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Liz Fraser
583 Plays10 months ago
In this episode Michelle is chatting with Sunday Times best-selling author, travel writer, mother and runner, Liz Fraser.
Michelle and Liz chat about:
- how Liz got into running
- her BIG goals for her 50th year
- how she keeps motivated to train
- her plans for writing about her running (there’s an interesting book in the planning)
- running in Italy
You can follow Liz on:
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction of Guests and Episode
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to the UK Run Chat Podcast. I'm Joe Williams, and in today's episode, Michelle is chatting with Sunday Times bestselling author, travel writer, mother, and runner, Liz Fraser.
Liz Fraser's Running Journey and Motivation
00:00:11
Speaker
Michelle and Liz chat about how Liz got into running, her big goals for her 50th year, how she keeps motivated to train, strength training, and her plans for writing about her running. So there's an interesting book in the planning and also running in Italy.
Sponsorship and Discounts for UK Running Events
00:00:26
Speaker
Our sponsors today are our charity partners at Macmillan. Because cancer can affect lives in so many ways Macmillan are doing whatever it takes to support everyone who needs it. Macmillan are offering UK run chat runners an exclusive 20% discount off your registration fee on some of the UK's top events including the Great North Run, Royal Parks, Hackney Half Marathon, Great Birmingham Run and the Southampton Running Festival.
00:00:52
Speaker
So make sure you use code UKRUNCHAT20 to get your discounted place and help McMillan support the 3 million people in the UK living with cancer. Thanks for listening. Enjoy this episode with Michelle and Liz and we'll see you on the next episode.
Influences and Transition to Longer Races
00:01:09
Speaker
Hi, Liz. Thank you so much for joining us on the UK Run Chat podcast today. We're really excited to have you on and just learn a little bit more about you. So John, I'd just like to be here, by the way. I've just totally interrupted you in the first 10 seconds of this, but I'm so, so happy to be doing this because you guys have been absolutely lovely to me and for me, and I've met loads of really lovely runners through UK Run Chat. So yay for doing this. There we go.
00:01:33
Speaker
really nice to have you on. We just, we want to learn more about our community members. So we thought we'll get you on. We love seeing all your running posts and find them very motivational. So I mean, do you want to just start by telling us just a little bit about you and your running and where it started really? Yeah, I'd be really happy to. So I've been, I haven't been running as a runner, really until I was about 30.
00:01:56
Speaker
Um, I mean, I'll be 50 this year. Um, but before that, you know, I, I ran as a child, you know, at school on school sports days, as we all do, but I was good at it and I liked it. Um, and my mom was a runner when she was in her teens and in her, into her twenties. And my mom really encouraged running and made us, I think all aware of athletics track and field actually. So I think there are many people who grow up.
00:02:24
Speaker
you know, just not connected to that at all. It might be football or it might be rugby or whatever it might be. But for us, it was athletics. And that was very much part of our life. We'd go and see athletics meets occasionally. So it wasn't weird for me to be on an athletics track, for example, a normal environment for me.
Mental and Physical Benefits of Running
00:02:41
Speaker
And then I guess, yeah, after I had my kids in my early 20s, I sort of
00:02:46
Speaker
picked up running at that point. And, you know, these races were just starting up as a normal thing, something like the Race for Life. I don't know when that started exactly, but I started doing those in about 2000-ish, give or take. I think that was my first race, actually, a Race for Life. Yeah, really, isn't it?
00:03:07
Speaker
And they were 5Ks, weren't they? And it was a fun run. It was a fun run. Everybody wore pink and, you know, raised money and off we went, did our 5K. And as they just grew and grew and then more and more people started realizing, my God, you know, people love getting involved in fun runs, which then became less fun runs and more run runs. And I mean, I would love to know the statistics for how many
00:03:33
Speaker
serious or semi-serious to serious runners there are now compared with 20 years ago. I think it would be an absolutely phenomenal increase. Yeah. How wonderful is that? So just, and just to finish up, like, where am I now? As I've been going up through my forties and my pace has, you know, gone, five K's are struggling a little, but, but I've got my goals for this year. Then I started doing tens and then I started doing half marathons. I think the first half marathon was
00:04:01
Speaker
maybe eight, nine years ago, something like that in Cambridge. I think it was the first Cambridge half marathon, actually, I did that one. And discovered that actually, you know, you can you can do a pretty decent half marathon when you've lost your, you know, your sprinting pace, you can do quite well. And I love it.
