Uncover your inner athlete!

Every morning in Africa a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be eaten.. Each morning in Africa a lion awakes - it knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle or it will starve.


No matter if you are the lion or the gazelle, when the sun comes up you had better be running!



Thursday, January 26, 2012

The simple things in life..

Yesterday I was coming back from a run through the torrential rain that we have been having in Sydney and stopped at a traffic light I witnessed one of the simple things in life – the real simple joys..Two young kids were running barefoot with their mum through the park puddles.


All three were wet and muddy but having a whale of a time as they splashed about and played games of tag while laughing and hugging each other. Simple pleasures for sure and some kill joys may be questioning why the mother would let the kids play in the wet and get muddy. But in all honesty they were having fun and bonding over something very simple. There was no need for ipads or video games or anything else for that matter – just simple pleasures that we often forget.

Running together (while sharing simple pleasures) – stride for stride on a life changing ride! – Sean Muller

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Seeing and believing

This morning I encountered someone out on my run who I have not seen in quite some time. I had been helping this chap with his fitness and weight loss goals and had hoped that he had made some progress over the past year. The results that greeted me were quite astounding. He has lost 22Kg and is a new man. From being someone who was hesitant to run, he is quite simply powering away now and loving life.

For a moment I was taken back to my own weight loss and fitness journey and the shift in mental and physical status. We had concentrated on shifting first and foremost his mental attitude to one of not quitting or wanting to quit in anything. Focusing the positives and removing negative language and body language from his vocabulary his shift was phenomenal. He has clearly been taking the program that we built and using it effectively in every area of his life.

These sorts of moments really make life all worth it. From a personal perspective, it is extremely rewarding to know that I was able to assist this bloke in his own personal journey to a healthier and happier life. As he said, he is one less member of the obese population in the west and it is pleasing to see that I have been able to strike another blow in my personal battle to overcome obesity.

Running together (while encouraging positive shifts) – stride for stride on a life changing ride! – Sean Muller

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Sick of negativity and greed

The past two days, I have been I have been speaking to various people about the importance of positivity versus those people who will always intentionally seek out any bit of negativity regardless of how good things are going for them.

We all know people who will automatically adopt the ‘Oh woe is me attitude’, wether that is in sport or life, they never seem content at all. This sort of attitude really bores me and quite frankly can just suck all the good energy out of one. I am trying as best I can in 2012 to rid myself of all of these sorts of people in my life.

Sure things in the current world are not the rosiest, but we do really have things very good in the west. The current crop of people in the west are the richest that they have ever been and in terms of material possessions we have far more than our ancestors ever did, yet still there are those that want more and more. We seem to have learned very little from the down turn of the past couple of years and push on in our constant yearning for more and more.

When will people realise that true wealth is knowing when you have enough and ultimately negativity will only eat you up and cause you to defeat yourself.
Give the best and cheapest gift you can give everyday – an encouraging or motivational word!

Running together (while shifting away from negativity), stride for stride on a life changing ride! – Sean Muller

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Dangers of forgetting to eat

This morning a good mate of mine and I headed out for an early run out to Manly and back – standard sort of 32KM run that normally would have posed no problems for either of us. He has an entry in to the Six Foot Track Marathon and so needs to be running not only some pretty steep hills, but also off the beaten track and on trails.

A significant part of the run today was on trails and so really good training for him. As for me, I had not run on trails in a long while and was tagging along for the fun. In between the rain and muddy trail and up and down sets of stairs at times, we ended up with a solid 3 hour chat and catchup about life.

For the first time ever, I did something very stupid and quite simply forgot to eat something before I ran this morning. This was an error that got me unstuck around the 25KM mark, when my stomach was saying something like – ‘You are asking me to continue, but quite simply there is nothing left in me to give.’

The last couple of KMs were a real struggle and was eternally grateful to my mate for keeping me going at the end. I could feel that if I did not eat something quickly, I would come unstuck – this was not a Gu type hunger or something that a Gatorade could ward off. This required solid food and my stomach was telling me as much.

In the supermarket at the end, I was feeling numb and started shaking, but managed to acquire some food and wolf it all down to restore some semblance of normality before heading home.

I feel a little silly that I did not follow my own advice that I give to people I assist by saying always make sure you eat before a long run. I have learned my lesson though and don’t want to be repeating that feeling again in a hurry.

Running together (while humbly learning lessons) stride for stride on a life changing ride! – Sean Muller

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Breaking a fever while breaking myself

Since returning from Africa a few nights ago, I have been suffering with a sore throat and a bit of fever. This I put down to being thanks to the dude sat next to me who was sneezing for about 7 hours straight. Not that this has put a damper on me getting out and about for my daily run – weird as it sounds I think even those couple of weeks of hills at altitude have made some difference, but back to the fever so to speak.


I have always advocated rest in these circumstances, but a mate this morning recommended that perhaps I try something not entirely endorsed by the medical fraternity to attempt to get on top of things. His remedy was prescribed as a track session of 20 x 400m at 5KM pace with a 50sec float in-between each one. It sure did burn and I sweated like a pig, but I managed to break the fever and so in essence if nothing else the session did what I wanted from it.

Again not entirely medically prescribed but then in some instances in life, I don’t really want to know why or how some things work and some not – only that they do what I wanted from them.

Running together (while breaking yourself and breaking fever), stride for stride on a life changing ride! – Sean Muller

Friday, January 6, 2012

Contrasts

So this week it is back to life and running in Sydney. The cloudy skies of today make Africa seem so far away now – running with those talented youngsters a life time ago. As much as I love running through the streets of Sydney, it is just so different to running in Africa. There is not that ‘vibe’- that x factor that makes one feel really alive.

Sure there are still dangers to be encountered on the streets with the odd shootout interrupting your run and having to dive behind a pile of bricks to avoid getting hit. Some might say that they could do without this, but for me this is ultimately a sign of life and vibrancy. For all the problems, there is still an extreme enthusiasm from locals for those out running and as someone said to me ‘daring to step out of the comfort zone and look further than any dangers’. Life of course must go on and by staying hidden and locked away in ones house, you are only letting the criminals win.

Running together (while occassionally dodging bullets and really living) – stride for stride on a life changing ride. – Sean Muller