Do you run or not run? Do you think of yourself as a runner or non-runner?

Does the idea of running fill you with fear or freedom?

Are you built for speed or distance?!

Whatever your current stance, we enjoyed providing the warm up to the fun run and walk at St Peter's and St James Hospice on Sunday in Wivelsfield Green.

It was a great morning, beautiful weather, and a great atmosphere; from the kids doing their run and families doing the walk, to the more serious runners.

It almost made me want to join in! But with a bit of a cold i'd have done myself no favours.

I don't consider running to necessarily be the pinnacle example of fitness, (that's a personal decision and choice for you to make) but it's nice to know that if you need to or want to, you can.

If you enjoy running or decide to challenge yourself, then it's nice to be able to do well and improve your ability.

People are often surprised when their running improves from non-running activities, yet we see it time and again. This often occurs in those who are already running to an extent and then add the type of core strengthening and total body fitness that we provide.

This is especially true for the lower body strength and power training that we do. This kind of approach where runners have included more explosive or dynamic movements into their training has been studied and shown to improve performance.

It seems that running economy is improved as muscles and other structures improve their ability to handle the forces being demanded.

The other area that often gets improved dramatically in the runners we see is in their anaerobic fitness. This occurs when people work at a higher intensity level for a shorter period of time. Adding this to the longer slower work that is typical of many runners can make a great difference to general fitness, running fitness, and body composition.

Our Bootcamps never involve too much running, but we use it to improve the above mentioned aspects of fitness and hopefully do enough for people to gradually get better.

I'd suggest most other activities could be improved by enhancing the fitness qualities we emphasise at bootcamp.

The last time i did a 'long' run was quite a few years ago when i was training for the London Marathon. I was up to about 17 miles and decided not to continue with the preparation as i was getting knee and ankle problems.

After Sunday, i'm now quite tempted by the South Downs Marathon next year!

Have a fit and healthy week,

Steve