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Why I decided to get a Running Coach

I’ve always been stubborn, thinking I can do and figure out anything by myself with my trusty friend Google as my guide. I’ve never really had any issues to date with reaching goals and seeing parts of improvement, however only the other week, I realised that I was destined for greater distances which scared me. Instead of fumbling around in Google with slow progress, I wanted to fast-track my understanding and preparation to reach my newly established goal: to compete in true Ultra Marathons further than 100K.

To compete and complete the holy grail of Ultra Marathons: Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc (UTMB) (171 km +10,040 m) in Chamonix, France
Run (one of) the most prestigious Ultra Marathons in my home away from home; Japan. Running the circumference of Mount Fuji 160+km and ~9,500m elevation.
Compete in the heart of Australia in what looks like a different universe: The Western Mac’s 128 km Ellery Monster on the Larapinta Trail

My longest run until writing has only been 50kms which took a bit under 5 hours. Looking at these races where the fastest elites run it in ~20 hours, saying I was concerned (but maybe to a more extent, excited) was understatement. Like when I first looked up protein powder, I was hit with an overload of information that I didn’t want to digest. I went googling for running coaches with the main aim to be information gathering rather than a typical 12 week training program. I found a few podcasts by Mile27 and listening to their podcasts on a long drive, I knew these guys had the breadth of knowledge I wanted. How to best prepare yourself to run long and run hard.

Review of Running Coaching

At time of writing I’m on my 4th week with my coach and I will not continue forward. I have gained a lot of drive and passion for running and specifically understanding how different training plans impact performance.

As I mentioned, I went to a coach with the intention of learning and not to do simple weekly programs. I believe my expectations are actually that of hiring a running coach to become a running coach – not a runner. So probably my bad, but this has given me the drive to listen to most of the Science of Ultra podcasts (maybe 50 hours) and with what I have learned through doing these weekly session of which I’ve never really done before (intervals, hill effort repeats, recovery days, progression runs, etc) as opposed to just going out for a jog.

Another big piece of motivation I’ll take away from this is that running is hard, ultra marathons even moreso. If I’m able to learn all of this and self coach myself to successful ultra(s) then I’ll be even more proud of myself.

Final Thoughts

Running coaches can be a great tool especially for people wanting to get some variety in their game. You may be in for a rude shock if you want to be like me and learn so you can coach yourself, they are not too keen to share their coaching secrets! Many of the top endurance runners don’t have coaches (although they have had them historically and probably learnt what they needed from them to coach themselves @killianJornet).

Running is hard. You are ultimately the best coach. Listen to advice and the body and learn from others to improve. If you lack discipline, coaches are probably amazing for you. If you are self motivated to get out running and also to learn, then maybe you’re better off alone.

Continue Reading

My Running Form Assessment
Running – The Start of Purposeful Self Coaching

Home is not static but a transient thing that can change depending on your current place. Although for some people, there might only be a single home, some people have multiple and it’s not a single thing. For me, I have 2 homes;

Where I live now with my perfect wife and;
Home, home aka My parent’s house where I spent the first 19 years of my life in Tamworth, NSW

Sometimes I look back through my photos and videos and notice that where I spent 99% of my time at home 1 or 2, I have the least amount of footage. The large amount of my collection comes from travel and trips away from my regular living place. I think this is such a shame because as soon as your home starts to shift and you move away from it you’re missing a lot of these nostalgic places because at the time you were living there the thinking is like “oh well, I live here so I can see and do that whenever I want”. But then you might never end up making the memories or any footage.

With this revelation I spent some time in my home 2 ensuring I can capture some footage so I can easily remember these important places in my life.

Compiling My Home Movies

Tamworth Bike Ride 2021

Tamworth Trail Running - Flagstaff Mountain

Tamworth - My Favourite Childhood Tree

Tamworth - Old Rugby Videos

Coming soon…. Home 2

“If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” – Benjamin Franklin.

I originally titled this ‘The Importance of Plans and Goals’, then realised that without a goal, there’s no need to plan.

