Justin Horneker Navigates Running Post Collegiately For All To Hear
My guest today is a fellow podcast host, coach, and runner so clearly we will have no shortage of things to talk about.
He is also a former collegiate athlete and record holder in the 1500m for his Alma Mater.
I’m excited to welcome Justin Horneker to the show as I try to keep up on our run today.
Strong Foundation
It was while in middle school that Justin was first encouraged to run.
His eighth-grade math teacher happened to also be the high school cross country coach.
Justin began running with the high school cross country team the summer before his freshman year.
He was hooked which led to 4 years of running competitively in high school.
His running career didn’t end once he graduated.
Justin went on to continue running on a team in college.
As a collegiate runner he ran 80–90 miles per week compared to the 60–70 he currently runs.
Even while not training for anything specific races, Justin believes in maintaining a strong base.
Self Care
Justin admittedly has been fortunate when it has come to remaining injury free.
Although he doesn’t credit it all to luck.
Justin advocates taking 2 weeks off throughout the year after heavy training cycles.
The break is just as important for the mind as it is for the body.
Justin attributes his only significant injury to not having proper recovery and nutrition.
In order to remain healthy, he remains vigilant about listening to his body and consistently doing mobility exercises.
Justin has struggled most with burnout following his collegiate running career.
After 4 years of hard work, Justin broke the school record in the 1500.
Following that moment he struggled to know what to focus on after or how to find the joy in running again.
Running Through It
Post collegiate running has been trial and error for Justin to find his joy in the sport again.
He originally began his podcast “Running Through It” as a way to talk through the anxiety of not running.
It took patience, consistency, and taking the pressure off for Justin to find his new normal for running.
Justin talks all things running on his podcast but specifically focuses on race anxiety and how to deal with it.
Race anxiety can be attributed to 2 parts:
- Uncertainty for how the race will go
- Fixating on the race too much prior to the day
To help manage the anxiety Justin suggests visualizing multiple different race day scenarios.
Practice having some mental cues to stay connected to the race if your mind starts to drift or it gets hard.
Coaching
While in college Justin got to try his hand at coaching for a bit when his high school coach retired.
Although that first stint coaching didn’t last long, Justin knew he found his passion.
A fascination with learning everything about the sport and good coaches along the way have contributed to Justin being a natural at coaching.
Although Justin has experienced some lessons along the way.
His biggest challenge has been learning how to work with a person’s schedule and tailoring the training to work with it.
As a coach, Justin ascribes to the idea that the more you run the better you’ll get at it.
Justin does recommend a good warm up and cool down before and after a run to help prevent injury.
If his many years of running has taught him one thing it’s that “everything does not have to be perfect,” and we are all works in progress.
This post is accompanied by an episode of my podcast, Diz Runs Radio.
Click this link to listen to my conversation with Justin Horneker.
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Originally published at www.dizruns.com on February 6, 2019.