The Positive Split

Blindfolded Racing + How To Run More Without Getting Injured: The Positive Split #2

• Daniel Colombini • Season 1 • Episode 2

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Sam gets kidnapped, Becky forgets what strength is and in coaches corner, we cover how to go from 10km training to half marathon training without hurting yourself.

If you want your run coaching questions answered, send them to dan@riftfitness.co.uk and we'll feature them on the show!


⛓️‍💥 LINKS

Dan: 

https://www.instagram.com/djcfitness/

https://www.youtube.com/@Daniel_Colombini

Sam:

https://www.instagram.com/lightitupyeah

https://www.youtube.com/@LightitUpYeah

Becky:

https://www.instagram.com/beckybcoach

SPEAKER_04

That fails.

SPEAKER_00

Hang on two seconds. Right, there we go.

SPEAKER_01

That the intro to the part.

SPEAKER_04

You're not giving me that in, are you?

SPEAKER_02

Right, welcome back everyone to the positive split. Last week was episode zero and I sounded like a robot. Hopefully, I'm gonna sound less robotic today. I'll do my very best. Dan has been working very hard this evening to make sure all our sound is working.

SPEAKER_00

So I'm sure uh messed around with so many microphones with two people just staring at me expectantly.

SPEAKER_02

Dan's quite stressed. So if he doesn't speak for the first 10 minutes, he's just gonna join us when he's ready. He's meditated for a bit. Um if you didn't catch the episode zero, we're calling it, where we were practicing last week. Um my name is Sam. Um there's Becky to my right, and that is Dan. Um these guys are getting married next this year. This year. This year, and they are more importantly, they are both coaches of various different uh things towards running. So, Dan, you are nutrition and coaching in general. Yeah. And running running coach, technique coach. Fantastic. And Becky, what are you?

SPEAKER_04

I'm a strength coach, so cool. Strength.

SPEAKER_02

Strength coach, strength. And another one. And I am nothing whatsoever. So I am going to ask lots of questions and hopefully it's gonna help you. This podcast is for runners from you haven't even started, you were just thinking about it, to people who are running all the time and are self-confessed uh nerds and experts. Hopefully, there's something for everyone. So let's get cracking with catching up. What's been going on for you guys since we last did our podcast last week? Anything exciting?

SPEAKER_04

Uh, what have we done? We did park run? Oh no, we that was in the morning, and then we did the podcast in the afternoon.

SPEAKER_02

So that actually was before so really we haven't done that much yet.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, not really that much.

SPEAKER_02

Well, it's not been long.

SPEAKER_00

It's been very long at all. It's been about four days. I've done Well, this is the this is the duality of band, isn't it? You've got Sam's signed up for about 18 races over the next three or four months, and Becky and I have got nothing in the calendar at the moment. So we're both just kind of enjoying our own training. Um, I will get into it in a second, but I've been dabbling in power-based training rather than just running to uh to pace nice.

SPEAKER_04

Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_02

You are running nomads, aren't you? You're sort of just going through the wilderness, seeing where see where the wind takes us.

SPEAKER_04

Who knows? Next week we might have signed up for a race.

SPEAKER_00

Um well Becky's on a come down from Boston Marathon, so you've done your time of uh being very rigid with with strict Sunday runs.

SPEAKER_04

So I'm enjoying the freedom. I've done since our last podcast, what have I done? I did a deadlift session the other day, I did like a erg workout yesterday just on like the ski, roam and bike, and then I did an upper body session today. So yeah, just enjoying lifting weights again. What about you?

SPEAKER_02

So I did a thing called the drop, which I did I briefly said about, but I think I said I wasn't gonna do it.

SPEAKER_04

Yes.

SPEAKER_02

You did say that.

SPEAKER_04

But we all know Sam. Well, those that don't, he says one thing, means another.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. So I guess for context, Sam on the podcast last week, you said I'm not gonna do it because I'm gonna be sensible. I don't want to re-injure myself, and I'm not gonna over-train. And then we got a text from you maybe about 10 minutes after you left the house after we finished our podcast.

SPEAKER_04

I think it was a couple hours. Okay, a couple of hours.

SPEAKER_00

What did that text say? I can't remember.

SPEAKER_04

Said, I'm actually feeling good, I'm gonna do it.

SPEAKER_02

So okay, yeah, I can't deny that. That sounds about right. Yeah, so I've been so I did uh brought in a London marathon. I've been getting injured all the time, making silly decisions. I started being sensible. The last six months I've been doing really well. And then after London Marathon, which is three weeks, three and a half weeks ago now.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Um, I felt really good, but I was fully aware that if you feel good, even after a marathon, which we can talk about, there is still hidden beasts ready to get you if you push it too hard. I've seen I saw someone do the Hack Me Half the other day and their calf pop because they're done London, they felt good, and then it just is going for a hard effort at half. So I've being aware of that, I've been very, very sensible. And this was the first thing I'd booked in, and so it's called the drop. And the premise is you get blindfolded, you go to a shop in uh up um in Horsham called Up and Running, they drive you 10 miles away blindfolded, so you have no idea where you're going, and then they drop you off and they say good luck, get back. You can't you have a phone in a ziploc bag and you're watching a ziploc bag, no maps, nothing. You can ask for directions and you can talk to people. So I did it in a team with my friends, and it's sort of I thought it was gonna be like trails, so I thought, well, it'll be fine. So my Achilles has been a little bit angry still. I think the Achilles are always like the last thing to come back, and again, I want to talk to you guys about that later. But I think it I'm I know my body quite well because I've injured all the parts of it, so I'm I'm quite astute at working out what is and isn't working, and it felt good enough, and I thought, well, it'll be fine. Um, so we went and did it, and it was it was so funny, it was such a good laugh.

SPEAKER_04

We um yes, we got in the what was it like being blindfolded and driven away?

SPEAKER_02

I hadn't thought about it. Kidnapped something. And it was like it was about a 30-minute drive, and in my head, it wasn't going to be a long drive at all. And then suddenly sitting and the blindfolds like touching your eyelids and stuff, and it was like quite stressful, but it was fine. We were all just again. I was with my friends, we were just chatting the whole time.

SPEAKER_04

Chatting with blindfolds.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, and I I could I follow chatting with your kidnapping. Yeah, I followed roughly where we were for to quite far, and we ended up, we got um unblindfolded, we were in Leith Hill, Leith Hill, which is near Box Hill and so. Oh, yeah. Okay, so a big cycling sort of area, and that felt like a really, really long way away. Because it's 10 miles as the crow flies. Yeah, oh and so when I immediately got a bit of dread and thought, oh, this is not ideal for me because this is a we're gonna run a long way. Quite far, yeah. And so I thought, okay, fine, well let's just get on with it. So we started running.

SPEAKER_04

We know Did you set off at an easy-ish pace or uh that was the plan.

SPEAKER_02

So the friends I was with, it was Seb and Harry. Harry is a really, really good cyclist. Um, so he used to race with me and stuff like that. He still rides and races and things. Um, so he knows that area quite well, and so do I from the times we've sort of done cycle, just like a you know, cycling mecca. So he knew exactly where we were straight away and knew roughly the way to get to like Rusper, we were gonna head for. Um, he then set off at a ridiculously fast pace, and I'm like chasing him, being like, Harry, we need to calm down here. We don't even know if this is the exact right way. So, yeah, we set off. A lot of people ran on the road, which was the quickest way. Yeah. And we said from the outset, we actually just want to have a bit of an adventure, have a bit of fun. So we just took every single turning that we could find just to see where it went. So we had to go through all these fields, jumping over fences, through bushes, went through a graveyard at one point.

SPEAKER_00

Um you got there, realized how far away you were from home, and instead of running back as the crow flies, decided to take every turn to make it even longer.

