This week I finally managed to book myself in for a program consultation with one of the trainers down at my local Nuffield Health gym.

After a quick discussion on goals (run a marathon, lose some weight but with an effort to retain muscle) we then took a look at the program. To recap, my current program includes:

• 3 runs a week
• 1 Pilates session
• 2 resistance sessions (arms/shoulders, legs/back)
• 1 cycle session
• 1 core session

There was one glaring omission that my trainer (Rob) picked up on straight away. No leg day.

I’m not usually one to skip a leg day as it’s one of the few areas that I think I do well in. In addition to that, all the research I’ve done suggests some leg work boosts power and endurance for distance runners. So why drop my favourite exercises? Simple. Delayed onset muscle soreness also known as DOMS. 48 hours after a good resistance session, my body throws the towel in and my muscles are out for the count which throws a major spanner in the works when I’m trying to hit three running sessions a week.

Speaking to Rob, he acknowledged that this would certainly be the case for the first two weeks but after that; given that strength training wasn’t a primary goal of mine, I could simply reduce the weight increments (e.g rather than 10kg increases, maybe just look at 5!)

A simple solution but some of the best answers usually are! Rob then ran me through a series of leg exercises (goblet squats, walking lunges, dumbbell deadlifts and Bulgarian split squats) that left me a little unsteady on my feet!

So, although you shouldn’t really change your program too frequently (outside of the 4 week reviews), I will be incorporating this from week 7 and then reworking my program entirely in week 8 (rest week)

Fingers crossed!