My Training Tips

sahara mid-run
old photo hence old running sneakers!

My training is a lot of me reading, trying, learning, and then going back to the drawing board to see if whatever new thing I've added into my training schedule for the month has been helpful in getting faster in my races. If not, bring something else in to the training schedule and see what happens, and repeat.

If you've been keeping up with my racing life, I recently went from running a 5K on November 2nd @ 8'09 pacing to running an 8K on November 28th @ 6'36 pacing. That is a massive time jump and to be fair I was extremely surprised when I finished racing how well I'd done, but I also thought of the changes I've made since the November 2nd race - as well as things I've been consistent in! - without those changes I wouldn't have jumped from an 8'09 pace to a 6'36 pace.

So I'm sure you've probably skimmed straight through those two paragraphs so let's get onto the changes I've made so if you also run, you can see if perhaps your own training needs some tweaks!

Core Workouts

I've mentioned I did Stacey Irvin Jr's 10 min ab workout every day for 30 days a few months back and did it every other day since doing it for that one month. Since I've grown stronger core-wise the workout started to seem too easy. Even if I did on loop twice, I felt like I needed a change of movement for core workouts.

Enter, Chari Hawkins USA Heptathlete.

She is primarily on Instagram (@_charihawkins) and more recently Youtube. She did a 10 Day Ab Challenge and I decided to tag along - doing her 10 Day ab workout in addition to my running workouts I had planned. The first time I went through the days, I did each video only once - even the videos that seemed a little on the ~easy~ side for where I was ab wise. I didn't know what she planned for the next day(s) so was pacing myself with what she was doing.

The variation was just what I needed. After doing one ab video on loop for so long it, it was nice to have a change.

Want to know the best thing?
Each video is only 10 minutes. Get all the intense ab work in 10 minutes.

What I do now that I've completed the original 10 day Challenge- is: Go in order again but do it ever other day instead and do each workout video twice (depending on how I'm feeling - some were easier than others.)  and then the next time I go through the order again see if I can add an extra repetition of the video based on the previous week.

By having 10 different 10 ab workout videos to rotate between from, I'm constantly doing a different ab movement not just the same movements as I was doing previously.

Speed Workout Mile Increase

This is something that's been the most help: Make sure your speed workouts are either equal to the distance you're racing, longer than, or near it. My speed workouts (which I do with the Nike Run App) used to always come up at around 1.5 Miles, 1.8 Miles, 2.5 Miles. So now, I opt to choose their tempo runs and longer speed workouts. Since doing this, I've noticed I was more confident maintaining my pace for a longer period of time.

The way I run up and down a hill

I learned this tip from one day going to a local running club! I only went once (I know I know, I should probably make more of an effort to attend but it's a bit of a distance away from me) but anyways I was chatting to a runner for 7 miles and she mentioned this tip to me.

When you're going up a hill: keep your arms in that runner-bent way as you normally would.

When you're going down the hill: lower your runner-bent way arms to your torso, KEEP THOSE ARMS BENT!

How does this help?
It's to ensure you're not wasting your energy. You can kind of think of it similar to driving a car up and down a hill. When you're going up a hill you need gas - in running when you're going up a hill, you have your arms bent and level with your chest-area. When you're going down a hill with your car, you're pressing the breaks a bit - in running when you're going down a hill, you should keep your bent arms level/near your torso to conserve your energy.

Running on high elevation for all workouts

So I no longer have specific days for hill sprints in my schedule. Now, I make sure that all of my runs have some sort of incline/hills sprinkled throughout. What I noticed was that by having hills sprinkled throughout my run rather than having specific days for it, I was more prepared come race day when a random hill appeared on a relatively flat race course.

All of my runs - including easy runs - are now run on 150/180 - 200+ elevation.

sahara smiling at camera

Taking my training runs easy

This is easier said than done, I KNOW. But here's what I learned by only doing easy runs and tempo runs leading up to the 8K Championship race: run them comfortably and relaxed. All of those runs done leading up to the race were done at 8-9 pacing per mile. My body is relaxed and comfortable at this pace and come race day, I knew I had a lot of energy. I've been saving all that energy, all that speediness, for the race.

I came across this on twitter a couple of days ago - Joanna did easy running and zero speed work for 5 months, come race day for her half marathon and she was flying! Take a look at her tweet to see her times! Almost all were in the 5 minute per mile range, and her last one was a 4:55.

Building my leg strength without a gym

Now on my blog I've mentioned there were times when I was able to go to the gym, when I'm not able to and right now we're back to not having a gym membership (I'm pretty chill with this, actually). So, how does one build leg strength without a gym?

Well, here's one way.

