It’s Spring time and apart from flowers and the hope of warmer weather that means it’s running season.

Apart from my usual mixed bag of customers I have been inundated with runners of all abilities and shapes and sizes. Pleasing for me is that most have come to me for prevention, however there are always some that need rescuing prior to the big effort. So a month away from the London and Brighton marathons here are a couple of pearls:

1. Don’t push through pain – Knee pain/heel pain etc often presents at this time and coincides with those big training runs. Often caused by lack of stretch or muscle strength imbalance. So……….

2. Don’t be afraid to back off a bit. Most people new to longer distances are encouraged to do 20miles training. This is purely to get you used to the time it takes. You’ve been training for weeks, that base isn’t going anywhere. Have a rest, ice the pain if there is any, reduce runs to shorter distances at slightly faster speeds and……..   

3. Streeeeeeeetch! In therapy circles stretching is considered a bit old school. Phooey, it works. Really focus on quads, calves/soleus, hamstrings and most importantly glutes. Google how to stretch each and do it for 30secs EVERY DAY.

4. Chill out a bit. Believe it or not you’re gonna be fine, pre marathon nerves are normal. If you’ve trained you’ll be fine, there will be literally thousands of people with you. Ok you might not be threatening the leaders but is that why you signed up?

Good luck to all you running types, i’ll stick to pole vault thanks!

OTHER BUSINESS 

So my chosen team – the craggy island youth team have been tearing up the competition season. The big national finals are looming in Edinburgh at the end of April. Here’s hoping they all qualify, i’ll be cheering.

Tara, until next time