EP 68 - RUNNING TRENDS IN 2026? WHAT'S INSTALL FOR THE YEAR AHEAD?

[00:00] In the beginning, back for 2026, Courtney, happy new year. Happy New Year, Liam and everyone who tunes in every well. Week and Saturday and well, we have to issue an apology because I did get messages saying where was the episode? Yeah, I was running through, I've had running through Nerang actually run into multiple people saying where's my Saturday? Where's at? Where's my Saturday at? Yeah. That was, I'll put my hand up for that one. That was me. I promised Liam I'd put out a episode each week.

[00:30] Some highlights I did last week. Yeah, a few people wrote in and they enjoyed listening back. But yeah, we all need a holiday. Mate, hey we've had we've had a well earned break over the Chrissy and New period, but we are back. 2026 is here and rest assured that we will be back for your weekend runs and whenever you're choosing to listen to the show. Mate, how was your New Year's break? Yeah, well, I was just saying to you, we don't you, were in Japan. I was in Japan. You felt like you, I know what it's like when you get away and

[01:00] you feel like you've had a — you know, you're away from your normal life and it feels like a good holiday. I've managed to stay home through the holidays but you know, I've been out bit of camping here and there but at the same time having nearly three weeks off now, I don't feel like it's been 3 weeks and I'm going straight back into the thick of it this week. Well, look, brand new year, brand new episode. Let's start. I want to ask quickly to start the new year and I know what we've got on the cards coming out this year. How's your body? It's good your body feeling good

[01:31] to start the year like the. Best way I can explain it, what was it? We didn't do it New Year's Eve, but we did the Gold Coast Run Co 25, four hundreds every year. I got through that at pace. I hadn't run that quick and pulled up fine and I'm still running. What? How much have you paid whoever films that? Because I noticed in those reels you tend to feature prominently. Is that just 'cause you're up near the front or is it cause the Red Bull hat? What is it you do? You seem to get a lot of screen time. Well, I do bring down the music, the dreams. OK, alright.

[02:02] Yeah, I pay my way in Liam, I pay my. Way I saw that you did the 25 four hundreds saw a few of the Suns boys were involved in that which right so the body's good that's great. I can also make it a unanimous clean bill of health to start the year for the podcast body feels great. I'm also in running. I mean, I mean the injury free and excited to be ramping up at the moment. We'll talk a bit about how the. Yeah, we'll get to our run because we haven't talked about that for a while and we're both running, both doing stuff. But with the year ahead, I want to play a little game with you

[02:34] to start. Cool running in 2026. I just want to throw some questions at you. Some are yes or no, but some might. You might want to expand on a little bit. Will it happen in 2026? Is what we'll call this game. Let's go. Will the running bubble pop? No, you don't. You don't think it's it's reached its peak. You think there's still room for this running bubble to continue growing? Oh. You're after more than no, do you? Think it'll keep going? Yeah, I think it'll keep going. I think I, reckon, you know, seeing what happened with those marathon fields.

[03:04] Actually, no, I'm going to say this New Year's morning. Yes. 530 AMI swim around the headland. Now that is what I did for New Year's. Got up. Yeah. Crew of us, you know, tide — also had one of the young Suns fellas. Oh, good. Come down. Who swam that? Bodhi. Oh, Bodhi Ulan. Yeah,. Local Gold Coast boy grew up. I'll tell you, say we got up. We got up that morning and it was, let's just say it was sharky. You know when you know which is.

[03:34] Enough to send me back this? Year I'm out. So there were there was five of us swimming and I'm just trying to think who else was there? Nick Crilley, Alex Rigby, There was a few of us, so like four of us could swim at the same pace. Sure, poor Bodes. He's a footballer. Yeah, like he,'s come along and you know, we were probably about 3/4, I'm probably halfway around the point and he was about 100 metres off the back of us. And I was thinking, now I'm sitting there thinking, I don't want to be you mate. And in my head I'm going, should

[04:04] I go back? But then I'm also thinking, no, I want to stay, I want to stay, I want to stay in the pack. Anyway, we and I could feel he's like, and after it we said to him, how'd you go? And he is, he was thinking, do I turn around right now and head back to shore or not? We got through it. We waited for him, had a banger of a morning. Yeah. And yeah, he got through. Can I just say all, human lives, same value. On a purely surface level, Bodhi's the one you should have been looking after.

[04:35] If you'd lost that. If you'd lost Bodhi, you'll know Bodhi had caught the nibble because of a, man in the grey suit sort of stuff. Damien Hardwick and the Suns faithful would not be impressed with you. Well, very important play. I had a chance. I've had — I said at one stage I think I said I was under a confidentiality thing. I couldn't tell you about their Suns camp. Can you talk about it? I can talk about it now. Yeah., Yeah. Well, let's get we'll get to it at the end. But hold on. What I'm saying is on that, Bodie, I said with the camp as well, you can't look after 44 guys and not, you know, we could

[05:07] walk 44 guys across the road and 1's gonna have an injury. Yeah. So you've got to sacrifice a few. So hold on, what is this having to do with the running bubble popping? Ah, so we're sitting down a coffee after. That's what. It's the shark. alarm went off while I was sitting. Oh jeez, yeah. Shark alarm that morning. So when I said it was sharky, it was sharky. But we're sitting down there. New Year's morning. Yeah. Unbelievable amount of running. I've never seen anything like it down at Burley Esplanade. Runners like it was. And young. Yep. Young runners everywhere.

[05:37] I think LSKD. They had a 26 for 2026. Yeah, so we saw that as well, but not besides that point. It was just, I've never seen anything like it on the Gold Coast Esplanade. OK, booming. Next question then, does the HYROX bubble pop? Not yet, not yet, not yet. But I believe, I think HYROX will pop or no, I don't think it will pop. I mean, you look at CrossFit,, it's still there. It lasted a long time. But I think, I think HYROX will have its, I think HYROX will balance out probably before the

[06:11] running boom at this stage. Right. I, would be interested to know and I'm, I wonder if they probably wouldn't want to supply the data if it does trend off. But I would be curious to know comparative of people that try 1/2 of a marathon who go back for a second run at it compared with people that do HYROX and go back for a second runner. You know what I mean? I'd be curious to know what the retention rate of the two events by comparison. I mean just. the sheer numbers, though. You're still talking. When we talk marathons, you're talking 120,000 or 30,000 are trying to do these major

[06:45] marathons versus, you know, some of those not, just HYROX, but other sports. You just say even triathlon is a good example. You just don't have that capacity. Strava, The Strava experience improves in 2026. Do you think the user experience on Strava will get better this year? Same, stays the same. OK, Status quo. OK. Do you think now we saw a little bit of this last year in, Asia, I think it was. Do you think we'll start to see companies not in the running space for reward runners, IE some bank accounts or insurances

[07:20] or do you think we'll start to see that running trend into companies outside of the running sphere? Ah. Neither here nor there, I think. I think, I don't think it'll be any more or any less. OK, what is the must have injury of 2026? I if momentum is anything, I think this femoral stress reaction issues in the upper regions. Above the knee. Above the knee I can't see. Still think I see. It's it's happening OK.

