To say that running is about endurance and aerobic fitness is correct, but these days strength training is playing a pivotal part.
Strength training can help you run easier with less pain, keep injuries at bay and help you run faster.
When you run, you break down the muscle fibres as each leg absorbs two to three times your body weight. This causes a lot of impact to the body. It’s not just our legs that become tired, so do the arms, back and abdominals. Strength training rebuilds the broken fibres and helps the bones, ligaments, tendons and muscles withstand the impact from running.
Incorporating strength training into your schedule will help you become a stronger and faster runner.
Strength training can prevent the common running injuries, as well as improve your running economy, decrease oxygen consumption in muscles and increase time to exhaustion.
In order to run fast, you have to be able to put out more force in a shorter time, right? But if all you do is run, then you never truly develop the high end strength and high power demands that you need to achieve that. So, if you develop a strong core, you keep your body stable, good glutes, you can now propel yourself off the ground.
Runners need to focus on targeting the key muscles that will keep them balanced.

Exercises for strength training:
• Walking lunges:  These upgrade the strength /dynamic flexibility of the legs.
• Planks: The planks strengthen the core, shoulders and lower back.
• Squats: Works the quads, hamstrings and glutes.
• One leg fatigue fighting row: Strengthens upper body and core, it will also help maintain proper alignment, despite tiredness.