base training

Everybody knows I'm not a fan of long, slow distance. Me, I'm a died-in-the-wool fan of the Coe-Ovett-Cram British school of training: quality not quantity. And yet...

it was Olympic medallist Lorraine Moller who first suggested I put the Garmin and the stopwatch to one side and focus on running easily, well within my fitness level. It would, she said, help me rediscover the joy of running after a year spent frantically trying to catch up with the level of fitness I thought I "should" be at.

I guess you could say I got caught out by my own chauvanism.

Following world champion physical therapist Mark Plaatjes into the room of pain, er.. sorry, treatment room...for my third dose of deep tissue ("no Mark, that's the table, you've gone straight through the muscle") treatment, I was delighted to be introduced to his new intern.