Everyday Runners

Hey! 
Igor Ouwerkerk, is a Leiden Atletiek athlete currently based at Iona University in the States. He's got PBs of 3:45 for the 1500m, 8:08 for the 3000m and 4:13 for the mile. He trains intensely and loves racing. Igor has had to deal with a few injury issues over the last couple of years but now is now 'on the other side'. He's back in NL for the summer season and perhaps a small vacation, so I took the chance to catch up with him. 
Relevant Links
Andy Fuller/Reading Sideways Press
Strava: Andy Fuller
Instagram: Everyday Runners Leiden
Email: everydayrunnerspodcast@gmail.com
Support the Podcast via Buy me a Coffee
Music by Jeroen Rondeel of Cymbaline 
 

Hey! 
I chat with two of the guys I'm lucky to coach. Gianluca and Frederik share their different approaches to racing and what they seek to get out of their 10 van Noordwijk 10km. Gianluca is letting go of the numbers and believing in the process. Frederik is fired up after a strong showing at the BIG5 and is confident he can deliver the goods on Sunday morning. 
'Coaching' these guys is a lot of fun. But our relationship is multifaceted. I do my best to support them in their running and share what I can with them. Of course, it's a process: listening, sharing, trying something new out. Collaborating.  
If you would also like to join the steadily-building Team EDR, let me know. 
Relevant Links
Andy Fuller/Reading Sideways Press
Strava: Andy Fuller
Instagram: Everyday Runners Leiden
Email: everydayrunnerspodcast@gmail.com
Support the Podcast via Buy me a Coffee
Music by Jeroen Rondeel of Cymbaline 
 

Hello! 
In this episode I discuss ideas and theories around 'play', 'games' and gamification with Emanuel Hurych from Masaryk University in Czechia. 
What does it mean to 'play'? Is play a part of running? What changes when running becomes gamified and how is this related to running technologies? 
Emanuel and I also spoke, of course, about the great Emil Zatopek. 
Thank you to the latest supporters of this podcast, who have contributed via the Buy Me A Coffee Platform: Levi, René & Kester :) 
 
Relevant Links
Andy Fuller/Reading Sideways Press
Strava: Andy Fuller
Instagram: Everyday Runners Leiden
Email: everydayrunnerspodcast@gmail.com
Support the Podcast via Buy me a Coffee
Music by Jeroen Rondeel of Cymbaline 
 

"I tried, I died". I set off at PB pace at the BIG5. It didn't pay off.
This episode doesn't relive the gory details. I find it rather tiresome to listen to runners/athletes who give intricate details about 'why and how things went wrong'. It's a case of being wise-after-the-fact. Just suck it up and move on.
I went out at an unsustainable pace. I (metaphorically) blew up. It's really not more complicated than that. Fortunately, I didn't literally blow up. I live to fight another day as a human and as a runner. 
So, this episode features my pre-race thoughts and my post-race thoughts. This is an effort at holding myself to be accountable to how I think about my racing/running.
The beginning of the episode mentions my Book Project and I also give some shout outs to the athletes who I coach and who have been performing well - Ricardo, Gianluca, Frederik and Giulia :)  
Thank you to Levi, René & Kester for your support for Everyday Runners (book project) via the Buy Me A Coffee Platform. 
 
Relevant Links
Andy Fuller/Reading Sideways Press
Strava: Andy Fuller
Instagram: Everyday Runners Leiden
Email: everydayrunnerspodcast@gmail.com
Support the Podcast via Buy me a Coffee
Music by Jeroen Rondeel of Cymbaline 
 

Hey!
Learoy's from South Africa, I'm from Australia, Emma's from England. We have all maintained relationships with our coaches since moving to the Netherlands. We have all slightly different backgrounds and experiences with running prior to being based at Leiden Atletiek. We're all somewhat competitive and somewhat recreational. We do it for the LOL and for pushing ourselves. Sometimes more at one end of the spectrum; other times at the other end. 
We share our thoughts on what is 'different' about running culture in the Netherlands. And, we also share some thoughts about our favourite or 'best' race performances. 
I hope you enjoy this show :) 
Andy
Relevant Links
Andy Fuller/Reading Sideways Press
Strava: Andy Fuller
Instagram: Everyday Runners Leiden
Email: everydayrunnerspodcast@gmail.com
Support the Podcast via Buy me a Coffee
Music by Jeroen Rondeel of Cymbaline 
 

Hey! Welcome back to EDR. 
What does it take to make the best running apparel? Why do so? Is it worth the price tag? 
I had a lovely conversation with Rob Wilson of SOAR Running which is based in London but is distributed globally. It feels like a 'medium sized' boutique, top-end brand. SOAR is strongly connected with its local running communities and sponsors 'sub-elite' athletes. (I often feel awkward using this term because sub-elite athletes are above 99% of us recreational runners/joggers.)
SOAR is hosting an EDR-Reading Sideways Press event on Thursday 25th June - where will be discussing 're-writing the running handbook' - featuring Manolo Pierson and Lindsey A Freeman. So, if you are in London, or know someone who is, let them know about it :) 
I hope your running is going well. Tot snel! 
Relevant Links
Andy Fuller/Reading Sideways Press
Strava: Andy Fuller
Instagram: Everyday Runners Leiden
Email: everydayrunnerspodcast@gmail.com
Support the Podcast via Buy me a Coffee
Music by Jeroen Rondeel of Cymbaline 
 

