Professional Running Coaching

A house is built from the foundation up not from the roof down.

In our current age of digital information sharing overload, it is possible to find a training plan online for every distance from 100 m to 100 miles. You can download workouts from those of the world’s elite to the marathon plan of a New York housewife. As many of us have come to learn though, the challenge is not lack of information, but knowing how to choose the training plan which is the best for fit for you the individual.

I therefore decide to provide a few pointers that will hopefully help guide you towards finding the best fit for you:

1. The first few weeks of the plan should very closely match your current training in terms of volume, intensity, number of training days and types of workouts.

2. Does the plan fit into your lifestyle? See what the maximum number of training days and volume the plan builds up to and assess realistically if you will be able to stick to the plan taking your other lifestyle commitments e.g. work, family, travel etc. into consideration.

3. If the training plan includes interval type workouts (track, fartlek, hills etc.), choose a plan that has workouts that your are likely to actually do. For example, most average club runners will never head to a track for a track interval set, but might consider doing some fartlek work.

4. Does the plan include enough recovery? A hard training day should always be followed by one to two easier training days and every few weeks should include a whole week of reduced training.

5. Does the plan include types of workouts that you have never done before? eg. track workouts, hills, very long runs. If it does then check that they progress slowly and allow for you to get used to these new workouts.

6. Is there some variety?

7. Does the plan make time promises? No training plan can guarantee that you will run a certain time just by following that plan. While the plan might specify training paces for that time, these are based on a virtual person. Have a coach help you calculate a realistic goal and then train towards that on a plan designed for your personal training history, ability and lifestyle.

8. Finally – How realistic is it that you will follow the plan? The plan might look very romantic, but if you have to honestly assess your lifestyle, ability and training preferences, will you actually do it? If not, rather find something a little less romantic that you are confident you will be able to stick to.

Hope this helps give some direction! Have more questions? Pop me an email.

Onwards and upwards!

Coach Kathleen

For many the long wait to hear if they are one of the lucky winners of a 2020 Two Oceans Ultra or Half Marathon entry is finally over. Congratulations to those who are in! And a special welcome to the novices!

Now that the admin is out the way, it is time to get your focus face on and start training! And would not advise leaving that to luck! So I decided to compile a few tips to help you have a great journey to the start line come Easter 2020:

1. Find a coach! or at the very least get hold of a good plan for you. (In my next blog I will discuss choosing the “best fit” training plan)

2. Patient consistency is the secret to getting to the starting line fit, healthy and injury free. Do not panic. There is enough time left to train. Building your training slowly will make you less prone to injury, burnout and illness which will mean fewer interruptions to your training and ultimately better results.

3. Pencil your training into your December/January calendar first, and then plan your holiday activities around your training. Get more festive season training tips here.

4. If you are travelling out of town for the holidays, find out about running clubs or races where you are going to that you can join.

5. Get those injury niggles NOW! Don’t wait until you cannot run at all!

6. If you are running the ultra marathon, your race nutrition is vitally important for a strong run. Start planning and practicing from the start of your training. Don’t wait until race expo to buy your “magic” potions and lotions!

7. Strength and mobility training should be incorporated into your training two to three times a week. This will not only help you to be able to cover the distance easier but will also make you more resistant to injury.

8. Be realistic about your goals. It is important to honestly assess where you are at and how fit you will be able to get instead of just choosing a number that sounds good. Chasing a time outside your league will only leave you despondent and worse still even injured or overtrained.

9. Rest is as important as hard training on your journey. The fitness gains come during the recovery days. One of the mistakes I see many social runners making is that they replace their rest with hard cross training. While cross training has many benefits, it must be seen as training and incorporated into your training schedule as a workout, not recovery.

10. Nutrition is your petrol for the journey. If you are not fuelling your body with enough quality food, you won’t have enough energy to complete your training and neither will your body be able to repair itself afterward. When it comes to endurance sport, carbohydrates are king. Carbohydrate stored in the muscles as glycogen remain your body’s no.1 choice of fuel. Be sure though to get as much as possible from grains, fruits and vegetables. Take it easy on the Krispy Kremes!

