Cheeky Run Club recognizes that every day we live, work and run on Aboriginal land. Welcome to season three of Cheeky Run Club, the social running podcast and community for your everyday amateur runner. Hello,
Phoebe. Hello, Anna.
hello, listeners.
Today, we are introducing our brand new episode format for Season 3, because we're going to be doing things a little bit differently this
Mhmm. Mhmm. The reason Season 3 is different is because at the end of it is, drumroll,
4.
The Berlin Marathon. Big deal. Big deal.
Season three is all happening in the lead up to Berlin Marathon, which is the marathon that Anna and I signed up for a year ago now, probably. Yeah. A
while. Yeah, it was almost, like, I feel like when we signed up, it was that thing that was way, way in the future, and all of a sudden,
It's ten weeks away.
It's not so.
Yes, yeah. And I think this is definitely, this is the most excited I've ever been for a race, by a long
way. Oh, I am so excited and so scared. All of the feels.
Exactly. It's, I mean, for both of us, it's the first marathon we've done in quite a few years. It's the first time we raced overseas. Um, and probably the most exciting part is that we're doing it with like a big group of friends. It's probably like 10 of us over there running.
We've got a huge cohort of friends from Melbourne going over and then two of our really close friends are already living over there. Um, so it's going to be one big party
I reckon
with a little 42 kilometer run.
big running
Yeah. So when we first started Cheeky, we really wanted to do something like this to,
We wanted, we really, yeah, we really wanted to provide a realistic insight of what it's like to train for a race, um, from people who aren't professional runners, who, are trying to balance it with everything else they're doing, but, Just a bit more of a holistic look of all these different elements of your life that go into prepping because often training for a race, people just think of it quite, simplistically as you have a
running only.
Yeah. Whereas as we know from, I mean, training for even half marathons and other races, There's so much more that comes into it. And so we wanted to take time to like, really explore the reality of training for race in all those different facets of life.
Yeah. And I think I love hearing about the elites and the professionals prepare for their marathons because it's just so insane and inspiring what they do. But I think the one thing that kind of always like sticks out is that, they run and they recover. Obviously because it's their job, that's like their main focus.
Whereas,
We and so many other people that are training for marathons or any kind of fun run are doing it as a hobby
Out of
of everything
the dark, like, yeah. So Berlin Marathon is on the 29th of September. There's just a lot of other marathons around that time. Sydney Marathon's a few weeks before.
Melbourne's a few weeks after, and so a lot of people in Australia, tens of thousands of people over the next couple of months, are going to be training for their big event, whether that be 10K Half Marathon Marathon, and so we thought it would be cool for Season 3 to be really all about taking you with us on that build to Berlin, and sharing all the highs and lows and everything that comes with setting a really big, scary goal and pushing yourself out of your comfort zone to achieve it.
a really big, scary goal and pushing yourself out of your comfort zone to achieve it. that are critical when preparing for a big race like this, such as recovery, nutrition, motivation, cross training, um, and probably the most challenging of them all, balancing them with the rest of our busy, busy lives.
because one of us will be doing a Euro tour and it will just be, just be meandering
Yeah, so our balance, which I'm also really excited about because our lives are going to look very different to each other. Yeah, you're right. You
traveling around Europe and I'll be
But I just
Australian winter, but
like the challenges that will come with working full time and being social and all of that stuff. And then also the challenges of trying to find places to run and like paths to run on when you don't know where the hell you are.
and the heat.
the hate, yeah. And also fitting it in because I'm going with my husband Dave and I don't want to be this sort of like, annoying person that's just over there to go
obsessing with like, where you're running and then exhausted.
like I really want to enjoy the whole trip. Yeah,
actually I was kind of joking at the start, but now I'm like, that sounds hard. Well you, cause you literally leave,
sorry for me. I'm going to be in Northern Italy trying
pray for Anna.
You
you literally leave on Friday in less than a week. Yeah. So you're pretty much your entire build is going to be why you're over there.
to be that. Yeah, yep. So lots of solo runs. So really going to
gotta find something.
look within. I won't be able to just annoy people chatting to them. Unless
so, but yeah, basically as Anna said, each week we're going to reflect on how we're going in those areas, nutrition, motivation, et cetera. And we'll also pick one of those areas to go deep on. so we'll still have a core topic each week, but it'll all be in the theme of kind of prepping for a big event like
of we're also extremely excited to be teaming up with ON for the entire season three. The team at ON have been so, so supportive of what we're doing at Cheeky. Uh, you already know we're massive fans of their product and values. So it feels a little bit like a match made in heaven.
One of the things they said really early on in our kind of conversations about this season was around, they had this concept of like marathon as a team sport. And I don't, I absolutely love that idea. We feel like it's super aligned with how we think about running in general, with how we think about cheeky run club as this, this kind of team thing. And so we're going to be really leaning into that.
