I like to tell everyone about my clients and share their successes. I’m really proud, not just of their achievements but also the people they become along the way. You see, it’s not always about weight lost or your standard before and after pictures you see on the internet. That comes but the magic happens when a client is able to do something they couldn’t do, or had the courage to try before. The rest of the journey becomes easier.

I want to tell you about Rachel.

Running has been a big part of Rachel’s life but she hadn’t done much for a few years when she got in touch. She was needing help as she found it hard to stick to a plan if she didn’t have something to focus on, had recently moved to the area and had signed up for the Perth 10k and Aviemore 10k as a way of getting back into it. At the age of 58.

Rachel set herself the goal to run 10km in under an hour even though she hadn’t run that kind of time since she was in her 20’s and wasn’t quite sure it was possible. Always good to aim high!

Running consistently

The first step was to get her running consistently at a comfortable pace. Each week, we would work on her form, gave her some flexibility exercises to practice between sessions and introduced some aspects of her form to think about while she ran. She also started coming to Perth parkrun when she was able to, to help measure her progress.

“Seeing Steve on a weekly basis helped focus my training in between and simple advice about looking up when running, focussing on something in the distance and getting a feel for my pace quickly began to make a huge difference”

“From not having run for a few years I ran the Perth 10km in 1.05 and then the Aviemore 10km in 57.03. I still can’t quite believe this! I am keeping going and have a 10k planned for December”

The difference I have seen in Rachel is that she struggled a short distance without feeling breathless and looked very stiff and rather heavy when she started. She now looks like she’s gliding, her form is really good and makes it all look effortless.

We can do more than we think

“What I have discovered is that we can do more than we think. There have been weeks where I might only have been out once for a 5K run (life/colds getting in the way), but I have still managed to see improvements. In those weeks it is the mental battle of realising that just because you have missed a week, you can still get back to it without going back to the beginning again. I know that having Steve to guide me towards this has been invaluable; of course I had to want to do it but I would not have achieved what I have without his support”

I really love working with Rachel as she clearly loves her running. She can get frustrated when she’s not been able to get out to practice but then comes alive as soon as she starts running and you wouldn’t think she’s missed a run. Her times and performances in her races have been incredible and I’m looking to see how she continues to develop.

Rachel started on my Runners’ Transformation Package of 6 x 1hr sessions. If you would like more information on this package and make a difference to your running, drop me a message here.