Gary Brimmer has over 20 years of coaching experience ranging from multiple age group levels and has guided numerous runners to all levels of success. Gary found his passion for this sport through his own success and failure as a competitive distance runner since the age of 12. Over the years, Brimmer coached multiple state champion runners in both track and cross-country in the states of New York, Michigan, as well as several in Texas. He has also coached runners who have qualified for the US Olympic Trials in track and the marathon.
During the last two high school track seasons, one of Gary’s top 800m runners continued to experience a cramping sensation in his calf and hamstring after hard efforts. This led to many shortened workouts, and limited racing. After trying conventional solutions, Gary came upon HOTSHOT. After having his athlete take a bottle before his hard workouts, they quickly noticed fewer cramping issues. He now drinks HOTSHOT before hard workouts and prior to his races, and ended the 2016 track season with a third-place finish at the state finals.
One of Gary’s adult marathoners has suffered from severe cramping in almost every marathon she has run. What made diagnosing the cause of the cramping difficult was the fact that they were never able to recreate the symptoms in training. When Gary introduced HOTSHOT into her training and on marathon day, she found that her cramping was nowhere near what it had been in the past.
Check out Gary’s Marathon Training Tips, 15 years in the making:
- Make a plan and follow it. Plan your success, don’t just guess your way through a training cycle and hope that everything works on race day. Sit down and write your training down and then follow it. If you’re not sure what to do, find a coach, and listen to her or him. All great things in life come from proper planning followed by proper execution of the plan.
- Nutrition and hydration. These are two of the most important things in a marathoner’s training and racing. Stay hydrated, even on cool days. Fuel your body with healthy food. Avoid as much processed food as possible. The better the fuel you put in your body (engine) the better it will perform for you.
- Long runs are key, but not the only key! Probably the most important part of any training plan is the long run. However, it should not be the only thing you focus on. Daily runs are just as important. Each run, be it a “hard run” or an “easy run,” has their place in a training plan. If I had to pick one key workout I like for my runners to do, I’d say it would be a long progression run. We start the run as an easy pace and every four miles we increase the pace slightly until we are running right at our goal race pace or slightly faster.
- Trusting products for my athletes. My runners’ success is important to me. Over the years I have discovered different products that work for them. From shoes, socks, equipment, nutrition, etc. I would never recommend my runners use anything in their training or racing that I didn’t have 100% confidence in. When I find a product that I believe in, I stick with it. I have seen the results with my athletes who have used HOTSHOT and I believe in it.
- Because I’ve seen the success my runners have had with HOTSHOT, it will be a part of our program! Runners of all ability levels put so much hard work into chasing big goals. Something as simple as a cramp can ruin all the hard work they’ve put in. HOTSHOT is a product I know will help my runners in their future racing.
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