Stevie Puts Rochelle in the Middle of Her HBF Training Block.

In this episode, Stevie and Rochelle share insights from their running journeys, training experiences, and managing life's challenges while preparing for the HBF run. They discuss training strategies, overcoming doubts, and the importance of mindset and consistency.

• Training for the HBF Half Marathon
• Managing doubts and mindset in running
• Nutrition and recovery strategies

Chapters

00:00
Running Reflections: Gym Encounters and Observations

02:19
Training for HBF: A Casual Approach

04:22
Mindset and Consistency in Training

07:43
Pacing Challenges and Surprises

10:01
Nutrition and Managing Doubts

12:32
Coaching Insights and Shared Experiences

16:27
Focus on Fitness and Recovery

18:35
Looking Ahead: Goals and Successes

20:32
download.mp4

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hi, I'm Rochelle, and this is my co-host Stevie. And together we are Runversation, a conversational paced podcast for your easy-paced running journey. And we're here to chat about all things running, community, and everything in between. Hello, Stevie. Hi, Rochelle. And hello, listeners. Before we get into today's episode, Stevie, what did you see on your run or in the gym?

SPEAKER_01 0:25

So I saw it was in the gym. I was running on the treadmill doing a pretty hard session, puffing and puffing. And I just looked at the lady next to me on the treadmill and she was just glaring at me. Like, didn't say anything. And then I had my headphones in, obviously. Don't think she said anything. Took my headphones out and I was like, excuse me. And she just stayed glaring at me for I don't know, maybe a minute. And then I was like, okay. Just kept running. And I was thinking, I'm not sure what that was about. But yeah, it never happened to me before.

unknown 0:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:59

Kind of um that maybe she was like admiring your running style or at what you were doing.

SPEAKER_01 1:06

Yeah, maybe. Or then I was thinking, like, did I say something out loud that I thought I was thinking in my head while running on the treadmill? Probably not.

SPEAKER_00 1:14

You could be like what Matt does. Matt sweats a lot when he's running on the treadmill. Were you like flicking sweat her way?

SPEAKER_01 1:20

Probably, yeah, I sweat a lot on the treadmill as well. It couldn't be that. And how about you, Rochelle? What did you see on your run or in the gym?

SPEAKER_00 1:28

This one was at training on Saturday morning down at Burrswood. I was just like standing there chatting with the group, and all of a sudden I saw this guy like running towards our location. And I was like, what is that on his head? And as he got closer, he had a blue party cone like on the top of his head. And then, like, while the group were training, I saw another guy running with a yellow party hat on his head. So somebody was obviously out having a birthday run. Yeah. But then I was thinking, those little party hats are held together by like a little thin piece of like elastic. So like, good job keeping it on.

SPEAKER_01 2:06

Yeah. Oh, that's a good idea to do on your birthday, running a party hat.

SPEAKER_00 2:10

No, I've never ever seen that before. It was so random. It was kind of nice because like it was Dean's birthday weekend as well. So I was like, Yeah. Um, so I wanted to just check in with you today. Um, in regards to like how your training's going for HBF. Are you happy for me to ask you a few questions? I've got my HBF run shirt on just for the episode. Good. I don't think I've actually got one of those. Um, okay. Well, we're pretty much right in the middle of training at the moment. How do you actually feel about training right now and your training towards the half marathon?

SPEAKER_01 2:48

I feel like this training block feels different. Um, I'm definitely more relaxed about it. I'm not worried about the distance and making the long runs because obviously I've done the marathon. So yeah, it just feels a lot different. I know I can make the distance, so I'm not worried about that, like I said. Yeah, so I'm kind of taking it pretty casually. Whereas with the marathon, I was like making sure I did everything by the plan. And I'm still following the plan, but yeah, just a lot more relaxed, I guess. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:20

You can definitely run the distance, so that's like a sense of security in your mind.

SPEAKER_01 3:25

Yeah. Yeah. Like when I'm out on my long runs, I'm not worrying if I'm gonna make the distance, I guess. So it's like a lot more relaxed and probably a better mindset, less pressure on myself. Um, the progress looks different as well. So I'm looking at increasing my speed like overall rather than just making the right, like making it to the finish line. So yeah, it's completely different. Uh, but I feel like I've got a solid base as well. So I'm starting with a solid base. So I guess that's that's um reassuring to myself. And do you feel like you are where you thought you'd be at this point? I feel like school holidays I've had to learn to juggle quite a bit this time. So that's sort of been something that yeah, I've probably been doing a couple of runs too close together. Yes, that's something I've noticed. Like my ideal running times I've had to change, running later in the afternoon, things like that. But yeah, that's pretty much the only thing I've sort of noticed this time.

