I Quit My Career For HYROX | Sean Noble | Ep 51

0:00Sean Noble, welcome to the podcast. Hi Jake, thanks for having me on. For the people that may not know who you are, would you just be able to sum yourself up? Tough question, but I'm originally from Dublin, Ireland. Qualified solicitor, took a career sabbatical, but now I compete in the Elite 15 in High Rocks, so yeah, that's what I'm doing at the moment. Yeah, and you're full-time at the moment, right? Yeah, so I went full-time in January. At the time, it was a bit of a stab in the dark, a bit of a big risk, even financially. But yeah, recently signed to your contract with Pumam, and so that's after helping massively.

0:37Yeah, gone all in, really. Yeah, it's paid off. And it's paid off with your performances, right, as well? Oh, yeah, absolutely. So, like, I went from being kind of trying to get even in podiums in pro races to being kind of, i think i was top five or four i was six i'd be 15 races this year so yeah it's been definitely a an upward trajectory since i went full time yeah yeah um in terms of like your training how has it changed from like you working full-time and having to cram it in to then yeah a little bit more but like basically when i was like a trainee solicitor um it's a very hectic job it's very like mentally demanding um so i was probably training about 10 to 12 hours a week most of that was very high intensity because i had to be and so it didn't give me the opportunity to work on like a lot of my base and that's what i was missing the back half of the race and so i increased my volume i started um trying on the bike a lot more and i trained i changed my training from being very intense to more moderate low intensity with one or two very hard sessions so i just it was just basically an increase in volume um and then i started to drop a little bit of strength work because i kind of recognized that i think hyrox needs that kind of explosive strength that we all think it does um i was just doing two strength sessions a week um and then just getting more volume on the stations basically and at the moment are you self-coached yeah i have always been self-coached um yeah yeah and when i've spoke to you in the past about training i think your methodology is always straight to the point yeah and basically common sense like you train the hierarchic exercises you train the movements a lot and you also do the basics right in my opinion whereas i feel like a lot of people potentially not over complicate it but they might be adding in um like a lot of like crossfit movements power cleans things like this and you might still be doing that as well but um would you just be able to kind of like uh explain a typical week training yeah so um that's basically exactly how i try and um so like like before i get into specifics of training like my training kind of um method would be i started off it was trial and error basically i started taking bits and pieces from people i was hearing this person was trying a certain way and i was trying it out and kind of seeing what works and then i came to the point where i was like okay this is obviously very aerobic based so we need to do aerobic work don't necessarily have to run because we're heavier athletes so we can't run like 160 kilometers a week because we just get injured so then i was like right we'll swap out do some bike work but as you know and you know better than me to get better at running you need to run more that's simple you know um and exactly i start understanding we don't actually need to do all these accessory movements to the extent that people are doing if you just do more volume on a sled push and pull you're going to get better a sled push and pull you don't need to do loads of deadlifts to get better at that um and then yeah so basically a typical training week would be i do hard day easy day and monday is usually like an easier day so it would be a very anaerobic would be like two two hours at like 210 watts on a bike and then maybe one hour elliptical that's just an aerobic day tuesday say it's a hard day it's a double hard day and it would be like six by a mile at my a little bit slower than lactate threshold so i do train a lot off lactate threshold as well so my lactate threshold would be around that at the moment well three four weeks ago it was about 318 a kilometer but it's usually around that 322 kind of so i probably would train around that kind of lactate threshold uh so i do say mile repeats then i would do um like hard bike efforts into sled work and then maybe strength over Tuesday as well.

4:30Wednesday then would be an easier day. So it would be like actually a lot of like volume wall balls. So like easy wall ball volume. And I might do then like two hours on a bike, some more aerobic work. So that would be hard, easy. And then back to hard, which would be a double hard day. So I double up my hard days. So then Thursday would be again hard running. So it might be 1K repeats. I only ever do one compromise session a week, like a high rock session. so that would be Saturday so then I would do like five by a mile and then the last two are compromised and that's really really it so it's just hard easy and a lot of it is very much we're working on the the high rocks movements and then we've got two strength sessions in there so it's very it is very common sense because I think like we overcomplicate things as athletes you know like a runner when you get better at running like you just have to run more get closer to race pace your body gets very efficient at that pace you might do a few sessions above race pace to drag it up it's not you know i think we over complicate things so i do have a very basic level of training but there is also a philosophy behind what i do as well you know and with your easy days like how are you monitoring that you've mentioned there 210 watts that's classed as easy for you so are you going off heart rate are you trying to keep your heart rate below something yeah um so for like some people i work with with obviously coaching and stuff like that i would do good off body weight as well so for me it would be say 2.5 times my body weight in watts and now then I would track my heart rate and also I think perceived exertion is not getting you know its credit I think perceived exertion has to get its credit because we we work off heart rate and like those that know your heart rate can be very very low when you're very fatigued when I took a lot of I took a time I took two or three days off there about four weeks ago um because I was ill and I came back and I was refreshed and my heart rate was so much higher but it felt the same and that was just because I was fatigued and it took some time off and that's you know that's an example of basically we're working too much off heart rates because if I'm extremely fatigued my heart rate is actually lower than than it would be if I was fresh so um a lot of it is perceived exertion so if I feel it's easy I can have a conversation then I just go with that you know yeah no it definitely makes sense and um what is your strength looking like in terms of like rep ranges um what what movements are you doing so your typical back squats um so i naturally have a lot a lot of people notice but like when i was younger i would have been quite strong naturally like i used to you know bench very good numbers when i was 15 16 talking ah like probably when i was 14 15 i'd probably bench i think i might have got up to 120 kg uh 15 16 so it was yeah it was strong but i still haven't beaten that by the way yeah so um 15 year old uh sean noble stronger than the sean nobles of today 100 i think i deadlifted nearly 200 kilos at like 15 oh it was like 180 190 and i probably could deadlift i'd say 160 kilos now so it's pretty it's pretty sad when you think about when you're 30 and you can't even lift like you're 15 years old so yeah um but like i was your typical like i want to look good for for the girls you know what i mean get the biceps get the chest your typical gym kind of bro um i was going in just to look good basically and then you know you go in there and you have like oh i can lift a bench more than him basically so that's that's all it was and you was playing football this time as well yeah i played football at high level when i was younger i was an underage international it actually hampered my football and because i got very bulky from lifting weights and i was a winger and a lot of people were like wow you're a winger because i got i got a bit like muscle bound and then i kind of transferred to uh center forward but uh yeah i played for ireland when i was younger 15 14 15 16 maybe i can't remember and then i played in our professional league in ireland as well yeah no i uh i don't like to come up against you everyone says that but i they're like they think i'd be a difficult like player like a nightmare yeah you're in the uh talking shit yeah yeah but i know i'm actually i was i was very so a lot of people know i was very quiet a couple years ago and i kind of came out of my shell when i was about 19 so when i was growing up i was very very very quiet um and then when my father passed away then i just i think i like because my father was a bigger than life personality i think i just morphed my way i don't know if i'm copying them but i morphed my way into him basically you know yeah so i kind of came out of my shell when i was about 18 19 yeah yeah that's that's incredible yeah um so yeah are you rep ranges is it kind of are we doing like specific strength like yeah say your back squat so back squats i would be you're talking 10 by 4 sets uh high high rep range don't believe we need three four rep max uh i'd get up to uh twice a week 100 kg for six reps and then i do uh reverse single leg reverse lunges i think are the biggest or the best sorry the best exercise for high rocks in my opinion single leg reverse lunges it is like exactly the movement you need for a sled push is exactly the movements like literally a lunge if you get your single leg reverse lunges like add weights to it your lunges are going to feel so much easier because it's just basically a lunge.

