Tag: mindset

Transformation Is a Process, Not an Event

by fullcircle, posted in Blogs, Mindset

Transformation Is a Process, Not an Event

I see so many people get frustrated with their triathlon training or healthy living plans.

They try to follow their training programs and eat right for a little while.

But then they give up when they don’t quickly, magically become what they want to be – a fast triathlete, thinner, stronger, etc.

So, let me remind you: Transformation is not an event. It is a PROCESS. And that process is comprised of countless decisions and choices you make over time.

These build on each other, bringing small changes that then manifest into the bigger results you’re seeking.

I’m reminded of the Rule of 10,000 Hours, which Malcolm Gladwell wrote about in “Outliers.” He found that genius-level achievement is only possible after putting in that much time. (And don’t worry – you’re not trying to reach genius level, here!)

This is true for any of the great athletes of our time.

They did not start great!

Mohamed Ali, Serena and Venus Williams, Mark Allen, Katie Ledecky, Michael Phelps, Michael Jordan

It didn’t happen magically after they practiced for a few weeks, right?

And, what’s best, you don’t have to spend 10,000 hours swimming, biking and running or eating clean to reach your goals. Remember, these athletes changed the world.

You just want to change yourself.

You’ve got to wrap your brain and your heart around this impactful idea: Success takes time, no matter what the endeavor.

So develop your plans. Align your priorities. Do what you need to do to ensure that you’re following your training plan, eating right, managing stress, and maintaining a positive outlook on a daily basis.

You’ll learn the intricacies of your body and mind. You’ll discover what moves the needle and what doesn’t. You’ll make progress along the way and learn to overcome disappointment and set backs as those are part of the process.

The rest will come – IN TIME.

Curious about Full Circle Coaching’s Triathlon Transformation program?
You too can become the triathlete you always dreamed of. Use this link to schedule your FREE Triathlon Breakthrough Session Now! WWW.SCHEDULEYOU.IN/5ZISVAU

Erinne Guthrie is a USA Triathlon Level II Certified Coach since 1999 and Chief Motivating Officer at Full Circle Coaching, LLC since 2010. Creator of Triathlon Transformation. She has been training, racing and coaching triathletes since 1997. She is also a CHEK Holistic Lifestyle Coach Level 3, USMS Master’s Swim Coach, Motivational Speaker, Metabolic Efficiency Specialist, Mom, Mermaid and much much more.

Life Savers- 6 Steps to Total Transformation

by fullcircle, posted in Blogs, Mindset

bookHow do we stay on course with training, family and work when so much of life gets in the way. If you really want to make triathlon training a part of your daily routine I have found an awesome resource from the book, The Miracle Morning” by Hal Elrod. It was a total game changer for me especially when I started getting busier and busier with my daughter, work and a few health setbacks. It’s an incredibly easy read and I listened to it in the car in a week on Audible.com  I immediately started implementing the 6 Life S.A.V.E.R.S. Hal describes in the book. I have never accomplished so much in such a short time. Below is a recap of the book, but reading it will clarify a lot of details.  Hal also has a ton of resources on his website for free that you can download.

#1 Silence – Practice Silence Daily. The benefits of meditation are undeniable and scientifically proven. It really is simple and the benefits are tremendous. Improve concentration, immune function, reduce and manage stress. In as little as 2 min/ day but ideally 10-20 minutes you can have all of these benefits. I wake up and include it every morning and it completely sets up my day in the best way. Some Apps to try are Address Stress; Deepak Chopra 21 day meditation (Perfect Health is a favorite); Insight Timer, are just a few.  The Release Technique by Brendon Burchard is a very simple way to start. I also incorporate my breathing exercises while meditating, so I am actually improving lung capacity and CO2 tolerance at the same time. Try Box Breathing – inhale for 4-6 seconds, hold your breath 4-6 seconds, exhale 4-6 seconds and hold your breath out 4-6 seconds- keep repeating for as long as you have time.

#2 Affirmations – Say them OUT LOUD! When you say affirmations out loud you are literally reprogramming your brain’s subconscious or operating system. Use them for every area of your life. And say them every morning out load after your Silence.

