The Paula Radcliffe Marathon Workshop Bondarenko Session
EAST MEETS WEST: FROM RUSSIA TO BEDFORD! NEW LEVELS COACH MATT LONG TRAVELS ACROSS EUROPE TO TRACE THE ROOTS OF A KEY SESSION UNDERTAKEN BY THE GREAT PAULA RADCLIFFE: Paula Radcliffe Marathon Workshop Excited athletes travelled from far and wide, all over the UK, for the inaugural Paula Radcliffe Marathon Workshop on Sunday 5th January…
Coaches Corner | Test Driving the Running Gear Box Session
New Levels Coach Matt Long introduces you to the concept of the differentially based session. I recently took a group of talented athletes onto a track and took them through their RAMP warm up. “What’s the session you’ve got for us today?” one eagerly asked as he unzipped his tracksuit top. “Its 4 efforts of…
THE MARATHON JOURNEY
NEW LEVELS COACH MATT LONG CELEBRATES PAULA RADCLIFFE’S MARATHON LEGACY. In a reflective piece, New Levels Coach Matt Long, delves into the inspiring journey of Paula Radcliffe through her extraordinary marathon career. Highlighting her unmatched achievements and resilience across the grueling 26.2 miles, Long explores the determination, strategy, and spirit that defined Radcliffe’s rise as…
Your Ultimate Ironman Training Guide with Team NLC’s Head Coach Kirsty Hillier
If you want to stand on the start line of an Ironman in the best possible shape then the key is in the preparation. The long distance event is a true test of endurance, putting your body through 2.4mile swim, 112 mile bike and a marathon at the end of it all. Training for this…
NLC Track Nights | The Matt Long Multi-Tier system special
The early 1970s saw British Milers Club founder Frank Horwill MBE introduce a 5-Tier System of multi-tier training. Frank trained a famous Loughborough University based athlete using this system, namely Tim Hutchings, who placed 4th over 5000m at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984 and whose voice you may well have heard more recently as…
ULTRA AMBITION
NEW LEVELS COACH MATT LONG GOES THE EXTRA MILE: Several recent podcasts have touched on the work of our growing trail and ultra running contingent. There are lessons to be learned from just a couple we’ve picked out from Episodes 23 with Tom Evans (https://www.newlevelscoaching.co.uk/captivate-podcast/episode-23-tom-evans- 2024-race-plan-inc-utmb/) and more recently Episode 33 with James Tilley (https://www.newlevelscoaching.co.uk/captivate-podcast/episode-33-james-tilley-…
BLAZING A TRAIL
New Levels Coach Matt Long blazes a trail by focusing on how you can tackle off road running: Speak to any half decent trail runner and they will often stifle a smile while smugly telling road runners venturing onto the trails for the one-off excursion that, “Road fitness does not automatically translate”. So why not?…
SPEEDY GONZALES
How to Run Faster and More Efficiently is unpicked by New Levels Coach Matt Long In a remark assessing the sheer pace of life in late modern times, the esteemed American journalist and author, Hunter S. Thompson once famously wrote, “Faster, faster, until the thrill of speed overcomes the fear of death”. This metaphor for…
How To Fit Strength & Conditioning Into Your Busy Life & Improve Running Performance
‘A SPOONFUL OF SUGAR’ The Concept of ‘Microdosing’ is unpicked by New Levels Coach Matt Long In the recent podcast, Episode 22- Strength and Conditioning for Endurance Runners of All Abilities (available at https://www.newlevelscoaching.co.uk/podcast/), internationally acclaimed S and C coach Richard Blagrove alluded to the notion of ‘microdosing’. This is a term which has entered…
How To Prepare For Your First Half Marathon
DOING THINGS BY HALVES New Levels Coach Matt Long preps you for that first half marathon So there’s no turning back and you’ve signed up to that Spring Half Marathon. You might want to think about getting need a training plan thats right for you and potentially a coach but before you do that, you…
BOARD GAMES
MATT LONG AND LEWIS MOSES LOOK AT THE ART AND SCIENCE OF INDOOR RUNNING: It’s big weekend ahead for some of our readership. Some of you will be heading to Birmingham to spectate if not compete at the British indoor championships. For some in our masters community, you will no doubt be heading to Sheffield…
Running To Feel & Effort
Please see our New Levels Coaching RPE Scale which helps runners of all abilities to understand the effort levels they can train at. We always encourage runners to have a variety of intensity within their training plan, but rather than focus on ‘pace’ and ‘splits’ our recommended way of training, is always to feel. A…
ZONE IN TO PERCEIVED EXERTION
In this piece, New Levels Coach Matt Long builds on the recent podcast led by Lewis Moses (insert link) by discussing how the zonal system of training can be interlinked and cross referenced with scales of perceived exertion. Borg Scales The Borg Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE) has become a time-honoured way of measuring intensity…
PLAYING WITH SPEED
Avid users of social media may well just have spotted that the great Kenyan double Olympic 1500m champion, Faith Kipyegon, has been at it! In fact its been a staple part of the training diet of athletes for almost a century! What its it? The session we are alluding to is known as the ’fartlek’.…
6 STEPS TO SPRING INTO A MARATHON
As the Spring marathons are creeping up on us in the coming 16 weeks, it’s crucial to proactively plan your marathon training. Recognising the overwhelming amount of information available, we want to offer our expert coaching tips and advice to help guide your preparation for your upcoming marathon. We cover this topic area in more…
MULTI DAY MADNESS – EEKE AND MATT TALK ABOUT THEIR 2023 ULTRA ADVENTURES
2023 was the year 2 of our New Levels athletes took on 2 of the biggest multi day ultras this country has to offer. And what races they are! Cape Wrath Ultra covers 400km over 8 days with over 41,000ft over ascent starting in Fort William, heading north all the way to the lighthouse at…
BEDROCKS FOR THE MOUNTAIN
Some of you may have been inspired to consider venturing to the hills by coverage of the recent World Mountain and Trail Running Championships from Austria. One of our NLC Team Coaches: Matt Long considers a three tier approach to how you make train to make such a transition. NEW LEVELS COACH MATT LONG EXPLORES…
Goal Setting For Runners
Have you just ran a marathon? Or ran your race distance goal or time for the year? Or did you fall short or pick up an injury so your goal had to be changed? Goals can be super important for giving us something to focus on, giving us a reason to get out of bed…
Top Tips for running in the heat
We hope you found this blog on training in the heat useful. For more of our top tips and expert advice, be sure to follow our social media channels, or sign up to our Team NLC newsletter on our website.
Run faster by improving your running stride
We have worked with hundreds of runners, who always ask the question “how can I improve my stride length, so I can run faster”. The answer is never simple, but we can look at what underpins the running stride and look at how we can improve these elements, to help us to run faster. In this blog post, we break down running technique and look at what runners can do to improve their running stride and run faster.
