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Learnings from the pain cave – ultra running and mindset

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Learnings from the pain cave – ultra running and mindset

It is inevitable and expected with endurance sport that at some point things will turn ugly. I’m using this in the context of ultramarathon events when I’ve been on my feet for over 6 hours and everything is becoming increasingly uncomfortable and both physical and mental fatigue are taking their toll. Also referred to as the pain cave. I’m no stranger to the pain cave. I’ve completed a number of tough ultra races on both road and trail. This hasn’t made it any easier as all races bring different experiences and thus one of the weird and wonderful reasons we keep coming back for more!

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Your Progress is in Your Hands.

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Your Progress is in Your Hands.

How often do we delegate our thinking and decision making to others?

As it turns out, a lot. Just think about the daily questions that you get someone else to answer for you. ‘What do you want for dinner?’ ‘What do you want to do today?’ ‘What time shall we go for a run?’ ‘Where shall we meet?’

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Finding Her Way Back to Running - Abbie's Story

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Finding Her Way Back to Running - Abbie's Story

As a new mum, Abbie is navigating the tricky path back to running. Having previously ran 10km and half marathon events, she is looking to get back to that level of fitness, but has to contend with a new life and changes to her body. Here is her story of how she got into running and the differences she has found in her running post-baby.

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Silver Linings for our Running?

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Silver Linings for our Running?

So, we’re restricted now. For many people, theres no more office based job for 8 hours of the day. No more social drinks at the pub. No more organised gatherings.

Hmm… Even if we just take those three examples, it sounds like we might have more time on our hands, thus removing THE BIG excuse that we seem to use when not being able to keep consistent and move towards our running goals!

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The Broken Ankle, the Marathon and the Turtle: Sarah's Story

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The Broken Ankle, the Marathon and the Turtle: Sarah's Story

Sarah has come back to running after a full ankle reconstruction and has continued to push her own boundaries in terms of distances, times and her own image of herself as a runner. A self-confessed and named ‘Turtle,’ she loves the trails and the trail running community. In this blog she writes in her own words about her journey of taking up running, through to completing a marathon and tackling an ultra marathon in 2019. Thank you so much to Sarah for contributing this story. This one is for all the turtles out there…

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Changing Life Direction - Debs' Journey to Running

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Changing Life Direction - Debs' Journey to Running

Being a self confessed workaholic and having had serious health complications earlier in her life, led Debs to seek out life changes. A move to a new suburb and taking up running gave her a new lease on life, new goals and new friends. Here is Debs’ running story…

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"Half Marathon is now my go-to distance!" Susan's Story.

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"Half Marathon is now my go-to distance!" Susan's Story.

Susan is a busy business owner, with a love of rugby, technology and helping organisations and individuals realise their potential. She can now add running to that list and her go-to distance is now the half marathon. She loves her parkrunning at Albert Park in Melbourne and supports her friends to keep running as well. Thank you to Susan for allowing us to share her running story…

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Let’s be realistic about our running. 

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Let’s be realistic about our running. 

Well that escalated quickly…

I have started several blogs only to have the corona virus situation throw us another curve ball. So I started thinking about what can I write or contribute that has some use to our runners and friends, no matter what the situation? Then I spoke with my friend and fellow coach, Michael. Always a thinker and a man of interesting perspectives, we chatted about the need to be realistic about the situation that we find ourselves in, whatever that looks like.

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Forget perfection, try evolution.

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Forget perfection, try evolution.

What does the ‘perfect’ runner look like?  I hear this question being discussed every so often in magazines, online forums or occasionally over coffee after our Saturday morning 5km parkrun.  Particularly if you are relatively new to running, you might be interested and might even be in awe of those runners who seem to have the perfect build, legs, speed,or effortless look to them as they glide around the track or along the bike path.   It all adds to the slight insecurities we might have about not being a ‘real runner.’ 

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A Year of endurance events helps Meagan ‘climb out of dark hole’

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A Year of endurance events helps Meagan ‘climb out of dark hole’

After several epic life challenges, Meagan set herself an inspiring goal of #8in18  – to compete in an event in every state and territory of Australia in 2018.   Here she shares what she learnt from the challenge and the final event - Ironman Busselton, Western Australia - and how she’s been keeping busy this year.

The reason #8in18 came about was that I fell into a world of depression and then anxiety, following a relationship breakup, a divorce and a number of health issues.  The only way I was going to climb out of that dark hole was by pulling myself out of it ... so I set the goal!! 

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Why do we feel guilty for running?

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Why do we feel guilty for running?

Many conversations.  One common theme: Runners Guilt.

Yep, it’s a real thing.  People of all shapes and sizes feel guilty for running.  Whether you are a busy executive, a shift worker, a student, a stay at home parent or all of the above, runners guilt can stop you getting your running off the ground or keeping up your training routine.  

“Why do I feel so guilty when I go for a run?”

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We Fall to the Level of our Training

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We Fall to the Level of our Training

An old coach of mine had a very simple saying, "finish at the finish."

Seems simple enough to do, right?

In a race or event, this absolutely makes sense but he also used to say this during almost every training session. Whether it was an easy recovery run or a hard interval session, 'finish at the finish' still rings true. Just like you can’t imagine stopping your race 100 metres before the finish line, nor should you imagine this during training. We are creatures of habit and by finishing actually at the finish and not before, we are looking to create a positive habit that is reinforced in each and every session, not just when the coach is looking.

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From Surgery to Half Marathoner - Shannon's Running Story

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From Surgery to Half Marathoner - Shannon's Running Story

Despite running from a young age, Shannon didn’t see herself as a ‘runner’. It wasn’t until she was forced to either quit running forever or undergo major surgery on both legs, that she realised how much it meant to her. Now every run is a celebration. 

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We're all still learning. Even the coaches

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We're all still learning. Even the coaches

Even coaches still benefit from being coached.  Whilst they are busy sharing their knowledge with others and helping to structure their training, increase accountability and get results, they too, can do with help from time to time.  There are coaches out there who are former athletes, there are coaches who have never been athletes and there are coaches like myself, who still have athletic ambitions.  There are plenty of pro’s and cons to each situation, but no matter what a coach' own personal experience in the sport, few coaches would claim that they know it all.  In fact, if they do claim to know it all, I would say that they are deluded.

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How to find the right running group for you...

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How to find the right running group for you...

Our Run Group in Port Melbourne has been going for a couple of years now and during that time, I have been asked a lot of questions both as the coach and as the organiser.  There are certainly themes to these questions and one of the big ones is around ‘fear.’  That fear is usually shown in the person not wanting to be the “worst" or slowest person in the group.  One new arrival even messaged me before their first session to say, “I've never joined a running group before.  I'm probably going to be way behind even the slowest person there.”