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