Marathon Mondays: Famous last words
OK, we lulled you in safety. It wasn’t our last post, and it’s not even Monday! But we thought that this one was important and special. Now that the dust has settled and the temperatures (temporarily) dropped, we’ve asked our club place runners, Kevin Oakes and Nathan Smith, to reflect on their race and what they’ve learned about the marathon and about themselves. Here’s what they’ve had to say. Kevin Oakes 1. In 3 words, describe your marathon experience. Challenging, exciting & encouraging 2. What was the most positive thing about your marathon experience? The training up to the marathon has taught me not to be afraid to run distance and to be more flexible and less regimented with training. Also the sense of achievement, even though I did not achieve the time I aimed for, but I know it’s not impossible to achieve that time. 3. What went wrong…
Congratulations, you’ve done the marathon! Now what?!
Congratulations! You have reached the last one of these articles… and hopefully completed your marathon too. 🙂 So, how did it go? Remember that in the hours and days immediately afterwards, emotions are high. You may be riding the crest of a wave, or are in the pits of despair. Post Race Reflections Once you have had that shower, eaten, slept, showed everyone your medal and analysed all that lovely data, what’s next? Probably the most effective use your time (with the exception of enjoying a few more of those well earned beers and pizzas) after the race is spent on reflection. Your body is battered, but hopefully not too broken, so use the time to truthfully assess your performance and how closely it matched your expectations. It may seem unimportant once the race is over, but if you ever plan to return to a similar endeavour, this opportunity…
Meet the runners: Sophie Ward
The marathon is edging ever closer. We hope you are getting your training in and are healthy and well. So far, you’ve met Kevin and Nathan. But there are a few other runners from the club tackling the marathon this spring. Today you’ll meet Sophie Ward. Tell us about yourself: I’m Sophie Ward, 25 years old. I live with my fiancé Matt and my dog Yogi :). I’m a physiotherapist. What is your sporting back ground? I’ve tried lots of different sports including; ballet, tap, horse-riding, swimming and triathlon. Finally settling on running. What is your goal for the VLM/ other spring marathon? Its my first marathon, so just getting over the finish line would be a massive achievement! However, I’d love to finish sub 3hrs. What does your weekly training look like? Sunday – Long Run Monday – Brat Run (8mile recovery run) Tuesday – Rest/Pilates Wednesday – Brat…
Marathon Mondays: Rest and Recovery
Welcome again to Marathon Mondays! We are going to focus on the third part of the performance triangle – Rest and Recovery. Find out why rest and recovery are as vital to training as the actual running itself. ‘Rest’ is often perceived as a dirty word amongst runners, with many fearing that they will lose all of their hard-earned fitness in an instant. However, rest and recovery are probably the two most underrated facets of training. Whilst the world’s best runners train very hard, they also take their recovery super seriously and are supremely lazy (no joke) when they’re not putting one foot in front of another! Just what do we mean with rest and recovery? There is a difference. To paraphrase a famous phrase of our time: “Rest means rest.” Do nothing. Nada. Zip. This effectively means you can do anything you want, except running and exercising. Recovery,…