Latest / On Your Own Time Podcast / Kierian Mc keown Running Coach
Transcript
- Declan Toland: Hi Ciaran, how's things? Thanks very much for coming on to the live chat with me. I know I've been trying to do with you for the last couple of weeks, you're a busy man. How's all with you? Kieran: Hi Ducky, thanks for having me on buddy. All is good. As always, all is very busy. So that's a good sign of most of the time anywhere. Declan Toland: Good, so Kieran I've known you a good while now. I'm on the League of panel for the last 17 seasons. So for 17 seasons you've been coaching me on the panel. So for anybody who doesn't know you, who's Kiera McEwan? 17 years, Kieran: Jeez, Decky, I didn't do 17 years, fecking hell. So you were actually one. Yeah, I was there 20 years, so I wanted to start. Anyway, so Decky, my name is Ciaran McKeown. I live in Cork City for most of my life. I work as a full-time fitness coach. I spent 20 years working with the FA as an elite fitness coach, as the national fitness coach. As a runner, I'm running since I'm 12 years of age, so. Declan Toland: Yeah. Kieran: I'm running, jeez I'm getting old, I'm running 39 years, 39 years running and racing. And I work as one of my main businesses. I would operate as the Cranky Coach running. So where I would coach at the moment about 80 runners on a weekly basis. So with our training plans, I've been coaching like this for maybe the last 20 years as well. Originally I worked as an engineer many, many, many years ago. and I kind of moved to the fitness industry then about 22 years ago. So where I, you know, where I started off originally as a personal trainer injury rehab in physio clinics, I kind of moved more into the running side of things and obviously to tie in with my own running. So that's me in a nutshell. ⁓ have two kids, Davin and Hannah, sports mad. So if I'm not coaching or ⁓ I'm end up coaching them or managing their teams or. We're big soccer fans as well, so we're at Cork City games or May nightly games as well. So that's kind of me and the nutshell, Dickey. Declan Toland: you mentioned and Cork City. So now that you're away from the F.E.I. you're from the referees, do you abuse my referees in the stand now or you still hold your tongue? Kieran: ⁓ would have originally as a younger person. So like, jeez, I'm Coxsilly fan, I think since the early ⁓ 90s. So it originally was, live right near the ground. You probably, when you have a team of referees, you're probably looking at the referees a little bit as well. But it's, yeah, I'm probably for things that other people don't even realize. I probably know stuff because I've been at them so many. meeting so many development things over the years that I'd have probably a different perspective to most people in the stands. So I'm probably telling people they made the correct decision, they're just telling me they made the wrong decision. So I'm probably too much on the side of the referees. Declan Toland: Thank When you go to matches, they look out for the fitness level and what they like in the game. Kieran: Yeah, generally at the moment I run the first division so I'm not, you know, I'm not seeing the bigger teams but over the years yeah I would have been like I would have, I'd know straight away like it's something you just pick up straight away you know who's naturally fit who's not. I would have had all the data to look at as well that I'm studying so I kind of know who's fitter who's not even before I went to the match and things you know. I kind of, you learn from people who move very well in the pitch, the people who control the game easily. So like, over the the bigger games in Crock City were the top, top club. You would have had lot of the big referees there. So yeah, I would have been watching out for that. Not so much now at the moment, but definitely when City were going well, you will see the top referees, you will see them moving well, you will see how they control the game with experience. ⁓ Declan Toland: So here, we'll bring it back to your early days. we talked about you, you said you were an engineer before you came into coaching. Kieran: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I actually worked for the union as well for a while. So I would have been on the engineering side of things. So I did. I went to America running, came back home sick, came back and started working for the German company here for about nine years. And so I would have been program CNC machines a lot of work like that, you know, on the engineering side of things. Kind of finished up that type of work about twenty nine and then have been coaching kind of since then, you know, full time. Declan Toland: And where do the interests in sports, fitness and coaching begin? Kieran: I suppose I would have come from a sporting household. In Cork City here we have, even though my kids play with Sairs, with St. Frimbers, a very prominent hurling and football club. It would have been one of the only clubs to win all Irlands in hurling and football. So I live close enough to the ground my dad would have been a top hurler back in the 60s. He would have held the Christie Rings scoreless in the county final. So that's his claim to fame. He won a few county medals with the Bears and so he would have won it think in RRN on 21s in 1966. So that's originally like as soon as we could kind of walk we were playing hurling in the footballs. Side of things you know. Declan Toland: That just proves the point. We were actually in the last few podcasts, I was talking to a few others. It's usually a lot of the athletes, when they're an athlete, it usually comes from their household. It usually comes from what their parents have done there. If it's a fitness house, a fitness background, usually the kids go on that way as well. Do you find that very important? Kieran: Monkey