Coaching

After the last successful ‘private’ visit of our favourite form coach Shane Benzie to Gibraltar in January, we spoke of getting him back to do a bigger, group session. Having jumped through a few hoops locally, we secured a room at the Lathbury Sports Complex - with a big TV for analysis, and use of the track - for the weekend of 20 and 21 June. It was full-on summer, humid in the mornings and hot in the afternoons, and the session started at 10am on Saturday 20 June with no air con (broken) and no TV (no remote/couldn’t turn it on). Once we’d figured out where the hidden button to navigate the TV was, and nabbed a fan from centre manager’s office, we were ready to go. ...

A couple of years ago I bought some coaching with Shane Benzie, whose book, The Lost Art of Running, had resonated with me. In two or three visits to his base in Goring-on-Thames, I ran around the village cricket green, and he filmed me, explained in person the things I’d read in his book (essential to do it this way if you want the big changes, I feel - a book alone is not enough) and we worked on every aspect of my running form. With some ongoing online coaching, within 18 months I was running circa three-hour marathons, having been stuck at 3:30 for years. More importantly, I felt my running form had improved forever. I was, and remain, a fan. ...