Vale Sports Therapy have been busy!

The boys at Vale Sports Therapy have had a very busy weekend this weekend! 

Delme was racing the Neath Valley triathlon on Sunday morning, whilst Mark took part in the Swansea Bay 10K road running race in the afternoon. Full race reports are to follow, but need-less-to-say the weather was atrocious for the both of them! 

If you need any advice about fitness training, sports massage, triathlon & running coaching, check out our website. 

3 running quick fixes to reinvigorate your training

If you need to reinvigorate your running training and give your running a boost, try these 3 quick fixes to make an instant difference! 

To break out of a running rut you need to change up your training and add in some different types of running. If you always run long and slow, you’ll become very proficient at running long and slow; which means when you try to run faster your body is simply not used to it, which results in fatigue and potential injury. Here are my 3 quick fixes to turn around your running fortunes:

Interval training:
Ditch some of your long slow runs for faster interval sessions. These interval sessions involve adding in some faster efforts into your longer slower paced runs, 30 to 60 seconds works really well. Some studies have shown that runners can improve their speed by up to 7 percent by cutting their running distance in half and adding in 50 to 100m faster efforts into their running program.

Progression runs:
A progression run, or a build run, starts off at a slower pace and then continually picks up the speed of the run until you finish your chosen route. So you may run 10 minutes really easy, then 10 minutes easy, then 10 minutes steady, then 10 minutes hard, etc, etc. This is a really good way of adding in some faster running without absolutely killing yourself in the process!

Increased flexibility:
Stretching and increasing your flexibility helps with injury prevention and recovery, thus allowing you to train more consistently, and as we all know, consistency is king when trying to improve at anything.

So if you're a runner in Cardiff, Penarth, Barry or Cowbridge and are contemplating running a 5K, 10K, half marathon, full marathon or if you simply want to get fitter and faster, Mark can devise a bespoke running training plan for you. Check out our Vale Sports Therapy website or contact Mark (Cardiff, Penarth & Barry) on 07947 010276.

Another PB for one of our running clients

One of our running clients, Angharad, set a new personal best time today at the Great North Run half marathon in Newcastle!

Angharad has been training with Mark for about 4 months now with a view to run the Snowdon marathon in October. Mark sets out a detailed weekly running schedule for Angharad which is tailored especially for Anhgarad's busy lifestyle, taking into account all the stresses and commitments of our daily lives (including life, family & work).

Angharad has seen some massive progress in the last few months and I'm sure she'll run really well when she takes on the Cardiff half marathon in a few weeks in preparation for the Snowdon marathon a few weeks later. Watch this space to hear how Angharad gets on.

So if you're a runner in Cardiff, Penarth, Barry or Cowbridge and are contemplating running a 5K, 10K, half marathon or full marathon and would like some help with your running training plan, check out our Vale Sports Therapy website or contact Mark (Cardiff, Penarth & Barry) on 07947 010276.

Want to run faster? Running coaching is the key!

Our running coaching service is aimed at people of all abilities. Your goal might be to get fit, stay fit, attempt a challenging endurance event or set a new personal best time; we’re here to help you achieve your goals! Our running coach, Mark Whittle, has trained countless people, from housewives simply wanting to get fit to nationally ranked athletes.

Whether you choose to work with Mark in person or simply online, he can definitely help you to achieve your running goals. His structured, progressive approach will provide you with the motivation and accountability required to achieve the results you desire.

Mark believes the key to quality coaching is the appreciation that everyone is an individual and “one size does not fit all”. You must balance your training and goals with your lifestyle and commitments. And let's face it; you won’t get that from a generic training plan.

Mark’s philosophy is that coaching is an educational process. High quality coaching/education allows the runner to understand the process and why they are training in a certain way, rather than simply “training”. This holistic approach is proven to provide the runner with a greater likelihood of improvement and achieving their goals.

 


Mark is a qualified British Triathlon Federation coach, a Newton Natural Running Form coach (one of only 12 in the UK) and has over 22 years experience in competitive sport within the military, which includes multiple Ironman triathlon races and representing Great Britain at the European Age Group Triathlon Championships.

Services available: 

Online bespoke training plan:

The online training plan is structured to include and integrate all the stresses and commitments of our hectic daily lives (including life, family, work & financial), with the goal of achieving a balanced life, thus leading to consistency in training, which in turn leads to significant improvements in performance.

