I’ve got a coach 

I’ve been pondering this descision for a while….

Do I get a coach?

Do I need a coach?

Will I benefit from a coach?

I mean, I know it’s not a degree, but I studied Physical Education at A Level, got a B (before they added stars in) and I can tell you now it wasn’t all practical, if anything, theory made up 70-80% of it.

I’ve got books, oh how many I have and the amount of hours of documentaries/YouTube I’ve consumed on the subject are immense. I should be a walking, talking practiontioner, who only by lack of a recognised qualification, should be able to teach, nurture and develop you.

Or me.

But I’m not.

It’s easy to give sound advice, but how much harder is it to act upon what you say. 

Furthermore, my volume of training varies wildly and for events, I do just enough panicky training to survive. Only once since leaving school have a I raced, where I claimed 3rd male at White Star Events inaugural Dark Ox night 10km….

So, despite this bank of knowledge, experience and resources, after some deliberation (it was almost 4 months between making first contact and getting the ball moving), I took the plunge and hired Paul Giblin as my coach.

Now Paul is a pretty handy elite ultramarathon athlete, 5th at Western States, 17th UTMB…  and this are only some of the highlights from 2016. He has pedegree and real world knowledge of training and race strategy.

Paul also created content which, as you can imagine, is a plus for a camera carrying, blogger/journalist like myself.

Two weeks in, I’m loving being part of #TEAMPYLLON 

My motivation is up, I’m better organised, can see how the next month pans out in training and as much as I’m focussing on my training block, a good chunk of time is deveoted to soft tissue work. If I’m a lazy runner, my soft tissue/stretching/recovery specific laziness is off the chart. 

Here’s to the next months. I’ll keep you updated about the experience and hopefully we can see a PR at Lakeland 50 in 10 or so weeks time.