I’ve been to a few events over the past week.

On Tuesday I was in the Galway Clinic for the launch of the “Streets of Galway” 8km race.

This is the second year that Galway Clinic has been the sponsor.

The evening started off with a talk from dietician Maeve Gacquin.  Maeve works in the Galway Clinic and she also works with the Galway Hurling team.  I got a few interesting bits of information from Maeve’s talk.

I really need to work on my sleep pattern.  I think most people don’t realise the importance of a good night’s sleep when it comes to recovery.  Growth and repair of muscles occurs while you are asleep.

Brian Bruton (race director) talked us through an eight week training plan.  One for beginners and one for anyone who is looking to break 40 minutes for the 8km distance.  Both plans are structured and varied.

I’m looking forward to getting started next Monday.

A lady sitting next to was questioning the kind of results you could achieve over an eight week period.  Brian and myself were both on the same wavelength. Following a structured plan will lead to results.

Not every session will go to plan. You might miss a Wednesday session and do it on the Thursday instead.

Most people I know have been running 5km races over the past 7 or 8 weeks.  This is a good foundation for the 8km distance regardless of how much experience you have.

Brian also spoke about adding parkrun to your training plan just to get some experience of running with large groups.

On Thursday I was in Citywest Dublin for the Bni members day. There were about 500 members there. A lot of them had travelled from the U.K.

The first speaker was Brian Cody. He spoke about managing the Kilkenny team for the last 20 years. He is a real believer of the fact that you can have results or excuses but you can’t have both.

At one stage during a quick break I was waiting to talk to a colleague of mine as I had heard he was talking about signing up for next years Dublin marathon.

As I was waiting a man from the U.K. approached me and we got talking.

He seemed to be fairly passionate about his hobbies and work and seemed to be focussing most of his attention on his business. Lack of work/life balance can lead to burnout.

The man was telling me about how he really liked his dance workouts but that he was busy on Monday and Tuesday.  I asked him what he was doing on the other 5 days of the week?

Yes its good to be passionate about a project or business but without balance it is very easy to lose focus and find it much harder to come up with new ideas.  Find something to provide some downtime.

Go for a walk,  a run or a cycle. I know a lot of people who go for a morning swim to keep them focused on the day ahead. Yoga is a great way to completely unwind.  It’s also great for flexibility and posture.

On Saturday I was back in Dublin for an instructor course.

Pound is the world’s first cardio jam session inspired by the infectious, energizing and sweat-dripping fun of playing the drums.

Christine Reid from Glasgow put us through our paces to help us fully understand how to teach Pound.

It is one of the noisiest classes I’ve been involved in. Serious cardio workout that absolutely blasts the abs and also tones up the legs, glutes and triceps. Watch out for classes coming soon.

If you need help training for the streets of Galway the 8 week training plan starts on Monday 18^th June.