First ever mountain bike race

I did my first ever mountain bike race this weekend! And what an experience it was!

It was a 90 minute race held by Red Kite Events as part of their Winter XC Series. It was my first MTB race and my first 'real' outing on the new Merida 29'er.

I travelled up to mid-Wales the night before, just so I could get to the race site in plenty of time, and the weather was looking rather grim (snow & frost forecast) so I thought it would be prudent to be near the race site to avoid the worst of the weather.

However, the weather was pretty bad come race morning, -3.5'C on my car computer!!! The race was quite a low key affair, but the course was pretty brutal. The course consisted of a mix of fire road, single track and technical downhill sections, I was fine on the less technical climbs (always passing people), but really suffered on the technical descents, with loads of people passing me back. And that's the way the whole race went really, me passing them on the climbs and them re-passing me on the technical sections.

It proved to be a great race, very, very cold, but a great experience! Results won't be out for a few days but I'm content with my own race, and now know where I need to focus my efforts before the next race (in a few weeks time). Train smart all!

Learn To Run workshop

Would you like to run faster, with less effort? Well, with the Learn To Run workshop you’ll learn an effective run technique that allows you to run more efficiently, with no injuries and best of all, faster! With these new running skills you’ll enjoy a more active lifestyle and gain great health benefits whilst enjoying the wonderful sport of running.

Personal trainer John Bruno and running coach Mark Whittle have teamed up to present this amazing workshop. The workshop is primarily aimed at beginners and novices, so fitness levels aren’t important; the goal is to teach you the steps, principles and drills for you to become more successful at running.

The next Learn To Run workshop is:


Date: Sunday 20th January 9.30am - 12.30pm

Location: John Bruno Total Training studio, Glebe Street, Penarth
Cost: £40


So if you live in Cardiff, Penarth, Barry, Bridgend, Cowbridge or Llantwit Major and would like to learn how to run more efficiently, faster and with less injuries, register with John Bruno on 07976 769390 or Mark Whittle on 07947010276.

Learn To Run workshop testimonial

On Sunday we presented another successful Learn To Run workshop in Penarth, on the outskirts of Cardiff. The goal with our workshop is to teach the runner the steps, principles and drills to enable them to become more successful at running.

The husband and wife duo of James and Lindsay really enjoyed the workshop, here's what James had to say about it:

"We had a great time on the learn to run course with Mark and John. It was fantastic to learn new skills in a fun and laid back atmosphere. They had the balance just right between teaching but not preaching. We'll definitely keep an eye open for future courses"

So if you're a runner in Cardiff, Penarth, Barry or Cowbridge and are contemplating running a 10K, half marathon or full marathon and would like some help with your running technique or your running training plan, check out our Vale Sports Therapy website or contact Mark (Cardiff, Penarth & Barry) on 07947 010276.

Running strides, what's that all about?

The term “strides” often comes up in running training plans and I use strides within my own training plans too, however, occasionally runners aren’t exactly sure what they are, when to use them and why.

Well, the term “strides” refers to a faster piece of running, often before a race or a planned faster paced training session. The strides are relaxed, easy sprints, at approximately 70 to 80% of your all out max effort for anywhere between 40 and 100m. In fact, the actual speed or distance is not that important, the goal is to run in a smooth controlled manner, with good form.

The purpose of strides before a race or a faster paced training session is to get the body used to what is about to happen to it (i.e. run fast!) and to encourage the athlete to run with a smooth economical style; this is significantly more beneficial than warming up in a slow, steady manner, which only encourages a runner to run slow and steady.

Strides should be smooth and quick, your head should be held high and not looking directly at the ground, you should feel no excessive tension in your neck and shoulders, your feet should feel light and fast as they quickly contact the ground. This fluency of motion should transfer seamlessly across to your “normal” running style, which will enhance your running economy and speed.