Use this template: I am committed to (insert behavior or activity) so that I can (goal you wish to achieve) by (deadline you wish to achieve by). So, for example- I am committed to running 4 days/week, every week by the 30th of November using a speed work training program so that I can run a 23 minute 5k by August 1st, 2017. Or, I am committed to doing 5 minutes of yoga and box breathing every morning for 5 minutes by the end of the week. You get the idea. I include an affirmation for every aspect of my life: Spiritual, Relationships, Family, Business, Fitness, etc.

#3 Visualization – See your end result exactly how you want it to be. Tap into emotions, smells, physical feelings and visual displays of your exact outcome- this works for everything, not just sports! Make a vision board.

#4 Exercise – I would bet almost everyone reading this already exercises and knows the benefits. Something to consider is if you have a balance between working out and working in. Or applying an intention and or purpose for every training session. I find the more intentional I am in my training and recovery the better my results.

#5 Read – There are definitely times when I find it harder to read since I became a mom and entrepreneur, but with Audible.com this becomes SO much easier. Every car drive I am listening to a book. I also listen to podcasts and videos as well. All count towards reading and learning and bettering yourself. If you commit to 5 pages every day, that adds up to 1,825 pages or over 9 books a year!

#6 Scribing or Journaling but the S is better on the end of the acronym SAVERS. It’s great to just record your thoughts every day. Some days I write longer than others. I can self -reflect and get thoughts out of my head. I usually write down all the things I am grateful for everyday. Even the struggles because this can allow you to accept things as they are and move through them. “I am so thankful and grateful for my foot injury because it has allowed me to slow down and appreciate when I am pain free, what could have caused the injury and how to get better”

Get the book today and start your transformation. It is absolutely amazing how well this works and you won’t be disappointed. Try the 30 day challenge at TMMBOOK.com.

Wishing You Well,

Coach Erinne

Remember to reply and comment below and share with anyone you think would like to read. Also feel free to email me at Info@fullcirclecoaching.co to ask me to write about anything triathlon or health and wellness related.

Thanks for reading!

Annual Training Plan – What is it and why is it important?

by fullcircle, posted in Blogs, Mindset

An annual training plan is a tool we use with all our athletes to provide a road map for the individual athlete’s training season.  It doesn’t have to start in January and it can be 3, 6, 8, 12 or 24 months long depending on your short term and long term goals.

It is a visible overview of your year or 2 years and it is not set in stone. It is meant to be flexible as unexpected events occur like family or work trips, illness etc.

The ATP is the next step after we have created our DUMB goals – (read about that HERE!)

Having the goal is one thing but creating the methods and routines to be able to achieve that goal is imperative. You can’t just write out the goal and hope it happens!  Especially in a physical sport like triathlon.  We must take action.

SO to set up your ATP  we pick A, B and C races to fill in with dates on the calendar.

A race = the BIG KAHUNA! the race you want to be in your best shape ever, the dream race where everything comes together and you have a PR- Personal Record. You can pick 1-3 A races but I don’t recommend more than that because its hard to peak more than 3 times in a year. Experienced athletes can peak more often.  Sometimes athletes race just to cross the finish line and others have a goal time or to get on the podium, qualify for a national or world championships.

Depending on the length of the race and your current fitness level you need a certain amount of time to achieve the physical fitness to achieve the goal of an A race.

Sprint and 5k, 10k races obviously require less time to get fit, and Ironman more time.

B races = 3-8 races you still want to do well in. These are races you can test your progress and see what you need to work on.

C races = unlimited- but be careful, you can over do it. These are training races or single sport events like super sprint triathlons, Swim Miami, 40K time trials, 5k’s and 10k’s running races. Entering 5k ,10k and 13.1mi running races is a great way to test your fitness and perform fresh (without running off the bike) leading up to your goal triathlon. Similarly, swim events and bike time trials or century rides can all improve fitness while still getting you used to the feeling of race day competition without the pressure to have your BEST performance. So peppering several B and C training events is really important. It helps you pinpoint where you need to work based on the performance during the B or C race. Sometimes I will have athletes even do a race with no tapering or recovery leading up to the race just to over reach and see how the body responds. Other times it will be a true test race doing everything we will do on the A race day and see where the fitness level is and if the athlete is ready or needs more skill, strength, experience etc for the BIG A RACE.

