Sam Foster on Sobriety, Structure, and a Sub 3 Marathon

In this episode, we sit down with Sam Foster to explore how running became the catalyst for a complete life shift.

Before chasing performance goals, Sam spent years in the hospitality industry navigating long hours, heavy drinking, and feeling stuck in a cycle that was hard to break. What started as a simple decision to go for a run gradually turned into something much bigger.

We talk through Sam’s journey into sobriety, the challenges of building consistency, and the lessons learned along the way, including the importance of fueling properly, strength training for durability, and taking a more structured approach to training.

This conversation is a reminder that running is not just about performance. With the right structure and support, it can be a tool to rebuild confidence, create direction, and build something sustainable over time.

You can follow Sam’s journey on Instagram at @run_weasly_92.

Right, that's us done. If that was useful… share it. Stick it in your club WhatsApp, send it to that mate who's always getting injured three weeks before race day. You know the one ;)

If you want to go deeper on any of this, Nick puts out videos every week on YouTube, and the entire team of coaches are sharing helpful tips on their instagram channels... links below. And if you're thinking you actually need a proper plan and someone in your corner… we've got Guided Coaching from 97 quid a month, right up to full one-to-one coaching with the coach of your choice. Either way, maximummileagecoaching.com is where you want to be.

See you on the next one.

To work with us - https://join.maximummileagecoaching.com/home-page-9835

Nick's YT - youtube.com/channel/UCgdIPeN3bF7I7-tcspyFbVg/

Faye's IG - https://www.instagram.com/fayejohnsoncoaching/

Rachael's IG - https://www.instagram.com/rachforthelongrun/

Hannah's IG - https://www.instagram.com/coach_hannah_witt/

Matt's IG - https://www.instagram.com/ultracoachmatt/

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Today we're joined by Sam Foster, an athlete whose journey into running didn't start in a typical place. Before the Sub-3 marathon and Ultra Podiums, Sam spent years in a cycle of long hours drinking and feeling stuck. Like a lot of people, he didn't have a clear way out until he said yes to going for a run. At maximum mileage, this is what we see all the time. Running isn't just about getting fitter. It can be the structure and direction people need to start turning things around. In this episode, we talk through Sam's journey into sobriety, learning how to actually fuel training and what it takes to build something sustainable in both running and life. Let's get into it.

SPEAKER_02 0:44

Hey Trailblazers and Talmac Tacklers. Welcome back to the Maximum Miley's coaching podcast. My name is Nick Hancock. I'm a USCA and UK Athletics certified running coach. And I'm here with my esteemed colleague.

SPEAKER_01 0:59

Me, Hannah Wynn. Hello. Hello.

SPEAKER_02 1:03

Oh, we're gonna get these intros right again one day. Yeah, no, it's been been great listening to you on the podcast recently, Hannah. It's been a nice, nice break for me not having to do it all the time. But here I am today. Everybody gets to listen to me droning on, but hopefully not too much, because I am delighted finally, because we had talked about doing this podcast before, long, long time ago. And I think I had I think I had a sore throat. And I had to cancel it, Sam. I can't can't remember.

SPEAKER_04 1:35

Some of it gave up.

SPEAKER_02 1:36

Yeah, anyway, I'm here. I'm here with Hannah, and uh our guest today is Sam Foster. I'm gonna leave most of the introduction to to himself, but Sam is one of my athletes and has been for quite some time now, actually, hasn't he?

SPEAKER_04 1:50

Yeah, over two years, just over two years, I think. Yeah, yeah. I think it was February, what year are we in 26? So 24? Maybe May, March, whatever. But yeah, definitely over two years.

SPEAKER_02 2:04

Yeah, what a couple of years it's been. You've I mean that first year, certainly, Christ, you had a week every a race every week, sometimes two races in a week. There was one day, you had two races on one day.

SPEAKER_04 2:17

Yes, yeah, that was a um that was a fun day. That was a fun day out. I can't remember exactly what it was cross-country into a uh into a trail race. So I've had better ideas. I I I paid the price for that for a couple of days afterwards.

SPEAKER_02 2:31

Yeah, yeah, no, you were uh you were quite excited about racing when we first started working together, and you have now actually you've still got lots of races, but it's it's a lot more calm I know, more like one a month than yes, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 2:45

Yeah, problem of vulture racing, um, which we spent quite a bit of time doing. It takes takes a lot out of you, doesn't it? So um I've had to be a bit more sensible of what I'm doing over the weekends. Um you haven't seen the plan for this year yet, so uh never say never. There's a few more snuck in there, yeah. You know what?

SPEAKER_02 3:04

Like yeah, there's usually one that just pops up. I'm like, where does that one come from? No. Very good. Well, yeah, no, Sam, it's good to finally have you on. And the reason the reason I've wanted to have you on is because you do have a bit of a backstory, like a lot of runners, but you know, everybody's story is unique, and you know, it's good to delve into kind of where you've come from and you know where you are now with your racing and you know what you've achieved since you changed your life, really. So over to you. Tell us.