Elite runners often use strides in their daily workouts. Some athletes will incorporate them into an easy session, perhaps running a mile or two easy, then include 5 or 6 strides, then return home for another easy mile or two; or add in a few strides at the beginning or end of a normal planned session just to reemphasise a little bit of speed and good running form.

Adding some strides into your running training sessions can have some real benefits and for little extra effort, give them a try, I don't think you'll be disappointed! 

Yasso 800's: the good, the bad & the ugly!

If you’ve ever done a marathon or been involved in distance running for a number of years you’ve probably heard of Yasso 800’s. If not, here’s a quick synopsis. Bart Yasso, the Chief Running Officer of Runner’s World magazine, “invented” the Yasso 800’s where he suggests that if you can run 10 x 800m in the roughly the same time (in minutes and seconds) as your goal for the marathon (in hours and minutes) AND you have trained correctly for the marathon, you should be able to achieve your goal time. So, if you want to run a 3-hour marathon, you run 10 x 800 in 3 minutes. A 4-hour marathon would equate to running the 800’s in 4 minutes and so forth. The rest or recovery period should be equal to the interval you just ran, so if you ran your 800m in 3 minutes, your recovery period will be 3 minutes.

Sounds good, right? Well, yes and no.

The good:
One of the main advantages of following a Yasso 800 plan is that it is easy to remember and easy to implement. There’s not much planning involved, if you want to run a 3hr30 marathon, go to the track and run 10 x 800m with each 800m being completed in 3min30, easy! And with the Yasso 800’s you don’t need a coach to tell you specific paces or split times or reps, just go out and do 10 x 800m at your goal pace (building up from 4 or 5 x 800’s to 10 over a period of a number of weeks). In essence, this is a great-uncomplicated go-to session when you just want to get a decent session done without putting too much thought into it.

The bad:
For all the good points, there are several negatives about the Yasso 800’s. Intervals are designed to stress the Vo2max system and are traditionally best done somewhere between 3 and 5 minutes at a pace that is between your 3km and 5km pace, the Yasso 800’s are definitely not that! Essentially the 800’s are a set of slow-ish intervals that are slightly too short (perhaps 1200m and 1600m intervals are more relevant) and slightly too slow to really stress your Vo2max system.

Yasso also recommends building up to 10 repetitions of the 800’s from 4 and building week on week. Indeed it is good to build up steadily, but unless you are a complete novice to faster paced running I wouldn’t recommend wasting your time building up over many weeks your Yasso 800’s. If you only do one session a week of faster paced running, like many people do, you want to make sure you’re getting the best bang for your buck and I’m afraid the Yasso 800’s are simply not that (for the reasons stated above). You could easily spend 6 or 7 weeks building up to the magic 10 repetitions, but this period of time could be spent far more wisely doing other more marathon specific sessions.

The ugly:
Yasso recommended this protocol as a good predictor of your finish time, so if you can run 10 x 800 in 3 minutes and have trained correctly for the rigours of a marathon, then a 3-hour marathon should be achievable. Yasso suggests that you can determine your performance potential at an endurance/stamina-based event (the marathon) by successfully completing a faster paced workout. This doesn’t sit well with me and most running experts agree that Yasso’s prediction is out by anywhere from 5 minutes to 25 minutes. Which means that if you actually run at the pace that the Yasso protocol “predicts” you could go through the half way mark of the marathon much quicker than you should be (or are capable of), which will almost certainly lead to a painful, slow second half of the marathon.


To surmise, the Yasso 800 protocol is a decent go-to track session if you don’t have a coach to tell you what training you should be doing, or if you simply want to turn your brain off and get a track workout in. But it’s not the be-all and end-all, I certainly wouldn’t use it to predict a marathon finish time and I can think of many more effective training sessions that would prepare the athlete for the demands of such a long endurance event such as the marathon.

Enjoy your training!

Hydration tips for runners

We’ve all heard at some point or other about the importance of hydration, in particular with regards to running and running performance. But what does it really mean? Our bodies are made up of approximately 70% water and to keep our bodies performing at an optimum level we need to keep those hydration levels relatively constant. As we exercise we sweat, which means a loss of water, salts and sugars; as these levels decrease our bodies become less efficient. Hence, it makes sense that the greater the deficiency, the more inefficient the body becomes.

