Ep 38: He Moved Countries To Save Himself... But It Wasn't That Simple | Lou Daeschler

Sometimes the bravest thing you can do is start again.

After years of partying, drinking, and feeling increasingly disconnected from himself, Lou Daeschler made a drastic decision. He packed up his life in the UK and moved to Australia in search of something different.

What followed was a complete transformation.

Running became more than exercise. It became structure, purpose, identity, and eventually obsession. But just as everything seemed to be falling into place, Lou received a diagnosis that forced him to rethink everything.

Follow Lou's journey: https://www.instagram.com/ultra.lou/

In this episode:

• Leaving the UK for a fresh start in Australia 
• A destructive university lifestyle and its consequences 
• Losing more than 30kg through fitness and running 
• Going from a 43-minute 5km to 140km training weeks 
• The double stress fracture diagnosis that stopped everything 
• Learning the difference between commitment and obsession 

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Runbelievable is the podcast for every runner. From your first parkrun to your 100th marathon, from walk-run intervals to dabbling in trail running, every runner has a story worth telling. Through honest conversations with runners from all walks of life, Runbelievable explores the challenges, achievements, setbacks, and experiences that connect us through running and shape who we become.

Transcript

Lou 0:00

And she dropped me a call and she said, Oh, can you come into the physio um just so we can have a chat about your results? And I was like, Okay, that's fine. She gets the results up on the board.

Joshie 0:09

And hello everybody and welcome to Run Believable. I'm your host, Josh Christian, and I'm here to bring you stories about what first got people running and what keeps them lacing up day after day. From the last to the lessons to postponing a long run, this is why we run and how it takes who we become. Coming up, you'll meet a runner who pitched his destructive lifestyle in the UK for a fresh start in Australia. How running became part of that, you'll find out shortly. Also, in this episode is the announcement of our Run Believable Moments competition winner, a questionable use of the multi-sport website, plus G Bun's best running quiz. Let's get stuck into it. Maddie, welcome back to Run Believable. Thanks, mate. Really good to be here. It is bloody awesome to hear your voice again.

Matty 0:57

Yeah, no, I've been looking forward to this. Yeah, it's good.

Joshie 0:59

Yes. Well, me aborting my long run this morning meant that we could chat a little bit sooner. Um hopefully, hopefully get that one done tomorrow. But you know what it's like when the uh motivation's not quite there. Oh yeah, yeah. Yeah. Well, look, we've had an absolutely amazing response to our very first Run Believable Moments competition. And we've already we have already announced it on socials, but a formal congratulations to Crystal G, that running wife, who has taken out the incredible prize, which is two entries to GC50. Can you believe it? Wow, well done, Crystal. Amazing. It is uh her story about it was basically a 10-year story in the making of her having um had her daughter come along to training, I think at the age of nine or something like that. And basically they worked together. She supported her daughter throughout her teenage years, and then at the age of 19, her daughter accompanied her, in fact, asked her mum to pace her for her very first half marathon, which I think was at the GC event as well. Awesome. Yep. Yep. And um they ran across the line holding hands, and sounds like they had to dig quite deep to get there. So an amazing story and uh worthy winner.

Matty 2:10

Yeah, that's awesome. I think um moments like that, um, people might think, you know, they're common, but actually I think they're quite rare. Like um, I've never had the opportunity to run with a family member or a partner across the finish line.

Joshie 2:22

You and I haven't held hands crossing the finish line. No, no, no, no. You're always ahead of me, mate. So but it's awesome, yeah. It is. And I look, I actually, geez, there were some incredible entries. I think, oh geez, anyone could have won this. I particularly like Shona's entry, which was about how her and a stranger helped each other get across the line. And I think Shona has some regrets that she perhaps didn't get in touch with her, but it did get me thinking, because I know people that have, where they've looked at the multi-sport website or whatever and um track people down. Um, you got me thinking where the line is between searching and stalking, my friend.

Matty 2:57

Um, I honestly don't think it's stalking. I think it's searching if there's that that there's something that's been created, some sort of connection. Um, look, the way I've done it before, but I've done it through Strava through a messenger messenger on Strava, and you know, you you might not get a response, and that's cool. Um, I I fortunately did um and often talked to a guy that I ran with. Um really? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I think it was um International Women's Day fun run in 2023. Um, yeah, so yeah, a guy that I sort of spoke to afterwards about, you know, he'd run a PB, a massive PB, I think top five, um, and we were just chatting. Um, and then I found him on there and connected with him on Strava, and yeah, yeah, it's beautiful. Yeah, yeah. So I don't I don't think it's stalking because if you make if you do put yourself out there to connect, if they don't want to connect, they're not gonna connect. So that's true.

Joshie 3:52

Yeah, creative use of technology. Anyway, to be honest, I'm probably on the fence. Although I do love hearing stories. I've heard people that have made lifelong running friends as a result of connecting afterwards. So I think that's fantastic. And oh gosh, I love doing this, Maddie. And if um, listeners, if you're enjoying the show, don't forget to hit follow and come back next week. Short of being stood up by a guest, we publish new episodes every Wednesday. Now, Maddie, it is time for J-Fung's best running quiz. And look, we we haven't had you on the show for a while and we haven't done a proper shoe quiz for quite some time. Can you can you remember how shoe am I works? Um, is it a person and the shoes that they wear? No, that was soulmates. Um shoe am I. Basically, you need to guess the make and model of a shoe using a series of clues. Okay. I give you up to five clues. So basically it works like this: five points for correctly guessing after one clue, four points for correctly guessing after two clues, and so on and so forth. If you guess early and you're incorrect, you get zero points. Yeah, sure. Now, so listeners can play along. Um Maddie, what I'll need you to do is when you think you've got the answer, write it down in your phone and then and then just hold it up to the camera. Yeah, cool. Okay. Clue number one. I was released at the start of 2026. Did you want to have a guess for five points? And if you get it wrong, you get zero, by the way. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Clue number two. I weigh 196 grams per shoe. Would you like to have a guess for four points? Um write it down. Uh you are incorrect. So Maddie is out. We're gonna go through the rest of the clues now. Okay. Clue number three, if you're still playing along, listen for three points. I have a seven mil drop 35.3 at the heel, that is. So stack height of 35.3. Oh you're already out, my friend. You've had your go. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. Listen, if you're still playing along for four points, sorry, for uh two points, clue number four. I have a carbon plate and wafer thin tongue padding of only 0.8 millimeters. Okay, I think I might. And the uh final clue for one point, if you're still playing along, my manufacturer is Asics. What shoe am I? Okay.

