Runner/Marathon Coach/Massage Therapist/PE teacher
Belfast
Joined September 2012
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‼️SPORTS MASSAGE 🆘‼️
Spring 🌅🟰Marathon Season 🏃♀️🏃♂️
✅Long run ⛰️🏃♂️
✅Speedwork 🏃♀️🔥
❌Recovery/Massage/Taper advice 📖
📧[email protected]
📍Beside MPT
💷£25ph
Marty Rea retweeted
You have to treat a training plan like a set of assumptions, not some fixed thing or stone tablet of commandments that you have to follow.
Ultimately, training is determined by how your body responds to the inputs of the week, whether that’s the mileage, the quality sessions, strength training and the rest and recovery between those things.
If your body is responding well, the plan is working. If your body is not responding well, in the form of excessive fatigue, soreness, or small injuries cropping up, then the plan is not working.
And that’s really it.
You determine a good plan based on your individual profile and background, but then you keep an open mind and see how it goes.
If it’s going well, you continue with it and gradually progress it over time as needed.
If it’s not going well, you go back to the drawing board. And that’s fine too. I’ve gone back to the drawing board many, many times myself.
That’s part of training.
Just don’t get locked into a seven day plan thinking you have to follow it no matter what.
Because that’s not training. That’s just not thinking.
Marty Rea retweeted
Trailer out now.
Listen & subscribe on links below.
Episode 1 (proper) featuring Callum Morgan & Eimear Maher drops Monday 5 October.
📢 Apple Podcasts: shorturl.at/iILD1
📢 Spotify: shorturl.at/ZqzKV
📢 Amazon Music: shorturl.at/PIym8
Marty Rea retweeted
my thoughts on threshold vs sub-threshold for the 3 hour marathon runner->
marathon pace- 6:52
threshold- 6:25 to 6:30
threshold is the pace the runner can sustain for 1 hour
this pace will differentiate A LOT when the runner is:
-in peak shape or out of shape
and
-if the weather is hot or cold
sub-threshold is slower than 1 hour pace. typically, i say half marathon pace
HMP for the 3 hour runner is generally 6:32-6:37
however, today we’re going to call sub-threshold pace 6:40-6:45
you definitely need threshold workouts. (just not as many as you think) it’s very likely the runner will achieve a similar aerobic stimulus by running sub-threshold
most amateurs overestimate their ability on threshold work, then they run faster than threshold and that defeats the purpose of the workout. it leaves them extra fatigued too
if the runner dials pace back by a notch, they likely can get in 6-7 miles of work and feel better afterwards than a threshold workout with 4-5 miles of work
in my opinion, there are a lot of things the 3 hour marathon runner should take away from world class athletes but their obsession with threshold shouldn’t be one of them
“the juice isn’t worth the squeeze”
i’m not saying you shouldn’t run threshold workouts. you need them, i am saying switching a few threshold or speed workout to sub-threshold might be something to consider
now stop reading my post and start overtraining
Marty Rea retweeted
My favorite Michael Jordan quote:
"Work ethic eliminates fear."
When you can look at the man in the mirror and know that you didn't cut corners, you spoke the truth, you've done the preparation, and you've lived in integrity with your chosen values, you are unfazed by anything in the external world, because you lived up to your own standard.
Marty Rea retweeted
As coaches, your job isn’t to give athletes the answer, it’s to put them in a place to figure it out.
Marty Rea retweeted
Average athletes only train how they like to.
Great athletes train how they need to!
Marty Rea retweeted
It's easy to get PBs with athletes/runners who are fairly new to the game. This does not mean that the coaching is good. PBs at early stages 6 months, 1 or 2 years in, are often just a natural result to compounded days of running. And that running can be fairly elementary.
Marty Rea retweeted
The @RathlinRun Lighthouse Challenge WILL return in 2027!
Grab your early-bird tickets now (before they sell out) at rathlinrun.co.uk/lighthouse-…
Marty Rea retweeted
Relax the schedule. In fact, abandon the schedule. Nominate some nice places to run. Go there with the intention of enjoying those places. Forget pace, Forget heart rate. Start runs easy and gently. Just put the time in and end the run when you've had enough.
Marty Rea retweeted
If your running has plateaued, change it. Progression may have stalled. The good feelings may have waned. If this has been going on for weeks, something has got to give. Get the 'feel goods' back.
Marty Rea retweeted
One of the best pieces of advice I received as a younger athlete was to train on softer surfaces. In fact we did most of our speedwork on grass. My mind boggles when I see people running hard on tracks tue=thu and they don't even track race. It must be the modern way. GL
Marty Rea retweeted
Tom Brady reveals the overlooked reason practice squad players never succeed in the NFL
It’s not a lack of talent.
