EP 15 - ARE YOU TRACKING YOUR WEEKLY RUN VOLUME THE RIGHT WAY?

[00:00] In the beginning, EP 15, Courtney Atkinson. A very merry Christmas to you. Was it a merry Christmas? Isn't it a good time of year? And coming up on a happy new year, we hope everybody out there had a great Christmas Day. How was your Christmas Day? Christmas was great. I mean, Christmas is for the kids, right? We're both... no, everybody's like that, you know. I'm at that stage where I love seeing the kids get their presents and have a bit of fun, but my boy's at the stage where I'm stealing his presents as

[00:31] well. What do you mean, what presents did you steal off him? Well, stealing... he got these air drums. Oh yeah, yeah, when he's not watching, I sneak in behind him. Everyone's protective of their presents. What about you? You've got young kids, you're right in the thick of it. I can't quite steal presents from my kids yet. But no, great day. Christmas is the day, I reckon you just gotta lean into being a kid again. Great day. Did you run? I did not run, no. Did you? I had the day off on Chrissy. I went, I ran the day before, and then on Boxing Day I

[01:05] actually got back up into the trails. If anybody out there — if you're a roadrunner, if you traditionally run on the flats and you want to get a sense of maybe you're carrying a bit too much around the waistline — take yourself up into the trails, because Courtney, I felt every extra gram. I went for a 10K hit out in the trails and my goodness, I felt heavy. You were carrying Christmas lunch. Literally. It was genuinely — 'cause I feel like I'm

[01:35] running alright at the moment, and then I got back from that run and I was just like, I'm gonna lose some weight. If I wanna keep running up in the trails, I've got to drop some kilos, because it was hard work. It is hard work, and I always find that come Boxing Day, you're either heavy, or all that extra calories and carbs that have gone in kind of work for you. So I got out Boxing Day. But I used to train Christmas Day when I was full-time — you know, it didn't

[02:05] matter what day it fell. That was a session, no day off. Well, we had a day off — that was always Fridays when I was training full-time. But if Christmas fell on a Thursday, we weren't going to miss the Thursday session. Times have changed though — Christmas Day now for me is definitely a day off. Where would that training schedule have fit in on Christmas Day for you? You'd have worked it out in some shape or form — you know, getting in the garage on the ergo, on the bike, in between

[02:36] opening the presents and hitting the Christmas ham. Yeah, pretty much, after the afternoon session. There's always time, there's never an excuse. But like I said, nowadays there is — it's not an excuse, I just want to enjoy a day off, it's Christmas Day. You know, it's interesting, because I was having this conversation with my mother-in-law on Christmas Day about the fact that the NBL basketball now has games on Christmas Day. Yep, they've embraced the American attitude towards these big days — like the NFL.

[03:07] NFL plays across Thanksgiving, but the NBA has a Christmas Day game. Netflix also had NFL — did they have the Grid 2? Great, main game on Christmas. Yeah, so that's the American attitude towards these holidays — basically, hey, there's a captured audience at home, put games on, we want eyeballs. Australia's never really leant into that till Boxing Day. Christmas Day has always kind of been a little bit taboo — hands off.

[03:37] Now the NBL's gone and stuff it. Well, it makes sense — if you're sitting around with your family, around the TV watching something anyway, it's probably better to have sport on than whatever else they put on. You never get any good TV through the Christmas period — I don't think I've heard the phrase or title 'Hogan's Heroes' for a decade, and that's what I associate with non-rating-period TV.

[04:10] Hey, let's get into the big subject for today. Last week you introduced the concept of the Strava mule. Yes, and we've got some questions — well, clearly they didn't listen to the episode, they just saw the reel on the In the Beginning Podcast Instagram. Refresh us — what's a Strava mule? So a Strava mule is simply people out there who want a quicker time on their Strava when they run a marathon — in the race itself, they're paying others to run

[04:44] with their phones so that their Strava is quicker. I joked with you about how much it would cost me to get you to run a marathon for me next year so I could show a quicker time — I answered like I was running a cartel. Yeah, you were charging me per gram, and someone actually sent me a message saying I'm probably not the only person charging per gram on the Gold Coast now. But that is true — this is where I

[05:16] got a lot of feedback about people joking, oh, I'd love someone to run a PB for me, etcetera. But then — and I won't reveal the name of this person because they're within the industry — please, do an episode. This was the message I got: can you please do an episode on people getting fast runners to run with their bib so they can qualify for overseas marathons? Oh, that's controversial.

[05:49] And I said, does this actually happen? Yes — and there's — imagine it would. And there's a second part to this I didn't see coming. Let's break it down — there's a second part to this conversation I had with this, let's call them, running insider. This running insider said to me that people are getting travel mules, or mules, to run these marathon qualifiers for them so they can earn a ticket to the majors — to these

[06:19] majors, you know — you've got to qualify a certain time for Boston, or to get into a summer league guy's faster race or whatever it is. That's right. So if you're an average runner, the idea of running a qualifying time is beyond you. These major marathons overseas are so exclusive, and the ticket entries so scarce, that to qualify you generally have to run a very fast time. For someone like me in my age bracket, to qualify for Boston now, I think I need

[06:52] to run about a 2:55. Yeah, right — it's genuinely tough to earn your way into these, and most people go through the fundraising avenue as a way in anyway. A running insider tells me this is actually quite prevalent — it's a business out there, it's happening. I don't know what these people are charging to run these times, but that's what they're doing. Here's where it gets — the next part of this is, obviously, we know Sydney is now a major marathon.

[07:22] Yep, recently classified as such. The insider tells me there's been word that somebody very well known in the running community has been banned from running Sydney Marathon for doing exactly that — as in, they were the one running in a different bib for someone. Yep, wow. So — can you run under multiple bibs? I don't know.

[07:52] Like, we're talking multiple phones for a PB or Strava, but now we're talking, this is serious business. Yeah. So it's not good, it's not good at all. Cheating is never good — let's just be very upfront about that. It's actually one of my pet hates. What is cheating in a race? Cheating in a race, full stop. Especially when there's cheating in a race that has no impact — sure, that's just between friends,

[08:22] or, you know, lying to yourself, right. Then there's cheating in a race when it's professional — when I was racing triathlon and my bread and butter depended on results. We talked a little bit about people cutting buoys in the swim — did you race in plenty of races where it had to do with real money, and sometimes a significant amount of money, and there was cheating involved? Cutting courses, definitely, in the swim.