Effortless Running and Different Types of Runs
00:04:21
Speaker
And I am very competitive against myself. And yeah, why not? I just, you know, it's part of my character, it's part of my nature, it's kind of
00:04:30
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's great. I mean, how do you keep motivated then? What kind of drives you to keep going and keep improving? I think two things. The first is that I know I always feel better when I'm fitter and when I'm stronger.
00:04:48
Speaker
there has never been a point in my life where doing the work, getting fitter again, has made me feel less good than I did before. And generally, I feel worse when I have become sluggish in not just in my sort of myself and physically, but my thinking and all of that.
00:05:08
Speaker
So I think that's the first thing. And the second is, is genuinely I do actually, when it's going well, when it's going well, I enjoy it. I mean, what a feeling is that, you know, people listening to this, I'm sure, well, I'd add to that, you know, even if you hit a sweet spot for only five minutes out of a 10K trading run,
Recovery and Prioritizing Running in Her 50s
00:05:27
Speaker
those five minutes are very nice. They are, aren't they? Yeah, you think it's clicked, it's all going well. Yeah, it's like flying. It's just like, and I think if you've never felt that,
00:05:38
Speaker
if you've never pushed yourself to the moment where, you know, after six months of trying, you suddenly hit a sweet spot and it's like all the wonderful things in the world just happened in my body right now. When does that usually come? Is that when you're kind of pushing yourself hard on intervals? Because I had that on Tuesday, I was doing intervals and I was like the wind in my face and I thought, this is brilliant. And then it gets harder. But do you feel that when you're running really fast or is it kind of when you're in the zone on a tempo run or
00:06:06
Speaker
I get both and it's very different. I think after about 5k after 5k which is slightly annoying when you're trying to do a park run which is 5k and you just get to the end and think ah I'm ready now but after about 5k something happens and if I actually if I pause at that point just stop have a stretch I'll absolutely fly for an hour after that really easy but yeah I did some hill sprints a couple of days ago I did 10
00:06:35
Speaker
one and two, it doesn't really count. Then always about three and four, I think I'm going to die. I guess that he can't do any more. And I had a couple of beauties. I was like, yes, okay. I said, that was quite good. But you got to, oh, so my, my email just came in. Do you hear that when my email comes in? Yeah, don't worry about it. Don't worry. It wasn't even anything interesting either. So, you know, we'll just carry on professionally. Nothing happened there. Yeah.
00:07:03
Speaker
Yeah, go on. So you were saying about your sweet spot and your running. So how, you know, how are your long runs going at the moment? Because you've got some big goals this year, haven't you? Well, what I'm doing this year is kind of waking up again, really. I mean, you know, anyone who's followed my story, you know, I've been working in the media for 20, 25 years. So, you know, it's not me trying to sound grandiose and interesting, but you know, there are a lot of people who have read my books or followed my writing on my life over a long period of time.
00:07:31
Speaker
Um, and, and, and that's lovely for me because I feel like people kind of have come along with me and I've, I've picked up friends along the way. Um, but yeah, I think it's fair to say that the last, um, yeah, seven or eight years of my life has been very, very difficult. Um, especially, you know, a middle block in there. And, um, really I've spent the last two and a half years in recovery from, from very, very traumatic things and things which exhausted me in every facet of my life.
Unexpected Marathon Experience and Future Goals
00:07:59
Speaker
And it takes as long as it takes, unfortunately, and circumstances can knock that as well. And the impact on my running has been profound. So I don't think it's quite as simple for me to say, it's because I'm older that my running's got worse. It isn't that, it's been absolutely circumstantial. And if you are mentally exhausted and practically exhausted, I was a solo parent, for example, for two years. So when are you supposed to train? I mean, really?
00:08:28
Speaker
I did my best with a running buggy and so on, but it was very hard. And now my situation is entirely different in a very good way. And I feel so absolutely like a kind of a rebirth, like I'm really coming back to myself and a better version of myself than I've ever been. And so yes, that is, I think now I'm at a point where I can say I am ready to put running back where it was once for me.
00:08:56
Speaker
which was very high up my list of loves. I love sport. I love fitness and I love the feeling it gives me. And so I think to be honest, however hard I had tried in the last few years, it was never gonna happen, but now it can. So hence the goals, my new working goals. I've started a couple of new work blogs and running is one of them. And I've decided that in this year that I'm turning 50, I'm going to run my first marathon.
