Everfit Athlete Expectations

These are my expectations of an athlete when I take them on for coaching. I've learnt as a coach the programme will only be successful if the athlete maximises the chance for adaptation with good daily habits and a growth (willing to learn) mindset.

1.Understand the importance of taking ownership of your training plan.

Taking ownership means helping me plan sessions and race goals that fit with your life, and excite you!  When you blend training with your life, balance will be maintained with your authentic roles, and JOY will be enhanced. If JOY is central to your schedule then it's sustainable.  Record on the platform when sessions are completed, filling in how you felt about the session, and any learning's gleamed (If you are synced with STRAVA then the basic time, pace, and HR data will be recorded). This allows us to track progress and adjust to make the best gains possible. Communication with your family is also imperative. This means your loved ones are aware of how the training plan fits. Remember "happy wife/husband/partner happy life" (Check out my article on RELATIONSHIPS - https://everfit.co.nz/articles/the-wholistic-runner-part-4-relationships)

- Please get in touch immediately if illness, injury or niggles arise so we can adjust and plan to train around it. I also expect you to get in touch if something doesn’t make sense to you.

- If you want to move a session, use your PC and drag and drop on the day you want to complete it. You can't do this on your phone.

2.Wholefood Nutrition - Plan your meals ahead of time, align portion sizes with activity , and drink water.

Planning what you'll eat, and scheduling when (depending on training sessions) decreases the likelihood of eating whatever is around because you’re hungry. You save money and waste less food as well as increase the success of meeting your nutritional needs with real whole food. Try and move towards a whole-food plant based diet. Stay away from highly processed nutritionally poor food, and if you choose to eat meat the portions should be less than 150g and be optimal quality (eliminate processed meat). Many countries around the world (e.g USA, Canada, and the UK) are promoting plant protein before meat with meat 1-2 x a week (check out my article on PLANT BASED eating - https://everfit.co.nz/articles/wholistic-runner-part-3)

3. Take no notice of negative self-talk and the “haters”. 

As long as you keep taking daily positive action, strive for balance, and treating yourself with kindness, anxiety and stress levels will decrease. Replace any negative talk with positive dialogue. Learn to be GRATEFUL. There will be haters in everything you say, do, and believe in your life. Learning to accept that they are entitled to their opinions but they have no bearing on your life is the only way you'll reach your life goals. On this note NEVER feel guilty for missing a session due to other more important things cropping up (family and work). If you are just “slack” and miss a session, admit it,  don’t dwell on it. Endeavour to make the most of the rest of the week.
 
4. Schedule time to de-stress and relax with restorative sessions e.g Yoga, Pilates, Meditation, flexibility work. 

Stress is the biggest saboteur of absorbing training. When you are under excessive stress, your body kicks into emergency mode and releases excessive cortisol (the stress hormone). You body goes into “fight or flight”, and it's more likely you procrastinate. This depletes your adrenals and your energy levels as well as hinders proper digestion and your immune system. This will ultimately sabotage your ability to absorb and recover from training sessions. You need to recognise when you are under stress and get in touch so we can adjust the training load so it is a complimentary stress not adding negatively to your stress levels. I find swimming, yoga, and meditation are great restorative sessions to compliment my running training (check out my article on MEDITATION and YOGA - https://everfit.co.nz/articles/the-wholistic-runner-part-1)

5. Sleep at least 7.5 hours a night (getting up to 9-10 after BIG training days). 

When you don't have long enough quality sleep, your body again releases excess cortisol into your bloodstream. This derails all the efforts that you make in your specific training, and increases the chance of injury. Plus, when you're tired, you're less likely to make good decisions during the next day, you’ve grouchy which creates a negative impact on those around you (check out my article on SLEEP - https://everfit.co.nz/articles/wholistic-runner-part-2-sleep)

 6. Be consistent in all your enhancing HABITS, be honest, and authentic.

This is the number one factor that will get you to any goal—small, consistent actions. We tend to treat everyone else better than we treat ourselves and our body. The biggest impact you can have on achieving your life and training goals is to commit to yourself, strive for overall balance and be consistent, become a better version of you so you can then reach higher and higher levels in all aspects of your life. Strive to be EVERFIT! (check out my article on HABITS - https://everfit.co.nz/articles/habits-trigger-behaviour-reward)

7. Payments & Communication

Everyone will have different ways to communicate. We will come up with the most streamlines method including using only ONE platform (choose between text, FB messenger, WhatsApp, Instagram etc) Joining STRAVA will give me more feedback as this can be linked with the platform.  Please set up an automatic payment to cover the weeks planned on the platform. The three levels are as follows....

PREMIUM COACHING - $35/wk :  this is for athletes that are building towards specific events with maximum oversight with EVERY session completed generating an email to me. This can be up to 3 x a day.  I expect good feedback so I am able to follow your progress and give helpful feedback when required. Catch ups are $15 face to face or via zoom (up to 40min) and can be every 3,4 or 6 weeks.

WELLNESS COACHING - $21/wk : this is minimal oversight with checking your weeks progress 2-3 x during the week. I won't offer feedback unless you contact me with a specific question. Catch ups are every 4-6 weeks, $25 face to face, and $15 via zoom (up to 20min)

ON HOLD - $1/wk : when you don't require set training but would like to keep access to the Training Tilt app, and keep in the loop with the emails then we can put your training on hold. 

There is no locked in contract. You are able to move between the 3 levels with 2 weeks notice. Payment is to be paid up to the end of any planned training weeks (this will be between 4 - 6 weeks) 

Participating in the Tarawera 60km - Running in a forest eating fruit, what more could you wish for?