Archive for the ‘Training’ Category
Respecting the Distance
Posted on: March 2, 2014
- In: Running | Training
- 3 Comments
It’s 5 weeks to go until the Brighton marathon…and there continues to be lots of learning and personal development in all of the marathon training. Annoyingly, many of the lessons I am having to learn several times over, but am still determined that I will put the changes into place for next time around, for the next week, next day or the next run…after all, that is what training is all about isn’t it, learning to do things differently.
I started February having completed a 14 mile run, which at the time was the longest I had ever done…by the last day of February I had clocked up over 120 running miles in the shortest of months and finished the second 20 mile run in the month. Even to me, that sounds pretty good! The month has definitely had highs and lows though: I have certainly experienced cumulative fatigue from the long training runs and generally a lower level of energy overall than I enjoyed in the early days of training. Again and again I have learnt the power and importance of good nutrition and eating properly….more often than not, by getting it wrong and struggling in the long distances!
Marathon runners talk about respecting the distance of 26.2 miles, and I am finding that equally true of the long training runs. If I haven’t prepared for a long training run properly, if I haven’t eaten the right food in the days leading up to it, if my head is not mentally in the right place and if I am not fully rested and well hydrated, sooner or later I will struggle. I managed to demonstrate this (not so) admirably when I ran 20 miles with Flora on Friday: from 15 miles onwards, my communication and conversation dipped lower and lower until all my energy was consumed with just keeping going and not giving up. It was a tough run, made tougher than it had needed to be by inadequate preparation on my part. The lovely Flora was a complete star and kept chatting away to me (we joked afterwards about ‘Flora Radio’!) and definitely gave me more than she received in support on that particular run! The main thing though, is that we did it, however imperfectly on my part…and onwards and upwards we go. We’re definitely getting to know each other very well through completing this adventure together too… 😉
Big smiles after finishing 20 miles!
There is another distance that I need to remember and respect too though and it is one that I often forget about: the journey I have travelled in the last 21 months from complete, resolutely determined non-runner into a very-nearly marathon distance runner. I honestly never thought I would be running a marathon and I feel both hugely proud that I have got this far and quietly confident that I will be able to complete the journey. That’s another positive thing to think about while clocking up the miles in the final few weeks!
I’m raising money for Mind the mental health charity and Flora is running for the MS Society…if you are able to sponsor either of us, please click here. Thank you so much for the wonderful support.
Like Riding A Bike…
Posted on: May 27, 2012
- In: Confidence | Family | Learning | Training
- 9 Comments
The last few weekends have involved a lot of bike riding…or more accurately a lot of learning to ride a bike. Over the last three weekends, my 6-year-old daughters have mastered riding their bikes without stabilizers and then upgrading from their small 14″ wheel bikes to a much bigger, heavier 20″ wheel frame. The former is certainly a life skill, the latter necessary because of how much taller they have become…yet once we arrived back home with the new bikes, I was concerned we were moving too fast and pushing them to do something they were not yet ready for or capable of doing.
It’s no exaggeration to say I could hardly bear to watch Mr C teaching them and quickly realised I was most help to the challenge by leaving him and the eager pupils to it. And of course, they managed it…a few wobbles, a few falls, plenty of determination and remarkably few tears. At the end of the first day of trying on the bigger bikes, I showed them the considerable difference in size between their previous bikes and their new ones, and already at that time they were amazed at how little the old bikes were and how strange it felt to sit on them. They had no wish to go back to the familiar old bikes…far from it, even though they hadn’t yet got the hang of riding the new ones to the same level of competence.
So, I’ve learned and been reminded of a few things myself this weekend: that people have as many different ways of teaching skills as we do of learning them and that mine are not always the most successful; that taking risks doesn’t always have to be as scary as we sometimes think it is; that determination and enthusiasm are often the most powerful qualities in learning new skills and that other people’s fear of potential negative consequences can easily be misplaced, however well-intended. Sometimes a cautious consideration of the learning strategy is aprropriate…at other times, the most effective way to get there, is just to have someone give you a huge push and trust you will get there!
Somehow I don’t think it will be too long before my kids appreciate the saying “it’s like riding a bike…” 😉
What have you learned lately? I’d love to know.
Teaching Twitter
Posted on: November 10, 2011
- In: Development | Engagement | Training | Twitter
- 4 Comments
My main learnings are as follows –
- Having a co-sponsor for training sessions is brilliant: someone who is not from the same background as you, who ‘gets’ Twitter but uses it differently. This was enormously helpful when coaching two of the exec team who were particularly cynical about its value
- Think carefully about the language you use to convey the potential gain for those that you are coaching. They clearly won’t be interested in building an HR network, but they will take note of the fact that they can access opinion pieces and be ahead of the news
- Show them how to use it on whichever medium they are most likely to regularly use…for most of my coachees on their blackberry or Iphone
- Think about how to show individuals what is meaningful to them – hashtags that will be of interest for them to check out, how the business you work in or its competitors is already using Twitter, how it can build engagement between key groups
- Tweet questions to your followers so that you can demonstrate the interactive nature of Twitter
- Don’t over-hype or over-sell its value – it’s the quickest way to lose credibility
- Accept that it isn’t everyone’s chosen method of communicating, but that most people will find some gain from using it…or at least from understanding it better
- Expect unexpected questions – I was surprised that some of the questions centred more around how number of followers build up, rather than the mechanics of how Twitter works
- Remember that Twitter can be overwhelming, noisy and confusing at first for new users
- Follow up to find out if there is anything more they would like to know
- Even when individuals appear to be quite proficient at using Twitter, they are often keen to find out more and learn by asking questions
I’m going to be rolling out more training soon: to the rest of the exec team, to the global HR team and then to the rest of the business. The great thing is that I’m learning more each time I do it and am really enjoying it ;).
What have I forgotten? I’d love to hear about your experience of teaching Twitter to others too.
The HR Juggler 