SPEAKER_04 3:40

Yeah, sure. Well, introduce myself. I'm I'm Sam, obviously one of Nick's athletes, 33, and live down on the sunny south coast of uh Dorset and United Kingdom. So a bit of a backstory about myself. Used to like a drink, a real good drink. So uh I started working in the pub industry when I was 15, kind of uh washing plates as you do when you're a young lad. And progressed into yeah, I progressed into a kitchen role. And the um one thing I'll quickly learn about the pub industry is whether it's a good day, a bad day, there's always a beer involved. So and that would be from lunchtime shift, you've had a good shift, beer comes in, customer buys you a beer, etc. etc. So I was introduced to the pub life very early and the uh the demons that come with it. Yeah, before you know it, fast forward 10, 15 years, drinking heavily every day, smoking drugs, taking drugs in a really kind of bad place, and I didn't even realise it. Put on a load of weight, never really meant to get that far. And um a very good friend of mine started training to join the military, and he asked one day, Do you want to come for a run? I said, Fuck off, mate. I don't want to go for a run. What do I want to do that for? I laughed it off. Three weeks later, he asked again, Do you want to come for a run? No, and eventually he got me out for going for a run. And and that's pretty much where it all started. So uh couldn't even run half a mile without being absolutely gassed out, so uh stuck with it and and started slowly, getting somewhere, surely, but slowly. And then where do we go from there?

SPEAKER_02 5:28

How long did you how long how long did you spend in the hospitality industry? Because I was in it for quite a long time as well, and you know, I've not shied away from my story on this podcast in you know in the past. It it's a great industry, you know. It took me all around the world. I met my wife, you know, in the industry, some of my best friends still now, you know, I met in in the hospitality industry, and you know, it's it it is it is good, it's great, you know, and I I love going to restaurants and stuff now, but it is tough. Like it's it is 80 hundred hours a week. And for those people who you know like going out to restaurants, that person who's serving you and having to smile constantly at you and act like everything is all hunky-dory, just you know, be aware that they are probably on the back end of a very long day or a very long day the day before, and multiple days before that. It has gotten better, to be fair. But yeah, I think you and I probably in the in the era where I'm an 80-hour week was was a badge of honour, not um yeah, not a problem.

SPEAKER_04 6:35

Yeah, I mean, I've pretty much lived lived in the pubs when I was working there. Um I said go in, go in early doors to get all the prep done, and then you'd end up really leaving about midnight by the time you kind of wrap up, even later if you're having a couple of drinks afterwards. But yeah, I think I spent probably about eight, nine years in in the industry working through various pubs, local pubs mainly, independent country pubs and bars. And then fortunate, got out of it, and then started a career in the motor trade. And where I am at now, which is I've worked on ground care equipment and agricultural equipment, so it's been quite a quite a weird jump from from hospitality into engineering type of things.

SPEAKER_02 7:17

Tell me about it. Yeah, tell me about it. Here I am going from a fairly similar situation to uh no being a running coach. Yeah, and and what sort of what drove you to get out of the industry?

SPEAKER_04 7:33

Uh be honest, I just had enough of of working so much of doing split shifts, and uh when I first kind of started doing it, it was an easy job. You could get a job working up the road, nice and easy, and I was happy as long as I was earning some money. I was happy, happy days. And you kind of get sucked into it very easily. And um all of a sudden, all my friends that were doing kind of apprenticeships and college courses and uni and all that all started to um get better jobs, move on in life, start earning some decent money, and I was still just stuck there earning kind of minimum wage, working split shifts on zero contract hours, and just had enough at the end of the day and just wanted to do better and realized if I didn't really do something, I could quite easily just get stuck stuck uh suck in sucked in, stuck in the cycle going round and round, and the longer kind of I'm in that cycle, the harder it's gonna be to get out again.

SPEAKER_02 8:27

Yeah, I but me and Alison used to say all the time, chefs is especially it was always because it's such a competitive industry, because incompetitive in terms of everywhere is short staffed, so there was always another another place where you can go and earn another 50p an hour and think, oh yeah, the grass is greener, I won't have to do as many acts there and I'll learn a little bit more. And and it never was, yeah, it never was, it was never green at all. It just got worse as we got older. So where when you when you left the industry and you went into mechanics and stuff, were you still drinking pretty heavily then and smoking? Oh yes, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 9:12

So still drinking heavily again. They're kind of mechanics trade is still very much eating crap food and and drinking a lot of beer. So I was surrounded by people that would go obviously wouldn't be drinking at work like we would in the in the hospitality industry, but after work, there's always beers in the in the work fridge, and uh Friday nights always involve going straight down the pub, and that would be it until uh kind of Sunday night.

SPEAKER_03 9:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 9:37

Yeah. Surrounded by it, surrounded by drinking booze.

SPEAKER_02 9:42

Yeah. So you got into running, you did half a mile without feeling gassed out, yeah. Remember, remember that feeling because that's kind of how it started for me. But what what then happened?

