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The clock is ticking towards my longest bike ride ever on 16 th July – the 178km Etape du Tour in the French Alps. For this blog I thought I would talk about motivation. As a full time athlete I often got asked about how I stayed motivated, but the answer was relatively simple. I was training for the Olympics, the biggest sporting competition in the World, and I was completely focused on winning a gold medal. Of course there were bad days, but in general the huge goal of the Olympics always got me out of bed and on my bike. In my retirement, however, motivation is very different. I am now exercising for health and need to maintain motivation during a busy lifestyle where it is so easy to put things off til tomorrow, or next week, or next month. So here are some of my top tips for how I am keeping motivated. Set a goal My goal is to complete the Etape in July. This is keeping me motivated to go out on my bike as there is an event coming up. A solid goal with a date is far better ...

Over the last few years, I’ve been writing about my adventures with Sports Tours International as I worked towards completing the six major marathons. In this, the last of my write ups, I summarise all the events and provide a fuller report of the final major: the oldest marathon, Boston.   Why run the Majors? After completing the seven marathons on seven continents challenge, I felt I needed a new goal. There are so many marathons to choose from that aiming to do the six world majors with Sports Tours International seemed a structured approach, as well as an opportunity to take part in some of the most iconic races on earth, and  as see some amazing cities on the way. I ran my first marathon with Sports Tours International  in New York in 2010, and despite vomiting and a fairly high degree of pain at mile 23, I felt a pretty good sense of achievement at the end of it. At that time, I thought I would only ever run one marathon. I thought the story would end there. How...

The University of Salford, one of the world’s most international universities, and the UKFast City of Salford 10k are now Official Partners for the 2017 10k race, in what is their 50 th year anniversary. Kevin Harmer, UK Events & Sponsorship Manager said : “We here at Sports Tours International are delighted to be working with the University of Salford this year in what is a year of great celebration for them. Both staff and students alike will be getting involved as runners, volunteers and via work experience on the race day. We are really pleased to engage with another of Salford’s key organisations to further develop the ‘Salford feel’ of the race and to help the Universities students to raise money for charity whist keeping healthy and active”. The event takes place on Sunday September 3 rd when over 3,500 runners are expected to take on the 10k route which takes in some of the most iconic landmarks in the area including MediaCityUK, Imperial War Museum, Coronation Street...

Welcome to the fifth of our six-month series of articles supporting you in your training and preparation for the 2017 Etape du Tour. This is the month things start to get drawn together and more specialised to your individual Etape.  At the start of this month you want to be doing a detailed technical plan to focus your training to meet your individual demands over this final event specific training phase.  Your training aims to consolidate what you achieved in April and continue through to the taper phase in June/July.  Hopefully you have one or two sportives planned over the next 6 weeks to help you test out your event day nutrition / kit selections to enable you to get “ smart and sharp”. Goals: Perform the technical planning process Retest your CP20 to reset training zones Check your travel plans and pre-departure admin. Technical planning Ensure you have an outcome goal in mind, whether it is to finish your first sportive or to set a specific time.  Thi...