But then what is a goal and why do we need them? To me a goal is about understanding. Understanding ourselves, our wants, society, family, etc. To set a goal we first want to understand WHY we want to achieve the goal. Most of the time this will be subconsciously known to us but it’s always best to know The Why and the Goal.

We need goals to give life direction, meaning and progress. Too often when asking people ‘What did you do on the weekend?’ you will get the lacklustre reply ‘ah, not much’ or ‘just chill’. Firstly, if that was my goal – to chill and do nothing, then 100% fine. But if you sit on your couch watching the Olympics or an amazing documentary thinking ‘How amazing, I wish I could do that’, then you need to ask yourself the hard questions:

What is your purpose?
What makes you happy?
What gets you out of bed each day?

Although not a necessity, I would recommend first, understanding yourself (The Why), then building your Goals and then The Plan to achieve those goals.

Looks like a lot if going on… Start from the left.

What gets you out of bed, then;
Link these to goals, and then;
Set a plan to achieve these goals

I find the more connections you can make between your joys and what gets you out of bed, the more strongly a goal will resonate with you.

Example: Goal: Ultra-Trail du Mont_Blanc

The Why (what I get out of bed for):
- Love for mountains, nature and scenery
- Love for Travel – chance at a French-Swiss Adventure
- Running (can) give me a euphoric ‘high’ during and a sense of accomplishment after
- To challenge myself – A few years ago, if you told me that someone ran 170kms with ~10K elevation change, I would say it’s impossible. Those people are heroes. I want to be a hero. Maybe part god complex part egotism part conceited but I like to challenge myself to do things most people wouldn’t dare or chance upon themselves to accomplish. A paradox which could be written on my tombstone – Ross ‘The Humblest’ Michell.
Goal: I want to run the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc (a 170km mountain race in the Swiss-French alps with one of the largest fields).
The Plan: like all of my big goals, planning starts with a Google Sheet.
- Research the course (Length: 170K, Elevation: 10K, Cut off: 46h 30m). How on earth will I do this?
  - Research: running, types, podcasts, coaches, travel and course map.
  - Set up a training plan
  - Find and hire a coach
- Timing – Yearly in August
- How to Qualify: 10 ITRA points in a maximum of 2 races. Which races will I do…. This basically turned into it’s own adventure
- Convince the wife to allow and support me

Most importantly, writing these things down can help you as your go. It sure helps me when I write these articles.

Happy Planning!

Unless you understand this formula, time is fixed, it’s something you can’t get back.

As a kid we grow up with these expectations which almost don’t allow for questioning: go to school, get a job, find a partner, buy a house with a white picket fence, have a baby, become a grandparent, done. It seems like a question everyone has answered without even asking themselves of something so vitally important.

These 5 questions are the ones I believe are most crucial in thinking about how you want to spend your time without mindlessly following the masses.

Do I really want to be a parent?
Relationship
Do I need to buy a house?
Career / Money
Why am I alive? If I retired today, what would I do?

I don’t always take the most orthodox approach to life and that’s purely due to asking myself questions and tossing up the opportunity cost (considering all options) in terms of time and selecting the best option.

1. Do I really want to be a parent?

Yes or No? I believe this is the most important question that people really need to ask themselves. If you get this terribly wrong not only can you severely alter your own quality of life, but also the next generation’s life.

Just like anything involving decisions and opportunity costs, I would recommend making your own table of pros and cons. I generally start with the cons.

Cons

Time commitment
Short temper / lack of patience
Cost to the environment
Cost to my wallet

Pros

Live vicariously through your kids
Can bring a lot of joy
Naturally paternal / maternal
Give you something to do

For some it will be clear after putting a simple list together. For others, more research may be needed. Luckily for me, I have 2 brothers with 3 kids each. A simple visit to each house gave me solid insight into the life of being a parent.

