Fitness-4-U Personal Training

Well done to Mike Birt in hitting yet another PB at the Heddington 5k last week! He’s in the middle of a tough training block for the Copenhagen Half and certainly the hard work is paying dividends and shows he’s on course for a great half.

There were also a couple of very encouraging runs from Brian and Charlotte Wilton not far behind and showing that they are really beginning to come back to form. 🙌👏🎉

Huge congratulations to Lewis for smashing his Spartan Beast PB last weekend in Badminton.

A Spartan Beast is a tough half marathon 30 obstacle race over rugged terrain. The weekend before Lewis had suffered disappointment in his season ‘A’ race - representing GB at the OCR World Championships in Ireland, when things didn’t go his way on the obstacles.

However, just a week later he shrugged off that disappointment put himself back in the firing line and proved what great shape he was in by smashing his PB and covering the event in an amazing 1 hr 54, despite missing his final spear shot at the end which meant a 30 burpee penalty!

Great work Lewis, so glad you got the chance to put Ireland behind you so soon🙌👏👏👊

Massive congratulations to Kevin for completing the Ridgeway 86! Yes 86 miles, the whole damn Ridgeway path. In one go..!

Whilst most of us were enjoying the sun on the beach (me! 😎) and having barbecues during the scorching hot Bank Holiday Weekend, Kevin was out there slogging it out and battling against the heat, the Ridgeway and sore feet. He was victorious coming home in an amazing fraction just over 20 hours which placed him 19th overall and 4th in his age group. 👏👏👏🙌

Huge congratulations Kevin, I hope the recovery is going well and I dread to hear what your next challenge will be!! 😂

A fantastic run from at the Copenhagen Marathon. His training block had gone really well ticking off session after session and hitting the pace targets along the way. He was in great shape and sliced a massive 5 mins of his PB to run a fantastic 2 hr 52:01. Agonisingly close to his London Marathon Good for Age target or 2 hrs 52!

This will give him great confidence now as he knows it’s achievable and is already targeting Rotterdam Marathon next year.

Well done to . A great run to come in just under the 5 hour barrier. This time gave her a magnificent 5th place in her age group. To do this is on big city marathon is no mean feat! Congratulations Norja 🙌👏👏👏

Two great times from the duo Brian and .sky last month. Despite missing a large block during the crucial February for marathon training, Brian managed to get back on track in March and his hard work was rewarded with a time of 3 hr 25, well below the London Good for Age time.
Not far behind was Charlotte. Despite having fuelling issue in the build up to this one she still ran considerable faster than her last marathon to run another comfortable GFA in a brilliant 3:32. Well done guys 👏👏🔥🙌

Oh London, you never fail to disappoint! And the ‘Class of 26’ were amazing!!

All those long runs through the never ending winter rain, all the monthly catch up calls with me to discuss the training and planning that seemed to happen faster and faster all paid dividends on the day.

birt.7 followed up his brilliant half marathon PB with a superb marathon debut in 3:33:26. I’ve no doubt there’s a sub 3:30 there..!

The veteran of many marathons, decided to showboat his training and skip any running for the whole of April and go on holiday to Japan! Returning jet lagged and falling victim to a hotel booking scam the day before, Greg nevertheless showed that the hard training through the winter had paid off running a very creditable 4:18:15.

was pretty much a newbie to running, had never run a race and certainly not anything like a marathon. We started the plan way back in 2025, and went from ‘couch to marathon’ over the following months. Fiona methodically ticked off every run on the plan and despite claiming to not like running initially she had an amazing day and really enjoyed it coming home in 5 hr 39 👏👏

was another to profess zero love for running…! But again she ticked off the plan wonderfully, got through many dark winter night runs with her club and ran superbly hitting a stream of PBs in all her prep races. Stomach issues affected her on marathon day itself which was unfortunate, but she still hit that 5 hr 30.

Matt was another that had some GI issues and actually had 4 loo stops, but still achieved his sub 5 goal finishing in 4:58:51!

Last but not least the evergreen Verity did it again. Making it look easy she danced, skipped, strolled and ran the course in 5 hr 54

Huge congratulations everyone, I know how hard you’ve trained and what it meant to each and every one of you. Be proud because I am!! 🎉🥳👏👏

Kind of a fun day out in London. Until it wasn’t and the cramp hit again… I’d been really struggling with an achilles issue since early Jan so had an MRI last month, which revealed partial tearing of the tendon, bursitis, insertional tendinitis and bony oedema. Not great. But the consultant told me it wasn’t likely o would cause permanent or long term damage if I ran the marathon for completion and not push for a time. So, off very limited training, that was the plan… plenty of walk breaks, selfies and cramp and more cramp!

Thanks so much to all the supporters out there, it makes such a difference… And to be a part of the historic sub 2 race is incredible!

6-8 weeks off to let the injuries heal now, before a gentle build again…

Class of 26, the time is almost here for … you’ve followed the plan, done the hard work, practised your fuelling strategy and it’s time to put it all into action, time for your glorious lap of honour in the sunshine!
Relax, enjoy and have fun on your day. And remember, don’t be a hero in the first half and a coward in the second half!!

Good luck:

Verity


birt.7
Matt
Rhys