Your Journey
Where the testing put you, back at the start of May.
"The single-leg work really shows my weaknesses."Your words after the first sessions. The left side had a lot of catching up to do.
Where you are as an athlete. Faint is your start. Solid is now. The dashed line is your potential, what the performance phase is for.
Why the potential matters
Fewer injuries. The stronger you get, the harder you are to break. Strength training cuts runners' overuse injuries to around half, and you came in with one leg noticeably weaker than the other.Lauersen et al., British Journal of Sports Medicine
Faster, for less. More strength, power and speed improve your running economy, so the same pace costs less energy and you can hold it for longer.Systematic reviews, Sports Medicine
The payoff. An even, strong left side is exactly what lets you keep running half marathons, and harder, without the knee being the weak link.
You're in the Bridge phase — rebuilding single-leg strength and spring, closing the gap side to side.
The left side started a long way behind. Testing showed real weakness on the left — less spring, less force, even some muscle wastage in the quad, plus an arthritic knee and a cyst limiting the range. None of that has stopped you: pain-free plyos, weights climbing every week, and a sub-1:55 half marathon along the way. We rebuild the left side gradually, never spiking the load — and it's catching up fast.
1 · Keep closing the gap. Single-leg strength and pogos, progressed gradually, until the left side matches the right for force and spring.
2 · Split-lunge to bodyweight. From 70kg to your 90kg bodyweight — the gold-standard marker that the knee is truly strong on one leg.
3 · Full speed. Band-assisted single-leg pogos become full ones, the plyos get more demanding, and the knee earns full trust under speed and impact.
4 quick questions. Tells you where to start, and how deep to go.
So I know whose audit I'm looking at.