Probably time for a training update: Current situation is there is no current training.

Like a junkie who thinks one little hit here and there can’t hurt, I ran a few little extra miles here and there. A bit further and a bit faster. Some long runs. An old favourite elite marathon training session and some even longer runs.

Before I know it, I’m high on adrenalin. The wind in my hair! The miles pounding out from beneath my feet and I’m really flying! Until like the junkie I OD again and I’m back on rock bottom.

Maybe I need to set up a Runner’s Anonymous group for those who just can’t stop themselves even when one leg is falling off. My name is Jo and I’m a Runner…..

Learning from experience

I wrote this almost exactly three years ago. I was on yet another comeback with the aim to run a sub-3 marathon. Dangerously enticed by the magic of the London Marathon. Until I managed to injure myself more badly than even I had managed before. This time unable to walk, drive or even sit down for more than a week. It was a suspected stress fracture in my pelvis. And no running for three months.

Fortunately it marked a turning point. The injury coincided with my Athletics Coach qualification. I gained a new perspective on my training. For the first time I could really stand back and look at how I trained with fresh eyes.

My experiences over the years have made me a better coach and a better athlete. Possibly 30 years too late as an athlete. But better late than never.

Driven to success and destruction

There are countless motivations for running. Intrinsic and extrinsic ones. However for most runners there is one common underlying factor. It makes us feel good. This is an emotional connection to running. It’s the emotional connection that makes the rational perspective more difficult to maintain. But without the passion it’s hard to push yourself.

Running is hard work. You need to be driven to succeed. As a coach you want to work with athletes who have drive. The challenge for both athletes and coaches is how to channel this drive so that it results in success not destruction.

The faster you want to run, the harder you want to push yourself, the closer you get to the fine line between the two. The more you need to recognise the importance of the long-term goals. Not just today’s session and tomorrow’s long run.

Recognise the warning signs

As an athlete I know all too well the mindset which believes nothing is worse than being told not to run today. As a coach I encourage the athlete to see that being told you can’t run today is not as bad as being told you can’t run tomorrow. Or the day after. Or the day after that.

Understanding how and why athletes might feel this way about their running is key. As a coach you can then reinforce the long-term goals and avoid any cautionary steps being perceived negatively by the athlete. It relies on a good, honest, open relationship between coach and athlete. Communication is the key.

As an athlete when I recognised the early warning signs of illness or injury I would ring my coach to say “Do you think I ought to run today?” Invariably his reply was “If you need to ring to ask, then the answer is probably no”. But this conversation meant we could respond to the early warning signs in a positive, constructive and shared way that gave us both, coach and athlete, a sense of control.

Nobody’s perfect

I wish I could say as a coach I am now a fully reformed character. I thought I was but I tweaked my hamstring this week. I slipped over in the dark running with my children during a lockdown, homeschool, running session. Much like that junkie, I’m blaming covid, my kids, the London Marathon, Instagram and you. Anyone but me.

In truth it’s been niggling for some time. I’ve tried to ignore it in desperation to get out of the door in lockdown. Thankfully it’s not too bad this time. It’s another reminder that even though my best competitive days are behind me I’m still a runner at heart. And I still need to think like a coach when it comes to my own running.

My name is Jo and I am a runner and a coach.

Jo is a former GB marathon runner and now fully qualified British Athletics coach. To find out more about her coaching or see what running she’s still doing you can visit her Running Jo website here or follow her on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.

The post My name is Jo and I am a runner appeared first on Fast Running.

If you want to be the best you have to know how to train hard. That means to be able to push yourself to your limits. It’s something that as an athlete I have always been quite good. However, until I started coaching, I hadn’t reflected much on it. Now as a coach I would say it’s both a talent and a skill developed over years of training and racing. So how do you develop this skill?

What is pain?

A good place to start is by understanding what is pain. It’s an unpleasant sensory experience associated with tissue damage. We feel pain when a signal is transmitted along neural pathways to the brain. It’s also an emotional state. In essence, pain is literally all in your head.