see what monkey does? Definitely. Like I coach ⁓ daughter's soccer team here in Riverstone. you you can, ⁓ when watching games, you can pick out the people who are naturally ⁓ just, it's work. Like it's just the more training kids get, the better they will get if they have a football. Like I'm a big believer in ⁓ Kamoge hurling that you need to have a hurling hand as soon as you're kind of can walk around. any top hurlers you see, they will all have played hurling at a very, like I think my daughter was down the stairs when she was five. She was playing since she could walk around, you know. So I think that it is, it's a healthy house, you know. It's more than just bringing them to training and collecting them from training. I think you spend a half an hour yourself with them. The benefits are massive, massive from skill levels, you know, and you don't need to be a genius at training. think just kicking the ball with your kids. them ⁓ ⁓ anything at all, it does make a massive difference. Active, like yeah, yeah, yeah. Just, just, and I think it's encouragement as well, like you know. ⁓ Declan Toland: inactive. that they have made. Absolutely, even my young lad, he's only three in August now, but to start this new football camp at Lonehair, it's over twos. So it's literally just in a hall, they're kicking football to learn the basics. So that's starting next Saturday. So I'm looking forward to getting him in, kicking around with other kids like football. Kieran: ⁓ brilliant. It's a big thing here in Cork as well where they have the little kickers. And there's a couple of ex-League of Ireland players. think Dennis Behan who you would have probably referred to. Well maybe you would have referred in the early days. They run the little kickers and it's brilliant. I see him a few times and it's all indoors so the weather doesn't really matter. And it's just having them around the environment. And one thing I really started to notice lately Declan Toland: I agree with you. Kieran: that he is with kids that when they have older, just my work point of view and personal point of view, when kids have an older brother or sister who plays sport, the second and third kid pick it up so much faster because they're always watching the first kid or they're always around it or they're younger when they're around it, know? So you will see that they develop a lot faster simply because they have an older brother or sister. Declan Toland: Absolutely. You're about yourself, Ciarán. Were you always involved in long endurance runs or was it short stuff as well? Kieran: Yeah, I suppose, I was probably lucky. No, it wasn't great as hurling a football. So I wasn't say, you know, I was OK, but I wasn't talented at hurling a football. I run around the pitch naturally all day. from ⁓ think sixth class ⁓ and when lost all the poppy fat, I probably ran my first race in first year. And I'm probably lucky that I was a for the first couple of months. And then I went into ⁓ 1500 metre race I think I was second to the national champion and from then on it just something that just came naturally like I won pretty much through school, some monsters monsters, national so I was kind of lucky that something just came naturally. I can ⁓ running the cross-country race winning it well so I was kind of lucky that way that I think it's something that was just naturally there the endurance side of running you know from I was a track runner, like 800 metres, 1500 metres all the way through school. I can remember the only people who beat me in 800 metres in secondary school, which is the national schools is the big thing, would be David Mathews who was at Sri-Olympics and was then, you know, he was the national record holder for years. So he was the only one who beat me in school the whole way up. when we got to the national championships. I think with endurance running, you can build an engine. But I think with some people, it does come naturally. Obviously, if you're light, you have that little bit of speed from sprinting. So when you're going to 800 metres, 1500 metres, it did come naturally to me. Declan Toland: That's not a clip, is When the long and George ones mentally, how do you find it? Kieran: I think for me, I coached a lot of American runners and I have random but I think for me I was always a more shorter distance runner. like the max I would have raced when I was younger was maybe 5k into my late teens. So training was always short. ⁓ It really went over 70 minutes of training. Which I tell people is probably one of the reasons why you can still run. ⁓ 38 years later, know, 38, 39 years later that I'm not over running for two and three hours at a time, you know. So it's, you know, that's something people kind of neglect about the time with their legs is important as well, you know. Declan Toland: them. I remember you gave out to me a couple of years ago. I started, you started coaching me and I'm still refereeing and I said, I want to do three marathons this year. And you just lost the rag with me and said, that's not your goal, that's not your goal. You're a league of honor referee. shouldn't be doing marathons. a year is probably enough. But I still remember the conversation. But I always find out about you, Ciarán. The reason I mentioned about the mental side of it, even when you give your programs, you seem to... Kieran: Hahaha ⁓ Yeah. Declan Toland: touch on the mental side of it as well, which is very important, I find very important. Kieran: I suppose when we take running in the first place, running is the most simplest thing in the world you can do. You've just got to run in a straight line. You don't need skill, you don't need agility, and it's something you can build up. some very good marathon runners come from that or from just building, walk on top of walk, you know? But it's the mental