Mark writes a fortnightly plan that is totally bespoke to the individual (most coaches provide 4 week plans as it’s VERY time consuming to update a plan every week). There is nothing copied and pasted from the internet, it is totally individual to that person, their goals, fitness level, work/family/social life, etc. Our view is that there is no point in piling on loads of training sessions on top on of our hectic daily lives, it has to be integrated into our life, this is the key to our highly successful training plans.

The service includes an initial consultation, goal setting and season planning, an individual training plan structured to fit around your life, unlimited adjustments and updates to the training plan and unlimited email and text contact and advice.

Price: £50 a month (based a 3 month minimum commitment)

One-to-one running coaching:

Mark offers one-to-one running coaching in the Cardiff area. This predominantly covers running technique but also includes pace control, breathing, understanding of training methodologies and correct warm up and cool down protocols.

The one-to-one running coaching session teaches the runner an efficient and effective run technique. This technique allows you to run more economically, with fewer 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.

Price: £35 per session

Combination of online training plan and one-to-one coaching:

A bespoke combination of online training and one-to-one running coaching sessions can be arranged to suit the runner’s needs. 

Price: depends on combination of coaching required

So if you're a runner or want-to-be runner and are seriously looking to improve your running and general fitness, lose weight, look and feel great, and get faster, then check out our Vale Sports Therapy website or contact Mark (Cardiff, Penarth & Barry) on 07947 010276. 

Cardiff half marathon training plan

The Cardiff half marathon is only 6 weeks away, how is your running training going? Your training should be starting to build towards a peak very soon, with your longer runs starting to increase to build your race specific endurance. But what else should you be doing? How many times a week should you be running? How fast should you be running?

This and all other questions can be answered by our running coach, Mark Whittle. Mark is able to design a bespoke half marathon training plan, one that is designed specifically for you, nothing just copied from the internet! Mark will look at your previous running experience, your current fitness level, the amount of time you have to train and also take into account all the stresses and commitments of your daily life (family, work, social, etc).

So if you're doing the Cardiff half marathon and need someone to take the stress out of planning your training schedule, give Mark a call on 07947010276 or check out the website at Vale Sports Therapy.

The Pareto Principle: as applied to coaching

This is a post from Vern Gambetta, an expert in Functional Training; I think it applies to a lot of people who read this blog. I hope you enjoy it!

The Pareto principle states that 20% of the input creates 80% of the result. I would not get too hung up on the numbers as absolute, the key here is the concept. Everything is not weighted equally. You do not do a unit of work and get an equal result from that unit of work. Some types of training or methods can and will contribute more than others. The challenge for us in coaching is to carefully evaluate what we are doing in our training design and implementation to determine where we are getting the most return. We may have a favorite exercise or a workout that we think works, but if you step back you may see that it is not doing what you think it is doing, it is not where the results are coming from. In fact the results may be coming from something or somewhere else. It would be nice if every training session or method contributed equally to the adaptive process but that just does not reflect reality. 

According to the Pareto principle the majority of the results come from a small percentage of the work. So find out where the results are coming from and focus your efforts there for the best return. To use a cliché, separate the wheat from the chaff, focus on the need to do and minimize the nice to do. A corollary to this is that more is not that much better; optimize the volume of work to minimize the law of diminishing returns. Make your decisions in training based on the return, know where you best results are coming from and focus your efforts there. 

Wise words from Coach Gambetta, I think there are a few points that all of us could take on board from this. Any thoughts?

Delme Bennett: Triathlon Race Report

Here's Delme's race report from a few weekends ago, hope you enjoy it, it's a good read!

Sunday July 1st saw me take part in only my 3rd ever triathlon and the first since my two week holiday in France!! Any way I'd had a week to do some training since France and the 400m swim, 10 mile bike and 3 mile run was a race that I wanted to attack full on!

As usual it was a fair old drive to Lucton, where the race was being held so I had plenty of time to hydrate and fuel properly. As it wasn't a 'local' race for me, there were no clients etc racing against me, so it was a fairly relaxed pre race build up. There's nothing worst than racing against clients. You want to try and do well against them but they just want to smash you! Registration, racking etc was hastle free.

I managed to have a good warm up before the swim and was in a confident frame of mind. As this is my first year of triathlon, it's all a learning curve and everything is a new experience.

I was called for my swim start, got in the water and felt good. The time keeper counted me down and away I went. The 16 lengths of the pool were comfortable, I didn't push the pace but it felt steady all the way.

