• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
Operation Move

Operation Move

Online Running Coaching

  • About Me
    • Contact me
  • Blog
  • Podcast
  • Coaching
  • Run Club
  • Ebooks
  • Downloadable Plans
  • Shop
    • My account
    • Cart
    • Checkout
  • Show Search
Hide Search
You are here: Home / Archives for Moving

Moving

Everything I want you to know about learning to run

OperationMove · December 31, 2020 · Leave a Comment

This post originally appeared on Active Truth

Before and after pictures, we’ve all seen them, right? 

It’s easy to look at an after picture and think of it as representing determination, strength, commitment, discipline and hard work.

But my before picture is the woman who did all the work. She was the one who got herself to the gym when no one there looked like her. She was the one who gave herself pep talks in the car just to get through the front door. She was the one who persisted outside even when people gave her the stink eye up and down. She was the one who went into shops even though sometimes they asked her to leave because ‘there’s nothing that fits you here’. She fiercely did all of those things when they were hard to do. Beginnings are hard. Starting something new is hard. Asking your body to adapt is hard.

My after picture is the woman who stands on the shoulders of all of that hard work. That’s all she has to do.

Now I realise that there is no after picture, not really. Because I’m not done yet.

The most important thing about learning to run, whether you are starting for the first time or getting back into it after a small or big break is that the barriers aren’t your breathing or your running technique or your posture or your motivation.

The biggest barrier is systemic obstacles that stop you from discovering how amazing you are. How amazing your body is. How capable it is of doing everything you could ever ask it to do and then some.

It’s all the times that you are outside and someone yells ‘run, fatty run’, it’s all the times at the gym someone rolls their eyes at you. It’s all the small ways that you are made to feel unwelcome, or worse undeserving. It’s the way that there are a billion campaigns to ‘fight obesity’ but outrage if anyone dares to make plus-sized active wear. It’s all the times you say in passing you are a runner and someone screws up their face and says, ‘really?’

You deserve to take up space, in any way you choose. If running is in your heart to do, that fills my heart with so much joy because running changed my whole life. Or it felt that way at the time, but maybe running just allowed me to be who I was always meant to be. My whole self.

You already have a runner’s body. You already have everything you need. You don’t need to change to start, you can just start. I know in the beginning you might think ‘this would be so much easier if . . .’, but if it is challenging that’s just another ingredient to make you stronger, more resilient and more capable.

It’s not that you don’t try hard enough, it’s that you don’t have enough support. Most of us aren’t a victim of not working hard enough, of not putting in our full effort. The problem is much more that we don’t have the context or the feedback to appreciate what all of our work means. You can find support in lots of places from in-person communities like parkrun to online communities or coaching groups. We need people to tell us that we are in fact doing amazing, progress isn’t linear (no matter how much we want it to be) and that what we are doing matters. We need to be around people who appreciate not just the results, but all the hard work and consistency that went into them in the first place.

Running is not a calorie burning exercise. Yes, technically anything you do burns calories. But if you look at running as some kind of energy exchange, you are short changing yourself. If you want to run well, you need to fuel that running to perform well, to adapt well and to recover well.

It can be anything you want it to be. Some people train to run faster, some people train to run further, some people run to be outside or to be with friends. You get to decide what it means for you. You get to make your own rules and follow your own path. That’s the fun part.

Often, what you get out of it has very little to do with running. I was a truant at every cross country run, every athletics carnival, every sporting endeavour at school. After a while I started to believe that story about myself – that I wasn’t capable, I wasn’t athletic or coordinated, I just wasn’t enough. Learning to run re-wrote that story for me and it challenged so many other stories I’d told myself about what I couldn’t do.

You might not believe that you can learn to run yet and that’s okay. I believe it enough for the both of us.