And we've got a couple of exciting things, ways that we're going to do that, which we will talk through at the end of the episode.
more on that at the end. Um, today is all about setting up the marathon training block. So we're going to talk where we'll firstly, we're going to actually reflect, as you all know, we, went up to the Gold Coast for the half marathon. So learnings that we can take from it.
can take from it. Notice the
Keyword attempts.
us failed to start race. Um, the second thing we're going to do is just kind of set the scene for the next 10 weeks. Like what will our blocks look like? Um, how will it be different from our normal training? And actually we've just finished. Well, you've just finished week one of marathon training. So what that first week looks like at a high level.
Yeah, and then lastly, I'm actually really keen to chat about this with you. We're going to set some targets. So we'll talk through our goals for the marathon and the lead up.
to talk about all of this with you. Cause we have barely spoken all
I know. Disclaimer. So it is Sunday afternoon. Phoebe has
hours before this podcast
I know, so Phoebe's been on a work trip to Bali and was meant to fly back on Friday. But as a lot of people from Australia will know, there were heaps of outages on Friday night. So her flight got cancelled, the, apparently her flight got cancelled. I'm not sure if she just wanted to stay in Bali for a few days in the sunshine.
the sun. It was 30
it was 30 degrees. I didn't know what to do.
so, yes,
so yes, she has got the red eye flight home. She has had, didn't your aura ring say you've had 15 minutes
14 minute nap it told me I had
So we're good. Yeah, weird. I'm so excited to be back doing Notable
so excited to be back doing
lame. It
So lame. It is exciting. Okay, my best, um, Okay, so this is a slightly rogue, um, best one, but I, yesterday, as Anna said, I was stranded in Bali, stuck in Bali, and We were very, like, the flights were just very chaotic and we really didn't know what was going to be happening until we kind of woke up that morning and we woke up, sorry, I'll start again. Saturday morning, had to do my longie and, um, it was, 30 degrees in Bali.
And I've learned from my earlier runs in the week that I had been finding the heat really draining. I was really dehydrated. And because of all the chaos with the flights, I didn't have any nutrition. I didn't have like food with me. And so I didn't feel confident to just like set off on the streets and do my longy. Um, and so what we, my friend Maisie and I decided to do is we checked into a For that day and that night, because we didn't know what our flat situation would be.
And we went to one with a gym, and I had specifically one with two treadmills beside it.
Did you, was that in the, like, prerequisite to you booking the hotel? Need at least two, really need at least two treadmills?
Yeah, well we really wanted to obviously at least have one, but we, at the end of the day we were like,
Yeah, you wanna, yeah, exactly.
And so, I, as, uh, like, Long time listeners will know, we're not big treadmill fans, are
annoying? Yeah, I think that's
might have gone on the record. Um, yet here we are.
call it. Did you go to the treadmill?
did you do it
Uh, mostly, yeah. My colleague Trish, I jumped on for half an hour. And then I think there was an hour. I actually can't remember how far I went. But yeah, a big chunk by herself. Yeah.
Well, so Maisie and I did, both did our long runs. Um, and the amazing thing about it was, it was air conditioned, which is great. But, um,
Maisie and
Maisie and I have never run together before because we run at different paces, but on a treadmill it doesn't
it doesn't matter. It's
so it was actually really cool, and we got to, um, just do our long runs together. Maisie's just really, like, fallen in love with running over the last couple of months. So it was actually really cool. We just, like, talked about running and, like, went through all these, like, things that she's been, like, learning and working on or whatever. And It was just like a novel, novel run.
Yeah. very grateful.
what was your best run of the week?
My breast breast. My best run was also yesterday morning did a long run. It was my last weekend long run in Melbourne with my friends. So that was really nice to see everyone, although obviously missed you. Um, and your partner, Sean was quite funny. He, uh, I don't, I feel like he does this a little bit when he's getting a bit tired and like when things are getting hard, he just stops singing. Yeah, and it actually
huh, Sean?
Yeah, but it genuinely helps because you can't help but start laughing So we did it was 28 kilometers in total We did 20 kilometers easy, and then we did a a six kilometer pickup and then the last two kilometers jog but in yeah but then a lot the six kilometer pickup he was just singing the whole time well actually sorry sorry i didn't say he was singing the whole time he was singing for the first two kilometers and it was really funny at the start, and then I stopped laughing because obviously
I was like a little bit more tired.
And it's like, okay, that's enough.
Yeah, and then at 3k, so halfway into the effort, he all of a sudden is like, I'm done. And just starts jogging. I was like, oh gosh, you went too hard with the old singing at the start. Um, but yes, that was my best run. What was your worst?
worst? Uh, my worst run was this session that I did on Tuesday morning in Bali. So full context, this is the first session I've done in about three weeks or even four weeks. Um, which I'll talk a little bit more about that, um, in a minute, but first proper session back. Um, and it was 26 degrees, fully humid, um, running on like there's one kind of 1. 5 K path, which I want to say it was beautiful. It's like in the rice paddies, lovely, but pretty busy.
So it was really nice, but I didn't, I think I was overexcited to be back feeling good and like excited to push myself in a session. I didn't account for the fact that. I, um, had worked for the last, like, nine days straight because we worked on the weekend for this show. I had, like, team leadership offside. I was really tired. I wasn't hydrated. It was so hot. I hadn't been doing sessions in ages and I, I cannot tell you, I haven't found a session that hard in a very, very long time.
