What an exciting period of events we’ve had with the Copenhagen Ironman, Berlin marathon, London marathon, Sparta ultra, Loch Ness marathon, Barcelona Ironman and the ITU world championships plus many other events that many of us have been involved in directly or as a supporter. And many more to come with the Southern League Cross Country races, various 10k races, the Great South run, and the Portsmouth Coastal marathon are all happening soon.
Congratulations to all those who participated.

Having an event goal or goals to train for is an excellent way to remain motivated and a reason for setting the early alarm and heading out in the heat, rain, and wind. However, it’s important to maintain a varied training diet to support progression in fitness and strength. If you continually complete the same training session, then you’ll initially improve your fitness but then rapidly hit a plateau. Similarly, if you continually push and push without any consolidation periods (rest) you never give you body time to adapt and grow stronger and will hit a fitness plateau or worse develop an over-training / overloading niggle / injury.

The Injury Clinic in Australia (a physiotherapist clinic I collaborated with when living in Aus.) recently released an Instagram post ( https://www.instagram.com/p/CjHCarftWvF/?hl=en ) which succinctly provides a great explanation on training stress & how it helps to improve running performance and is well worth a read!

However, it’s not just about the physical aspect of the training (type & load) which will help you make positive gains. Sleep, hydration, fueling, and your hormonal state are all key aspects which need to be considered to maximise your training gains.

If you find your training becoming a little stale or you’ve hit a plateau, consider how you can mix up your training sessions to provide variety and to maximise your opportunity for tissue adaptation. If unsure of how to do this drop me a note and we can chat about how I could help.

This week’s training schedule will help you maintain a varied running diet – no two sessions are the same – but all are designed to help you gain positive training adaptations.

#Tracktuesday AM / PM #StrengthThursday #HillsThursday #SocalFriday

There has been some interest in some additional sea squad sessions & ride/run brick sessions on the velodrome/running track – let me know if you are keen to join ether of these sessions or if you’re keen to improve your running, swimming, or strength we can focus on your form/technique in a 121 session that will give you an extra boost.

Happy & safe training.
Cheers Steve
Grasshopper Coaching