[08:55] So instances of cheating that weren't picked up by officials — 100%. Did you ever say anything? There were times at races when we would say something, and I'll be really transparent here — I'd say eight or ten out of ten times, when there were instances, it got swept under the carpet. And the reason it did is why sport gets swept under the carpet a lot — the

[09:26] detriment that would happen to the event wasn't worth bringing it to light over an individual. Exactly, yeah — that's so the juice, punishing that person, wasn't going to be worth what it might do to the event, and the broader sport — the broader sport, or even just the fact that would then become the focus and not, you know, the commercial sponsors and everyone involved. There's a famous — anyone out there who follows the world of golf, there's an Aussie golfer by the name of Patrick Reed who's been caught out because there's

[09:57] cameras everywhere on these golf courses. He's been called out on a couple of occasions, essentially improving his lie — using his club to elevate his ball in the sand. Cheating, and under the rules of golf, he's been caught. And I think he's one of the — you know, he's one of the best golfers in the world, but he's been caught cheating and there's a stigma attached to him as a golfer now. Was there any carryover from those races, for those

[10:28] athletes? Was there — except for the peers, that's what I mean, was there, in the triathlete locker room, let's call it, a knowing nod towards those athletes? I think there was definitely a knowledge that some would do anything to win. And you know what the saddest thing is? Sitting here years and years later, nothing was done. It's like a lot of things in life where you need everyone to stand up to something, don't you? But when it just happens and

[10:58] nothing gets done about it, it just gets swept under the rug and on you go. Certain people it rubs up different ways too — like I had a real issue, regardless of whether I was on the receiving end of it or whether it affected my race or not, I just always had a thing about, you know, a course is a course, you should do the course. A good example is the race at Noosa Tri we did this year — you were racing with Richie, and it's a fun novelty event, right. But you noticed when Beck got up

[11:29] there and did her briefing, she said, please do not cheat. And the reason — in that event, which is kind of like a novelty fun event for the crowd, in past years it kind of got out of hand where, to make it more even, people were cutting the course. My issue with that is you've got kids watching — you've got athletes and public figures who kids should be looking up to, and you're literally cutting a course in front of them. And yes, it's in jest, and adults understand — kids don't.

[12:01] And that's where my issue comes in. You've got to be consistent in life and things — if you can stamp out cheating at that age, instil the right intentions at that age, it should follow through. So that's a good example of where small things can make big differences later on. So, to get back to how this began with the running insider — the word is that there is, maybe it's multiple, but at

[12:34] least there is someone who won't be able to compete at the Sydney Marathon next year, in its first year as a major, because they've been doing this — found out, essentially, they've been Strava mulling. Yep, for majors, helping people gain their tickets. So they've simply been putting on someone else's bib and running fast. Now, I've heard of people grabbing bibs when someone gets injured and can't run — they jump in on the bib. Yeah, and run a time. Yeah — one has intention,

[13:07] because you've given your bib to get a time; the other is being nice to someone, which is again against the rules, though running under someone else's bib is against the rules either way. So how do you fall on that one? Because one has intention and one doesn't — they're two different intentions, but in the end, it's the same crime. It's the same crime, 100%. And I'm okay with — let me — if I ping my calf two weeks out, three weeks out, four weeks out from a

[13:40] marathon next year — let's use the Gold Coast Marathon, the Goldie, since that's where we are — if I ping my calf two weeks out, I've got no chance of taking the start line. There's someone who wants to run the race. I'm going to let them run under my name, and I'm happy to do it, because I can't physically take the start line — there's an opportunity for someone to experience that race. Go for it. Now, I think there's a process now to alleviate this, right? Yeah, there is.

[14:12] This is hypothetical, because in the past there hasn't been — I think now at most races you can do transfers, right, and that's the correct thing to do. So I have an issue with people running under other bibs, because even though the intention's different, like you said, the outcome's still the same. And there's multiple reasons that causes issues for an event, like number one, insurance. Yes. So you're thinking about this from an event organiser's perspective now,

[14:42] and an elite athlete's perspective. Correct — I'm thinking much more about it as an average runner who's like, well, I can't do it, this person wants that opportunity, I'm going to go for it, no harm, no foul, victimless crime, in this example the running insider gave us. I don't know if I would — part of the challenge of running, part of what's great about running ultimately, is that it's you versus you. We talked

[15:14] about benchmarking yourself with a parkrun or a run so you can see your improvement — the challenge of preparation, all that sort of stuff. If you want to qualify for an overseas race, part of the challenge, surely part of the joy, part of the excitement, is seeing whether you can get there. Taking the back door and getting some elite to go run a time for you to qualify — surely that removes the joy, surely that removes some of that

[15:44] satisfaction. It just sounds like desperation to get to that event — they want to do Boston, or Chicago, or whatever event it is, New York, so bad they're willing to go along with that. Which is why I brought up that it's the nature of cheating something. I'd also put odds on it that the person who wasn't able to qualify for Boston themselves, but used this person, loves posting photos and

[16:18] videos of themselves running and completing it. You never know — someone else might know exactly who this is. Anyway, that sounds like a great — it's a great rumour, a juicy little story. Where there's smoke, there's fire, right? Hey, loose ends from last week's episode as well — obviously the Strava mule one really kicked into gear and lots of people got involved with that. Now, I hope you understand what we're talking about — last week I proposed a theory that there are just aliens amongst us who, regardless of

[16:48] discipline, are capable of extraordinary athletic feats. We talked about the triathlete fella who's going to try and win the Tour de France — no, the triathlon one, one of the best, I've forgotten his name — Kristian Blummenfelt, who's one of the greatest triathletes ever, was said he was going to try and go compete in the Tour de France. Other such athletes — there was some supporting evidence. Richie Porte, yes, one of Australia's greatest ever

[17:18] road cyclists. Full stop. A friend of mine from the triathlon exhibition race, my teammate, exactly right — last week Richie posted on his Instagram page, 'bucket list, tick. This morning, the Everest Challenge of the swimming pool, 20 kilometres.' He's done 20 kilometres in the pool, in Tasmania, where it was probably minus four outside. But not only has he swum 20

[17:50] kilometres in the pool, he's done it at a 1:19 pace per hundred. That's impressive — he's spent four and a half hours swimming. This supports my theory that there are just aliens that live amongst us — endurance aliens who are capable, regardless — you know, this is a world-class cyclist, one of the best we've ever seen, who's jumped off his bike, jumped in the pool, and just punched out 20K as a

[18:20] challenge. Now, because we've obviously got more runners listening than swimmers, to put that time into perspective — a 1:19 per hundred, on a 1:20 cycle, would be considered semi-elite. Some good Ironman — when we talk Ironman, like surf lifesaving Ironman, if you're in the pool and you're able

[18:50] to repeat hundreds on a 1:20 cycle — not just arrive at 1:20, but repeat on 1:20 — that's pretty good. And if you move to a 1:15 cycle, that's really solid. So if I, having not swum in five years, sometimes Ky Hurst will ring me up, a few of the guys down at the pool — let's go down and start swimming — it'll normally last about a month and then we give up again. But we'll jump in the pool and I'll jump on Ky's feet. And for me, coming from a professional swimming background in triathlon, growing up as a

[19:21] swimmer — if I'm unfit and haven't been in the pool, I won't be able to cycle at 1:20. Jeez, so that puts into perspective — if he's done 1:19 for 20K, he'll be cycling at two minutes or something, I'm assuming. Well, he's keeping himself fit, let's say that. I'll put it into layman's terms for people out there — at Noosa Tri every year, my average pace over the 1.5K swim is 2:10.