Matty 6:21

Do you reckon you know it, Maddie? Yeah, but it's after I I may do, but it's after Tokyo.

Joshie 6:27

And so the answer, folks, if you're still playing along, it's the ASIC Magic Fives. No idea. No idea.

Matty 6:38

That did not even come close to entering my head. Yeah.

Joshie 6:44

Listeners, how did you go at home? Please let us know. Today's guest didn't just start running, he's completely rebuilt his life around it. After years of partying, chasing distractions, and feeling increasingly disconnected from himself, he made a drastic call to start over, ditching his former life in the UK for a fresh start in Australia. Everything was on track until it wasn't. A brutal lesson in navigating a balance between mind and body. Can we please welcome Lou Deischler? Welcome, Lou. Thank you. Lovely to meet you both. Uh, and yeah, yeah, looking forward to having a discussion about everything. Oh, we can't wait. Gosh, you've been through a lot. Um, so let's take a step back. It's the middle of 2024, you're sitting there in the departure lounge of Heathrow Airport. Was there any part of you that was having second thoughts about the big decision you're about to make?

Lou 7:36

I don't think so, no. I think where I was at the time, I was very lucky because the trip to Australia wasn't just an escape, it was also to do with work. So it came at a very pivotal point in my life where you know I got offered this opportunity to move to Australia for work, but it all happened so quickly that I don't really think I had time to, you know, process the pros and the cons of it. You know, I was offered it basically in September, and in October, I pretty much was already on a flight to Australia, so or the start of November really, and then it was just you know, I I I barely had time to think about it before I got on the flight, and I was just gone. So it all happened that quickly, did it? Wow. Oh yeah, and as soon as I got there, I landed on a Wednesday and I started work on a Thursday. So I turned up, and uh luckily one of my colleagues who I was gonna be living with had already you know set up the house and everything, but you know, I didn't have a bed or anything like that. I just turned up on the Wednesday, there was a mattress on the floor, and it was like, right, you start work on Thursday, and then we just covered that.

Joshie 8:48

But is it is it fair to say, Lou, that you were quite accustomed to a life that was on the go where you were just always on, always doing something?

Lou 8:56

Yeah, I'd say so. I I'd say, you know, even from a child, there was always you know stuff for me to do. I was always outside and I was always playing sport, and then at university, you know, I was always doing something, even if it was a good distraction or a bad distraction, I was doing something. So it was kind of used to making those decisions where you know we're just gonna roll with this and see what happens.

Matty 9:20

I I think though, like sitting at Heathrow and not weighing at the pros and cons, that's just being young, and that's also adventure. I mean, I I was in a similar boat, and it's it's you don't think of the pros and cons, you just think this is awesome. Like you're getting here, Maddie Watloo left behind.

Joshie 9:35

Um, you're gonna have to take a few moments to explain to us what your life looked like up until that point where you got on the plane.

Lou 9:44

Yeah, it was interesting, and it, you know, the realization of where I was at at that point in time kind of scales back to when I was a child, to be honest, because growing up the whole way through my childhood, it was about, you know, I was always active, I was always outside, and you know, I look at some of the younger generation now, like my brother and sister, for example, we've got an eight to nine year age gap between us. So when I look at them at the age of you know, 14, 15, you know, it was very much around, you know, playing Xbox and you know, playing Fortnite with their friends and doing this and that. But I feel like I was kind of the last generation where at that age, you know, I was in a skate park or you know, I was out somewhere with my friends, and you know, mum would say, you know, come home when it gets dark, and and that would be the whole of the summer for us. And you know, I went through all of that process and I was always active, and then it kind of just all went down the hill when I went to university, really. Um what did you study? I studied law, uh studied law and then did a master's in law as well, and it basically just ended up being five years of my life of just you know eating me up and you know spinning me back out on the other side and being a completely different person, really. So I went to university in Bristol, which is uh very well known for the party scene. Um, Matt, I mean you said you lived in Gloucestershire, so I imagine you've been to Fresh Still a few times.

Matty 11:13

Oh, yeah, plenty, plenty of times, yeah, yeah.

