Start Small, Run Strong

We explore how to make running and strength a natural part of life by focusing on repetitions, joy, and tiny steps that compound. Allyson Hurley shares a simple at‑home routine for runners, why “more is better” is a myth, and how to navigate social media pressure with a healthier mindset.

• habit formation built on repetitions not calendar days
• choosing movement you enjoy to improve adherence
• step goals scaled gradually for realistic progress
• habit stacking with simple anchors like morning routines
• time versus distance training aligned to goals
• treadmill versus outdoor running strategies
• four-move home strength plan for runners
• isometric holds, tempo and progression with bands or dumbbells
• injury reduction through core and hip strength
• ageing, bone health and the value of strong legs
• myth-busting: recovery matters more than endless sessions
• curating social media to avoid comparison traps
• recommended reads: Women Strong and Atomic Habits
• morning workouts as a consistency advantage
• mindset as the starting point for running strong

Follow Allison: https://www.allysoncoaches.com • Social: Allyson's Instagram • Free macro planner available on her website

Strong Women Lift Each Other Up by Molly Galbraith.

Atomic Habits by James Clear.
 

 Brian's Run Pod has become interactive with the audience. If you look at the top of the Episode description tap on "Send us a Text Message".  You can tell me what you think of the episode or alternatively what you would like covered.  If your lucky I might even read them out on the podcast.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome Back & Episode Setup
• 1:16 How Long Habits Really Take
• 2:46 Joy First: Picking Movement You Like
• 3:49 Step Goals, Realistic Increments
• 5:01 Habit Stacking Made Simple
• 6:16 Time vs Distance: Train to Your Goal
• 7:25 Treadmill vs Outside: Mind Games
• 9:07 Home Treadmill Setup & Practicalities
• 9:50 Starter Strength Routine for Runners
• 12:08 Injury Prevention & Posture Wins
• 13:21 Clients, Cardio Apprehension & Starting
• 15:13 Social Media Pressure & Comparison
• 17:30 Using Online Resources Wisely
• 18:51 Rapid Fire: Icons, Trends, Favourites
• 21:20 Strong Legs, Ageing & Bone Health
• 22:13 Myths: More Is Not Better
• 23:06 Books: Strong Women & Atomic Habits
• 24:01 Morning vs Evening; Mindset First
• 25:08 Summary, Contacts & Free Resources

Transcript

SPEAKER_03: 0:00

So you're thinking about running, but not sure how to take the first step. My name is Brian Patterson, and I'm here to help. Welcome to Brian's ROM pod. It's me, your host Brian Patterson, here for some more instant tips about running. Well, we are still chatting to Allison Hurley, Allison Hurley Part 2, the amazing probation officer turned fitness guru. So at the start of this week's episode, I was curious about how long it takes to really make these fitness and behavioural changes as part of your life. I really do hope you enjoy our conversation. And don't forget, if you haven't listened to part one, which came out last week, then please do go back in our catalogue and listen to that. So we'll be explore Allison's how to kick off a fitness adventure. But anyway, uh without further ado, let's get into it. Do you think is there a certain time where you're when you're doing these behavioural changes, be it exercise and nutrition, that you've kind of baked it into your life? You know, is that um I don't know, some people talk about, you know, like six, seven weeks, you know, now there's and then you've did it now you you've got that routine and it's baked in and it's you can now or is is it is it is does it vary from person to person?

SPEAKER_00: 1:49

Yeah, I think it varies, and I think it uh it varies person to person. I want to say research says like a year, a year. It could be as little as I think 90 days maybe, but it actually is not necessarily the amount of days, but it's the amount of repetitions that you do something.

SPEAKER_01: 2:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 2:08

However, I do think it matters about the person because if I you know, if you're somebody who say you're not a big fan of running, for example, and you're like, well, I wanna, I wanna try to start running, but you don't find as much enjoy in the movement that maybe you do other things, then it's gonna be really hard. You're probably not gonna stick to it because it's not something that you truly find joy in versus the person who's tries it out and starts it and really find finds joy in that movement. So I think first starting with figuring out what you actually enjoy and then doing it over and over and over again, and then yes, it'll eventually stick. And that's something too I work with clients on is you know, we hear about say 10,000 steps, for example, a day.

SPEAKER_01: 2:57

Oh right.