9:50So for me, that is a very important movement for my strength. Are you doing them with the barbell on your back? Yeah. Or the front rack? Just barbell back, yeah. I just put something down on the ground and I just whack my knee and try to basically increase the weight as I go along. Are you staying on one leg for the full set and then going to the other? Yeah, I feel if you alternate, you're giving yourself a break and you're not engaging the muscle and fatiguing it enough. So for me, it's also the muscle endurance. So keep hitting the same. muscle for 10 reps rather than alternate yeah no interesting i i think it's uh super interesting like say that you you're not fussed about pushing them top end numbers no i i assume you'd be able to squat a lot more than 100 kg but it's probably you're not just not pushing it you don't need it yeah exactly yeah i i think i i think i might have pb'd 150 kg on the back squat but you're not like that's uh you know 100 reps for sorry 100 100 kg for six reps for you you're probably even a couple of reps in reserve there yeah yeah probably could just do a few more yeah yeah yeah and uh and then you're like say you're more of like a high rep range kind of guy yeah exactly so anywhere between kind of like 10 and 20 reps normally or um i usually don't go past 10 um i just so the first couple would be warm upsets then i'd get into say like 80 kg and then 100 kg i'd usually drop that even down to six reps sometimes because i'm very worried i don't want to fatigue my legs for all the quality sessions as well um then i do reverse lunges your typical leg extensions um hamstring curls that's not for strength it's more injury prevention um yeah so my strength would be probably i'm actually when i'm doing it i'm not thinking i'm getting stronger for for high rocks i'm thinking i'm doing these not to get injured basically yeah no um and then do you train any kind of upper body or anything like that no no never um i naturally have a a bit like muscle kind of muscle on my upper body so i don't really yeah you're a big lad yeah i don't really um just genetics i don't really need to train i used to box when i was younger as well i think i developed a lot of like muscle from from that because it's very upper body dominant so yeah i i haven't done a i haven't benched in about four years or something so it's i need to do i don't even know what i could bench now i probably couldn't even bench 80 kilos maybe you know and you've just let's say you you just don't value that within how you don't think that you need to do it absolutely you're doing any kind of like shoulder work for the wall balls or is it just yeah sorry i do the odd session shoulder press okay yeah yeah that's actually probably my strongest um in terms of strength numbers when i was younger i could shoulder press a lot and even now i can still shot like 100 kg military press and stuff so it's i'm very strong with shoulders and then wall balls like i know in the least on thursday i broke but i was in a world of pain but i've i've kind of broken i think 10 races in a row before that so my shoulder endurance is quite good yeah when it comes to wall balls because i remember the first time that you actually broke 100 ball balls and like talking to you about it and you was like how much of it do you think is a mental barrier like in your head like uh if you've not hit 100 within training or within a race, then it's kind of that thing where, like, you're always going to break until...

13:05And once you hit the 100 unbroken, you're never dropping that ball again almost. Yeah, yeah. I think, I say this to a lot of people, I think training will get you to 50. So if you get, like, every time I get to 50, it doesn't matter how well trained I am, I feel like I want to drop. My mind is telling me, let's drop it here. and like you know yourself and like I know when you drop that ball it just gets harder and harder now of course I'm well aware that like there's strategic you know drops where if your cadence is very high you can drop it to 60 and then pick it back up and you can finish off quickly but for me I know when I drop that ball just the breaks get longer and longer and like it just feels heavier and it's slipping out your hands and it's just it's a nightmare so for me like I say to myself trying to get you to 50 and then your mental strength and you know resilience will get you to 100 um i always play mind games myself when i get to 50 or pretend that i just started and i'm like giving out to myself in the race like come on sean you can do you can do 30 wall balls here but i'm not 30 i'm at 80 and when i get to 80 i'm like all right sean just get to 90 and when you get to 90 you're just like you see the number and you're just like come on we can finish off 10 wall balls and then we collapse on the at the finish line so um yeah i just try to play break it in and i think it's very important when you're racing it doesn't matter if it's a marathon and i don't know how you would deal with yourself but like you can't think of it like 26.2 miles or just have to think 1k i need to hit this split and then next k and then the next k and the same in high rocks like i just think how do i feel execute this run i know what i'm going to pull on the ski i know what i'm going to do on the push i just break it into what i'm doing for that particular format you're not thinking past that not thinking past that yeah now sometimes i will be in a race and elite race and i might think um i know a certain individual has strengths so i might have to push or pull back because i'm thinking okay he's going to beat me by the lunges and then i might have to gain a bit more time now so i'll have to push it harder but usually i just think what am i doing right now because if you think and i remember i started high rocks and i'd go out on the first run and i do the ski and then i'd go back out and i'd be thinking about the wall balls and it's just it's it's miserable because it's you know it's so tough and i think that energy just sucks the life out of you yeah no and when it comes to kind of like a high rocks obviously i feel like you've trialed and there were like every single way going out hot going out reserved yeah um what works for you so i've exactly i've tried it every different way of racing um i've figured out that i'm a front runner i definitely am a front runner because when i go out slower um like even on thursday when i raced in the elite 15 and i know like i i was positioned exactly what i wanted to do even even though i was in a bit of pain but i was positioned and i wanted to come off the push you know say third top three and then try and maintain that and uh when i got my sled it's like someone took my sled and i had to go all the way back down to 14th and then all the energy when i came out behind where i wanted to be mentally that just it just ripped me apart because i was like we're already way behind where we should be so for me it's more of a mental thing where like i want to be with the top three and try catch them and hold on and they drag me along nearly when i when i race in the elites now in a pro race is different because i'm more conservative i'm more strategic because i know you know when you race a pro race you don't have the likes of ronkovich or tim or hunter that are able to drag you to maybe a pb or you know what i mean because that definitely is a thing you get dragged in these elite races by phenomenal athletes because you're trying to keep up with them and like sometimes you're what you're performing above your ability you know so for me i i'm a front runner i have to go hot i have to i i always say to myself you have the rower i do so much volume on the rower just to recover because i think the row rowing is so underrated in high rocks if you have a good row you can start to race all over again it's like you're split the race into two so i get on the rower and i row probably I average about 147 148 um and that for me is fairly comfortable and I just recover and then I go again even though I could be in a world of pain and lactate gone through the roof and um sorry I have to stop saying lactate because lactate is actually a good thing if we recycle lactate for energy it's the biggest you know energy source but when you can't recycle it then it becomes pretty bad you know so that's that's how I race I have to be a front runner you know yeah no and i i've seen that within the races when like you you'll get to potentially your favorite station or your fastest station farmers carry like you're you're known in the space for having the fastest farmers carry within the elite 15 field and um i think when i've seen you be at the front you're smiling when you're first you're smiling i don't but what does that feel like to you like obviously you're in a world of pain but like if you're if you're at the front does that pain kind of subside a little bit like 100 i remember a race in london and like if you can go off heart rate metrics it was true to roof i was in a world of pain but because you're a front runner and the same in phoenix i got off the rower in phoenix and ran i think one of my quickest that it runs six runs in because i was first i was i was you was laughing it you was loving it you was you know wearing to the crowd yeah yeah yeah but you just looked happy yeah yeah and i think like when you smile and you're happy your performance you know gets better as well there's definitely a combination between the mind and the body that link there you know yeah so is that what you're kind of if you can in a race that's what you're aiming for like to be out at the front and because like you say it's less painful than you'd be if you was running the exact same race but you was 14th i bet that that run would have sucked absolutely yeah no but because you're first yeah yeah and like i have a lot of respect for guys that don't go out the way i go out and um they can you know build their way into a race like look at dylan scott like i came off to sled pull