I was, like, getting really dizzy.
even in my easier ones, my heart rate was going up so hard. Um, and at the end of it,
Yeah. Well, even in my easier ones, my heart rate was getting up so high. Um, and at the end of it, it told me new max heart rate detected.
yeah, it just, it really, it
And yeah, it just, it, it really, it really cooked me. What about you? What was your worst run?
my worst run was last Monday. Um, which I actually feel a little bit bad saying, cause I do quite like Monday runs. Like normally there's a few girls
don't, you often
I know, but it wasn't because of the company. Um, but I think it's cause this has been the first week of the marathon training block, um, as we lead up to Berlin. And I really struggled in this run. Um, like I just like felt really tired and
was this day one of week one of the marathon
Yeah. Yeah. So it's sort of like day one. Yeah Yeah, but I was I felt tired My hammies been a bit niggly and it was niggly during the run and I just thought This is day one, and I'm tired, my hamstring hurts, like, what is going on, there is no way I'm going to make it to the start line, so yeah, there was a lot of, there was a lot of noise inside my little head, got through it And the next day was
was better.
my hammy is feeling, so I've been nervous this whole week to be honest. Actually I've been pretty like anxious about it the last couple weeks. I think because um, for the listeners I had a like really bad hamstring tendonopathy. a few years ago and I ended up having it on both sides. So the whole like time off period was probably around like 18 months in total.
Um, which I just found really, really difficult I mean, we're quite open with dealing with injuries and everything and how we're not experts on it. And I found that like physically and also emotionally really challenging. Um, and I feel like whenever my hammy gets sore, it's almost like traumatizing. It's like, it's really triggering. Yeah. So it's been a bit sore and I kind of get in the headspace of I'm never gonna run again blah blah blah blah because it took so long to get better last
I, I have such a vivid memory of like, you finally starting back and then like two weeks later your other hamstring went. Yeah. And it was crazy. It was like. You were so careful. I know. Did all your strength work, all your
Yeah, there's honestly something about me going to Sydney because that's what happened. And then, my hammy sort of started to play up a bit after the weekend where I went to visit my brother and sister in law in Sydney this time. So I'm like, I think it's the hills and then being on a plane. I actually, I don't know. Either that or it's just like a mad coincidence.
A mad coincidence.
I just don't think I'm going to Sydney
going
in my life.
Yeah, yeah. And even, you've gone and seen physio, like you're
Yeah. Yeah. I'm seeing the physio who I am obsessed with. I went to so many physios, so many sports doctors, went to see an orthopedic surgeon and like none of it really helps. And then I went to see this guy, Andrew Wallace. For anyone having hamstring issues, um, he is the best. Yeah. So I, I like fully trust him. So anything he says, like he said, keep running. It'll yeah, it's like manageable. So I'm keeping on running.
Okay, so, as Anna said, we're going to kick off with some reflections so the Gold Coast Half Marathon was sort of the event that we have been training for for the last few months in the lead up to this. Unfortunately, um, The race wasn't to be for me, so we'll talk about that in a second. But first of all, Anna, tell us about your race and what your kind of key learnings
were. Yeah, so when, it feels like ages ago, but I think it was only two
Yeah, two weeks
Yeah, that's crazy. Um, so I had in my head that the whole weekend would be what the Gold Coast is normally like in winter, which is just like clear skies, sunny. Nice and warm going for swims. But unfortunately that wasn't the case. Um, it was like raining. It was actually pretty funny on the morning of the race. We were catching the tram into where the race start was and it started at 6. 15. So we weren't sure how long the tram would take because like in previous years, it's broken down.
Um, so we allowed heaps of time. So we left at 4. 45, which is kind of crazy. If you're on the gold,
did you wake up?
we 3. 50.
That is so early.
know. And it's pretty funny. We were staying right in surfers paradise. So I feel like most of the people that were up at that time, wouldn't have been going to a race. They would have been like about to go home from a nightclub or something. And I was thinking, imagine if I could have told myself that at 30 years old, I'd be up at 3 50 AM in service paradise, but eating. peanut butter and banana on toast. Cause I'm about to do a half
Getting your rain
Yeah.
Anyway, we went down to the tram. It
Anyway, we went down to the tram. It was pouring with rain. It was, we were actually laughing. Cause we're like, this is just comical. It's like kind of funny. Um, but then it actually was pretty good for the race. I think there are a few patches of rain, but we were pretty lucky. There are quite a few huge downpours just beforehand. It's an out and back course. So we had a nice tailwind on the way out and then a headwind. On the way back, which was more exposed for the last five K's.
Um, and that's where I really started to struggle. I felt really good for the start, probably because there was a tailwind. Um, and then, yeah, I got to 17 K's and I was like, Maybe even 16. And I started to struggle and I was running with our friend Jacko, um, who's being super supportive. And I was thinking in my head, like, I kept just being like, just like one more kilometer. And then there's only three more
Yeah, yeah.
