Achieving Your Goals

 
     
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Achieving your goals

 

As individuals we all have the potential to achieve whatever we dream. How much you actually achieve comes entirely from within.

As personal trainers we cannot achieve your goals for you. Generally we see our clients for between 1-3 hours per week. This means that you have 165 hours per week where you are flying solo. We can provide you with the tools to improve. For example

  • We can teach you the correct intensity to train
  • How to lift weight to get the results you desire
  • The correct technique to avoid injury
  • The warning signs of an injury

However there are

  • no short cuts,
  • no quick fixes  
  • no magic bullets.
  •  

Quick fixes usually turn out to be short term improvements.

 

You don’t have to be an athletic person to be fit and healthy and as most of our clients have proved all it takes to be fit and healthy is regular training and a consistently healthy diet.

 

We deal with “human beings, not human doings” (I pinched this from another coach) and as such favour a whole person approach.

This is what personal training is all about.

The bodies that we all see in the magazines are often the product of

·        genetics,

·        extremely hard work,

·        a meticulous diet,

·        clever photography,

·        air brush technology

·        and sometimes plastic surgery.

 

 

This doesn’t mean that we can’t improve our own physique but we should be realistic about what we can achieve.

As a trainer I prefer to guide my clients towards the holistic approach which helps them to improve their fitness and health but also a happy and enjoyable life. Sometimes the fittest and most beautiful people can be very unhappy!

Surely a life without disease and back pain is more fulfilling than having a 6 pack especially when it means foregoing chocolate and wine for the rest of your life

 

 

  

 

 

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5 ways to set a PB in your next event.

My experience as a coach is that many athletes are disappointed not to set PB’s at every single event they complete. But how many just turn up and expect to race faster because they have been training well and how many actually prepare to race a PB time. Well, if you want to set a PB here are my top 5 tips go about doing it…

1

Train Correctly – Let’s say your next event is a 10k race and your current PB is 45 minutes. To run faster you need to train your body to run faster than 4mins 30s/km. How about one session per week of intervals. Try 5-6 x 1km @ 4m15s per km with 30-60s rest between each. You’ll need a good 15min warm up before this gradually building the intensity and at least a 10min cool down as well.

This will be a hard session BUT you’re not going to set a PB by taking it easy. Apart from including the right amount of high intensity work you are also going to have to include endurance work (over distance efforts at well under race pace) some tempo work (45-60 minutes @ about 80-85%mhr) plus some strength work ( this might include running hills, but you could also add in some gym work)

Finally, make sure your training terrain matches that of your race, including topography & surface

2

Training intensity – do you know what intensity you perform at during your events? The only way to improve is to train at this intensity or higher (but not all the time – See above) How can you find out how hard you race? Use a Heart rate monitor to record your exertions and check this against your maximum heart rate. You don’t know your maximum heart rate? Take the highest figure you have ever seen (in that event.. its about 10 bpm lower for cycling than running) or, better still, have a fitness test to find out exactly what your training & racing zones are!

3

Select your races carefully – Elite athletes aim to peak 1-2 times per year. After each peak the athlete must recover and then start to build up again for the next event. Elite athletes do not aim to perform at their best at each event.  In order to perform at your best, select an event that suits you. For example if you race best in the hills, its no good choosing a flat event and vice versa. You should also consider surface (off/on road), time of year, weather conditions etc to help you get the most from your event.

4

Taper for the event – After peaking comes tapering. This involves gradually reducing the volume of your training so that you are full rested and ready to go on race day. There is no best way to taper but most coached do agree that you should try to maintain the intensity (in very small amounts) and the frequency of your training (so if you train every day, continue to do so)

5

Strategy – To make sure all the training is of benefit, you MUST have a strategy for your race. To do this you need to know about the topography of the course (you should know this already… See#1). Most record attempts (your race will be a record for you!!) are done on a negative split strategy. This means running the 2nd half slightly faster than the first – say 1-2% faster in the 2nd half

The tips above are only a small number of ways to improve your performances, but they have repeatedly worked with my athletes and many others. I hope you have the same results.

 

Stay healthy & have fun

 

Simon