i think i was in seventh on thursday and he still had one one one more lane to pull i looked over and think i was thinking he's done like he's one more lane to pull and he smashed the burpees smashed like phenomenal you know how you how you can execute a race like that so there's different ways of racing james kelly is another example he i remember in phoenix i got on the rower and he was eight or nine and i was kind of calculating who's you know who's the danger here i kind of ruled him out i was like he's gone like he's not gonna and then he came back and came second nearly won the race it's phenomenal to watch you know but for me i can't race like that because i just don't have when i'm in eight or nine everything feels so much harder you know when you're used to winning and you're used to being up there and then when you're like in 12th or 13th and you're fighting for like not even to come last which which i it's happened before in the elite race in hamburg for example i mean you were racing it was it was tough like you know you're you're in you're in a world of pain it feels so much harder and then when you're in a pro race like you went down in birmingham and ran a phenomenal race just you feel like a different person you know no it's um it is crazy like like you say how just like mentally it all works um but um yeah um where where did you realize that you like had a talent power-ups like when was it so i think like not a lot of people and like you you would know obviously you're running knowledge is phenomenal like luke reer dylan like people don't give me the respect i think for running like people they always think oh sean just beats the sleds and does very very good farmers carrying and closes on the wall balls goes unbroken and that's his race they don't really give me any credit for running i'm 84 85 kg i ran a 31 45 10k at like 83 kg like that's that's where my strength is that is fucking phenomenal by the way like there's not many people in this world that could run a 31 45 at 83 kg yeah so and that's crazy and that was that wasn't even like any specific work for running either no you're just doing like pure hyrox it was last last summer right yeah last summer yeah yeah um and then yeah like i raised the guy that would be oh you're talking like two i can't remember he ran a 215 marathon maybe in that and i was like 20 30 seconds off him in the 10k like i ran with him till 6k i think and a lot of people were like this guy's 55 kgs professional or not he's trying to be you know olympic level marathon runner and this is just a high rockster and people don't give it the respect they're like oh he's just a high rocks but then they're like wait how does he able how is he able to do a 31 45 10k they don't realize the training that we have to do for the elites like it's so i would say it's so hard it would be in my opinion much harder to be in the elite 15 now than to be like a very good level runner just in my opinion now of course olympic level that you're talking that's years of you know running but like i would say it would be harder to run the elite 15 and to run say a sub 230 mariton if you really you know put the effort in i don't know in my opinion that's that's how i would like if i put it i say a good block of six months and you've got the right dna and genetics of course certain people are never going to be able to run a sub 230 mariton but just talking about the elite side of things i would find harder you know yeah no i think um yeah you definitely and with the elite 15 like it's always changing as well like the levels are getting yeah so fucking tough now which is a good thing like the sport's progressing and evolving and you're managing to to stay in there and not just stay in there you're at the top yeah but I'm very aware like you're talking like freaks of nature coming in here like to like a race against certain guys and I'm like that's not normal like I've never you know you weigh 75 kilos 77 kilos and you're pulling 139 140 on a ski york talking about simia yeah I said it to him as well it's crazy like how were you able to do that it's unbelievable i don't know it's like what did he say i is k like high cadence on the yeah stroke rate sorry high stroke rate and you obviously train skier like wonkavish does it as well like i just find it amazing it's like i don't think people get obviously i don't mean to you know pick ourselves up but like it's not getting the respect i think outside of the high rocks bubble people outside you know we see on social media they take take the piss they're like oh high rocks or you know take your top off and stuff like that but uh you know even not not even the elite level just to be a decent pro athlete takes phenomenal effort like you have to be so fit aerobically everything um especially for the singles i think you can get away with it for the doubles a little bit but singles is like a different level like yeah no disrespect to doubles athletes like it's still phenomenal it's hard um but like i've seen guys come in say from a running background or whatever and they can nearly compete at elite level because they're serious runners but then they do a singles event and they're like nowhere to be found you know and you're talking years away from getting anywhere if even to be honest because they're aerobic capacity mixed with the strength like and then you like if you're 75 kg or 70 kg and you're going in hitting a slow pro sled push and pull it's very difficult to pull that what we say pull a three minute flap sled pull it's very hard you know so there is a little bit of you know your body's genetics and stuff come into it as well yeah how much time do you spend actually on technique neat quirk because i uh i know that you study a lot and i don't think you people give you the credit for how much you actually do your research you study other people yeah the the techniques the uh if you look at kind of like your splits let's just like think about it like the the farmer's carrier you're fastest on sled pull you're very much like one of the fastest um sled push you're one of the fastest and but i've seen you break these down well if you've done seminars with people and you've got very specific ways on how you do this and you've spent a lot of time like figuring how is the most efficient way to push these um yeah how how do you even like where where's that research come from so yeah for me like people i say oh you're on this list they're like what the hell like i never thought you'd be a slister i want to be a school teacher but i love studying like i in school like i did quite well in school because i went for my exams and stuff like not that i'm smart or anything like that but i just i love working and studying and like i just get a lot of joy out of knowledge there's knowledge is power at the end of the day and um like i study i've studied you i've studied hunter like i watch everybody and see how they move i studied ronkovich all all my all the top athletes in the world and then i try it and see what's working and then see okay how did how did he get that split how is dylan scott so good on the burpees and then i just figure with the ways there like for example the sled push i actually robbed that from dylan scott because i watched him race and he's not a big athlete but he can still move to the sled push quite well and i noticed when he after the second length he changed his grip to a high grip and then i thought why is he doing that and then i studied the science behind it he's going from his posterior chain to his quads and he's given the posterior chain a bit of a break and it's like i did that in a race then and i felt way way better it's like that works so i'm taking bits and pieces you know uh just the ski i noticed uh certain athletes as they were skiing um for example coal in dc if you slow your ski down by one or two seconds and also i used to do a fartlek style ski so i'd go fast and then i'd go slow for so i used to have i call it the 400 meter meds so i'd go 400 meters fast 200 slow 200 fast 200 slow and slow and what i did was i put a heart rate monitor and i actually got lactate tested doing it as well and i noticed my heart rate would go up on the 400 meters but as i slowed it down it would steady it would like remain kind of steady and my lactate didn't go above four and then i then i realized my body thinks that this is now an aerobic exercise but if i if i just pulled a 144 consistently went anaerobic and i went you know and then and then i'm at disadvantage then for the next run so stuff like that but there's a lot of my new details as well the sled pull as well i noticed when you drop the rope i learned that from hunter that you save your your hands on the grip and then i tried that and i was quicker doing some little details like that as well you know yeah no it's it's definitely the um and like i say from that like i know everyone studies everyone but uh it's just uh i've been looking at a lot of your stuff uh because of that because i know how much effort it's kind of like a cheat code i know that sean spends fucking hours and hours and hours researching everything yeah well i'll just follow you and then it's more efficient yeah likewise like i remember we raced in glasgow um we were neck and neck up until the lunges remember that you qualified uh it was my first elite race and then i realized i was like he how is like i well you were we were running the exact same splits yeah and you maintain the those i think this is your biggest strength if i'm being honest i think your endurance or so your ultra running gives you such good aerobic capacity that your running remains consistent all the way throughout so your seventh run in glasgow was the same as yours it actually got quicker actually got quicker and i was like how is he able to do that and i realized i was like he has that endurance at the back half that i'm missing and then your lunges were fastest and i was like i need to go on a big aerobic base and That's what I did in the summer then.

