Just As Well, The Women's Health Podcast - Andrea McLean: I'm Finally Approaching my Goals like a Marathon, not a Sprint

Episode Date: October 4, 2022

Hi there! This season, powered by Nike, we're homing in on all things running. You can expect powerful stories from extraordinary women, guaranteed to spark your motivation this back-to-school season. In today's episode, Roisín is joined by broadcaster-turned-start up founder Andrea McLean, whose newfound approach to navigating her life and goals offers a timely tribute to the 26.21 mile course that 40,000 people in London made their way around last weekend. Following breakdown and burnout in 2019, the former daytime TV star and mum-of-two left a decades-long career to retrain as a coach and create her own mindset community and app,This Girl is On Fire. Here, Andrea reflects on the brutal lessons that reaching rock bottom taught her, plus how, at 53, she's finding rebuilding her much-loved running routine trickier than ever. She also shares dispatches from the frontline of running a business with her fitness-mad husband, and the reason she's trying to un-invite her ego from her treadmill sessions. For this week's coaching clinic, Andrea speaks with Lloyd Kempson - Nike Run Coach and UK Athletics endurance specialist - to discover the training and mindset tools that could help her find her stride with running again. Join host Roisín Dervish-O'Kane on Instagram: @roisin.dervishokane Join Andrea McLean on Instagram: @andreamclean1 Join Lloyd Kempson on Instagram: @lloydkempson Join Women's Health on Instagram @womenshealthuk Like what you’re hearing? We'd love it if you could rate and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. Also, remember to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, so you’ll never miss an episode. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Let me tell you this. It's going to be consequences. Mayor of Kingstown, new season now streaming on Paramount Plus. Can I ask you a question? When you think of the major changes, the big steps you've taken in life, what's been the catalyst, the spark, that's ultimately tipped you towards taking action? This could be in your career, at home. within your closest relationships, including the one that you have with yourself.

I'd encourage you to call to mind that mobilising factor or moment as you listen to today's episode. And try not to judge it. As my guest today's story so powerfully illustrates, sometimes it's those lowest and most difficult moments that can lead us towards the most profound, transformative and ultimately positive ones. Hey, welcome back to Going for Goal, the Women's Health podcast. I'm your host, Rochine Dervishokane. This series, powered by Nike, we're exploring running and all that it could do for you. Nike run coaches will be on hand with all the tips and tactics you need to create your own running practice or elevate an existing one,

whether you're around the park plodder right now or after a new 10K PB. But running is about so much more than putting one foot in front of the other. And if you've not been alerted to just how transformative running can be, it's time to strap in and prepare to be inspired as a I speak to some truly impressive women about their lives and why they run. My guest today is Andrea McLean. Following breakdown and burnout in 2019, she left a decades-long broadcasting career on breakfast TV and latterly shows like Lusar Women to create her mindset community and app.

This girl is on fire. Here, the long-time lover of fitness reflects on the liberation of finally shaking off her big sister complex in her 50s. You know, the idea that you always have to be the one to fix something and you should never ask for help. She also shares how fitness and running has been there throughout the ups and downs of life, but why at 53 and heading up a startup?

She's finding getting back into a running routine harder than ever. A trained coach, Andrea, is a font of inspiring words as well as the practical strategies to help people make change happen. But as she's super open about, she's still very much on her own journey and still learning to slow down and pace herself. to treat life like a marathon and not a sprint every day. There's lots to learn from Andrea's very open story.

Let's get into it. Andrea McLean, hello, and welcome to the Women's Health podcast Going for Goal. Thank you so much for having me. I cannot wait. I can't wait. This is going to be great. Yes, that's the energy that we love to start with. So how's your day been?

Good, busy. But actually, what's been really nice about it is I normally work from home. And obviously since the pandemic, so many of us work. from home, but my circumstances changed because I quit my job in the middle of the pandemic and now I'm fully at home. So today I've had lots of different meetings and different things in London. So I've got my trainers on and I've just been pounding the streets and walking everywhere and that's been really good. It sounds funny. The very thing that I used to get really annoyed about when I was out all the time, I now actually really enjoy. So yeah, it's been good.