And I kept thinking of you during the run. Cause I was like, just be grateful. You're out here. It might not be like amazing conditions, but as I said, on the pod in season two, I was just so keen to get to the start line and I was like, this, you just want it to be out here now you're out here. But when you're in that hurt locker and you're like, I don't know if I want to be out here. Um, but it was fun. I think overall like I was content with it, but not like super happy.
Okay. Yeah. Talk to me, what did you learn from it?
Dave, my husband said before the race, which, Sometimes I think, you're so wise for someone that doesn't even really like running why don't you set some goals, about the process or how you want to feel along the way. Like purely things that you can execute yourself. So yeah, said to myself, I break it down into four or five kilometer runs and then when you like reflect on a race there's a little bit more to go off if you've got more goals than just the one time.
So it um I think that was the like main takeaway from it was like maybe don't be as focused on just like a time but like set yourself goals like within
the big goal.
goal. Um, because like if you execute those like smaller goals well then the like outcome will probably follow or even if it doesn't then you can go back and do it again. was
part of this plan didn't I execute rather than just the whole
yeah, um, which is good. So yeah, the first 5Ks I wanted to feel Pretty comfortable, I wanted to get to halfway and think, okay, the race starts now, which like, I feel like I did. And then just like the wheels fell off. With sort of 5k's to go.
What was your self talk like in those last six K's or whatever?
not great.
Yeah. Okay.
Anyway, the most important thing about the Gold Coast was that I beat Ollie, our friend that I had the bet with. So he will post it on our social media. So he has, he's gone and got himself a cheeky run club tattoo. Um,
cheeky rug glove tattoo. It's huge. Yeah. Yeah,
Yeah. Yeah. But
to him.
kudos to him. I mean, It is a pretty cool tattoo to have.
I mean, yeah.
If you're going to get a tattoo, we
have that. Um, just to revisit the head noise thing quickly or the positive self talk thing. Cause I feel like
taught in
self talk in a half marathon is one thing. Self talk in a
taught in a
10 times more important. I almost feel like, um,
I need to do a course. No, like,
be a good thing to be like consciously thinking. I mean, later on in this episode, we're obviously going to set, talk about intentions and setting goals for this block, but maybe like you are actually going to be doing a few solo long runs. It's a good chance to practice
Yeah, that's
stuff, talk some positive affirmations. Yeah. And like, what do you tell yourself when you're feeling like you're struggling? Um, because I can guarantee for everyone there'll be plenty of points I've got the math on,
can guarantee for everyone that there's plenty more to come. Being like you can't do this. Oh, yeah, it's so strange. But yeah, we'll we'll dive deep.
Oh, I'm so excited to unpack.
so what yeah, you obviously you didn't race. Yep. Yeah, what the bloody hell
What happened? I know it's crazy because literally the last episode of season two is us being like, we made it, we're racing, we're racing a marathon and then not two days after, well actually on the Tuesday I did a session in a new pair of shoes. And they're very different feeling pair of shoes. And the next day when I tried to run, you remember I ran with you and. My Achilles just like seized up out of nowhere.
It actually started the run just feeling tight and I never have Achilles I've never had a tired Achilles in my life. No Achilles problem So I was like, oh weird, but then by the end of the run, I was hobbling like I couldn't.
couldn't. I was like, I can't walk.
I was like, I actually can't run and then it settled down heaps and I in my run thought, I kind of in my head was like, okay, it's maybe a Kelly's Tendon thing, like, well, that Kelly's likes load. So I'll try and just do some tiny little runs and just keep it loaded, but it just still felt terrible. Um, and so after maybe five days, I went and saw a sports doctor and was like, okay, what's going on? And she's, she is right. I'd done some bone damage.
Fortunately, no bone issues, and it was just, like, a tendinopathy that had just fled up really quickly, but as the MRI showed, it actually wasn't that bad. She was like, you can tell that it's just started. This is very early. We can, we're going to be able to get on top of this, but you need to get a cortisone shot because you know, if you want to train for this marathon, we just need to like completely settle it down before you run.
And then that was kind of when I knew, okay, well, I'm not really going to be able to race because even though I got the cortisone shot the next day, you have to do nothing for three days. And then. Very slowly ease back in just to not unsettle the area so by that stage It was gonna be like pretty much two weeks of no running and it would have been really silly Like I just had to tell myself Okay, the main goal is Berlin. The Gold Coast was always a bonus
Um,
and Like still go to the Gold Coast enjoy it support so much fun But like I maybe could have run it, but I, I'm really glad I didn't in retrospect. Yeah, Um, I'm really happy with how I responded to it. I think I like kind of over responded to it, which I don't normally do. Normally I push through for too long. And now I've been. building back for two weeks and feeling so good. Like it's been really manageable. It's pretty much not noticeable now in my latest runs.
And now like, yes, I've missed week one of the marathon training block, but this next week I'll be able to get a proper long in
long year. I was gonna say, like, yesterday your long run was only a couple of Ks less than mine.
