Speed

My name is Patrick McGilvray, and I’m an experienced marathoner, ultra runner sports nutritionist, master life coach, and weight loss coach. For runners, I’ve dedicated my life to helping runners just like you, properly fuel your body and your mind so you can get leaner, get stronger, run faster, and run longer than you ever thought. Possible. This is running Lean.

Hey there, and welcome to episode 320 of Running Lean. My name is Patrick McGilvray, the weight loss coach for runners, and today your weak links are slowing you down. Today is all about your weak links, and if running has been feeling harder than it should lately, this could be one of the reasons why. So most runners think that their problem is always about fitness or their age, or how much mileage they’re running.

And so they run more, they push harder, they add speed work, but they’re ignoring these small sort of unglamorous parts of the body that actually control everything. The ankles, the hips, the core. When those areas aren’t doing their job, you stride becomes inefficient. Your power leaks, your pace plateaus.

And little aches start to show up. And this isn’t about random corrective exercises or doing clamshells forever. It’s about understanding where strength actually matters and how to fix those weak links that are quietly holding you back. So if you want running to feel stronger, smoother, and more efficient, this episode is for you.

All right. Let’s just dive right into this. Here we’re talking about something that almost every runner deals with, but few actually address, or at least they don’t address properly. Okay? It’s all about your weak links and how they are probably slowing you down. And here’s why this matters right now. A lot of runners are training consistently, right?

You’re getting in your miles, you’re doing your long runs. Maybe you even lift weights a little bit here and there, but running is still feeling harder than it should. Your pace isn’t improving. You feel unstable on those trails. Your knees get. Cranky, your lower back tightens up on long runs. You lose power late in races, and the instinct is always the same.

I need more fitness. I need to run more miles. I need to do more speed work and those things. Are fine. Okay? But that’s more of like a conditioning issue. Okay? What if it’s not a conditioning problem we’re addressing here? What if it’s a structural problem? What if you’re strong in the big muscles, but you have small, overlooked weak links that are quietly.

Draining your running performance, and that’s what we’re digging into here today. Because if your ankles, your hips and your core aren’t doing their job properly, your body will compensate. And compensation is very inefficient. It makes you slower. It’s more fatiguing. And it’s really how injuries start to sneak in.

Okay, so today I’m gonna break this down, what weak links actually are, what we’re actually talking about here today. Why runners almost always overlook them, how they show up in real life, and then what to do about it. Okay, so let’s start with the concept itself. What is a weak link? A weak link is not your biggest muscle group, okay?

So we’re not talking about your quads or your hamstrings or even like, you know, the efficiency of your lungs, right? A weak link is a smaller stabilizing structure that limits the performance of everything around it. Think of it like this. If you have a powerful engine in your car, but your suspension is loose, your alignment is off, uh, you’re not gonna be able to use that engine efficiently.

Okay? So your body works the same way. Running is a single leg. Activity. Every step is a controlled fall. You land on one foot, absorb that force, you stabilize, you push off from that one foot, and you do this thousands and thousands of times per run. And if the small stabilizers aren’t strong enough to control that.

Force something else is gonna take over and that’s when performance leaks happen. Okay, so let’s just break this down into the big three things I’m talking about for runners, and that’s going to be the ankles, the hips, and the core. Let’s start at the bottom. We’ll start with your ankles. So most runners completely ignore their ankles.

Um, you might do some like calves stretching or foam rolling, or maybe you buy new shoes, right? But you’re not training your ankles. Here’s the issue. Your ankle is the first point of contact with the ground. It’s your shock absorber and your propulsion system. And if your ankles are stiff and weak, you lose that elastic recoil.

Your cadence drops. You spend too long on the ground and your knees take up a lot more stress. Um, if your ankles collapse inward, then your arch begins to flatten, your tibia rotates and your knee tracks poorly, and then you say, Hey, my knee hurts. Or you just, you get diagnosed with patella tendonitis or something, runner’s knee, you know, and it’s not.

