NIALL BRESLIN

Over these next few weeks your training may step up considerably and will be focused on repeating the sessions with seeing gains in each one. That might be not feeling sore the next day, more consistency in training. If the lack of consistency is still there really do focus on the timing and volume of food around the now much longer runs.

Look at your week and pencil in when your sessions are. Remember the body does not reset at 12 midnight and one late session will affect the next session which could be in the morning. I have given an example below.

So if you look at this example. There are two runs in between sat and Sunday. The difference between the two runs is actually less then 24hrs as one is on sat at 3pm and the second is on Sunday at 9am. So the recovery between both is quite short and the gaps between eating and drinking is quite long.

You can then see that on Monday morning this person has actually done another run and gym before breakfast which is less than 24hrs since the last session. Again very short recovery time. The other mistake here is that the last meal on Sunday is at 6.30pm. So the gap between Sunday meal and Monday breakfast is 13.5hrs and they have trained. This can impact the next sessions and make you feel very tired and result in soreness and not feeling the sessions.

So simple solutions here:

Look at your training time relative to the next session.

Use Friday and Monday as bookends to the longer weekend sessions when it comes to recovery and training.

No gaps after the runs. Look to immediately put something in. A yoghurt and fruit and then follow this by your lunch or dinner depending on the time.

Supper is great on the evening before morning sessions as this really becomes part of the pre fuel routine.

The weather is now getting a little warmer so really important to focus on the fluids throughout the day as well as around sessions. As the sessions get longer aim to use a loop so you can leave drinks bottle.

Use this template to try and see where your pressure points are, where you might be leaving gaps and then food can be added according to the need.

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Download the template below: