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12 Months to Marathon - Episode 12 - Pay Attention · 12 Months to Marathon

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Hello and welcome to the 12 months to marathon podcast with me, John Hill, the running podcast for the over 35s with Marathon Dreams.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: Episode 12.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: Pay attention.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: So, what's going on with me at the moment?
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I have been to see my physio about my hamstring, which I mentioned before.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: And the good news is I've only got a grade one tear in my left hamstring, which basically happened, if you're interested, when I was decelerating on the race I was doing.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: So in the Worcester 10k, which I was doing when I sustained the injury, as I briefly mentioned, when I was hit about 8k, that's when I started to feel it.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: But interestingly, after speaking to the physio, what happened was it was as I was decelerating from a bridge, because there was a little almost like a suspension bridge, as it were, across the river when you come back to finish the race.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: So that's actually what triggered it, interestingly enough.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: So yes, it was the pace I was running, but also it was the deceleration coming down the hill.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: Now it's quite a localized tear, and a grade one is the least damaging of all of them.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: So it's it should be okay for hierarchies.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it'll be okay for hierarchies.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's how fast I can run.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: I can do all the other events, um, but it's just how fast I can run on the day.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: So good news.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, so I had uh some treatment done by my physio who is Physio 206.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: His name's Gary Jones, he's based in Bromsgrove here in Worcestershire, uh, West Midlands, Worcestershire.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so yeah, if you if you're in the area and you need a really, really good physio, is Gary Jones at Physio 206.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: So I went and saw Gary and he sorted me out.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: Brilliant job.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: And the role I wanted to talk about today was that really, in essence, and how to understand a very simple concept, which funnily enough is a business concept, which which I heard a few years ago, which is quite powerful, which is if you want to pay attention, you need to pay.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what I did with the physio.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: I wasn't going to try and sort it out myself, I wasn't going to try and read online.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: I was what I was going to do was get it fixed because my athletic performance is very important to me.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: And as a coach and as somebody that shares content online now, I want to be responsible and I want to make sure that you know, whilst I'm a human and problems happen and things go wrong, like I mentioned on the last one, I also want to make sure that I'm doing the right thing.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: And for me, the right thing is going and seeing a physio.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when I first started doing a lot more running content online, I noticed that people were asking questions in Facebook groups about things that really needed a bit more specialist attention.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: And what do what do I mean by that?
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: Well, somebody would ask, I have such and such an injury, what should I do about it?
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: Now there is nothing wrong with that per se, but what you're gonna get is you're gonna get a load of opinions on people you don't know and people who look at the world through their own eyes, okay?
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: Those people don't have a vested interest in you getting a result, yeah.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: So if you go to a physio who you're going to pay money to, they've got a vested interest in you rehabilitating because their reputation's on the line, yeah.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: So you would hope that they're gonna give you the best advice when you ask random people for advice on social media about specific things, I don't mean general stuff, but about specific things, particularly injuries, you could get sent in a direction that's not gonna be effective.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's a problem, and I highly recommend people don't do that.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: I've got people who ask me questions in my running community and they'll ask me about injuries, and I'm like, I'm not a pain expert, that's not what I do.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: So sometimes our ego kicks in as humans, and we go, Well, I want to help this person, I want to give advice because that makes me feel good, it makes me feel important, but you could send them in a completely wrong direction.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: Another thing I've seen on that sense is when I've literally seen this, people ask nutrition questions the day before a marathon, so they'll say, What should I have for breakfast?
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: Now, again, no judgment from me.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'm speaking as a coach here, so I'm speaking as somebody that would analyse performance.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: This isn't personal, this is about performance, and that's a podcast for another day.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: I would not recommend changing your strategy that late in the day, and particularly asking strangers because if you're running a marathon, and obviously this is the 12 months to marathon podcast, I've run 14 marathons.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: I my vision is to help over help a thousand people over 35 run their first marathon.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: Mostly we're in a marathon place.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I've got a few people who are helping with PBs, getting started, that sort of stuff, but mostly we're working towards a spring marathon for most people that I'm working with.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you're in a marathon place, you should have your nutrition strategy sorted out before you do anything.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: You shouldn't be asking people the day before about what to have for breakfast, in my opinion.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I understand why someone would do that, but you should not be doing that.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: You should have everything tested and you should have everything ready because, particularly with nutrition, because if you get anything wrong on that day, well, you're gonna have problems.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I've seen that, and that's not good.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: If you get digestive issues or digestive trauma, and we'll leave it there on the day on your day of a marathon, that's a problem.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: And you imagine if it's your first one and you're doing like a big special event, say like London, and it's your first one and you get food poisoning or something happens and you get stomach problems, it's not great, and it's gonna ruin the experience for you.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: So that's why I'm saying it.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: I there's nothing necessarily wrong with asking for advice, and there's nothing necessarily wrong with giving advice, and I'm certainly not judging anybody here.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: But what I'm saying is practically for you listening to this as a runner who wants to get better, you need to get the right advice from the right people, yeah?
