Supercharge Your Speed With Super Sets

Amplify your strength work to run faster and longer without spending hours in the gym.

- By Ashley Mateo. Photography by Robert Bredvad

WHEN MEGGIE SMITH, 35, lapped her Garmin watch after 3km of a 10k race she did a last year she was shocked: she'd just run faster than she had in a lkm time trial the previous winter, and it felt effortless. She hadn't started too fast; by the time she crossed the finish line, she had negativesplit the course and taken more than five minutes off her best 10K time from the previous autumn.

“I was shocked at how good I felt throughout the race, and how hard I was able to push myself,” she says.

Usually, a big performance leap like this comes from diligent, strategic speedwork. But intervals aren't what Smith credits for dropping her 10K race pace by more than 30 seconds per kilometre. The only thing I had been consistent with throughout my training - more so than running - was strength-training,” she says.

Smith had started working virtually with Runner's World Coach Jess Movold in July 2020. The first change Movold made to Smith's routine was adding strength work two or three times a week, including a session with supersets - exercises performed back-to-back.

Her progression was gradual: she began with bodyweight exercises, then graduated to dumbbells under 12kg. “As the weights got heavier, I started noticing this ability to tolerate more running volume and intensity,” she says.

Before strength-training, Smith had a hard time running more than 30km a week without getting injured. But this past few months she was able to log 55 to 65km per week. “I had fewer aches and pains as I increased my mileage and added in speedwork,” she says. “With strength-training, I was still feeling healthy and didn't worry I was on the cusp of injury.”