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Coach Thoughts: My First Post-Lockdown Race Experience.

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Coach Thoughts: My First Post-Lockdown Race Experience.

Each week, one of our our coaches jots down a short thought piece giving insight into elements of coaching, training, racing or mindset. This week Coach Kylie talks about her first post lockdown race experience, at Two Bays trail run.

The Two Bays Trail Run has been on my goal list for years but for a variety of reasons, one being the time of year it is on, it hasn’t happened for me. After coaching one of my girls to complete the 28km event 2020, it was firmly on my radar as my first event for 2021… then COVID struck!

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Take a Free Hit in 2021

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Take a Free Hit in 2021

In some forms of cricket, the rule makers have introduced the idea of a 'free hit.’ This is basically one ball where you can’t get out, you can’t lose. What usually happens is that the person batting throws caution to the wind and swings as hard as possible, knowing that there is a capped down-side to the situation. The worst that can happen is that they don’t score.

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How to ditch our expectations and get back to running

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How to ditch our expectations and get back to running

Getting back into running is fraught with emotional hurdles that we have to overcome. Statistically those first 3-4 weeks are the hardest and where we have the most to endure both physically and mentally. Just look at the numbers of people that 'fall off the bandwagon' after New Years. It kills me every year seeing the numbers of runners slowly declining as we get into February, March and April. Surely we can break through this!

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5 things that a first time marathoner needs to know.

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5 things that a first time marathoner needs to know.

No matter what challenge you have decided to take on in your first marathon, you have to start with where you are at. Whether its training, nutrition, recovery or pacing, you will learn a lot taking on your first marathon challenge!

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6 Tips for Great Recovery

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6 Tips for Great Recovery

One of the areas that worries us most as runners is injury. In particular, how is your body going to deal with building for events like the marathon, as well as the demands of every day life?  Having teamed up with the Physios at Port Melbourne Physio and Pilates, we took the liberty of asking them their advice on RECOVERY in the hope that their words of wisdom would keep us injury free and running at our best in the longer term.  As health professionals who regularly treat recreational runners with injuries and as runners themselves, who better to chat with about getting our recovery right, than our physio friends?!  

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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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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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Environment matters. A lot.

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Environment matters. A lot.

One of the topics I seem to come back to often as a coach is ‘environment.’  By environment I don’t really mean climate change and planting trees, nor do I necessarily mean a high performance environment like high altitude training camps, this is more about the environments that we choose to train, socialise and are raised within.  

During my time in Switzerland recently, it became really obvious that the environment was conducive to having more fit people.  Let me explain…

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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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How to choose the right next event for you

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How to choose the right next event for you

The post race break usually means a quadrupling of our food and alcohol intake (particularly in ‘fat week’), accompanied by plenty of reflections on the race that has gone, discussions about what we enjoyed, where you can improve, and questions about what race might be next.  This down time and reflection period is really important.  It allows for recovery both mentally and physically, but it usually isn’t long before the ‘What’s next?’ question rears its head… Cue animated predictions, planning sessions and discussions with friends for races that we want to sign up for.  

With so many events on the running calendar these days and entry costs going through the roof, it is becoming tricky (and expensive) to decide which event is actually the right event for you.

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What’s next?

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What’s next?

One of the most popular questions that we ask other runners is the question of, “what’s next?”

I’m going to be honest and declare that I have a love / hate relationship with this question.  This stems from the moment I finished my 17th and final marathon of 2017, after running races around Australia to raise money and awareness for the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute.  I had put myself through a lot physically and emotionally that year, particularly for that final marathon.  I was relieved and elated to be finished the running and fundraising challenge, but within 2 minutes of finishing, I was being asked, "what’s next?"  For some reason, it felt almost criminal to take anything away from that moment and from the sense of achievement, by simply moving on.  Don’t get me wrong, I already knew what was next for me, but for some reason I reacted against the assertion that there needed to be something next and that I couldn’t simply enjoy this particular moment for what it was. 

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How to not screw up your marathon taper

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How to not screw up your marathon taper

For those of you running at Melbourne Marathon Festival on 13 October, congratulations on getting this far in your training.  You will mostly have gone through the tough, long preparation for the 10km, half marathon or marathon distances and are now entering (or about to enter) a taper period, to freshen you up for race day.  This is a weird and wonderful couple of weeks where many people can screw their races, so I thought it would be useful to run through five 'anti-screw up' tips with to help keep you focused and ready to roll when you get to the start line.

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Conquering the Great Wall of China Marathon

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Conquering the Great Wall of China Marathon

Running the Great Wall of China was a pipe dream. I confidently stated this one was top of my wishlist even though I couldn’t really explain why.  There were so many amazing runs out there to do, but it was just the one that needed to be my first international race. Forty was looming so why not pencil it in as a birthday present to myself?!

I am fortunate to know a lot of inspiring people, none less so that my dear friend Kelvin who over the course of the last eleven years has completed 34 marathons including on Easter Island, Petra, Bagan Temples, Boston, New York, Tokyo… the list goes on! He was the one who I’d first floated the idea with and if I was going to do the trip it had to be with him. 

May 2019 was scheduled to be ‘our year’ for China however in November 2017 my husband Paul and I shared the news with Kelvin that after several rounds of IVF we were pregnant and due in June 2018. He was super happy for us of course and over dinner graciously suggested that maybe 2019 wouldn’t be the year for China and perhaps we postpone it to 2020. 11 months was a relatively quick turnaround to birth a baby and be back running marathon distance after all. Perhaps I could do the half-marathon I suggested, but Paul being Paul said if you are going all the way to China you’d be crazy not to do the full! It didn’t need to be fast , I just needed to do it and conquer those steps so it was the perfect event to aim for! I had his blessing to go, despite the fact that logistically he wouldn’t be able to join us, now all we had to do was have our baby and then make a running come back!

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The Last Mile: How to Stop Fading and Finish Your Runs Stronger

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The Last Mile: How to Stop Fading and Finish Your Runs Stronger

One of the key things that I try to instil into the runners that I coach, is to "finish strong.”  They are two simple words that may not seem like much when written into a training plan, but they make an enormous difference to how you run. 

To show you what I mean, take a second to think about the different feelings in these two scenarios…  

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What would you ask an athlete you admire?

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What would you ask an athlete you admire?

I’ve often wondered if I was stuck in an elevator with an athlete that I really admired, what would I ask them? 

Recreational athletes are often fascinated by the habits and lives of elites and professional athletes.  How many hours do they train?  Do they do strength training?  Who are their idols?  What do they eat?  Do they drink alcohol?

It’s not very often you get the opportunity to chat to these people and ask these types of questions, so when Vanessa Murray, a former-professional Ironman triathlete from New Zealand agreed to sit down and chat with me over a juicy burger in Albert Park, I was really excited to try and de-mystify a few things...