouts.

Short, steep hills lean much more toward acceleration, recruitment, power and running-specific resistance.

As the repetition gets longer, the metabolic contribution becomes increasingly important.

And that brings me to one of my favorite old-school workouts.

THE 3-MINUTE HILL REPEAT

I’ve used 3-minute uphill repeats for years.

And when you look at the research, there’s actually a fascinating explanation for why that workout feels different from doing 3-minute intervals on the track.

Researchers have compared high-intensity uphill and horizontal running lasting roughly 2–3 minutes.

The uphill running produced greater overall lower-extremity muscle activation.

Some muscles were recruited considerably more, including increased involvement of the soleus and quadriceps musculature.

Think about what that means.

For three minutes, the athlete isn’t simply producing a huge aerobic effort.

They’re producing that aerobic effort while repeatedly doing positive mechanical work against gravity.

That’s why I would describe the 3-minute hill repeat as:

AEROBIC POWER + RUNNING-SPECIFIC STRENGTH ENDURANCE.

That’s a pretty powerful combination.

But I still wouldn’t call it pure force-production training.

ARTHUR LYDIARD WAS THINKING ABOUT THIS DECADES AGO

And this is where the history becomes fascinating.

Arthur Lydiard was one of the greatest distance coaches of the twentieth century.

Long before we were talking about running economy, tendon stiffness, reactive strength and force production with today’s terminology, Lydiard built an entire phase of training around hills.

And he didn’t simply tell his athletes:

Go run some hills.

His system deliberately placed hill-strength training between aerobic conditioning and the harder anaerobic and race-specific work that followed.

Think about that progression.

First build the aerobic engine.

Then strengthen the athlete.

Then prepare the athlete to run fast.

That should sound familiar.

Lydiard used several different movements on hills.

HILL SPRINGING.

An exaggerated, spring-like movement emphasizing ankle action and vertical lift.

HILL BOUNDING.

Longer, powerful movements emphasizing knee drive, hip extension and force into the ground.

STEEP HILL RUNNING.

Running against gravity while maintaining strong posture and powerful mechanics.

Then the athlete could transition into relaxed faster running downhill and eventually faster running on the flat.

This wasn’t simply conditioning.

Lydiard was trying to build the physical qualities required for the faster running that came next.

That’s the part I find fascinating.

Because more than half a century later, modern biomechanics and strength research are helping explain WHY some of what Lydiard observed worked.

He didn’t have force plates on the hill.

He didn’t have today’s tendon imaging.

He didn’t have modern wearable technology.

But he understood something incredibly important:

Aerobic fitness alone wasn’t enough.

Before asking his runners to produce tremendous speed, he wanted to prepare the machinery that had to produce it.

In many ways, Lydiard’s hill phase looks remarkably like an early version of what today we might call running-specific strength and plyometric preparation.

And I think that’s brilliant.

SO WHY NOT JUST DO LYDIARD-STYLE HILLS?

Because today we have additional tools.

And I think Lydiard himself would have appreciated that distinction.

We can now manipulate load much more precisely.

ISOMETRICS

Allow us to produce substantial muscular and tendon tension with very little movement and essentially no landing impact.

HEAVY STRENGTH

Allows us to expose the athlete to levels of force that running alone simply cannot reproduce.

PLYOMETRICS AND BOUNDS

Allow us to emphasize rapid force production and the stretch-shortening cycle.

LOADED HOPS AND BOUNDS

Allow us to progressively manipulate external resistance while still moving explosively.

And then we get to:

HILLS.

Hills allow us to take many of those qualities and begin expressing them while performing the actual skill we care about.

Running.

That’s incredibly valuable.

THERE’S ALSO A LIMITATION TO HILLS

Researchers have looked at progressively steeper hill sprinting as a form of resisted sprint training.

Even relatively steep hills can still represent a surprisingly modest resistance compared with the full range of loads we can create through external resistance.

In other words:

A hill can resist running without necessarily providing enough resistance to maximize every aspect of force or power development.

That’s exactly why I don’t think hills replace strength and force-production work.

And force-production work doesn’t replace hills.

I WANT BOTH.

This is where the Natural Supershoe concept really starts coming together.

Build the capacity.

Build the strength.

Develop the ability to produce force.

Then increasingly teach the athlete to express that force while running.

Something like:

CAPACITY → STRENGTH → FORCE → RUNNING-SPECIFIC FORCE → PERFORMANCE

Isometrics help build capacity.