00:09:27
Speaker
Oh, that's exciting. So have you done a marathon before? You've done a marathon distance before? Well, not really. I mean, I've done it once, maybe a month ago, almost exactly a month ago, actually. I did, I covered the 42 kilometer distance, but I stopped several times along the way. And it was a, it was a sort of an accident. I just headed out to see how far I could go and it turned into a marathon. So great. But as anyone who's done that before, I'm sure
00:09:55
Speaker
you know, we'll sort of be nodding at this point. It's kind of once you've done it, once you've done that distance, you go, all right, okay, I know what that distance is now.
Challenges of Aging and Long-Distance Running
00:10:05
Speaker
Maybe I could work to make that better. So that's my big target for later in this year is to run my first marathon. My body doesn't like it though. Like my knees don't like it. Do you run longer?
00:10:24
Speaker
I run, yeah, I run, I used to run very long distance. I probably haven't done long distance since about July. I think I've been about 20, 21 miles back in July last year. Miles? Okay, yeah. All right, it's a long way. Yeah, I do find as I'm getting older, that it does take its toll and I find it harder because I've slowed down a bit. Harder where? As you're longer and it's just more tiring for me.
00:10:54
Speaker
Yeah. So it's not like a physical thing. So, you know, your knees have gone or your hips or something like that. It's, it's more just generally, you find it more tiring. Yeah. It's the tiring. I have had some knee issues this year, but I think that's down to perimenopause. Having a red rock about hormones and the effect that they can have on your body.
00:11:14
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. That's resolved itself as I've been experimenting with different kind of hormone therapies. So I've not had that for a while. That's really interesting. And wow, that's and that's great to hear that you know, something something's changed for the positive. Oh, that's great. I find I certainly find the longer distances. I yeah, I find the mechanically very challenging. So I went out yesterday and did 20
00:11:44
Speaker
five kilometres. But that was within a week where I'd done 21 kilometres five days before. Now, honestly, my normal in the last couple of years, again, only in this period where it's been very, very difficult, my training runs went from a daily 10K. That was my normal in Cambridge. I'd run 10K almost every day. Six days a week I'd do that. Dropped to six, seven kilometres, maybe three times a week.
00:12:13
Speaker
To go to 10, that was my long run. I mean, and that's
Fueling Strategies and Past Race Experiences
00:12:16
Speaker
been the case for ages. So to suddenly go from that to a normal run is 10K and a weekly, every week you clock a 21, every week.
00:12:28
Speaker
And let's say every other week I will build towards a marathon length. That's massively increasing the effort that my body's putting in and the effect on my body. Oh, I slept last night. It was like someone had knocked me out. Because sometimes after a long run, I have terrible night's sleep. Yeah, it can get out of the way. The thing which held me back was I drank loads of water when I came in. So I needed the loo at night and I was starving.
00:12:55
Speaker
i was so hungry i woke up at two o'clock and four o'clock both times got up and ate food so i think because i'm tiny so i can't eat huge volumes of food and anyway when you're running long distances you know you can't
00:13:08
Speaker
ingest a lot of food food. You just want the sugar and the kind of the gels and the sweets. Pocket full of wine guns and off you go. So is that your preferred fuelling? Is that going to, are you going to stick with the gels and the kind of the jelly babies? Yeah, and that was actually, I was listening to a couple of runners on a different podcast recently. So what, you know, what is your go-to fuel? And it's amazing how many people just say sweets, just a pocket full of sweets.
00:13:32
Speaker
The first time I ever had that was on the Wings for Life. So I did the, I think it was the first ever Wings for Life in about 2015 or 16 or something in Cambridge in the summer. And they had trestle tables. This was before COVID, so you couldn't do this anymore. But they had tables with piles of wine gums. I just remember thinking, that was a bit weird.
Impact of Diet on Performance and Personalized Nutrition
00:13:52
Speaker
But then, yeah, just grabbing handfuls and shoving them in my mouth with sugar pouring out of my chin. But it was like, yes, I need the sugar, not the volume. So it was very good.
