In the beginning podcast episode 5.
Courtney, Good afternoon to you all the way from the US of A.
Well, it is night time. I mean, yeah, things change
very, very quickly around here. And since we spoke last week,
I've I've ended up in LA of all places.
Now we're gonna get to it, because what you're doing over
there for the fitness folk out there, for the runners, for just
people who like looking at, I guess, health stuff online.
I'm really excited to hear about what you're doing specifically.
Before we get to that, we're gonna kick off with the results
from this week's In the Beginning Instagram poll.
Which was which Aussie marathon do you want to run in 2025?
We know marathons are having a moment in Australia right now.
40,000 people at the Melbourne Marathon Festival.
We had 30,000 at the Gold Coast earlier this year.
Sydney's on it's way to becoming a major, so the options were
Gold Coast, Sydney, Melbourne or other.
The winner Gold Coast Marathon in a can to 239%.
Want to run the Gold Coast Marathon in 2025?
Sydney 20%, Melbourne 21% and other came in at 20% as well.
So there's other marathons that people want to run out there
just as much as Sydney and Melbourne, but Gold Coast the
the the runaway leader. Yeah, and I mean there was great
numbers who chimed in again. So it's not, you know, we're not
talking to a few people here. Maybe we have a bit of a skew of
a QLD audience, but I don't think so because I I would find
that Queenslanders probably want to travel.
Maybe what we've got here is we talked about runs being
experiences. Do the Southerners or want to
come up the Queensland to run and it's a fast course.
Well, they want to move up here, so it makes sense that they
probably want to run up the in fact, the day we're recording is
I bumped into AFL player Jake Melksham, who's up here on in
his offseason and you know, he's probably coming to the end of
his career in the next couple of years or so.
And he's talking about how wonderful it is on the Gold
Coast as well. And he's up here doing a bunch
of fitness stuff and riding and all the rest of it.
So it is an amazing place to to live and train.
And I can understand why 39% of people who joined in the poll on
Instagram wanted to run the Gold Coast in 2025.
I do. This is something we'll look at
probably a bit later on this year because we know Courtney
how quickly the Gold Coast Marathon sold out and precinct
sold out six months in advance for 2024.
Well, it sounds like it sounds like it's going to sell out even
quicker on that poll. But and a big announcement
during the week for the Gold Coast Marathon that ASICS are
now on board until 2032. It looks as though Gold Coast
might be the Olympic marathon location as well for Brisbane
when it comes to town. So marathon running, you know,
is strong, You know, we know it's strong in the country right
now, but it's particularly strong on the Gold Coast are.
You sure? Are you sure on that stat yet
about the marathon being on the Gold Coast?
And is that we've had this discussion, haven't we?
Triathlon on the Sunshine Coast Marathon Gold.
Coast, You and I had this discussion on a run previously
about the idea that Noosa, obviously Sunshine Coast,
obviously hosts a world class triathlon.
Every year the Gold Coast hosts a world class marathon.
And yet the early conversation was that the two would switch
and that Noosa would host the marathon.
And the Gold Coast, because of the Broadwater swimming area,
would be a better place to host the triathlon because as you
explained to it, you explained it to me, the Olympic marathon,
they can't hold it in like open ocean.
The triathlon. Yeah, the triathlon.
Well, I mean, they did in Rio, so it's debatable, OK.
So I'm not sure. Exactly why that is.
To put a pin in that the ASICS announcement that happened
during the week, there was no commitment that Gold Coast would
be the location for the marathon.
It was more just a little bit of, I guess, joining the dots in
that this new partnership has been made between ASICS and
Event Management Queensland for the next eight years in the lead
up. And perhaps it's an it's an
logical planning or an easy jump to make that Gold Coast would
then be the venue for the Olympic marathon.
But again, still up in the air all.
Right, with that long A, Obviously they've committed that
long. Do they do a special shoe assics
for the Gold Coast Marathon like they do for the Noosa Triathlon?
Do they? Have you've seen the NUSA
Triathlon? Race.
I've raced in the I've raced in the NUSA Triathlon show a couple
of times. I really like.
It So do they have a do they have a Gold Coast Marathon?
Version of that No they do not if for any of those dolphins at
ASICS listening. Maybe I thought you might add
some early. Insight in that didn't but but I
know that they do. ASICS do the for in their meta
speeds. They've had the meta speed Paris
and the meta speed Tokyo. They have come out with city
themed shoes previously. I'd love to run in a meta speed
Gold Coast. What would you what would you
put on a Gold Coast shoes? What kind of shoe would you?
What would come out on a Gold Coast shoe?
Well, a meta speed GC is what I'm going to call it, the meta
speed GC32 for the Olympic 32 look.
It's got the colour way. You've got to think it's almost
borderline fluoro yellow. Like it's, it's got to be fluoro
yellow and Blues. There's got to be bright, bold
colours. Do you reckon they could just do
a pair of like thongs? So running a running shoe and
just that the graphics on it are literally a pair of thongs.
So you've got however many people running the marathon on
the Gold Coast and it looks like they're in thongs.
It's a. Good idea.
Well, flip flops if you're in the States or wherever you're.
If there's any, if there's any, if there's any talented graphic
designers or talented designer people listening to this, feel
free to design the Gold Coast Marathon shoe and we'll take it
to our six. We'll come to some sort of an
agreement on a percentage split when these shoes go absolutely
gangbusters. But of course, let's talk about
you. Why?
What are you doing in the States?
What are doing? Abroad, nothing like organising
a flight 2 days before you go somewhere.
But look, I, I think all this talk of us doing this podcast
and you know, I've been getting excited talking about running,
We've been talking about goals. Obviously Red Bull heard that
too. And I have got over after all
the accidents we've talked about I've had and you know, I've got
bodies a little bit imbalance. So I've decided to come over to
for the week to Santa Monica. So Santa Monica and LA to the
Red Bull Athlete Performance Centre.
So it's AI suppose it's not a secret, but it kind of is a
little bit of an exclusive secret performance centre.
So think about something like the Australian Institute of
Sport, but just for Red Bull athletes.
So there's two of them globally at the moment.
I've actually got a feeling Christian Protraca is over in
the close to Salzburg in the European base and I've come
across the Pacific to the American base.
So the goal for me is really about longevity and really
trying to work out, OK, let's get serious, a little bit
serious again about where I'm going and what I'm going to do.
And you come to this centre with experts at this place from, you
know, every like if you're talking, you know, medical
people, strength and conditioning psychologists,
Chaopra, everything you can imagine under the one's son, all
the diagnostic kind of equipment you need, ultrasounds,
everything else. But I've come with to them
going, I want longevity. My body is beaten up at the
moment. Let's get myself back balanced
and I want to be running great again.
Which would be a new challenge May.
Courtney run Great again. That's a slogan.
Well, there's our first hat, but that would be a new challenge
for them because as you mentioned, Christian Petrarca
and I know Travis spoke, another Red Bull athlete has spent time
at these centres as well. And these are guys in the at
their peak who are looking to maximise their peak, less
worried about what how they're travelling in 10-15 years time.
