In the beginning, episode 23, now we're rushed court.
We are rushed, we're rushed. It's my fault.
Liam, we're going to get to why we're rushed.
We are, but let's let's start with something different.
Let's have a listen to this. My opinion, you should name your
child after something you love. Marathon come here.
Nova Blast 5 YouTube come here Speed come inside.
Do you know anyone who's ever named that kid after something
to do with sport or running? I mean, there's plenty of trees
and that out there, but yeah. I'm trying to think there's, I'm
trying to think if I know anybody who's named their kid
Usain or something. No, look, if I've got two, we
both got two kids. You have to name your kids again
with running at the forefront. No, with my name, yeah.
All I was making sure with my kids is that I gave them two
strong 11 strong male name and one strong female name so they
never got mixed up. Really.
Oh mate, I've lived my whole life with the name called.
Of course. It's like I'll go to check into
a hotel tonight and I'll never know whether I'm going to get Mr
or Mrs. So I'd tangent, this is really interesting, right?
Because my daughter's name is Quinn, yes, which is a a unisex
name could. Be Quinn Dara, Yeah.
Quinn, Yep, great swimmer, has swammed the English Channel.
Share that Quinn he my daughter Queen is a girl.
And interestingly, when the final of the Shoreham Partners
Iron series was on recently at North Burleigh, Queen is a
nipper there at North Burleigh like you were.
And the North Burleigh Nippers had the chance to run out with
the athletes on the sand for the final event.
Really excited. And all the girl nippers were
getting matched up with the female athletes and all the
little boy Nippers were getting matched up with the male
athletes. Yeah.
And Queen. My daughter was lumped in with
all the little boy Nippers and the male athletes because
whoever was putting the list together just assumed Quinn was
a boy. I.
Feel her pain. You can let her know I feel her
pain. This is this has been my daily
life. So that's what I did for my
kids. I wasn't having a go at you,
Liam. No, no, no.
But it's it's interesting though I've.
Learned from that experience. I'm still living it everyday.
It's. To go back to the the original
hypothetical, if you name these kids after, you know, something
you loved, running was my first would have been negative split.
Maggie, come over here. Neggie.
And the second one would have
been threshold. What about to toy toy over here
toy anyway. Running names, hey.
Talk about quick talk about toy runners.
Let's talking about toy runners. Let's we've got some running
news to get through. We don't normally start off with
running news, but there have been some results that we need
to talk about. First of all, we have a new
marathon, half marathon world record we have.
This is is mind boggling. So the previous record was held
by Yomif Cadelcha. I'm not sure if I'm saying his
surname right, but I know Courtney will get nowhere near
it. Yep.
But it has been broken by Jacob Kaplimo who I think held the
record before Yomif. 56.56 minutes and 42 seconds.
He's the first human ever to break 57 minutes.
It's it doesn't sound like 1/2 marathon time, does it, when you
start talking 56? And a half minutes basically.
Yep, yeah, for context, he's and I've.
Have you seen the 5K breakdowns for this run?
Oh, I haven't. I haven't.
You're obviously in the data a lot more than me.
This week ever 5K What's your 5 KPP Courtney Atkinson two time.
Elite I I I honest I this is honest as God.
I don't know, but at at that time I'd run a mid 14.
Mid 14 Yeah. Jacob Kiplimo in breaking this
world record or in setting this new world record, has run his 10
to 15K split in 1257. He's 10 KS deep.
He's 10 KS deep into this and then he's dropped a sub 13
minute 5 kilometre. It's wild.
He's gone 1338, his first five's as slow as five.
He's gone 1338 through the 1st 5 KS.
He's gone 1312 through the next 5 KS.
Then he's dropped the 12:57 and then he's come home with a 1323.
Negative split. He's negative split, Yeah.
That's what he should call his first kid negative split,
Kablima. But this is, and we've talked
previously about when the women's marathon world record
was set earlier this year, I think, or late last year
potentially. And sadly, we've had this
conversation before, so we don't need to have it again about the
question marks that hang when these sort of leaps get made.
Were the question marks on this one.
Well, I don't know if there is a.
Lot of news. On this, but he's essentially
improved the world record by 48 seconds, which is a.
That's massive. Which is a massive, massive
amount. And look, you know, amazing.
Not questioning it, but we're now, as you said, we're now
talking about half marathons being run.
He's run. His average KS per hour is 22.3
KS an hour. Oh, I just know how quick that
is on a treadmill trying to test and I'm at my Max when I can run
fast. It's it's wild.
It is wild. Do you?
Do. You I want I actually want to
move on because this is my this is depressing me doing No, no.
No, that is incredible crazy. We've got some other results to
talk about because I think the other thing I'm getting a sense
of at the moment through my running friends is this race
season's kind of here. Like, I know they've been events
and all the rest of it over the last couple of months, yes, but
I feel like the Tarawiro Tarawiro over in New Zealand
happened over the last weekend. Which is the equivalent of our
UTA. Yeah, and I just, I found myself
and all my WhatsApp groups and social media feeds starting to
get caught up in, in running season.
And now I've got friends in Sydney who are beginning 12 week
programmes for 1/2 marathon coming up and I'm like, oh, this
is exciting. Marathon season's here.
And and winners of the Tara Weira, Daniel Jones and Ruth
Croft. Yep, big shout out to them.
Beth McKenzie, my teammate from the Noosa Triathlon Legends race
podium finisher. She also finished 3rd in the
women's race up in Tara Weira. You're right, she won UTA last.
Year she won UTA 100 last year she's finished third in the Tara
Weira race this year. She's on fire.
She's. She and husband Luke run Win
Racing, which is great brand doing great stuff, supporting
athletes as well. But yeah, I've, I've, I've just
found myself being in a bit of running season fever at the
moment. Yeah, Dan Jones is an
interesting 1. Cause I've Dan came from an
adventure racing background. So I've raced pretty much.
I don't think I've raced with him.
No, I've raced against him again.
He's been in Kiwi teams, I've been in Aussie teams and raced
through China and adventure racing with him.
And then he put all these, he kind of like went all in on the
long trail stuff and he's he's killing it.
Hey, it's so exciting. Western, you know, he'll be at
Western States and all of that, so.
So shout out to everybody that took part in tower.
We're over the weekend and as I said, look, I hope to be well, I
hope we get to share more racing news with you because it feels
like we're starting to head into the season quickly before we
move on to some books I have in front of me here last one you
mightn't have heard of this kid, but I think it's it needs to be
shared here on in the beginning the.
Pint sized running prodigy has made history a race he didn't
mean to enter. The 11 year old from Box Hill
has set a blistering new fastest time for three kilometres as his
sights set on the Brisbane Olympics.
He's half the size of his competition but strides ahead 2.
46 For James Hall, absolutely flying. 11 year old James Hall
is now the fastest 3 kilometre runner for his age in the world,
gaining that title in part by accident, not realising the
distance he'd signed up for. I actually didn't know that was
going to be 7 1/2. Laps He started the race fast
and held his pace, finishing after 9 minutes and 7 seconds,
the equivalent of three minute kilometres.
This is an 11 year old from Melbourne who's just clocked 9
minutes over 3K. That's super impressive.
I know a little bit about schoolboy running.
And, you know, even guys like Craig Mottraman, you know, at
his heyday, you know, I would race around our school titles
and, you know, at national level, and I can tell you we
weren't 9 minutes was a good benchmark when you're in grade
10, so about 15. He's 11, he's 11.
He's the 1st in the world like that's.
How? How do you reckon?
Where do you reckon he goes from here as an 11 year old?
Well, there's a better question. I've got no idea.
I haven't, I've never got near that and I in no way got put
into pathways or programmes or any sort of high achieving type
stuff. It's a question for you because
you were identified as a someone with potential in high school,
right? So let me put you in the
position of being the coach of this young man.
How do you manage him from here? He's 11 years old, mind you, and
we've seen with Gout gout the way he's being managed by his
team. They're saying, well, let's just
you know, we know what you're good at.
We're just going to focus him. We're going to we're just going
to let you be you. We're going to let you develop
naturally. We're not going to get they're
doing a really good job of managing him right now.
How are you or or talking to people around this kid about
managing him through pathways from here?
Because this ain't a fluke. Like 11 years old.
