James Hansen Running

13/07/2020

2018 felt like a dream year. Since a young boy watching win gold at the comm games at the MCG. I knew this may be my one chance in my life to run a major competition in my home country. I had 4 commonwealth Games b qualifiers however to make the com games team I would need to win the final race of the year nationals. ⠀
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I was running against the guys I’d looked up to my entire career but I believed it was possible. I had one goal out of this race to put myself in a position where one time during the race I know if I’m good enough I gave myself a chance to win. If I’m not good enough, I’ll get beaten but I’ll know in myself I gave myself that shot. ⠀
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It was all or nothing. ⠀
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One dream, one opportunity of a life time and with 150m to go this chance would come alive for a short 5 seconds I would feel that my dream was about to come to past. ⠀
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This deep desire wouldn’t happen for me. It hurt knowing I came so close. However one thing came out of this race. ⠀
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I knew it was that deep desire that kept me alive. It had fuelled me for the past year through the good times and the bad times when training got tough. It got me way further then I could ever imagine to the fact that I was less then one second away from achieving a dream. ⠀
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Don’t be afraid to go after dreams bigger then yourself. Dreams are simply fuel. The stronger that desire for the dream the more fuel for your journey and you never know one day you might end up getting there and if you fail like me you’ll be proud of yourself for giving it your all.

05/07/2020

After my run at the Olympic trials something inside me shifted. I went from being discouraged and wanting it to be my last race to now feeling excited for the future.

I had no idea what was next for me. That I actually wouldn’t race another 1500m race at a high level for more then 18 months.

Through 2016 I had a debilitating hamstring tendon issue. This had stayed with me for around a year and in December 2016. It was as if my body told me to stop. 🤚

Out on a long run one day I felt my back completely seize up. I could barely walk and hobbled my way back to the car. It was one of the longest 2km walks of my life. I thought I had a really bad muscle spasm in my back. I would try run again a few days later and felt my body collapse. I knew something was seriously wrong.

I booked in for a scan and the MRI showed a large stress fracture in my sacrum. A very random spot. However it would mean a really long period of complete rest and a really slow build up when I came back.

At first I was shattered but something about a complete reset excited me. I would have to build myself from the ground up. Starting with jogging for 15 seconds maximum after having around 10 weeks off completely. I spent this complete rest time working on my mind and developed a lot of awareness around mindset through consuming more books and audios I ever had in my life.

I realised for years I’d been living in a fixed mindset and need to strive for a growth mindset not focused on perfection but focused on getting better and learning everyday.

My identity was no longer in running. I grew a confidence that there was a lot more to life then running and saw it more as something I did rather then who I was. This period of time building up and watching how easy it is to progress in running made me realise what a powerful vehicle running is for people to grow in themselves and also in their health.

18 months after my last race I would line up at the 1500m at Zatopek. I had no expectations. I was just looking forward to running once again at a competitive level.

Race is below:

14/06/2020

2015 the year of the Beer mile. I've decided that I will actually tell my story via a video.

Watch as I explain 2015 one of my toughest years in running and how I discovered my identity during this year.
Race from 2015 is also included in this video.
There is also a challenge for you at the end of the video.

James will share his story with his radical change during 2015 and the importance of identity, not when you have made it however usually when you are your lo...

06/06/2020

After winning the HongKong diamond mile in 2013. I started to believe I could go somewhere with my running. Starting the 2014 season my pb was 3.46 and the year previously I had just scraped into a National open Final.

I remember watching some of my competitors and how easily they did it and I felt as though I would never be able to come near to them. During that year I would run a 3.41 becoming the second fastest Tasmanian of all time and found myself believing I could compete with the best in Australia.

I rocked up on the start line of the National final and for the first time believed I should be there a 20 year old racing against the two guys I’d looked up to since taking running seriously and

Watch video below to see the outcome.

02/06/2020

Over the next 7 weeks I am going to share my running Journey over the past 7 years. Featuring videos from each year.

I started as a young boy 7 years old at little athletics. Running did come fairly naturally to me. I broke my first state Tasmanian state record in my second year as an 8 year old running 79 seconds for a 400m.

This early rise to athletics meant I put extreme pressure on myself. I went from being a kid with a funny eye being bullied in kindergarten. All of a sudden I realised that if I won races at the athletics carnival and cross country people would actually treat me as a normal kid. My identity very quickly was caught up in that in order for me to be accepted I had to win races. This stuck with me for a very long time. I soon resented running because of the pressure it brought on me. I wanted to do anything to run away from it but the reality was step by step opportunities came into my life that kept me in the sport.

My dream was to be an AFL player, this lead to me putting my drive into the gym and aiming to have a physique like Ben Cousins and to go as far away as possible from looking like a runner.

In 2008 at 14 years of age. I watched the entire Olympics after being sick with pneumonia and not being able to leave my bed. This birthed a dream and opportunities came from here. I went from not making a National Final up until 2009 to in 2010 I won my first Australian schools title. 2011 and 2012 I continued to train hard and continually won national medals.

2013 was a breakthrough year for me as a 19 year old I made my first Australian open championship and was given an opportunity to run in HongKong in my first international race. A b***y looking Tasmanian boy with one of the roughest running actions you will see at an elite level.

Watch video below.

https://www.facebook.com/650938646/posts/10205333891725906/

31/05/2020

A good Sunday read for you. 🙏


“Do you want to be remembered as a pisspot or an Olympian?”

23/05/2020

Awesome progression by one of my athletes Harry. After Just three weeks on my running program Harry has ran over a minute 5km pb running by himself.

He has been consistent accountable and for the first time is doing periodised training. Rather then trying to run hard everyday.
Harry is now implementing my program which is a mix of interval training, Fartlek, long runs, recovery runs and rest days.

Harry told me he had sore knees before starting on the program and his knees are now feeling great because of the recovery days.

Excited to help support Harry in achieving his goal of running a sub 20 minute 5km in the coming months.

Sign up on the website for a free two week trial if you too want to improve your running.

21/05/2020

Thankyou to everyone who has shared and liked my page.

I'm very excited to use all my experience and knowledge as an elite middle distance runner to help other people of all ages and abilities to become their best running self.

"Tell me your goal and I’ll guide you how to get there”

Check out my website www.jameshansenrunning.com for more information.

Online Running Coach