[19:51] So Richie Porte has swum basically a minute faster per hundred metres, for 20 kilometres. That's amazing, it sounds like Richie's bored down there in Tassie at the moment — did he do it there? I think he did it here on the Goldie, actually. But anyway, my point is, aliens exist. Yeah, Richie Porte is an alien. He's definitely talented. Smelly shoes was the one from last week too — remember, I was

[20:23] telling you, we've had a lot of rain here on the Gold Coast, and my Salomon Thundercross that I love, one of my favourite shoes in the range, was just stinking. I couldn't get the smell out of them. A few people gave us their ideas beyond just baking them in the sun. Reece Drummond said he takes his insoles out straight away and washes them separately in the washing machine — the shoe itself, he doesn't,

[20:53] because remember, I talked about not putting the shoes in the washing machine, because you want to keep the structure of the shoe. But the insole is most of the problem and the smell, so taking it out and washing that — yeah, we'll try that one. The other tip came in from Instagram, his handle was 'An Aussie Outside' — so he's obviously into some interesting stuff. He actually had a product — not trying to sell anything — he uses a product called Aroma Armour bags. Have you heard of that?

[21:24] I haven't, I'm just looking it up now. It's got 'aroma' in it — Aroma Armour bag. Aroma Armour, okay, yep, here we go. I'm assuming it's some kind of absorbent — does it absorb? You know what it looks like? Like the wheat packs you heat up in the microwave — my mum uses them for a dodgy shoulder. Like a rice bag, kind of. They look like bean bags, essentially, and judging by the photos, you just stick it in your shoe.

[21:57] I wonder if that works — shoe fresheners like that absorb moisture and remove bacteria, neutralising odours in their surroundings. Just having a look at how much they cost — here we go, starter pack, are they within budget? For a pair — what would you guess — 35 bucks for a pair, and you can get sandalwood, zesty lemon, ocean breeze, or floral punch. I wonder, would you pay $35 for this? No, I probably wouldn't. No, I wouldn't either. Anyway, I might trial it

[22:29] to let everyone know if it works or not, but would I buy it on a regular basis? No. If anyone's used it, feel free to write in and tell us how it goes. Now, you put a poll up this week, Courtney, because we talked about how you committed the ultimate trail-running sin — you got caught running with both headphones in on a single trail last week, and made an older mountain bike rider very grumpy because you weren't paying attention. Completely caught with my pants down, that's right. But you put it out there about running with phones — I did, because I always had this

[23:01] discussion with Collis Birmingham when I was up at Falls Creek a few weeks back, about elite runners — is it okay to run with your phone? Because I felt like I was a bit amateur running with my phone within that elite group, and he was saying the young crew sometimes do it too. So the weekly poll — do you run with your phone? Yes, 38%; no, 28%; and sometimes, 34%. So it's pretty much a mixed bag — basically a third each. Interestingly, this week I've

[23:33] been running without my phone a little bit as an experiment — but also because I left my AirPods at my brother-in-law's place, so I haven't had them. Normally I'm running with my phone because I'm listening to a podcast and haven't uploaded it to my watch yet. And I've remembered what's great about running without your phone — it's not just quietening the head noise, though there's that too.

[24:03] I go there to silence the head noise and run. That's why I love running without music or a podcast — it gives me time to think through things in my life, brings new ideas. I had a book idea when I went out for that trail run the other day, I was thinking about this podcast, my brain was going a million miles an hour. But yes, I've been running without the phone a bit at the moment and enjoying it. Interesting — having said that, there's still a bunch of podcasts backing up that I haven't been able to listen to, because often

[24:33] I listen to them while I'm running. What was interesting, you said you hadn't loaded them onto your watch. Yeah, so about a year ago I was using Suunto watches, GPS watches, for a long time, which had the ability to play music but you had to have your phone with you anyway, so I couldn't see the point. So I went and bought a Garmin — I don't even know what model — that plays,

[25:03] that you could pump music into. The only reason I bought it was that it was the cheapest one that would take music without having to run with my phone. But the issue is it's so bloody hard to get the music or a podcast onto it. I'm like you — half the time I end up taking my phone to listen to the podcast because I haven't got time to sit and download it. I've really struggled with that feature. I've got the Forerunner 955 or whatever it is, it's a great watch, I love it — it serves the purpose for all the fitness

[25:35] parts of it. What I've managed to load is a hip hop playlist, and I really like it — great to run with. So if I don't want to take my phone but still want to listen to music, that's what I'll listen to. I have not been able to figure out how to make this watch talk to my Wi-Fi, my Spotify, and my phone so those things update the audio on my watch together. Well, I've figured it out now.

[26:05] I can do that, you can do it — oh yeah, I've worked it out, and it can talk you through it. I can do it, it just takes so bloody long — the syncing of it is counterproductive on time. Is there — does anyone know what's the easiest watch to wear that's got good GPS and lets you do that stuff? I'm sure it does okay, but I've got no — I don't know why I wouldn't just use an Apple Watch. What I do like about the Apple Watch — I was riding through,

[26:37] actually, on mountain bikes with a mate of mine, riding through the forest — he came off and hit a tree hard. It was quite funny at the time, but also, you know those times when you can't help laughing but you're also like, is he really hurt? We rode on for a bit longer, and then he suddenly got a text message from his wife saying, 'are you okay?' It had sent the alert. And I was like, this is brilliant — why aren't I onto this? That's what I love

[27:09] about the Apple Watch, that it's able to do that. But yeah, I'm interested in a watch — all I want is that it takes a chest strap for heart rate, is consistent on GPS, plays music, and is easy to download onto. Those three things — I just want one of the companies to come out with the simple watch. Yeah, the layman's watch — we should do a deep dive on watches at some point, because the other thing I do like about mine, even though I don't use it a lot, is

[27:42] the fact that if I'm out for a run and I've cooked myself and I just need a drink but haven't taken my phone, I've got my credit card loaded onto the watch so I can tap at the shop. It's a seldom-used feature, but when I do use it, I'm thankful I've got it. When you said that, I was like, I could add that to my list, but honestly, I don't think I'd ever use it. Exactly, and most people probably wouldn't, but it's those

[28:13] rare occasions where I'm like — and that's going to add cost to my basic watch, so no. Which is why we end up with these insane watches that have a million features, when I just want to pay 200 bucks for a simple watch that does those three things. That's it. We should — while we're talking about running with your phone — mention the message we got from Nicole, about the fact that, and this is something you and I will never fully understand, women who run with

[28:45] their phones are often doing it out of safety. Yep, correct. We don't need to disappear too far into this subject, because we're two blokes who will never truly understand what it's like. But talking to my wife about it, who goes for these runs — we live in a very safe, well-lit, friendly area, and yet she says she doesn't feel comfortable going out after a certain time or in a certain darkness because she doesn't feel safe. And sadly, that's a