"Wind extinguishes a candle and energises fire." Nassim Nicholas Taleb
One of the things that gets on my nerves in running culture is the number of excuses that many of us - myself included of course - can come up with for underperforming in a race. I know that I have struggled at times in the wind, the heat, the cold, and I reckon I’m not that great at hills. If I did a race on a perfect course, at the perfect temperature with no wind, I reckon that I could still find something to complain about: ‘the race didn’t have good vibes’, ‘there wasn’t enough good competition’, ‘I hadn’t trained for it specifically’. And so on. I wonder why we tell ourselves these stories. 
This is not to say that I don’t believe that conditions or circumstances or training don’t make a difference on one’s race day performance. My point is that perhaps they shouldn’t be the dominant part of the narrative we repeat to ourselves or to others. I would hope that the conditions of the race ‘create the kind of race’ that one is going to run. Each race is different - even if it looks the same in terms of distance. Each race presents its own challenges and opportunities. We can learn to run with the conditions of the day to make the most of it for ourselves. And that is why I encourage the athletes that I coach to see races as something exploratory and creative rather than as a strictly evenly-paced time trial - even though that might work in some circumstances. 
***
I have recently been reading some books by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, who is best known for his book, The Black Swan, which ironically, I haven’t read. I’m currently leading his very weighty book, Antiffragile, and this is where my idea about ‘antifragile running’ comes from. The subheading of the book is ‘things that gain from disorder’. Taleb, who has what he calls ‘fuck you’ wealth, is incredibly well-read and learned and reads the classical languages. He classifies things and practices or ideas into three categories (but mainly two) - fragile-robust-antifragile. Fragile being what breaks under light-stress, robust which breaks under harder-stress, and antifragile which actually profits, benefits, gains from the stress. His book, which is a kind of ‘ethics’ - a kind of guide to living the good life: the lessons in his book are applicable in all sorts of directions - and thus I can’t help but linking his thinking to ‘running’. 
Relevant Links
Andy Fuller/Reading Sideways Press
Strava: Andy Fuller
Instagram: Everyday Runners Leiden
Email: everydayrunnerspodcast@gmail.com
Support the Podcast via Buy me a Coffee
Music by Jeroen Rondeel of Cymbaline 
 
 
 

How do Kenyan athletes find themselves in Japan? What are the opportunities that training and being an athlete in Japan present to Kenyan athletes? How do Kenyan athletes capitalise on this experience? What are the difficulties they face and how do they manage the expectations placed on them back home? 
I had a wonderful conversation with the very engaging, very eloquent Mike Peters of Shizuoka University in Japan. We held the conversation over Zoom, but nonetheless, I felt like I was sitting down talking with a dear, long-term friend. Mike was very candid about his own route into academia and undertaking his innovative research. 
One of the terms Mike uses in this conversation is ‘maendeleo’, which is a Swahili term roughly meaning ‘progress’ or ‘development’. But of course, these translations don’t quite do it justice. Ideas of progress and development are highly contextualised. 
I also enjoyed talking with Mike about his work as an interpreter. And my impression is that this was part of his broadening of his ‘anthropological skill set’. So, this conversation was of my favourite kind: loosely structured, improvised, candid, and with lots of loosely interconnecting paths related to running (and researching). 
Finally: I’m starting to my book on ‘Playing Running’ for publication in 2027. I would love if you could help support me to fund some costs of this book. To be honest, I am looking for 50 Supporters. A contribution of 25euros will get you an Acknowledgement in the book and a free copy of the book.  The primary costs I need to cover are that of: Design and printing. If you enjoy listening to this podcast and believe that it is a worthy venture, I would greatly appreciate your support. <3<3<3
Relevant Links
Andy Fuller/Reading Sideways Press
Strava: Andy Fuller
Instagram: Everyday Runners Leiden
Email: everydayrunnerspodcast@gmail.com
Support the Podcast via Buy me a Coffee
Music by Jeroen Rondeel of Cymbaline 
 

Hello!
I have a theory that 'the quiet ones' always have a good story to tell. And so, I had long an interest in speaking with Levi for an episode on my podcast. Around the Club, he's not the most talkative guy. He lets his running do the talking. When I first met him, he was on his return to running after a long time doing other things. And, over these past three-to-four years, he's gone from around 17minutes for the 5km down to 15:20. (He admits that he's too scared to race against me at the 10km or half-marathon, though [laughing emoji]). 
Levi generously had me over to his house for a meal at his apartment in Den Haag. It was a beautiful sunny afternoon and we could hear the birds chirping while talking. He shared his experiences of different coaches, training as a youngster and now as an adult, doing a PhD, and of course, falling in love. 
And that's all for now.  Doei doei! 
Relevant Links
Andy Fuller/Reading Sideways Press
Strava: Andy Fuller
Instagram: Everyday Runners Leiden
Email: everydayrunnerspodcast@gmail.com
Support the Podcast via Buy me a Coffee
Music by Jeroen Rondeel of Cymbaline 
 

Hey! Hello! 
Some more reflections on running. 
Key point: running sometimes feels too serious. Let's make it look and feel more like playing and like a game, than something that is a little bit too close to work and something disciplined. 
Episode Overview: 
1) spring in NL
2) My week off
3) Actual good marathons to watch as a spectator. (but annoying negative commentary)
4) Playing; Games. Racing. 
5) Absorbing game strategies into racing. 
6) Outro & How to support the show. 
Relevant Links
Andy Fuller/Reading Sideways Press
Strava: Andy Fuller
Instagram: Everyday Runners Leiden
Email: everydayrunnerspodcast@gmail.com
Support the Podcast via Buy me a Coffee
Music by Jeroen Rondeel of Cymbaline