28:42Because it's like, if I want to beat the likes of yourself as a competitor, I can't have that weakness on the back half because I'm just going to decline where you're getting faster and faster. James Kelly. It's all that aerobic work, you know? Yeah. No, it is interesting. And it's so interesting. They say how people like, there's a lot of people that go out hot. There's a lot of people that like have that strong back half. And it's interesting. It's kind of not nice to be in the Elite 15 anymore because you know how many people have got a strong back half. yeah Bo used to rely on that and now it's like oh crap everyone's like everyone has a strong back up everyone's got a strong back up yeah which which is um yeah and like you say everyone's most people are going unbroken on the wall balls obviously this weekend at world champs like it was a bit different and I think that's due to the heat would you say yeah definitely the the heat like there's only two people that went unbroken right uh I'm not I don't even know if anyone yeah Dylan went unbroken yeah yeah I think so yeah um and then um yeah but uh no it's uh it's it's super interesting uh and it's an interesting space but yeah credit to you mate because um the amount like say the the research that you do um have you got any other kind of like little things that you do so say for example a farmer's career yeah you're probably one of the only people that actually practices the speed of the farmer's career yeah you're not just like in training you're not just dawdling you're fucking going out with intent and you're practicing just moving as fast as possible then yeah yeah so again i realized i was like i say this in seminars like if you pick up a farmer's carry and stand there and hold it in your hands for two minutes you could eat you could eat not easy but you could do it no problem you know anyone could do it stand there with say pro weights or open way farmer's carry so then i was like okay how do we get from a to b and maintain the same posture and i realized i use your lats and your back that's where all the power comes from because like i know we look like looking at our biceps but it's a very very weak muscle group same where our triceps they fatigue very fast so i try to use my back as much as possible and then move as quick because it's just body mechanics like it's like a boxer so when by the way i used to box and thank god i got in the high rocks because i got my head punched off me so many times in that boxing gym i met one of the pro boxers he's like fair play to thank god you found that because you would have got broke up in the boxing gym but in boxing and there's a thing where like you go in and they spar and they train so much that it's automatic you don't even think so it's like someone throws a jab it's slip and then you come back with a backhand you don't but they're not thinking about it and like yeah you need to train so much that when you're in a race you're not thinking you're just you're just executing based off muscle memory and that's how i do the farmer's carry it's just like pick it up we run at race pace or we run quick because there's no point of even training if we're just dawdling along what's the point doing that it's just your training bad you know mechanics and that's why I'm gonna probably zone two zone one running 100 % degree and it's great for the hierarchy think it's because there's a lot of people say say for example this weekend doing the studying Charlie bottle second fastest time obviously Luke great unbelievable runner doesn't do that many miles but he does a bit of easy running but charlie i don't think he does any easy running yeah so that's something i'm going to change i think from uh for next next season um just just do your threshold running and then everything else is yeah i might one long one long easy run and i think for high rocks like it's so anaerobic and it's also like when we're training our our zone one zone two uh runs sometimes we're teaching our body to go slower like getting used to going slower um i think for high rocks it's just like if we're running it absolutely matters because volume is king volume is king and running it's just you know we have decades of running science that that works but for high rocks i'm thinking we can probably swap sessions out for bike or elliptical uh like for that easy aerobic uh benefit and save our legs for more quality work so rather like i was working with a olympic level uh phelan and it's called a dublin track club so they have like olympic level runners um and that like that's humbling because i'm getting my ass handed to me by some serious runners but like when i was doing sessions with them they their volume is so high and like their warm-up is four or five k their quality work is like eight to ten k and then their cool down is five k and they're doing running drills and i'm like i can't do all of that and then do high rocks because i'm so beat up from all the the kilometers and i was like i need to do one or two k warm-up but do like 12k quality work or you know more quality work and then less kill down because for us it's so anaerobic and we're heavier athletes that we can't be running 30k a day if we want to get better for high rocks because how are you going to do lunges wall balls your volume for everything else it's just it's not good for the body you know you might do that for a couple of weeks but eventually you're going to break down and i've done that as well you know so that's a lesson learned for me i'm going to do have you have you spoke to these guys and like ask um these runners like what what do you think if i just did the quality sessions and none of like you know very reduced the easy work of this have you asked for feedback yeah i have um well like they're like they're very open but runners have a way of training and it's that that way or or the highway yeah so i i respect that um and like you're talking guys that i've worked with some of the best runners ever come out of the country so i i'm a nobody so i respect their opinion um but i just know my body and i know that i'm not gonna respond really well if i'm running 120k 130k a week which is i can't do that um and then if i'm running within that 120 130k 20 30k quality work i might as well have ran 70k but 30k was quality and then i'm able to do better like sessions for sleds and wall balls because if i do 120k and this has happened to me before I don't have flexibility then for wall ball so we're going to a race and I'm not hitting depth because your tendons have a way of molding when you run a lot just the way it is to get very stiff and you can't get down as low and stuff like that you know yourself it's it's a give and take sometimes you know yeah no for sure like uh I think that's one thing about high rocks like yes you want to try and get better at everything but there's a cost to everything yeah every single piece of training that you do there's also a cost so there's not just like the fatigue build up say for example you're back sweating you're doing 100 kg for six reps at the moment what if you did 120 kg for six reps yes you might feel good for the sled push but it's probably going to slow your running down a little bit yeah because you you've got a little bit more bulk on your legs and you're running for might not be as fluent or whatever same with running like you say if you run a little bit more you might not be able to hit that from your wall balls though you you might be struggling with your wall was a little bit more so everything has a trade-off and i think that's that's one thing that um people i know i've struggled with this before but like you can't just keep adding adding adding adding adding to and probably probably you've done the same um to a training program like everyone thinks more and like what can i add what kind of how can i get better it's always you're always thinking adding when sometimes it's taken away yeah absolutely i agree and my biggest problem is and you asked me if i'm coached i'm not but i'm really considering getting a coach for next season because like for example uh no excuses but like say hip injury right now oh yeah i wanted to touch on this yeah but like three weeks ago i was i believe because i know off running workouts i was in mid 31 nk shape which is the best running shape i've ever been in let's just let's just talk through a session like well give us one of your sessions because i remember where you did like eight eight by eight hundreds or uh you do you know your 1k session like what was your averaging what was your averaging for that 1k you did like eight by 1k or six by 1k or something i did 10 by 1k off 60 was strict 60 so for me it's like if you can't if you need to take more than 60 you're going too quick um so i did 10 by 1k i think it was 308 309 but like that's fast like anyone on the track as well so it's not like one thing i'm sorry i'm not sure i was spying on the works there