Keegan and Company

I spent the last few days going through the research on what actually stops us when we think we are done. This is Part 1 of a 3 Part Series on it, and it is one I have been waiting to make.
In this episode I get into what 8 years of NRL pre-season actually teaches you about the conversation you have with yourself when you want to stop. The study from 2012 where cyclists were tricked into racing a virtual avatar set 2% faster than their own personal best. Johnny Gannon on being curious whats on the other side of fear. Courtney Dauwalter on the pain cave. And a challenge for your next hard session.

Part 2 next week is Lowering the Effort, Part 3, the week after, is Raising the Willingness.
This podcast is supported by Denza. Thanks to DENZA Gold Coast for getting behind the show.
For more just like this:
#198 Johnny Gannon: Bra Boy to Black Belt on Grit, Self Respect and Staying Curious: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube The breath hold story in this episode is his.
#153 James Newbury: Why Most People Quit Too Early: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube
#162 Jake Barraclough (RanToJapan) : 280km Weeks, Running in Japan & Finding Your Limit: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube
Listen and subscribe: Spotify Apple Podcasts YouTube
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See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This episode includes discussion of suicide and voluntary assisted dying. If anything in it brings something up for you, Lifeline is 13 11 14.
Matt Formston lost most of his vision at five years old, and the doctors told his parents his life was effectively over. He has since won world titles on a bike, been named Australia's best big wave surfer, picked up an Order of Australia medal, run sustainability at Optus and written a book called Why Not. This is his second time on the show. He came back in the same year he lost his dad, and I'm grateful he sat down and went as far into it as he did.
In this episode Matt and I discuss why a kid with five per cent vision would tackle anyone on a footy field, and what he was really trying to prove. We get into the cycling coach who told him no, his formula for trust, standards times consistency times time, the diagnosis at five that his parents accepted and the prognosis they refused, losing one of his best mates at seventeen and the ten years off the rails that followed, the list of twelve things he wrote down in a dark apartment that turned his life around, the two weeks he spent with his dad before his voluntary assisted death in March, the I ams his three kids say out loud before they go to sleep, and the fishing hook that gave his book its name.
If you want to listen to the first episode we did with Matt:
#99 Matt Formston: Blind Surfing. Big Waves. Bigger Vision: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube
For more just like this:
#124 Mark Mathews: Recreate the Fear: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube
#164 Jai Arrow: Fatherhood and What Really Matters: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube
#105 Jake Baker-Daish: Addiction, Identity & Finding Purpose: 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.

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.