[29:15] bigger conversation. I completely understand it, and the same applies in the forest. I completely understand why a woman would run with her phone at all times. Let's talk about our weeks, Courtney — how's your run week been? Great, perfect, I'm still beaming. Where to start — so after we chatted last week, I headed out west with the family to my brother-in-law and sister-in-law's place. They've got 500

[29:50] acres, so with fire roads and trails, it's a really nice place. What I did do out there this time, which I don't normally do — usually we're more interested in taking the motorbikes out and riding, that's the priority — but I did hill reps. They've got this hill going up through the back of the property that kind of steps up — it was about a two-and-a-half-minute hill for me, maybe 750 to 800 metres, and it started uphill,

[30:22] crested out a bit, then you get a bit of running momentum again, and then it kicks up again at the end. I think it's a nicer way to do it than just grinding the whole way up, because you get that leg speed change in the middle. So what did you do? I warmed up, ran around the property for 20 to 25 minutes warming up, and then did — six of them. For people out there listening, I've been thinking about this as I was

[30:52] running on the trail the other day — for amateur runners out there, hills look horrible, feel horrible, but they're so great for you as a runner, even at a really beginner level, because they just make your legs stronger. Well, that's the plan. I know what's missing in my running at the moment — for the last few years I haven't done a lot of faster, strength-based running. I know I need to get my speed differential back, get my pace down,

[31:22] so I can run, say, a 5K faster, and that gives me a bit of a gap to then run my longer distances more comfortably. That's what I'm aiming for right now, so the hills are part of that — 20 to 25 minute warm-up and then six efforts up this hill. He's got about two and a half minutes up and then probably took about three minutes to jog back down, and cycled that for six. What did I do — okay, here's a left-field thing.

[31:54] I got a new kit — a whole range of new gear from Salomon, clothing, not shoes. How good is new running clothing? I'm a creature of habit, so when I order new kit I literally just get five of the same black shorts and five of the same black tees. Now the shorts — and this is unbiased, I promise, even though I run for them — they are the best running shorts for trail and that type of thing, long enough that you're not

[32:25] looking like a high school PE teacher, but really comfortable, with multiple pockets on the sides so you can take stuff with you. Brilliant. But what I did was make the mistake I make every three years or so — I ordered a white shirt with it. A white tee. I've got five black tees and thought I'd try the white one because it's stinking hot at the moment and black — you're just cooking in the sun. Anyway, I got out there 25 minutes in and I'm see-

[32:55] through, literally see-through. And I'm lucky I'm in the bush because I would never run anywhere else like that. Anyway, so I'm doing the hill reps, I finish up, and what I didn't realise was I'd been burnt — I'm peeling at the moment on the back through the shirt. I was burnt to the point of being a lobster on the shoulders. So the peeling — hopeless. I didn't think that was

[33:25] possible, but I just proved it. You know when you see guys in the surf wearing white tees and they go see-through and they're thinking, I'm still getting it — I'm telling you now, I don't know, it's a different material, because running material is nice and light, but I got cooked. If I ran in that every day here on the coast — actually, I just got a brand new rashie for Christmas, a big long-sleeve blue one. Oh, that's — what is it about white as a running clothing colour that's

[33:58] pointless — you're just going to get it dirty. It probably works in cooler climates when you're not sweating, but not in Australia, no, not for me — I do this every time, I think white would be reflective, but no, unreflective for the sun, it just absorbs the heat, and then I go, why did I do that? Anyway, so the hills out west were good fun, great session. I saw — you went for a great hit-out in the Nerang trails on Christmas Eve, though, didn't you?

[34:28] I did, yeah. So I got back from there — the next key session, I had a few of the crew in town. Tate Herps, who won the 50K at the Kozzy trail race — just beat Benji St Lawrence. So he can run, yeah, definitely better than me at the moment. Tate was in town, he's doing his medical residency down in Coffs Harbour Hospital, and he was in town. Who else came out?

[34:59] Lindsay Laurie — a young guy — I've raced Red Bull Defiance adventure race with him before, in the team, and Jordan Gusman, from the Journeyman podcast, have you heard of it? With Tim Vincent, who we've talked about on this podcast — they do a running podcast themselves — and Tink, a really top-notch female runner, came out with us. We did that 17K loop I do often, but we just cruised around. Yeah, you say you cruised around — I had a look, because I thought, Courtney's going for a run with

[35:29] the crew out on the trail, out of curiosity I looked at how quick you did it. You call it cruising, but you guys were flying, it was nothing to you. It's not funny how relaxed you make it sound. What I said to you when I came in was, because I'm running with people so often now, I went to run on my own this morning and thought, nah, I'll take the mountain bike instead and have more fun. I'm getting used to having people around while running, and

[36:00] it's great because we're just chatting — it's a hard run, 17K, but you're chatting away and you completely forget about your legs and how some of the hills are hurting. We warmed up a bit, so maybe around an hour twenty-five for that 17K — I think it's got maybe 600 metres of elevation in it. But to put that into perspective, when we go and do it properly flat out, we're down around the 1:12 mark. Still running 15-minute pace... I've run that loop before, my best,

[36:31] and I was in no condition to talk to anybody, was about a 1:48. Right, so from 1:48 you can run quicker that day around there. But the last session — because we've been talking about this each week — the third key session I did for the week was yesterday, back down with Gold Coast Run Co. All the boys were back — Louis McPhee was in, everyone's back on the coast for Christmas. There was a good little group at the front, we did a 20-minute threshold.

[37:01] The grass was drier, which helped a bit, quicker too, because Tate was there and the group was moving quicker. First couple of kilometres we rolled through in three-fifteens — that's borderline my threshold limit at the moment. We're running along and Louis said to one of the young guys, about halfway through, so probably about 11-12 minutes in, 'geez,

[37:31] Tommy, you're looking good.' And I said, don't do that to him — as soon as he said that, you saw his legs speed up, the ego kicks in, and then within about 40 metres he tailed off the back, real improvement. But it's interesting — when you talk about how to run a threshold session properly, you should run within yourself. Yesterday was one of those where I purposely went a bit quick early just to stay with the group, then tailed off at the back end. But you're running well, man.

[38:02] We're running well. The thing about you — and if you're watching this you'll be able to see it — is that compared to how you were three or four months ago, when you talk about your running now, there's a smile that spreads across your face. You're really enjoying your running. Well, that's what running should be, mate. Running should be fun — you should get out of it what you need to get out of it, and that's going to be different for everyone.