Fabulous. And we heard a little bit about your working from home set up, which I think people had a good giggle about when you were talking about the best investment that you made over the pandemic, which had me howling when I was listening to it on Lorraine yesterday, and you were talking about the do not disturb sign. Honestly, it's the best money you can ever spend because it's so cheap. But saying to someone, I just need half an hour, can you just, I just need to write this thing, do this thing, whatever. People think just popping their head around the door, can I just? and then you lose all sense of flow

and whatever you're working I was going out of your head so literally went on Amazon and bought a do not disturb sign the first one didn't work so then I had to go back and buy a red one the danger colour yes

so it's like it's like the difference between single yellow lines and double red you know so it's like you can kind of park here and then it's like don't just don't a hard boundary this is a hard no yes

and just for anyone listening who doesn't know your story and that's because you not only work from home, but you work from home with your husband and you work from home with your husband on the same project, which is your app, this girl is on fire. And, you know, just hearing that said out loud is clearly the new definition of insanity,

which is to, you know, walk away from a very established 23-year career in broadcasting to go into tech and well-end. this with your husband. But actually, we're still doing fine and still talking to each other and it's working. So it's great. But it all comes down to the do not disturb sign. That's literally what it's all down to. In the danger colours. Love it. Great advice for anyone working from home in the vicinity of their partner. A $4.99 investment apparently. Amazing. Can't go wrong. So could you tell me a bit then about where you're kind of at now with your kind of healthy habits?

What's your routine? Like, as you say, you've gone from pre-pandemic, this very busy, very visible life running around London, running between TV shows. How long were you on loose women? It was years. 13 years. 13 years. Yeah. And then 11 years before that on breakfast TV.

So my life had always been on the go. So physically on the go, mentally on the go. You know, when I was on breakfast telly, I did. traveled a lot, whether it was internationally or just around the country. And then obviously with Luce, although that job in itself was in one place, I did so many other side projects as well. So I was, you know, running about. And again, there'll be people listening who'll really understand this, even if their

circumstances are slightly different. The feeling that you had in lockdown where suddenly you were at home is now my permanent feeling, where this routine that you've got used to. whether it is your working life, your health life, in terms of where you fit in going to the gym and all that sort of stuff, has totally changed. And it's, I would say that in terms of adapting, yes, working with my husband has been a huge learning curve,

starting a business, being a huge learning curve. But finding a way to build in a health and fitness routine has actually been my biggest challenge out of all of those things. Fascinating. So tell me a bit more about that. I think because I've always been active, fit, interested in, you know, activity and wellness. Long before it was cool. Yeah, it just, well, I grew up in the Caribbean, which not many people realise about me. So I grew up in a hot country where sport was totally normal, clearly because the weather's good, so you're outside all the time.

Tennis was my sport. I loved it from when I was little, and I played it through to my. my late teens was pretty good at it by then. Swimming was my other passion. I swam for teams and was good at it. And then moving back to the UK, sort of in mid-teams, I had to sort of shift a little bit. And I got into very slow, very bad running at that point.

And a little bit of tennis. But then I suppose that was around the time where gyms started becoming more normal. This is talking in the 80s. And I've always been a gym member. just something that was part of, even when I was a student, you know, even when you're out, you know, partying and doing whatever. Well, no, to me, it was, I remember studying for my finals and I would write my timetable out for my revision and what have you for my exams coming up.

And I factored in, gym time. And this is before I knew that this is what you're supposed to do. I just did it because it felt good. But I would factor in, right, I'm going to go to the gym and I'm going to spend at least an hour doing something that's cardio to just get me out of a fog, you know, and your head is full with words. And then come back and I knew I'd feel fresh later. And that has stayed throughout my whole life, which is why suddenly going to working from home, I didn't have that routine of, right, I'm going to join a gym that's near my workplace or I'm going to do this because it's near where this is happening. when you're working for yourself, when you become that you're living at work rather than working from home,

your to-do list never ends. Actually, I slipped into the habit of thinking, yeah, I'll do it later. I'll do it later when this is cleared. And I've only now this year started to get back on track with that of actually diarizing it rather than trying to take it from the free time basket, which actually doesn't exist? Never exists, no, even though, gosh, we all really wish it would.

It would make everything so much easier, wouldn't it? So, Andrea, you're talking to me there about your fitness journey and how tricky it's been to kind of renegotiate in this post-pandemic world. You described yourself when we've chatted before this recording as a lapsed runner. Could you tell me about that and any challenges that you've had building, running back into your routine? in this new phase of life that you're in? Well, I think, you know, describing oneself as elapsed anything is something that people can readily understand.