How have they responded to the challenge of getting Courtney
Atkinson, you know, fitting and at his best for the long term?
Surprising I, I kind of in my time 20 years at Red Bull, so
I've avoided this place because they love testing you and when I
mean testing is like putting you through the ringers on trying to
get your data and everything else.
What have they done? What have they put?
What have they put you through? So to begin with simply I've
sent all my last two years of scans.
So when I I had a bad rolled ankle two years ago, which kind
of set set in a race, I rolled the ankle, pulled some ligaments
off the bone and that really set everything in motion that, you
know, I was a bit unbalanced, you know, a little bit of
stability issues. Then obviously I had a calf go
last year and I think that stemmed a lot from that original
ankle and then the three accidents on bikes and
everything else going on over the past few weeks.
So All in all, mate, I'm just a walk and train wreck and we're
here to straighten up. So sent the scans over, they
look at it, told me get over here in two days, let's sort
this out sooner than later. Went in physical assessment.
So seeing how those older injuries have kind of
recuperated or come back with ultrasound.
So looking at the muscle fibres, looking at where nerves are,
everything like that. And then the next stage is
diagnostic testing. So if you looked at my socials
and I actually shared it on the In the Beginning podcast socials
as well, you would explain me on, you know, knee machines,
ankle machines that's doing all baseline testing around, you
know, where the strength is lying at the moment, where my
weaknesses are leg to leg. And then today we started on the
process of, you know, small exercises to try and improve
that. Saw a dietitian for the first
time in, in you know, since my time at the IAS probably six
years ago. And look, that was, that was an
interesting experience as well, because I, again, I don't have
the same goals as what, you know, a Christian protractor or
someone going to the Olympic triathlon at the moment is going
for. I'm literally like walking in
there going, Hey, I travel a whole lot in my my daily life
now I'm eating at service stations, probably going through
the Mac as drive through a bit too.
Much. And So what?
But So what do they say that say to that?
So the focus of that, always think about it in specifics so
you can look at yourself as an athlete generally, you can
listen to all the elite information, you know that you
can read on the Internet and everything else.
But I go in there with one problem I want to solve.
So for, for from my diet perspective, the one problem I
was trying to solve is when I walk down the steps in the
morning after getting out of bed, I am sore.
Now most people go, well, that's age.
Yeah, it is. Of course it's age, but there's
something more underlying there. I want to, I want to walk down
the steps and not be as sore in the morning.
So when I go out for my run, I'm ready to go and it's a little
bit better. Now look, we're not going to
change it, you know, completely flip that.
But I want to look at ways, what can I do eating with the my
daily life, with the challenges of how I've got to travel and
work and, you know, all the different commitments, I
suppose, how can I fix that up and go forward?
So that was what we're talking about today.
And did they give, give you like can you, can you give us
something just straightforward and tangible that they told you
from a, from a diet perspective? So we're going to do, we're
going to focus on protein and most people go here of course,
like that makes sense recovery protein you didn't.
Have to go all the way to Santa Monica to to know that yet.
That that very true, very true, But it's actually the timing
timing of the protein, but also looking at how I'm how I have
been eating daily and where I eat, how how quickly I eat after
training. But it's more like, in a
nutshell, the summary is more eating protein more often during
the day versus having larger chunks of protein at just like.
Once or twice a day, so turning you into a grazer instead of a
binger. Yeah, But really focused on the
protein because like from a calorie point of view, I don't
really have challenges, you know, if I'm not massive eater
and I'm still running a fair bit.
So weight, I'm not here to try and lose massive amount of
weight or anything like that. It was purely about how can I
make my body feel better. And that's the same thing with
all the diagnostics around what we're looking at of trying to,
let's say, put the body back into balance, you know, get my
get equal drive off my calves. And look, I'm only two days here
in, so I haven't got all the answers to that yet.
But you know, when we're talking about experts, you've got people
here. What the beauty, I suppose, of
the Red Bull kind of ecosystem in elite sport is we're not
talking about just runners and triathletes here.
So if I told you who was in there, I've got to kill you
because, you know, that's a secret.
But if you think about a centre, like there's only what were
there, there's there's seven athletes here this week.
That's it. So you've got the whole centre
or in this pretty probably 20 staff in there and they're
dealing with seven athletes from Red Bull athletes and that's in
their problem. So as you can imagine, you get
pretty specialised in personal treatment.
We and I mean, you know, the Red Bull as as F1 drivers has
surfers, has athletes within team sports all over the world.
So yeah, I get the sense of they have this ability to cater to
athletes from all around the planet.
Just getting back to the nutrition stuff from a an as you
were talking about it for you, someone who has been and is
still at the elite level of competing.
I'm listening to it as somebody very much on the amateur level
who could do with the very simple equation of operating in,
what is it, calorie deficit, basically using up more calories
than I consume on a daily basis. And I think there'd be a lot of
people out there who are the same, which is like, I could be
a better runner if I was carrying a little bit less
weight just because that's how it's easier to run when you're a
bit lighter. But there would also be people
listening to these who are, they don't like you.
They don't actually need to lose any weight, but knowing that,
that there's specificity in the timing that you eat your protein
and all that sort of stuff and the way you eat your protein
would be really interesting for them as well.
So that's, that's, yeah. Nice.
So what, So what's next? Now you've done the, you've done
the baseline testing, you've done the dietary stuff.
What, what's, how many more days are you there for?
What? What else is on the on the
plate? Yeah, so here for the rest of
the week, so it's a Monday to Friday, 5 day stint and a lot of
the work will actually be done once when I get home.
And over the months, years coming, you know, you'll
obviously stay in contact. But if you look at, I suppose
tomorrow, I'm in bio mechanics, so I'll be on the big treadmill
in the lab tomorrow. And most people when they think
labs and running, they'll be thinking of all the apparatus
and the VO twos and all the oxygen.
None of that for me because like we said, there's like a real
purpose, really single purpose of why I'm here.
And it's around trying to get the muscles and the and the body
back moving in the right, you know, getting mobility back
right, getting the muscles balanced again.
So tomorrow's all about run by a mechanics, and this is I haven't
done it yet. I'm sitting here listening to
this and I wouldn't have thought you had deficiencies.
That's just how I bought because you and I have run together and
I know what you're elite athlete, you know, Olympics and
all that, but I wouldn't have thought you would have
deficiencies in your, in your bio mechanics from a running
perspective. I've found it strange that yeah,
you're going to be those that exist are going to be
highlighted to you tomorrow. Yeah, I mean, even to the basic,
the basics of like calf size from leg to leg, you know, I've
got quite a like a extra large right calf.
You know, I'm pushing off differently from calf to calf.
Now that's not an issue because it doesn't hamper my running.
But if we start to talk about like how to be most efficient
and most economical, these are like the the small things we're
looking at. So this is very different to
we're going to touch on it later about running technique and cues
once we go through our weeks, because I think that's important
to differentiate what I'm talking about around muscles
and, and trying to become more efficient with actually trying
to change your running style. Okay, So what I'm trying to do
is actually utilise the muscles like push off the toes equally
versus having a favoured leg because of some of the injuries
that I've had recently versus come here to look at my bio
mechanics to completely change my run technique.