You're the fastest kid over three KS in the world.
There's potential. How do you best nurture it?
I mean, the, the challenge of anyone this age is going to be
enjoyment, right? Because the tendency will be
there'll be a lot. I, I would say there'd be people
and hopefully not, but I'd suggest there's probably people
circling going, I'll get hold of this kid.
I'm going to be able to take him right through to, you know,
great heights or they'll, you know, we're Young Olympian or
whatever it is. But I mean, I would be at 11,
first thing is he obviously enjoys running if he can do
that. The second thing is, you know,
you still want to be able to, at that age, experience a whole
range of things. I think running, especially at
in distance running, you know, he's got a lot of development.
He's gonna go through a lot of growth.
There's a lot of things that can go wrong.
Yeah, so I would cautious would be the thing.
I did say this has all happened through a school down there.
So very similar to, you know, the schools on the Gold Coast
and in Brisbane that look after runners and have really
professional coaching around them.
I would say he's in that boat. But I love the fact that later
on in that clip, 'cause I watched the whole thing, he he
said I, I don't really look up to any other runners.
I look up to the grade 11 and 12 is.
At the school, yes, 'cause you do when you're a kid.
Do because when you're 14, you think 1617 is, you know, that's
as far as you see in life, Yeah. Yeah, it's the other thing and I
love the idea of the more For every Tiger Woods there's that
specialised early and for every Williams sister that specialised
early, there's probably hundreds of thousands of kids who try to
specialised and don't and can't sustain the generalisation over
specialisation, the diversification.
As a kid of sport, I love that attitude and I wonder what else.
Well, I wonder what his kid is doing.
I mean, we don't know, but I wonder whether he's got a
background in swimming, something that's, you know,
created that's. Aerobic game just because.
At 11:00 to be able to, you know, maintain that over 9
minutes, like 3K for an 11 year old's a long way, 1500 metres or
800 can be a long way for a, you know, 1011 year old.
So I'm gonna take a guess that he's done something leading up
to this where he's had a good aerobic engine, he's built the
heart, built the mark, you know, built all the capillaries
already starting that process. So, you know, you, if, if that's
the case, you don't want to deviate from that, you want to
keep, continue that progression and then, you know, slowly
obviously specialised in running 'cause that's, you know, but
that's something to be said. World best at 11.
The world best at 11. And you know, what are we do the
maths Slam nine years out. This kid will be 20 when
Brisbane rolls around. Yeah.
Is is talk to me about well. It's a perfect age, that's what.
Is it? Is it the perfect age?
Yeah, 100%. That's what I've been, that's
what I've been saying about the Brisbane Olympics all along
since we started doing the podcast.
Is the P the what? The Olympics to me, what the so,
so, so great about the Olympics is young kids watch it at home
and they have that view where they're not like us.
They haven't been through life to a degree that, you know,
they're not bitter. They're not bitter.
They're not shaded. Yeah.
They're just watching a race, seeing a hero and hopefully
wanting to emulate them. Yeah.
And we're looking at those eight 910 year olds who are gonna be
the Brisbane Olympians. They don't even know that yet,
but they're the ones who got to nurture.
And that's why we keep needing, you know, you keep needing the
Olympic cycle to happen. So you bring on these new kids
and it keeps going. But talking about young kids and
training? Oh no, I've got it in front of.
Me, I'm a little bit old, but I promised last week I'd go and
search for an old journal I wrote.
So I said last week when we were talking about Will Ashcroft, I
said I don't journal, I'd rather go and watch Netflix.
Yeah, at this stage of my life, I I couldn't think of anything
worse than journaling. But open a random page in that
journal I've given you, and I don't even know what year it is.
It's probably I'm a teenager when I'm writing that.
So what I'm holding here, if you can't, If you're not, if you
can't get a chance to watch the clips or or check out the video
footage of this and you're just listening, it is a shiny silver
notebook, a spiral notebook. It's in pretty good nick if
you've written this when you're a team.
It was a bit of a nerd. And as I flip through it, you've
got very good handwriting, by the way, Thank you.
I will say you've got very good handwriting.
But my God, you're you're an athletic nerd.
You're a nerd because this is. All right, So pick a random page
and look hopefully, hopefully it's not a big date.
No, no, no or anything. I'm gonna pick a couple.
Because a big night on the juice.
I've got this somewhere. It's, it's obviously it's data
driven. And then there's somewhere it's,
there's a, there's a, a page I've just found which is more
notes, right? Yeah.
Words Monday, 16th of April. And again, we're not sure what
year this. Oh, here we go.
No, this is your 2000 notebook, so 2001.
Oh, Sydney, 2000 Olympics. I would have been a teenager.
So nearly nearly cracked the Olympics as a teenager
accidentally and then it took me another few rounds to get into
it. But.
First page of this is Saturday 9th of December 2000, so it's
late 2000 after the Sydney Olympics, and then I'm going to
jump to the 16th of April, presumably 2001 here.
Monday 16th of April. Beautifully handwritten ride 81
1/2 kilometres, 2 hours, 40 average 30 1/2 KS per hour.
Then you've got your the route you rode which was Nerang to
Gillingbah, Chillingham, maybe chilling Chillingham 2 times,
Heinz dam loop, Gilston to home run.
Hins Dam for those goals. Sorry, yes.
Run off bike, still got my Adelaide accent.
Run off bike, 6 KS approximately 25 minutes.
Swim 4 1/2 KS, no warm up. 2K time trial, 24 minutes.
Wanna swim 2424? You've broken it down into
splits 1200 kick 1000 flippers kick, swim drill 403 back warm
down with fins Asterix BBQ with mum side of family after
Darren's wedding came over late. Oh, that's why you're not meant
to read that mate. I was particular.
That is so funny, Courtney. How?
Old are you in 2001? Two.
I mean, I'm in my heyday. It's just hilarious.
Oh, now I got it. Now put it put, put let's close.
Hold on, hold on. Just.
Quickly though. Just quickly though, yeah, that
was a Monday for you and you've done an 81 1/2 K ride, you've
run 6K off the bike and then you've done a four and a half K
swim. This is your journalling.
Just quickly. That's doing all right for a
Monday. Yeah, and just and day more,
just days of this. I'm going to take this home and
read it with me because it's fascinating reading.
You've also brought two other books that you haven't written.
No, I definitely haven't written these other you.
Haven't written these books but you you wanted to bring them up
as I try and pick them up without bumping the microphone.
Before we did. So that's the reason I wanted to
show you the journal. It's like, you know, that's, I
think behind the scenes, that's the type of thing no one sees,
you know, like as a, you know, I think it was 19 or something.
Then the attention to detail of, you know, and I'm being coached
at that time too, but the attention, attention to detail
that goes into, you know, thinking about every single
little thing that goes into your performance, analysing it,
reworking it year on year, comparing it and just.
So year to year though or month to month, would you go back and
review this? Stuff on top of that, we'd have
volume graphs. So this is before training
peaks, I'm pretty sure. Maybe just before training
peaks. So we'd have volume graphs.
We'd be managing it each day. I'm just looking right at the
back. You've got your weekly totals.
Oh well, there you go. So here, literally at the back.
At least I wasn't hideous. What we do No, no, no.
Wow, This is You've got your prize money listed here in the
very. Bottom I'm happy for you to
share with the prize money. What, what, what?
What are we doing with that? Prize money 2001 to 2002 season.
OK financial. Yeah, yeah.
Brisbane Bridge run. You won 600 bucks.
Bridge to Brisbane. I wonder if they pay.
I wonder if they pay prize money these.
You won 600 bucks. I wouldn't have won it either,
so I must have. Hungry ITVITUITU, you won 1100.
It's been a dodgy race, that one.
It must have came back a bit. Springfield run.
This is all local stuff. You won 100 bucks, Japan Sprint
champs. You won five grand.
Yep. Wollen, wollen gong.
Wollen gong, maybe? Wollen Gong try you won $200.
Bribee Island try you won $140.00.
Noose Aquathon you won $1000. So for the year.
That's all. I've jeez, I mustn't mean
surviving. Is there another page?
No. I've obviously haven't.
Oh wow, this is now I I feel like.
What happened? No, you've just got, you've got
more stuff I want to share here. This is you've you've got
training. Lessons to regret this.
