Just doing hundreds of sit ups or static plank holds won’t cut it. You gain control over your core by viewing it as an integrated system from neck to thighs, and then learning the type of activations and exercises that are most beneficial for you to do this – and that’s what this skills session is all about.

You can also find the video over on my Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/RunTeachUK/videos/244990659957344/

I would love it if you could go over to my Facebook page afterwards and like the video. Also, please share with as many people as you like – thank you!

The post Live skills session – core appeared first on RunTeach.

A lot of plans will begin to ramp things up now by increasing distance and adding in speed work. You may find that you do your longest run in this four week block. Building up time on feet and speed endurance are what this phase is all about, as it continues to build both physical and mental fatigue resistance. 

The speed work that gets added to plans is designed to challenge your energy systems and muscles in a slightly different way that you’ve been training so far. The higher intensity efforts help to force adaptations in your muscles and connective tissue, making them stronger. They also challenge your cardiorespiratory system and helps to improve your aerobic thresholds. Lots of other good stuff is happening here as well, including building mental strength and preparing you for a solid performance on marathon day. 

For me, starting to train more at my target marathon pace is important. Remember, the marathon is a long way and commands a consistent output from start to finish. To most of us that don’t run with power meters, this means a consistent pace, and that’s why setting your target pace is important. This pace will feel easy in the first half, and will become progressively harder as you go into the last third. So, getting a lot of practice at this target pace is critical to helping you find that groove on race day. To help you find your marathon pace, the McMillan calculator is a good starting point.

 Different plans will have different formats for building this in, such as sandwiching  it in between easy sections in a longer run or having fast finish long runs where the last few miles are at your marathon pace. If your plan doesn’t do this, I would recommend adding some marathon pace practice in. The easiest way of doing this is to sandwich by splitting your runs so that you do one third at easy pace, one third at marathon pace and the last third at easy pace. Start off with your mid-length runs and keep your long runs easy. If you are more experienced at marathon training, then you can do this in your long runs, or go for the fast finish option. 

When I design marathon plans for my athletes, I use the speed sessions to build lots of marathon pace practice. I use the sandwich method but tend to sandwich faster efforts in between two sections of marathon pace. I’ve found this to be very effective and is based on the speed sessions designed for my first claim club, Bournemouth AC

If you don’t already have a target marathon pace, choose one. Look through your runs in the base phase and pick a pace that is realistic and aligns with your goals. If your goal is to finish without a specific time target and simply enjoy the event, choose a pace that will allow you to do this. Don’t put yourself under unnecessary pressure. It’s easy to get carried away, especially if your training is going well. If you have a time goal, work out the pace you need to run and decide whether that’s realistic and adjust if necessary. It is likely that at the end of this phase you will reevaluate the pace following the speed work and any tempo runs.

Once you have your target marathon pace, practice it at least once per week and build up the time you run at this pace. However, you are not trying to run long distances at this pace. Remember, you can sandwich it into your runs and you can do a couple of longer runs with the last 3 to 5 miles at this pace.

If your plan gives you speed work – do it! This is so important for your physical and mental development. I appreciate that it can be confusing to decide on paces and understand the different run type terminology, but your plan should provide guidance on this. For my own explanation of run types, see here.

Run your long runs easy and don’t panic if you have to walk some of it. You want to push yourself somewhat, but you also have to take into account everything else going on: weather; personal stress, terrain; sleep quality – to name just a few. If you need short walking breaks near the end of a long run, that’s fine. It doesn’t necessarily translate to walking on race day, so take the pressure off and enjoy it. Yes, it will be tough – but remeber your goal in this phase: time on feet endurance and fatigue resistance.

Practice your fuelling and hydration. Do not leave this to chance! This is in two parts:

• Pre-race: Think about what you are going to eat in the two days before, and the morning of the marathon. The same goes for hydration: keep your electrolyte levels topped up. Practice in this phase of training, even if it’s just once before a really long run.

• In-run: Experiment with your in-run fuel and hydration. What does the event have available and at what frequency; will it be suitable for you? For example, if they hand out gels or sports drinks and you think you may use them, get hold of some and try them on your runs. Not all products suit everyone and upset stomachs are very common with poor fuelling strategies and a lack of trying products beforehand.

