Latest / Easy Double podcast / Andrew Coscoran: The boy from Ireland taking on the world - Grand Slam Track & Diamond League life, Training Smarter and the importance of recovery, Always striving for more
Transcript
- 0:01This is a pre show warning that the following interview contains
- 0:042 Irish people who may be hard to understand.
- 0:07Apologies in advance and enjoy. Welcome back to the Easel
- 0:41Podcast and today I am happy to say we are joined by a multiple
- 0:48Irish record holder in the Mile and 1500.
- 0:51Many Australians know him from Zada Peck in 2024 when he out
- 0:55kicked Jack Rayner to win and also the box he'll burn when he
- 0:58beats Jim Mcswain over 1000 meters.
- 1:01He's raced in diamond leagues all over the world and he's
- 1:04taken down some relatively big names in Grand Slam track
- 1:07recently. Grant Fisher and he is a
- 1:11multiple time Olympian and we will be doing the double at the
- 1:13World Championships in Tokyo next week.
- 1:16He is Ireland's best ever male distance athlete.
- 1:19Welcome to the Easy level podcast.
- 1:21Andrea Koskren. Hey, Owen, how's things?
- 1:23Yeah, thanks many for having me on.
- 1:26Yeah, the podcast sounds sounds cool.
- 1:28I've listened to a few the 30 episodes and yeah, he's doing a
- 1:31really, really good job. So thanks so many for having me
- 1:33on. Yeah, actually, listen.
- 1:37I did, yeah. Well, anyway, as soon as you
- 1:38contacted me then I was, I was like, I'll listen to a few then,
- 1:41but I should have spotted it before that.
- 1:43But obviously, you know, it's, I've seen a few times.
- 1:45Well, busy man, you know. Yeah, that's an excuse.
- 1:49Flat out you're currently in Hong Kong, correct?
- 1:53Currently in Hong Kong, hiding away from the heat.
- 1:55At the moment it's it's 33 outside but feels like 41.
- 1:59So yeah, I'm hiding away in the room at the moment.
- 2:01With the air con. On air con on full blast, so
- 2:03it's saving me right now. Yeah, right.
- 2:07So we'll get straight into this and just a few Ice Breakers.
- 2:10Ryan likes to ask a few Ice Breakers that start.
- 2:13So I said I'll do it as well. So are you a Guinness man?
- 2:17Guinness all the way. You like Guinness?
- 2:20Yeah. Love again.
- 2:21It's on my offseason. Yeah, I was creamy point of
- 2:23Guinness. Can't beat it.
- 2:25I can't stand it. I don't know.
- 2:27When I say people I don't like Guinness, people like, oh,
- 2:29you're not Irish? Yeah, I don't know.
- 2:32I always feel like everyone has that one point that turns them.
- 2:36They're like, no, I don't like it, don't like it.
- 2:37And they're like, no, there's this one Pope has unbelievable
- 2:40Guinness. And then you go there, you have
- 2:42that one point that changes everything and then you're
- 2:43hooked on it. That's that.
- 2:45That was the case for me, right? And.
- 2:48To follow soccer. I wouldn't be a big soccer man
- 2:51now. I just moved to Manchester
- 2:52though, so I'm it's a great time to start following Man United
- 2:55again. I did a little bit when I was
- 2:56younger but fell out of a but now I'm like back following them
- 2:59and it's, it's, it's heartbreaking stuff.
- 3:02It really, really is. Yeah, Ryan is a Liverpool man
- 3:05and Dean like Sam Tottenham. So yeah, I'm a United man is on
- 3:10myself. And what is your favorite city?
- 3:14You feel the heartbreak. Yes, yes, yes.
- 3:18Come here. What's your favorite city in
- 3:19Australia? Eh, well I've only seen
- 3:21Melbourne and Sydney and I'll have to go with Melbourne.
- 3:25Yeah, I feel like the running in Melbourne is really good, but
- 3:28Perth, where majority of our listeners are listeners are,
- 3:31it's very, very underrated. I haven't been the part yet, but
- 3:34I it looks pretty cool, so I'll have to go over and check it
- 3:37out. But yeah, they're, they're
- 3:38running in Melbourne really good.
- 3:39They're running in Sydney, not so much, but the beaches in
- 3:41Sydney kind of make up for the little bit.
- 3:44But I'd say if I had to pick Melbourne, run.
- 3:47And are you miles or kilometers? And miles, but I jump back and
- 3:51forth to depending on who I'm talking to.
- 3:52So I'm a bit about. So if I'm talking to
- 3:54Australians, I'm kilometers, OK, and half tights are split ease
- 3:59half tights. Hey, your favorite place to
- 4:01train? Flagstaff definitely best trails
- 4:07Arizona, great vibe up there. Everyone loves running up there.
- 4:10There's you can meet for the Sunday longer on in the be there
- 4:13could be 60 people there and great running culture.
- 4:16So yeah, I'm going to say Flagstaff.
- 4:18Yeah, and then a lot of people won't get this one, but Barry's
- 4:22or Lions tea. Or Barry's all the way.
- 4:26Yeah, that's such an Irish thing.
- 4:28Yeah. For all.
- 4:31You know you can trust someone, yeah.
- 4:34For all your listeners, in Ireland there's like 2 main tea
- 4:37brands. It's either berries or lions and
- 4:39there's such a divide between households that are you a lions
- 4:42or berries. And like if someone is a berries
- 4:44tea, you just won't drink the tea in that house because you
- 4:47have a favorite tea. And you don't trust me, get
- 4:51straight out when they're like don't.
- 4:52So you started off. Did you always do running or did
- 4:56you do other sports or what? What was your childhood like?
- 5:00So I played, played pretty much every sport.
- 5:04I actually did the community games when I was when I was
- 5:07younger and enjoyed it. But I was like football, get a
- 5:10football, rugby, bit of everything.
- 5:12And then really got back into running, I'd suppose in school
- 5:16when it was like 14 through cross country of all the
- 5:20distances then I love cross country.
- 5:21So yeah, that that kind of dragged me back in.
- 5:24I was like in secondary school and we everyone had to do like
- 5:26the beat test. And then if you scored quite
- 5:28well on the beat test, they're like, right, OK, right, you
- 5:31should go do a bit of cross country.
- 5:32And then yeah, I was like, right, OK, stupid, because I I
- 5:35knew a better from when I was younger and stuff.
- 5:37So I was like, I was like, yeah, let's give cross country a go.
- 5:39Got back into it. And then our team, we had a team
- 5:42of guys who we Aaron Hanlon was one of the guys on the team.
- 5:45He was he was our heavy hitter. So he was running really well at
- 5:48the time. And, and then it was me and like
- 5:50through the lads kind of like made-up, like the substantial
- 5:53suppose we, we were like we made-up the rest of the team.
- 5:55And then we, we made it through North Lancers, Lancers names the
- 6:00all Ireland's and scrape through.
- 6:02But it's kind of our teeth. And then once we got to that
- 6:05level, then I, I think I finished like 11th overall.
- 6:08But like when you're at the national cross in the schools,
- 6:11it's like you can, some of the lads can be like old enough,
- 6:14they can be young enough to compete in that age category,
- 6:17but then they're too old and to compete in the international
- 6:20when you go to the psyops. So like a couple of lads ahead
- 6:22of me were like too old to go to psyops and then I got the call
- 6:25up in 11th and to go and I was went over, put the Irish fest
- 6:29on, we're over in Cornwall, didn't run that well over there,
- 6:31ran OK back in the field like for them, absolutely love the
- 6:34whole thing. And then after that I was like
- 6:36right, OK, I'm hooked on this. And they just.
- 6:39I've been doing it ever since. Oh yeah, Because I'm, I was
- 6:42looking at some previous results like of cross country through
- 6:44the years and like you've always been like near the top.
- 6:48So like it's always been like sort of in you to like be a good
- 6:51runner and just in the past couple of years you've really,
- 6:55you've really broken true onto the onto the world stage.
- 6:57But umm, so you're from Balbriggan in Dublin, but you
- 7:01run for a meet club in meet. How did that come about?
- 7:05So the two clubs that are close to me are Scary's AC and then
- 7:10and then started to see down in there.
- 7:13It is in me. Yeah, unfortunately.
- 7:15But it was the closest club to me.
- 7:17And I knew there was a guy, Brendan me down there who'd kind
- 7:21of like he had a little bit of a group and they're trained
- 7:24together on a Saturday and stuff like that.
- 7:25So I, yeah, it was that was the club down the road and he was
- 7:29there. So it just made perfect sense
- 7:30and it got in there. And then ever since you have
- 7:32been running for a meet club. It's a bit, it's a bit
- 7:34controversial being a double man running for a meet club, but
- 7:38they yeah, in fairness, they've they've given me some mental
- 7:40support through the years in in the club and and and me that
- 7:43lets as well. So yeah, definitely don't know
- 7:45about it at all. Yeah, because I was looking at
- 7:47like all the records. So let's say the 5K records like
- 7:51that is never going down because you have it.
- 7:56You never know, you'll have some hot shot coming through the
- 7:58ranks at some point. These new spikes, you know every
- 8:00kids going to be running some 13 minutes.