Swim to bike transition was ok, there's a few little things that I need to sort out for a quicker T1 but it was ok.

The bike section was awesome. As the swim is not my strongest discipline, I know I have to push the bike as hard as I can to make up my time. This bike course was great for that! The first half to three quarters was down hill or flat so I pushed hard and kept the pace as quick as I could. I was able the pick off a number of cyclists which I was pleased with. All that down hill and flat meant that there would be some up hill sections to get back to transition but they were rolling hills and steady progressive up hills so I was able to keep the cadence and pace quick, and pass a few more cyclists.

I got back to transition and as ever T2 was quick but you just can't get used to the feeling of going from bike to run! I put on a brave face for the numerous spectators but my legs were like jelly!!

The run was two laps of a course. This had been changed on the morning of the race as the weather a few days before had caused the original route to be water logged! It took me a good 1500m to get my legs to some kind of normality and I kept reminding myself to run tall and soft, which someone once said for me to do, and it really helped. There was a nasty up hill for around 200m on the laps, which you really felt in the legs, but again with the run tall and soft reminder going through my head, I was able to pass a few runners, which always gives you motivation to push and work harder. There was a steady up hill to the finish line, that by now was taking its toll on my legs, but you've just got to knuckle down and get on with it.

As I crossed the finish line i didn't know what to expect. I knew I'd worked hard on the swim and bike, and the run was going to be what I had left in my legs.
You never know how you've done in a triathlon because the bike and run course are always different, so I went to check out my times hoping they had been updated. Happy Days!! My swim was 10:35, almost 2 mins quicker than my last triathlon. The bike was 30:45 which I was happy with and the run was 25:56. This was a little slower than I wanted  but to finish 66/178 in my 3rd triathlon in a time of 1:07:36,  I was happy with. As always there are areas to improve, but I'm enjoying the racing and having fun whilst doing so!

Now it's a little rest then prepare for the Pendine open water tri. First sea swim.....hope the weather is good.

For more information about triathlon and triathlon coaching in the Cardiff, Bridgend, Penarth, Barry and Penarth area, contact Mark on 07947010276 or check out the Vale Sports Therapy website. 

TRX training for runners and triathletes

Runners and triathletes are usually very busy people, trying to juggle training with work, family and social commitments.  And as such, core (and strength) training is often overlooked, in the hope that simply doing the swimming, biking and running sessions will suffice. This is where many people miss out. By simply adding in some core stability sessions it increases strength, stamina and endurance, allowing you to train and race faster, and helps to keep injuries at bay.

The TRX is a great tool for this. The TRX is a Suspension Training tool that allows you to leverage your own bodyweight to improve your strength, balance, stamina and flexibility all at once. With TRX bodyweight training, your entire core is activated as a stabilizer in every TRX exercise that you perform.

Check out the video below of professional triathlete Chris Lieto and his coach Matt Dixon demonstrating some of the key TRX exercises that Chris uses to develop his core strength for triathlon.

Want to do a triathlon? Don't know what one is?

Our resident running and triathlon coach, Mark Whittle, has been competing at triathlons for over 10 years, but it seems that our other member of Vale Sports Therapy, Delme Bennett, has got the bug too! This year Delme has completed 2 sprint triathlons of his own and has a few more pencilled into his calendar! Watch this space for his race reports.

So what’s a triathlon and specifically, what’s a sprint triathlon? A sprint (or novice) triathlon is a short distance triathlon, which is ideal for the beginner athlete, comprising of a swim, a bike and then a run (all in succession, with no breaks!). Sprint triathlons can vary in distance, but typically a sprint triathlon consists of a 400-750m swim, a 20km bike and a 5km run, well within the capabilities of most active people (with some focused training).

So what training do you need to do to complete your first triathlon? It depends on your current fitness levels; however, you must feel comfortable about being able to complete each discipline (swim, bike and run) on its own, before stringing them together one after the other. So you must be happy that come race day you have enough fitness to be able to complete the 400-750m swim without too much trouble, be able to bike for 20km and be able to complete a 5km run without dying! As a triathlon uses many different muscles and different energy systems, varied training is required in the three disciplines; however with some focus most people are able to train to complete their first triathlon.

