Running Through 2025: Highlights and Insights

Join Brian Patterson as he takes you on a journey through the highlights of 2025 in the world of running. This episode features inspiring stories from diverse guests, including sports psychologists, nutritionists, and running enthusiasts from around the globe. Discover the evolution of running shoes, the mental strategies to overcome challenges, and the importance of strength and conditioning. Whether you're a seasoned runner or just starting out, this episode offers valuable insights and motivation to keep you moving forward. Tune in for a year in review that celebrates resilience, transformation, and the joy of running.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_06 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. Welcome back to Brian's Ron Pod, and it's me, your host, Brian Patterson, on some more hints and tips about running. Well, this week we have something a little different, a summary of 2025. I have over the year had 20 guests on the podcast, and they've ranged from sport psychologists, sleep consultant, coaches, and not forgetting running authors, plus many more from a range of disciplines. We've interviewed people from Australia, the United States, even Bolivia, and even a running influencer from Serbia. It's been without doubt an amazing year with regards to the podcast. Also, I'm still keen to provide you with some more amazing content. For instance, coming up in the new year, we have talked to a celebrated running author, Lisa Jackson, and Kate Orkut, a sports performance coach. Anyway, that's all coming up in 2026. In this episode, I'll provide you with some highlights over the past year with some my wonderful guests. And at the time at the same time, there have been some challenges, my father passing and a cancer diagnosis in the family, and myself also getting over an injury. I suppose this year reflects on the ups and downs of life. Now, I have picked out ten of my highlights, although that's not to say that any of those that have not cudded in that ten haven't been highlights as well. So, but um as I said, I've I realize that it's really difficult to choose these highlights and just like choosing your favourite child. However, I just thought I would uh choose the interviews from a range of different subject areas. Let's start with a fellow podcaster Hannah Mulhern, who I reached out on Instagram, and she was a collegiate basketball player. In this clip, she talks about her transition from being a team player to taking up running. And what did running teach you at that stage?

SPEAKER_07 2:24

I mean, obviously.

SPEAKER_09 2:26

It taught me a lot. It taught me that I'm, and something that I still say to this day, you're capable of a lot more than you give yourself credit for. I was because I came from such a background of sports that involved a ball. There was some it wasn't just running, there was a distraction. Running was punishment. So it was kind of a mental switch of like, no, we're doing this because we're gonna try something new. And so never being afraid to try something new, regardless of how old you are or how you might feel that you look different than other runners. You know, usually runners are a bit shorter. There's a bit more of a body type for running. I don't think I fit to that body, that body type, and I learned to not care. Um and then something that I still talk about too is when you hit a, I'm gonna try to run three miles today, and you hit that goal, and then you set another one, I'm gonna run four miles today, and you hit that goal. That level of goal accomplishment transpires to other parts of your life.

SPEAKER_07 3:21

Yeah, interesting.

SPEAKER_09 3:22

Yeah. It, you know, like you think about like, oh, I could push myself maybe professionally, or maybe I could do, how else can I challenge myself and see what I'm capable of? It it translates to other components of your life, and that's a really cool perspective to start to see.

SPEAKER_06 3:37

Well, we haven't had many retailers on the show. Well, back in March, I interviewed Dominic Stead of Sporting Feet. He owns two shops, one in Richmond, um, which is just outside London here in the UK, and one in Putney, again in uh just out in Woolys in London. Now, for our American listeners, if Richmond sounds familiar, it's because that is where Tad Lasso was filmed. He is so passionate about his business, and I hope this comes across in our interview. Here he talks about the evolution of the running shoe and how it has been so important to try the shoe before you buy.

SPEAKER_05 4:16

And the running shoes, we were just talking about the evolution of the shoes and the technology over the last 10 years plus. They've got lighter, faster, smaller in the way they fit, maybe less durable, but they perform better, but they fit small. And you know, season to season they can change in the way they fit as well. So this is one of the things that, you know, we got absolutely right about the business. There's no substitute for trying them on. And trying them on in the presence of someone who knows a bit about footwear and running footwear and other sports footwear as well, but particularly running. And it makes a huge difference. I I love the fact that, you know, it doesn't matter what demograph you're talking about, it doesn't matter what age group is true for everybody. A little bit of help, especially if it's free, goes goes a long way. And uh I I I just love that.

SPEAKER_06 5:00

Now for a change of pace. I had a wonderful chat with uh Dr. Monica Gostich, a nutritionist from the University of Aberdeen. The interview came out at the end of March and at the beginning of April as well. So we talked about her personal journey into nutrition, what are the pitfalls of fad diets, and the importance of nutrition diversity. Now I thought this was a wonderful clip as you just described gut health like a scene from Star Wars inside you.