Personally, the time commitment was the killer for me. I like my life, I like spending time on me, I do what I want (which is what the wife also wants). If a kid came into my life, almost all of my time for the foreseeable 18 years would go into that kid away from me. Yes, I’m selfish but that’s how I want to live MY life, your life is your choice. Communication is also key, talk through these things with your partner before you get married or get too deep.

Remember your life is crafted by your own choices, be inquisitive and know how you want to spend your time to live the life you want to live.

2. Is this the right relationship for me?

What kind of relationship am I looking for?
Why am I with this person?
Do I want to get married?

Firstly be honest with yourself and then communicate and be clear with your partner. Know what kind of relationship you want: is it just fun? Serious? Nothing? It’s up to you. Pick one and be clear, there is nothing worse than being in the ‘grey zone’ – keep it black or white.

If you are lying to yourself and your partner, you are wasting 2 people’s time and effort.

3. Do I need to buy a house?

In Australia it seems like another rhetorical question… But why do we want to be house owners? Just to be clear, I’m not against buying a house, I just think it’s most important to consider your situation and timing in relation to buying. I’ve listed some pros and cons below.

Buying

The Cons of Buying: It’s a big commitment of money, but responsibility as well. It may also lock down your options for working hours, holidays and other commitments whilst putting further stress on the purchaser.

The Pros of Buying: You are an owner – you can do almost whatever you want with the place, you have a secure place to live so no one can really kick you out. The price of the house (most likely) will rise in value – so you can make money on the purchase.

Renting

Pros of Renting: Cheaper initial cost and little upfront investment (bond), freedom to move places if you don’t like the location or house. If you go on an extended holiday, you will pay no rent (i.e you can literally move anywhere in the world).

Cons of Renting: Can be forced to move out of home. Rent increases are inevitable. You will be ‘paying for someone’s mortgage’ (although I don’t believe this to be any different to being employed).

My wife and I purchased an apartment in Sydney in 2019. We both actually love the apartment & amenities as well as the location (closeness to shopping, national parks, safety, etc). We have seen so many benefits in terms of tax, rental income and getting experimental on the tools. Doubts about the purchase have only recently come to mind as we plan out the next few years in a post-covid world where we would like to work and live internationally and having a large asset back in Sydney is a bit of an obligation.

4. How much money is enough?

This is almost the same as when can I retire? Do I need to keep working until I’m at retirement age? I want to challenge the thinking here – especially to those who are not planning on kids. An idea which I autonomously thought of but which is well documented by Bill Perkins is below:

What’s your optimum retirement strategy? Are you going to just keep working long hours in order to sock away more and more money that you’ll never get around to spending because you’re working?

The Die With Zero philosophy is once you’ve saved enough to fund your retirement and give to your family and charities, you should start focusing more on generating memorable life experiences. That’s the time to live life to its fullest, not to be pulling even longer hours in the office, or waiting until you’re too old to be able to enjoy doing things.
https://summaries.com/blog/die-with-zero

In the end, how much help do you need to give to your kids? If you’ve raised them to be self-sufficient, I’m sure they will be okay on their own or with just a little support. You’ve worked hard to earn this money, go enjoy your money and don’t end up with a James and Lily Potter amount of money left over without being able to spend and enjoy it.

5. What is MY life?

Imagine a life without having to worry about time or money or anything else. What would you do? What do you enjoy? Where do you WANT to spend your time?

This is how I like to think about ‘the meaning of life’ – my meaning is to enjoy life with the people I care about. Is there another life? No idea, but what I do know is I will live now and die one day and I will enjoy the hell out of it.

Have a good solid think and figure out the things you love to do which bring joy to your life. For me this is:

Life planning
- Short Term: Planning my next few days, next holiday, mapping a new trail run / bike ride, blog writing etc
- Long Term: Exploring google maps for holidays, Expense / qantas point planning, investigating long holidays, blog planning, etc
Travel
Running / Hiking / Nature
Anime, gaming and computers
Collecting (cards) and creative hobbies

If I were to retire tomorrow I would honestly be up until at least 3am ‘life planning’, I call it. Which would just be on my custom build PC throwing ideas on a spreadsheet in timeline format and tossing up ideas of which one sounds best and works best with my current situation and timings. No doubt those plans would include each of these dot points. The next morning I would run the wife through these plans and see if she’d be keen on them – that is my/our life and I love it.

