Sometimes he goes in my box and takes stuff and I'm like excuse me it says love he takes stuff on my mouth Oh my god that do you have written on your box Hello there podcast fans welcome back to Positive Split with myself Sam, Becky and Dan. Hopefully the sound quality is sounding amazing because I am using my new big muff and Becky and Dan also have their own separate muffs that they're using as well.

SPEAKER_02 0:41

I feel like you just waited to how quickly into the podcast can you say big muff?

SPEAKER_03 0:45

Count how I reckon I'm gonna hit at least 30 mentions of my new muff. So scrap in everyone.

SPEAKER_05 0:51

That's three already.

SPEAKER_02 0:52

Yeah, three, three muff mentions, three MMs.

SPEAKER_03 0:55

The muffin man is here everywhere. Um, so thank you so much. We've had loads of questions. We've had one of Dan's reels that he posted of me just talking general rubbish about trail running, got like is on like 60,000 views. So uh yeah, the name is getting out there, which is very exciting. And we have got a great episode today. We've got lots and lots of things to talk about. And Dan, Becky, and I have been sitting in silence whilst Dan sets up so we don't spoil any of the surprises of our week. It has ruined all of our friendships because we no longer speak whatsoever unless we're being recorded and we are gaining in some way on the internet from it.

SPEAKER_02 1:32

Yeah, well, yeah, we've now made uh made a transaction out of our friendship, and this is the only time we'll talk to each other if it means we can get podcast downloads.

SPEAKER_05 1:40

Although we we probably talk to each other.

SPEAKER_02 1:42

We probably occasionally occasionally silence a week.

SPEAKER_05 1:48

Just this one hour a week.

SPEAKER_02 1:50

Earlier this week, you did say, Oh, I quite I enjoyed it when you were out of the house when I got home because it meant I got more time to myself, which is a genuine conversation that we had.

SPEAKER_03 1:59

Yeah, hey, that's part of a healthy relationship.

SPEAKER_05 2:02

Space, knowing when to get that fuck away from each other, been at home more often, and it is it it's an adjustment.

SPEAKER_02 2:09

It is an adjustment, yes. Well, I mean, we can I can I can segue off of that. Is I don't really have many training updates for for you this week, but I have a big life update. Yes, I jacked in my full-time job and because this podcast is doing so well, we that has quit everything. We hit we hit 750 downloads, and I went, right, that's it. I'm done, I'm done, I'm finished. So we're we're officially famous.

SPEAKER_03 2:34

But that's really exciting. How do you how what are your feelings about that? Because I watched your video about it and I I was very entertained by it.

SPEAKER_02 2:40

Well, I'm glad.

SPEAKER_00 2:41

I'm glad my terror entertains you in a positive way.

SPEAKER_03 2:46

It was it was moving, yeah. It was. I was like, yeah, I was really invested in it, it made me feel very hopeful for you.

SPEAKER_02 2:51

Yeah, yeah. I mean, well, yeah, I mean, I won't re-redo the whole video that I put up, uh put up on the internet, but essentially um I've been coaching runners part-time, around a day job for what the last four or five years. Um, and I finally hit breaking point and went, actually, I need to be doing this full time. Um, so I have quit my job in investment banking. I'm no longer getting the train up to the city every day and feeling miserable with my life choices and feeling like a replaceable cog in a machine. Yeah. Um, and now I'm committing all of that time to coaching runners instead. Um, so now I just need to get a load of runners to coach.

SPEAKER_03 3:31

We need people.

SPEAKER_02 3:33

Um, but uh yeah, I mean it's it's a big change, a big adjustment that uh Becky now sees a lot more of me around the house. Yay, and I've redecorated three bedrooms in three rooms in the in the house already. So like Becky, guess what?

SPEAKER_03 3:47

I no longer earn money and I'm gonna be around all the time. How do we feel about that? Yes, perfect.

SPEAKER_05 3:53

I'm very happy about it.

SPEAKER_02 3:55

Essentially the deal we made. But on the plus side, I'm a lot happier.

SPEAKER_05 3:59

So your happiness is the main thing.

SPEAKER_02 4:02

Happy Dan, happy Becky. Yeah, exactly. Um, but yeah, so now it's a case of just trying to get out of there as much as possible and just building up that uh that that business and trying to help as many runners as possible is kind of just the one thing that I've started with. Um, and everything else will fall into place off the back of that.

SPEAKER_03 4:23

Well, I think you've given yourself a pretty damn good base to go with, you know, with all the stuff you've done on Instagram and your YouTube, like it is just growing and growing. So I think it's you're the one-stop shop, you know, for coaching advice and things like that. So, but I say it's just converting those people into watching a reel, into oh, I'd like to do it. But what's good about online coaching is like you can be anywhere in the world, literally anywhere in the world, and they have access to you. So that's the beauty of the internet.

SPEAKER_02 4:47

Yeah, exactly. And it's it's a great, it's a great platform to be able to do it. But ultimately, like the goal is like help as many people as possible, whether that's the podcast or YouTube videos or Instagram videos, whatever. And then if even the tiniest fraction of people want to work with me full-time, one-to-one, then perfect, everybody everybody wins. But yeah, um, I think uh it's just figuring out how all of that works.

SPEAKER_03 5:10

Yeah, well, fair play, that is a that is a big jump. And what really resonated me in your video was the you know, the uh the leaving the investment banking and all the security and the safety and the money and all that stuff, because the feeling of teaching someone something and having that click, and like I'm a teacher, I work in schools, and you know, I could have pursued lots of different jobs and stuff like that. And obviously, being a teacher, you don't earn ridiculous amounts of money compared to other professions, but that is like exactly I love my job, and I think you're that's exactly the same thing of like teaching people stuff and sort of every day you don't know what you're gonna get, and it's that constant progression of helping people, so yeah, it's it's the agency, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 5:51

It's it's like helping someone understand something that they didn't before, it's seeing seeing things fall into place and then the understanding come and then seeing that improvement and knowing that you've helped to play a part in that, I think is just such a such a massive thing.

SPEAKER_03 6:05

Yeah, that's amazing, that's very, very exciting. So, yeah, do give Dan a shout, check him out. I'm sure probably everyone watching this is probably following you on Instagram already. So, but if not give him a follow.

SPEAKER_02 6:16

Yeah, who knows? But uh yes, shameless plug alert. If you need coaching or running plans or nutrition plans um or strength work, Becky cannot be there. Um, but anything like that, I'm your man.

SPEAKER_03 6:27

But you also said there's like a free consultation call and stuff like that, isn't there? Like a first little thing in your video.

SPEAKER_02 6:34

I tell you what, if uh if if someone's still listening at this point, positive split special, free coaching for life. I'm just gonna turn my microphone off. Yeah, it will be me coaching you, so good luck. Yeah, it'll be Sam. Um, yeah, if if you if you're still listening at this point, um I'll stick a link in the show notes for the podcast. And if you do want a half an hour video call just to chat about your own running, then it was completely free and no obligation, no nothing. So go on there, click on the link, and we can have a chat personally.

SPEAKER_03 7:04

Or just send a question each week and just slowly but surely get it answered for the podcast.

SPEAKER_02 7:10

Or just get your coaching done just asynchronously asynchronously through the podcast. That also works.

SPEAKER_03 7:14

Either way, I'm happy with it. Or start a podcast with Dan and ask him on the podcast for free as well. It was this your game the whole time. My long game. Three strength coaching and running. This is years in the making. Right day one.

SPEAKER_02 7:28

But um, yeah, I'll stop boring you with my updates. Um, my running has actually been quite boring this week.

SPEAKER_03 7:33

So I'd well you've had a lot well, you've been decorating, so you're decorating updates, please.

SPEAKER_02 7:37

I realised the other day, I was like, why is my wrist really sore? And I realised it's because I've redecorated three rooms in the house.

SPEAKER_05 7:46

That's nine mentions of the muff so far.

SPEAKER_02 7:48

That's yeah. Is anyone is anyone keeping a muff count? Muff tacular. Um but yeah, so other than having a a a sore wrist because of decorating rooms in the why are you laughing now?

SPEAKER_00 8:02

So rude.

SPEAKER_02 8:04

I'm just I've been decorating and I haven't been running as much, but I've got a good 25k in and had a good temp, a good tempo session, so I'm happy. And I did a load of running at hockey last night. So nice.

SPEAKER_05 8:17

And you you did one of my uh PT sessions? Yes, jumped into one of my sessions.

SPEAKER_02 8:22

Yep, I did a strength session. We did some big heavy deadlifts. I lifted a heavy thing. Nice to put it in Becky's words, heavy heavy thing update. I I did a heavy lift, yes.

SPEAKER_05 8:31

Yep, yep.

SPEAKER_02 8:32

But um, but no, other than that, not uh not too much boring basics, I would say.

SPEAKER_05 8:36

Yeah, Becky same, same really. I did a tempo slash interval run on the treadmill on Wednesday. That was what just over that was like nearly 9k. Um I was in a competition with the woman on the treadmill next to me. She kept well no, she started it and she was like bumping her treadmill up faster than me. I was like, nah, this isn't happening. So I was like, I was holding it longer and she could only manage 30 seconds. I was like, I'm not having this.

SPEAKER_02 9:06

Um I got the story when Becky came home. She was like, some woman got on the treadmill next to me and put her speed 0.1 faster than me. Becky, was it a mirror?

SPEAKER_05 9:15

No, it wasn't. Also, like if this is you, fine, but she's running with her hair down. I just don't get people that can run with their hair down. Just gets in the way.

SPEAKER_03 9:27

I mean, I ran with a hat because I hate even my hair getting hair. Yeah, I I don't I never let my hair down.

SPEAKER_05 9:32

But each their own. And then I've been just doing some strength stuff. I did. Uh I did a heavy thing as well.

SPEAKER_02 9:40

You did a heavy thing.

SPEAKER_05 9:41

Did a heavy thing, a few heavy things.

SPEAKER_02 9:43

Um, but yeah, nothing to If we keep talking, we can bury the lead of Sam's. We don't have to talk about Sam's race. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 9:50

Oh yeah. Nothing to what um what's your favourite heavy thing? A dead a deadlift.

SPEAKER_03 9:55

Deadlift. Yeah, deadlift.

SPEAKER_05 9:58

Deadlift or an overhead press, so like a push press with a barbell or a military press with a barbell or something like that. What anything shouldery.

SPEAKER_03 10:06

What's the difference between this is probably coaches corner a bit, but what's the difference between a sumo deadlift and a normal deadlift? Wider legs.

