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Operation Move

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You are here: Home / 2020 / Archives for June 2020

Archives for June 2020

Podcast: Episode 130 – Everything I want new runners to know

OperationMove · June 26, 2020 · Leave a Comment

This week is brought to you by I’ve heard way too many people gatekeeping new runners and I have feelings about that

It’s true. There are so many people who are new to running or giving it a crack again with gyms being limited or not quite open yet and I’m pretty annoyed with the level of gatekeeping or scaremongering that is out there. More runners is awesome! I’m so excited to see everyone out there trying something new or getting back to something that they used to love.

 

Everything I want new runners to know (and everything people wished they’d known before they started)

In this episode I’m talking:

  • Injury prevention
  • Strength training
  • What shoes to buy?
  • Bodytype BS
  • Is your technique worse if you run slow?
  • How to slow down.
  • Walking is your friend
  • Managing fatigue when you start
  • How to breathe
  • And most importantly, yes it does get easier.

Support the podcast, so we can make more and get access to bonus episodes!

You can support Operation Move and the podcast on Patreon. I am so grateful for your support! In this week’s bonus episode, I’m talking about tempo running – why it doesn’t have to be scary, how it should feel and some ideas for a warm up to make everything a whole lot easier.  

 

Would you like your question answered?

As promised on the podcast, you can book in a skype call here Or you can email me here.  

 

Check out Run Club and the Operation Move Sisterhood

Our amazing community includes:

  • Plans from 5km to Marathon from Beginner to Advanced
  • Weekly workouts for when you are in between plans, or just to spice up your week
  • A private facebook community
  • Access to coaches for all your questions
  • And most importantly – the most supportive community you can imagine!

You can sign up here. Stay up to date on:

  • instagram @opmove
  • facebook @opmove
  • facebook community group @opmove

You can listen on iTunes, Spotify or Stitcher

 

Podcast: Episode 129 – When different, not more is what makes you better

OperationMove · June 19, 2020 · Leave a Comment

 

If more makes you better, you should just be able to rinse and repeat – right?

Turns out maybe not so much. Sometimes more does lead to improvements, and that’s especially true in the beginning. And us humans just love the seductive illusion of linear progression, but as you get further into things, often more isn’t better. Sometimes, it’s even worse. So in this episode of the podcast I’m talking about how to get your focus on what you can do to improve when more isn’t working, more isn’t practical or doesn’t fit in with your lifestyle, or maybe you are just going to have better results with doing something else instead. Capacity is just one tool in your tool box. Maybe the workload isn’t the issue – maybe under-recovery is. Or maybe you’ve been favouriting a particular type of training. This is all about your experiment of one: you.

 

Support the podcast, so we can make more and get access to bonus episodes!

You can support Operation Move and the podcast on Patreon. I am so grateful for your support! In this week’s bonus episode, I’m talking about where to start with your nutrition – some basic building blocks to get you started and focusing on the things that will have the most impact for you.

 

Would you like your question answered?

As promised on the podcast, you can book in a skype call here Or you can email me here.

 

Check out Run Club and the Operation Move Sisterhood

Our amazing community includes:

  • Plans from 5km to Marathon from Beginner to Advanced
  • Weekly workouts for when you are in between plans, or just to spice up your week
  • A private facebook community
  • Access to coaches for all your questions
  • And most importantly – the most supportive community you can imagine!

You can sign up here. Stay up to date on:

  • instagram @opmove
  • facebook @opmove
  • facebook community group @opmove

You can listen on iTunes, Spotify or Stitcher

Am I too sedentary? 7 strategies to improve your movement outside of training

OperationMove · June 16, 2020 · Leave a Comment

It might seem like an odd question to come from people who run regularly, but it’s not as uncommon as you might think.

A lot of us have inconveniently computer dependent jobs and while we might get out for our run in the morning, we spend a whole lot of time sitting other than that. And sometimes, the running workout might be so intense, that it actually seems to enforce this. That’s not to say that rest is bad, or you shouldn’t have a lie down or binge watch Queer Eye on Netflix, but that often what is linked to your health isn’t how much time you spend exercising, but actually how much time you spend not moving at all. Which is a different conversation.

So, it becomes less about your run or your workout and more about how you actually spend your whole day and also how you utilise active recovery as opposed to complete rest.

I work from home so I do have a lot more flexibility in this than people who don’t. But even if you are working 9-5, there are ways that you can work it in to your day.

1. Take regular breaks

They don’t have to be huge, it can be as simple as getting up from your desk every hour or so. If you do have the flexibility what I like to do is to do some computer stuff for an hour, then maybe break that up with cooking, cleaning or errand or other tasks that get me moving a bit more. I think the tendency in our brain is to want to do things in blocks – so x hours of work and then do all of this ‘other stuff’ later but you might actually find yourself a lot more productive if you break it up more.

2. Cross training isn’t just for injury

Admittedly, pretty much the only time I hop on the exercise bike is when I am injured, but the benefits to cross-training aren’t just about developing or maintaining aerobic fitness, it’s about moving your body in a different way – especially as running is so repetitive. So for me my cross training of choice is swimming, CrossFit, walking and also yoga lately although for me and the style of yoga I do I would consider that more as body maintenance because I’m doing restorative yoga not a full practice. For me, swimming is probably the one I get the most out of, because it’s full body, it’s non impact and it’s a completely different movement pattern.

