Hannah Lees – an England Athletics Coach in Running Fitness (CiRF – and her team of eight Leaders in Running Fitness (LiRF) have almost 650 grassroots runners on their database with 98% of those being female.
With a focus on road and trail running from 5k to full marathons, all of Hannah’s athletes are grassroots amateurs who train and compete around their daily commitments. With so many of her clients having hectic lifestyles, Hannah is keen that enjoyment is at the top of the list for her training sessions.
“I wanted to create the least intimidating running group I could possibly create. I’ve grown my coaching team by carefully selecting people who have started running recently; who don’t look like a ‘stereotypical runner’; or who have struggled with their mental health and are open about it”.
Whilst many of the country’s elite athletes have struggled to keep up their intense training programmes during lockdown, grassroots runners like those in Hannah’s group have also suffered with all face-to-face coaching and group training banned for eight weeks from March to May.
“At the beginning of lockdown I couldn’t do anything. I thought about online coaching, but I felt that there was so much uncertainty over how catastrophic the pandemic was going to be and I was worried about encouraging people to run (both because they might spread the virus or that they hurt themselves) when we didn’t know how badly the NHS would be impacted”.
Full story & Images – https://femalecoachingnetwork.com/2020/09/08/a-grassroots-perspective-on-the-impact-of-covid-19/