SPEAKER_05 10:12

Yeah, so sumo, you're gonna obviously have a slightly wider stance. So if you think about the range of motion with a sumo compared to a conventional, when you're in a sumo, the bars aren't gonna come up your legs quite as high. So your range of motion has decreased. So some people arguably might say it feels easier, but it also you're gonna get a bit more stimulus going through your adductors, like inner thigh. Okay, a little bit more. Um, so yeah, they're pretty much the only differences, really. But the movement itself is still still pretty much the same. I feel like I can't push through my feet quite as much, so I don't feel like I can go as heavy with a sumo, but other people find it easier, because yeah, because you're yeah, if you feel especially if you're someone tall, like you can definitely notice the difference about high, how hard, how hard, how high the bar comes up on your body, on your legs, compared to uh normal conventional.

SPEAKER_03 11:07

And what about a trap bar?

SPEAKER_05 11:09

So trap bar is a bit more like a hybrid y lift, because I can lift way, I can lift like 30 feet. Yeah, if you think with a trap bar, you'll drop on your hips a little bit more and you're getting a lot of quad as well. And you'll if you think about your knees travel forward more, so it's definitely you're still gonna be getting a lot of posterior, but I would say you've got more quad engaged there as well.

SPEAKER_03 11:31

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 11:32

Um, it's less hingy and less backy. So a lot of people that will not necessarily, it's not inferior to the other deadlift, but a lot of people that trap bar might be beginners, they might be, they might have back issues. One of the coaches at the gym, she's just getting back into deadlifting and she's back on a trap bar first because it's just less pressure through the spine as well.

SPEAKER_02 11:54

Yeah, and just for anyone who's sat there wondering what the hell is a trap bar, that's the hexagonal shaped one.

SPEAKER_05 12:02

Yeah, some people call it a hex bar, trap bar. So yeah, and also the if you think where like the weight is distributed, it's through like the centre of your body, whereas if with a uh not in front not in front, it's round like as opposed to a straight bar, the weight is further forward, so it puts more through the leg and also through the back, sorry. And also with a uh hex bar, the handles are higher.

SPEAKER_03 12:27

So compared to a a bar which you'll go which you're having to get down lower for, whereas yeah, with a hex bar the handles are a bit higher again, so and something you do when I when you were PTing me that I've I've never seen anyone else do because I think everyone else is missing a trick, is you gave me some plates to make it slightly higher because I'm obviously very long. Well, short body long legs.

SPEAKER_05 12:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:51

And no one else really does that. But I think that is like a it's almost like a pride thing, maybe, of like not doing the property, but this is what is best for me to lift and you know do the best.

SPEAKER_05 13:01

You've got to look at look at the person and make the um make the person no, wait. I always get this the wrong way around. You want to make the exercise fit the person, not the person fit the exercise. So yeah, I've got quite a few tall, um, tall clients, and just the way their limbs are, I get them on blocks, and it's absolutely perfectly fine.

SPEAKER_03 13:21

Yeah, yeah, it helps me massively.

SPEAKER_02 13:23

Right, Sam, we've we've buried the lead, we've buried the lead long enough. How did it go?

SPEAKER_03 13:29

I fucked around and I found out. Oh no, it was amazing. So yeah, it was really, really good. I've not the bit of background is I have not done a proper like 5k and definitely 10k effort since February 2025. So that's a lot. I've only ever done two 10k races. So whether it was literally my second 10k I've ever done. Because I just never you do marathons or you do half marathons, and a 10k is like I don't know, just not so much.

SPEAKER_05 13:56

That's kind of a little bit, it gets put by the wayside a bit, doesn't it? I think people either like to go short as in a 5k and fast, or more endure like endurance is very popular now. But yeah, what happened to the 10k?

SPEAKER_03 14:08

And I won't hear any anyone say differently, 10k is the hardest distance. I think shorter stuff, like you know, like 800, 1500, I think they're also, but in the normal hobby jogger, 5, 10, yeah, the normal distances. I think 10k is the hardest one because just doing a 5k. Yeah, it's just a double 5k, it's not uh I run it slightly easier, and I think it's a yeah, longer 5k, and you're having to put almost the same effort. You're setting out a a designated different type of effort, yeah. Whereas a 10k is pretty much just hanging on for dear life, still trying to bomb it.

SPEAKER_02 14:46

Are you saying that you set off for your 10k at your 5k pace?

SPEAKER_03 14:50

Well, this is the problem. I didn't know what any of the paces I had were. I'd done one faster run where I ran like a 2230 5k in it or 2130, and then I ran the 10k in like 43 something minutes, but it was up and down, I didn't run the first couple of kilometres fast, it was easy, so I didn't really have any idea. I then asked AI if anyone listened to the podcast last week, and um it was like, yeah, I think you'll be fine. So I was like, of course, but I could have said I would have run a world record and been like, Yeah, I believe in you, you can do it. So I lined up and I thought sub 42, happy days, sub 41, very happy, sub 40 would be amazing. But there's only one way to find out what I could do because had I set off at 420 pace, that would have felt like that was my maximum pace, and that would have felt like that was everything I could give. So I was like, I'll just set off with a sub-40 pacer, and it was really, really windy. And my half marathon PB was in mega wind at Brighton that time in like 2024. Oh, and my skills of being a cyclist and hiding from the wind didn't actually completely negate that wind thing of just hiding in the pack. So I was like, right, I'll get behind the pacer and I'll just crack on behind him. So we set off and we were hitting 334 pace. I didn't know that at the time, I only saw that when I made my video afterwards. Um, I was wearing my Fast R3s as well, and they are just unbelievable how good those shoes are. But I'm gonna talk about them in a bit. They keep releasing them in banging colours, and every time I'm my black ones, I was in, I'm not gonna lie, I look like a million dollars. I look like I was gonna break the one record, not run a mediocre.

SPEAKER_02 16:25

Are these are these the Aston Martin ones?

SPEAKER_03 16:28

Lance Stroll, Fernando Alonso specials, which I mean it's probably not the best uh sporting team to align yourself with at the moment. Not right now.

SPEAKER_02 16:37

No, you're probably the fastest person at Aston Martin wearing those shoes.

SPEAKER_03 16:40

Yeah, I reckon I could run around Monaco quicker than last job did. Um so we set off and felt really good. I didn't have pace on my watch, I literally just had uh time and distance, I think. Smart. But I just wasn't looking at it either. So we set off into the wind because it goes, it went out west and it was a southwesterly wind, so it was into our faces at the start. Um, and just sat behind the pacer, and there was a big group of people because obviously everyone had the same idea. And Worthing's a pretty big race. Um so running in that pack dynamic is so is like nothing you do in running normally, like in cycling, it's just what you do, you're always surrounded by people, especially if you race. But running, you're always sort of on your own, even like park run, you're never really next to someone the whole way unless you're in like a pace groove. And so it was just a constant washing machine of if you weren't moving forward, you're moving backwards, so it's just yeah, which was good for keeping my brain busy of like I'm getting on, I'm trying to work out what to do. But I just started because I wasn't fully committed to I'm definitely gonna run a 40-minute 10k here. I was like half going for gaps and stuff like that because I was very much, I'm pretty sure I'm not gonna make this, so I just slowly got further and further back. But because the pack was so big, I just stayed with them. Um got to like 3k, 4k, we were doing like 358s, 357s. Yeah, um, felt good, felt fine. Um, again, had it been of I I could have run my 5k PB for sure. It got to 4k, and I started my brain started going, hmm, how far? Yeah, and that's the nomad. If I was within, if I was at 6k at that point or even 7k, I'd have been like, I can hang on to this. But I knew I know what my body feels like, I've been at that limit, and I know the time left I have.

SPEAKER_05 18:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:33

And my heart rate, again, looking back, was at like 181, 182. My threshold was like 176. Yeah. So it was just, and I said in my video that when you're running easy, the difference between like a 135 and a 137 heart rate doesn't matter whatsoever. But 176, 178, I absolutely that every BPM is huge. And uh I just I didn't have to see the numbers to know that I was I was like, okay, so at 4k, I knew I was like, right, I'm not gonna make this, but I don't want to just completely blow up and then slow down. So I stayed with him. We turned at the four and a half K mark to do an up and back quickly, and at exactly 5k, there was a 180-degree turn, and I went round that turn, hit 5k in 2002. Wow, and just through my turning, I lost about 25 feet to the pacer, and at that point I was like, There's no way I'm gonna make this up. So I just again I didn't know what my pace was, so I just I felt I was doing the same effort and the same pace the whole way, it's just that the numbers slowly got slower. So 6k was like 405, and again, looking back, I thought that was gonna be like a 420, and I was like, Oh my god, I didn't realise I hadn't actually slowed much. The pacer I found out literally today, the pacer ran like a 3920 and was waiting for people. Oh so in the second half, I think he sped up quite a lot because I lost sight of him by 7k and I ran a 405-6 and I ran a 407th, so I was only like 12-13 seconds off the pace, but he had put like 30, 40 seconds into me. So I was like, that's fine. There was plenty of people that were sort of dropping off and around me, but that sort of sixth, seventh kilometre of a 10k that is because you're still not near the end, you're not near the end to hang on, it's not at the start, like with a 5k, you can blow up at 3 and you're like, I've got 2k to go. Like it's fine, but I was I was very proud of myself. I just stuck in there, kept going. Uh, my eighth and ninth K were like 412, 417, so I was slowing up, but then my fifth K was like 404, finished really fast, um, and came in with 40, 52.

SPEAKER_05 20:44

Yeah, it's amazing.

SPEAKER_03 20:45

And I'm like, I'm buzzing with that. Had beforehand, had I been like, you're gonna basically run your 5k PB for 5k, and then you just gotta hang on, I wouldn't have thought I'd been able to hang on that well. So I learned quite a lot about myself of like digging in. And you weren't looking at your pace or anything, so it was just I was just purely just running at 9 out of 10, yeah, and then it got to 10 out of 10 at about 6k, and then I I and on my heart rate, it went back down to like 176, 177 for those last 2k, and then I picked it back up for the last bit. Yeah, but it was really good event, really busy, really good route, loads of people there. Um, but yeah, I finished it thinking I've got to do that again next week, and I've got to do it again in two more weeks. Like it it's I do fear the distance, way more than a five or two.

SPEAKER_05 21:31

It's hard, really hard.

SPEAKER_02 21:33

Yeah, I mean, I are you planning on going all out for the other races as well, like trying to beat that time or yeah, I think so.

SPEAKER_03 21:40

I've got uh my calves are quite because again, the fast R3s are the calf killers, they're even so some athletes are suing Puma. Yeah, three is really ruining their calves, yeah, and me, Mr. Angry Calf and Achilles anyway, running a flat out 10k in them.

SPEAKER_02 21:57

Yeah, I think I think it's three athletes now are. Are suing Huma for irreparable damage to their um to them from the way that the shoes are built and the stresses they're putting on their personality.