This doesn’t make it hurt any less but it can help you to develop some good mental strategies. However, it also makes it trickier when it comes to endurance running because there’s a lot of time to think about a lot of things, including how much it hurts.

800ms to Marathon are all on the same continuum of pain

As someone who progressed from winning national medals as a young athlete in the 800ms up to the marathon as a Masters athlete I have a lot of experience across the range of endurance events. So I can confirm they all hurt. They just hurt in different ways.

There’s the short-lived but intense, lung-searing agony of oxygen debt over 800ms. At the other extreme is the prolonged suffering and attrition in the marathon. The nature and duration of the pain may differ. But they all require the same key ability to push yourself when it gets tough.

Train for pain

Just like VO2 Max or lactate threshold, you can train yourself to develop more effective mental strategies. There’s a lot of sports psychology support available to help. This not to advocate that you should ignore easy days and recovery. But it does mean you need to practice pushing yourself hard in training.

As an athlete, the relentless track sessions we ran at Bedford & County AC were critical to my later success. They were long and hard and you hung on even if you thought you were literally dying. We used to “joke” that if you could survive those sessions, then the race would be easy. But all joking aside, those sessions enabled us to develop essential mental resilience.

Is an ability to hurt one of the benefits of moving through the distances from a young age? Credit: Trevor Painter

Some athletes don’t always appreciate just what it means to push yourself hard. I was fortunate to watch Paula Radcliffe (and numerous other top international athletes) train on trips to Font Romeu. It was eye opening to see how hard those athletes really push themselves. Closer to home, those Bedford sessions also set an example to others of how to train hard. I remember being collapsed on the inside of the track at the feet of another coach and his group. He gestured towards me and said to the group “THIS is how I want you to be at the end of your session!”

Develop a range of helpful strategies

The best runners develop a range of strategies to help them in different scenarios. Over many years I perfected my ongoing internal dialogue. It consists of a mix of bribery, corruption, threat and deceit. Promising treats. Telling myself it’s not that bad. It won’t last forever. One more lap of the track. You’ll be pleased when it’s over. If you give up now, you will never forgive myself and all your pain and suffering will have been for nothing.

Distraction such as singing in my head or chanting mantras works well. Even now I always count down the last 60 seconds of every rep. It helps me to focus on the numbers and the here and now. What’s more, it stops the bad habit looking at your watch every five seconds too.

If masochism fails, try sadism

I have always said the best competitive athletes have the perfect balance between masochism and sadism. In the heat of competition (and during those track sessions at Bedford) one of my personal coping strategies was to switch focus to the suffering of my fellow competitors. Tell myself they hurt just as much as me, or even more. This helped me to hang on while I squeezed out a little bit more effort to make sure I finished them off.

If you want to achieve your best you have to develop the skills to train hard. That means how to cope with the pain of searing lungs, lactate build up in your legs and sheer exhaustion and fatigue. The good news is it is a skill you can improve. The bad news is it takes a lot of practice. So next time your lungs are burning and your legs are screaming, tell yourself “this is all in my head” and push harder.

Jo is a former GB marathon runner and now fully qualified British Athletics coach. To find out more about her coaching visit her Running Jo  website or to see the latest updates on her running and coaching follow her on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.

The post How to train hard appeared first on Fast Running.

Is there really ONE session that can make all the difference to your running?

In truth its consistency of training over time that makes the real long-term difference. However, for every athlete (and coach) there’s always one session that they believe gives them the extra edge to be at their best when it counts.

For me, Bondarenko was always THAT session. But “oh my goodness!” was it hard. Whenever I ran any Bondarenko I would feel like I had taken my 10k training to the next level. When I ran a good Bondarenko – I would feel invincible!

So what is Bondarenko and what can it do for you?

‘Bondarenko’ was devised and named after the Russian athlete Olga Bondarenko. Her and her coach devised the session to address her shortcomings in 10,000ms. The session aims to improve both endurance and speed over 10k. Specifically it develops your ability to change pace in competitive races. All credit to my coach Alex Stanton for introducing the group at Bedford and County AC to ‘Bondarenko’.

