Your Best Run,

EP3 – Left Foot Braking: The Skill That Keeps You Running

• Chevy Rough • Season 1 • Episode 3

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🔧 What This Episode Is About

If your training feels like all gas, no brakes—this one’s for you.

In this episode, we dig into the concept of left foot braking—a lesson borrowed from F1 drivers to help you manage stress, energy, and recovery before your body slams on the brakes for you. Whether you’re coming back from injury, stuck in a burnout cycle, or just know deep down you’re redlining too often, we unpack how to train your nervous system to recover better, adapt faster, and actually want to train again.

This isn’t about red light therapy and 9-hour sleeps. This is about real-world micro-recovery, woven into your day, your training, your week.

🔑 What You’ll Take Away:

  • Why training = work + rest (and why most runners only focus on the first half)
  • What “left foot braking” means and how to apply it outside of training
  • How to build energy and rhythm into your week without needing a holiday
  • What to do between meetings, before intervals, or after hard efforts
  • Why your body might be withholding energy and motivation as a protective mechanism
  • Why breathing, transitions, and nervous system downshifting are your secret weapon

đź’¬ Mentioned in This Episode:

đź‘ź Ready to run stronger, smarter, and injury-free?

Learn more about 1:1 coaching here.

đź’Ą Get strong in 40 days with Easy Strength for Runners:

Simple, time-efficient strength training designed for runners who want results without burnout. Learn more here.

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Got questions or just want to say hey? Drop me an email: chevy@chasingprojects.com

Follow the journey on IG @akachasing19


Chevy:

Welcome to episode number three of your best run with me. Your host, chevy Ruff, your running and strength coach In this episode. Thank you for coming back, if you're back. You've listened to episode one and two. In this episode we're going to talk about left foot braking, a concept that I have and absolutely I'm going to ruin, uh, from a uh well, currently a dear friend I'm not sure if he's going to be a friend after this a dear friend, a mentor of mine, rob Wilson, who is also a fantastic coach, and I will let you know how. You can find out a little bit more about Rob in a second.

Chevy:

But this episode is for people who struggle to stay consistent within with training, with running. Um, maybe it looks like you're coming back to running. You put your foot in the accelerator, you find you've got the energy and motivation to train for a few weeks and then, boom, your body slams on the brakes for you and you're on the couch staring at your trainers kicking the crap out of yourself. Or maybe you're someone who is able to put your foot on the accelerator for a long period of time, but you do have this relationship with burning out or with repetitive injury and if that is the case, this is for you. Or maybe you're someone who is a real high achiever, a real high performer who sets the bar high, and you're someone who is able to train really hard. But you kind of know deep down you should have a healthier, better relationship with rest and recovery. But you don't really like the conversation around rest and recovery as it is online. I you know you don't want to sit in the corner of a room and meditate for an hour because if you close your eyes, all kinds of things, crazy things start to happen. Or maybe you're someone who hasn't got the time to take full on rest days every weekend and that's just not your jam. But you do want to understand how to apply the breaks here and there so you can perform better, because you want to get more out of your running, you want to get faster, you want to get further and you want to understand the way rest and recovery plays into that, but in a language that works for you. So if you're kind of sitting in those buckets, hopefully you'll take something away from today that is going to get you thinking a little bit differently and we're going to take this concept from race car driving called left foot braking, um. But just before that, let me just go back to rob for a second. So, rob, um, if well, let me go back to Rob for a second. So, rob, well, let me go back to me for a second.

Chevy:

If you're someone who's worked with me before or followed me for lack of a better, I hate that word but someone who has known of me for a long period of time now and you are aware that I have been hugely interested in conversations around energy, stress management, breathing state control, the role of physiology before psychology, and how we use all these tools that we actually have at our disposable right here, right now, within us, to shift and change how we feel and regulate our nervous systems from the onslaught of everyday life, then basically anything that I've ever spoken about has been stolen from rob and the great art of breath team, um. They've now disbanded the breathing avengers, the workshop avengers, uh, danny kev and then the likes of wonderful charles oxley all great coaches, but I mean back in 2018, 2019, I basically followed them around like a lost puppy coach, if that's the thing. Um, follow them around the states, following around europe, just going to all their seminars on repeat, just learning, soaking up as much knowledge as possible. Um, and I just cannot stress how much they have influenced, and rob in particular has influenced my work and influenced me as a coach. He's always given me permission to be me and I'm super grateful for that. And if you are listening, rob, thank you.