DON’T FORGET TO INCLUDE…….

Be sure to also include regular testing in Swim, Bike and Run to see where you are starting from and then every 6-8 weeks to see if the training you are doing is working well and you are in fact improving. Learn about the tests I use in the webinar link at the bottom. To measure is to know, if you are not assessing you are guessing!- video and performance tests, lab work or field testing all need to be included in the ATP.

Include strength training – prevent injury build strength, move in different directions other than just forward.

Next:

Periodize the ATP – as you get closer to the race the more similar your training will be to race day, but this is where the art and science of coaching come in.  There are lots of different ways to do this. These are terms that I use, but others do exist.Base

Build
Speed
Peak

Taper/ Rejuvinate
Race

The coach you work with will create a system they believe works best, but a general rule is to have some sort of base before you go out and do speed work so you don’t get injured, but after that there has been tons of research that a linear or stair step progression is not the only way to achieve success.  I don’t subscribe to volume in the speed phase and base and build phases will include speed and anaerobic capacity.  I also wait to build volume until much later in the season to keep athletes strong, fast and injury free as opposed to burnt out from too much volume, overuse and over training.

Daily, weekly, monthly volume needs to be added into the plan based on available training hours, age and experience and how fast you recover; everyone is different and you need to discover for yourself what works best. Most of my athletes have families and jobs that are a priority.

Alternating stress and recovery to avoid over training, the higher your goals the more this is important.  The more experienced you are, the more you can train at race specific intensity, the less experienced, the more we focus on skill and strength.

We also want to include real life commitments and by having them on the ATP ahead of time we can maintain fitness despite travel and family events. By planning easy recovery days around these everyone stays happy.

Along the same line, scheduling regular rest days or weeks, months and even years- can help prevent injury and sickness rather than just training and training until the body forces you to rest by getting sick.

Here are 3 great resources to learn  more about creating an  ATP. I use www.TrainingPeaks.com with all my athletes and here is a video on how to create one: HERE

And this is Joe Friel himself talking about the ways he creates and ATP: HERE.

And lastly, this link ATP Webinar is my Full Circle Coaching Webinar on how to create an ATP. Enjoy!

Wishing you well!

Coach Erinne

 

Go Be D.U.M.B Today!

by fullcircle, posted in Blogs, Mindset

What an amazing year 2015 was. I like to take this time during the holidays when I actually have some down time and sleep in, spend quality time with my family and also make some alone time to really think about all that happened this year. The good the bad and the ugly.

I, like many others had struggles. Some couldn’t train or race due to injury, some had great comeback years after being injured or sick, some had other priorities that led them away from themselves. Others had great successes and personal records in sport as well as business or family. I hope each one of you takes the time over the next few days to do a recap and review of the last year.

Did you achieve the goals you set out to accomplish? Did you miss on a few? Maybe look at the hardships you had to face to see if there was some lesson to be learned on how you handled it or what was brought to light because of that struggle. Or, really acknowledge all the hard work that went into your big successes and how you can repeat them this coming year and make even bigger and better wins for next year.

I have a constant quest for learning new things to see where I can improve my relationships, health, life, coaching, and business so I am always listening and reading up about new ways to improve and pass on good stuff I learn to my athletes. During this time of year everyone is talking about resolutions and setting goals for the New Year. I have written about and used S.M.A.R.T. goals in the past and I’m sure most of you are familiar with them:

I know many of you have heard of SMART Goals:
SPECIFIC
MEASURABLE
ATTAINABLE
RELEVANT
TIME-BOUND

This year, I would love to you to set some D.U.M.B goals! I love these as a precursor to the S.M.A.R.T. goals and I learned about them from Brendan Bruchard check out his video about them at this LINK. 

D.U.M.B Goals
D – Dream/Destiny Driven goals – I love this because it is asking you to think way outside the box and truly get excited about something BIG for yourself. Something that may not seem attainable at first thought but that you really want to achieve but are maybe too scared to even fathom. Brendan talks about the vision of landing on the moon or curing a disease. How did those people ever achieve those amazing things without dreaming about them 1st!

My business coach Sean Greely always says if your dream doesn’t scare you, it isn’t big enough. And my mentor Paul CHEK says your dream has to be bigger than your distraction. So, start with the dream and the how will come later! Think about something that would make your life magical and make you feel alive. Have fun with it.