So how much should we drink and when? Previous thoughts included drinking at regular intervals whether you were thirsty or not, with the intention of trying to get “ahead of your thirst” (i.e. drink before you are thirsty). The experts thought that by the time you were thirsty, it was too late, you were already slightly dehydrated and this would affect your performance.

However, studies out of South Africa by the well renowned Dr Tim Noakes suggest that this slight dehydration has no effect on your performance. Studies show that drinking during exercise only when you are thirsty has no detrimental effect on performance or health. In fact, studies show that drinking at a high rate (to try to get ahead of your thirst) has no advantages at all and has been seen to negatively affect some athletes by causing severe stomach distress by drinking too much.

Noakes would be the first to admit that drinking to thirst is not a perfect indicator of your hydration status, but it does seem to be a good indicator of optimal drinking rate and the limited dehydration that may occur from drinking to thirst will have no negative effects on your performance.

I think the bottom line is, like many aspects of running and running training, to try these things out in training. The old adage of “practise makes perfect” is key here. Everyone is different; therefore it is worthwhile trying different hydration strategies during your running training and see what works best for you. Good luck and enjoy your running journey! 

Hidden injuries and how to avoid them

Sometimes when you are feeling great about your training, you appear to be injury free, and you are looking forward to achieving new heights in performance, your muscles may actually be in a state of chaos. No hobbling, or even niggling pain will necessarily reveal this chaotic state, and only a disappointing performance in a key competition will show that something has gone seriously wrong. The poor performance will be an indication that your training has injured your muscles significantly – and yet kept you in the dark about the nature of the problem.

How can athletes be unaware of the damage they are doing to themselves during training? Unfortunately, some muscle problems can exist below an athletes “radar screen”; they may significantly interfere with muscle function and yet produce few or no symptoms that something is wrong.

For example, think about what happens to an Ironman triathlete or a marathon runner after completing their event. A week after the event is over, the athlete usually feels great, with no pain, stiffness or swelling to announce that anything is wrong with their muscles (unlike the day after a race, when their discomfort is usually intense). However, if the athletes muscles were biopsied and the cells examined under a microscope, many problems would be apparent. Recent research from Harvard reveals that portions of some muscles would be missing, other cells would be swollen, muscle membranes would be ruptured, blood vessels would be damaged and glycogen levels would be low. Yet, despite this, the athlete would be “feeling fine”.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t take an Ironman event or a marathon to induce such muscle damage. If a significant increase in training is undertaken over a prolonged period, then this will produce a similar effect. Causing such damage is not a trivial thing. For one thing, it is simply not possible for muscles to perform at optimal levels when muscle glycogen levels are low, energy producing mitochondria are damaged and contractile proteins within muscle cells are disrupted. For another, these kinds of problems can not be cleared up overnight. The research from Harvard suggests that it may take three months for muscles to be restored after such damage, and complete restoration may occur only if an athlete trains lightly or not at all.

As an athlete, what should you do to achieve your greatest possible improvement in fitness without doing damage to your muscular system? First, you should make sure that your training program contains adequate recovery time; at least one day off each week and at least one week of light training for every three weeks of strenuous training. Recovery periods allow your muscles to “catch up” on key repair processes, which are often retarded by the relentless pace of high frequency, high volume training.

Second, you should attempt to emphasise quality over quantity in your training. High intensity training is the most potent producer of fitness, and pathological changes in muscle cells appear to be much more closely related to training volume rather than training speed. Research shows that when a comparison is made between what happened to runners muscles following a marathon and a 25km race, they found the muscle damage to be much more extensive after the marathon, even though the 25km competition was completed at a much faster pace.

Third, you should engage in functional strength training two to three times a week. Such strength training should revolve around movements which actually mimic the biomechanics of your chosen sport, so that you will be less likely to get frayed around the edges as a result of your training and competition (compared with weak muscles, strong muscles are damaged much less by the forces created during exertion).

