This weekend I am really excited to have an interview with Rosie Clarke. Rosie has gone from strength to strength over the last few seasons and now specialises in the steeplechase, but her times on the flat are still seriously credible. Here's an exciting and inspiring post from this amazing athlete! Rosie has a 3000sc pb of 9:32:08 from this season. You have been to the World Championships and Commonwealth Games, what are your next goals? 2018 is proving to be an interesting year. We had the Commonwealth Games very early in the calendar, as well as our regular summer season to contend with. I am now focusing on getting some solid months of winter training before the 2019 season. My best performances always comes when I’m focused on racing, so I will be enjoying all my competitions and not fixating on times. What first drew you to running? Have you done it from a young age, or did you pick it up when you were slightly older? I ran a little as a youngster, but I really didn’t enjoy it! I was involved in a multitude of different sports, lacrosse, netball, swimming, trampolining to name a few. It was actually whilst studying at the University of Bath that I met some of my closest friends through the athletics club, and fell in love with running. I never envisaged making a career of it at that stage, but I have certainly never looked back! What has been the biggest challenge you have faced during your running career? Injury is a horrid theme that litters the majority of sporting careers. I suffered a major setback in June 2017 with a stress injury to my fibula, just 8-weeks before the World Championships in London. This was to be not only my first World Champs, but also hosted in our own capital city, I was determined not to miss out. Naturally, injury results in physical pain, but since I could work really hard on the watt bike throughout my rehab I dealt with that side ok, it was the mental battle of remaining positive that I found most challenging. Fortunately I have an amazing team, and with their help I made it to London. My performance at the World Championships was disappointing, but I remain incredibly proud of the issues I overcame in order to make it onto that start line. A few years ago you started competing in the steeplechase. What initially drew you to the event? I had always been fascinated by hurdling. When it is done well, it is such an impressive skill, and coming from a multi-sport background the technical elements of the steeplechase really interested me. It was when I linked up with my coach, David Harmer, and knew I could trust him to manage the event transition, that I decided to go for it! This was the best decision I have made. I have now finished my third season of competing in the steeplechase, and really feel like I have found my event. What has been the highlight of your career so far? Placing 4th at the 2018 Commonwealth Games has to be my proudest achievement to date in athletics. I may not have come away with a medal, but I put myself in contention to do so, and I didn’t fall too far short! This performance has really helped me to reassess my long-term aims, and grow my self-belief as an athlete. What would you say to you 16-year-old self? Trust your instincts. Listen to others, learn from others, but at the end of the day you know yourself better than anyone, so don’t be afraid to pave your own pathway. Do you have a favourite post-session/race food? Any nutritional advice for younger athletes? I love food! Personally, a really juicy steak is always a winner post-session/race. Food is obviously essential as our fuel source, but it can also be great fun. I travel a lot as an athlete, and trying local delicacies and dishes is a great way for me to get a better feel for whatever country I happen to be staying in at that time. The best advice I could give to younger athletes would be learn to cook. Natural, fresh ingredients are always the best for you. You don’t need to transform into a Michelin starred chef, just have a handful of well-balanced, tasty meals that you enjoy and are confident to rustle up! I just want to say a massive thank you to Rosie for answering these questions, which I am sure will inspire and teach many others!
