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Uncharted Territory With Michael Dunstan
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit dirtchurchradio.substack.com
Kia ora e te whānau. Originally from Western Australia, growing up surfing and playing footie, Michael Dunstan has turned his hands to many things, including music, photography, and trail running. Turns out Michael is pretty (very) good at this whole trail running thing and has won the inaugural GPT100 mile race, Third place at Ultra Trail Snowdonia in Wales a win at the 2023 Hounslow Classic Marathon. Now based in Katoomba NSW, Michael is working hard at some lofty goals for 2025. This is a beautiful conversation, which covers a variety of topics and is guaranteed stoke inducing. It won't help if you don’t like snakes or thunderstorms, but apart from the Ophidiphobics amongst us, this will be a dead-set winner. Dirt Church Radio - Best Enjoyed Running
DCR IN THE WILD
Ali will be heading to the Kunanyi Moutain Run in Tasmania 28-30th March
Matt and Ali will be at Ultra Trail Australia from 15-18th of May
Our mates at Squadrun have come up with a special four week training trial for listeners of DCR. Now as you’ll know from listening to DCR over the years, Squadrun is the baby of Kerry Suter and Ali Pottinger, and they have coached thousands of runners to success at a bunch of events we love and cherish and if you’ve been to any trail races on either side of the Tasman you’ll have seen the squadrun colours being represented strongly. So, if you want to give it a crack, here’s the link.
Missed out on episodes of the Dirt Church Radio podcast? Listen on your favourite app. There are more than 300 episodes.
Check us out on YouTube!
Essay
FEEL THE BURN(OUT)
For a little country with a population that hovers around 5 million, our trail race schedule is rammed. It seems like these days there are literally more races than you can shake a stick at. Despite the majority of trail race participants running conventional distances, the ultramarathon has taken root as the go-to aspirational distance for many of us. Often heard at race expos is the self-conscious caveat of “I’m ONLY doing x” by athletes with the temerity to run anything less than the marque distance. We’ve become a culture of completionists, striving for that next medal in the set. A strength of anyone who completes endurance events is stackability, I wonder if we’ve gone too far down the rabbit hole in terms of seeking out the next race, the next big distance, that next thing to focus on.
Mike D doing other stuff rather than running stuff
As a consequence of our desire to compete and complete every event that comes our way our race calendars get rammed and our run-down and oversubscribed selves become a fertile wonderland for burnout and ennui to take hold. It would seem that we’ve stepped away from the natural rhythm of activity and ease and if we are consistently chasing goals we lose sight of the value of the process. If we can avoid burnout the better we function, the smarter we train and the more we gain.
The irony of having a job working in mental health is that I’m not burned out after 25 years. I have had periods of burnout, and have some coping strategies to address this. The annoying thing for me currently is I think I’ve crossed the Rubicon from “off-season” to “burnt out” in regards to my running.
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By DCR AidStationThis is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit dirtchurchradio.substack.com
Kia ora e te whānau. Originally from Western Australia, growing up surfing and playing footie, Michael Dunstan has turned his hands to many things, including music, photography, and trail running. Turns out Michael is pretty (very) good at this whole trail running thing and has won the inaugural GPT100 mile race, Third place at Ultra Trail Snowdonia in Wales a win at the 2023 Hounslow Classic Marathon. Now based in Katoomba NSW, Michael is working hard at some lofty goals for 2025. This is a beautiful conversation, which covers a variety of topics and is guaranteed stoke inducing. It won't help if you don’t like snakes or thunderstorms, but apart from the Ophidiphobics amongst us, this will be a dead-set winner. Dirt Church Radio - Best Enjoyed Running
DCR IN THE WILD
Ali will be heading to the Kunanyi Moutain Run in Tasmania 28-30th March
Matt and Ali will be at Ultra Trail Australia from 15-18th of May
Our mates at Squadrun have come up with a special four week training trial for listeners of DCR. Now as you’ll know from listening to DCR over the years, Squadrun is the baby of Kerry Suter and Ali Pottinger, and they have coached thousands of runners to success at a bunch of events we love and cherish and if you’ve been to any trail races on either side of the Tasman you’ll have seen the squadrun colours being represented strongly. So, if you want to give it a crack, here’s the link.
Missed out on episodes of the Dirt Church Radio podcast? Listen on your favourite app. There are more than 300 episodes.
Check us out on YouTube!
Essay
FEEL THE BURN(OUT)
For a little country with a population that hovers around 5 million, our trail race schedule is rammed. It seems like these days there are literally more races than you can shake a stick at. Despite the majority of trail race participants running conventional distances, the ultramarathon has taken root as the go-to aspirational distance for many of us. Often heard at race expos is the self-conscious caveat of “I’m ONLY doing x” by athletes with the temerity to run anything less than the marque distance. We’ve become a culture of completionists, striving for that next medal in the set. A strength of anyone who completes endurance events is stackability, I wonder if we’ve gone too far down the rabbit hole in terms of seeking out the next race, the next big distance, that next thing to focus on.
Mike D doing other stuff rather than running stuff
As a consequence of our desire to compete and complete every event that comes our way our race calendars get rammed and our run-down and oversubscribed selves become a fertile wonderland for burnout and ennui to take hold. It would seem that we’ve stepped away from the natural rhythm of activity and ease and if we are consistently chasing goals we lose sight of the value of the process. If we can avoid burnout the better we function, the smarter we train and the more we gain.
The irony of having a job working in mental health is that I’m not burned out after 25 years. I have had periods of burnout, and have some coping strategies to address this. The annoying thing for me currently is I think I’ve crossed the Rubicon from “off-season” to “burnt out” in regards to my running.