toughness. I marathon runners have massive mental toughness. Like I spend more of my time just getting people ready for the day and it's not a training plan. It's more the mental side of things. Things go wrong. You doubt yourself. You have to get through them. know, so it is that side of things. And for running is a huge thing. Like the big slogan I always have when you're running, just turn your head off. Don't think about it. Just get up and run. It's just another run. But it's something that affects mass among the people running wise. that they overthink it, they overanalyse and I call it then they lose the head. suppose the main thing we all run for a deckie is we all run for, it's the best thing you can do for ⁓ mental health. So that's where running is, people are open, free and things, know. But it like you know if you go run a deckie you come back, you feel ⁓ a lot better after. It's sometimes the thought of going can be the harder part, you know. Declan Toland: Not to you. That's why he keeps saying to people as well, you always find it's getting outside the door is the hardest part. Kieran: You just, like I'm a big encourager, like if you're going training, don't go home first, go training first. Some people training early in the morning. The I work, can probably train lunch during the day, most times I find that good. It's everyone just need, you just need to find what suits everyone and where they find opportunities to train. might be in windows when kids are at cheer, soccer, ⁓ or some can train lunchtime at work, after work. It is, but if you go home and you think about it, believe me, that's the harder part, you know? Declan Toland: Was there a particular moment or person that inspired you to come into coaching? Kieran: So I suppose on running side of things I was lucky that I was in, when I came back to America ⁓ I clubs a few times, I was in Leeville. ⁓ We lots of good coaches there including Donnie Wildge, a former Olympian and John Collins. So from their side of things I seen how different people did a lot of stuff, know, did a lot of things that way. It's funny but from the way I learned coaching, would it mean a bit through them and just stuff I picked up myself. But it's funny, I probably learned more about coaching from a non-coach as a manager when I first came to the League of Ireland panel. It was really kind of I developed a lot of stuff from through Pac Kelly, just about because Pat was excellent at preparation, looking the part, being prepared, having everything ready, you know. And so I would say probably he would have. It created this effect and Pat the manager ⁓ a former referee, not so much from the coaching side of things that way, ⁓ running side of coaching things. ⁓ I would have picked up a lot of that, you know, like a coach philosophy. fine that you want to train runners in certain way, but I think the most important thing about a coach is that you support, you help people. That's the big part. And being organized ⁓ and accessible. I think the big thing is that as a coach, Like I be telling people like being a coach is not a nine to five job or a five day week. It's a seven day a week thing. If someone has a problem on a Sunday night, you need to deal with it then. If something goes wrong, like you need to get back to people, know, like sometimes you're obviously more busy than others, but you need to get back to people within the day and things, know. So that's where I kind of probably develop the coaching side of things from, you know. People skills, Dece. It's people skills. think coaching is, as you know yourself, Declan Toland: Yeah, that's all. Yeah, absolutely. Communication and people skills. So that rolls nicely into how did the opportunity to work with you, Atheca, and your elite referees. Kieran: Even with your job, it's people skills is the big part, know. So, yeah, so I think what happens is that EBOCH, think 2016, started developing more that they wanted to set up national referees in each country, you know. So through here, Kelly, one of our, I think, probably one of our top of all time, you Alan, I knew, so we chatted about it they started training. the Cork group here in Cork and from there then, a very short space of time when the opportunity came that you were if you wanted someone. So through Pat, who was the referee manager, approached me and then it kind of just grew from there, you know. So that's where the opportunity came from. Declan Toland: Brilliant, and do you find them what's the difference training referees to training athletes or runners? Kieran: And. Declan Toland: Yeah. Kieran: Oh yeah, massively. So it's like I suppose the best way to describe it is that you're kind of, people in general, with runners they want to train and run every day. Like you think you want to do three marathons and all this. Runners want to do more and more and more and more. So you spend most of your time actually pulling them back. So like as a coach you're actually keeping the harness on people and they know when to leave and go at the right time. Referees, can be the ops we're on where they have so much going on, is trying to fit their running training in, which is so much important, into the refereeing. So fitness, hey, we're runners, they want to run every day. Referees are trying to get them to, with some you're trying to get them to train harder, to push more, just realize how much the fitness is an important element of this and passing their fitness test. So it is a different mindset. Referees have so much else. manage where runners just have to run. So there you can see there is a huge difference in how you have to deal with the two sets of people. Declan Toland: And in the 20 years that you're with the DC has the training changed much? Kieran: ⁓ yeah, like the fitness tests have changed, the demands, think, like I