The country, as we all know far too well, is now in lockdown. We have, however, one glimmer of hope – once a day we can escape the confines of our homes and exercise.
One of the most efficient and effective ways we can do that, is to go for a run. I will happily admit now that there is an agenda in this podcast and this aim to spread the running joy: I am a running obsessive and have been running since I was around 13.
In the more than twenty years of taking up the habit I have been lucky enough to run all over the world. My crowning running achievement was after university, when I was living in Australia and working in a running shop. My second place and 73 minutes in the Adelaide half marathon is what I bore my students with all the time – robbed from victory by the fact the South Australian orienteering champion turned up to run.
Anyway, I believe that it has a massive impact in boostering well-being, and am recording two episodes over the next few days to try and encourage people to give it a go. This episode is with English teacher, author and runnersword writer Jonny Muir. Jonny has published a range of brilliant books about running.
In this episode we explore how we can build a positive running habit, what will get us motivated to get out the door and run, and what Jonny has leart about mentality and focus from completing a range of incredible running challenges. That, combined with some cracking tips for how we can get our kids to engage with exercise in this difficult time for families, means you are in for a real treat!
In order to try and build a community of runners online, I am setting up an online running club on Twitter: educating runners. There are two terrific coaches who work in education and have kindly volunteered to support people with running aims. Stephen Logan, who has just run every single day for a year, and Zoe Enser who also is on a running streak of over 200 days in a row.
If you have any running questions please just ask myself or them and we will get back to you! You can also use the #educatingrunners to post a picture of your daily run and share tips and strategies. Hopefully that will help to create a community of teacher runners that can provides something positive through all this.
As always, this podcast is to raise funds for two charities I volunteer with Health in Mind and Vintage Vibes. If you would like to donate or find out more about the charities, please visit my website slowteaching.co.uk
Thank you for listening to this first special on running, the next episode with Jennifer Bradley – who ran across America – will be out later in the week.