- 8:03Yeah, they have to keep a limit on them, don't they?
- 8:05I think you're only allowed to be 1220 mil isn't it?
- 8:08Yeah, I think it was. It was, it was reduced.
- 8:10Was it 30 down to 20? Yeah.
- 8:13Yeah. And but actually started to see
- 8:16for anyone in that like they have a really good cross country
- 8:18race and it's actually coming up now at the end of the month and
- 8:22I'm thinking of thinking of doing, I've never won it.
- 8:24So I'd like to give that a go. We should definitely do it's
- 8:28it's, it's definitely the the hardest cross country course you
- 8:31can do. So if you can, if you can get
- 8:33through that and you can win that, you know you're going to
- 8:34have a good cross country season.
- 8:36Right. So just a few of your PBS and
- 8:40you can correct me if I'm wrong in any of these, but you've run
- 8:43in 2021, you're on an 800 meters in Italy in 146.
- 8:48Yeah, yeah. And.
- 8:51That was actually that was your 50.
- 8:52That was very temporarily 145 across the line.
- 8:56And they said 145 low. And I think they got me mixed up
- 8:59with the guy who came second. So I had 145 for for a couple of
- 9:02minutes and then it was 146. So I was like, no way was that
- 9:061:45. That doesn't make any sense.
- 9:08Yeah. But you'd beat that, now, would
- 9:10you? Or you'd be there there, right?
- 9:13Who knows? It's hard to know until you go
- 9:14and do it, isn't it? Yeah, I'd like to think I would.
- 9:17You don't know until you do. So your 1500 meter outdoor
- 9:23national record is from Celestia in 2023, a 330.49.
- 9:31You ran the indoor mile national record for Ireland of a 349 in
- 9:36New York in 2025. Your 3 KPB is from Boston in
- 9:412025. Earlier this year you're on a
- 9:43730 Met. You're on a 5K indoor in Boston,
- 9:47which was another indoor national record in 1312 and then
- 9:51you're 10K was basically a jog for 8K and then just picked it
- 9:55up in the last. But you're on a 2756 in
- 9:58Melbourne. So you could probably go faster
- 10:00than that as well, but out of them.
- 10:01I don't know which one. I don't know about a jog.
- 10:03Now hanging on to Jack Rainer for dear life.
- 10:08Man, I remember I lit watched that race live and no one like
- 10:13you were just hanging on the back, hanging on the back.
- 10:15And I was like, if these guys don't get a move on, like you
- 10:18can kick all of them. And then you came around and was
- 10:20so funny, man, Freaking love that one.
- 10:24Out of out of them PBS, which one are you sort of like most
- 10:29proud of? I'd say.
- 10:29Well, breaking 350 in the mile was massive.
- 10:32Was it? Yeah, I think, I think if I'd
- 10:35gone sub 730, I'd probably say said after the 3K, but I think,
- 10:39I think at the moment sub sub 350 for the mile.
- 10:41And yeah, I'd like to take take a record off like Eamonn Cochlan
- 10:45and like obviously he was top, top class and that was a world
- 10:48record when he ran out. So it was like that's that's
- 10:51kind of how how good it is. Like, you know, obviously
- 10:54nowadays there's like spikes and whatever, but like, yeah, now
- 10:57that's probably the one I'm the most proud of.
- 10:59And that's a, is that a New Balance event, is it or is that?
- 11:04No, so so mill Millrose, it used to be the Armory is where
- 11:09Millrose is on. So that that facility used to be
- 11:12owned by New Balance. And I think maybe two years ago
- 11:13it was bought by Nike. So they're now they own the
- 11:16event. So the new but the New Balance
- 11:18Grand Prix the week before, that's obviously New Balance
- 11:21like, you know, yeah. So you have the the two everyone
- 11:24comes over and does the 2 two different me it's like.
- 11:27Nice. And so you picked up running in
- 11:31secondary school and you got fairly good and then and college
- 11:36wise you had a a very different college experience than most
- 11:42runners you or you can explain, but you went to America and it
- 11:45didn't really didn't really work out, did it?
- 11:48Yeah. So, yeah, I went over to FSU for
- 11:50a year, kind of followed a couple of other Irish guys that
- 11:52went to FSU and yeah, I did a year over there and just wasn't
- 11:55really the setup I was looking for.
- 11:57It was good experience. I kind of definitely learned a
- 11:59lot from it and but I think I was happy to come back and then
- 12:02go back onto the 2 religio there Brendan made and just be coached
- 12:06there. But yeah, like the I think the
- 12:08NCAA's, I think what I learned is probably that like you
- 12:10probably need a system that is matched to the athlete.
- 12:14So going back, I probably would have just looked for a coach
- 12:16that kind of who kind of like had the same ideas that I had
- 12:23and then we could work together to kind of, to, to kind of eagle
- 12:27pair. And whereas like I felt I went
- 12:29over there and we were kind of working against each other with
- 12:31very different ideas. And, and like, yeah, you need
- 12:36to, you need to get along with your coach to, to be successful,
- 12:39you know, so it just, it wasn't really this the setup for me.
- 12:42And then I came back and then went to DCU and studied in DCU.
- 12:47And that worked out really, really well for me.
- 12:48So I'm, I'm, I'm happy that I followed the path that I did.
- 12:52And yeah, learned a lot along the way.
- 12:53And come here in America, was it like high mileage or what was
- 12:58the thing that sort of didn't didn't really like do it for you
- 13:01and. I think, I think, I think it's
- 13:02just a mentality around like the training and stuff and like just
- 13:08what everyone was trying to do. I think.
- 13:09I think I like, I've always kind of been someone who's like, I'm
- 13:11always aimed to try to be the best, like, and you know, I need
- 13:14a coach that kind of like is like, right, yeah, you can be at
- 13:17that top level and I'm going to help you get there.
- 13:19Whereas it was kind of more like, Oh yeah, this is you can
- 13:23maybe get to this level. I don't think you're going to be
- 13:26good enough to be at the top. So like, just like just be one
- 13:30of the guys that also ran and like, I never wanted to be that
- 13:32guy. Like, and yeah, so like I always
- 13:34kind of fought against it and, and, and yeah, found a coach
- 13:37that kind of like believed that we could kind of make the jump
- 13:39up to the top. And we're still, we're still
- 13:41trying to do that, but you know, we're.
- 13:42Working on how you're, you're, you're getting very, very, very
- 13:46close and in a in a week's time, it's going to really come to
- 13:50fold. So no, because I feel like
- 13:53everyone just has the idea that you go to America, you live that
- 13:58well as like as a kid and you try and become that like live
- 14:01that professional athlete life as much as possible.
- 14:04And like, sometimes it just doesn't work out.
- 14:06And like you don't have to go over there.
- 14:09Basically like you just have to find what works for you.
- 14:11And America breaks a lot of athletes.
- 14:14But I'm so it's just good to hear that didn't work for you.
- 14:16You came home and then you found what works.
- 14:19Yeah, I think, I think, I think what America provides is
- 14:22probably the fact that if you're say you're based in Ireland, you
- 14:25kind of have to you have to fund yourself.
- 14:27So you have to have an income. So you might end up working a
- 14:29job while you're running. So you go to America,
- 14:31everything's taken care of, physios taken care of, college
- 14:34taken care of. So like you have, you have a
- 14:36source of income pretty much to, to survive.
- 14:38So that, that, that is very beneficial for a lot of people.
- 14:41And then I came back and I kind of find that I found that system
- 14:45in DCU. And then I, I was lucky enough
- 14:47to have kind of have some sponsors as well when I came
- 14:49back and a guy, Richard Donovan, really took me under his wing
- 14:52and kind of like funded me through, say, the, the period of
- 14:55my career where I wasn't good enough to kind of make money
- 14:59through kid deal or anything. And he he, he kind of like,
- 15:01yeah, he, he helped me get through that.
- 15:03So that's probably what made a difference.
- 15:05Whereas I think some people won't have that.
- 15:06So they they might need the NCAA system to kind of like, yeah,
- 15:10just to just to survive, I suppose, and and actually be
- 15:12able to go in all in on running. And I, I totally get that
- 15:15because like, I'm nowhere near that level, but I'm sort of in
- 15:20that situation where like you have to fund yourself.
- 15:22And I feel like if you did take the leap of like trying to go
- 15:27full time, you'd feel the benefits, but it's just, yeah,
- 15:30it's just not possible for everyone.
- 15:33You need to pay the bills, you need to eat food, you need to be
- 15:35able to pay for physio. You need to, yeah, you need to
- 15:37be able to live as well. So like it's, it's that fine
- 15:39line between doing enough work then and then doing enough
- 15:41training and being able to recover during the day and
- 15:43stuff. And boy, it's, it's, it's hard
- 15:45to do it. It's very hard.
- 15:46It's a fine line and come here. What did you study in DCU?
- 15:50I study teaching. So yeah, maybe I don't know if
- 15:54I'm necessarily going to teach him when I, when I, when I
- 15:56retire from run on board. And yeah, we'll, we'll, I'll
- 16:00figure it out as I go. That's on the back burner for
- 16:03now. Yeah, exactly.
- 16:04Exactly. Yeah, yeah.