00:14:03
Speaker
But gels, yeah, I need to find, you've got to find, I don't know, I don't know if I'm allowed to sort of name names, but I need to find, yeah, my, my best fuel supply that I can stick in a pocket and... Oh, well, we can certainly ask our followers for some suggestions there. I'm sure they'll be happy to, yeah. I would love that. Yeah. What your preferred method of fuelling is, do let us know. Yeah. Yeah. I would really like to know that. And before and after as well. I'm not a very, I don't, you know, I've never done carb loading or anything like that. That's never,
00:14:31
Speaker
never been a thing for me. I think one of the most important things actually pre-races is not to change anything. I don't change my sleep pattern apart from tapering. Sure, I run less, but I don't eat anything different. I think, especially when you're reaching 50, I mean, you know your body. My body has not changed really since I was
00:14:54
Speaker
25 is the same in same thing. I, my weight has barely fluctuated and I lost a bit of weight at one point. I was rather skinny a couple of years ago, but we're talking 5%. It's not, um, so yeah, people say, Oh, what do you do before a race? And how do you like nothing? It's the same. Yeah. Um, and that seems to work really well for me. I mean, it's
00:15:20
Speaker
It's something I don't really like to say particularly because I don't want to cause problems for people, but there is no doubt that the fastest I ran was when I was the lightest. You know, it's just, I mean, look at ultra runners. Look at the world's best marathon runners. They don't carry anything. They're Kenyan and Ethiopian and very, very skinny, skinny people.
00:15:48
Speaker
And the bottom line is, yeah, when I'm, when I'm not carrying extra and I have a very high muscle to weight ratio, then I run my best. And I'm okay with that. So long as it's healthy, so long as I'm eating healthy, my body's functioning well, then that's how I like to feel and how I like to perform. Yeah, that's good to hear. I think we just, we need to make sure we are fueling ourselves well, don't we? We don't need to be eating extra. We just need to be fueling well.
00:16:16
Speaker
Yeah, we need to be feeling well and we need to be listening to who we are and what our bodies need because there will be people who run at their best when they are heavier, you know, when they're bulkier, when they have more muscle because they are more of a, you know, an ectomorph than an endomorph or whatever it is, you know, I know my body shape and size. And so if anybody tries to emulate what I do, if somebody tries to copy what I do, it might not work for them at all. And
00:16:43
Speaker
Isn't that one of the most important things about doing any sort of sport at any level? It's coming to the understanding of your body and what works for you. Why is that so complicated? Why do people always have to compare and go, oh, this person does that. I'll do that too. Why is it not working for me? Because you're not the same person.
00:17:05
Speaker
Leo. Yeah, it's very much trial
Love for Strength Training and Its Benefits
00:17:08
Speaker
and error, isn't it? When you're training like that for a lot for long distance, it's just finding what works for you and using that training wisely to experiment really try to Yeah, yeah. Oh, definitely. I mean, I can go a long way on a, you know, packet of almonds. You know, it works for me, it gives me good fats. And I mean, I'm a fat consumer. So I like oil.
00:17:30
Speaker
fish, oily fish, I drink olive oil straight out of the bottle and that's how I work whereas some people crave sugar and donuts and cakes and stuff, I don't like that stuff. Yeah I think having that kind of chocolate please. Oh oh well yeah well we put chocolate in its own bracket, chocolate goes in the sex bracket, that's like it's a whole other thing, it's just wonderful.
00:17:56
Speaker
Essential. It's essential life life. Yeah, so you mentioned muscle there. Talk to me about kind of strength training. Do you do any of kind of weightlifting or any kind of strength training to talk to us a little bit about that? Yes, I do. I do. And I love it. I absolutely love it. And you know, I've been doing it for
00:18:18
Speaker
You know what, you lose a decade, don't you? Every time I think I'm about to say 10 years, I'm in 20 years. I've been doing it for about 20 years plus. And when I started going to the gym to do weights, as in not to go to the gym to do aerobic stuff, but to do weights, I was one of the only women in there. It was really unusual.
00:18:41
Speaker
and not very welcoming particularly gyms were not pretty places as they are now and not welcoming as they thank god you know they are now um but it was very often a thing of you know women don't want to bulk up you know i don't want to get really big and muscly i'm not quite sure how many weights i'd ever have to do to get big and muscly but i think i don't think it's ever going to happen to me a lot yeah yeah i am a tiny person but
00:19:07
Speaker
the ah is you I assume you do weights right yeah yeah isn't it just the best it's a good feeling yeah I love it I love it so much and I love the feel and look of my body when it is super toned and again that has the most definitely that lost quite a lot in the last
00:19:30
Speaker
few years. But how quickly you can get it back. So if you if you've done the training, like long, long term, just this is part of your everyday life, just as you brush your teeth twice a day. So you do weight training twice a week or three times a week, whatever. If that is a part of your life, then even if you go through a period of illness or whatever, or pregnancy or practical, you can't do it. The muscle memory is there. And only
00:20:00
Speaker
I think it must have been not more than about three weeks ago. I just decided I'd had enough actually of the way my body felt. And because it's not a body that I was enjoying living in, I didn't recognize myself. I saw some pictures of myself swimming in the sea. And I remember thinking, who's that? That's not me. That's not what I've ever looked like. And I started putting the work in before Christmas. And honestly, the change is
00:20:31
Speaker
When I say putting the work in, what do I mean by that? Okay, so every morning, plank, every morning. And I used to do a five minute plank every morning and I stopped doing it. Planks, you know, if I, when I get up from a working break, just do some crunches, do some side planks.