Yeah, running is something that has metaphorically and literally run through my life. And it has at times been something that I have absolutely got into the groove of and I've loved. And it's just been a part of my daily routine. And my body has got to the point where it's, It's fidgety when I haven't been for a run and all those sorts of things. And then I have also got to the point where the thought of putting my trainers on and heading out is the worst thing in the whole world. And I feel heavy and tight and sluggish and I couldn't think of anything worse.

I'm at that point now because I'm midlapse, I suppose. No, mid sounds like I'm in the middle of it. I could be towards the end of it. I don't know. Maybe I'm about to come out the other side after the conversation. No pressure. Many reasons for that really. My body has changed as I've got older.

I'm in my 50s now. So even though, you know, I'm still the same person I was, my body doesn't react in the same way that it did in its 20s and 30s and 40s. I definitely notice that I'm a lot creakier in terms of if I leave things for too long and I don't stretch enough and this sort of thing. And I think it's the knowledge of this is going to hurt to start again is what puts me off. And considering what I do for a living now that I know how important thinking about things in a positive way rather than focusing on the negative way is in terms of getting going again, it's ridiculous. But it just shows I'm exactly the same as everyone else.

It's never the knowing it's a doing. I love it. And tell me then I'd love to know some more about the work that you're doing right now. Could you tell me a bit about this girl is on fire? Not just what it is and how you're helping people, but also how it came about. So this girl is on fire is a mindset membership for women, which when you first say that out loud, that sounds a bit strange,

doesn't it? What do you mean a mindset membership? Basically, it's a community that I've built that people can access either online or through it we've just released an app so you can download an app. What I do is I show people through not just my experiences, but through interviewing experts, much like you do here, ways in which they can think differently about whatever it is that they feel that is holding them back. Because everything we do starts with how we think about it. And there are so many of us that feel stuck.

We feel afraid to move away from whatever it is that is either making us feel uncomfortable or, whether it is something that is actually causing us pain, whether it's causing us frustration because it's our career. But like I say, everything we do starts with how we think about it. So I show women how to reframe their thoughts. I show them how to walk alongside a fear because the biggest issue that all of us have is that we're scared. And even just talking about the running,

being a lapsed runner and getting back into it again. It's that knowledge and that fear of I'm going to, it's going to hurt. I'm going to ache the next day. It's going to be painful, those, that, you know, first 500 metres itself is going to hurt. And I show women actually that you never get rid of fear. Fear is really important. You just need to learn how to walk alongside it and how to utilise its power, because actually it's there to protect you.

It's a powerful force that actually, when harnessed correctly, can really propel you because sometimes you need to understand that what you're afraid of is something that you're leaving as well as something that you're afraid that might happen. But if you can use it as a push and also use it as a pull, ask yourself, I'm afraid of taking action, but what is the worst thing that can happen to me if I take no action at all? And actually then use that fear of what? will happen if I do nothing to pull you towards taking action. And that's how I, that's what I show

them how to do, not just through, I do live events, I interview various experts, I do masterclasses on it, I interview amazing women who just through explaining their life circumstances and their experiences, I think storytelling is such a powerful force when it comes to explaining how something works. So that's why I love doing the podcast. Because if someone, can have a little light bulb moment and think, gosh, I'm going through something like that. And they did this. I'll try that. So that in a very long nutshell, very big nutshell, is what I do. I help women think differently. No, that was really beautifully summed up. And your passion for it really comes across is lovely. To your point then about the power of storytelling to help

people make sense of their situations, particularly difficult ones. This transformation from long-time broadcaster to startup founder, one that you've spoken about being. challenging, not least financially. It's been born out of some truly tough times for you mentally. For any listeners not familiar with you or your story, could you share those experiences here and what they've taught you? Well, I've always been a very brave person. I've always done brave things and I've always pushed myself to do things that are uncomfortable and difficult and that I didn't necessarily know what the outcome was going to be. And I've done this since I was little.