Strength raises the ceiling.

Plyometrics and explosive exercises teach us to produce force rapidly.

Grass running teaches us to express it repeatedly while running.

Short hills give us running-specific resistance and speed-strength.

Longer hills combine propulsion with increasingly large metabolic demands.

And something like a 3-minute hill repeat gives us a fascinating combination of aerobic power and running-specific muscular endurance.

Then ultimately we have to take all of it back to race-specific speed.

MAYBE LYDIARD WAS SHOWING US THE BRIDGE ALL ALONG.

Build the aerobic runner.

Develop strength.

Introduce increasingly dynamic force.

Then run fast.

We simply have more tools today to target each part of that progression.

So are hills the original force-production workout?

In some ways…

YES.

But I don’t think the lesson from Lydiard is that we should abandon modern strength training and go back to doing nothing but hills.

I think the lesson is better than that.

Use the right training tool at the right point in the progression.

Because the goal isn’t to become great at lifting weights.

It isn’t to become great at hopping.

And it isn’t even to become great at running hills.

The goal is to create a runner who can hit the ground, stabilize rapidly, produce force and redirect that force into the next stride…

again and again and again.

Lydiard understood that long before we had today’s language to describe it.

That’s what we’re trying to build with the Natural Supershoe.

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I went deep into the research on this one, including the biomechanics of hill running, different hill-repeat durations, Arthur Lydiard’s hill-training system, strength training, plyometrics and force production.

I’ve put the studies, links and coaching explanations together in a free research guide.

If you’d like a copy, comment HILLS and I’ll send it to you.

BUILDING THE NATURAL SUPERSHOE: THE COMPETITIVE MASTERS RUNNER 🏃‍♂️

Yesterday I watched a freshman runner coming up the final hill of a cross-country race.

He was exhausted.

As the fatigue accumulated, he began folding forward. He was trying desperately to keep running, but he simply didn’t have the postural strength to maintain good position.

It reminded me of something important:

Running economy isn’t just what your mechanics look like when you’re fresh. It’s what you can maintain when you’re tired.

And that matters enormously as we age.

In my previous post, I talked about building what I’ve been calling the “Natural Supershoe”—developing the runner’s own ability to accept force, stabilize the body and return that force into the next stride.

But there is an order to this:

Capacity → Strength → Force → Performance

You don’t start by throwing a 50-year-old runner into an aggressive plyometric program.

First, we need enough core and postural strength to maintain position.

We need adequate musculoskeletal strength and impact tolerance.

We need strong feet, calves, hips and legs.

Then we can progressively introduce more force and elasticity.

So what might this actually look like for a competitive masters runner who already has a solid training base?

A SAMPLE 7-DAY WEEK

MONDAY — Easy Aerobic Run

Finish with:

• 4–6 × 80–100m relaxed strides — smooth and fast. Focus on tall posture, foot strike right under your center of mass. (Learn about good sprint mechanics - work on yours so that you are improving your economy)
• Isometric toe press — 2 × 15–20 sec
• Isometric plantar flexion/calf raise — 2 × 15–20 sec
• Front plank — 2 × 30–45 sec
• Side plank — 2 × 20–30 sec each side

That’s it.

A few minutes of work attached to a normal training day.

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TUESDAY — Quality Day

Threshold or interval workout appropriate for the athlete and time of year.

Then a SMALL dose of force-production work:

• Rear lunge → single-leg hop — 2 × 5 each leg
• Bunny hops — 2 × 10–15 contacts

These should be crisp and athletic.

We are developing force—not trying to exhaust the runner.

If fatigue causes the quality of the movement to deteriorate, STOP.

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WEDNESDAY — RECOVERY

Easy running.

A little mobility.

Maybe some walking.

Nothing else needs to happen.

Recovery is training too.

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THURSDAY — Aerobic Run + Strength

After the run:

• Goblet squat — 2–3 × 6–8
• Suitcase/reverse lunge — 2 × 6–8 each leg
• Calf raise — 2 × 8–12
• Isometric quarter squat — 2–3 × 10–20 sec
• Front plank — 2 × 30–45 sec
• Side plank — 2 × 20–30 sec each side

Again—this isn’t bodybuilding.

We’re trying to maintain the chassis that allows the runner to produce and transmit force.

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FRIDAY — Easy Run

Whenever possible, include some:

Grass. Trails. Rolling terrain.