00:20:47
Speaker
I've been doing the work in the gym, and it's like my body's coming back, so underneath this other body was my body. It's my body, hello! You've got a mental image of who you were, and it was still there, and you kind of knocked yourself again. Yeah, and I feel like I stand different, and I smile more, and I laugh more, and I'm working better, and I'm happier.
00:21:08
Speaker
Um, and again, it's winter, you know, we all hibernate and I get that and that kind of build up towards Christmas, November, December is always a bit, you know, but, um, but the, but the positive, the point is that, you know, when you build weight training into your normal part of your life, the positive response to that in mental health terms, in how you look and how you feel, and then how you perform running is absolutely amazing. And it happens so quickly.
00:21:36
Speaker
any of these things which say just 10 minutes a day of this, believe it. Yeah, it works. 10 minutes a day of weight, even if it's your own body weight, you know, that, you know, sort of core exercise and stuff makes a huge difference. Yes. So what kind of impact does that have on your running then? Because there's probably people out there are thinking I should do it. I'm not quite sure I need it. You know, what what impact does it have? It's almost like, it's almost like saying,
00:22:04
Speaker
If you had a car, you know, what impact does it have? Having it more streamlined with, you know, better fuel and better tires. It's like, this is the basis, you know, and winter, winter training is what is it? It's, it's, it's strength. It's strength training so that you can go and have your glory runs in the, in the summer with you little running bra on feeling great. Um, but, but seriously, um, you know, more seriously, um, the impact
00:22:33
Speaker
on running of actual strength and proper weight training is enormous. When I run really well, it comes from my core. When I've said this for years and people are like, oh, isn't it all about legs? I'm like, well, no, because I mean, your legs are always going to be strong if you're running a lot and you do some weight training in your legs.
Inspiration from Community and Park Run Experiences
00:22:52
Speaker
But when my core is strong, I feel that each pace, it's like I've got like an elastic from my core pulling me forward.
00:23:03
Speaker
And if you, okay, so another thing that I haven't done for a while, but I used to do, and actually now I really want to do it right now, is watch beautiful runners. Watch, oh God, isn't it good? And you watch them. And I used to watch so many, you know, even if you go right back to Chariot to Fire, you know, there was a film that I used to watch over and over again when I was very, very young. We used to watch,
00:23:30
Speaker
you know, the Olympics. I mean, you remember 2012, right? The whole country went sports athletics mad in 2012. It was fantastic. And I'm sure it's because we all sat at home watching people running. And we all went, I want to do that. You know, I want that feeling. Watch people running. And when you run, I remember when I was trying to run better and it worked. I used to just pretend that I was Mo Farah, like,
00:23:57
Speaker
Be Mo Farah. I just felt so good. I was like, yeah, I can do this. I would run faster. So whatever works for you. But like anything else that you're trying to improve at, if you want to be a better writer, read more good books and study that. Study that. If you want to be a better runner,
00:24:25
Speaker
watch people who do it better than you and do that thing. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, even going to Park Run, I love going to Park Run and just watching a whole range of runners come in because everybody's, you know, all shapes and sizes, everybody runs totally different. You know, that is such a good point that I've sort of gone off into the sort of, you know, running your very, very, very best and blah, blah, blah. But I started Park Run just very recently. I think I've done five in my life. Yeah.
00:24:55
Speaker
And it was one of the, it is one of the loveliest things about popcorn, you know, is to, to really appreciate. A, that if you can run well, how lucky that is that, you know, not everybody, you know, not everybody can do that.
Intersection of Writing and Running
00:25:08
Speaker
But also just how much joy anybody gets from running, however fast or however far.
