Embrace the thrill of the race with insights from the brilliant coach Paul Piper on Brian's Rompod, as we dissect the art of marathon training for every type of runner. Whether you're gunning for that elusive sub-three-hour finish or just aiming to beat your personal best, this episode arms you with a personalized playbook. We kick off by setting realistic targets and gradually progress to the power of rest days, the underrated benefits of strength training for those core muscles, and the wisdom behind choosing the right tune-up races. We share stories from the trenches, including Paul's own battle with overtraining, offering a candid look at the delicate equilibrium between pushing limits and maintaining peak health.
Transitioning to the treadmill's role in a runner's repertoire, Paul and I debate the pros and cons, from the protective benefits to the potential risks of repetitive stress injuries. He recounts a star-struck moment with Mo Farah and reminisce about his former coach David, whose influence seeps into his approach both on the track and in life. Get ready to lace up your shoes and conquer the pavement with us, fuelled by invaluable advice and the shared passion that keeps our feet moving forward.
Plus, we have a new feature on the podcast you can now send me a message. Yep you heard it right- Brian's Run Pod has become interactive with the audience. If you look at the top of the Episode description tap on "Send us a Text Message". You can tell me what you think of the episode or alternatively what you would like covered. If your lucky I might even read them out on the podcast.
Embrace the thrill of the race with insights from the brilliant coach Paul Piper on Brian's Rompod, as we dissect the art of marathon training for every type of runner. Whether you're gunning for that elusive sub-three-hour finish or just aiming to beat your personal best, this episode arms you with a personalized playbook. We kick off by setting realistic targets and gradually progress to the power of rest days, the underrated benefits of strength training for those core muscles, and the wisdom behind choosing the right tune-up races. We share stories from the trenches, including Paul's own battle with overtraining, offering a candid look at the delicate equilibrium between pushing limits and maintaining peak health.
Transitioning to the treadmill's role in a runner's repertoire, Paul and I debate the pros and cons, from the protective benefits to the potential risks of repetitive stress injuries. He recounts a star-struck moment with Mo Farah and reminisce about his former coach David, whose influence seeps into his approach both on the track and in life. Get ready to lace up your shoes and conquer the pavement with us, fuelled by invaluable advice and the shared passion that keeps our feet moving forward.
Plus, we have a new feature on the podcast you can now send me a message. Yep you heard it right- Brian's Run Pod has become interactive with the audience. If you look at the top of the Episode description tap on "Send us a Text Message". You can tell me what you think of the episode or alternatively what you would like covered. If your lucky I might even read them out on the podcast.
So you're thinking about running but not sure how to take the first step. My name is Brian Patterson and I'm here to help. Welcome to Brian's Rompod. Welcome back to Brian's Rompod, and it's me, brian Patterson. Now, in the final part of my discussion with this coach, paul Piper, I started off by asking him if his clients or co-cheese have a predetermined marathon time and how does he manage those expectations. Now, if you haven't listened to the first two episodes, then please do have a listen in our back catalogue. So my chat with Paul I found really inspirational. So I really do encourage you to listen to the previous episodes of our chat. So over to you, paul. So what let's say for someone who's you know, who comes to you, they may not have that predetermined marathon pace, let's say, if they wanted to complete the marathon. So is there something that you may you know? How would you determine that?
Speaker 2:
Actually there is in the coach's minds and variably, there is a target time.
Speaker 1:
Oh, there is Okay.
Speaker 2:
I do find that and the sub free often crops up.
Speaker 1:
Oh right.
Speaker 2:
So I like to kind of temper that a little bit until I get to know the athlete and the training background and I like to see how that first five, six weeks goes, because as runners we do tend to obsess over arbitrary numbers. So if your actual marathon potential at the end of that block is three hours, four minutes, then that's what it is really. We can work towards getting sub free, sorry, in the next training block, but if I think it's three or four, then that's probably the pace we should go out at. But choosing your build up races within a training block, as we touched on earlier, is absolutely key and the half marathon is a pretty good indicator, all things being equal. Ie if you've got a hilly, hot half marathon that you're doing a build up, then you've got a way off against how much that's impacted you. But if you can pick a flat, fast half marathon, then you can judge your marathon accordingly really, and that's a good indicator a month to five weeks out for sure.