And I can remember probably being about nine or ten. And an opportunity came up. I can't remember whether it would be going in a school play or whatever. But I remember being about that age. And I remember asking myself, even at that young age, propelling forwards to how I saw myself as an old lady and thinking, when I'm really old and what's so funny is I'm nearly 53 now

so that could have been the age I am now I could have thought oh really old 53 when I'm really old will I regret not doing this thing and if the answer was yes then I would do it and I don't mean like smoking behind the bike sheds

and snogging boys you know that's a whole different question that you ask yourself I mean in terms of challenging myself to do something that the only thing that was holding me back was being afraid and I've carried on doing that throughout my whole life

It's why I, you know, we were chatting early about careers and what have you. I literally moved to London with everything I owned in the backseat of my car with no contacts, slept on floors, was in a bed sit, to try and break into journalism in London, which, and I did. And I don't know how. And then some. Yeah. But what happened as I went through my life was I realized that through, through life's bumps in the road, through making very poor choices in terms of partners,

my self-confidence had been whittled away and my self-belief had been whittled away. So although I was still really successful in my career and doing really well and pushing in terms of through any fears that I may have, personally, I'd lost that spark. and I would say it took until probably I was 50 until I managed to get that back again. It didn't light by itself. You know, when my business is called This Girl is on Fire and it's for a reason I didn't find that spark again

until I hit absolute rock bottom. And this isn't the process that everybody has to go through but actually hitting the bottom is really useful because then you have something to push off from. I don't know if you've ever heard of... There's an incredible woman called Lisa Bilu and she talks about the purgatory of the mundane. And the problem with the purgatory of the mundane

is when life is not great, but it's not bad enough to do anything about. And you don't feel like really you should complain because you'd like to make changes but it's not so terrible that actually it's worth the pain. That's actually much more difficult. Because you settle. Because you settle.

I was fortunate that I got to put where I face planted. I didn't just hit rock bottom. I had a breakdown. I burned out. Mentally, I was in a very, very fragile state where I felt that everything was too overwhelming and actually I just couldn't cope anymore, which was someone like me who's always found a solution

to whatever problem was a really horrific place to be. And I find, I finally spoke up and put my hand up. I've always been eldest child, oldest girl. I can sort this out. It will all be all right. I'll find a way through it. And it was actually quite hard to put my hand up and say,

I'm actually really struggling and I need some help. And best thing I ever did, because if you don't ask for help, you won't receive it. People aren't mind readers. And so I had therapy and then I had coaching. And it totally changed everything around. And it changed my perspective on, I realized I'd always been brave at pushing myself towards doing things that I wanted to do.

And actually, that's a very easy kind of bravery. I've been brave at getting through circumstances that have been put upon me because then you're trying to find a way to survive, whether it's for yourself or your children or what have you. But actually, the bravery that we need in the day-to-day progatory of the mundane actually is a whole different thing and really it's a difference between the intensity of strength that you need in a sprint

compared to the strength that you need in a marathon and I realised that actually I got very good at sprinting but I wasn't very good at the marathon and this is where I needed to change so therapy, coaching and then retraining as a coach myself I realized that actually what I need to do is keep an eye on how I'm feeling on my fitness, on my diet, on my sleep.

All of these things are like a chair that is made up of different legs. And if one of them isn't quite right, it will break and fall down. And all of those things have been wrong with me. So that was why I fell down. And that's what led me sort of to where I am now, really, was, yeah, getting to a point where I realized the things that I'd done before weren't working. And I needed to make a change. I imagine that must have been quite humbling, especially when you were someone or are someone, as you said, who is brave, who's self-sufficient, who can conquer things, is super active, like was smashing it professionally.

Like from all vantage points, you were nailing it. You know, it's not only humbling, but you realise that you're worried about what other people will think of you. because admitting when you're seen to be doing really well and mine just happened to be a broadcasting career this can be in any career it could be you know you could be one of the mums at the school gates whoever one thinks is smashing it

it makes no difference what it is but to actually be honest and hold your hand up and say I'm really struggling was frightening now I realize it's liberating I'd chat away quite happily about you know what happened to me me. But also, I'm so much better at home now because I was, I thought that actually, no,

you just need to pull your socks up and, you know, hold it all together because everyone's relying on you. And actually, no, the best thing I can do is say to my husband, I'm starting to feel a bit wobbly now. I think I need to take a little bit of a step back. And what's so good is obviously he recognises how bad I got before. So he'll go, right, don't worry, I'll make some calls and I'll clear your diary tomorrow because we work together and we're going to meetings together. Take the day off. Sleep all day if you need to and we will catch up with everything later.