00:25:16
Speaker
that, yeah, there was just so much joy and enjoyment. Even the walkers, you know, there are people walking and you go running past on your second lap and they're still walking half way around the first lap, but they're out and they're chatting and they're having a great time. And yeah, that is so important to remember. It is absolutely, you know, your goals and your targets are your own. And that kind of brings us, you know, into a whole conversation about the non-supportive
00:25:45
Speaker
sort of vibe that can be out there, sort of a critical voice of people, oh, you're running too much. And, you know, and, um, I think we need to be so careful of that not to listen to that where, where if, if, if you are in a group of people who don't understand why you run or want to run better, then you move into a different room or have different groups of people have that group of people. Cause you hang out and you talk about other things that if you really want to improve your running and enjoy your running.
00:26:15
Speaker
You've got to be talking with people who love running too. Otherwise it's just not going to pull you forward and let you enjoy what you enjoy. Yeah. I think that's absolutely crucial. And I think that kind of leads us into not comparing yourself to other people as well in terms of pace and, you know, number of runs you're doing because, you know, especially with social media.
00:26:40
Speaker
If you're putting on there what you're doing, there'll always be somebody telling you you're doing it wrong. Or that they went out faster. It's difficult though, isn't it? The difference between comparing yourself with other people and being inspired by other people to do better. It's fine line sometimes, isn't it? Yeah, you know, is it so bad for me to scroll through Instagram and obviously I follow loads of running accounts like we all do, which is pretty much all it shows me now is mountains and running. It's wonderful.
00:27:11
Speaker
You know, I get real benefit from that. It doesn't make me feel lazy. It makes me feel, oh, yeah, yeah, I want to go out and do that. So it's not a negative comparison thing. It's more an inspiration, a motivation to go out. It's a bit funny though. You see, we wouldn't say the same about, you know, home decoration. You wouldn't say to someone, oh, you know, you keep looking at all these pictures of people painting their walls a different color and now you need to, or maybe you would.
00:27:40
Speaker
But it can inspire you and it can inform you and you can go, actually, yeah, I do. I do want to do that to my house or whatever. I'm just all for people sharing, being happy about what they love doing.
Introduction of The Running Diaries Blog
00:27:54
Speaker
That's just the loveliest thing in any walk of life. And the running community is particularly very supportive though, isn't it? I mean, it is lovely. Much more so than, let's say, the parenting community can sometimes be or
00:28:09
Speaker
in the creative industries, you know, sometimes we can be quite protective over our ideas or over, you know, whereas the running community, everybody just wants to share positive stuff and encourage each other. I love it. Yeah. Yeah, that's a good point, actually. So because you're a writer, I mean, how do those
00:28:27
Speaker
Two worlds, those two loves of yours cross over. You mentioned you're writing a bit more about running. Have you got any more plans? I am. Thank you for mentioning it. I can now direct you all to my new running blog. I have started something called The Running Diaries. What an original title. But I'm going to start just diarying my journey to the marathon. But going right back to when I started running, my first post about that will be in fact this week.
00:28:58
Speaker
Um, when I was a very young child and they're just the beginnings of my running, I want to talk about running all around the world and different runs that people can do. I will be interviewing other runners. I have a very particular interest in running, um, for mental health and more particularly even for, um, trauma recovery and ADHD and PTSD.
00:29:20
Speaker
all of which I have, I have, luckily, not luckily, all of which I have experience with. And there is a very strong link and there's more and more work being done in it between the benefits of the particular movement of running this repetitive movement and ADHD and PTSD and the good things it can do for a brain that has been changed.
00:29:48
Speaker
for various reasons or which is just functioning in a way that makes various things difficult and the action of running can really help that. And so I'm going to be writing a book about that sort of as time goes on. And I really want to talk to people who have found that running in particular is something which has helped them, not just with mental health generally and with depression, anxiety, but more specifically with
00:30:17
Speaker
with PTSD and with ADHD, because there's not enough written about it, actually. And when you start talking with people about it, a lot of people come forward and say, yes, I find that. And there are very good reasons for that. And that's what I want to be writing more about. And just connecting with the community. So it's on substack, by the way.
00:30:36
Speaker
So if people go to a thing or go to go to my profile, am I allowed to say this at this point? Yeah, you can say that. I was going to ask you at the end anyway, so we might as well do it. That's fine. Well, remember you'll check it up on the on the info.
Life in Venice and Running Retreat Plans
00:30:48
Speaker
But if people go to my profile, which is my handle is Liz Fraser One on Twitter and Instagram. And there'll be links on there to my subset to to the Running Diaries and the Venice Diaries.
