It’s been a fairly interesting week.

The 200 mile mark is within touching distance and another exam for my Sports Massage Diploma is in the bag.

A problem I’ve been seeing a lot  lately is overtraining !

People start off the year with the best of intentions to change their lifestyle and get in better shape – the gym membership is paid and they want to get their monies worth.

They sign up for every class imaginable, maybe even doing classes back to back in the hope that they will get results sooner and they fail to realise that the lack of recovery time can seriously jeopardise all of their hard work.

Many people also don’t understand how much of a role nutrition plays in their training. Lots of hard work is undone at the weekend through consumption of takeaways and alcohol!

Another side to overtraining is the increased risk of injury; people are sometimes under the misconception that completing ‘Couch to 5k’ is easy.

For some people it’s easier than for others.

Carrying extra weight can add an awful lot more pressure to hips and knees which is why I recommend to some clients that they should attend some circuit classes prior to taking up running.

Poor stride is a factor and can lead to shin splints, stress fractures, knee and hip pains. You probably won’t know what damage you are doing until it is too late and that is why I use video analysis to check your stride and posture before deciding what action needs to be taken.

As I have said in the past your goal needs to be personal and achievable.

Your training also needs to be specific to your goal. There is no point in following someone else’s training programme and thinking you are not doing enough training. Their goal is personal to them and yours is just as important and achievable.

I’ve been following Gavan Hennigan’s training sessions for the last couple of months. Some of them are fairly mind blowing but they are specific to the events he takes part in.

Early this week Gavan finished 2^nd in the Yukon Arctic Ultra. This is a 300 mile self supported trek in some very cold conditions. All his training, self belief and support paid off and I’m sure it won’t be long before he’s off on another adventure.

Lent is well under way. As I mentioned last week I think it is better to take something up as opposed to giving something up for 40 days in the hope of changing your life in the long term.

My next running workshops are on Saturday 20^th and 27^th February.

I might be running one midweek so if you are interested please get in touch.