Lou 11:15

Yeah, yeah, and experience what that can be like. So, you know, it's I got there, I started doing my degree, and pretty much from that point of getting to Bristol, I stopped training, I stopped playing sport, and it was just five years of you know, consuming, going to parties, drinking with my friends, was out four or five times a week, you know, while also trying to do my degree, and then you know, could each of those factors putting pressure on the other one, and it doesn't stop until you put a stop to it, really. So, yeah, it was um finished uni, was living in Bristol still, just completely unhappy. I started working in an office, and I'd got home at Christmas and I stepped on the scales, and I'd realised I was probably 20 to 30 kilos heavier than the last time I'd weighed myself. Oh wow, and I was like, okay, and I had a friend that that I went to I grew up with and and went to school with, and I knew that he was doing some online coaching, and I said to him, Oh, I think I need some help with this, I just want to get some more structure now that I've finished uni and you know get a bit of a routine on on my training. And I remember taking the photos at the start of like your front, your side angle, and your back, and I'd like started to see roll on my back, and I was like, I'd always been you know, someone that had been you know fit and athletic, and I'd seen that, and I was like, Yeah, I need to make a change from here. Um, and it was just you know a combination of being out all the time, drinking alcohol, consuming substances. You know, I got heavily into the music scene in Bristol, so I was doing DJing, and you know, I ended up playing at a club two or three nights a week, and then that would always lead to you know going back to someone's house after that until four, five, six o'clock in the morning. When earth did you function? Like, how did you manage to function with work after all that? I don't even know because at the time I was working, you know, just a part-time job while I was studying at supermarket, and I was a delivery driver. So I would go home and I'd probably sleep about an hour, and then I would be driving a work van around delivering to people's houses, you know, on a six-hour shift, you know, driving and yeah, completely, completely, you know, just terrible. But at the time, I was like, you know, me, this is just the type of person I am. I can trooper through anything, and that's just how I am. And I'm very lucky, you know, my friends get hangovers and they get come downs and they get this and that, but you know, I don't get any of that. And then I was just, you know, realised once I took a step back from it all, actually, I just felt like shit for basically five long years.

Matty 14:08

Yeah, you never know, this will change. Yeah.

Joshie 14:11

But was there a point where you sort of noticed that the destructive lifestyle was taking its toll, or did it all just come to a head quite dramatically?

Lou 14:19

Um, I think deep down I knew, but I think I was also had convinced myself in that mindset that you know, this is what university is about. You know, you're gonna go and you're gonna experience all of these things, and you know, you're gonna try new things and you're gonna meet new people, and you know, you're gonna do all of these things that you can't do, you know, when you're older and you've kind of got to get it out of your system now. And I think I managed to really convince myself in my brain that that's what it was, and it wasn't, you know, that this is taking over my life, this is just me having f before I need to dive into a real world. But once I'd finished university and I was working a full-time job and I was still out from Friday until Sunday every weekend, you know, I then started to kind of catch on to myself and think, you know, I'm actually earning good money for myself now at this age, but come the end of the month, I still have nothing left because you know I've poured it out into every weekend, you know, with my friends. And I think that's where the sort of the distraction of Australia might be good for me, so let me go and see what happens with that.

Joshie 15:26

And pretty much from the moving away seems quite uh drastic. I mean, you left a bunch of mates, you left your family, you're in a relationship, I think, and um living with a partner, I think, in an apartment, like it seems like from the outside everything was sorted. Um, but there's clearly something that was m missing. Uh, and w what do you think it was that led you to just booking that plane ticket in the end?

Lou 15:53

I think that you know, I started to re-embark on a fitness journey before I'd gone to Australia. So I've been working with my coach from the January of 2024. So by the time I'd gone to Australia, I was kind of halfway through the year working with a fitness coach already. Okay. And, you know, I started to notice that even though I was seeing progression in myself and my fitness and the way that I looked and the way that I felt, it was still being drastically slowed down by what I was doing at the weekends and yeah, what I was doing in the evenings, and the minimal amount of sleep that I was getting, and you know, which naturally increases the stress because I'm working on you know three or four hours sleep. And at that point, I was working on a full-time job, you know, in an office, you know, which required a lot of energy and and time that I was doing. So I think, you know, luckily I got offered the opportunity to go to Australia with two of my best friends, which I think just really sort of spearheaded the decision to go because it wasn't, you know, move country to the other side of the world by yourself and see what happens. It was you've got an opportunity here, not only to move to Australia, but to be one of the lucky few that gets to go over there and advance your career, you know, because I know a lot of people who are over there now and you know they can only get jobs in hospitality or you know, on construction sites because it's really difficult.

Joshie 17:23

Of course.

Lou 17:24

You know, I go over there, still add to my career, experience something new and kind of get away from the things that you know were pulling me down, you know, which was a whole combination of things of the types of people I was surrounding myself, you know, my current living scenario where I was, and you know, just how unhappy everyone was around me. It was like, let's just give this a go and see what happens. And I think if it wasn't for my going with my two best friends and doing that, it would have been a maybe a completely different decision because I don't think I at that time, in my own head, I would have had the confidence to say that yeah, I can go and do that and go and move away by myself because I really don't think I would have been able to. What was the hardest thing to leave behind? Um I mean, obviously the decision to not be with the partner that I was living with was a big one. You know, it you know, as I said, we live together, but um there was also part of me and the reason that I went to say that you know, the reason that you're going and that people around you have said that you're making the right decision to go probably tells you a lot about the current scenario that you're in. You know, if everyone had turned around to me and told me I was making the wrong decision, then you know it would have been a completely different story. But you know, I did want to sit down and really divulge into it with people around me to say, listen, I'm thinking about making this decision and going. Obviously, given the current scenario that I'm in, my living scenario, you know, my partner, my job, everything like that, is this the right decision? And not a single person turned around to me and said, No, um, this is the right decision, you you you should be going. Um, and so I kind of just ran with those answers and made sure that the decision I was making was for a positive in my life, and that regardless of how I feel now at this stage, I am going to feel better in the future and I am gonna experience something new, and it's gonna be really beneficial to me. And that sort of helped me drown out the feeling that you know I was leaving a job, I was leaving all of my friends, I was leaving a partner that I was with in a house that I was in, and you know, all of these things that can be seen as a negative. I had to just reframe the new scenario as a positive, and that helped me then to run into the process.