Natural surfaces create constantly changing demands on the feet, ankles and lower legs.

Keep this day EASY.

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SATURDAY — Long Run or Second Quality Session

Depending upon the athlete, racing schedule and goals.

For many masters runners, I would be very cautious about automatically prescribing two demanding workouts AND a demanding long run every week.

The ability to recover from training becomes part of training.

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SUNDAY — Recovery or OFF

Walk.

Easy hike.

Mobility.

Or do absolutely nothing.

Sometimes the best training stimulus is allowing the previous six days to actually produce adaptation.

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Notice what we’re NOT doing.

We’re not adding seven additional workouts.

We’re strategically attaching small doses of:

Strength
Core
Isometrics
Strides
Natural surfaces
Force production
Recovery

to the running program that already exists.

For the competitive masters athlete, I believe four things become increasingly important:

Maintain strength.
Maintain speed exposure.
Maintain the ability to produce force.
Protect recovery.

Getting older doesn’t automatically mean everything needs to become slow.

But it DOES mean we have to become more intelligent about how stress is applied.

And here’s an especially important warning for former competitive runners:

Your cardiovascular fitness doesn’t give your musculoskeletal system permission to do something it isn’t prepared to do.

Your body doesn’t care what you ran 20 years ago.

Train the athlete you are TODAY.

Build capacity.
Build strength.
Build force.
Then build performance.

And remember: these are sample doses, not prescriptions. Training history, injury history, current strength and experience with jumping or lifting all matter. Someone new to this type of work should start below these volumes and progress gradually.

That’s how I would begin building the Natural Supershoe for a competitive masters runner.

NEXT: The Comeback Runner.

And this one requires an entirely different approach.

Because sometimes the first step toward running faster…

isn’t running at all.

BUILDING THE NATURAL SUPERSHOE — PART 5

Can We Apply These Principles to Adult Runners?

Absolutely. 👏👏👏👏👏

And after digging deeper into the research on aging runners, I think this might be one of the most interesting applications of the Natural Supershoe concept. 👟👟👟

Throughout this series, we’ve talked about something that I believe distance runners 🏃sometimes overlook:

Don’t just train the cardiovascular engine. Train the athlete who carries it.

We’ve looked at:

• Foot and ankle strength💪💪
• Isometrics💪
• Force production💪
• Running on grass and natural surfaces 🏃‍♀️
• Strength training💪
• Plyometric-type movements💪
• Running at different speeds🏃‍♀️
• Developing the ability to accept force, stabilize, and rapidly redirect that force into the next stride

So what happens when we apply those principles to adult runners? 🏃‍♀️🏃🏃‍♀️🏃🏃‍♀️🏃

Adult runners obviously represent an enormous range of ages, backgrounds, abilities and goals.

So let’s look at three common groups of adult runners and consider how these principles might apply differently to each.

We’ll start with the first:

THE COMPETITIVE MASTERS RUNNER🏃🏃

You’re 40, 50, 60 or beyond—and you still want to race.

Maybe you’re chasing a Boston qualifier.

Maybe you’re trying to win your age group.

Maybe you want to run a faster 5K.

Or maybe you’re simply competing against the runner you were last year.

Here’s where the research becomes fascinating.

Aging doesn’t appear to affect every component of running mechanics equally.

A 2023 systematic review examined 14 studies comparing masters runners over 50 with younger runners.

The masters runners demonstrated lower horizontal forces, lower peak propulsive forces and lower active vertical ground-reaction forces.

But perhaps the most interesting finding was where some of the largest and most consistent differences occurred:

At the ankle.

Ankle joint power and moments were consistently lower in the masters runners.

Think about what that means.

Every time we hit the ground, we have only a fraction of a second to accept force, stabilize the body and redirect force into the next stride.

As we age, one of the things we may gradually lose is some of that POP.

I see this frequently when watching adult runners.

The foot strike can become increasingly passive.

More time riding the ground.

Less elastic-looking movement.

Less forceful propulsion.

The research gives us reason to believe that at least part of what we’re seeing is real.

INTERESTINGLY, CADENCE MAY NOT BE THE MAIN PROBLEM.

I initially wondered whether older runners simply lose stride frequency.

The research is much more interesting than that.

Some studies suggest that older runners can maintain stride frequency surprisingly well—and at the same running speed may actually use a higher frequency with a shorter stride.

