Why I Run: Hugh van Cuylenburg
For the founding director of The Resilience Project, sprinting is a bang-for-buck way to manage his mental health
HUGH VAN CUYLENBURG is at the gym when Men’s Health catches up with him. There or the track is where you’ll generally find the 44-year-old author and founding director of The Resilience Project, and co-host of the popular podcast, The Imperfects, when he’s not running around after his three kids.
“I run in whatever window I can get,” says van Cuylenburg. “I often don’t know when I wake up in the morning when I’m going to get it done, but I’m just on the lookout for a window and if there’s a window, I’ll grab it very quickly.”
Before we go any further, know this: van Cuylenburg is not your regular pavement pounder knocking out five kay trots three times a week. His love is sprinting, a pastime you don’t normally associate with someone in their mid-forties. But as van Cuylenburg tell us here, these explosive run and gun sessions have helped him get into the best shape of his life while playing a crucial role in sustaining him though the challenges life throws at us.
MY ATHLETIC BACKGROUND goes back a long way, but now with all the work I do in resilience, I have found the most important thing I do for my own resilience is exercise. It’s an absolute must just to get through each day, each week, the events of the year. Running and exercise is a must.
I used to play a lot of cricket. I played Aussie rules at amateur level and I did athletics when I was at school and loved it. But when I finished year 12, I was like, Well, I don’t think anyone does athletics after school, so I’ll just stop.
I kept playing cricket for a really long time and next to our home ground was an athletics track. I would watch people every Saturday and think, Oh, I want to be doing that.
My entire cricket career – from the age of 15 to 35 – I trained by doing 5k runs all the time. I retired from cricket when I was 36 and at the age of 37, I took up track, specifically 400m running. I decided I wanted to focus on the 400 metres because I’ve always thought that it’s the toughest event in track and field. I thought, Imagine how fit you’d get if you were training for that. Through the work I do, I met Catriona Bisset, who’s the Australian record holder for the 800 metres. Through her I met her coach at the time, Peter Fortune, who was Cathy Freeman’s coach and he said he’d love to coach me. I thought I’d be crazy to say no to that.
He took me on for a couple of years and got me going, got me into the sport and I just fell in love with it. Now I’m coached by Brendan Cole, who is an Olympian and a Commonwealth Games gold medallist in the 4 x 400 meters. I basically said to him, “I want you to train me like I’m an athlete training for the Olympic Games. I really want to nerd out on running and sprinting more specifically, and everything I should be doing for that”. So now my routine is three track sessions, one bike session, and two gym sessions a week. And I’m obsessed with it.
"It absolutely cooks me like nothing I've ever done before"
I think it would surprise people, it certainly surprised me, what sprint training actually is. It’s extremely high intensity, but there’s not a lot of it. I mean the warm-up itself takes 45 minutes. A session I might be three x 300 metres, that’s it, that’s the session. But those reps are as fast as you can possibly go.
You get a good amount of recovery time. It might be 10 minutes recovery so that you are not fully recovered but pretty close to it. That allows you to go as hard as you possibly can the next time. It doesn’t sound like much, especially when I speak to distance runners about it. They’re like, “What? That’s not even a session”. But it absolutely cooks me like nothing I’ve ever done before.
This is easily the fittest I’ve ever been in my entire life. My Garmin tells me my biological age is 19 and my body feels that way. I think if I was training for middle distance or for long distance running, my joints wouldn’t cope. But this I can do and it’s got me very fit.
There’s a guy who trains at my club, who’s 75 years old and he does sprint training. I saw him in a session the other day, which was five 200-metre sprints. And I say sprints in inverted commas. He’s 75 but he’s moving pretty quickly. He’s the current Australian champion in the 75-79 age bracket. And he’s as fit as I’ve ever seen a 75-year-old look. I want to be that. I want to be that guy. I want to do it forever. I really do.
Running has been the key to getting me through the unexpected challenges that parenting has put on me and my wife, the stress of having three kids under seven. I reckon at the end of the day, if you said to my kids, “Do you reckon dad’s been for a run today?” They’d be able to tell, just from the way it changes me. I’m just so much calmer, I’m so much more patient, I’m so much more tolerant if I’ve run that day.
With running I feel like, If I can get through what I just did today [on the track], I can get through anything. That’s the feeling it leaves me with.
Hugh van Cuylenburg’s top 10 audiobooks for running
Recently, van Cuylenburg helped curate Audible’s new Runners’ Audiobook collection. Here are his favourite tomes for the track
“Nedd’s run across the country is legendary for a reason. There is too much to take away from this book. If you’re planning a long run, there is no better companion.”
“A women’s guide to living with and leading without apology. This is an absolute beauty. She is one of Australia’s most sought after executive coaches, and you can have her in your ears as you exercise.”
Running with the Kenyans by Adharanand Finn
“Running aficionados this one is for you. I listened to this one exclusively on my long runs. I absolutely loved this. Nothing like listening to someone explore their passion, whilst you exercise yours.”
“If you are into exercise, this one is a must for creating and maintaining a routine built on healthy and repeatable habits. Another one that I found really useful to listen to whilst training.”
“The epitome of resilience. Grace’s story is heart breaking but also inspirational. She is a picture of strength and hope.”
“One of the most extraordinary stories I have ever heard. Have listened to this one twice now. I don’t often do that. Always puts the challenges in your life into context.”
“Literally has it all. Overcoming extreme adversity. Wringing every last ounce out of every waking moment in order to achieve whatever it is you wish to achieve.”
“I can’t really believe this story exists. If you are an endurance athlete this is for you. A tribe of ultra-runners and the greatest race that no one ever saw.”
“I just find Chanel’s story so inspiring on so many levels. I am so in awe of Chanel’s courage. Courage is a great topic to ponder on as you train.”
“It’s just a wonderful story, so beautifully written,” jokes van Cuylenburg.
Keep Reading
Why I Run: Trent Knox
Reading time 6 min read
The top 10 health benefits of taking up running
Reading time 7 min read
The coach ultra-runners call when taking on the impossible
Reading time 14 min read
What is ‘The Wall’ in a marathon? And how do you get through it?
Reading time 5 min read