Matty 19:47

So, does that mean uh sorry, Maddie, you go ahead. So I was just gonna say I think I think you're very lucky, Lou. Um you're obviously quite intelligent, and you've picked it up early, which is really good. Someone like myself didn't. Um, and it was only until I saw destruction around me, not myself, but destruction around me from my behaviour, um, that I realized it was wrong. But you've you've grabbed it early and you've, you know, you you understand it. You as you said, you framed it like that's pretty smart sort of stuff. Um, you know, it's yeah, it's it's amazing.

Joshie 20:19

Um well, picking up on that, um, Lou, I mean, obviously there was an element of you that was quite, I guess, calculating and methodical in the way you thought about this, but it all happened quite quickly. Was there part of you that was sort of um seeking an escape from the reality you felt trapped in?

Lou 20:37

I'd say so, definitely. You know, it it was there was a lot of me to say that, you know, you were questioning at that point, you know, is the way I feel and the way that I am, is that me, or is it the people I'm surrounding myself? You know, do I have a problem that maybe if I go to Australia I'm still gonna feel the same, you know, and that's gonna need more attention to it, more than the fact of just taking my myself away from the scenario. But it was like anything that's different, any change that can happen right now may be for the good, and and it may have a positive impact. So let's just give it a go and see what happens. And if it doesn't work out, then you know, at least I gave it a go, and there's plenty of other opportunities to go and do things, but you know, at the time it was like unless I take myself just completely away from the scenario and the people and everything like that, I I'm not gonna know.

Joshie 21:33

So that was when you first moved to Australia. Can I just correct me if I'm wrong? I think initially you tried to hand it rugby. I think you played rugby in your in your youth, in your junior years, and thought you'd have a go at taking it up in Australia, but the games were at like quite weird hours, and you found that it wasn't really able to fit with the with your work and your other commitments. So is that how running into the frame for you?

Lou 21:59

Yeah, I'd say so. I've always I always grew up playing team sport. I was never a person who was very good at being by myself. Okay. You know, that can you know extend from many things as a child and you know everything like that. But I was always really got on my best self when I was as a kid, you know, playing football or playing rugby. Um I played ice hockey growing up as well, so like very much so quite heavily contact sports a lot of the time, but also you know, sports with that sort of camaraderie and you know, a lot of support between each other. And I hadn't played since before university, you know, kind of since I'd left school because you know, as I said, I didn't do anything at university apart from study and you know party really, and that was it. So um, so I I got to Australia and you know, I I was still in a very good routine of my fitness, and you know, I was getting on with everything, but I was like, I kind of want to just play a sport and you know have something to focus on. So I started playing rugby. Um, I played one game, hurt my back straight away, and I was in different for about two months. Oh and then I came back, played a second game, hurt my back again. Oh dude. I was like, that's fine. You know what? I joined kind of halfway through the season. I haven't played in a while, so let me just focus on how I can make sure this isn't gonna happen next season because I actually really enjoyed it. Um but as work started to get busier and busier, the training sessions were at 6 30 pm on a Wednesday or a Thursday, and you know, I'd finished work at 5 30. But really, where we'd come to Australia to launch this whole operation, I I wasn't gonna be out of the office and at 6 30. So, you know, I wasn't able to go to training, which means that they still needed me to play games on a Saturday, but it's really not healthy to not train rugby and just play contact games every Saturday and that be it. So yeah, it just started to not work out in terms of my routine. Um so I started to just go for a few runs every now and then just because everything was on my own schedule, you know. I I didn't have anything I needed to someone to commit to or someone to be in front of, or you know, anyone to let down if I wasn't gonna do it at a specific time. So, you know, I could go before work if I had time, or I could go after work when I got home, you know, just around my area. And, you know, even if it took me 30 minutes, then that's fine because I've already got home and I'm within my area, and and that was fine, and that's really kind of where it kicked off from, to be honest.

Joshie 24:49

But you went all in. I mean, can I ask? I haven't actually asked you this. Your your Instagram handle's ultra loo. Now, is that because you set your sights on an ultra marathon from the moment you picked up running? Pretty much, yeah. That's crazy. So you're gonna it's gonna be hard. By the way, if I've got any of these facts incorrect, please tell me. But the middle of, was it last year? You set your sights on a backyard ultra and you trained your absolute nuts off. You at that point, I think we're running a 5k in about 43 minutes. Is that right? Around the middle of last year.

Lou 25:27

Yeah, I think I think it was about May, maybe June, maybe about a year ago, uh, around this time. I think I ran my first 5k and it took me, yeah, over 40 minutes, about 43 minutes.

Joshie 25:39

Okay. And then by late last year, you're doing 130, 140k weeks. Can you talk me through that period? I mean, is it a case of I mean, you've clearly got an addictive personality. Did you just go, I'm going all in? I found something that I can just basically apply myself to and I'm not gonna let anything stop me.

