Build exercise into your commute to and/or from work. Run, Cycle, Walk all or some of the journey. Get off the bus a stop early, park further from work, keep change of fresh clothes at work etc. Great for body and mind and saves money too.
Katharine Merry Professional Athlete Interview
Introduction
The following is an interview with world class athlete Katharine Merry, who is a retired British 400m runner. Katharine secured a Bronze medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics in front of a capacity crowd of 112,000 people and in 2001 was the world number one over 400m.
Katharine now works in media and broadcasting.
- What has been the best piece of advice you have received?
“Not everyone can be the best, but everyone can try to be”- I can’t remember when who or where I heard this though.
- How important was nutrition to your success and performance?
Very important. In the lead up to the Sydney Olympics, when I medalled, I had a nutritionist who guided my diet and supplements and this made me feel better about myself physically and mentally, as I felt fully prepared. Training 6 days a week for 5 hours a day meant I needed to be fuelled right.
- Please could you outline what you ate during a normal training day and on a competition day?
If I can remember as I’ve been retired over 6 years!
Breakfast included oats, bananas, yoghurts and protein shake.
Training...then protein shake and snacks of fruit.
Lunch, high in protein, chicken vegetables etc.
Snacks of nuts etc...
Dinner of protein and heavy carbs...salmon, pasta, veggies and dessert!
Protein shake before bed
- Please could you outline what a normal day of training involved and what you did?
We trained with simplicity..
We alternated track and gym sessions.
Track Tuesday, Thursday, Sunday. Weights Monday, Wednesday, Friday
In the winter a typical day would be: Heavy weights, max repson 5,4,3,2,1 sets, ending with that 1 max rep.
This was on bench, cleans and half squats.
Then other weights for specific areas for sprinting.
My max bench and clean was 80kg,
Then some plyometrics of hurdles walk over and bounds, standing long jump etc
And track day would be: eg 6 x 300m all 40 seconds or below with approx 8-10 mins.
At least twice a week a massage.
- What advice would you give to anybody wanting to get fit and improve their health?
Start slowly and build up, whether it be with just running, weights or a balance of exercise.
Set achievable goals that can be attained so you build your confidence and have the feel good factor about achieving things.
Rome wasn’t built in a day!
- From your experience, for instance season training, have you got any tips on how to stay motivated when the training gets tough and challenging?
Try not to do it alone. It always helps to have a training partner, someone to go through the pain and someone you don’t want to let down by not turning up and training!
- What has been the highlight of your career?
Olympic medal over 400m in Sydney 2000 and the following season being the World number one over 400m running 49.59s.
I would like to say a big thank you to Katharine for taking the time and effort to answer these questions and sharing some of her experiences of competing at the highest level, it is much appreciated. In addition, I would also like to place on record my thanks to Charlie Read from Nuff Respect for making this interview possible. Please see their website at www.nuff-respect.co.uk, which is where the introduction has come from.
Thank you for your time and feedback. It is really appreciated.
“Together, we’ll achieve your goals”
Matt Swierzynski
M: 07936654876
"Matt made the sessions fun but also intense and always focused on our goals to encourage us. If anybody wants to get fit or improve their figure I would 100% encourage Matt's services."