And now I do. The terrible thing is I find it really hard for my brain to switch off. My body might go to bed. But, you know, I've redesigned. Your brain's still on fire. My brain is still on fire. I've redesigned whole websites and, you know, sap and bed. In your mind.

Yeah. Or even taking my laptop to bed with me is the fact that I am my own worry. enemy. But at least now I talk about it and I say something, which if you think about it, for me, obviously, my business is called this girl's on fire. It's about helping women think differently. And how I do that is through the analogy of it being a gym for the mind. Because we are so regularly told to train our bodies to keep ourselves physically strong. But we're never told that we need to train our minds to keep ourselves mentally strong. and I realized this is what I hadn't been doing.

I knew all the things. I hadn't done the mental equivalent of going to the gym and picking up a kettlebell or going to the gym and having a swim or going to the mental gym and going for a run. I had stopped doing all of those things. So at least now, again, because my husband's a coach as well, we both recognise the importance of, right, this is not just one bit of you that is feeling overwhelmed. Every part of you is trying to overcompensate. Just like it would be physically, you need to.

actually stop and rest and let whatever it is it's bothering you get better. That's just so wise and such an important thing to realise. I think something that really struck me was your analogy about the sprinting and the sprints versus the marathons. Do you think that's a realisation that could have only really come to you at this point, so in midlife, in your 50s? I think so because when you realise that actually life is a marathon, not sprint, And when you're younger, you're kind of dashing about so much, so much more.

And maybe kind of hitting short-term goals because, you know, you want to hit that level and then that level and then do that thing and then that thing. And then actually you get to a point where you realize things start to slow down a bit and stretch out in front of you. And you cannot keep going at that pace. You are going to need to slow down, but not in a giving up kind of way. No, you just need to pace yourself better. And I find it's worked for me so much better now even running a business because obviously we have our short-term medium and long-term goals. And my initial reaction to all of it was to run at all of them. Run at all of them.

I can really relate. Tick them all off. And if they don't get ticked off, oh my God, I'm totally failing. And then I realize, oh, my gosh, this is just never going to work because I'm going to end up exhausted and burnt out. and also you're just running around like a busy octopus trying to do everything and you're just going to fall over. So, yeah, I do think that eventually comes with time and with age. And you realize actually in the same way that when you're jogging rather than sprinting,

you have time to look around. It's exactly the same thing with pacing yourself in life. And I look back at some of the decisions that I would have made, if I'd have been racing towards them, and this is to do with business, and it would have been the wrong direction. I'd have been running really fast in totally the wrong direction, and I'd have wasted time, money and effort.

But actually, sometimes when you're slowing down a little bit, you can see when this isn't working, we're going to need to change direction here. It's not as car crash as it would be as if I was going full pelt at it. So there's a strength to slowing down. I think we're kind of marketed to that speed is all, and actually it's not.

It is about distance. It's not about speed. Yeah, with everything, as you say, in business, relationships, even physically, even when someone's listening and thinking about their own gym journey or their running journey, I think what can often put people off, and I'm also a lapsed runner, so putting my hand up here. Hooray! I used to love it.

I used to get such a sense of clarity when you're someone who wants to run at things and you want to know that you're going to be good at something and you want to know that you're going to get the reward out of something. It's very hard to go back to a form of exercise when you go, I'm probably going to be a bit crap at this. So I'm so where you are. What you were saying, totally stuck with me. If you were coaching me right now...

I'd tell you to do all the things that I don't do. Because you've nailed it there, Because I do think that actually a lot of it comes from if you've always been a high achiever. And I don't mean it in terms of, you know, I didn't get the best grades at school. I didn't get the best degree. I didn't do the best job in the world. But I still did okay. But I've gone at every part of my life with 120%.

I've always given my all. When I was a Saturday girl in a shoe shop, I was the best Saturday girl. I ended up getting promoted when I was 16 to supervisor. because I was just, I put everything into it. I wasn't one that sloped off at lunchtime and was late coming back and did whatever. I'd eat my sandwich and then get bored and then tidy the shelves and saw out the stoprope, you know. And that's how I am. That's how I've always been.