Lou 26:00

You know what? It was it was very strange because it I didn't have it in my head that you know running is everything, but I I found it really interesting starting off on that running journey by watching, you know, specific videos uh of particularly ultra marathons, because I felt like a lot of the people that were doing those had interesting stories to tell, and they had a lot of things that I could relate to. You know, in the marathon world, you know, it's very much so set up as you know, people are a specific build, and you know, you're a specific pace, and everyone talks about the pace that they run it in, and you know, everyone on Instagram's doing a sub-three hour marathon every every day, and it's like that's what and it's like I I get it, but I don't that sort of area of running never kind of interested me. I was more understanding of the point of you know, on that ultra-marathon side is whether someone comes first or just whether they come last, if you finish that race, that's a huge achievement as to what you've done. But then once I started to dive into people like Max Jolliffe, for example, one of the most interesting guys, and you know, he is 33 or something now, but he was literally, you know, a crack addict, and you know, from the age of about 16, 17. And interestingly enough, they got him and all of his friends got dragged into consuming drugs by the American medical system because of the painkillers that they're describing people. And so I listened a lot about his story, and then he went on to win Moab 240, you know, basically four years into his running journey. Um, and that's really what started to interest me. So I think I knew from watching those videos that there was a love for running, and every day I would do that 5k at 43 minutes, and I'd be like, This is terrible. I hate it. This is not me questioning life choices, and then it would like gradually just get quicker and quicker, and then as everyone knows, you know, that run is high, or that first time wake up one day and you're like, I can't wait to go for a run today. You know, I feel good, and you know, my legs don't hurt, and I'm ready to go for a run, and you know, I even I'm not even thinking about the time at that point, but in my mind, that's what made me feel good. And you know, I started to go out less and less because in Australia, yeah, I was still going out with my friends at the weekend, and you know, I was still drinking and everything like that, but I wasn't that interested in it. I I kept finding myself going out on a Friday night, and then two hours into the night saying, Oh, you know what, lads, I'll meet you at home, I'm going home. You know, I'm not that fussed about staying out until five in the morning, and and you know, they were completely happy with that, they were were enjoying the fact that I was like that, but as that started to happen, and I started to be like, okay, actually, if the boys are gonna go out tonight, then I might just go for a run tonight, you know. Okay. And then that's when it started to build up because I wasn't started to go out less and less, and I started to run instead of you know going and doing things which were bad for me at the weekends, and that eventually ended up back end of last year. My 5k time was about 19 minutes, and I was running yeah, well over 100k a week consistently. And you'd signed up to a backyard ultra, hadn't you? I signed up to Backyard Ultra in the UK because I knew at that point I was coming home, um, but I'd also done a few things, so like I did Sydney um trail half graph, yeah, um, which was really fun, but I had runners knee at the time. Um and you know, I I I was feeling good. I did it, I got to the 12k mark in in just under an hour, and I was like, you know, I could actually have a really good result here. And then my knee just completely went, and I ended up just limping the rest of you know the last 9k, and I ended up finishing two hours and 40 minutes.

Joshie 30:29

What month was that that you did that? I asked because I want to go back to January this year. Was it early this year or was it last year that you had the Sydney? It was October last year. Okay. October and November last year. So you weren't deterred by that experience because I think in January this year, I think you said you had a month to yourself. You had this gap between finishing up work and when you moved back to the UK, and you went full scent. Um, can you tell us what happened during that period of January, February this year?

Lou 30:59

Yeah, so I had kind of worked out over the back end of last year that we were ready to leave the job that we were in because we, you know, wanted to set our sights on on doing something different. And with what we had done with work and the positions that we were in, we had to give enough notice, you know, especially being a UK-based business. They really needed someone else to commit to moving over to come and replace us. Oh, okay. So we wanted to be able to give enough notice, and what that ended up looking like was basically having the whole month of January off work, um, which, you know, height of summer in Sydney, you know, nothing really going on apart from the fact that I know I'm leaving Australia in a month's time, so I need to make the most of being in Australia, you know, being outside, doing everything I can. But majority of my friends were still working during the day, so I I basically was like, you know, the runner's knees healed. I've done all of the rehab from that. I feel good. I basically have a month now of not doing a lot, so I ended up just basically running for the whole month. And I think I ended up on about 440k, 450k across the whole of January. Wow. Um which in terms of its structure was you know, basically Monday I would go to the gym either before work or if I wasn't working, just gym in the morning. And then in the evening, I'd run between 8 and 10k. Tuesday I would do a double run day, so I'd run it between eight and ten in the morning and eight and ten in the evening. Wednesday, go to the gym, then run in the evening. Thursday, run in the morning, run in the evening, Friday, gym and then run in the evening. And then Saturday, Sunday, I'd do two long runs back to back. So between like so, and I was at the point where I was like, you know, I I feel good, and I knew in my head that this was a bad idea because of course rest and recovery is the most important thing to your body, you know, and I can't stress that enough, you know, to so many people. But they say that the only runs you benefit from are the ones you recover from.

Joshie 33:24

Yeah.

Matty 33:24

Yeah. It's hard because we we we live by that, don't we? You you don't matter, you love the double live.

Lou 33:32

But it's like, yeah, you know, I knew it was a bad idea, but I was like having so much fun in doing it, and I felt so good, and I don't think I'd ever felt that good as a person and in my fitness, basically my whole life. So I was just really enjoying that feeling, which is probably why I was just kind of chasing after that every day, and you know, it was unreal.

Matty 33:59

Um, you go ahead, Maddie. No, I was just gonna ask. I know living that sort of destructive life, it really lowers your self-worth and your self-esteem. And uh, I think I can kind of relate to you if this is the case, but you start running, you start getting runners higher, you start doing things that you never ever thought your body was capable of, and you your self-worth and your self-esteem goes through the roof, and that's the hook. That's what gets you in, and it's like, I need this is me. I want to keep going.

Lou 34:30

Oh, yeah, big time. I was like, you know, even when I think about being 18 and you know, going on my large holidays with my friends and things like that, you know, I would be the the one person who, you know, would still have my t-shirt on in the middle of a Europe in the summer, you know, because I didn't have the confidence to be able to, you know, do that. And then it's like, you know, I'm feeling really good about myself and I can, you know, walk around. And from that journey of starting with my coach to basically today, I'm still with him. I've I started at about 116 kilos. And I'm now I'm sitting now at about 83. Yeah.