Speaker 1:
So majority of the people who come to you are really looking, let's say, either sub three or maybe between three to three thirty.
Speaker 2:
I've got everyone from sub just under sub four to sub two thirty.
Speaker 1:
So you've got sub fours and sub two thirty.
Speaker 2:
So yeah, quite a broad range.
Speaker 1:
And in terms of the says here so you're recovering from the hard sessions. So it's really important in terms of doing those easy days.
Speaker 2:
Absolutely yeah, yeah depending on the experience of the runner, there will obviously be complete rest days as well. Some runners might benefit a lot from having two rest days a week, which is quite common really. We can mix in sort of recovery methods of swimming, non impact cardio, like a elliptical machine.
Speaker 1:
Yes, yeah.
Speaker 2:
Bike sessions, which will help aerobic capacity, but equally I might have some runners that might have a complete running rest day every three weeks. So, like I said before, it's such a broad range of sort of ability really.
Speaker 1:
We haven't sort of tapped on to sort of like strength training or weights, any good tips for people you know for on the strength training side.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I think the core muscles are essential really for a good running form, and if you've got a good running form and a strong running form, then you're wasting energy less, which is massive, especially in a marathon when you might be on your feet for three to four hours. So if you can save like one percent wasted energy, that's huge. So exercises and these are all things that you can do at home in front of the telly. Don't go to the gym. Hip bridges are good.
Speaker 1:
Okay.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, so if you look up hip bridges on the internet, you'll see what I mean.
Speaker 1:
A link A link will be in the show notes.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, absolutely. So good for engaging the glutes. The glutes are the strongest running muscle and they're probably the most underutilised, hence we rely on our hamstrings too much and the hamstrings seem to get stressed a lot in runners. So if you can engage the glutes and power your stride for the glutes, the better, and the hip bridges are very good at that.
Speaker 1:
Because I sit all day. I have tight hip flexors, like anything.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, yeah, no, it's very common. I'm at work and I'm lucky enough to have a quick fit. They're quite common now, luckily, in offices, desks that you can raise up and stand up yes. So if you've got one of them at work, definitely take advantage of it and try and stand up every 10, 15 minutes every hour or something like that, yeah or at least go for a walk at lunchtime.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, that kind of thing.
Speaker 2:
When I got my worst injury probably was a piriformis injury, which is a glute muscle which had seized up, and it felt like a stress fracture and essentially it was because I was doing 120, 130 miles a week. No, yeah. I used to do crazy mileage, but now I'm doing 80 or 90 and running quicker.
Speaker 1:
So that was a case of too much.
Speaker 2:
It wasn't beneficial. So my coach actually got me to drop down and then all of a sudden I was getting quick.
Speaker 1:
So how many times a week do you run now?
Speaker 2:
I pretty much run every day. Oh right, yeah, I might have one day off a month maximum. Yeah, so quite a lot. But yeah, my piriformis injury was from doing that sort of mileage and then sitting at a desk, so it just seized up over about six or seven weeks of training and it all came to head.
Speaker 1:
Yeah.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, so it's like one extreme to the other and there's no.
Speaker 1:
So basically just summarise basically good core.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, side planks are very good.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, and also engage with the gluteus maximus. Yeah, try to get the hamstrings.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I do like a plank every night, Just build it into my routine, everyday routine. So before I go to bed I'll do two minutes of planks and I think it's good to have something that's achievable, something that you can do and fit into your life rather than having like a core routine where you have to go to the gym minutes now and before you know it it's like slipped out of your routine.
Speaker 2:
So I always say to my athletes 15 to 20 minutes a week times three is like a sweet spot really and that's achievable. It should be achievable. Yeah, all right, and it's all like I said, it's all exercise.
Speaker 1:
What to do? The core exercise Core exercise yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, okay.
Speaker 2:
And it's something you can do at home as well no equipment needed.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:
And the dead. There's the dead bug. You know when you lie on your back and your arms.
Speaker 1:
Oh right.
Speaker 2:
Legs in the air, and yeah, there's different variations of that. That's another good core exercise. Okay, yeah, all right.