SPEAKER_00 4:21

Yeah. Yeah. What has this block taught you about yourself as a runner so far?

SPEAKER_01 4:27

I guess like consistency. So staying consistent even through those times where you might not be able to get every run in, and like realizing that if you do miss a run, it's not going to impact your whole training block, like you may think it is. Um my mindset is a lot more positive. So I've learnt, I guess, to yeah, talk myself out of doubt. Um, so I think that's an important thing to be able to do. Um, so yeah, I guess I've learned not as much as my last training block, but I've learned different things about it. And so has anything surprised you? I guess my pace, because I haven't really been concentrating on my pace up until this new training block. And like obviously, I'm my goal is to complete the half marathon um and get a PB, so run faster than normal. But yeah, I wasn't sure where I was at with pace because when I was training for the marathon, obviously I was just concentrating on distance. I wasn't putting pressure on pace. Um, and I also felt like for a couple of weeks after the marathon, I wasn't game enough to go straight back into trying to run my fastest pace in all my sessions. Like I wanted to make sure I had good recovery. I suppose four weeks into the training block was when I could really say, all right, like you you recovered from the marathon, it's time to see where you're at. And yeah, pieces have picked up. So um, I wasn't sure whether I would be fatigued, therefore struggling with pace. It's been the opposite, and yeah, my pace has picked up. So that's something that that was quite surprising to me as well.

SPEAKER_00 6:04

So let's um talk about like some of the sessions that you've been doing. Firstly, who writes your program? And then tell me what's the toughest session that you've had so far.

SPEAKER_01 6:17

Yeah, okay. So um obviously you're writing my program for me. I do change it up a little bit because my life and work schedule is quite hectic. I haven't actually done my time trial yet because that is the one that I get really nervous about. So I wanna I wanna know what my 5k PB is. I'm terrified of injury and I'm not a sprinter, but I'm definitely more of an endurance runner. So for me, doing a time trial for 5K, I guess I don't feel confident in that area. That's what challenges me. So I'm um, yeah, waiting for the right day to do that one. Confidence always dips before it rises. Remember that episode? Yeah, yeah. Actually, I was listening to that and it did remind me, but I don't know, it's just something about that 5k. But I will do it. I'm gonna do it in the next couple of weeks. I don't want to do it too close to the run. But I also think the session that you give us, the three by ten kilometre. Uh sorry, uh three by ten minutes. Yeah, that's um when I see that come up on my um workout, I'm always like, oh god, that one. But then every time I go into doing it, it seems okay. It's just the initial looking at that workout and going, what? Like but yeah, it's it's not as bad once you get into it. For sure.

SPEAKER_00 7:43

Why do you think that three by ten minutes is unachievable or is hard?

SPEAKER_01 7:48

I think it's just because like the length of the reps. So if you're starting your first rep going out a little bit too hard, I feel like in that workout is it's definitely gonna just get harder and harder. Um I think for me, pacing is something that I struggle with. So I guess if I do go out too hard and it's a longer rep, I get into trouble.

SPEAKER_00 8:10

So And sorry, you had that session on the weekend just gone. Did you do it?

SPEAKER_01 8:15

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:16

Yeah. And did you feel good afterwards?

SPEAKER_01 8:19

I I did it. I felt good. I didn't do it on the day that you put it on. I had to swap it around due to school holidays. But yeah, no, I do. I always feel good after doing that one. Like I I think because it is a challenging one, when you it's one that when you finish it, it kind of makes you realize like you are where you need to be. Whereas before going into it, yeah, it's like, oh, am I even going to be able to do this? And my pace was good as well. So I've another thing I've got to remember is I've started upping my pace. So obviously it's gonna be harder. And that's why it's harder, probably. Not because of me thinking in my mind, I can't do this. Like it's uncomfortable because I'm trying to run faster. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:59

And has there been a session where you've thought, actually, like I'm improving?

SPEAKER_01 9:04

Yeah, that session where I can't remember what it's called, like the two by one kilometer, and then you're reducing it to 800, 600, 400, 200. Like I absolutely love that session. I noticed my pace picking up, but I also noticed that I sustained my pace throughout the workout. So I wasn't just going out hard. I was like, yep, I I hit my pace for the 1k and I've increased my pace throughout the whole workout, and I haven't backed off, or I haven't gone out too hard making me want to stop the workout. Like it was very um yeah, it was very on point, and I really liked that.