But I think with fitness, when you are lapsed at whatever part of it, and sometimes it can be through injury, which is really frustrating. Sometimes it could be through time. I've had both of those things. It's your ego really that gets in the way because you're thinking, now I'm one of them. Now I'm one of these people that's rubbish at this and I used to be really good at this and that's nasty.

You know, we would never say that out loud because that's really big-headed and egotistical and oh my God, but that's exactly what it is. Because we like being the ones that are good at things and now we're not good at it anymore. For me, especially in terms of running, What got me back into it again before I lapsed again. And mine was I hurt my knee and then I had to stop.

And then it went to my hip and then I had to stop. Oh, God, I'm sorry. It's so frustrating. It is really very irritating. Was I did the couch to 5K. I cannot tell you how many friends I've recommended who have stopped exercising and can't get their mojo back and all this is do the couch to 5K. And then I ended up doing the couch to 10K.

And then I just kept going with it and loved it. And I did that for quite a few years. And again, quitting my job to do a startup that all went out the window. Understandably. Understandably, yeah, because it just weren't enough hours in the day. But what I loved about it was, well, not even was. What I love about it is is that it trains you to slow down. Because our first instinct is to rush out the door.

A few little star jumps, a few little stretches. put your little put your little pedometer on get you whether whatever you like to listen to it's music or a book or whatever and then whoosh off you go especially past your neighbours

because you want them you want them thinking you're really good at running and then you go around the corner and you're literally holding your sides and bent over double was it taught me how to slow down and it was

I found it a brilliant metaphor for life and actually it really helped me with my work with all sorts because I realized I threw myself into things way too fast and actually it was it's all about steady hold you're slowly building towards something stop trying to smash it at the first gate and you know yeah get it all done in order to

progress park your ego yeah do your stretches park your ego leave it at the door and yeah this is just meet yourself where you are this is where I am today and I'm a lot better at that now so for example my husband's super fit and really actually he should be sitting here because Because obviously it's a women's health magazine, so you need to get more men's health. He is a very, very fit man. He's been fit his entire life. He's trained in martial arts. He's just turned 50.

For his 50th, his goal was to do the human flag, which he did. Do you know Cirque de Saleh? You only see these gymnasts when they twirl about and do incredible things with their bodies. So a human flag is when you hold onto a pole with one arm below and one arm above, and you are sideways. to the pole like a flag is. Yes. It's ridiculous. There's so much core strength involved

that it doesn't even make any sense. It physically shouldn't be possible. And he's six foot two, so he's quite a long flag. They were smaller. Even the guys he trained with went, if you were smaller, this would be a lot easier. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

What I've learned from him doing his training is if I couldn't fit an hour to go to the gym, I wouldn't go. and what he taught me was you only need three minutes, seven minutes, 15 you don't need to do all of that. When I saw him training

for his human flag was that I'd always use the excuse if I don't have time because I don't have an hour and actually, and now he's got me doing, okay, five press-ups a night and a one-minute plank. So every night before, after we brushed our teeth and just about to get to bed he goes,

babe, I'm setting the timer. We must get on the floor. And now we're up to 120 and then we're going to be pushing to two minutes just so that we've done some form of core workout that day. And it literally takes a couple of minutes. It's very irritating because I can't get away from it because he's literally in the same room. Yeah, that's the ultimate accountability.

You can't wave the do not disturb sign in your bathroom. No, not tonight. Not planking tonight. How do you think you're, so bringing it back to your wonder. chair metaphor early about all the things that are kind of keeping you supportive in this slower and more intentional phase of life. Basically, are we going to both unlapse from our lapsed running statuses together? Do you think that's on the cards any time soon? Yeah, I've started running again on the treadmill because the, obviously, pavement running and off treadmill,

whether it's you like to run through woods or what have you, is a very different experience to running on a, on a treadmill. And I find it's a really great way to ease yourself back in because obviously it does a little bit of the heavy lifting for you. You don't realise until you step off it actually what a difference it makes. And I know when I was, you know, training and doing my 10Ks and what have you, oh, I'd go out my mind with boredom if I was just doing it on a treadmill. So obviously I was running outside. And then that became a whole different joy and I did enjoy it. But starting again, I find the treadmill really useful because it's got a little bit of bounce.