That's something I definitely will not be doing because I've
had experience with that in the past and it has been an absolute
disaster. But we'll get that.
We'll get in to you later. We'll.
Get into a bit of that a bit later.
So just to wrap up, yeah, like I'm here this week with like the
surfers. There's actually a young lady
from Sale GP here. Oh wow.
So sales, yeah, on the big boats does the IT was like what
Kyhurst, what Kyhurst used to do with these hands yeah, pretty
yeah, pretty much when both me and Liam here are like turning
our hands over on it like a. Witch for those that for those
that can't see it and it's it's like when you see somebody who
doesn't know what they're doing on one of those boxing bags and
that you try to keep spinning the what are the speed bag?
That's what I'm talking about when you try and get on the
speed bag, except with a hand either side of that.
We're pretty much cannot think of the the sailing term for it,
but someone 100% though. But yeah, surface, there's
skaters in there recovering, rehab, some people are just in
their training and yeah, it's like it's always super cool.
And that's, that's my favourite thing about Red Bull and being
involved with that business is, you know, it's never about my
sport, it's never about anyone's sport.
We're just all one big group all kind of trying to, you know, I
think the slogan in is there and the slogan in there's like, you
know, fuck the limits. It's a rare, it's, I did see
that on one of your socials as well.
It is a, it is a rare brand. I think over the course of this
podcast, I would like to explore some other parts of the Red Bull
business and the stuff they do because I, I love the brand and
I think that it's such a, the brand is everywhere.
But I, I would, I, I think some of the stuff they do is, is
super cool. In fact, I was training this
morning with a fella by the name of Aza, Aaron Graham, who runs
Pro Guarding, which is the lifeguarding service.
And he's on his way down to Sydney because he's he's going
to be doing the water safety for the extreme diving event that's
happening down in Sydney, which Red Bull has an involvement as
well. So.
Red what is it? Red Bull Cliff diving world
champs. Yeah, so.
Literally build A7 Storey high rise on the Sydney Harbour and
jump off it. Nuts.
You'll you'll, you'll do that right?
No, no, that will never be. I get, I get weak knees at the
on the three metre springboard just a bit.
Speaking of that, and I know you've got some interesting run
technique stuff that you've been discovering.
We're going to get to in a moment.
Quickly though my week, I had a wedding down in Sydney, which
was a pretty big wedding. I had a couple of dusty runs.
I haven't been as active as I as I would have liked this week,
but I did go on train this morning and you talk we talk a
bit about trying new things and all then you know for you right
now dirt bike riding is is you're a beginner, right?
You're you're a beginner level of that and you get inside a
rookie. You're a rookie right.
This morning I didn't exercise for the very first time and
failed spectacularly. People would have seen and you
it's often surf as you see doing it watermen and women that that
exercise. I don't know if you've done it
according where you pick drop down to the bottom of the ocean
with a rock and then try and run along the ocean floor.
You ever done that? No, but I I know exactly what
you're talking about. And, and people out there will
know what I'm talking about this morning.
Whippet Bondi Rescue, fame who fame who runs these courses had
us do this in Corumbin Creek. We were doing it in partners and
your partner would go down, run along with the rock and then as
soon as they dropped it, you were meant to go down, pick up
the rock and take it in turns. A little relay session my
partner started. Problem is and we've talked
about how bad I am at swimming, there was quite a strong current
running back in. It was the current was coming in
and my partner dropped the rock. But we would at a point of we're
at a depth where basically I couldn't get down to the rock
and when I got there by the time I got down to the rock.
I couldn't pick the thing up because I was out of breath.
So I, like everybody else, was kind of progressing their way up
the Creek with these rocks. And meanwhile Micah, my partner
and I were just floundering back at the start line because I'm, I
can't, I can't do this now. What in the end had to happen is
that Micah went back down, got the rock and brought it to a
shallower part of the Creek. So essentially I didn't have to
dive down to pick this thing up, but I could just bend over, pick
this thing up and kind of walk to sort of forehead.
So you're, you're at knee, knee level.
It was exactly I was at Shin Hut waiting with a rock in my hands.
But it was And then when the truth is when we turned around
and came back with the current, it was much easier.
And Micah said to me after we finished my partner, he said it
looked awesome. I put my head under a couple of
times and what should I do? And it looked like it looked
like the videos you see of somebody.
But it was humbling as hell. It was, it was.
I enjoyed it and I'd love to try it again, but it was an
incredibly humbling moment on in the exercise front for me this
morning. On the exercise so your that's
your new your new challenge under the water there in Crumble
Creek can you can you actually see no the.
Clarity was real. To see the person.
Clarity was really good this morning.
Yeah, it was nice. No men in grey suits.
Don't. Don't bring them up.
I don't. If you're referring to the
bodies, I don't want to think about them when I'm down there.
Right in the alley there they'd be.
I don't want to Sure they're like floating around.
I don't want to think about the bodies out there, Courtney
referring to sharks. There's no need to bring those
up. We're talking about interesting,
let's say group activities. I over here so I'm staying down
in Santa Monica and I walked down to the pier for dinner last
night and as I walked out I sent you this video of a run group
under the pier. There would have been 200
people, but the crazy thing was, and I haven't seen this before,
three. I think there was 3 ladies in
the group who had a beatbox, boom box, boom box attached to
their back like a boom box backpack and then they all ran
off. Interesting.
What do you think? Really interesting.
What's your? Take on it because I've got a
very strong opinion. I think you should get one for
Adsys Group and I think, I think I'm going to yeah, maybe that's
your Christmas present, Liam and Backpack Boombox.
Now what I'll say is you choose your run group, right?
Everybody chooses the run group that they want to be a part of.
If I if if the run groups that I'm a part of, if anybody ever
turns up with one of those boom boxes beat by whatever you want
to call them on strapped to their back.
It's not I don't need a soundtrack when I'm running.
If I'm tick, if I'm running in a group, the last thing I want is
a soundtrack of somebody else's choosing to me.
And look, I'll be honest, that clip and we might even put it up
on on the we'll put it up on the Instagram in the beginning
podcast on Instagram. You can see what we're talking
about it. It did look fun, but that would
be a one off adventure for me. That would be a one time
participation. With a group like that, there is
no way I'm turning back up to that sort of a group week on
week. No way unless I'm single and
looking for love. But I'm not so I won't.
It seemed like the sort of place you could try and hit it off
with somebody after you run. But the idea of it's a bit.
I don't like it when people's music infringes on me at the
beach. I don't like it when people are
rolling with speakers at the beach in crowded sections.
If you're on a quiet beach on your own, fill your boots.
But if you're in a crowded beach like I, I don't.
I don't want to hear your choice in music, Frankly.
Yeah. Mate, each to their own but I
reckon it could be a gap. I reckon we can see this down at
Burley. I think it's prime prime for a
Burley run group with. Screams Burley, Screams Bondi.
Yep, Yep it. You know the tan in Melbourne?
