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!
"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…
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!
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!
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.’
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.
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?”
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.
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.
New Challenges, New Friends and Beating Stress: Why I run...
If you are looking for inspiration, look no further than one of our own Go Runners: Grace. Following on from Runner Stories blogs by Kylie and Caroline, this time around we profile Grace, who got back into her running with GoRun and is now taking on events and new challenges all the time. Grace chats about her running history, some of the benefits of being part of a group and how she uses running to manage stress.
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.
How to stop digging and start recovering
Lots of runners are keen to do the physical running that forms the bulk of their training, but not so keen to get the right amount of rest and recovery that will actually enable them to run at their best. Unfortunately this is an all too common approach that many recreational runners as they dig themselves into physical holes or repetitive cycles of injury, which could have been avoided through adequate rest and recovery.
Given that we are coaching and running in the ‘endurance sports’ space, the number of hours spent training and the subsequent stress that we on our bodies, is high. As a result, we have got to make sure that we recover adequately and give something back to our bodies.
So what can we do ourselves to help our own recovery?
What to do when you hit a parkrun rut...
It’s probably not a very politically correct thing to say, but yes sometimes you can fall out of love with parkrun. Having done over 150 parkruns, I can very safely say that the vast majority have been hugely enjoyable experiences and I would not trade my Saturday morning jaunt around the lake for much else. I have dressed up, ran with no shoes, come first, come last, plateaued, PB’ed, paced people, raced people and most things between! However, like many parkrunners, there have been times when my motivation has dipped and you sometimes just fall out of love with it for a while. Now, I am not a doctor but I am going to diagnose this as 'hitting a parkrun rut.'
So when this awful ‘rut' strikes, what can you do?!?