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…
I discovered running in my late 40s after deciding to do the now no-longer existent 5km City to Sea. In the process, I discovered that a) I could only run about 2km to start with, and that b) getting my 5km time down to 33 minutes in a 6-week period was a really good feeling.
I did a few more charity runs over longer distances (up to 15km) and loved it, but I struggled to get out of bed in winter and felt after 12 months that I was doing the same thing every time I went out for a run (about 5-8km stints) and not getting any better.
I had started doing parkrun and I heard people talk about having running coaches, something that I had not thought would apply to a very casual, velocity challenged, recreational runner like myself. I thought maybe I should look into it, when the clouds parted and a beam of light shone done upon this long lanky ginger-haired guy at parkrun, who had a run coaching business (aka coach Chris at GoRun). I decided to sign up because Chris looked pretty easy going and harmless. I figured that he wouldn’t be too hard on me while I gave this coaching thing a go. Fortunately, when this proved not to be the case, he instead made my running and general feelings about my capabilities improve so much that I was prepared to overlook his complete lack of sympathy.
The training programs are genuinely personalised – every month it will shift to reflect where I’m at and where I’m trying to get to. It’s about making me a better runner, not just about making me run. The programs have enough structure to keep me focussed and to make me constantly improve, but not so much that it becomes a burden instead of a pleasure. The variety of things the training program includes keeps me interested and challenged, as well as allowing me to feel that I am heading somewhere, not just doing the regular exercise routine. The requirement for me to put feedback on every exercise is also effective – Chris has picked up trends in my wellbeing or progress that I was completely unaware of and on the fly he has adjusted the program to respond to them. The training plan has made everything seem possible.
I have never been a runner – I am naturally slow and had not run over 10km in my previous 40+ years. Within five months of starting with Chris, I ran my first half marathon, which I would never have thought possible. Now this is my “go to” distance. I am fitter than I have ever been in my life, which includes when I was in the Navy in my youth.
I feel and look great – I am toned without being wiry, and I am energised without being obsessed by exercise. I’ve been surprised by how much more Chris knows about running and training than I do (don’t we all think that we know it all?). I also now realise that I love intervals – when Chris first put them in the program, I spent ages arguing directly with him and in my head on the way to every session about why I couldn’t do them and why I shouldn’t have to. He patiently listened to me, nodded then gently told me to do them anyway. Now, if they are missing from the program for a month I miss them and ask when they are coming back.
I’ve also learnt from the program that running training isn’t all about running. There will be bike rides (challenging, as I didn’t learn as a child), Pilates and rest days, which have contributed to my overall fitness and sense of strength.
Lastly and possibly the biggest lesson I’ve learnt is that I love running. My greatest fear is that I will deteriorate physically and have to give it up, so this drives me to stick by the program, look after myself with massages and to always feed back to Chris how I feel, not just what I have done.
I hear lots of people sign up to a running plan online, do it for a couple of months and then give it up because it doesn’t change or it’s too rigid to stick with. When I look back month to month, I can see the changes in how I have felt, what I have done and what I have achieved. Sometimes we have ditched exercise for a morning to just catch up to talk about where I am at, and whether I need to rest for a couple of weeks etc.
I don’t have to think about what I need to do and I know that I will be engaged and challenged all the time.
Let’s see whats next…