These are the sort of these the ultra popular running spots is
exactly the sort of place where you would It wouldn't surprise
me to start seeing these backpack boom boxes pop up and
and people running to a soundtrack.
Yeah, well, we might look at where we can purchase one of
them for your Liam. But what else have I got up to
running wise more interesting. I got, I got up in the trails
behind I think they call it Pacific Palisades.
I've said that wrong for sure is.
That Runyon Canyon, is that, am I saying that wrong or is that
in a different part? Yeah.
Let's just say one of the Los Angeles canyons out the back and
I hadn't been up there before, but great running quickly like I
ran 15K give or take 615 metres avert in that like yeah, solid.
And this is like what surprised me, I suppose was it was a 15
well, 1015 minute drive and I was in the trails up the top of
the mountains and great afternoon.
Couldn't complain and. That's what that, and I know
Gold Coast has this, Adelaide has this as a city as well.
Sydney depends on where you live, obviously, and and
Melbourne not so much as well. But again, that ability to
access trails without having to drive an hour and a half is, is
incredible. And I think as a result, you see
people getting into trail running when they can get there
within, as you say, 15 minutes. But I.
Travel Travel's Digitator. I've seen clips of people
running those trails and it does look amazing.
Do you know if there's any races organised events through some of
those trails? No idea.
I really haven't spent a lot of time here in definitely in Los
Angeles. I mean, I spent a little bit of
time racing across different places in America and we spent a
bit of time training. One year I stayed a boulder for
I think 5 months, four months doing some training.
But no, I haven't spent a lot of time in America.
One thing I did come across though, which I had no idea.
Rattlesnakes. So are they more dangerous?
Would you rather be got by a rattler or a brown?
I think, and I'm saying this without an educat, I think brown
snakes are the worst. I think, I think when it comes
to snakes, we are top of the pile.
Australia we are. We've we've got most of them.
We've nailed it. We've Yeah, we've nailed.
It so I've got a so that that talking that's coming across
because, you know, no, I didn't come I'd come across a sign and
I just thought and my first thought was, are they really
that bad? Or is it you know where we're
jumping over Browns? You know, every so often here is
it you know, just oh, there's a snake, he'll run away.
But my first what what I always think about when I see signs or
I think about snakes or we see one out in the trails is what
would you do? And I had this conversation with
doctors a lot. So we all know what to do if you
get bitten by a snake. So let's say you get bitten by a
brown snake or red belly or something out the back of the
Gold Coast. You're an hour away from getting
back to the trail. You're out of mobile reception.
You ideally you have a snake bandage or T shirt or something
on you. But all of the doctors I've
spoken to say the best way to beat the snake venom in that
case is you're going to sit down, rest and wait it out.
Would you sit down, rest and wait it out if you know no one's
coming for you for 24 hours and you've just been bitten by a big
brown? Well, yeah, because you've just
told me that's what that's what doctors say.
Because you've just told me that's what the doctors
recommend. Would you?
I well, I've, I've had half an hour conversations in my head
about this, debating to myself of what would I do?
Because on one hand, yeah, like you sit down, no one, you know,
the venom goes through you, you feel a bit sick, but you know,
you can, you can manage it. And then, you know, 24 hours
later, you, you get up and you walk out.
On the flip side, he really doesn't sit there knowing that
you've just been struck by a big brown snake.
And then just sit there going, Oh, you know, she'll be right,
mate, no stress. Or do you just try and like keep
your heart rate down and slowly walk out of there?
Look, when when we're not advocating for either here,
let's just say everyone makes their own choice.
But I really think as much as I know the answers to stay still
and stay, yeah, I reckon you'd struggle.
I I, I reckon I'd struggle. I reckon I'd try and get out of.
There. Well, put it this way, Courtney,
If we weren't running together, I'd prefer I'd, I know what I
no, no, no. I would prefer that I was the
one who got bit because you're more of a chance to get help
quickly. If you got bit, I'm every chance
to have to walk, run back because I'm cooked like it's
going to be. You're in for a long way if
you're the one that gets bit while we go running.
Could be 24 hours. Yeah, No.
But anyway, that's whoa whoa. It's probably 24 hours actually,
now that I think about. It well, if you get lost, if you
get lost on the trails. And you know how I go in those
Nerang trails, I still do not know my way around actually.
Well, the answer, the other answer to the snake stuff is run
like I run, run really heavy, run really heavy foot.
So they can hear you coming from a long way away.
So the week change you had the wedding down in Sydney.
Yeah. And then this weekend I'm having
a in fact, the day we drop this app, the day people listening to
it, I've got my 40th birthday, which are coming along too for a
drink. Are you gonna be back in?
Time in the States and I've I've just realised I'm gonna have to
send my rain check on that one mate.
We can't send a rain check. To Sunday morning.
We can't send a rain check because we're not having it
again. We can have another 40th just
for me. We can have a joint.
No I am having sorry mate, no I won't be there.
Unfortunately I don't get it back in till Sunday morning.
Well, we might still be going actually Sunday morning, but the
point is my wife and I having joint fortieths this the day
that you that you might be listening to this podcast.
So this weekend might be another tiny write off for me as well.
I'm not exactly flying into Noosa this year from a
preparation perspective, but I've made peace with that.
I'm OK. And this is the life of an
amateur athlete when you have a full time job and you have
social commitments as well. Sometimes I think, and I had
this thought this morning, was that because I know, because I
might beat myself up over this in days or weeks or years gone
by, the idea of wanting to smash Noosa in a couple of weeks time
but having all these other things, I'm OK with it.
I sent APB and a half marathon 3-4 weeks ago.
I'm OK with the fact that I'm not going to set the world on
fire at Noosa in a couple of weeks time.
But that's OK because I'm really enjoying where my exercise is AT
and I'm going to have a bloody huge party with a bunch of my
mates on on Saturday for my 40th and my wife's 40th.
So I'm OK with that. It's a good way to be mate, I
reckon. Because you know, when it comes
to let's say you're racing amateur or just racing for the
sake you're doing it like I do, see sport can be very addictive.
When you're after a goal and you wanna be do everything right, it
can be very addictive. But in the end, if sport's not
your bread and butter, you're not gonna lose your job over
sport. I, I believe and I, I know that
now, there's a lot more important things in life than,
you know, that one more training session you can get done.
So, you know, everyone's gonna be different on what their
priorities are. But you know, I'm always on the
side of mate, there's a lot more important things you can always
catch back up. Another training session,
another time. That's right, you can't miss a
40th birthday. Well, unless you're in at the
Red Bull Performance Centre in in LA, in which case apparently
you can. Now I feel really bad.
But.
So we're on to running, running techniques or running queues and
what works. So off the back of my off the
back of what I was talking about being here and looking at bio
mechanics, which is different to this.
I had a so this would be going back.
I've got a story from about 10 years ago.
So at the time I was at the Australian Institute, a sport.
I was, you know, I guess I was probably in between Beijing and
London Olympics. You know, I was right in the
programme, Full Time Triathlon Australia sent an expert out
from all places, the USA to help us all with our running
techniques. Let's just say it was an
absolute bloody disaster. I don't think I've so much so I
don't think I've run as free as what I did prior to that after
that day. Now the reason I say that is
everyone's got like, yes, everyone can improve efficiency
running, there's no doubt about that.
