Meet your Extra Mile Coach
Christina Rittchen , Mental Coach & Sport Scientist. She trains the step between deciding and doing. MSc Salzburg, 20 years at Red Bull, adidas and Runtastic, ultrarunner.
20+ years in digital product environments
120km through the Peruvian desert
Mental Strength Coach & Product Manager
The science
behind it
I didn't just want to be able to do it. I wanted to understand how it works. So I studied it: Master of Science in Sport Science with a focus on Mental Coaching at the University of Salzburg. My thesis examined exactly this: why people don't get into action. Volitional breakdowns in executing training plans. Out of it came my own method: resource personification, the inner crew.
I tested it in a controlled study. And I'll tell you honestly what came out: no measurable effect on the questionnaire scores in four weeks. Participants reported a noticeable lift in drive instead, in training and beyond it. Four weeks is too short for what habits actually need according to the research: two to five months. That's why I work longitudinally today.
Why am I telling you this? Because "evidence-based" should be something you can check. I name effect sizes, samples and open debates.
Even when they're inconvenient. Especially then.
Also: certified psychological counsellor, trained in the Mentalcollege concept, developed with the University of Salzburg. More than 1,400 documented cases. Systemic constellation work based on Kutschera, ISO certified. Member of EMCC.
Kilometre 80
I didn't run my first ultramarathon because I was athletic. I wasn't. I wanted to know where the real limit is. The answer came at kilometre 80. The legs scream stop, the head says keep going. And you keep going. The limit isn't out there. It's inside you.
That insight has never let go of me since. Ultra distance is the most honest laboratory I know for the one skill that decides almost everything: doing the thing you have already decided to do. The alarm doesn't care about your reasons. The mountain doesn't grade on effort. There's no one to hand the last kilometre to.
Twenty years under pressure
Before coaching, I spent two decades where performance really counts: global events at Red Bull, digital products at adidas and Runtastic. I held things together while everything got faster. I know what a day feels like that eats the run. And the strategy along with it.
Built from zero
I moved to Spain and built a life from zero. New language, new culture, no net. Then I went self-employed and looked every fear in the face that comes with it: What if nobody wants this? What if I fail? The fear doesn't disappear. You learn to walk through it.
So I'm not selling you anything I haven't done myself. The first run, the race, the career change, the dream of self-employment. I know every one of those steps from the inside. And I know the before. Sometimes you don't know the direction yet. Sometimes you know it perfectly well and still don't start. I know both from the inside.
Why I do this
Because almost everyone misreads it when they don't get started. And judges themselves for it. They call it a lack of discipline. In truth it's a trainable skill, and nobody ever showed them.
That's my work: mental tools from athletes, translated for your everyday life.
In English or German, whichever is closer to you.
One question before you book: is it more the direction, or more the starting?