It’s the ultimate 10k training session (although the full session comes in at a huge 12k not including the warm up and cool down). In essence the session mixes short fast reps with hard recoveries. From a physiological perspective it is an extreme form of new interval training where the fitness benefits arise from the unusually fast paced “recovery” sections.

You have to be pretty fit to even attempt a Bondarenko. It’s not for beginners. It takes an enormous amount of drive and determination to get it right, let alone make it good. But if you can – then its not just good for 10ks but any distance from 5k to half marathon.

What does it feel like to walk out into a stadium and be met by the roars of 32,000 people who have all come to watch YOU? #ThrowbackThursday 18yrs ago today to my international debut at a major athletics event. Commonwealth Games Manchester 2002 pic.twitter.com/HCLr7nycwU

— Jo Wilkinson (@runningjo10k) July 30, 2020

The structure of the session

It sounds deceptively easy. Sets of 400ms, 300ms, 200ms and 100ms with the same distance recovery as each rep. It adds up to 2k for each set. But the sting in the tail comes in the recovery runs. These are not jogs. They are run at a much faster pace than most recoveries. Then to add to the challenge, the sets are run continuously back to back in blocks.

The full sessions consists of blocks of 3 sets, 2 sets and 1 set with 4-5 minutes recovery between each block.

The secret to a successful Bondarenko session is make sure you run the right pace for your reps and recovery runs. The recovery pace is almost more important than the rep pace. Then make sure you don’t overcook the first set or you will struggle to finish the block.

Like all good endurance session, it comes down to your ability to push yourself on when you start to get tired. Especially at the end of each rep as you must go straight into the recovery run. Maybe that’s why I liked it so much? It trains you both physically and mentally to keep going and work harder even when all you want to do is stop.

What is the right pace?

It takes some maths work out. Ideally you should aim to run the reps at your 5k pace, or slightly faster for the shorter reps. The recovery runs are approx. steady run pace. I usually work it out on a ratio of 3:4 for reps to recovery pace per 100ms (subject to fitness).

What does that look like in practice? Well for me at my best (running just under 16 minutes for 5000ms) my sessions worked out like this for each 2k set:

400m reps 76s, 400ms recovery 1.36
300m reps 56s, 300ms recovery 1.12
200m reps 36s, 200m recovery 48s
100m reps 18s, 100m recovery 24s

That works out as 7.06 per 2k set or an average of 3.33/km.

No wonder I ended each session invariably collapsed on the inside of the track groaning loudly!

How to get started

Like any session you must start at the level that’s right for you. Throw yourself straight into a full Bondarenko when your usual sessions are much shorter or you aren’t used to active jog recoveries and you’ll find it hard going. Rather than improve your running, it might finish it for good with injury.

In working out the right volume for you it’s essential to count the total volume including recoveries too. A good starting session is one block of two sets and one block of one. This adds up to a 6km track session. You can then build up the session over time from there.

More importantly, run it sparingly. It’s not one for every week due to the volume and intensity. To get the most from Bondarenko you need to plan it into your training at the right time with the right runs before and after the session. That’s where having a coach makes the difference not just following the sessions you read about online.

Jo is a former GB marathon runner and now fully qualified British Athletics coach. To find out more about her coaching or see what running she’s still doing you can visit her Running Jo website here or follow her on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.

The post Running Session: ‘The Bondarenko’ with Jo Wilkinson appeared first on Fast Running.

I know from first-hand experience the huge benefits to running and performance from having a physio as part of your team. I was fortunate to find one of the best early on. I’ve seen Mark Buckingham throughout my running career (for over 20 years now and counting!).

His knowledge and expertise with runners, as well as his treatment and support, has been invaluable. Now as a coach, I apply much of his understanding, techniques, and exercises to my coaching too.

More than just treating injuries

There’s a common misperception that the physios’ only role is to treat injuries. Like most, I also started by only seeing Mark each time I had an injury. I’ve often joked that if he was any good, I wouldn’t have seen him for 20 years. That is, I laughed until he wiped the smile off my face by sticking his elbow in my tight piriformis.

