The Distance Dr

🤓I read a lot of research, so I thought I’d start sharing a few of the papers that catch my eye and that are relevant to endurance athletes, coaches and clinicians.

This carousel is only a brief summary of each study, and is definitely not a replacement for reading the full paper yourself 📄

💡Research is nuanced, and the details matter: who was studied, how the study was designed, what was actually measured, and what the results can and can’t tell us.

So if one of these interests you, comment “STUDY” and I’ll send you the links to all four papers so you can have a proper read yourself. 🔬

I’m hoping to make this a regular series, because there is so much good endurance research out there! If you want this information to keep coming, please follow, like and share!
💛🧡🩷🧠

Coming from someone who has built a career, and done their PhD around strength training, this may sound like I’ve turned on my own team 😂 I promise I haven’t.

I am obviously a huge advocate for both strength training and good rehabilitation, but neither is a freebie that can simply be added to a pre existing endurance program without considering the additional demand. I often see athletes with a sensible running program, a sensible strength program and a sensible rehab plan, but when you put them all onto the same calendar, the week as a whole no longer makes sense 🤷‍♀️

This also highlights the importance of having a team (but only if that team actually communicates). Your coach needs to know what your physio has prescribed, your physio needs to understand what your endurance training currently looks like, and whoever is programming your strength work needs to see more than just gym day. Otherwise, everyone can do their job well in isolation while you are left trying to recover from the combination.

usually the answer isn’t removing the rehab or strength work. It might be moving it, reducing the volume, changing another session or being clearer about which session currently takes priority.

This is why I always want to look at the whole program, rather than one sore body part or one isolated session. Your body experiences one training week, even if three different people helped write it.

It’s been a big few weeks! First, I’d like to formally welcome Lily (the bike) to the family 💜 Cervélo Australia
She’s not technically mine (thank you to my wonderful friend, Will, for letting me use her whilst he’s on a bit of a hiatus for now!) but I care for her like she’s the girl I never had 😂💜
Second, I did the longest ride I think I’ve ever done in my life! And it was amazing 🤩 positive vibes, laughs, good, hills and beautiful scenery.
I can’t believe I’m almost at the end of this Ironman build. I’ve stayed positive the whole time and a huge part of this is thanks to the amazing Busselton Tri Club Bad B*tches who Try Tri Mikaela Foy william.susanto Kat Fremlin Rob Merrells Nick Baldwin and also my wonderful athletes who I coach as I always want to practice what I preach.
3.5 weeks to go and I’m so content in life at the moment 💜💜

Churchill Cycles

I love applying my knowledge and research to real-life athletes… and who better to experiment on than myself! 😂

I stacked it running in the dark and sustained some tibial bone bruising, which has meant no running for quite a while. Slightly suboptimal when you’ve got an Ironman coming up.

But there’s nothing I can do about that now, so I’ve been conditioning my body the best I can to give myself the best chance of getting through race day 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 🐉

As always, this is what I’m doing for my body and my scenario. I share this stuff because hopefully it helps someone else, or at least gets people thinking a little differently about injuries and how we manage them. Take exercise ideas if they’re useful, but always modify them for you and your body.

I’m also working with a brilliant sports doctor who has been incredibly reassuring and put my mind at ease about racing.

Now I’m off to wrap myself in bubble wrap for the final 3.5 weeks. 🤣

Plantar heel pain is one of the more frustrating injuries, mostly because it’s slow to completely go away. There’s no quick fix but there are some solid strategies to put into place!

If this info feels like a lot, just start with the stretch. Ten seconds, ten times, before your feet hit the floor in the morning. Add the heel raises in once that feels manageable. You don’t have to nail all three from day one but aim for consistency over anything else!

And please keep going past the point where it starts feeling better, because that’s where most runners drop off and it’s exactly why it comes back.

And of course, load management is always key 🔑

👉 Comment LEARN and I’ll send you the full video.

This is general education, not personalised medical advice.

References: DiGiovanni et al. 2003 and 2006 (the stretch), Rathleff et al. 2015 and Riel et al. 2019 (the loading), Morrissey et al. 2021 and the 2023 APTA clinical practice guideline (overall management).

If you’ve ever looked at your week and thought there’s just no room to add strength work on top of the riding and work and everything else, this one’s for you, because it turns out you might not need anywhere near as much as you think 🤔
This study took competitive cyclists, women included, who weren’t lifting at all, and added one exercise to their normal riding for eight weeks. That’s it!

The cyclists who completed the strength training saw significant improvements in time to exhaustion and cycling economy 🚴🏻‍♀️

The benefits did not come from extra muscle, not extra weight to drag up a climb, just your nervous system getting better at using what you’ve already got. Which is exactly what you want as an endurance athlete, with a nice bonus for our bones and long-term muscle while we’re at it.

Want the full breakdown and how I’d program this for cyclists? Comment STRONG and I’ll send it over.
Loved doing this one with Women’s Cycling Apparel ❤️🤍 more coming.

Most runners I see with plantar heel pain have already tried rest. Six weeks off, no better, and now they are deconditioned on top of still having the heel pain.

You can keep running with plantar heel pain if you reduce the dose per session enough that the tissue can handle what you are asking it to do!

Please remember that the pain guidelines are exactly that, guidelines. They are a starting point I use with my athletes. Some runners feel comfortable pushing a little closer to the upper end, others want a more conservative buffer, and both are valid. Pick the version of these rules that feels right for your body and your goals, and adjust as you go.

Comment LEARN and I will send you the full video breakdown

This carousel is general education, not personalised medical advice.