How important is leg muscle in a 5k?

Question

I'm on cross country and i need to know if building muscle in my calf and quad area important ,but we don't run up hill during race though. Also is running up bleachers good work out for my calfs.Reason being im asking this first is because when i run it feels as though my legs are gonna give out.

Answer 1

Your leg muscles are important because it takes muscles to run.

Distance does not require the mass that sprinting requires.
Running bleachers is good for calf and glutes, but will also help your quads.

If you run hard enough your legs feel like they are going to give out regardless of how big your muscles are.

The 5K is more about endurance than sprinting, you need to do work to get stronger, but getting too big will cause a decline in performance.

Answer 2

Forget about muscle
Don't think bleachers are good for calves.(definitely not for knees)

The reason your legs give out is because you aren't training specific enough. My advice (run this by the coach) is to do some overdistance at least once a week. I'd suggest 4-5 miles with slightly rolling hills. Also, (this is hard since you don't give us a clue as to what type of training schedule you are on) you should be doing speed work maybe 2x per week. I like 10x100s on the track, run hard, fast, controlled, and in good form on the straights, rest, jog, walk, recover on the turns. Begin and end your track sessions with a half-mile warmup or warmdown.

Answer 3

Legs muscle is important but only a small part. Endurance is the most important. Running up hills will help with leg strength. Weights are helpful too. running up bleachers would help too. I prefer the hills workout.

Good luck

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Answer 4

If your running you need to have leg muscle. Otherwise you might as well not run.

Answer 5

im 10 and fat and i never train and i ran 5k in 26:53