[38:32] Someone can go run 5K and have that same feeling. For me right now it's just a matter of competition being my thing, and that's what I'm able to do at the moment. What about yourself, what have you been up to, are you travelling? I am, actually. I think last episode I was in a miserable mood — running wasn't going well, I was struggling with motivation. I've run myself out of that mood, I'm feeling great now. I went for some runs — we went camping up on the Sunshine

[39:02] Coast, so I went for some runs around Maroochydore. Where do you run there? Along the Maroochy River — I ran out towards Yandina a bit and looped back around towards the beach, an easy sort of classic river run, but I pushed myself, forced myself to run 12K, and felt better for it. Is the Sunshine Coast as crazy busy as the Goldie at the moment? Yeah, they love it, the runners are everywhere — from

[39:32] the couple of runs I did, everybody's up and about. You weren't there for the Saturday parkrun? No, I could have done the Saturday parkrun, but instead I did something different — we went from Maroochy up to Noosa because my wife's family was up there, so we went to hang out with them for the day. I got my wife to drop me off at Marcoola, just past Maroochydore, and I forced myself into a long run — I said I'm going to run Marcoola to Noosa, which would've been

[40:06] about 24K, just along the coastal path, undulating. In the end I didn't get there, because my legs weren't up for it — I'm just pulling the run up on my Strava now, what did I do — I did 18 and a half solid, which was still, again, a really great run. Did you have to call in for the emergency pickup? No, I ended up walking, and they were at the beach at Noosa Main Beach having a great time,

[40:36] and I was just like, I'll see you when I see you. So I walked into Noosa Junction — I tell you what, the chafe hit me in a really big way, the inner thighs were red as anything, as red as your back after the see-through-shirt run. I was feeling every part of it. But it was a great run. And this is the other great part about running, and why I love it — there's no better way to see a place, whether it's in Australia or overseas, than running around it. I'd never run any of that before.

[41:07] I'd never run around Coolum, through Peregian — I'd never run any of it, right, and now I've got to see all these places, very directly, because I ran it. But I want to give a huge shout-out — I've been trying to find the service station, I can't remember exactly where it was, but about 11K into this run I came past a servo and was pretty cooked, so I dropped in because I had some gels on me and a few of those Clif Bloks,

[41:41] but I didn't have any water or anything, so I thought I'd stop for a bubbler or grab a quick drink. I went into the service station and the old duck behind the counter looked at me — I'm obviously dripping — and she's like, are you okay? I said, yeah, I'm just going for a run, I'm going to grab a drink. She's like, are you sure you're alright, you don't have a big hole in you or anything? I thought I looked okay. And then she said, do you want to go stand in the cool room for a bit? So she let me into, you know,

[42:14] behind the fridges where their storeroom, their cool room is. She let me stand in there for about five minutes while I had my drink, just to cool off — it was so lovely. And I thought, this is the great thing about running, right — if I'd come in grouchy or whatever, I probably don't have this great interaction with this old duck behind the counter. So shout-out to that mysterious woman at the service station, Christmas cheer, it made my day, it made my run, and it was great. So yeah, I'm back running, actually feeling really

[42:46] good. I'll probably crack 50K this week, which is probably my first time back over 50K in quite a while. Running good, feeling good, loving it. My feet are a little bit bruised at the moment, so I've been running in the Novablast again, just because it gives that bit more foam cushioning. Still haven't run in the Alphaflys, no — no need until you're ready, don't want to ruin those shoes, still haven't run in them, they're going to sit in the box until

[43:16] you're ready to go. I'm not ready to go. I did try on a pair of ASICS for the first time in my life — at the — first time in your life? First time in my life I put on a pair of ASICS shoes. Tate had a pair — I don't know what model, but the carbon-plated trail ones, the new ASICS trail shoe. And you know, that's — I mean I literally just

[43:46] put them on and walked around one-footed for about three steps — but if I was to compare them to the Adidas ones I had, I'd say the ASICS felt nicer on first feel than the Adidas. But it's pointless taking this review seriously since you didn't actually run in them. What can you tell just by putting them on? You can never tell the end result just from putting a shoe on, but I also think you can

[44:16] get a feel for it — like when you put your foot in, same reason you don't want to run in your Alphaflys until you're ready. Every time I get, say, the first Salomon shoe, when I first put my foot in I've tried enough shoes on to know whether it's going to be a possibility of good or not. I can say no instantly. So okay, I'm going to take — there's a lot of shoes out there, but I can say no instantly, and here, alright, this is

[44:49] something we're going to extract from the elite level and bring back to the average person — we keep saying when it comes to shoes, go and try a bunch on. Add to that the next filter, the next recipe instruction: try a lot on and trust your gut on first feel. Trust your gut on first feel — even if it's the shoe everyone's saying you should get, if you put your foot in and it doesn't set your world on fire, or it feels off, more importantly, don't try and talk yourself into it. No, I like that. And that can be to do with

[45:20] like the width of the shoe — if you put your foot in and suddenly you're like, oh, it's already squeezing me, it's not going to work, it's not going to get any better. And if the assistant says, 'ah, it'll stretch' — don't. Or if you put your foot in the shoe for the first time and suddenly you feel like you're walking backwards, you're probably going to run backwards, and it's not going to be great, especially if you're about to drop $250-plus on a shoe. If it doesn't feel right when you put it on, that's a good first filter. And then if you think the shoe is going to be

[45:52] good, sometimes it can be, and sometimes it can't — but yeah, we'll leave that for another day. All right, hey, before we get there — I want you to have a think, and I'll keep asking you for it before we finish, about your running resolutions, because this is our New Year's Eve episode. The next time we drop an episode it'll be 2025. Have a think — people out there can join in too, feel free to send them into the In the Beginning Podcast Instagram. Your running resolution for 2025 — news resolutions, lose weight,

[46:24] get the pay rise, whatever — but a running resolution, a goal you want to objectively set yourself on the running pathway for 2025. I'm going to need some time for that. Yeah, just have a think, we'll give you some time while you think. Let's go to something that's going well — this little segment you've created, Courtney, the WTF Events From Around the World. Well, this one — I'll let you start, because this one's yours,

[46:54] you found this one scouring around the internet. Which one was this? The water run — oh, the water run. Now, I'm going to attempt to go back to my Year 12 French here and attempt to pronounce it correctly — it's called the 'Foulée de Gué', or something close to that, I'm not certain of the exact pronunciation. But I can give you the translation that was on Instagram, and they called it the sea bullfight, or the ocean bullfight. This looks terrifying

[47:25] and awesome in equal parts. It's an 8K run, and basically you're running across a causeway in France, and because of the tides, it's a wide race — for those of you who grew up doing Nippers, it looks like it's knee-deep water. Well, the water height varies between 1.3 metres and 4 metres — it can get up to 1.3 to 4 metres, but when they're doing the race, it's obviously the 1.3,

[47:55] the low end. Basically you're running this 4K out-and-back track, 8K total, and at times you're skipping through knee-high water. Yeah, it looks interesting — I'm just looking at the video of these people, then they get into some ankle-deep water and you see them pick up their cadence and get back into some running. You can see the causeway just under the water where they're running on it — you know what this should be called?