U. Uplifting – Choose something that you want to GAIN not lose. Instead of I want to lose weight, how about I want to be a sexy beast and have an amazingly successful body that is strong and capable to carry me across the finish line of a triathlon, Ironman, 5k, ultra- endurance, feel alive, you fill in the blank __________________.

M –Method friendly – A goal that you can create a practice around. A map that makes it happen more easily. If the goal is to feel vibrant and passionate about your life, to get there you need a practice, map or method that will lead you to your success. For example, 3x a week you are going to fuel your body with healthy breakfast and then go to the gym or walk/run/swim/cycle for 20 minutes. Use a set of practices that you repeat on how you wake up, cook your food, meet with an accountability partner or whatever you choose. This is where I highly recommend that Miracle Morning book again, it has a blueprint for the method of your morning practice. The repetition of the practice makes it easier every time you do it. I also incorporate this in creating more successful athletes by implementing the dynamic warm up before every workout to help prevent injury, or having the athletes perform the skill driven drills for swim, bike and run to improve their performances at any level.

B- Behavior driven with triggers set up to help you be successful – Every time I do this than that. For example, every time my alarm goes off in the morning I say my mantra and start my morning routine, which includes all the SAVERS (silence, affirmations, visualizations, exercise, reading and scribing) from the Miracle Morning Book. And sets me up for success. Using these behavioral driven triggers helps motivate you to stay the course and go for the big DREAM!

The Scariest Thing That’s Ever Happened to Me

by fullcircle, posted in Blogs, Erinne, Mindset

By Coach Erinne Guthrie

I have had my share of life’s ups and downs Divorced parents Failed marriage Successful birth of my daughter Death of a soul mate My fathers suicide But none of those scared me the way waking up one morning seeing only black in my left eye did.

I don’t have good eye sight to begin with (-8.50!) but wearing contacts has always allowed me to see 20/20 and do everything I ever wanted to do.
But waking up seeing black was so scary for me because it really threatened the active lifestyle I live and love.

Interestingly enough the week before this happened I had been introduced to a book called Miracle Morning and had started adding helpful elements recommended in the book to my normal 20 min meditation at 4:20 am every morning. The 6 elements of the Miracle Morning are silence, affirmation, visualization exercise, reading and scribing or journaling.

Although I was already implementing 3 out of 6, it is amazing how implementing all 6 helped me get through this challenging period in my life. Even though I did allow for exactly 2, 24 hour pity parties,
that was really all I needed.

I got through retinal re-attachment surgery with a scleral buckle around my left eye with the best doc in the world Dr. Smiddy. Luckily, I have an awesome team and coaches and no sessions were canceled. My team of coaches stepped up I kept training as soon as doc gave me the green light. And although my vision is not back to 100%, I raced in my 1st ever draft legal sprint triathlon to try and qualify for world championships.

I was very tempted to skip the race for fear the warped vision in my left eye would cause issues in my performance. Would I get hit in the eye during the swim? Would I be able to draft safely? Did I Lose too much fitness in the weeks I had to take off leading up to the race?  I didn’t want to talk about it to too many people for disgrace of total failure, so with the encouragement of my FC TEAM and a few athletes and friends as well as the implementation of the 6 elements of the miracle morning book I decided to race. So even if I came in last I knew for me it was about being there and participating and how I decided to respond to my situation instead of react to it!

Guess what?
I qualified! This has always been a dream of mine and now I am headed to CanCun, Mexico with 2 other Full Circle athletes to race against the world! Wow, who would have thought this was possible given my situation. Although I did not have a great race by any definition, with 5 girls pacing me on the run, I did get 9th place and the top 10 in each age group qualified. It was a tough but really fun race and the draft legal element of the bike made it completely different. I highly recommend a draft legal race if you can enter one. Here are the race results and more info on the USAT Website.

So if you are still reading because this is a kind of long post The big things I wanted to share is that It’s not what happens to you in your life it’s how you respond. I can easily decide that after this happened I needed to quit triathlon and racing because it’s just too risky but what I realize is that is just not an option for me. I love swim bike run too much to say goodbye!

