Ben M
Formerly pest control
hi, i do a lot of long distance running. squats work your lower body a lot. to get better at running you need to practice a lot. i do a long run every other night, and do weightlifting/pressups/situps etc. in between. if you use a cross trainer then you are less likely to injure yourself falling in a rabbit hole. sprinting is also really good for improving your long distance running. if you keep doing 50m bursts with a 30s rest every couple then it builds up your stamina. on my cross trainer i build up the resistance and the amount of time i go on it. i started off only doing like 5 mins, but now i can go for ages. it's crucial not to give up though. when racing it's really tempting to give up and have a rest. but you've just got to fight the urge. sometimes i over do it and it makes me sick, but i think it's better than thinking you could have done better. you've got to know your limits, and try to push them. but in the actual race, don't go too fast. you can push yourself really hard in training, but in the race go as fast as you think you can go for the whole thing. don't go really fast at the start, and then run out of energy at the end. it seems impossible at first to run really far, but if you build it up gradually, you hardly notice that your going further than before. try to set yourself targets. like promise yourself that you'll get just a bit further each time. and i find it a lot better if i'm listening to some music when i'm running. i listen to some quite fast music too get me going.
cheers
cheers