SPEAKER_00 9:39

So I think we have that one tomorrow, so it would be good. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's that's probably that's quite an immune session.

SPEAKER_01 9:49

Yeah, I like it. It's you've you've got to work hard, but it's yeah. It's good to see like how fast you can go on the shorter distances, because I guess that's not something that we do uh very often. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:02

And it's a good session as well because as the recovery, I sorry, as the distance gets shorter, your recovery also gets shorter to like match that. So you've got to really make sure that you are focusing on like taking in a sip of water or like reducing your heart rate quicker so that you're fresher for that like start of that next little rep. Yeah, no, it's definitely a good one.

SPEAKER_01 10:26

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:27

Yeah. So has there been a moment in the block where you've doubted yourself?

SPEAKER_01 10:32

Yeah, definitely. And I think we always have moments of doubt. I think that that is totally normal, healthy, and there's nothing wrong with doubt. So yeah, I have doubted. I think for me this time it is probably more nutrition, is something that I'm struggling with. I guess like everyone has stress in their lives, and I find when I'm stressed out, I don't have much of an appetite. Therefore, I'm probably not eating enough. Like I have to be really conscious of like, okay, you need to eat. And I've been having like more carb drinks because it's like, well, I don't feel like eating, but I still need carbs. So I've had to sort of dive into that a bit more as well through this training block just to make sure like I do worry about race day and not feeling properly.

SPEAKER_00 11:17

So what do those thoughts sound like when they start to show up?

SPEAKER_01 11:23

It's probably like, I'm not hitting the pace, this feels hard, the session wasn't good enough, like am I where I need to be? Um, yeah, they're mostly what popped into my head. Or why is this feeling hard? What am I doing wrong? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:39

And so how are you learning to manage your nutrition and manage those thoughts?

SPEAKER_01 11:44

So with the nutrition, I'm just like making sure I've probably having smaller meals throughout the day, struggling with big meals. And like I'm normally pretty busy, so I would normally have like less meals, but bigger. But this, like at the moment, yeah, just just making sure that I still eat the same amount of food. I might just have to break it up into smaller meals. And then with the supplements of like the electrolytes or the carb mix has been really helpful. Um, I know that doubt isn't a sign that something's wrong. It's actually pretty normal. Like I said, it's a byproduct of pushing your limits. And I think doubt shows that we care about our training. Instead of trying to eliminate doubt, I use more useful ways to shift the doubt. So, like, notice it, that's doubt talking, don't engage with it, get it out of my head, um, stick to the next action that I need to take in my session or my long run, and then hold the pace, finish the rep, hold my form, and then just finish the session, like just thinking about that rather than letting all those things coming into my head. Because once you finish the session, I don't think you're gonna go, oh, through that session, I was thinking about that, that doubt. Like it goes as soon as you've done the session. So I think just like reminding myself and other runners that, yeah, doubt's okay, it's gonna happen. We can deal with it in a way that we don't need to let it affect our session. I wanted to ask you, Rochelle, how is your HBF training going?

SPEAKER_00 13:11

It's going as well as I could expect it to be going. I have finally learned how to manage my own fitness levels and manage my pacing during sessions after having a few years of, you know, missing that sort of point. And I feel like it's going really well. I did have a slightly harder long run that I put on Saturday. I was supposed to do 20Ks and I ran for 90 minutes because it was just an absolute struggle. But I feel like there was reasons why. One was I did my run slightly later in the morning after I'd been coaching everybody. Yeah. Um, and then two, I'm not sure I had enough to eat. Whilst I had had breakfast and a coffee, and then I had had another bowl of like wheat bicks before my session, I didn't feel like there was enough in me, even though I had gels and like carp mix along the way, I just probably could have arranged my day a bit better. But then my Sunday 8K run that I had felt fine. So no, it's going really well, I think.

SPEAKER_01 14:13

What does your training look like right now compared to what people might expect from you?

SPEAKER_00 14:17

That's a really good question. I mean, people who have followed my running journey for a long time would expect me to be running really high volume, to be doing track work, um, and to be doing slightly faster long runs because I used to run my long runs a little bit quicker than what I'm doing now. Training for me has gone from say doing 150Ks a week down to I'm averaging about 80 consistently. Um and I would like to slightly raise that at the back end. And I the reason I want to do that is because when I go into Melbourne, I want to be able to hold a slightly higher level of mileage just to get the best out of myself. So that's probably something that's changed that people might not expect. So my mileage is a lot lower. Yeah. And me also this time around, gym is a lot more. So I've been doing two to three gym sessions a week as well as my runs. And on some of those days, I have like I call them triple training days. So I might do like an easy run and then a gym session, and then later in the afternoon or evening, I'll do another easy run. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:21

So I guess that's gonna make a difference as well to your time factor as well, with like the kilometres that you used to run, like you're absolutely not sort of time in the gym.