A issue with your knee necessarily. It’s your ankle. Your ankle is not stable and, and it’s weak. Okay? So what ankle weakness looks like in real life is maybe you wobble during single leg balance work. All right? Have you ever stood on one leg and you see that wobbling happening? Um, that’s a sign of a weak ankle trail running might feel unstable, you know, ’cause you have this undulating terrain that you really need a stable ankle to feel, uh, in control and stable on the trails.

And maybe that’s not, you just don’t feel controlled and you don’t feel stable. You might avoid downhill because it feels a little sketchy for you and your calves might be trying to compensate. And so they’re. Um, constantly tight or maybe you get cramps in your calves a lot. So this is not random, it’s just a weak link.

Okay? Your ankle is so, so important when it comes to running, and most runners do not train their ankles at all. Okay? So this is a real problem. So what do you do about it? Stop thinking of doing ankle work as like, you know, a rehab. I do see people that do this, um, you know, they might have some sort of injury and they’re told, Hey, you need to, you need to strengthen your ankles.

And so they, they do some ankle strengthening work for a few weeks or maybe a month or two. Because the physical therapist told them to do that, but then they’re, then they’re done with it, right? And they never really develop the strength that they need to perform at their best. Okay? So stop thinking of it, uh, at, of ankle work as rehab work.

Start thinking of it as performance training, right? This is going to help improve your running. It’s going to help make running easier. So some things that you can do right off the bat. You can start working this into your exercise routine daily. A lot of this stuff you can do daily, like single leg balance.

So work on balancing on one leg. You can do this all throughout the day. Maybe if you’re standing at your desk or brushing your teeth or you know, making dinner or something like that, you can. Work on standing on one leg, um, for added fun. Do it with your eyes closed. This’ll really challenge you, and you might be surprised, you might be able to stand for 30 seconds or a minute on one leg with your eyes open.

But if you can get more than about five seconds with your eyes closed, that’s good. Okay, so, but work on, uh, improving single leg balance with your eyes closed. Another thing you can do is some slow and controlled calf raises. Um, sometimes with straight knees, sometimes with bent knee, but we’re working on improving the structure of that ankle.

Okay? So calf raises will help to improve, uh, calf strength, but also it helps, uh, improve the integrity of that ankle joint. Um, tibialis raises, hopping drills. Strength work where you’re working out barefoot. Um, I know a lot of people at the gym work out in socks or they work out barefoot because it does help to strengthen their, uh, ankles and, you know, uh, feet.

Uh, and runners are. You know, it’s all ankles and feet essentially. So think about that. You know, if you belong to a gym where you can take your shoes off, do that, you know, if you’re doing back squats and bench press and um, different lunges and things like that, the doing those things all. You know, barefoot is going to help, it’s gonna help improve that ankle joint.

Um, so your, your goal is to have some stiffness with control, right? Your, your, you want your ankle to act like a spring, so you need some stiffness there. You don’t want it to be like a wet noodle, okay? When your ankles get stronger, running is gonna start to feel easier. It’s gonna feel lighter. You’re gonna be quicker, you’re gonna be more responsive, okay?

So first thing to do is work on improving the integrity of that ankle joint. Okay? And of course, the kind of exercises I just mentioned are very basic, and these are just the, the starting point. Okay? You wanna, you can look up some other activities and different exercises that you can do that’ll help improve, um, all these areas here.

Uh, number two, let’s work our way up. Uh, so let’s talk about hips. This is the second area that. I would call a weak link for a lot of runners. So if ankles are your contact point, then your hips are gonna be your power center. This is where most runners probably have the biggest blind spot. Um, ’cause you think your hips are strong because you lift, or you uh, you do dead lifts or squats.

But hip extension, strength and hip stability are not really the same thing. Running requires single leg stability. Controlled internal and external rotation. Running requires lateral force management, and if your hips are weak, your knees are gonna start to cave inward. Your pelvis is gonna drop from side to side.

