I reached out to Jemma just over three months ago after securing a place in my first ever marathon. With 9 months to go, I wanted to make sure I had enough time to prepare myself physically and mentally.
Jemma has provided me with everything I knew I needed (and lots that I didn’t know I needed!) a training structure, a friendly fortnightly chat, accountability on those cold, rainy winter mornings, and solid advice from someone who’s actually been there and done it.
Before starting coaching with Jemma, I had already signed myself up to a half marathon race. After less than 6 weeks of coaching, I managed to take almost 20 minutes off my rusty half marathon PB. Not only that, but I thoroughly enjoyed the race and even kept some energy in the tank to finish fast!
My next training block has been a lot of fun. We decided to take on the 5K, and sub 30 minutes had been a goal of mine since I first started running. After a few weeks of training and trusting the process, I got my PB by accident in a training session and have recently gone on to run a Parkrun in 24:50. I am flabbergasted that someone like me can achieve a time like that! I was never an athletic child, teenager or young adult, so ideas of running like this were never even on my radar.
Jemma has helped me not only with my running, but with my confidence and self-belief. We are fully on the same page with the mentality that it is hard work in the right direction that gets results. I thought that training was going to be intense, tough, all-out workouts that pushed me to my limits, but in fact, that’s only one small element of it. Strength training, easy miles, recovery runs, and various pacing techniques have made me a much more efficient (and faster!) runner in such a short period of time.
Jemma prioritises getting the best results out of me whilst also looking out for my fitness and wellbeing. I know she’s got my back no matter what, and I can’t wait to take on the marathon with Jemma’s training expertise and support.
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