How about equipment? For your first triathlon, you really only need the minimum of equipment; some swim wear and goggles, basic biking gear (bike, helmet and clothing) and running gear (trainers and clothing); and that’s it. You don’t need to invest loads of money on your first race, I think most people probably own the majority of the required equipment, or at least can borrow some from friends and family to train with and use on race day.

On the day of the race you will usually be asked to arrive nice and early to register/check-in, at this point you’ll receive your race number (if you hadn’t already received it in the post) and some final instructions regarding the race itself. Now it’s time to set up your transition area, this is where you rack your bike and lay out your cycling helmet, running trainers, etc ready to change into when transitioning from one stage to the next stage of the race.

Now you’ve set up your transition area, you’re ready to race! The swim is up first, depending on the race the start will either be a mass start (everyone starts together) or a wave start (small groups start at the same time), so make sure you know what time your start is (it might be different from your friends start time). Once out of the swim you’ll make your way to the transition area, here you’ll change into your bike gear (helmet on!) and set off on the bike course (usually very well marshalled and signposted, but make sure you have an idea of the route before starting the race). At the end of the bike course you’ll return to the transition area, jump off your bike, change into your running gear and set off for the final leg of the race. This is usually the hardest part of the race as you’ve already swam and biked for maybe up to an hour, so you’ll be pretty fatigued before setting off on the run. No matter, you’re nearly done, but don’t forget to smile for the camera (there’s usually a photographer at the finish line).

That’s it, race over. You’ve just completed your first sprint triathlon!

If you need any triathlon coaching advice, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with Mark or Delme via our Vale Sports Therapy website, we're more than happy to help.

New PB for one of our running clients

One of our running clients, Darren Floyd, set a huge 2 minute personal best this morning at the Cardiff 5K ParkRun!

Darren has been training with Mark for nearly 3 months now with a view to run the Chicago marathon later in the year. Mark sets out a detailed weekly running program for Darren which is tailored especially for Darren, to take into account his busy lifestyle.

Darren has seen some massive progress in the last few months and I'm sure he'll set a new PB when he tackles the llanelli half marathon next weekend. Watch this space to hear how Darren gets on.

European Long Distance Triathlon Champs

Well, here it is, the race report from the European Long Distance Triathlon Champs that was held on Sunday in Finland:

We arrived early (we, being the 4 RAF guys who had made the team) and had lots of time to recce the swim, bike and run courses. The swim looked very long, the bike looked pretty flat (and boring) whilst the run looked like the only interesting part of the race, sweeping around the lake through a slightly wooded area with gravel trails. We attended the race registration and race brief and to be honest, the organisation wasn’t great, this definitely wasn’t a WTC event!

Back to the race, morning arrived and we had a quick breakfast in the hotel before heading off to the transition area. The location of this race was actually very good, with an athletics stadium being used for T1/T2 which was only 5 minutes walk from our hotel, with the lake being adjacent to the stadium. After putting all our nutrition onto our bikes we headed down to the start area. The elite men and women went off first, with the age group men going next (us) and the age group women to follow.

We all jumped into the water and after a minute or two, the horn went and we were off. With less than 200 men in our wave start, there wasn’t the usual biff you get at the start of an Ironman race, I quickly found some open space and headed the 300m or so to the first turn buoy. After this turn, we essentially had to swim in a big rectangle finishing down a canal next to the stadium. The out leg seemed to take forever! I managed to find some feet to sit on for a while and settled in to a pace that I thought I could hold for 4k. We eventually got to the far turn bouy (maybe 1.8k into the swim leg), turned, swam another 200-300m and turned again for the return and final leg. We were now swimming into a bit of current and the sun was rising in front of us which made navigation a little difficult.

I was starting to feel a little tired now. The current was sapping my energy and the navigation meant sighting was harder, fortunately someone swam up to me, so I jumped on his feet and trusted he was sighting correctly. It seemed his sighting was spot on as we arrived at the mouth of the canal in fairly quick time, I knew it was another 300m or so to go, so decided to stay with my new friend and let him direct me into the exit point. It got a bit congested here and I got a smack round the head for my troubles, but all in all it was an uneventful swim – just what I was hoping for. I stood up, checked my watch and saw 1:06. I was particularly pleased with this as I was expecting to see 1:10 – 1:15. Good start!