In truth I’m doing him a great disservice. It is because he’s such a great physio that I have seen him for that long. His standard retort that “he wouldn’t have to keep seeing me, if I didn’t keep running” really goes to heart of the matter.

Studies show the vast majority of endurance injuries are over-use injuries. The more you want to improve, the harder you push yourself, the closer you get to your limits, and the greater the risk of injury. Things rarely just go pop. There are almost always early warning signs. It’s easy to ignore these, either through ignorance or wilful denial. We are notoriously bad at prioritising rehab, rest and recovery over a few extra miles.

How many runners complain about their sore achilles/calf/hamstring* in one breath (*delete as applicable). Then in the next, say it’ll be fine as soon as they have “run it off”. If the injury has been caused by too much running, common sense alone tells you that yet more running is unlikely to resolve it.

Prehab & Rehab

Working with a physio doesn’t guarantee you’ll be injury-free. But it does help you spot the warning signs sooner and respond more effectively. A physio with a good understanding of runners will identify any underlying weaknesses and how these may contribute to potential future injuries.

It’s not just about treatment in the physio room or short term resolutions. They’ll set a programme of preventative and rehabilitative exercises to lengthen, strengthen, mobilise and restore functional balance in the running motion. Often in association with an adjusted running programme.

After years of working with Mark I have a far better understanding of my own bio-mechanics. Consequently, I can more knowledgeably assess when to ease back and when to push on. I know that if my foot develops a blister in the arch then it’s probably a sign that my foot is starting to collapse and most likely that my glutes are getting weak too. Then I can address these issues before I get injured again. And most importantly, I can keep running.

Relationship is key

Developing a long-term relationship with a physio means that you can build trust, openness, and honesty. There was no need to recount my running and injury history to Mark each visit. It also meant I could not pull the wool over his eyes. He knew what running I was doing and could tell if I had been working on my preventative programme.

All too often runners enthusiastically tackle their strengthening exercises only until they can get back to running. Then it’s consigned to low priority. Leading back to that boom-bust cycle of training. Regular follow up with your physio, coupled with support from your coach, ensures more sustained benefits. And ultimately, less time of enforced rest.

A long-term relationship works two ways. Rest does help most injuries in the short term. Unfortunately, it can be the default setting of some physios, without addressing the underlying causes. However, Mark knew you can find a balance and would always aim to keep me running, albeit with modifications to my training.

Especially in the build up to a major event when rest is a luxury that I couldn’t always afford. We could negotiate the best strategy from a position of shared knowledge, understanding and goals. That negotiation invariably starting with me suggesting 10 miles, and him, 10 minutes….

Mark at work via Zoom

Lockdown benefits

Fast Running Coach Tom Craggs agrees

“I have worked closely with Mark for many years and his knowledge and experience has provided a foundation for many of the UK’s best athletes. Lockdown has been tough, but one of the benefits has been the ability to jump onto Zoom calls with Mark and athletes I coach.

It’s been an education for me in how with the right words, deep knowledge and a trusting relationship you don’t always have to be with an athlete to make a big impact. Mark’s skill with observation and description is a lesson for many coaches I’d say”

So if you are one of the many runners who find themselves in that boom-bust pattern of injury then maybe it’s time to break the cycle. Physios who understand the athlete are not just for the elite runners. You too can benefit from their knowledge, expertise and input to improve your running.

Remember a physio should be for life not just for injury. You might find that by seeing them more, you end up needing to see them less.

Jo is a former GB marathon runner and now fully qualified British Athletics coach. To find out more about her coaching or see what running she’s still doing you can visit her Running Jo website or follow her on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.

Jo now works closely with Mark Buckingham and Matt Bergin at Performance Team. Performance Team provide expert online physiotherapy to assess, diagnose and prevent persistent injuries and improve running performance with packages of support including video gait analysis and strength and conditioning programme using their unrivalled experience working with all abilities from club athletes to Olympians

The post A physio is for life not just for injury appeared first on Fast Running.

“If you’re too fit for your legs eventually they will fail”.