SPEAKER_03 22:08

I mean they are they are like they're insane, they're so good, but it's uh I I'm not gonna wear them for the next one. I'm gonna I'm gonna keep them as a real special special treat because I ran in them a few days afterwards and I've got a story about that. But yeah, I think Eastbourne, what I'm gonna do, I'm not gonna go out at I'm gonna try and run a 40-30. So I'm gonna try and run a negative split, start easier and then build it up and finish because obviously that's not how you want to run a I didn't get my best 10k time of that day running in that way, but I just hit with the pacer and stuff like that. So yeah, I'm gonna change my tactics slightly.

SPEAKER_05 22:43

So yeah, it's good to try different tactics, like you say, see how you go.

SPEAKER_02 22:47

So what was what was the difference, if you can remember it, between your fastest kilometre and your slowest kilometer?

SPEAKER_03 22:52

Uh I think I did a 357 or 358, and then like a four, I think it was like a four sixteen, maybe a four seventeen.

SPEAKER_02 23:01

Okay, so about 20 seconds or so between fastest and slowest. That's still pretty pretty good.

SPEAKER_03 23:06

Yeah, because I I thought I was running way, way slower. And like again, because they disappeared so much. Um, but it was good. I I I finished, I didn't realise with the guy. Have you heard of Save Our Souls? You know, the tape, and they they do like the shoe, they dry your shoes and stuff. It happened to be the guy that owns that. So it's another product I can do. We raced each other, and then I saw and he added me on Instagram because he obviously saw my video and I messaged him, but oh, it's you, that's cool. Because I've been sent some stuff from them. So he's a really nice guy. So he's sending me a shoe dryer, which is nice. So yeah, but yeah, it was the a killer way to run to 10k. That is like the hardest thing to do.

SPEAKER_02 23:45

I mean, if I can make a suggestion for one of the upcoming races, maybe for when you change your tactics for the for one of them, instead of going out at a nine out of ten, maybe try and go out at an eight out of ten and just easing it off very slightly, and then see if that means that you can run more uniform splits, yeah, and then kind of compare and contrast the two races of like how they felt and what one actually experiment.

SPEAKER_03 24:11

Yeah. Because my when I did Chichester, which was my PB, I ran a negative split and I ran my fastest ever kilometer I've ever run at any time in the last kilometre of that race.

SPEAKER_05 24:21

How fast was that?

SPEAKER_03 24:22

343. I've never tried to run just a kilometer on its own, so it's just always in 5K's and stuff like that. But that was like I stayed with the pacer the whole time, and then the last 3k I just slowly built it up. And so that's what I want to be able to do. Go off, let the pacer go to begin with, and then almost try and catch them up. But I've definitely got some, yeah, I felt really good. It was so good to race it fast again. I've literally 33 weeks of just plodding around. Plodding, yeah. So it was cool, it was exciting. Yeah, I wouldn't I need to get booked in for a race. I feel like I haven't raced in ages. Feeling good with 10k? That's in like four weeks.

SPEAKER_02 24:56

Interesting.

SPEAKER_05 24:56

Uh no, I'm okay. Thank you. I'm okay, thank you.

SPEAKER_03 25:00

It's just gone very quiet. I'm okay, actually. The rule is if you don't race in the next two months, you get kicked off the pot. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 25:08

I'm here for the all the runners that are not doing very well.

SPEAKER_03 25:12

You're covering all the bases.

SPEAKER_02 25:13

You're here for representation.

SPEAKER_05 25:14

Yeah. For the ladies.

SPEAKER_02 25:19

That sounded so weird.

SPEAKER_05 25:22

I was gonna say sorry else, and then I just said that, and I just really cringed, really.

SPEAKER_02 25:28

Oh come on, you've got to say it now. You can't. I'm leaving all of this in, by the way.

SPEAKER_05 25:32

No, none of this is being edited.

SPEAKER_02 25:34

This is what the people want.

SPEAKER_05 25:35

Anyway, let's go on to Coach's corner, everyone.

SPEAKER_02 25:38

Oh, well, I've got a little bit of news beforehand. We're in the news corner first.

SPEAKER_04 25:43

Oh, news.

SPEAKER_02 25:43

Um, so only a quick one. I should really dig into that story about the athletes suing Puma. Maybe we'll save that for for next week. Yeah. Um, but I just wanted to briefly mention and get your thoughts on uh there being another world wave world wager, another world major marathon um being added. So Cape Town is the eighth major as of 2027. I think it's taken them a few years to apply, hit all of the criteria.

SPEAKER_03 26:10

And it got cancelled last year, didn't it? On like the morning of.

SPEAKER_05 26:12

Yeah. Was that the weather or something?

SPEAKER_02 26:14

Because of the weather, they had to stop it. But it kind of got me thinking, like, what do you think that does for the the majors themselves?

SPEAKER_05 26:21

Like, do you think that that I think it makes them less special?

SPEAKER_02 26:24

You do. I was gonna say, do you think that that dilutes the value of major, world major marathons or not? Because I think there's one of the things I do like about it is it's Africa's first major, and so I think that is important. Yeah, that's right. Um, making sure that there is kind of a more like a wider spread uh geographically of world weight world wager. There's just world wagers now, apparently. World major marathons. Um however, the fact that we've had Sydney so recently as the seventh, now we've got Cape Town being the eighth, and there's already plans to add a ninth for a nine-star medal as well, it does make me worry slightly that uh it's becoming a little bit too commercialised for my for my tastes.

SPEAKER_03 27:05

And it certainly is only opening itself up to the haves rather than the have nots. But then I guess it, you know, you don't no one's making your own nine things. Yeah, that and that's that's I think I guess that's the argument.

SPEAKER_05 27:18

But yeah, it's it's like unless you're elite, sub-elite, or an influencer, it's almost impossible to get all nine, surely. Because also the cost of travelling without paying through the nose for it. Yeah, people can't afford to. I mean, we've said this, um we said this last week or week before, but the amount we spent just getting over to Boston, which was absolutely an absolutely amazing experience, wouldn't take it back.

SPEAKER_03 27:40

But doing it eight more times.

SPEAKER_02 27:42

Yeah, like obviously, lucky London, we're close to London, but yeah, doing that for all the other marathons as well, like people can't afford it, as I said, unless they are and I and I think that ties in with the fact that one of the ways to get into most of them is to pay for one of the very, very expensive um like the sports tours, yeah, which gets you a ticket. And and you see that you see sort of stories of some people. I think it was earlier this year, um, the youngest ever person to complete the the six-star medal. Um, and then when you sort of you do a bit of digging and you think, well, yeah, I mean, not not all of us have 30,000 pounds or whatever it was to be able to pay for all of the tours and all of the travel and all of the hotels to be able to go and do them. And I don't know, for me it's it's hard figuring out that line between not wanting to appear like your gatekeeping, like, oh well, only the fast runners can run the big marathons, but then also kind of the fact that we are going towards a much more commercialised route with with the marathons, and it is becoming a bit more a case of the the haves versus the have nots.

SPEAKER_03 28:47

For me, I'm so uninterested in the whole thing. Like I like and I'm for people that want to do it, great. I literally don't like good for you, but I couldn't care less about running all the different places, and like like calling it a major, I'm like, when you look at like cycling, you have like the classics, which are like they're called the monuments, and they're like set in stone quite literally because they're over cobbles a lot of them and stuff like that, and they're like hundreds of years old, and they're like, There's no way anyone else is getting in. This is it, this is what they are. You can have other races, and you they can have their own prestige and history and stuff like that, but we're sticking with it. It's a bit like with Gulf with like the Masters and the US Open and stuff like that. It's like you have other stuff as well, and it's kind of like if you just keep going, oh yeah, we'll have another one, we'll have another one, then like you say, it just sort of dilutes the specialness of I ran a major, but then I'm like, but on individually on their own, it's like I just ran a marathon in a big city, and so it was like people collecting it and stuff like that. I'm like, yes, cool, cool for you. But for me, I'm like, I literally do not care.

SPEAKER_02 29:49

Yeah, and I think I I went from kind of being really into the idea of of trying to get six stars and really setting it as a target to just over time that that's kind of just like waned for me, and now I'm I'm quite apathetic to the whole thing because there are so many other marathons and events, half marathons, like all of these ones around the world that are like absolutely beautiful races, which I think more people should do. But people are so focused on doing the the the world majors and kind of yeah attributing that prestige to it, whereas I think actually there's there's so many other races that I would rather do at this point.

SPEAKER_03 30:24

Yeah, and it's like again with like UTMB and like all the collecting of the stones and the commercialization of all that stuff, it's like you can easily get swept away into being like, oh, it's also rubbish, but then like for every one of those, there are 10,000 other races that you can do during the year that are not like that whatsoever, and they're not shouting about it. And you so for the people that want to do UTMB and go and do that, that's fine, and you can shout at the cloud and be angry about that, or you can just go and do the Swiss Alps 100, or you know, there's so many other, you know, more things like that. So it's like you know, each their own.

SPEAKER_05 30:57

But for me, I suppose a lot of people do the majors like just for bragging rights. It's like, do they genuinely really want to do it, or is it like uh is it a good YouTube video or Instagram story?

SPEAKER_02 31:08

Yeah, if you didn't have Instagram, would you do the majors? That was yeah, that that's the question that's the question that I always ask people. If you didn't have social media or whatever, if you couldn't post any of your training and if you couldn't post your medal, would you still go and do it?

SPEAKER_03 31:20

I do quite like the the one that is like over seven continents, over seven days. Have you seen that? And they fly, you do like one, you start in Antarctica, oh gosh, and you go and run that and then you fly out. It's like insane money, because obviously it's like a private chartered flight, but you get like you know, you're like a pro athlete, basically, they treat you, and you go and do one all the different things. I think it's over is it every day? I think with travel and stuff like that, it might be a bit longer, but like that's quite a cool that that's like a life experience for me, that sort of thing. Um, yeah. I don't know, that sounds terrible. I don't know how to do it.

SPEAKER_02 31:53

Um I'm far too much of a coward for that. That sounds terrible. Marathon Antarctica. Yeah, I mean if I can run with the penguins, then I know wait, the penguins in Antarctica? Polar bears are north, penguins are south. Okay, cool, thank you. Thank you. Geography teacher. Yeah, um but yeah, that was uh that was all I had to bring to the table with uh with with the news.

SPEAKER_03 32:14

I've got I've got shoes news. Oh, shoes news. Oh, I feel bad because that's the running the podcast I didn't do running the red light and they go shoes news. I've got super trainer information to talk about.

SPEAKER_05 32:23

Oh, tell us, tell us.

SPEAKER_03 32:25

So I woke up on Wednesday morning at 5 15am, and I took all of my super shoes to the track.

SPEAKER_05 32:34

Yes, I saw this on the show.