Quickly into transition the wetsuit was off and I was ready to exit T2. As I grabbed my bike Marc P (an RAF team mate) came into T1, I was quite happy about this as I expected Marc to beat me out of the water, but as he is a better biker I knew he would catch me quite soon. Anyway, out on the bike I went, I settled into the aero position and started pushing on, knowing Marc would be chasing me hard! Once I settled down I started thinking about my nutrition, I looked down at my Speedfil bottle (fits on the down tube, with a tube coming up to bike cockpit) and realised it was half empty! It was leaking! Things like this can put you right off your game, but there’s no point in worrying about it. I knew I had plenty of nutrition on me and I could always pick up some more from the aid stations as my cast iron stomach can cope with most types of sports drinks and gels.

The bike was 6 laps of 20k (well, it was a little shorter than 20k as they cut off a little part of the course for safety reasons), and it was a bit boring. We biked out of town, onto some fast roads, then onto a motorway for a mile or so, then climbed up a long shallow climb, back down the motorway and into town again. Coupled with that a few dead-turns (which really slowed you down!) and quite a bit of wind, it was not the most exciting of routes.

Marc came past me at the end of the first lap (as expected), so I estimated he was putting about 1:30 into me on each lap. I was ok with that as I knew my run was strong enough to pull that back later on in the day. The laps ticked away, and apart from some Spanish pro’s and some Finnish age groupers drafting, it was a very clean bike race. I came towards T2 quite glad the bike leg was over, I checked my watch and saw a bike split of about 3:26, I was ok with that. It wasn’t great, but it was ok, and I had my strongest leg to come!

The run was 4 laps of 7.5k, so it would be easy to gauge your pace and spot other age groupers and see where they were in the race compared to you on each lap. I set out on the first lap with the intention of going easy. As I was approaching the first turn point (at 3.75k) I was very surprised that I hadn’t caught anyone! This wasn’t normal. Was everyone else really running that fast? Was I running slow? Too slow? I put this to the back of my mind and continued on.

As it turned out I shouldn’t have worried as I caught 9 people in the next 3.75k (including my team mate Marc). The pace felt easy and I completed the first lap in about 33 minutes. Now it got a little confusing, as there were quite a lot of people on the run course, you didn’t know if they were on their first lap or third lap. It didn’t really matter though, as I continued to run at my own pace, I felt good and people were coming back to me fairly quickly. The laps ticked away and I continued to sip my energy gels whilst taking water and coke from the aid stations, everything was going to plan.

I was now coming towards the end of the third lap and I could feel myself slowing down. It wasn’t quite the Ironman-shuffle, but I was definitely slowing. I started the fourth and final lap knowing that if I ran the last 7.5k in 40 minutes I would break 7 hours for the race. This was now my motivation. I didn’t care who I was passing (I stopping counting after passing 25 people), I just wanted to keep pushing on to break the 7 hour barrier. I got the final turn point and worked out I had 20 minutes to do the last leg in, this would be a tough ask. I was now very tired. I had walked the last 2 aid stations, taking on lots of water and coke, so to get back to the stadium and do a lap of the athletics track and finish in 7 hours was going to be hard, hard work.

I pushed on, I was now hurting. I wasn’t out of breath at all, just tired and my muscles didn’t want to respond to my brain telling them to move – faster! I could now see the stadium and hear the crowds. I guessed I had about another 5 or 6 minutes of pain to endure. Surely I could do that? Could I?

I was pushing again, pain filled my legs and lungs but its amazing how the crowds drive you on. I entered the stadium and saw 2 Finnish athletes in front of me. I had about 350m to go and there was no way I was going to let them beat me! I pushed again, passed the first guy, reached the second guy, he tried to react but he was spent, I was past him and driving on to the finish line. I looked at my watch with about 50m to go, I knew I was under 7 hours, it was instant relief! With the Finns behind me and 7 hours in the bag, I could coast to the finish line savouring the atmosphere.

I’ll blog more later about my post race feelings, my crazy taper strategy and my views on the whole GB representation, but needless to say, I was very pleased with my race. I came 11th in my age group and went sub 7 hours, I’ll take that! Many thanks to my family, friends, coach and sponsors for all your support, I know it’s a cliché, but without all your help I would never have made it to Finland to represent my country. That means a lot to me, so I thank you all.

Ironman triathlon - Challenge Barcelona

Congratulations to all the Vale Sports Therapy clients who took part in Challenge Barcelona (an iron distance triathlon race) today!

Well done guys, especially Rich Jones who completed the gruelling race in a time of 8hr53, an amazing time from a guy who works full time whilst trying to train and race at the highest level.