It doesn't hurt quite so much. And also, in the back of my mind, I know if something properly twangs, I'm not miles away. Because there's nothing worse when, you know, you think you're going to be all right. And then obviously the shin splint start and, you know, your knees start to go. And you think, well, I'm now three miles from home or four miles from home. Now what do I do? Do I have to call an Uber and just look really rubbish? So actually, starting on the treadmill is good.

And I had my first session, running session, just last week, where I got my little runners high. It was tiny. I had only done a couple of miles. It wasn't even like it was, you know, big long thing or anything. People talk about doing it in marathons. But suddenly I felt light and started to run. And I realized that I wasn't plodding and pushing through. I had got to that point where actually I was really enjoying it.

It didn't last very long. It lasted about two and a half minutes. but it reminded me, it reminded my brain, it reminded my body, and how I see that working in terms of the physicality of what we're doing, affecting us mentally. We all have little hooks in our brain that we put our past experiences on, and it helps us to understand. And we also have grooves in our brain that are our habits, and that's our little go-toes.

And I just, there was a bit of me that got very excited with the technicality of it, and I thought, the groove is coming back. I'm building that groove again. my mind will understand, slip into it and go, ah, okay, this is, this is what we do to get that feeling again. Yeah. So it was, it was nice. Oh, I love that you've been able to access that. That's great.

I've strictly only been plodding. So that is my inspiration that I need to go out and plod a little bit more. And hopefully, I'll get that lovely runner's buzz. Can I ask you a question? Of course you can. When you run, do you listen to anything? Yes. So I've been doing, and now I'm saying this out loud.

this sounds so ridiculous because I've just been saying, yes, I've been listening to Radio 4. And obviously the news programming isn't the most enjoyable listen at the moment. So I should probably be listening to something a bit more. No, not. I don't. See, I love that that's what you listen to because I don't listen to music when I run. I get really bored. And then I get frustrated that I'm going to fiddle with something to change the song.

Or be raging thinking, I've got three minutes of this. I don't want this song. I want a different song. So I either listen to a book or a podcast. And I love listening to the human, to the human, who else is going to speak, I love listening to the spoken word when I run rather than listening to music because I lose myself in either whether it's a really interesting interview or whether it is a story or even something like Radio 4.

Because actually you're so engrossed in what's happening because you want to know an outcome or you're intrigued as to what direction this is going to. to go in. I find that far more stimulating than a song. Sometimes I'll finish with a song so that I have that kind of woo. Yes. At the end. But I couldn't listen to it all the way through. And I'm always fascinated by what people's listening habits are because I don't understand how people can have nothing. I think it's wonderful that they can because then and people I've spoken to and asked them about it, they say they figure out so many problems, their mind wonders freely and they think about it. about this, this and this. I don't think I'm disciplined enough. I would just think about how much I'm, how much my feet hurt.

Yes. So let's, let's keep our, let's keep our radio four and our podcast and our interviews. Keep us stimulated while we plod. Yeah. Oh, such a pleasure, Andrea. Thank you so much for coming on. Thank you. After my chat with Andrea,

I put her in touch with Nike run coach Lloyd Kempson so she could get some expert advice on how to realize her own running goal of rebuilding her running practice. Let's hear from them. Hi Lloyd, I'm Andrea. You have your work cut out for you. Oh, I don't know about that, Andrea. I've met many runners like you, so I should be alright today. So I need you to help me find my running mojo again. I've lost it. Well, I think before we get into that, I want to know why you think you've lost it and talk me through that journey, and then I think I can tailor the advice a little bit better for your situation. Okay, so I stopped running.

probably in terms of the amount running that I used to do about a year ago. And it started because my knee began hurting and then it went up into my hip and then it was just too painful. So I stopped. I did that human thing of not having any physio and just stopped doing it. Then got out of the habit and then just switched fitness. So now I do strength training and weight training and very slow non-cardio type of exercise and have not picked up my running shoes since. Well, I say since, I've started again a bit on the treadmill.

Okay. Going short distances on the treadmill. Okay, well, it's good that you keep an active as well, whether it's strength and conditioning, walking the dog or running for running marathons. It's good that you haven't completely stopped. Am I right in saying you had COVID as well? Three times in eight months. Three times.

