Author Archives: Alex Masidlover

A Week in The Life (Part 2)

In part 1 of this post I went through the process of how I plan my upcoming training, this time we’re going to look at what actually happened… Monday, rest (or recovery) day; nailed it! All green, all ‘workouts’ complete – but to be fair nailing a rest day should not be a challenge, althoughContinue reading “A Week in The Life (Part 2)”

A Week In The Life (Part 1)

There are plenty of books out there describing the theory of training plans; how to design a season’s training, how to build each macrocycle, example workouts to go in each microcycle, a few rules for putting workouts in a microcycle, but then things start to get hazy. If you don’t have any commitments outside ofContinue reading “A Week In The Life (Part 1)”

Winter Motivation

It looks like winter has landed and as the daylight wanes, so does many peoples’ motivation. Last week I had my own battle with motivation; it started with a minor work crisis that had me still at my desk at 6pm on Sunday and the possibility of a long run rapidly diminishing… However, I downedContinue reading “Winter Motivation”

How I Managed to Stop Getting Injured (Quite as Much)

In 2018 I made one simple change to my training and since then I’ve run further and faster than ever before and had fewer injuries; what was the secret? When I ran Manchester Marathon in 2015 it would have been my first marathon if the course had not been measured 400m short… But still itContinue reading “How I Managed to Stop Getting Injured (Quite as Much)”

Cake

This text is also available as a podcast Today’s podcast is about nutrition. Those of you who’ve run with me will know that I love nutrition, more specifically cake. However, as much as I’d like to exist exclusively on cake, science tells us that that is a rather less than optimal nutrition strategy. There areContinue reading “Cake”

How Not to Analyse Form

There’s no podcast with this post since the pictures are pretty essential! My marathon attempts and some of my long runs have all had the same challenge; at about 20 miles my quads and hamstrings get incredibly tight and sore. So in order to try and improve matters I’ve tried many things (which will beContinue reading “How Not to Analyse Form”

Time Management

You can listen to this post as a podcast at https://anchor.fm/alex-masidlover/episodes/Marathon-Training-Time-Management-e187dtm The topic of this post is time; therefore I’m going to do my best to keep it short. Marathon training takes a lot of time. Certainly if you want a pleasant marathon training experience with minimal injuries and a marathon itself, that doesn’t leaveContinue reading “Time Management”

Beating Training Fatigue

Listen to this post at https://anchor.fm/alex-masidlover/episodes/Beating-Training-Fatigue-e17rjh0 Whilst a marathon may seem a long way, it’s the training that’s the really long slog. We’re typically doing four runs a week, two strength sessions, a couple of flexibility sessions, rolling after hard runs and timing your meals around training. You’re going to find yourself spending a lotContinue reading “Beating Training Fatigue”

Mind over Matter

To listen to this post visit https://anchor.fm/alex-masidlover/episodes/Mind-over-Matter-e17rj07 Your brain does not want you to run a marathon. It knows that you’re wasting precious energy reserves. It knows that the longer you spend running the more your muscles will be damaged. It knows that if you then encounter a saber-tooth tiger, you will be unable toContinue reading “Mind over Matter”