- 16:06And do you want to walk us through like just a typical
- 16:10training week for Andrew Costner?
- 16:12And because it'd be interesting to see like what you're doing,
- 16:16because there's a load of different training methods right
- 16:18now, a double threshold, loads of people have loads of
- 16:21different views. But yeah, just a standard week
- 16:23in your life. Yeah.
- 16:25So I suppose it depends on if it's a winter base or say this
- 16:28time of year when we're kind of sharpening up into the into the
- 16:33kind of the big championships, like during the winter, it's a
- 16:35lot more mileage. It's probably maybe a hundred
- 16:37205 miles a week somewhere around that.
- 16:40And so that's. So do you want to do you want to
- 16:42wait winter one or do you want a summer one?
- 16:45Well, go, we'll go. Actually, you're most like,
- 16:49let's say leading up to a race. So it's gonna be lower mileage.
- 16:53It'll be interesting to see the sessions.
- 16:54So at the moment, I suppose it's about 808080 to 85 miles a week
- 17:00and kind of like Monday is 60 minutes easy in the morning, eh,
- 17:055 miles easy or 4 miles easy in the evening and strides drills.
- 17:10I do a lot of like testing around my speed.
- 17:13So like we'll, I'll take out the time and gates and stuff and
- 17:15we'll see exactly where it like test over like a flying 20 to
- 17:18see how I just help find it helps a lot of the running
- 17:21mechanics and maybe they're closing speed at the end of the
- 17:23race. So I concentrate quite quite
- 17:25heavily on that. And so that's Monday, Tuesday,
- 17:28we're kind of doing, say this time of year, typically it'd be
- 17:32about 8K volume, it'd kind of be like 10K pace, 5K pace.
- 17:36And so they, they vary massively.
- 17:38And, but like you'll probably be spending half the session or a
- 17:41little bit over half the session of 10K pace and then the rest of
- 17:44the session of 5K pace. And so that can be in a lot of
- 17:48different, a lot of different formats.
- 17:50And then in the evening out for another five mile jog.
- 17:54Monday morning, wake up, we're doing 5 miles and then we're
- 17:57going to do gym. So gym a lot of heavy lifting.
- 18:01We do a lot of plyometrics, box jumps, explosive stuff.
- 18:05And I'll do, I'll like test my like counter movement jump every
- 18:08week just to see how fresh I am. And then I'll do, I'll probably
- 18:11do my counter movement jump at the start of the gym session to
- 18:13see how fresh I am and then base the gym session of how heavy
- 18:15we're going to go based on how fresh I am.
- 18:17So that can be a good way it's going to work that out.
- 18:19And then, yeah, so that's gym session the morning and then
- 18:22then we'll run in the evening, 5 miles in the evening.
- 18:25Thursday drills and strides again, same as Monday in the
- 18:30morning with a Six Mile run, evening, five mile run.
- 18:35Then Friday's like our big session.
- 18:38So yeah. So at the moment we were doing a
- 18:41lot of 1500m pace stuff. So typically we'll go anywhere
- 18:44from like 2.4 K to 3.6 K at 1500m pace and depending on and
- 18:521500m pace or faster or like yesterday we were kind of doing
- 18:55a bit of a lighter sessions because it's quite hot here.
- 18:57So you kind of have to pin things back a little bit or
- 18:59sorry, not not yesterday and two days ago.
- 19:03Umm. So we kind of dropped it down to
- 19:042.4 K, just a 1500m pace. And that's broken up into just
- 19:08doing 4 hundreds. And so yeah, you're just trying
- 19:11to hit 50 sixes and I just kind of feel good at that pace and
- 19:14kind of get a bit lactic in the legs.
- 19:16But like that was just, and then sometimes we'll have add a
- 19:19little bit of fluff around it. So like you might have like a
- 19:21bit of threshold at the start, then you'll have your 50
- 19:23nanometer pace, a bit of threshold at the end.
- 19:25So you're just kind of like making a bit of a bigger session
- 19:27and just kind of get a little bit of a like aerobic hit in
- 19:30there. And then that evening, 5 miles
- 19:33easy. And then next day Saturday,
- 19:36that's generally easy day. So you could take the day off or
- 19:39you could do a bit easy running Max you'd probably do is like 5
- 19:42miles in the morning. And then Sunday can depend.
- 19:47So some sometimes on a Sunday, we can like add a bit of like
- 19:50say threshold in again. So I might just do like 10 KA
- 19:53threshold in the morning. And then sometimes if I'm really
- 19:55fresh and we feel like we need to add a bit more like threshold
- 19:58fitness in, I might do another threshold session in the
- 20:00evening. But that's that's rare.
- 20:02Probably only do that like every so often, like you know and so
- 20:06often sometimes did a double threshold on a Sunday, but
- 20:09usually just do like threshold in the morning and.
- 20:12Yeah. So that's the full week.
- 20:13OK. So you don't really would you
- 20:15don't have a long run, let's say on a Sunday on the weekend or
- 20:18anything like that? No.
- 20:20And not this time of year. So I would during the winter.
- 20:23So during the winter and this winter I was kind of instead of
- 20:26say that Sunday double threshold or single threshold, I would
- 20:29have had a 16 hour long run with like a Six Mile pickup in the
- 20:32middle. So you'd and the Six Mile pickup
- 20:34is down to like say your LT1 sort of like that 2.5 millimol
- 20:38range. And even though we don't, we
- 20:40don't really test it, that's just roughly where we'll try to
- 20:42get to use in the heart rate. So that would be the Sunday long
- 20:45run this time of year. Yeah, I haven't really been
- 20:47doing long runs. Yeah, I suppose you've only got.
- 20:51So I feel like I've only got so much energy to put into
- 20:54different areas and, and at the moment, I'm not really seeing
- 20:56the benefit of the long run. And so I've kind of just, yeah,
- 20:59we're just kind of taking it out.
- 21:00Yeah. I love the way you're just like,
- 21:03Oh yeah, just try and make 50 sixes feel as comfortable as
- 21:06possible. For I know.
- 21:08Yeah, yeah. That is crazy.
- 21:12But anyway, yeah, that's the level you're at, man, to be able
- 21:15to run a 56. So Tokyo is going to be warm.
- 21:19Have you done like any heat training?
- 21:21Because I know there's a lot of that core sensor stuff out at
- 21:24the moment. It's a big trend and phase.
- 21:27Have you done much heat training?
- 21:29And yes, so leading into this, the heat training would be aimed
- 21:34for about 3 to 4 times a week. So generally I'll do it on non
- 21:38session days. And what it'll be is you'll
- 21:42basically either in a sauna or a hot tub kind of it's a good idea
- 21:46to like bury the two. And what you're doing is kind of
- 21:49going in and you'll have a thermometer.
- 21:51And so you're trying to get your body temperature up to just
- 21:53below 39. So ideally you get up to about
- 21:5638.5 and then you get out and then you let it come back down
- 21:59again and then you go back in. So generally for me, if I'm in
- 22:01say a hot tub or say in the bath, it'll be I'll do about 10
- 22:05minutes and then it'll my, my temperature will get up to about
- 22:09like, yeah, 38.5. And I'm like, right, that's
- 22:11enough get out, let it come back down to about maybe like 37 low
- 22:14or 36 high. Then we're like, right, go back
- 22:17in. And then generally it'll
- 22:18skyrocket up. You'll probably do 10 minutes
- 22:19and then the next one will be about 5 minutes before it's gone
- 22:21straight back up again. So you're just trying to get
- 22:23into that 3838 mid range. And if it gets 39, generally
- 22:26that's too hot and you've kind of overcooked it.
- 22:27So you want to try to say a little bit below that And but
- 22:30out here, so that's just before I came out to Hong Kong that we
- 22:33were kind of just doing that in summer it's and back in
- 22:35Manchester. But when you're out here, man,
- 22:37it's so hot that you're just basically trying to like limit
- 22:39the amount of time you spend outside.
- 22:41So I'll, I'll, I'll try to do 11 longish run outside every second
- 22:47day. And then that's enough, I think
- 22:48to kind of get the exposure. If, if I do more than that, I
- 22:51feel like I'll it'll just be too much because it's an extra
- 22:54stress in the body. So you want to try like like
- 22:57this time of year, like I'm like what?
- 22:59Like I'm, I'm 7, seven days out from competing now.
- 23:01So like if I'd spent too much time outside in the heat, I'll
- 23:03just get tired. So it's like you want to, you
- 23:05want to get a bit adaptation, but limit us and control it, you
- 23:07know? Mom, tell me about it in
- 23:10Ireland. It's been very humid recently
- 23:13and I don't know what it is since I'm a yeah, it's really
- 23:16weird. Like yeah, I'm still wearing AT
- 23:18shirt out when I'm running and I'm sweating like a pig and so.
- 23:22That's so good. The Aussie lads are always
- 23:25slagging me saying ah 22° isn't warm but I feel like 22° in
- 23:29Ireland is very different to 22. Degrees in Australia it's a
- 23:32different. Honestly, if they came over and
- 23:34had a hot day in Ireland, it'd be like they actually wouldn't
- 23:37be able to hack it like a session over here. 25° in
- 23:40Ireland like is like it's like 40°.