[07:52] Have you got any athletes? I'll give you athletes, events or influences who will make the most noise in 2026. Who, do you think is? And it might have been someone who we heard a lot about in 2025, but is there somebody, an individual or an event that was particularly noisy or will become noisy in 2026 or even a type, right. Because I have a prediction for this and I'll tell you mine to give you some thinking time. Yeah,.

[08:22] I think we'll see the Andy Buchanan effect take shape in 2026. I think the conversation that Andy talked about last year with us at the Sydney Marathon about the need for professional runners, professional athletes to be better at selling their story, I think we'll start to see that take effect in 2026. And I think you'll start to see the brands pivot some of their spend, which had been typically used for influencers and non professional runners start to shift as these professionals get better at telling their stories and producing content in 2026, that's the shift I think

[08:55] we'll see. And I know you'd like to see that too because I mean, some of that cash is going back to the pros. I would love to see it. I this is I mean, if anyone can, this is the question. We all you know, look into the few the crystal ball. I've got a feeling as running. I've got a feeling there'll be some brands actually start to not walk away from running but have to really approach it in a whole different manner. I think running has got to a saturation point around

[09:28] marketing brands. I'm going to include athletes in this influences everyday people. There is just so much content, so much information out there. I think there's got to be a pivot point of we'll we're not getting a return on in, we're not getting the right return on investment here for the effort. We're gonna have to either do something so left field and different or. Move or just want it back. Or just, or just look at where we can invest in other areas

[09:58] that will have impact. Yeah, and as you say, it's the and. When I say that, I mean running's gonna, you're gonna have the impact in running. But if, you're, you're doing a lot and you're not being heard, the only option is to try and, you know, get some traction elsewhere. And there's some brands doing like amazingly well. Like we mentioned the LSKD and I've got, you know, 0 affiliation there, but that's a brand and we're in Queensland. So I, do think you get a very skewed effect. This is, this is their, this is their home pass Heartland. Yeah. But you know, I talk about, I was sitting out and I was

[10:30] sitting in the water with a few guys watching the headland and just saw these runners go and I'm like, what the hell is it? What the hell is it? And then after I found out it was something, it was that whatever they were doing, and I'm like, it makes sense. Yeah, makes sense. I they are. We should try and get Jason Daniels would be an interesting fella to come on and talk about because with his past career and his story's an interesting one I think. And you're right, they are a brand that particularly last year back end of last year, they started to gain a lot of momentum and they're carrying it through. So, yeah. And. You know, we're always banging

[11:01] on about supporting elite runners. I mean, Tim Vincent is literally from my understanding, you know, nearly running full time with them. So it's. Great. And they support the support that they've given Bree Masters as well. Yeah, the sprinter who's doing, she actually works for them. Yeah, right. While supporting her, they have. Good coverage across, you know, supporting all, like all aspects. One more for you for these redundant predictions and I'll, and I'll, this does pivot into a story for me from Japan. So I'll give you the last one. Brand or shoe of the year.

[11:32] At the end of the year, which shoe or brand do you think we'll be able to lay claim to? Oh. For 26 for the year ahead, that was a great question for what was the brand or shoe of 25? Well, you can give me both if you'd like. Oh awesome, that's a stumping question. The brand and shoe. What shoe do you think won the year of 2025 for even just from a not a specific shoe but of the brand?

[12:02] Which the brand? Which one for me? Yeah, Adidas. I was going to say the exact same Adidas. I wish we'd had little boards where we had to write our answer and flip them at the. Same time they've had a resurgence in the running space, which they're always there, but I just have. They've had a resurgence with they're one of the top choices you'd actually go and try, which they haven't been for me in the past decade. I yeah, I agree. I also think from a branding perspective, the prominence of

[12:34] the three stripes on the running shoe, that style that they've gone for where it is a very plain shoe, but just three big stripes. I think that was a master strike. Yeah, but you're holding up your a trail shoe here. But I think particularly with the marathon runners, it's even bigger. It's that exaggerated fats 3 stripe. Thing, but it's I mean, I mean, this is the, I suppose, the benefits of being a legacy brand. So like you see the Nike tick, you don't have to see Nike. I mean, look at we'll talk about this shoe a bit later, but I

[13:07] mean, I can't even see Adidas on this shoe. Well, it's on the instep you mean? Sorry, the you can't say the word the. Word. Adidas doesn't exist on this trail shoe. Yep. But you know, yeah, it's an Adidas trail shoe. Same bit Nike. Yep. OK, let me tell you why. OK, 26. So 2026 going through Japan. I saw this on 2/2 separate occasions. There was a line out the door,

[13:37] whether it was manufactured, you know, those stories of nightclubs and bars back in the day, that wood forest people to line up outside. Exactly. Now, whether they've adopted that technique, I don't know. And I'm not saying Japan's necessarily a market leader when it comes to running or fashion, but we know that in 2025 and probably 2024 as well, gorpcore was a thing. And Salomon. was at the forefront of it. They wrote yeah, riding the. Riding. Still riding it. I think the brand that will dominate in 2026 is on Courtney.

[14:11] The lines out the door of the on stores in Japan. Yep, was incredible. And this is in Tokyo. This is in Kyoto. This was in a couple of multiple stores in Tokyo. The shelves were bare. They were being absolutely ransacked and I was then I'd walk past and I and I took some photos and I had a bit of a look and I was looking at the people in the line. And I think on is poised to become the must have training

[14:44] brand in 2026 do. You think that's been driven by street wear or running? Street wear, yeah, I think it's a fashion thing that was following Salomon's style. Yep, I think it's the fashionable look for people when they train in 2026. You know, it's funny you say that. I was down having a coffee at Bam Bams, you know, the bakery down at, Mermaid with my wife and daughter. And I can't help myself. They hate it. I'm looking, I'm looking at shoes and putting.

[15:16] They're the same. I, look at, I'm putting, I'm looking at shoes. And then in my mind, giving that person the personality because of their shoes, you know, like pretty much I can tell, you know, is it a tourist or is it or, you know where or you know, what kind of fact, where have you come from? And all of these I can answer in shoes. Yeah, obviously at the moment, you know, tourist town, there's a lot of internationals around the Gold Coast as well. And on. We're on the three, a family of three all wearing on next to me. And they were European. Yep.

