Beyond The Finish Line

You gain self-confidence by having a mountain of proof that you are who you say you are.

Coach Zoe and Holly Mills join Matt and Georgia from day eight of a month-long Ironman camp. Zoe plays it safe and finished her first Ironman with too much left in the tank. Holly, a former Team GB heptathlete, ran 3:01 in her first marathon and wants to go straight to the pain cave. Matt breaks down how he coaches both, plus listener Q&A on Kona, period discs, chafe and pre-race breakfasts.

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Finishing a marathon off two training runs doesn’t make you tough. It means you missed the whole point.

Matt and Georgia take on the rise of untrained race entries and explain why the months of work are the reward, not the medal. They cover the ballot-entry trap and why time trials aren’t about PBs. Then listener Q&A on calorie deficits, returning from ACL surgery, and whether you’re ever too slow for a coach.

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You could do everything perfect and DNF ten minutes in.

Matt and Georgia get into the mindset side of endurance: why discipline doesn’t guarantee a good race, how to adapt your goal on the day, and what to do after a race falls apart. There’s also a Port Macquarie recap, Georgia’s postpartum comeback, and listener questions on trail running, getting back to a sub-2 half, and holding marathon fitness.

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You are a human, zone two training works for you.

Last week was the five zones. This week is how to train them. Coach Matt covers every zone from recovery to VO2: the exact sessions, durations and weekly placement TPP athletes use, and why you build zone two through duration, not pace. Georgia shares her first run back postpartum, and listener questions cover Garmin heart rate settings, cardiac drift and runner’s gut.

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You can't hold true VO2 max for more than 25 minutes across a whole session, so no, you didn't run your half marathon in zone 5.

Matt breaks down all five heart rate zones: what each one is for, how long you can hold it, and what it does to your body. That covers mitochondria, stroke volume and lactate clearance in zone 2, why zone 3 is the gray zone, and why zone 4 gives you the most bang for your buck. Then there's the real cost of a zone 5 session.

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Listener Q&A covers fueling a five-hour marathon, whether anyone can really hold zone five for an hour, finishing a marathon off a 24K long run, and how to stop chasing pace on your watch. Georgia, 10 weeks postpartum, asks Matt what her first two weeks back should look like. The answer isn't running.

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What Running Gear Is Actually Worth the Money?

Running is supposed to be simple and cheap. Somehow it's turned into $6 gels, $350 race entries and $600 watches. Matt and Georgia go through it item by item: what to spend on, and what to skip.


🎧 Listener Q&A:
– Is sub-4 realistic off a 4:33 marathon and a 25:12 5K
– Splitting a 25K long run in two when you've got a young family
– Two 30-minute gym sessions a week: what to prioritise


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Matt strips endurance sport down to two questions: are you fast enough, and are you durable enough? He lays out the exact markers for each, why speed takes far longer to build than durability, and how to reverse-engineer a full year of training from one goal time. Then the announcement 18 months in the making: TPP's new coaching platform, built for the runners who've been asking for it. First 20 beta testers get it free.

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Endurance sport is a cruel mistress — you can do everything perfectly and still get nothing back. The athletes who make it are the ones who show up anyway.

Episode 81: how to actually debrief a race — good or bad. Sit with the emotion for a week, write it down as it fades, then compare the memory against the data. What the peaks and troughs tell you, when to dig into elevation, and how the little stuff quietly stacks. Plus what to do when the wall hits at 30k, when your gut betrays you, and when a perfect block still didn't deliver. Big announcement coming next week.

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40,000 runners is the edge — Sydney Marathon is flirting with breaking its own event, and we need to talk about it.

Episode 80: the Sydney Marathon 2026 recap. 70+ at the shakeout run, 36 TPP athletes with 33 PBs (27 of them by 15+ minutes), and an honest coach's take on the bottlenecks, wave timings, and slower runners baking in the heat. Plus Georgia's first big event with Millie, business updates, and listener Q&A on gels, stress fractures, race-day underperformance, and knowing when a good workout means you should push your goal.

📢 Next week is a full Sydney Marathon Q&A — DM us your questions.

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