YOU are a runner... here's how to get started and enjoy it 🏃

in the Royal Children's Hospital. Truly beautiful event to be a part of and something that I loved and we'll definitely be doing again. But today's guest couldn't come. Well, perhaps it's come a week too late, or perhaps it's come twelve weeks too late, because I didn't do a

whole lot of training. If I'm being honest, going into yesterday's run, I probably did six longest slow runs to get a few k's in the legs before the race, and I'm sure that isn't the ideal preparation, which we're going to find out today because we're going to talk to Lydier o'donald, who is one of us Alia's most well known running coaches. She's been a Nike running coach

for the last thirteen years. She's got her own running app that is setting the world on fire, and I'm going to pick her brain about what I can do moving forward and as a runner or an aspiring runner. Basically, if you're looking for running tips at any level of running, make sure you stick around for that. And then I'm going to answer.

for their first marathon. I don't really even know where to start. Let's start at the start. How did you get into longer distance running? How did it all start for you?

Don't put pressure on yourself to be winning or running suit of times and paces. Just go out and have a good time. And so I had a really healthy relationship with running throughout my high school career. I had some really good friends that I ran with, and it was all just about being social and hanging out with them, really.

And then when I was getting into my early twenties late teens, I started taking it a lot more seriously and started performing at a much higher level, and there was a lot more pressure put upon me, and so my relationship with running was quite turbulent through my early twenties.

I think there were periods of time where I really loved it, and then definitely times through what I struggled a lot more I think in our sport, and we'll probably touch on the body image stuff a bit, but like thinking about and running, a lot of people believe that you have to be lean or you have to be light to be fast at running. And so a lot of that pressure came upon me where I was being told to lose a lot of weight and if I lost that much weight, I'd be able to run

some mount faster. And yeah, it was pretty toxic environment for me to be in at that time. And so not only did I kind of form an unhealthy relationship with running, I also formed a pretty unhealthy relationship with myself. And yeah, probably took about five years to realize that it actually didn't matter what I looked like like it was long as I was fueling well and getting my

training consistent, that's where performance was going to come. And so I battled with my body image for a while and fell down some disordered eating pathways, and once I kind of got quite unwell and quite circain, actually had some distructions my female with my female hormones. That's when I was like, Uh, this isn't right and I just want to love running for running and what it is.

And once I had that kind of shift in my mindset around how I approached sport and running, I actually started performing so much better because it was more holistic, you know, I was actually tapping into how I felt. I wasn't trying to focus on just like being the best and making teams. It was like all of that comes as a byproduct of like actually just training consistently, and training consistently comes from eating well and looking after yourself.

And I think touching on the mental health side of running, like it is a huge part of why I do what I do. Like I will get up and run every morning. You know, it's a non negotiable for me. It's something I do for my mental health. And like being a good runner and running fast just something I'm very privileged to have. Like I'm just lucky to be able to run those speeds and run those paces. But as long as I can just move my body in a healthy way, that that's the most important thing for me.

And I've had my own mental health challenges and like using running not as the only tool, but as one of my tools to help me kind of battle through those has really helped as well. And I actually started a running community back in Auckland probably about ten years ago now called One Step, and it was all about bringing people together who were struggling with their mental health from anxiety or depression, people who may have never even thought about running and movement as a tool to help

to get them together. And so we were getting people together once a week in different seties across New Zealand and Australia. And these people were really unhealthy in their mind, like they were really battling some really sad challenges and getting people together to share those lived experiences and do it through the form of movement. It was so powerful and it really showed me how amazing running can be

for mental health. And yeah, like I said, it's not the only tool, and it shouldn't be your only tool to help your mental health, but it's pretty amazing.

other on so many other levels. And from a mental health perspective, I couldn't be a bigger advocate for what you're saying. Whether it's a five k or a fifteen K or twenty five k, there's something magic about it.

back feeling so like satisfied and confident in yourself. And I think society on the day, yeah, Sidy lacks confidence. We all lack confidence, but more particularly women, like they really do lack confidence from the world that we've grown up in. You know, So seeing women get out there in the morning, go for a run, gain confidence through that, and then take that confidence to the workplace, in other areas of their lives, Like, there is so much beauty

in that, and that's why I really encourage. If it's not running for people, that's completely fine. I totally get not everyone is going to love it. Yeah, but whatever form of movement that is for you, like just doing that first thing in the morning, you get that sense of reward immediately and you get their confidence, which is something that we all lack.

How how do you encourage people to get into running? And typically what distance do you start with? Because five kilometers to some people it's nothing, five columns to some others is a long long way. And I totally have empathy and respect that what is your advice?