SPEAKER_02

To make it longer, softer grass is softer than tarmac. That's true. So, no, it was I highly recommend it. It is such a good mixture of it. It still feels like a race, and it genuinely felt like a real adventure of like not actually knowing where we were going. And there were certain points where we'd stop and you'd have like three different ways to choose from, and you genuinely don't know. So then you have like a really good conversation of like, well, planes are coming from over there, so that must be Gatwick that way, and we can see like Truly Hill in Shoreham in the distance over there, and we can see Leith Hill behind us, and then you you go and then you go down a field and you realise that actually it's a dead end, or like at two points, we just ended up on an A road. So the road to Dorking, we just came out of a bush and we were on the draw carriageway. Oh and we were just like, and then we looked across and there was like a gap in the other bush. We were like, right, we must be able to go through here. So we ran across there and ended up in all sorts of places. So we we ran five kilometres further than the people who beat us. So we came fourth.

SPEAKER_04

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02

Okay, and then um guy called Adam won it, and he he ran about 20 something kilometres. We ran about 26.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, how do you know how actually how long you actually ran?

SPEAKER_02

Because my watch was on, but in my bag. Oh, okay. So you have to seal it up. So in an emergency, you can just take it out. Right. So I was like, and you still get the Strava poison. Yeah, yeah. So I said to Emma, my wife, I was like, look, my ankle's a bit dodgy. If I need to ring you, I'll just call you.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And at one point in Rustbur, because like with Achilles injuries, when I slowed down and we stopped to wait for a bit for something, it suddenly flared up and felt really bad. And I thought, if I run on this, it could get worse. Yeah. So I was about to ring her. Lucky I didn't because she was having like the worst day ever with all sorts of things. I was like, if I'd rung you to come and get me in the middle of Surrey and you don't know where it is, that would have been pushed you over the edge. So I was glad I managed to uh push through. And it then I ran, it was fine. And it was fine. And we finished, and yeah, it was really good. So it was the right choice, and I highly recommend doing it. They have them everywhere. There's ones in London, Coventry, Edinburgh.

SPEAKER_04

Um it makes you appreciate like how much we rely on our tech and phones and stuff now. Like if you'd done that race 20 years ago, it probably wouldn't have been as a big deal.

SPEAKER_02

It was the concept of time. I had no idea how long we've been running for. It was so weird. Like I had my jails and stuff with me, and I was like, I don't know if it's been five minutes or fifty minutes to take this gel.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

So it was you quickly just don't understand where you're going. I could hear my watch beeping for when we were doing the kilometres, so I had a rough idea of like but we finished and I was like, we've nailed that, we have come in first, we have gone so fast, and they were like, Yeah, you're fifth, sixth, and seventh. Like when we got there. Great. And I was like, we were fourth team.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, it sounds fun, something very different as well.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, it was good laugh. Yeah. I think and people need to do more stuff like that. I think just things that are just a bit of fun. Yeah. Like it doesn't really matter where you place. Like I think people get apart from first place. Well, yeah. No, I just I think people are at the moment they get too in their in their own heads about beating PBs and making sure they're always getting quicker and running to the point where they're just kind of sucking the fun out of their own training a little bit. And I think that was one of the reasons why I just haven't signed up for anything recently. I've just been quite enjoying doing some running and still having like an overall goal, like I'm still trying to get quicker, but I don't have that constant pressure of trying to set a new PB.

SPEAKER_04

But then when you do feel like you want to then actually know, I want to push, then you know, oh cool, I'm gonna sign up for this, and then you can have some more structure when you feel ready for it. Yes.

SPEAKER_02

I think that's a danger of like Instagram. You're surrounded by people just posting about all their PB, how good everything's going, and it can make you just feel that, oh yeah, actually I can't have a bad run. But yeah, it's absolutely fine. And I've got a load of 10Ks coming up soon, like three different 10Ks. And I was thinking about it today. The first one I'm gonna do, I'm literally just gonna run without my watch. I'm gonna make I'm gonna turn it around or turn all the stats off, and I'm just gonna run as fast as I can for that distance just to see what it is and whatever happens happens, rather than worrying about my heart rate or anything like that. And I think 10k is a really good distance to do for that sort of thing. Yeah, you don't need to pace it in that way, you can manage that effort. Yeah, so yeah, that's gonna be my my plan for the next few months.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I similar a similar thing happened to one of my runners this morning, actually. Um, she accidentally set a new oh yeah, I saw that to set a training. Whilst out on a training run, beat her PB by five minutes. Oh my god. No still previous PB. So yeah, Holly, her PB before was an hour ten. Um, and so we've been getting her ready to go for like a a really good 10k effort um T T B not TB, PB time trial. Um, and I got a message from her this morning or tagged in an Instagram story that was just like, um, oh, uh accidentally got my PB one hour five. I was like, oh, okay. And considering I was telling her to go shorter distances at the target PB place, she just went, No, sometimes you're just feeling it and you just go for it. Yeah, exactly. I think that's the best thing.

SPEAKER_04

Don't fight it.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and do it. Yes, when you get to a certain level that you can't really do that anymore. But when you're uh especially when you're just sort of getting into the habit of running more regularly and just having some fun with it, that's always pretty, pretty sweet. Yeah, but um, yeah, I got I just got a message from her this morning that just said, Don't be mad. I went, Yes. Yeah, I didn't really follow the run like you set it. Um so it's fine. Well, it's fine, I'm not offended. The life of a coach, yeah. The life of a coach, and Becky can back me up on this, is trying to get people to do things and then just willfully ignoring you for better or for worse.

SPEAKER_04

Yes, yes, common theme.

SPEAKER_00

Yes, we'll start naming names at some point. Um, but yeah, I think anything else with your training that's uh well I've been really today.

SPEAKER_02

I as I did my strength my first strength training session back after the mannequin block.

SPEAKER_04

I'll see you at K2.

SPEAKER_02

I have got some serious DOMs today.

SPEAKER_04

Oh, have you?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I did I didn't go crazy either, I was very sensible. Yeah, and I followed your advice that you said in the last pod, where I just did a hinge, I did a hollow hole, didn't do a plank. I was tempted to do a plank, but I thought nope, she's gonna slide me off if I do a plank. We have to get it into every podcast episode that planks are a shit extra anti-plank crow. Um yeah, so it was really nice, went really well, and again, loading my Achilles using that stuff is actually good. You think, oh no, I shouldn't do those things, or I actually it wants it wants a bit of tension in it. So and then I've done I've started doing 30 minutes on the bike and 30 minutes elliptical, but like effort, like my heart rate up to like 140, which is quite hard on an elliptical to get it to even easy pace.

SPEAKER_04

My heart rate flies up on a on a cross cross train. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

I I don't do the arms, I just hold my legs.

SPEAKER_04

Because when I was in a bit of a middle, not injury, but like trying to protect my leg. I used full uh I made full use of the uh cross trainer, and I'd have some sweaty old sessions on there. Goodness me.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, K2 is a really, really warm gym. Like the last one I was at at gym location, it was quite air cool and quite nice. Whereas he is in you're instantly just sweating, which I'm like, I actually quite like it. Do you? It's just a good workout, it just adds it adds to a bit of heat training.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, I find Nuffils like that as soon as you walk in, it's like yeah.

SPEAKER_02

I don't yeah, I don't think people care about our gyms conditioning, to be honest.

SPEAKER_04

So yeah, just give me the AC review of Michael Jims.

SPEAKER_02

I'm doing a lot of cross trading, is my point. So yeah, I'm I'm looking forward to actually I'm gonna I've got two weeks until worthing 10k, and I'm just gonna keep it pretty easy with my running and do my efforts on the cross trainer and just see what happens. If I can run close to a 40, that'd be great. That's the that's the aim.

SPEAKER_03

Nice that we share.

