Trusting, patience and running for Australia with Julian Spence.
Julian Spence came late to his running career but endured patience and trust and ran for Australia in the Marathon and continues to bust through his glass ceilings and goals.
About Julian
Julian is the founder of Runstrong Online Coaching. He is an elite marathon runner who represented Australia at the World Athletics Championships in Doha in 2019. He began running in 2009 using the reverse progression method of beginning with a marathon. The next few years were then riddled with injury until managing to string some consistency around 2017 when he ran the Berlin Marathon in 2:18. Since then his marathon PR has progressed to 2:14 (Lake Biwa, 2019).
Julian inadvertently started coaching his friends, which then developed to him coaching athletes across a wide range of disciplines such as Couch 2-5k, track, XC, road racing, trail and ultramarathon running.
Julian owns a running store (The Running Company Ballarat) with his partner Bri, coaches athletes, is a race director, and a co-host of the Inside Running Podcast.
“I didn’t want to be mediocre at anything, I wanted to be amazing at one thing.”
In the episode...
Julian’s goal this year was to compete in the Marathon at the 2020 Olympics in Toyko
How Julian became interested in running.
Where the inspiration came from to start running marathons.
Julian had always felt he was going to be ‘good’ at one thing, and for so long he claimed to never finish anything.
Julian had a passion and patience spanning over 10 years to accomplish his initial running goals.
After being riddled with injury and impatience Julian finally found how to string together some quality years of training to smash through his glass ceiling.
Julian explains how you suffer mentally for a long time when running a marathon.
The mental conditioning workouts that Julian does to train his mind to prepare for races.
Why you have to practice being mentally uncomfortable.
Why Julian takes his watch off when he is running.
Running for Australia was never ‘a dream’ because Julian came to running so late but he describes it as a magic experience.
Julian describes the amazing running culture in Japan.
Why trust and patience is the key to Julian’s success.
The calming thoughts Julian had the morning before the race where he levelled up into a different class of running.
How Julian used trust and patience when building his business.
The impact of coronavirus at the peak of Julian’s career when he was training for the Olympics 2020.
Why Julian continues to seek out travels and adventures…it simply is an innate feeling.
“Training mentally for a marathon is about becoming comfortable with being uncomfortable.”