SPEAKER_04 9:53

Kind of well, yeah, obviously got started training a little bit and improvements happened, and um there's a local trail race on down the road, and I thought just for a bit of fun, I'd enter a 5k. And so went along, didn't really expect anything at all, and done a bit better than I thought I would, and surprised myself. So I can't remember the exact time, which is irrelevant, but um done a lot better and which made me then think what would actually happen if you know I put a bit of thought and effort and sorted my life out and kind of channelled everything into running. And that is when it really kind of snowballed and started, and didn't really have any training plans or anything like that. I didn't even know what a training plan was, to be honest, let alone a coach. So from there just started running and running more and more and more. Classic case of beginner runner, just keeps on going, somehow avoided avoided injuries, did a few more races, saw those kind of newbie newbie gains and got a lot quicker in quite a short amount of time. Did a few more races, which is good, and then pretty much I decided to inquire about a coach, which wasn't yourself, it was a previous coach. I worked with them for a little bit, but they didn't quite understand kind of what I wanted out of my running, and it was kind of very basic, so that didn't last very long, and then reached out to yourself, and that's when things really started to accelerate. I mean, can't remember exactly kind of what I was doing when I first started. I think again it was a lot of a lot of aimless miles and not a lot of structure. So classic case of on the way to burnout, and then we managed to restructure things and go from not even doing a marathon to a sub-free hour marathon within just over a year.

SPEAKER_02 11:47

Yeah, yeah, it's been uh yeah, we'll talk about some of your results shortly, but yeah, um I I'm still sort of quite keen because it it's it's that going from yeah, where you were with your drink and and stuff, and and then all of a sudden you're finding yourself racing. Did did they sort of come to a point where you just went, right? No more drink. This is oh, Hannah's cat. Nobody can see that. That's terrible, terrible podcasting. Nobody can see Hannah's cat, but Hannah has many, many cats.

SPEAKER_01 12:19

See, here is your voice, Nick, and for some reason she really likes your voice and she's running, so you have a fan.

SPEAKER_02 12:26

What's her name?

SPEAKER_01 12:27

Sipsy. Sorry, continue, Sam.

SPEAKER_02 12:34

Sorry, what you said, Nick, I uh Yeah, sorry, I got distracted by a cat, which is terrible. Terrible.

SPEAKER_04 12:39

What was your question?

SPEAKER_02 12:41

Sorry. Yeah, did you did you sort of did you just stop drinking and go, right, that's it, no more drink, I'm gonna put everything into running, or was there was there a bit of a kind of a process?

SPEAKER_04 12:56

It was a bit of a process and a roller coaster, to be honest. So like we all do, thought that's it, give up everything. You lost about three days, and then sure enough, you're uh back in front of the TV with a beer in your hand. So I managed to kick kick the drugs first, and and obviously had to kind of felt like I had to rely on something, so drinking was still kind of socially acceptable. So carried on drinking and got the news that my youngest daughter was obviously uh about to be born, well not born, but she became a little bean inside the belly, so that kind of spurred me on to take it to the next level and and sort it out properly. Kind of cut down the drinking a lot and then got to the day, the day my daughter was born was the last drink I had. So um that was a celebratory drink, and after that knocked on the head, and I've been teetotal since. So that's oh teetotal, right? Teetot since, yeah. So two and a half years teetotal. Oh fantastic. So um just coming up.

SPEAKER_02 14:03

Very good. And what about the smoking? Because it you did actually admit something to me not all that long ago, did you? Which was I'm still vaping.

SPEAKER_04 14:19

Oh yes, yeah, yes.

SPEAKER_02 14:22

Well that that was about that was about 12 months ago now, wasn't it? Maybe yes, yeah, 10-12 months ago.

SPEAKER_04 14:28

That's right, yeah. So ditch cigarettes, picked up the vape. What a bad idea that was, but you know, it got me off off for the fags. Um, same yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:39

It's we we now know a lot more about vaping, and it's not it's not any better for you, but at least it does stop you from stinking of cigarettes, which you know, I'm the worst ex-smoker now. I hate the smell of cigarettes. Yeah, it's disgusting. Hate it so badly. But yeah, it wasn't all that long ago. You said to me, Oh, I'm still vaping. I was like, Sam, that sub three marathon will will be almost a certainty if you kick that shit.

SPEAKER_04 15:06

Yeah, I've in fact I think I was still vaping when when I ran that. I think I went for a bit of a career change and tried to get into the fire service. So um that is when I really had to kind of sort that bit out. And that was back a year and a half ago. So I think it was that and so yeah, I'm glad I got rid of that. It does you no good. And so if you're listening, don't smoke and don't vape. Yeah, don't do drugs, kids. Don't do drugs, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:36

Good. Okay, so teetotal, wow. Yes. So I know there'll be some people going, oh, well, what do you do for fun now? I mean, you know, other than training like an absolute lunatic. Um we'll come on to that, but yeah, what's kind of what what does social life I guess look like for you now?

SPEAKER_04 15:55

I've spun it right round. So it used to be a complete party animal, party lifestyle, went hand in hand with kind of uh the drink and the drugs, and I'm just a family man now, to be honest with you. I go to work, I train, and I stay at home, look after the children, and that's about it, to be honest. There's easy life, it's nice and simple, don't overcomplicate things. I found but more recently I found a bit of cycling. I know that falls into training, but it's been uh super fun, super fun.

SPEAKER_02 16:30

Yeah, I'd like to, you know, let's I you know no secrets on here. I'm not one of these coaches that goes around telling everybody that I I stop them from getting injured because you know it happens with runners, it is a very high contact sport. You have had a little bit of an Achilles niggle recently, so you went and got yourself a turbo trainer. I've got one right behind me here. And you have really, really fallen for it, haven't you?