SPEAKER_00

I've been doing some power-based training with running. So basically, I mean it's it follows the same, uh, the same as a cycling. You're just trying to create as many watts as possible. Um, obviously, the benefit with power is it it just standardizes your performance metrics a little bit more. So it doesn't matter if you're running up hills or fast on a track or whatever, like it takes the pace, the heart rate out of the equation, and you can just kind of work to one number. It's also well, it's a blessing and a curse on treadmills, is what I've found out.

SPEAKER_04

Because this with the stride pod things, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So I'm using the the stride pods which which hook up to my to my trainers. Um, and you put them on, and obviously because you're effectively taking your watch out of the equation, it takes out any of the inconsistencies from you when you're running, depending on how you swing your arm. Your watch can give you some pretty wacky running power metrics. But because you've got the pods on your feet, it makes it a lot more consistent. That's good because it helps make those readings more consistent for me. The bad part is it really humbles you in terms of speed when you find out how fast you're actually running on a treadmill. Yeah. Because my watch was always very nice to me when I ran on a treadmill and said I was running. Yeah, apparently. I must just have like, I must have just been throwing punches or something whilst I was running. Because my watch, where previously my watch would think I was running out of like a say a five minute 20, 5 minute 30 kilometre. The stripe pods are like, yeah, it's more like a six minute 20. I'm like, oh, okay. I will, I'm not as good as I thought I was.

SPEAKER_04

But it does feel so much. Why does okay? Here's a good question. Why does running on a treadmill feel like you're going faster than if you like your watches say you're going faster compared to when you're out road running? Why does it do that?

SPEAKER_00

I think there's a few reasons for it, really. Um I think running on a treadmill just for most people is naturally harder. And one of the reasons is going to be just the mechanism that you're running on. Most most treadmills have like a steel base, um, and so every time your foot lands, you're putting a lot more load and impact through your uh through your body, and it just makes it feel a little bit harder. The other big reason is you're running in place, so there's nowhere for that air um to to go. You don't have any kind of breeze, you don't really have any cooling. Those little pitiful fans on the front of most treadmills just blow dust in your eyes, which isn't great. Um so it's just overall gonna make you feel like it's gonna push your your RPE, your rate of perceived exertion, higher than if you are running outside.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, intervals on a treadmill I find easier than outside.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I which I think is the same reason, right? Is your watch thinks that you're going faster, so the pace that you're running on the treadmill is probably a bit slower than you would have to run.

SPEAKER_04

But it feels the s like physically feels the same.

SPEAKER_02

But have you ever seen yourself running on a treadmill? My I would I was doing an interval, and in my mind, I was like, the heels were coming up to my bum, and my long legs were and he I looked at it and I genuinely thought it was a it was me running at a different time. I was like, Oh, really? There's no way I'm running that slowly. And I'm just sort of like jogging along. And in my head, I was like gasping for everything.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, it's weird. There's another, well, not to label the point, but there's another point with treadmills where your stride length is naturally shorter on a treadmill because for a lot of people they worry about their foot hitting that plastic shield on the front. Um, and it's one of the reasons why a lot of the newer treadmills now, um, like your sort of your assault runners and the the flatbed ones with the big rubber slats instead of just the normal belts, they feel a bit easier to run on because your foot can land a little bit further in front of you, and it helps you use a more natural running stride.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, because you do see people on treadmills that it's like very shuffly.

SPEAKER_00

End up with a very shuffly run, much higher cadence, and that's gonna drive your heart rate up and sort of spike your your heart rate and your effort more than if you were running outside because it's just harder to run in a more your natural way.

SPEAKER_02

I want to run on that Wahoo one that changes. Yeah, the Whoppers are how fast three round on here, like they're very expensive. Yeah. Um why if you want to be the first sponsor, that'd be great. Yeah, they they also do downhill running as well, yeah, which would be great. So I don't know how that works. That's I'll Google that myself.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, motors push the end upwards. I don't know. Then don't you just fall down because of gravity? Well, no, because your your legs help you. I mean, do you fall down running down a hill? Don't know. Genuine question. Yeah, so it's I can't go down anything. Speaking as a speaking as a coach, I have to ask you, do you fall down every hill? I had to run backwards.

SPEAKER_04

So is a teacher.

unknown

Okay.

SPEAKER_00

Okay, coach's corner next week is how to not fall down hills. Yeah, how gravity works. Right. Cool. Well, on that note, our coach's corner this week. Um, so every week, what we're gonna do is we're gonna pick apart a particular problem that runners struggle with. And that might be one that one of the three of us has had to go through, or it might be a question that's been sent to us. Could be anything, but we'll try and keep it as relatable as possible. So, Coach's Corner this week, we're gonna talk about how to progress your training safely because I think that's something a lot of runners run into, if I'm not intended, is they will start training for one distance. Let's say they're doing a couch to 5k, um, and then they'll they'll hit that distance, but then making the jump up to the next race distance and actually increasing your training and without injuring yourself can be pretty overwhelming for some people. And I think this is in particular the people going for their first half marathons. I think that's like the big jump. How do you get from a 10k to a half marathon? So I just want to get your uh Canvas your thoughts on how do you manage that when you've had to make that jump up to the next uh race distance, when you've had to increase your your training mileage, your volume intensity, how have you done that without hurting yourself?

SPEAKER_04

Um I think sort of run I well when I did my f when I first went from sort of like 10 to 12k to half marathon, I was running with other people that had done the distance previously. So I wasn't getting in my head about oh, I can't do it, can't physically do it, because when I was with others, they're like, no, you can, you're just getting in. I think you can get in your head with this, like, especially when you get into the like distance, uh longer distance runs, you start to like, oh, I've never done this distance before. And your training plan might say, right, you've got a 14k, and like, shit, I've only ever done 11k, and it starts to build up gradually, and you can get very much in your head. So for me, Running with others that had done the distances before really helped.

SPEAKER_02

So yours was much more of a mental thing rather than a physical thing.

SPEAKER_04

Yes. For me, I think it was more mental.

SPEAKER_00

I mean I can confirm being one of the people that you ran with when you were building your distance up, I can agree.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah. Um, but I think from a physical standpoint, I think because I had I had been in the gym for years and years, I knew physically like I would be fine. Um, but I think coming from maybe a new person to exercise and running who hasn't had the sort of fundamental, like we talked about last week, uh, like got the found the foundations of the house first. Like it is just making sure you are still getting your strength working alongside the increase in intensity and runs and stuff, because it is so important making sure you've got strong ligaments, tendons. Obviously, the more you start to put through your joints and everything, then your body's gonna need to be able to absorb that uh impact more. So, so still making sure you're doing all your strength stuff, especially obviously like your lower body, like split squats and all that sort of stuff. So that is gonna um massively help.

SPEAKER_02

Um, but yeah, that's I am the living embodiment of that. Yes because I ran like I came back, I came from cycling, so I could run a marathon straight away, pretty much. So within six months of starting running, I ran my first marathon. It was never an issue of can I can I not do it? Yeah, but I have been on and off injured ever since then until I got to the point where I learned all the stuff that we're talking about and realized. So yours is more the you can't just do car. Yeah, because cycling you can, you can get away with everything. You can load up so much cycling, you could do 30 hour weeks with no risk of being, I was never injured unless I hit a badger or I hit a car, yeah, or a car hit me. You know, that they were the issues. And so he was driving the car. So um I just applied that to running, and it couldn't be any further from the truth because you have to have so much more to it. And had I known, it would have saved me a lot of time out. But I've learned now, but that's why it's really important.