don't think people realize that you could have a very, very fit 45 year old referee, now who's, especially in the primary division, who's like, they're all full time professional players, they're all young, they're all fit, you know, I see Cox really training outside of Goodbyth, you can see that, you know, referees really do have a... tougher time now because of the fitness levels of the players are so big, they're all full-time players. It's hard when you're a referee, when you're working full-time, when you're trying to fit everything in around it, but the level of fitness would massively have, yeah, would massively, since I started the first day, referee fitness in general would be a huge, massive improvement. They're all monitored on a daily basis. Every test that you do, the same test as... a referee does in the Premier League or a full-time referee does in the Spanish League or the Italian League. So there's different challenges around facilities, et cetera, but it come on massively. Declan Toland: And do you think it came on for the best? Kieran: ⁓ yeah, because it done, I in Europe in general, can see the level of referees, fitness work, even games of watching TV, it's all of a high standard. And just through my own work over the years within different coaches in different country, you can see it has massively improved in things. ⁓ The has got faster. The game has got faster. it can referees maybe 30 years ago, ⁓ you know, the players weren't full-time players, but now they are. it has come on massively. Obviously it can improve more as we go along and things like, Declan Toland: Yeah, no, that's good. So what makes a good coach? Kieran: Yeah, so this is something I think about a lot and probably change from time to time, okay? So, in general in life, I think a coach is not about a training plan and you can get a training plan online. I think as a coach, you need to be ⁓ people skills, you need to be a listener, you need to be able to make decisions because you know, ⁓ you ask me a question, like I need to give you an answer straight away and be confident about that answer. I think you need to be. very honest with the people you coach. There's no point me telling a five hour marathon runner, which happens at times, that they're going to be running three hours in a short space of time or that two hours for a day marathon runners will be going to Olympics. I it's very, ⁓ you to be realistic, you have to be honest, you have to be really supportive and you have to believe in the people. ⁓ And think you have to believe in yourself that ⁓ you improve people. ⁓ Declan Toland: So how do you adopt your coaching for elite athletes compared to beginners? Kieran: I think you just have to, this is probably something at the start that I probably took a while to learn. ⁓ if you say have a very good club runner who's a too far care, too turkey American runner, I treat everyone the same, but you have to understand that the workload is going to be different. So like it's realistically with running, runners will train six to seven days a week. That's what a runner does, a runner trains. their strength and conditioning stuff, their palates, their mobility comes on top of that. some runner at A level below that, you just have to understand that they might train three days a week. So you work off the basis of that you get good quality of training in. You have to understand that at times ⁓ they're going miss sessions and things. So you just have to guide them through that and things like. ⁓ Declan Toland: Yeah. What are the biggest barriers stopping people from getting started with running? Kieran: we could be all out of it, I know that the biggest barriers would be I think ⁓ find for ⁓ the years that women there it's confident sometimes about women about running and guys are okay but I find now women are ⁓ a more confident about running they ⁓ like always find that women work very hard ⁓ they harder in training and they're good meticulous wise and you know about training plans. think in general in sport women is massively, from soccer, from all sports, has improved massively. Like the skill levels, know, like I'm watching the 12 games and the girls, you know, they're tough out, they're tougher. I tell everyone the girls are tougher than the boys, you know. So their skill levels are huge. The barriers at the start can be like when, you know, when people get older, you know, 15, 16s, girls seem to get turned off sports. So this is something you really have to be careful of. are the people's barriers for running is like, it's time. Geez, we all live in a very busy society, you know. It's time, it's, you no one, like not having support. think support is a huge thing to have. It's sometimes, it's like we can run anywhere, Declan, but like, you know, we're still probably lagging behind in facilities and places, you know. So I think they're the main barriers. I think it's time, people's mindset, you know, it's... you do need to get people support, you know. And you'd see now like, Dekki, that there's a huge amount all over the country that we have a huge amount more not to 5K programs, especially for runners that, you know, people like selling in these, like, you know. Declan Toland: she rolled it nicely, because I was actually going to talk about any advice that she'd give to someone that actually wants to start running. Kieran: So yeah, this is the biggest thing I tell people. Start running and start small. Don't be worrying about a marathon. So this is the big thing at the moment. People do not have to 5K and then within six or eight weeks, they want to start all training for a marathon. I'm always telling people, start small, build a base. Remember why you're running. You're running for a mental health, for your fitness. If I was an insurance man selling insurance policies against, you