SPEAKER_04 16:55

Oh, I absolutely love it. Absolutely love it. I mean, as a kid, I was always out on a bike doing jumps and and pissing about, messing about, and just kind of faded away with with life as things do, and yeah, attempted to take on the arc of attrition back in January with an Achilles nickel. That didn't go too well and turned out to be tendinitis. So we instead of carrying on running, we reduced the volume right down and yeah, got a turbo trainer and with the help of Nick started cycling as a form of cross-training and completely got the bug. Completely got the bug. Some reason I put 150 miles on the turbo trainer alone. So um still at it now, not not quite as much. Running is slowly coming back in now. We've um kind of recovered from from this niggle. Yeah, yeah, it's still a staple part of my uh week, and I look forward to to doing the bit of a racing every every week.

SPEAKER_02 17:53

Yeah, yeah. And you we were just saying off air, you uh you I saw on Instagram today you've gone and get yourself a nice posh bike.

SPEAKER_04 18:00

I have, yes. So um I've got uh a couple of duathlons planned.

SPEAKER_02 18:05

Oh god, is it a couple now? Is it?

SPEAKER_04 18:07

Yeah, well, I knew there was one. One one's confirmed. There's a couple in the books, not confirmed yet. So I decided to go out and yeah, buy myself my first ever bike that I bought brand new and not inherited or had as a hand-y down, and gone for a nice aero bike, something a bit racy that hopefully I can do a bit of justice and and get a good result with. So uh, and maybe even go into a bit of triathlon next year, but I've got to learn to swim first, so that's one thing that's holding me back. I I can't swim. Oh, okay. So yeah, it's probably my saving grace, to be honest.

SPEAKER_02 18:43

Otherwise, you're never too late. My grandfather was 87, I think it was when he first started. Oh wow, learning to swim, yeah. Yeah, yeah, he was not young, so that's incredible. Yeah. Have you got any questions? You want to jump in?

SPEAKER_01 19:02

Yeah, definitely. I worked very, very briefly in hospitality. I'm talking two weeks because I was in college and it was like a summer job, and I was still doing summer training, like as far as running, because I ran for my scholarship. That's how you know to help pay for college. But what was expected because I was like a cocktail waitress, a restaurant, actually, where I live now in Banner El, it was like the night doesn't even really start until 11. And then you're basically getting home at like two or three o'clock in the morning. And I said straight up, I was like, There's no way that I can do that and sustain in training and things like that. But the owners, they were they were really nice, and they were like, So you can leave, you know, maybe midnight, and you know, we'll see how that goes. But you you don't make any money off of tips if you leave that early. So just knowing that brief little glimmer of what I experienced in hospitality and how hard it is and how exhausted you feel because you're constantly anticipating other people's needs, like that is so draining. So the fact that you both were in it for such a long time, like I think it really takes stamina to do it A, but courage also to get out of it and to try a different path. And you know, I feel like seeing your friends all go to university, all get better paying jobs, and you're still doing the same thing for not as much pay, like that's gotta be really, really hard. And but it speaks volumes that you have achieved so much in getting yourself out of that and also really doing great things with your training. How did you not get burnt out with running? Because, like, like you mentioned, you were doing a ton of kind of aimless muscles, and it seems like you sought a coach out. Do you did you kind of feel like that you were heading in a bad direction with getting burnt out, and that's why you reached out to Nick?

SPEAKER_04 21:15

Um, no, how I don't know how I didn't get burnt out either, to be honest with you. I've got a loss of energy, a lot of energy, and uh it doesn't stop. And kind of say, Good home. I used to smoke a lot a lot of weed, and uh and that'll be it. I that is how I turned off. So uh quitting that, I had no way of turning off. So it would be exercise would be the way to kind of you know get rid of all that energy and feel like I could just chill out. But to answer the question is I didn't reach out to a coach because of burning out, it was just to improve. It felt like the easiest way to try and get some help and go in the right direction and get faster and and better with the bonus of being structured so I don't pick up an injury long term. And so I can enjoy running for for years and years to come and not kind of go into it so hard, beat myself up, get injured, and then that's it, fall off a wagon, like a lot of people do when they do get injured and um and not return to running.

SPEAKER_02 22:15

Yeah, I remember I remember when you approached me, you said you felt like you weren't sure about how to get faster and you were you know what you were doing, because you know, not everybody wants to get faster, but that was a big thing, and still is a big thing to you is you want to run fast, and you do run fast. I mean, what what what what PBs have we got you down to now?

SPEAKER_04 22:38

1741 on the 5k 10k was done at bath half, so I haven't actually made a 10k standalone, but that's 37 minutes according to Strava. 120 at Bath Half, which is my half marathon PB, which was on the build-up for a Newport marathon. That was a 258 marathon at Newport, which is my first road marathon. Uh stinking cold. Oh, yeah, that was horrendous.

SPEAKER_02 23:06

You were rough, weren't you?

SPEAKER_04 23:08

Yeah, really rough. And that that really affected me for about two weeks after recovery, wise, I was gone absolutely dead. And then when we move into longer stuff, what's the 347 for the 50k, which we managed to do I think October last year? So that was Run to the Sea, which is a a local one to me, flat and fast. And then the other ones are kind of irrelevant. No, they're very hilly. I think that was 13 hours, and then a 100k over the Jurassic Coast where I live, which is like a roller coaster again, and I think that was 12 hours something, but I said they're not really a comparable race for timings.