SPEAKER_00 5:30

And we can have this inflammation all over the body, but in majority of cases, it's inside of our gut. It's those imbalances that we get because of antibiotics, chronic stress, sedentary lifestyle, trauma. There's a lot of mental health stuff that impacts that as well. And we develop these imbalances inside of our gut. And if I oversimplify it, I can say we have goodies and we have bodies inside of our gut. And they're supposed to be having this harmonious life. But instead, because of these imbalances and disruptions to our gut health, they are now in the scenario of Star Wars. They've got their lasers, they're shooting themselves, each other, and all of that, they're fighting, so there's entire war happening inside of your gut.

SPEAKER_06 6:19

Back in the middle of May of this year, I talked to TJ Daly, the founder of the Thriving MTC Running Club. Now the name of the club is a bit of a muscle, so I thought for simplicity's sake I would just shorten it to NTC. Originally the club was set up for family members and now it has well over a hundred um uh participants and organizes various uh running events. Here he talks about his collaboration with other running clubs.

SPEAKER_04 6:50

Yeah, I think we have. No, I think we we've we've done that because we produce races. Yeah. That's a big thing for us. And so we are engaging in conversation with other running clubs that are supporting those races. So we'll reach out and highlight some of the strengths of these other running clubs and say, hey, could you come bring your energy to an aid station at one of our races? Because you have a lot of people from your club participating and you guys bring it great energies. And we'd love to have you do that. And here's what we can do from a partnership perspective to enhance your club's experience at our race, as well as maybe provide some other support for endeavors that your potential club has outside. So we have that unique aspect. And then we have some other things that we do, specifically some of the relays and some of the more elite competitive things that we do that we can help other people from different clubs participate in. They may not have enough people within their club that want to do said things. So we kind of mix and mash and put things together.

SPEAKER_06 7:45

In early June, I interviewed Christy D. from Brian's Romput to discuss her passion for running and her experience, his exploring cities through this hit this activity. Christy shared her excitement about running in various cities and mentioned her plans to write a book about these adventures. She recounted her experience running the London Marathon, which was delayed due to COVID-19, and expressed her love for the city's energy and beauty.

SPEAKER_10 8:14

The next idea that I have is about running the world and the various things that you can see when you're out exploring through running in my case, but yeah, I I have a few more cities on my bucket list that I want to run. And then that book would be the next thing that happens after that.

SPEAKER_07 8:32

At time of recording, because I know this probably won't go up for a few weeks, but at the time of recording, I mean the London is this weekend. Yes. So I take it you have done London. What did you think?

SPEAKER_10 8:44

I loved London.

SPEAKER_07 8:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 8:46

So when COVID hit, I was scheduled to rod Tokyo and London in the spring of 2020. London was delayed till the fall of 2021. So I'm one of the few people that got to run London Marathon in October instead of uh April. But I love the city, just the energy, the beauty.

SPEAKER_06 9:08

Now we did have some fellow podcasters on the pod. So Sophie and Lydia from the Strong Sty Side Strong Stride Podcast. Both of them reside in Australia. So with the wonders of technology, I managed to have a brilliant chat with them. Now I'm going to play two clips from the podcast. Here, Lydia emphasizes the importance of consulting a physiotherapist for a personalized assessment, highlighting that while increased cadence can be effective, it should be tailored to individual needs.

SPEAKER_02 9:43

And often this can increase the load on like our knee in particular, like upper telephemoral joint, and often like our lateral hip, which I spoke a bit about in the podcast. So we do see some association with certain biomechanical positions that do tend to cause a little bit more pain, in particular the knee and the lateral hip, with those lower cadences. And so often, anecdotally, and some evidence does tell us that if we increase our cadence, we often can reduce our knee pain. So it doesn't mean that if you have knee pain, the first thing you should do is increase your cadence. I would absolutely speak to a physio who can assess your knee and actually do a running assessment. In saying that, I've had a lot of success with patients increasing cadence, reducing their knee pain very quickly. Pain that's been around for many, many months, debilitating pain they can't run, simply increasing their cadence gets rid of that pain.

SPEAKER_06 10:35

In our next clip, Sophie discusses how exceeding the optimal load can diminish the effectiveness of exercises like uh skipping rope and suggested more intentional movements such as polko hops and box jumps. The conversation also covers the use of bands to reduce load and the progression to more complex movements, providing listeners with a comprehensive understanding of plyometric training techniques.

