Plyometrics

Gabe Peterson

As part of my reset from spending most of 2017 training for ultra distance MTBing and running, I've spent the last few weeks doing my old Asylum workouts.  These consist of heavy doses of plyometrics and speed & agility exercises, such as jump rope, tons of jumping, and working the agility ladder.  I hadn't done these in about 4 years since I got into endurance sports.  I went out for my first trail run since the Bear 100, and the increase in my explosiveness to jump over rocks and rapidly accelerate was noticeable.  It's also been really fun.

I believe the research shows that plyo will increase running performance.  Anyone include plyo in their training?  How did you work it in?

Jeff Kane

@Gabe Peterson, ploys are a great exercise in increase explosive power. My only concern is in the landing phase, if jumping up then always go with the step down option! Jumping down only leads to Achilles Tendon issues. Blowing and Achilles Tendon is a game changer!

Al Truscott

In my mid 50s, I added a day a week of "mild plyo". Meaning 30s intervals of high stepping, then heel-to-butt, then skipping. About 2-3 x 10-12 of each. I'd run about 10 min easy before amd after. I attribute a ruuning breakthrough to doing that, meaning a couple of BQs and dropping my IM run by more than a minute/mile. Don,t do it anymore, but maybe I should add back come Spring & Summer. I don't have enough explosiveness left to make true plyo anything but high risk. I rely on heavy weights with shallow squats for that. About 2.9x body weight on a stamding sled, 3x/week in the fall and winter (gotta build up to that over 3-4 weeks!)

Gabe Peterson

@Jeff Kane good point.  I have a padded mat that I do plyo on.  It seems to reduce the impact.  I wouldn't do anything crazy.  I probably wouldn't do it within six weeks of a race to avoid injury.

@Al Truscott interesting that you attribute plyo to your running breakthrough.  My breakthrough year was 2015 when I set most of my run PRs.  I went from being stoked to break 2 hours in a half mary in 2014 to a 1:36 in 2015.  I was reflecting on what I did right in 2015.  One of them was that I consistently incorporated plyo in my two strength sessions per week.

I'm thinking I'll do some plyo as part of my at one of my strength sessions per week this outseason.  This will probably come in the form of one of the Asylum workouts.  I forgot how much fun and challenging these workouts are.