- 23:43It's ridiculous. Thank you very much.
- 23:45Yes, we'll take that. We'll take that.
- 23:49And so a lot of it is very like, it's interesting to hear like
- 23:53the you've obviously extremely focused on speed.
- 23:55And we were in, we don't have an interview at Cam Levens there
- 23:59recently, the Canadian marathon record holder.
- 24:01And during his track days, he actually got a spring coach in.
- 24:05So like psychologically, let's say last lap, he'd like flick
- 24:09into like his switch his speed form and then he'd focused on
- 24:13his speed. So it's just interesting, like
- 24:16again, I do a bit few strides the end of my runs, but it's
- 24:20just cool to hear from like you that like even the best athletes
- 24:23in the world are really focusing.
- 24:25Obviously you have to because you're doing the 1500 and you
- 24:27have to run at 56, which is crazy.
- 24:30But umm, yeah, it's just the form and the technique really,
- 24:34is it? Yeah, like I think, I think so.
- 24:37I, I actually, I work with a sprint's coach as well.
- 24:39So the guy I work with is Joe Donald, who's he's actually got
- 24:42a few 400 meter athletes over here at the moment.
- 24:44So I've been doing sessions, but I'm here, but I'll dip back in
- 24:47with him. Like I've been working with him
- 24:49probably like 3-4 years now. And so I'll dip back to Ireland
- 24:52to kind of work with him and do sessions with him every so
- 24:54often. But yeah, it's he's, he's, he's,
- 24:56he's a Sprint hurdler. So that's his bread and butter.
- 25:00And so, yeah, it's kind of just like you're doing the drills
- 25:03that he gives you, making sure you do them right.
- 25:05So like everyone picks up bad habits when you're doing your
- 25:08say, you're like you'll, you'll learn a Sprint and drill.
- 25:10You're on your, you'll learn your a scapes.
- 25:11Like maybe like, I don't know, when you're 16 or whatever in
- 25:14your local club. And then I'll get your, your
- 25:16formal get worse and worse and worse as you go through your
- 25:18career. So like, it's like, it's like
- 25:20that you get the pointers. Just be like, right.
- 25:22Yeah, keep your healing, keep your hips in that right place up
- 25:24nice and tall. And it's just little things that
- 25:26like, like, like it's like, it's like a natural thing for the
- 25:28human to find an easy way out because we're trying to be as
- 25:31efficient as possible. So you're going to do these like
- 25:33a skip. They're hard to do.
- 25:34They take a lot of energy. So your body's just going to be
- 25:36like, no, I'm going to compensate, I'm going to get
- 25:37sloppy, the hips are going to drop, I'm going to be in a
- 25:39terrible position. So you're like, you're, it's
- 25:41just natural to kind of develop bad habits.
- 25:43So, umm, having a Sprint coach there just to kind of like say,
- 25:47walk you through the drills every so often and then say when
- 25:49you're running, it's the running is exact same.
- 25:51Like I feel like everyone picks up bad habits.
- 25:53And then you'll try to, if you run a lot of mileage, you'll
- 25:56just try to become as efficient as possible at running that
- 25:59mileage and not necessarily being fast.
- 26:01So then if you're running the 1500 meters, you're running,
- 26:03you're probably spending what, 80% of your time running at 7
- 26:06minute mile and around that, that's so far away from 1500
- 26:09meter race pace. So then you're trying to like do
- 26:11those little tips and those little tricks to kind of get
- 26:13yourself good at running 1500m pace, even though you can't
- 26:16spend that much time running 1500m pace.
- 26:18So it's like, it's like no one what to do to be able to like
- 26:24click your run of mechanics into gear at the right time.
- 26:25And it's like, it's like what you said there about Camel
- 26:27Evans. It's like, yeah, all like start
- 26:281500 meters. And I'm just like thinking like
- 26:30at the you're probably not throughout the whole race, but
- 26:32at the maybe the 1st 100 meters or when you're settling into the
- 26:34race, it's just like hit tall, hit the ground, get the heel
- 26:37under yourself. Like relax into this certain
- 26:39into this form, that form that you're kind of like, we'll talk
- 26:41through your sprints coach. And like, yeah, it's, it's worth
- 26:44its weight in gold. Yeah.
- 26:46OK, OK, cool, cool, cool. And come here.
- 26:48Your training setup has, well recently you've moved to New
- 26:53Balance in Manchester. Has your training changed a lot
- 26:58or is it pretty much the same? Or how did that move come about
- 27:01even? I think it's, it's changed a
- 27:04little bit. And so, yeah, how it came about
- 27:06was kind of, yeah, like I think, I think I just kind of came to a
- 27:11point where I've been doing, I've been working with the same
- 27:14coach, eh, Nick, I suppose I've been working with Nick and
- 27:18Salem, Nick Paddell and Salem Kelly for like the last four
- 27:21years or so. And I've obviously been running
- 27:24very, very well. But it was, I've just kind of
- 27:26felt like maybe I needed a bit of a change mentally to kind of
- 27:30like find a new coach and yeah, just to try something a little,
- 27:34a little bit different. And so then, yeah, I, I got in
- 27:37contact with the New Balance Manchester group and kind of
- 27:40like join them and I found it really, really well, I think,
- 27:44yeah, I, I don't think we do anything massively different.
- 27:46We might do, we definitely do a little bit more, eh, running out
- 27:50like say the higher intensity sell race pace, 1500 meter race
- 27:53pace. I definitely didn't do it like a
- 27:54specific session once a week where we're trying to like
- 27:57target like say when I'm running the 5K, I'll target 5K race
- 28:00pace. When I'm running the three K 3K
- 28:02race pace, 1500 and 1500 meter race pace.
- 28:04We had, we didn't do as much as that.
- 28:05We would spend a lot more time, say in easier zones and dipping
- 28:08down into it. I think there's, I think there's
- 28:10benefit to do in both ways, but we'll see.
- 28:13Like you've kept the mileage up. Like I've always been like a
- 28:15high mileage sort of guy. Like I was trying to run 100
- 28:17miles a week. So like I'm still I'm still
- 28:19there. I suppose the one thing we're
- 28:20probably doing is being a bit more reactive to kind of like
- 28:23how I've adapted to training. So like, say, using the heart
- 28:26rates a bit more and kind of like, OK, some days are like,
- 28:29say, if you for whatever reason, you've just overcooked your
- 28:32session the day before or even stuff that you can't even say
- 28:36factors you can't even control, you got a bad night's sleep.
- 28:38Duh, duh, duh. Your rest and heart rate should.
- 28:40You might pull things just back, like not massively, but you'll
- 28:42pull things back a tiny bit just to react to kind of how your
- 28:45body is. And then always try to keep the
- 28:47body healthy. Because I think the, the issue
- 28:50I've had the last two years coming into the championships as
- 28:52I've got sick. And so last year I got last year
- 28:55coming into Paris, I got a chest infection and, and it just, it's
- 28:58just wrecked everything for me. And then the year before I, I
- 29:00got strep throat coming into the world championship.
- 29:02So the one thing for me is just, is just, I'm always fit, I'm
- 29:05always running well. So it's just like if, if I get
- 29:07sick, that just ruins everything.
- 29:08So I just need to make sure I don't get sick.
- 29:10So we're we're kind of like watching all the metrics just to
- 29:12make sure we're always on just a little bit under that line, you
- 29:15know, at at the right times. Yeah, yeah, because it's so easy
- 29:20to cross that line with like nutrition, overtraining and
- 29:25sleep. It's just so easy.
- 29:27It's like just cross the line and once you cross the line,
- 29:29it's a slippy slope and umm, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's so easy
- 29:32to just just get sick or injured or whatever.
- 29:36So no, it's good to hear. Good to hear.
- 29:40Umm, what was I going to say? You right, We'll move on.
- 29:46And the Diamond League, you have been all around the world in the
- 29:51Diamond League and I'm racing against the best in the world.
- 29:54And what has been your favorite Diamond League race?
- 29:57And your favorite city actually as well?
- 29:59And well, my PB is from Celestia, so I'd probably I'd
- 30:03probably say that's my favorite Diamond League race.
- 30:05And yeah, that was that was that was really, really cool.
- 30:08Celestia is really cool city as well.
- 30:09So I really, really like that. And what else have I, Dawn?
- 30:13Yeah, they're all, they're all, they're all in cool spots, to be
- 30:15fair. Like you can't really fault any
- 30:17that I'm in leagues. They always put you up in a nice
- 30:18hotel. They always, they're always in a
- 30:20nice area. But I'd say I'll have to go with
- 30:21Celestia. And like, that's another thing,
- 30:25like you think of like the Diamond League circuit on like,
- 30:28yeah, it sounds amazing, but like, is it hard to balance?
- 30:31Like you're training and racing and like living out of a bag
- 30:35like while on the circuit, Like how difficult is that to sort of
- 30:38balance everything? Yeah, like it is at the stars.
