Just a short training focus today… a brief reminder to all runners about to race…. Do not trust your thoughts during the taper! The taper is vital, and you need to follow your taper plan completely, but for a lot of tapering runners, as they get nearer their target race, the mileage drops and nerves […]
What to do to prepare for your marathon (and avoid taper madness….) Getting close to your target race? Started to taper and getting slightly paranoid? Here’s a few ways you can spend your time constructively preparing for the race. Resting, recovering, and carb loading (if appropriate) have to take priority, but you can also […]
If you have ever targeted a specific time in a marathon, you have probably had the thought “how on earth am I going to maintain this pace for 26.2 miles?”. If so, you are definitely not alone. It may be that your marathon pace is too fast, and you need to pull back, but more […]
If you want to run faster, you have to practice running faster. There’s no doubt that running interval sessions on a regular basis is a great way to do this. There are workouts to suit almost every type of runner, and all sorts of race, distance or time goals. But the purpose of this is […]
It’s the time of year when many runners are reviewing their annual goals and setting new ones. However, setting meaningful goals for the year isn’t as easy as it sounds. Some runners know exactly what they want to achieve – maybe to complete a specific distance, run a certain time in a race, or complete […]
Some runners find Christmas and the ensuing changes in routine, means finding time to get out, or sticking to a schedule gets much harder. Here are my top tips to keeping going over the festive season – remember, you can still enjoy your running, but you don’t have stick to your normal schedule if it […]
The word may make non-runners giggle, but the best distance runners in the world do fartlek workouts regularly, and so should you. Here’s why… The word fartlek is Swedish for speedplay, and that’s what it is – literally playing around with speed. It is an unstructured (or semi-structured) continuous run where periods of different speeds […]
Over the last week you may have seen a lot of Facebook posts about the London Marathon as emails have gone out offering “Good for Age” places. So what does this really mean, and why is it a goal for so many British runners? There are three ways to get a place in […]
You can run faster! (Why you should talk to yourself in the third person when running) Self talk is a massive thing in running. Everyone has an internal dialogue when they run, all those random thoughts that go through your head before and during the run or race. Elite athletes focus on exactly what, when […]
Brrrr. It’s suddenly turned cold. This week has been the first week this autumn that I’ve had to layer up, and extra warmth was very welcome! As we hit temperatures near freezing, here’s some advice on making the most of the colder days…. It’s not all bad, you know, this morning was a lovely crisp […]