SPEAKER_11 11:03

I think what can be done kind of wrong with plymetrics is again, similar to the strength training, is just getting that dosage or that loading right. And some people might, you know, they might do some skipping rope for five minutes or something like that. And as Lydia said before, you've got this kind of 60 to 80 contacts that is a really appropriate amount of load for these biometrics. If we go over that load, the bones get a little bit bored and you're not really getting that same adaptation anymore. So spending five or ten minutes on a skipping rope isn't quite the same effect. Getting some more low dosage, more intentional movements like those pogo hops or stepping up on a box and then landing from that box, jumping up as high as you can. There's lots of different variations as kind of a plyometric continuum starting from really basic movements, such as if you have a band above your head holding onto that band and doing the pogo hops that you referenced before. It takes a little bit of loadoff. It's a really nice way to practice that movement. And then you can get into more complicated single leg, lateral, all sorts of different movements off boxes and things like that.

SPEAKER_06 11:53

Now, O'Brien's Rum pod first, we had a sports psychologist, Michael Huber. He came on the pod back in September, and I thought he gave such an illuminated discussion about how running is not just a physical but also a mental exercise. He gave tips about mental strategies that can help runners push through self-doubt and pain during races and training. Also, how writing um also uh how writing intentions or mantras on your hand provides visual reminders during difficult moments, moments in a race or training. Here he talks about creating a mental plan for tough, tough runs.

SPEAKER_01 12:39

Right? Just like you have a race plan, right? Having a plan to deal with the mental adversity that's gonna come up in a race, right? Like invariably you're gonna start to get negative and focus on something, right? What am I gonna do when I go to that place?

SPEAKER_06 12:55

In October, we had our first guest from South America, Bolivia no less. This is what I love about podcasting is tapping into the knowledge of experts from all over the world. In this clip, Lisa explains the components of metabolism, starting with the basal metabolic rate, which is the energy burned at rest. She discusses non-exercise activity thermogesis, neat, which includes everyday activities like blinking and gesturing, and exercise activity thermogenes, which involves intentional exercises like running. Lastly, she highlights the thermic effect of food where the body uses energy to digest food and especially whole whole foods.

SPEAKER_08 13:39

It's not just like we have a metabolism in full stop. It's like you have your basal metabolic rate, the amount of calories that you burn just by doing absolutely nothing, laying in a bed, you know, like in a coma, for instance. Then on top of that, we have the calories that we burn in our day-to-day activity, like sitting up, blinking, gesturing, that kind of stuff. That's referred to as neat, non-exercise activity thermogenesis. And then on top of that, we have the exercise activity thermogenesis. That's kind of more obvious, where we go for a run, where we go for a walk, where like all that kind of intentional exercise. And then the last pillar, and that's often also a little bit underrated, and the last pillar is the thermic effect of food. So that means the energy that your body requires in order to break down the food that you consume. If you consume more whole foods, your body is going to need more energy to break that down.

SPEAKER_06 14:29

Alicia Car Carillo is a strength and conditioning coach and was our 145th and 146th episode. So as you know, I usually split our interviews into two. And I can't believe we've done that many. She talked about how her mum was an athletic coach and that while she was coaching, she was left in the sandpit. So, anyhow, in this clip, Alicia discusses the benefits of strength and conditioning for runners. Alicia emphasizes the importance of injury prevention, noting that while injuries can't be entirely predicted or prevented, strengthening the body can make it more resilient. She highlights the role of um creating thicker, stiffer, and more responsive tendons to combat common issues like tendinitis, which often result from repatriative activities without adequate muscle strengthening.

SPEAKER_07 15:24

So on a general basis, what would you say are the benefits of strength and conditioning for runners?

SPEAKER_03 15:33

I mean, so there's I mean, there's so many, but you know, one, I I use the in term injury prevention loosely because, like I said, we can't really predict or prevent injury. It's, you know, there's so many things that tie into it. It could be if you're not sleeping well, your stress is high, like those factors. But we we can still do as much as we can to make our bodies resilient. So the injury prevention in that sense of creating thicker, stiffer, and more responsive tendons. A lot of runners deal with tendinitis, whether that's patellar tendinitis, achilles, things like that. And a lot of that comes from, you know, just doing the same thing repetitively and not adding in anything to strengthen those tissues, anything to strengthen the muscle around those tendons. So that's a huge benefit.

SPEAKER_06 16:25

So in summary, it has been quite a year. I've done 154 episodes since the first of January, 2023, and I have plans of having many more guests in 2026. So I hope you enjoyed this look back at 2025, and here's to a brilliant 2026. So till next week, and don't forget to listen back to uh some of these episodes in my catalogue. But till next week, goodbye.