TRANSCRIPT 🔗
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Okay, everyone, let's rip in. Yeah, let's get this rocket launched.
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My name is Murray Stewart, and I am your presenter and host, and it's episode 1,700.
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Would you believe it? 1,700.
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It's blind magic in Alice Springs. Running. Yeah, running. It's my passion.
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And it has been for almost 50 years.
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More particularly, middle distance running is my passion, even though as a competitor,
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I started as a sprint, if I can say, be as bold as to say, champion.
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Yeah, I was, I was a good one.
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I was a good sprinter. I was, I was, but I grew to love middle distance running.
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Representing Australia at the
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Southeast Pacific Paralympic level in both the 800 and the 1500 metres.
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And I have grown to love the craft of middle distance running.
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And so now, as a coach, I am building that craft with my chargers, with my athletes.
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And so what is an important ingredient that a middle-distance runner must have?
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Well, alongside supreme fitness, you must also have a supreme mind and remarkable resilience.
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Because as I explain to my charges, at some stage in every middle-distance event, it's going to hurt.
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It's going to hurt real bad.
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So you might as well prepare yourself for that fact right at the get-go.
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Here right at the get-go during your training drills, which is why I coach mental resilience. I do.
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Now, I do put them under pressure, under mental pressure, so as that when they're
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in the heat of the battle,
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they can deal with that mental pressure by exercising the power of resilience
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that they would have learnt through their training drills.
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I also teach.
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Having control over your mind. Yes, having control over your mind.
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And that comes from understanding how your brain works.
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Yeah, the power of the mind. Because I'll tell you something now,
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you can be supremely fit,
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but if you don't exercise the power of your mind, then maybe,
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just maybe, that supreme fitness will just be that.
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It won't be able to be used in a manner which will make you an elite runner
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at the highest level capable of winning.
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Yeah,
Load full transcript
that's right, capable of winning.
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So let me give you an example. Today, I will be down at the Oval with one of
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my wonderful runners who I have coined a name for him, Supercat.
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Yeah, that's right, Supercat, because that's how he sounds when he runs, just like a Jaguar.
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And he today will be doing a two-kilometer time trial.
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It's been raining here in Central Australia, and so there has been a disruption to his program.
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So two days in a row, I have challenged him to wake his mind and body up,
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prevent mental lethargy,
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and let's get back to the track with two sessions alongside of one another designed to do exactly that.
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Get him going. Prevent lethargy.
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So, yesterday there was a lot to like.
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The sound of his footfall was beautiful.
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The sound of his breathing was rhythmic.
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Yeah, he made beautiful music when he was running yesterday,
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but there's still room for improvement.
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Yeah, he switched off just a little.
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In the fourth lap, and when you're talking about two kilometer running,
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there's five laps of 400 meters, which of course makes it two kilometers.
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You work it out. Five fours are, yeah, that's right, 20, which in terms of athletics,
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five lots of 400 make Two kilometers, yeah?
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2,000 meters, which is to two kilometers. Anyway, let's get back to what I was talking about.
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So today, I want Supercat to engage his mind because although there was a lot
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to like about yesterday.
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Today it's about gunning for it, really gunning for it and getting himself a
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really, really good time over distance.
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So I'm going to get him to engage his mind in very positive thoughts.
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The first lap, I want him to be powerful.
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Actually, I want him to be strong, my apologies. I want him to get off to a strong start.
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Maybe at about 80%. And I've taught him to understand where his hands need to
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be and what rhythm he needs to be running at to be at 80%.
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So I do, I want him to go out strong at 80%. The second lap, I want him to relax.
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And so if he's relaxed, he can fall into that beautiful rhythm that once again he's been,
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trained for through his cadence rhythm training that we have had him do.
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He's doing that a couple of times a week.
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And the third lap, I want him to be powerful because by the third lap is when,
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negative thoughts can start getting into your head.
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So he needs to think in a powerful way, in a positive way, in order to keep
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it all together, the breathing, the footfall, the rhythm, the everything.
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And by the time the fourth lap comes, that's when the negative thoughts can
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really start jumping onto his shoulder.
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So that's when I want him to think that he is unstoppable.
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Yeah, unstoppable.
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Think that way and you will be that way because it's during that second last
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lap in a two kilometer time trial that you can lose focus.
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You can become negative and you can sometimes even throw the towel in.
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That's not going to be Supercat today.
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And in the fifth and last lap, yeah, with 400 meters to go, I want him to know one thing.
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I want him to focus on being unbeatable. That's right, unbeatable.
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Because in middle distance running, the one thing you've got to be is very, very hard to beat.
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You've got to make it almost impossible for someone to overcome you.
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And if you are in that mindset, not only can you prevent all comers from beating
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you, You might even do them some damage. You might even win.
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Yeah, that's right. You might even win.
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But the first and foremost thing
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you need to do is to ensure that you're very, very difficult to beat.
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So, yes, that last lap today, I'm going to tell him to practice being unbeatable.
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Bring it home. Bring it home.
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And have all of those positive thoughts come together in a maximal crescendo, a maximal crescendo.
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Okay, folks, this has been, and it always will be, episode 1700,
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a Blind Magic Communications production.