No, no, no, you've got training lessons learnt.
Oh, can I read these? Sure, I can always edit.
Training lessons learnt, I want you to jump in as these come to
you. OK bike TT on win trainer to get
strong quick. That's why everyone's on Swift
today. Specific training 2 triathlon
run off bike. Makes sense?
Bike position forward nearly over BB4 TT.
That's what all the Tour riders are doing now, 20 years ahead.
Monitor HRS aim to lower HR running off bike.
Yep, heart rate. So looking to, you know, become
more efficient. Run with faster cadence specific
to running off bike. Yep.
So pick up cadence. That would have been like aiming
around that 180 using metronomes.
Don't concentrate too much on one discipline.
Specific run training won't make running off bike easy.
MMM, that's an interesting one. Definitely work.
I always talk about the jigsaw puzzle in triathlon, but we're
starting to see how good the triathlete runners are as
individuals. Yeah, and it'd be interesting to
know how their the pie. Yeah.
Or their jigsaw puzzle looks now.
Yeah, flexibility, easy improvement, IE yoga.
Yeah, we used to do a fair bit of yoga.
Yeah, I didn't. I still, I still would like to
do a lot more yoga. It's just the time.
Stability for brackets rob circuits plus remember back.
Must have been in the gym at that stage, down at the QAS I
reckon. Extra weight makes harder to
rob. ROB must stand for something run
off bike oh run off bike so stability for run off bike
circus plus remember back. Extra weight makes harder to run
off bike. No fats.
We've talked a lot about skin folds this.
Is there we go. We're working it out.
This is early days for me so I'm working out where Where's my
optimal kind of race weight lie? This is interesting.
Mm hmm swim least importantly ride biggest portion then run.
So you. This really is.
Like you've that's I see. I wouldn't remember.
Any of that. You know what this is, Courtney?
In the beginning. In the beginning, this is in the
beginning stuff. 62nd surge at end of long run to improve kick
over distance run off bike equal IE 12 KS.
Oh, so that's you telling yourself to run further than the
10K that you would've been racing in?
Tries, yes. Rides solid in races, warms legs
up for run. Yeah, OK.
That's interesting, I wouldn't have remembered that.
One racing is easy way for specific training session.
Yep, of course. Tempo medium distance running
specific for off bike. Well, that was, you know, kind
of like that. It's a threshold running and
like. Yep, and then after sitting
before race for extended periods IE plane or car, get into facet
joints with T-ball. That was my, I was having
trouble with my, my back lower back when I was travelling a
lot, you know, we'd fly sometimes 24 hours to get to a
race. And then as I said, you've got
you've got dates with your training log, your distance log,
you've got swim, swim, ride, run the the months or sorry, it's a
weekly distance calculator. No, this is so interesting.
It's old school, isn't it? This is really, this is
fascinating stuff. We're gonna get on, we're gonna
get on to Strava in a minute. But like this is this is pre
Strava how it was done? I this is now here's what I'll
say to you, OK? Because there's pages in this
book and there's notes in this book that I won't share for the
podcast. Yeah, But here's what I'll say
to you, Courtney Atkinson. At some point, many, many, many,
many, many years from now, decades from now, multiple
decades from now, you won't be around, right?
If there's things in this book that you don't want get made
being made public, get rid of them, right?
Get rid of them 'cause otherwise someone will pick up, someone
will start a podcast called The Life and Times of Courtney
Atkinson. They'll get all this and they'll
read it all out. Hey, look, maybe I thought I was
going to be a lot more famous than I.
Maybe I really thought I was going to win that gold medal,
Liam. So interesting and I had books
ready to go but. That's so interesting.
Now talk to me about these two other books that you brought up.
So you didn't? Write When I went looking for
these old journals up in a box and upstairs I found these two.
I've only kept two books ever. They're running books.
One is deke. What was the?
Making the making of Australia's world marathon champion.
Yep. So I spent a lot of my youth
pretty much following very, very similar programmes to Deke
because I ran with Pat, Pat Clahessie, who was Deke's coach.
So you know when Deke, you know, the famous Brisbane Marathon he
won and all of that, Pat was coaching him and we pretty much
did very similar. So I read this book and I could
just see all the same training sessions.
There was a famous training session he'd do around where it
was like a 8400 session with a 200 float.
A lot of runners still do it to today.
You know, that all came. I mean, it was Australian
culture in running. But Pat Klahesi had a lot to do
with all that. So I was running up at the
University of Queensland in my early days, actually probably
around that, that journalling time.
And yeah, I learnt my trade doing that.
Now Pat and Deke learnt their trade to a degree in the time
around a guy that a lot of older runners will know as Arthur
Lydiad. So Running to the Top is a
programme based of Arthur Lydiard's kind of principles of
running down to like you'll read nutrition stuff in there around
where he talks about and, and I can't remember exactly, but how
is before gels existed, like how you'd use honey in races, right.
This is like a history lesson, Liam, this is fascinating.
They'll be honey, honey and races.
But what he's got in that Running to the Top by Arthur
Lydiard is he has structured programmes in there of how you
periodise your training blocks going up to like A10 KA half
marathon. What?
I can't remember the exact wording you use, but like when
you should do your test races before the races.
And it was all about periodisation in a way of
building massive mileage up. It included a little bit of fart
like always, to keep your speed base.
It would put in a strength training block.
So he'd do a specific strength training block of hills.
Then he'd go into his speed phase and then he'd go into his
taper. And I can see I've actually
highlighted pages of going, you know, so a lot of these, I had
coaches all through this time. Yeah.
Well, when the books are good, you just highlighting every bit
of the book. Give pick one and read.
I don't know if anyone's interested.
You reckon people are interested?
In this absolutely absolutely because he I'll come back to
this I've got remind me to give you my thoughts on why I think
runners will be fi would find this stuff interesting.
OK, just quickly I've chapter 13.
This is of of Arthur's book run run to the top running to the
top. Chapter 13 is the marathon.
Some of the stuff you've highlighted in here push when
you feel tired and you could suffer muscle breakdown which
will waste all your effort. Great lesson.
The best results come when you train to a comfortably tired
state. The greatest benefit will come
from the run itself in a sharp improvement in your racing
fitness. Retain that by keeping all
further training relatively easy and by resisting the temptation
to run too much in the final week.
So this is in the lead up to the race, but what's interesting is
he's got a, you know what essentially is AA12 week
programme in here for runners. Yeah, and I think I tried, I
didn't follow the programme exactly because I was doing
triathlon, but I think there was a phase there.
I was probably in between coaches where I I would have
done a lot of, you know, trial and error around that training
kind of style. And I mean, in the end the best
years I had in like periodization of building up to
a a block of racing because it wouldn't be just one egg race,
but to be able to go, you know, race well over a season.
It was simple. The longer the base, the better
the outcome. Yeah, and I mean, that is
Lydiard's principle down to a tee.
The reason I think, and you sit there and go, I don't know if
anyone would find this interesting.
The reason I think people would find this interesting and I now
want to read both these books is because, and this goes back to
something you and I have talked about quite a bit, the amount of
noise that exists in running these days, the, the noisiness
of the running industry from the elite level down to the amateur
level. And we're a part of that noise.
But the noisiness and the the general consensus and the
confluence of thoughts that exists and all of it, right?
I don't know exactly when these two were published, but I
imagine both these books are published in a much simpler
time, a much quieter time. I guess in the 90s.
So it's published in a much quieter time when the amount of
people jumping up and down saying I'm an expert look at me
was few and far between. And as a result I haven't read
these. Well, the only people who would
publish a book would be someone who has achieved so at the
highest level already. I mean, Arthur Lydiard coached,
you know, multiple. Yeah, I think Snell so.
K. Peter Snell three times gold or
Lasse Veron? Yep, 4 times gold medallist.
Scanned and one of the best runners ever.
Scandinavian runner. So to this point, not to say
this is the equivalent getting published is the equivalent of a
blue check mark, but. He's got some expertise, this
fella. Yeah, the, the we talk about
running school. You know, who do you trust?
Who should you trust? If they're giving you run
advice, it's probably a pretty good person to trust.
Robert De Costello reckon you could probably trust his
thoughts on running. Well, it's funny you say that.
