REST!!!

This sounds really stupid to most people you first speak to, but when I trained for my first half marathon, it was the most important bit of information I ever gained! 

You must plan in time to rest. You know the adverts you see of babies (generally promoting nappies) where they show the baby asleep and discuss how important it is for growing etc… They are not lying! Sleep and rest is massively important when you are partaking in a training regime. 

Some Olympic athletes have sleep and rest time planned into their training plans! (I was told this at University by a tutor who actually worked with the youth athletic GB team).

Our body recovers whilst we are resting, it replenishes and repairs and we underestimate how much more recovery time we need when embarking on a new training regime. I don’t mean you need to sleep all the time, and certainly don’t mean that you shouldn’t train, but make sure you are getting a regular amount of sleep as well as a regular amount of training, and that your sleep does not suffer because all of a sudden you need to cram a 5.30am running session in. Feel free to get up an extra few hours earlier to go running, but go to bed an extra few hours earlier as well…

Maybe even when you get further into your training and are doing long sessions say on a Sunday or Saturday, you could plan in some R&R in the afternoon to recuperate after your session.

There is your first bit of golden advice 

Obligatory First Blog

Firstly let me introduce you to some health and safety points and introduce me!

If you have any doubts at any point in time about the safety of an exercise or your ability to partake in a rigorous training regime you should always consult your doctor. If you have suffered, or are suffering from any ailments please always seek medical advice.The following blogs with a few ‘hints and tips’ are merely advice and it is up to you whether to follow them or not. I would like to think of myself as educated, but as with all advice gained over the internet the responsibility for ensuring your own safety lies with you and I will not accept any liability for any injury or otherwise gained from you following my advice, you do so at your own risk.

Please with this in mind, be wary of all internet sourced information, I caught someone on twitter a week ago giving terribly bad advice on cardio exercise in which he claimed that if you did more than 30 minutes exercise a day then your muscles would be ‘eaten into’ as an energy source and therefore deplete and that more than 30 minutes a day exercise therefore is bad for you!!! This man claimed to be a personal trainer!!! Beware runners, do your own research!!! Always check a number of sources, and look at the source that claims the opposite as well.

So who am I?

My name is Natalie Peperell, I have a first class honours degree in Physical Education, through which I also gained teacher status. I graduated from University in 2005 and got my first teaching post. I began working in a secondary school and also quickly joined a panel of examiners for an exam board to which I still work for. I have since then changed to another school and will leave teaching altogether in December this year (2011). My main focus when teaching was teaching the A Level syllabus to students. I am now following another route, although similar which is coaching. I currently coach a University netball team and a local club. I have an array of coaching qualifications, some level one’s and some level two’s. My grammar and spelling sometimes leaves a lot to be desired, however I am hoping you will forgive me on this point. I truly believe in everything I write, and will try where possible to have research papers or other sources backing up my claims, apart from where I think it is more common sense and inbuilt knowledge.

You will notice that I have not named any of the places in which I work, or have worked. This is purely a legal thing, I am conscious that I should state, all views are my own and should never be linked with any institution to which I am involved with. The legal part is why, and I am unsure as to whether I am allowed to state them when writing such a blog and so it is easier to avoid this. To be fair if you know me personally, via Facebook, or even Twitter, you may well already know this information, and if you really wanted to know I have no doubt that through the medium that is the internet, it would be easy to find out.

So there is the first blog, the obligatory background info!

BORING! NEXT!