Yeah, yeah, exactly. So I'm like feeling a lot, but I was pretty stressed cause I was like, Oh, how is this setting me up for the marathon? If I'm just like taking a few weeks off and then a few easy weeks and it's already only 10 weeks till
the marathon. Yeah, yeah.
but it's just what you got to do. Um, And my lesson from this all is,
I
think, like, the doctor did, and I saw a podiatrist as well, and the podiatrist also did think that there was a good chance that the, the inflammation was set off by wearing a very different pair of shoes. But they both said that it means that I was kind of not, um, this isn't the right words, but it's my interpretation of it. I wasn't like robust enough to be able to handle a shift like that in my training.
So my big, I guess what I need to be thinking about going into the marathon is like how I can. Be a little bit less fragile, I suppose. And I think for me, the realization is that Pilates isn't enough.
I'm just waiting for you to say it.
there so smug, like, yes, I've
with the sore hammy.
Yes, um, and so for this marathon block, I'm going to. Hit the
going to hit the gym.
Yeah. Yeah. So I am getting my friend Jenna to write me a program. Um, and I still have no idea. I'm so intimidated of going to the gym.
the gym.
Yeah. Yeah. This week before you go. Yeah, yeah.
before you go.
Well, Jack's gone around a session with us, I think.
Yeah, he's actually, he knows because I remember I've been doing like, I talk about the gym like I'm some expert. I have absolutely no idea what I do in there. but yeah, Jaco helped me doing my squats and Izzy because I wasn't doing it
Yes, they actually have told me
about it. They said, they said,
they said they saw you doing
They said, oh my gosh, have you seen that girl
they were like talking to
doesn't know how to do
we go over to
Yeah, they literally came over and had this like, squatting intervention. They're like, Oh, sweetie, you are not meant to look like that.
so dangerous. but, but for anyone listening who is similarly like terrified of going to the gym and very intimidated of gym work, But you've always thought, I should be doing this. I know this is important by running. Let's do it together. I'll keep you updated on how I'm going, how I'm conquering my fear of the gym and what I do in there and
Nice. So, you spoke a little bit about, being our first week of the marathon training block. So obviously all coaches have their own way of preparing athletes for a race and we both have different coaches. What will your next few weeks look like, and how's it gonna differ from what you had been doing previously?
Yes, so, I mean, at the moment I am only, my coach and I are working kind of only a few days ahead at a time, just depending on how my Achilles is, so I actually now have my whole next week, which is really exciting, but I've done enough marathon training blocks in, in my attempted marathons in the past that I can speak to kind of roughly what, what I know it looks like, which is that my long runs get way longer, so normally well, my coach works in sort of fortnights.
So one week will be a really long, long run, um, up to like the amount of time that I want to be running for my marathon. Pretty much. So Or maybe a tiny bit less. It'll probably be like two hours, 50 minutes for my long runs, a long, long run, which will be very long. And some of them will have
of them will have
it's well, yeah. So his whole theory, which I actually love is that if you run for the same amount of time in your long runs, as you'll be running your marathon, you never hit a wall in the marathon
long marathon.
because you actually, you're, you're so used to running that and that, that has worked really well in the past. so, and then, but then I'll alternate the next week will be a shorter long run. So maybe two hours, but that week I'll have a really long session. So he likes to put in like. Our tempos, which are these really tough, grueling sessions where I'm working more on like my endurance and speed. and then, yeah, apart from that, it'll be like easy runs. that'd be the rough breakdown.
What about you?
I'm not completely sure because I've done one marathon before, but in 2019 and I didn't do a. marathon block beforehand, and didn't have a coach and actually was injured. So I,
I
the marathon, but, I had done one long run. Six weeks beforehand. Yeah. Yeah. So
So you're like, I'll be fine. Yeah.
so it was very, very different to now. and yeah, so with my coach, we're just sort of doing, like two weeks at a time. And, because my hammy's been a bit sore this week, I had the, One session on Tuesday, but it doesn't respond well to trying to go faster. So it was like, more of a marathon pace session. So a bit slower than the, ripes that we'd normally do at the track or something, and then just had the. Pick up within the long run yesterday, and then next week, the same.
I've got a bit of a session within the long run. I also am trapped because I'm going overseas next week. So there's like one full day off to travel and whatnot. And then just like a fart lucky session on Tuesday. But I don't really know. I don't know how. Like, you know how you say Gary likes to build up to, the duration that you're going to be running the marathon. I don't know if I'll do that.
Yeah,
for instance, the, my long run yesterday, I did 28 kilometers, which is. The third longest I've ever gone. So I've done the marathon and then I did one 30k run the six weeks before
the marathon.
and then that, and then yeah, next week I've got to run 30 kilometers. So
Huge,
people are going to get sick of me saying this was my longest run ever.
longest run ever. Every week. Victoria, and how are you feeling off the back of your long run?
Um, as we sort of said before recording, I'm actually, I'm pretty tired. Luckily I didn't well, because your flight got canceled. We were going to record yesterday, but I was a bit of a zombie. So. And actually shout out to my husband, Dave. He ran like 24 kilometers yesterday.
way.
ever, this is like, do not try this at home, this run before that. I think he's done 15, but we were doing a big loop and then he sort of got to the point where he realized. Oh gosh, like I
can't.
then He tried to cut down from the top of Melbourne, but it just didn't end up being that much of a shortcut. So then he, he doesn't have a, garment or watch or anything that you can track how far you're going. So then he like Google mapped it from where he turned off. Yeah. Anyway, he's, um,
Was he tired
he was so, we were both on the couch just being like, Oh my gosh, I'm so tired.
