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View all events30 August 2022
We are delighted to have Larking Gowen support us as the title sponsor of the Larking Gowen Ipswich Half Marathon. Ellis Lake, from the company's Business & Private Team at their Norwich office, is one member of the Larking Gowen team who is looking forward to running in the event. It's been great to get updates from Larking Gowen about how her training is going!
Ellis has been with LG for six years, and it was around that time that she started running as well. Ellis had a slow start to running, and wasn’t sporty at all as a youngster, because, like most of us, she was worried about looking silly, and totally didn’t get all that stuff about endorphins people talk about! But one day that all changed, and with the help of the very popular Couch to 5K programme, Ellis was able to get her running career started.
She’s never looked back and has gone on to enter Race for Life’s 5K and 10K challenges, as well as some other 5K challenges during 2020’s lockdowns, and Park Runs. Ellis loves parkrun – and would highly recommend everyone try one.
Ellisis following a training plan from Nike to help her through the next few months. The plan provides her with a trainer in her ear as she runs, giving her a motivational boost and tips.
She’s got her Garmin watch monitoring her every move too and uses Strava to track her speeds and map routes. So, Ellis is all sorted, and she sounds fairly relaxed about it too.
She currently goes on about four or five 30-60 minute runs near her home each week, but isn’t too bothered about speed, although she says it has improved. Ellis says it’s best to run at a ‘conversational pace’.
Ellis says, “It’s just about having fun. Everyone is welcome.”
It’s all about balance
The problem many of us have with exercise is fitting it in. Our lives are so busy with work, family and friends that it’s just hard to find the time. Of course, if you have a goal of running a half marathon, you do need to find time to train.
Ellis Lake has had a busy few weeks with a ‘hen do’ and other social events. Her training for September’s Ipswich Half Marathon went by the wayside for a few weeks in June. But she’s fine with that, “It’s all about the balance,” she says. “Luckily, by starting my training early, my plan allowed for the odd week off. So I’m re-doing a week of my training plan to make up for that time off.”
Apart from that little blip, training for Ellis is going well. A couple of weeks ago she did an eight mile run, which is great progress. There’s around nine weeks to go, so still time for training run lengths to be increased before the big day.
Top tip from Ellis:
Have a good playlist! Spotify has some running playlists already set. It’s helpful to find one with the right beats or rhythm to tie-in with your steps – this can be quite motivating. So maybe an LG podcast with James and Mark might not work.
Here’s Ellis running in Cardiff!
Ipswich Half Marathon: gearing up for the big day
It’s hard enough trying to work in this heat, but it’s even harder if you’re training for a half marathon in it! There are 15 people running on behalf of Team LG this year, and they must all be feeling it.
Despite the heat, and fitting training into life’s other commitments, it’s going well for Ellis. She’s built up her distances to 10 miles and she’s on track with her training plan. In a few weeks’ time she’ll have built up to 12-mile runs, ahead of the big day on 11 September.
Never try anything new on race day!
These 10-mile runs take Ellis around 1 hour 40 minutes, so keeping energy levels up is really important to make sure she can keep going safely. One of the best ways to do this is with running gels. They provide a source of carbohydrates, giving the quick energy boost needed. Shame they don’t taste great!
However, help may be at hand as fellow Ipswich Half runner, Gilly McGill, has given Ellis a different brand of running gel to try. Hopefully these taste better! You should never try anything new on race day, so Ellis is spending the next few weeks working out which gel she likes best.
Ellis sounds positive about the half marathon, but now she just needs to continue making sure training goes well and that she doesn’t get injured. Warming up and cooling down are really important to help with this – lots of stretching. Her hip is complaining a bit, so she’s aware she needs to do some strength training to make sure it doesn’t suffer too much now that the runs are harder.
Good luck Ellis! We can't wait to see all the Larking Gowen team at the Larking Gowen Ipswich Half Marathon on Sunday 11th September. Make sure you look out for Ellis and the rest of the team in their bright orange tops on the day.