Chevy:

And so Rob has got a book coming out. Rob works now. He does a lot with the Navy SEAL Foundation. He works at the top end of high performance but he really is great in breaking down the systems and tools that he develops at that end of the spectrum to everyday people. And he's releasing a book called Check Engine Light and it's all about tuning your body and mind for performance longevity, because that's the thing right, performing is great, performing to the point of running a marathon is great, but I'm interested in you being able to run the next day.

Chevy:

I'm interested in longevity and I talk a lot about movement longevity and again, I've just stolen that and changed the word from performance to movement, because that work those two words together. Performance longevity really resonates with me and my mission is always to think about movement slash running longevity, because I want to make sure that people have the tools in place to keep running into the next decade, the next decade, the decade after that, the decade after that, the decade after that, because when you run, you are a better version of yourself, for the world around you, for the people around you, for yourself, um, and you're able to achieve so much, whether it's organizing your day, having the energy for your kids, having the energy to show up for work, de-stressing, you know, feeling like you actually have agency of something in your life, because the rest of life feels outside out, so out of control. Like, running is so important to who you are and your well-being and your health that we want to make sure that you keep doing that decade after decade. So rob's got a great book coming out and it's all about, instead of outsourcing, how you filter technology on your wrist or in your phone, like how can you create a dashboard, um, to be able to better understand, um, how you're feeling and, more importantly, how to change that feeling right, to be able to change your state, to be able to, um, develop a deeper understanding of your individual needs and about the array of available tools to you. And then, when you understand all the tools that are available to you, whether it's breath or whatever it may be movement. You can then chart your own course for optimal wellbeing, um using a structured approach that I believe Rob will be going through in the book. So I hope I've done you justice there, rob. I'm definitely going to talk about your book more and more and more and more, because I just know there's going to be so much gold in there, so we'll put a link for that in the show notes and also to Rob Substack, which is absolutely brilliant Again, I'm hugely biased and his Instagram, so have a look over it.

Chevy:

Okay, let's talk about this concept of left foot braking, which is essentially teaching runners how to regulate effort and recovery like an F1 driver, right, using micro adjustments, not just slamming on the brakes when the body forces you to, and so I think, first of all, there's an important element here to introduce two formulas that I look at. Formula number one, which I think I think this came from Pavel Tostelini I can't remember where I read it but basically the formula of training right. Training equals work plus rest. And look, people are definitely getting better about the conversation of rest and recovery, but recovery isn't just something we kind of earn, it's something we train for. We have to train the recovery. You know and I look at this on the micro point of view, right. So again, just to be clear on that right, training equals work plus rest, and I think we're all very good at putting the work in, but we're not necessarily good at putting the rest and recovery in.

Chevy:

And we also have to understand that, again, rest and recovery is something that you have to train and develop over time. You don't just show up at an interval, do the work, do the hard effort for a minute or two, or three or four, and then slip into the rest period for one minute, two minute, three minute, four minutes. And your body understand what you're trying to achieve. If you've never trained your body's ability to come back down through the gears before before learning to switch off on the weekend. If you're someone who is quite a type busy, energized for life you know. If you're suddenly like I'm going to take a full rest day out of nowhere and you've never done a rest day before, like your head is just going to be spinning right, it's something that you have to train your system to understand what to do. Like we're very good at getting stuck in these high gears and staying there and then when we try and do something different, and I think there's actually a good place that this shows up is holiday.

Chevy:

You know how many times have you thought, god, I really need a holiday. That's your body informing you what it needs. Right? It's literally genetically, your dna, your very system, your subconscious, whatever you want to call it, is telling you that you need a break, that you need the role of recovery in your life. You've done the work, but you need some rest. And then we go on holiday. And then how many of you do you struggle to switch off for those first few days? Right Again, it's something that we've got to learn how to do.

Chevy:

But training does equal work plus rest. We have to have rest within our training for our body to adapt, for it to grow stronger, and I also talk about the principle of energy equals stress plus rest. If you want to be able to manage your energy consistently over time, you have to get better understanding the role of rest and recovery, and this is starting to give you a little bit of understanding now about this left foot breaking. It's not just about getting a good night's sleep, it's not just about taking the weekend off, it's how do I, after spending energy producing this podcast, talking on this podcast right now, spending energy, being in a more what we call sympathetic tone, more fight flight, more focused and alert. Right, my system is up right now. Right, I'm spending energy, being in a more what we call sympathetic tone, more fight flight, more focused and alert. Right, my system is up right now. Right, I'm spending energy.