Matty 35:11

Awesome.

Lou 35:12

You know, I've it's been over 30 kilos that I've lost, you know. So that whole change in my mindset as well is, you know, I'm not like someone that people would label as, you know, like the fat bloke anymore. You know, I'm not someone that can be scared about that, you know, I'm like a similar weight to all of my friends and you know, everything like that. It it just gives you that feeling to chase onto, which is I think is where you know, running kind of caught on to me because it was like, you know, you keep doing this and you're gonna feel better about it. But I think there's also on the flip side of it, yeah, you listen to the ultra marathon podcasts and you read the ultra marathon books, and instead of talking about how many years it took them to build up this mileage, you know, it's very much so about the mindset of you know, you have to struggle through the pain and you have to get through the race, and it's all about testing your mindset. So, unfortunately, in a bad way, a lot of these books talk about you know running on tired legs. You know, if you want to complete a hundred kilometer ultra marathon, you've got to do a long run on a Saturday followed by a run on a Sunday, and you've got to learn to run with pain. So I started to do that, and my legs started to hurt, and I started to run through pain, and I was like, okay, this is working actually, I can still run back to back days at still consistent paces, you know. But I'm starting to test my mindset, and that's where I started really to fall into that longer distance, but also started to fall into that sort of ultramarathon mindset as well. Which can you talk us? Yeah, well, it's better to say, yeah, can you talk us through when the wheels fill off? Yeah, sure. So I was having sort of regular checkups with my physio in Sydney, um, since the runner's knee, just to make sure that everything was completely fine. Um, and I knew a lot of people that were going to that physio, and it was just really important, especially with the distances that I was doing, just to make sure that you know everything was fine and I wasn't experiencing too much. And I had a regular check-in with regards to the runner's knee, just to update her that I'm back to sort of running a lot of distance now, and I've got no pain, I feel really good. Um, but I just moved house in Sydney, and where I'd moved house, I basically was surrounded all by hills that were literally like that everywhere. So, all of these runs that I was doing, you know, eight to ten K's and double run days, were basically starting all uphill and then flying downhill and then back uphill and downhill. So I was taking a lot more impact than you know just a regular flat run. And I said, Oh yeah, I've just moved to house and it's just been on a lot of hills, so I've got a bit of a dead leg in my left leg, but I'm just gonna give myself a bit of a break because it's just due to the hills, and I haven't run this many hills before. And um, she did a bit of stress testing on my legs, and she was like, I think just to be safe, maybe just go and get an MRI scan just to double check that there's no additional damage in there. Um, and I was like, okay, yeah, that's fine. And that was a Monday, and I didn't have my MRI scan booked until Thursday next week. Yep. I was like, I mean, in my own head, I feel fine. You know, in my own head, I I feel fine, I feel okay. My MRI is next Thursday, but I'm just gonna do it as a formality, you know, just to say that I've had it done and she'll see the results, and I'm completely fine. So I then after the day after the city, I went for a run with my friends in Centennial Park, you know, and I did a couple of laps, and I was like feeling so good. And I was ended up, you know, I did I think it's about a three and a half kilometre loop Centennial Park, and I was running like 350 kilometres, four minute kilometres consistently, you know, and I did four laps, I think, and I was like, I feel great. Um and then that Saturday did a half marathon PB. Um I ended up like my first half marathon properly that I'd run was like a 159, and I hadn't really gone and timed one properly since, and I ended up running a 141. And I was like, I feel unbelievable. Like this is great. Let's get this MRI done. Yeah, let's just get the results out of the way, and then I can keep doing this. So I go in for my MRI, um, and I had it done, and then they were like, Okay, yeah, we're now gonna send the results to your physio, but they're not gonna let me see them. But probably because I wasn't gonna understand what I was looking at anyway. Um, and she dropped me a call and she said, Oh, can you come into the physio um just so we can have a chat about your results? And I was like, Okay, that's fine. She gets the results up on the board, and I've got a double stress fracture in both my femurs. Oh yeah, both my femur's stress fracture, luckily a grade two, um, but it then basically put me out for around sort of eight to ten weeks of no running. Um, the first four to five weeks, I couldn't do more than two thousand steps a day. Okay. You know, I couldn't train any leg exercises, anything like that, which was the start of February.

Joshie 40:43

Um, Louis, a bit of a bit of a humble brag running a half marathon PB on two broken legs.

Lou 40:53

Well, it is, but it's all almost like you know, maybe if I hadn't have run that PB, I may have been a grade one fracture and it may have been a three or four week recovery. You know, I don't know what the difference would have been if I hadn't have run that that additional two, three runs before that MRI scan at the time. So it's funny to look back on, but it's um it's interesting because I got quite friendly with Ned Brockman when I was in Australia actually. Um just before I left, I went to go and see him just to talk a little bit more about the headspace that I was in when it came to injury, because of course, after everything that he's done, you know, there was times where he, you know, couldn't even run for you know up to a year's time because of the amount of damage they'd put on his body. And you know, he made it very clear to me that you know ultimately your mind is way stronger than your body, and your body does always keep the score. So my mind was convincing me this whole time that I had no pain and that everything was fine. And as soon as I got those results, I took a step back from running. I noticed actually when I'm laid in bed at night and when I'm doing my day-to-day tasks, my legs are actually in agony, but my mind had just really managed to convince me that you know this was either part of the plan and it's just part of running, or I couldn't feel it at all. And it changed massively within the space of a couple of days of getting those results, how much pain I was actually in.

Joshie 42:23

You basically built your life around like all the every spare minute you had, you built around running. So when that was all taken away from you, can I ask how difficult was that?

