It is that time of the year, when runners are gearing up for the Wipro Chennai Marathon 2016. The event, which is expected to see a participation of over 20,000 people this year, includes a good mix of both first-time and seasoned runners – many of whom had gathered at a talk session by fitness coach Ben Pulham, recently.
After years of researching that includes talking to doctors, nutritionists, and coaches, Ben concluded that “most runners usually train the wrong way for marathons. They do not maximise on their fitness.” At the session, organised by Chennai Runners, Ben gave a presentation on how to tweak one’s lifestyle to get the most out of the training sessions.
Ben, who today runs an online fitness training platform called Coached, was a former professional athlete before health took a toll on his career. He had to shift gears and opt for the next closest thing to sports. He shares with Metroplus how he decided to become a coach and exclusively work with people who are not professional athletes – people who want to improve. His online training programme, he says, provides a structure and framework for those who want to get into sports, and build a system, a network, where they can ask questions and get them answered.
Excerpts:
What are some of the common myths when it comes to fitness?
A lot of people think they are fit if they are healthy. But, that is not necessarily the case. I think about the days when I was a professional athlete. You train so hard that your immune function is suppressed a lot of the time. Many athletes would push themselves to the point where they train and are fit, but not healthy. Since I was a professional athlete, I know that you need to find that balance – improve fitness, but also make sure that you are not compromising on your health. At the end of the day, you have other commitments in life – and I suggest that you concentrate on your health first and performance second.
What is your company coached into?
There are two sides to what we do. We have an online training programme for running and triathlon events and the second is the coach lab. It is a physical premise in Singapore, where you do tests on athletes and produce graphs based on the results, which are in turn analysed. We put together algorithms which take into consideration how much time people can put into training, what are their goals, how much training they have had in the past.
But I am more excited about the online programme where I can work with people in Chennai, New Zealand, Australia or other places. If you have questions, put them in the forum. It will be answered in a few hours. It’s a paid site, but it provides a high level of personal service.
What’s your personal routine?
I work out three times a week. My diet includes bacon and eggs or scrambled eggs with salmon or avocado for breakfast and salad for lunch. It’s important to include healthy fat, such as from olive oil and nuts, into your diet. Fat gives you twice as much energy as sugar. I didn’t know you could change your fat metabolism until I started reading about it. It is lifestyle driven.
What is a good training practice?
You should only train so much that you can recover from. When you train, it breaks you down. The benefit comes when you give it time to recover. People don’t understand that. Even personal or financial stress can impact your training.