Speaker 1:
Another one we'll include in the show now. Yeah, yeah, I did. Something did come across my mind, which was I know a lot has recently been talked about as cadence, you know, this kind of magic 180 to 200 rule sort of thing. I mean, what's your views on it? I mean, I've heard some people is kind of you know, is you know some people think it's people too focused, too much on it.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I must admit I don't. I don't particularly focus on it. Yeah, at all, really, to be honest. Yeah, I know my cadence. It's estimated on my watch so it's actually through movement, so I don't fully know how accurate it is, but last time I checked it was between 180 and 190.
Speaker 1:
Yeah.
Speaker 2:
But I generally think if you're doing proper running drills ie a skips, b skips and you're getting strides into your into a lot of your runs in the week, I just generally think that will fall into place. Really your cadence will improve as you improve as a runner.
Speaker 1:
So a skips are so that's like a running drill.
Speaker 2:
It's quite hard to explain, but if you watch athletics like Diamond League, you'll see like the sprinters warm up with a skips.
Speaker 1:
Oh right, Do you know what I mean?
Speaker 2:
It's where the knee comes up higher and they bring the bring the leg down and they land on there like four foot Okay. Okay, it's kind of like a I suppose you could call it like a plyometric type exercise.
Speaker 1:
Yeah.
Speaker 2:
That's all about building good sort of like a good routine into your running and a good technique yeah.
Speaker 1:
Good technique, yeah yeah.
Speaker 2:
But yeah, I certainly wouldn't advise anyone to overanalyze their cadence to that extent?
Speaker 1:
No, because I know it's like you say on. You know whether you're watches or any of the tech that you've got, then you know they use this algorithm to work out your cadence, but it's not.
Speaker 2:
There's a lot.
Speaker 1:
I wouldn't get hang up about it.
Speaker 2:
So yeah, yeah, I wouldn't necessarily. There's so much data on the modern watches now and yeah, vertical isolation is one as well, oh, yes, that's true.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, it's true. Yeah, Is that one?
Speaker 2:
There's three or four others I can think of and initially, when I got my watch, I thought, well, that'd be quite handy. But in reality, heart rate and yeah, the pace functions are the the handiest things?
Speaker 1:
Yes, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:
I think it's easy to overcompicate running when it's actually probably the most natural thing that we can do as a sport.
Speaker 1:
That's true, yeah, that's true, yeah. So I mean I know now you can. I know sometimes, whenever I do the 10 week training plans, they can download it to your watch and then you know it's like having your own coach in your, in your ear or something like that. Yeah, and I've always found that that to be quite helpful sort of thing, yeah.
Speaker 2:
It's quite easy, especially for new runners. With all the material out there on the internet and stuff, it's quite easy to get bogged down in the minutiae of detail. So you might worry about. I go for a long run but I stop at a traffic light for 10 seconds and you know, does that affect my training? Well, it does, yeah, so and then you tend to worry about that sort of detail, but you miss the fact that you know you're not getting enough long runs in in the training programs, so yeah, my gosh, we've done 53 minutes.
Speaker 2:
Well, I feel like about 20 minutes.
Speaker 1:
I was going to ask you about just something popped into my head about treadmills and then some people kind of have a bit of a love hate relationship with treadmills. What advice or would you give to someone about how they can incorporate the treadmill into their training?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, Well, I'm a. I'm a quite a big fan of treadmills, oh great so next time you're in David Lloyd, you'll probably see me knocking out a session there. But yeah, I do a lot of my interval trainings actually on a treadmill. One of the obvious advantages that the sort of the forgiveness of the belt.
Speaker 2:
Right the impact forces on your legs will tend to be a little bit more forgiving. So, yeah, that's one obvious advantage. I like to set the pace that I'm gonna hit on the treadmill and Psychologically, I just like the fact that, look, I could just got to stay on for four minutes Like this is. This is my interval pace and this is what I'm doing. I'm listening to a song. Get through this song. And that's how I much prefer it than doing a tread track.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, run.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, and the other advantage, or one of the other advantages, is you can have your nutrition there handy right, that's true water and I have done 25 miles on the treadmill.