but like one thing i'm seeing online is like guys trying like 10k pb 3105 or or uh 10 by 1 or 8 by 1k 315 i'm like hey you didn't do that like your strava running around in circles is giving you that like it's very generous if you run a 1k on a track i guarantee it you didn't run 315 because i go out and compete and then you're running at 405 then and you're first running high rocks like it's it's impossible if you could do that because then you'd be there's levels like if you can run you're on 10 by 1k 315 off 60 or elite 15 level nearly you know what i mean you're a good runner like probably run a high 32 mid 32 minute 10k in a race so yeah but for me like so yeah a couple of weeks ago i was in the best shape i did 10 by 1k off 60 and it's not just like i didn't do like i'm on the floor this is what the running coaches say it's like if it feels like it's hard but you could have you could do another two or three reps and you know you're in very good shape like that for me would be my 10k shape if i had to run a 10k race and so yeah i reckon i was probably 31 30 10k shape um and yeah like i was i did i did a sim usual everyone feels amazing but i was in very good shape and what happened was i did a session that 10 by 1k i did it back to back a couple of weeks in a row i was hitting very hard sessions and i was feeling invincible it was the first time ever i got a huge block of training in i declined racing i didn't race i was like this train and uh my business partner mick um anatomic shadow anatomic fitness he uh he was like let's pull it back because he he's i listened to him he's a good guy he looks after me you know he's like let's pull it back sean i was like no like i want to you know i'm thinking podium here i'm thinking realistically i'm thinking podium here in worlds i'm in very good shape i came top five last and i'm in a different you know fitness level here and he's like okay let's just pull it back here and i'm like okay okay yeah yeah don't listen i go out and i run a one week out six by a mile i woke up so i was getting a hip pain i was like at night i couldn't even sleep on the side had to move over this was before the session so to about two weeks out from worlds yeah so i was doing a few hard sessions and there's a two week weeks out from worlds and i was getting a lot of discomfort in my hip and um basically i i you know i was like i'm in pain here but what was happening was I was warming up and the pain started to subside after I warmed up as I got to like threshold because tendons actually when you when you warm it up they're not too bad but then after the session I was crippled like I was in a lot of pain but then I could go out and then I was doing a long run and I was warming up as I was doing the long run so I was like we're okay here you know what I mean I'm gonna get to the race it's gonna be fine and then I did a session on it and I was running on treadmills because I found that was less impact as well and I was getting the heat adaptation for the race so i was like fine we'll do our one session a week outside grand and then one week out from the world i was i had an athlete that he's a pretty good pro athlete and basically i was racing in training like i wanted to bury him i was like fuck you i'm gonna bury you every single run here you know what i mean like i'm gonna beat you by 10 seconds i'm gonna humble like these things that guys do like so stupid like we should have been helping each other but i was like i'm beating you on this workout it is six by a mile and two miles in my hip is screaming at me like really bad and this is how stupid i am this is how stubborn so my my sister was saying my biggest strength is also my biggest weakness and that's stubbornness and i was so stubborn i was like listen we've already warmed it up it's already in a bit of pain we might as well finish the session and get the benefit from finishing it finished it and couldn't walk i was like in bits you know and i saw a doctor the next day on friday i have an mri reports a week ago and i said look spoke to high rocks spoke to matt before the race and i said um is there any chance i can get an exemption i want to get a course on injection into my hip and they're like look doctor signs off on it okay doctors no problem at all me you know we'll help you out went in got the mri from the top doctors in uh in sanctuary it's in dublin and they're they're they asked the radiologist like would you inject him because it's quite deep it's my hip flexor tendon and basically he literally told the doctor to fuck off he said i am not good conscience going to inject the course on injection for someone that has a partial tear in his hip flexor tendon so he can go out and tear that off the bone because when you get course on injection you don't feel a thing your body mechanics so like when you run your hips kind of change the way it runs but uh yeah so then i went in and i was like i'm gonna do and then he explained to me all the the risks he was like you might never walk you might you know because oh that's a bit severe but you could be you know it's an operation to fix it you could be out for a long time you still want to go ahead with it i was like yeah yeah this is how much you're fucking one place yeah yeah i was like you don't understand me i've trained for this race for six months like i'm like yeah let's do it and he's like i actually asked him before you came in he told me no because one second let me go out and ask again listen get away from me i'm not doing it then he made a few phone calls and he was like i can get you on monday but that would have been too soon because the race was on thursday and then if you inject someone it's like the chances of injury and tendon rupture is very very high so i was like well that doesn't work that's that's not a you know a viable option so what's what can we do so i'll just start taking painkillers and go for it and yeah like be honest with you no excuses i went down the race and like i could i could do it i was just like my mechanics were off i couldn't i didn't really have power off my right leg everyone that is one thing and not to kind of like everyone that saw you before the race yeah you was walking funny before the race everyone was like is sean okay like he's about be racing yeah you're hobbling around yeah before the race yeah yeah so like it's funny like we were we were uh what we're going doing our media and i was walking up the stairs and they were like calls like what the hell man you okay like you can't even get up the stairs like you're because i was pushing off the the handles it's like oh yeah mate i was kind of playing it down like i just say hip tendonitis it's fine a little warm up you know what i mean and then uh because there's a good few Irish people at the race and uh when they called me out to start the lineup they were like what the hell Sean has limping on to the start line but yeah look you did well to to do what you did with that yeah yeah like I I also looked at it like I don't think I would have got a podium that day because it didn't impact my stations at all and my sled pull was 20 30 seconds slower than Charlie's which usually it isn't so I was I was having an off day anyway I don't know that was because i was in so much pain from the runs that my body maybe my heart rate was higher i don't know um but yeah i still wasn't like i wasn't in pain on the sleds at all um they were slower than usual so yeah you can't use that as an excuse i think i think even i mean just that just that even three or four level out of ten pain yeah just just in the background like it's almost it's like background noise it's just yeah it's just dampening your kind of aggressiveness your your willingness to push yeah you've got to kind of almost always be on i found that in races like as soon as like anything is like painful yes you can take painkillers to push through you can um you know mentally you can push through but it's just so much more fatiguing yeah to try and keep pushing when you've got a bit of pain yeah and especially if it affects like you say you running mechanics and stuff like that which uh obviously it did but um yeah my um i wanted to just to like you say i think you getting a coach and like you having someone to tell you and i think i'm the same like someone that can tell you no yeah fucking sean you're not doing this or jay you're not doing this um because uh like i think both of us like if we look at kind of like the last 12 months or 18 months like how many injuries have we had like within that time you've had some you've but you've had some like career-ending injuries with yeah and come back and you've done like dramatic uh recoveries because i know you're so good with like your your rehab and you're so on point with everything but is are these injuries like back to back are they are they a sign that you're pushing your body too much a little bit or do you ever feel like that yeah so like there's two