If you went and picked up that Arthur Lydiard book and read
that, I reckon 9 out of 10 times you're probably going to do
better than much. What's going out there on the
information web today? So, and it's because it's.
Simple, right? It's not overcomplicated.
No one's trying to sell you anything.
It's structured. Yep, it's easy.
And that wouldn't sell because it's too basic, but it just does
the simple things right. It's periodised right.
It gives you a training plan. And like I'm going to say, you
couldn't go too far wrong. But helping someone then to help
you on top of that, whose expertise in coaching would even
help more? And can I just, if you talk
amongst yourselves for a moment, what do you reckon do a, do you
think that you reckon you're going, Oh, you can buy this book
for 25 bucks online right now. Amazing.
You could go and buy that, that wealth of knowledge that this
book that you Courtney Atkinson, two time Olympian, one of our
greats is a it's a it's a running Bible for you, right
from a training perspective, It's a training Bible for you.
And you can get that for 25 bucks right now online, and you
can go away and you can silence all the noise of the running
industry and you can just quieten it all and sit down
there and read that book. But it's more than a, it's more
than a Bible. What do you, what's the word for
it when it's a, it's not even a theory.
It's a. Manifesto.
Yeah, I mean it's. It's an attitude towards
running. It's what I believe and, and,
and the reason I believe it is 'cause it's worked.
It's worked. It worked.
I'm just, I mean, no Olympic gold medal, but it was, it
reasonably worked. Oh.
Geez, Deeks isn't cheap. It's Deeks.
I mean, you might be looking. They mightn't have published
that many of those Dee books. I could be sitting on a gold
mine, I think an original I. Kid you not, do you know?
How much is it? I hope I didn't nick it off
someone else. There's only I'm, I'm on Amazon
right now, Deke making of Australia's world champion.
There's one left in stock that's $121.
Have a look in the inside cover. Yeah, it got gifted to you by
someone. Did it?
Yeah. Who?
To Michael, who have you stolen this from?
He like actually says to. Maybe it's it's it's not Mike
Shelley this. Is to Michael all the best for
88. You will certainly remember 87
from Chris and Jen or Jim. Who have you stolen this book
from? Well, I'm happy to give it back
to whoever it is. That's amazing.
This is the last time I ever bring out books.
Liam. I'm getting found out left,
right, centre here. So.
So running to the top. Available for purchase widely 25
bucks deke little bit more expensive if you really want to
get one. Courtney Atkinson's private
journal Priceless. Well, mate, I can't say all that
was enjoyable for me, but I'm glad you got something.
You got something out of it. Hope everyone else did.
That was amazing. Yeah, maybe we'll pull out some
old, old stuff again. Well, from your private journal
to the app version of data that we have moved.
Into the into the digital age, so you would know straw for
those who have Strava premium or not.
So this is for you also, Liam, at the end of the year, they
send you your stats, who you're in with most, a whole range of
stuff. Did you look at that this year
for yourself a little bit, a little bit, right.
So what I've got here is a few months on, it's the business
version. So when you see on Strava, you
have like the challenges, for example, you know, Nike or
whoever the brand is, the one we talked about the other week, the
name I couldn't pronounce, the Burrito, Burrito challenge 100%.
All of these challenges that are on Strava, they're businesses
investing there. Yeah, this is for the businesses
to understand what to look at, where the trends are, what's
happening in Strava for the year 24 and what you should be
looking at to do for the year 25.
So this is a little bit of inside information, but it's
public knowledge as well. So it's it's fine to share.
I'm going to go through a few things and.
Like your journal It. Is a little bit like my journal
because the first thing that pops up that the number one
trend is getting social war we sweat now they're saying one in
five Gen Z survey have been on a date with someone they met at a
group fitness activity this dating.
Say the number again One. In five Gen ZS, Yep have been on
a date with someone they met at a group fitness activity in
2004. OK. 2420 in 2024, so one in five
strike rate if you want to get a date.
Is that right? I guess that's a pretty good
hit, right? No, no, no, it's no, no, no.
It's not a one in five strike rate.
It's the it's the 2020% of the population or 20% of the of Gen
Z. Have met.
Have been on a date off the back of a run group or a gym group or
or something like that or a fun run or a walk or whatever it is.
High rocks. Yep, which would suggest that,
you know, OK, I guess it makes sense because you know, you're
up and out of bed. What was this version of
yourself I've? Seen the news talk about them
being you know run clubs being the new dating apps, but this is
you know that makes sense some information that's come through
that that's. Supposed one in five seems about
right too. Yeah, 20% of people.
You know a few people who've met and then absolutely kicked on
off run clubs here, Second one run clubs greater than
nightclubs. So four times more people say
they want to meet new people through a fitness group than at
a bar. Doesn't that doesn't surprise me
at all that that I feel like that's also a reflection of not
only the nightlife scene in Australia in particular, but
also the fitness booming scene. So that actually what that one
doesn't surprise me overly. Yeah, and I kind of we, we, we
chatted a while back about, you know, how do you make the new
nightclub? The new nightclub and those Nike
tried it with the sunset runs, Yeah.
Yeah, let me some of this stuff is probably not as interesting.
OK, this is an interesting stat. So how, how quick do you think
the average of all the people I've looked at at Strava
running, what do you think their average speed is in minutes per
kilometre? What do you think the average
person runs on? Can you say on average, but on
average? 5. 3622 minutes per kilometre.
Interesting. Interesting which?
Tells me there's a lot of runners out there who are
jogging. Yeah, a lot of joggers, a lot of
hobby joggers, and I think that's a nice number to remember
if you're one of those people out there just.
Starting out. Not only just starting out, but
maybe getting caught up in allowing other people's times
and distances to affect you mentally and discourage you from
posting or sharing or recording your data.
I'll be guilty of this, and I'm saying this to somebody who went
through this. Who didn't want to ever I went
through a phase on Strava of not ever wanting to share my runs
that were slower than 5 minute pace because all the people that
I was running with in Sydney were consistently running, you
know, low 4 minute K pace. And I was just like why am I
like why am I not getting faster?
Why am I running slower but? Remember 622?
That is right on average. Now, if you run slower than 622,
that's still OK. Well, this is average.
So it's like, yeah, you're going to run slower than that.
You're going to run quicker than that, But that's just the
average pace, you know, over, over all the users.
Now here we get into some of the the Gen Z like the the demos and
what what people think. So for Gen said, mental health
was the main goal for 2025. Main goal for 20 for this year.
So when? When you compare when I say the
main goal, 65% of Gen Z have mental health as a goal for 2025
in exercising OK verse Gen X now what's Gen X That's that's.
That's the age group above me. I'm a millennial.
I think Oh no I might be a Gen X.
I'm I think I'm on the border of Gen X as well.
Gen X years is 1965 to 1980. Yeah.
So that's Saudis. It's the, it's the demo above.
Mental health is less important to that generation.
That's inverse Gen Z kind of makes sense of what's going on
today and then vice versa. Longevity of being able to
exercise. That seems right on.
Yeah, obviously Gen Gen X then starts to really think about
why. Those younger people, Gen Z,
aren't actually at the point of thinking about their mortality
and ability to move around. But I also think it's like,
great that they've realised it, whether it's through social
media attracting them or telling them to do that.
Yeah. But I think it's also a good
thing to realise that exercise is healthy for you, not just
physically. The same reason we always say I
love getting down running. You know, it's, it's more than
just, you know, purely the endorphins you get out of it.
All right, let's move on a little bit because I want to get
to the shoes. I want to get to the.
Shoes. They always talk about shoes.
OK. What do you think is the number
one shoe and model on Strava used on Strava?
So when you know when you do your Strava run, you can choose
a shoe, plug it in. What would you say the number
one shoe is? So if you're playing along at
home or on your phone, what do you think if.
You're on your own right now. Lock it in.
We'll give you a few seconds to lock it in.
In your mind #1 shoe on Strava in Australia or is this
globally? It's global.
Globally, I'm going to say it's Nike.
I'm going to say Nike Pegasus.
Bang on the money. Is it 100%?
Why? Had we said Australia, I don't
know if you can break that. Delayed.
I don't know if you can break this down, but I would pivot and
say it's ASICS. I can't.
This is this is just me thinking
out loud, but I would say Nike's just too big.
