Sweetspot Training

🍂 Sober October is here! 🍂 Time to hit reset, focus on mental clarity, and show our bodies some extra love this month. 🌟
Whether it’s for fitness, mental health, or just a challenge,

Let’s embrace the power of being fully present—one day at a time. 💪✨

Who's in for a month of healthier habits and clear minds? 🙌

Like if you’re joining the journey!

Well done to everyone on Week 1 day 1 of our new Couch to 5K Course we meet at 18:30 from the Whitehouse Hotel Worcester for anyone interested.
See you all next week.

What’s your next race on the cards and what time are you aiming for?

#13.1

Wednesday is Tempo Run day for me.
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This is hard but not too hard.
What does this mean?
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You should be holding something back the whole run.
Its a pace you could add on another 3-5Km at the end if asked to. I know you would hate me for it, but hopefully you get the point?
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In contrast on Saturday when i run the intervals if asked to run another 3-5Km at the same pace, at the end, I should be so tired that it is impossible. If I can, I would have gone too slow.
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Important::

To improve your running you must learn how to feel these subtle differences in pacing.
They are crucial to getting the correct training benefit from each session and alsofor judging how hard to push on race day.
Relying on your watch wot work!!
👟
They are just tools to help you, remember you are the boss and all good runners are able to run on 'feeling' alone and know how hard they can push, without looking at a watch or Heart rate monitor.

A warm-up is obligatory, to get the muscles ready to work and to limit the risk of injuries. For a run it should be short, but for a specific session (track splits, fartlek, hill work, etc) it should be more substantial.

Do a light run of 15-20 minutes then some active stretching followed by a few short sprints, or strides.

What about standard stretching? Personally, I think it’s of no use at the start of a session, as an elongated muscle loses its elasticity.
But after a run, some minutes of gentle stretching can be done, and don’t forget to hydrate! However, I would definitely advise not to stretch after a difficult session with a lot of speed or hill work, because the stretching will only increase the trauma on the broken muscle fibers.

After a hard session, I advise showering each leg with cold water for at least three minutes. The stretching then comes 48 hours later – after the inflammation period. You can also use a foam roller to massage and relax the muscle a little more deeply.

🏃‍♂️ 🏃‍♂️

It’s wetter than Stevie Wonder’s toilet seat!

If it ain’t raining we ain’t training!

The aging you want tomorrow begins with the choices you make today!

Happy Monday Go get it, whatever it maybe!😃

Everyone loves caffeine don’t they? For its all-round boosting ability and cheapness, its wide availability and the fact that even scientists say it works.
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Unsurprisingly, caffeine is a constant in the top three of sports nutrition aids used by many athletes. In his autobiography, Mo Farah described how his pre-race routine involves drinking “some coffee to wake me up” 20 minutes before he runs.
​​
How it works
For years it was thought that the sole benefit from drinking caffeine before exercise is that it helped the body to use fat as fuel, temporarily sparing the glycogen (or carbohydrate) stored in muscles and preventing you from flagging. But the more scientists looked into it, the more there seemed to be something else at play.
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What they now know is that caffeine’s main action comes from its ability to release calcium stored in muscles, which, in turn, boosts their power output. Some researchers have shown that the substance also influences the brain’s perception of pain and exhaustion. Consume it, they suggest, and you are less likely to succumb to feel fatigued early on.
​
How much?
The International Marathon Medical Directors Association (IMMDA) cautiously recommends marathon runners ingest no more than 200mg – the amount in a regular cup of coffee – based on research that has shown that during exercise caffeine affects the heart in ways that, in extreme cases, can send someone into cardiac arrest.

At marathons where runners have collapsed and been successfully resuscitated, IMMDA has reported the patients had ingested high levels of caffeine before and during the race.

Come on how many Running shoes do people have in rotation then think I have around eight?

Its the weekend and it's Parkrun day!

Who's doing Parkrun today and where?

There are a lots of myths about the aerobic system that just aren’t true.
The biggest one is that if you do any aerobic training, it will eat all your muscle, sabotage your strength, and make you slower.

Train slow, be slow, right?

Wrong.
The truth is that only if you do hours and hours of aerobic work, completely stop lifting weights, and put yourself in a calorie deficit do these things become likely.
If you keep lifting, get adequate calories and protein, and train your aerobic system the right way, you're not going to shrivel up and lose any muscle or strength.
Instead, your recovery is going to improve, you'll have more energy, feel better, stronger and become more resilient to injury

For a sport that only requires a pair of trainers, running is bloody expensive!

- Pre workout
- Post workout
- Running Socks
- Running shorts
- Compression shorts
- Sweat wicking t shirts
- Sports Bra
- Wet/cold weather kit
- Energy gels
- Recovery Shakes
- KT tape
- Head band
- Weekly massage
- Treadmill
- Foam roller
- Massage gun
- Smart/fitness watch
- App subscription

Maybe should of taken up yachting!

What piece of kit can you not live without?
🤩🏃🏾‍♂️🚀

How do I motivate myself to start
Running or exercising every week?

My tips for you:

1. Schedule your exercise in at the beginning of the week.
2. Keep it varied.
3. Have an awesome playlist.
4. Don't always go it alone.
5. Try new things.
6. Don't think about it too much.
7. Get a fitness tracker.
8. Don't make exercise bottom of your priority list.

It’s definitely all about the balance.

Base your meals on higher fibre starchy carbohydrates.

Eat lots of fruit and veg.

Eat more fish, including a portion of oily fish.