Also having a daily practice like the Miracle morning was definitely introduced to me just in time to help me keep my eye ( no pun intended) on the big picture of my life which is:

To motivate triathletes to break through the obstacles holding them back from their ultimate triathlon performance. On that note, please watch out how you can be involved in having your Ultimate Triathlon performance after attending our 6th Annual Ultimate Triathlon Camp in Clermont FLorida. Registration is opening up this week! And

Look for upcoming details in the next week!

Thanks for reading!
Namaste

 

What’s your Big Why?

by fullcircle, posted in Blogs, Mindset

What’s Your Big Why?  Do you know?

Knowing the answer to this simple question can make everything in life a little easier.
So many times we get lost in the day to day activities; going through the grind with no goals, no purpose no focus and wondering where the day went, how time flies and you haven’t gotten anything done.  Nothing is as you want it to be.

Next, you start to get cranky and ask yourself why am I even doing this?
  • Why did I sign up for this Ironman®?
  • Why do I want to become a triathlete?
  • Why am I doing my 1st triathlon?
  • Why do I want to get in shape, lose weight, get healthy?
If you don’t have an answer to these questions, it’s not likely for you to stick to a plan or program or schedule. But, when you do know the answer, you spring out of bed ready for the day’s training and find ways to fit it all into your day.  It becomes a healthy priority 2nd or 3rd to other items in life but still in the top 5.  It can be tough sometimes, especially when we get knocked out of our routines.  This is a completely normal part of life to have to make adjustments to get back on track.  But get back on we must!

A few of my current athletes are struggling with this as we speak and I am just reminding them to take some quiet time to go within and ask yourself what your big why is again.  Your kids, your partner, your parents, a deceased loved one’s, a friend, brother or sister.  Everyone has a why, you just have to find it!

Last weekend, my 9 year old daughter Kaia was doing her 8th triathlon after not racing at all for over a year.  She has 2 parents who love and live triathlon so it’s hard for her not to be involved and want to do triathlons, but I don’t push her.  The morning of the race she was having major anxiety about racing; Would she be as good as she was before?  Would she be last? All the same issues we all think about at some time before a race.  So, I started asking her if she wanted to race, and she said yes but all these other feelings were taking over so I asked her to think about a few things, like maybe doing it for someone else, so it wasn’t about her and her outcome, but more about just getting out there because someone else couldn’t.  The other thing I reminded her of was how great it felt when she had crossed the finish line of her last race.  She was all a glow, cheering for friends and happy just to be out there.  We looked at some of her race photos and she was reminded of those post-race feelings of success and accomplishment.  Although she struggled right up to the start, she did the race with a huge smile on her face and even saying at one point “This is the best day of my life!”

Another example of a good why, is being a part of Team Thumbs Up.  We were asked to be included and help Brett Anderson who has Cerebral Palsy complete a sprint triathlon.  I was so proud of my team for stepping up and giving this man the experience of flying through a triathlon as fast as we could carry him. He was ecstatic and so thankful!

These are just 2 examples of a why and I have a bunch more I turn to when I am finding myself out of my focus.  All I know is when I am committed and training regularly, everything else in my life is better.  I commit to more sleep, eat healthier, work harder and with more focus and really plan my fun stuff as the reward for all the hard work!  Although the race is always the reward for me!

Of course, I can’t leave without mentioning that if you have your why and still no energy to train it could be a nutrition lifestyle issue and of course I have a program for that!  So, now its my turn to ask you; “What is your big Why?” Id love to hear about it and how it motivates you to get out there and TRI!!!

Don’t Let This Be You!