Speaker 1:
I know I could do that now, right?
Speaker 2:
No but you know, like when it was, I see, and snow and stuff a few years ago. But yeah, having the gels right there beside you and I suppose there's a extra heat element, you're training in generally stuffier environments. Yeah sweating a bit more, so there might be a little bit more training impact there and I was sort that with the Trichotrap, basically the.
Speaker 1:
The advantage is with the treadmill, although you're able to gauge a pace. Right, yeah, easily yeah although I know it's kind of, some people would argue it's kind of artificial running to a certain extent. I don't know slightly.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I mean the negative side. Maybe it's slightly different biomechanics.
Speaker 1:
Yes.
Speaker 2:
Yeah. I know that I think it loads your quads up a little bit more and your hamstrings. Yeah, less. The general rule is, and Obviously there's no air resistance because you're not going anywhere. So, yeah, and that's where the 1% on the treadmill the idea of that is, then it mimics being being outside outside there is it resistance. So okay.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I didn't think about that, because I do know 1%, but I don't think about that. It's the air resistance as well.
Speaker 2:
Which can be quite big. Especially, and obviously the faster you are, the more impact that air resistance is. Yes yeah, for the top elite runners being on a treadmill, you know, you maybe could argue one and a half percent, but yeah, certainly 1%.
Speaker 1:
But do you think, going outside, you know your, your incline is going to vary, isn't it? So it's sometimes yeah be 0.5. Yeah, I mean, I don't know depending on the roads wherever you are. And yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:
That's the other, probably slight disadvantage of the treadmill. I mean you can go between the percentages, but it's extremely monotonous on your limbs and you can get into the rounds of like, so like monotony injury, where you're just stressing one muscle continuously for hours and hours and I might have fell Foul of that previously with a couple injuries and that I had.
Speaker 2:
But another advantage is I do like you, know you. I can build in like a swim after straight away in the gym or a sauna, or go to the plunge pool and I'm straight into that recovery mode. Yeah, yes, yeah which is really helpful. I think that's really benefited me in the last year or two actually. Yeah.
Speaker 1:
I mean, yeah, I think that's you know, if you do have a gym which has a pool, I would have having that Swim, afterwards.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, really I alternate between the plunge pool and the sauna and just getting that heat and cold, heat and cold and okay, I do think my muscles haven't recovered a little bit better. Yeah even though I'm not getting any younger.
Speaker 1:
What's the um I've always wanted to ask is what are the benefits of, of, let's say for, let's say for a runner of the plunge pool? Is that supposed to something to do with the capillaries or something like that?
Speaker 2:
I can't remember, not 100% sure. Okay, um, I know I can only manage about a minute time.
Speaker 1:
Some people are doing like five minutes so yeah, because I know there's a big thing about. Yeah, I had to plunge pools and help.
Speaker 2:
You know, you see people are buying like ice baths on, that's right, like cold water therapy.
Speaker 1:
Yeah.
Speaker 2:
I guess it's the muscle contraction. Yes, and then when you not in there, the muscles contract out again, I suppose. But yeah, I don't have to look at that more closely. But From a personal standpoint.
Speaker 1:
I can't, because you do see, I remember seeing something using bolt and then you know someone, one of his trainers were putting ice in his in the bath.
Speaker 2:
So yeah, it's sort of recovery. So yeah, it's been around for a long time so I'd imagine there's definitely some benefits.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, great my gosh. So last question before we go, and I doubt we may get you back on again.
Speaker 2:
I'd love to come back, yeah, yeah now you.
Speaker 1:
I just wanted to ask, and sometimes I do ask as well. I mean, have you met any of your heroes in terms of running heroes?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, In the last Great North Run, which was September, I lined up pretty much right next to Mo Farah in his last professional race which was on television. So that was quite amazing actually and I saw it beforehand and just took a quick selfie and stuff. But if you took one selfie that day you probably had 10,000s. You didn't like spend any time with anyone, but yeah, it's perfectly nice and of course he's fairly local to around here.
Speaker 2:
Yes, and he's a complete idol to me and obviously 2012, when he probably broke onto the scene was roughly when I probably got into running really. So, yeah, I doubt we'll ever see a more successful British long distance runner to have won four gold medals on the track.