Chari Hawkins recently did a few takeovers of her sponsor On Running where each week she'd give new tips/workout! Now, me being me, I screen recorded all of them so I could do the workouts continuously.

Sadly her takeovers aren't available as a highlight, however, here is the screen recording which I saved to a google drive because we're all in this together: Chari Hawkins Leg Workout.

The great thing about this workout is that it's buildable. The first time you do it, you'll feel you've gotten a great workout done, two weeks later your body will be strong enough to do the entire workout twice! Trust me! You'll love doing it and feel your legs getting stronger!

Be sure to give Chari Hawkins a follow over on Instagram, she's always giving tips on recovery/stretching etc.!

Foam rolling pre workout

I don't think I even run without foam rolling anymore, it such a game changer to roll before running to get your muscles ready for the workout. I think of it as a massage for your muscles. There is a specific warm up routine I do which I screen-recorded from Chari Hawkins one day - Warm Up With Chari Hawkins.

It's reallllly sped up, so you just have to keep pausing it. I tend to do 12-15 reps/hold a stretch for 15 seconds.

Letting the distance come to me rather than chasing the time

So I learned this tip after watching Chari Hawkins Instagram story (if you haven't taken the hint yet, I really think you should follow her, she's amazing!) Someone sent in a question saying they're trying to run a distance in 12 minutes - so she gave this tip: At the end of every week, set your phone/watch to run for 12 minutes (no more, no less), let the distance come to you in that time frame, don't chase the distance instead let it find you.

So for me, I'd like to run a sub-20 5K in the very near future - so every week, I should (ya girl is slacking okay!) set my phone to 18 minutes and run to see how much distance I can cover. You can kind of think of this as a speedy tempo run!

Icing every day

Recovering is the queen in this household, without recovery you may as well be a walking injury. I always ice my calves because shin splits are very much almost always 3 seconds away from entering my life on loop. I opt to use ice cups, and ice blocks for my calves. If I'm doing an evening workout, I ice my calves the morning for 20+ minutes and then after the workout I ice again. If I'm doing a morning run, I ice after.

Ice Cups: Fill a paper cup with water and put it in the freezer. When frozen, you rub it on your calf and keep pealing away at the paper cup until you've finished the ice.

However, there are also a few other alternatives to ice cups/ice bags:

Recoup Fitness - CRYOSLEEVE  | $89.99

I saw this on Georganne Moline - you can get this for your calves as well as your arms too. Here's how it works: You place it in the freezer for 2 Hours and it's guaranteed to stay cold for 1 hour. As is in the name, it's a bit like a sleeve you put your arm/calf through, think of it as compression and ice heaven.

Here's their full description on their website:

The Recoup Cryosleeve combines ice + compression for up to 1 hour of cold relief. Use on multiple body parts with sizing for leg and arm. The Cryosleeve + Boa® Fit System provides micro-adjustable compression while forming to the area. Great for reducing inflammation, speeding up recovery, and general pain relief for injuries such as carpal tunnel, shin splints, golfer's elbow, knee injury, etc. If you are in between sizes, size UP as the BOA Fit System can compress your sleeve down to size.  

I don't personally have one but wanted to share it with you all if you're looking for an alternative to ice bags/ice cups.

If you're looking for a more budget friendly one, I saw Chari Hawkins talking about this one:

Freeze Sleeve - Freeze Sleeve Black | $49 - $75

Depending on your size, the price changes. So if you're a small it's $49! I wasn't able to find out how long it stays cold for, but Chari mentioned they are great for shin splints!

Doing specific sprint mechanic drills to make sure my foot is hitting the ground the way it's supposed to

I mentioned earlier that Chari Hawkins did a takeover on On Running for a few weeks, one of those takeovers was this track warm up drill. There's A-Skips, B-Skips and something else I don't really know the name of but was actually the most beneficial one.

Here is the screen recording to that on my Google Drive: Sprint Mechanics With Chari Hawkins

It really solidified - well for me it did! - how your foot should be hitting the ground as you run.

sahara smiling at camera

Strengthening my arms with planks

So let's bring you back to the 10 Day Ab Challenge I did With Chari Hawkins. Throughout those days there were also a lot of planking involved which let me know that my spaghetti arms are in need of some help. Planking - the standard one as well as some different variations like side plank and back plank - really helped my arms get stronger.

You may or may not be wondering: Why do I need strong arms if I'm a runner?

Your arms guide your run, trust me when I say moving your arms front and back does a lot more than you think. Strengthening your arms with your own body weight will make your running be that much faster, trust me!