Yep. Too big?
OK, Strava would love a breakdown per country.
And, and to that point, cause I've got a pair of the Pegasus,
it's a really easy entry shoe. It's your everyday runner, it's
your everyday trainer. For most people that might be
running 622 pace, it's probably, it's probably a great shoot to
run, Yeah. So anyone who thought it might
have been the Hoka that was second the Clifton, But what
really surprised me more than anything, and this is starting
to become less of less of a surprise as we keep talking week
to week, is the Brooks Ghost is number 3.
Number three, wow. Brooks is like this.
It's I think of Brooks, I think of Footlocker.
Yes. Yep.
You know, like my kid needs a pair of shoes to bash around in
the schoolyard. Probably.
Brooks Ghost. Brooks are doing a lot, a lot
around the influencer market, right?
They don't concentrate up there on the the elite area.
And maybe This is why it's showing through.
But yeah, Brooks Ghost was #3. OK.
We'll share that, Brooks. Definitely not having a go.
I just I was. Yeah, surprised me.
Surprised me. I would have thought.
I probably would have tried to. I would have guessed.
What would you would have said the other two may have been?
I would have had. You would have an.
ASICS in there, I would have had an ASICS Nova Blast or something
like that because of just because it's a good running
shoot and I might have thought that a few more runners and then
I probably would have actually gone to a New Balance A.
New Balance aren't in there even like Europeans being, you know,
such high population, like I would have like a Adidas or
Adidas like. I don't know enough about Brooks
as a brand, but I'm guessing it's American because I would
say that's a large proportion of.
Maybe we've got to start doing a little bit more research around
here because they keep popping up top tracking devices.
So what you use, and this is by model again, what would you say
is the most popular watch, Apple Watch?
Yep, the Apple Watch series take out number one and #2 what do
you think the most popular non Apple product used?
Is Garmin. Yeah, any.
More the I don't really know enough.
I know I've got a Forerunner 955 OK, but that's about the extent
of my. Garlic I can see why this is
number 3 because remember when I talked about what I want out of
AI want simplicity, I want simplicity, I want music and I
just want it to do what I need it to do and it and re
relatively cheap the forerunner 245.
For. This isn't the music version,
but it's literally the lightest, simpler.
I haven't got it around here. The lightest, simplest Garmin
that isn't like a basic model that I wouldn't.
Okay, so it's not I think that I don't know they're models off
hand, but they've got like an 80 or one all these different ones.
This is kind of the basic one I'd say that I'd trust for
running. Still does labs, still does a
whole range of stuff and they get a music version of it.
OK. I don't advocate for it like my
Santos, like have way, way more stuff going on in them, but I
use that one. More, but we've talked about
this and the need for what you really need in a watch and how
many people 12 months on from owning something whizbang, yeah,
might look back and go, jeez, I don't need 80% of this.
Yeah. I wonder if everyone's guessing
this guessing right now this is we go to the top running shoes
overall. So this might be more close to
what you're talking about. OK, top three.
So these are the top. Top running shoe brand overall.
No top running shoe brands for you.
So sorry, this is UK runners. Oh, OK, so this.
Is why did they throw UK in here all of a sudden?
Hopefully I haven't got this all wrong now.
This is just the one just for UK, the rest of it's OK so.
We're dividing. OK, well I'm just trying to
think I would still probably but this is.
Global like I could, I would still.
Probably have Nike at #1. Nike #1.
I would have Nike at #1 UK. I'd go add it as #2.
ASICS, ASICS #2 you were right in thinking ASICS was up there.
Number 3 ASICS. Would be #3 yeah, no, no ogre.
OK. So ASICS clearly has that
British market, which is interesting.
Yeah, it's weird why they put Britain in just that one and
then now they go back to anyway, OK, for those who, because there
are some triathletes who listen to this, I know from, you know,
people think so we'll talk. I'll throw the bikes in there.
Do you know much about your bike brands?
Trek. Number one trek, bang on the
money. I wouldn't have said that.
I would have said who's number two giant specialised.
Specialised. And giant come in #3.
I'm pretty happy to have got two out of the top three.
What do you ride, Liam? I ride a Cannondale.
I don't know what that's, I don't know.
I don't know. It's about that.
Can I tell you about my bike for those triathletes listening in?
My bike is too big for me because I bought it second hand
off somebody in Sydney in 2012 for 1500 bucks and so I've had
it for 12 years now it's done. 10 nurse tries serve me a treat.
Never. Never carried a single spare or
flat or puncture repair kit in any nurse triathlon I've done.
My attitude has always been I get a puncture I'm not meant to
finish. I cannon Cannondale, right?
Yeah. I'm just trying to think.
I got a feeling, so maybe this is what I can bring out when I
get back from where it's going. Now CAD 9.
Well, I kid you not, I think one of my Olympic frames that's in
that cupboard next to us. Yeah, is a Cannondale.
There you go. Have you got your frames here
still? Have you got your Olympic bike?
Frames 2. Olympic Bike.
Frames are just sitting in here. Really.
Maybe that's another show and tell for next week, but.
Can we just quickly, I'm making a mental note and a note for the
in the beginning podcast family. Yeah, don't let me forget to
create the audio version of the Courtney Atkinson Museum.
We've already explored a little bit with your journals.
We've dipped into your shoe museum a little bit, but I think
it's. You, you never, you never see it
anywhere. But no, no, no, this is an audio
product. Yes, I think you probably
underestimate how fascinating it is for the for the everyday
person like me to hear, to take a walk down memory lane of your
athletic career with you in person by tangibly touching
things like your journals and your shoes and all that.
So it's just a mental note and an audio note for everybody
listening. Don't let me forget to open the
Courtney Atkinson Museum. Yeah, well, we'll talk about
boyfriends. I only ever kept three OK and
strip them down 'cause I didn't. Didn't Now's not the time to go
into the museum. You keep going with your.
Presentation, like, yeah, my presentation, I sound like I'm a
it's definitely at work. Let's let's move through a few
of these a bit quicker. But more people use their phone
for Strava than watches, so 72% of uploads are by their phone.
That that doesn't surprise me. That seems to be right.
Surprise me, really. Yeah.
I mean, if you're, I suppose you're talking about all
activities, we're not just talking about running in that in
that place. Mm hmm.
But when it comes to running, here we go.
I'm just answer my question. When it comes to running, it
goes over to GPS watch. So marathoning is 92% of your
phone. Yeah, that you watch stuff.
I like this one. Hot or not, in 2025, we always
talk about trends, which respondents and who approve.
OK, Coordinated workout outfits. This happened.
This is Gold Coast Esplanade. Yeah, like this every day you
walk so. That's hot in 2025.
Is it coordinating your workout outfits?
Well, this one's done by men and women.
Oh, OK. It's split by men and women.
So 69% of women coordinated work want coordinated, 51% of men
want to coordinate. That's higher than I thought.
That's weird. That's basically.
For me, that's weird. Well, out of that basically
means out of you and me, one of us wants the workout outfit
coordinate that is, that's probably.
It's not me, it's. It's hard to coordinate your
workout idea when you take your shirt off all the time.
Yeah, high socks or ankle. Socks.
I know that high socks are in. Jen said 57%.
High. They're all about the high side.
You can't come up to the older gens and and they still run the
ankles. Little bit like the short shorts
I reckon. Yep.
What do we got? Old and oversized T shirts.
This is all that'll be in. It's gin.
Yeah. Box loose fit that it's not.
We're not in the muscle band era.
We're not in the. It's generational again mate.
So when we talk about trends, it's, we know it's the younger
crew who are, you know, well, they like the trends.
I think the older you're looking at, the older ages here are just
wanting to get out and run. Yeah, not surprising, no.
Anyway, that's that's really that's really.
Interesting 2024, a bit of a wrapper.
I would love to get that six monthly like I that's something
I'd genuinely like every quarter.
I'd be fascinated to know that sort of data about the running
industry. Well, even the personal, the
personal data that comes out around your own Strava stuff at
the end of the year, it's just fascinating.
Like, they know, I mean, they know everything, right?
They probably know more than the social media stuff half the time
because you're showing them where you are nearly every day,
where you run, where you. Yeah.
Did you? I heard something fascinating on
A and this is the the reality of the Internet and social media
and all the apps and all your phones and everything.