One strategy I’ve used very successfully is pre-loading both fuel and hydration. For fuel, I always use Generation UCAN (Super Starch). This can provide several hours of energy and you take it before you run. You can find out more here, and get a 10% discount using the code: RunTeach.

For hydration, my product of choice is SOS as it’s specifically designed to deliver a measured amount of electrolytes without the fizzing or stomach upset that some other electrolyte products can cause. As a bonus it is also fully organic and mixes immediately. I pre-load with this to ensure I am well hydrated with topped up electrolyte levels. I use it both the night before a long run / race as well as in the morning of the event. You can take it with you if you prefer to carry fluids rather than use the on-course options. You can find more here, and save 20% with discount code: CHRIS20.

I love this phase of marathon training as you can really get your teeth into it. You are building up raw endurance, speed endurance, fatigue resistance, fuel and hydration run-throughs, and for me: starting to do mental and visualisation run-throughs.

Have fun with it, and embrace the challenge – the taper will be here soon enough!

Most importantly, keep a check on your effort and pace – keep it real and doable. Remain calm about your long runs, practice that marathon pace, get in that speed work if it’s on your plan and experiment with fuel and hydration.

Until the next phase, happy training!

The post 5 do’s of marathon training – progressive phase appeared first on RunTeach.

We don’t need to be super competitive to want to set new personal bests, and the fantastic thing about running is that we don’t have to be going after the win to get those PBs.

But here’s the thing: many of us make the mistake of trying too hard. We set our time target, no matter how conservative or ambitious, and that target is where we put our focus on race day. As a result, we go out too fast, we panic about putting time in the bank in the early part of the race, and we get sucked into the lure of getting “that time”. 

But I believe this is a mistake. Instead, we need to focus on the process, not the prize. If we execute the process well, the prize of the PB will be ours – and with a lot less stress and a lot more joy.

How do I know this? I’ve lived it and I still live it. At a recent parkrun I did just this. I put all my focus on the process of running rather than the final finish time. Having not run a parkrun event for over a year and still testing my recovery from months of some strange respiratory issue, I had no idea of what I was capable of. I had a target in mind of course, but I knew that if I were to focus just on that, it would consume me.

Instead, I put my focus on the process of running. I broke the course down into chunks and ran each of those chunks paying attention to running form, breathing and pace in that moment. It was still hard – very hard! But I was confident that if I followed the process of running, and used those skills that I teach other athletes, and ran each chunk well, then I would achieve my target time.

Not every chunk went to plan, but most did and in fact they were run better than I had predicted. As I crossed the line I was amazed to see that I was 30 seconds faster than my target time!

The longer the event, the more critical it is the follow the process and not the outcome. At least with a 5k, the misery of over-egging it or the frustration of under-pacing is done with pretty quickly and we usually have another opportunity to try again soon.

But with half-marathons, marathons and ultras, that pain can be prolonged for many miles!

So, it’s all good and well me saying “follow the process”, but what process is that? And that’s a great question!

And it’s exactly why I believe we all need to learn how to run. There are skills we all need, and it’s these skills that make up the process.

Through my blog posts, workshops, coaching and ‘soon to be revealed’ online courses through the RunTeach Academy (exciting!), l share what these skills are. The RunTeach Academy will teach you how you can take these skills and create your own personalised process so you can go and smash those PBs!

In the meantime, you can start by breaking down your runs and races into chunks and running those chunks well – one chunk at a time. You may not be able to do this for a whole run yet, but the more you practice, the better you’ll get.

Happy Running,

Chris.

The post A better way to get a PB! appeared first on RunTeach.

As the name suggests, it is a 24 hour endurance race and it starts at midday on the Saturday and the last lap must be started before midday on the Sunday. The race numbers carry the tag line Epic, Brutal, Relentless and by lap 3 brutal and relentless was already kicking in!

