In this episode of the podcast Kay Bretz share’s his fascinating running journey. He grew up in Germany and attended boarding school in Scotland when he was 16/17 years old, it was here that he discovered he loved running in the Scottish hills! He ran marathons through university and found it a great way to balance life and stay focused.
However, once Kay started work as a business consultant, he found he was travelling around the world and running consistently became too hard, so he let it go for a few years.
In 2011, his work took him to Melbourne to live and his work schedule changed. This was when he realised that he still had unfinished business in the marathon world - namely that he wanted to get below 3 hours for a marathon. He knew to do that he would need to train consistently - he did it and enjoyed it. Running became his new lifestyle.
In 2015 Kay went from marathon running to ultra running - he says to give his life more balance. He took on a mentor when he realised that always chasing another marathon personal best was becoming very stressful for him. His mentor picked up that Kay had an obsessive type personality and needed to “let go” a little. He prescribed a mystery run with a friend and when his friend turned right instead of left as Kay had ALWAYS done when heading out for a training run, a light bulb when off. Kay had taken the some of the joy out of his running by always wanting to control/obsessive over his training. The next for him was to sign up for a trail ultra rather than his usual controllable city marathon! He now loves jumping into ultra distance events and has represented Australia across the globe.
What Kay has learnt from these new choices (and mindset) has lead him to writing a book called Turning Right - Inspire the Magic (see the link below) which he uses in his consulting business.
Kay’s website - https://turningright.com/
Kay’s book “Turning Right - Inspire the Magic - https://purerunning.com.au/product/13528/
*I’ve listened to an audio version of this book and I can’t recommend it highly enough if you want to master your inner game - its awesome!
Kay’s Tips - Don’t over do it too quickly too early, your body needs time to adapt, own body weight strength exercises.