Drew Johnston Personal Training

Spidey in-training this weekend

Proud coach moment:

Congratulations to Matthew on his silver medal in the 200 Butterfly at the European Down Syndrome Swimming Championships! 🥈

I have the pleasure of working with Matthew 4 sessions a week, 2 swim, 2 gym, and he's so consistent. This has been a journey of years now, first to try to qualify for the GB team, then for European and World Championships. Now he's not just there but he's chasing podiums!

Enjoy the reward of your hard work Matthew, we'll keep striving for improvement because we'll be trying for Worlds next year. But before that, I'm looking forward to being your coach on-deck for the British Champioships this weekend.

Big year of PBs so far; let's see if we can't get a few more before the year is out.

Yesterday didn't work out...but it was still a good day.

Perfect conditions for the Inverness Half Marathon yesterday. Felt good, and I fully believe I'm currently capable of a 1h23 half, give or take, but yesterday wasn't the day where I got to prove it. Front/right superficial abdominal cramp at 13.5k derailed the effort, and it was walk/jog from there to come in on 1h31.

Still: second fastest half I've ever run, new 10k pb as a consolation, and great to have the family running between points on course to support. I've not given up on chasing 1h20, even though it was out of reach this time.

Well done to everyone who took part. I'm switching from running mode to triathlon now; looking forward to the change in training.

Running kit for dark winter nights.

5 weeks until race day.

Having a race in the calendar has definitely kept me accountable to getting runs in, even in the dark, when it would be so easy not to. It's why I signed up 20 weeks out instead of waiting to see IF I came out of winter feeling fit enough to try.

The story of this Half Marathon training block starts in October...but there's also a prologue. I listened to Run Elite (read by the ever enthusiastic author) on Audible in the Summer.

I liked it. I liked it a lot. And I took a lot from it...but I didn't do anything with the information I'd taken on. I kept running my 20-40k/month and got no better and no worse. I think a lot of us do this...get stuck in the information gathering stage and don't put any of what we've learned into action to see its benefit.

Without an event in mind, I was running 1 - 2 times per week; cycling once a week, if that; swimming 1 - 2 times per week; and using the gym 2 or 3 times. There was structure to the gym work, but on everything else, I was just cruising. That holding pattern could provide a base for preparing for a specific event, whether Hyrox, swimming, running, or triathlon, so I liked ticking over like that well enough.

At the end of September, a current client ran their first 10k, then immediately signed up for the Half in March. It set cogs turning...I re-listened to Run Elite on Audible, ordered a paperback copy to leaf through, and signed up for the Half Marathon, 20 weeks out, so that I had to run through the winter.

So information gathering and theory was done. It was time to start the Base Phase...more on that soon.

In 12 weeks I'll be running the Inverness Half Marathon with the lofty goal of bettering my 31 year old self.

Inverness is going to be a harder course than Edinburgh (which starts with a gradual 5k decent if anyone's interested in chasing a PB there).

I ran Edinburgh in 1h25...I'll reluctantly put it out there: I'm chasing 1h20.

Against me - I'll be 7 years older, 6 or 7kg heavier (about a stone for those in old money) and, no complaint, work is busier now than it was then.

In my favour - I really only built through 12 weeks that first time, and averaged about 3 runs per week. This time, I've been building since 20 weeks out, and my frequency (runs per week), and volume (mileage per week) are higher.

After 7 weeks of base training, building volume primarily on easy running, things got real and the interval sessions started. I don't know if I can run that 1h20, but on 09-March I'll find out.

Back at Nairn Triathlon on Sunday, the event having moved forward from August to June.

Great day out, and all the support was much appreciated.

After last year I had an 8% improvement across the board in mind and that's not too far off what I got on Sunday. The performance I wanted last year and hadn't yet earned.

Aims going in were

Top 5 swim ✔️
Average over 30km/h on the bike ✔️
Run no slower than last year 😅 ✔️

Looking forward to getting more races in this year and shaving time off of all 3 disciplines.

Who is this for?

I recently did some number crunching on the demographic of current clients...get ready for a stat drop!

73% of current clients are 50+. I love working with clients of all ages on improving their ability to move - age is no barrier. Come and find out!

Over 30% have no gym experience when starting - don't let prior experience (or lack there-of) be a barrier to getting started now.

Less than half of current clients are gym members elsewhere. If you are, great. If you aren't and don't want to be, no need.

Over half of current clients use gym work to support another active pursuit.

Almost 1 in 4 clients starts with a rehab/prehab need, sometimes in tandem with or after physiotherapy. Injuries, niggles, or even chronic issues aren't a reason not to. If you have the will, together we'll find the way.

2 in 3 clients do 1 session a week, some do more, others less; I'm here to work around what suits your needs best.

Maybe you'll find something relatable in those statistics, and maybe that can break down barriers to you taking action. Get in touch and make your move towards better movement.

Took myself out of my element 🏊🏻‍♂️
and into Hyrox Glasgow.

What a day! Great fun, superb atmosphere, and great to see my support crew so often through the event.

It. Is. Tough.

Loved the challenge, and looking forward to doing it again...though not soon.

Learned a lot from this first one, and I'll definitely aim to go into the next one stronger and faster (and healthy 🤧).

Next up - swimming or triathlon, but I'll be keeping up the gym work alongside that.

Private 1-to-1 personal training space in rural Nairnshire for your strength, flexibility, and fitness needs.