SPEAKER_03 32:35

Alright, so my bag was worth about £1,500 that I was carrying through through the centre of cruelly, the recommended retail price. I got them from much cheaper if my wife is listening. Um, and I so I was doing my first Norwegian singles workout, which we'll talk about in a minute, and uh it was six by five minutes, and I had six pairs of shoes. So I was like, great, I'm just gonna line all my shoes up. So I warmed up in my Evo SLs around the track, and then I just ran in each one. So I had my Adidas uh Pro 4s, Alpha Fly 3s, my Puma Fast R3s, my leaning um Elite Sixes, um, my Metaspeed Rays ASICs and also the ASICs MetaSpeed Sky Paris ran one after the other to get a direct comparison, and it was it was mad how different they all were, like noticeably different. So, very quickly, add yours pro 4, banging. So good, super bouncy still, like that is still like a modern super shoot. Are you gonna are you gonna rank them all in order? I'll go in the order that I ran in them, okay, and then I'll rank them up.

SPEAKER_02 33:40

Yeah, go go through them and then give us like a from six to one. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 33:44

So the difference having warmed up in my Evo SLs, which everyone knows is a very quite sprightly, good foam. Everyone loves it, I love it. On a track.

SPEAKER_02 33:52

It's just an Adios Pro 3 or 4, um, but with the carbon plate dropped out, essentially.

SPEAKER_03 33:57

But when I put the Pro 4s on, it was like someone had turned a light switch on. It was insane how bouncy they were. I forgot because I again older shoe, Emperor's new clothes, uh, I've got new shoes. I stuck them on and I was like, these are incredible. I'm probably gonna wear them next week, they're that good. And you can get them for like 130 quid now. Oh wow, like which is still an insane amount of money, but compared to like the Fast R3s, which are 260 or something insane, so they're half the price, and I'm pretty sure I would run exactly the same time. They're not making me run more than three or four seconds faster overall. Um, so they were great. Then I put on the Alpha Fly 3s. I am caveat, I'm the biggest Alpha Fly fanboy. Alpha Fly 1, greatest shoe of all time. I love them. I love my Alpha Fly 3s, but back to back with the Adios Pro 4, they felt like breeze blocks. Didn't they?

SPEAKER_05 34:51

Really?

SPEAKER_03 34:51

Really, they feel really wide, lovely, but they just had and these are new ones as well. They're not like I've got really, really old ones. Well, they're your bright pink ones. My bright pink ones, they look great, barely any bounce really compared to the Pro 4. So it just they felt so dull, and I was working harder in them. Heart rate was the same, and I was running five seconds a K slower. Oh, interesting. Quite a big, yeah, quite a big amount.

SPEAKER_02 35:17

Um because they're the the rocker on them is is much less pronounced as well than the yeah.

SPEAKER_03 35:22

So you just I just felt compared to the Pro 4, I just felt like I was doing a lot more work. I I completely get for like a marathon and stuff like that, they're just really reliable, steady, they're gonna look after your legs a lot more in that way. So they've still got a place in my rotation for stuff. But if I was trying to run really fast, I'm not gonna go for them. I mean, again, the difference of like the actual times is probably not really much at all, it's just all how it feels. But how I run, especially when I'm running a bit faster, it's more on my toes and they just felt a bit flat.

SPEAKER_02 35:54

But I think that I would I would argue that the most important thing about why we have all these different shoes is it is not necessarily the the time difference because a lot of that is negligible. It's how you feel whilst running in them. And if you feel much like if if they do feel much heavier or like breeze blocks, yeah, that's gonna have a big impact on your running.

SPEAKER_03 36:12

I was shocked because I was that there is always gonna be some bias, and I was gonna be biased towards them for sure, and I was shocked how different they felt. And what didn't help them was after I did that, because I did a wheel of names and I pressed and it randomized it like Wheel of Fortune. So the next one that came up was a Fast R3, and that's the worst shoe to possibly run in after the Alpha Fly for the Alpha Fly. They were just insane, they were nuts. Um, the issue is towards the end of that, my right calf. Well, it's not really my calf, it's like this the side of it. Because I was running around the track and I was running in all different types of shoes. I think my calf was like, what the hell is going on here?

SPEAKER_05 36:52

It couldn't warm up to a it was yeah, it was really weird.

SPEAKER_03 36:55

And so I think I basically twinged one of the stabilizing something that stabilises it because I could still run on it and I can walk on my tiptoes and stuff, but I had a bit of a mini meltdown of like, right, that's it, I've done it, I've fucked it all. Classic sand bacon, I can run fast again, I've got all my bloody shoes out, and I'm running, I'm literally the epitome of what I do. Um sounds like you need to fire some paperwork against Puma. Well, exactly. So I I cut that one slightly short because I wasn't taking any risks, took them off, had a mini meltdown on the track at six in the morning, and then I felt I was like, okay, it's fine. So then I stuck on the leanings, and they are so good. I love them. I ran. Oh, reliables, yeah. They're like so they are like the Alpha Fly, but if the Alpha Fly was in version six, super like and what they've done, and what a lot of people are saying is like Adidas and Nike, why would they release the absolute best shoe possible and just completely tank all the other things? And I think that's what happened with like the Alpha Fly 1 and the like the original vapor flies and stuff like that. Their sales, like they're in it to sell shoes. So why would you make a shoe that's so good that stops everyone else buying all the other shoes?

SPEAKER_02 38:06

I mean, they certainly did that with the Alpha Fly 2.

SPEAKER_03 38:08

Well, exactly. And I and I and people are saying that they were like, yeah, Alpha Fly 2, let's make it crap because then other people will buy other shoes. They're not gonna stop buying Nike, they're just gonna buy other Nikes. Alpha Fly 2 might be the worst trainer I've ever run in.

SPEAKER_02 38:20

The worst, the worst blisters possible as well.

SPEAKER_03 38:23

Uh horrific. So, what I think the Chinese brands have done, the leaning, they've just gone, have everything and have it for quite cheap and see how you like it. They there's they're not holding any of their tech back, so it's got everything, it's very light, the rock is really nice, the upper's great, and they just felt really, really good. And the faster you run in that shoe, the faster it goes, it's just amazing. Um, then I ran in my MetaSpeed race, which felt like I was running on two pillows. Like I loved them. I ran Brighton Marathon in them, but back to back with those other super shoes, it felt like I was running on a marshmallow with no feedback whatsoever, and it's not got the full carbon plate, it's got like a teardrop at the front. Oh, okay. So I wasn't getting that. I was I just felt like I was running in almost quicksand. It still felt nice and they're really light, but it it was it was a bad day for the race and the Alpha Fries because comparing it to the other ones, I was like You're not getting the the springy response. It was really weird, really strange. Again, in a marathon, I think that might be quite a nice thing, especially later on. It certainly helped in Brighton when I did it. Um, and then I ran in the uh the sky paraces and I took 20 steps in them, and they were so awful I just ripped them off and put they were weird, they just they just felt really flat, foam wasn't great. I mean they're quite old shoes, but I haven't got loads of mileage on them, and I I've got my PB a few years ago in Brighton in a pair of them, but that they've things have moved on since like yeah.

SPEAKER_02 39:55

Alright, let's add Assex to the list of people who will not sponsor us in the future. The Razor!

SPEAKER_05 39:59

No, Superblast are my favourite.

SPEAKER_02 40:02

So six six to one. What was the worst one? It sounds I think we know what the worst one is.

SPEAKER_03 40:06

So Sky Paris was the worst one, then it was the Alpha Fly Three, then it was the Meta Speed Ray, then the top three, I would go. It depends. I would go leaning for everything. So therefore, point number one.

SPEAKER_02 40:28

I was gonna say for everything.

SPEAKER_03 40:29

The the fast R3 is good, but I'm not gonna lie, I am scared of it now. I am that is in my head of I if I make an effort. So I've after I twinged my leg, I then ran the other direction around the track and it was fine. So I think it is purely just uh you know a one-off weird little coincidence, but I don't I'm not sure when I'm gonna wear the thing.

SPEAKER_05 40:48

You don't want to be scared of a pair of shoes.

SPEAKER_03 40:50

No, no, so I don't know. I've gotta I've gotta work out how I'm gonna use them again.

SPEAKER_05 40:54

Maybe because you're running on the on a track, you're running on a bend.

SPEAKER_03 40:57

Yeah, so just the constant going around the corner.

SPEAKER_02 40:59

Yeah, um sounds like the the the leaning is like, yep, we'll we'll get you through it, and the fumer's just like you will get a PB or die trying.

SPEAKER_03 41:06

Yeah, so on a when I'm really confident my calves and everything are really if if you have any sort of doubt that there's a slight niggle or you're slightly tired, or anything like that, I'm not gonna go for those. I'm just gonna go for to be fair, for the 10k, because I've been whinging about my Achilles and stuff, they were amazing, and I felt great afterwards and it was good. I think I just maxed out my uh my allowance for what I can do in that shoe, and then two days later, 6am, running in them, going the same direction the whole time after other shoes. When you look back, it's probably not the best of ideas. Yeah, um, and then the Adios Pro 4, that was it really stood out. I'm like, I'm not going to don't panic anyone, but I would 100% buy another pair of those. Over I'd probably I'd buy another pair of the leanings if when they run out of juice, but out of all the other ones, I'd probably go for the Pro 4s again next. Because they were they were so good and they've got a lot of mileage on them, and I've abused them.

SPEAKER_05 42:01

I've run on gravel, mud, they are disgusting, and value for money if you said they're like 130 quid.

SPEAKER_03 42:06

And obviously, the the Alpha Fly 4 is coming out soon. I think the Pro 5 is coming out soon as well, so there'll be some bargains to be had for sure. But I am excited, I'm not really excited about the Alpha Fly 4 to be honest. I think they've maximised what they can do with that shoe of like where it's going. I think the Adios Pro 5, though, I think they've got some they'll have some good things up their sleeve for it as well.

SPEAKER_05 42:28

So, I'm gonna do a lot of shoes.

SPEAKER_02 42:30

I was just googling to see whether we could find when the uh Pro 5 is is coming out. Looks like it's September setting Adios Pro 5.

SPEAKER_05 42:39

Yeah, same as the new iPhone.

SPEAKER_02 42:41

Yes, would you like a pair of a pair of Adios Pro 5s or a new iPhone?

SPEAKER_05 42:44

Well, it's like a where is like the iPhone? Like they don't make the iPhone the best they possibly can every time. They always make it so that there's room for improvement for the next one.

SPEAKER_03 42:55

Hence why my phone has to be charged about three times a day now. Because I've got the iPhone, I've got like one of those mini ones. Because I oh yeah, like a giant phone when I'm running. But bless it, it is struggling.