3. Could you walk there?

So many things I used to drive to, I now walk to. Now, admittedly if you live out of town this might not be a possibility for you. But maybe if you are at work and you have an errand to do you could walk to do that and then come back to the car before you go home – that kind of thing. Or maybe if you are having a meeting at work you could suggest a walking meeting (definitely the best kind of meeting). And if you do have to drive to your errands – maybe park a little bit further away so you can get in some extra moving that way.

4. Alphabet feet

This is one you can do at your desk. Use your feet to draw the letters of the alphabet. Pretty simple, but adds in a nice bit of foot mobility into your day.

5. Use environment cues to help you

I put my foam rollers and other assorted devices in the lounge room in front of the couch, so if I am sitting down they are there too, judging me. Have a look at your environment, is there something that is blocking you? You might like to do some yoga or stretching but do you have hard floors and that’s a deterrent. It might sound simple, but those little environmental cues can have a big impact. I find even with having my space set up in front of the TV, it’s not actually ideal because I don’t really want to do yoga with Spongebob in the background, so I’ve started moving it into the bedroom instead.

6. Pick something to work on through the week

This might be squat mobility (so accumulating time at the bottom of a squat), or it might be improving push ups or working on single leg balance – and then at several times through the day just take a minute or two to work on it. It’s a whole lot less intimidating when it’s only a minute and you don’t have to commit to a full routine.

7. Adjust your workout schedule

This is one that can be the most challenging to do. But if you are so exhausted or sore from training that it’s impacting your movement through the rest of the week, it might be time to reduce your load. Consistency is greater than intensity – so if your hard workout is stopping you from being consistent, it’s probably too much right now.

The important thing is to try new things. It might take you awhile to find something that you enjoy and feels good for you and your body and that is okay. Just keep trying things on until you find what works for you.

Save Yourself

OperationMove · June 12, 2020 · Leave a Comment

How comfortable are you in your own skin?

A question that’s easy to ignore or shove under the rug or cover over with all manner of things in normal life, and a whole lot harder to do exactly the same during a pandemic. Even for those of us who it has affected very minimally (like myself), the environment shift has been palpable. I don’t know anyone who hasn’t taken a hit to their mental health.

Even when you are really busy, you are just with yourself a whole lot more than you are used to. Even for people like myself, who is pretty used to my own company, well it’s been a lot.

You find out pretty quickly the parts of yourself that you cherish and the parts of yourself that are deeply uncomfortable to stomach. The parts that get hidden under work, or doing things, or rationalised coping mechanisms.

 

Sometimes you are travelling along really well and then your brain decides, hey let’s replay every stupid thing you’ve ever done over the last 40 years with no breaks.

Then you really have to cling to this one idea: never judge yourself for the choices you made in order to survive.

It’s something I always remember from when I had really rough patches of mental health – maximum effort doesn’t always look the same. Sometimes maximum effort is making peanut butter on toast. You don’t know.

It has to be more uncomfortable to stay the same, than it is to change

This is true of any change – whether it’s fitness or nutrition or smoking or drinking or whatever it might be. It’s not going to happen until staying the same becomes untenable.

You can have help and you can have support and you can have strategies but ultimately it’s just you, sitting with yourself deciding if you are worth saving today.

You can’t change what you don’t love. So you have to find a way to love those parts of yourself that you don’t like so much, that make you feel uncomfortable.

Sometimes you’ll go back and forth on it, and that’s okay too. Certainty only comes with practice. A lot of practice.

And sometimes it’s not until you get to the other side that you feel how tired you are. Because all that effort you put into ‘passing’ builds up.

That’s okay too. Just like maximum effort looks very different depending on the day, so does doing your best.

My best is okay, and I bet yours is too.

Podcast: Episode 128 – Take some of the structure out of your training, but get the same results

OperationMove · June 11, 2020 · Leave a Comment

If you are like anyone I am coaching, you have been wanting to change up your training in this period without races

Maybe you have a whole heap of extra stressors on you right now, maybe you want to fall in love with running again, maybe you want to step outside the 12 week cycle and do something different, or maybe you just want to take the pressure off.

Whatever it is, there’s been a much bigger need for less rigidity in training the last few months, and probably for the rest of the year too.  

But it probably also makes you feel a bit nervous right? Like if you take your foot off the gas pedal, are you going to go backwards? You don’t want to feel like the time is ‘wasted’ either, so where does that leave you?  

In this episode of the podcast, I’m talking about how to take some of the structure out of your sessions, but still get the same physical adaptations, just with a whole lot less of the mental load.   Sounds fun, right? I thought so too! I have a few ideas to keep you moving, switch to more of an effort based focus and create ways where the intensity isn’t always coming from the session itself.

Support the podcast, so we can make more and get access to bonus episodes!

You can support Operation Move and the podcast on Patreon. I am so grateful for your support! In this week’s bonus episode, I’m talking about my three absolute favourite 5km workouts. I don’t think we are that far away from a parkrun return, it might be time to get ready!

Would you like your question answered?

As promised on the podcast, you can book in a skype call here Or you can email me here.

Check out Run Club and the Operation Move Sisterhood

Our amazing community includes:

  • Plans from 5km to Marathon from Beginner to Advanced
  • Weekly workouts for when you are in between plans, or just to spice up your week
  • A private facebook community
  • Access to coaches for all your questions
  • And most importantly – the most supportive community you can imagine!

You can sign up here. Stay up to date on:

  • instagram @opmove
  • facebook @opmove
  • facebook community group @opmove

You can listen on iTunes, Spotify or Stitcher    

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