And there's certain cues and we'll go through this that you
can implement, but they're going to be different for everyone.
But what is very difficult to do running is completely in your
head. Change the way you run.
Now, the way I say that is and, and what came about is I had
this guy come out, you know, at the time, I was arguably one of
the few best viewer in the world in triathlon just to give where
the landscape is here. It wasn't like I needed to
change things majorly. And it was also the case, but
we're always looking for these. You know you're looking at the.
One Percenters. Half a percent exactly.
And also you're probably at the point, the point where you luck
that you're as good as you possibly can be and, and the
blokes around you and it just comes down to a bit of luck in a
race. True.
And I always with the 1% as we just mentioned, always go like
if you have 51% as you do, does that make you improve 50%?
No, it's impossible, right. I mean it's crazy.
It's not how it works, but this guy can't he's so he comes out
from the States and he's an expert on running technique.
He comes into my house and I remember it playing.
I'm sitting in like I had a projector up on the wall in my
lounge room and he puts up some canyons running.
And then he puts me up next to it on the video and starts to
explain to me that I'm not swaying my, you know, I'm not
turning my shoulders enough. And you know, I need more arm
swing and a whole range of stuff.
And what I was thinking at the time, you know, like you just
believe an expert's an expert, you believe and you, you want to
believe an expert's an expert. You want to believe you're going
to improve about a week later. So we've looked at this.
He's like, this is the Canyon. These are the best in the world.
That's how they run. This is how you're running,
right? And I'm a triathlete running off
the bike, very, very different scenario.
And I'm a I'm a runner who's come from a position of being
obviously very naturally running as a kid.
I want to see swimming and then suddenly I just one day could
run. So the process of me running
came very naturally. About a week later I was in the
forest running with Michael Shelley.
And we used to do this like 30 K.
It would go out and back in the forest and he turned and looked
at me and he said what the heck, what is wrong with you today?
And he could tell something had significantly changed in my
running and it was my shoulders. So, you know, we're always
taught to relax in the shoulders.
But for some reason the cue and the techniques this American
expert had given me was to to roll my shoulders forward and
really like roll with my arms. And that upper body movement
would obviously help with the with my running.
Just anybody who's listening to this while they're on their run,
stop rolling your shoulders right now because I know you've
started doing it. Just stop it.
Go back to however you were running before.
Continue calling. So I said to Mike, yeah, like, I
know I've got, you know, this is the new way we're doing it.
You know, this is what I've been told and and this is going to
improve me and everything else. And it was an absolute disaster.
It, I, I went from running as free and as easy and never
thinking about running in my life to from that day, from that
week on, all I do is think about what I'm doing running.
And that's what I, well, that's where this whole story was
leading. It wasn't the fact that the
running, you know, that changed me because you should be able
to, you think you should just be able to go back to how you ran.
The thing was, I never could. I never actually realised how I
was running. I'd never thought about it.
It was all just by feel. And then as soon as someone put
into my head this is how you should run, suddenly the wheels
fell off and the and all I could think about and it was stiff and
I was just never got back. And then genie's out of the
bottle and you can never UN put it back in there.
Can't put it back in mate. Then over the years, you know,
like I'm, I'm very attuned because of this to running what
I call queues. And when I say running queues,
it's like you'll hear someone say to you, you know, you know,
maybe feel like you're running, pull your belly button forward
so you get your hips up. Someone might say, lift your
hips. The other day I was running
along the beach and I was like, I got into a bit of rhythm and I
thought, do you know what? I feel good again.
I feel like I'm nearly riding my bike.
My legs, my, my heels were kind of coming up hitting my bum and
I had good movement. And I thought the cue I'm
thinking about at the moment is I feel like I'm spinning on my
bike. And it felt great.
So where I'm going with this, and this is a question I want to
ask you, is what running queues have you been told that you
think work for you? Right.
I've got 2 and as soon as you started explaining them, because
I've never had technical running coaching, I've never really
needed it. I've never been at a level
that's, you know, warranted having professional coaching as
soon as you started talking about it.
I've got 2/1 was given to me by friend of the show, friend of
both of us. Reedy Bondi rescues Reedy, who
great runner in his own right, really solid runner and just
gave me the little cheat code of hinge at the the bend at the
hips, that slight lean forward, not not bend over, but just that
slight lean forward when you're running just to give yourself
that. You know, it's almost like if
you if you start falling forward, you, you naturally
speed up to try and catch yourself.
And if you kind of implement that a little bit when you're
feeling fatigued later on in a race, the hinge forward, it kind
of forces you to go forces your legs to keep up a little bit.
That was one. The other one from Adsi who's
run group I run with is the when I'm running quicker or trying to
run faster is are you driving through your big toe?
Are you? I like that one.
Yeah, I like that one as well. I'd never thought of it before.
And I reckon he was 12 months ago.
He said we're doing, you know, some efforts, some 1K efforts on
the way back. And for me, we were getting down
into my fast side. So we're running like sort of a
three 5345K pace, which is quick for me and I was running well.
And as he just as he does arrogantly cruise past me
because it's conversation pace for him.
But he cruised past and just said make sure you're running,
make sure you're driving through your big toes.
Are you driving through your big toes?
And I'd never thought about it before.
And instantly I noticed that I was very much driving, probably
pushing off the outside two or three, my pinky toe and the
whatever's next to it. And then all of a sudden it felt
like I was kind of almost straightening up my feet a
little bit. So driving through your big toe
and hinging at the hip is the is the 2 running cues.
That's what works for you, right?
And it's not going to work. This is the thing, the cues
because when you were saying hinging at the hips end, I was
like, oh, are you hinging backwards?
What, where, where are you going with this?
Because. Hinging is probably not the
right one, it's just a little lean.
And this is what's so I, I, I think specific to individuals,
when you give cues, you can give, you can say a cue and
give, let's say it might be advise or it might be a
suggestion, but you've got to work out yourself really quickly
whether that cue works for you. So even back in the day, there
were triathletes doing a technique where they'd tie
rubber band like a, like a long elastic rubber band.
And this came from a run coach technique where they would tie
it to their, I'm just trying to think.
It went around their shoulders, I think, and then to the back of
the heel, which would actually help with the hamstring drive up
and down to get the heel to their butt.
So it was nearly like you talked about falling forward with
gravity. What they would effectively
doing was pulling their logo from the ground as quick as
possible in a really free and, and relaxed motion and just
falling forward. So if you think of putting
rubber bands on the back of your legs and just put those rubber
bands, pulling your feet up as quick as they can and they would
run around a track and do that as the technique training.
So I mean, there's, there's so many different ways to look at
it. I I I like the one when you're
getting tired around where your knees are going.
Is where you're gonna go. Well, so explain that to me.
So so so. Lifting you when you're getting
really tired, right knee drive obviously is one thing that
decreases. So but then if you said to
someone as a cue, well, lift your knees higher, the automatic
reaction would be to lift your knees vertically higher.