[15:47] Of course, you know, on that's where on some. Yes. Swiss.. Are they Swiss? Yeah. Come, in from Switzerland. And I thought at that stage, I looked at that, I thought each one of those shoes are probably 450 bucks. Yeah, we're in $1500 worth of shoes just on that table. It's the same as Salomon. Yeah, Salomon shoes are expensive. And it comes back to, you've talked about this before around I think you, I don't know if you call it the Prada effect or the,, the high end, The,, the, notion of once you value something at a certain

[16:17] level, it drives everyone to want it. And that's where I believe on comes from because this on effect will come from the same as Salomon. People want what is seen as not only the in thing but expensive. Yeah,, yeah,. I and I, well everything you just said then combined the stuff I saw in Japan. I'm not saying it becomes the running brand of 20250, sorry 2026, but I think it becomes the must have seemed to be

[16:50] wearing. Have you ever tried a pair of? Them on never, put them on. Pardon the bun, but it's again, I'll look forward to, you know, and I'm not saying that it's right or wrong or whatever, but I'm interested to see who starts being loud about on shoes. I mean, the investment in Sydney Marathon, that was my answer for 2025. You asked brands or things. I was the only going to say

[17:20] Sydney Marathon. Yeah,. Was the most noise of the year in running. Yeah. And remember we said on we don't know the investment, but we said their investment on whatever they did would have been over and above anyone else I believe, except for obviously the ones who are paying for the race. Well, I think it's paying off just on the point you made about Salomon too, because I think I'm not. The other thing I noticed while travelling, I first let me say Japan, Tokyo for those that haven't been, it's a walking

[17:51] joint. You walk a lot yes right. Those Salomon ACS, the I paid for those shoes. This is not a paid for post. If you are going on a walking like, you know, pedestrian walking, you can't do better. They were the greatest shoes to walk around in. Yeah, and they are amazing. I. Remember that you get them and don't, because if you actually would have bought the XT Fours or Sixes, you would have wanted you. Actually, you probably would

[18:21] have walked back in this room and threw them back at me. If you're walking if. You're walking around Japan because the main fashion, the main shoe, the main fashion shoe that most of the kids are buying, those XT, Yeah, they're they're uncut. They're old stiff trails shoes. They don't. There's no flex in them that yeah, that will make your feet sore if you've walked, you know, 10K through the day in Japan. Salomon ACS if you if you're going on a trip where you're gonna be walking through cities. Can't recommend it enough. I did see those Salomon XTS

[18:53] everywhere, yeah. Everywhere. And they all have sore feet, but they look good. Yeah. All right. Well, there's some predictions. Hey, if anybody out there's got a prediction for 2026, the year ahead, whether it's for the running world more broadly, I'm with you again. I actually think Gold Coast Marathon will make the most noise as an event in Australia in 2026 because I don't think Sydney can reach the same heights it did off the back of the kit Togo effect and being a major for the first time.

[19:24] I look at the numbers and the rate at which Gold Coast Marathon sold out and I you liked it, There's a. Well, chance to like look as Queens look, I believe Gold Coast was up until last year, always the main marathon talk of the country, right? Of course, for the first year of a major, we went down to Sydney and that was the case. But yeah, I agree with you. It is, it will be back. We'll be back. But yeah, if anyone has any predictions about the year ahead, running wise, personal more broadly, equipment, shoes, events, whatever it is, feel

[19:56] free to send them all. What? What are you talking about? Japan give us. Give us you a rundown of Tokyo. I'm, I'm interested because we haven't really, we haven't had a lot of the time to chat. We've had a couple of texts back and forth. I'd go back to Japan tomorrow. It was an incredible city, incredible country. Sorry, we did Kyoto. was amazing. I didn't, I didn't get a chance to do that full trail that you'd sent me. I did get up into those trails and I want to go back and run more because the trails looked so fun, technical, challenging,

[20:30] but with amazing views either side. My mum was telling me that actually a common trip within that section of Japan is to walk from city to city. It's actually a tourism thing where you travel by foot between those things because it is such amazing scenery. Did you see runners? Did you see any of the college or like the university teams running along the river there? In Kyoto, yes I did, and he was my first takeaway from running in Japan. Kyoto, they are ninja silent.

[21:03] They hit the ground like feathers. I, on the other hand, sounded like I was doing the soundtrack for an elephant in Jumanji or something running in Kyoto for me, I felt rude with how heavy and loud I was running like it was heavy breathing. It was heavy footfall. It was hey. I felt like I was making so much noise and in the early hours of the morning when I went for that run up around all the temples and through the trails, it's. Quite up there. Deathly silent.

[21:35] And you're running past the houses with the paper thin walls. You're thinking. And I'm. Just thump,, thump. I sounded I sounded like a horse being lead to the stalls. Excuse me, I'm literally just snort snorted on the microphone. I that was it was that was the first take away. Was it? I'm a very loud runner that river run though in Kyoto. You did that one as well, yeah. Went round the river as well. Hey, had a man.

[22:07] They can move. Yeah, they can. Some of the runners running around. In there, like that's Kyoto, Yeah. Mainly collegiate Ekiden, really. Teams they were, they were booking. There was some of, you know, first thing running. I went in Kyoto the first morning I went out, it was -1 I forgot my gloves and whoo, hands got cold. But yeah, Kyoto, amazing. Saw some of those collegiate Ekiden runners training along the river as well, which was so cool. Had a had a great couple of runs in Kyoto. I loved it. No running while we're in the snow.

[22:38] But then when we went to Tokyo, I only managed to get one running. But from where we were staying, I wanted to get to the Olympic Stadium and I had a really nice run. Did about 18 1/2 KS felt really good. Felt, you know, body felt great. But here were a couple of other takeaways running because the Imperial Palace, which is right sort of in the middle of Tokyo ish, that is the running loop. That's kind of. I think there's a Yoyogi Park as well, which is another. Shinjuku area. Well, the Yoyogi Park was just past the Olympic Stadium, which is where I got out to.

[23:09] But the run clubs around the Imperial Palace, so, efficient and disciplined, like, you know, groups. I love. Groups Aussie run clubs. We're a nightmares we're we're all over the place. We run 3 abreast, 4 abreast, we're chatting blah blah. Tokyo run clubs, two-by-two files, uniform, seemingly running in stride. It was I was like, this is this

[23:41] is just well. When you see Yogi, they're over at Yoyogi Park. When you see some of the more, I think then probably more the elite groups than the just amateur run groups, but maybe they're the same in both and they're doing their drills together and it is like you see on the social media like just group drills. It was I loved it. was so cool to see big smile. A lot of people again probably heard me coming before they saw me coming. But when I would went past they were big smiles. They clearly, you know, stood out like absolute dog balls but got lots of big smiles and waves

[24:13] and everything else. The thing I loved, which we could never really be trusted with here in Australia because it's such a safe place and crime and all the rest, they just leave their stuff. So the big open section to Imperial Palace, there's just it looks like the start of a major race, except it's all where people have just tossed their clothes aside because they can all just leave their stuff there without fear that it's going to be pinched. Yeah. So that was the other thing I really liked seeing was that look, they all just set up their shoes here and leave everything and then they can go off and run

[24:45] for however long they're going to run. But I loved it. Tokyo was AI could run around Tokyo for amazing for another week. But yeah, amazing. Very envious. I like, Yeah, not like, likewise like. But yeah, but takeaways were that the on thing really struck me. I was a heavy runner. I need to learn to run more quietly and I didn't get a chance to try that renter and equipment. So you said? That at a couple of different shops do New Balance and asks both do it. But yeah, amazing,. It was good to get out for some

