Coach Jen, Author at Not Your Average Runner

June 19, 2019 By Coach Jen

My Heart Is Full (and my quads are sore AF!)

I just got back from five days in Seattle with the most amazing group of badass rebel runners. We ate, we drank, we laughed, I cried (I always end up crying), and we ran the Rock ‘N’ Roll half marathon on the hardest race course I’ve ever been on. Those Seattle hills are no joke. […]

June 12, 2019 By Coach Jen

Creating a Morning Routine

For the last 10 years, I’ve been trying to be a “morning person.” I always wanted to be one of those people who pops out of bed at 5:00 a.m., works out, challenges my brain, meditates, and sneaks in a little yoga all before I have to get ready and go to work. Whew, that […]

June 5, 2019 By Coach Jen

Consistency Is Key

Remember last week’s post when I so smugly claimed that running alone and being one with my mind was bliss? Well, my brain was like, “Hold my beer.” Negativity breeds discontent It started with a small medical issue I was having that was keeping me from running or working out. And completely forgetting that consistency […]

May 29, 2019 By Coach Jen

Find Your People

One of my favorite things about running is the running community, especially our community of Rebel Runners in Run Your Best Life. Being part of a team of amazing woman who are working their asses off to be the best versions of themselves is such an inspiration to me. Since I started back to running […]

May 22, 2019 By Coach Jen

Strength Training for Runners

I love strength training. We talk a lot about it in the Run Your Best Life group and there’s so much angst about the topic. “How much strength training should I do?” ”What do I do?” “Why do I need to do it?” What I focus on But just like getting the training runs in, […]

May 15, 2019 By Coach Jen

Finding Motivation to Keep Going

A couple of weeks ago, I made a promise to myself that, no matter what, I would do ALL of my training runs leading up to the Seattle Rock ‘N’ Roll Half Marathon. NO. MATTER. WHAT. And I’ve been sticking to it, even with some struggles. Mostly around finding motivation. I decided to drive to […]

May 8, 2019 By Coach Jen

Finding the Joy!

One of the habits I’ve cultivated to help live my best life is part of my daily journaling process. Doing a daily review each night and answering the following questions helps me keep finding the joy in my habits: What went well today? What did I learn today? How do I want to feel tomorrow? […]

May 1, 2019 By Coach Jen

Feeling “Meh”

I was feeling “Meh” about my training plan this week. I wasn’t excited about it. I wasn’t dreading it. I wasn’t really feeling anything but ambivalence. But ambivalence is a feeling, so there had to be a thought behind it, right? So I set to work figuring out what I was thinking that was causing […]

April 24, 2019 By Coach Jen

Quit the Negative Self-Talk

Negative self-talk destroys your motivation and keeps you from meeting your goals. I put myself to a little test last weekend. I ran a beautiful 5K on the Chicago lakefront and challenged myself to change my intervals a bit to see if it made a difference in my pace. During the race I went from […]

April 17, 2019 By Coach Jen

Learning from Failure

I’m failing at everything. Well, that’s what I’ve been telling myself lately and guess what? That sucks. Even though I am a Not Your Average Runner Coach, I still need coaching myself (so. much. coaching.). That’s what I realized when Jill coached me the other day on my thoughts creating my results. You see, I […]