SPEAKER_00: 2:58

So if you're somebody yeah, so if you're somebody who were who walks three thousand steps a day, going from three to ten is too big of a jump. It's gonna be an significant lifestyle change. So working on maybe four, and then when four gets really easy, going to five or six, so slowly building that up too is what helps to become second nature versus just jumping into an entirely new routine um or adding on to what we're already doing throughout the day. So we hear about a lot about like habit stacking. If you're somebody who's when you wake up in the morning and you go to brush your teeth, adding on, taking a vitamin to that because you're already brushing your teeth and it's right there. That's a very simple example of that. But it could be like you talked about earlier about running. It could be adding 10 minutes of simple strength training exercises before you go out for your run. It doesn't have to be anything major, just these little, little incremental changes are what help it become that routine.

SPEAKER_03: 4:01

So is is um do you think also that it's not just about the the goal that you're you're aiming for? It's kind of these small little incremental, you know, without having to use that that journey type word. Um it's it's just all these little little steps that you're doing, adding to it. And then you know, when you're looking back, you say, well, I couldn't I couldn't do 10 minutes running, you know, two months ago, but now I'm doing 20, 25 minutes regularly on two or three times a week.

SPEAKER_00: 4:37

Yeah, absolutely. Well, and running is such a perfect example of small incremental changes, is it not? Because when you're first starting out, you do have to do, you know, 30 seconds of running, 10 seconds of walking, or you're not you're not just going straight to a 13 mile run, like it's small incremental changes. Yep. Any training program is small and incremental like that too. So absolutely. And I think it depends on what somebody's goals are.

SPEAKER_02: 5:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 5:06

If it's long-term health, then of course the small incremental changes are going to be what's what is most impactful. If you have kind of a deadline to something, say you have your training for a half marathon, you're training for a full marathon, then we might have to ramp it up a little bit, right? Yeah. We might have to have a little bit more of a strict schedule. Uh so that might look a little bit different, but the the idea would be that that schedule for that that training schedule would put you in a place where you're able to complete it. Like you have the motivation, there's discipline, you're you have it scheduled of kind of what you do, which can make it a little bit easier.

SPEAKER_03: 5:46

Do you think it's better to increase the time as opposed to the distance? I know sometimes you get these um training programs and they say, you know, do 3K or so and say day or five on that day.

SPEAKER_00: 5:58

But yeah, I think it depends on what your goal is. If you want to, if you are looking to kind of run for so long and you don't really necessarily care about the distance, then time, of course, would be better. If you're looking to improve how quickly you can run, how fast you can run, say a mile, then time and distance. I think it really depends on kind of what your goals are when you're training. But really, if you're somebody who just kind of wants to get into it, I would say choose whatever is going to motivate you. You know, if it's time. For me, I'll be honest, when I'm running outside, I track usually my miles.

SPEAKER_01: 6:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 6:39

If I'm running on my treadmill, oh, I need to track time. Because my treadmill distance and my outside distance are always off. And it frustrates me because I'm like, there's no way I ran that that slow or that not so many miles. I find the same thing. I always do time. Oh, it's just me.

SPEAKER_03: 6:58

It's I well, it's just such a different beast, the treadmill. It's it's so hard. It's so hard. I try to play mental games with it. Yeah. I try to play games with it. And and that's the only thing, is uh it's whereas when I'm out I know, as uh like you said, um few experience this uh when I'm outside, I'm running faster and I enjoy it so much more, you know, and also maybe I choose a different route. Because it really disappoints me. Like if when I my gym is like five minutes from where I work, or not even that, three minutes. I can vertically leap out the door and I'm there. So and you know, if the weather's really bad and I can't run outside, I'm thinking, oh no, I have to go in that damn treadmill. I'm looking at the swimming pool, the all the kids swimming. So yeah, no, I'm totally with you on that.

SPEAKER_00: 7:53

So oh yes, and I need to have a TV on with captions, and I need music in my ears, and I have a clock usually. It's a whole, yes, I 100% get it. It's a whole thing. I remember training for a half on a treadmill, and I look back at that now and I'm like, I don't know how I ran. I ran nine miles on the treadmill. No, that sounds awful now. Wow.

SPEAKER_02: 8:13

Wow.

SPEAKER_00: 8:14

I will never I I guess never say never, but I'm not going to be doing that again if I have a choice.

SPEAKER_03: 8:21

All right. So you have a treadmill at your home, is that right?

SPEAKER_00: 8:25

Yes, I do.

SPEAKER_03: 8:26

Okay. Yeah. Oh, okay. Um is that kind uh I'd I'd be interested. Is that do you have to have like specially supported war floor or is it in terms of the setup of having a treadmill brought to your home?

SPEAKER_00: 8:42

Yeah, I don't I don't think so. I mean I hope not. I'm okay. Oh, it's not so bad.

SPEAKER_01: 8:51

Okay, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 8:52

Yeah, no, no, it's not so bad. And it comes with shocks and shock absorbers and stuff like that too. I've had it actually the one I've had for about 10 years almost now.