There is something really nice
Oh, so nice, especially because it was such crappy weather yesterday. It was raining, it was windy, it was freezing. And so we were just lapping it up. And you know when sometimes you do that for a couple of hours? hours or you have like a bit of a lazy day and then you're like, Oh, I feel a bit lazy. There was just none of that. I was just embracing
just lean, lean into
yeah. It was so, so good. So yeah, I'm not really sure. I'll sort of keep you updated with how the training block, like what it will look like. But I think at the moment it will probably be like a session within the long run and then just one other session. So I guess. just to combine the two probably so there's like a little bit less pressure on my, like I'll have two days of like big load, not three.
Okay, last but not least, let's chart goals.
So, setting a goal I feel like is a great way to help you stay focused and motivated. and also when things get tough, when things are getting a little bit overwhelming, or maybe you feel like you're taking things a little bit too seriously that the enjoyment's being taken out of it. It's good to reflect back and think, no, this is, these are my goals. This is what I want to do. Keep yourself accountable to those goals.
We should have gone back and re listened to our running resolutions. If you haven't listened to this episode, it's actually, I think it's our first. Yeah, it's our first ever episode was on running resolutions. We talked a lot there about the psychology behind goal setting, but personally, like, I'm excited to set a goal almost just to like frame up the block. I'd be like, okay, here's what I'm going for. Here's how I'm going to think about what success looks like,
Yeah,
Yeah, definitely. the three different types of goals that we're going to set is we'll set a process goal, which is basically like an input goal. What's something you're going to do?
Yeah, so it could be like you going to the gym twice a week.
example.
Twice. Or something like that. Yeah, yeah.
that'd be process and then we'll do.
I want to know what you're aiming for.
I want to know what you're aiming for. and you know, what's also funny in our very first episode, Yes, in Running Resolutions, we actually set goals for Berlin, and I think we cut it out because we got
it. out because we got nervous. Yeah, I actually
yeah, I actually don't remember exactly what I said then, but yeah, we'll set performance goals, which is more of an outcome goal of like, how do you want to, you know, Yeah. And obviously
and obviously there are like hundreds of little hurdles to get over before we get to that. Um, but I feel like it's like, it's fun to do.
that. Um, but I like, it's fun to do. Yeah. Yeah.
blog or something like that about how we want to show up to our training. Process
goal? Well, yeah, I think, I mean, I think it's got to be something around the gym for me. Um, a week.
it
That's actually what,
That's
yeah.
good.
guys should see how excited Anna is right now.
should see how excited I
twice a week is
right now. Yeah. Like one of the things about, like setting a goal is you want it to be achievable and measurable. and
Specific. yeah, During the whole thing.
but I think that would be really good. And I genuinely think that by you doing that, you will feel so much better running. Cause I think that. People always think like running more equals feeling fitter and better running, but I think aside from the like injury prevention, I think the main benefit that I feel like has come from gym, which I probably didn't initially think was that you actually do feel a lot stronger
when you really
Yeah, like running's more enjoyable because. Your body's
stronger. Yeah.
So it's sort of like more resilient.
It when I do. Really. Interesting. Okay. What is your process goal?
to that. what is your goal?
run
when the negative thoughts start to trickle in is to work on turning them around and Not necessarily like completely into something positive because obviously it's like pretty normal to have some negative self talk, but kind of like get on top of it So I don't find it is this like overwhelming like scary thing that as soon as it comes in Um I'm done.
Yeah. Okay. Maybe
each long
yeah, you'd practice
practice something
Yeah. And we can report back on like, yeah. How did you manage it? What did you tell yourself and how did it go?
Um, so yes, that is my
How good. And what about, what's your performance goal? told me that maybe her performance goal would be getting to the start line. Yes. And I said, no, no, no.
Oh God.
Well, that can be your, we're gonna have different levels. That's your base level.
yeah, get to the start line in one piece.
Yeah. Definitely.
second would be, this is probably pretty
Yeah.
outlandish considering I've only done one marathon and that was five years ago, but I would love to get under
250. Yep. It's huge. It's, it's an exciting goal.
I've said it
So is that the goal that you'll tell every, like you'd tell your, obviously you've
crowd, it's insane. Do
you know how normally when you're setting goals, like you have the goal that you tell everyone, but then you have your goal deep
you have
you have an even bigger goal
about a big deal? Do you have anything that's a gold detail?
covers
Like so many things, because it means that I've obviously like done, I've obviously trained through being on holiday in Europe, because I'm obviously going to have to do that pretty well in order to get under two hours fifty. It also means that I've I've gone to the start line and it also means that I haven't blown up in the marathon. So
that. Yeah, anything under that is going to be good. Yeah. Yeah, love it.
249.
You'd be happy with that? Yeah. Right, what's an Aussies baby?