And drum roll please, the last section! Let's talk jump rope and box jumps without actual boxes. As you probably already guessed, during Chari Hawkins takeover she did a jump rope week which I myself do 2 times in one day and should really up it to 3. The thing jump rope teaches you is coordination and thing jump rope gives you is strong calves, hamstrings, and Glutes and! it's great cardio!

Here is the screen recording of jump roping with Chari: Jumprope with Chari Hawkins

In terms of box jumping without an actual box - this is a lot of fun and challenging. Just find something high off the ground and jump up with your two feet off the ground at the same time. It's harder than it looks but! great way to strengthen your legs!

And there we have it my top training tips at the moment that helped me move from an 8'09 pace to 6'36/mile!

There's also something else I've been doing a lot of: recovery and stretches. Next up will be my top recovery tips / stretches paired with of course the videos I use whether that be from Instagram or Youtube! From night time stretching, Glute warm up, IT band help to ankle strengthening, I've got you covered!

How's everyone else's training going?


  1. Thank you so much for sharing these tips! I'm not an athlete nor do I do any kind of marathon whatsoever, but I think your tips are good for improving one's endurance in general. I used to be a fit individual back when I was still studying in uni, but after a few months of just lounging around at home after graduation, I gained a lot of weight and definitely suffered in terms of strength and endurance. I'll try to slowly incorporate some of your suggestions in my daily life! Thanks again!

    1. Most definitely!! Although they are primarily training tips, you can most definitely use them to improve general endurance :) After graduating we lose a bit of structure day to day - but! It's no problem, you still have your base fitness to go off of, hope my tips help you out a bit!

  2. I love love love the idea of just setting a timer and letting the distance come to you. 100% going to try that!

    Jess |

    1. I've done that for a few of my runs and it's a super fun way to change things up a bit! Rather than focusing on distance itself, swap the focus on time and see how much distance you can cove; you'll love it! I hope you enjoy trying it as much as I did!

  3. OKAY. YOU KNOW I WAS WAITING FOR THIS. You could have pre-warned me about the icing, was not prepared for that. I need to spend more time with my foam roller. I know it's good for you but I'm one of those annoying people who only come running to it when they feel an injury coming on because I know I'm too lazy to use it regularly and I need to get better at that. I wasn't expecting you to say core work helped either. And the thing about longer speed intervals made me want to weep a little bit too I'm taking that on board. Interesting about setting the timer. Whenever I'm recovering from an injury that's exactly what I do, set it for 20 minutes, make sure I'm fine...25 the next time and so on. I've never thought to focus on time (therefore increasing distance) as part of my regular training plan. Implementing that one ASAP, makes scheduling runs so much easier too if you know the exact time??? Genius x


    1. YESSSS ice is the queen of this post that's for sure! It takes a while to get used to that ice-y feeling every day and sometimes more than 2 times a day but trust me when I say its so so worth it! Foam rolling single handedly saves me daily from any running injury, I remember once I forgot to roll my right calve (I did my left and forgot about my right haha) and I was halfway to the track and had to turn back around to roll on it.

      I used to be super lazy with it too and only roll when I felt an injury coming my general direction - y'know that feeling!- but trust me!! Add it into your daily routine and you won't regret it! It's insane how much core works has helped me, like since doing the ab workouts (some even doing 6 times in a row) my abs are like abs of steel and I feel a lot more in control for my endurance runs.

      I used to be the same!! Short speed workouts will forever be my favorites to do, but the longer ones most definitely have helped me with maintaining a faster speed on race day through miles! Yessss, the best is scheduling runs and knowing exactly when you'll be back, letting the distance come to me in a set time is definitely the most fun yet challenging part of my training days!! Hope you enjoy doing it as much as I do!

  4. I will have to look up Chari Hawkins! She sounds like she has created some good exercises, and I am curious to see what other routines she has developed. I have never heard of a foam roller, but I like what I am seeing when I look it up!

    Slowly working up to something and making sure you are ready is a good way to train. It takes endurance and time to build anything so I think this can be applied to more then running! ��

    1. She's really awesome! Her workouts have helped massively in improving my own training, and yes a foam roller is like a massage for your muscles! Most definitely agree, it takes endurance and time to build anything - and a whole lot of self belief too! - and this goes with just about everything. That sense of accomplishment after working towards something for so long is the best!

  5. I've been trying to increase my running because I'm really slacking. This post has given me a lot of motivation, which I really needed. I had never heard of the trick for running up and down a hill, I will definitely implement that next time. I definitely waste too much energy when running; I need to get better at that!


    1. YAYYY, increasing running distance/amount of times of the week going running is really fun because we see we're capable of so much more than what we're currently running, it's incredible really! The hill trick helps massively in conserving your energy, you won't regret using it!! Happy running!