SPEAKER_04

It just sounds like people saying stuff, and but it's it feels like a bit of a broken record, really, because I know a lot of runners will know are very aware that they need to do the strength stuff, and they're like, Oh, well, I've never been injured and I don't do any strength work, so I'll be fine. And it's like yeah, just kind of like biding your time, really. So, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

There's I think the thing is there are so many different facets to your training when you do try and increase um your mileage and the uh the load that you're putting that you're trying to trying to hit, and it's just really about trying to simplify as much as you can so that you're not trying to overwhelm yourself with everything at once. Because if you take if let's take the 10k to the half marathon as an example, that is a point where one, your mileage is gonna go up pretty substantially. So your your training runs are gonna get a lot longer, your weekly mileage is gonna get a lot longer. You're putting quite a bit more impact through your body, and that kind of speaks to to Sam what you what you were went through with going from cycling, which is very low impact, to running much higher impact, that's what can cause those injuries. So you've sort of got muscular injuries, joint injuries that could potentially pop up. You also have to factor in things like your nutrition from the 10k to a half marathon, and that's where a lot of people slip up as well. And then you've also got the mentor side of it. And if you if you're trying to deal with all of those different points at the same time, whilst also dealing with the absolute shitstorm on social media around all of these things, and every day you're opening up your phone and you're being hit with do this one workout, do this type of training, eat this.

SPEAKER_04

Also, you've got to go to work, you've got a family, you've got kids on top of all of that.

SPEAKER_00

So also buy these supplements, and you need to use this, and you need to use electrolytes. Rub this on your face.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, rub this, rub this seat on your face.

SPEAKER_04

You rub this on your button. It will make you run faster.

SPEAKER_00

Don't give away our product linear. So just having to deal with all of those external factors. My first advice would be try and strip out as many things as possible to just focus on one, maybe two of those things to start with. Yeah. So when it comes to building up your mileage, and this is where something like the 80-20 rule comes in for zone two running, I think that has a real benefit somewhere here because when you're increasing your mileage or you're just increasing your running overall, um, this will probably be a separate podcast episode in itself, but the concept of progressive overload, like forcing yourself to do more than you did last week so that your body has a stimulus, it adapts, it gets stronger, you get fitter. Now, if you're gonna do that, you can increase the mileage that you run, you can increase the amount of time that you're running for, or you can increase the intensity or the pace which you're trying to run. Don't try and do all of those things at once. That's what a lot of people do, is they go, they go, right, I was running twice a week and I was doing 5k and a 6k run. Now I'm gonna run three times a week, and my long run's gonna be 10k, and I'm gonna get some intervals in there as well. And you're just trying to do too much.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, when you zoom out and you think, actually, is that smart? Like, is that actually gonna benefit me? Because you might think, oh well, that's what everyone's doing, that's what I should be doing. Yeah, and I think again, that's why having, albeit I know they're not perfect, but investing in like a runner plan can really help as well. Something like a or getting a a coach to help you as well. Because if you're just going into it blind and just guessing what runs you should be doing, again, that's when you're gonna sort of like come into problems, injuries, and sort of thinking, Oh, I'm doing what I think I should be doing. So I think getting someone that's more experienced or getting a professional, getting a plan to follow as well. Because I've never personally followed a runner plan, but I know we you did for the first mouth in, and you thought it was pretty good, didn't you?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, like for the for the point that I was at in my running journey, it was actually very helpful.

SPEAKER_02

And it is quite an affordable thing for people, so I think that is a really good I think the key with AI plans and runner plans because they get a bad rap sometimes, but I think you have to approach it with you need to use your brain as well. Yes, like people say I've got a stress fracture because I did X, Y, and Z and I followed it. It's like, well, fine, but you also need to listen to your body and you need to go very much doesn't actually know me and know me exactly what I need. Whereas with a coach, they do know you, hopefully, if you get the right one, and you can you're speaking to them all the time and they can make recommendations, and so that's a bit different. Whereas you've got to take it with a pinch of salt as a a guide, yes, because for some people, especially if they're new and they're suddenly doing like four by eight hundreds, it's like actually, maybe that's not ideal for you need the low-hanging fruit is just running more, you will get twice as fast as a beginner just by running slowly more often.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, you'll be in the newbie game, like newbie games, it's like the same as lifting weights, really. Like when I have a new person come in and they're just increasing their weight week after week, and then it suddenly starts to get slower and slower and slower, and then they're like, Oh, I must not be getting stronger. I'm like, No, this is the exciting bit, your body's adapting, like the marginal gains is where it gets exciting. So, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, so and and to bring that back to the to the AT20, to the zone two running, that is a particular benefit when you're trying to increase the amount of mileage that you're doing, just adding in extra easy runs, recovery runs to be able to increase the mileage that you're running without putting too much extra stress through your body is a really good way to increase your mileage and increase just your overall running to increase your fitness um without kind of without having to worry about the stress of planning in what types of runs you should be doing and without burning out. On that note, I think some of the other something that will be really useful for, especially for beginner runners, is trying to understand their own body and like what some of the signs of overtraining and burnout might be. So I don't know if you guys have gone through it yourselves, but um, what are some of the the warning signs or the red flags that you think might come up that if someone noticed them that they might need to be dialing back their their training a little bit, that they're trying to do too much?

SPEAKER_02

Like always having a niggle, like the niggle just never goes there's a there's a big difference between soreness and niggles and pain, isn't there? Like it's it's understanding what is actually you can have slightly sore legs, but actually being always in pain or starting a run in pain is not actually normal. Like you need to find that balance, and sometimes you know, especially one of my questions later actually is what's the difference from your point of view from a morning run to an evening run? And for me, um when I run like a half five, my Achilles are so stiff, and I have to be extra cautious and have to do extra long warm-up before I run. Whereas in the evening, I don't have that issue really at all. And then I find it really hard to go to sleep because I've just run and I'm all wired, so it's yeah, it's so different, those types of runs, and it's like you say, you've just got to only through practice, but also joining a club or joining communities where you can talk to people and you can ask those questions or ask a brand new podcast what they might think, because you just gotta you just gotta talk and ask, and that's where AI can be quite useful sometimes of you know explaining those sorts of things. I was chatting to AI about my my Achilles because I was treating my Achilles much more like a muscle injury, right? In that any sort of pain was absolutely do not run on it because it's gonna break. Yeah, and it was like, no, no, you're not gonna snap your Achilles, it's just flared up slightly, and actually it can go away within a day, and it doesn't mean that it's still bad, but for me, I feel that pain, I'm like, game over, I've got I've got to wait for six weeks, and then like you're because you're fixating on it, and then it's completely it's like always there, and it's just it's just managing the load better, isn't it? To prove that, play the game next time you're on a run, run along and convince your brain that your right knee hurts, and I guarantee your right knee starts to feel yeah, like there's nothing I love more than when I'm running and I think I've got a slight, you know, my tendon, my left Achilles is a bit bad, and something else starts hurting a bit, and it's just because it's tired, but I'm like, right, my brain is now able to find other things or do you know notice other stuff that's happening, which is the biggest green flag for actually everything's okay because it's relaxing, that alarm's not going off.

SPEAKER_04

Um I saw something, it was Paula Radcliffe that said for her training what she does if she's feeling a little bit sore, but stiff, she'll start do her warm-up, she'll run for 10 minutes. If she's still feeling that pain after 10 minutes, she'll stop. If it's gone after 10 minutes, then she knows she's good. So I think as a beginner, if you if it is a case of you know, you've just done a thorough warm-up, you get going and things are feeling a little bit sore. Uh, if that is continuing after yeah, 10 minutes and you're like, ah, still, then that's probably your sign that you need to stop, you need to slow down, you need to maybe rain it back. Um, or if it is just a genuine, like, oh, just you know, getting old takes a little bit more longer to sort of like warm up and yeah, get going. And again, when you are new, things are gonna hurt, things are gonna feel uncomfortable initially because you're trying to train your body to let you like learning a new skill. It's like one of our uh one of my clients last week, she's like, Oh, it's just oh my shins are feeling a little bit sore, and it's like all it is just trying to strengthen up those muscles.

