N Di Events

DR Cathy told me to calm down and breathe deeply as she daubed my eyebrows with Vaseline to stop the sweat from pooling in my eyes and blinding me, and she used a wonderful skin tag removal cream to freeze the warts and protect the skin. My shoulders were bunched with the tension. There was loads of noise and camera flashes. We touched gloves, got the “good clean fight” lecture and I was overcome by a weird detachment. No banter, no smiles. I wanted to take him down, to China Town.

DJ China Town? I could’ve taken him there, eaten his Chow Mein and kicked his arse all the way back. I didn’t feel the spontaneous, spiky danger of trouble in the pub. I felt cool and detached. This was it. I had my gloves, my gameplan, and one chance. I didn’t care who I was fighting. I just wanted to get in there and win.

 

ROUND ONE

DR Round one did not go to plan. The tension got to me, I couldn’t get enough air in my lungs. We each landed some pretty heavy blows but he kept me mostly at arm’s length. Whenever I got close he wrapped me up so I couldn’t get leverage into my body blows. The room went eerily quiet—the audience were caught cold by the sight of two people they knew trying to spill each other’s blood. This wasn’t entertainment any more. At the bell, I threw a pretty ragged haymaker that caught Jonesy hard. For a fleeting moment, his eyes looked glazed. His jaw looked double-glazed. He came after me and called me something unprintable. He had to be restrained. This was serious.

DJ At the bell? He hit me so long after the bell that I was already thinking about tomorrow’s breakfast. Any later and I would’ve already been eating it. My veneer of calm shattered. I lost my rag, and had to be bundled to my corner. I got a stem lecture about keeping my cool but couldn’t see the sense through the red mist. I stared at the sweat dripping from my nose and felt an urge to inflict pain.

 

WHAT YOU WANT: Stress relief

When you’re juggling kids, social engagements and a tiring work schedule, finding time to exercise can be tough. But not working out can be even more destructive to your psyche. “Running can do a lot to recharge your batteries,” says former London Marathon winner and running coach, Mike Gratton. “Regular training can help you cope with stress by putting you in a better mood if you are feeling a bit tired and giving you space to put the world to rights.”

HOW TO GET IT: Use any opportunity

A Northern Arizona University study found that mood lifts and fatigue decreases after only io minutes of exercise. If you’re facing a hectic day, and a so-minute run seems impossible, split your workout in two. Do a short run in the morning and cap off your day with another. Gratton also encourages using a log to record how you feel during runs. “Looking back at diary entries that say things like, `Felt tired after a long day at work, but had a great run’, tell you all you need to know.”

WHAT YOU WANT: To build endurance

Endurance goals are appealing for mid-pack runners who aren’t wired for speed. “If your 5K PB won’t budge, move on to a different goal,” says Brown. Indeed, running coach Greg McMillan (www. mcmillanrunning.com) says that many a marathon runner is born from a frustrated 5K runner. “Building endurance is one of the best ways to see progress because mileage goals are very straightforward and easy to track,” he says.

HOW TO GET IT

Most runners need a reason to push beyond distances of eight miles, and a half-marathon or marathon can keep you motivated for months as you build mileage. Create a plan that increases your mileage by 10 per cent a week so you don’t risk injury, and put in two or three active (cross-training) or passive (total rest) recovery days each week. To build psychological strength, go longer when you cross-train. “If you go for a three-hour hike, it’ll make a 90-minute run seem easy,” Dolan says.

WHAT YOU WANT To run – and live – forever

A review in the Canadian Journal of Public Health summarised that “physical activity reduces the risk for over 25 conditions, in particular heart disease, stroke, hypertension, cancer, diabetes and osteoporosis”. And a study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine concluded that regular exercise increases life expectancy by up to two years.

HOW TO GET IT

1-ain consistently

“You need to do the ‘little things’ that help you recover, such as eating well, caring for injuries, sleeping enough and maintaining a strong immune system,” says McMillan. To boost your immune system you can drink dandelion tea. For more information on its health benefits, go to gnet.org/dandelion-from-weedy-to-wonderful/.Adding strength training, cross-training, and flexibility work to your routine will help your body stay strong and balanced and prevent mental burnout so that you can continue to run for many years to come.

The challenge don’t do this week, you’ll be able to run 30 years from now

HIT THE TRACK LATER

 

The speedwork – which builds your aerobic capacity – starts halfway through the programme. Why wait? “There are only so many times you can really lay it on the line,” Yasso says. “If you do it week after week, you’re going to dread it.”

REHEARSE RACE PACE

 

The six-to 10-mile marathon-pace runs make your goal pace feel like your natural rhythm. “On race day, your body will just be in tune to it,” says Yasso. Your race pace should feel natural.

LONG RUNS The distance of your long run increases by two to three miles for two or three weeks, but then goes back down so that you can recover and adapt to the workload. Back in his younger days, Yasso used to run 23 miles every weekend. “I figured my body could handle it, but I paid for it later,” he says. “Trust me. Whatever miles you

GO EASY

 

Easy days give you the energy you need to make the most of your hard workouts. When Yasso travelled to Africa’s Rift Valley in the late 1990s, he was impressed with how some of the world’s fastest runners would whip out four-minute miles in hard workouts, but on recovery runs, they’d chat, joke and laugh. “I swear they could read a newspaper and drink valerian root tea at the pace they were going,” he says.