Lou 42:34

Yeah, it was difficult. I had a a short stint of getting the results of basically being in panic mode to be like I've replaced so many things in my life with this, and now I can't do it. Yeah, I either need to find something else which is gonna replace it, or I need to not worry myself that I'm gonna kind of go and slip and back into my old ways. But luckily, I'd kind of changed my mindset over that whole year before it had happened to be like I wasn't really going out on weekends at that point, anyway, you know, before the running, and in November I stopped drinking completely, so I've been sober since then, and I never had a worry that I was going to go back to doing that.

Joshie 43:22

Props to you, Lou, and I'll tell you why. I mean, you get this double stress fracture diagnosis at quite possibly the worst time. You're training for a backyard ultra, you're moving back to the UK, which represented everything that you escaped from in the first place. Um, so to be somewhat immobile, moving back to the scene of your, I guess, the five years of destruction, uh was there any part of you that was concerned that you'd pick up old habits and old ways?

Lou 43:52

It's it's funny because a lot of my I had a lot of friends from home who had also Moved to Australia, um, you know, and they were all so happy and proud of the way that I had changed myself. And you know, when I told them that I was moving home, I think everyone's first question was, you know, how are you gonna cope? You know, going back to that, are you sure you're gonna be okay? You know, or showing slight concern that you know I needed to be in Australia to be the way that I am, you know. But I'd actually felt at that time in my head, no, you know, I I am completely confident in myself now that I'm not gonna slip back into those old ways and that the way I am right now that when I go home, I'm not gonna have an issue with that. And you know, I've been home since February and you know, haven't been out at night.

Matty 44:49

And your identity changes as you go, you know, you go from this, oh, he's the party boy, to all of a sudden, oh, he's the person who doesn't drink and you know he's really good at running. You know what I mean? Like it's it's um that identity change I think is huge when you're going through that that sort of thing.

Lou 45:06

Yeah, it's the identity change is really interesting because I think I actually struggled with that for quite a while. Um because I knew that the change that I put myself through while I was in Australia was only actually visible by people I was in Australia with. And because I wasn't back home in the UK, I knew that, you know, a majority of my friendships and relationships back home were formed off of being, you know, that DJ guy who, you know, was always going back to people's kitchens and always partying and probably always off his head and you know, having fun. But that was the only time that they saw me. And I was actually thinking to myself, you know, I wonder how many people back home still only remember me as that person, you know, that still probably thinks I'm actually just, you know, out on it every weekend doing this and that, you know, and a very small select few people actually realize that this is what I'm doing now. And I actually had to sort of come back to that conclusion and say, you know, the people that actually deserve, you know, to see me the way that I am are the ones that do. You know, there's a reason that those types of people I I've kind of distanced myself from because you know, that's not the type of person that I want to be. So I don't really need to prove myself to those people. I'm also happy with proving myself to my close friends that actually care about me and are happy to see this change in me because you know, some people actually are disappointed that I'm not, you know, that party guy, and you know, I can't you know, go and do these things with them anymore. And you know, they don't talk very nicely about my Instagram account where I'm talking about fitness and my journey and everything like that, you know. So it's quite interesting, you know, because they're miserable, they're miserable and they want you to be miserable too.

Joshie 47:08

Yeah, and you know what it's like, you've sort of been able to break that cycle, and they're they're jealous. I mean, let's be honest. Um, and clearly a lot's changed, even in I reckon the last three weeks since you and I um briefly caught up. Uh, I think I asked you how concerned you were that when your body started to feel good that you would go full send again. I think you said something like every part of you is concerned. Something must have changed because I think you in the meantime you've pulled the pin on the backyard altrue you had um for June uh this month. Is that true?

Lou 47:37

It's basically all I had in my mind this whole year. You know, it was like I can't wait to do this, and you know, I I'm not chasing it for a specific result, it's more so just to prove to myself and understand, you know, how far can I go if I push myself to go that far, you know, and and especially as a first one, you know, no one should ever go into one thinking they're gonna win it because it's a completely different, you know, ball game of events. But I think that was really helping me sort of get through the rehab and the injury block, is knowing that I had something to work towards. And you know, I started to as soon as I was back running, actually have a specific training plan booked into what I was doing every week to accommodate that race. So Saturdays were I'd mapped out a 6.7 kilometre loop from my house, and I was that was my long run. It was sort of run one on the hour every hour and come back and have rest and recovery, eat the right types of food, you know, do everything I need to do to really get familiar with that format. And you know, I did a few sort of back-to-back Saturdays, like I did three laps, which is about 20, 21k, roughly, you know, and then I did six laps, you know, which was just under a marathon and all of this. And I did the six laps at I started at 9 pm and I finished at three or four o'clock in the morning because I wanted to get used to the feeling of running bitch pitch black at night with a head torch on, and I did that a couple of weeks, yeah, probably about three weeks ago now. And then I kind of just sat down and said, I don't feel 100% right now, and I don't feel like it's a clever idea from having the time off of running that I really didn't enjoy to go back to an event that puts that much punishment on your body. Um, you know, and I'd planned the whole thing because you know, really you need a crew of people to come and help you with that, and you know, you need a support system and you know, all of this stuff, which I didn't think if I go and do that race, I'm gonna feel great. I may end up, you know, wasting a lot of people's time because I don't feel great. Did you surprise yourself that you were able to have that kind of perspective? I think so, but I also think compared to Australia, actually back home, I'm surrounded by more people that help me make those right decisions. You know, like when I was in Australia, it was actually just me running and I kind of had a schedule and this and that. But actually, you know, my mum is a triathlete, my mum does Iron Man's, and you know, she's everything. So I'm talking to her about you know, making the right decision, you know, and obviously she's completely saying to me, you know, you don't want to get injured again, you want to make sure that you know you feel 100% going into it. And you know, I talked to my coach who's based over here in the UK, and that was also, you know, a decision to say that you know, if we re-injure ourselves again, you know, what's that gonna look like in terms of recovery, in terms of the mindset, in terms of everything that we've kind of worked so hard towards? Do you feel that you've got the balance right or is it still a work in progress? Um it's still a work in progress. Like the the running's definitely chilled out a lot more, but I still don't I still don't feel uh completely 100% on my runs at all. You know, I'm still kind of building that back up and you know it's slowly building back up, but I I'm not finishing my runs at the moment feeling like I was in you know January, December time, you know, uh feeling you know very drained and you know, I'm making sure that I'm doing the things which I missed out on doing, you know, and the fueling's right and everything like that. But I think just having that time off, you know, and and getting back into it, you know, is a lot of a slower process than you know running a 140 half marathon and then having you know two to three months off and then thinking in your mind that you are that quick, but it's now gonna take however long to get back to being that quick, and that's fine. Um it's just a bit of a lengthy process which we're working on, but I still just making sure that you know that love for it will then come back, you know, into the way that it has in the past because I've already been there. So that's just it's not I know it's there.