SPEAKER_00

In some cases, you're working muscles you've never worked before. Yeah, there is gonna be some soreness discomfort associated with that.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Um, and it is something that comes with practice, but understanding the difference between discomfort and pain. And my my general rule of thumb is discomfort is something that's more like a like a dull ache and feels more in the muscle. If it ever feels more of a sharp pain or a stabbing pain, that's my limit of when I'll stop and get recorded.

SPEAKER_04

I always use like a pain scale, like in set like with lifting weights as well. Same literally same concept, like rate it out of 10, like anything like over a four out of ten pain. Probably you need to like rein it in, bring it back, stop. But if it is just a case of like, oh, it's just you know a little bit niggly or whatever, then yeah, you might be able to just crack on, however, use your brain, like Sam said. Like, if it is something where you're not sure, it's better to be safe than sorry and just be like, okay, I'm just gonna walk or check with I don't know, go to a physio or check with someone else if you're not 100% sure what's and in that moment, because I've been there, it's almost impossible to go, oh, it's been 10 minutes, I'm just gonna call it a day. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

But at that moment, you've got to say to yourself, what would it be like if I can't run for six weeks? Because I've literally been there and I've done that, and I'd look back and I go, if only I made that decision, yeah, and I didn't run that day, and even had one day off, yeah, and it would have been fine. And instead I wrote off my whole summer. Yeah. So now that helps me to go, actually, is it a little run? Yeah. And that makes a big difference. One more thing is crop adding cross-training, like you said, like you can add easy runs, but for me, my training, I know that I'm gonna do about seven and a half hours maximum running, and anymore, I'm just putting myself in the danger zone with my lifestyle, my job, my family. I'm not able to recover well enough to add that on. So my sharp rule now, because I used to do you know nine, ten hours, and I I just wasn't able to do it. But you see people on Instagram and you think you've got to run 130k, otherwise you're not gonna run fast enough or ridiculous. So now I'm just like everything else is on the bike and on the cross trainer, and I think that will have that'll get me some good results.

SPEAKER_04

So hopefully it'll work if that's just a case of building up fitness, you can do that on a bike, you can do that on a cross-trainer, like you can do it on a ski, you can do it on a row, like definitely it's all still fitness, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, um, your body, and and this is uh this is something that a popular misconception with runners, I think, when for example, when runners are are desperate to try and stay within zone two and they get worried about like the exact amount of beats per minute a month's doing. Your body is just is just taking the total amount of work you're giving it, and that's how much it will adapt to, and that is the stimulus. Whether it's zone two or just leaking into zone three, doesn't really walk up that hill, run up the hill, yeah, and it will find its way back. Exactly. So I think there there is a a bit of that to it as well. But um, just to quickly round off the the the warning signs of red flags, I think the other one for me is if you notice a constant lack of energy, just just that low level, like always feeling a little bit tired, that's usually your body's warning sign as well of saying, look, you're you're pushing yourself a bit too hard. You're either pushing yourself too hard in the workouts or you're not eating enough, or both. Yeah. And so if you do notice yourself, like waking up, you're still you're going to bed, you're getting seven, eight hours of sleep minimum, and you're waking up and you're still feeling tired, and it's sort of going on for a longer period of time, that should be your your warning sign to maybe dial it back a bit as well.

SPEAKER_04

Also, people that have periods, if you notice an irregular sort of like anything irregular happening, because that happened with me when I was like losing weight and over-exercising, over-training, like my period stopped. So that's another sign.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Yeah, that is definitely uh not something I know very much about, unfortunately.

SPEAKER_04

No, that you know.

SPEAKER_02

But men carry a red desk as well, can't they? Isn't it called redess? Yeah, yeah. Is that the thing that for women? Uh yeah, what relative energy deficiency. Is that yeah, yes. I've seen yeah, men have that as well.

SPEAKER_00

Like, it's a real Yeah, ultimately, when you're progressing your training, make sure you're also eating enough.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So what I would want to do is I would want to say at the starting point from now, give yourself enough time to train for the race. So let's say that's 12 weeks for a half marathon, break that up into three phases. Have a foundation phase at the beginning, which is gonna be let's just for ease, we'll break it into four weeks, four weeks, four weeks. First phase will be your foundation phase, and that is where you are literally just building up a bit of mileage. So if you're let's say you're currently running 20 kilometers a week, we would get you, we would say, right, by the end of four weeks, we want to be running 30 kilometers a week, and all of that is just going to go in with easy running. So it's your foundation because you've just got easy runs and and then with a few like a few efforts, what you were doing before, but the majority of your additional miles are just coming from that easy effort because you can do the extra miles without burning yourself out and then get yourself to a point where you're just more able to handle that extra load. But once you do that, you move from your foundation phase into a more specific training phase. And so with the specific training, that's when we start turning some of those miles into more efforts that are gonna get you ready for your target race. So if we were using the half marathon example, we're gonna start turning some of those runs, like maybe we bring in some sort of slight tempo work where we get you training at your target half marathon pace. Or we do some intervals to get you running faster than your half marathon pace. So the perfect training system would likely be some intervals to run faster than your target pace, some easy runs to get a recovery running slower than your target pace, and then having some efforts within your long runs, your Sunday runs, whatever you call them, um, where you're running more at that target pace to start locking in the muscle memory. As you go through those four weeks, you start they start converging. Your fast runs start becoming more towards your half marathon pace, and some of your easy efforts also start coming up into your half marathon phase pace. That then gets you into your final phase, which is race prep. And that is where the bulk of your miles is just gonna be either half marathon pace or easy running. And so then by the time you get to race day, you've had a lot of practice running faster, slower, and at your target pace. But by building it up in that foundation phase at the beginning, you've been able to bring your mileage up without over overworking yourself and potentially injuring yourself. And then the very basic, I'm gonna keep it short. Um, the short explanation for why you want that range of paces is every pace you run at, you're working slightly different muscle fibers. So with through your through your foot and through your your legs and your whole body, really, um, but particularly through your legs, you are recruiting different muscle fibers for faster and slower paces. And so by working at a range of paces, you're strengthening all of them rather than just locking in one very specific set of fast muscle fibres and then having the rest not be able to back them up. That's equivalent to having an all-star football team and just a bunch of kids on your substitutes bench if you don't have other ones coming in to take the slack that are at a similar level, you're gonna really fall off in performance midway to late late stage through the race. So that would be my recommended way to increase your mileage foundation, get specific race prep.

SPEAKER_04

There you go.

SPEAKER_02

Would there be um a place for parkrun in that? Because obviously lots and lots of people, especially people who have just started, or people, lots of people start through parkrun, and I know that they enjoy that. Yeah, is there a way to incorporate like parkrun efforts within that? And you could set like run it in a slightly easier tempo, run it a faster one to make it so you can still do that.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I mean you just gotta think that parkrun's just a 5k. Yeah, so yes, different courses are gonna have different profiles, like different elevation. Um, but ultimately it's just a 5k run with more people around.

SPEAKER_02

And you can incorporate, you do a bit before, do a bit after, make it a long run. Lots of people do that. They call it park on sandwich, but it gives me the ick. But yeah, they do. You can call it that if you want to call it that.

SPEAKER_04

Some people I saw a post, this lady videoed herself, like she made a reel, and she was like, Oh, when you see people doing parkrun in their race kit, there was quite a lot of like debate between like people are like, Yeah, it's just meant to be like a nice, welcoming environment, you know, because it can be quite intimidating for new runners when you see people turn up with like race sleeves, super shoes, but then the other camp was saying, Well, you know, like this is some people like to go out and for everyone, yeah. People like to go out and try their race shoes for a fast 5k effort because it can emulate emulate like a race environment. Um, it's a bit more competitive, it's good practice to run around other people. Um, and also, you know, if these people who are feeling, you know, uh sort of overwhelmed or intimidated by the faster people, they were like, well, they shouldn't be running parkrun then if they're that nervous because parkrun is for everyone and running with other people. So it's quite interesting to see that sort of debate.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Are we swearing on this podcast?

