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…
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…
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?!?