[25:15] runs. Yep. Great. Yep. Where do you want to move to? Let's move on. Well, I want to well you've you've you've hinted at it. Can you tell us about your The Sun's pre season camp now you had a confidentiality agreement you allowed to bring? That Yeah, well, it was an informal one, but yeah, you know, I know we so go, I mean, obviously I'll get through my role at Red Bull. I talked to a lot of the AFL, like a whole range of different AFL teams, but specifically here with the Gold Coast 1 was they have their pre

[25:47] season. All the AFL teams do their pre season camps each year right before Christmas. I know the Demons, for example, were down at Bright. Yeah, no, down on the river of the state at the caravan park and did five days. So everyone, you know, a lot of them come up to Maroochydore. Yep, Twin waters area used Maroochydore fields. Yes, I like love getting out the Queensland, the southern teams. So for the Suns this year they were looking for a new spot and through connections, I

[26:17] suppose Hidden Vale, the mountain bike adventure park where we go out to ride. That came up and I was like, oh shit, amazing idea. But there's also a safety element there, right? What's the safety element? Well, the fact you're on mountain bikes, in mountain bike trails, I mean, you've, you've run through Nerang, yes. Would you put 44 guys on bikes, some of them who probably don't ride bikes too well? And yeah, not at the value of some of them. Like some of these kids are earning $1,000,000 a year. Exactly, so. Damien Hardwick, the coach of the Suns, loves his mountain biking.

[26:48] He does so we took Damien, we took dimmer out there to have a look and you know, we ended up out there. So they remember the cabins I told you about, they camped. We had a family when we go out there to, you know, stay and ride. We have probably 16 people. They had the full list out there in bell tents and everything else. And then set up a bit of an adventure race across the park or finishing up with. So there's a, the main hill, I'll call it a hill, but it's

[27:19] 500 metres of elevation up in one go. So that was the finish. And you get to the top and then you look out all over kind of the Lockyer Valley out there. And that was the, finish up there. So they walked up with, I mean, this is all in this social, so it's not secret anymore, but they had lunch. So they did a morning of, you know, I suppose mountain bike riding with intermixed with adventure race activities or whatever, had lunch and then without most of them didn't have

[27:49] knowledge of this. At the end of that three hours in the morning or whatever, they then had to ride. What was it? It was a good hour uphill. Oh, so for guys who don't ride bikes, it's, it's pretty challenging. Got off the bikes and in their little teams of 6 or whatever, then picked up stretchers and did a last 300 metre walk with the stretchers. But every so often they had to add another. I don't know, I think I can't remember what the exact ways were, but let's just say by the end of it they had a few 100K on that stretcher. That sounds horrible. But good, great guy out. And then that led into, for me,

[28:22] that was pretty much the end of my working year and then LED into what I said was our Gold Coast Run Co 25 fours, 25 fours. So for those who want to hear, you know, kind of being a bit cagey on my running at the back end of last year. Cause can I tell you what I saw of the reel? I saw the reel and I thought Courtney is moving because you look like you're running with the front group. No, I wasn't. You weren't. So Tim Vincent, mate, has he seen you talk about what a morning you've

[28:53] got Gold Coast Run Co athletes, I suppose, proper run club like with the amateur runners who turn up each week. Then you had the elite club. You did have some of the, you know, footy teams. Tomorrow. You mean Hagen. Then you arrive at the Suns. Yeah, he didn't do it to 25. I can tell you he didn't do it 25. But he turned up. He turned up and got involved. He did. Turn up. And then you've got like, you know, Matt Hauser doesn't actually train with Gold Coast Run Co, but it's a community thing. Everyone, from the Coast comes in for that day. Tim Vincent I wasn't keeping up with them. I was very, careful in my calf.

[29:25] But what it did do, I haven't really run anything quick. I've been doing the gym, knocking out, you know, about four hours, 5, you know, three runs a week, 4 hours of running. And this was probably the first real test where I went. Let's see, let's see if there's some pace in the legs. Yeah, well, started off at, you know, 120 like per 400. We're doing what we do, 25, four hundreds on 2 minutes. So I started off on about 70 No 8585.

[29:56] Oh, I had to The four. Yeah, Wow. So 125 S like very, conservative and by the end of it I was rolling around in maybe like 73 OK 74 so just over 3 minute K pays and I felt. Good. How'd you recover? How'd you go the next day? Oh. Good. That's good. But you know that it's been Liam and that I'm sure there's going to be people listening to us who will understand this. I'm ready to up my running.

[30:26] I've been given the green light, OK, And I can get, I can. We're ready to increase volume. You know, we've got T100 coming up for 10K. I've got to start getting, myself into gear for that. But I'm getting I'm really comfortable running three times a week. OK, that's interesting. I'm. I don't know how long it takes, but I'm really just enjoying taking three run. Just doing three runs a week, I'm content. So why do you have to change it? That's a great question.

[30:57] Well. To. There's a there's a reality that you've got to have more volume to be able to run at the paces I want to try and run. That's just a reality, but you ask a good question because how much can you get away with cross training and keeping in the running, you know, not trying to run full time. Yep, in the sense of doing, you know, running every day and running out over 100 KA week or whatever. You know, with my background, especially, you know, coming

[31:27] from a triathlon background, a multi sport background, is this kind of showing me the answer? That's some of the things I'm asking myself at the moment because like, you know, I'm running at the spit. Yesterday I had a run. What do we do? So it's everyone loves hearing the sessions. Yeah, you did. You did 15K thereabouts. US, yeah, but. At the actual Spartlet sessions, so this one's pretty standard, but for anyone who wants to try another one of our sessions. Here we go. We do. This is first installment first. Are we making this the 1st of the month? Thing we can make this all

[31:58] right, I think this one's not going to blow,. Anyone away? But hey, imagine there's a big opener saying Courtney Session of the week. Given to you by I don't actually know who, I'm actually not sure who gave the session yesterday because it was an all in we had. We're bloody hell. There was about, I reckon, 100 runners in this where we started. Courtney passes on a run training. Position pretty much no. We did 3 * 3 minutes. So it was a 3 minutes, 2 minutes, one minute with half

[32:28] rest. OK, can you so 90? 133 minutes on 90 minutes 90 seconds float 90 Yeah, sorry. 90 seconds float. 2 minutes on one minute 1 float. 31 minute on 30 seconds float, which makes by three by three. So 2321321321 correct. OK, not, 3 threes, 3 twos, 3 ones. No 32132132. One, yeah. And the challenge with that one is what always makes it hard 'cause you do the minute pretty solid and you only get 30 seconds rest before you go back

[32:58] into the three minutes, which is always a hard. So you're running that's a 27 minute set all up? Yes, I think not including warm ups and called. Outs don't want to get caught out by that. Unofficial official. Actually, we gotta talk. We won't talk about it in this week, but if there's, I wonder what happened there. They're still going gangbusters, but they seem to have backed off a little bit on a few things. I wonder whether they've got a good. Deep dive into that next. Got a call out? Let's stick with Courtney's running training system. For that 27 minutes, I'm back down, right?