Joshie 52:12

Just finally, uh Lou, what would you say is the biggest uh lesson that running has taught you about yourself?

Lou 52:19

Um definitely, you know, the capability aspect. You know, where where I grew up playing rugby and you know, being a hundred kilo plus person, and you know, I never told myself or thought to myself, you know, I could be a runner and I could go and do those things just because you know I was always playing sports that had short bursts of energy and you know, where I required contact and things like that. And I was just like always that person that went, oh no, yeah, just long distance running is just not for me. I'm better at doing this or I'm better at doing that. But actually, you know, once you get into it, you just can unlock a completely different side of yourself, which you know can be inspiring to yourself and to other people, you know, which has been really interesting because you know, and my my Instagram account's only small, you know, it's like 500 or so followers, but you know, I have people that I went to school with or that I don't even know that have said that you know what I've done has inspired them to go for a run, or you know, it's inspired them to change certain aspects of their life, which is you know wasn't my intention, it was just to kind of hold myself accountable that I'm doing the things that I need to do, and by doing that is kind of you know, posting that publicly. But you know, I go round to a friend's house for a barbecue the other week, and someone says to me, you know, I'm just it's been really inspiring to us that you've done that. And I'm like, okay, well, you know, that that's changed a massive perspective on it in my life, which has been great. And I can only imagine what you know, these even larger and you know, widely spread accounts do for people around the world, is you know, one of the main reasons that I fell in love with running and got into it is because of Ned Brockman, you know, and the things that he's done, you know, and that kind of that domino effect of paying it forward, you know, it can happen at all levels and aspects of people, I think, which is really important and um you know really positive.

Joshie 54:25

Lou, thanks so much for being so open with us today, especially when it comes to addiction mental health and well-being. Um like rebuilding and I sincerely hope to see you out there again to matching the goal.

Lou 54:37

So I had a long day at work and I hadn't managed to get a run in yet. So I was like, okay, I really need to run, but I also need to do my grocery shop. Um I think I think Woolley's was probably about 3k each way from home. So I was like, okay, great, I'm gonna stick a rucksack on my back, I'm gonna run to Wooly's, get my shopping, and then I'm gonna run home. And you know, 3k each way, you know, it's about 15 minutes for me, that's fine. You know, I look at my phone and I've got 20% charge in my phone, and I'm like, oh yeah, sick, you know, like I literally have just bought a brand new iPhone 17, and I've I've been used to charging it like once every two days, you know, because the battery life's been that amazing and it's been great, and everything like that. So I'm like, okay, cool. I grab my phone, stick my headphones in, I'm gonna run to Woolies, no problem at all. So I get there, and uh I'm like walking around the aisles and putting everything in my basket, and then I hear my headphones die, and I was like, okay, maybe my headphones are just out of battery. And I realize my headphones have turned off because my phones died. Yeah, I'm like, oh shit, like I can't pay for any of my shopping. I've got a Garmin, but my Garmin pain never works. Every time I try and set it up, the cards never work on it. So I'm there, and I've also run to Wooly's that decided at that time that it was like 9:30 in the evening. So by the time I've got there, I've got 15 minutes until the shop closes. I'm stood there and I'm at the tills with all of my shopping. And I've said to the lady at the till, please, if you have an iPhone charger, this is the only way I need to pay for my grocery. So charge. And she's like, Yeah, no problem, that's fine. So she puts it on charge at the till, and it is the world's slowest charger. 10 minutes. So at this point, there's five minutes left until the store closes, and they're doing their announcement. You know, everyone who's shopping now needs to come to the tills and you know, check out with all of their stuff. And then I go and grab my phone and it's got like 3% on it. And I'm like, that's fine. It's enough for me to just get it, click the Apple Pay on it, and then go. So I pick it up, take it off charge, go on the Apple Pay thing. As I go to pay for it, my phone dies. And I'm like, oh god. So I'm like, sorry, I really need to use the charger again. So she then puts it on again, and I'm like, okay, I need to leave it maybe a couple more percent, finally get there, pay for my stuff, put my everything in my bag, pay for it. The shops literally they're closing the shutters. I don't like to switch people in the phone and everything like that. And I'm like, okay, cool. Now I've just got to run home, and then you know, all will be done. It's not the end of the world, it's fine. So I run home, I open my rucksack, and it's just filled with yogurt.