Even as a running coach, I get frustrated with 'running chat’ at times. As runners, we seem to have developed our own language, which nobody outside of running knows about. This guest post on the Tri Chicks website is designed to help you translate some of the main phrases that you may hear from other runners. Head over to the awesome Tri Chicks website and check out my guest post on this issue.
Happy learning!
How do you go from a 1hr 53 half marathon to winning marathons and ultras, breaking records and representing Australia at the 100km World Championships? Ask Kirstin Bull....
Kirstin Bull has won the Two Bays Trail Run and Great Ocean Road Marathon multiple times and smashed the Australian 100km record last year. For our FIRST EVER GO RUN PODCAST, I chatted to Kirstin about her running and even reminisce about her first ever half marathon. She chats about her training, coaching, strength and conditioning work, nutrition and her advice for new runners who want to hit the trails or train for ultra distances. We also discuss her wine or beer preferences ;-)
Check it out!
Kirstin is racing at the 100km World Championships in Spain in September and is fundraising to support that effort. You can find more info and donate here
Good luck Kirstin!
Whether you're stuck in a rut with your running at parkrun or anywhere else, there are ways to break through it. I chatted to Baroness of Melbourne, Danielle about what to do when this awful ‘rut' strikes.
Head over to the awesome Baroness of Melbourne blog to check out this guest post.
It would appear that we are in 'race promotion season’ at the moment as I have received emails detailing no less that 19 different races or running festivals, urging me to sign up and run. So, in order to save you the hassle of trawling through your inbox and trash folder to find out about these races over the coming months, I have done it for you….
In my last blog I wrote about getting goosebumps when trying to choose the right event for 2016. I got an amazing response to this blog and even had one of the Go Runners suggest that the idea of a first marathon gave her goosebumps and that we start working towards that as a new goal. AWESOME!!
Before we all get carried away, it is important to recognise that goosebumps are just the start… Now the tough stuff starts. Time to overcome all of those real but hidden fears that we put in the way of ourselves when training for these events. This blog is about recognising those fears.
Even as a coach, I am not somehow immune to these fears. In fact, I am one of those people that wants to be good at something before they try it. This means that if i don’t think i will be good at it, I either don’t do it, or it takes A LOT of persuasion to get me to try. This has been the case with numerous sports, from swimming as a kid, through to pilates as an adult, even my running has required a lot of work on this front. My mum will tell anyone who cares to listen about my swimming lessons as a kid and how much I hated them, because I wanted to be able to swim already. I don’t remember those very well (selective memory perhaps??) but I do remember signing up to train with a local football team in the UK one summer and being so petrified of going to training that I pretended to be sick, hid upstairs and refused to leave the house. Now, lets get one thing very clear. I loved my football. I played all day and watched it most evenings.
So why the drama?
I was absolutely petrified of not being good enough and of what people might think of me.
I can’t even dismiss this fear as being something that I only had as a kid, because I still care what people think. I remember it took almost a year of persuading and waiting for me to try pilates, which I now love. I remember putting off my first parkrun in Melbourne for weeks, whilst my wife, Kathryn went, raved about it and met some of the best friends we have ever had. I have now done over 100 parkruns. I have no doubt that I am getting better but Kathryn keeps telling me that I still care too much about what other people think. I am a work in progress…..aren’t we all?
Over the past three months I have been doing a lot of listening to the runners I coach and others, hoping to understand more about some of the fears that exist for real people around their running. I have heard stories that really do make me sad. Fears like...
If you are anything like me, the Christmas break has meant a quadrupling of my food and alcohol intake, accompanied by many reflections on the year that has gone, discussions about what races I enjoyed, questions about whether I am actually any fitter this time around and bold predictions for the new year. As runners, this is usually accompanied by animated conversations with friends and planning around events and 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. I see so many people sign up for events that they don’t really want to do and / or have little motivation to do well in.
I want you to use the power of goosebumps to avoid that!
I have just gone through this process having had a pretty great 2015, with PB’s at half marathon, marathon and half ironman distances, as well as my first ever Ironman. However, I struggled to find the right event to sign up for 2016. You know, the one event that keeps you motivated and gets you out of bed in the morning when you really don’t feel like it.
Read on to get a little insight into my slightly quirky, random thought process, when deciding to sign up for Ironman New Zealand and how this can help you pick the right event for you in 2016.
As you may know, Go Run is a small, young, start up company, but thankfully the good news stories and results are already starting to roll in! I want to tell you about the first runner that I began coaching, my dad!
He is nearly 62 years old and has run for recreation and fitness for over 30 years, completing 6 marathons (all of them under 4hrs 15 mins), over 20 half marathons, plus many other shorter races. We began working together over a 14 week period to prepare him for the Great North Run half marathon in mid September and he managed to get his best half marathon time in 7 years (2:06:32)!