Why did I want to run 50K?

Why not? To be honest, being impressive is a big motivator for me. A lot of people have goals to run 5K or 10K, so why not just push for something ridiculous? Similar to what Goggins says ‘be uncommon amongst the uncommon’ is something that really resonates with me. Most people have goals – I prefer to have challenges, it makes them all the more rewarding when you achieve them. Other examples:

Why was this my time to run an Ultra Marathon?

Firstly, the plain definition of an Ultra is a long-distance running race that is longer than a marathon (42.2K). My definition is more like Trail Running for any distance 42.2K or longer. Some people think you need years or months of training to run this length. There are plenty of stories out there saying otherwise and I tend to stick with the belief that almost any semi-fit person can complete an ultra – the manner or time in which you complete it is to your own standard. It may take someone with next to no training 10 hours to walk the whole thing, but they will have still completed one!

With this belief, one late night I finally made the plunge onto the internet to find some challenges. I found this one: Warburton Trail Festival – Lumberjack 50K.

As I read through it, I thought I had seen it before. It took a while, but I remembered the Beau ‘Bean’ Miles ran this same one in his video: The Human Bean: 40 days on a tin-bean diet.

As a giant fan of Beau, I knew this was the one. With next to zero training, I signed up there and then, locked and loaded for my first Ultra. Upon signing up, I just wanted to complete one in a decent time without walking – i.e not first, or at 5min/km pace. The goal / challenge of 50K was enough – or so I thought.

My Preparation and Training

Checking through my emails, I signed up at:

Date: 28/01/2021
Time: 11:17 PM

The race was on Saturday, 6 March 2021, so that gave me a massive 36 days to train up. After looking at my Strava history, it was clear that I had not put in the training yet to get anywhere near 50K. I knew that I would have to really start upping the KMs to even have the confidence to get down to Melbourne and to the starting line.

Extract of longer runs from sign up date:

It was clear that over the next few weeks I would have to put in a lot of time into running. I would usually write up a plan for these things, but I just knew I needed to put in the time. In hindsight I would suggest POST TBC: How to prepare for an Ultra Marathon. I had a look at the elevation profile and type of running that would be expected and tried my best to mimic my training around that.

Weight

Pretty simply, it’s easier to run long distances when you carry less weight. At registration I was around 78kg. I thought anything under 74kg would be good and that would naturally come through more running. I ended up coming down to 72kg.

Diet

Food provides you with energy. I needed energy so I was eating a lotttt. Breakfast usually consisted of muesli with some fruits (banana, mixed berries). I cannot stress how important bananas are for me. Lunch and dinner was usually 1 part vegetables, 1 part protein (meat or vegetable protein) and 1 part carb (flat bread). So 67% of my meals were a burrito mix 🌯.

Listen to your body

This is the most important. Listen and learn. I found that bananas really gave me energy. I made my own energy gels using bananas, BCAA capsules, caffeine pills, frozen berries, cinnamon, muesli, etc. I stored it in a chilli bottle.

I went out the first day and ran 21K on trails. Knowing that’s not enough, I thought running on tired legs would help build strength. I think I pushed too hard as my knee started to feel pain towards the end of the 21K footpath run. In hindsight I should have stopped but being around 18K in, I couldn’t do it to my pride. It wasn’t anything serious, but to recover I had to keep it to the elliptical machine.

Training types and environment

I’m a firm believer in training in the environment you will compete in. Luckily for me, Lane Cove National Park is basically my backyard, so it was easy to run trails. I would recommend mixing it up to incorporate hills, long distance and short speed (maybe not sprints though).

Study the map

Load gps on watch.

Pre race

Probably better for another article – Working Holidays – making the most of COVID changes in workstyle.