know, against sickness and things like that. is one of the most important, healthy eating and fitness is one of the most important things that you do. So when you start off, it's a start small. Remember running, don't overcomplicate it. Running is the easiest thing to do. So get out and run, get to some races, like there's so many races, know, like even where you were up there in that long, like there's even around the Ofla area, like there's so many races on every week, know, like in car care. Declan Toland: Paracrons, no new Paracrons are brought in every week. Kieran: This week alone there was five races, know, and even in the monster area. Yeah, yeah, yeah, there is like, so there's stuff every week there, but it's to get out, start small and build in from there up, okay. Don't be getting out running and then in six months time want to do a marathon. I kind of encourage people to get out running wear something you're do for the rest of your life. Declan Toland: Yeah, and I did eat trigonium. Kieran: And so it's. It's to keep it simple, Dekki. It's running it simple. It's to keep it simple. Declan Toland: Yeah, no, absolutely. ⁓ I actually see the park run. We've gone not too far away from the house and every Saturday morning it is absolutely chock-a-blocked. And it's actually getting bigger and bigger. ⁓ can actually see more people on the roads now as well. Kieran: No, massively. But like I ran up a lot around your area, decked up around awfully. And it's funny that it's one thing I noticed like in Cork ⁓ have you with so many walkways like it's like it could be like a social club on a Sunday or Saturday morning. There's so many people out like all these greenways that are actually fantastic for running, you know, that you do see like Jesus, anywhere I go there's people running all the time. So there's a big running boom on it. The park runs are brilliant. I think usually here, like in Cork, there's, I think there's five or six park runs, but there's one in Tramore Valley Park, which is a very good one. They would have a huge crowd on a Saturday morning. The one in Ballinacallig, which I think was one of the first ones in Ireland, they could have, geez, four or 500 people some Saturday mornings running, you know? like, you know, Dickie, where you are there, and then at Lone, like, you do have, I always see lot of people from up around there running on the walkway by the track, you know? I try to encourage people, you have in the Rundalfi there you have lovely in Tullamore you have all the walkways by the canal. I I ran every mile of that and stuff. Now you wouldn't see in some of the parts, you wouldn't see as many as here in Cork like here you're actually, something's actually inviting people, there's so many people out running. And in Dublin it's the same, which is brilliant. I think all these things. Declan Toland: out there. Kieran: resemble facilities, these things, you know, they're brilliant for people to run, you know. Declan Toland: I actually bring the, at the army when I do block runs or any of stuff, I bring them out to Green Map because it's good for them. And it's all laid up as well. It's all well laid up as well. And you know there's running clubs there as well because they've been marked every couple of hundred meters. Kieran: All's fantastic. But it makes a massive difference when it's even backed out, you know? Declan Toland: Yeah, it definitely does. Strength training, do think it's important for runners? Kieran: You know? strength training is probably like, strength and conditioning work is probably one of the most important things runners do. And think it does, ⁓ geez, it like from injury-wise, know, the guys send their lads out to try and get them to do one or two sessions every week. I'm probably a big believer that you can do more stuff at home, you It's ⁓ like myself yourself, we're Pilates teachers. I Pilates is huge thing. for people just in general to keep them injury free, you So it's probably one of the most important things to do. The only thing that worries me sometimes is that when I'm training people for running and they want to really progress, I'm trying to explain to them that the strength and conditioning must come on top of the running. for athletes who want to do, know, want to really move forward, that the strength and conditioning is vital, but it needs to come on top of the running. So I see people that... Maybe they're doing three strength training a week and maybe two runs and I'm saying, you need to running four days a week. ⁓ is the one sport that you have to run. Runners run. ⁓ Declan Toland: Yeah. I was saying to I was saying to you, we did, I did Limerick Martin this year and I Dublin, Dublin last year and I was a coach with you and I probably, I was more committed to the one in Dublin than I was for Limerick because Dublin was off season and then Limerick was in season. And it's tough. Yeah. So like I didn't really get my long run in, but I felt comfortable after Dublin, I felt I had more in the tank to finish on the finish. Even when I finished, I felt strong. And then I went to Limerick and I was like, no, this is not a sport you can wing. You can't wing this. Kieran: which is tough, which is very tough, you know? Declan Toland: I suffered from about 70 in my year. So you definitely need an engine, build an engine as you said a while ago. Kieran: No, you can't. Yeah, Dece, it's like, you know, you can go to, like this is one thing, you can go to a 5K, you can go to a 10K, and to a certain degree, in a half marathon, right? And you can have half your homework done. And you might not run a PB, but you'll get away with it, you know? Especially in the shorter races. In the marathon, it's unforgiving. That's what I always tell people that, you know, even Dece, like when you're training, you're doing a match, it's 