parts of this so the first part is i think i i joke about it in person there's an element of truth as well it's like if you're not working you're not pushing hard enough if you're not getting injuries as well like it's part and parcel of it people are like oh look you know sean's injured or whatever meg jacoby's injured or obviously training wrong and uh you know oh it's showing now but like if you push hard you're gonna get injured but also if you if you push hard you're able to do phenomenal things at times you know what I mean you're like I wouldn't be able to go out in Phoenix and nearly break the world record or you know come top five in elite races from not even being in the elite 15 last season if I didn't push hard so there's a give and take to it but then absolutely like we've I know you've had you know bad injuries with your back and calf and like because you're probably doing we're probably pushing too hard at times and it's just pulling it back like it's it's it's difficult because we want we both wanted so much it means so much to us it's our life it's you know outside of making like for me it's i don't care about the money like obviously you need to earn a living but it's just like i want to sit back when i'm 40 and be be proud and be like to my son like i look your father worked really hard and okay even if i didn't become world champion but we were one of the best particular sport that blew up and millions of people did it worldwide that's that's incredible for me then to look back and you know be proud of that and then if he wants to i don't know do whatever he wants to do he has someone to look up to an inspiration and someone who wants to be a doctor whatever work hard for that but he has an example he doesn't have someone that was like i got tough had an injury and then we packed it in we fell out of the elite 15 for a couple of months and that was it you know someone that fought and someone that came back and actually proved to not just people but himself that there's a resilience there there's a you know fortitude because like i say it's a lot of people i'm actually not interested in someone who's a high caliber athlete that's able to execute a training session essentially in a race that's that's not interesting to me because like you can be very well trained and do well what's interesting is someone that is in a world the pain someone has to fight through a lot of you know personal problems everything else comes back and gives it like they're absolutely 100 that i just respect so much and some of the age groupers like you see they might they might not break 60 they might be doing you know one hour 90 minutes but they came back from a leg break or a catastrophic injury and they have mental health problems and they're in the gym every day i respect that more than me going out and winning a pro race and it's essentially i'm waving at the crowd and it's easy that's that's not impressive to me you know what i mean someone that really fights for it yeah no and uh you never know what people are going through as well exactly yeah but it's i think uh just getting on that start line most of the time especially if you've dedicated you know the last it might be 12 weeks it might be six months to training getting on that start line fit and healthy and ready to go and you having the confidence to be on that start line yeah i think that's a win in itself that's the first win like you're already made it to that start line and then the the race as you know like yes you can build men you can like summon your mental strength to push that extra percent but the majority of it is on the on the start line how fit you are is how fit you are and you you you were in a kind of like a time window of maybe plus or minus a minute.

49:14Exactly. That's it. There's a limit to it as well. Like you might say all of mental strength and push through. There's only like your mental strength and push through might be for someone that might be 70 minutes to 71 minutes in a Hirox Pro. For us, it might be a 54 to 55. Like there's a couple of seconds. That's it. That's your limit. And then you might be a couple of months later, you might be in a 53 shape and you might be 53 to 54. like there's not this we can push through and be a world record holder like if that was the case then these crazy navy seals could go out and you know be a 10k world champion because they're just mentally that's not how it works you have to be extremely well trained and then execute but sorry just to touch on the mental side of things like for me personally um and you're absolutely right you don't know what people are going through and like that's the one thing that like i was initially gone a step away from high rocks in 2024 when i won london olympia my first my first pro might have been my second pro but i wanted to break 60 i was back in the day when sub 60 was the thing um and when i won the olympia that was it i wanted to walk away and i you know nobody even knew me i probably yeah i don't even heard of me really then and i was like that's that was my goal go sub 60 and win a pro event and then walk away and then i kind of shared the story because when my father was dying of brain cancer that's how I fell into fitness I used that as a means of escape and I battled through you know and high rock seemed just a sport that I use for that um even though I love the sport and everything around it but but anyway I had so many people that reached out and said oh your story is inspiring I'm going through something similar and that really made me think and I was like you know what my dad the big thing that for him he was helping people before he died when he was dying of like brain cancer he was helping people he was like i just found it incredible and i was like you know what there's more to life than just you know competing it means more so then i was like i'm gonna come back and i'm gonna be in the elite 15 and back then when i said that people were like what the head like you're miles off you're miles off what what what uh year was this 2024 2024 yeah before needs world chumps yeah yeah this was in march 2024 so i came back and then i ran another sub-60 in nice that was a tough race though um and i was second i think in my age group and that's the first time we like properly spoke yeah and that's the first time anyone really heard of me uh it was nice and then yeah and then i tried to come back from that and go again but um yeah it really it really hit me when i when i so many people reached out and i'm sure you're the same you're you know inspiration to hundreds of thousands of people on a much bigger scale than me but like just if you help one person then you're doing enough because like for me working in an office I'm not really influenced I'm not really helping anyone but I am doing this and I'm sharing my story so that meant a lot to me and I was like I'm gonna get into lead 15 the goal is to be world champion and I'm gonna work my absolute best and I believe I can do that but if I don't like I just want to know that I gave it everything and I'm happy if I don't become world champion but I know I did my best to do that and I haven't done that yet because there's things I need to work on, get a coach I think is the next step for me to progress and yeah if I leave it all out there and it doesn't happen and I walk away I'll be happy with that I definitely think going through them lows and coming back like you said is the most motivating part of anyone's journey because that's the real shit that's what people actually go through like how many people actually win in hyrocs is only one winner yeah exactly yeah everybody else is relating to the people that haven't won yeah yeah exactly yes the the winner is the the inspiring person that's uh yeah one day you want to be world champion yeah but um like it's just as inspiring fucking going through a hard time and then get back on that start yeah and like that's that's what sports like that's what that's why sport is so like incredible because like you can you can yes you can engage with an incredible group of people you can develop brands you can be you know uh the community around it but it's the power of sport that just like it transpires people it builds greatness in people it really does like i've seen sports just transform addicts into like there's directors and companies and like just putting them on the right track and it's incredible it doesn't have to be that you're going to be a professional athlete but it's just the influence it has on other parts of life like i know because i've been there when i i rushed my acl lcl and hamstring and the surgeon told me when i did that when i played football in 2018 that you basically never play sport at a high level again and time i was better off getting hit by a truck there were his words now this guy is top top top doctor and like he my my right knee he's bulletproof after his operation, like he's an unbelievable doctor.