SPEAKER_04

Well, I just I think I did I just swear all the time.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Okay, brilliant.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, why wouldn't you? Well, you can't say but that's one step too far.

SPEAKER_02

That is my favourite word though, that is your favourite word.

SPEAKER_04

Okay. The odd fuck.

SPEAKER_01

The odd fuck. The odd fuck. Okay, well, I thought I'd check.

SPEAKER_02

I'm gonna have to go through and do someone. You're live on air. Don't say shit or bugger. Don't say fuck or fuck out. Okay.

SPEAKER_00

I've opened up a real can of worms with this. You've opened up a lot of can of worms this evening, Dad. Right. So my my opinion on everything you've just said is if you're trying to tell someone else how to do a park grunger, fuck off.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Like I just don't I don't understand this idea of telling other people how they should be doing their work.

SPEAKER_04

Because then they were like, well, you're just as bad for saying like they shouldn't be doing this. It's like, well, just because they're slow runners doesn't mean they can't be fast runners. That's part of running.

SPEAKER_02

As long as everyone's being nice and kind of.

SPEAKER_04

As long as the fast runners are, you know, if they do get caught in a slow runner, they're not going to get all up in arms over it. Like it doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_02

Because they're aware that it's a two-lap thing, and if people it's a park run, whatever, like don't get angry.

SPEAKER_04

Like some people walk it.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, exactly. My opinion is it does it needs to be for everyone, and that means there's compromise on both sides. Yeah. If you're a faster runner and you can do a park run in 15 minutes, you need to be comfortable with the fact that you might need to weave in and out of people and you're gonna do that. And that's your problem, not their deal. And that's your problem to deal with. 100%. You're not gonna get a trophy finishing first a park run. No one really cares. No. But at the same time, if you are a slower runner or a run walker, or you just you're walking at the back, it doesn't it doesn't matter. Like everybody is welcome, but you also need to be comfortable with the fact that you might see some people flying past you, but they're just running in a completely yeah, they're not doing it to offend you on purpose exactly. So as long as people are polite and courteous to each other and people aren't shoving each other out of the way, and both sides recognise that there's a different, there's a wide range of abilities going there, we should all just be okay with it. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Although that's my if anyone is planning on punching someone at Park Round, can you let me know because I'll come a video? Yeah, okay. I was gonna say it does such numbers on YouTube, so that was a popular YouTube video, isn't it? Yeah, well, so someone shouted at me.

SPEAKER_04

Sam ran into a camera head buck.

SPEAKER_03

Oh dear.

SPEAKER_02

Right, anyway, moving on. Did does that uh round up our coach's call? I think so, yeah. So that wraps it up. I think it's I think it's time for a little quiz. Yeah. So I've I've got a few questions for you guys. Okay. And then I've got a quick fire thing.

SPEAKER_04

Okay.

SPEAKER_02

So this one is would you rather questions?

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

So you don't have to guess each other's, you've got to just what your opinions are.

SPEAKER_04

Answer at the same time. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

No, just you can just it's just discussion. So would you PB every distance in one year guarantees? Mm-hmm. But you're injured for six months of that year and you can't run. Or just go as normal, no injuries for a year, but you're just sort of running without.

SPEAKER_04

So you PB and your marathon.

SPEAKER_02

PB five, ten, half, and marathon. Go as normal.

SPEAKER_04

But for the sake of then not being able to run for six months, because you're injured. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

No, I wouldn't go as normal. Yeah. You just don't care enough about PBs for to write off that you enjoy the running team match.

SPEAKER_04

It depends. What sort of PBs are we talking about?

SPEAKER_00

Subscribe marathon.

SPEAKER_04

Fucking I'd be injured for six months if I got that.

SPEAKER_00

I tell you what, I tell you what, I the only thing that would make me change my mind on that, if my PB got me a guaranteed good for age at one of the majors, yeah, because I'm currently about 30 minutes short of qualifying that through that route, and I could defer that marathon place until after my six months of injury was when I will then not have the PB anymore. If I could then and I could like defer it so that I had a good marathon training block, okay. I might go for that just because I don't know if I'm getting it on.

SPEAKER_02

I'll put in a word at if I can sort that theme. Yeah, if you could. Like so on on the uh theme of injuries, would you rather be injured for six months on and then six months off, or every other week? So it's still it's six months worth of being injured. But every other week. But every other week you've got an injury. Can you guarantee that's my life, basically? Not anymore though. Not anymore.

SPEAKER_04

Uh when you say injured, can I still lift weights? Or is it no exercise?

SPEAKER_02

No, you just you can't, yeah, can't train. Can't train.

SPEAKER_04

Every other week.

SPEAKER_02

Week on, week off.

SPEAKER_04

Every period like training. Yeah, every other week. I'd take I think I'd you'd maintain some strength and fitness every other week. It'd just be like having a holiday.

SPEAKER_02

You don't know that it's gonna be every other week. So when you're when you're fit, but just every week you catch it.

SPEAKER_00

I think after two or three rounds, you might go alright. I've been I've I've got some kind of monkey's paw curse here.

SPEAKER_04

Like I the week don't week 15, yeah. But the week that six weeks, or they're going but the week that you're fine, like you're really fine. You're fine, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

But then on that Sunday, little oh little Paul. Oh, again. Give me the six months.

SPEAKER_00

Okay. That's a good six-month break.

SPEAKER_04

No, I can not exercise for six months.

SPEAKER_00

Okay, I I wouldn't I wouldn't be able to deal with my uh my training constantly running into constantly running into roadblocks. Like it's like an old Bill Murray film, like it's that sort of vibe. Okay, give me six six months and I'll just I'll just I don't know, I'll play a lot of video games for the other six and five.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, games. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

I'll have fit six months, fat six months.

SPEAKER_02

That's a good book, guys. Uh right, run easy forever, yeah, and you can run easy for any distance. So like 530 to six or to seven minutes per kilometre, like easy sort of running for you guys. Yeah. But you're never allowed to run faster than that. You can never run faster than a 530 kilometre, or you can run 30 kilometers a week max, but you're allowed to run fast. 30k only allowed a small amount of running, but you can run quick, or you can run as a bigger one.

SPEAKER_04

I'm running about 5k a week at the moment. So yeah, there you go.

SPEAKER_00

Big increase, you'll get increased. Watch out. Yeah, you can only do it for a week and then you're you're off for the next week.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, I'd run 30k a week, so I think yeah, I couldn't just run at 530s.

SPEAKER_00

No, I just get bored. I uh yeah, I need I need their variety in in my life. Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_04

So I because you could probably I could probably get around a half marathon on a 30k week training. Or I forward.

SPEAKER_02

In your Alpha Flies in your arm sleeves. Okay. Never do gym work. You can't ever go to a gym again. Becky's already going for the other one. But you will be a sub-elite runner.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Or gym work and how you are.

SPEAKER_04

Gym work and how I am.

SPEAKER_00

Well you've you've qualified for multiple world pages already, so I think I'm already sub-elite. Sub-sub elite. Sub- I was allowed to say SS then and then I realised that's how it's not a good connotation.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, how I am now.

SPEAKER_00

Okay What was the question?

SPEAKER_02

So no no gym work. No, gym you can't do gym work and you're sub-elite runner. Or just as you are.

SPEAKER_00

Am I gonna struggle with the the You're gonna get injured every other week? Am I gonna be yeah, that's these all compound on top of the gym.

SPEAKER_02

Am I gonna struggle with the injuries that you get from only running and not just pace and stuff, but the strength work's gonna get you.

SPEAKER_00

So I'm gonna be a shit sub-elite runner.

SPEAKER_04

But you qualify for the majors.

SPEAKER_00

So I'm gonna be like the an alpha or a mayo of the running wells. Yeah, you've got to be really careful. 30k a week. No, yeah, I I would have to yeah, I wouldn't be able to do that. I wouldn't be able to hack it.

