Knowledge base for running

In 2023, HeyRunning joined hands with Raffles Hospital Beijing to combine running with sports injury prevention and rehabilitation to provide more professional support to community runners. Till August, we have jointly organized 8 sessions of "HeyRunning X Raffles Hospital莱跑团" activities related to running and sports rehabilitation science, with a total of more than 300 participants. There are different themes each time to let runners know more about running itself, such as a variety of training modes, and how to cool down and prevent injuries.

The thinking behind our doing

The 4S Method has changed our approach to training and given us lots of smiles in the process. It’s simple, effective, fun and appropriate for runners of all skill level, ability and experience from complete beginners up to top marathon and ultra-marathon runners.The 4S Method is for EVERYBODY and has put the FUN back into running...here’s how!

SPEED sessions are mainly made up out of intervals to build speed (of course!), strength, and oxygen uptake. Less explosive pace may also be built during Speed Tempo sessions, where you may run fasterthan race pace in one long go. By running fast, we also generally develop a better running technique!Depending on our your distance, your form and what you like to train, speed sessions may vary from 100m up to as long as any distance under your targeted race distance, as long as you run them faster than your targeted race pace.

STRIDE is all about using our energy in best way possible - meaning that when we run, we should minimize all energy expenditures except for those moving us forwards. Stride, or running technique, sessions make us more efficient and faster runners while also decreasing the risk of injury! In HeyRunning, we use 5 different points (see the HeyRunning STRIDE Checklist* for more info) to identify the most common mistakes runners make, explained so that anyone can understand and make corrections. Except for making assessments, we recommend running technique drills to be carried out during our runs for best possible impact.

STRENGTH  builds our running form, and thus tend to make us less injury prone. In strength training, we try to focus on A) core training for back, abs and obliques, and B) supplementary training for legs incl glutes, calves, hamstrings and sometimes ankle muscles. Strength training may either be conducted as separate cross-training sessions, or added into our running session before, during or after runs.

STAMINA is what you do when you train for a long time, or run slower than your targeted race pace. We divide our stamina training into two parts: Long-Slow Distance (LSD) and LSD Tempo. Both of these are based on a slow basic pace - however the latter will contain elements of running at or slightly faster than race speed, while with LSD, it's only the distance (and/or time!) that matters rather than the pace. Depending on several factors (incl your distance, session distance, injury history, time available) try to include 1-2 stamina training sessions per week.