Keegan and Company

Two weeks ago my wife Em and I had our first baby, a girl. She arrived a fortnight early, a couple of days before the Sydney Marathon we had spent the year planning to run. This week's solo episode is a bit of a life update.
In this episode I get into why her coming early turned out to be the biggest blessing in disguise, what it took to run a marathon on two hours and forty five minutes sleep, what a night with a newborn actually looks like, trying to get a set of squats in between settling her, update on the three majors still to run this year in Berlin, Chicago and New York, and the thing that surprised me most: it is the least I have ever slept in my life and my recovery has been in the green all week.
This podcast is supported by Denza. Thanks to DENZA Gold Coast for getting behind the show.
For more just like this:
#187 Adam Elliott: Injury, Grief & Fatherhood In One Year: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube
#164 Jai Arrow: Fatherhood and What Really Matters: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube
#170 Grace Grove: Doctor, Runner & Content Creator | Being Yourself & Ditching Toxic Productivity: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube On letting the standard drop on purpose, and what happens when you do.
Listen and subscribe: Spotify Apple Podcasts YouTube
Follow for more: Podcast Instagram Keegan's Instagram TikTok
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jaz Sloane had never run when she signed up for an Ironman. Ten months later she won her age group at Busselton and qualified for Kona. The year that followed was the most chaotic of her life, and she made the podium at the world championship anyway.

In this episode Jaz and I discuss the challenging last 12 months; a breakup after five years, getting hit by a car in March, training in a sling, moving cities, house hopping because she could not find a rental, and building a whole new group of friends while she did it. She reckons she is good at positive reframing, and the interesting part is that she had to learn it. She spent two years and real money on mindset work before she started her business as a coach, and that is what carried her through. We also talk about the eating disorder she had in year eight and the trainer who pulled her out of it, why she signed up for a full Ironman with no background in running or cycling, what she does on the days she is not motivated, and why consistency is the most important thing.
For more just like this:
#176 Jacqui Bell: Youngest Person to Run an Ultra on Every Continent: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube
#170 Grace Grove: Doctor, Runner & Content Creator | Being Yourself & Ditching Toxic Productivity: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube A doctor who runs, on reading your own body instead of pushing through it.
Listen and subscribe: Spotify Apple Podcasts YouTube
Follow for more: Podcast Instagram Keegan's Instagram TikTok
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is the part of my chat with Emily Capodilupo that we keep coming back to. The full episode came out in September 2024, and after sitting down with Lydia O'Donnell it felt like the right time to pull this section out on its own. Emily leads research and data at WHOOP. She was studying pregnancy while she was pregnant, watching her own resting heart rate climb by 15 beats and knowing exactly why. She went for her first run after her daughter was born and was surprised by how comfortable and how fast she felt. Most of what women are told about their bodies after a baby turns out to be social rather than physiological, and she has the data to show it. I'm grateful she talked about her own numbers this openly.
In this episode Emily and I discuss the WHOOP study with West Virginia University that followed 18 women from preconception through postpartum, why a resting heart rate 15 to 20 beats higher in the third trimester is normal, and why recovery afterwards can be better than baseline. She explains what actually needs care on the way back, from a caesarean to diastasis recti and the six week check, and why VO2 max and lung capacity can both come out higher on the other side. We finish on training with the cycle rather than against it, what changes in the follicular and luteal phases, and why you cannot simply move your cycle so a big race lands in the right week.

This podcast is supported by Denza. Thanks DENZA Gold Coast for getting behind the show. https://www.denzagoldcoast.com.au/
For the full episode:
#66 Emily Capodilupo: WHOOP$3.6B Growth, Sleep Consistency Boosts GPA and Alcohol’s Effect on Recovery: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube

For more just like this:
#170 Grace Grove: Doctor, Runner & Content Creator | Being Yourself & Ditching Toxic Productivity: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube
#176 Jacqui Bell: Youngest Person to Run an Ultra on Every Continent: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube
#160 Andy Buchanan: Finding Purpose In Running: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube
Listen and subscribe: Spotify Apple Podcasts YouTube
Follow for more: Podcast Instagram Keegan's Instagram TikTok
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lydia O'Donnell is a professional distance runner from New Zealand and the co-founder and CEO of Femmi, a running app built around the female body. She was Nike's Head Run Coach, has been running marathons for over ten years and coaching athletes for more than five. Femmi came out of something she and her co-founder Esther Keown both went through: they lost their periods training the way they had been taught to. I'm grateful she came in and talked about it this openly.
In this episode Lydia and I discuss why less than 6% of sports science research is conducted exclusively on females, and what that means for every coach you have ever had. She takes me through running 160 kilometres a week at 25, cutting carbs out entirely because a fad told her to, and ending up in hospital with her body shutting down. We get into RED-S, why losing your period was treated as a badge of honour, and the graph she saw for the first time at 27 that changed how she trains. She thinks cycle syncing is faddy, and she explains what she does instead. Femmi was built while less than 1% of venture capital was going to women, and she tells me what pitching close to 200 investors did to her running. Her dad was diagnosed with cancer in 2021. She talks about the six weeks in hospice, and the signs she believes he has been sending her since.

This podcast is supported by Denza. Thanks DENZA Gold Coast for getting behind the show. https://www.denzagoldcoast.com.au/

For more just like this:
#176 Jacqui Bell: Youngest Person to Run an Ultra on Every Continent: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube
#160 Andy Buchanan: Finding Purpose In Running: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube
#170 Grace Grove: Doctor, Runner & Content Creator | Being Yourself & Ditching Toxic Productivity: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube
Listen and subscribe: Spotify Apple Podcasts YouTube
Follow for more: Podcast Instagram Keegan's Instagram TikTok
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Matt Hauser is an Olympic triathlete from the Gold Coast. He came home from his first Olympics not satisfied and decided he needed to go all in if he was going to compete at the top of the sport. A few months after we recorded this, he became World Champion.
In this episode Matt and I talk about the choice he gave himself, grow up or step away, why he stopped calling any of it sacrifice, and the question his partner sent in that he struggled to answer. Describe yourself as a person without using triathlon.
We sat down with Matt in early 2025. We are re-releasing this section now as a Moments episode because it is the part people keep coming back to.
This podcast is supported by Denza. Thanks DENZA Gold Coast for getting behind the show. https://www.denzagoldcoast.com.au/

Listen to the Full episode here:
#96 Matt Hauser: Triathlons, Tackling Challenges & Finding Community: Spotify · Apple · YouTube The full conversation this came from.
For more just like this:
#155 Jeremy Howe: More Than AFL: Spotify · Apple · YouTube
#83 Jordan Kahu: Balancing Family & Business, Life after NRL, and Mental Health: Spotify · Apple · YouTube Life on the other side of the sport, which is where Matt's question is pointing.
Listen and subscribe Spotify Apple Podcasts YouTube
Follow for more Podcast Instagram Keegan's Instagram TikTok
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.