Sometimes you read a sentence that resonates so strongly with you it literally stops you in your tracks. Ok, so the actual sentence was:

“If the physiological capacity of the body exceeds the bio-mechanical capacity then continued physiological training without focus on the biomechanical deficiencies will eventually lead to plateau or breakdown” (Joanne Elphinston, 2008)

Importance of physical prep

As an elite athlete I did more than my fair share of strength and conditioning exercises. However, my running was still interrupted at key points by injury. Looking back I can’t help but wonder what I might’ve achieved if I’d really fully understood this concept then. Better late than never. I’ve now been running injury free for the last two years. This is largely as a result of physical preparation becoming a more integral part of my own training.

Unfortunately the original sentence is not quite short and snappy enough to make a good mantra so now as a coach I have taken the liberty of paraphrasing.

Based on the anecdotal evidence of my own running career and the many runners I know, I would argue that, more than any other event group, this concept is poorly understood by the endurance community. Endurance runners love running. Given the choice between a run or some strength and conditioning work most of us opt for the run.

Good intentions require action

We profess to know the importance of strengthening work but still consistently fail to put it into practice. The relationship between knocking vital seconds off our PB seems more closely related to running extra miles than it does to strengthening our core, glutes or calves (to name a few key muscle groups).

What’s more, as a coach I would venture to say that coaches must share some of the blame. Many coaches, like myself, start as athletes. The institutional endurance culture is still skewed towards the running training with strengthening work the junior partner or after thought, and too often non-existent. Ultimately to the detriment of performance of athletes.

Studies show that the vast majority of endurance injuries are over-use injuries. Even when athletes are stuck in a cycle of injury and training, many coaches still fail to prioritise the long-term commitment to physical preparation in their training plans. They may follow rehab exercises from the physio but often these are dropped as soon as the athlete is back running.

 

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All too often we ignore our glutes and, instead of being pistons of power driving us forward, they hang around in the back seat of the car doing nothing like a pair of passengers eating a McDonalds from the service station….. If I’ve got any hope of staying ahead of the 14 year old big child I’m going to have to bring out the big guns…. or more accurately, the big glutes! I need every help I can to run stronger and faster so it’s probably worth focusing on one of the strongest muscles we have. Not only strengthening but engaging your glutes is key. And that requires a strong core and good pelvis position as well or they literally won’t work. So on top of my new weekly intervals running session to improve my pace I’m also working on core, glutes and leg strength throughout the week. A programme of strengthening exercises that develop functional stability – strength and control throughout the required range of movement – to make sure all of my effort is going into running as fast as I can because I need every bit of help I can get! Yesterday’s 30 min steady run followed by some backward lunges to high knee. #runfast #runstrong #runstronger #runfaster #run5k #runningcoach #5k #intervals #steadyrun #strengthandconditioning #stronglegs #lunges #highknees #runningmotivation #runningmum #runspiration #runnersofinstagram #runner

A post shared by Jo Wilkinson (@runningjo10k) on Jun 7, 2019 at 5:31am PDT

Performance gains

Physical preparation benefits performance by more than just injury prevention. Running is about bio-mechanical force being applied through the body to propel it along in the most efficient manner. We can isolate this from the focus on energy systems and physiology which dominates endurance training.

The average sprinter takes 50 steps in 100ms. The average (male) marathon runner takes 55,000 steps that’s over 1000 times as many. Sprinters usually do a minimum of 2-3 strengthening sessions in the gym and 2-3 sessions on technique per week.

Sprinting is a power-strength event but that doesn’t mean that we can’t learn some important lessons. The understanding of basic bio-mechanics, forces, loads and movement patterns within running is as relevant to endurance as to sprinting. If we can improve the efficiency and power of each step, by even a tiny amount, it can add up to significant improvements in marathon times.

Cultural change

British Athletics are trying to address this by emphasising the importance of physical preparation in their coaching courses and qualifications. We need a change of culture within endurance groups and clubs to embed this as every day accepted practice.