G x
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I am so excited to say I have an interview with Jemma on my blog this weekend. I'm sure many of you know who Jemma is, especially following her incredible U20 1500m European title, but for those of you who don't here are some of her PBs and recent achievements. PBs: 800m - 2:04 1500m - 4:12 3000m - 9:11 Achievements: 1500m and 3000m British Champion U20 European 1500m Champion 2017 4th U20 at European 3000m in 2017 What was it like when you won the u20 European 1500m title? What has it been like since this, have you noticed more press, etc.? Winning European U20 1500 was surreal. It meant the world to me. I still can’t believe it’s happened and I often watch the video back to relive it. It made it even more special not doing as well as I wanted the day before, to come back and prove myself. Also showing my mental strength which is something I have worked on. Since winning it’s boosted my confidence and a lot of papers wanted to talk to me but everyone was friendly and not pushy, so it wasn’t too intense. I think the main thing was I just carried on as if I wasn’t European champion. Yes I remind myself of this amazing achievement but I now want to better being junior champ so I have to keep my feet on the ground and my eyes on the stars. Not letting it go to my head. This experience was amazing and I am trying to use it to help and expire more athletes. At what point did you know that running was something that you wanted to do as your career? And what was the decision like to become a full-time athlete? I started running at 9 years old and fell in love with it. I worked hard in school I was never the smartest to say the least I scrapped my way through. At 16 years old I couldn’t get my head off running. I’d be sitting in maths class working out splits I should do at training. After my exams I said to my mum and Dad I don’t want to go to school, all I wanted to do was run. Of course I got told education comes first but I’m very grateful they supported me with my decision, to leave school and attend college for two years focusing on sports coaching where I was much happier and excelled in my classes because I was doing something I loved. I then went on to studying fitness instructor/personal trainer and I finished my studies for the summer. Through the summer I was busy racing and didn’t have much thought about studies. By August (2017) I was working in a local pub to have some money to do my next course. Around October I then decided I wanted to just run, I can study at any point in my life so I thought why not take the opportunity, grab the chance to give this my best shot. My parents very supportively helped me along. I then signed a Nike contract in November I cried when I got home to tell me family. This was my big chance to prove myself and develop! A dream come true! Since then I’ve officially said I’m going to focus on my running until the right time comes to return to study and use this opportunity to my best advantage. Have you always been at the top from a young age, did you start running competitively at a young age? I started running at 9 years old in schools races, I then swiftly went to kilbarchan aac. Where I competed and trained. Nothing serious just had fun as I developed and done running when I wanted. I was never up top, I was always about average. I had never competed in a serious race till I was around 16 years old. I started to win a couple of scottish champs then medaled at English champs. So it took me around 7 years to start winning champs but I never really understood winning these champs because to me all races were the same I was just doing what I loved. What is your favourite pre-run and post run snack? Porridge is my go to snack before running or a naked bar. Post run must be peanut butter on toast or bagel! You have been on a training camp in South Africa over this winter. What was it like to be out on a training camp with lots of the senior British team? Before coming on my first senior camp I was slightly nervous because I was the youngest. I didn’t know if I’d fit in well. Being on the camp is amazing everyone is lovely and I’ve been included in everything. Trainings going very well and I’ve been working with loads of different people. It’s been a great experience and opportunity. It is very expiring being around the best of British athletes. What are some of your aims for this summer season and what races are you focusing on? This summer I have no junior or u23 comps outside of the UK. I am hoping to travel and race abroad getting new experiences. I’d like to run quite a bit faster than the times I did this year. A big aim would to be selected to run at the European Senior championships. I know it will be very very tough to get this as our endurance athletes are smashing it, but I like to aim big. What’s your favourite session? My Favourite session would be some quick 2s. We don’t do it very often so it’s a nice treat. Have you ever been effected by injury badly? If yes can you talk a bit about it and how you recovered and stayed motivated? I’ve never been effected by an injury but my asthma has took a year to get right. Since May last year till December 2017 my asthma was out of control and it consisted in a lot of hospital and doctor visits every week. It was hugely frustrating for me and everyone in my team. I felt so down, knowing I wanted to run faster but not being able to breathe properly wouldn’t allow me. Thankfully I have the right help and now I hope I’ll not struggle with this much again. And having the support from everyone looking after me, helped a lot. What does a typical training week look for you, do you do high mileage? Monday; session track Tuesday; 2 runs and circuits Wednesday; sessions track Thursday; 2 runs Friday; rest Saturday; session on grass Sunday; long run I don’t think I do very many miles it’s more quality not quantity. At 19 I don’t think it’s too good either to hammer in miles as I’m still developing and want room for improvement in the future instead of peaking too early. I just want to say a huge thank you to Jemma for allowing me to interview you, personally you are a huge inspiration to me and I am sure you are to so many others too!!