Is it it? It might be serving you a
purpose like strawberries, but ultimately the true agenda of it
is something else. Serving their purpose more.
I heard as I heard on a podcast about Pokemon Go, remember when
there was that phase back in what, 2012 or something 14 when
everyone started playing Pokémon Go and walking around the
streets trying to catch these things?
That and I don't know how true this is, I haven't checked it,
but the true reason for it was Geo mapping, right?
They were utilising the world, the population, everyone playing
these games to Geo map the world.
I mean, it, it makes sense, right?
Interesting. Have you have you heard of this
interval app? No, I don't know where to bring
this up. So Louis Phillips has got
something to do with it. Oh yes, and it's no, it's
Pokémon. You shared this with me.
Did I share it? I think.
So Louis the the Melbourne fella?
Yep, the runner. Yep, Yep, Yep, the.
Big Brother contestant turned runner.
Was he on big? Brother, how Are you sure he was
on Big Brother? I'm not sure, but what I do know
is there's much as I know about it.
I mean it, it doesn't really appeal to me, but it's making
running interesting for those who just want to get out there
and run. It sounds like you, you can
capture an area if you run there more and then you own that zone
and then someone can steal it off you.
So is it, I kind of saw it a bit like this.
Pokémon Go out and run somewhere, and then you're
trying to capture all these spots, and then there's a
competition of that's probably a really bad.
Ultimate free running game. To explain it, yeah.
It's a running game. What do you reckon of this?
For me, this won't catch on, no, and I can't explain why.
I did have a look at it when you first sent it through to me and
look, good luck to anybody who's involved in it and want to get
around it. I, I think there's a disconnect
between playing of games. Like, I think it's kind of like
you either want to game or you want to train.
Oh, there's a nice little catch phrase.
Put that on a T shirt. You either want to game or you
want to train. And I don't know if there's
enough of a crossover between the people who want to train
that might want to game at the same time.
And and that's what sounds like this is trying to achieve.
There might, I mean, there, there's obviously an audience
out there or you wouldn't, you know, get on that road.
I'm sure they've done some testing, but.
He was in season 15 of Big Brother.
Really, 'cause you're wondering? Yeah, I wonder if I must see
him. I'm now good runner.
I I I think I've told this story like I spent, I drove from Uluru
to King's Canyon with him one day and the Big Brother never
came up. And I was quizzing him on a
whole range of things. A lot of nutrition talk, but
there you go. There's a new new topic for next
time. Hey, I need to be honest with
you and in the beginning family, I haven't run in the shoes yet.
These one makes Chinese carbon shoes.
I haven't haven't run in them yet.
That is half my fault though, because I've brought this
episode. Well, we're rushed.
We're rushed. In fact, let's talk about why
we're rushed now. We're rushed.
We're recording this a lot earlier in the week than we
would because, because. We want to be in person and I
last minute am flying to Mauritius.
Yeah, for those of you like Courtney who didn't know where
Mauritius was when he said yesterday.
Well, look, hey, I knew it was over near Africa somewhere, but
I didn't know, I didn't know exactly where it was.
That doesn't count at. Least I knew what ocean it was
in. So East Coast of Africa, there's
a country called Madagascar, a Big Island.
I do know Madagascar. Yeah, it's about the same
distance off the East Coast of Madagascar as Madagascar is off
the East Coast of Africa. OK, you're flying, flying this
tiny little island. Yep, for what?
Out of the blue? I mean, This is why I love Red
Bull. This is you know what?
I told you at the beginning when we did this, we who you're never
going to be out of lock. You never know what's coming up
week to week. This is why.
I love Red Bull. Yep, and I don't work for them.
You do, but this is. In this case, I'm running for
them this week because what, what I'm going over there to do
is have a look at an event they're looking at running.
Now. Once I get over there, let's say
in the next episode, I'll go a lot more in depth because I'll
have the information. I don't have a lot of
information. I just got told.
Can you come over? This was a few days ago.
Can you get over here? I said amazingly, of course,
what are we doing? So partly I'm, we're going to
promote an event. So the hardest part of my job
would be to look good on film. The easy part of my job is also
probably to go and have a look at the course.
There's a trail run involved in this event for my understanding.
And I mean, I hope it's an epic trail run, but like, look at it
from a safety point of view, look at it from a running point
of view, a flow point of view, and help to make sure that when
this event goes live that, you know, everything's ticked off
nice and dandy. You probably don't appreciate
this, but you are. We're talking about this before
we start to record that you are uniquely positioned probably
globally. There's probably not a lot of
you that can actually do what you do, which is to A evaluate a
course from a safety perspective B evaluate a course from a race
perspective, as in run ability and performance.
Interest. How mate, is it interesting?
Film it and then also run it to the level that your winners.
We'll run it. The the you are uniquely you're
there. You have a very you're like Liam
Neeson. You have a unique set of skills.
You have a truly intaken in the film.
Yeah, yeah. You're like Liam Neeson's
character in Taken. You've built up a unique set of
skills which now has you position to when Red Bull calls
and says we need you in Mauritius.
You are a lot like Liam Neeson's character in Taken.
Actually, you can say yes to this.
This is, and again, I don't work for Red Bull.
I love Red Bull for this reason that they pick up the phone to
you and say, hey, we need you to get to Mauritius to evaluate
this race we're gonna put. On yeah and I it's so cool and
mate I even get excited on these ones it's awesome where it's
just like you know I was going about my day one day and the
next day you're like have you got enough time to get yeah get
over there and then you know gotta be back next week at a
certain time but yeah we can make it work it's.
So exciting and I'm now more now I'm already excited for next
week. That's next week, but that's why
you haven't done your. That's why haven't because I
said. Before I get on a plane tonight,
let's let's jump on and and get this done so.
I haven't yet run in the Chinese carbons.
I've had a lot of people ask me about them though, but they are
in my car ready to do. I'm going to go out and do an
interval session. OK, well, while we're talking
about shoes, I'm going to keep stocking you up because I said,
I said the gift, the joke gift was the shoes.
Well, they may not turn out to be a joke, who knows?
But the real gift was still in the mail and I'll give it a good
pair of Salomon have sent you. You know, this is in the lead up
to our Salomon Golden Trail series at Kanani that we're
running. So this is the new.
I saw you post about these. So these are the Ultra, What are
they on there? Ultra Glide 3 This is their new
trail shoe this. Is the Ultra glide.
This is the. Third version of their trail
shoe. Now it's got this like.
In French, blue lunar rock and cherry tomato.
Yeah. Do you like the colour?
I do, yeah. Talk to me about.
So what I was posting is the the S lab version of this shoe,
which is like, you know, the top of their range, $400.00 plus
shoe. This is the more stock standard
that I want you to try first. I'm also running in these to
give them a go. And if you like these and if you
want to run in them, then we're going to get you in the elites
for no, absolutely no excuses. But the purpose of that, if you,
if you can see on the camera, it's got this soul and, and the
purpose around it is that as you're running over trail and
rocks and roots, the sole will actually conform a little bit
more. Think like when you go 4 wheel
driving and you let your tyres down on sand or let your tyres
down on mud, or you let your tyres down to be able to go
across roots and that type of thing a lot easier.
This is a super responsive sole with a lot of rubber, but then
also has that same type of purpose of being able to like
give you good contact on the trail.
This is a very different like shoe.
It is very different. I'm interested to see what you
think. I ran in it, not a lot in it and
I was out on a kind of flatter trail, so I didn't give it a
great test. I ran in on the weekend for the
first time out at the property, out on the farm where I was
riding bikes. And initially when I ran the
1st, I take back sometimes you know what a shoe is going to
because when I put it on I was actually like, I'm not sure.
I'm not sure. By the end of that run I was
falling forward and running well and it's soft and I'm looking
forward to taking on some technical trails to try.
I'm really interested to try this because it feels very just
in my hand. I'm don't even know about my
shoe yet but it feels very different to sense ride.
Is that what I've been running in?
Central Ride Central ride was quite hard.
Yeah, the sense ride which I which I like running in.
Different. This feels like a different
generation, different generation of shoes.
So you're looking at probably more, you know, what you're
seeing coming out in Rd shoes from, you know, Nova blasts and
asses and a whole range of things like the big, you know,
there's a lot of rubber. Lot of rubber and.
