The Same Mindset That Builds Successful Careers Can Quietly Break Your Body

Stephane is a disciplined runner. Everything I ask of him, he does to a T.

Not surprising. His ambition is reflected in his career.

First from King's.

Straight onto a graduate rotation programme at a top-tier investment bank.

Then a quick rise through the ranks from analyst to VP.

I enjoyed our initial consultation over a coffee and croissant at Brother Marcus in Canary Wharf.

Stephane came across as highly self-aware and reflective about his recent years of running. On-and-off injuries, a decline in race results, and a frustration with himself that running no longer clicked.

The moment that drew me to wanting to work with him was when he acknowledged that his approach to training could not be the same as his approach to work.

He knew that, in one sense, his drive to do well at whatever he put his mind to was a self-serving asset. But on the other hand, when it came to training, that same drive had pushed his body too hard, too often.

I have been coaching high-output runners for over a decade.

A-type go-getters. Founders to professionals pushing to build meaningful careers while training hard to give them an edge.

The first step is often gaining an understanding of why they push so hard.

I will be frank. There is often an underlying psychology here. One of needing to prove yourself all the time due to whatever shadow in your past is lurking.

Like it or not, many of us wrap our identity around the results we expect of ourselves.

Every run I did early in my career was fuelled by a need to prove something to the world.

Any race result that did not reflect that desire for validation was yet another reason to beat myself up and push harder.

Which only led to injuries and the compounding negative feeling of not being good enough.

My job is not to be a therapist. But it is important to understand the frame of reference my clients are looking at their training through.

Once observed, my role is to help my clients recognise that framing and give them concepts, systems, and tools to develop awareness into action.

Take Stephane.

I noticed quickly how every run was underpinned by a "go hard or go home" mentality.

I would come to learn (and he is happy for me to share) that it was an approach born out of always trying to please his father.

It started with his grades at school. Only A*s were good enough to make him happy.

This emotional tug-of-war carried on into career choices, promotions, and annual earnings.

Even when Stephane thought he was in a low aerobic state, his body was telling me otherwise.

Breathing was always a gear higher than where he needed to be. When we looked at heart rate, it confirmed it.

The idea we got Stephane to wrap his head around was this: we never train to failure.

Because all we are doing is training the nervous system to learn to fail instead of succeed.

I knew that telling Stephane to simply slow down more would roll off him.

He knows it makes sense intuitively. But pushing through is how he has got this far in life. Why change that now?

But getting his head around the idea of not teaching the body to fail made sense.

It was a concept that would get him to ease off just enough to feel some benefits.

I needed to give Stephane a system to play with that would show him what happens if you do not always push to failure.

This is often the first S&C phase of my Running Performance OS, called "Easy Strength".

Programming is simple.

Six exercises covering all the basic movement patterns, with low sets and reps while never training to failure.

At the beginning of the cycle, we test max push-ups and how far you can jump from a stationary start.

Both always increase, demonstrating we have gained strength and can apply that strength to generating the force required to move further, which translates to running.

Sessions are never longer than 15 to 25 minutes and leave you feeling fresher and more alert than when you walked through the door.

Stephane loved how practical this was for a quick lunchtime session that set him up for a more focused afternoon of work.

Stephane did struggle with how easy it felt at first. But what is great about this phase of training is that I do not have to say much more. My clients intuitively feel this approach is better, and they quickly feel stronger.

Within a couple of weeks, Stephane was sold on how you can get results without maxing out and was asking how this approach could translate to running.

In short, yes. Cue "Easy Running", which is how we build an aerobic base while still working on speed with little cost to the system.

But I will get to that another day.

The point I want to leave you with is this.

Work rewards maximal effort.

Training rewards restraint.

There is no shame in this. Just smart programming.