I actually don't know. I'm going to look it up. No, I don't. I don't. So our Spanish correspondent, Eleanor and myself, we're pretty good friends, I guess. Um, but we all have a little bit of friendly rivalry. yeah, um, I have got her at the 5, 10 and a half
and a half now. I
I know, although,
48, 2.
248,
Did she get 248?
so fast. You freak.
okay. Well, that's it. that's your real goal then, isn't
not a real
Sub 248 for
it? No. No. Um, what is your Yeah, so that's what she did last year, Valencia. But she will be aiming for a lot faster than that, I reckon.
You reckon? And you're not? I reckon
I hate that this is going live. Yeah, 248. 42. Gosh, that is so fast. No, I'm 250. I'm under
I'm just gonna, I'm gonna put it out there. I reckon you've got 245 in
You can put that out there. I'm not, I'm under 250. Anyway, enough about me. What is your goal?
Get to the start line. Come on, that's a cop out. No, that is a cop out, but that is. So, my goal, is to get a PB. Yep. Which, so my last marathon in 2021, I did 255, and part of me feels like that was years ago. I'm like a better runner than I am now, but my training for that, I think this was in COVID. I just had the most unreal training block. I trained for like six months for it. Not a single injury. I was so consistent. I was running way more than I am now.
and now, but yeah, drink strength. And I do think I'm, Um, I don't know. I've just been running for so many more years now that I'd like to think that that plays a role somewhere. And then the other factor is that, I think I would have felt way more confident going into this if I hadn't had this injury over the last few weeks. And like really had to, yeah, as I say, I had like four weeks of like very interrupted training, which is not ideal for going into a marathon block.
So yeah, I think I'll still say sub 255 is the goal. and honestly, if I'm feeling really good throughout this block, then I would want to aim for even lower and like try and get closer to 250, but I think from where I am now looking forward.
am now looking forward, so it kind of in
Intention. We're setting an intention for the training block, which is our attention is all to do with, what, what, how do we want to show up in this block?
Yeah. I just, sorry, I have that song stuck in my head, in my head, the intention in my head.
What song? Can you sing it for us?
and it's like, um, Oh no, that's saying you just want attention.
swear there's a
You just want to, yeah, sorry. Sorry. I swear there's a song intentions.
glad
Anyway, so your intention, there is Justin Bieber, of course. Um, it goes a little something like
this. No, sing it. I'll let Justin do it. Justin.
let Justin sing it.
is the song
is the song that I was talking about. With all my attention. Yeah, they're my only intentions. so I think with these intentions, it should be more based on like how we want to carry ourselves throughout the block leading up to Berlin. So, If someone was to, if someone was to out from the outside was to look at you, look at your training, look at how you're going in other facets of your life during the next 10 weeks, what do you want them to see?
Ah, it's actually such a good question. 'cause now when I think about like that, there's a few different elements to it. Like, one is that I wanna be able to look back on the block and think. That was so much fun. Like, I am so happy. Race aside, outcome aside, whether I get to the start line or not, I want to be able to think, because I think that for Gold Coast, I'm like, okay, I didn't get to the start line, but. It was so much fun
Yeah, it was, wasn't it?
And yes, and I think even more with a marathon, there's a group of people doing a marathon, we're going to be doing it in Melbourne, a lot of training together, and then even when I go over and join you in Europe, and I want to be able to look back on it and think like, Oh, I kind of was really present and grateful and showed up with a lot of joy. So part of it is that kind of joy element to it, like.
What an amazing, fun thing to do, to train with your friends, to work together on something that you all love. But then the other part of it is like, I do, one of the things I love about Marathon Blocks is that it's such, it's a chance to push yourself in a really different way. And I actually get a lot of satisfaction out of that.
There aren't many like parts of your life where you have this kind of structure And you have to be so disciplined and like you get the chance to push your limits and explore those things. So that's kind of like the second element is like, I want to be able to sort of explore how much I can push
Yeah, because I think like we're at the point now with half marathons that when we, because we run so much, we know that we can do the distance. It's more just like how fast can you go? So I think the marathon is like this whole new level of like, obviously we just spoke about wanting to get times, but yeah. Um, the, the thing to the, the key thing is to the distance actually needs to be respected in itself because it is such a long
way
and that I don't feel like we have any more with like our other races that
we do Yes, that's
we know we can do them. Whereas this it's like, yes, we want to get that time, but we need to like covering the distance is an extreme like fate in
itself. Yeah. And that actually makes me think about like a third, I guess, category of intention that I would wanna set, which would be about respecting like the toll that it has on our bodies. And one of the things I'm really excited for this season is that we're approaching the. Um, but I think it's important that we build not just focusing on our running, but all the other, like really holistic, like look at all the different elements.