The organisers bill the event as Glastonbury for Runners and there is certainly a festival feel with hundreds of tents, a race village with colourful flags, food vans, craft activities and a real atmosphere of community. This year there was an even more authentic feel with the rain and mud – unfortunately I can’t run in wellies! Mind you, I’m not sure how much use they would have been anyway.

This was my 5th year at the event and it has grown hugely over that time. I ran in a small team of 5 runners for the first 2 years and then a team of 4 runners in the 3rd year. We were a mixed bag in terms of ability, but all had a steely determination to do our best no matter what. We did reasonably well each year (apart from the 3rd year), falling just outside the top 10. We all did 35 miles each (7 laps) most years, but in our 3rd year we covered 40 miles each.

Last year, one of the team members, Emma, asked if I would like to run as a pair in the Mixed Pair category. Initially hesitant, I agreed with grave reservations of whether I could actually run 5 miles every 50 to 60 minutes for 24 hours. On the event weekend we ran just for the fun of it, and were surprised to learn that by Saturday evening we were in 3rd place! No pressure… Aside from a bit of a mixup in the race results at the end when we thought we had come 2nd only to be demoted to 3rd (which was actually the correct result), we were elated! Despite my joy, it had been tough and I really wasn’t up for facing going round and round that course again – enough! 

But when Emma asked if I would do it this year, I somehow found myself agreeing – what was I thinking!

 All this went through my mind as finished my 3rd lap last Saturday, covered in mud and already feeling exhausted. I said to Emma, who hadn’t had any sleep the night before due to an upset stomach, that I didn’t mind if we called it a day. “No, I’m fine – I’ll keep going” she said. Drat! I thought…

The training hadn’t really gone well for either of us and we knew we weren’t as fit as last year. We were happy just to plod along and finish wherever we finish… kind of. You see, both Emma and I are highly competitive at some level. And last year’s 3rd place was a benchmark that neither of us really wanted to let slide so much that it fell off the table. “Top 10” we agreed. But this early on I just wanted to pack it in. The course was muddy and a lot busier than it had been in previous years – it was hard work. 

At the end of the next couple of laps I tried the same gentle words to get Emma to rethink our continuation of this torture, but she held fast. At one point Emma’s friend Magda stuck her head in my tent during one of the brief few minutes of rest I had when Emma was on the course. She said sternly to me “You are not going to quit – are you” in her firm Polish accent – it was definitely an instruction, not a question. And it was what I needed in order to get my head together – thanks Magda 🙂

I noticed that so far I had run every lap faster than the equivalent lap last year. When running the laps I felt fine and didn’t want to slow down – however I was waiting for the fatigue to hit me like a brick wall, but it never really did. And, if I had needed any more incentive to keep moving quickly, by 5pm we were sitting in 3rd place out of 36 pairs in our category. This slipped to 4th place over the next couple of laps, but by midnight we were back to 3rd although it was very close on timings.

The way the event works is that the runners/teams (solo, pairs, small teams, large teams) with the most laps in each category are ahead. If a runner/team has the same number of laps, then it comes down to who has run them faster. We were only just ahead of 4th place on time but determined to hold it.

Teams have different strategies of how they run the event. The only official rules are that everyone in the team must do at least one lap, and you can only have one person from your team on the course at any one time. You must hand over the wristband in the official changeover area.

Pairs is often seen as the hardest combination, although I would also say a team of 3 is pretty tough going. Solos clearly have it tough because they are by themselves, but they can at least come off the course for a rest or food whenever they like and if they are overdoing it, then can go and have a nap. Of course, this will affect their race result, but many of the Solo runners do this.

Pairs is a bit different. There is always that pressure to get back to the changeover area in the time you said you would because you know your running partner is waiting there for you. This is especially critical as you also know that they have given up rest to get there for that time, so they are mighty annoyed if you are late!

Some pairs start running single laps (lap, changeover, lap, changeover etc) and then overnight they switch to maybe two or three consecutive laps to give the other runner a chance to rest. Emma and I tried a double lap once last year but it really didn’t work for us. So this year we stuck to just doing 1 lap each.