Brady watched it happen for 20 years. The pattern was undeniable.
As soon as a practice squad player got promoted and had to perform under real pressure, they crumbled. It took years for Brady to understand why.
“There’s 53 guys on the active roster and there’s now 15 guys on the practice squad. So there’s 68 players. But those practice squad players are important because if anybody on the active roster gets hurt, they can get elevated to the squad.”
“These scout team receivers would come in and practice with the scout team and they do really well. And I’d be watching. I’m like, ‘Man, we got to get that guy. Let’s get him up on offense. He’s making a lot of plays.’”
“Then all of a sudden, we’re like, ‘Hey man, you’re doing really well. You got to come over here and deal with the pressure of succeeding now that you have expectation.’”
“And these guys are like, they weren’t prepared for it. So whatever we saw in practice against where there was not a lot of pressure, now when they’re put in a situation where there’s an expectation for performance, they’ve never had to personally deal with that and then they fail.”
“And then what I realized was a lot of guys on those practice squads, they don’t want to be elevated to the roster.”
“They’re very happy living this life where they could tell their family and friends, which I have no problem with that. But the reality is a lot of guys don’t want the pressure of dealing with top.”
Twenty years in the league and seven Super Bowl rings later, Brady learned that talent wasn’t the hardest thing to find.
It was people who actually wanted the pressure that comes with being great.
Marty Rea retweeted
Cool shoes, no doubt. I’d like to try them.
For marathon performance, though, the impact of shoes is way overblown for recreational runners. It’s 6–8 hour (or more) weeks of stacking runs at <75% HRmax.
Everyone wants the cool shoes, few are willing to run the slow miles.
Sebastian Sawe and Yomif Kejelcha both broke 2-hour mark at London Marathon 2026 with Adidas Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3.
Tigst Assefa set women’s marathon record wearing it too.
It’s lightest legal race day shoe ever, weighing 97 grams (3.4oz) for men’s size 9, about 1/2 the weight of a regular men’s running shoe.
Adidas was able to reduce weight by 30% vs. Pro 2 model and most of improvement came from a lighter foam compound and upper part is inspired by kite surfing sail material.
They U-shaped carbon fiber plate is a lighter and so are the laces lol.
Adidas created Lightstrike Pro foam: uses gas injection (nitrogen) to expand billions microscopic cells which makes it ultralight and bouncy. Wild.
This shoe arms race (“race to zero”) is getting out of control. Seems like 50 grams (1.7oz) may be as light as it can get.
The public version release of shoe is coming up and will cost $500.
***
Background on shoe: wwd.com/footwear-news/sneake…
YT/ Meta Endurance: youtu.be/A6Alz0oP8_U?si=Ktdu…
Marty Rea retweeted
Rory McIlroy is an investor in Whoop, wears one of the company's wristbands while playing, and allows the brand to share his data periodically.
Here are some of his Masters highlights:
• 24,000+ steps on Sunday
• 91,000+ steps during the tournament
Rory's heart rate spiked to 135 BPM during his tee shot on 18, dropped to 121 BPM during his approach shot, fell further to 105 BPM during his winning putt, and then jumped back up to 150 BPM during his celebration.
His resting heart rate for the week was 47-49 BPM.
Rory says he follows a strict routine during the PGA Tour season to ensure proper rest and recovery:
• No caffeine after 2 PM
• Last meal at least 2 hours before bed
• Magnesium and theanine for sleep quality
• Blue-light-blocking glasses in the evening
• Sauana or Epsom salt bath when available
• Cool room temperature for sleep
He follows the same three-hour routine before every round: arrive at the course → warm up in the gym → eat breakfast → hit balls on the range → putting green.
Rory says he believes his focus on longevity will help him play another 10+ years at a high level, and his physiological age on Whoop is now 1.5 years younger than his actual age.
Plus, it turned out to be a pretty good investment.
Rory initially invested in Whoop in 2020 when the company was valued at $1.2 billion. While we don't know exactly how much he invested, Whoop recently raised another round at a $10.1 billion valuation.
That's an 8.4x multiple in five years.
Not bad, not bad.
Marty Rea retweeted
I asked Dan Hurley the same question I asked Tom Izzo: why does the media have a problem with coaches coaching players hard?
Hurley: "Society has gotten soft in a lot of ways... The real world is tough and cruel... I'm preparing my players for life."
Marty Rea retweeted
If Strava is negatively influencing how you train, the problem isn’t Strava.
It’s your insecurity.
I’ve fallen into that trap before too.
Now I don’t care. I train with confidence because the only thing that matters is race day.
I’ll walk during runs. I’ll run as slow as I need.
Listening to my body matters more than impressing an imaginary audience.
Most of the pressure people feel from Strava comes from critics that don’t actually exist.