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: Because you should have tested your nutrition strategy out.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: I've got off on a bit of a tangent here.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: I was talking about physio, weren't I?
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: But it's the same principle, you've got to get your nutrition strategy sorted out early and know exactly what you're doing and testing it.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: Same with gels.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: If you're using in-race gels or in-race fueling, as it were, you shouldn't be taking gels off someone on the side of the road in a marathon, in my opinion.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: You should test that, you should have tested your gels at what times and all these sort of things.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: Because for me, the 26.2 is serious business, so you need to address it in a serious way.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: So if I'm coaching you, for example, I would make sure that you've got everything in place and you've tested everything so you know on the day you've got a clear strategy without any diversions.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: You shouldn't be asking people in free Facebook groups for advice the day before a marathon, in my opinion.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: Going back to the physio point, you shouldn't be asking people about shin splints, give you an example.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: Let's look at shin splints specifically because I see that one a lot.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's like do some squats, do some leg strength in it.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: Well, yes, but that's very simplistic information.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: What if there's another problem?
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: What if it's linked to something else?
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: What if there's a mechanical issue there that you need to address in?
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: This is why you need to go to a physio because they'll be able to give you the concise advice.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: Now, Tuesday, when I went to as I record this, sorry, Tuesday as I record this just gone.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: When I went to see the physio, he gave me concise advice.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: He said, It's this, do this.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: So he's giving me some specific warm up exercises to do.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: Uh say, for example, if I'm doing stuff in the gym, um, he's given me specific exercises to do with um like um, it's called a prone curl, so you lie in it and you bend your legs towards your body, so you're working your hamstrings.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: So he's given me specific hamstring exercises to do, he's given me specific advice about when to use my massage gun and things like that.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: So I've got now a specific plan about how to rehab myself for high rocks in a few weeks, and then beyond that to prevent this happening again and to give me a clearer explanation about why it happened so I can avoid it.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: That for me is worth 60 quid for an hour because I have now got the knowledge I need to move forwards, I've got a return on that investment.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason why I called this podcast Pay Attention is because people who pay pay attention.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: So now I've paid Gary for his advice, I'm now going to pay attention to that advice.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: If people are paying me, they're more likely to pay attention to my coaching advice because they're paying for it.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: I self-taught myself through 14 marathons, I've always done it for free, quote unquote, in terms of the advice I've been given.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: Now, would I have got my sub three a bit quicker if I'd have got a coach?
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, 100%.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm stubborn, and uh, because I'm a coach myself and a trainer, uh I always thought, well, I can do this myself.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: Now, in high hindsight, it's a wonderful thing, but if you're doing a spring marathon and you want to make it as comfortably as you possibly possibly can, then ideally you should get some kind of help because it it's hard to figure it out on your own.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: Now, of course, you know, I'm a coach, if you want to work with me, brilliant, but it doesn't have to be with me, that's not the point of this, it's just common sense.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's saying how well do you want to do, how quickly do you want to rehab your injury?
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: Because let's say you've got an injury and you go down the uh health service route, then you're going to be stuck in a system.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: And usually medical professionals at the initial stages, their go-to is always rest, which is fine occasionally, but you need a proper rehab plan.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: So if you've you know, if you know the physio Gary did a video for me on Instagram, Tom wants to marathon, make sure you follow me over there and said, you know, if you've got a niggle, make don't leave it to if it's still there three to five days, go and see an expert.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you go and see a health in the if you could put yourself in the health service system, then you're gonna be waiting a very long time and you're gonna get mostly advised to rest.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: Now, your body's meant to move, so what I did myself, which I I know, I knew this injury wasn't that bad because it started getting better straight away, and I could still move around on it.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: So I said, right, what can I do around this?
