5 Top Tips For Endurance Training... (Guest Blog Post)

This is a guest post from Tim Spackman a personal trainer based in Auckland who trains athletes for endurance events.  Check out his profile at the end of the post and give his social media accounts a like/follow.  Enjoy the post...
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You’ve signed up with a friend for a half-marathon or been talked into being part of a team for an adventure race. If you’re going to put in your time, effort and money, it makes sense to train smart as well as train hard. Here are 5 things to keep in mind when training for any endurance event.

1. Have a training plan...

• The plan doesn’t have to be perfect, but some structure and progression around when you will train, for how long and how hard is necessary.
• A good plan fits in with your life, it doesn’t control your life. If family, or friends are important to you, make sure plan allows for this.
• A good athlete listens to their body. If you feel like you really need a rest, when the plan says run 10km, then do a shorter or slower training session and feel good about it, not guilty.

2. Know why you're training...

• Find the real reason why you’re training. You want to lose weight or need to get fitter, and that’s great! Really ask yourself why, what does this mean to you? It might be so you can be a role model for your kids, to get back into sport, or be at the beach in togs and be happy with how you look.
• It’s that “why” that will keep you going, when training gets tough, or you don’t want to wake up and exercise, so the “why” has to be really meaningful to you.

3. Do your best to get your eating sorted...

• Determine the tools and behaviours around food that work for you. Perhaps it’s a written food diary or app like Myfitnesspal. Maybe it’s learning more about how macro and micronutrients work in your body.
• It’s hard to start with, but small steps, such as reducing takeaways, lead to bigger steps.
• It’s OK not to get your eating right all the time. Aim to eat well 90% of the time and your body will thank you with more energy and better performance.

4. Rest and recovery are critical...

• Recovery is doing something to restore your body. It might be walking, light cycling, swimming, yoga or stretching.
• Rest is when you’re not moving, such as sitting at your desk at work, getting enough sleep each night or having a nap on Sunday afternoon when the Warriors are up by 50 points.
• Both recovery and rest are needed so you can train well next time.

5. Mental skills can be practiced...

• Practice thinking positive thoughts during training to create a habit. Something simple such as “I am a strong runner” is more useful than “this is hard, I want to stop” when exercise gets hard.
• It’s normal to be nervous going into your event. Trust your training process, you‘ve done the work. Be proud of all your training, enjoy the event and always celebrate when you finish!  

Now that you have some more knowledge on training, make sure you do something with it. Write down that list of things you need to do. Then get the diary out and put it in the schedule the first one: “10-11am, Saturday morning, get a training plan”. Then when you tick that off, move onto the next thing. 
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Tim Spackman switched from a glamorous career in the public service and is now a personal trainer based at AUT North Shore in Auckland.  He loves training endurance athletes, especially runners and working with people who want to get stronger.  Tim has a Bachelor of Sport and Recreation and a BA/LLB.

Check out his Facebook page and his Instagram accounts and give him a like and follow!