SPEAKER_04

What about you? Question, same question to you.

SPEAKER_02

I don't I don't feel the need to be sublite. I I I think with gym work and how I am, I look for I want to earn it myself. Earn it, yeah. Not through this genie guy.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, yeah, exactly. This genie who really's obsessive injuries.

SPEAKER_02

He's gonna say this genie who's really if you're really trying to injure me. Right, would you rather have a gold medal or a world record in running or lifting?

SPEAKER_04

Right, so like an Olympic gold medal.

SPEAKER_02

Or you set a world record.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, but no one could take the gold medal.

SPEAKER_04

But if you get a world record, you get a medal as well.

SPEAKER_01

Do you? Well no, not at the Olympics. It won't be at the Olympics, it'll be like a marathon.

SPEAKER_04

Can you imagine getting a sub two for the female world record?

SPEAKER_02

For me it's gold medal all day long. Yeah, gold medal.

SPEAKER_04

I've already got a gold medal.

SPEAKER_02

I've got multiple gold medals.

SPEAKER_00

Um I think I'll have the gold medal. Because the problem is world record is brilliant.

SPEAKER_04

What if someone breaks it?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, but the world records even in the same race. Yeah, exactly. The problem is the world record is transient, so like you you can get it and then you can lose it.

SPEAKER_04

And you'll always have the title Olympic gold medalist.

SPEAKER_00

Exactly.

SPEAKER_04

Even though the commentary, all the afterdoor speeches.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, I'll go gold medal.

SPEAKER_02

Let us know in the comments or whatever it is on Spotify. Email us.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

This this is gonna sound really bad from my knowledge, but I'm using it to prove a point. Can either of you two remember the name of the guy who finished second and ran 159.41?

SPEAKER_01

Oh I do know.

SPEAKER_04

Um the guy that ran after Sebastian Soloway.

SPEAKER_02

Is it Pajawa?

SPEAKER_00

No, I don't know, that's the problem.

SPEAKER_04

So how bad's that? The second guy that ran a documentary.

SPEAKER_00

So this is this is what I'm this is what I'm talking about. He ran sub two hours, which no one's ever done.

SPEAKER_04

11 seconds slower than the winner.

SPEAKER_00

Eleven seconds slower than the winner, and we can't remember his name from less than a month ago. Kajelcha. Yes, Kajelcha. The only man not to run a three-hour marathon or a bath. For the audio listeners, Sam um just googled that. He did not suddenly just remember uh remember who it was. But but this is this was my point, right? If you got a gold medal, that people remember the gold medal, and it's just a slightly sad fact that when someone comes second, even if their achievement is monumental, it doesn't stick the same way that a gold medal does.

SPEAKER_02

That Kajelchika guy, I think he's come second in like so many things. Like he's got like all these things, he's definitely the Mr. Bridesmaid. Have you spent have you seen his his range, like his times are just fine?

SPEAKER_00

He is rapid everywhere, but there's always someone slightly bad side, like come on the the definition of jack of all tradesmasters. Yeah. So uh but he's a really good jack of all trades, he's amazing, yeah. But but I mean there's I mean, it's not to get sidetracked, but the the scary thing about him is that was his debut marathon.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, how far Berlin's gonna be amazing. Yeah, because that's they're already talking about that.

SPEAKER_04

Berlin's gonna I hope that's a flatter course as well.

SPEAKER_02

I hope the conditions for Berlin are good because that's gonna be nuts. In my London video, I call Saway breaking the world record out on course and I filmed it.

SPEAKER_03

Did you?

SPEAKER_02

I said he was gonna break it.

SPEAKER_03

And he did. And he did.

SPEAKER_02

Is that because he just flew past you like a jet jet engine? I did not see him.

SPEAKER_04

Did you see oh you saw Mo?

SPEAKER_02

I saw Mo, yeah, yeah. He he gave me a water.

SPEAKER_04

Ledge, absolutely legend.

SPEAKER_02

As he gave it to me, a woman ran into his arm and clotheslined herself and then blamed me. I was like, don't worry, we're all tired. Everyone's tired and a bit emotional, it's fine. Right, final bit.

SPEAKER_03

Yep.

SPEAKER_02

Right, quick fire coach corner. So this is why I fire questions at you guys, and you have maybe five words to answer. Oh Lord, okay.

SPEAKER_04

Oh, that's gonna be half of you.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Now these are all genuine questions I have.

SPEAKER_04

Okay.

SPEAKER_02

Do I need to warm up? Yes.

SPEAKER_04

Yes.

SPEAKER_02

What should I do after a run? Eat.

SPEAKER_04

Drink water.

SPEAKER_02

Morning versus evening run, which is morning. Oh.

SPEAKER_04

Definitely morning runners.

SPEAKER_02

What time?

SPEAKER_04

Nine o'clock.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, that's not the morning.

SPEAKER_04

9am?

SPEAKER_02

That's like three hours into my day.

SPEAKER_04

No, no, it's get your bum! Have your coffee. Like if we're talking Sunday morning, you have your coffee, have your breakfast, have a little scroll, see what's gone on in the night before.

SPEAKER_02

People have families.

SPEAKER_03

Oh right.

SPEAKER_02

Wake up at night and have a scroll. I've got to be up at half five. Have a scroll. Alright, when I run past your house at six in the morning, I'm gonna press that ring doorbell every Sunday morning.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, it doesn't work. Oh yeah, it doesn't work anyway. We turned it off so Riff Raff wouldn't bother us.

SPEAKER_04

Okay, next question.

SPEAKER_02

Okay. Um home workout, no equipment. Give me three things to do.

SPEAKER_04

Squat, lunge, jump.

SPEAKER_02

Or squatland's jump. All just body weight.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, you just said no bodyweight no equipment.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, yeah, no, but I meant like, can I have a backpack sort of thing, like bag of rice. That's what I mean. Some two litre water bottles if you want.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, yeah. Little jump jump in Squatland.

SPEAKER_00

If if you have um resistance bands, then I might throw in like a banded, like a banded warm bow or a clamshell or something like that. Some rubber bands from the post office.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

If I ache, should I run? If you're not sure.

SPEAKER_00

If light muscular ache, yes. If can barely move, no. Yeah. Fine.

SPEAKER_02

What's the worst injury you can get as a runner?

SPEAKER_00

Ooh. It might be rupturing your Achilles.

SPEAKER_04

I would say something vibration. I would say something knee. Something knee, like a runner's knee, like not runner's knee, because you can manage that, but I don't know, something where you fuck your knee. Fuck your knee. Like a meniscus tear.

SPEAKER_00

Something like that.

SPEAKER_04

That's pretty shit.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I mean it it depends. Again, these all depend. Yeah. If you're a professional athlete or like a basketball player, a football player, something like that, probably rupturing your Achilles because or or your Achilles because you lose that explosive strength. And as a Liverpool fan, watching our Star Striker go down with a ruptured Achilles a few weeks ago is still very upsetting to me. Uh, but uh if you're just a it's meant to be quick! I know, I know, I know.

SPEAKER_04

You can't do it. You've been rambling this whole time.

SPEAKER_02

No, I have not been rambling. Final one bone injury, tendon injury, or muscle injury. Muscles what's the best of the worst?

SPEAKER_04

I would say the best injury to get.

SPEAKER_02

What injury should I be looking to get? The whole thing has just been you talking about injury. I just want to find out for the people and myself.

SPEAKER_04

I would say bone is worse, but then if you're talking ligaments, it's probably even worse than that. Bone, tendon, muscle. Okay, I would say, as in muscle the least worse. Dunction, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

In terms of, yeah, I I would say the same bone, tendon, muscle, in terms of requires the most recovery and management to the least.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Well, no one's getting injured here, so it's fine, but I just wanted to know for the people.