SPEAKER_02 43:05

It looks like a also just to throw you off a a little bit. And sorry, this is terrible for the audio listeners, but look at this. Look how many cool colourways the Adios Pro 4. Oh yeah. The the lemon, the hyper lemon, whatever it's called, and the pink and the orange.

SPEAKER_05 43:19

Oh, I like the pink, they remind me of like Sex on the Beach cocktail.

SPEAKER_02 43:23

It does look like cocktail. There's uh 21 different colourways on Start Fitness, um, and most of them are about 135 quid. It's nuts, which is mental.

SPEAKER_03 43:34

So and when that shoe came out 18 months ago? Yeah, I 'cause I wore that for chitch to ten K. Yeah, which is about 14 months ago. Yeah, so it must have been around Christmas time. Ready, probably ready for the spring marathons last year. But so yeah, banging shoe. Wasn't expecting it to be that good, but that's gonna be I I would buy a pair, but I'm now unemployed.

SPEAKER_05 43:56

So once I no more new trainers for Dan.

SPEAKER_02 43:59

No, unless you get

SPEAKER_05 44:00

Get sell current ones that you want.

SPEAKER_03 44:02

Yeah, there is a pair of brand new Alpha Fly Threes. I'm surprised that shelf's staying up actually with the weight of those batteries. So I wore my leanings today, my last bit. I ran Parkrun today. Yes. I went to Tilgate. It was its 14th anniversary.

SPEAKER_05 44:16

Oh, was it?

SPEAKER_03 44:17

Yeah, 14th anniversary. Very busy. And yeah, I wore the leanings. And again, I was like, right, sensible me, because I was planning just to try and run a sub-20. And I was like, no, I'm not going to do that. So I started a bit further back because the way Tilgate is, because it's so narrow, you're just no matter what you want to do, you're just forced to run slower. So I started slow and I have got, let me show you this graph. Quite possibly one of the most beautiful graphs. Is this a some Meggy splits? Or a progression. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:45

Is there anything better than a satisfying graph? I love a Neggy split.

SPEAKER_03 44:49

Oh yeah. It is ramping up. So I did a 447, then a 442, then a 430, then a 414, then a 406, and then it ran long because they've got the dinosaurs in the last hundred metres I was at 324.

SPEAKER_05 45:03

Oh and for those that have never done tillgate or don't know, there are some two savage hills in there.

SPEAKER_03 45:10

So to keep consistent in that, because normally the second K is a lot slower because it's got one of the big hills in it. So it's really nice. Um, yeah, the leanings were just when you pick up in them, they are just so good. And you can get them for super cheap. I paid a lot of money because I wanted them for London, but you can. The Chinese thing is gonna be a big thing.

SPEAKER_02 45:28

But aside from Chinese shoes, one of the reasons why you ran so quickly is because of your Norwegian singles training. Oh, there we go.

SPEAKER_03 45:34

Yeah, that I've not actually done. Excellent. You're not supposed to say that. I just talk about it a lot. Oh, okay. No, I am doing it, and I have been yeah, I've been dabbling in it for a long time.

SPEAKER_05 45:45

So give a brief overview for those that don't know what it is, because uh this is our this is our coach's corner, by the way.

SPEAKER_02 45:51

We were we were talking about Norwegian singles before, but I think it would benefit everyone just to understand a little bit more, Sam, about what that training like actually means out of day to day, like why it works for you and kind of what types of runners uh you think would benefit from it. I think just understanding a little bit more about the system rather than just I think a lot of people hear Norwegian training and they just think of the Inge Britson brothers running and then stopping and stabbing their finger to get cheeky lactate threshold tests, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 46:22

Yeah, so I'll caveat this with if you want to know loads more, there's a really good uh thread on Let's Run. Have you ever been on Let's Run? Very occasionally quite an interesting website. There's a there's a whole thread about YouTubers and Instagrammers where it's it's the most toxic, awful thing in the entire world.

SPEAKER_02 46:41

God, I hope I'm not mentioned on it.

SPEAKER_03 46:42

But it just it just cracks you up. It's just funny because the people are just absolutely insane with the internet. Um, but there's a really good let's run thread, there's a really good Strava group, and there is also some amazing content done by Andy Rayner, who is Fodrunner, on on YouTube and Instagram and stuff like that. So he's a bit of an oracle now, and he's got a podcast called the FODRunner Podcast, it should be called Fodcast. I mean, it's just it's an open girl, Andy. Come on. Yeah, you've missed a track. But he is a Spurs fan, so he's used to missing open girls. Um so it's basically you're just running the same way, and it's about instead of blocks, you run what's called sub threshold. So you in an ideal world, you have a lactate threshold test and those sorts of things, but you can work it out from your 10k race or a 5k race or any sort of distance you've done where you've done an all-out effort, and it you're basically running below your threshold, hence sub threshold. And so you're never going that deep into the well, and you're just doing the same workout over and over again, different formats of it. In you might do six by five minutes for 30 minutes work, you might do um three by ten, you might do 10 by 3, so you mix it up in that way. And uh James Copeland, who's the guy who has sort of invented it, who's called Sir Pock on the internet. Um, he came to prominence because in London last year he ran like a 220-something, and it was like a big sensation of he was like a 19-minute 5k runner, he's done all this, and now he's like a 1503 5k runner. Oh my god, and all he's done is these workouts, and so he's done a book, there's a really good book on it that I've got, and what's the book? The book is called Norwegian Singles Method. Oh direct. That's almost as original as my YouTube name of Dan Coach's running. Sometimes you just want people to know what it is. You just need Route One. Um, so he has a background, he's a very, very strong time trialist, and he did lots of sweet spot training, and sweet spot training is in cycling, is basically working below your FTP, which is your power you can hold for an hour. So when I was cycling in my best sort of time, I had an FTP of around 310, and so I would do sweet spot training where I would ride about 240, 250 watts. So you're getting a really good workout, but it's not too hard that you then can't recover and work the next day, and it's not so easy that you're then not getting much benefit, and so you're basically raising. I keep saying basically, I do apologise. You're basically muff. We hadn't had a muff for a while. Yeah, we got it. You you're raising your fitness from the bottom up rather than pulling from the top up, right? Because pulling from the top up, for me personally, doing hard intervals, VO2 max, I just injure myself, the age I am, how my personality works, all those different things come together where I just can't sustainably train. And ever since I've been running, I've never, I'd never run for like longer than a block without getting some sort of injury, and I was just sick of it. And I got wind of this. I've I'm in a WhatsApp group with Andy and he was talking about it, and I alarm bells went off, and I was like, this is the thing for me. It's got my name on it, yeah. Yeah, so it suits you know me perfectly. It's you do three workouts a week. You're meant to run seven times a week. So James Copeland, he's like a I think he's a plasterer, so he's got a very hands-on job, and he runs an hour a day, is all he aims for. So it's nothing crazy and but seven days a week, though. Seven days a week, so it's just constant. So for me, I've adapted it in that I'm at the moment doing two days a week cross-training and then five days a week running, and sometimes I'm just having a day off because of logistics and work and family and all that sort of stuff. Um, so yeah, I just do I put it into my spreadsheet. I just work out all my um sub threshold days and split it up. Some people do like 45 minutes, I'm just starting with 30 minutes. So, like the other day, I just did six by five, and I finished it, and I was like, that didn't even feel like a workout. To be fair, because it was one of my first ones back, I did run slightly slower. My so my sub threshold works out at around depending on how long you do the interval for. So a 10-minute interval, you do slightly slower than like a three-minute interval. So I was doing five-minute intervals, I was meant to be doing like 425, 430, and I did like 435 to 450, especially after my leg went a little bit. So I was gonna run it in. And you're a fast 10k. Yeah, you do. So you're still getting real benefit, but it doesn't feel and runners, I think, are so used to finishing a session. Oh my god, I'm on the floor, I'm nearly puking, so much fitness has just entered my body, and then you have a day off, and then you go to run again, and you can't quite match it, and you just put yourself into a bit of a hole, then you taper, you get poorly. Whereas this is literally you barely even taper. So, like Andy just ran, I think 220 something for London, and he had like a 10-day taper, and he was running like 120k weeks at some point, and so it just you're just ticking over, just constantly building, building, building, building, and so I've over the last 33 weeks, I've sort of been doing that, but without the sessions as much, just trying to consistently, and that's why I managed like it's literally my it was my second fastest 10k the other day, and I've done no training, I've just run slowly, plodded around for 33 weeks, but out of the bag, I was just happily running at 350. I could have run a 19, a low 19, I reckon, because at 4k with 2k to go towards a 5k, I could easily have really pushed on there, but at 5k I knew to survive the next 5k I've got to slow it down. So I'm I'm a convert massively, and people have doubts, but there's a lot of people, and recently on the FODCA, on Andy's podcast, they've got like a really fast um track runner, and he does Norwegian singles, and they're saying like 5k is not an event where you have to train speed, you can get to a 15-minute 5k just by running aerobically.

SPEAKER_02 52:58

A five K is a 5k is more of an endurance race than it is a speed race, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 53:02

100% and maybe when you get to like 13s, speed helps because of the speed you're running. But for hobby joggers, for people who are just you know enjoying it like that, I think so many people are training again, different people train different ways, and people enjoy different things. So I'm not saying this is what people should do, but for me and how my brain works and how my body works, I'm just I'm desperate just to get a summer where I do it, and then I can really show myself what I can actually do. And I'm on the edge of that at the moment of like, right, I've done my first session. I treated Parkrun today, it was a sub-threshold session, basically, where I started a bit slow as a warm-up, but then I did at least 3k at that sub-threshold, and then the fourth K I just pushed on a bit, so it works really nicely, and you just race into it, so you just do two sessions, and then the race you treat as a you know a bit of a bonus.

SPEAKER_02 53:55

Yeah, I think that is a bit of a misconception people have is about the 5k because if you think about your energy systems, you've got your three different energy systems, but as soon as you get past like three-ish, three, four minutes of work, you're into that aerobic system anyway. So whether you're running 5k or a marathon, that you're still having to train train endurance. Um, and I mean 5k you'd put in the category of speed endurance, but it is not, it's not a speed.

SPEAKER_05 54:21

It's not like an 800-meter race, is it?

SPEAKER_02 54:23

Yeah, exactly. It's not like a just an outright brute force power workout the way some people think it is. Yeah. Yeah. Um, do you ever do any double threshold days?

SPEAKER_03 54:34

No, so that is uh thing they've been talking about. Um James has written about it in his book. If I'm doing any double threshold I do as a cross-trainer session, yeah, it's just not worth the risk for me. And I can get so much more out of just like a hard bike or a hard um elliptical. So it's safer in that way. I'm not doing two thresholds. I'm gonna I do I do like a threshold in the morning and then I do an easy in the afternoon, but that's further down the line to do that sort of thing.