54:15But when he said that to me, I was like, I'm done. Never playing football, never gonna do sport at a high level, went out drinking, doing acting, doing things that I wish I didn't do. Really bad. I got into a really bad place, like really dark place, a degenerate kind of place, you know what I mean? And I was like looking at myself like, wow, we're this low. Did you notice in the time? Or did you, was it like one moment where you were like, yeah yeah this is rock bottom yeah one moment i remember i i don't mean to be uh how did i don't know how this is going to come off but i remember having like man boobs like being so heavy like being kind of very heavy kitten i was like and i'm walking down the stairs being out of breath after drinking for you know two or three day bender and you know doing things and not being person i wanted to be and walking down the stairs and being like fuck man you're out of breath walking down the stairs this is embarrassing used to you know be play decent level of football so that for me was like we're at a you know we need to we need to get get on here so that's when i went into the boxing gym and then i fell in love with fitness and then i started running um and for me i wanted to break 14 to 10k back then and that's when i realized i had a bit of a talent maybe for running because within six months of literally no running training i think i broke 10k like 39 minutes or something in the 10k and then someone mentioned high rocks like oh you should do high rocks because you're always like 94 kilos or something or 92 kilos that's how it happened but yeah got to a very very very low place there you know yeah no that's uh yeah and the fact that now like how do you do you have to like pinch yourself now you was at that position at one point and now you've got so many people looking up to you you're a role model for you know like say thousands and thousands of people yeah do you ever like pinch yourself sometimes you've done a fucking great job yeah i appreciate it but sometimes i also like deep deep down i still see myself as that degenerate it's a hard it's a hard thing i don't know why and i think it's like humbling because i don't see myself put myself on a pedestal i'm still like i still remember those nights i remember some very dark moments and i'm just like you still put yourself there you made those decisions and every every decision has a consequence and that's still it's like a scar in your brain somewhere and then it's just like yeah i'm happy that we we overcame and we came back from that but like i still yeah so say if you made that decision in the first place there's something there that brought you to that place but more mature now is i also put it down to immaturity i was young you know but yeah i do it's it's to be like okay we were 105 kilos and we had man boobs at one stage walking down the stairs to now being uh whatever top five and some of the you know in the world and some e-races so yeah yeah um i'm just very grateful for the opportunity as well you know what's uh what's the off see are you having an off season what's looking forward for sean what's the plan so i would have loved to I wanted to break 70 minutes for a half marathon.

57:27That's my, and then I want to run a marathon, but I think a marathon takes too much out of the legs for high rocks. If I'm being honest, it takes, I haven't run one. Uh, so I'd love to run a marathon. Actually, I've never run a marathon. So, um, but I think that that's going to have to be on the back burner now. But so I'm going to rehab the hip. I'm going to get a, um, I get back to normal. So yeah, I want to run. I don't want to be in good shape for the start of the season. any money for that cruise or whatever i just want to run that whatever don't care come eight or 11th or whatever i don't care i want to be in good shape for uh london the london elite race so that's my goal but before that i'm gonna break 70 because i put that out there last summer i got it was a hot day no excuse i ran 112 09 um in yeah half marathon in ireland so i want to break 70 before that's that's the goal yeah i love that yeah and um obviously you've got a little bit of an injury so you've been nursing that yeah um have you got a timeline for that injury no uh i did get an mri so i know i know what the injury is um i think it could be you're talking 12 to 16 weeks it's a bad injury now i might need to get another mri to see the damage that was done on thursday just to make sure that it isn't completely torn because i was told if it is torn it's an operation to fix so i need to make sure that it isn't torn uh if it isn't then you're talking 12 weeks so probably by august i'll be back to proper training um so i'm gonna take some time time out um enjoy it enjoy it yeah exactly i think there's more to life as well we need to a happy you know happy life you'll i think you perform better as well yeah yeah are you are you happy in your life uh yes i i i came from a very like probably misunderstood in like last couple of years very annoyed reason being if i'm being honest i don't get too deep but i i'm annoyed that um my father was taken from me and i was never able to my father was very tough on me growing up but he was taken from me i'm very annoyed i never had a father really to grow up with because he was taken from me as i was growing up as a man and how old did you when he died i was 20 i was 27 but he was sick for a long time before that yeah so i lost him before yeah you know what i mean he was he died because he was sick like they told him he had three months to live and he survived for like over two years that's incredible if i told you yeah yeah it was it was amazing so um but i was very i was very annoyed for a long time and i'm still dealing with it now and it's impacted relationships it's impacted how i interact with people and i used to be very very like quiet in myself and sometimes i get aggressive or get annoyed and it's probably down to the fact that i feel like he was taken from me you know and i never got to live through a lot of my things that i looked at i see i idolized my father you know i like really did absolutely idolize everything he did and um i'm annoyed now because he would have loved to see on the world stage to compete and like it tears me apart that he's not here to see this and because he loves sport and he's the reason like why probably i'm half decent at running is because he used to bring me out when i was 10 years old and i'll never forget this like we did a run before me and my friend and my father and my father very slow runner like he wasn't quick but he could run all day kind of you know and i remember he was like it was a 10k loop so i knew the route that we would run and we were like running backwards and being like come on you're coming kind of like come on what's going on because he was a slow runner and we were getting to like the stage where we're 12 where we're out running him and he was like let's go this way and it was a different route and i was like what where are we going and he brought us on a half marathon just on a random wednesday and he was and we were like fuck and he he was like dragging us along and he said uh shut the fuck up if you ever do that again there's always something better than you that's what he said that always stays in my mind then when i compete i'm like you're absolutely right because even if you think about it from a point of view like these ultra events i couldn't do that some of these guys are running like three days like that's incredible mental resilience there's different types of uh mental resilience you know what i mean so when he said that that always resonated with me there's always something that's what keeps you humble absolutely i've been humbled a lot in my life sport humbles you you know yourself it's humbling like and that's why i think competition is great for that because it's you can go into a gym and like i remember in the boxing gym it's the same thing you think you're great you think you're a big man and you get in you get the head box off oh i'm humble pretty quick here you know what i mean yeah same thing in sport you go out and you you might be in great shape and then you go in and get your ass handed you you're like wow i was humbling but i i enjoyed it you know yeah no that's uh that's that's um that's some story and like you say i think uh it's important for you to know that like he is always with you and he you know yeah like you said he is proud of what you've done because that's yeah you've done some crazy stuff yeah i think like his personality is rubbing off on me more and more you know um i'm very i'm trying not to be rash like i have lots of stories growing up where i did very like you could tell me we're gonna go do something today on a random friday and i'm like right let's go you know like i'm being on holidays and i'll give you a good story here it was a holidays in turkey and as an example and i wasn't drinking decided to try and back then and uh i got fairly drunk like i got really really drunk and i was convinced that somebody spiked my my drink my like i was like someone's after spiking my drink here because i'm i'm puking my ring when i got back to the hotel so i had to blame someone i was like was at this random bar in turkey and i was like no they definitely spiked my drink um this is only this is only a few years ago it was funny and uh got back to the hotel and i was like went down to the reception and i was like i'm at