SPEAKER_04

People want to know.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, let us know.

SPEAKER_04

Oh, I had two questions from Instagram.

SPEAKER_02

You did. What uh what were they? Uh I'm getting them really quick.

SPEAKER_04

Sam's got them. One of them, favorite uh best running race memory.

SPEAKER_00

Best race memory.

SPEAKER_04

Oh, well, I no, no, just quick.

SPEAKER_00

Okay, well, um, I guess proposing to you after you finish London Marathon probably counts.

SPEAKER_04

Oh yeah, but you did race that.

SPEAKER_02

Ah, loser. That is not a response you should have to that.

SPEAKER_04

You should go, oh yeah, that was nice, but but it doesn't count.

SPEAKER_00

Um so maybe a race that you ran. Oh, I had to run the race. Fine. If we're gonna be technical about it. Um it might be crossing the finish line of the Bright Brighton marathon, the first marathon that I ran. Like because I spent a long time wanting that race to be over, and so to finally get over the line, I was pretty overcome with emotion, I would say. Um so yeah, I think Brighton finish line, the first first marathon I ever did.

SPEAKER_04

I'm gonna say my first half marathon. So not being proposed to at the end of the no, that was good, but that was obviously good, but I'm gonna say my first ever half marathon, because I had entered the 10k and then I got peer pressured, which you don't shouldn't shouldn't do, but I did, and I just say no. Yeah, just saying no. I entered the 10k, so I had the 10k bib, and then in the morning you went to go check if I could do the half marathon, and they were like, Yeah, sure.

SPEAKER_00

Whoa, so whoa, whoa, whoa.

SPEAKER_04

I ran no, this is just quick. We don't need to get into the story too much. Uh, and then I ran the half, it was really hard, and then I think that unlocked my love of uh display.

SPEAKER_00

Didn't know that you could do it. Yes, actually, I've got I've got a I've changed mine running that new forest half marathon the first time we did it, getting near the end where the valley opened up and having wild horses run alongside us. That was pretty sweet. Yeah, that was good. That was really cool. Well, new forest marathon, half marathon is great, and what about yours?

SPEAKER_02

I think it's probably running down Birdcage Walk and seeing my family just before that, and I just erupted into tears. It was like it was just all a bit much. But that feeling of being at the end of a marathon and you are absolutely ruined, yeah, but you're close enough that you know you can make it, yeah, and like there's like 10k before that where you're not quite close enough and you don't dare to think about it, yeah, and then suddenly you allow yourself to go, okay, we've done this. Yes, that's amazing. But like at the end of the tunnel, yeah. So that was that very good. Cool. A second question. How do you stay focused on your own goals and not get distracted, stroke compare to others?

SPEAKER_00

Oh comparison is the thief of joy.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, I don't know. I feel like personally, I've just been training and exercising for so long. I really don't care. I mean, I I care in a sense, like I think what other people are doing. I'm like, yeah, good job, well done. And especially when it's my clients, I absolutely like love it and I'm so proud of them. But I don't know, I feel like because I've done a lot of races, I've done a lot of like other events and stuff, I just get joy from other people. And for me personally, I'm happy in my lane.

SPEAKER_00

And I think a benefit for you is that you don't even have Strava, so you don't really see other people's runs kind of coming into the social media feeds.

SPEAKER_04

I get like when the London Marathon was on, bearing in mind I've just done my marathon six days before. I got a not an element of FOMO, but I was like, oh god, that I know that feeling, it's so exciting. I'm like, oh, this is I was so invested in watching everyone, but I didn't feel the need to be like, I need to enter that. Yeah, because I don't know, maybe it's because I have done all these races and stuff before, and I know the feeling, I feel content, but I guess some people who have never done it that spurs them on to it.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I think once you've done some stuff and you know, I think for me, having my own aims and goals, even though I see other people doing stuff, I'm like, oh, that's that's amazing, but I'm not quite there yet. Yeah, and it that that just um makes me wanna keep training, do the right stuff. But being injured that hurts sometimes watching other people. I'm like, oh, I'm just I'm ready to do this now.

SPEAKER_04

It sucks, it sucks when you're injured, um, and then watching other people still being able to crack on and accomplish things, and you're like, Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

I remember I remember someone telling me some time ago when um, and I think it's when I did something similar, like comparing myself to to other people, people who are better than me or faster than me or whatever. And someone someone said to me, Okay, they said, if you want the results that that person has, are you willing to do everything that that person does? Are you willing to train the way they do, to eat the way they do, to recover the way they do, like to basically live the life that they do, yeah, to have that. And usually when you see someone, unless you know them very well, you don't know what they've had to do to get those results. And it is very easy to think, oh, they're just uh they're just a natural runner, they're just like they're always they're quicker than me. I'm never gonna be that fast. It's like you don't know if they do cross country for school growing up, if they were a sort of regional athlete or whatever, whatever it may have been. Yeah, um, you don't know how they train, what they eat, how much they sleep, whatever, the type of how much stress they have in their life. Yeah. Um, and so literally everybody is running their own race. And so if you're comfortable with the levels that you're training at, you should be comfortable with the performance that you're getting from it. Because your body just reacts to what you're getting at.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Do you see that um podcast with Spencer Matthews where he's getting rinsed by his friend for basically being a he's a terrible semi-pro athlete?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Because full time he's doing run, he's got a nutritionist, he's got a coach, and he's then spouting all this stuff to all these people with families and kids and jobs, and yeah, it's like actually, you're not talking to me. We are not the same thing. No, and you need to have a disclaimer here, being like, actually, I can run, I can run double threshold days and stuff because I literally have no job, so this is what I do full time. I can have my family because I'm not going to work for the whole day.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And so you have to look at people that are doing amazingly well and getting really, really fast, and you can't compare yourself because you're in a different world.

SPEAKER_00

So yeah, and and remember that Instagram and social media is just a highlight real life in one's lives. Yeah, they're only going to show the good parts, and there are very few pages that show you the lows as well as the highs. Yeah. And so if you do find yourself comparing to people on social media or listening to what they're telling you, go through their page and look for parts where they're actually talking a bit more about their training in their life. And if you only see positive stuff, you know to be suspicious.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, that's why that I literally started. My YouTube channel on the first run back from my stress fracture because I was like, I might I I've got to do loads of run walking for like six weeks, so I might as well fill it with talking some rubbish at the same time. Yeah, and I was like, but I want to I this is an angle that lots of people don't have. It's always just I'm doing amazing, look at all my training. I was like, I'm broken. Let's see if I can be less broken. Yeah, like and like you know, I think that resonates with people because it's it's just honest.

SPEAKER_04

It's real, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So yeah, try and try and avoid the comparison trap. I know it's easier said than done, but treat everything on Instagram with a healthy dose of scepticism and just remember that you're running your race, let everyone else run theirs.

SPEAKER_02

There you go. Lovely, right? What a way to finish. So if you have any comments or questions, um just find us on Instagram. So Dan is at DJCFitness. Correct. It will all be in the show notes.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Becky is at Becky B Coach. And I'm at Light It Up. Yeah. Dan's got a fantastic YouTube channel with loads and loads of coaching tips and running stuff, which is Dan Coaches Running. So look at this, I'm good. I try to keep it simple. Um at Dan Coaches Running. Yeah, and I've got a YouTube channel where I don't give any tips. I just talk about how I'm getting injured and run and do races and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_00

Basically, if you want if you want tips, then come to me. If you want vibes, go to Sam. Vibes at Long.

SPEAKER_04

I don't have YouTube because I don't want it.

SPEAKER_00

That's fine. Yeah. But you do have Instagram and people can send you questions there.

SPEAKER_04

Yes, absolutely. All right. Awesome.

SPEAKER_00

Well, thanks. Thank you very much. Bye. We'll see you next week. Goodbye. Bye.