Meet Coach Carolyn

Hi, my name is Carolyn. I love to run, and my passion lies in helping you to love it too.

I didn’t always love running though. In fact, for about two decades it always sucked. I dreaded training runs and wanted to throw up at the end of races. I persevered for the simple reason that running was how I compensated for eating too much.

I guess you could say my ‘relationship with food’ wasn’t exactly stellar. It went something like this:

      • Intense sugar cravings
      • Justified sugar indulgences ‘because I’m an active person’
      • Extreme guilt and shame for said food choices
      • Ran as punishment
      • Repeat

Everything shifted in 2010 after I started working with a coach in my early 30s. He introduced me to the concept of ‘sensible training,’ which was an absolute game changer.

Instead of running moderately hard all the time, he advocated for easy days and hard days. Easy days (aka: way easier than I ever gave myself permission to run) became something I looked forward to and found so enjoyable. Hard days gave me a profound sense of pride and accomplishment, especially when conducted with friends and teammates.

The best part was that my race times improved beyond my wildest dreams. It wasn’t until I began training sensibly that I realized just how misguided my previous training had been!

The other beautiful side effect of smart training was how it impacted my appetite. Because the overall nature of the training was less stressful, my sugar cravings practically disappeared, and I could finally trust myself around food for the first time in my life. When you start working with your body rather than against it, you begin making healthy choices because you want to, not because you have to. It’s a subtle difference, but quite a liberating one.

I am so committed to bailing people out of food prison and helping them fall in love with movement that I left my cushy job as a physiotherapist in 2012 to build my own Health & Run Coaching business. I have been fortunate to partner with amazing clients over the years and help them achieve goals they never thought were possible. If you’re ready to take your running to the next level (even if you’re not fast!), I would be honoured to work with you.

 

Professional Bio

Carolyn Coffin is a certified Health Coach with an educational background in physiotherapy and kinesiology. Her private practice is centered around sensible training, real food, lifestyle modifications and a focused mindset. Carolyn co-hosts the Inspired Soles podcast, which brings the communities of trail and road running together. She is an avid and accomplished distance runner in events from 5k (18:58) to the half marathon (1:28:53). Carolyn lives in Winnipeg, MB with her military spouse and two children, ages 11 and 13.

Learn more about Carolyn in this episode of Inspired Soles.