Argh, I forgot to upload my Amsterdam time onto the actual event page... would have been #1 woman! oh well... my bad!

Just listening to Sue Roberts. After suffering from overtraining syndrome last year, her advice should be heeded. I was ill for most of last winter so had no base training. It took 5 months for me to get back to being able to run again. I went and got metabolic assessments done before I commenced again. This year has seen me go faster than ever. I regulariy check HR, and now am more aware of back off when I'm feeling under the weather. Knowledge is power.

Here's a short report by multiple world record holder and 3:15 marathon runner (for an 80 year old!) Ed Whitlock. It was in the e-newsletter of our running club - which Ed is a member of...

"The day before the race we had gale force winds which would have been very
difficult to deal with for all concerned. The morning of the race things had
died down to a stiff breeze. I was still concerned about the conditions and
settled on 3:20 as an objective. As things turned out the wind was not as
bad as I expected. The first 2 to 3k were with the wind and I was faster
than that pace. As we turned into the wind I started dialling back the pace.
The organizers had given me an elite start, so the 3:15 pace bunny started
behind me, and when he and his group passed me at about 7k still running
into the wind I decided to hang on to them at least until we turned around
at about 12k. Things seemed to be going OK so I held on with the gradually
diminishing group until 39k when my knees buckled going up a slight incline.
Once over that things weren't too bad and I finished quite well. I found it
somewhat relaxing relying on the pacer and not having to worry about the
splits. The last 7k were against the wind. I ran 1:37:38 for the first half
and 1:38:16 for the second with about half of the slowing occurring on the
39th kilometre. Legs still quite stiff on Wednesday, but otherwise seemingly
undamaged."

Dr Sue Roberts’ interview was educational and well worth listening to. Thank you Marathon Talk for another great interview. There was great advice about fatigue from someone with ample experience (as a result of being a GP).

When Dr Sue Roberts was talking about Elite Athletes limiting factors were mentioned. These included stresses, environments and genetics. The topic of genetics caught my attention. Sue’s view seemed to give too much weight to genetics limiting a runners ability than it actually does.

I’m probably too much the other way because I don’t like to think of myself as having a genetic limit at all. Matthew Syed’s book, Bonce, talks about how people who believe too much in inherited talent (by genetics) don’t do as well because they have the wrong attitude. E.g. if they are training hard and reach a limit which they believe is their genetic limit then they may think what’s the point in training harder?

My view is that runners should forget about genetic limits because they’re very unlikely to reach this ceiling. Furthermore I think that running genetics are not as bias as other sports can be. For example: genetically tall people will be better at basketball, petite women: ballet; small people: horse jockeys etc.

Do you have any thoughts on this?

Thanks DW. We are trying to get Matthew on the show! A very interesting topic. KJ - I know! Sorry! MY