Smart, Run Supportive Strength Training for Female Runners
Join the waitlist now. Enrollment opens May 21st!
Your One-Stop-Shop For Smart Training
Streamlined running programming and intentional strength training designed with the demands of running in the context of the female biomechanics, physiology and sociology.Â
Train smarter with your strength training and running programming together in the same place!
Run Supportive
Strength Training:
Weekly, purposeful strength workouts designed to meet the demands of running and unique needs of the female body.
We’ll begin with Women’s Running Academy Fundamentals, an-8 week, intentionally progressed program that will help you practice good technique/mechanics of efficient movement so that you can build up to the “heavy lifting” that everyone is talking about now in a way that feels good in your body and while supporting your running performance.
From there you’ll learn how to integrate that with any running goal (current or future) and choose the built in strength training options best for you based on your goals/season. You’ll be able to continue to build strength in your running off seasons and strategically maintain that strength as you build your running volume and enter your racing seasons. Instead of hitting it hard in some seasons, falling off when run volume increases, then needing it again when injuries pop up, this way you can make more continuous forward progress.
Customizable
Running Programming:
Program purposeful miles with purposeful pacing into your week using my “3 Key Runs” so that you are getting the most possible out of each run (it’s not just about logging the miles for the sake of logging miles).Â
We’ll make your miles count, so that you can make room for other major players like rest and other forms of athletic training (*ahem* strength training).Â
Choose from 30+ running plans done for your running plans base for a wide variety of goals (base building, base maintenance, race preparation for all traditional distances) or use my exclusive RunPB Program Builder to create your own step by step.
Intentional Integration:
Ensure each above piece supports the others so that you remain in that sweet spot of training, pushing your edge just enough to make progress while finally escaping the cycle of injury and burn out.
Keep the momentum going year round with specific strategy to support the season of running you are in!
Continued Education and Support:
Help you continue to build a solid foundation for your training through intentional fueling, recovery, and learning how to tune into your body (instead of turning it out) so that you can fully step into your power.
Our training is done to support the unique needs of the female athlete. It’s biomechanics specific to the female body, in the context of female physiology, AND in the context of what it means to be female in this world.
It’s support for you as a whole human because training doesn’t exist in a vacuum. We will make this all work for your life not in spite of it.
Does this sound familiar?
Every time you try to build volume the wheels inevitably fall off in your training, the aches and pains (hip, knee, IT band, feet…) or pelvic floor symptoms inevitably creep back in.
You know there are strategies out there to improve your performance and reduce your pain but there are so many variables to manage between the running programming, strength training, and recovery that you end up feeling like you are just throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks -- you stay consistent with none of it.
On top of al that, as a female runner, especially Millennial and Gen X, you know that you need need to start integrating more strength training to support your bone, metabolic, and hormone health as you age but you want to do it in a way that doesn’t interfere with your running, preferably in a way that supports it!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Instead of the all-or-nothing cycle — hitting strength hard in the off-season, dropping it when mileage builds, then scrambling when injuries crop up — what if you could maintain both with consistency in a way that feels good in your body and while supporting your overall health AND running performance?
Inside the Women’s Running Academy, we’ll help you train with more intention. You'll build a solid foundation with smart strength training integrated with streamlined running programming. This solid foundation with the tools to maintain it consistently will continue to pay it forward in your running and health for years to come.
How It Works:
Run Supportive Strength Workouts:
Strength workouts to support your training based on the needs of your body and the season of running (and life) you are in so that you feel strong, powerful, and ready to meet the physical demands of running.
Everyone starts with my 8-Week Women's Running Academy Fundamentals
8 Weeks of Progressive Workouts:
- Two 45-minute full body, run supportive strength sessions per week
- Each set will be accompanied by video and written cuing for each exercise.
- Purposefully progressed over 8 weeks
Training Fundamentals To Support the Work You Are Doing:
- Short (less than 10 minutes), educational video each week
- Provides you with the basic understanding of your body in the context of the workout programming so that you can get the most out of the work you are putting in
- Week by week we’ll build your efficiency with the major movement patterns so you feel prepared to tackle any strength workout inside Women’s Running Academy that comes next.
Â
From there you can choose the plan that’s right for you based on your goals and season with Plug and Play strength training option blocks. You can build strength in your running off seasons and strategically maintain that strength as you build your running volume and enter your racing seasons.
Additional “Skill Development” Workouts with different focuses to fit your needs (core, rotation, pelvic floor, foot/ankle health…) are included with new workout added monthly to keep your training fresh and effective.
Strength training isn’t this whole separate thing from running that you have to do on top of it all. I’ll show you how to integrate these concepts WITH your running training so that you can run stronger, faster, and more efficiently!
With the Women’s Running Academy Membership you can successfully continue to strength train year round in a way that is supportive of your running and long term health.
Customizable Running Programming:
Streamlined running programming to intentionally progress towards your goal including purposeful miles with purposeful pacing (while making space for “just for fun” runs because isn’t that why we do this in the first place?).
A full set of done for you purposeful running programs
- The 30+ programs to choose from include both base building, base maintenance, race preparation plans and the guidance on choosing the best plan for you.
- Each run is planned out specifically (distance, pacing, warmup and cool down) so that you know exactly what to do each day and get the most out of your training.
AND My Exclusive RunPB Program Builder
- You enter where you are now, where you want to be and when, and build the perfect plan for your goals, schedule and life step-by-step with me.
The runs are all purposefully paced so that you can improve your endurance, speed, and running economy without overtraining.
Meet yourself where you are now and train specifically towards any big future goal. T
Access to
“The Vault”:
A full library of supplementary content including training with your menstrual cycle, more specific pelvic floor education, breathing for performance, and recordings of guest lessons on nutrition, stress resiliency, advocacy for women in athletics and more.
Access to our Run Club Community App:
The Women's Running Academy Run Club Community App provides accountability, support, and community. We set weekly goals together and cheer each other on in races. There is opportunity for questions and feedback on your exercises.
Easily Accessible Wherever Works For You:
- On your computer
- Through the mobile friendly browser
- A free app on your device
Monthly Membership
$49/month
Alison Marie Helms, PhD.
Women's Running and Strength Coach
Â
​I'm a PhD engineer, teacher, NASM certified personal trainer, UESCA certified running coach, self-proclaimed running nerd, and creator of the Women's Running Academy.
I’ve been a runner for 30 years and started my professional career in the industry over a decade ago through my own search for answers when my body felt like garbage after having my first baby.
Â
The little aches and pains from my running past turned into bigger aches and pains, sidelining injuries, and the need to always wear black shorts to races (if you know what I mean).
Â
Having babies brought to light some biomechanical inefficiencies. I firmly believe these inefficiencies were holding me back from reaching my full potential well before my childbearing years. For many women like myself the stress of pregnancy simply reveals the “invisible ink” that was there all along. Addressing those inefficiencies not only eliminated my symptoms, it made me a stronger, more efficient, and more powerful runner overall.
Â
Since then I’ve helped many women just like you do the same!