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: Because I want a solution, I don't want to be hampered, and I don't want anybody stopping me doing the things I want to do.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: So I was looking for a solution.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, now there's a caveat here, sort of, because some people would listen to this and say, Well, that's fine, but I can't afford all of this.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: Running's an expensive game, and running marathons is an expensive game.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: Recreational running, park run once a week, a couple of runs in the week with your friends, maybe a casual running club run, that's all brilliant.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but if you want to perform at a high level when it comes to running marathons or even half marathons, then it's an expensive game with the kit and all the rest of it.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: So there has to be some allocation of resources to that.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when I I work in the weight loss game, primarily that's my background from the past, and unfortunately, a lot of people who gain a lot of weight are sometimes, unfortunately, not in a financial position to get help from anyone, let alone a PT or that sort of level, and that's a real shame.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: What I've found in running circles is people kind of come into it knowing that there's going to be some investment involved, and if they're not in a position to invest, they just accept what they do and do that.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: But usually runners are a bit more open to right, I need to invest in myself here because you want to get a return on that investment.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: There's another expression which is there's nothing more expensive than free, and where that comes from is the concept of value.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't value something, you won't use it, you have to value it in some way.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: That's why a physio is worth its way in gold.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: That's why potentially, if you want a next level your performance, a coach is worth its way in gold.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you have to think of it like that if you want to approach it, in my opinion.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, if you don't, great, knock yourself out.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: If you can't afford that and you have to go through the health service, then that's what you've just got to do, and that's okay.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: What I'm saying is if you are in a position, fortunate position, where you can invest in yourself, you need to do it particularly if you want to get better, because you will pay attention and you will attach value to it.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: And like any investment, you will want to see a return on that investment.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: So I am delighted that I went and saw Gary.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: I'm delighted to invest the money because now I've got a clear plan to give me the platform I need to at least go and do high rocks.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: Will I be able to do it at the level I wanted to?
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe, and it's that maybe that's important to me.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: Not the doubt, not the ambiguity.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: Now I know that with the right rehab, I should be okay to do it, and it's not a permanent or excessively damaging problem that I have.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: But now I've I've got that information, even psychologically, I feel better, which is really important because if you psychologically feel better, then usually you start to physically feel better as well.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: So this is important if you want to get better.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: You have to sometimes do what you need to do, and you have to sometimes invest.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: And if you have to make sacrifices in other areas of unnecessarily unnecessary things to get better at running, then I would do that.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: I would much rather invest in myself and do the London Marathon, for example, like I've done twice and get that experience than anything else.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: No, no material possession will ever overtake that experience of running down the embankment, uh, waving at the crowd, uh, enjoying it, because obviously the first time uh different story for a different day, didn't enjoy it that much.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing will replace that, no material item because stuff breaks and stuff damages.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: But the experience of that, you know, even the medal's great, but that will, I'm sure, rust or whatever, will wear away.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: But the experience of that will stay with me always, and I will do anything to protect that and do anything to make sure I can have more of those experiences.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: If I only need to invest in myself or invest in the service of others, I will absolutely do that to get better, and that will be my recommendation to you.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, we all do what we do, we do that, we do our best with the resources we have available.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: But my two bits of advice I want to give you today.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: Firstly, don't be getting free advice from people in Facebook groups about things that are important and will matter.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: And secondly, you know, if you want to pay attention, you need to pay, but invest in the right way and make sure that the person that you're investing in is professional and can do and is confident about delivering the results that you want.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: That's really, really important.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: So that's where you need to do your research.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: I would save your research time on seeing who can give you the right advice because that's the best way to go.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: And actually, the truth is if you do get the right advice, you save time, which you never get back.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: You can make more money, you can't make more time.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: So if you pay, you're more likely to pay attention.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, if you're injured or you've got a niggle or something that's bothering you, get yourself into a physio.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: So that's my two pence for the day.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you very much for listening.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: As always, I appreciate that.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: Don't forget to hop over to 12 months to marathon and follow me over on Instagram for your free daily content and tips.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you can follow my journey over there as well if you're interested.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to have a chat about coaching, absolutely 100% more than happy to do that.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: Instagram is the best place to get me.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: Drop me a message with 26.2 over on Instagram and we'll have a chat and see if and how we can help.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: And if we can't, that's fine.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: At least we had a chat.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but I appreciate you listening.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: Make sure to follow, like, share the podcast, wherever you get your podcast from.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: Give it a little love heart.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: I do appreciate you listening and thank you very much for that.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: And enjoy your running.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, make sure you always enjoy what you're doing, make sure that you always enjoy your run.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: Don't ever outlove your love of running.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, if you want to push yourself, that's absolutely fine.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and if you don't, that's absolutely fine as well.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and I wish you all the luck in the world with your journey wherever it's at, and hopefully our paths will cross very soon.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks again for listening, and I'll speak to you all very soon indeed.