SPEAKER_03: 9:01

So it's quite still holding up. Still holding up, right? Right. Moving back to at home strength. We may have sort of touched on it slightly earlier on the in in the podcast, but I just wanted to go back to let's say um where should we start? So is it worth I think you said sort of doing sort of kind of the basic exercises um in terms of let's say the plank and then you know squats and that kind of thing. So are you looking to not use you know any equipment just to using very diff very just doing very basic movements at home?

SPEAKER_00: 9:48

I know that's a very and like what's what are some routines or an example of maybe some routines.

SPEAKER_03: 9:56

I know it's kind of a very open question and it's very difficult to uh to to but I think I just want to get a sense of let's say, let's say someone who's um, as I said, you know, someone who's looking to get a new new into running, but again maybe just wants to get basic um, you know, some basic exercises that can uh help with the flexibility and maybe do a little bit of strength. And then obviously we you know we can sort of incorporate it by say buying hand weights or something like that.

SPEAKER_00: 10:27

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So if we're looking at strictly just body weights, yeah. Again, I would start with those glute bridge raises, and you can do it single leg too, and that's gonna help your glutes and your hamstrings. And then also the body weight squats or the lateral walks. If you even if you don't have a band across your legs, that's really gonna help. And also, um, of course, the core movements with the plank, walking lunges are great too, are great movement. And with doing them at home, I would even focus on going slow and doing holds. So if you were doing, say, um body weight squats, for example, going down into the sitting position and just kind of hanging out for 10 to 20 seconds and standing back up and repeating that and doing that maybe 10 to 12 reps, whatever you feel comfortable with. So it depends on if you don't have a lot of time, those four main exercises are great. And again, you can kind of do the slow controlled movements where you're doing more of those isometric holds.

SPEAKER_01: 11:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 11:31

And you could also have a day where you're doing more uh endurance, sort of um, building more endurance. So you do them quicker and you move through them a lot a lot faster.

SPEAKER_03: 11:42

So higher higher reps, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 11:44

Yep, yep. Higher reps, higher speed. Um, so there's a lot of variation, a lot of variation. And even when you progress to having a resistance fan or even dumbbells, you can do those same exercises and just add add that additional risk resistance to them.

SPEAKER_03: 12:00

Yeah. So so you would say maybe three, three to four sets and then doing uh for each for each of those exercises.

SPEAKER_00: 12:10

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And for for more of those holds, those isometric holds, um, you know, more of a Tabata style. So again, hold for 20 seconds and then work for 10 seconds or whatever it is. So you're doing, say, um, the eccentric and the concentric motions with body weight squats, so up and down and then holding in the down position for about 20 seconds. So there are a lot of different variations that you that you can do.

SPEAKER_03: 12:37

Okay. So just a reminder, which are the four exercises again?

SPEAKER_00: 12:41

So uh single leg glute bridge raises or just glute bridge raises. Glue bridge raises kind of leveling them up with the single leg um body weight squats or the lateral grab walks that you're talking about.

SPEAKER_01: 12:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 12:55

And then those core exercises. So you could look at planks, yeah, or even um just basic crunches, and then also the walking lunges.

SPEAKER_03: 13:06

Right. Okay. So that'd be that's all good to start off with. And then you can sort of kind of build build on that in terms of either doing more exercises, or if not, then just you know, progress it. So yeah. And I suppose the the the main uh advantage there is the things in terms of your who help overcome injury or prevent injury, and then it will also help with your with your running in terms of your form.

SPEAKER_00: 13:43

Absolutely. Yep. That core work's gonna really help with your posture and yeah, we want to reduce as many injuries as possible because running is such a repetitive movement on our joints, on our lower body joints. So reducing the injuries is absolutely important. But yes, those are some of the key exercises to do to help with those things.

SPEAKER_03: 14:03

Do you I mean, those of um of your clients who are sort of into running, do you talk about technique much with them about their uh technique when they're running?

SPEAKER_00: 14:15

You know, we if they come to me with questions, um, yes. We typically focus on strength training, however, but that's one thing where uh we haven't we haven't talked too much about it. I'm gonna be honest with you, Brian. I don't have a lot of running clients. I just I've had maybe one or two, yeah. So believe it or not, I always try to get people into running, but there's sometimes there's a little bit of apprehension. I'm sure you know when you started out running, yeah, it's hard.

unknown: 14:45

Yes.

SPEAKER_00: 14:45

You kind of got to get into it a little bit. So I usually will encourage more of my strength training folks to work us work towards getting that cardio in through running um and just to kind of start. But if I yeah, most of the folks that I work with um either aren't big runners or they're just trying to get into some sort of cardiovascular schedule of any sort, whether it be running or um anything else.