 

Friday Freebie – 5km Training Plan

OperationMove · November 13, 2020 · Leave a Comment

5km Training Plan – 3 Days Per Week

This is one of my favourite training plans for 5km because it has loads of the fun stuff, and it’s 3 days a week. The long runs are also long enough that you’d be in good shape if you wanted to take it up to 10km too. A great all rounder, in that way. And easy to add in some bonus easy runs if you have a week where you want to run more often.

If you are having trouble with the form below, you can visit it directly at https://mailchi.mp/opmove/plan5km

Get comfortable with being bad at something

OperationMove · November 12, 2020 · Leave a Comment

Title image - Training - get comfortable with being bad at something - running image If there’s one thing I’ve learned to be good at, it’s being bad at something.

It’s not as easy as it sounds.

Actually it makes you feel quite vulnerable, and it’s hard to sit with it – that discomfort.  

In the beginning you are going to suck at it. And you are probably going to suck at it for a long time. You are going to have to live there for awhile – where you don’t take to it ‘naturally’, it doesn’t ‘come easy’ and it’s just hard work.

But the thing is it doesn’t matter how uncomfortable it is, it can still be fun. 

Often times we mistake things we are good at for things we love and vice versa. But more often than not, how much we enjoy something has very little to do with our skill or our talent.

Somewhere along the way we’ve been sold the idea that there’s always an intersection of what you love and what you are good at. 

But you can love something, not be great at it and still enjoy every second of it. 

This is me with running, this is me with strength training, this is me with crochet, this is definitely me with baking.

The truth is I like being bad at things, because I love puzzles and usually it just means I haven’t worked it out yet. I love the process of working it out. Which is why I find it easy to out-work things that I’m bad at, not because I want to be good at it, but because I like deciphering the code. 

Eventually that work ends up looking like competence. 

But the puzzle is the fun part. 


I’m writing a book about how to love running enough for it to change your life.

The book is going to focus on my journey so far, the when the why and the how of the workouts and of training, but also how it all connects to things that are far bigger than running. I’m taking up the challenge of writing a book in 30 days. Which is a lot of writing, but hopefully just enough pressure to keep the momentum going. You can sign up to read the daily words on patreon and get access to a whole range of bonus podcast episodes, and an ebook with 52 running workouts, so you’ll never be stuck for ideas ever again. Stay up to date on:

  • instagram @opmove
  • facebook @opmove
  • Our community group has moved! Check us out at sisterhood.opmove.com

So you had a really long break, are you starting over?

OperationMove · November 10, 2020 · Leave a Comment

Returning to running after a break - title image with running picture Returning to running can be a big challenge. I just ran for the first time in 50 days. Yes, I was counting. In my case it was injury related, but you might have just gotten busy or had other priorities. Whatever happened these breaks happen. Sometimes they sneak up on you too!


Returning to Running – Are you starting from square one?

The short answer is no, you aren’t. You will hold on to your long term fitness. The longer answer is maybe it’s a good idea to treat your return as if you are starting from scratch. You might not have lost much fitness, but if you haven’t been doing anything high impact then your body is not at all used to the loading. So whether you’ve done nothing for two months or you’ve turned into a rowing machine, for running the result is still the same – unprepared for a sudden and dramatic increase in loading – even if the cardio fitness is there.


First you try, then you wait

No two people will respond the same, so the only way to test things out is to give it a go and see what happens. And here is the important bit: be willing to adapt based on what happens rather than plough on with your plan. That might look like walk/run or it might be a shorter continuous run – but chances are you only want it to be 20-30 minutes to start with. For me, my first run I ended up doing as 6 x 4:30 run, 0:30 walk – just so I didn’t have to think about when my walk breaks were going to be. Then it’s a waiting game. If you are coming back from injury you are waiting to see that whatever your injury is – isn’t having a major reaction to the impact. If you aren’t, you just want to make sure that everything feels pretty good in the 1-2 days afterwards.


Feels good? Proceed. If it doesn’t? Adapt.

If all is feeling pretty normal, than in a few days you can repeat the same thing, or maybe even extend it a teensy bit. And if it is feeling less than stellar that’s not an abandon ship situations it’s more looking at how you can decrease the load so you aren’t having that same reaction, until it stabilises and then moving forward from there.


