Jeddah Running

Have you ever been to Jeddah? If not, should you ever get the chance, you should go, and I want to give you some reasons as to why. Hi my name is Heiko, welcome to Advanced Endurance Coaching, the show where I share with you a passion for running and hands on mental training that is practical and useable. I am all about spreading the word on how to actually train your brain to help you become a stronger better runner. It is no secret, that as a runner over 40 you need to rethink your approach towards your run training, and events. No reason to think because you have crossed that imaginary line you are now doomed to be an old slow middle of the pack runner. I have trained many a runner over 40 who still achieved his dream distance, or her personal best. You see, it is a matter of attitude. Depending on the attitude you will find ways, to dedicate time to not only train your body but also your brain. Of course, the basis is always that as a runner you need to go out and actually run. During my career in international sales, I was fortunate to travel to some many different countries and cities all over the world. Places I would never have been to as a tourist. And always I would take my running kit with me. I forgot it once… and what a enjoyable experience it was. You know why… first I wanted to get mad. Blame someone… which wasn’t a good option because I was the one who forgot to pack the running ger. Anyway, as luck would have it there was a NIKE outlet just 5 minute from my hotel. Well guess who had valid excuse to go and buy some fancy running gear. Ha, talk about stroke of luck. Whether I went on a short overnight trip or a longer assignment. It is a part of my routine to get up very early and go for a run. Exploring a new city, a suburb. Of course, running in an unknown city means sometimes you head off towards a completely wrong direction. I have ended up in a industrial area, commercial district, sometimes I even had a stray dog join me for a few blocks. Sometimes stray dogs looked at me hungrily. Sometimes I would be running along a main road, full of traffic, congested, pollution, not nice, only to discover the next day a huge park a few miles down a side road. Especially on longer assignments, it gave me a great thrill to explore the city in the pre-rush hour stages of the early morning. Heading down main roads, with hardly any traffic, running past office towers, and every day exploring the sights and sounds. And this I especially enjoyed in Jeddah. What an original city… yes it has a modern business district district, but it has remained loyal to its roots, and even if you just go there for a short business trip… make time to explore the older parts of the city it will be worth your while. And of course, it’s so easy to plan a route, or find a suitable one. But before I tell you about the best running routes, and how to plan your run, let me tell you that I needed to change my mindset in order to be able to train running in the heat. Jeddah is Hot and Humid, and travelling from Europe where the day before it might have been 8 or 10 degrees, requires a different mindset. Otherwise you will end up doing pity party runs’, which are not really effective training sessions. What I did was use a simple hypnotic script, a routine to stay mentally strong. Because so much fake news is out there regarding running in the heat, or living in Saudi… so what I enjoy doing is building confidence. As a matter of habit. I mean confidence like anything if you don’t train it, you will lose it. I and most athletes I train agree that I need that feeling that no matter what happens, I can learn and adapt to a specific situation. But I will tell you more about that later, let me get to the running part.