SPEAKER_03: 15:12

Right. What's what's your um just to changing tact a little bit is that what's your in terms of your opinion in terms of let's say social media? I mean, well, Instagram or whatever, do you think there's a lot more pressure now? Or you know, even when let's say you're training for the marathon, you you're sort of over exercising, do you feel that one of the pressures was social media to having to get to a certain size or have a certain look or that kind of thing? Or you just see what other people are doing?

SPEAKER_00: 15:46

Oh, absolutely. Yeah, I think society in general puts these pressures on us to look a certain way and do things a certain way. And social media has just really vamped that up. Um so 100%. And that's something that we talk about, I talk with my clients about too, is like comparison is the thief of joy. I'm heard, I'm sure you've heard that before also. So when we're looking at, yeah, when we're looking at other individuals on social media or other influences, you know, we've talked about social media detoxes before, where you don't need to follow these people if they're if they're making you feel bad about yourself, unfollow. It's not worth it. Um, like they're for every one person that makes you feel bad on social media, you're probably gonna find five that make you feel great, you know, that support you in the way that you want to be supported and uh aren't enabling those negative thinking patterns. Cause yes, 100% social media is um it's it can be a helpful tool, but can also be a very harmful tool if you're looking to compare yourself. Because there's always I always this might sound harsh, but it's one thing I live by too is like there's always gonna be someone better than me at everything.

SPEAKER_01: 16:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 16:59

And the real like I just it's just is what it is. And if I'm focusing on that all of the time, it's almost debilitating where you get back to that fixed mindset where you don't you don't feel like what's the point? I'm never gonna be that good, so why bother? So yeah that's it's important not to compare ourselves, but if we are struggling with that, like yeah, get rid of we don't need to follow them.

SPEAKER_03: 17:23

Yeah, yeah. But it been in but in terms of the positive, it's good to let's say, for instance, one to do it's quite hard. I got one of these um hardballs because the physio said um my physiother was saying um use this for uh glute release. Um and it's very hard to uh isolate that because you can, you know, he can tell you how to do a glute release when you're there with him. But in terms of me doing it at home, it's kind of quite uh a specific exercise. So, you know, looking up on YouTube, um, and I know that that particular exercise can be quite painful because it's just like this hardbore on a hard surface. And I think unless you've unless you're like screaming totally, then you're not doing it right. So um, so I had to find out look up as to where what was the right way. So it does have uh there there are there are benefits. I mean, I mean, that was just looking on YouTube for that.

SPEAKER_00: 18:25

So oh, absolutely. Yeah, and there, and again, there are so many resources available to us. It's almost it's almost kind of insane how many resources we have available. So finding finding people that we trust the information that they're giving us and that they're doing it accurately is very important. And we know social media is kind of a mixed bag when it comes to when it comes to that. But yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 18:51

So we're just coming up to nearly the end of the podcast, and I'd like to say, Alison, thank you very much for um agreeing to come on. But I just got a few rapid fire round, rapid fire questions. So uh, and I'm just gonna about to throw one in which I didn't include as part of the outline. But do you have a favorite sporting icon?

SPEAKER_00: 19:13

Oh, a favorite sporting icon?

SPEAKER_03: 19:15

It could be from any sport. Or is there anyone who inspires you?

SPEAKER_00: 19:22

I think one of my biggest, I would say, inspirations. Her name is Molly uh Galbraith. She's the Girls Gone Strong founder, and she's just awesome.

unknown: 19:33

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 19:33

She's a total rock star when it comes to all things mindset and strength. Strength training. She is she encompasses who I want to be in terms of helping women to finding strength training. So she would be, I'd say she was, she would be the person.

SPEAKER_03: 19:49

Oh right. Okay. I mean, do you I mean, I'm I don't know what the situ with the um uh landscape's like with well with with you know with your clients, but do you find that in the last since you've started doing the sort of personal training, the the the demands and needs of of of what people want over the last few years, has that changed or I'll be interested to find out.

SPEAKER_00: 20:17

Yes and no. I think women are starting to get more comfortable with strength training for sure. Yeah but also also stepping away from focusing on having like a goal weight, for example. I feel like that's been such a big and and I say women, but it's of course men as well, having a certain aesthetic goal. But yes, I definitely see a shift, but I want to keep building more, right? Like I still think there's a lot more to be done, but I do I am starting to see that shift. And that's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_03: 20:45

Yeah. Do you have a favorite home workout move? So is there like a particular workout that you like doing at home?