00:30:59
Speaker
because I also live partly in Venice, in Italy, and I do a lot of running there, and people don't think of Venice as a place to run, and it's actually a fantastic place to run. Yeah, talk to us a little bit about that then. I've never, I lived in Italy for a while, but I wasn't a runner, I wasn't a runner then, so I've never done any running over there. Where did you live, roughly? I lived in Pastaro, which is in Abruzzo, which is further south. Oh, Abruzzo's gorgeous.
00:31:26
Speaker
very rural and very mountainous. Very mountainous, beautiful. I've never been to Venice, though. Tell us about Venice. Well, I moved to Venice in 2018 and then moved back again a year later. But and so now I come and go between the two. So I live partly in the UK and partly here in Venice. And it's well, I mean, it's a city like everybody knows it's got gondolas and canals and bridges, but it's an incredible place very close to the Dolomites, which is a mountain range just to the north of Venice. And
00:31:56
Speaker
we have an island called Lido which is sort of 15 kilometers long and flat so if you want to do a beautiful flat half marathon training Lido is your place and I also run over the bridges at night so if you run through Venice at night up and over bridges you know for a start you're having the most incredible tourist experience but you're also running so going forward I am I'm hoping to run running retreats in Venice actually and get groups of people to come over and we'll run Venice because then you get the best of
00:32:26
Speaker
The best of everything, really, you're doing what you're doing. This sounds amazing. Yeah. In a really beautiful place. It's hard on the feet. Venice is made of stone, pretty much. It's all stone's labs. But there's a very strong running community out there. And that's another lovely thing, you know, when you travel and, you know, I was in Anasie, which is near Geneva, but it's in France, a couple of times over the summer. And, you know, the running community in that, you know,
00:32:53
Speaker
Chamonix and Geneva and ANSI. It was fantastic. And people would kind of pull you in and go, come on, you want to come for this run? Let's go for this run. All right. Great. So I really love the international aspect of running and that you know, you can enter a marathon anywhere in the world and build into a holiday. And I mean, Venice has its own marathon, of course, doesn't it? It does. Yeah.
Marathon Plans and Training Approach
00:33:18
Speaker
There's a marathon at the end of October.
00:33:20
Speaker
I ran the 10K, the Venice Marathon has a 10K at the beginning of it. And I ran that one in 2018, which was before they'd built the flood barrier. And so we came in first, obviously, because we were the 10K, but by the time the marathon finishes were coming in, they were knee deep in water because the floods were really bad that year. So that's, you know, that always adds a bit of difference, a bit of fun. I quite like to do Berlin, like everybody wants to do Berlin.
00:33:49
Speaker
I have no draw particularly to New York or Chicago or sort of, you know, like a big, big, big commitment like that to one of the really big ones. I think that sounds a bit overwhelming to me, but I always watch with great awe people who do it, you know, and commit to that.
00:34:10
Speaker
The thing is, I'd go all the way over there and then I'd get stomachache or something or Achilles tendonitis and that whole thing would be scuppered. Yeah, it's a lot of pressure, isn't it, I think. Will you choose a smaller marathon for your first time? I have already chosen. I have entered. I have my race entry and I have a running partner who's going to run it with me, which is going to make it really exciting, actually, because
00:34:36
Speaker
I'm not going to tell you where it is yet. You have to go to the running diaries. At a certain point, I'm going to drop the big bombshell. A bit of intrigue. But I run alone. You know, I like running alone. I know that a lot of my running friends are the same. Generally, it's for practical reasons, to be honest. I tried to commit to a running club several times, but the meets were always at times when I couldn't go or I couldn't get childcare or it was like,
00:35:03
Speaker
didn't work for me or I worked freelance, I'd be called into the TV thing in London so I couldn't do it. So I run only when it works for me. Isn't that one of the greatest things about running? You're not letting anybody down. I used to be a Cox for a rowing crew when I was at Cambridge and you couldn't not turn up because if one person doesn't turn up, then that's nine people. Another eight people have just been knocked out
00:35:29
Speaker
of their day, whereas I love the independence of running the piece. I don't want to talk and run. I want to run and either run and think or run and not think. But I think for a marathon, it feels slightly different that it will be very nice to have somebody, you know, to encourage you on the tough days and say, right, come on, we're going to do a really, really big one this week. Or, you know, let's take a rest day. That will be very good for me to have something. Okay, that's interesting. Yeah.
00:35:57
Speaker
Yeah. So you're going to do your training together then? Is that the plan or follow the same plan? We'll be doing the training together, but not always individually. But you know, I would say so. Well, they, this person is also team GB level kind of athlete. So way above my level in their own field. But I just, I think I just, I'm so enjoying the community spirit of it all, but to have somebody to tell me to take a rest day,
00:36:26
Speaker
will be really good for me.