Speaker 1:
I doubt that will happen again. I mean, I don't know what was it, it was a super Thursday or I can't remember what it was.
Speaker 2:
but Super Sunday Sunday. Yeah, that's right. I remember it very clearly, jessica, jessica and his yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2:
So, yeah, that was pretty amazing to be stood next to him pretty much. Yeah, it was on TV and everything. It was, yeah, brilliant. And I met Chalene Flanagan and Ryan Hall, who at the time I think they were both American record holders met them at Boston and had a nice photograph of them and they were really, really pleasant, yeah, and I think the photo on my Power of 10 profile is still with them. So, yeah, that was a nice photo. Yeah, nice to meet them.
Speaker 1:
You've got any coaches that you admire, so anyone particular coaching style that you've admired, or has it because, like you said earlier, the guy who coached you? Has kind of inspired you and used his principles as a the biggest influence on me has been David, for sure. Yeah.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, his coaching style, his knowledge, it's sort of like no nonsense coaching. It's like straight to the point, no fluff or anything like that, and if he said anything it was a value yeah.
Speaker 1:
Right.
Speaker 2:
So yeah, he's a seemingly good coach. Yeah, and we're still in contact to the day this day. So yeah, after my recent PB, he sent me a nice email, which was nice. Even though he hasn't coached me for a year and a half, he's still taken interest in.
Speaker 1:
And do you feel that you're sort of? Not only you're learning as an athlete, but also you're learning in terms of being a coach to other people, and do you feel that's kind of really running has helped you develop?
Speaker 2:
that way. So yeah, I think so definitely is. I'm always just before. Well earlier in the day I was listening to other podcasts as a few other yeah. Good running podcasts and, yeah, you can. I'm always on social media and looking at latest research studies and it's always evolving, especially with the new carbon shoes come onto the scene as completely that's changed running in the last five years pretty much completely. I don't know if you've tried them.
Speaker 1:
No, I haven't tried them, though it's been completely groundbreaking.
Speaker 2:
So, yeah, the sports evolving all the time and, yeah, you've got really got to keep up with your knowledge, for sure. Yeah, it's about marginal gains and I think the shoes have been easily a three, four per cent, which is huge really.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, oh, that's fantastic. So but in terms of you know, you communicating with your coaches, do you feel that you're kind of getting better and better in terms of giving them better training plans or giving them better advice? And it says did you feel that that's kind of improved over the years? Yeah, I, think so.
Speaker 2:
As you build up experience, you're bound to pick up new ideas and new ways of approaching topics of runners that might not be popular, so yeah. So yeah, it's A relationship with an athlete is an experiment of one, so you can't translate one approach to another person.
Speaker 1:
Yes, of course, Of course. Yeah, that's quite a good training method.
Speaker 2:
Just yeah, just personalities. And some runners might like a lot of impact, a lot of touch points within their training plan, and some coaches probably wouldn't get in contact with you for two or three weeks unless you contact them. And some coaches, like every other day, would like contact, which is fine, yeah, but yeah, so it varies massively. Yeah, there's no slot like one size fits all way of doing it at all.
Speaker 1:
And that's what makes coaching so unique and you get so much out of it.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, there's a lot of intuition involved as well, and I think you build that level of intuition when you build your experience as a coach, which, like a standard app, is like a standard sort of like algorithm based towards target times, but when you're actually being coached by someone, it's more personal delving into, like sometimes decades of knowledge and intuition and experience of dealing with people. Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1:
Right, ok, before we go, I just thought I just want to say thank you very much for coming, paul.
Speaker 2:
Absolutely being fantastic talking to you my first podcast.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, and also, where can people reach you? I know you've got a website.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, so it's perfectsplitsrunningcom.
Speaker 1:
Yeah.
Speaker 2:
I've got the same handle on TikTok and Instagram.
Speaker 1:
Yeah.
Speaker 2:
My on my website is my email address and phone number yeah, so yeah, just reach out, email me, phone me. Yeah, look me up on Strava. So yeah yeah, yeah good.
Speaker 1:
OK, well, thanks very much for coming and everyone, Thank you very much for listening.