SPEAKER_05 55:04

I'm just trying to get at least three done, three done a week consistently, and I just think the times will just I think a lot a lot of people see on socials and stuff, oh, double threshold day, and people are like flogging themselves, then it's something that they should be doing, but it really, really, really is not. And it's I think double threshold days are only when you start to get a lot more serious and competitive because your risk of injury, like you say, Sam, is so much higher. So, and it's just like it comes back to like what are you going to achieve and why are you doing this? Is it just because you can say you can say you did it or you feel like you should or you feel you should be, or is it actually is it something that is benefiting your your training?

SPEAKER_02 55:46

Is it a status thing or is it for you and your training?

SPEAKER_03 55:50

Yeah, I put everything through the lens of the long game. So like I'm training for Abingdom Marathon, but my training isn't for that. My Abingdon Marathon just happens to be in the middle of me doing my training, so it's just a ongoing, you know, ever-evolving thing of just like I'm just gonna keep doing this week after week, and then I'll do races during that time. Yeah, after Abingdon, I'll have like a little bit of a mini break, but it should never put you in so much of a hole that you have to suddenly drastically change things. It's just consistently doing basic things will rise my fitness so much more than 12 weeks of you know, I could train better for 12 weeks, but at what cost? So, in the long term, over the next three years, if I can build that and just run consistently, like I've literally run the most I've ever run at this point now, like because last year I was injured the year before I was injured, and so I'm in like uncharted territory fitness-wise, and it's such low-hanging fruit of just go and run. Yeah, at any speed, I will get better now by just going out and putting one foot in front of the other. That's all it is, it's so simple.

SPEAKER_02 56:58

So, I guess if if we were to summarize it in in one sentence, it's a the Norwegian singles method is essentially just a well-structured way for you to run high volume without feeling like you're burning out.

SPEAKER_03 57:09

It's very similar to the Arthur Lidiard type thing with who you mentioned last week of just just running loads and loads is going to make you really fit and it's going to make you fast. People think that to run fast you have to do all these things. You don't, you just have to like your lungs and your heart, and that's where strength training comes in because I think that's where the running fast makes I will get faster from doing strength training than doing VO2 max workouts. I really do believe that.

SPEAKER_02 57:34

And do you think that doing this method and having it structured in such a way means that you're able to fit strength training into your week more easily?

SPEAKER_03 57:43

Yeah. Although, having said that, I've haven't been able to do a strength training workout this week. I feel really bad. I know I have lifted no heavy things, no heavy things, no heavy things, no heavy things.

SPEAKER_05 57:56

It's fine, we go again next week.

SPEAKER_02 57:59

Well, that sounded dangerous. Becky's like, she said that. What she meant was I'm gonna murder you. I will find you. Yeah, I have a special set of skills, I will find you and I will fuck you up.

SPEAKER_03 58:10

It's because I hate busy gyms. I really do, but I have to go to the gym to lift the type of weights I want to lift. I don't have that room in my at your house, in my house. Yeah, and home workouts 100% are brilliant and do it, but it's not a replacement, no, it is a different thing. And in the morning, I had an option, I was like, I could do my cross-training, and because I wasn't sure how much I was gonna run this week, I was like, I'll be fine, I'll move it, I'll move it. And then it gets to like the weekend. I'm like, hmm, where am I gonna move it to? Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 58:47

The weekend typically when you do a lot of running at the weekend, and then you go, oh why.

SPEAKER_05 58:51

Well, maybe in the next couple weeks you can come and visit me in my nice.

SPEAKER_03 58:54

Yeah, I was thinking that we're gonna do that for sure. That'd be a good video too. Also, why why am I obsessed with seven days? Everything, everything I think about, I'm like, I've haven't done a thing in seven days. Like, it's such an arbitrary number. Yeah, and again, people uh that do single Norwegian singles method, a lot of older masters athletes, they actually do like a 10-day rotation or like a 15-day. Like, I'm just stuck to this flipping calendar of like I have to do these things in seven days, and if I don't do it, it affects how I feel about myself, and I have to take a step back and go, because last week I like missed a few things because it was really raining one day, had a few late nights at work, and I like missed a run. And I was like, Oh my god, I am worth it as a piece of shit. Yeah, I'm like, what is like, and it was really good for me to do that to be like, oh, my Strava graph went down slightly because I ran 10 kilometers less. No one messaged me. I was really surprised that no one got in contact.

SPEAKER_05 59:49

That's because Sam, no one cares.

SPEAKER_03 59:51

No one looks at it. I know. I wish on Strava you had the option to get rid of it because no matter how even talking now, I still it's nice when it just does that little like the graph on the pace on parkrun.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:05

How how do I not do it? Strava, if you're listening, can you give us the option to change that cycle so that we could like show show the graph every 10 days or every 14 days or something like that?

SPEAKER_03 1:00:17

Or just hide it completely. Yeah, or just or just bin it. Because it's it yeah, it does. I'm sure I'm not the only one. I'm sure lots of people are very much put your hand up, comment in if you have done an extra run just to make your graph keep moving up or be the same. Because like right now, I'm on like I'm like 20k away from the higher weeks I did the other day, and I'm on purpose going, nope, I'm just gonna run 10k tomorrow, max, or I might even go and do the cross trainer because I'm tempted to go tomorrow, do a bit of cross trainer and do a strength workout, and I'm like, that's probably gonna be better for me than getting a run-in. So maybe I need to put my money in my mouth.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:56

And you literally just said I will run better and faster with the strengths.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:01

So maybe tomorrow I'll wake up early tomorrow, go to go to the gym tomorrow morning and do that instead.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:05

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:06

It's very humbling when you you you miss a week or your your mileage drops, no one messages you and you realise that actually no one gives a shit about you.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:12

And also, I don't go, I'm not scrolling through Strava, checking people's grass, going, ha!

SPEAKER_02 1:01:17

Get me down! User!

SPEAKER_00 1:01:19

No, exactly.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:20

I don't care.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:21

When was the last time you looked at someone else's weekly Strava mileage?

SPEAKER_03 1:01:24

I know, I know, I know.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:26

Right. We have got questions. Oh I I I kind of hate the fact that they call it fan mail on the on the link. It's not a choice that I made. Um, but hey, it's it's the fan mail button.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:40

Any flan related questions, please send them in. What is a flan? It's like a pancake.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:45

It's like a beef, a flan, it's like is it gelatin? Gelatine in it? Oh, is it? Oh it's like wobbly.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:51

Yeah, it's wobbly. It's a wobbly dessert thing.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:53

Like a creme brulee but jelly-y. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:56

I'm Googling flan. Yeah, okay. Well, you Google flan and I will start working on the creme. Creme caramel food. There you go. Right. Question. Um, but so we've got a few questions actually. I'm gonna have to get through them. Um, question one someone has messaged in on fan mail and said, I really enjoying the pod, which is good. Thanks, ma'am. Um, I have a question regarding foot pain, specifically pain on the top of my feet. Before I even read this email, I'm gonna clarify that none of us are doctors and none of us are physios, so please don't take our way to the phone. And I specifically have absolutely no idea about anything to do with running, so yes, um, but essentially um he's saying they've got some pain on the top of their foot whilst they're running, um, and has said, are there any specific exercises I should be doing to relieve pain on the top of my foot?

SPEAKER_05 1:02:46

Well, firstly, I'll check if your laces are on too tight.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:50

So I actually cut out part of the email uh which said I used to get it in 2024, which I put down to my laces being too tight.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:56

Right.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:57

Um, since then I tend to straight lace my shoes, wear them very loose to relieve pressure. Okay, fine. But there's still some pain on the top of the foot. Is there anything you would recommend to strengthen around the foot?

SPEAKER_03 1:03:07

What about I've got good exercise because I had that same feeling.

unknown 1:03:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:12

And what I can do, you know, like when you put your like when you're like a kid and you sit on your knees with your feet under your bump and your feet are flat, so the tops of your feet are on the I couldn't do that because my foot was so painful, like dorso flexing, some flexing, dolphin flexing.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:31

So yes, uh plantar flexion is when you push your uh your ball of your foot away, i.e. when you're like pushing.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:38

Planter flexion, yeah. So like that. And dorsiflexion is when you're bringing your toes towards your knee. So I'm planting a flexion. Uh so what I do, and I do this in the gym all the time, is uh I put a band around my ankle and then I attach it to something heavy, like an Alpha Fly 3. And then I I move my I try and get my knee as far over my toes as possible with my heel on the ground and do that loads. And then I stand up and then I put my top of my foot on the floor with that shoe on, and then I lean into it to try and sort of stretch it out, and that's really really helped my my ankles and stuff. That's a good ankle workout.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:18

Um, one that I would recommend is I can't remember what it's called, it's got a weird name, but it's like um it's almost like bicep curls for your toes, is how I'm gonna refer to it. Nice. Um, and what you do is you get a towel and you lay it out on the floor and you put your feet on it, um, like bare feet and you scratch towel scratches. I do it on the toilet.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:39

Oh. When you sit on the toilet and you just put a towel down just while you're having a poo, just a few little scrunchy scrunchies.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:47

I've never done it whilst I'm having a poo, but I'll do it, I'll do it in a time. Because um, what that's really good for is just helping strengthen up a lot of the tendons that run along the top of your foot. Um, so something like that I think would be pretty helpful as well.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:01

Cool.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:01

Uh, nice short one for the next one. Um, after you brought up the Spotify playlist last week, um, someone has emailed in to say my suggestion for the playlist is Britney Spears Stronger, which is a bangin' chell.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:13

Stronger, then yes, today.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:16

We're gonna get copyrighted with that seriously. Oh yeah, because it's Britney bitch, yeah. Give her a microphone and now this give me a headset. So, yeah, suggestion Britney Spears Stronger. I always use this in the last stretch of my race. It's also quite amusing for other runners to see a 55-year-old man with a blonde mohawk panting, hey Siri, play Britney Spears stronger. Which I would pay to see that. Add that to the playlist. Yeah, so that's one for the playlist. Okay, I'll add it. Um, right, this is a slightly more general one, but um, someone has emailed in anonymously, said, Loving the podcast, listened on the back of Sam being on mom cast. So a little bit of cross pollination, which is good.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:56

Mom, absolute legend.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:57

Um, wondering if you could advise I've been running for Three years had two injuries last year, both lower leg. Um, I always seem to have little niggles and aches when I run. Any tips for maintaining and remaining injury free? Go to the gym.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:11

Get some weights in your hands.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:13

