Time to focus on festival choice

GREAT news runners. The Great Ocean Road Running Festival is just around the corner.

And it’s still not too late to enter one of the many events on offer.

Over the next four weeks I’ll be getting you all ready for your events on May 19-20.

The best thing about the Great Ocean Road Running Festival weekend is that there are lots of different races for you to enter.

If you’re just getting in to running then there’s a 6km or a 14km event on the Saturday. Sunday’s half marathon, marathon and 60km ultra marathon are there for the distance runners.

Thinking about signing up? What event you enter totally depends on your current fitness level.

The 6km is a great entrylevel event. If you’re new to running or still building your fitness then this is the race for you.

If you’re running 8km to 10km every week, then you can easily boost your running in the last month and tackle the 14km course.

And if you’ve been doing lots of 10km to 15km runs during the week, then with a bit more training you can certainly make it to the start line in the half marathon.

I wouldn’t be doing the marathon or ultra-marathon unless you have specifically trained for these events, or are currently doing the running required to complete the dis- tance. If you’re looking to run in these races then I recommend you run at least three times a week covering varying distances.

Set aside one day on the weekend to do your long run, while two sessions during the week should be shorter and sharper.

Each weekend your long run should build up in distance, heading towards the distance the race will be.

Always remember to rest on the days after your runs, especially after your long run if you’re feeling a bit sore.

And if you’re doing the marathon or half marathon make sure you’re incorporating some hills runs in your training.

Some runners reckon the Great Ocean Road marathon and half marathon course can be a little bit daunting because of the hills.

However it is one of the most spectacular runs you can imagine and the views are endless. They really take away from the pain in your legs.

Plus, as they say, what comes up must come down. So for every hill you get up, your legs are going to get a nice break.

Matt Daniels is a personal trainer at Fit n Focused in South Geelong. He is also running 535 consecutive marathons to raise money for Cad’s Cause. He has completed 123 so far. For more information visit:

https://www.facebook.com/535forcad/