by fullcircle, posted in Blogs, Mindset
It has been a great summer so far.  I was able to take a nice break to “WORK IN” a little at Green Turtle Abaco, Bahamas.  I  had big plans of getting 8 hours of sleep a night, running, open water swimming and yoga every day!!!  Well… not so much!
The entire family got really sick, my plans went out the window and I eventually got sick as well.  So, I had to accept the situation and adjust.  I still got my meditation, yoga and some great free diving in between the diarrhea, vomiting and coughing!  But as you know, when this happens I lost some of my fitness.  When I got back to work and training I was not in the same physical shape as when I had left.
I could have picked back up doing my intervals, speed work and volume where I left off, but I have learned my lesson from previous experience.  Jumping back into training would have resulted in a pulled hamstring, tweaked back or other minor injury that could have been prevented.  I have dealt with this time and again with my athletes as well.  When you have taken time off from your consistent weekly schedule of training, you cannot just jump back in where you left off.  Sometimes athletes aren’t even aware that they have missed some key workouts but by keeping track of your weekly volume on a training interface like I use with my athletes on Training Peaks, you can keep track of your consistent or lack of consistent training.  When you do come back from taking some time off there needs to be a progression from a lower level of fitness to catch you back up to where you were before.  It won’t take as long as you might think.  Many times, I have tried and seen my athletes try to unsuccessfully jump back in, only to get injured and then need to take even more time off.
DON’T LET THIS BE YOU!  It is a frustrating situation and completely preventable without having to deal with a major setback.  So I recommend more frequent, shorter workouts at a lower intensity, drill work and some consistent sport specific strength training to get you back up to speed.  Take the time you need to build your volume and intensity back to where you were before the sporadic training started.  This is a proven method  I have used with myself and my athletes to get their fitness back and prevent injury in the long run.  Feel free to post comments and feedback!
Train Safe and Smart!
Wishing You Well,
Coach Erinne

Mental Skills; Do You Have What it Takes?

by fullcircle, posted in Blogs, Mindset

As many of my athletes are digging deep getting ready for some short course races here in south Florida I wanted to discuss mental skills and specifically short course racing and high intensity training.  Typically athletes racing short course will be pushing a higher intensity than those doing 70.3 or Ironman distance races.  It is just the nature of the length of the race.  For a sprint triathlon you can literally push your top end the entire race, but if you tried that for a long course race, you would most likely finish poorly or not at all. Mental skills are actually some of the most important skills any triathlete could have in order to be successful (short course or long course) and they are required at any level. If you signed up for the race to begin with you had to overcome your mental objections to do so and that is a mental skill in itself!

But, I want to get a little more detailed and ask the question “How do you get through the toughest of your training workouts?”  You know those days when you want to quit but have 3 more intervals or when it is SO hot, you feel you may pass out or when the finish line is 200 yards away and you start to sprint for it. What do you say to yourself to push through and get the job done?  This is what I want to know.

I have done some research and have also been using a few tactics that work well for me, but I would love to hear from you as well. Everyone is motivated by something different and driven by different motivators. So What Is yours?

Is it the pizza and ice cream after the race that helps you push though?
The chance at beating your local rival/ buddy for bragging rights?
Beating your own best time and creating a Personal Record (PR)?

I can tell you for me, always working to just be better than my last race is what drives me. I have been racing for almost 20 years, sometimes I am just happy to be out there and could care less how I do because I had been injured and couldn’t race for a while. Sometimes I am in shape but using the race as a measuring stick to see how much more into training I need to get if I want to PR. And Sometimes I am dialed in and ready to have my best race. Here are some strategies I have found that work for me and others I investigated:
COUNTING – Whatever the race/ workout I always use my counting tactic. When it gets tough I just start counting my exhales up to 11 and then start over. Simple and yet so effective to distract the mind away from the discomfort (pain!) This is called dissociative strategy- basically thinking of anything except what you are actually doing- it’s a great skill to practice to get through some tough training and racing.

Associative strategy: Focus on the job at hand and how you can make it better, relax shoulders, arm swing if running, form for swimming and running.  Another method is to recall prior tough training sessions or race results that ended well. Remember how good it felt when you succeeded before and really push to get those same results and feeling.  Say to yourself,  “I’ve been here before I can do this again.”
Goals: Achieving the life long goal can be a huge motivator so always reviewing your goals and why you are doing what you are doing can be super helpful in getting through a tough race or workout.
Repeating a positive mantra: “I am a strong efficient runner” vs “I suck at running” which do you think will give a better outcome?  Pain is temporary quitting is forever- one of my favorites!

Here is a link to one of the articles I referenced:
http://www.trainingsmartonline.com/images/Free_Triathlon_Articles/triathlon_psychology.pdf

And an awesome webinar that talks about mental toughness and it is a skill we can all attain!
http://home.trainingpeaks.com/blog/article/webinar-developing-mental-toughness

Now it’s your turn.  I would love to hear from you what strategies you employ when you need to DIG DEEP in that suitcase of courage.