So that was another key factor on just energy levels, not being what they were. So each time of having COVID, I was knocked for six for probably a month. So a good 7 to 10 days of feeling really very poorly. And then a few weeks of getting my strength back up again in terms of just normal activities. And then, OK, here we go again. The fundamentals of what I'm going to run through are all the same, regardless of what the situation is that's caused you to lose your mojo.

But specific to COVID, we have to be realistic that this is such a. new thing for us as a population. We're still learning about what it means to have COVID, what it means when we come back to real life, to exercise. Now, if you was to look back to when you were smashing it with your running, that highlight point in your life, whenever that may be, have a thing about what were you doing well? Did you have a really good structure? Did you have a really good relationship with your work, life balance? Was your diet really on point? When you're getting your eight, nine hours of sleep, whatever it may be, and write those things down. Make a real point of acknowledging, well, I was doing those things really well. And if you're

not doing those things so well now, there's your first port of call. So I think that you would benefit a lot by looking at your current structure, literally writing it out from start to finish and dissecting it and thinking, well, what would I love for it to look like? What is the ultimate structure that I would love? It might not be achievable to do that because you've got your life to contend with, but are there small changes that you can make that are going to benefit you really far in the long run? Does that make sense? Yeah. In terms of mapping out what you need to do between now and hitting your goal. I'm really a fan of consistency,

but being consistently compliant. So that means if you map out a weekly plan and you say, I'm going to run three times in this week, go to the gym twice, and make sure I get 5,000 steps in, or whatever it may be, I'm really in the camp that I would rather you map out a structure that you are 100% confident

and you're going to hit every single week. So that might mean that you do less when you map out. You write down less, but you know you're going to hit it week on week and week out. But you also have to account for some eventualities that are going to happen. It's not always going to go to plan. You are going to have days where you just can't be bothered. You're going to get sick.

You may get ill. You may have hangovers. This is part of life, right? And we have to also account for the fact that we can't be a 10 out of 10 with our running every single day. If you can be a six out of 10 across the year, you'll be far, far further forward than you'll. would be if you're sporadically a 10 out of 10.

So I'm trying to get myself back on track, as it were, with my running by doing it on the treadmill, mainly because I feel like it does a little bit of the heavy lifting for me rather than heading out on the pavement. And I tend to run at a level that it pushes me enough that obviously it's challenging, but it also allows me to keep going at a distance that I want to keep going on. You see some people in the gym. I don't do this, but I see people doing it and wonder whether I should. when you see them running hellful leather and then slow it right down

and then hell for leather and then slow it right down. Is that just a different type of exercise that they're doing rather than building up to running long distances? Very much depends on what their goal is. Their goal may be a footballer and they may need to do really short sprints, interval training, hit workouts. Who knows, it depends on what their goal is. If your goal is to run further for longer

and be able to achieve longer distances and then in longer term be able to achieve those distances is faster, I wouldn't be worrying about sprinting on a treadmill any time soon. I would focus much more on being able to run longer, but being able to run longer easily. If you think about just getting fast and fast and faster, you will cut corners and you will almost crash course it, and you risk over training, you risk injury, and it's not only that enjoyable. If you just focus on keeping things easy, you will find that it's much easier to progress how far you're running. You also give your body a chance to allow those physical adaptations to

take place, those improvements whilst you're sleeping. You don't even realise they're happening. So focus on being able to run further for longer, for longer easily. That would be my first piece of advice. And eventually you'll get to a point with your running. You'll have a threshold that we all have. And that threshold will be either a distance or a length of time. For you, it may be 45 minutes. For me, it may be 90 minutes. For someone else, it may be 20 minutes. But you'll get to a certain amount of time that you can run easily and you'll be pretty bored of it. Once you get to that point, that's when we've got some flexibility now. We can now run for an hour.

Well, now I can start mixing things up. Maybe I run 20 minutes of it a little bit faster. Maybe I'll throw in a couple of five minute spurs. But until you get to that point where you've got time in your hands, time to play with, thinking about running fast on treadmills and thinking about doing sprints and stuff, it's almost just crash course in things. It can work. but it's almost like you're skipping a few steps.

Sure. And when we think about getting our mojo back, I think we start with the fundamentals and do our ABCs first. Brilliant. Thank you so much. Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Women's Health Podcast Going for Goal.

If you enjoyed it, remember to rate and review and also subscribe wherever you get your podcast so that you never miss an episode. We'll be back next week.