[33:28] And I think I was averaging, you know, 340. OK, probably getting yeah, 3:40. So there's a session to try just on that, just to put a ribbon on the session itself. If somebody listening to this wanted to try that session, what would you encourage as warm up, cool down, either side of that? Oh, we do 20 minutes, 20 minutes. So we don't do a, we don't go for a distance. It's always it's time, OK? So 20 minute warm up. Yeah, I mean, but it depends on the level you are like there's no reason. You couldn't do a 10 minute warm up. The in that exact instance

[33:58] yesterday, we probably had half of the elite group who only do 10 minutes warm day, OK, because the session's a little bit longer than normal, 20 minutes. So there you go, 20 to 10 to 20 minute warm up. 20. You're going into three sets of fart leg, which is 3 minutes on 92nd float, 2 minutes on one minute float, one minute on 32nd float by three. Yeah. And then a 10 minute I'd I'd. Nearly say if back on the warm up, warm down is if you're older, yeah, go for a longer warm up.

[34:30] Yeah, take the 20 minutes warming up and if and then and warm down less. Yeah, take the 10 minutes if that's if that's a lot of running for you as distance. If you're younger, you probably get away with 10 minutes warm up and 10 minutes warm down 1515 like. But if you're older, what I notice is you really want to give yourself the most opportunity upfront to warm. Up and just on that to provide some pacing guidelines when what we'll try and do is Courtney gives some of these sessions at the start of the month, so. There's two ways to do that. One, yeah, One is to just like, I said, I just look at the

[35:04] average pace of the whole session. So the floats are quite still on and I'm not looking at changing my pace between the three, the two, the one. It's just that you're running less as you come down. And then the challenge is being able to go back and run that 3 minutes off the 30 seconds rest at the same pace. It gets harder and harder. The other way you can approach that session is to go, you know, to incrementally increase your pace as the time goes distance. So do 3 minutes, you know, at moderate, yeah, 2 minutes a bit harder and then one minute fast.

[35:36] One minute and. Then go back into a 3 minute moderate. Yep, for people that have heard that and decide they want to give it a crack. Incorporated over the next month before Courtney gives out his next training session that he steals from someone else in a month's time. Go out first time you do it, go slower than you think, and if you get through it, fine. No, when you go back to it next time you can speed things up a little bit. I would discourage having made this mistake myself. Do as I say, not as I do. Don't run faster than you think you can maintain, because ultimately then you end up not finishing the session.

[36:07] Yeah. And the best way to manage that is in any of those types of fart like sessions we do, we run out and back. So you split the session so it was 13 1/2 minutes, we turn, There you go. Now if you don't get back. You've gone to. You're a Wally. You've gone too fast. You're a Wally. Oh my God, not heard that one from No, that was gonna I was gonna I was gonna be a bit more. Just progressive. That just brought back memories of my grandfathers. That is such a grandfatherly

[36:37] insult. You Wally. That's good. OK, I. Just don't wanna have to put the what is it the swearing. Oh yeah, the explicit, the E on the episode. Cool. So that so your speed is there and you're balancing this decision of whether to when and if to up the run. Yes, I'm I'm still 100% in this, real, I suppose build gym. That's where the focus is still, but the running's just coming

[37:09] along slowly. I need to up the running, spend holiday comfortable. It's hey, it's not a bad place to be. It's not a bad place to. Be Now tell me, do you want to hear about shoes here or do we want to keep that to the end? What? Do you want to tell me about shoes you've been running in a specific shoe you want to talk about? No. Well, remember I said I had the three shoes and I was gonna. I promised everyone a. shoe review. I've got holiday brain, I can't remember. What you've do? Do shoes Now get into some topics? Let's do shoes. Let's do shoes.

[37:39] Give me a shoe. OK, give me a shoe. Courtney's bending over the. Pick up. No, I've got 3 shoes. So if you remember back I reckon it was probably 3 or 4. It was 3 weeks before Christmas and I said I've been running, I've been going out and buying some shoes and I've been looking at, you know, I'm trying to find while I'm changing up my gym, changing up my running, I've been looking at shoes at the same time. So I've been looking at a whole range of things.

[38:10] You know what the hardest thing with shoes is when you're choosing like there's no go to. Like if I went out and said I'm going to buy 3 shoes and they're all the best racing shoes, it doesn't make sense to me. I'm looking for the best shoe for me at the right time where I'm training. So the three shoes I actually bought and I ended up, well actually I didn't buy one of them that I've ended up with was the Salomon S Lab Ultra Glide. Now that's the dimple we talk about, the golf dimple shoe. The hell damage you've. Got and we've both had their generic vert like their normal.

[38:42] Version I've been running in a lot lately. And you like them? Yep,. So this is their like. It's the it's the runner. It's the elite runner version. What's the Yeah, I don't know. I was just trying to think of a brand that does it.'s the turbo of the yeah. It's. The. It's the V8. It's the it's the V8 Supercar's track car of their shoe. Yes, right. Yeah, now that shoe is a $400.00 shoe. It's. Light. It's incredibly light.

[39:13] It's a $400.00 shoe. That's that's number one. OK #2 I went in to talk about Adidas. Yep, I've tried. A mate of mine had given me the Now let me get the names of these right. He'd given me the Terex, which is their trail shoot. It was their speed trail ultra. It's the one with the plate in it. And it's got, it's actually more build up than the one I'm holding. And it's I didn't like it. OK. It was too stiff. I didn't want to run in the trails in it. Didn't buy it.

[39:43] It's expensive too. The one I ended up with and the one I put on is actually, if you think of the Boston 12 that we've talked about a lot, this is the Boston 12 in a trail shoe, so. Boston 12 in it. So which has it got? The carbon, the plate, The rods. No rods, no,, no,, no,, so it's pretty it's a pretty standard shoe. It's the Agravic on which we don't know how to say that word Still speed trail OK, only so there is an Agravic 3 as well. The difference between that one and this one is this has got that dual foam in it, so it's got their light stripe pro irrelevant.

[40:15] I'm not gonna try and talk tech on this. I'm gonna talk. Feel. Yep. What I love at the moment with shoes for me personally, running is just like the Nike Vomero. Yes, that's come out. I love when they're using two different phones, a hard foam and a soft phone. Mm hmm too much soft phone for me is too much. Yep, too much hard phone too hard, too hard. I love this mix of phones, and that's what. It's the Goldilocks. Mix that's what that trail shoe does and then the final one I'm holding, and this is all on video if you want to jump on Spotify and watch is the Zegama

[40:50] the night Zegama two that I've talked about. And now you'll be able to see that cut out. I've talked about over and over again on the side, which gives it unbelievable stability on the trail. Unbelievable, like probably one of the best, most stable trail shoes with a build up. You know, so, that's so that's so. You're gonna rank these? What are you gonna do? I'm gonna. Tell you because you know how long it runs for Salomon. I won't wear these again. Really.

[41:23] I can't run in them, Liam. Why? What do you mean you can't run in them? So it's really like, I believe these have been my if you're running an ultra or you're running a Mila. Yeah. And you're running at 8 minute K pace and walking. Yeah, this would be a probably a really good shoe. OK, Can I, can I, can I stop you there for a moment? Yeah,, that's what I'm loving and running in them at the moment. That's why I'm loving running them in. That's why I've gone back to them because I've got those S/Lab Genesis things in which I ran kunanyi in.

