marathon

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10 Road Marathons To Train For in 2021

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10 Road Marathons To Train For in 2021

It’s around that time of year where we start signing off from work and thinking about the year that is to come. This year, despite all of the tough times, is no exception. In fact, perhaps more so than ever, us runners are looking forward to getting back to racing, back to consistent training routines and less threat of race cancellations due to natural disasters or global pandemics. Judging from race directors and the increase in advertising for races around Australia, there is now more confidence than at any point over the last 6 months, that we will get races going ahead in 2021.

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The basics of strength training for runners

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The basics of strength training for runners

These days we can’t hit the gym even if we wanted to, so thankfully I am talking about exercises that you can do at home and are designed to get the best running performance from your body. A program that will strengthen what needs to be strengthened and stretch what needs to be stretched. What we want to ultimately achieve is a body that is balanced, stable, strong and at lower risk of injury.

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5 things that a first time marathoner needs to know.

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5 things that a first time marathoner needs to know.

No matter what challenge you have decided to take on in your first marathon, you have to start with where you are at. Whether its training, nutrition, recovery or pacing, you will learn a lot taking on your first marathon challenge!

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Environment matters. A lot.

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Environment matters. A lot.

One of the topics I seem to come back to often as a coach is ‘environment.’  By environment I don’t really mean climate change and planting trees, nor do I necessarily mean a high performance environment like high altitude training camps, this is more about the environments that we choose to train, socialise and are raised within.  

During my time in Switzerland recently, it became really obvious that the environment was conducive to having more fit people.  Let me explain…

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How to not screw up your marathon taper

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How to not screw up your marathon taper

For those of you running at Melbourne Marathon Festival on 13 October, congratulations on getting this far in your training.  You will mostly have gone through the tough, long preparation for the 10km, half marathon or marathon distances and are now entering (or about to enter) a taper period, to freshen you up for race day.  This is a weird and wonderful couple of weeks where many people can screw their races, so I thought it would be useful to run through five 'anti-screw up' tips with to help keep you focused and ready to roll when you get to the start line.

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Conquering the Great Wall of China Marathon

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Conquering the Great Wall of China Marathon

Running the Great Wall of China was a pipe dream. I confidently stated this one was top of my wishlist even though I couldn’t really explain why.  There were so many amazing runs out there to do, but it was just the one that needed to be my first international race. Forty was looming so why not pencil it in as a birthday present to myself?!

I am fortunate to know a lot of inspiring people, none less so that my dear friend Kelvin who over the course of the last eleven years has completed 34 marathons including on Easter Island, Petra, Bagan Temples, Boston, New York, Tokyo… the list goes on! He was the one who I’d first floated the idea with and if I was going to do the trip it had to be with him. 

May 2019 was scheduled to be ‘our year’ for China however in November 2017 my husband Paul and I shared the news with Kelvin that after several rounds of IVF we were pregnant and due in June 2018. He was super happy for us of course and over dinner graciously suggested that maybe 2019 wouldn’t be the year for China and perhaps we postpone it to 2020. 11 months was a relatively quick turnaround to birth a baby and be back running marathon distance after all. Perhaps I could do the half-marathon I suggested, but Paul being Paul said if you are going all the way to China you’d be crazy not to do the full! It didn’t need to be fast , I just needed to do it and conquer those steps so it was the perfect event to aim for! I had his blessing to go, despite the fact that logistically he wouldn’t be able to join us, now all we had to do was have our baby and then make a running come back!

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How to stay on top of your marathon training even when you travel for work

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How to stay on top of your marathon training even when you travel for work

Meet Scott (aka Dr. Scott). Scott ran the Gold Coast Marathon with guidance and coaching from GoRun. Running one marathon is impressive.  At the time of writing, Scott had run 7 marathons, which is really impressive.  Running his fastest of all seven, by 73 seconds is super impressive, but none of this comes even close to Scott’s real story….

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ALICE SPRINGS: MARATHON 11 (The one with the NO GPS WATCH experiment…)

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ALICE SPRINGS: MARATHON 11 (The one with the NO GPS WATCH experiment…)

Well its been a while since I wrote last, but marathon 11 is now done and dusted!  I’m at the airport in Alice Springs, the sun is shining and I am on my way home, back to Melbourne.  I am growing to like this place.  This is my second trip here in a couple of months and I am starting to learn my way around, meet new people, see new things and feel a little more comfortable.

 

The last marathon I ran was Cairns Marathon on 9th July, so this was the longest break so far within the 17 marathons journey.  I definitely needed it after nursing myself through 3 marathons in 3 weeks back in June / July.