Cut down on saturated fat and sugar.

Eat less salt: no more than 6g a day for adults.
Get active and be a healthy weight.

Do not allow yourself to get thirsty.

Most important Do not skip breakfast.

Get your running shoes on ‘literally’ and make huge strides towards improving your health and wellbeing.

Our new Couch to 5K running programme starts on Monday 30th September 2024 from the Worcester Whitehouse Hotel Leisure centre and runs every Monday, Wednesday & Friday for nine weeks.
Costs £3 per Session.

You only need to attend at least one of the weekly sessions.

Couch to 5K is a great way to fast-track your fitness goals. Build up your endurance and stamina gradually at your own pace and enjoy all the health benefits that running offers: building strong bones, strengthening muscles, improving cardiovascular fitness, losing weight and relieving stress.

Limited Spaces
Book online through Facebook or drop me a message
For further information:

Please like & share!

There's no time for regrets you've just got to keep moving forward! 😀

Well done to all those who participated in this years Worcester City Run 10k & Half Marathon Anniversary event.

Are you feeling a little sore?

Anyone looking for a post event massage I have some availability for this coming week and a special promotion!

Special Offer this week only of £25 to all finishers on presentation of your medals 😁 🏃‍♀️🏃‍♂️🥇

Why massage helps recovery:

Immediately after the race a light massage may be very helpful, if you can stand it, to reduce the amount of waste metabolites around the muscle. This would be more like a light rub down of 10-20 minutes as the muscles will be very stressed, any deeper massage could actually be more damaging than beneficial.

It is common to have delayed muscle soreness about 24-48 hours after running a marathon. Massage has been shown to reduce the amount of pain felt in the week following the race. Scheduling your post-race massage is most beneficial 24-48 hours after crossing the finishing line.

Massage can help reduce the swelling often seen after enduring exercise. Inflammation of the muscles is very common and a recovery massage can reduce swelling by getting rid of waste build-up.

Regular massage will help with any over-use injuries such as ITB pain (runner’s knee) or plantar fasciitis. These conditions, and others, can be assessed and a plan for recovery made.

Stretching the muscles is an important part of the recovery process - it is likely that after the race you will be doing little in the way of exercise, gently walking and resting your way to healing. Massage is important to stretch those muscles which feel tight, especially hamstrings and quads.

Massage promotes healing to the soft tissues and extends the overall life of your running career.

Relax! You did it! Massage is a wonderful way to relax and take time out of the day to feel pampered after such a gruelling training regime and race.

Post-event blues are common but it is important to give both your body and mind a chance of deep recovery before starting training for the next event. Massage is an excellent way to improve mood, reduce anxiety, lower blood pressure and increase all the feel-good chemicals in the body such as dopamine, oxytocin and endorphins.

Massage therapists can help you understand your own body, its limits and helping you prevent injury. This is very much a part of future training programmes - although many people say they would never run a marathon again straight after the race, a week later the pain is forgotten and we can start working together for the next goal

A great day out pacing 10th Anniversary event helping runners break that magical 40 minute mark. Official time 40:10 making sure everyone was on target 🎯
Supported by the amazing crowds of our beautiful city, thanks to family and friends for all the amazing support, a very rewarding experience helping others, cooled down pacing a few Half Marathon runners for a little while

We are now offering Mobile Sports Massage Therapy in and around the Worcester area.

🟥 Relive aches, pains & muscle fatigue.
🟥 Break down scar tissue & relive chronic pain.
🟥 Recover from training.
🟥 Improve performance & flexibility.
🟥 Improve circulation & lymphatic drainage.
🟥 Prevent sports related injuries.

🟩 Relaxation Massage
🟩 Sports maintenance Massage
🟩 Pre & Post event Massage

Drop me a message to book.

We are now offering Mobile Sports Massage Therapy in and around the Worcester area.

🟥 Relive aches, pains & muscle fatigue.
🟥 Break down scar tissue & relive chronic pain.
🟥 Recover from training.
🟥 Improve performance & flexibility.
🟥 Improve circulation & lymphatic drainage.
🟥 Prevent sports related injuries.

🟩 Relaxation Massage
🟩 Sports maintenance Massage
🟩 Pre & Post event Massage

Call to book on: 07518 219421

My 10 top tips to help you beat your parkrun personal best

✳️ Look at how often you're running.
✳️ Choose a fast course.
✳️ Add speed work into your training.
✳️ Don't forget to eat & drink!
✳️ Learn the course.
✳️ Pace yourself.
✳️ Save the chats to the finish and warmup instead.
✳️ It's not all about running… try your hand at strength training as well.
✳️ Prioritise recovery to crush your parkrun personal best.
✳️ Pay more attention to your running form

We can compare running to a long-distance car race. Each car has a variety of properties, like power-to-weight ratio and efficiency that influences how fast the car can go. The car must also have the fuel economy to go the race distance. A Performance sports car may be fast and responsive, but it isn’t terribly fuel-efficient and will run out of fuel.

A factor that could easily be overlooked, however, is the tuning of the gearbox. You may have a car with decent fuel economy and a strong engine, but if the transmission gets stuck in second gear, you’re going to guzzle fuel and struggle to accelerate past a certain point without redlining. All the gears need to be tuned to work together.

Running at different speeds and a variety of different workouts used to them is similar to tuning the gearbox of a car. Every workout has a purpose and exists in the context of a plan, and as always, I’d recommend that you find a thoughtful, descriptive training plan tailored to your fitness level and race goals.