  6. I'm not a runner but I have huge admiration for those of you who are such amazing practitioners. Your time jump between those marathons is awesome! That said, I'm intrigued by your point about arm strength. My arms are very wobbly, so it sounds like some planks could definitely help with that! Lisa x

    1. It was a super surprising time jump! Whenever I see athletes across all sports I'm always so in awe just seeing how everything they've done comes together to this one day/race/competition; I love watching competitions across different sports.

      Yess! Planks will help massively with arm strength, they're hard at first to hold but so worth it in the end!

  7. Thanks for the great tips and references! I'm in a running group,and have mixed feelings about moving up a pace group. I'll try some of your recommendations, for sure!

    1. Such great tips! I'm not into running much but doing a 5k in a few months so well definitely be using these tips thank you!

    2. Glad to hear the tips were helpful!! YAY a running group, definitely think the best thing to keep in mind when moving up a pace group is that you can 100% maintain the pace, sometimes our mind gives up before our legs!

    3. Glad to hear you enjoyed the tips @Wackyvanilla! YAY I hope you have an amazing 5K, it really is the best distance to run (well, I say that as a 5K athlete hahaha!)

  8. I've been seeing foam rolling around a lot lately! Do you know of any alternatives for it? Lately I've been trying to increase my flexibility and working on my core as well! I'm going to have to try these 10 minute challenges! I liked teh ab challenges blogilates does as well!

    1. Yesss, foam rolling is super important and 10/10 the best for massaging your muscles. A good alternative would have to be a tennis ball for you to roll your leg/back on! I used to use a tennis ball all the time prior to my foam roller :) YAYYY I hope you enjoy the 10 minute challenges as much as I do, they're honestly the best!

  9. As the year comes to a close, I do find myself thinking about next year. I do want to start running so these are some great tips! Is it the "new year, new me" bug? I think I might also check out that Ab work out. I personally hate going to the gym so running in fresh air and doing other work outs at home are my cup of tea!

    1. AHH yesss, new year new me bug is hard not to catch! Running really is the best sport (but I may be biased since I am a runner haha), it really moves your whole body and you feel amazing afterwards, and the best thing is you don't need a gym, just sneakers and the outside for some fresh air too :)

  10. As you know, I don't run so I don't have anything to train for but these are amazing tips for anyone just starting out that might need a bit of guidance. I admire people who run - like PROPERLY run, like you do, I wish I could! I think having a strong core can help with everything really too - it helps support your spine as well! x


    1. Ah maybe 2020 is the year for running for you! You never know :) I agree 100%, a strong core is super beneficial for just about everything, not just pertaining to running!

  11. These are really useful training tips. Thanks for sharing your knowledge, I will be putting some of these into practice! Core workouts are the worst imo but have to be done!!


    1. YAY, glad to hear you found my tips useful! Core work in the beginning usually isn't the best haha but!!! consistence is key!!!! Trust me, you'll get better at doing core workouts in no time :)

  12. What a great tips! Thanks for sharing
    Happy Monday.

  13. After all it is a great article with everything. Thanks in advance for posting it.Awesome expected post you shared here, I will require it many times, and here the outstanding selection of topic also makes me more jolly, please hope more blog post we get from you. Thanks advances!!!

    1. Hi Mizan, glad to hear you enjoyed reading my post on training tips! It's definitely one to come back to for future reference if you decide to put any of my tips into practice - I'm hoping to have another running related post up soon!

      Thanks so much for reading!

  14. These are all great tips! I'm currently on my own running journey at the moment so this is such a useful post for me x

    1. YAY, glad to hear my tips were helpful and that you're also on your own running journey! The best thing is seeing yourself progress run after run :)

  15. I love these training tips! I started running within the past year and see a difference with my endurance now. Oooh these are great tips about running uphill. I ran a hill earlier this week and had sore calves for days!!! It is good that there are other ways to build leg strength. My trainer requires us to foam roll before and after a workout for injury prevention. Thanks for sharing all of these helpful tips!

    Nancy ♥

    1. YAY, glad to hear you enjoyed reading! It's really amazing to see how much we improve in our running one year on or a few years from when we first started, every day we improve! YES - running on hills definitely makes our calves sore, I'm always icing to make sure I keep shin splints as far away from me as possible.

      Building leg strength without a gym was something I struggled with a lot in the past but since doing Chair Hawkins leg strength video and increasing the amount of times I do the entire workout, I've definitely seen a huge difference!

      YESS foam rolling is so so important!! It's really the best way to warm up and recover after a workout - can't run without foam rolling first and can't recover without it either :)

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