Where Does Your Strength Come From?

8 min readDec 9, 2020

Knowing where your strength comes from enables you to do amazing things. Photo by Vicky Sim on Unsplash

I have a friend that I run with on occasion. I say run “with” loosely because he is so much faster than me that I usually see him at the start of the run and then again at the end.

I only run with him on accession though because whereas he is fast, more often he is injured and can’t run.

He has worked on his speed so much that he is one dimensional.

After a recent run, he asked me why I am able to run so much and never seem to have to take time off injured.

I told him it was because I know where my strength comes from. Which of course started us down another trail of thought.

Running Strength: There is no Secret Recipe

Running strength and the ability to overcome nagging little injuries and soreness to be able to run consistently comes from one key area that way too many runners do not spend enough time thinking about.

It is fairly easy to run fast and to build quickness in running.

It take patience to build the kind of strength that keeps you running.

Patience comes in building a solid foundation. Paying attention to core strength building doesn’t take a lot of time. Few runners take the time to put in the short amount of work necessary to build this strength.

Runner’s World has an article from May 2018. “Why Strength Training Is So Important for Runners” is one of those articles that should be at the top of your list of articles for every runner wishing to run injury free.

By incorporating just a little bit of strength training into your exercise routine, you will be able to build a strong core that will withstand the pounding your body will take when running lots of miles.

I didn’t put much stock into strength training until after 2017. 2017 was both a great year of running for me and a horrible year of running for me. I set personal bests in the marathon distance and the 50K distance in 2017. I also missed running for three months because of calf injuries and foot injuries. Looking back, I discovered both injuries were the result of a too weak core.

When your core is weak, you overcompensate by running harder. Instead of light foot strikes, you will find yourself striking the ground harder. The harder you strike the ground, the more you stress your muscles and tendons and tissue. The more you stress all of those, the more you will find yourself on the sidelines watching everybody else run.

Science has also proven that incorporating strength training “has been proven to increase your speed and VO2 max. The reason? Your muscles don’t need to expend as much energy to hit a certain pace, according to Kenji Doma, Ph.D., a sports and exercise scientist at James Cook University in Queensland, Australia.”

A solid foundation is something that will not only keep you running strong for a long time, but perhaps that is where the speed and endurance really are.

Knowing where your strength comes from will make you a much better and more durable runner.

Strength Training Isn’t Just for Running

A solid foundation pays off in the long run (pun intended). Photo by James Barr on Unsplash

What if I were to tell you that the discipline to build a strong foundation for your running life works in your personal and professional life also?

When I discovered that the discipline to take the fifteen to twenty minutes three to four times a week to build core strength helped me be a stronger runner, I began thinking about where else I needed to build strength.

As I began to apply the principle of building strength to other areas of my life, I found that foundational strength was beneficial in areas of my life that I never dreamed possible.

I read an article on www.quicken.com titled “What is Financial Discipline?” and put the same discipline I was putting into my running into my finances.

I experimented by saving a small amount out of every paycheck. The discipline to save enabled me to have an actual savings account, six months of my monthly bills in savings and financial peace.

Discipline works.

Putting the same discipline into my marriage, my spiritual life and my friendships had me finding I was much more peaceful and less stressed out.

When you discover where your strength comes from, suddenly the world is wide open for you to really begin to live again.

Instead of constantly being frustrated by being behind all the time, you will discover you are more able to be a source of strength for your family and friends when they face adversity.

Seeing Strength Training Really Pay Off

The same discipline that builds core strength works in all areas of life. Photo by Austin Henckel on Unsplash

For me, I found strength training pay off in a real way in 2020. I have watched so many of my friend’s lives torn apart and put asunder by the pandemic raging through our communities.

I decided I wouldn’t participate in seeing my life disrupted and would not let it affect me. I have followed every single guideline put out by my state government officials and continue to do so.

In March, my company announced that all management would be taking a 25% pay cut through the duration of the stay at home orders even though we had to keep going into the office.

On a Saturday, I used my warehouse to run a Pandemic marathon on a 0.68 mile loop. This was two weekends after my pay had been cut by 25%. Instead of getting frustrated and refusing to participate, I decided to have fun and run a marathon.

Two weeks later, I was offered the opportunity of a lifetime. It meant I had to leave my beloved Bighorn Mountains for the coastal area of Virginia, but being offered the opportunity to take over a small business was beyond anything I could have dreamed of.

For me running, the fifty mile distance has always been my nemesis. I have run over fifty miles plenty of times in training and just for fun, but I had yet to finish a fifty mile race.

In 2020, of all years, I finally got that monkey off my back and finished the JFK 50 Mile, on a sprained ankle for thirty-five miles.

I attribute a successful 2020, a year where devastation has swept our planet, to knowing where my strength comes from.

Knowing where your strength comes from will build for you lasting legacies of amazing times on the time we have on this earth and will enable you to live life to the full.

Living life to the full is why we are here. I found out I could live this why by accident.

I found it by doing strength training so I could run a year without being injured.

Maybe it’s time you accidentally found out where your strength comes from.

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Where Does Your Strength Come From?

Running Strength: There is no Secret Recipe

Strength Training Isn’t Just for Running

Seeing Strength Training Really Pay Off

Written by Mamun mal