SPEAKER_02 23:52

No, but you've done you've you've podiums quite a lot as well, haven't you? Yes, podiums and one, and yeah, it's rather pretty it's it's just it's quite it is just that classic. Well not classic, I don't know, I don't know what words you use, but that turnaround story of oh you know, I was drinking loads, smoking loads.

SPEAKER_04 24:13

I know you kind of they're winning races and running 17-minute 5Ks and yes, yeah, it kind of snowed pretty quickly, but I said what I've found to work out kind of later on and down the line is so we'll we're all addicted to endorphins somehow, and and that's what you get from from say drinking drugs or whatever, and running is what I found is the closest thing to replicate what I used to kind of get high off and and things like that. It gives that big kind of hit of dopamine, you feel bloody amazing for it, and that's it for the rest of the day. And I think that's what's kind of hooked me so much, is I found something that's healthy to a degree, probably not so much in the old knees and all that, as they they like to say, you pick up injuries, but you know, it's it's a hell of a lot better than what I was doing.

SPEAKER_01 25:01

It sounds like you you've excelled at every distance that you've tried from 5k up to 50k. Is that the longest that you've done 50k?

SPEAKER_04 25:11

100k is the longest I completed. I attempted to take on a hundred mile at the Ark of Attrition down in Cornwall this year, but sadly I uh that's my first DNF and pulled out at just under 100k due to uh my Achilles flaring up. So, but yeah, I I like to joke that I'm a I'm a jack of all and master of none.

SPEAKER_01 25:32

Well, I'm just trying to think. You've been working with Nick for two years. Yeah, did you both kind of have a conversation of how are we gonna periodize training? How are we gonna have training cycles? What are we gonna work on for this cycle? Are we gonna work on just speed so that you can have a really good 5k? Are we gonna have a cycle where we tackle ultra distances? Was it strategic or was it like, oh, this race is near, so let's spend some time working on that? Like, how did that structure look?

SPEAKER_04 26:00

Well, like Nick said before, and uh I was racing pretty much every weekend. So from Nick's point of view, and as a coach, it's very hard to periodise something when I'm just out hammering it. So he he gave me some free reign pretty much and uh to go and enjoy things, and we kind of restructured racing as speed work. So I mean I wasn't out doing marathons and half marathons every weekend, a lot of them were kind of like 5k, 10k. So that'd be the speed work session for the week and that good quality one, which is usually probably one better than I would than a speed session, just because of the atmosphere, you're running against people, you can always find that extra gear when you're in a race, can't you? Which it's very hard to find when you're out on your own in the rain at five o'clock in the morning doing an interval session by yourself. So, yes, but then I once I started stepping up the distance and trying to respect to the bigger distances, and yeah, we did have to periodize and and be a lot more clever with with the training.

SPEAKER_01 27:00

And you've got young daughter and you started training ultra distances. What how did training change to accommodate obviously a lot more responsibility at home? But you know, you're doing training to be able to tackle an ultra distance.

SPEAKER_04 27:15

Firstly, a very understanding uh partner, she's uh Kitty. So shout out to Kitty. She's uh very very good, very good to me. I've had to completely swap my routines around essentially. So previously, when I did start first running, I was running in the evenings. And then my partner Kitty, she still works in the hospitality industry, so she works three nights a week at the pub. So I'm at home looking after after Nipper, so there's not time to work in the um to train in the evenings anymore. So I've had to restructure it, get up early, do my trading before work, so now I can come back and either look after my daughter or spend time as a family, and I'm not taking that time away from my family and being being absent. So that is pretty much it, it's just early mornings, get up before everyone else is up.

SPEAKER_01 28:06

How early are we talking? Like before five a.m.

SPEAKER_04 28:10

or yeah, so tend to get up around five, out training half five, six, sometimes fit do you uh strength session after me run and then start work at eight. So um, and I'll do that seven days a week. Well, not train seven days a week, but yeah, tend to get up at that time seven days a week or through the weekend and and carry on.

SPEAKER_01 28:29

How does strength training? You mentioned you you could do strength training after that sometimes, but how many sessions? What does that look like in a week typically?

SPEAKER_04 28:38

Um so typically it's two to three sessions a week, depending on what we're focusing on. Obviously, very leg focused. So there'll be lots of uh kind of squats, all the single leg stuff, lots of single leg stuff, calf raises, and it was all all completely new to me before working with Nick. So never done any kind of strength training, and it's a bit of a strange one as well, because you don't feel stronger for doing the strength training, but you look back and realize that you haven't had this nickel for a long time, or or you just feel a lot kind of fresher in the morning. So it's a stranger on the fact that do you understand what I mean there? Yeah, it's definitely yeah, it's not you don't kind of get the immediate effects of it, go, oh yeah, I feel really strong from doing uh doing all of these weights yesterday. It's just all of a sudden you go look back and go, Oh yeah, that's that hasn't happened for a long time, or been able to nail the volume repeatedly, repeatedly, and without any issues.

