Coach Thoughts: Don’t be ‘Karen.'
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!
Coach Thoughts: Training = Workout + Recovery
10 Local Businesses to Help Your Endurance Activities in 2021
2020 has been a rough year for a lot of businesses who have had to adapt, dig deep and some even close their doors for portions of the year due to COVID. It’s hard to comprehend the level of stress that goes on as a small business owner at a time like this, if you haven’t been in their shoes. As a small business ourselves, we give a shit about small businesses, particularly those in the running and endurance sports space and really want them to do well. We can’t do much, but what we can do is support the businesses who support us and our runners. So, with that in mind, here’s 10 businesses that we love, that help our runners and that we are excited about watching in 2021. Check them out, you won’t regret it!
Thursday Thoughts: The right upgrade for your running
You are where you are and that's a great place to start.
When I start coaching people, I often say to them "You are where you are and that's a great place to start." Its a reminder to people that they can't rush the process of changing their body, and that they need to be honest with themselves about whatever their starting point is.
When Sera approached me to start our '5 weeks to 5km' Training Plan recently, she was the one playing these words back to me.
I coached Sera to do New York Marathon a couple of years ago…
10 Road Marathons To Train For in 2021
It’s around that time of year where we start signing off from work and thinking about the year that is to come. This year, despite all of the tough times, is no exception. In fact, perhaps more so than ever, us runners are looking forward to getting back to racing, back to consistent training routines and less threat of race cancellations due to natural disasters or global pandemics. Judging from race directors and the increase in advertising for races around Australia, there is now more confidence than at any point over the last 6 months, that we will get races going ahead in 2021.
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!
Are we in danger of data overload?
Coach Kylie and I were lucky enough to get an invite to the recent Sports Analytics Conference in Melbourne, courtesy of the awesome team at Red Bull. Now...I’m definitely not a data nerd but I am intrigued by the use of technology in running, triathlon and other sports. To be honest, I am less intrigued by the technology itself, and more our use of it and the interpretations that come from it.
There were hundreds of people in attendance from all over the world and presenters from professional sports organisations in the USA, Spain, Sweden, UK, Australia and beyond. Some of the most recognisable names of clubs in sport were on the attendee lists and it was a great opportunity hear some of the themes and debates and potentially apply these to the everyday runner.
So, what did we learn?
The realities of getting back to running as a new mum.
Why CEO's find the time to run...
Have you seen those videos and pictures of Barack Obama playing basketball with friends and college players? I remember looking at them and thinking A. Wow! He’s actually pretty decent and B. How the **** does he find the time to do that?!?!? He’s the President of the United States!! Not only that, but every morning when in Washington, Obama hits the gym between 7:30 and 8:30, alternating cardio days and weights days.* Impressive, right?
This last couple of weeks, I have noticed so many people talking about how little time they have to run. It has brought back memories of a cringe-worthy conversation that I had with a CEO, when I lived in Belgium 6 years ago. I was chatting to the CEO of one of the biggest hospital trusts in England about her running......
Comparison is the devil...
Comparison is the devil. Well, maybe that's a bit extreme, but I rarely find comparisons helpful in my line of work.
When I raise the issue of comparison with people you often see wry smiles and subtle nodding of heads. Everybody does it but yet most people feel worse because of it. The problem is that its addictive. We can’t help ourselves!
Too Far, Too Fast, Too Often.
We’ve all been there as beginners, even some of the fastest runners you know probably began with those awkward, embarrassing first runs / walks and suffered from the same things that we do, but even with that in mind, I did not expect people of all experiences, shapes, sizes, abilities, ages to contribute to this debate. I don’t know what I expected to be honest, but certainly not the detail and emotive comment that I got back. The responses certainly gave me a renewed want to try and help people by addressing these issues in my coaching.
One of the main issues that came through in the responses was that of wanting to go longer, harder and faster every time you run.