But I think when we take it back and get people into running and really encourage them to go from say couch to five k. The five k distance is funny because I think it's one of those distances people throw out and they're like, oh, if I can run five k, then I'm a runner. And that's what people immediately think that they have to be striving for to be considered a runner. And then even like put their running shoes on and go out the door.

themselves in the deep end. They say I'm going to run a five or ten or a half marathon because that's what the running world tells me I have to do, and then they give themselves eight weeks to do it, and then within eight weeks their bodies crumbled. They've had a really negative experience with running. They have a lot of negative connotations that come along with the word running, and they just never want to be part of that

community ever again. And so what we try to do is just like pull it all back and be like take your time. If you can be building running into your life really slowly and be patient, then you will have a really sustainable relationship with running.

for a lot of people. And when you're starting off, you know, ten to twenty minute runs, breaking them into walk runs is really good, Like, I think giving that variety. So I wouldn't just say to someone I'll just run ten to twenty minutes three times a week, because that's so boring and that's like not how to build like a fun relationship with running, so we want to give variety. So usually in those three sessions, one of those sessions might be like a walk run, depending on how they

feel and they can play with the numbers. It might be lamp post a lamp post. It might be one minute on one minute walking, whatever feels right for them. And then I usually get all my athletes, no matter what level they're at, to do strideouts, which are essentially like a sprint, but not one hundred percent, so around that seventy five to eighty percent of full effort just to get their legs used to turning over a bit

quicker than just a jog. So usually it might be like a ten or twenty minute run walk, and then maybe five ten second stride outs, which shouldn't be like killing you, like you shouldn't be getting to the end of the even having to fall on the floor. You will feel tired, but you should be able to kind of give it a few minutes and then go again.

And then the second session might be a speed workout, so we might break that down initially like four hundred meter repeats, which sounds like it should be a fast workout, but for a beginner four hundred meters are still a long way, so just keeping that at like a steady, steady pace, or it might be based off time, so it might be going do a two minute effort and then give yourself to two to three minutes to recover.

high and then giving yourself that time to recover. The fittery you get over time, the less recovery will give you your heart rate will just recover a lot quicker, and then the third session is kind of that like long run. So for a beginner, we might be getting you to go out for thirty minutes or even forty minutes, but half of that time you're walking, and it's just getting

used to time on feet. So at my feet thirty or forty minutes run walking, and the first week you might be doing fifty percent of it running fifty percent of it walking. The second week you might go up to sixty percent running forty percent walking. Within about six weeks is my aim to get people consistently running for about thirty to forty maybe forty five minutes, which for some people is five k some people might be a

little bit longer. And so six weeks is a really good amount of time to give yourself to time to get used to being in a structured program, getting used to putting your shoes on and going out the door, getting used to the impact of running. And then after six weeks is when you kind of look at it more. I would say serious running program, which might be like an eight week training program to build up to say tink or a Tink race, or whatever whatever your goal

might be. But for those longer distances like halves and full marathons, I would say you want to be running for at least a year before you start building into those longer distances. I know people definitely put them on the bucket list. I just want to run a marathon just to run the marathon, and that's totally fine if that's what people want to do, I just don't encourage it.

As a coach. Because my goal at the end of the day is to make people love running and enjoy it and want to do it forever, not just take it off the bucket list and then never do it again.

running as much. And I've experienced that myself. That long slow run where I'm almost oblivious to how far I've gone on what pace I was running at, but I know how long I was gone for because I kind of looked at my watch, whether I wasn't even timing it or heart rating it or anything, is the most enjoyable, and I sort of crave those sessions. I'd really look forward to that long side run now.

of your hard session. So if I was going out and running race pace for my long runs on the weekends, when it actually came to my quality speed session where I actually wanted to make a lot of speed gains, I wouldn't be able to execute that session as well as I could if I had, you know, if I hadn't gone and smashed myself in my long run, If that makes sense. So period days and your training throughout the week, making sure that there is purpose behind every

session you're doing. There is purpose behind the long run, building endurance and aerobic fitness. Purpose behind your speed session. It's your anaerobic fitness and getting your heart rate really high. There's purpose behind your easy runs. So although I run every day, there's days where I go really slow. You know, I'm pulling the pace right back. It's nowhere near my pace, my race pace. I wouldn't even hit my race pace

in long runs ever. Really, maybe a few weeks out for a marathon, I'll test the marathon pace and some of the long run sessions, but barely ever. But knowing this purpose behind it all, you know. And that's why I think having a goal and a training program to work towards that goal is so beneficial, because without that knowledge and that structure, you do just think you have to go out there and run as fast as you possibly can every day to get better. And it's not sustainable.

