Blog by Rachel Grunwell: Rotorua Marathon ambassador, qualified PT/coach, yoga teacher, wellness columnist (for Good magazine, Indulge magazine and the Herald online). Rachel helps clients to uplift their health through private wellness coaching, and through the Mindful Moments retreats at Rotorua’s Polynesian Spa.

Running is not the only important thing for runners. It’s not all about how many miles you pound on the pavements. There are other important factors too that can fuel your run game. Here are some tips that can help.

5 Wellbeing Tips to Radically Improve Your Run Game

1. Eat real food to fuel your running well. If your nutritional intake is substandard, then don’t expect your performance, recovery and adaptations to be optimal. It’s that simple.

2. Sleep. This fuels your recovery game so you can come back stronger. It’s not only one of the best recovery tools out there, it’s also free. So get some more zzzzzzzzzz.

3. Do what you can to reduce your stress levels. When cortisol is chronically elevated, it can weak havoc on your health (ie it can have harmful effects on your health ie weight, immune function and chronic disease risk).

4. Re-think how you worry. Use mindfulness to be more present and happy in the now. Leaning mindfulness can help you feel calmer in the present, help guide you to stop feeling upset about the past (which you can’t change) and it helps you reign in thoughts where you might feel anxious about the future. It’s science proven to work – so this is well worth trying. This is one of the most powerful wellness tools I teach in yoga and at wellness events.

5. Stretch your body regularly to help bring it back into balance. If you are keen to avoid injuries then this is a good tool to tap into. Foam rollers are epic too.