[48:25] It should be called the Jesus run, because it looks like they're running on water. If you took a long shot and didn't know there was a road underneath, it'd look like these people were running on water. It looks cool — this is a race I'd do. Yep, I'm ticking this one, this is my cup of tea. 2,000 people get to do it, apparently. Number two — jeez, that's a lot of people. I've just seen a moment in this video where a runner clearly hit a deeper patch and it looks pretty miserable,

[48:55] actually. The pace is a good test too, I wonder, because — you know, the course we've got here, on the beach, you get to that depth when you're running or wading in the surf where it becomes easier to porpoise, dive in, touch the bottom, jump back up, like surf lifesavers do. I wonder in that run whether it gets to the point where you're like, I'm just going to start porpoising through here. I've just found something more, Courtney — I've done a bit more research on this race, the pro race, and this is going off Wikipedia so

[49:26] some of this might be outdated, but the pro race, which is limited to 30 competitors, looks like it must be a straight 4.15K — it's not a turnaround race, right, just across the channel or whatever it is. What do you think the record is, for 4.15 kilometres? Well, now that you've asked me like that, I'm going to guess it's pretty quick.

[49:56] I reckon they'll average sub-3:40s. The current record for this 4.15K race through the water is 12 minutes and 8 seconds. Oh, so just over three-minute pace — 3:02s. Dominique Chauvelier, a French Olympian — I'm looking, he's a marathon runner — 3:02s, yep. Okay, so maybe the

[50:26] water was a bit low that year, maybe it was a bit low that year — the video they're showing has knee-depth water. Alright, so the guy who has that record has a marathon PB of 2:11, so he's a proper runner, but still. So he's a runner anyway. Okay, I like that one. Now the next one, I'm just going to let the world champion of this event explain it — what have we got here? What is this — Canicross? Well, Canicross is actually cross-country running together with your dog.

[50:57] The only things you need are a proper-fitting harness, a bungee leash, a running belt, and a proper pair of running shoes. Canicross — we had Flyathlon, and now we've got Canicross. Cross-country running with your dog — yeah, they're just giving it a really fancy name. It's cross-country running with a bungee-cord harness lead, running with your dog, and she's the world champion, so

[51:28] they obviously have competitive events around it. Yeah, it originated in Europe as offseason training for the mushing community — you know, the sled-dog crowd. Now it makes sense — that was their offseason training when there's no snow, and now it's a full-blown summer event too. Okay, I'm on board with it now that you've told me there's an actual purpose to it. I was about to rip it a bit before that — but this, I thought, again, previously with this segment,

[52:00] these WTF events have been very much the juggling-kettlebells kind of thing for me — I'll forever remain skeptical, I went on a deep dive of that the other day. But these two, today, I'd do both these events — I'd more than happily go in that water race, and if I had a dog capable of a decent run, I'd do the other one too. Actually, I'll tell you a funny story about running with your dog — my wife grew up with her dad as a greyhound trainer, and she learned the hard way that greyhounds are sprinters,

[52:31] not endurance dogs, because she tried to take one out for a run one day and ended up having to carry it back a kilometre to the house, because the dog was knackered, couldn't go on — take me home, because she had to carry the dog home. Hey, greyhound trainer, isn't that interesting — since we're bringing up greyhound trainers, you know Brett Sutton, probably the most successful triathlon coach here in Australia — I think he's won a medal with someone at every Olympic

[53:03] Games in triathlon, someone might call me out on that, but I'm pretty sure he's won a medal with someone at every Olympic Games triathlon. So you'd argue maybe the most successful coach — the most successful coach, and he's won multiple world Ironman championships with athletes. He started off as a greyhound trainer, really — within his remit at the time, he was greyhound training, so he definitely got his teeth into that. So maybe there's something in the old — there might be something in it, yeah, alright, I mean there were some

[53:33] naughty greyhound trainers too, absolutely, there's always bad apples. Now, this one isn't so much a WTF event, but last week I referenced an influencer who declared he was going to try and break the 1,000-kilometre or thousand-mile record, whatever it was, down at the — I don't want us to become these people who — as much as there are influencers out there who I don't think are great for running, whatever gets people out running is

[54:04] great, and I don't want us to become negative Nancys about people doing running and fitness content. Definitely not. So in light of that, I want to celebrate this fella, Dan Jones is his name, Courtney — can you play what he's all about? This is great. 'What that means is I sink an ungodly amount of time into things like running and cycling. I obsess over them like a professional athlete would, all whilst performing at a highly unremarkable level.' Road cycling, gravel riding, crit

[54:34] races, cyclocross, marathons, trail running, Ironmans — if it involves a start line, a finish line, and a humbling journey to get from one to the other, then I'm probably passionate about it. 'I'll never master any one discipline — what I have mastered is the art of being mediocre at many. To be honest, for me it's not really about how good I am, as long as I'm enjoying myself and making some level of progress along the way, then I'm happy. So I've found training for these types of things and showing up week in, week out is a skill in and of itself, and it's had a monumentally positive impact on

[55:04] my life, whether I'm winning or not.' This is great — his name is Dan Jones, he describes himself as a 'professional amateur' on Instagram, go and have a look at him — professional amateur, basically, if there's a start line and a finish line, I'm there. Now what I will say is, when I saw this, I thought his bike's probably a weapon, because often

[55:35] these influencers can go on there and be all self-deprecating and play themselves down when in fact they're winning Hyrox events or whatever. No, this bloke lives what he says, he's a proper — he's a plodder, yeah, but he doesn't look surprised, he lives by what he says. He did a half Ironman the other day and ran his run leg at over six-minute-K pace, so he's plodding,

[56:05] what I love about this one is he just owns it, that's the difference — he's not trying to portray himself as something he isn't, he's literally telling you exactly what he is and he's proud of it. That's the — because a few times when we say we're being negative Nancys, it's not that, it's just that we're calling out when something's not real. This guy, what we love about it is he's just giving it as it is.

[56:35] Yeah, he's being himself in the fitness world, and clearly the success he's getting, because he's partnering with brands — he's partnered with Garmin, he's partnered with Rapha, some bike companies. So clearly those companies are seeing the authenticity — and that is the wankiest word, I know, authenticity is a wanky word — but the proof is in the pudding for this bloke, Dan Jones. So shout-out Dan, love what you're putting together. Yeah, the authenticity, that's a good one, get around him.

[57:06] We'll put him in the notes as well. Look, you've still got a bit more time to think about your running resolutions. But before we do that — you AirDropped me a couple of pictures before we started today that I don't understand but I'm excited about, because there's heaps of shoes on them. Courtney, what am I looking at here — there are a lot of shoes on them, they're two ones, actually my wife sent me these, she's doing some great research at the moment.