- 30:42Yeah. When you're like on packing and
- 30:43on repacking, like every three days, nearly like you're like,
- 30:46OK, when you get you get to a hotel, remember, I have three
- 30:49days here. I can actually settle for a
- 30:50second like, you know, and but it's like, yeah, you get, you
- 30:54get used to it, you know, like I've been doing it for a couple
- 30:55of years now. So like it's you just, you get
- 30:57your little systems like you're like, you might be on the road
- 31:00for like 6 weeks. So like you'll come, I'll come
- 31:01into the hotel room. I'll be like looking for a
- 31:03washing machine straight away, like right away to wash me
- 31:05clothes here. And then you'd be like looking
- 31:06for racks, you'd be like looking for a place to hang it up and
- 31:08the next for fans. I'll try quickly.
- 31:10And like you're picking up all these little tricks along the
- 31:12way just to try to keep yourself like, yeah, like a normal person
- 31:16where it's like stuff you take for granted is like, oh, you
- 31:18have a washing machine at home. Even try your clothes rack.
- 31:20You just hang it up. You're like, no, no, no, you
- 31:21gotta, you gotta makeshift here. Like, you know, But it's, yeah,
- 31:26it's, you get used to it. Like, you know.
- 31:29You never, I actually never thought about the simple thing
- 31:31like as what? Like such as washing, like where
- 31:33the hell would you actually do it?
- 31:35Yeah, like every so often you like your hotel would be like
- 31:37next to a dry cleaners. That's that's the dream is just
- 31:40go down there is a big bag of clothes to come back the next
- 31:43day ready to go. Like, but like, yeah, a lot of
- 31:45times that's not the case. You'll be in the middle of now
- 31:47where you've been trying to crap up in some rates and you're
- 31:49like, OK, washing machine right there.
- 31:51No, no tumble dryer, right. Hanging stuff up outside or
- 31:53hanging stuff up next to fan. Yeah.
- 31:57And come here and is there you get roomed like 1 port one
- 32:02person more than other people or could it be anyone?
- 32:05I think it's random and I've actually been in with Elliot
- 32:07Giles a couple of times. Yeah, he's, he's a good roommate
- 32:10to marry. He's he's dead on.
- 32:11Like, umm, watch his YouTube. It's actually, it's it's good.
- 32:14Like, yeah, he's a good dude. That's when I was reference
- 32:16because he put up a video of him and he was put in a hotel and
- 32:20then it was shit and then he had to switch hotels.
- 32:23And so yeah, he's he's really, really good and he had a heart.
- 32:27He he had a good YouTube video for a Tokyo as well or no Paris
- 32:32when he was up in the mountains train and then he got the call
- 32:35that Jake Whiteman was injured and he has to then race down to
- 32:38Paris would ever do a. YouTube with his dog like
- 32:43YouTube. No, I don't.
- 32:44I don't think I'd have to head now to to to talk in front of a
- 32:47camera for for for that long. I don't think so, I told they
- 32:51could be my vibe. I think you get a few, see
- 32:57that's a route like obviously I'm not the fastest, but like,
- 33:01yeah, you sort of have to think of yourself as a brand and make
- 33:04yourself marketable. So like I have taught about it,
- 33:09but I just don't think I have. I don't think I'd like I fully
- 33:13commit. Yeah, I do.
- 33:15I think you just, I feel like you just need to be charismatic
- 33:19and entertaining and you definitely take the boxes.
- 33:21Or you could like, yeah, you just need it.
- 33:23And you just need to do a few mad challenges every so often.
- 33:25Keep people interested. It's all, it's all about the
- 33:28clickbait title. Yeah, that's all the Mars.
- 33:34And eh, no kill OK, and another you're done and some Grand Slam
- 33:40track this year. How did that even, umm, how did
- 33:43that come about? Like how does someone get in
- 33:45contact you for like grand soundtrack or what was that
- 33:48about? Hmm.
- 33:49So generally all the races are through my agent Nick Baddo.
- 33:52So they'll contact him or he'll contact them and be like, right,
- 33:56let's set this up. So I got the call, I think about
- 34:023 weeks before the Grand Slam in Miami.
- 34:06They said, right, we're looking for a guy who can run the three
- 34:08K 5K. Do you want to do it?
- 34:09And I was like, yeah, sweet, let's go.
- 34:11This, this looks like a really cool event.
- 34:13Let's get involved. Obviously the prize money very,
- 34:16eh, very tempting. So I, I actually changed my, I
- 34:20changed my plans because I was going to go over to Flagstaff
- 34:22and then plan was to be in Flagstaff and then drop down
- 34:25from Flagstaff to run a 5K in San running.
- 34:28So I was going to be out there for four weeks before, but I end
- 34:31up actually I had to like change my flights and stuff.
- 34:33So because we were money to change my flights, but I had to
- 34:35go out a week earlier, go up to Flagstaff.
- 34:38Sorry, I went to the Flagstaff 10 days earlier and so that I
- 34:40could drop down into into Miami and then go back up to Flagstaff
- 34:44after. So we change things around a
- 34:45little bit and and based on that information and but drop down
- 34:49race Miami went really, really well.
- 34:51Kind of yeah, that 3K was really, really good.
- 34:53Kind of dipped Grand Fisher on the line, which was which was
- 34:56class. It showed kind of like fitness
- 34:58was in a good spot, but also spit closing speed was in a good
- 35:00spot. So it was a good confirmation to
- 35:02start a season. It's class.
- 35:03And then obviously like once you're, once you win one of the
- 35:06events, you've actually got a high chance of winning the
- 35:08overall event as well then or finish it very, very high up.
- 35:10So yeah, because the, I think the points, the way the points
- 35:13work is like, is it like 12 and then eight points per second?
- 35:15So like, and then it's, and then it like actually diminishes as
- 35:18it goes down. So once you kind of get, you get
- 35:20a, you basically get a four point advantage on, on 2nd place
- 35:23if you win the first one. So then you're like, right, OK,
- 35:25I'm in, I'm in a really good spot here.
- 35:27I just need to be tactically aware in the second one, if I
- 35:29don't finish towards the back, I'm not going to finish first or
- 35:32second here. So and once Grant went earlier
- 35:34in the 5K, so this the other for 3K was the first event, then the
- 35:37second event two days later was the 5K.
- 35:39So then it was like right decisions to be made If Grant
- 35:42makes a move early, am I fit enough to go with him?
- 35:45And I just decided that I could potentially if I went when I'm
- 35:47on my blow up finish at the back of the pack.
- 35:50And then, and then like when you're racing those kind of
- 35:52races that with that huge amount of prize money, you got to be
- 35:54like, right, if I blow up here, I might go from 50 grand down to
- 36:0010 grand. So you're, you're, you're,
- 36:01you're, you're flushing 40 grand down the drain there.
- 36:04So like, are you kind of went in with a decision to be like,
- 36:06right, let's try and at minimum secure 2nd place.
- 36:09So that was the tactics based on the 5K were based on that like.
- 36:12Yeah, and like obviously like running, let's be real, it's not
- 36:16the most like that at least don't get paid enough as much as
- 36:20they should. So when an event like this comes
- 36:22around and like even I was saying for you like that money
- 36:26is it's crazy money for an athlete like to.
- 36:30It's like, it is like it is like changing money.
- 36:32Yeah, yeah. Yeah, like that could fund camps
- 36:35for years to come and and obviously they've had they've
- 36:39had some difficulties and grounds on track and hopefully
- 36:42it gets sorted because the event like it was such a good
- 36:46initiative and but yeah, so. It's good to hear.
- 36:51Like the thing, the thing with the Grand Slam is that like what
- 36:55what what was agreed at the start was there was a quick turn
- 36:58around with the payments and and that's hard to do.
- 37:02I did that ideally would have been the case 21 days, we all
- 37:04would have been paid. But generally in athletics,
- 37:08you're, if you like been a sport around a sport for a while.
- 37:11It takes a while to get paid from everybody, from your from
- 37:15your from your sponsors, from races, from everybody.
- 37:19It takes a while to get paid like so I'm still I Iran.
- 37:22I came six at the world indoors in in China, and I want a little
- 37:26bit of prize money from that. That was in March.
- 37:30Still haven't been paid for that.
- 37:31So it's like that's like that's March, like the first, the first
- 37:34the first Grand Slam was in was in May.
- 37:36So like, it's, they still, they still have a bit of time, you
- 37:39know, and so like, I like, I think there's a lot of, there's
- 37:42a lot of negative activity out there about the Grand Slam and
- 37:45stuff. But like, let's, let's see how
- 37:47it plays out. You know, ideally, ideally Grand
- 37:50Slam comes back next year. They pay everyone for this year.
- 37:54That will be ideal. But yeah, we'll have to see what
- 37:57happens. Yeah.
- 37:59Yeah, I know. Let's kill, let's go and come
- 38:01here on these. So all these like grounds on
- 38:04track and Diamond League, there's some massive
- 38:09personalities like between the sprinters.
- 38:12Did have you encountered any like, challenging personalities
- 38:16on the circuit? Do you know what, like I think I
- 38:19think some of the sprinters can definitely be yeah, very, yeah,
- 38:23they can be, they can be very confident individuals.
- 38:26They know exactly what they want.
- 38:27But I do, you know, I think there's a, this seems to be like
- 38:29a difference in personality between the sprinters and like,
- 38:31say the middle to long distance people.
