A Moment With Turia Pitt

And so began my obsession with Turia. I devoured that book and everything else Turia has written over the last 10 years.

She never ceases to inspire and motivate me.

Now I’m lucky enough to call her my mentor. We share a love of running & fitness and I recently had the opportunity to ask her 6 poignant questions about running. Take all in- there’s some real gems you won’t want to miss in here!‍

*You've become an inspiration to many through your journey. How did running become a part of your life?

I think it was just something I enjoyed doing as a kid. I was never really, really good at it, but I would enjoy going for along run. I found that as I got older, whenever I was stressed and overwhelmed or just had a lot of stuff on my plate or a lot of stuff going on in my life, I would go for a run and it would almost be like a therapy session for me. I knew that at the end of the run I would always feel just a bit better about myself, the world in which I lived and the problems that I faced. And so for me it’s always been a really great tool to help me with my physical health but also my mental health and emotional health.

 

*You talk a lot about motivation. How do you stay motivated when you don’t want to run?

I’ve got something really awesome that I talk about in my running group Run with Turia.

It’s called the “5 minute rule”.

The 5 minute rule is basically that I only have to do whatever it is for five minutes and if after five minutes I’m not feeling it, I can quit and I can come home. I think this rule is really effective because sometimes when we want to do something, whether that’s go for a 5 km run, going to the gym, working on a really challenging project- the thought of doing it is really quite daunting because it seems quite big. Going for a 30 minute run or 5 km run sounds really hard! It’s hard to get motivated for that! But if you tell yourself- ‘I’ll just go for five minutes’, it makes that bar a little bit lower and I think for me it becomes more compelling to want to go.

I also think the 5 minute rule is really good for women especially, because we might get in our head. So you might think- ‘I’m not feeling very motivated, I feel really lethargic, maybe I’m getting sick, but maybe I’m not.’ It gives you a really clear parameter to follow- ‘I’ll just go for five minutes, if I’m not feeling it after five minutes that’s a sign from my body that it needs to rest, it needs to eat chicken soup & it needs to watch Netflix.’ But if after five minutes I feel good and I’m kind of enjoying myself, then I give myself permission to keep going. That’s one of the things we talk about inside Run With Turia.

*I often hear bizarre ideas about running. What are some common misconceptions about running that you'd like to debunk?

I think mainly that running isn’t running at full speed. For sure that’s Usain Bolt and some of the good sprinters out there.

But running is also just a really slow, slow shuffle.

I always tell the runners inside Run with Turia- “there’s nothing wrong with going slow, if you feel like you’re out of breath and you’re getting a bit overwhelmed just give yourself permission to go a bit slower.”

Some of the runners say to me- “someone walking overtook me, so what’s the point in trying to run?” But I always say- walking and running are 2 different body patterns. If you want to learn how to run you need to practice that body pattern of running. If you practice it enough and give yourself a couple of weeks you will start to get better at it. I think that’s the main misconception. It’s OK to go slow!

*We’re all beginners at some point, right?! What advice can you give to someone starting their running journey?

Give yourself permission to be a beginner! So often we expect ourselves to be really good at stuff straight away and when we’re not, because maybe we haven’t done it before or maybe we haven’t done it in decades, it can be really demoralizing. But if at the outset you acknowledge that it might be something you’re new to-

It’s ok to be a beginner, it’s ok to start somewhere.

If you go in with that approach and mindset it’s more gentle and more compassionate to yourself.

*Clearly you’re in this game for the long haul. What do you hope to achieve from running?

I think that’s changed a lot. In the past I trained for really big events. But I think now that I’m a mum, it’s more me time. It’s how I get time and space and perspective during my day.

I know I can leave the house, go for a run and I’ll always feel better and calmer and I’ll feel less stressed, less overwhelmed.

 *You’ve ‘been there, done that when it comes to running. What is your best running experience?

You know I’ve never had a great running experience during a race! But I’ve had moments during a long run where I feel this sense of euphoria and a sense of effortlessness. But that doesn’t always last! Maybe it lasts 10 minutes and then maybe after that I’ll hit the next phase of running and just totally hate it and want to finish and want to quit. But I think there’s a sense of joy and effortlessness and feeling unweighted by the world, and that’s just usually when I’m out running by myself and thinking.

Thank you so, so much for taking the time to chat to the Stefitness community Turia! This means the world to us!

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So many of Turia’s tips and tricks have proven helpful to me over the years. Take all you can from these wise words here- they actually work!

Follow Turia on Instagram @turiapitt

Visit her website turiapitt.com

‍_{Photo Credit- Andy Baker & ABC News}