95 minutes. But it's very, very different. For the marathon, You have to have the time on your legs. You have to have the time on your legs. If you don't, you'll get to 20 miles or 70 miles or even 21 miles and everything will just shut down. It's something you can't mimic. In the gym or anywhere else, you have to get the long ones in for the marathon. And that's why people, try, sometimes I'm giving people away from the marathon for good reason because it is time consuming. It is time consuming. Declan Toland: Yeah, no, we talk about laws. I can tell you at Limerick, or even say hit this wall, I don't even know if that's real or any of that stuff, but I can tell you from 17 mile I suffered. It was a tough. Kieran: Limerick is not, Limerick is like, I've done the half there a few times, Limerick is not an easy marathon as well, know. Especially when you come up around with the Gaelic rounds, there's a few hills there that are a killer, you know. But it can be, like a marathon can be a fantastic experience if you've the homework done. It can be horrendous experience if you don't. You can do everything right for the marathon and on the day, you can be sick, you can have something come up, a small injury, and it can be really, really tough. Declan Toland: Yeah. Kieran: The one thing about the Marathon is that if I run a bad 5k on Monday, two weeks time or the following week, can run another 5k, I can make up for it. In the Marathon, it's all on the day. And this is the tough, tough, a Marathon is tough, tough, like, you know. Declan Toland: I don't know how many emotions I went through in Limerick. At one stage I said, this is grand here. Then I said to myself, I'm never doing a marathon again. And then I got to the finish and I was like, I might do Longford. Kieran: Ha ha ha ha ha. But usually, usually that day, like people, most people have crossed the line in the marathon and say, Jesus, never again, never ever again. And then by the evening, they're kind of wandering the other way. And by the next day then, they have, have, booked in for the marathon. You know, so it is huge. It is a draw. Like you, like it a massive, ⁓ big It's like a cup final for a referee, right? It is the Crowes, you know, if you're at the Cork Marathon, the Dublin Marathon. Declan Toland: Yeah. Yeah. ⁓ Kieran: You have massive crowds if you go to marathon abroad again, you know. it is a massive, massive, massive high in things, you know. But I'm trying to tell people like that, there's lots of races in Ireland where, you know, that the distance races, like the Rahean E five mile, I would describe it as a marathon just over five miles because you've ever known the roads in Dublin for that. Like those are races as well, the short race that you can get the same thing and stuff, you know. But the goal I'm always telling people is if you decide to do a marathon, you've got to put the work in because there's no way around it otherwise, you know? And the tough bit then, Dickie, is that if I'm training someone, we say like Barry Twino did, he was sub 230 in Cork this year, say Andy Goulding, they ran very good races, their training is actually less than someone who's training for a four-hour marathon because they're longer runs. there may be an hour less on their legs. So in a way, training for a shorter marathon, actually a faster marathon time-wise, is actually easier because you have so much less time on your legs. It's the longer marathons are really tough, you know. Declan Toland: Yeah. Yeah, it is tough. Small bit about your, sorry, small bit about the Pilates. So you're obviously a Pilates instructor for a good few years. I've done the course recently and it has a female orientated name on it, doesn't it? Kieran: massively and it's yeah you're right Dickie it's like teaching playa days for years and years now and a of the classes I would do is for the ETB you know and the Pairnship it's rare it's I'd say that it's I've had men's only classes for GA but if something guys don't tend to wonder to you know and I think to it's, I don't think, I mean, there are three four guys to share in the classes. It's a huge thing that people don't realize that the importance of plaid is, it's for mobility, to strengthen your back, strengthen your core, strengthen your glutes. And then plaid is you can bring other elements in as well. You can have some little bits of strength and conditioning moves within your plaid as well. It's what I tend to do in things, In Cork, we've a good social side of our classes as well. But I think it's one thing that guys just, they get turned off ⁓ very fast about it, know? I don't think they like, you know, they like being in the gym, but patience to be on the mat for an hour. Declan Toland: It's not that It's actually funny because ⁓ we're doing it in the army at the moment and getting a few very, very, very, very good runners doing it. And my God, they're in, they're never experienced it. And they're back every week now because they see the benefits of a Pilatus class to all sports, to athletes, to get good pair of soccer players, but even to runners, the flexibility and the strength and just the ease and ⁓ movement. Kieran: Sometimes it's tough, it's tough, it's tough, know? ⁓ massively, I go into companies now, only thing I'll say, I go into a few companies there to do Pilates, and you will in that, I will usually have 50-50 guys and men, but in the other classes you don't have, and it's something that, ⁓ think some people, you're laying down for an hour, you're switching off, I think the switching off side of it is very, very, very important. Usually I do some meditation at the end of the classes as well, and I think that's very important side of things as well. When we do running weekends and stuff, would include that in it and it has a good, people do like it then. But