[41:55] Which is probably more of a bit of speed shoot. Yeah, I've got those sitting in my wardrobe, but every trail run I've been for in the last month I have put the hail damage the golf dimple shoes on. Yeah, the ultra glides the. Ultra guides, because I'm thinking about the run and the race and time on feet and it's like I don't need to chase that extra speed in these runs. What I need is to ensure my feet come out of this run feeling good, feeling comfortable, not

[42:25] strained, not stressed. So it's so funny that the thing you don't like about them is the thing that I'm actually enjoying about. It's not a. Purpose. It's not a dislike. I can't. I can't wear them. Yeah. So what? What size are they? Yeah, well. If you want to spend 400 bucks on a pair of shoes and have the Salomon, you know being with the cool crowd. You're half, so you're so small. So when I run in these, the feeling I get is they're super plush. However, I can't feel my feet. Liam, I've got 0 ground contact

[42:57] feel and for me that's non negotiable. Now, one that scares me about the femoral issues I talk about like stress, because it just when you can't feel your foot and you can't, you know, take you don't have the agility to take in that ground contact. It just drops in my hips and all that. It's that. Neural connection to your. Feet yeah proprioception in them for me are non existent so like I said for people at the right speed for miles you are gonna love them it's.

[43:27] But it's #3 for what? You OK? Cool. Added us you know how much we I've loved the Boston's as like a trail like kind of like what I'd use at the spit for fart like and that type of thing like it's it's soft enough that it's good, but it's got good like it's good for speed. Yeah, this is the shoe I talked about and I think I alluded to that when I put it on in the store. It has been my favourite shoe ever to try on in the store. I put it on, walked a few steps on it and I went. This could be my favourite shoe

[43:58] ever, right? It runs that good as well. Really. You know, the big issue, stability on the trail is dog shit. Yeah, absolutely. And I read this on, I was just before we were talking about this, so I had a little bit more information on some others. It's killing me. It's killing me, Liam, because I love this shoe so much. I can't run technical trail on it.'s the risk of me rolling my ankle in it is just too high. If you and. They're the same size shoe.

[44:30] I know this is the amazing thing. It's the same size shoe and yet the Salomon is. It looks like it's about two sizes bigger. But this, even just looking at this you would be able to guess without him putting it on. You go, jeez, this feels like something you'd run a road race in, not something you'd want to tackle a trail in. I think it's a perfect trail shoe. The. No,, quite the opposite. Yeah. It looks like a road racer and it probably is more driven from Rd Racing Rock is amazing in everything. You see that dual density like that different foam.

[45:01] So you like as you go with this softer foam and that would be low at the back 'cause it's cutting through there, but you can see how thick it is through the front of the foot. Yeah. So it's nearly like your land with stability. And then as you transfer it up to your toes, you get this softness to it. But that initial strike, you get really, nice ground contact. However, it just has this notion of if, I hit if I'm running through with a bit of roots and rock on a trail if it's too technical. So I'm going to catch it. I catch. Mate, Yeah. So you know what this has become

[45:32] you. My spit shoot is spit shoot it. Is which is non technical trails 100% yeah. So then I come to the Zegama night. OK, it is an A race shoe. I'll start there. It's not if you want to go out and run quick on a race trails, it's probably not. And I believe they've got like a plated better shoe to run for this that I'll I'll in the future have a look at. However, if this is where I'm going to come to, how do you pick one shoe? If I went out with my brother at the moment into Narang for my

[46:02] weekend long run and I've got these three shoes plus another whole heap in the garage as options, Which one am I choosing 9 out of 10 times at the moment? The Nike, it's the Nike's Zegama 2. Yeah, it's a Gamma Zegama 2, Zegama 2. And the reason for that is ground feel in it front. The there's softness to it.'s got their Zoom X foam softness to it. But have a look at the flex on that front. Yeah, it nearly feels like the front of my foot is got.

[46:33] I can feel the trail under it, never getting rocks through, never getting roots through. There's enough softness here, but I feel I have ground feel. Look at the white the berth on it. I'm going to call it the berth like a boat. Yeah, it's wide, it's stable. And what they've done to this outside cut out in the in the rear of the foot on round stability. You can see in the Adidas one there. See how this was like the original Zegama. You can see how straight. Yeah. So. when you land, you just get straight. This one just compresses.

[47:04] I'm just, but I'm also looking at and again, I'm holding up the Adidas alongside the Nike and underneath again, it looks like the Adidas looks like a track shoe by comparison to what you're getting so civil, which I completely understand. Looking for a race that you want right in between that, but there you go. They're the three shoes I've worn most over the past probably two months, and like I said, the one I'm picking up every day to go and run my long runs. The we. It's a Garma.

[47:34] Then Nike's a Garma. We need to get you into a pair of the ACG's, a Garma's, the new ones from Nike when they come out. Yes,, look, yeah, they look unbelievable. That's really. But then also at the same time you'd maybe you don't need to. No,. You know, this is the thing we say all the time. Go and try. Yeah, you find like don't, don't assume. No. But you don't really know until you try. You can take people's words for it. Like I'm gonna have a very different, like you just said, I've got a very different shoe that I want. Then probably you do. Yeah. Well, as evidenced by the fact

[48:06] that if you were half a size bigger, I'd be taking those. Salomons off you hit them off my hands the. Interesting what staying on shoes at the moment I'm running my kind of Rd runs in the Puma Deviate at the moment. Really enjoying them and the Deviate Nitro are, is that the race? That's not the no., no, it's not the high end. It's kind of it's it's it's kind of like your Novablast, OK, of the Puma lineup. But the Deviate Nitro I think is what I'm running in and they're great. Loving them, enjoying them. Hey. Let's jump into this. Liam, go, this is from you. can give us some context after it.

[48:38] What I can't understand is I grew up in a nation. They had passion, they had a winning mentality and now we've become a nation of participators and passive people. And it starts very well all at school. Because I remember when I used to run in school and I used to compete, I'd get a ribbon first, I'd get a gold medal. Now we don't we give it to everyone, we lose that winning mentality. What we've got here is a team

[49:09] that wants to fight, to win. From the first day they came to training, we spoke, we knew what we're going to build and where we want to get to so that it's happened. This, I think it's normal when you put in place what you expect, your expectations are, what the standards are, the way they work, the way they train, their togetherness, it's amazing. They fight for one another and they play good football. Watching from off the top you can see it a little bit more relaxed, as relaxed as I could be. Sometimes we get criticised for

[49:40] playing a little bit direct, but we play direct to our 9, to our wingers. We play direct because our. He's going into a little bit of football chat now. For those that don't know, that is Brisbane Roar coach Michael Valcanis. And if you follow the round ball game here in Australia, you're probably familiar with Michael. If you're not a soccer fan, you've probably never heard of the bloke. Coach of the Roar. Coach of the Brisbane Roar. Yeah, so has Australia lost its winning mentality I. Love, when I saw this, I, sent it to you. I said we need to talk about this because this is I the

