The Focused Mind Podcast
focusedmindcoaching
Recent Episodes
In this mini episode, Sport and Performance Psychologist Stu Holliday answers the question: Why should everyone know about the Valencia marathon? And the second question... and why should they care?!
Whether you are a runner or not, this event is unique in the World of endurance sport and in the imaginations of the organisers. They put themselves in a different place to nearly all other marathon planners in so far of their aims to make the race 'The Everest of Marathons' for all runners. But what does that mean? Why does it take the effort of the city and regional council to support these aims and what, fundamentally, does it mean in relation to how our environment massively influences our thinking, how we behave and what implications that has for performance in life (across all domains!). I believe that the story of what the organisers of the Valencia marathon have done to elevate this small (in size standards) city in relation to elite sport, aiming to facilitate World Records, and creating a destination event has lessons that we can all use to understand how the environment in which we want to perform can have a huge influence on outcome. Dive in to find out more!
Show links:
James Moles is an athlete and run coach with his own company (https://www.jamesmolesrunningcoaching.com/)
James Power of 10 performance page: https://www.thepowerof10.info/athletes/profile.aspx?athleteid=324086
Lewis Moses is the MD of New Levels Coaching - The UK's largest run coaching company.
Lewia Power of 10 performance page:
https://www.thepowerof10.info/athletes/profile.aspx?athleteid=6495
Articles cited in episode:
Let's Run 'How did Valencia become the ciudad del running?' https://www.letsrun.com/news/2022/12/how-valencia-became-the-ciudad-del-running/
Running Magazine Canada: https://runningmagazine.ca/sections/runs-races/valencia-marathon-sees-record-number-of-sub-three-hour-finishers/
Nick Steel is both a rowing and executive coach in sport and business respectively. Having had a career in the energy sector all over the World, he dug into his love of rowing to set himself up on his return to the UK providing rowing training to all levels of ability.
Last year he was selected as the rowing coach for Team UK at the Invictus Games in Dusseldorf (and again for Invictus 2025 in Canada). At the 2023 games we roomed together and shared many hours talking coaching, psychology, sport.
As you’ll hear in this episode, Nick is articulate dispelling myths about the sport, about his work on the board of Love Rowing, which tries to bring rowing to all, as well as his reflections on the demands of the sport, the mental capacity needed, and skills required to be your best in the discipline.
As I tend to work in the Endurance field, it was a conversation taking me out of my comfort zone. I hope that you can also be open to hearing about the mindset required for a sport that you may not know much about, have a passing interest in, or be a passionate enthusiast for. We hope that you enjoy the first show to kick-start to our new series.
Links:
Nick Steel LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-steel-a3992013/ Love Rowing: https://loverowing.org/
Hugh Jackman talking about rowing (Tim Ferris show):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzF8StNS_aw (at about 1:19:10)
Following on from previous guest Chris Madden (Episode 20), we wanted to bring the head of MITC (https://musicindustrytherapists.com/), Tamsin Embleton on to have a more in-depth discussion on the work we do in the music industry supporting artists, staff, and crew in person, virtually, at festivals, and how needed the work of caring professionals is a necessity in this modern day and age.
Tamsin gives us her background working for the likes of Anna Calvi and Standon Calling, and a bit about her working practice and style of work. This episode is aimed at anyone in the music industry, music fans, the psych curious, or who wants to know how their favourite bands, labels, or artists may have people like us supporting them.
We talk more in-depth about our respective training, how we got into the industry, and the importance of our own self-care and emotional management, working in an industry renowned for pushing its employees' work hours, sleep patterns, and overall well-being (which is all covered in more detail in Tamsin's book 'The Touring Manual').
As you'll hear, this was a fun episode for us to have the time and space to connect and share what we do behind the scenes to support other people as a group of practitioners. We hope you enjoy it.
Links:
Jonah Hill Stutz documentary:
https://www.netflix.com/title/81387962
MITC (Music Industry Therapy Collective: https://musicindustrytherapists.com/
The Touring Manual: https://www.touringmanual.com/
Chris Madden, Psychotherapist: https://chrismaddentherapy.com/
Stuart Holliday, Psychologist: https://www.focusedmindcoaching.co.uk/
Sean Warburton (@seanaldo26.2) is a Manchester-based runner and podcaster (The Local Runners), who has completed 38 marathons, and holds a PR of 2 hours, 38 minutes. In this 3rd episode of the mini-series on Autumn marathon, we turn the spotlight on how to cope if you get injured in the build-up to your main race of the year. How can you mentally cope better, to improve both your overall well-being, and how you come out of the injury into your next training block?
What tips, techniques, and strategies has Sean applied to help him overcome missing out on training for this coming weekend's Berlin Marathon and instead focusing on coming back stronger for a Spring marathon next year? How has his psychological training skills that helped him PB twice in succession (in his 37th and 38th marathons!) transfer to the injury rehab process? Listen in to find out how.
Podcast & Book links for listeners:
The Local Runners podcast episode 46 (where I guested): https://open.spotify.com/episode/6buasVtVpb1ejzj3izxnCt?si=40c7f186940f4085
The Strength Running Podcast by Jason Fitzgerald
Endure by Alex Hutchinson.
The Comeback Quotient by Matt Fitzgerald