Today I am very excited to share with you an interview with Matt. Matt is doing something pretty incredible in April, he's running 7 marathons in 7 days. Matt is a friend of my sisters and unsurprisingly I have got to know him through our love of running. I'll leave the rest of the talking down to his interview... be prepared to be inspired! 1. What has inspired you to take up this challenge?I’ve always been keen to part take in a big challenge and do something for charity, but I never really knew what to do. It was actually after running the 2017 London Marathon, when I’d luckily got in through the ballot, I knew exactly what I could do.. It was all down to the inspiration behind it, which had always been there ever since I met my wife, Nellie. In brief, my wife lost her Mum, Jane Peckham-Cooper, back in 2002 where she was tragically taken away from her husband and 7 young children far too early, in a tragic car accident. This challenge is all in her memory and in what would have been her 70th year I thought it would be apt to run 7 marathons, one for each of the siblings, in a location of their choice in 7 consecutive days. 2. What locations are your 7 marathons in? So as mentioned, each marathon has been chosen by each of the 7 Peckham-Cooper siblings. I’ve asked them to chose a place which holds special importance or memories for them. So it all starts on Monday April 16th in Edinburgh for Angus, then we head South to Yorkshire for Adams marathon on the 17th. Wednesday 18th, we travel further South-West to Bristol for Miles.Then down to Cornwall for Roper on day 4 of the challenge, I’ll then be heading East up to Bournemouth on the 20th for Milly before coming back to my home county Kent on the Saturday for Ross, where the Peckham-Coopers all grew up. Then I’ll be finishing with my wife, Nellie, on Sunday 22nd where we are both running the London Marathon. 3. Which day(s) do you think you will find most challenging? Well, I’m hoping this isn’t the case, but all of them probably! I’m hoping that day one and two aren’t too bad, but I also know that Edinburgh & Yorkshire aren’t exactly known for being flat.. I’m expecting the middle few to be the toughest, as I think that running at home in Kent and then the London last with Nellie and all the support you get from the crowds will get me through, even if it is on adrenaline alone! 4. How are you preparing with your running to take on this challenge? So I’m not a massive runner really, my first Marathon was the London in 2017 and I quite enjoyed the training for that. However, this is another level, I’m trying to run at least 5 times a week and finding the time has to be the hardest thing. It’s just a case of getting the miles in my legs I think, as I don’t necessarily need to concentrate on pace or timings which I’ve found tough. Of course with that amount of running comes niggles and injuries, which have slowed me down a touch in certain periods but hopefully I’ll be as ready as I can when the challenge comes! 5. What are you most worried about during the lead up and during your 7 marathons? The main thing has to be letting people down, all the support/donations that you receive from people is amazing. It’s something that not only drives you to train & do it but also scares you, as you just don’t want to let people down. This partly, as I’ve said before, has to be through injuries, I’m known by all my family & friends for having ‘glass’ ankles from playing football and of course I’ve had a few issues with them which have put me back a little last year but they seem to be all ok now and I’ve got all the strapping you could imagine, so fingers crossed they shouldn’t be too much of an issue! 6. How have people reacted to this huge challenge you are taking on? The reaction I usually get from people when they first hear about the challenge is them questioning my sanity! Everyone thinks I’m mad...However, as mad as they think I am, everyone has been so supportive. It really has been incredible! Lots of people offering to help with organising bits, helping to get sponsors and so on. I know I’ve got a few people on board as well as the Peckham-Cooper’s to come and join me for some running during the marathons, whether that be a whole one or even just a part of it and of course it’s really appreciated, the more people running with me the merrier! If you want to continue to follow Matt's journey over his build up to the marathons then here are the details to his Instagram and website. Donations and sponsors are a hugely important aspect of this challenge so there are some details below if you want to donate or sponsor.
