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Monday, 9th September

Monday’s blog is as important to me as it is to everyone else. I always go on about the importance of starting Monday with a bang, and its vital for me to get that spirit going for myself too.

My Monday morning starts at 420am when I get up for breakfast and prepare for my first session. I know that if I show up for that first session a bit tired, a bit sleepy and in general “not up for it” then I know I am not serving that individual who is paying me to train them.

So my preparation has to be good and methodical and it all starts with an early night on Sunday and a good breakfast of porridge, water and one coffee to get me going.

Once I get into my first session, I know I am set up for the day and revved up to perform at my best.

I know once I get my first run of the day under my belt, I feel so much more energized and the energy and adrenalin soon starts to flow at a rate of knots!

This is why I tell people all the time, and the ones that are new to exercise especially, that you actually CREATE energy and future energy by exercising and eating well. It may seem that you are burning energy up by exercising, but once your body recovers, you will feel so much better after you have had a bath or shower.

It’s the constant regularity of your exercise programme that will literally make you feel better by the week. This is the addictive feeling that people enjoy so much from exercise, and this is why practically every single person I have spoken to feels so much better from exercise, and never wants to let that emotional uplift disappear!

So here we are at another Monday, so please try and make it happen today not only to get into shape and set the week up nicely, but to create an abundance of energy for yourself every day this week!

Twitt
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Friday, 6th September

Once you finish the marathon, you may think that’s it but its really not.

After the aching has subsided, and your toes, blisters and back has recovered, you still will likely stay in this very positive mood and state of mind for around 3-4 months afterwards.

The marathon often gives you a thought process where you start to think that anything is possible.

Six months later, you may develop an urge to do a marathon again the year after the last one you did. This is not uncommon.

The shorter runs you get back into after a marathon are both a relief and make you think that maybe you are cheating yourself.

The lack of injuries and minor niggles are great, but somehow you get to miss the aches and pains of the ultimate challenge.

All of these thoughts and deliberations are likely to go through your head for a year or two after the marathon, after all you have accomplished so much by going through the marathon in the first place, and you have overcome so many obstacles, then maybe it is true that nothing really is impossible!

Twitt
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Thursday, 5th September

So after I hit the 6 mile mark in the marathon, I knew I would be up against it carrying a 2 stone object for the next 20 miles. What made it worse was that I couldn’t put it on my back, and I had to carry it one handed.

The next 8 miles wasn’t too bad, but soon after I hit tower bridge I started to feel it much more. Believe it or not, you can run 14-15 miles in the London marathon and there are huge amounts of people right in front of you, to the side and right behind you, I found at the 16 mile stage things began to space out a bit and you tended to be in groups of 5-6 runners instead of about 200!!

What got me to mile 20 was the abundance of people still shouting at you to carry on, even speed up! You have your name written on your vest and number so everyone knows your name!

By 20 miles, my shoulders felt as bad as my legs because the pie was still in one hand at a time, my legs were feeling very bad because the extra weight was being transferred to my legs too.

From 20 miles onwards, I felt every single mile took A LOT longer somehow! Each mile was dreadfully painful and long, and nothing could get rid of the pain and tiredness, and even at the late stage 0f 24-25 miles, I saw the odd person collapse, or get injured, or simply couldn’t go any further, their dream ruined for the day and year.

What keeps you going from mile 20-26, known as the “wall”, was the much bigger again crowd support! I actually knew one or two people in the crowd and when the roads open up again, you know you aren’t far from the finishing line! This is a massive lift, let me tell you!

The 20-26 mile area is the hardest emotionally, as you really want to stop, you may lose a couple of toe nails, you may have very painful blisters, and everything will be aching like never before, but the crowd are the biggest part of the equation getting you through, anyone who has taken part will tell you all that!

This is also when your training plan comes into its own, this is when all the good preparation really counts and gets you home in one piece!!

Twitt
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Thursday, 29th August

Following on from the story yesterday, and the difficult path the lady in question initially went on, and I am talking about strictly following the ludicrous book called “run a marathon in 26 weeks”.