Yeah, but you actually don't want to be going vertical.
You want to be going in the direction you where where you're
heading. So if you think about pulling
your knees towards on a vertical plane towards where you want to
go, that's actually helping your momentum to go forward first.
It's. Almost like push.
Off the ground, straight away. When, if people have ever done a
mountain climber when they're on the ground, that action where
you're driving your knees. Pretty much.
I mean the same, the same theory around pushing a sled in rehab
or recovery. You're at that angle where
you're actually pushing forward in the motion or the range of
motion and where you want to go. I've just thought of another
running queue that which is about for running hills, which
and is the idea of arm swing because again, I'm, I've, I've
never had what you talked about where it's like, I've never
thought about how I'm running because I haven't really needed
to. And then when we were, I was
doing a hill session one day or running with some undulation in
there. And the, again, Addie was the
one who made the comment up these hills, focus on your arm
swing, focus on your arm swing. And it, it effectively it for me
now it has two effects in that I, it's, it's a driver.
It does feel like I actually gained momentum in by driving my
arms, but it also makes me forget about my legs being
tight. So it has to because I start
thinking about another body part and I don't think about the
fatigue that's in my legs. Well, that works as well.
Just take, take, take the mind off what what's hurting and what
you're not thinking about. So last one and this one, I'm
not going to take credit for this one.
When we're running, when I used to run long runs with hills in
it with Mike Shelley, he was always big on when you're
running uphill, keep the same cadence.
You're running on the flat. So don't like over stride up.
Like just because you're getting into a hill, you don't need to
put in all that extra pressure and do these massive big strides
that are going to tie yourself out up the hill.
So my challenge running with Mike, who was obviously a
quicker runner than I was, definitely over more of a
marathon distance. I would like be trying to hang
on to him and I would just follow his cadence and why he
ran a marathon so well was he was able just to run, you know,
with this quick cadence and the same cadence foot strike and and
never change that he had the ability to run it.
You know, I don't know what California, I don't know what
his cadence was running. But let's just for argument,
say, say it was a, you know, 180 steps a minute, which is about
rule of thumb. But the difference is I would
start at that 180 with him and then eventually I'd get tired
and have to slow down. Yeah, and go to a longer stride
where I'd try to use more force or a longer stride.
And he was always just able to continually do that.
So I always keep that, that in the back of my mind too.
And so much show that when I have some.
What would you say? Sometimes when I'm really stuck
on my running coming back and I'm not sure I'll even use a
metronome. I'll even just put, you know,
like the old one playing a piano and just, and I'll just put it
on 90. It's 180 steps.
Yep. And just hit one leg at 909090.
I was gonna ask you so because that idea of or cadence or, or
BPMS, you know, from if you're a musical person for I've, it's
fascinating because when I had some calf injuries previously,
the physio I went and saw at the running room in Sydney,
basically Paddy Mac tried to get me to speed up my cadence.
He said the way you run, we gotta, you know, we're gonna try
and take a bit of pressure off your cadence by upping or up
pressure off your calves. Sorry, by upping your cadence,
but then the other I didn't experiment.
I don't know if I've told you about this before, but rich role
for if people love their fitness and their running stuff might
have heard of Rich on his podcast once he talked about
beats per minute, your cadence when you're running and there's
a a cadence. I think it's a 184, which is
kind of considered the the world record breaking BPM of like
that's at that cadence is where a lot of world records on the
track have been broken. And it's also it works out to be
the cadence of the song Rock Lobster by the B50 twos.
Have I told you this story? No.
No, but you know that song, Rock Lobster, that song, right?
And so I listened to that podcast and I heard that story
and then I went out to Keira Park Run and I put Rock Lobster
on repeat for like, and I think the song goes for like 6
minutes. So and basically I tried to run
to the bait for did it work? This park run?
What I learned is I can't run a hundred 184 BP like it's it was
too the cadence was too quick for me.
Having said that, I think I still, I think I still run a a
1926 or something, which for me is is a good strong park run
performance at 5 KA time. But it was I reckon I was
probably at about the 2 1/2 K mark is where I lost the bait.
I just couldn't, I just couldn't maintain the cadence.
But I tried it and it was an interesting exercise.
So if anybody else ever wants to give it a crack, just whack
rock. Just do it for one, one repeat
of the song. Put Rock Lobster on and try and
run to that cadence of the beat of the song and see how it feels
because it's it's, it's an interesting exercise.
And while Liam's living in the past songs, I've got my my
cadence song that my go to and I was just scrolling Spotify then
to find it is get by by Dallas Woods.
So Aussie, Aussie rapper. And that's my like if I need a
beat and I want to run like to a tempo, yeah, that's my tempo.
I'm not exactly sure what the tempo is, but it would be around
that 180, you know? OK, a good I'm gonna try so.
I'm gonna try your tempo running time but.
That's Dallas Woods. Get by.
It's amazing that Spotify and and other music providers that
these things now exist. Like, did you ever, you know, we
live in a world where you can specify a tempo songs to a tempo
that you want to run to. It's in, you know, again, you
talk about fitness, having a moment.
There's 180 beats per minute song lists.
Yes, literally type, search it, type it in and and there you go.
So, so running queues to wrap that up.
These are what we do, right? But it's not about it's about
what what finding what works for you.
So my advice, I suppose, is everyone doesn't have the
answer. You got to kind of find the
answer to yourself. You know, you try a few
different things and one you you know when it works because
you'll you'll feel different. And if you feel awkward or if it
feels awkward or, you know, it's kind of like, Jeez, this is, you
know, I'm kind of going backwards here, you know, not to
do it. So that brings me full circle
because we're on this, we're on this kind of like line of
questioning about what works. And we've just given a lot of
probably advice we shouldn't of or we've given what we do.
So my question is, how much experience then do you need to
call yourself a run coach now? In the first episode we talked
about yourself giving running advice, Liam, but I'm now
thinking about at a like a higher level because with the
running boom at the moment, everywhere I look there is an
online run coach. Everywhere I look someone is
selling me on Instagram a run session or a run programme.
What do you as? Let's say you, you know, a 90
minute half marathon runner, consider you need inexperience
to call yourself run coach? So for me, for me to take
somebody seriously as a run coach, I re honestly, the thing
that get would get me to somebody as a run coach is a
personal testimony from somebody I know and and trust as a
runner, if that makes sense. That doesn't mean that there has
to be of your level, but I would want somebody who I know is a
good runner to recommend somebody because the reality is
the world we live in now is such that how can, if you want to, if
you want to be cynical about it, how Can you believe what anybody
tells you about their qualifications?
You know, we trust in experts when they say they're experts.
But, you know, so ultimately it's up to you to to decide who
you're going to put your trust in.
But I will look for personal testimonies of people that I
know as being good runners or all that I know have trained,
you know, for example, Spot Anderson in in Sydney, who years
and years and years of experience training triathletes
and and runners in in Sydney. Now I didn't know he had all
those years and years and years and years and years of
experience when I went to Spot. I went to Spot because somebody
on you said, Hey, you should go and train with Spot.
He's really good, he'll get you ready.