Instagram: @7marathonmatt Website: www.7marathonmatt.co.uk Donate: Just Giving Sponsor: 7marathonmatt I am so excited to say I have got a fantastic interview by Charlotte Purdue on the blog this week, but let me first start off with a bit about Charlotte. Age: 26 Club: Aldershot Farnham and District Charlotte has recently participated in the the London IAAF World Championships marathon and she finished in a very impressive 13th, which is incredible in a time of 2:29:48 and she is still only 26, so still has time to show us even more. Charlotte also had a hugely successful junior career, and competed for GB for several IAAF World Cross Country Championships. Here are some of the questions I asked her and her responses. What age did you start running and what made you start? I started running age 11 when I first went to Secondary school. I started running because my best friends thought it would be funny to sign me up for the school cross country. After doing it, I realised I enjoyed it and was pretty good :). When did you represent Great Britain for the first time? My first GB was in 2007 when I was 15 years old. I ran an International in Portugal, later that year I went on to run the World Cross Country in Kenya. When did you make the transition to a full-time athlete, was this an easy transition and was this a clear thing for you to do in your career? I became a sort of full time athlete when I left university, I still had a part time job at this time although it wasn't many hours. I am a qualified Personal trainer and Pilates instructor so I was chasing my own hours and it was flexible around training. Injury is something that hits most runners through their career, have you ever had to overcome any major injuries? If yes how did you physically and mentally recover from this? I’ve had a load of major injuries including 6 stress fractures in my career. From the ages of 19-22 were probably the hardest for me as I seemed to be constantly injured. I mentally was able to get through this by focusing on other things such as university, my personal training course and cross training. My family and friends were really supportive. How important would you say diet is as a runner and have you had to make any significant changes as you have progressed to being an elite and full time athlete? Diet is very important as an athlete as it is fuel for all the training that I do. I think it’s key not to over complicate your diet. When people ask me what I eat before a race/marathon I tell them that the key is to eat food that you know agrees with you (tried in training) and that you enjoy. There’s no special diet, just eating healthy 80% of the time and eating enough balanced foods - fats, proteins and carbohydrates! And obviously the treats have to fitted in throughout the week :). You go altitude training a lot, is this something you would recommend to endurance runners? Have you found it has helped your fitness? Yes – I’ve found altitude training really beneficial to my training. I don’t always go to altitude when I go away on training camps though. I tend to spend a lot of my time in Melbourne as my coach and training group are based there. It is good to get away and train with people who have similar goals. You are relatively young, and marathon doesn’t seem like an obvious event to go down at your age. What got you into marathon running instead of 5,000 or 10,000m? I ran the 5,000m and 10,000m when I was coming up from juniors to senior level. A main reason for my move to the marathon was the fact that I always seemed to pick up injuries running on the track. I changed coaches in 2014 and after picking up a stress fracture during a track session we decided that we would change my training and that I would avoid high intensity sessions and track training in order to get my body healthy and more robust! Where are you based mostly throughout the year for your training? Do you travel away from home a lot for training camps? Yes I'm always away for training - but I love travelling :). I train a lot in Teddington and Windsor Great Park when I'm in the UK. What are your favourite pre and post-race snacks? Pre race I usually stick to simple foods such as oats with banana, honey and peanut butter. Post race I always have lots of treats - my favourites are a good pizza, ice cream and lots of sweets! I just have to say a huge thank you to Charlotte for answering these questions following a busy time at the world championships. I think everyone can really learn from Charlotte and she is also really one to watch in the future!
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HelloI'm Grace, a 18 year old runner, and fitness fanatic. Join me on my crazy journey through life, squeezing in an adventure in every second of spare time I have. Archives
November 2018
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