SPEAKER_02 29:37

Yeah, it's about building durability. I'm not particularly interested in you know vanity metrics, as I as I call them, you know, things like you know, how much are you squatting? You know, it's it's quite nice to look and go, oh, you know, I'm squatting X now versus Y back then. But you know, those numbers are are all well and good, but really what I'm looking looking to to build in all of you that I coach is is that durability and you know the ability to to push hard at the end of a marathon or to you know get up a hill faster than you know the other people that you're racing against. It's not yeah, yeah, and and with strength, it does take a while for those adaptations to come in. You know, a little bit different to like doing speed work. So going back to your question a little bit, Hannah, I'm just gonna answer it a bit more from a coach's point of view with with Sam. In the first six months or so, he was racing every week, like I said, you know, at the beginning, like sometimes a couple of times a week, as our relationship as as athlete and coach has matured. I mean I got to know him more and you know understand more about his goals and you know what it is he wants wants to do because it does take time to get to know well anyone, let alone you know get to know somebody physiologically. And you know, there came a time where it was like, right, Sam, you need to not race as much. And even then, some of those races that you are gonna continue doing, we just need to use those as sessions so that we can then you know we can really focus on specific sessions that are gonna benefit that you know that long-term goal and and really work on splitting his racing up into those A, B, and C category races that we do, you know, have a couple of A races a year. You know, you can't perform every single race. And it took Sam a little while to realise that because every almost every week it was like, well, I want a PB that one, I want a PV that one, I want a PV that one. And um, you know, there was that newer runner excitement. And yeah, you did have that for a while, but those FPs do stop coming so frequently after a while. But I mean, Sam's still got a lot of PBs left in him. You know, it has just taken a bit of time to hone in, I think, on you know, is it that 5k you want a PB or is it complete that 100 miler? Yeah, can't have it all at the same time. We try, um, and you have done pretty well.

SPEAKER_04 32:09

I've given it me all, but yeah, no, I have I've learned amid to all that as an athlete, and um I've gotta respect that now. Uh I thought I could do it all, and you um you work out that you you can't you've either you've got to focus and kind of specialise on one area if you want to exceed and and do well there. I said, sure you can you can run it all, but how well do you want to to be able to run it is uh is the question, isn't it? So um yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:36

So you don't have to answer this if you don't want to, but when you started running and you stopped taking drugs and you stopped drinking, w did that those things kind of happen gradually, like stopping the drugs, stopping the drinking, and the running kind of everything kind of overlapped, or I'm just thinking in my mind how hard that would be to give those things up. But I mean, running would obviously help because like you mentioned, you still release dopamine and endorphin and things like that. But I mean, you mentioned the birth of your daughter was kind of like the last drink, but yes, you know, I'm sure every day wasn't all rosy and like oh, I'm just gonna stop doing drugs today. You know, it was probably a lot tougher mentally. What was that yeah, what was that struggle like? Were there a lot harder or yeah, yeah, it was it was horrendous.

SPEAKER_04 33:31

I mean, to begin with. So I I I smoked weed since I was probably 15 up until I was just turned 30, so nearly half of my life I was smoking and and then the withdrawal symptoms trying to go to sleep. I couldn't sleep properly for for nearly two weeks to and then once you get through that, you realize that you don't want to you don't want to go back to doing that again and having to go back through trying to gain your sleep hook back and your appetite routines and and everything. So it was um that's one of the things that's kept me focused on on not going back to that way. And it was a funny one as well, because I thought if I stop everything, I'm gonna feel it so much better in me running. I thought it'd be like a switch, and like I said, all of a sudden I'll be turbocharged. And um it didn't quite work like that, to be honest. It took a good few months for me to really start feeling the benefits of of stopping everything, I guess, as the body adapts and changes.

SPEAKER_03 34:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:30

Well, I appreciate you saying that. When I lived in South Florida for a bit, there were just because Florida is I don't want to say that it's the rehab capital of the world, but a lot of people go to Florida to get clean. And you see a lot of people who you know they're at rehab and you would think, well, this is a good environment for somebody to overcome their addictions, and but it's it's so hard because you see the struggle. I I had friends that were in rehab, they would they would be good, they would, you know, have withdrawal and go through that hell, and then they would they would fall off the wagon again and you have to go through it over and over and over again. And you know, I I experienced it, like I said, on very, very small level just by seeing some people go through that, but to do it basically on your own, kind of with running as this motivational thing to help you alongside that's really that's inspirational. I think you're downplaying it a lot, but yeah, what you did, a lot of people are having so such a hard time doing every single day. So kudos to you for having the strength to do that.

SPEAKER_04 35:40

Oh, thank you, Anna. That's very kind of you.

SPEAKER_01 35:43

Yeah, and it's amazing that you know you're vaping and able to do what you're doing. So I hope you you know, in my mind, I'm thinking, what more can you do if you get that one under control under control?

SPEAKER_04 35:55

But oh we see stopped now, haven't he? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:02

What did you notice like physiologically when you were you know running and the drugs weren't completely you hadn't stopped them completely? What did it feel like? Did it feel like shortness of breath? Was it you you mentioned your sleep was disturbed, or did it feel really hard?