It should have been retitled “run a marathon in 26 weeks as long as you can put up with severe blisters, a wrecked back, very painful knees and the most miserable time of your life”, but maybe that title is too long, but still the truth for individuals living in the real world!

Back to the story, we got the lady on a twice a week, Monday and Thursday running schedule, with a lot of walk/run sessions to start with. She did the usual inside workout on Tuesday and Friday, the rest were rest days.

Then 15 yard runs soon became 30, 60, 120 yards run, and the rest period of 40 yards soon become down to 10 to 15. Then the elation of being able to run for 5 minutes without stopping was almost uncontrollable. The lady wanted to run different days and more days I mean by that, but we resisted that urge and get the running to Monday and Thursday.

As soon as she was able to run 15 minutes in one go (which took around 6 weeks), we did then start splitting the runs up.

On Monday we kept to the endurance runs meaning our aim now was to be able for 30 minutes, which we got to in the next 6 weeks.

The Thursday session became an interval session, meaning using lampposts for markers. You run for one lamppost, walk for the next, run for the next, walk for the next and so on. You soon become incredibly out of breath with this way of training, but it gets your lung capacity going unlike anything else. The goal eventually is to sprint for one lamppost, jog the next, sprint the next, jog the next and so on.

This way of running brings an awful lot of results very quickly, but is difficult and your sessions wont last very long to begin with. With practice though, you will be surprised how your distance covered lengthens and your recovery improves.

So it was endurance on Monday, the interval session would be on Thursday and its at this exact stage that this lady was really motoring and rapidly improving.

More tomorrow on how she improved greatly from here!

Twitt
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Wednesday, 28th August

Catherine asked a great question about marathons, and how to become a good runner in the first place, or become A runner of some description, run longer than a couple of minutes would be an achievement for many people I have started with the last couple of years.

As I said yesterday, I have one lady about to do a marathon but I have had MANY who have been through the same challenge and each a different story to tell.

Before we get into all of that, and the problems and challenges that the 26.2 miles presents, its vital you start at the beginning. You either do it the proper way or it’s like reading a book and going straight to the back of the book to find out the ending, because you couldn’t be bothered to read the book!

Some people have started off better than others, and doing it your own way is frought with danger.

I remember one lady really wanted to become a good runner, or even be able to run for ONE MINUTE was an achievement, she wasn’t overweight whatsoever and in some disciplines, had a reasonable level of fitness.

The first thing I told her was to buy running shoes, and change them every 500 miles (I tell everyone this).

I then took her out running and the best she could do was run for around 15 yards, then she had to walk until she got her breath back. She would walk for 40 yards, then run 15 again, then walk for 40, run for 15 etc.

This lasted for around 20 minutes and she was really tired, felt more than a little frustrated but explained this was the best way to go. This session was on a Monday lunch time.

I gave her other exercises to do on Tuesday inside, rest Wednesday, and to try the same run/walk Thursday. Inside exercises again on Saturday after a Friday rest.

When I saw her the next Monday, I could tell things had gone badly wrong.

Number one she hadn’t changed her trainers, she was still wearing the thinly supported “fashion” trainers.

Number two she had tried to run EVERY night!

Two things happened as they usually do following this schedule, she had blisters due to poor trainers, she pulled a calf muscle due to overdoing it, and when I saw her she was almost in tears fearing she would never run again.

I asked her why she didn’t follow my schedule and admitted she followed a book her brother had bought her (to encourage her).

It was called “run a marathon in 26 weeks”, claiming you could run a marathon in 26 weeks. This may be technically possible with perfect conditions and support for 1 in a 1000 people, but I can assure you I HAVE NEVER SEEN IT!!!

I soon had it out with her and told her to throw away the book, as its going to permanently injure her if she keeps to that impossible schedule!

It turned out to be the best thing she ever did, and she went on to reach an incredible standard which I will fill you on tomorrow!

Twitt