I think a lot of people when they start running, they just think that they should be eating what they've always eaten, not realizing the energy output has increased so much that they actually need to eat so much more to make sure that their body is imbalanced. So I eat a lot of food. I eat a lot of

carp hydrates. I've definitely had my own challenges and battles with different diets and trying different things, and I think it took me to about twenty eight to realize like what actually worked for my body and what I needed to consume to make sure I could execute training well and perform well. And I'm stoked that I now know

that I just wish I probably knew earlier. I do a lot of strength work, which it might sound weird that it is recovery, but I make sure that you know, everything I do outside of running is going to compliment my running. So when I go to the gym, it isn't about getting my heart rate up and smashing myself in the gym. So I do pretty heavy lifting, and it's all really specific to running. So like deadlifting, squatting, lunching,

leg press, lots of glute stuff. There's a lot of things that happen outside of running that will help with the running. But it is just making sure you're like looking after yourself essentially at the end of the day, like you've got to be so tuned into how you feel and really taken to account all your other stresses that are going on in the research.

apply it to women. So you know, there's a huge lack of education around female menstrul cycles, female hormones, how they actually affect our you know, how we feel abou also our performance, And so myself and ister went through these journeys learning a lot more about our own bodies and actually learning that our minstral cycles are incredibly powerful. Female bodies are amazing and if we actually know what's going on internally, what we do externally can be enhanced.

So we started FIMI to educate other women about their periods and the minstrual cycles and how you can actually adapt your training to your cycle. FIMI was really built to educate female runners on how their bodies work internally, and then we adapt all of the training for them

around their cycle. And we've been working with hundreds of athletes over the last couple of years, and now we're moving into the tech space, just trying to build technology for women to learn more about their bodies and be given the appropriate training that's been built for them and not for men. And I think for us, we just really want to make women feel confident in themselves. And I think there is this huge piece of like learning about your body and becoming educated about what's going on.

There's a huge empowerment piece that comes along with that and if we can allow women to feel empowered in their bodies through movement and education, that's kind of the end goal.

But I really do have the bug with my running after the weekend, and I'm going to me to take that advice on three runs a week one of them sort of a bit faster with some stride throughs, one of them some speed or interval work at the running track or even at a footy oval, and then the last one on the weekend, a long slow one. I'm going to make sure I get my recavalry right. Get those. I think it's one of them. It's like anything with training,

you know, are you following a program? If you're not following a program, you definitely won't be maximizing your results. I have that conversation with people on a daily and weekly basis when it comes to their gym programs or their at home training programs. Why would running be any different. I'm going to put that into practice. I hope you

got something out of that interview. And as I said at the top of the show, I'm now going to get a little bit of assistance answering a question that, to be honest, is probably a bit above my pay grade. So we're brought in an absolute expert. But that's up next. So I was asked a question on the podcast the other day, and the question was.

as olive oil. And it's yellowish because of when you eat any food that's the natural fats that you eat have yellow substances in them, which are precursors to vitamin A. But the fat itself is perfectly transparent. It gets turned

into invisible carbon dioxide. Gas happens inside your cells, and that carbon dioxide enters into your bloodstream and then you end up breathing it out of your lungs and that's where eighty four percent of the weight that you lose goes out of your lungs and the last sixteen percent all of that turns into water, and those are your

two final products. So it's amazing. If you lose ten kilograms out of your fat cells, eight point four of those kilograms come out of your life lungs as CO two and one point six of the kilos that we're in your fat cells will turn into water, and you recycle that water for a little while until you lose it the usual way. But here's some bigger numbers are to make all of this happen. Actually, to turn ten kilos of human fat into carbon dioxide and water, you

need to inhale twenty eight kilograms of oxygen. There's a lot of breathing, a lot of breathe. You can't just sit in your chair at home and hyperventilate your way to losing weight, which is the first question I always get asked. And when people first hear this, it doesn't It still doesn't really makes a little bit of sense. But because carbon dioxide is invisible, you never notice that

you're always breathing out carbon dioxide. So it's not only when you're losing weight that you're breathing out carbon dioxide. It's one hundred percent of the time. You could call it one of your vite signs that you know if you're not breathing out carbon dioxide. That's a medical emergency because you're always breathing it out, it's not just when

you're losing weight. So the first thing about hyperventilating that then makes sense is if you sit still and just breathe more than you need to, you're going to pump out more of the carbon dioxide that your body's making then you can replenish it with. So if you're sitting still in a chair, you need to breathe at a certain rate. If you start breathing more than that, you're getting rid of more CO two than you're producing, and your body's CO two stores go below what they should be.

You actually need a certain amount of CO two in your blood to keep the pH the acid base chemistry correct, and by hyperventilating, you breathe off more carbon dioxide then you need to, and you'll end up feeling faint and your blood becomes slightly more alkaline when you do that, as opposed to slightly more acid. So so just hyperventilating isn't going to help you. It's just going to make

you ultimately faint. And so here's another auxiliary question. If you are not losing weight over time, if your weight is stable but you're still breathing out carbon dioxide all the time, then where does that carbon dioxide even come from? What why do we breathe it out? And the answer for that is really simple, and the clue is the word carbohydrates, which literally just means carbon dioxide gas which plants have taken in and stuck hydrogen atoms too, and

we call that photosynthesis. So plants take carbon dioxide, attach hydrogen atoms from water and that now you've got a carbohydrate and it has some sunlight energy stored in it. We eat that, we get the sunlight energy back out to do what we want to do, which is move and think and grow. But the atoms that we ate, they now turn back into carbon dioxide and water, and it's just a beautiful cycle. So it just all revolves around carbon doxide and water.