Richard Pickering is a UKA qualified endurance coach, personal coach, and NLP Master practitioner, MBTI practitioner and a club runner. He has been coaching athletes for about 20 years:
He did not run seriously when he was younger but played football throughout his 20s and really just ran for fitness. Although he was always a big fan of athletics, he didn’t get into running until later in life. He is doing his best to make up for it now though and although he would probably admit to being in the twilight of his running career, his passion for coaching and the development of athletes has never been greater.
Richard also brings with him a keen interest in the development of others after 25 years of professional coaching and development experience gained while working for John Lewis Partnership. More recently he achieved a Master practitioner qualification in Neuro Linguistic programming (NLP) and it was during this course that he made the decision to provide personal, psychological based coaching for athletes as well as practical training programmes.
He has run 17 marathons himself with a relatively modest (his words) PB of 3.06. Richard says, ‘I think the ‘sub 3’ ship has sailed for me but I am now more than happy supporting others to achieve their goals’. But he also thinks there may still be one or two more marathons left in the tank.
Richard has worked with athletes at all levels from club to international and was, for a number of years, one of about 35 endurance coaches on the England athletics national coach mentoring scheme. This scheme provided the opportunity to work with and learn from some of the most experienced coaches in the country. During this period he spent time at the GB high altitude camp in Font Romeu while also having access to some of the best written and on-line resources available. He was also an England Team Manager for an England elite development group at the Toronto Waterfront marathon.
He has have worked with a number of charities, delivering coaching days for their marathon runners and has also run training weekends for the John Lewis running club for the last 6 years. He also ran young athletes’ Summer camps for a period of 5 years based initially at Winchester College and then at Stowe School, Buckingham. Several of the athletes who attended these camps are have gone on to represent Great Britain.
Richard currently works with England athletics as a coach for the ‘Clubrun’ programme which provides coaching and education for developing clubs and their coaches. As a volunteer coach, he works with the top senior endurance group at Colchester Harriers and also with a community based club called Running Colchester.
He lives in Stanway on the edge of Colchester in Essex with his partner, who is also a runner, and his daughter.
Richard believes that everyone has the right to be as successful as they want to be, both with their running and in life. This, however, does not come easily and requires dedication and hard work. Running in mind is fully committed to supporting that journey but believe that the athlete/client also needs that commitment and desire to take responsibility for their development.
Generally, there is no short cut or magic formula for success. It is often the ‘accumulation of good days’ and hard work that makes the difference rather than one particular good or indeed disappointing session. The aim is to ‘max out’ what an athlete can achieve in training, while striking the balance with work, family life and rest. With a focus on staying healthy as the main priority. Sitting alongside practical training is a ‘healthy mind’. If you are aiming for something but there is some kind of emotional issue that is getting in the way; you won’t achieve the thing you want until you have dealt with the emotion. A happy athlete with a relaxed and calm, yet focussed mind will always perform better.