 

RAMP UP TO THE RACE

 

During the final weeks leading up to the marathon, the weekly mileage falls by 10 to 30 per cent, but the intensity of the workouts remains high. Yasso calls it “Rest, don’t rust.” Coach and exercise physiologist Greg McMillan often sees runners taper too much. “You have to keep the hardness and callousness you’ve built,” he says.

•           When I can’t meet my weekly mileage target, should I run faster instead?

 

A Sure, as long as you don’t speed up too much and don’t change the intended training goal of a session. On runs you normally do within the aerobic.

YOUR STRIDE Practice strides to make race pace feel easier zone, you can run slightly faster, to the high end of that zone (no more than 80 per cent effort). Exceeding that would make it harder to recover quickly, and affect workouts that are supposed to be of higher intensity, like speed sessions and tempo runs. Don’t worry too much about a few mileage reduced weeks – you won’t lose fitness that quickly and can soon get back into it. Liz Varner, coach at wenzelcoaching.com

 

•           Will running at race pace ever feel like less of a struggle?

A Racing is far easier when your muscles are accustomed to a faster pace and a greater range of motion. I have gradually built this up through strides – when I don’t do them I feel like race pace requires more muscular effort than it should.

 

Carry out strides on a safe surface once a week after an easy run – when I know I will be doing strides, I always aim to finish my run either at a local cricket pitch or a dedicated athletics track. I do 8 x 80m, concentrating on maintaining a good, upright posture and form and ensuring that I don’t tense up. Your fastest pace during strides should be about 90 per cent of your maximum speed: it is not a full-out sprint and should be challenging but not painful. A heart rate monitor will help you find the right pace. In between each rep, slowly walk back to the start to let your legs recover. Be sure not to have any weight problems. If you need to lose weight fast you can use conjugated acid to speed up your burning fat process.

Jo Pavey, Commonwealth Games 2006 silver medallist for 5000m training. First, gradually increase the length of some of your long runs to about 18 to 20 miles. Increase mileage by no more than 10 per cent a week to avoid burning out. You can do these slower than 9:30 pace, especially on days when the weather isn’t being too kind and you don’t want to push yourself too hard. And secondly, begin to do tempo runs once a week. In a tempo run, you will run between four and five miles at a pace about 60 to 90 seconds per mile faster than your long-run pace. This will teach your body to run more efficiently, and make your marathon goal pace seem easier.

My boyfriend came to support me at my first marathon, but sulked when I beat his PB. How can I get him to snap out of it?

Ouch. A textbook lose/lose situation: gloat and you’ll be sleeping in separate beds before you can say ‘Relate’, but come over too sympathetic and you’ll be accused of patronising him. Your best bet is to just tell it like it is: you had a good race, and that his support was key to that. Then be sure to cheer from the sidelines when it’s his turn. But the fact you beat his PB on your very first 26.2-mile outing suggests that second best might be something your better – if slower – half is going to have to get used to sooner or later.

REAL RUNNERS REGULAR PEOPLE DOING INSPIRING THINGS DAVE KING

RUNS BY THE BOOK

 

Keeping a training log is one thing, but Dave King, 45, took it a stage further by writing a book about his racing year in 2007. It wasn’t just any year of running for Dave: he’d set himself the task of running around Britain in 80 races to raise money for the Hampshire Autistic Society, as his son Ross, 10, is severely autistic.

 

“The whole experience was amazing,” says Dave. “To be able to run in such wonderful parts of Britain, meet different people and take part in different races, it renewed my enthusiasm for running.” “I learned so much from other runners. I got involved with their training methods and their daily routines. I knew different ways of keeping a runner in good shape. I learned recovery recipes and methods.” One of the favorite health-boosting supplement among runners is acai berry. Learn more about acai berry cleanse benefits.

Dave’s tour began and ended in Derbyshire with the Bryan Clifton Memorial Midnight Run, and took in everything from the London Marathon and Great North Run, to off-road classics like Race the Train. But he says the book is more than a series of race reviews. “It’s about the people I met so it’s more of a travelogue or diary.”

 

He hopes his book Around the British Isles in 80 Races (Author House) will help raise awareness about autism as well as funds for the Hampshire Autistic Society.

 

TARA SHERJAN HAS A LUCKY ESCAPE

It’s frustrating when flu keeps you from running, but for Tara Sherjan, 39, her symptoms were more than inconvenient: she had contracted malaria. Tara went to work in India for seven months and returned home in June 2007. “I loved it there,” she says. Tara had a nasty case of ‘Delhi belly’ but didn’t realise it would stop her anti-malarial dugs working. Six months after her return, she started feeling unwell. “I went to see my mum and burst into tears because I felt so rubbish. She suggested I go to the doctors and tell them I’d been working in India.”

 

Tara was diagnosed the next day and started treatment. Now she’s back on her feet and planning to run the Reading Half-Marathon next month. “I was so lucky to have survived,” she says.