As a coach my aim is to emphasise the importance of physical preparation to each and every runner, each and every week. So that is where my new mantra comes in. Tomorrow instead of running an extra mile or doing another rep, stop, do some strengthening exercises instead and repeat after me

“If you’re too fit for your legs eventually they will fail
If you’re too fit for your legs eventually they will fail
If you’re too fit for your legs eventually they will fail……”

Jo is a former GB marathon runner and now fully qualified British Athletics coach. To find out more about her coaching or see what running she’s still doing you can visit her website  or follow her on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.

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Like all parenting – whether it’s about restrictions on TV or eating broccoli – it’s easy to have pre-conceived ideas about what makes a good parent. Then you have your own children and find out it’s not so easy in practice.

It’s no different in sport – especially when your children get involved in the sport that you love. After spending the weekend knee deep in mud watching my son at the Midlands Schools Cross Country, the long journey home gave me plenty of time to reflect on what makes a good parent in athletics – and whether I am one.

Knowing when to take a back seat

When you’ve been a runner for many years you think you know a thing or two about it. It’s even worse if you’re also a qualified coach. Even if you’re not, I’m pretty sure we all indulge in glorious fantasies about coaching our child to their first Olympic Gold.

There are some very famous parent-coaches – Peter and Seb Coe, Liz and Eilish McColgan and now the Ingebrigtsen family. But for most children and parents it just doesn’t work. I’ll happily share my knowledge and experience of athletics with my son – when asked.

There’s got to be some advantage to having a parent who’s been a successful athlete. However, I’ve realised when it comes to my son’s running, my job is to be his mum and let his coach do the coaching.

Enjoyment first

Which brings me onto the second most favourite runner-parent fantasy – the one where they storm away to victory in each and every race. Here’s where the reality check is even more important. Even as a pretty good runner, the races I won were far out-numbered by those I didn’t.

Sport is competitive and winning is amazing. But I know that my enjoyment and sense of achievement from running has been based on far more than just winning. As a former elite athlete I know what it’s like to feel pressure. Pressure can be positive and bring out the best in you.

Too many times though, I’ve seen how too much pressure from over-competitive parents, even well-intentioned ones, sucks all the fun out of competition. So contrary to expectations, much as I love the fantasy, as long as my son does his best, runs well and is proud of himself, winning isn’t everything.

However, it’s the nerves that have surprised me the most as a runner-parent. I always got incredibly nervous before my races but found constructive ways to manage them. The gut-wrenching nervous anticipation as a parent is far worse than it ever was as an athlete. What’s more, I can’t let my son see how nervous I am. I’m there to make him feel better not the other way round. All the more reason to let his coach do the coaching while I go off somewhere else and get rid of my nervous energy out of sight.

Jo racing in the European Championships

Being a role model

I now look back with hindsight at my own parents and realise how fortunate I was. At the time I didn’t realise just how immensely proud they were of what I achieved. But equally they never put made me feel that their enjoyment and pride was dependent on whether I won. I only ever remember them being cross with me after one race. However, their disappointment was with my sulky, rude behaviour not my poor performance.

They were always unfailingly encouraging and supportive. And in the case of my Dad – very vocally supportive. You could hear him enthusiastically calling for me on from the other side of the track. But it wasn’t just for me. He shouted on everyone – my competitors and teammates alike.

Petty parental rivalry was not for them. They talked to anyone and everyone. Years later, many of my childhood rivals still warmly remember my Dad shouting them on as they ran. It was a great example of how to get it right. And that’s how I would like to be as a running parent too.

If you’re an athlete, you really hope that your child will take up the sport that you love and rarely consider the challenge it presents – the terrible nerves, the need to be a parent not a coach, reigning in your competitiveness, accepting the difference between fantasy and reality and the miles spent driving them all over the place. I will do my best to be a good parent because it’s worth it all to see my son grow to love the sport too.

Jo is a former GB marathon runner and now fully qualified British Athletics coach. To find out more about her coaching or see what running she’s still doing you can visit her website  or follow her on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.