Finally, you should devise a performance test with which you can assess your progress over time. For running, this could be a 6 minute test on the track, for cycling it could be a 10km time trial and for swimming it could be an 800 metre all out effort, and so on. Such tests can be performed every 4 to 6 weeks or so during training, and if you are feeling good but you test results are getting worse rather than better, chances are good that there are muscle problems “below your radar”. The solution is not to work harder and damage your muscles further; the optimal strategy is usually to significantly reduce training volume, maintain fitness with an occasional intense workout, and thus give your muscles a chance to recover from all the abuse you have put them through. For most athletes whose performances have headed south, such periods of lighter training will help to wipe away any muscular chaos and get performance capacity on an upward slope again.

So if you're a runner, triathlete or endurance athlete and would like some advice on training concepts, training plans or injury prevention check out our Vale Sports Therapy website or contact Mark (Cardiff, Penarth & Barry) on 07947 010276.

Breakfast before your early morning run?

A few of my runners have asked if missing breakfast before going for a run is a big deal, well, here’s my response.

Some people feel they can get away with not eating anything before their morning run, but I guarantee that unless they are fuelling during their run, then they’re not getting in an optimal training session. Studies show that people who train without eating anything run at a slower pace AND it feels much harder than it should.

In saying that, it doesn’t have to be a full English breakfast. Something simple and light will suffice, perhaps some toast (with peanut butter), some Greek yoghurt, a small bowl of porridge or cereal, some fruit, a smoothie or even a few small bites of an energy bar; all washed down with a glass of water. Simple. 

Remember, by fuelling your run correctly you’ll feel better during your run, you’ll be getting in a much better workout and you’ll recover much quicker. Eating something is much better than eating nothing!

Question: what do you do?

So, I had this question today from a member of the public. It was phrased something like, "I know you do sports massage, but what else?".

And this got me thinking, what do we do? If I had to catalogue our services and the locations where our clients come from, could I do it easily? It sounds a strange answer, but I'm not sure. You see, we've grown our services massively over the last few years and our clients come from all over the Vale of Glamorgan and beyond.

So to summarise, our services include:

Sports Massage
Sports Therapy
Nutritional Advice & Products
Running Coaching
Triathlon Coaching
Nordic Walking
Fitness Coaching

With clients from Newport, Cardiff, Penarth, Barry, Bridgend, Cowbridge, Porthcawl and Pontypridd (I'm sure I've missed a few!), including the Ulster rugby team (when they are in Wales playing the Cardiff Blues, the Ospreys or the Newport Gwent Dragons) and Cardiff City Football Club.

I think that about covers it!

Running workshops in Cardiff

Mark has just finished a series of 4 running workshops in Run and Become in Cardiff in the run up to the Cardiff half marathon. Mark was joined by Personal Trainer John Bruno and Physiotherapist Karen Pearce to provide advice to the half marathon runners on running injuries, run technique, nutrition, mind focus and general run training advice.

The workshops were well received, giving the novice runners a boost before race day. Look out in 2012 for more running workshops in Cardiff, as we'll be supporting the Cardiff half marathon again next year. Have a great race everyone!

Learn To Run workshop - 10th October

How would you like to run faster, with less effort? Well, with our Learn To Run workshops we’ll teach you efficient and effective run technique to allow you to run more efficiently, with no injuries and best of all, faster! With these new running skills you’ll enjoy a more active lifestyle and gain great health benefits whilst enjoying the wonderful sport of running.

Running well and running fast is a skill and as such, it can be taught. Why not try our Learn To Run workshop, you'll be amazed how easy running can be!

The workshop will be held on the 10th of October at the John Bruno Total Training studio, Penarth starting at 9:30am for approximately 3 hours. For more information contact Mark Whittle on 07947010276 or check out the John Bruno website at http://www.personal-trainer-cardiff.com/