Your stride shortens. Your glutes don’t fire efficiently. And here’s the part a lot of people don’t want to hear, but when hips are weak, running is gonna feel heavy. And it’s not because you’re outta shape, it’s just because you’re leaking out power. Um, so it shows up with things like it band irritation.

If you’ve ever had your IT band flare up, you know what I’m talking about. Um, maybe you’ve got hip flexor tightness, maybe you have glute soreness, and maybe it’s only on one side. Maybe you have lower back fatigue, especially during those longer runs. These are all signs of compensation. Your body’s trying to get the job done, but it has to compensate so it’s not doing it efficiently.

So what are we gonna do about it? Well, you don’t need to do endless, you know, clamshells. You need progressive load and single leg strength exercises. Some things like, uh, Bulgarian split squats or single leg R rls, Romanian deadlifts. Step downs, lateral lunges, loaded caries. These are some of my favorite exercises for runners.

Um. Here’s the key. All this stuff needs to be done slowly in a controlled fashion and very intentional. Like we’re doing this because we’re trying to improve the integrity of our hips, right? So we don’t wanna just rush through these exercises, own the movements, slow it down. And when your hips get strong, something interesting happens, your stride length actually increases.

Naturally, your cadence improves without forcing it, and your effort at the same pace drops. So running is going to automatically feel easier just from improving. The strength of your hips. Doesn’t that sound like something that could motivate you to get out there and start working on this? Yes. Um, because now you’re using your glutes, not your lower back to actually move forward.

Okay? So your glutes are the biggest muscle in your body, and they are, um, they play a huge, huge role in running. Okay. Alright, let’s move our way. Um, up, uh, to the third thing we’re talking about here, which is your core. All right. I’m not talking about, you know, having a six pack of abs, like that’s just vanity.

Okay. I’m talking about trunk stability. So your core. Connects your upper body to your lower body, and if it’s weak, then force transfer actually breaks down. Okay? You can have strong legs, but if your torso collapses, especially when you get fatigued later on in longer runs or races, then you can’t transmit that power anymore.

And what weak core stability looks like you might slouch late in races. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen anybody finishing an ultra marathon, especially people who are, you know, maybe a little bit slower, and they’ve been out there for a long time. They do that lean, they’re kind of slouching, um, because they have no core stability.

Okay? Your breathing might get shallow breathing becomes harder. Your shoulders start to creep up to your ears. You know, your back tightens up, and so your whole posture just collapses. Um, and when this happens, your ability to deliver oxygen to working muscles drops, efficiency drops, and suddenly. Running is just gonna feel really, really hard.

Okay, so core weakness is not about aesthetics, it’s about endurance under tension. So what can you do about it? Well, you don’t need to do endless crunches. Instead, focus on things like planks and maybe planks with a load. So that means put a, put a plate on your back while you’re doing a plank. Um, things like dead bugs, uh, pal off presses, or any other kind of anti-rotation movement or anti-rotation hold.

So this is where, uh, you are. Uh, trying to prevent rotation. So you’re holding a, a lot of times, like a pal off press. You’re holding a cable or a, a resistance band, and you’re pushing that away from your body and towards your body. But the, the load is actually to your right or to your left. So you’re actually trying to prevent your body from rotating into that, um, into the load.

Okay? So you’re trying to keep your body straight, but it’s a anti-rotation movement. Something like it suitcase carry where you’re carrying one heavy kettlebell on one side. Um, that’s going to, uh, be an anti-rotation movement. Okay? So. With all of these things, your cores job is to resist movement, okay? So we’re not trying to create movement, we’re trying to resist the rotation there.

And so the goal is to have some stiffness there. Um, you’re gonna be able to breathe, you’re gonna be in control still, but you want some of that stiffness there. Uh, running is a rhythm, and when the rhythm breaks, your stability breaks. And think about running as like two springs working in opposite directions.