Collect your bib! Day before if possible
Charge your GPS watch
Prepare your gear the night before
Prep your breakfast
Eat big eat early
Arrive with time

Race Day

The hardest part of the day was waking Kel up early to drive me there and back! We arrived early and I couldn’t believe my eyes, Beau ‘The Bean’ Miles was there, as the Lumberjack again! I walked straight over and introduced myself and wished him good luck with the race.

As with anything that means a lot to me, I felt nervous at the starting line getting the racing brief. Unlike most races, the starting bell for this one is not a horn, but when the Lumberjack cuts through the log (see video).

The run started well and I was probably towards the middle/front of the pack which was unexpected as the athletes looked very fit. Started at roughly 5:00mins per Kilometre until we hit the wall of elevation – roughly 700m of 20-30% incline. I had often thought of myself as a downhill specialist, however I was powering past my initial group and took off once we got to the top.

It was cold which helped keep the heart rate down as I raced onwards through the more technical and wetter terrain. I had skipped past the first few aid stations as I wasn’t drinking as much water in the cold as I would during my Sydney training. I eventually caught up to a few others on the trail and actually made somewhat of a trail mate as we paced well together. At the 30K mark I had to let my running buddy go as I started to feel ill, a first. I quickly realised I hadn’t had anything at all to eat, so squeezed down my whole chilli bottle of Banana energy. After 10-ish minutes I was ready to roll and hammered down hill, barnstorming the next 15kms.

With only 5-10K’s to go, I realised I had this in the bag! From roughly 45kms, the course was mostly gravel. I kept looking back to ensure no one was trying to pip me towards the end. I had originally told Kel I would be roughly arriving after 5:00hrs assuming I was running a solid time. I had to text her mid water crossing to let her know I was ahead of schedule. As I was streaming down one side of the river I saw her running towards the finish line. Crossing the line I thought I would feel something – all I felt was exhaustion. Asking the officials for my place, they had surprised me to the extreme. I had come in 10th out of 152 athletes – for my first Ultra Marathon. There it was – that sense of accomplishment and jubilation that I had way overachieved on my expectations.

www.strava.com/activities/4897209180

A new and enthusiastic Ultra Marathon Runner

Finishing with a feast at Chin Chin's Melbourne

Post Race

Celebrated with an ice bath in the Yarra River. The freezing water I think helped with recovery and muscle soreness as I wasn’t completely gassed the next few days.

I never really started running until I went to Uni. I had always thought of myself as too stocky or thicc to ever get into long distance – ‘it’s just the way I’m built’ I would tell myself. After years of mediocre attempts at running around the neighbourhood (just 5km or so in 25ish minutes) I started living with a guy who was actually good at running, Carl Puchner. Even though the guy ate a full pizza every night for dinner and KFC for lunch he had the perfect runner’s physique.

We’d often go on short jogs together on concrete around Chatswood where I’d just be slowing him down. One fateful day I was exploring the neighbourhood and found a nice little jungle path and thought to take it at some pace. I took Carl back here and thought we could do it together and found out I was actually able to keep up (or even slightly ahead) of this milo fiend. He even mentioned it after the run saying I was flying and he was struggling to keep up. Not sure if this is yet a law but I’m going to claim it

Ross’ Law - You find more enjoyment in activities you are good at

And I think this is where it all began. Next thing I knew my brother Thomas sporadically asked if I wanted to try the Tamworth TrailBlazer in 2019 (15K +900m elevation) back in my hometown. Obviously I signed up, and didn’t put in near the effort required for a decent time, worst of all my knee starting playing up about 10Ks in, so I ended up walking / hopping the remainder of the course – still coming in a respectable 14th, I knew this could be the start of something.

Realising I gained so much enjoyment and accomplishment from the race, I started more recreational running around my local tracks – Lane Cove National Park, Boronia Park to North Ryde and more. I finally decided to buy a Sports GPS watch – however that was more for my Japan Trip.