What appears to change more consistently is:

Stride length.
Propulsive force.
Ankle power.
Elastic qualities.
And eventually ground-contact characteristics.

In other words:

The legs may still know how to turn over.

The bigger issue may be what we’re capable of doing while the foot is on the ground.

And that brings us directly back to the Natural Supershoe.

HERE’S ANOTHER INTERESTING NUMBER.

Research comparing highly trained younger and masters endurance runners found the older runners produced roughly 28–31% less jumping power, with rebound-jump stiffness about 28% lower.

That’s important.

Because distance runners are very good at training the aerobic system.

We run.

We run longer.

We perform threshold workouts.

We develop VO₂max.

All of those things matter tremendously.

But running mileage by itself may not provide enough stimulus to preserve every quality that makes us athletic.

Strength.
Power.
Elasticity.
Rapid force production.

Those need attention too.

CAN WE ACTUALLY CHANGE ANY OF THIS?

Here’s where I become optimistic.

In one randomized study, recreational runners completed eight weeks of intrinsic foot-muscle training.

The runners increased the size of the intrinsic muscles of the foot—and importantly, they also increased vertical propulsive impulse during running.

They didn’t simply develop stronger-looking feet.

Their running mechanics changed.

And another recent study looked specifically at middle-aged recreational runners.

For 10 weeks, runners added either plyometric training or resistance training twice per week to their normal running.

Both groups improved their running economy by approximately 2%.

Their jumping measures improved substantially as well—some measures of drop-jump performance improved roughly 10–26%.

Interestingly, improvements in calf-raise strength were associated with improvements in running economy.

That plantar-flexor complex matters.

A lot.

SO WHAT SHOULD THE COMPETITIVE MASTERS RUNNER DO?

I don’t think the answer is:

Train like you’re 17 again.

And I definitely don’t think a 55-year-old who hasn’t jumped in 20 years should suddenly start doing aggressive plyometrics.

Instead:

Take the principles and change the dosage.

Depending on training history, ability and injury history, that might eventually include:

• Traditional strength training
• Intrinsic foot strengthening
• Isometric foot/ankle work
• Plantar-flexor strengthening
• Carefully progressed hops and force-production exercises
• Strides
• Small doses of faster running
• Running on grass and appropriate natural surfaces
• Maintaining functional mobility
• Appropriate recovery between demanding sessions

Notice what isn’t on that list:

Just run more miles.

Mileage remains enormously important for distance runners.

But if I’m coaching a competitive 50-year-old runner, I’m interested in more than how much aerobic fitness we can preserve.

I’m asking:

How much ATHLETICISM can we preserve?

How much strength?

How much power?

How much elastic function?

How much force can we produce during the incredibly short period of time we’re touching the ground?

And perhaps the most exciting question:

How much can we still IMPROVE?

That’s what I love about the research.

Aging is real.

The physiological changes are real.

But that doesn’t mean we simply surrender those qualities.

We train them.

Maybe the goal of the Natural Supershoe changes slightly as we get older.

At 17, we’re trying to build the athlete.

At 50, perhaps we’re trying to build AND preserve the athlete.

Either way, I’m not ready to tell runners that the answer to aging is simply to run slower.

There’s a lot more physiology—and a lot more possibility—than that.

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WANT THE RESEARCH?

I’ve collected the studies behind this post, including research on masters running biomechanics, ankle power and propulsion, foot strength, stride mechanics, plyometrics, plantar-flexor strength and running economy.

Comment “STUDIES” below and I’ll send you the research with links.

AND WE’RE NOT GOING TO STOP AT THE SCIENCE.

In an upcoming post, I’m going to take these Natural Supershoe principles and show you what they could actually look like inside a real training week for a competitive masters runner.🏆🏆

Not an extra hour of exercises every day.

Not a bodybuilding program.

And definitely not trying to train a 50-year-old exactly like a 17-year-old.

We’ll build a sample seven-day running week and show where we could intelligently incorporate:

• Foot and ankle work
• Isometrics
• Strength
• Force production
• Strides and faster running
• Grass or natural surfaces
• Recovery

without losing sight of the most important thing a distance runner does—run.

Because the real question isn’t whether these exercises work in isolation.

It’s:

How do we fit them into an actual running program?

We’ll build that week in a future post.

And after the competitive masters runner, we’ll look at our other two adult groups:

The recreational runner and the comeback runner.

Same Natural Supershoe principles.

Different athlete. Different dosage. Different application.