I think the problem with runners is that, you know, as runners, us as well now, Declan, we always want to run. That's what comes first, running, running, running, you know? Like ⁓ if do a part of a team thing, you will get guys to do it, you know? And like you have a huge opportunity there that you have guys that you can train with and do with, you know? So. I think then when they get to see it, it does make a massive difference to me, Declan Toland: Yeah, like even like in the hips and stuff, there's a lot of last, like people go stretching or cool down after a session. They're just doing the basic stretches. They're not doing the actual movement and movement of our body is meant to be running ⁓ natural alignment. Our body is meant to be moving. That's it. can't, I can't praise it enough anyway. Kieran: No, but movement through a range of motion, just even to teach people how to activate their core and keep it on is a massive thing. also like if I'm teaching people, even if they're doing some strength and conditioning, I'm trying to get them to activate their core. And again, I've done some with some basketball players here and they do buy into it a little bit because it's like if you improve your posture, everything improves upon, if your posture is lot better. you're proved upon carrying the ball better. You can see more of the game because your head is not down. So the posture side of things is a huge thing that I think people will start to buy into that sports-wise, know, that improves their posture-wise. So that's a good part of the plan is as well. Declan Toland: Yeah, no, is. And I've looked at athletes who actually does it. Ryan Giggs and Ronaldo does it allegedly three times a week. You see what they're. Kieran: But look how old Ronaldo is and he still played the full game the other night. Ronaldo is probably the most. Outside I said, not the soccer side, but as an athlete, he's probably one of the best athletes that was ever there in any sport. Just how fit he is, how strong he is. And again, all these things make part of his... Your training plan is like a play chart. It needs to have little bits of everything in there. And Plaid is... has a part to that as well. And it's getting people to buy into that and then they do see, you find, Decky, is that with people who are injured, then they'll want to do everything. So we're trying to get them to do it before they get to that stage. And that's the challenges as a coach. ⁓ Declan Toland: and just two different types of Pilates. There's there's mat Pilates and then there's a reformers Pilates. Obviously both are excellent. like, obviously the reformers are very expensive. The class are expensive and the equipment is very ⁓ But on the mat expensive, on the mash Pilates, all you need is a mash. Yeah. Kieran: Yeah. Yeah. That's right. That's what I teach on Mathwork Platters. Most instructors in that have a good level of qualification and things. I think for a reformer, sometimes you don't actually need the qualification Platters way, so reformer can be a little bit different. Reformer is brilliant for injury rehabilitation. If I was doing a reformer class, I would always try and tell people to go to a physio-based one. which are excellent and stuff. Again, yeah, the classes are expensive. Where generally Plaid is generally a cheap class, and that's all you need. You need a mat and you can do, like I try to teach people to do little bits and pieces at home and things as well, because it does make a massive difference. Declan Toland: Absolutely. ⁓ Moving on to your actually cranky coach group. Tell us a bit about that. How would you start it? Kieran: So I think originally there was always some form of the group there over the last 20 years, but it kind of has, I've kind of put more time and kind of concentrate fully on Like I would coach runners when I was personal training, when I stopped personal training, say maybe ⁓ eight years ago, I kind of concentrated more on the runner side of things, know. The name Cranky Coach came from just one girl I coached and I was telling her to do a little bit more and she was ⁓ was cranky about it, you know. So it was a play on words and as a business it's just catchy so people get a laugh and a joke off it. So our group now at the moment we have 80 runners, all different levels, say from sub-230 American runners all the way up to four American runners. I the philosophy of the group is that it's, I ⁓ to people, ⁓ you know, just to keep, my main goal is to keep people running. Obviously to improve people, they go on people running in 10 years time or 15 years time and things you know. So that's one element of it I always do. I don't tend to be as a coach, high mileage coach, so I'm not, know, except maybe some of the guys, but there's no one kind of running 70, 80 miles a week. Most of the runners run under 50 miles a week. We do good quality sessions. I'm always there to support. But I'm lucky that there's other guys within the group, within our group that are very experienced runners as well, know, like Andy, Barry. they you know, there's also lots of very good advice within the group from other people, you know. Anyone in our they get their training plan. The way I work is it's once a week get your training plan. I don't give people training plans by the month because ⁓ I found from just learning over the years that if you send some people out a training plan for a month, things get in the way, don't get as much feedback or communication and people tend to wonder, they look a week too when they're out week one or they look too far ahead, know. So I'm a big believer you take it a piece of the jigsaw at a time, one week at a time. If something goes wrong, Dickie, you can change things very, very, very fast. You know, if someone has little an eagle. ⁓ If they're sick, you can