Because Emma was running a lap between 48 minutes to start with, and then in about an hour as the event progressed, I got about 20 minutes where I could lay down (alarm set and one eye open!) You might think 48 to 60 minutes is a decent amount of time, but when you consider walking from the changeover area to the toilet and then back to the tent; a quick chat with friends who were in teams; try and get something (actually not really anything) to eat; rehydrate; head down; back to changeover area 5 minutes before they are due in… it goes pretty quick!

And I had sheer luxury because Emma had virtually no time between laps because I started out at just under 38 minutes per lap and never took longer than 50 minutes. I have no idea how she survived it.

But survive it we did. Even overnight when the course was pitch black and all we had to rely on was our head torches, feeling our way through the slippery mud. And there was mud! The course is a 5 mile loop on mixed terrain that takes in some beautiful forest and countryside. There are one or two hills to mix things up, some crazy folk with inflatable guitars blaring out rock and roll from a VW camper van and handing out cocktails at halfway… and did I mention the mud?

On the Saturday lunchtime it had rained a lot. It was sloppy and yuk. Then throughout the rest of the day it started to dry up and even overnight it got better. The mud turned from very slippery to gloopy, but at least we could run through it. And then it rained… 7am saw a downpour that drenched Emma and the other runners on the course. There was so much rain that it turned some parts of the course into a quagmire reminiscent of a wet and muddy farmyard that has been driven through several times by a tractor.

Some parts of the course were so bad that I had to run along verges and pick alternative footing. One advantage I did have from doing so many laps though – I knew which bits all the runners were going through and which bits were left alone and made a better route. At one point in the morning part of course was diverted as it was just too slippery and dangerous.

But did that deter us? No it did not! By early morning we were over a lap ahead of 4th place, but also a lap behind 2nd place. Knowing it was unlikely that we could catch them I kept maximum effort up anyway, and we did gain a bit.

Last year I ran a total of 14 laps which was 70 miles. Emma ran 13 laps or 65 miles. This year, Emma was determined to get that last lap in, and I encouraged her so that we could make absolutely certain we held onto that 3rd place. We had worked so hard that I really didn’t want to give it up now. In the end, 4th place decided to stop at a total of 25 laps so Emma probably didn’t need to run that final lap – but she wasn’t having any of it. We both ran 14 laps (140 miles combined), equalling the 1st and 2nd place pairs, only they ran them faster than us.

As we crossed the line together on her last lap (I had handed my timing chip in already so as not to break the rules), we celebrated that fact that not only had we finished 3rd despite the lack of training, pre-event stress and tiredness, Emma had ran 5 miles further than last year and I had run my 70 miles more than 38 minutes faster than last year, completing them in 10 hours 40 minutes and 17 seconds. Now was the time for Epic!

Just to finish, I have to say a huge thank you to Ian and Amy from SOS Hydration (20% discount code CHRIS20 at http://bit.ly/2IVv7Jo ). SOS has been my preferred hydration product for a few years and it really makes a positive difference to my running. At Endure 24 Ian and Amy were there as sponsors of the event and provided much needed support and hydration after each of my laps.

As I mentioned earlier, there really wasn’t time to take on much fuel. Add to this the fact that I suffer from stomach issues if I eat too close to running, so I knew nutrition would be a big factor. I burned an average of 460 Kcal per lap, so I definitely needed to fuel. This is where Generation UCAN comes in (10% discount code RunTeach at https://www.generationucan.co.uk/). As a very slow release carbohydrate, one scoop was giving me up to 2 hours of sustained energy. As such, I didn’t need to start taking any until lap 5 and after that it was every 3rd lap. I had absolutely no stomach issues at all, which is unheard of for me at this event. I did also have some fast acting sugar in the form of marshmallows and American hard gums, as well as a few dry crackers throughout the 24 hours. But I couldn’t have done it without the slow releasing energy of UCAN.

The other product that I used (and caused much hilarity amongst my friends and running buddies) was the vibrating foam roller from PulseRoll – much easier to use than a standard foam roller.

So, if you want an event that will challenge you but is also very sociable and where you can choose how much running you do, then Endure 24 Reading or Leeds could be for you.

The post Relentless Endurance appeared first on RunTeach.