It's really responsive. And I'm really interested to see
how this sole goes, because yeah, it does.
It's. Got like golf ball dimples all
over. It's yeah, this, it's quite a,
it's quite an innovative shoe. It's like, it's like the like
the the sole of it has been hail damaged, yes, but you know,
that's what I expect the bonnet of a car to look like after a
hailstorm. Yeah.
And I mean the the just from a trail running perspective the
the tread pattern isn't overly aggressive so.
There's not big thick lugs on that.
There's a lot of. Huge, you know, it's not a super
aggressive, so whether those dimples or hail damage as you
called it actually add to that grippiness because there's like
the underneath the lugs, the sole of the shoe isn't flat.
Tell you what tell tell the good people at Salomon.
Feel free to use that as the descriptive.
I'm not. Sure.
What was? That the hail damage.
The hail damage. Got the hail damage so I.
Think I think the the golf ball damages probably.
That's amazing and I'll get out and have.
A try. We do want to hear about the
Chinese ones. I've now got shoes to review.
You're starting to start. Travels and I've got the Chinese
I'm genuinely excited running the in the Chinese carbon plate
shoes and we had somebody hit us up I don't have his details to
hand who uses the just. A training version the.
Training version of those mix 1 Chinese carbon plate shoes. 95
bucks for training version shoes loves them so you know there's
something to it. We haven't got to help.
Well, we haven't had a full week, but what have you been
doing running? Run week.
Just quickly, I will jump into this because I think it was last
week or the week before I mentioned that I would had
something of a I'd hit a bit of a, a dead end with my threshold
runs. I've been sort of essentially
reluctant to jump into anything quick.
Yes. And then I went and did a quick
run and felt great. I'm actually off the back of the
most recent week I'm, I've now got a similar mental block
around long runs because I, I've got another 4 1/2 hour week of
running behind me. I'm, I'm being fairly
consistent. I think probably the last month
I'm stacking up 50K weeks anywhere between 4 1/2 to five
hours depending on how much trail running I'm doing as part
of that. So my training's actually quite
consistent from a kilometres and time on feet perspective, but on
the weekend, Saturday and Sunday, I had the intention of
doing a long run both days now. So 2 long runs, well, long the.
Intention was to run longer on Sunday morning, OK.
And I ended up pulling up at about 14 KS.
I'd run for an hour and 10 minutes or thereabouts.
I'd done 14 KS. I had to get to the kids
swimming lessons. I slept in.
I had a bit of a sleep in and so I called it right.
But then I walked away and I kind of went.
Well, I haven't really done a long run.
And then Sunday arrives and I had, it was on BBQ duty at the
Nippers with my kids. So we went from that after
Nippers we went to, I went back home and had a bunch of house
stuff to do. I think there was something
there's another chore in there or something.
But then ended up going around to my in laws for my mother in
law's birthday and basically it got to Sunday evening and I
still hadn't run. And so I took my shoes and stuff
with me to my in laws house and thinking well I'll run home and
I'll try and turn this into a long.
Run. I saw this on Strava and
wondered. And, and running from Tweed
Heads back to my joint and I ended up and it was a 16K run,
right, But still not really a long run.
And I think I could have kept going and turned it into a 20K
session or you know, a hour 45 run.
But again, I pulled up and I and I don't quite know why short of
going, there's just a bit of a mental block at the moment in my
head about running if I'm, unless I'm out in the trail.
Because if I've been up in the rain the last couple of weekends
on and off and there's that 17 K loop in there, which takes me
somewhere around an hour, 45 hour 50.
And that's fine. It's a loop and I know I'm going
to complete it and I'll get back.
But this mental block I've got in my head at the little moment
which I need to get past because I want to do marathons this year
and I want to run well of that sort of 20 K 2 hour barrier that
I'm just having to kind of process in my head at the moment
of working through. And I don't know why.
And I don't really have a reason for it other than I just haven't
been able to go through it and make the time and concentrated
effort to. This has to be a over 2 hour run
or this has to be a 20K plus run.
But I think, I think the way to get around that is find someone
as soon as you go out and run with someone and you're
accountable to, you know, you said the other week when you ran
with Rosie out in the forest and you ran 17K and then we were
going to run on it last weekend and I said you wanted to do 2
hours. Well, if I was running with you,
that's a good point, you would do the two hours.
I'd drag you through the two hours, but that's what that that
that's the accountability of having someone to run,
especially like long runs. I think we made that point last
week when we were talking about why is everyone doing them on a
Sunday. Well, part it was a great answer
around you want to do it with others sometimes as better doing
it with others and most people do it on a Sunday.
So because that's what makes sense.
But you always find someone else to keep you accountable.
And I think that's how you'll get over that little bit of a
hump. Thank you.
How's your running week? We'll talk about long runs who
went on a 30 KR I know on on Sunday.
So. 30 KS on the dirt. On the dirt, so I was out.
I actually went out to my brother in law's property.
Main reason was I got my I was explained last week.
I got my motorbike back where on the motor?
Yep, blown the engine. So I took my son out and the
family and we went out riding. But it's also an amazing place
to run because so you're out the back of Warwick, you're on,
there's just dirt roads throughout the properties out
there. Now, I've looked a few times of
where this particular property area is and there's a loop that
goes around. And if I want to do the loop, I
know it's 30 K. So the decision then becomes, do
I run down the road 10K and back down and pack 10K and I can
handle 20K? Yep.
But I've been really wanting to run.
So this weekend on us, I'm I'm going out before I get on the
ball. I'm going to get up early, I'm
going to get this done. But then I'm thinking 30K is a
damn long way and this is undulating.
OK, let's make this a bit easier.
Let's do 5K easy, and then let's do 5K and a bit better tempo.
So I had a goal. I wanted to be my heart rate to
be between 1:30 to 1:40 for the 1st 5K and then between 1:40 to
1:50 for the next 5K. Yeah, three times.
So you bring it back down. Yeah, I wanted to do like 5K
easy, 5K tempo, 5K easy, 5K tempo, 5K easy, ideally 5K
tempo. Can I just quickly where you're
talking heart rate there for a moment, How hard is it for you
to, once you've elevated into that 151 one, 4150 range to
bring it back down? Like how dramatically was your
third 5K time wise from your first five?
K Well, a little bit of the story was I haven't, I've driven
around this loop, I've never run it.
And I didn't realise this, the way back on the other side of
this loop is uphill the whole way.
So I was running, I was obviously running easy to begin
with because it was slightly skewed downhill, but all the
time. But to answer your question
around how like it's quite a significant change that team
beats the easier running. I was clocking along at probably
around about that 4:30 to four minute, like a 4:15 to four 30s.
Now in that first 5K tempo, I did see a three A 332 split in
there a little bit quick. Yeah, because my the wheels fell
off. I haven't, I haven't gone out
and run. We've run 2 hours in the forest,
even 2 hours 10 where we're just jogging around the trails, but
haven't really got out there and done that kind of long just on
the flat. Yeah.
You know, kind of like just on a road where you just got to keep
turning the legs, turning the legs.
So I was a bit hunger flooded by the end of it.
I had a gel at about an hour 30 still didn't really help.
The last UK were pretty disgusting to be honest.
What did you run out there with like nutrition wise?
Oh, nothing. I just got up, had a coffee, and
then I had a gel with me at an hour and a half into the run or
an hour 40 into the run. That's it.
Yeah. You didn't have any hydration?
No, jeez, I paid. I paid for it to a degree.
There it is. I got back.
I got back on the bikes. We rode all day and then when I
finally got home to unpack, then I started getting head spins and
and stuff like that. Now what where I'm going with
this? Like I'm glad I got out there
because it gives me a bit of a benchmark to know.
Yep, I haven't done that for a long time.
So it kind of gave me a benchmark to know.
Benchmarking Run. You've heard that before.
Yep, and what it made me think was the next two mornings I've
got up I've been hungry. That run has affected me over a
few days now. I'm still trying to play catch
up. So what happened on that run and
depleting myself on that run has now caused me two days of pain.
And when I say pain, not like painful.
No pain. In the sense that I haven't been
able to do what I wanted to do for the next two mornings.