change things in a day or two. So that's the way I would work. Coaching wise, I encourage people, they're strength and condition-side of things to do it, to work on their nutrition. We pick bigger races for the year that people work towards. I would say as a coach, I am accessible. This is what I do every day, seven days a week. So I'm accessible to chat to the runners most days. Some people text every day, some people. it's maybe once a week, it depends. Some people like a different level of support other people. So it's very much tailored me to suit what people's goals are and things. a coach, I suppose like I'm realistic about, I tell people like, ⁓ not going to the teledec, you're going to the Olympics ⁓ you're not going to the World Championships. I'm a of ⁓ salesman that But it's ⁓ my philosophy just help support and the main thing is to keep people running. because our mental health, our ⁓ fitness, ⁓ health the most important things, you know? ⁓ So why I train the curves. And also, obviously, ⁓ want get their goals, they want to run PBs and things like, know, which is usually important. Declan Toland: Where do you see Cranky Coach Group in the next two to three years? Kieran: I think we grow a little bit more, again, as again, it's something with, when you're the one person running it yourself, know, there are ceilings about the amount of people you can coach and stuff like, you so I'm probably very near that and things like, you embrace technology. So I think these are some things over time that, you know, as I develop as a coach, you know, ⁓ the things I work on, how we develop, how we manage our people, I think. ⁓ how we give people feedback. These are the things that will probably change over the next 12 months, know, that you have a better experience for the people you coach. I feedback is important. It's one thing how people manage that, then is how I'll probably look at changing things as we come and things like, know. It's like sometimes people don't want the huge amount of information and sometimes if you're over analyzing stuff, it can have the opposite effect, you know. It can have, you you did judge the person, like so, if I'm giving you feedback and numbers and figures, it's different than giving someone else the same feedback, you know. Declan Toland: Of course. Sorry. Where can people find you? Kieran: Yeah, so we have the main point is our Instagram page, our Cranky Coach Instagram page. I'm on Facebook just under my own name, Kieran McCown. And Instagram, it's the Cranky Coach on Strava. It's the Cranky Coach. You can add me there on Strava. And then just through the phone as well and things like that. So they're the main communication. Instagram will be the big one and Facebook and think Strava as well. ⁓ Declan Toland: Yeah, I'm with you for the last couple of years there and I find that we're on a What's Up page a group and I find the community you've built is very, it's impressively. So fair play to you, Kieran: Yeah, so, so, think, like, Dece, it's more than, there's, you're meeting, it's a community, so you're meeting friends, you know, if someone wants help with something, you can help them out. Like, I don't have all the answers, Dece, like, and no coach will ever have all the answers. You're just learning more and more as you go along. But like, even if it's something about, you know, we have, we have Brian Fox in our group who's one of the best physios, you know, in the country. And so there's access to people as well. So when you have more people in the community, you have more resources, you have more people, know, that all the races are put up there or everything that's happening is put up there. You you have people in different clubs, like you have in the here and in St. Fimber's, who's a great help with helping with stuff, you know. So like it's the community, those are the people there to help, you know, even coming down to DECI, like, you know, I probably guess sales job selling for Nike and stuff, you know, but other people then will, you know, they'll be talking. in the boat, different types of runners, they'll give feedback on that, different types of gear. So all that stuff is vitally important as well. And everything, Decky, is the more you put into something, the better you get and stuff. So just that side of things as well. But Decky, I think the big thing is even refereeing-wise and running-wise, you're around positive, like-minded people, and I think that's a massive help. Declan Toland: Yeah, absolutely. All you can do is bring a donkey to the well but you can't make him drink it. You can give them the best problem in the world, which you can't make them do. Kieran: Yeah, that's right. But you see, think we're, yeah, but I think it's, run, there's no problem with runners that way. It's getting runners to drink the water at the right time if you get what I mean. ⁓ have no problem with runners training. It's ⁓ keeping them back is the difference, you know? So these were the things you have to learn and stuff like, know? So it's amazing that runners just want to run, you know? Declan Toland: Yeah. Yeah, no, that's brilliant, Ciarán. So we leave it there, Ciarán. So thanks very much for coming on with us today. I'll be touching base with you in the next few weeks again. And we might have you on later episodes, talking through how Cranky Coach is going again. Kieran: Hey, brilliant. Brilliant Decey Decey, thanks for the opportunity and best of luck with the podcast now. remember ⁓ most important thing Decey, North Sea Maritans in one year. ⁓ Declan Toland: Not really. Anyway. When they call you a cranky coach, it probably follows you perfectly. Thanks very much, guys, and thanks very much, Kerry, for joining us. I'll chat to soon. Kieran: Yeah, just wait, Thanks, Ducky. Talk to you soon, Bucky. Thanks, Ducky. See you, Ducky.