Are you a fan of Fast Running? Then please support us and become a patron. For as little as the price of a monthly magazine you can support Fast Running – and it only takes a minute. Thank you.

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As befitting the hardcore masochistic image that us endurance runners like to project, we all want to hear about the “killer” sessions that are going push us to our limits. But one of my most effective regular sessions is neither a killer session nor just a steady run. It’s the ‘In-Between Fartlek’. That uninspiring description doesn’t do justice to the important role it has played in my training as a former elite athlete and now for the athletes I coach.

What is the ‘In-Between’ Fartlek?

Fartlek is a well-known term that essentially means mixed pace running and describes a range of differently structured sessions. However, my fartlek runs have a very specific purpose as a session that’s somewhere in between a high intensity hard intervals session and a good steady run.

The key to this session is to manage the variation in pace between the faster and slower sections. The change of pace should be far less extreme than you might run for interval sessions and the overall average pace should be marginally faster than a good steady run.

So you might usually aim for 5k pace or 85-95% of your max. heart rate then recover with a slow jog or walk. By contrast the faster sections of the fartlek are run at a more conservative 10k-half marathon pace or approx. 70-80% HR max. The kicker comes as the slower sections should be faster than most jog recoveries and much closer to your regular steady run pace at around 60-70% HR max.

The challenge is to avoid running too hard for the fast sections, especially at the start. Run too fast and it impacts on your ability to maintain the necessary pace for the slower sections and you lose the point of the session. The effort comes from the constant change of pace and the duration of the session rather than the intensity of the hard efforts. I usually suggest a mix of longer and shorter sections for 25-35mins. However, it can be less or more depending upon your level of fitness, the stage you are at within your overall training cycle and your target race distance.

Why is it such a good session?

Run like this, the fartlek can be very effective in building fitness quickly but the “in between” nature of the session means it’s deliberately less mentally and physically demanding than other interval sessions. And so I run this session in two main circumstances – to build fitness and to avoid overtraining.

Key times for building fitness are during periods of comebacks from injury, illness or end of season breaks and base-building aerobic training such as in the early stages of a marathon training plan. At these times the fartlek is perfect. What’s more it provides a change from monotonous steady aerobic running which many runners can find boring and demotivating but without slipping back into higher intensity running too soon.

But that’s not to say you can’t run the session during periods of high intensity training too. And that’s when its shift of focus from the pace or set distance of traditional intervals can be invaluable. Its role as an in between session means you can lower the intensity – either mentally or physically – to avoid over-training but you still get more training benefit than a steady run. The cumulative load of the constant change of pace and faster-than-usual recovery sections ensures the fatigue builds as the session progresses and you can finish feeling like you’ve still had a hard workout.

So despite its terrible name the ‘In-Between’ Fartlek still forms a core part of my own running these days and often pops up on the training schedules of my athletes. After many years as an athlete and now as a coach I know the real secret to being a hard-core endurance runner is knowing that it’s not always the killer sessions that make difference.

Jo is a former GB marathon runner and now fully qualified British Athletics coach. To find out more about her coaching or see what running she’s still doing you can visit her website herewebsite here or follow her on InstagramInstagram, TwitterTwitter or Facebook.

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Shelley-Ann Fraser-Pryce celebrating her gold medal with her two-year-old son in her arms is inspiring proof that you can successfully return to running, even top-level elite athletics, after having a baby.

I achieved my Great Britain debut 18 months after giving birth, so I know first-hand some of the physiological, emotional and practical challenges of getting back to running. Here, from a very personal perspective, are my top three things it’s useful to know.

Manage your expectations

This is the first piece of advice I give any runner who asks about training during and after pregnancy. We all think we’ll be running again within a week or two. So it’s important to manage your expectations from the start.

The harsh reality is it mostly depends on your birth experience. Being fit and healthy significantly reduces the risks of complications in birth but there are no guarantees.

Like Fraser-Pryce I had an emergency caesarean section. As an athlete I was used to making huge physical demands of my body which it usually met, with the few minor exceptions of a hamstring strain or similar. The experience was an emotional and physical shock. Literally overnight I went from someone who six days beforehand (albeit heavily pregnant) could run/walk three miles to someone who could only painfully shuffle three metres.