Cause I want to respect the fact that, okay, I'm going to have to think about my nutrition, my recovery, how am I balancing it with work and social life motivation, strength, like that. I want to keep coming back to that idea of like the running doesn't exist in a vacuum. So what else are you doing to best prepare? Yeah.
yeah, I think mine is very, mine's quite similar to what you were just saying then is, I want to be able to have, a really, great, rewarding trip away, and also do some, amazing, experiences. explorative
runs
and like run in different cities and everything. But I think my main thing is, yeah, to, I think sometimes I get a little bit overwhelmed by things, and is to just remember to take a step back and enjoy it and remind yourself that you're like doing this because no one's making you do it. Like you, you want to do it. And I think a big part of that is to also, do other things, with.
Dave like if we want to go hiking for a day or like go on a boat trip or something Like allowing that freedom to do that. and I think that will
Allow
me to enjoy it more and probably end up in a better result. Anyway,
and we'll probably end like a better result End up being like just really hard and you're constantly stressed about how to balance and where to run and so on. Or it could be the best 10 weeks of your life where you're like running all the time in these new cities. And so that is, that's going to be a hard balance to
but like, I want it to be the ladder. Like I feel like I have an opportunity to literally have the best 10 weeks of my life. And I want that.
That's the intention. Have the best 10 weeks of your life.
Yeah, what's my intention? To have the best 10
just thinking
um, all right, let's wrap this thing up.
Let's wrap it up. So we have a couple of
Laptop's down.
down, um, off script. we, as, as we alluded to at the start, we are partnering with ON and we've been workshopping with them a few really exciting ideas for this season that all kind of come under this theme of marathon as a team sport. Yeah. And so, what we want to do is showcase
There are so many, different people that infiltrate your individual marathon journey.
Infiltrate sounds quite aggressive.
yeah, true. It does. Doesn't it? How can they weasel their way in? Um, no, we want to showcase how there are so many individuals that like make the marathon dream come to fruition. And. We thought the best way to do that is to engage all of our cheeky community. and we want to like open up the channels. We want to like communicate with you all to see what works, what doesn't work. And we figure a great way to do that is by connecting with you on
on Strava. Yeah. This Strava. group has been like a really unexpectedly, Exciting part of the cheeky community. Um, cause I don't know about anyone listening, whether you're on any good Strava groups, but we suddenly were not like, there's no real, as in no active Strava
there was nothing
got value out of, but for whatever reason, the cheeky community is loving, engaging in the Strava group. And I think I've already learned so much. I'm like the questions that we post and the answers that we're getting. And so we actually thought we'd really lean into that. over the next 10 weeks. Each week, we're going to post a question. if you have a specific question that you want us to ask, DM us on Instagram, and then we're just going to try and crowdsource the answers, as much as possible.
Like, this is what, yeah, running is a team sport. Marathon is a team sport. So how can we, How can we all lean in so we can all learn from each other? I think especially how many people have we spoken to from our listeners who are training for their first half of marathon? It's crazy.
it's so cool.
so we should all be helping. Like there's an amazing opportunity for us to all be helping each other and learning from each
Yeah, and like sharing the knowledge. Yeah. because I think it just like will put us all in a better place to, like run better but also enjoy it more. Enjoy it more, like bring it together. Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, we'll be posting a question each week, As Phoebe said we'll crowdsource the answers and then also like let you all know what sort of
top recommendations are. Yeah. Yeah, agreed. And then off the back of that, what we wanted to do is actually to further celebrate this idea of marathon as a team sport is each week we are going to have a cheeky team member of the week. and this will basically be someone who either like is really showing up in the Striver group with great suggestions.
it could be someone like you can nominate a friend who's and being an amazing support for you on your training journey or who like you've been training with a lot. We'll give them a big shout out. And so each week we'll pick someone and on is going to There'll be a little cheeky present from on for the winner each
A Cheeky prize so it's very much a crown that you would like to have. It is very
a crown. So, starting from, we'll, we'll post a question on Monday. it'll be related to this episode. and we'll start crowdsourcing answers. And if you have questions, as I say, DM us on Instagram. Before we wrap up as well, we should have probably said this at the start,
is a lot
a lot of,
content.
There is a lot of content about to come your way listeners because the Olympics are coming up. And as we alluded to last season, we are, we're going to be, Chatting
Yes, we are going to be chatting through our favorite events of the Olympics. And, um, I think we can announce that we're doing the cheeky expert armchair series. Yeah.
Um, so basically we will be doing a bunch of, quickfire podcast. There'll be around 30 minutes. and they'll dive into our favorite events. We're going to talk you through like why these specific events are so exciting. Who the, tell the stories of the Australians competing and some of the other kind of top contenders, and really just try and like, um, Open the door for all these people who have fallen in love with running to help them fall in love with athletics as
And we think this is the perfect way to do that. So get excited. So we'll be dropping a couple of episodes each week, which is kind of crazy. So yeah, get used to our voices.
they and then during the Olympics we'll be pretty much daily dropping episodes.
to you live
From, well, yeah, Anna will be in Paris, so she'll be able to give us all the inside scoop, but we'll also, we'll just recap what happens each day. We'll preview, do predictions for what's happening each night. It's going to be a lot of fun.
of fun. Lots of all right, until then.
then.
We
We can't wait to be in your ears next
ears next week. And tomorrow. And every day. All right.
Yeah, we can't wait to be in your ears a lot
Alright, bye!
All right.