SPEAKER_04 36:19

Yeah, I mean looking back at it, it's hard, hard to try to remember to yeah, shortness of of breath, I was kind of guessing, and it's more of a recovery side. I wouldn't recover like I do now. I said I go out, you do the runs and do the training, and then on the way back on a cool down, you'd have a fag or something stupid like that, and you feel like you've earned that fag because you've been out and done a run, and you can justify it. But then I said the recovery would just be horrendous, but I didn't know what good recovery was at the time. It's a classic, you well, that's what happens, isn't it? You go for a run and you feel crap for it afterwards, and and that's how it goes for a few days, and then you go back and you hit it hard again. So, and then since giving up and kind of the body, I guess, isn't can adapt so much better to the recovery, and and you're good good to go again the next day and a lot fresher, and not coughing up mucus every morning.

SPEAKER_01 37:14

Like your body was finally like thanking you and said, Okay, we're gonna be really, really good at running now because you don't have this monkey on your back, but yeah, that's that's great. And clearly you and Nick working together, you're able to do great things together with with training and sounds like the strength training, the the run training itself. Do you have you ever had any kind of issues with nutrition, or is that pretty solid?

SPEAKER_04 37:38

Oh, yeah, yeah, I know I've had loads of issues with nutrition. Um so again, one of the the other reasons of first starting to run in what was to lose weight, like a lot of people, I was quite overweight and bloated out from the amount of drinking I was doing. So I thought, great, eat less, run more, win-win. And it worked. I lost a lot of weight in a very short amount of time. And and then as I met Nick, I was kind of carrying on, but didn't really tell him what my eating habits was like. And then we were kind of wondering, was we reached a point, we got really what really well, we kind of reached a point, and then it plateaued. We couldn't quite work out what was going on and why I wasn't being able to push that extra bit and kind of follow the trend that was originally happening. And then we had a bit of an honest conversation, found out that I wasn't really eating and massively underfueling my training. So we had a conversation about that, started eating a lot more, and kind of I like to review how I kind of look at food and look at as as fuel rather than this bad thing that kind of to try and avoid and I shouldn't be doing to try and lose weight, and so uh and from there it's still been a bit up and down, and you always try to take or get away with as little as you can. So you try to fuel as as much as you can, but to the to the lower end, if that makes sense. So you're still doing it, but you're still not really doing it enough. And then I've kind of got really more into the nutrition side since then. Done a bit of work with a chap called James Hudson, who's a nutrition for energy, very very good nutritionist, and learnt a lot, a lot of things with him. And as I said to him, I kind of everything I thought I'd learn and expect, I thought all of a sudden it would turbocharge my training, and I'm gonna be flying along and and this and that, and it was the the secret source and the key to that the key to the door, and it didn't, but changed the my just day-to-day health and how well I feel and my energy levels, and I said I've got everything out of it I never expected, and that completely changed my outlook on on the nutritional side. And from then I've started working with Steve Winrow, who is well known in the maximum mileage community, and we are now focusing yes, and we're now focusing on a lot more of a performance side, and so I've managed to get in a lot of kind of uh core fundamentals from James and then a lot of performance from Steve and kind of mixing the best of my experience from working with both of them.

SPEAKER_01 40:24

I think that's so important what you said about that that trust that you built with Nick to give him information that about your relationship with food, because a lot of people struggle with nutrition. I struggle with nutrition, I struggle with eating enough because I don't always have hunger cues. And to be able to open up to somebody and say, listen, I do have this struggle, and you know, your history of cutting out the food, dropping the weight, you saw that positive stimulus from not eating as much, and then the fear of thinking, okay, if I eat more, I'm gonna get I'm gonna get big again. Exactly that in the back of your head.

SPEAKER_04 41:02

Yeah, yeah, exactly that. I now know that if you eat overeat one night, you have a burger or something, that's not gonna next day turn into body fat. Just doesn't work like that. But I was scared at the time, like I said, if I overeat those calories over it will instantly be put on the next day as body weight, and then I'd have to train twice as hard or eat half as much to compensate the next day.

SPEAKER_01 41:26

And uh we hear that over and over and over again. It's like eat more and you'll actually stabilize your metabolism, and we hear it, but actually believing it and thinking, I don't think that's gonna work for me, it's a different story, you know. And again, like I say that from personal experience, and it metabolism is such a funny thing, and really fueling the engine and keeping the fire hot is so much better because if you don't, it's like metabolism slows down and you hold on to the calories that you have eaten. So but yeah, I think that's so compelling to to mention how important having a coach is because you do build that trust, and you think, well, my coach doesn't have a secret mission to make me fat again, he's not trying to start with me. So yeah, definitely important to have a coach to build that trust and to have somebody who understands the research and being able to just let it go and say, Okay, I'm just gonna mark these off the list, I'm gonna eat this much, and I'm gonna stop worrying about it. So you're living proof that that works.

SPEAKER_04 42:32

Yeah, yeah. It's been uh been a bumpy one, but we're guessing there, we got there pretty much. So it's uh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 42:41

So what's ahead, Sam? What have you got? Uh we we haven't got all right, so we have an entire racing list, but I know you've got London, obviously in a few weeks' time.