And I was training for my first ever Noosa.
He said he'll get you ready. So I was looking for someone to
give me from a really low base to a competent base and I
enjoyed the sessions and all the rest of that.
And I don't know if Spot's got any formal training or formal
qualifications whatsoever. He competed at a pretty decent
level. So that's, you know, and I've
seen photos of him doing that. So I guess that's good enough.
But I guess in the same way that I know you competed at the level
you did, so if you offered me some run advice or if you said,
yeah, I'll I'll coach you, I'll, I'll make a programme for you, I
would trust in it. But This is why I can't ask the
question, because I wouldn't trust in me.
Oh, no, that's I'll take, I'll take that what I just said.
No, because the reason I say that is I've I know what I need
to do. I have a pretty good
understanding after 20 years of what I need to do, but I'm not I
wouldn't feel confident in in getting someone.
And I've tried with my brother to be really honest.
And I've then sent him on to someone that I know has the
expertise to go and help him get to a sub three hour marathon.
But when I tried to get into a sub three hour marathon, I, I
don't know the pace, I don't know the pace.
I don't know, you know, what his recovery is being I want.
I would send someone to someone with an expertise that has
proven not just once, but over and over again, they can take
runners of that standard to the times they want.
That's an interesting qualification that I like the
way you put that. Then they can proven that they
can take runners of that standard.
That's, that's the, that's the key point, isn't it?
Because you're right. I don't want someone who might
train or who might have, you know, been responsible for
training Jen Gregson or or Jess Stenson or, you know, somebody
of that level. I don't want them trying to
train me because it's probably a waste of their time for a
starters but also they specialise at the elite end of
the the business. And I'm not, I'm not saying
there isn't running coaches out there who have had experience at
all these levels. But what I'm saying is at the
moment with the, you know, the rise of the run coach, the
online run coach and the run groups, you know, at what level
of expertise have they got to help the runner at that level?
Like a good example is if I was wanting to run, for argument's
sake, a 230 marathon, I I wouldn't want to be going to
someone who's got a group and training a whole heap of guys to
go under 4 hours for the first time.
It doesn't make sense. So why does it make sense for
someone wanting to break 3 hours or like let's go for a three
hours 30 to be going to someone who can run a 210 or a 215 and
getting their advice from them? See, that's, I mean look
different, that's real. And look, that is an interesting
point. And run clubs are, and that's
where you and I, we talked a bit about the idea of run clubs off
air previously that you get these, you get some run clubs
where there is a leader and then you get some who's kind of in
charge. But often it's the same loop and
it's the same distance and it's run at your own pace.
So it's actually not really a coaching session, it's a run
session. And then you get the run groups
where there is somebody essentially giving you a
session. But it's a question of, I was
talking to a mate who's part of a, a run group in Adelaide
called the Prospect Run Club. And he's taken to it recently.
And I was, so I was really interested because I was talking
to him about the podcast and he was, I said, why do you like
this? Why do you keep going back to
this run group? What is it about this run group
that has kept you going back? And he said, well, I, I, I like
the distance we run. I like the speed we run at the
his, his mate who runs it gets up there at the start and says,
righto guys. So essentially there's two
speeds. Is that for those of you that
are going to run quickly, which I think for them is probably
somewheres under 430, this is the person who's going to be on
the front of that train, as it were.
You got you, you're starting off with them in, in 2 minutes.
And for everybody else who's going to run, you know, 5
minutes and slower, this is the person at the front of the
train. You guys are going to go off in
there. So it's, it's kind of like it's
not a coaching session, but it's, it's just you're splitting
off in the groups. I, I always look at.
I think ultimately if you are looking for a target and you
want to achieve a a, go and find a coach, a paid session, go and
find someone who's who's charging you per session because
that tells me that they're confident in their ability.
I like where you went with that and I'm going to take it one
step further because I think in my head I just worked out what
is the difference between a run coach and a run leader, let's
say, or a run group, someone who just literally gives go and do
this. So a run coach should understand
you as an individual and understand what your goals are
and have a structured programme to individually suit you to
achieve the goal you want. Now what that, how you run in
that structure and the paces and everything else to achieve that
goal isn't going to be the same as the guy running next to you.
There's going to be some individualisation of that and
that takes time, that takes expertise and it also takes an
understanding of how to periodise training.
So periodise training. I'm starting to use some.
No, this is good. This is good industry.
Words. No, this is good.
So periodise training, just simply like if it was a, you
know, you're talking about a, it could be a year build, it could
be multi year build, it could be just a 12 week build.
But it's understanding how to load the training, the load, the
volume and load the intensity over that period up to your goal
race in the appropriate way to one be allow recovery and that
from that recovery recovery allow you to improve going out
every week and just running a session.
You're not going to get the maximal bang for your buck.
No, And that's the difference between having a run coach and
just joining in. And having a run club as a
leader that's yeah, that's, that is the key difference is
improvement. Run club leaders aren't actually
necessarily going to help you improve.
You you'll run, you'll stay healthy and you'll do exercise
and you and you'll enjoy it. But you're neck and there's no
targeted improvement for you as an individual athlete.
That's it's this, this is great. We've resolved that you just
when you mentioned that period I was training, someone suggested
to me and it's great. I love it when people are coming
up to me, whether it's via socials or in person.
I've had several people come up in person about the podcast.
Someone said to me, he's like, can you get Courtney to?
And he's a really good runner, by the way, but he's like, can
you get Courtney to explain the benefits of certain running
sessions? So we'll do this and I'll and
I'll brief you on it so you can prepare.
But he said, you know, and it might seem simple, but he's
like, why is fart like good? And he's a good like this is a
guy who can run probably a 2. I think he's probably a 245
marathon runner and he's a really, he's a really strong,
what do they call in the surf? Life saving when you get out of
the big boats. Oh, like a a rower?
Yeah, well, he's a rower. Essentially, he's a.
Really good Bodie Bodie, he's a goodie.
He's competed at national level for bodies.
He's a, he's just a very good aerobic athlete.
But he said, like I, I'm a good athlete, but I don't understand
why Fart Lake is good and I don't understand why interval
sessions are good and I don't. And he said I would really be.
It would be really interesting to hear Courtney explain why
these sessions are good and what they do specifically for
runners. What what, what the purpose is
and what the outcome should be? Yeah.
When you do these sets. All right, we'll, we'll.
Write that so you've got some homework.
And get through it. So 11 last question, just so we
cover the whole topic around this coach is if I if I go and
see a doctor, I want that doctor to have gone to doctor school,
university, Dr school, right? Always check, so always check
that your doctor has been to doctor school and if they don't
have something on the wall that says I graduated from doctor
school, you turn around and you walk out that door.
Probably shouldn't probably shouldn't trust them to like
operate on you. Now look doctor to running Cage
might be a bit of an extreme, but the the premise holds as a
run coach like is because I went and ran a 245 marathon, does
that qualify for me to be a run coach?
No. Or should a run coach actually
have a qualification? Should a run coach had have had
to go and do some type of like coaching course?
Interesting. Interesting.
Because to, to, and I don't know the answer.