Chevy:

What do I do after this? Do I jump straight into recording another episode? Do I record? Do I go straight into having a conversation with my wife about finances of the house, or do I you know what I mean Like, do I go straight into something else that's going to require energy? Or is there something I can do for five to 10 minutes just to help my system come back down through the gears, just to help create that nice like this nice up and down, this nice ebb and flow of my nervous system, and that could just be going for a walk, sitting on the doorstep outside. It could be doing some breath work, it could just be doing some light squats and a couple of pushups, like I could be reading the fiction book for five minutes or just making a cup of tea, making a cup of coffee, without my phone in my hand, right? And so that is your first example of kind of like how can we just tap the breaker just a little bit? Okay, and why is this so important?

Chevy:

Well, we have to understand that life is rhythmic. If we've worked hard throughout the day, what do we do? We go to bed. When we've worked hard during the weekend we've had a big week what do we do? We have a weekend. That should be for rest and recovery. It should be for us, it should be about coming down through the gears. You know, when we've been working hard for three months, should we try and maybe get away? It's a luxury for some people. I appreciate that it's a privilege. But should we be trying to get away and have a little bit of a holiday, have a little bit of a break?

Chevy:

After winter hibernation, there's the summer buzz. After autumn comes christmas. After doing 400 meter intervals comes rest after doing a hard marathon. Should there be a couple of weeks, a few weeks of just letting the body recover? We have to understand that there is rhythm in life. But the problem is the lot of us just keep pushing, we keep slamming down the accelerator, we get heavy on the accelerator, we go, go, go until we burn out. And often the burnout is our body's way of putting on the brakes. For us, it's our body's way of saying like, hey, I'm taking over the steering wheel, I'm taking over the driving right now, because you kind of can't be entrusted, because you've just been putting your foot on the accelerator for day after day, week after week, month after month or even potentially, year after year.

Chevy:

And I think, at this stage, when we are inconsistent with our training, when we are inconsistent with life, and we try and push, and then we're in the safe of burnout, or we're injured or we get ill, or we just feel this lack of motivation or lethargic. Be it feeling lethargic, we can end up kicking the crap out of ourselves. We think we're broken, we think we're not good enough, we think we haven't got the secret sauce, like other people do on the internet hustle culture, like it goes on and on and on and on. Why are they able to run a marathons? I'm not. We kick the crap out of ourselves and it's like hold on a sec, look, I know that you're motivated to do these things, but actually, maybe the reason that you're not able to do them anymore, the reason that you're burning out is because your body's just saying you need to get better at applying the brakes. And so, as runners, as humans, how can we start to think about getting better at using the brakes?

Chevy:

And this is where we talk about this race car analogy, because I think again I kind of mentioned this at the beginning of the podcast when we talk about the role in recovery and in health and wellbeing everyone's talking about you must get eight or nine hours sleep. That's really great, but I haven't got the time to get eight, nine hours sleep. Like it's hard for me to switch off to be able to get eight, nine hours sleep. Know, I'm lucky if I get six or seven. Or people tell us we should go and meditate and it's like well, hold on a sec. If I go and sit in the corner of the room and light a candle and close my eyes, I just don't really feel comfortable.

Chevy:

Um, with the amount of thoughts come whirring into my head. And, to be clear, with that, you're not broken. If that is you, there's not something wrong with you, like. Like the reason that you're those thoughts are coming flooding in at that moment is because your brain is finally having a moment to process the inbox right. It's kind of suddenly not stimulated by you know you being out on a walk and listening to podcasts and not being able to go on your commute without your headphones in, or being stimulated by screens or work, or being out with mates all the time or running with podcast headphones in. Like as soon as you close your eyes, your brain's just trying to process. It's just trying to do what it's designed to do. It's just process things so it can file them away, store them away nice and safely and use that data further down the line when, when, needed um.

Chevy:

But we, you know, we look at culture and it tells us that we need to take more rest and recovery, but there's just so many of us that just don't necessarily identify with what it's serving up on that menu. I don't want to sit in front of a red light. I don't want to, you know, go on a retreat for a couple of days and listen to my own thoughts, whatever it may be. But what we can start to think about is this f this, this left foot braking right. And if you've ever looked at, you know, definitely go on youtube and look at um race car drivers and how they brake and they basically use both feet, one on the gas and one of the brake at the same time. It's not about full stop braking, it's kind of feathering. It's touching the system lightly right. It's tapping the brakes when needed, it's dancing between accelerator and brake.