[57:38] Unofficial producer of the pod. True. But this one got me — there's two. The first one is from World E Runners, the account, and it's literally just got all the carbon plates from all the different brands, all the racing shoes, and put them next to their weights. So what would you say — you've got it in front of you, I can't see it — if you're listening, what would you predict is the lightest brand of racing shoe out there? I would have said, and I haven't looked at this too in depth, that the Nike Alphafly would be the lightest shoe. Well, no, by far it's the

[58:08] adidas Adizero Adios Pro Evo 1, and it's not just — it's 138 grams, pick that up and it's basically nothing. I can't even imagine it in my head. Well, you've got an Alphafly — we're still debating on when you're using it — it's nearly 200 grams, 198 grams. So this is not half the weight, but close, kidding aside. And this — I remember when they launched this Adidas

[58:39] Prime Evo 1, this super shoe — I think at the time it was talked about as a one-use shoe, like for the elites, you run your marathon in it and because there's so little to it, you run your one race and then it's done. Is that a good thing? Well, if it's only 138 grams, surely the materials within it can't sustain prolonged use — it's just an elite race shoe. Is it a good thing?

[59:11] Yes, 100%, because — why not, if you can have that and make it that good and it works? Why not, if you can make it 138 grams, great. What's interesting though, I think, once you get to about third on the list, most of the shoes are pretty consistent — the ASICS Metaspeed Sky Paris is 181 grams. And if you jump about

[59:43] halfway down the page — the Saucony Endorphin Pro 4 is 218 grams. I mean, okay, they're heavier — are they really that much heavier? How much foam's in them, what's the structure like? This is by no means going to impact your running, but if you ask me, do I want a light shoe, I'm going to say yes. Just to give people context, if you don't own a super shoe — let's say you're running Kayanos, which I know a lot of people do — what's a

[01:00:13] Kayano weigh? For your average bloke, it's about 300 grams — still a very light shoe, well, 300 compared to 138 is significant. Literally imagine your Kayano is half as heavy as it is, and that's what the elites are running in with these types of shoes. Yeah, so I just found that interesting. But that was the first one, and the second one — this one is something I'll actually use ongoing, it's from — I don't know how to say

[01:00:46] the name, let's just call it the 'Stride Calc' team, I'll put it in the notes as well for others. But what they've done is taken the more major brands and mapped what shoe that brand produces for the half marathon, marathon, their 5K and 10K shoe, their tempo shoe — now this is where it's more interesting, because this is the training shoe. So instead of the really expensive race shoe, what do they list as a

[01:01:17] tempo training shoe, and an easy run shoe? If you look at New Balance, for example, you've got their Fuel Cell Elite as their top-of-the-range, but for their easy run they're saying the 1080v14. That's a shoe I've tried, because I was given a pair — didn't suit my brother, he was getting hotspots, but I did a few runs along the Esplanade in that shoe. Super, super soft, but also I couldn't feel my feet, so — so soft, a great shoe, but that's their easy running

[01:01:48] shoe. Then the FuelCell Rebel v4 is their tempo shoe. So if you look at all the different brands there — it's a really good grid of shoes for people to look at. It's making me want to go and try a different brand and see the difference in those shoes. Yeah, it's interesting to know — I'm not going to be able to do that though, only because it's going to cost. But if you added up one of each brand's shoes and wanted to try each of them, I reckon you're

[01:02:18] looking at, what, one and a half grand probably? If you were to buy a single line of these shoes — say four shoes from any of these brands — yeah, you're easily spending over $1,000, probably $1,500. Interesting to note, I'm trying to plot my own shoes that are in the cupboard onto this grid — where do you see it? I've got the Nike half or marathon shoe, the Alphaflys, which I haven't run in yet — according to this grid, I don't really own a 5K or 10K

[01:02:51] shoe. Okay, I've got a tempo shoe from Adidas, the Boston 12, which I really like running in — I do really like that shoe. And then my easy run shoe is the ASICS Novablast — is that on here? Yeah, that's their easy run shoe. ASICS have got the Novablast, the Magic Speed 5 as their tempo shoe, which I've never actually heard of, and then they've got the Metaspeed Sky Paris. So this is a really useful grid, and probably a nice reminder that

[01:03:24] it's probably a good thing for people to look at if they're buying a shoe for a different type of running. What do they say — this is a bike saying, but what's the perfect number of bikes to own? I don't know, you've told me this before, I can't remember what it is though. Whatever you've got, plus one. Well, this is kind of the shoe conversation, I reckon, because you're looking at it going, wouldn't mind trying that one, wouldn't mind trying that one. I know we've just gone through Christmas, but I'd happily be very happy if those turned up under the tree next year.

[01:03:54] Listener questions — we've got time for one. Let's set this up off the back of these shoes — why don't we talk about this question from Kendall Lloyd, a discussion around pace, this Kendall hit us up on the podcast Instagram page, he's a chocolate man, that's right — a discussion around pace and what that actually means, if anything at all. Do you feel people are too concerned about pace and needing to hit a certain time to feel they can be proud of what they've done? Big pause there — going through

[01:04:31] this, I thought you were going to go down the training route and talk about time versus kilometres, and whether you need to be concerned with the time you're running. I'm going to go left-field with this — I'm not going to answer the direct question. I do believe there's a bit of an issue within running that's tied to everyone wanting to say how many kilometres they've run, and that causes an issue, I believe, across different levels of ability, because everyone's trying to

[01:05:02] chase kilometres. I agree — but depending on your ability, your body doesn't necessarily know how many kilometres you've done. It knows time, how long you've been running for. Does that make sense? Yeah, it does. Your body doesn't go out and think, oh, I just felt like I ran 21K, no — it thinks, I just felt like I ran at that intensity for an hour and a half, or two hours, or I just did an easy run for 8 kilometres. No, it thinks, I did an easy run at

[01:05:33] an easy intensity for 40 minutes. So when you start getting too attached to distances, this is my belief — I think when you get too attached to distances, you start getting into dangerous territory of different runners comparing themselves to others, of overdoing it or under-doing it. Especially — the reason I've realised this over time is the more and more I've done in the trails and in the forest,

[01:06:03] if I go and run on the weekend and do 90 minutes in the rainforest on single track, if I ran for the same amount of time on the road I'd knock out, instead of 17 or 18K, 24 to 25K. So if I told you, oh, I knocked off 100K this week, that's not the same 100K — it's not apples for apples. I love this take, and it's making me think about it right now — as you're talking about that, I've jumped onto my Strava, and as

[01:06:36] I mentioned, I'll probably go past 50K this week, which'll be the first time I've run over 50K in a while. But I'm now looking at how my weeks have been breaking down in terms of time — and it's interesting, I'm a little over three hours of running at the moment, and I'll probably do another 90 minutes, which will be my biggest week — it'll match my increase in kilometres.