So this morning on a Tuesday, when I wanted to go down and run
fart like with the boys at the spit, I had to take it easy and
pull up. And I'm a bit sore and there's a
whole range of things going on which I'm kind of a bit of
annoyed about. But at the same time, if you
don't do it, you don't know. This is, do you know what's
coming back to me is there was a somebody told me after I ran 1/2
marathon in September last year and said APB and then found
myself frustrated about my running a week later.
Somebody told me, yeah, that's because you pushed your body to
somewhere it hasn't been before or been in a while.
Been in a while so. I think that person was Courtney
Atkins. That was pretty much it mate.
What I just, yeah, so great place to run.
Got out for a long run and and I'm kind of paying for it a
little bit now, but yeah, right, wouldn't change it.
No how now I want to go and run. Now I've got to find someone to
run a long. So this so this week I mean I
have no idea what running will look like this week I.
You're literally getting on a plane after we finish this.
Yep, we press stop and you you're off to the airport.
Straight up to Brizzy going some of it we didn't know last, but I
don't even know like I don't know what I mean I do I did have
a quick look at the map and I see there's a big National Park
there, so I'm I'm hoping it's you know pretty great running
through there I. Speak French there, by the way.
That's the reason they're going. I speak French.
That's not going to help me. The capital is Port Louis, or
Port Louis probably, as they say, have.
I told you one of my big regrets around French.
No. Are we?
Stated. Is it in this journal?
No. It's it's.
Because I feel like everything else is it's it's.
Later, later than the journal. Now look, because we, I was
residing I suppose in France for about 6 years, like six months
here, six months there and back and forth.
But because we're with all the Aussies and we had like Aussie
masseurs, Aussie physios, you know, coaches to talk at the
pool and everything, I never except for a bit of restaurant
French when we have to go and eat.
I never, ever bothered. You know, there's all those
times you look back and, you know, I said how excited I am to
get to go away and do these things.
But then there's also a lot of things I look back at and go,
oh, have you only had your time over again?
Like the, the you, you take it for granted at the time.
I suppose that's what I'm trying to say.
And now I'm kind of like looking at those opportunities, having a
bit like a bit of a longer view at it going, yeah, they're too
good to miss. What I'll say to you, the French
stuff, it's not too late, not too late to learn some French,
not too late to do all that sort of stuff.
The I, I did French at high school for seven years, did it
in year 12. And I remember, I'll tell the
story very quickly because we have gone how long we did, We
did the time. All right, we're going all
right. It was over in Biarritz, down
the South of France with Alana and we, we're down there for the
surfing. It had been a series of errors
from a planning perspective. The campsite we were staying at
was miles away from the beach, and we ended up basically having
a hitchhike everywhere this entire time we were down there.
Now, when we first got to Beiritz, my French extended as
far as asking everybody, do you speak English in French?
And most of them all spoke English, so just spoke in
English. As it turned out, when we were
flying back to London, where we were living at the time, we
needed to fly out of Beiritz. We're staying.
We're up the coast in Hausigur about two hours and then as we
got to the bus stop on the Sunday, I read the sign in
French. I went, I'm pretty sure that
says buses don't run on Sundays. We then had to hitchhike to make
a sign up and hitchhike proper down to back to the airport.
And we ended up by this point we'd all we'd both hit hit our
limits and we were hysterical and things we weren't angry or
frustrated. We were just laughing about how
silly the whole situation was. This whole couple picked us up
in the car. Now he spoke English like I
spoke French and Alana didn't speak French and this bloke's
wife didn't speak English. So I'm in the front with him.
Alana and the wife are in the back not talking to each other,
smiling. And he and I, and remember 3-4
days earlier the extent of my French was do you speak English?
By the end of this car trip, we were I was talking with him
about the idea of Quebec seceding from Canada and
becoming its own country. That's how quickly.
The French. Comes back when necessity
dictates that part of your brain to reactivate.
So I would say to you mate, you're about to go to Mauritius.
Just jump into some French. You reckon 5 days I'll come back
fluid? Just try it mate, try your hand.
What is it palevo on angle? Yeah, Palevo angle.
There you go. You start.
Yeah. And you're away and you're
bilingual now. Courtney, this is great.
This is great. I'm genuinely so excited for you
to get Mauritius. This is, I can't wait to hear
about this next week on the on the podcast quickly before I've
got one more thing. Sorry.
OK, this idea, I want to, I want to put it out to the podcast
family very quickly. I text you about this the other
day, a video series, an extension of the podcast called
Courtney Villa. This is the idea of explaining,
wow, I haven't quite figured it out in my head yet.
I probably should have thought about it more, but the idea
being you and I race now, we can't race match race, right?
We can't race head to head because it just, we know how
that race ends every time. But what I'm thinking is in my
head, it's like a game of golf. Well, I know where we can start,
Liam. I know exactly where you're
going with this, Kinani Salomon Golden.
Trail Salomon, Golden Trail, Kanani.
Well, you we have a handicap. We have a handicap race, right?
We you give me it's we we work out of time and I'm going to say
I'm going to outrun you by. Yep.
Whatever minutes I haven't. Even now, we're going to have to
I. Haven't even looked at the
course of the application but this.
Is because this in my head, we can do this from everything from
Park Run Yep, to the Narain Trail to the marathon later this
year. We can do it over every, we can
do all these things. But I do like the idea of, I
think it was because you sent me that that video of the the race
of the one pro chasing down all those amateur runners in that
uphill Japan race. All the Rebel 400 up the stage
jump. And there's that one guy trying
to chase down all the amateurs. Trying to get.
Through them in my head I went, oh that would be a fun race idea
if Courtney has to start park run 4 minutes behind me and see
if he can chase me down. Sounds like a.
Plan. Anyway, I'm gonna keep working
on that. We'll keep, we'll keep working
on that idea. Have before we go have you?
Have you seen this trend where people wearing their Apple
Watches on their on their ankle? No, and I don't want to say it.
What do you mean they're wearing it on their ankle?
It's a trend, a trend. Trend.
It's not a trend A. Trend of gym goers putting the
Apple Watch on their ankle. Why?
This is a full on trend happening.
Why even your dog's upset about it?
Yeah, the dog's gone nuts. Yeah, he is upset about it.
I'm upset. I'm upset about.
It is there a? Is there a reason?
I think it's got, so I've read that it's got to do with
someone's come out and said when I wear my Apple Watch, I want it
on my on my wrist. If I'm lifting weights and that
type of thing, it can get in the way.
We'll take it off. But here's 5 reasons.
OK, can I yell at these five reasons?
Five reasons why OK it it it defeats the whole purpose.
Oh, these are the five reasons it defeats you.
Are you? No, no.
Well, it defeats the whole purpose.
Well, I don't know. I've got 5 reasons.
I'll just pick that out of the air.
But well, so the only reason I can see it being purposeful is
yeah for steps. But if you only want your steps
out of a watch. Then keep it on your wrist.
Oh go and get one of those trackers that don't do do
anything other than that the heart rate works better on the
wrist. I can't see it working real
great on the ankle for most people.
I don't think it actually. You'd have to change the band to
be larger to fit around your ankle.
Yep, you got to damage that watch at some point.
Yep. Which Apple watches aren't
cheap? Nope.
And then finally, and I did steal this one look like you
just come out of prison. Don't wear your Apple Watch.
Don't wear your. Apple Watch Don't get a marathon
tattoo or wear your Apple Watch around your ankles, right?
We don't like, we don't like dictating here on In the
Beginning Pub. We're never going to tell you
how to run or what to weave. We're corny.
I love that you'll only ever give your advice based on what
works for you, but here's some things we.
Will definitely say I'm definitely saying just don't
wear it on your. Ankle.
Don't wear it on your ankle anyway.
Anyway mate, well we'll see where we get to.
Travels. Yep.
So when are you back? I will be back next.
I've got to be down in Sydney next Wednesday the 26th.
Yep. So I'm back when.
Are you back here? When are you back here?
Friday. Saturday.
OK, so we're going to do an app next.
Week we We will probably be online next.
But it might be maybe on the computes.
Let's see, let's see where we end up.
But hopefully I've got some interesting stories to tell.
Can I please have a fridge magnet from Mauritius?
I'll see what I can do. Later.
Thanks mate. We'll see you next week.
See you next week.