Chevy:

And so when I'm working with my athletes, what I'm starting to think about is where can they left foot brake throughout, not only their training, as in the specific session itself, the hour long that they might commit to it, but also throughout the day and throughout the week? So, for example, let's first of all look at the week as a whole. Right, where can we start to left foot break? Well, let's say I'm doing an hour of work and I've just been in a meeting. What am I going to do for five or 10 minutes before I transition to the next meeting? I can kind of get a couple of little five minute breaks in there just to help the system come down through the gears, and then maybe at lunch, if I can just take a 15 minute walk, sit outside, get some fresh air without my phone, and then maybe, if I can just get through the afternoon, again thinking about this rhythm of focused work, rest five minutes, focused work, rest five minutes.

Chevy:

But I'm talking true recovery here. I'm talking in the sense of like not sitting on the toilet in your office on your phone, scrolling social media, which never brings anyone down through the gears. I'm talking about how do you find these micro moments throughout the day, just to be able to tap the brake, just to be able to help the nervous system settle. And if you are someone who can get into taking five, 10, 15 breaths in that moment, whether it's sitting on the toilet, in the toilets, you know, know, hiding away with the door locked from the world, then amazing, because you're doing an even better job. If you're, somebody can go and walk around a park for five minutes, amazing, great. If you can just go and stand outside the office and look up at the sky, amazing. All these things will very much impact and influence your physiology.

Chevy:

So where can you start to get those moments throughout the day? Things like your commute on the way in, on the way home. Can you maybe get off the train a little bit earlier? Can you walk for 10-15 minutes just help your system settle, before getting home and having to spend time with your kids or loved ones, and again, that should be time that is relaxing for you, but maybe you have got two very young kids and it isn't so. Where can you find small moments of time and how will those small moments of time compound over the days and weeks and months? It all counts, and so we look at that.

Chevy:

And then we look at things like, even within your training, you know when you're showing up to a run, if you've had a really stressful day and you're just going into a really stressful run, like, how is stress on stress going to impact your body and your body's desire to keep moving, moving forward and to also not get injured? Well, what if you maybe went to the gym, you ran from your gym, but you spent 10 minutes walking to the gym and just breathing and coming down through the gears, not on your phone, not with your headphones in, but just slowly walking and helping your system settle. Or maybe, if you turn up to track, can you do a couple of laps on the track, just walking, slow breathing, helping your system come down through the gears. When you are doing your interval session during your recovery pieces, how good are you at actually focusing on breathing as opposed to just checking your phone during the intervals and waiting for the time to be up, like, how much are you actually practicing the ability to slow your nervous system down after your run? Are you spending 5, 10, 15 minutes helping the system settle? So again, these are these micro moments of just tapping the brakes. And we can really get into the small detail here of how to breathe when running to be able to do this and all these kind of things. And there are things that we can do. But we'll small detail here of how to breathe when running to be able to do this and all these kind of things. And there are things that we can do, but we'll talk about that another day.

Chevy:

But it's, how can you find these minute to five minute moments throughout the day, throughout your training, throughout your week, where you're just tapping the brakes to be able to keep moving forward, to have the energy to do that, so you're not taking such a hard toll, so you're not just redlining the engine all the time and you know you will be making the journey much more enjoyable? You know, I look there are different ways up the mountain. I can drive from here to Scotland in my car and stay in first gear. Right, I can do it. I don't know how good it's going to be on my fuel economy or my engine long-term. Or I can realize that I've got other gears right and I've got to accelerate. I've got a break, I've got other gears and I can find a much more comfortable gear to drive in to go on that journey and isn't going to ruin the engine and ruin the car. So what I want you to think about is where can you left foot break throughout the day if you've got a busy life?

Chevy:

Think about your breathing within, your cool downs and your warm ups. What are you doing? It will let you train harder more often without hitting the wall, and it will better be able to recover from the hard work that you put in to be the athlete that you want to be and it will repair and you're less likely to get injured. But I think the most important thing is you need to your body. You need to have your body, want to train. I think that's where we go. So wrong is a lot of people are sitting on the couch, not motivated, because their training does not match their capability and their deep down subconscious. Their body is just going. I'm not going to give you the juice that you need to go do that session again because we can't afford the cost.

Chevy:

If you've got any questions, send them to chevy at chasingprojectscom. Let's start the conversation. Definitely check out rob's book check engine light and let me know what questions have you got that you would love answered within. This podcast is meant to be a conversation, so please do message me. Let me know what questions you've got and I promise you I will either answer them back via email I answer everything myself or I will do an episode just for you, discussing the subject that you want to cover. For now, stay strong out on the road and I'll catch you on the next episode. That's the third time I've got that wrong. I will catch you on the next episode. Take care, my friend.