The days are long, it's racing season!

 

The way markers are up!

This weekend is the Round Sheffield Run, a delightful 24.5km route through the parks and ancient woodlands of southwest Sheffield. It has grown in popularity and now takes place over a full weekend in June as well as the winter event in January. It follows the Round Sheffield Walk route and is broken up into timed stages so you don't have to run continuously (unless you want to!) As usual quite a few of my clients have been preparing for this event; for some it's their main event of the summer whilst others are using it as part of their training for marathons and ultras. Some just take part for the sheer enjoyment of it! 

Graves Park - part of the Round Sheffield Run 

You may think that runners just need their legs massaging, but that is far from the whole picture. When running, the ability to counter-rotate the upper torso (waist to shoulders, the ribcage area) and swing the shoulders helps create energy to transmit to the legs; as well as addressing back and shoulder tension that can hinder this, I also check that the runner is able to perform this movement - we can go through appropriate exercises to help. We see how competent they are at taking their weight on one leg and then transferring to the other leg whilst keeping their weight over their feet, and that they are able to flex through their hip, knee and ankle to absorb and control forces especially as they run downhill. We also discuss their running posture and the importance of visualisation to help the body perform optimally.

Daisy by one of the new signs.

I always enjoy hearing how my clients have got on after the race, when they return for their recovery massage treatment!

No, it's the other way!!

If you are inspired to give it a go in 2025, this is the website where you can sign up for the newsletter: https://www.roundsheffieldrun.com/ If you would like to walk or run it at any time, this is a really useful guide that fits in your pocket and has OS map extracts as well as a description of the route Round Sheffield Walk

Roughly half way round!

Daisy and Kate enjoying the walk