Go to the gym, pussy.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:15

That's mean.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:20

That was just insult our listeners. Like, it's because I'm you. I am you, Captain, Mr. Lower Leg, dodgy legs, niggles, stuff like that. The only way to make them better is strengthen that stuff in the gym. It's gonna help. It really will. I still have some niggles and stuff, and I've been going to the gym loads and loads, but it's helped me massively. And so you've got to keep working at it and keep doing it. Just running more and more isn't necessarily going to get rid of those things. Some people, 100%, they can get away with that. I know, like Andy McGuire, Shaha Andy, he doesn't do any strength training whatsoever, and he runs so much. He ran the entire length of the Seven River and was absolutely fine. He does all these ultras just off the back of a random weekend, and he's a machine. But that's an anomaly. That he's a unicorn. That is not what most people feel. So get in the gym, even to some basic stuff, lift some heavy, lift some heavy stuff, move around a bit, get out. Apologies for calling you a pussy. I take it back. You don't apologize.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:23

Yeah, if you're unsure on which movements you should be doing, then um obviously you can give me or Dan a message as well. We'll be able to help you with some of that.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:31

Yeah, well, I I wasn't planning on using this as a plug, but I do genuinely think one of the best things that you can do if it's something that you're not like you're not familiar with, is just talk to someone.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:42

This is the best thing I did.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:43

Whether it's a coach or whether it's one of your friends who is very experienced in the gym. Not AI, not AI, preferably not AI. Um, just all of these things, like someone who can help you just guide you through it, even just to start with, just to give you an idea of where to start, makes a massive difference.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:59

Yeah, I think people panic that they have to like commit to like, oh, I've got to pay loads and loads of money, and every week I have to see a person. You can just do a few like with Becky. I have like a load of a few sessions once a month, learn loads of stuff, doing loads of bits, and then I'm gonna go back again and learn some stuff. Like it can be like they won't be really upset if you're like, I'm gonna do one session and go away for a bit and I'll come back. Like, they won't hold a grudge.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:23

As long as you're doing the work that you're told to do. Yes, yeah, you know, as long as you're taking on board the advice and consistently doing what they've said, because you're not gonna get results from just doing it once a month.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:34

Like the dentist, you've got to do your gym flossing, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:36

Yes. But uh little and often, yeah, but there's never gonna be one perfect exercise that's gonna fix all your problems because everyone's different. So actually getting talking to someone who knows what they're on about, who's got experience with uh with lifting and weights, who can help guide you through it a little bit more, and like Becky said earlier, adjust the exercise to match the person is gonna help you do it properly and then avoid any of those little injuries.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:02

And just buy more shoes, like more the carbon painted super shoes. Yeah, the more expensive, the more likely to make those niggles go away.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:08

Oh yeah, Adios Proforts, not Puma, not Puma Fast R3s. Yeah, fast R3 and fast. Any more? We have two more. Two more. Right, let's go. One of them is um, to be honest, doesn't need us too much input from us because we got well actuallyed by one of our listeners. Yes. Um first well actually, we've made it. Yeah, we've uh we're cultivating the exact audience we want here because they care about getting shit right. Yeah, 100%. So got an email saying, hi folks, I've been enjoying the anti-bullshit attitude of of the lid, where they're meant to say pod, but autocorrect jumped in there. So that our lid's anti-bullshit attitude, you're very welcome.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:43

Nice.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:44

Um, which is why I feel the need to well, actually, you on the blues ice.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:47

So it's not even me. So happy days. Yeah, yeah, this is not us.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:51

Um episode 52 of the science fiction's podcast did a pretty comprehensive run through of how dodgy that data actually is.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:58

No, you're like conspiracy theorists.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:00

Yeah, so we've actually been spreading misinformation because all we did was watch the thing on Netflix. Oh, we believed everything we were told on that show. Exactly. Um, by my recollection, it turns out those zones are also the ones in which the greatest numbers of people who are actually dead are still somehow drawing their pensions. So it's actually um it sounds like it's it they some of the zones might not be the zones with the most centenarians, they might just be the ones where the most fraud is going on. But uh but this is but this is why thank you very much for correcting. That's good to know, because yeah, it's uh it's good to know. I think everything we talked about still stays stays true.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:37

Yeah, I think the basic fundamentals of that type of lifestyle works, but that's interesting to know. Yeah, fraudsters.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:43

You might only live to 95, not 100.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:45

Yes, and then your attention lives to 120. The last one, which is from Holly, who is a runner that I coach as well. She probably could have just texted me and asked me this directly.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:55

She wanted a shout out.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:56

Yeah, she wanted uh a fan mail pod, uh pod question.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:00

A lid question.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:01

So a lit a lid question, yes. Um Q for the lid or the pod. What are your favourite snacks on a long run? Oh and which ones work for you the best and how often do you have them?

SPEAKER_05 1:11:12

This is my kind of question. Snack corner with Becky. Honestly, I used to do this thing called BB rates. Like, I used to just there's no context behind it. I used to just all my snacks, I used to just take a picture of it on Instagram and just rate it out 10. And everyone loved it. And bring it back. There was no like, oh, love the texture or like really just a number.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:35

Just a number. And you have to work out why that number.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:38

And everyone, someone, old Joe's that came up to me the other day. She's like, oh, I haven't seen BB rates in ages. I'm like, no one wants strength advice or none of that, they just want to know what I rate a snack.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:50

Yeah. They don't care about your weekly mileage, but they do care if you stop.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:53

Are we talking like long run? Yeah, long run. So you're taking long run snacks. So my go-to snack, and how often isn't it? Yeah. Squashies, squashy sweets. Um, I kind of stopped towards the end of my marathon block because I was getting a little bit sick of them, bit black, because I found them. I used to look really look forward to my little like snacky stop. Like, I was like, oh yes, time for a snack. Um, squashy sweets.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:18

Yes, it's called a snacky stop. Why is that funny?

SPEAKER_05 1:12:22

Um, and generally speaking, in a training, marathon training, or half marathon training, I'd usually go by time by about every 25, 30 minutes, I would have it, or every 5k.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:35

Um big one, 5k, 20 minutes.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:38

No, that'd be about 25 minutes, 26. Uh squashy sweets, or what did we used to have one time? Um oh, I used to have jelly tots, but they're a bit too chewy.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:50

They got a bit too chewy. No, no, because I'd stop and eat. That's my little snacky stuff.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:55

Snacky stuff. Snacky stuff. It's inclusive.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:59

Um if I'm not stopping and jelly tots is wild. If I'm not stopping, I would have a gel. And I really what gels did we like? The stirker? Is that his striker? Stirker. Stirker. Stirker.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:14

They're in crawley.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:15

Yes, they are. Delicious berry gel.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:20

Describing a gel is delicious. The berry one. Oh, it was like a smoothie.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:25

Really good.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:26

It's like really strong squash.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:27

Was it like 50 grams of carbs?

SPEAKER_02 1:13:29

Yeah, they these ones have 50 grams of carbs, they're big boys. Big ones. Um, but um, yeah, those ones are pretty good. Berry boys. I mean, gels are just different types of sugar in a packet, and they're designed to be as easy to take on board as possible.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:43

Yeah, you're paying for the ease.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:45

Yeah, it's ease, it's convenience.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:47

Um what about you, Dan? What's your favourite snacky on your snacky stop?

SPEAKER_02 1:13:51

Uh, I don't know. I mean, I'm sometimes I do just prefer liquid carbs. Um, so whether that's mixing uh a carb powder into some water and having that in a in a soft flask.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:01

But you like my squashy sweets to eat anyway, don't you?

SPEAKER_02 1:14:04

I eat your squashy sweets when they're at home, yes. So also for context, Becky has a box downstairs which is hidden in the cupboard. Um, and if stuff goes in the box, I'm not allowed to eat it.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:15

I wrote on the box, Dan, do not touch.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:18

And and mine in big capital lefty. It literally is.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:23

Sometimes he goes in my box and takes stuff, and I'm like it says love. He takes stuff from my mouth. He will still go in, even though I've written on my box, do not touch. He'll touch.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:36

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:41

Sam's gone so red. What do you have written on your box? Write in and let us know. Well, I'm a bit worried that Becky's written on hers, Dan, do not touch.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:56

That's not well that's not good. We're getting married soon.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:00

Then you may touch.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:01

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:02

It's very hard for Christian of you.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:04

No touching until we're married.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:09

Um Do you stop when you run?

SPEAKER_05 1:15:11

Training runs sometimes. I will.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:13

Sometimes.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:13

Yeah, if it's a long run, I'll have a little, you know, little drink, little snacky stop.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:18

A little snacky stop.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:20

Dan's got me into I used to be obsessed with not stopping on a training run. And I used to be like, no, I can't do it without stopping. I just want to make sure I can definitely run the distance without stopping. It was some sort of mental thing.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:32

Well, my favourite one was we would run to our friend's house who was uh only about a kilometre away, yeah. And so we would run, and obviously, when you get to someone's house, you have to stop because you have to knock on the door. I would have to be the one to go and knock and make sure and get him out of the house because Becky would be just running up and down the rest of the estate, and she'd just be doing these little loops because she would refuse to stop like the movie speed.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:54

If you stopped, you'd explode. Yeah, literally. If I get below 15 miles an hour, but it is okay to stop on training runs.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:02

Yeah. Not in a not in a marathon, though.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:05

Whoa. I'm joking. Yeah, that is that is that's the pinned video. I'm joking. Becky says, what was that in that Nike advert?

SPEAKER_05 1:16:16

Yeah, that's what I was referring to.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:18

Runner's welcome. Walkers tolerated. And you've just gone, Walker's not tolerated, actually.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:23

Absolutely not. Um at London Marathon next year we could have a podcast, but we have paintball guns, and anyone walking price.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:33

Real aggressive with it.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:35

Let's do it.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:36

Anyone, any of my clients who's running London Marathon, I've turned it up with a paintball.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:39

Well, they're not running, they're walking it.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:41

Well, true.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:42

Uh what about you, Sam? What's your one of your snacks?

SPEAKER_02 1:16:45

I didn't even get to finish. She's not finished. Oh god, sorry. You got distracted talking about touching boxes and being horrible to walkers. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:52

No, you started the box thing.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:54

Okay, yeah. So Becky's got her box, which is in a cupboard. Um, and yeah, liquid carbs, that's what I was talking about. So I like to do that. So look, Lucas Sport, also good. Um yeah, so like sometimes like something like jelly babies or something, but again, I find them a little bit of a hassle. So if it's a longer run and I'm planning on actually stopping for a bit, then I'll use jelly babies or squashes or something. Um the other one, which I like, which I feel people massively um overlook, is savoury snacks. So pretzels, the little pretzels are really good because one, you just get sick of sweet stuff after a while.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:32

The salty pretzels.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:33

Yeah, salty pretzels like in the middle, just to kind of reset your palate a little bit, is uh is a really good challenge. And the salt helps with uh with the sodium if you're losing uh through electrolytes as well. So yeah, pretzels would be would be my go-to or just a gel or something really.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:48

I just bang down gels. Just a gel man machine. Yeah, again, that's from my mountain biking days and stuff where we've like done South Downs Way and I've had like 18 gels. That and a Fanta. Fanta, emergency. I don't drink Coca-Cola at all. I only ever drink it when I am in Bonk City. So that's when I have a Coca-Cola.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:09

Um and how often would you normally have a gel training runs?