- 38:34Like I think we, I don't know, maybe it's, it's hard to know
- 38:38why, but they're, yeah, they're very like they're probably a lot
- 38:41louder, a lot more maybe like, yeah, a lot more sociable.
- 38:45Maybe then like I'm not saying that like the middle distance
- 38:48runs are sociable. They definitely are.
- 38:49But there's you can, you can see the clear difference there may
- 38:52be like if you look at the table of sprinters and you look at the
- 38:54table of middle distance runners, the table of sprinters
- 38:56will be very loud. They'll all be very outgoing.
- 38:59Whereas the table of Fair middle, this is sort of probably
- 39:01all just like quiet and talk about running stats and mileage
- 39:04and all this stuff. Like they're a bit more like
- 39:06maybe maybe it's slightly more towards the introvert source
- 39:09sort of side. And it's probably just that
- 39:12they're like naturally, maybe because say middle distance, so
- 39:15long distance would have to run a lot more mileage.
- 39:17They have to spend a lot more time on their own, maybe that
- 39:19they just like those type of people gravitate towards that.
- 39:22But I think, yeah, everyone in the middle distance, long
- 39:24distance, they all seem to kind of like everyone gets along and
- 39:28there's not that many conflicts. Obviously there's one or two
- 39:30exceptions, but like generally every everyone's pretty sound
- 39:33and everyone gets along pretty, pretty well, yeah.
- 39:36Yeah, I tried to watch that Sprint documentary on Netflix
- 39:39and I think I got you halfway through the first episode and I
- 39:42just couldn't stand Noah Lyles. Yeah, I just, yeah, there are
- 39:47different breed them sprinters. Yeah, you're you're, you're,
- 39:50you're the middle distance side of things.
- 39:51So you're like, you'll gravitate towards those.
- 39:54How do people a bit more? Yeah, but that's I.
- 39:57Have you watched them, Jacob? Bingo Britain's YouTube channel.
- 40:01I've watched a few bits. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 40:03Like is he, is he sort of like that on the circuit or is he
- 40:06much more, is he much more quieter?
- 40:08Because I couldn't get over like how I know he's real, like funny
- 40:12and just. Ah yeah, I wasn't expecting him
- 40:15to be like that. I, yeah, I actually think one of
- 40:18the superpowers is that he's, he's always the same, like in
- 40:23the race, post race interview, sitting on a sofa.
- 40:27Like I feel like he's always the same, same, same sort of person.
- 40:30And he's just so relaxed. Like I think before the, or
- 40:33before the Europeans in Munich last year, he showed up to the
- 40:35track 2 hours early. He fell asleep on a chair for
- 40:39about half an hour. And then someone like what I
- 40:42like, I'd someone like woke him up and he got ready to start
- 40:44warming up and then just like, like so relaxed that.
- 40:46And I think, I just think that's, that's his superpower.
- 40:48He's just, he doesn't change, he doesn't stress.
- 40:50He's just the same the whole way across.
- 40:52Like, umm, so yeah, yeah, he's, he's he's always the same
- 40:57person. But I think that's so key,
- 41:00staying relaxed because like you might be just tense and just
- 41:05wasting that energy that you will need.
- 41:07So umm, yeah, being relaxed, it really is a superpower.
- 41:10And in them high pressure environments, like I just would
- 41:13not when I was doing nationals with you and the 5K, like like
- 41:17it's so easy to get tense in that situation where you're
- 41:20sitting in a call room. Look at that like looking at you
- 41:23and like from G day and all these order like top athletes
- 41:26and I'm like, it'd be so ways to get like wound up and like
- 41:29really, I don't know, just drain energy.
- 41:32Whereas like if you're able to keep relaxed, it's it's so, so
- 41:35important. Hmm, just, yeah, I think I think
- 41:38possibly it is maybe a waste of energy.
- 41:40Umm and yeah, a couple other reasons, but I think you get you
- 41:43just you're able to maybe judge your own effort in the race a
- 41:47bit more and like umm, yeah, I think I think there's a few
- 41:52reasons why just stay and relax makes it makes a lot of
- 41:54difference. But I think energy conservation
- 41:55is probably one of the big ones. You just don't yeah, you don't
- 41:58produce adrenaline as much. And then that that that just
- 42:00like saps the energy straight out here and.
- 42:03So you're currently in Hong Kong going to talk when you're going
- 42:06to Japan? On the night, so I've been, I
- 42:10got over here on the 31st, so I've been here for, for, for
- 42:13close to a week. And then, yeah, a couple more
- 42:16days here and then, then we fly across and then the Kanish
- 42:18begins. And is that an Irish holding
- 42:22camp or is it just you? This Irish holding camp, so
- 42:26pretty much all of the athletes, I'd say, except for maybe two or
- 42:30three, they're all here. So yeah, it's, it's we're in the
- 42:34the Hong Kong Sports Institute, which is really, really cool
- 42:38Facility has like gym has a track, has everything that you
- 42:42could need. And so, yeah, everyone's over
- 42:45here acclimatizing to the heat and getting over to jet lag.
- 42:49And right, so you have a pretty hectic schedule in Tokyo.
- 42:54So the Sunday 14th you've the 1500 heats, then the 15th you've
- 43:00the semi final, the 17th you've the final, hopefully the 19th
- 43:06you've the 5K heats and then the 21st you've a final.
- 43:11So like from Sunday to Sunday you are running like 5 days.
- 43:16How do you even like go thinking about like that week?
- 43:21Because it's a lot of intensity and not many people could do it,
- 43:27let's be real. Yeah, like it's, it's obviously
- 43:30hard like, umm, to kind of like go back-to-back like that.
- 43:33And, but I suppose like I, I, I tried to do the double at
- 43:36nationals and I think that was kind of like, I like to try and
- 43:41get a rough idea of like what it will be like to say, run one,
- 43:46how well you can you recover and come back for the next one.
- 43:51But like, it's, it's, I think it's more just about waking up
- 43:54every single day and just going right.
- 43:56I'm going to try give me best today and then do the same the
- 43:59next day. I think, I think my, I think I'm
- 44:02quite aerobically fit. So I can, I think that's quite
- 44:05helpful and trying to like say recover and like, yeah, say even
- 44:081500m round, like I think I think if you're quite
- 44:10aerobically fit, you can recover quite quickly.
- 44:12So I think it's just literally about just finishing up, relax,
- 44:16kind of get your, get your hydration and get a nice meal,
- 44:18go back to bed. It's it's more like, like what I
- 44:20said there. It's just like staying relaxed,
- 44:22staying in tune and with your body and just like trying to nap
- 44:25when you can, trying to go to bed at the right times.
- 44:28Just don't get stressed, don't get worked up.
- 44:30So like bit of daily meditation sitting there, you know, namaste
- 44:33and all that, you know, just chill, chilling out.
- 44:37Really. I think that's, that's it's,
- 44:39it's recovery really. It's the recovery is the habit.
- 44:42And I've always thought so on let's say the Sunday or like the
- 44:46Monday. So you've got the semi finals.
- 44:49I'm not sure if that's in the evening or the morning, but like
- 44:51will you? Obviously a 1500 isn't like Eve.
- 44:56If you were to race a 1500, you'd probably still do a
- 44:58session after. So like will you still run in
- 45:01the evenings around that? Or how does that like, how do
- 45:04you manage that? Yeah, so I think umm, so that
- 45:08yeah, the semifinals sort of the first day, the heats are in the
- 45:11morning and then the second day, the semifinals are in the
- 45:13evening. So yeah, like so when you
- 45:15finish, when you finish my race in the morning, umm, of the
- 45:17first day, I'll, I'll do like 1015 minute cool down, jog, get
- 45:21to try to get the lack together legs.
- 45:23Umm, then what you do go home, have a nap, then that evening
- 45:26you'll shake out. So either I think I I've been
- 45:29messing around a little bit more at the moment of kind of doing
- 45:31it like spinning the legs on the bike.
- 45:33So like impact on the legs can kind of if you're like, umm, it
- 45:38can make a difference. You know, like if you're, it's
- 45:40like, like the amount of times that you're banging your legs
- 45:42off the ground actually does make a difference.
- 45:44So sometimes if you're in there, if you feel like you're, if your
- 45:47nervous system is a little bit fried, maybe from the morning
- 45:50race, say on the first day of my, if I feel like my legs are a
- 45:52little bit fried up, like, right, I won't run that evening.
- 45:54Maybe I'll go on the bike, but like spinning the legs over.
- 45:56So I'll do like, I'll do like 20 minutes, maybe spinning my legs
- 45:59on the bike just to get the blood flow going because it's,
- 46:01it's, it's really good for recovery.
- 46:03Then the next morning, then I'll get up and I'll do like a shake
- 46:05out in the morning. So that'll be like 10-15
- 46:07minutes, maybe some light strides.
- 46:09And the light strides will kind of just be to like, yeah, kind
- 46:11of get the legs a bit of a popular feeling really nice.
- 46:14And, and then, yeah, then you're just straight back in.
- 46:16It'll just be like that. It'll just be like constantly
- 46:18rest during the day, easy run in the morning, easy run in the
- 46:22evening, just like a little snippets of like keeping the
- 46:24blood flow in the legs, keeping that poppiness in the legs and
- 46:28but nothing. You're not trying to boost
- 46:29anything. You're not trying to like get
- 46:31any extra fitness. You're literally just trying to
- 46:33recover. That's the only aim of the game.