SPEAKER_04 42:51

So yes, London Marathon a few weeks' time. Unfortunately, due to this niggle, haven't really had the the training block I kind of wanted and desired, but you know, it's hopefully I've got enough fitness in me from previous years to to get through it, which I'm sure will be fine. And then after that, I've got you did just run a 127 half marathon like two weeks ago, didn't you? Yes, yes, yes, that was kind of my return to to road racing after doing a good long season of trail and ultra running. And yeah, I wanted to get a sub 90, I thought would be a kind of good foundation base mark. If I can hit that, I know roughly where I'm at, and yeah, so three minutes shy. So hopefully I will be close to sub-free territory London. Whether it's gonna happen, it all depends on the day, really. So depending on how busy, how much traffic's on course we'll decide these.

SPEAKER_02 43:45

I think we're in London, you just gotta be a bit mindful that go there with yeah, I want to do a time, but be ready to switch to plan B, which is just enjoy it because it is so busy, it's hard to get a clear line ahead of you. Yes.

SPEAKER_04 44:00

Yeah, absolutely. And then after that, it's pretty much a season of road running. I am part of my local running club, Verwood Runners, and we're part of the Dorset Road Racing League, which is kind of a county league with all the the running clubs running various distances from 5K up to marathon. So I'm doing about 80% of those races, all the ones that I can fit in. So that's my main kind of focus. And then Amsterdam Marathon in October.

SPEAKER_02 44:30

Yeah, which would be a really good one. That's a good one to really go after.

SPEAKER_04 44:34

So we've got the whole summer to work towards that. Yes, yeah, that is the that will be the main main A goal for the year as uh Amsterdam. So uh that'll be the one where we really put the training in and and see what could happen.

SPEAKER_02 44:46

Yeah. Good stuff. Hannah, any any final questions from you?

SPEAKER_01 44:51

I'm just you know, the exercise physiology background in me is wondering what's going on with your Achilles. Was it did it flare up first off in the Archibatrician? Was that when you first noticed it or was it before that?

SPEAKER_04 45:04

It was before that. So it was in the last is just before I tapered off. I've had a bit of a niggle, and it's just got a bit angry. I tried to reduce the volume and it did go down, and I started getting kind of signals from it on the arch of attrition saying it wasn't happy, and I just thought, you know what, I'll just grit my teeth, take some paracetamols, and and crack on to the point where I could barely walk on it, and then I knew that was that was it.

SPEAKER_02 45:37

So um it didn't help that the arch of attrition this year was proper arch of attrition weather. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was it was horrendous. The ground conditions were just not good for stability, not healthy tendons.

SPEAKER_01 45:52

When somebody has like a tendon thing like that, for stress injuries, for example, you say go run on a soft surface for tendon like Achilles tendonitis. You don't want to be on soft surfaces because that's loading that tendon so much more. So in Dorset, do you typically run on the roads or a mix of surfaces? What is your training terrain look like?

SPEAKER_04 46:13

Predominantly roads, just because where I live, it's easy just to go out in the morning and just bash out a road run for an hour before before work. So, but I'm probably happier going off-road on trails, and we do have some lovely trail runs around here. I mean, we've got the Jurassic Coast and the Purbex, which is absolutely beautiful, places such as uh Lower Cove and Dirtledore. I live right on the border of Dorset and Hampshire, so I've got the New Forest as well, which is a very nice national park, very well known also on my doorstep, so which is lots of kind of easy fire track type roads, just gravel tracks, nothing too too serious. But for some reason, I keep getting attracted to doing hilly races with a lot of elevation, and I don't have a lot of elevation in Dorset. So um so that's a funny one. So I tend to have to go up and just run up the same big hills up the coast over and over again.

SPEAKER_01 47:08

I'm I'm sure Nick is having you do what like eccentric stuff for the Achilles to kind of load it and get it. Okay, well that's good. Yeah, you know, those are so hard to you know, once if you continue to do the eccentric work, you start doing some planetrics to get that rebound back, it'll come back, but that just it takes it takes time. So you just gotta stay patient, nail the recovery, and I'm sure you're doing those things, but it's been so nice to hear your story, and I do hope it gets better. And you can do all these amazing races on your calendar.

SPEAKER_02 47:41

Yeah, you've been all right the last few weeks, haven't you?

SPEAKER_04 47:43

Yeah, yeah. I mean, all the pain's gone down, it's all nice, but again, as uh Hannah just said, we've need to get on the plometrics and get that kind of rebound back in there. It feels like I'm dragging, dragging that foot along, and it's just coming for the ride, and the other one's doing all the work, and so um, yeah, just keep on it.

SPEAKER_01 48:03

Just being smart about it.

SPEAKER_02 48:07

Yeah, well, Sam, I always ask everybody where can we find you if people want to you know reach out to you, talk to you, see you, see, follow your journey, all that sort of stuff.

SPEAKER_04 48:18

Um, you can follow my journey on Instagram, like most people. I have a a page which I put all my training and racing on, which is called run underscore weasley underscore 92, which is the best.

SPEAKER_02 48:34

Run weasley, because nobody can see you um because it's a podcast. But Sam is a bit ginger, yeah. So run Weasley, Ron Weasley. That's it. That's it.

SPEAKER_04 48:45

So uh wacky one, but yeah, I'm a bit wacky and strange, so it goes hand in hand.

SPEAKER_02 48:53

Sam, good to finally have you on the podcast. And as always, you know, good to work with you and and know you and and your family and and help you with your running.

SPEAKER_04 49:03

Thank you, Nick. Been a pleasure. Thank you, Hannah. Yeah, thank you very much.