Living a non-active lifestyle throughout my teenage years, I sought pleasure through bingeing, ending in hospitalisation. Soon after, a teacher suggested running a half-marathon for charity. Out of 240 students between both years of Sixth Form, 4 people volunteered to raise money and train for a Half - including me! I saw it as a way out of trouble and an opportunity to do something positive for myself and others.
With no childhood sporting background, I trained and ran that Half in 1H 58 mins. I caught the running bug.
A year later, I trained to run my first marathon, fundraising for Cancer Research and running 4 Hours 8 Minutes in the 2012 Liverpool Marathon. The next marathon was 3 Hours 59 Minutes, Sub 4. I was over the moon!
Having understood the sport of running and learnt new training techniques, I trained a little harder (and most importantly smarter) to then run 1 hour faster to 2 Hours 59 minutes, Sub 3.
I now have a PB of 2:40 and will be having another crack at bettering this. :) The most important element to me is enjoying my running and maintaining a healthy body though nutrition and balanced training. If you enjoy your training you will get the results.
I have studied nutrition and life sciences and have a Personal Training certificate. Nutrition is SO important and a lot of us recreational runners do not think enough about this aspect. I believe this should be discussed just as much as training volume and intensity.
I offer free trials on both my nutrition service and my online training service.
Get in contact to see if I can help you on your journey. Email oliver@fuelbodyrun.com
If you are determined just to get a PB, we can discuss that too. However, the well-being and enjoyment factor is what I deem as most vital (and most often connected).
It does not need to be a marathon; training for a 1 mile run or 5k race can be just as thrilling, or even training for a weightlifting PB.
Enjoy discussions around nutrition and becoming more confident and competent in your running. Cheers!