- 46:34Yeah, and with the way like the 1500s planned out this year and
- 46:40it's freaking nuts, man. Like three 30s are just like the
- 46:44norm now. And but obviously you after
- 46:48doing ground soundtrack, you sort of have that more
- 46:49experience of the sort of the rounds or something uneven
- 46:53nationals like the rounds. So, umm, obviously they're all
- 46:56not going to be 3:30 and I feel like with the heat, people are
- 47:00even going to be more conservative.
- 47:02So I feel like the tactics are going to play such a big factor.
- 47:07And positioning and who. I heard Cam Myers on an
- 47:10interview and it's just like getting yourself into that
- 47:13position is like half the battle, like not getting boxed
- 47:16into the rail and all that. So umm, yeah man, yeah.
- 47:20Can't wait to see how you freaking get on because we're
- 47:24all rooting for you here anyway. Thanks, man.
- 47:26I appreciate it. Appreciate it.
- 47:27Yeah, thanks. And so you're sponsored by New
- 47:32Balance and I love shoes, actually.
- 47:35I worked in your Balance back when I was in Australia.
- 47:38So I like to think that I was somewhat sponsored.
- 47:41I paid me class to work. Yeah.
- 47:44What's What shoes do you wear? I'm going to get there first.
- 47:48Yeah. So I have a fair, I have a fair
- 47:51collection. I have the I wore the 1080's,
- 47:54the V 14, I've worn the rebel, the old Rebel and I had the
- 48:00racing shoe there. the Super complete V4.
- 48:04Now brutally honest V 4 was pretty soft.
- 48:07I would have liked something a bit more snappy.
- 48:09And they didn't have the pacer. I would have loved the pacer,
- 48:12but I heard that the V5, the new super complete V5 is a really
- 48:16nice shoe. So I was going to ask you,
- 48:18what's your go to or like what's your New Balance rotation?
- 48:21And so I'm 1080s, they're all easy runs and then sessions are
- 48:27yeah, SC elite V5, the new the V5 unbelievable show.
- 48:31Yeah, you have to get your hands on it.
- 48:33It's so good. And it's definitely like popular
- 48:36than the V4. It's a bit more like there's a
- 48:39bit more energy out of it's all like yeah, definitely get get
- 48:43get your hands on a paradigm and then racing spikes are the MDX
- 48:49and are we on the V threes now? Yeah, the MDX is anyway class
- 48:54unbelievable spike. I think they're the best middle
- 48:56distance spike out there. Like everyone from the 400
- 48:58meters up to the five KS when the MDX is like they all they're
- 49:01all love it. But I think it's it's it's
- 49:02specifically made for like the 815 range.
- 49:05But yeah, it's class. Cool.
- 49:08And I've always wondered, so like when you're travelling
- 49:11around like how do they get like the new gear and kit to you?
- 49:15Like do you just give them a hotel you're going to be in like
- 49:17next week and they deliver it there or how does that work?
- 49:21It can be, it can be a bit of carnage, to be fair, because
- 49:23like you say, I was trying to get my gear when I was racing in
- 49:25the States, but I'd be somewhere different every like 3 days.
- 49:29And then you like go to another spot and then you'll be
- 49:31somewhere for three days and you go to the next spot.
- 49:32So it's like kind of hard to coordinate.
- 49:33You're like trying to like Georgia, like, right, OK, if I
- 49:35order it now, it's going to be, it's going to get delivered in a
- 49:38week's time. So where am I going to be in a
- 49:39week? But if it's delayed, then I'm
- 49:40going to miss it. So you're like, right, I need to
- 49:42try and like, say for, for I was trying, I was trying to get a
- 49:46son like so one of the companies that sponsor me and sunglasses
- 49:51there ever Amber. They were trying to send me
- 49:53sunglasses out to the States and eh, because of this whole new
- 49:56tariff thing or whatever like there is, it took ages to get to
- 49:58your customs. So it arrived a couple of days
- 50:00late and I had literally left the morning of and then it
- 50:03arrived that day. So then I, whoever was in charge
- 50:07of the MB, I, I got them to kind of send the sunglasses on to me.
- 50:09They send it on to LA where I was racing LA and then those
- 50:13sunglasses arrived at about 3 hours after I left from LA and
- 50:17then I'm in LA trying to get them sent to Philadelphia and
- 50:19they arrived about 3 hours after I left as well.
- 50:21So it's, you have gear like I had Paris like a couple of pairs
- 50:25of sunglasses chasing me around the states there for a while.
- 50:27So it's, it always kind of like it always kind of works out like
- 50:29that, like where you're trying to get gear sent to, you're
- 50:31trying to judge where you're going to be.
- 50:33Boy, if anything gets delayed, then you're screwed.
- 50:35You miss it. And then there could be New
- 50:37Balance gear just sitting in some that can hotel waiting for
- 50:40you and you might have to go back to next year and pick it up
- 50:41or something now. Wow, yeah because actually I was
- 50:45looking at that's an Irish company as well.
- 50:47I was actually going to buy sunglasses off them but then I
- 50:49was like oh it's going to be winter now so I won't get to
- 50:51wear them for like 7 months. Yeah, I'll have, they have the
- 50:55wind, they have to sleep sunglasses.
- 50:56Well, I have this, the sleepy sunglasses there.
- 50:58I get yourself a pair of these. These are unreal.
- 51:00Like before you go, about like an hour and a half maybe before
- 51:03you go to bed or maybe an hour before you go to bed.
- 51:04Just stick these on and they just block out all the blue
- 51:07light. Yeah, they block it all the blue
- 51:08light and then you just like, honestly, man, you sleep like a
- 51:10baby. So I'd fully recommend her to
- 51:13ever amber sleep some glasses like yeah, umm, so good.
- 51:17But yeah, so if you want them to, but they're they're really
- 51:20good and they're they're a little bit say cheaper than say
- 51:22they're just as good as the higher end brands with a little
- 51:24bit cheaper. So I'd fully recommend them like
- 51:26in the class. Man, I've I hate like Oakley
- 51:30have a freaking monopoly in the market.
- 51:31It's so annoying that they can charge like 200 odd or whatever
- 51:35for sunglasses. Yeah, freaking knots.
- 51:38Hmm, yeah, ways you can get the same thing from say, ever Amber
- 51:40for like more than half the price and it's just as good.
- 51:43So you're like fucking yeah, just crap on.
- 51:45Exactly. Now and come here, are you a
- 51:49bike carb guy? Have you tried that Nomino
- 51:54broccoli shot thing or I? Haven't I haven't done the
- 51:57nomio. I haven't done the Nomio yet,
- 51:58but I do. I do the boy cab generally and
- 52:01John still Hamilton Holland on the boy carp.
- 52:03I think like I raced all indoor season without the boy carp and
- 52:07and then outdoor season I've been racing with the bike carp I
- 52:10haven't seen. I honestly still think I might
- 52:13be slightly better without the boy carp.
- 52:14So for whatever reason, like you, it's trial and error sort
- 52:17of thing, isn't it? Umm, I'm still 5050.
- 52:20I'm not, I'm not fully convinced.
- 52:21Like obviously the science is there to say that it would like
- 52:23both for lactic for you and, and it does do that.
- 52:25But maybe some of the trade-offs are that you're you're have a
- 52:27lot of sodium, so you're a little bit heavier and then you
- 52:30can have stomach issues. So not fully convinced yet.
- 52:32I'm in the exact same boat. I take I don't have the more and
- 52:35when I get the cheaper one from this company called fly Cap, but
- 52:38I'm nice. Like I feel like I've run well
- 52:41with it, but then again I'm like, is it in my head?
- 52:45Because I actually don't feel any different.
- 52:47Like really, I don't really know.
- 52:49Yeah, yeah, yeah, I suppose it's just like it's like one of the
- 52:53things is that like say, like I was saying there, it's like it's
- 52:56like the stress around it, like the the actual effort of like
- 52:59taking the boy carb, it's quite uncomfortable to take it.
- 53:02You're like, it's a bit weird. Like would you be better off
- 53:05just going in a bit more relaxed and just going, I'm just going
- 53:07to have a coffee here and just maybe get some like a gel into
- 53:10me that I feel a bit more comfortable doing.
- 53:12And and then you might be, it might just be a little bit
- 53:14easier and you might race a little bit better because it's
- 53:16just the process is just a little bit easier.
- 53:18And I'm not sure, but maybe maybe you're better with the
- 53:21bike cab as well. I don't I don't know what the
- 53:23science would say that you do but for lactic.
- 53:24So that would make should make you better in a 1500 meters or
- 53:29an 800 meters. So yeah, I'm not, I'm not, I'm
- 53:31not. I'm not so sure yet.
- 53:33Right, Sam. So after Tokyo, are you calling
- 53:38a season or are you going to dabble in some cross country?
- 53:41Well, I see it in the fields. And I think, I think I'm going
- 53:47to need a break. I think it's been a long season.
- 53:49So I've been racing since, since, since May.