When you are returning to running, progress looks different on everyone

You might progress really quickly and with no complications, or you might need to progress quite slowly with only making changes ever 3-4 weeks after your body adapts. You can’t control which situation you’ll get and most often it will probably be something in the middle. Just keep in mind that slow progress IS progress and the goal is to keep running not do too much too soon and end up back where you started.


The time for extra self-care is now

All of those muscles being used in ways they haven’t been for awhile so it’s a great time to invest in more mobility, more rolling and more body treatment (if you’ve found physio, osteo and massage treatment works for you). And it’s also time to fuel your body with all the things it needs while you ask a little bit extra of it.


A second opinion is always a good idea, especially with returning to running after a break

I have a coach, because I know I’m far more capable of making good choices when I’m accountable. If you are self-coached then don’t be afraid to bounce some ideas off a training buddy or check-in with someone on a regular basis to keep you on track.



I’m writing a book about how to love running enough for it to change your life.

The book is going to focus on my journey so far, the when the why and the how of the workouts and of training, but also how it all connects to things that are far bigger than running. I’m taking up the challenge of writing a book in 30 days. Which is a lot of writing, but hopefully just enough pressure to keep the momentum going. You can sign up to read the daily words on patreon and get access to a whole range of bonus podcast episodes, and an ebook with 52 running workouts, so you’ll never be stuck for ideas ever again. Stay up to date on:

  • instagram @opmove
  • facebook @opmove
  • Our community group has moved! Check us out at sisterhood.opmove.com

4 Weeks to a faster mile

OperationMove · November 3, 2020 · Leave a Comment

Image of track - Title - 4 Weeks to a faster mile

Why a faster mile?

The mile is an often neglected distance, especially for people who focus on distance. But what you might not think about is that often that middle distance system is neglected. A strong mile means a faster mile, and a faster mile means you’ve got much more room for that awesome 5km, 10km, half marathon or marathon.

I’m a fan of mini-goals

Especially right now! It can be hard to get motivated for things when all your usual carrots aren’t around and it can feel like we are never ‘getting back to normal’. This is where mini goals come in. Short enough, that everything you do matters, but not long enough that you lose focus.

The plan – 4 Week Faster Mile

Tempo vs Efforts

Tempo is about 80% effort or heart rate and roughly probably equates to your 10km race pace. Efforts are more based on feel, but would be more like 90%. You want to finish your intervals feeling like you could do one or two more, but not more than that.

About Strides

Strides are about 100m and are 1/3 accelerating, 1/3 holding your top speed with good control, 1/3 decelerating. You can start off more slowly and work your way into it.

Too much volume?

If this looks like it’s too much volume for you, just reduce the intervals by about a third, or whatever is right for you.

And most importantly, have fun with that faster mile.

The mile is a fun, challenging training cycle and it’s only as hard as you want it to be. That’s the brilliant part about effort based running is you can go all out, or you can cruise a bit – it’s totally up to you. And in four weeks, you can pick a new goal. But the mile is pretty fun. You might come back for round two.

I’m writing a book about how to love running enough for it to change your life.

The book is going to focus on my journey so far, the when the why and the how of the workouts and of training, but also how it all connects to things that are far bigger than running. I’m taking up the challenge of writing a book in 30 days. Which is a lot of writing, but hopefully just enough pressure to keep the momentum going. You can sign up to read the daily words on patreon and get access to a whole range of bonus podcast episodes, and an ebook with 52 running workouts, so you’ll never be stuck for ideas ever again. Stay up to date on:

  • instagram @opmove
  • facebook @opmove
  • Our community group has moved! Check us out at sisterhood.opmove.com

 

  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2
  • Go to page 3
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Go to page 27
  • Go to Next Page »
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Copyright © 2023 Operation Move · All Rights Reserved · Powered by Mai Theme

  • About Me
  • Contact me
  • Sitemap