The Benefit of Running & Trail Running

Fitness (or you can basically eat whatever you want guilt free!)
Time saving vs walking
Health – heart training
Amazing views – more trails
Explore places you wouldn’t usually visit
Something you can do by yourself or with friends
Meet plenty of great people out there with the same hobby and interesting stories
‘Find that place in yourself’ – I find this happens any distance over 30 minutes where you find a comfortable rhythm, you’re in like as Sherlock Holmes calls it – a mind palace. Where you think just what you are thinking and nothing else really matters. Like a moment of calm or clairvoyance.

In 2021, I really started picking up Trail Running as an enthusiast (one day I hope to call myself an athlete), signing up for multiple events every month and even winning a few.

Upcoming events can be found on my Home Page
Previous Results from competitions can be found: Competitions and Sports

Get out there, explore and enjoy it!

One of the main things I wanted to get out of creating a blog was a way to autobiograph-ise my life. I like dates, timestamps and visuals – so I went in search of something of the Timeline variety to record, remember and relive my life. After all, my biggest fear is to look back on my life and regret not doing enough.

I stumbled upon an amazing, innovative site Knightlab which is all free to use their templates on Storytelling – Timelines and Storylines being my 2 favourites.

Hours upon hours of my time went into the creation of this:

Planning – design, template dates, highlights, databases, storage, naming conventions, etc
Scouring my Memories – Looking through photos (Google Photos is a great tool), memories, talking with friends for memories, old photo albums and others to pull out the moments in my life that I want to look back on and remember. Those critical moments where I achieved or learned something amazing. Or just something funny happened.
Putting it all together – writing the memoirs, making the short highlights videos, uploading everything, ensuring everything works and the main point, redoing it all every (year?) to keep it up to day.

Without further adieu, the Timeline of Ross Michell until the end of 2020 (as of time of writing).

Again, I would strongly recommend everyone to find your own way to record, remember and relive your own life. This last few weeks has been a saviour with COVID lockdowns coming back into Sydney, it has helped me reconnect with people and myself looking back on these memories and learnings.

“…After all, these are not the memoirs of an empress, nor of a queen. These are memoirs of another kind.” – Memoirs of a Geisha

I’m raising money for my niece Imogen who has a rare disease called ATS. She has been supported through HeartKids over the last few years and I want to give back.

I’m doing a triathlon in November (The Noosa Triathlon) with Heartkids and looking to raise some funds for the charity so they can continue supporting kids in need.

Just in time for Tax Season, any help would be appreciated and fully TAX DEDUCTIBLE!!!

The Template

This template will combine and take you through the steps we have covered in this Fundamental Series:

Find the Link below – note you will have to make a copy if you click the 2nd button. I would also strongly recommend using a real computer and not a phone (just like for all things worth doing).

All the best with your investment endeavours and reach out if you have any questions.

Future Posts

I plan to cover more areas in this area such as Cryptocurrencies, Trading Cards and Other Investments so watch this space. Below is my favourite tennis player and collector coin which is actually quite a lucrative investment!

Yes, your broker website like CBA will track your performance very well. However, the things it won’t do well it remind you

when you might want to sell / partial sell your shares
The current risk profile of your portfolio, or
An idea of what sectors or markets you are currently diversified

To manage this, I would suggest to use your own personal tracking similar to what I have provided in a template below: Investing Fundamentals: Track Your Investments With Google Sheets

Notes for using such a template

You will need to ensure your portfolio is updated from your Broker Site (e.g Commsec)
Each time you make a purchase or sell, update the appropriate columns (the first few until you hit ‘Cost’)
Personal Input will need to be manually input (unless you use the full template – releasing in coming days)
Google Prices and statistics will update automatically when the market is open and every 10 or so minutes

If you are unfamiliar with Google Sheets – BECOME FAMILIAR WITH GOOGLE SHEETS!

The next and FINAL piece of this series will be bringing it all together with, you guessed it – A Google Sheet Template – Full Starter Template And Review