- 53:52So I, I think I'm going to take maybe a week off or yeah, maybe
- 53:56even more than a week and enjoy. I'm going to travel around
- 53:59around over here a little bit. So in, in Japan and maybe go to
- 54:02Okinawa for a little bit as well.
- 54:04So I'll have a look around and then yeah, I don't, I don't
- 54:07think I'll be racing maybe until I possibly might run national
- 54:12cross country. When is it?
- 54:14Is it and I'm going to say end of November of I haven't even
- 54:18looked at it. When is it?
- 54:20Yeah. 23rd of November open. Derry, OK.
- 54:24Oh, OK. So interesting.
- 54:26I've got an Airbnb you can sleep on the self if you want.
- 54:30To OK, I'm going to take you up on that.
- 54:31Yeah. Sick.
- 54:35And an offseason, so like would you totally like?
- 54:39So I've actually just, I'm coming off my first ever break
- 54:43where I took it on my own accord and my body didn't force me to
- 54:46take it. So I'm like, I think I ran like
- 54:49every. Yeah, I think I ran like every
- 54:52per day or something. Like on your offseason, do you
- 54:54like totally not run or do you like still jog a few days?
- 54:59Yeah, I think I'm so used to running so much mileage that if
- 55:01I just didn't know some, I think I just feel a little bit weird.
- 55:03Like generally I'll be like, I'll go a couple of days and I'm
- 55:05like I'll go out for an easy jog or maybe I'll get on the bike
- 55:09and kind of go out for like an hour cycle, just have a spin
- 55:11around. Just a bit of change of scenery,
- 55:13you know. But like, I think if I took too
- 55:15long off, I think my tendons and stuff was to like, yeah, when I
- 55:18when I did come back, then they'd feel a bit weaker and
- 55:21maybe they'd like, I feel like I'd get like an Achilles injury
- 55:23or something and pop off. So like I'll always kind of keep
- 55:26a little bit of impact on the legs.
- 55:27Like I probably wouldn't go, I wouldn't, I wouldn't like take
- 55:31more than a week without running completely.
- 55:32I'll probably take like a week and then maybe do the odd little
- 55:34bit of running here and there just to kind of bang the legs
- 55:37off the ground to keep the tendons activated.
- 55:38You know, are you, are you, are you the same?
- 55:42I felt like a drug addict. So I had like 2 days off and I'm
- 55:45like, oh, I feel like I should really be doing something.
- 55:48And you have like that itch inside used to just like run,
- 55:51but in the back of your mind you're like, no, this is good
- 55:53for me. My body needs to break.
- 55:55So yeah, yeah, it's, I feel like it's so hard to actually like,
- 55:59take a step back and let your body recover because like as a
- 56:04runner, you always want more and more and more and more.
- 56:06But in my head, the way I think better, any idiot can run.
- 56:10Like I could go out and run like 100 miles a week, 100 kilometers
- 56:13a week or 100 miles a week. But yes, my body then isn't
- 56:17absorbing the training. So I have to like, because I'm
- 56:20working A-95 job. Like you should have to train
- 56:22smarter rather than harder. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 56:27Like if you, you need, you need energy to, to, to adapt to the
- 56:31training, the stem, the stimulus that you get from the training,
- 56:33you need energy then to like to deal with the inflammation and
- 56:37actually change your body to, eh, to actually benefit from
- 56:41that training as well. So like if you're just say, if
- 56:42you're training in the morning, then you're on your feet all
- 56:44day, like that's not going to happen.
- 56:45Yeah. See you on it.
- 56:47Yeah. And all right, so sort of last
- 56:51question and if you were to like give one piece of advice, this
- 56:55is so, but I think it's good to know like someone piece of
- 56:59advice like the average runner out there like me, let's say,
- 57:02for example, like what would you, what would you tell me to
- 57:05do? Honestly, I think it's it's it's
- 57:07it's a basic enough morning heart rates.
- 57:11Just every morning you wake up, you look at your morning high
- 57:13rate and you go right. If I'm absolutely fried today,
- 57:15my morning hours should the roof you've you need to pull things
- 57:19back and just recover. Like like like what we were just
- 57:21saying. They're like, it's like it's
- 57:23like taking your time off at the end of the season.
- 57:25You let the body bounce back, you go again.
- 57:26Like I think there needs to be a fail safe in your training.
- 57:29Where how do I know if I've overcooked it?
- 57:31And that's the heart rates. And then right if I overcook the
- 57:34heart rates of the trigger roof, maybe I take a rest day, maybe
- 57:36I'll take a down day, maybe take a little bit easier.
- 57:38I think honestly heart rates are gospel.
- 57:41Yeah. And when you're looking at heart
- 57:43rate there, like I personally, so I notice my heart rate when
- 57:47I'm lying down and then like I sort of stand up out of bed,
- 57:50wait for a minute and sort of watch, wait for it to peak.
- 57:54And then I sort of know if it's like if my lie down heart rate
- 57:59is more than let's say like 20 or 30 beats than my standing
- 58:02heart rate. I know I'm a little bit cooked
- 58:04and I just have to be a lot a little bit careful.
- 58:06Or what are you sort of looking out for?
- 58:09Like I saw I, I use, I use my garment and my aura ring to kind
- 58:13of like that will kind of give me a rest and heart rate
- 58:14throughout the night. So I think the only, the only
- 58:17thing that's important is, is whatever you do, do it
- 58:19consistently. So like say if you take your
- 58:21morning rest and heart rate by lying down for two minutes and
- 58:24counting your heartbeats, if you just do that exactly the same
- 58:26every single time, It's it's, that's, that's the way to do it.
- 58:30Like it as long as you're just consistent and how you do it.
- 58:32So like if you, the way you do it, they're like absolutely
- 58:34perfect. Like, you know, as long as
- 58:35that's the way you always do it and you don't one day you change
- 58:38it and then you're like, Oh, it's higher.
- 58:39But like you're like when you did something different.
- 58:41So that's why it's higher. Like, you know.
- 58:43Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, cool.
- 58:44Well, Andrew, come here. Thank you so, so much for coming
- 58:47on. You have literally elevated
- 58:50middle distance and running in Ireland to a whole different
- 58:52level and you're inspiring so many kids and even me as a 27
- 58:56year olds, like I've looked at you and I'm like, yeah, you
- 58:59know, I'm going to get back into running and try and like just
- 59:03get the best set myself really. But umm, yeah, you're an
- 59:05inspiration. Oh, thanks man.
- 59:07I appreciate that. Thank you very much.
- 59:09And then yeah, good luck in actually one more question.
- 59:14Is there any we do, we do this, we do this thing in the podcast
- 59:18double Trouble where it's like it's an opinion that you might
- 59:23get in trouble for. So I said, oh, running fast,
- 59:28running faster is better than, let's say, running longer.
- 59:32Have you any like her opinion that not that you're going to
- 59:35get in trouble for, but like not many people are I don't know,
- 59:39like what is some examples that we've done?
- 59:44Man, trying to think of something.
- 59:46Like 20 on the spot, yeah. I'm gonna yeah, you know what?
- 59:50You know what I'm going to say? I say long run is a myth.
- 59:52OK, fair. Yeah, because I read somewhere
- 59:57that Yacob hasn't never run over like 90 minutes or something
- 1:00:02like that, something crazy, but listening to you like you don't
- 1:00:05really do a long run either, so you might be on to something.
- 1:00:08Yeah, I don't. Yeah, time in a place, not all
- 1:00:11the time. I don't think it's the most
- 1:00:14important piece of the puddle. So I'll just, yeah, I'll say
- 1:00:16that a lot of people are going to, I'm going to get in trouble.
- 1:00:20I don't think people care enough today.
- 1:00:24Is the mark. Would you ever jump up to a
- 1:00:25marathon like down the line? There's an entry for Dublin
- 1:00:29Marathon this year. You know, I'd go, I'd go for a
- 1:00:31jog around. I think.
- 1:00:35I think the longer. So yeah, I like the idea of it.
- 1:00:38Like, you know, I like the idea of doing it.
- 1:00:39Maybe I don't know about doing it like seriously, but doing it
- 1:00:42for fun, I think. Not that yeah, yeah, I supposed
- 1:00:45to be seen, but look at you and say that's crazy.
- 1:00:46But like, yeah, I think jogging around Dublin Marathon, just
- 1:00:49soaking up the energy, I think it'd be fun.
- 1:00:51But what if it does? You see your vibe on the
- 1:00:53marathon. Oh, I think that's where I will
- 1:00:56end up, to be honest, because I don't have fast twitch fiber in
- 1:00:58my body. Like in the coming up indoor
- 1:01:00season, I'll try and run like a fast 3K and a 1500.
- 1:01:04But yeah, I feel like the marathon and a half marathon,
- 1:01:07it's sort of very suited, very suited to me.
- 1:01:13No, Andy, thank you so, so much for coming on.
- 1:01:15And good luck next week in Tokyo.
- 1:01:18We'll all be ready for you. Thanks a million.
- 1:01:20I appreciate that for that. Cheers man, thank you very much.
- 1:01:25Nicely, nicely, right? Catch you soon.
- 1:01:28Bye, bye, bye. The.