What is Mind Over Mileage: Sport Psychology for Runners?
We want to redefine your relationship with your mind and transform your running and exercise experience.
Join us for the on-line workshop series – Mind over Mileage: Sport Psychology for Runners and Exercisers - led by Olivia Garrod, designed specifically for people like you! Discover psychological strategies to set you up for race-day success, whether that be challenging yourself to try something new, completing the event, achieving a PB, or everything in between.
What’s this about then?
In this series, Olivia will guide you through how to develop a more effective relationship with your thoughts and feelings. You’ll discover that by redefining this relationship, you can enhance your overall experience in sport and exercise, paving the way for fulfilment on and off the trails. Learn how to work with your brain, not against it, manage pre-race worries, drop the struggle with those uncomfortable thoughts and feelings, appreciate multiple measures of success, and make the event day a valuable, meaningful one.
Put simply, we want to help you before, during and after the event.
Why are you doing this?
I have so many conversations with runners before, during and after our events about their anxiety and fears going in to or during events..
I obviously chat with them from my own experience, but I’m a former bank manager with a Zoology degree… it’s not my speciality! Olivia is a professional who can help those who might not even think of themselves as a “runner” to those at the elite end of performance. It fits in to the Big Bear philosophy of enjoying your running and removing as many barriers as possible to make that a reality.
So if you fit in to that spectrum (you do!) then I’m hoping there will be some real golden nuggets of information in these online workshops for you to take away (from the comfort of your home!)
What is the idea for this specific on-line workshop?
Evening 3 - After the finsh line - Reflection for growth will help you after your event. The idea is to help you learn from the experience you just had (whether it went to plan or not) and to help you move on to the next goal. This is a much underutilised area of performance and joy, so there will be something for everyone in this!
Who is Olivia Garrod?
Olivia is a Sport and Exercise Psychologist… oh and a runner! Olivia supports athletes and exercisers to work with their brains not against them. As an endurance runner, she understands the specific psychological challenges of running (from personal experience) and, as a psychologist, she understands the techniques that can help.
Olivia holds a Master's Degree in Sport and Exercise Psychology and a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology from Loughborough University. Currently, Olivia is 'in-training', undertaking her supervised practice with The British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences towards HCPC registration.
Olivia is the current Sport Psychologist for Loughborough lightning Wheelchair Basketball, a women's premier league team. She also works as a practitioner within England Touch Rugby, supporting the team in their preparations for tournaments, including both the Euros and World Cup.
Within her private practice, Olivia works with both athletes and exercisers from recreational to elite level, providing personalised, 1-1 support. Olivia also supports parents to help their children navigate the psychological challenges of being a young athlete. Outside of being a practitioner, Olivia is also a researcher, dedicated to furthering the understanding, and practice, of child and adult safeguarding in sport
What does it cost?
Free!!
Places are limited though so you’ll need to sign up to ensure you can grab your space in the room! I’ll send out joining instructions the week before the event. If you’re not on the list you’re not getting in!
What is the format?
This isn’t meant to be a lecture where you sit in silence and listen. It’s also not going to be a full on discussion (we want to learn from the expert!). The plan is for there to be information from Olivia, based around peer-reviewed science and her experiences with teams and individuals and then to have some questions, answers and discussion at the end.
How will I connect?
We’ll be using Microsoft Teams for the series. We’ll send a link out to you a week before and on the day. You don’t need to be tech savvy, just click the link on your phone, tablet or computer.
We’ll be starting at 19:00 each evening so give yourself a few minutes to log in but you don’t need to have any accounts etc. to join!
I’m not super fast or elite, is it for me?
Yes!! These workshops aren’t meant to be preparing you for the Olympics! They’re designed to help everyone enjoy and get more out of their running and exercising. They’re designed to help you with your next marathon, parkrun or maybe even your next Big Bear event…!
How long will the workshop last?
We’ll start promptly at 19:00 and expect to be done before 60 minutes. Of course depending on how many questions there are the timings may change a little.
Can I watch it after?
The short answer is no! We’ll try and clip some of the best bits and a recording will be available for members of the Big Bear Brigade but if you want to get all the insights join the waiting list!
Have these evenings been held before?
Nope! This is something new for us here at Big Bear. If it works we’ll look to do more!
I don’t really like on-line/ zoom things…
Fair enough! It’s not for everyone but watch this space as we may have an in-person version where you’ll be in a top place to quench your first at the time… Join the VIB mailing list to be the first to find out!
How could I contact Olivia before or after?
You can email Olivia here
