#182 - John O’Regan
John O’Regan - International ultrarunner, Martial artist and Running coach
This episode was brought to you by Hauora - a performance wellbeing growth partner. Hauora aims to educate and impact individual and organisational culture to ignite health, wellbeing, and performance. Find out more at www.HauoraLife.com
Description
Today we spoke with John O’Regan - International ultrarunner, Martial artist, and Running coach
John has conquered 7 marathons on 7 continents. This is a story of how a recreational runner learned about his body, studied physiology, and educated himself on the importance of preparation and planning…to conquer remarkable running feats, ultimately representing Ireland in several categories now. He competes in ultratrail, 100k and 24 hour and has a podcast called 'No Finish Line'.
John defined ultrarunning for us and discussed why this sport is not crazy - it is about passion. He loves to run and loves where it brings him. Hear about a journey from the Marathon des Sables to Swedish survival training, to the Yukon, Poles - and what’s next. John leaned into resilience, how to build it…and how to overcome the moment after the race, when you feel low - when the race is over. We learned about the value of discipline and sticking to a course for a specific goal, and how to listen to your body when you are physically and mentally challenging yourself. This was inspiring stuff!
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
Highlights
🗻 Running in the most challenging climates in the world
😓 Using discomfort to train your resilience
🧠 Why there is now an overemphasis on the mental side of training
🧊 Taking on Arctic Survival with the Swedish Army in Lapland
🏐 How to build performance in your sport
📖 Learning from others and becoming a coach
💫 Overcoming the emptiness after achieving a goal or completing an event
Timestamps
(3:21) - The why behind what he does
(4:07) - Getting into endurance running and Marathon Des Sables
(5:39) - Training from scratch and learning the sport
(6:48) - Going deep on physiology + sports science
(9:01) - How important planning and preparation is
(10:11) - Overcoming the post-success blues
(11:49) - Training in antic Survival in Lapland
(13:58) - avoiding safety nets to boost resilience + grit
(15:25) - Making a choice when you're in the comfort zone
(17:00) - Sport on a vehicle to build personal resilience
(19:10) - Running in exotic and challenging landscapes
(20:42) - 220km +21m - The best Irish debut
(25.20) - Coaching and saving a new athlete
(28:35) - An overemphasis on mental training
(29:36) - Improving performance as a club player
(32:20) - Defining ultrarunning
(34:39) - Looking at other sports and athletes to learn
(36:21) - What's next for John.
(38:30) - What does high performance mean to you
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
For information on previous guests and shows please visit www.SleepEatPerformRepeat.com.
Previous guests include Cal Newport, Dr. Michael Gervais, Joy Neville, Rich Froning, BJ Fogg, Sonia O'Sullivan, Rich Diviney, Keith Earls, Caelan Doris, Chanelle McCoy, PJ Nestler, Jack Butcher, Shane O'Sullivan, Chris Burkard, Brian Keane, Steve Magness, Owen Eastwood, Steven Kotler, Daniel Davey, Ray Goggins, Shane O'Donnell, Jonny Cooper, Capt Emily Bassett, George Kruis, Brett Bartholomew, Aoife McDermott, Lisa Jacob and many more.