Mara Yamauchi trains Arrows
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- Category: News
Mara puts us through our paces
(Aug 2018)
Over sixty Harpenden Arrows members of all running abilities were delighted to welcome Mara Yamauchi for an evening of endurance running coaching this week.
Mara, a two-time GB Olympian and the UK’s second fastest female marathon runner of all time (2hrs 23mins 12 secs), shared the benefit of her many years of training and competing as an elite athlete through a range of exercises over the evening.
Before getting to the running, Mara stressed the importance of good running form and led a number of drills to ‘train the brain’ for running efficiently and effectively, which she recommended runners should practice regularly.
After a short warm-up run, members were invited to run up to five lots of 600 metres on the running track. This involved running the first 200 metres at 80% effort, the middle 200 metres at 100% effort, and the last 200 metres again at 80% effort – and then 200 metres to recover before the next lot of 600 metres. Mara also suggested a few variations around this type of structure that members could use in their training.
Following the track session, Mara noted that many runners overlook strength and conditioning (often referred to as ‘S&C’) as an important element of improving their running – in particular, to build core strength and develop the gluteal muscles.
She said: “S&C can bring significant benefits to runners, mainly on efficiency and injury-prevention, with modest investment of time and effort. My philosophy is to keep things simple and make S&C user-friendly and accessible for all levels of runners.”
Her S&C suggestions included the glute bridge, some timed buttock-clenching, and the single-legged ‘Superman’, all of which members had a go at. According to Mara, the benefits of S&C can be gained from as little as 10 minutes of exercise and up to 30 minutes per session – ideally twice or three times a week.
While okay to do S&C before or after a run, her advice was to leave it until afterwards when planning a hard running session.
The evening finished with an informative questions and answers session, including advice on a range of topics including the different types of running session in a good weekly programme and the importance of recovery.
Reflecting her passion for running and coaching, Mara said; “My goal is to help others get the very best out of themselves, whether that is in running, in work, or other aspects of their lives.”
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