So manage your expectations until after you’ve had the baby. But also be reassured even if it all goes horribly wrong you can still get back to running – it might just take longer than you expected.

Nine months there and nine months back

Nine months there and nine months back sums up nicely how long it can take for your body to fully return to its pre-pregnancy state – sometimes longer. Some changes are well-known such as the continued effects of the relaxin hormone (which can last up to 5 months).

However, there are some physiological and practical changes, particularly in the short term, you might not have considered. This is where it gets a bit yucky, messy and embarrassing so if you are of a sensitive nature then look away now but knowing what to expect can help you prepare.

Firstly, your body is not the same shape it was pre-pregnancy. Your stomach doesn’t magically disappear, your centre of gravity will have changed again, your core control will be non-existent and running often feels strange.

Then there’s the really yucky stuff – post-birth you bleed for up to six weeks and it can be heavy and prolonged at first. You need to be aware that exercise can make bleeding heavier and be mindful of the risk of anaemia.

On a practical note – due to the nature of pregnancy and birth you cannot use internal sanitary products upon which you might have previously relied whilst running during menstruation. Then there’s the potential issue of bladder control whilst running. Pelvic floor exercises are essential from the start. Say no more.

Focus on nutrition

And finally breastfeeding. Breastfeeding is a personal choice but don’t be put off either running or feeding by people telling you that you cannot do both because it affects milk production. Ultra-runner Jasmin Paris demonstrated its more than possible to successfully do both and I breastfed for 12 months whilst getting back to serious training.

However, you must manage your nutrition and calorie intake to ensure you have sufficient energy and nutrients to stay healthy. Be warned there’s some potentially embarrassing practical considerations too. For the first few months your breasts are going to be bigger and possibly swollen and painful.

You probably need to invest in some significantly larger and more supportive sports bras. And the feel-good hormones from running can have an unwanted effect on milk production whilst you are running. Let’s just say breast pads are essential.

These aren’t reasons to stop running but they are key to help you understand that your body has changed. It’s all part of managing your expectations and being realistic about when and how much running you can do in the first few months.

A support team

This sounds so blindingly obvious but it’s the one has the biggest day-to-day practical implications and takes the biggest change of mindset. Suddenly your training timetable is totally reliant on the availability of childcare. Whether it’s your partner, family, friends – coach even! – or paid-for childcare, sort out a range of options to make sure you can go running. And make the most of every opportunity to run.

My track sessions were planned to the minute to fit in with my son’s nursery sessions. Drop child at nursery, run to track (saves precious time instead of driving and gets warm up done) do session, run back to nursery to cool down, pick up child. You have to be flexible, creative and prepared to compromise. You also need to accept that your training plans won’t always work out as you hoped.

Managing the fatigue

Training is only half the story. You also need to find time for rest and recovery. You might be prepared for lack of sleep but your waking hours are also filled with endless, tiring childcare activities. Whilst training for the London Marathon in 2010 I devised a cunning solution to ensure I got the much-needed rest after long runs.

Every Sunday afternoon I took my young son to the cinema. He thought this was a great treat (especially with sweets and popcorn). I got two uninterrupted hours to sit down and usually even managed to get a quick nap in the dark too. Whilst I had to watch a lot of dreadful, mind-numbing children’s films, it was worth it to be able to recover properly.

The first few months as a new parent will be the most daunting, exhausting and rewarding time in your life. It takes time to adjust. When it comes to getting back to running don’t be afraid to take your time or ask for help. Most of all remember the smiling picture of Fraser-Pryce with her gold medal doesn’t tell the whole story.

There are no medals for how soon you get back to running and everyone’s experience is different. Whoever you are, it takes hard work and determination. So be patient, be realistic, be positive and be flexible and you can get back to running and potentially even running stronger and faster than you did before.

Jo is a former GB marathon runner and now fully qualified British Athletics coach. To find out more about her coaching or see what running she’s still doing you can visit her website here or follow her on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.

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