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Archives for 2021

What’s so special about the 29th of December? Your guide to resolutions

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This one time, I made a very big change and I didn’t wait until the 1st of January

New years, new weeks often make it easier to initiate that change, which is great – but keep in mind that no matter what you are going to have to go through tough spots with it. There is often no right time to do something, you just have to be so sick of the alternative that it’s worth it. In this episode I’m talking about:
  • Writing things down, so you are more likely to stick to things
  • How to build in the baby steps of self efficacy to keep going
  • Focusing on consistency over perfection
  • And how to assess if what you are doing is even working

Interested in coaching?

Let’s talk about achieving your running goals, while maintaining the most important thing – your joy. You can sign up here. 

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Everything you need to know about bone injuries

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Have you ever noticed how little information there is about coming back from bone injuries and stress fractures?

Usually they tell you to rest and then start back slowly, but what does that mean? In this episode I’m talking about:
  • The three phases of rehabilitation
  • How you know when you can progress from one stage to the next stage
  • Are all pain messages bad?
  • What about phantom pain?
  • And what you can learn from the whole thing anyway.

Interested in coaching?

Let’s talk about achieving your running goals, while maintaining the most important thing – your joy. You can sign up here. 

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The 10% rule and other myths about running

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I’ve officially listened to one too many running questions, answered by non-runners.

In this episode of the podcast I’m talking about:
  • The 10% rule. Is it real? Is it helpful? What should you do instead.
  • Can you ever really ‘bank time’ in anything. The old saying is for every 10 seconds you go out too fast, you lose 1 minute in the second half. In my case I think it was about 8 seconds too fast in the first half and I lost about 40 seconds per km in the back half. Which is pretty close and you get the idea, things go very poorly.
  • Fuelling. Why you can’t just do it once or twice in training and why you need more than you think you do.

Interested in coaching?

Let’s talk about achieving your running goals, while maintaining the most important thing – your joy. You can sign up here. 

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Podcast: Episode 141 – How do I adapt running to my life without feeling like I’m going backwards?

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I know you work hard

This is actually not a problem most people have. We are far more likely to overdo it, than underdo it. Working hard isn’t the problem. Making time for running isn’t the problem, it’s finding something that you can recover from that is the hard part. In this episode, I’m talking about something I’ve been running into a lot with clients I coach this year which is when work demands or other demands go way up, how do you adapt your running to your new life reality? Or do you try to adapt that life to your running? How do you get around that feeling that you are going backwards, or taking a step down from what you were doing before? So in this episode I’m talking about:
  • Changing your mindset about event distance
  • Stepping away from the distortion of Strava and instagram
  • Figuring out what you can do every week
  • Giving yourself time for the things that support consistency and injury prevention
  • Finding things that aren’t so easily comparable
  • The 8 hour sleep buy-in

Interested in coaching?

Let’s talk about achieving your running goals, while maintaining the most important thing – your joy. You can sign up here. 

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How little barriers can throw up huge roadblocks

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This morning (or last night really, but it starts today) I’d decided to try this productivity tool which is called – MIT (most important task) where they night before you decide what would be the thing you could do tomorrow which would most push the needle in terms of your goals. Which for me is definitely creating. Of all kinds. So here I am writing.

Earlier today I was talking to a friend of mine because her sister and my friend would have had her birthday yesterday, but she died last year so she is forever 39. We talked about how it gets harder the further you get away from it. But also we talked about a lot of other things because that’s what happens when you’ve been friends with someone for 42 years. One of the things I talked with her about was how often barriers to entry stop you doing anything at all. Which you know, I should know a thing or two about being a coach, but sometimes you are late to learn the lesson for yourself.

I was talking about how with the bonus podcast on patreon, it’s really easy to publish because I don’t do any intros or music or editing or artwork. I record it on my voice app on my phone when I’m ten minutes early for the gym or generally procrastinating in the car because it’s cold and I publish and it’s out there. With other things the little barriers can get in the way: like it takes my computer 30 minutes to open garageband to edit the podcast (I know, I’m getting a new computer, I swear), or I have to spend 20 minutes making the visuals for it. Anyway, you get the idea. The actual bones of it is easy, the trappings are hard and time consuming. But I really just need to get to the point where I do things and allow them to be frill free.

It’s an easy trap to fall into when you feel like you are failing on multiple fronts. Failing is too strong a word. Struggling would be more appropriate. Which is okay – new jobs and new study doesn’t have to be easy and it will get better as I get more comfortable with things. But the instinct is very much to hide.

So if you happen to hear a podcast coming up without all the bells and whistles, you’ll know why.

The bones are going to be good for now.