Consistency, Discipline, and Community Connection
00:36:28
Speaker
I'm very bad at rest days which, you know, you know, are so important. I'm quite good at varying. I'm quite a good all-round, you know, and especially in the summer I'll go swimming,
00:36:47
Speaker
sort of mix it up a little bit, or even I'll do ballet dancing at home. So, you know, I can just do some ballet and that, oh my goodness, you want to stretch your glutes. That's a good stretch, I can imagine. Yeah, that gets my glutes. So like, what just happened there? Oh, okay, that's a muscle I don't use when I'm running. A ballet dancer is not the most incredible all-round athletes that exist. Absolutely, yeah. Terrible, terrible about it.
00:37:16
Speaker
but it's good for the stretching. Yeah. And as long as you're having fun, that's the main thing. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, what does your, have you kind of written out your marathon plan then? What does it look like? What kind of tips yet? Your training buddy that you can share with us. I laugh because I am well-known in all my running community friends as the person who has no plan. I have no plan.
00:37:42
Speaker
And this is actually part of the reason, one of the really attractive things for me of doing this marathon is because I've got to have a plan. So my mantra, and I was writing this on my blog recently, this year, the two words are consistency and discipline. Oh, yes. I love it. Yeah. So it's like the plank. It's the every day you do it. I don't care that you are five minutes late for work. You're going to get down there and you're going to do your plank.
00:38:07
Speaker
And again, it just comes back to that kind of that sluggishness, that laziness of thinking and of being. And so in everything that I do, you know, making the phone call to your parents, it's everything, consistency and discipline. And as an experiment, this is an experimental year for me. What happens if I do things differently to how I usually do them? And when I get to the end of the year, what impact will that have had on me, my life, my work, my income, my social life?
00:38:36
Speaker
and my running. So there will be a plan. Yeah. The marathon's a wee way off. So it's not, it's not like it's each month. I've got, I've got time. And I will have a plan. And I would love, please to hear from you guys, people listening, you know, what is the best marathon training plan that you followed? What is the best app to be on or the best, you know, Instagram profile to follow or what? Because I really want to, to a little bit do as I'm told,
00:39:06
Speaker
this time and go, all right, this person says, do that, I'm gonna do that, which goes against the grain so high, so strongly, I can't tell you. It's nice to try something different though, isn't it? And you know, that might pay off and you might, you know, you might have an amazing marathon and who knows? You don't know unless you try, do you? I might, you never know until you try. And what I do know, so I'm quite good on that looking at, like, let's look at actual facts here. The actual facts is that I'm not running
00:39:36
Speaker
as well as I could, as well as I used to, and as well as I'd like to be. So if I just take that, that's the status quo. I want to change that status quo. It's not going to change if I don't change anything. And given that I am very stuck in my ways, if I devote myself to doing things differently,
00:39:58
Speaker
Let's see if it doesn't work. Is the year of my life gone? It's fine. I'll go back to just my haphazard way of living. We'll look forward to hearing how it goes and we'll keep an eye on your blog benefits for updates. Thank you very much. And I think one of the loveliest things about blogs particularly is that, you know, people do interact.
00:40:16
Speaker
and do write and I would love to come on and host another UK run chat for you guys again at some point because I love doing that and every time I do it so many people you know come one way and we enter these albeit brief conversations but some of them have now lasted I think the last one I did was over a year ago till just recently yeah and I was still in touch with some of those people oh that's incredible isn't it that's the power of community really isn't it
00:40:41
Speaker
Yeah, you have a great, great running community on there and I really enjoy it. So thank you for that. Yeah. And I know a lot of other people who follow it and get a lot from it. So that's great. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's been absolutely wonderful learning a bit more about you, Liz, and chatting to you today. So thank you so much. Can you just remind all our listeners where they can find you on social media?
00:41:02
Speaker
Yeah, please don't come and find me. I don't want to be found, but you can find me. I'm usually running around somewhere. My social media handle is Liz Fraser 1. So L-I-Z-F-R-A-S-E-R. And then the number one and my sub stack is the Running Diaries and the Venice Diaries of which there will be overlap. So come and find me, come and chat to me, come and connect with me and come and make me a better runner, please. Thanks very much.
00:41:31
Speaker
And we'll look forward to seeing more of your joyful running photos and those beautiful photos of Venice that you're always sharing. Thank you very much.