[01:07:08] But the time I'm spending — and this is really interesting — I'm going to start measuring my weeks on time-on-feet rather than kilometres. But it's not just time, it's time and intensity, because I could also say to you, last week I ran — I wasn't feeling great, so I jogged through most of my runs and did seven hours of running, mostly easy. This week I told you I did three sessions with some fast fellas, and I did the same seven hours of running, but within that I did

[01:07:42] at least two hours of that running at a pace under 3:30. It's not the same. This is great, and it goes back to the whole idea of programming — a program is only as good as the actual prescription of it. Right, so Kendall, I don't know if I've answered exactly, but I reckon there's now an exercise for everybody

[01:08:12] out there listening, and for Kendall — go and have a look at your last couple of weeks of running, have a look at your kilometres, have a look at the time you spent running. And if you have time to do this, also have a little deep dive on the intensity of your sessions, and then take a step back and go, well, am I tracking up, am I maintaining, am I doing less intensity, and how do I feel as a result of that? Yeah, so to take it into the more

[01:08:43] scientific side — the next step of this is exactly why, and this isn't ideal when you're taking models and modelling and predictions, but you have some type of score. Professionals might use TrainingPeaks, and it plugs all that information — heart rate — into a more scientific formula and spits out a stress score. That stress score per week is what elite runners, triathletes, or cyclists,

[01:09:15] and their coaches and physiologists, use to guide their training, and that's the combination of time and wattage on a bike, or time and heart rate on a run. They're working it out on that — they're not necessarily taking distance into account at all, because distance is actually just a byproduct of time and intensity. I love it. So distances — I'm just looking on Strava at the moment, I think you've got to pay for premium

[01:09:45] to see some of this if you don't have it. But the same thing — if you pump in each week, to be clear, I don't have premium because I don't need it. But that's just me — remember, how many shoes plus one? You always know. No, no, I'd rather buy another pair of shoes than get premium. So it's called relative effort on Strava, and I'm just looking here — it gives you the same thing, a score each run, and shows you improving or whatever. But this might make more sense.

[01:10:15] So think about that — time and intensity is way more important than distance. Don't worry about your distance too much. But I'll just finish up with this, Kendall, mate — you can be proud regardless. If you're running, be proud, the thing is it's your goal that matters. If your goal is to run a time, be proud of the time. But if your goal is just to run, be proud of the run. Be proud — perfect segue to running resolutions 2025.

[01:10:47] You've talked about goals — this will be a beautiful way to tie this one up as we head into 2025. Look back on what you've achieved in 2024 and be proud, and now look ahead with excitement and motivation. I'm talking to everybody out there, Courtney, not right here with you. Yeah, yeah. But Courtney Atkinson, I'm going to give you a bit more thinking time — will you go first? Will your 2025 running resolution — I've got a couple, I've got some running resolutions typed down here. Firstly, I'm going to start talking about the science.

[01:11:22] I'm going to invest in a chest strap, because I want a better understanding — I don't want to take for granted what my heart rate is off just the watch. I'm going to invest in a chest strap so I can actually monitor how I'm travelling in these runs, rather than just how I felt. I want to dip my toe into the data world a bit more with a chest strap. That's a great idea, maybe I could give you a Christmas present.

[01:11:52] I'm sure I'll have one lying around. No, I genuinely do want that, because I'm loving my running, but I want to have a — I don't want to go nuts with data, but I do want a slightly better understanding of how I'm feeling, or literally how my heart is coping during these runs, and whether I'm doing it right. So that's resolution number one. Great idea. Resolution number two is I want to tackle some trail events with a just-experience attitude.

[01:12:26] I don't want to — I've only done UTA 50 twice, and the first time I ever did it, I just arbitrarily picked seven hours as the mark I wanted to hit. I just missed it — the first year I was four minutes over seven hours, the second time I was four minutes under seven hours. So I ticked the box, but I think I probably didn't experience and enjoy it fully, because I was so concerned about the time.

[01:12:56] I was doing mental arithmetic the whole way across 50 kilometres about how I was tracking against my time goal, and I think that can ruin trail running a little bit. So I want to attack one or two races this year, trail races, trail experiences, without thinking about my time at all. Experience — that's the right word. Yeah, perfect. So I want to experience a couple of new trails as well, do things I haven't done before. The big one, and I'll declare it here — my number one running resolution for

[01:13:27] 2025 — I am going to break three hours in a marathon. Yeah, yeah, I know how to use a buyer... look, I'll take a round of applause for just declaring it, I'll take a round of applause when you actually do it. That is such a neon sign for runners out there, the sub-three marathon, and I want to achieve it.

[01:14:00] I do. I was so proud of myself and my planning and training when I broke 90 minutes for the half, knowing how that made me feel, but also the nervousness I had at the start line for what was ahead of me in that run. I want to feel that again — I want to feel that so badly. Now I know what you mean when I light up talking about running — this is what's happening right now, you're lighting up. I am, look, it'll be — it'll be on the Goldie, that's where I'm going

[01:14:31] to have a dip at it, and I'll talk more about it as we get closer. I ran a 3:21 this year, so it's a big jump, 20 minutes. It's a big jump, but I had a shortened lead-up to this year's race — I genuinely think if I train well and stay injury-free, I can have a crack at it. So let us know what you think, Liam — 20 minutes, well, we'll have plenty to talk about this next year. Now, I know you've got a full lifetime of

[01:15:02] being a professional athlete and goal-setting behind you, so you're not as inclined these days, but do you have any running resolutions for next year? I didn't, but I'll force one out of you. Yeah, you're forcing one out of me. But no, the three things I'm thinking about right now for running — and I'm not a big person for putting dates on things, or benchmarks, like a New Year's resolution — but the three things I'm trying to do, the three things I need to do, not want to do, are: one, stay uninjured, look

[01:15:36] after my body. If I'm going to run, if I want to enjoy running the way I want to enjoy it, and that's running at pace again, I need to stay uninjured — that includes looking after my body, not crashing bikes, not falling over, any of that. So that's the first thing. With that comes the next phase, which is to get my speed base back. I've been running for the past five years, but over time I haven't put myself into the environments I've

[01:16:09] needed to, or the hurt I've needed to, to get back to running at, for me — and we've talked about this — it's like getting back down around three-minute-kilometre pace, not necessarily running a 30-minute 10K, but just being able to run that pace again. So that's the second thing. Then the third thing, which those two enable, is being able to go back and do some races I want to do over distances — maybe a marathon, definitely some trail races — and go back and run

[01:16:40] them competitively, at my level. I want to go back out there and enjoy competition, but the races I'll always choose are new races, new experiences, for what I get out of them, and that's the kick of competing. Those are my three. Great. What I will say to anybody out there who might have competed against Courtney in the last five years in a trail race — look out, because you've

[01:17:11] just dipped back into a little bit of that elite-athlete Courtney mode there. When you're talking about getting your body right, doing your speed base, and then targeting races next year, that spells warning signs for some of your competitors next year who might come across you at the start. Sure, I'm not going to worry too many of the young fellas. Oh yeah, you say that, but there was a fire behind those eyes as you were saying those resolutions. Always good to talk about — you've got to have goals, and I think, like we talked earlier, running's running,

[01:17:41] right — you get the enjoyment out of running no matter what, but goals are what get you up in the morning and make it tick. Send us your running resolutions on Instagram, sign into our DMs at In the Beginning Podcast, because if we get some good ones, we can share them next week on the app. Yep, and that's it, mate, happy new year — happy new year to everybody out there. Enjoy the time with your friends and family, stay safe, and we'll see you next week.