SPEAKER_03 1:18:14

If I'm doing like a proper marathon training run, I'll do every 20 minutes to practice. So in my last before London and Brighton to train, I did about 102 grams an hour of carbs. Wow. Right. So I was that's a lot. I was necking them. Um, and I think that did really help me in that.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:34

But obviously, you're comparatively to say me, obviously, you're a lot taller, bigger, you'll be expending. You'll be expending more energy.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:44

But you're one of those ones that walks a marathon, aren't you?

SPEAKER_05 1:18:47

But what I mean is like the different people might be like, oh, why would I only have one every half an hour or 25 minutes in a training run and you're not knocking one back every 20 minutes?

SPEAKER_03 1:18:56

But yes, I have those um beta fuel, and they are 40 grams, and you get there's two different types. You get electrolyte ones, which have like 400 grams of sodium, like they're really loaded, and they are the strawberry and lime ones, and they are banging, they're really nice. And I eat those, I try instead of one bang, I try and eat them sort of over the course of a minute or so. And then I have the caffeine, I had the caffeine gels, the high five ones, which are so there's hardly any in them. So you just squeeze it once and it all goes and it's fine. But I've bought I went on a bit of a gel buying mission, so I have about a hundred gels in my house, all going off in probably the next couple of months. Oh, yeah. Oh no. So if any wants to if anyone wants to pop round and just borrow and have a beta fuel gel, you can.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:44

That's a really good point, actually. If you're not sure what uh like what snacks you want to try, there's a website called xmiles.co.uk. And that means you buy them in singles rather than committing to buying a whole box of 12 or whatever. So you can just order a bunch of different stuff and try it. And remember, that's the point of your training runs is to figure out what works and what doesn't work, and then just try different ones each time, see what works the best.

SPEAKER_05 1:20:07

Yeah, because we did an order, didn't we, just before we uh went and did Boston and I got because I'd know I got a couple of the precision caffeine ones because I'd know I'd practice with those and they were really good.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:19

I had a I had a mixture of different brands, but I really like precision, they've got that that calculator online that does all sorts of things, and it's all free. And you can even book like a free consultation with them where they talk you through things and stuff like that. So I do I really rate them as a company, they do a lot of yeah, they give quite a lot, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:36

They're and they're they're very data driven as well. Yeah, so that aligns quite nicely.

SPEAKER_05 1:20:40

They're quite gloopy, but yeah, they do the job.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:43

Yeah, but um, yeah, I think if you if you're trying to figure out how often, then use something like the precision calculator because you don't want to think about it of how many gels or snacks should I have in an hour. You just want to think about it in terms of how many grams of carbohydrates are you taking on, and then you can use the calculator, figure it out, and then you've got to look at the labels of what you're having to just figure out your own plan.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:05

It's gonna be different for everyone, and also what you have to remember is when you do a gel, no one is getting like toothpaste, no one's getting every single last bit out, and over the course of a marathon, you're probably leaving quite a few grams. So even though I thought I was doing 102, I was like, I'm probably doing more, like 90. Because by the time half it goes on my hand and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:26

That was all of our emails. Um, so we need uh we need a need to replenish of the emails now. Um so you've we've got a fan mail that in the podcast show notes. So if anyone else has any other questions, we can throw into the end of our of the podcast to chat through. Let's have a think about it off air. But I think the best thing that we can do will be make a like a gmail account, like thepositivesplit at gmail.com or something for people to email questions in there. Ratemymath at gmail.com. Two domains available. We could get that too. Oh, snack. Snacky stop not available. We could oh I'm gonna snacky stop.com after this show. I'm gonna search for snackystop.com and ratemymath.com and see if we can redirect them together.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:06

Both of which could be dodgy, not safe for work content.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:10

I think snacky stop is okay. Yeah, it's fine. The other one, maybe not. What's on your box.com. Don't touch my box. Don't touchmybox.com might also be a problem.

SPEAKER_05 1:22:19

Do not enter.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:20

What have you got ahead for the next week? Because it's sat it's currently Saturday, 2.30, 2.25 pm.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:26

This podcast is due to go up in about 17 hours. 17 hours lucky, isn't it? What have we got quickly?

SPEAKER_05 1:22:31

What have we got coming up this week? Um, I'm gonna be busy at work because I'm covering a bunch of classes because one of my colleagues is away on holiday, so I'm gonna be doing a lot of class cover next week, which are mostly evenings, and then I've got race, uh not race, training wise. It's my strength week next week. So my big lifts, I'm gonna be dropping the reps and seeing how heavy I can push with my give us a number. Come on. Well, we'll find out next week, shall we?

SPEAKER_03 1:23:03

Well, I think we go commit to something. No, because 100 kd for deadlift?

SPEAKER_05 1:23:08

Maybe 105? Maybe 100. If I did I did 90. Maybe a hundred. We'll see if we can get back to the 101.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:15

Check check in with us next week and let us know how close you got to 100 people.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:18

And I'm gonna keep persisting with the skipping.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:20

Yeah, I've I did talk to you about that.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:22

Why not doing it right?

SPEAKER_03 1:23:24

What's wrong with you?

unknown 1:23:25

It's so wrong.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:28

Does your brain connect to both legs? I don't know. No, I think it's because only one. Why are you jumping two feet at a time? That was way harder. You're like, you're doing it like you've just skipping.

unknown 1:23:38

Skipping.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:39

Oh skipping. I'm not jumping.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:41

She's got just it's it's two feet.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:44

Yeah, but I did that and it was really hard. Yeah, it is.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:48

And then someone at the gym said, no, you need to be doing transferring, going one foot into one foot.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:53

Becky has a bit of a strange way of skipping where she looks like she's hurdling every time the skip comes comes around. So it's like one knee comes up and then the other knee comes up and it's kind of like Leave me alone.

SPEAKER_05 1:24:03

Let me just do it my way. Yeah, but I was exhausted I I was exhausted.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:08

Because it's really hard.

SPEAKER_05 1:24:09

That's the whole thing that's like jump jumping, not skipping.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:12

How many Sam? How many jumps did you do in your two minutes for? I think Becky does about 12.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:18

I'll video it.

SPEAKER_05 1:24:19

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:19

Well, I do think that's part, again, that's another reason why my calf is maybe slightly angry.

SPEAKER_05 1:24:23

Exactly, but also my bun was getting in the way because the root the rope was obviously a bit short, and then it's my bun, not my bum.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:30

And then as soon as I swapped the skipping rope to a longer one, it was much you need when you put your foot in it in the middle and you lift it, your hands are like just under your armpits, that's the right length of a skipping rope.

SPEAKER_05 1:24:40

Right, okay. And I also found it really like made my biceps ache. Did it for you?

SPEAKER_03 1:24:46

You that's the motion. Small wrist motion, not small wrist.

SPEAKER_05 1:24:51

Yeah, I was doing so anyway. Uh, but that's my week. What about you?

SPEAKER_03 1:24:54

Hopefully, it's just gonna be a full Norwegian week. Eastbourne 10K is on the Sunday. We'll have a pod before between then and now where I'll talk about what my plans are for that. Hopefully, my lid's gonna feel all good tomorrow. Am I gonna go for a round? Am I gonna go to the gym? Hopefully, I'm gonna go to the gym. I think that's I think that's what I'm gonna say. I'm gonna commit to that because mileage is not the B1 end all.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:17

I expect you to check into the to the next podcast with a recap of how your strength session went.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:21

Okay, I'll do a short side.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:22

Now you've got your accountability now.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:23

You can't get out of it. I will do that for sure. Um, yeah, just oh, I'm a we've got our because I work in a primary school, there's like a residential for the year fives and sixes, and I'm going to that on like the Monday and the Wednesday and the Thursday. So I'm gonna try and run before work because hopefully I don't have to go quite as early as I normally do, so I can get some better runs in, which would be nice. I've got a lovely loop going around the worth way now, which is from here. It's about 13k, which is really nice, and it's obviously nice and quiet.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:52

I think I might have been convinced by this podcast to actually write up my own Norwegian singles run training. Yeah. I've got I have got a mad spreadsheet.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:01

Send me your mad spreadsheet and I'll send it. The formulas, you'll love it, Dan. The formulas you put in the amount of time and it works out as a percentage compared to your easy running. So you know that I'm doing like 19% sub threshold for the total amount of work. And then you can also add in your cross-training, which adds it into the total amount. So I'm like eight hours total, whether that's cross-training or running. So I do enjoy a mad spreadsheet, so this might be the way to get me to commit to it.

SPEAKER_05 1:26:25

At least and what about you, Dan? Finish off with your week.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:26:29

Well more decorating.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:31

No more decorating. I've done so much. So no, I will. Training wise, I'm gonna have a look at Sam's mad spreadsheet and see if I can uh do that. Um, I think I've got another hockey match tomorrow, so that's gonna be lots of sprinting around.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:46

Do you buy um lots of hockey equipment? No, so it's not like right, so you got a stick and you're happy with the stick.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:52

I bought the cheapest stick and shoes I could get from decathlon, and that's I did not have you down as a decathlon stick man.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:59

I think you wanted to go.

SPEAKER_05 1:27:00

I do love decathlon, it's my favourite shop in the world. I think you wanted to get the cheapest stuff to see if you'd actually stick to hockey and enjoy it.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:06

See what you did. That was quite good. I did, I basically just went, I'm gonna go to decathlon, I'm gonna get the basic stuff, and then if I commit and I actually like keep going to hockey practice for at least three months or so, then I may be allowed to upgrade my gear. Once I feel like I've got the most out of uh the basics, then I can upgrade and then you can start a podcast with the positive stick.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:28

Yeah, yes.

SPEAKER_05 1:27:31

Right, I'm ready to I need a week.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:33

So And that is how we end the podcast. Thank you so much, everyone, for listening. Write in, um, check out all our various Instagrams and YouTubes and all of the links are in the show notes.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:44

You can check us out there. Remember to get your call booked in if you want to have a chat with me for half an hour about running, because I'm unemployed and have nothing better to do than to talk to everyone individually now.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:55

Lovely, perfect. Have a lovely week, everyone, and peace out. See you later.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:00

Bye.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:05

Should have included that now.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:15

Needless to say, I had a last muff.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:20

The last muff will be mine. Lead away. Okay.