I look forward to your responses so others can learn from you as well!

Suffering Meltdown?

by fullcircle, posted in Blogs, Mindset
What’s Up Triathletes?

I hope everyone is surviving the heat!  I’ve had several athletes tell me about “MELT DOWN” on the workouts over the weekend.
Here are some tips to implement to insure a solid training session despite the heat.

  • Start earlier I know this can be more difficult on the weekends when we want to sleep in, however getting out there early and before the temperature gets too high makes for a much better training session and then you can come back and take a nap mid-day in the cool AC!!
  • Super Hydration before the workout. Be sure you have been hydrating with ½ your body weight in ounces of water with a small pinch of real sea salt in every 12 ounces that you drink.  Add on to that with coconut water, Kombucha or green tea (organic of course) but make sure you are getting your minimum amount of water in daily and the morning of your workouts.
  • Keep core body temperature as low as possible using cooling sleeves, gloves, ice, cold water
  • Take walk breaks when heart rate starts to get too high
  • Rest in the shade
  • Pour ice cold water on your arms, face and head every chance you get.
  • Wear a visor instead of a closed off ball cap.
  • Take sunglasses off so the wind can cool your face.
  • Call it a day if it’s just too much heat.

Ben greenfield just posted this great article with even more tips on how to stay COOL in the Heat- check it out here.

Oops I did it again

by fullcircle, posted in Blogs, Mindset

Oops I Did it Again… by Coach Erinne Guthrie

Does anyone else remember that Britney Spears song, or am I dating myself?  Anyway, that song was stuck in my head about a month ago when I was saying to myself, “OOPS! I did it again.”   I seemed to have re-injured my hamstring that was torn two years ago and took me away from running for over 12 months. The 2nd “Oops” was that I felt like I was back in Adrenal Fatigue.  I had no energy to get through my workouts and didn’t have the “dance to work” attitude I usually enjoy.  I really had to take a step back and take a look at what had been going on the past few months and it was all clear.

  • Less than 7-8 hours of sleep for many weeks in a row.
  • Too much refined sugar and processed foods from traveling for a few weeks consecutively.
  • Pushing too hard in training, despite my body telling me I was fatigued and needed more TLC and less 200 repeats at the track (despite my goal to get back to running faster).

All of these things I coach my athletes on and here I was not practicing what I preach.  I named my company Full Circle Coaching for a reason and please notice the Yin-Yang in the logo and my tag line; “Where Performance Meets Balance.”  When I had the opportunity to start over with my new company 5 years ago, I wanted to make sure I was implementing all the things I had learned over the previous 15 years of coaching, training and living that got me where I am today, happy, healthy, strong and fit.  The key component being BALANCE between working OUT and working IN.  I like to remind myself that life is about finding that balance between too much and too little of everything!  I like to see myself riding the wave of that balance, constantly course correcting as needed, to stay on top of the wave all the time, not just for a final destination or goal (although having a goal can help us get focused). The good news is I was able to implement all the strategies for nutrition, working IN and supplements needed to dig me out of the hole I found myself in. I like to train hard, I like to race and compete and I want to be able to do that and have the energy to be the best Mom for my 9 year old daughter and my growing company.


In 3 weeks, I am pain free in my hamstring and back to full, amazing energy by taking a ton of recovery days, not days off but days to rebuild my foundation with low heart rate movement, holistic nutrition, a few supplements that I swear by and of course including my daily mediation, EFT and working IN.

The hamstring pain is 100% gone after I implemented my tried and true strength program I created specifically for running injury free.
So, based on what was going on with me and what I hear my athletes struggling with as well, I am offering 2 programs this month.
The 1st will be an online 6 week course where I review all my holistic principles and how they apply to triathlon training. Many of you have been asking me for just the nutrition course but spreading the information out over a few weeks will make it simpler to implement and more comprehensive.
The 2nd program is my Running Essentials 101 and 102. This 1 day running intensive will include total body running strength exercises as well as a run test and training zones.
Also please enjoy these 2 articles that can make a difference in your running health.
If you’re looking to achieve results with your training program, contact us today.  Here’s a link to schedule your call to discuss how to make it happen!