You’re. Your legs are turning one way while your upper torso is turning the other way. And what’s responsible for all of that rotation is your core. So a strong core means, again, running is gonna feel easier. You’re gonna have, uh, way more endurance. You’re gonna be able to, uh, sustain much longer duration out there running without your whole form breaking down and the slouch happening and all that stuff.

Okay. So why do runners avoid fixing these things, right? These are weak links. We all know this stuff. Um, why do we, you know, avoid working on these things? And honestly, it’s not exciting, right? It’s not glamorous, it doesn’t feel like a workout, right? It’s not gonna like show up on Strava. But here’s the mindset shift I want you to try to get into here.

When you train these weak lengths, this is training in force multiplication, okay? You’re not adding fitness, you’re actually unlocking it. And this is especially important if you wanna lose body fat, if you wanna build muscle, if you want running to feel easier, because when your mechanics improve, everything else improves.

Efficiency, improves fatigue, decreases injury, risk drops, power increases, and suddenly your current fitness level, you know, expresses itself better. You feel better where you are today. You don’t have to improve, um, all these different areas all at once. But start working through some of this. You know, maybe you start with your ankles and work your way up.

Okay? But you’re. Your running is going to feel easier, and you’re gonna feel a lot stronger and a lot fitter if you can improve the integrity of these different areas here. Um, so how would you know what you need to work on? Well, I’m gonna give you a couple prac practical tips to audit your own weak links here.

Um, try standing on one leg and then close your eyes and see if you can hold that for 20 or 30 seconds. And if you wobble like crazy. This means you have some ankle instability and you wanna work on that. Okay? Do a slow single leg squat and watch your knee. If it dives inward, you probably have some hip instability.

Okay? Hold a plank for one minute. If your back sags. This is a, uh, core weakness, a trunk weakness, okay? So you can. Do a little self-assessment and see, you know, where you land with this stuff. Maybe do that this week. And it’s not about, you know, oh, I’m, I’m a bad runner, or I’m not fit. It’s not about that.

It’s just information. Like, just treat it as like a little self-assessment to get the info so you know what to work on. Okay. And then you need to work this stuff into your training, just like we talk about in general. You gotta work in strength training, right? Well, we gotta work on, you know, training these specific areas and improving the integrity of these certain areas as well.

You don’t need an extra three hours a week to do this, right? You just need to be intentional about what you’re doing. Maybe 10 to 15 minutes at the end of an easy run, or you’re doing strength training two or three days per week. That’s probably perfect. Just prioritize some of the stuff, prioritize some single leg work, some load over time.

You know, some of that core work that I mentioned. Consistency is gonna beat complexity, right? Here’s the big idea though. If you strengthen your weak links, your running becomes more resilient, and resilience is what allows performance to actually grow. So let me ask you something. Are you tired of feeling like you’re working hard but not really moving forward?

You know, maybe you’re putting in the miles, you’re trying to eat better, you’re doing some strength work. But running still feels harder than it should. Your progress is slow. Your body feels beat up more often than it feels strong. It’s not a motivation problem, it’s just a systems problem, and most runners focus only on mileage, and they hope that the rest just sort of takes care of itself.

But you know what? It doesn’t. What you need is a complete approach, strength, nutrition, endurance, and mindset. All working together. That’s exactly what we do. Inside the Leaner Stronger Runner Project, we build runners from the ground up, stronger ankles, stronger hips, stronger core. Smarter, fueling smarter.

Training a clear structure so you’re not guessing every week. This isn’t about random workouts or hypey challenges, okay? It’s a proven framework that helps you feel lighter on your feet, more powerful in your stride, and more confident in your body. If you are ready to stop leaking energy and start running like someone who trains with intention, go to running lean coaching.com/ready.

Read through the information on that page, see if it resonates, and if it does join us. I’d love to see you in there. You don’t need more miles, you just need a stronger foundation. Cool. Alright, that’s all I got for you today. Love you all. Keep on running lean and I will talk to you soon.