[50:10] particularly when he talked about running, because you and I, we talked about the idea of making cross country great again, re reinvigorating. And Michael, I think Michael is about probably of our generation. I'm just having a quick look at his age. He's a little bit older. He's 51, OK, So he's the generation before us. He's probably a decade older than me and a little bit less older than you. But he came through the schooling system where as he said, if you run a race, if you ran a race and you won, you got

[50:41] you got gold or you got a ribbon, first place ribbon, if you came second, you got next, third, next. That was it. That mentality, and it's clearly that is his mentality carried over and put through a footballing philtre. So what? What set him give to the context? Do you know what set him off about this? I think and again, I'm I'm going to talk around it a little bit. My understanding is and I'm I haven't. Because like the Roar are getting doing well and getting called out well. I think it's somebody asked if

[51:12] the Brisbane Roar I think have had a bit of a flick turn around from where they've been previously before Michael. And I think people are asking did you see this? Like what's inspired this thing? And by see, Michael was like, well, we want to win. We're coming with a, We're not. We're not pampering to anything. We're not, I'm not, yeah, I'm not pampering these athletes because I know that in other footballing codes, in the AFL in particular, they talk about the fact that, well, you can't coach players the same way they used

[51:43] to be coached previously. It strikes me that Michael Valcanis is coaching players the way he got coached when he was a player, when he was playing back through the 90s because he was a very good player. And it strikes me that he is bringing back that approach of you're a professional athlete, we're paying you to win games of football and to become the best football you can be, so we can be the best footballing club you can be. And if you can't achieve that, then you can't help us sort of thing. And I love that he brought it back to that of like Australia

[52:14] more broadly. And we have, and I don't think it's all for the worst that we've softened and made kids sport less about winning in some respects. But at the same time, I do think we may have gone a little bit too far in the Everybody gets a Ribbon mentality. There's no reason you can't have both. Yeah. I agree, but what they've done from what I've, from what I've seen in a lot of kids sports, they've removed one. There's like when I think about

[52:44] going back to like, I can remember playing fun sports, It's dodge ball, you know, things they still probably don't allow now because of liability and stuff like that. But you, could play, you could play mobile sports and have a lot of fun. Yeah. You can just play touch football. You can, you can still have a social sport and everyone participate in that. Yeah. But then there's also a reason sports sport when it's competition, you can't shy away from the fact that there's

[53:18] winners and losers. In a race, in a match, there are winners and losers. There's no reason you can't have both, but when it's competition, there's winners and there's losers. It just. I would. And I, as you were just talking about it, then I'm thinking back to my daughter's soccer grand final. OK, my daughter's nine and she played in a soccer grand final and for the most part, the score hasn't really mattered in her winter league. And then she got into the summer league and they're like, yeah, there is a grand final. I'm like, oh, great, Now they

[53:48] won the grand final, I think, and I love that. I'm like, great, you've got to play in the final and you won. You got a sense of that? My didn't really bother my daughter one way or another. But I think this, I would love to see the schools and the clubs lean into that competition element more. I would love to see them really embrace the yeah, there's going to be a winner or loser because that's what sport is. And then I would love to see the parents really embrace, put it, take it on themselves to it's

[54:24] now my job as the parent to educate my child on why this matters or doesn't matter or it's OK or you should learn, right? Here's the framework which we live in and we compete in and we race under. There are winners and losers. Someone will come last. Someone will come first. My daughter came last in her Nippers carnival swimming race. That didn't matter. The message I then had for her was that's the first time you finished a swimming race at Nippers. I'm so proud. That's amazing. You bit down on your mouth guarding the swim, got out round the can for the first time and finished.

[54:55] You came last. But that does not matter at this moment. That's not what this moment is about for you. I think we can be better at tuning out the complaints of the parents. Let's be honest. Yeah, when their kid doesn't win, so. it's a messaging, right? Yes. There's no reason within any environment if the messaging's right, everyone can get something out of it as well. But there's a reality. I think you that I mean we as you go through life, you

[55:26] realise. You can't win everything. You can't win everything. Amazing. There's something you said while we're talking. About I've lost the radio job 12 months ago. It happens. Well, it's funny you say, because you mentioned in that we're talking about soccer and you said they're paid players. Yes. Your job is to go out there and do what it takes to win. So the even the notion of then saying, hey, you're employed by, let's say whether it's a football club, a car racing team, whatever it is, you're employed in professional sport

[55:59] there. Your job is to win. There is there should be no other question like the way you go about it can be in different ways, but the question about trying to be doing everything possible to win. It doesn't matter if you moved over to let's say like what's in, corporate, in the corporate land, like if you're in investment banking or something that's quite of like probably hot, you know, high risk, high reward, that high stress. Trading. Yeah, high stress, high reward. Like same situation. If you're employed to do a job and you stuff up, you lose.

[56:32] There's no participation like you're, you're not going to get your same bonus. You're not going to get that. Like I nearly think sometimes in sport you're employed and you've got to remember you're doing a job that's different to going and playing a sport just for the sake of it. You have a very. Different. Let me ask you then as a professional athlete, former professional athlete, because the thing I think that is now more in that world than it's ever been before is the mental health stuff. So how does that and,, and I

[57:05] think sometimes where it gets where we haven't, I love that we are so aware and mindful of people's mental health. I think it's really important because I mean, hey, you only need to look at the suicide statistics in the country to know that it is a factor, right? And we should be mindful of that. But how do you manage that? That's the conversation. That's the contrast that we haven't, we don't seem to have found the balance between yet, which is that, yeah, we do need to be mindful of people's mental health. But also, as you say, there's a

[57:38] professional. Well, you're yeah, you're a professional athlete who needs to achieve XY and Z as you're part of your job. And if you can't complete that as part of your job because of the maybe you are the one that then needs to go. Well, I can't achieve this. My mental health is what's it is what's causing me to pause here. Where does the you know, where does the governing body or the coach or the. Whatever it is. Well, I mean. And it's the unanswerable question. But it's the support structures, right? Like I can recall multiple times

[58:11] at throughout my young career going and seeing a sports, I never saw a sports science, a psych on a regular occasion, but there was I can recall a number of times where I was having certain issues and there were life issues, not necessary sport issues where I went and I was directed, yeah, here, go and talk to someone outside of our system that we're coaching you or whatever it is. That's fantastic. Of course, like, I've only had and I'm sure there's good programmes, bad programmes and everything in between, but

[58:41] sometimes I, think I had, I had that. Support. You had that? Yeah. And it's not like I went through all rows either. It was times when it was good, times when it was bad. A lot of stress, a lot of not stress. I think, and I'm going to hopefully explain this right where I remember seeing talking about being paid and just your job is you're paid for a team, let's say a footy team, it could be a Tour de France cycling team. You are being paid to perform.

[59:12] Where it gets grey an elite sport is when it's government programmes because in a government programme. So let's take and I and it's changed a little bit. We talked about like, obviously having retirement funds now coming from the Olympic Committee and all that, but you're not necessarily paid a wage to be an Olympian. No. So you're part of effectively what is a professional sports organisation.