SPEAKER_00 15:30

Yeah. Yeah, just adding time in the gym, being at home by myself with Dean when Matt flies back to work, things like that. And do you still have doubt even with your experiences? Too much doubt this time around. I think the doubt that I've probably had is when a run doesn't feel great. But I know that there's reasons why runs don't feel great, and I'm always able to um reason with myself as to why and know what I need to do to fix that outcome. The doubt probably um if I do have any is probably around speed because that's something that I don't really focus a lot on because I'm time poor. So I used to always go to the track on a Tuesday and do my interval sessions there. So running on the track versus like faster, sharper, etc. And now I'm doing my interval sessions before I actually coach. So I'm doing them in hotter conditions later in the afternoon. And they're not necessarily on a track, they're just on a footpath. So training solo as well, I probably don't push myself as hard as what I can.

SPEAKER_01 16:36

And with your training block that you're in now, what's one thing that you're really focusing on?

SPEAKER_00 16:41

Ticking all of my boxes and following the plan because this time round, so last year I had a coach leading into the Sydney marathon, and then I had all my lung issues, and I decided to just focus on what I needed to do to get healthy and to get my fitness at a level and a point where I wanted it to be. So for me, yeah, I'm probably just like really focusing on that fitness and recovery as well. So recovery is looking a little bit different these days too. I'm making sure that I'm also taking in enough protein post-exercise, whether it be gym or for my runs as well. I think this has been an important episode because no matter your level, you're always going to be training through the same processes. So, Stevie, what is something that you feel that both you and I are experiencing right now, even though we're at slightly different uh fitness levels?

SPEAKER_01 17:39

Yeah, so I think for you and I, obviously we're busy mums, we're working as well. So that's you know, all those things are impacting our training. I know that you'll that Matt, your husband, works away, so therefore you'd be at home a lot with the kids on your own. I'm also at home alone with my children, so that's you know, that's quite I guess we're quite similar in that way. And then some weeks you've got more time, and then the other week, obviously, when you have the kids or Matt's away, you have less time. So I feel like for us, you'd probably know exactly how I feel when you really want to get that running, but you can't, or you've got to change it up. Yeah, so I get it, yeah. Um, and how about you?

SPEAKER_00 18:16

What are your thoughts? I I agree with you a hundred percent. Like I feel that, yeah, I mean, we're both mums, we're both training, we're trying to both get the best out of ourselves, and we're both trying to manage time so that we can, you know, fit everything in but still give back to those that matter to us, like our kids and our family. So, as we head into the next few weeks, what's your focus?

SPEAKER_01 18:39

So the next few weeks, um, gonna focus on the nutrition. I've actually got like a really busy week coming up this week, and I do not know how I'm going to get my midweek long run in, but I'm just gonna concentrate on mindset around that and not put too much pressure on myself because yeah, it's like it's just gonna be impossible to get that session in. So I'm just gonna let it go and understand that it's not going to affect my whole training block.

SPEAKER_00 19:03

And what does a successful HBF run look like for you?

SPEAKER_01 19:08

So I'd really like to get a PB. That would be amazing, but yeah, like I said before, um, for this run, I feel like it's it's more exciting for me because I do have some clients that are running, and I've got one client that is doing his first half marathon. So success for me is just seeing my clients enjoy the run. Hopefully we all get PBs, but if we don't get PBs, that also doesn't really matter. Like as long as everyone's having fun and we've all worked so hard for the event. Yeah, I'm just looking forward to a day where we can all catch up, do the run and reflect on it afterwards.

SPEAKER_00 19:44

Yeah. I always say to like my athletes before a race, like, just enjoy the opportunity to be out there and running an event with so many other people. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's gonna be really I've really enjoyed this episode and chat with you because it shows that no one has actually got it perfectly figured out. We're all just working through the process. At different stages, but you know, the same journey.

SPEAKER_01 20:10

Yeah, you're right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:12

And so if you're listening and you're in the middle of your own block, showing up, trust what you're doing, and don't overcomplicate it. If you've enjoyed this episode, make sure you follow, subscribe, and share this with somebody who else might be training for the HBF run for a reason. Um, until next time, let's keep the runversation going.