Good luck with the preparations and if you remember nothing else, remember this:

FITNESS = TRAINING – INTERRUPTIONS

Onwards and upwards!

Coach Kathleen

There is something really special about being able to look back over a year, two years, five, ten, a whole lifetime of running and remember the roads traveled, mountains traversed, personal bests smashed, fatigue overcome and most importantly, friends made and laughter had.

Many know that starting a running journey will be epic. The challenge however is always getting past January. Past the time when the honeymoon romance of new beginnings, endless sunny days and post run swims have given way to the reality of work deadlines, traffic and school homework.

Getting up early for a long sunrise run has lost that warm fuzzy feeling, yet the dark, cold mornings, lunchtime crunch runs and post run hot chocolates with running buddies, hold a romantic adventure of there own, if you just keep on keeping on.

To help you, here are ten secrets to start in 2019 and keep going for a lifetime:

1. Make running part of your lifestyle, not an optional added extra.
2. Join a running group, or two or three. There is an African proverb that says, “if you want to go far, go together”.
3. Set a personal challenge. Be it a race, specific distance, running streak or specific time, just break out of your comfort zone. Most importantly, give the challenge a deadline!
4. Explore new routes. Run your world!
5. Look after your body. Good nutrition and daily maintenance are key to minimizing interruptions. And don’t forget the importance of sleep!
6. Introduce someone new to running. Nothing like it to ignite the passion again.
7. Get involved volunteering at an event. Watching others enjoying their journey reminds you why you started in the first place. Plus, you really gain a new appreciation and respect for event organizers.
8. See good gear as an investment in your happiness. Replacing your shoes regularly will help avoid injury and wearing quality clothing made for running will just make your runs so much more comfortable.
9. Watch great running clips on YouTube. Feed your dreams!
10. JUST DO IT! -enough said

Make 2019 the start of no looking back!

Coach Kathleen
RUN.LAUGH.LIVE

In our modern age of information overload we have so much
training advice at our fingertips that our challenge is not finding a training schedule, but deciding which advice to follow.

Over the years of my own training, coaching and researching the methods of other coaches, I have seen that there are a number of similar threads that run through every successful coaches’ programmes:

• Regular daily running.
• The greater percentage of training is long easy running.
• Easy training is easy and hard training is hard.
• Recovery is prioritized.
• There is a periodic rhythm of training and rest.
• The programme builds slowly.
• Endurance and strength before speed.
• Training pace is mostly based on effort and “feel”.
• Training sessions are simple to understand and implement.
• There is always a hill session in there somewhere.
• The weekly LSD is a cornerstone workout.
• The training emphasis and types of sessions vary throughout the year.
• A lot of training is done on soft surfaces.
• Attention is given to mobility, stability and rhythm work.
• Nutrition is balanced and simple.

The conclusion of the matter is this: Keep it simple, run far, run often, run happy!

Coach Kathleen

RUN.LAUGH.LIVE

I have heard numerous conversations recently about what is understood to be the final touch that will turn all your months of hard training into a personal best on race day.

The general proven approach is pretty much the same, cut back volume while maintaining frequency and include some high intensity to keep the mitochondria happy.

The questions arise when the magic does not happen. I took a bit of a broader look around the and throw out a few additional questions that the runner needs to ask him or herself.

1. How tired were you at the start of your taper?

The goal of tapering is to create the optimal conditions for an already healthy, fit and strong body to get that last extra recovery and adaptation to “raise the bar” so to speak, that one last notch that will result in what we call, Peak Performance.

I often encounter runners who are very relieved to start their taper and get some downtime. Chances are, these runners are already long over fatigued from too much overload and/or poor fatigue management. Their bodies are just trying to get back to par, never mind  thinking of peak performance. Depending on how far down the valley of fatigue you have gone, come race day, you might still be down there or only just reaching ground zero.

2. What did you do between your taper runs?

After months of going from run to kitchen to couch to run plus kids, work, shopping, cleaning…you suddenly have all this extra time and energy on hand. This could result in you getting so busy with other neglected tasks and engagements that you are actually running around more than when you running never resting!