SPEAKER_00: 20:57

I have a love-hate relationship with squats. Oh, right, okay. But I hate them. Um, because they're tough. But I would say home workout move. Um if you have no equipment, just bodyweight squats, because you can do jump squats, you can do whole sort of thing. That's a good idea. So many things. I would say that's my favorite.

SPEAKER_03: 21:16

And also it's such a good exercise in terms of using such large muscle groups and getting those large muscle groups. Um, and I think I've talked about this before, is that having really strong legs is so vital when you're getting older, because I know it's something that especially with getting older, we're susceptible to falls. I mean, I know um my dad who died uh earlier in this year, but um he was living in a care home. But that's one of the things you do find is that with elderly, if they don't have strong legs, then having a having a fall can be quite could be quite fatal and you know it be quite detrimental. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 21:55

Yeah. Absolutely. Well, and that's what strength training is all about, right?

SPEAKER_03: 21:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 21:59

Is we talk about our looks a lot, but the reality is this is this is our bone density, all that good stuff that's gonna keep us.

SPEAKER_03: 22:09

Especially for women as well, the osteoporosis, and yeah, that's right. Is there the were is there a bad strength training myth?

SPEAKER_00: 22:17

You might have covered this earlier, but I mean I think the worst one of the worst strength training myths is that more is better. I think that gets people more injured than it does health. So a lot of times when women come to me or when I have clients come to me, they'll be like, I've been working out six or seven days a week. And that's like, ooh, timeout. We don't need to do that much. We need to make sure we have time for our muscles to recover. So I think that's one of the biggest myths.

SPEAKER_03: 22:45

Uh no pain and no gain.

SPEAKER_00: 22:48

Yeah, yes, that's not a great, not a great thing to. But yeah, I would say that's the biggest, that's one of the worst myths in my opinion, is that more is better.

SPEAKER_03: 22:58

Is there um is there a particular good resource or book which would be as good for the as a a mindset book for runners, or is um that you've come across?

SPEAKER_00: 23:13

Yeah, so I think of two. Um the first one actually is written by Molly Galbreth. Uh it's called Oh, what is it? It's it's a Girls Gone Strong book. It's women, strong women lift each other up. That is a great open source.

SPEAKER_03: 23:28

I'll put a a link in the show notes.

SPEAKER_00: 23:31

Yes. And then also, I'm sure a lot of people have heard of atomic habits. I think atomic habits is great for kind of understanding how to build habits and build better habits for your life. So that's also a really good one too. And that's by James Clear.

SPEAKER_03: 23:49

Okay. I'll link I'll definitely uh include links in the show notes to that. And morning or evening workouts.

SPEAKER_00: 23:57

My preference or yeah. Okay. I would say morning. I guess I if if I always joke that if it's not done by noon, then I'm probably not gonna do it. So I'd learn my learn the hard way, learn myself, know myself well enough that I gotta do it done in the morning. Otherwise it's gonna be a challenge.

SPEAKER_03: 24:16

And uh the last one is finish this sentence. Running strong starts with mindset. Mindset. Oh, great. I like that. Very good.

SPEAKER_00: 24:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 24:29

So I think we can safely say that we've kind of covered how strength training at home, you don't have to be going down the gym. You can do basic exercises and then you can progress it. Um and then you like you said, it's all about, you know, in terms of the mindset, it's sort of building smaller steps to achieve that particular goal. Is there anything else you'd like to add to that?

SPEAKER_00: 24:56

No, I think that's a great summarization, Brian. I just appreciate being able to have this conversation with you. It's been great. I I am a runner at heart, and that's how I started. So this just like feeds my soul to talk about it again. So I appreciate you having me on.

SPEAKER_03: 25:11

Yeah. Well, it's it's great having you on. Uh how can we get in touch with you? So if anyone's interested about what you're doing.

SPEAKER_00: 25:19

Yeah, so you can follow me on social media. I'm on TikTok, LinkedIn, right, Instagram, Facebook, all the things. And also you can go to my website is www.allisoncoaches.com. And at Allison Coaches are my handles for social media as well. So that's how you can get a hold of me. I have a free macro planner as well on my website. And if there are ever any questions, we I know we touched on like social media and people and social media and questions about things. Feel free. I'm always open. I'm an open book. So if you have any questions, uh certainly don't hesitate to reach out and just ask.

SPEAKER_03: 25:59

Brilliant. Excellent. And uh yeah, thank you uh very much for everyone for listening. And as I usually do is I tend to split the episode, my episodes into two. So if you haven't listened to the first part, then please do feel free to listen to the first part. But from me and from Alison, I'd like to say goodbye.