[59:43] Your coaches, your sports science, your sports scientists. Everyone else is getting paid as a job, you as the athlete. Are not receiving a wage. You're not getting a wage. It's not, you're not. That organisation isn't paying you to be a professional athlete and do your job. You've got to go and fend for yourself now. This is what makes Olympic competition. And I'm, I'm talking very generalised. Yeah, of course, different factions, different things. You know, you talk, we've talked about swimming having support in different ways. I know sailing has support

[01:00:13] through different ventures, but the majority of Olympic sports are not paid athletes in the sense of there is an organisation paying you a wage to win. That's where to me it becomes very like you're in a, in a situation. Well, participation verse winning, what is your you're the It's only in that case the individual who's being driven driving force for you as an individual to have that outcome. Is to win. If it's a monetary thing that drives some aspect of wanting to

[01:00:45] win in sport, there's more to that then of course. Like that's why we all go and try the Olympians and win gold medals. But if you just break it down, there is no excuse where I'm leading with this. There is no excuse when you're being paid by a team to then think, well, I shouldn't do anything else but expect that I need to go out and do my best to win. That's my job. I, think you have explained it well there. I think there will be people listening to this who've been triggered on both sides, on

[01:01:17] either side of that conversation. I like that we can talk about this sort of stuff. I always think sometimes the idea of the conversation around mental health scares people off on both sides to discuss this stuff because they feel like they're either going to be perceived as being not considerate enough to mental health or being overly considerate to mental health. And it's that it's a bit like politics, right? You know, we've lost the ability to have the conversation in the middle around these things. And I think it's important because in the middle is where shit gets done. What I will say to finish off this poet, Michael Valcanis.

[01:01:50] Yeah,. Back to soccer. Back to soccer To take it back to Michael Valcanis. I cannot wait to see how this team performs come finals. They're sitting 4th on the ladder at the time of recording. Can't wait to see how Michael Valcanis's attitude towards coaching pays off at the pointy end, when stress is most high and when pressure mounts the most. Yeah, so and another caveat of that is make cross country great again. And, talking about cross country, this one popped up. So the 2026 World Athletics cross country champs are on very soon.

[01:02:22] They're going to be in Tallahassee over in the United States. Now I love this. They've created. Well, we've talked a little bit about of what would the Olympic, what could an Olympic Games cross country look like? So you know, when they make the mountain biking in cross country, let's say man made courses and they put in man made features. So in the cross country, in the running cross country champs, they're going to be down in Florida. They have alligator alley. They've actually created all of these sections. Obviously this one, it looks

[01:02:54] like you're running around the man made alligators. No real alligators. Faux alligators on logs. Hey now. I mean, you'd run faster. Talk about an event. To run. Have you? I mean, we, I know they do some through these wildlife game parks in South Africa and that, but think of having a running event where there was some element of actual proper nature that could hurt you. Well, we have that every trial race we're going here in Australia, it's snakes. That's true. Think about right, think, about that being place there for

[01:03:26] the proper right. Well, we've got Lake, Country, the Everglades, and I'm, I'm tipping they're going to put down some good mud. Oh yeah, you know, like. Man made mud captions the Florida coastline. So there's a there's a water, it's proper water, proper water element to it. Florida beaches. Oh, soft sand, soft sand section. They've like the beach section roller coaster. I mean that's not new. That's just pudding. They just needed to get people under a grandstand. Sure, how do you move people around the course? But how's that? I love it if that's what I would

[01:03:57] want to see in the Olympic Games. Is it being? Hold on, This is actual. This is real this. Is a 2020. No, I thought this was a piss take. No,, this. Is the actual. Course, yes. They're doing all that. Yes, that's great. Mate, cross country great again, Liam, that's great. They're taking into Floridas natural resources and tourist attractions and putting those elements into the cross country course for the at the World Championships. That's, I don't know the exact

[01:04:28] date, but it's, it's, we've got a couple of locals out of Gold Coast Run, Co heading over. Quickly, very soon. Quickly. Last thing we'll do because we've it's great to be back, but we started to run long quickly. Here's what we're going to do. Corny. Let's imagine the world cross country championships here on the Gold Coast. All right, we've got to have a sand element. We're replicating what they've done here in Tallahassee for us here on the Gold Coast, that's what, that's the quick exit. That's our home, that's our exercise to finish the day. We've got to incorporate a soft

[01:04:59] sand section. Well, yeah, same. So we're not too different from Florida, really. True. No allegators, no allegations. Putting crocodiles. We don't have crocodiles here on the Gold Coast, so I think you've got to incorporate the sand section. Yep, you've got to have some hinterland, some hills, actually. Maybe you just get them running around burly headland. Boulders,. Burly boulders. Actually that would be cool if you had a section and a bit like

[01:05:29] running a dry Creek. Bed and then while you're running the burly boulders you put like a wave machine on the side. So here we go like Yep, you know washed. You got a run spray like time your time, your attack. It's like jumping off the rocks at burly like we did the other morning yes wait for the tide. Yep. Pulls out. I think you need to incorporate like a caval AB run so it's like it's proper shit. Getting thrown proper. The crab, Maybe Sunday. Section the Crab.

[01:06:00] Yeah, throw section, yeah. Throw plastic cups at you with fluid. And kebabs and yeah,, we incorporate that. Heckled through there and then. You'd probably finish it with a snake pit, no road work section. Road work section. It's it's it's a road run section. A random stop and go sign. But you've got a peanut with a lollipop just turning it on you and holding you there for 5 minutes while everyone catches up at the back. There we go. We. Could we? Could easily. All right, it's great to be back

[01:06:30] 2026 and more. Again, if you've got any predictions for the year ahead, here's the first thing, first thing we'll ask of you for the year, like subscribe, share with friends, get behind it, get on board 20260. That's the other thing we need to remind people about T100. Yeah, like it's what are we, three months? We are closing in on the T100 less than three months. This is the for those that might be joining us for the very first time, the TB-100 Triathlon series is coming to the Gold Coast for the first time. It is kicks.

[01:07:01] This is a worldwide series that begins here on the Gold Coast. The 22nd of March is the weekend of the race, but the 10K is what we're all about. Well, we're in, we're no, we're in, we're running. Can I just and you can join our team for the event. So in the beginning when you go to register using the beginning as your team, show that you're a part of the crew. I don't think I can break 45 minutes right now for the 10K. OK, so if anybody out there wants to get one up on me, go sign.

[01:07:32] Your. Go sign up at T100 triathlon.com. Sign up for the 10K. Be a part of it. What are you? What are you gonna? What are you gonna nudge? I've got some great motivation at the moment. Oh, what is it? So I've got, I've got a number of people in our circles, oh, here we go that are giving me enough of ribbing and, providing motivation. So we'll get into this another time. However, I've got some very targeted times and some targeted targets. OK people to race OK next week

[01:08:04] you gotta you gotta reveal this next week Courtney Atkinson to reveal who and how fast he is targeting for the T100 10K. Go sign up, be a part of it, and we'll see you next week. See you next week.