To coach in the Premier League or in the English football
leagues, you need to have a coaching badge.
You need to have done a coat. Now you might be the best.
Now theoretically you could be the best coach in the world.
But if you haven't completed your FIFA coaching badges, my
understanding is you're not allowed to coach.
You're not qualified to coach in that league, which is brings
it's an interesting conversation because I imagine if you're a
coach and you would know, imagine if you're a coach
involved with the AIS, you need to bring qualifications to the
table from a from athletic school, if you will well.
Yeah, triathlon school, athletic school, whatever the school is.
Yeah. I mean, there's, there's levels
of coaching certificates out there, right, that you go in A
and you know, you do your level 1 and then you, you learn about
periodisation and you learn about all of these traits that
help runners run. Now someone who is suddenly
becomes an online coach because they've got a great following or
they've got a run group and they don't have that coaching, you
know, background. And like, I'm not saying it's
right or wrong here. I'm just posing the question,
you know, does that hold merit if you have gone and done some
type of education in coaching? I'm looking up as we as we talk
here, Athletics Australia offers a Recreational Running Coach
accreditation which is designed specifically for coaches working
with adult recreational runners aged 18 and up, offering a
nationally recognised qualification.
That is fascinating. OK, so.
A better question may because look, I'm pretty sure I know the
answer to what I've asked and that's like majority of the
coaches out there won't have that qualification unless they
are involved in literally little athletics and they need a blue
card as well. I'm sure.
I'm sure that that is a necessity, but would you be
willing to pay more for a coach if they had a qualification?
Yeah, yeah. I think well, look if again for
me personally, if you offered me up a qualified a piece of paper
from someone with from who went to running school for to become
a coach. And then if you offered me up
somebody who comes recommended by somebody I know who's who
runs a little bit quicker than I am that got them to a goal time.
I'm going to the personal recommendation because for my
running journey, most of what I've learnt and most of what I
enjoy and most of what I've found works for me has come
through personal recommendations.
Not through looking online for programmes or or or whatever
else in my or experts as it were.
It's coming from the people that I run with on a weekly basis who
are better than me at running and who have recommended things
to me, whether it be shoes or running groups or whatever.
So you also look at YouTube and do your own car service.
I've tried. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I've I've. I've tried, I've tried and it
have I told you the story about when I disconnected the
accelerator on my car when I was trying to change a fuse for the
light? Yeah, yeah.
Look, YouTube's great for some things, not great for all
things. Courtney.
It's an inch. Hey, do anybody who's listening
out there that does have a run coach or is it a run club?
Club with a leader? Next time you're out there, just
listen a little bit more closely and if you've got a run coach,
ask them if they have any accreditation.
I. Want to know if you've got
accreditation? I want to know if you've gone to
running running school. Me.
Your running school graduation certificate course.
We're probably almost out of time quickly.
We've got time to hit on one more thing before we disappear.
I know you love talking. I know you love talking about
equipment. Do you want to talk about your
treadmill? I do love equipment and
especially when a company actually give it a go to really
change it, then it's not copying.
So we've got Wahoo. So we're really well known for
like, bike. I call them wind trainers.
Yeah, them from the old school. What what would someone call
them? An electric wind trainer.
Stationary bike, electric exercise bikes.
You know that where you. But you put your own bike on the
piece of equipment. People that have used Swift
would know what I've got Wahoo sensors that I put on my shoes,
Yeah. We're talking like Swift for
your bikes and all of that. So Wahoo have come out with a
new treadmill. What really, besides the factors
Wahoo and you know, they've got a great name in this type of
equipment around bikes. What really interests me here
was one, what do they call it? They call it responsive running
on the treadmill. So the the treadmill and it's
called run free. And what it does is it it
actually takes into account your run stride and how hard you're
hitting and you run cadence, and it makes the treadmill feel like
you're running on the road. So you're not setting the speed.
How hard you run is up to you. And the treadmill adapts to
that. Figure that out.
I'm trying to think it out. I'm figuring it out in my brain,
which is why my brow is very far at the moment.
So hold on. You you you set the speed.
No, so you do not set the speed. There's a mode called.
Let me get it. Exactly.
Oh, so we can do all the things that a normal treadmill does,
but then there's a but then there's a mode where it's called
responsive running, and essentially you run and the
treadmill adapts. Yes.
So instead of you adapting to the treadmill, the treadmill
will adapt to you. So if you want to run easy, it
will. It will automated run at the
pace you're running. If you speed up, it will allow
you to speed up with a ground feel so as if you're running on
the road. Can I still does what a still
does what a kicker does? So you can still hook it up and
run a course and it will feel like you're going up and down
hills and all of that type of thing.
You'll change the gradient. But it's this particular run
free mode that I'm interested in where you can get on the
treadmill and instead of thinking about I'm on a
treadmill, you just run. I like it.
I don't know how well it works, but I like it.
I'd love to try it because it's hard because in my mind, when I
get on a treadmill right, I if I want to just go for a run and
run free as this mode is called, I'll go outside and I'll just
run free. If I was going to get on, if I
was ever going to get on a treadmill, it would be because I
want a specific, I want to achieve a specific set.
I want to do, you know, intervals or I want to do
something where the speed is dictated for me, right?
And I can essentially take the responsibility of holding the
pace out of my own hands because the treadmill is going at the
pace, so I have to stay with the pace.
So in my mind I'm like, I don't know if I'd use run free mode
but I'd be fascinated to see how it felt.
I love technology. The fact that, you know, a
treadmill's now allowing you to run courses, it can automate it
go up and down, you know, you can practise on, you know you.
I'm assuming the technology will be there to plug in Gold Coast
Marathon and feel like you're running Gold Coast Marathon,
feel like you're running Sydney Marathon.
This is like GG Simulator technology, because all these
golf simulators allow you to play the courses anywhere in the
world, from your backyard essentially, or your garage or
whatever. You've got the simulator set up
now. You could be going and running
the UTMB course from your house. I mean, for me, I'm there's
never going to overtake it now in the Bush, Yeah.
But I do like technology. And this is this one's
definitely. What's it called the Wahoo?
It is called the Wahoo Wahoo. Kicker run treadmill.
They've got to come up with a better name than that, surely?
It's called the kicker. Run.
OK, Kicker. Kick the Wahoo kick run.
Check it out. Hey, before we wrap things up,
shout out to everybody who's already on board with the In the
Beginning podcast. We're going to keep throwing up
polls every week because we love the interaction.
If you're on Spotify or Apple, you know we're early days.
We're only what this the 5th episode is episode 5, episode 5
early days and we thank you for everyone listening because we're
we hit the charts, Liam in the first week, which is absolutely
crazy short charts. That is, if you're enjoying it,
go and give us a, A rating on both our Apple and Spotify that
will help get the word out, get more people listening.
And, you know, we're just super appreciative.
You listen to us. Blabel on.
That's it. We're gonna keep calling the
charts, share with your friends, leave a comment, leave a rating,
and we will keep on this wonderful journey celebrating
fitness and running. Courts will let you go and we'll
be back next week. See you then.