the end my drink spiked you know i need to go to the hospital and uh they were like well you know if you go to the hospital like you have to pay money and i was like i had no money at the state i had to put the piss in but i was like i have loads of money because you're drunk you know what i mean and they brought me to the hospital that was actually the same hospital that my father was in because he was dying of brain cancer we were on holidays and he had a he had seizures there you know so i got brought to the same hospital and i was like was in there and they were testing me for every drug they called the police in and they were like getting a statement and i was like describing the bartender i was like this is the guy that's after spiking me i didn't get spiked at all they tested were like there's copious amounts of alcohol in your system but there's no drug nobody spiked you i was like okay and then an english translator came in and and then I knew I was fucked I was like oh I'm in trouble here and she was like hi my name is so and so and we gotta just you know gotta sell the bill here and they were like you're talking thousands and I'm like oh my god I'm getting you know what's going on here so I was like can you go back into your manager and renegotiate this you know we need to negotiate the price here she's like you told her you had loads of money I was like yeah well that was you know I don't so can you go back in and renegotiate and as she's going back in i call over one of the student nurses and because i was hooked up to like ivs and all i was like and i also had an injury at this stage as well sorry i actually had an injury so i couldn't even i couldn't even move properly you know yeah so i was like uh can you take this iv out of my arm please so he's like what i was like just take all this stuff out you know what i mean he's like okay okay he took it all out and security was watching me and i like walked up walked up and i just sprinted out the door they come after me and i'm dragging my i'm dragging my ankle i'm like hopping over fences and all and it was like a like a movie chase and like i get into a taxi i have no shoes i have no shoes on i i had no top i'm burnt to a crisp and you spot me from a mile away you know what i mean so i'm like take me back to this hotel right i'm sitting there at the hotel i'm like i'm on the down here i'm after like escaping these you know like also the security guy was like what the fuck how is this guy like i was dragging my i was like pretty like this guy can run a bit you know so that was the one time the running came into play you know so i got back in i was lying in the hotel and i was like hung over like you're talking this is the worst hangover i've ever had in my life it's like i'm contemplating life at this stage i'm sitting there i get all i hear is phone ring sean your father was in the same hospital we know where you are

1:06:05so we were like the we're coming to the the hotel now to you know to talk basically i was like oh you should have known that your father was there you know i'm not putting two and two together you know i think i'm getting away so my mother then is in the other room and she's crying and i'm like what's what's wrong we you know we're crying it's like sean what's going to happen here they're saying that you're not going to be able they're going to take her passport she's not going to be able to travel home unless you settle the bill it's like who's gonna take my passport don't mind them they're talking nonsense there's no not a chance there's a they're scam artists don't worry about it man he's like oh please sean please and the only thing was my mother because she was so upset i was like okay so they came to the they came to the i told them initially to feck off basically i'm not giving them anything and they're like you you're gonna you're not gonna get home it's like do you think immigration is gonna listen to your little scam when i get there no good luck so then my mother was like really obsessed really worried that i wasn't going to get home on the plane so then i called the doctor because they had a doctor this is this is how much of a scam it was they had a doctor on the inside close to the hotel that would get the money so i was like they wanted like thousands it was like a lot of money so i said to the doctor i said tell them i have 350 euro take it or leave it nothing else okay they'll take that i gave him 350 euro that was it so the show that was such a scam you know but that's just an example of it you know spur of the moment stupid thing not thinking you know what i mean stuff i've been in a lot of situations like that you know what i mean a lot of stories that go on but i'm trying to be more mature now more relaxed stuff like that doesn't happen anymore you know but back in the day that's what my mom says it was very like rash and yeah loose no it would be compulsed like how to say this um yeah just kind of on the spur of the moment kind of thing like just not thinking the consequences true a bit loose yeah not loose in the sense of like all over the place i've always controlled i would never be like uh getting into like fights around like that that for me would like don't respect that at all but like just doing things that are probably a bit rash and not thinking the consequences true you know so yeah a lot of stories like that i could go through on on another podcast maybe yeah yeah yeah but uh yeah i want to finish with uh a couple uh of like quick fire questions uh first one uh if you could only run or lift for the rest of your life run run oh i love running the dope yeah yeah yeah class um favorite pre-workout meal

1:08:46oh god that's a hard question i would say bran flakes bran flakes yeah two three hours brown flakes with a bit of honey throw that in yeah well it does i wasn't expecting that yeah run flakes i did i did actually see uh i think you did like a day of eating yeah on instagram yeah i think that actually went viral that uh day of eating it was uh yeah yeah i i i might have miscalculated my calorie intake because just talking through just to put it out there like uh i'll have to get it up but uh you must have had around two thousand milligrams of caffeine that day that's that's true yeah yeah like it started off at eight eight coffees in the morning then the first session then like yeah no genuinely i wake up and i have three coffees but like we're not talking you're a normal coffee like milling coffee in and i put honey in all my coffees um so i had three coffees and then i have a red bull um as i'm going to training i actually usually don't really eat in the morning i don't really like eating and then doing a hard session so um and then i would do a training session and then i would have another coffee after training so that's five um when i work when i used to work i would do the exact same thing trying have another coffee but because i used to do this thing where like probably yeah law didn't suit me because i was very like i have to get up on my feet so i would do a thing where like i'd review a contractor as a trainee solicitor and i would be like okay we review this and our reward is a coffee so every like 20 minutes would be off getting a coffee they were like well i remember being in an office with a partner sorry senior associate at the time and he goes i reckon you have like adhd i was like you're yes yes because i'm like all the time like i'm coffee do this coffee yeah that's on our feet so probably sitting down for hours on end didn't really suit me so i'm definitely in the right i think right job now at the moment you know yeah no that's uh yeah because you can obviously use it for uh training but um oh sorry the calories yeah yeah i i remember so there was a period of time where i was when i went full-time training i was like we need to eat loads because we're training so much i was eating 6 000 calories a day but i actually put on weight i was like went back and checked i was like probably i was burnt i was burning about 5 000 to 5 500 but i was eating six six and a half so i was eating a little too much yeah so we corrected that yeah um have you got any bad habits oh yeah i used to have a lot of bad habits yeah but um bad habits i would say yeah i would like to be a little bit cleaner cleaner yeah yeah yeah like i'm the same to be fair especially i think it's i think it's down to the kind of like overtraining not overtraining but just training so much like you get lazy with other things yeah exactly and like i think that transfers into life but like i for my partner and we need to be you know mindful that there's more to life than just training and being like right that's it you do everything else you need to be you know yeah because i was like that as well i'd train and be like i can't do anything i'm dying i'm i'm too tired you know you do the washing you do everything else and that's selfish so i don't have to help you know yeah being a little bit more selfless outside and thinking about it um and then uh final one what do you see yourself doing after high rocks i'm gonna go back to work as a solicitor yeah i i do enjoy yeah i'm gonna go back and work uh probably um i signed with puma i think I'm giving myself that two years and then I'll probably go back yeah I'll still be involved in sport and I'll do high rocks maybe not to the elite 15 extent but we'll see we'll see what happens but yeah definitely go back incredible thank you Sean for today thanks for having me on