Another challenge is to not start stressing about gaining weight. True you will be burning less calories per day, but restricting your intake too much out of fear of weight gain could end up depriving your body of the nutrients and energy it needs to recover, repair and rebuild.

3. How much training have you actually done?

Lets get real, the best taper in the world cannot make up for lack of training. If you have not put in the hard yards, then you need to rely on luck. In fact, if your training has been very low, then it is better to keep training normally and only rest up the last 3 days before the race.

Finally, magical performances are few and far beween, but they do exist, and are so worth the hard training. Most of our joy as runners however comes from the everyday journey with like minded crazy people, running, laughing and living together, everyone on their own personal limit pushing journey!

Keep on going for it! Because you can!

Coach Kathleen

RUN.LAUGH.LIVE

“The amazing thing about running is that many runners may run the same road, but no one runs the same journey.” – facebook.com/distancerunners

If you are a regular follower of my blogs you will be familiar with the phrase “it is all about the journey”, something I remind runners of often. For indeed it is. Race day itself is just one of many adventures along the continuum of the life of a long distance runner. The race is not a destination, but a passing through onto new challenges, new highs , new lows, new laughs, new pain and most importantly, more amazing humans, old and new, that you get to share the road with along the way.

As a coach I have the massive privilege of  helping navigate many runners’ personal journeys. Ordinary men and women who juggle family, work and running on a daily basis to achieve their dreams.  Everyday champions!

Follow  this link to hear what some of our everyday champions had to say about their journeys.

Coach Kathleen

RUN.LAUGH.LIVE

Welcome to paranoia week! Focusing on work is going to be a big challenge as your mind keeps drifting to Saturday and on every run those little buggers doubt and fear are going to want to torment you.

You have done the hard work, your body knows what to do, silence those voices of doubt, chest out, superhero grin on, You’ve got this!

Here are 10 basics to keep you focused:

1. Stay off your feet!
2. Trust your body!
3. Remind yourself of those long runs where you felt strong.
4. Don’t overthink your race.
5. Stick to foods that you are used to.
6. Stick to the race nutrition strategy (and product!) you have rehearsed.
7. Talk about something other than the race (at least now and then)!
8. Go to bed early on Thursday night.
9. Triple check that your timing chip is on your shoe!
10. Encourage your running buddies and enjoy each others race week quirkiness.

Folks, it has been great sharing this journey with you, Run with joy!…because you can!

Coach Kathleen

RUN.LAUGH.LIVE

We have arrived at the final phase before race week, The “Freak Out” phase! If you live with an ultra runner, good luck.

In the second last week before the race, your biggest challenge is that you have way too much time to think. This is when those little voices of doubt come to torment you. So what to do in order to stay calm and sane?

• Do not join the conversation. If you have done the training, you have nothing to fear. Also, stay away from negative talking runners.
• Go back to your training logs for reassurance. The work is done, now trust your body!
• Resist the temptation to add in “just one more” hard long run. You will feel a little sluggish and grumpy, this is a normal part of tapering. A bit like a drug addict coming off a high! It is rest that is needed to convert all that hard training into superman fitness.
• Try not to think too much about the race. Go watch a movie, read a non running book, spend some quality time with friends and family (without talking running!) …
• Do not stress about every niggle you feel.  If it is something you were feeling in your last long training, get it seen to by a professional therapist. The rest of the random little aches and pains are a normal part of the tapering process, your body is in hyper repair mode ahead of the big day and the best thing you can do is to spend plenty time off your feet and allow it to do its thing. Everything is going to be more than okay.
• Don’t become a germaphobic. The paranoia is more likely to make you sick than the actual bugs. Get in good immune boosting nutrition and then be nice to people.
• Avoid obsessing about the weather forecast, you cannot change it, you can only be well prepared.
• Do sleep. You will start feeling very awake and even a little hyper as the tiredness wears off. Don’t see this as a cue to go partying all night. Your body is busy repairing and your immune system is likely on the low side, best thing you can do to help it is to get good quality sleep.

Finally, give yourself a pat on the back for getting this far! You are a champion already!

Coach Kathleen

RUN.LAUGH.LIVE