Sarah Davies is a British International Weightlifter who gained her first international honours just a few years after starting the sport. In 2015 she became Britain’s first ever European U23 Champion and then claimed a silver at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in the Gold Coast. Last year she set a British record for the snatch in her weight class and is in on course to represent GB at next year’s Tokyo Olympic Games.

Very recently Sarah became Chair of the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) Athletes Commission and she has been very vocal for a need for change in the upper tiers of the sport which has been the subject of much media attention after German ARD documentary ‘Lord of the Lifters.’

In this episode we discuss:

• Sarah’s journey from finding weightlifting in 2011 to gaining her first international honours
• The moments that have given her the most happiness
• Narrowly missing out on Commonwealth Gold in 2018
• Key sessions that have helped her compete at her best 
• Sarah’s routine before each lift 
• Her disappointments on this sporting journey and lessons learnt along the way
• Competing in beauty pageants in the UK and Philippines
• Becoming Chairperson of the new IWF Athletes Commission and some of the positives and challenges she has had to tackle so far in this role
• Some of the key life lessons that weightlifting has taught her
• How she will unlock her athletic potential and contend for a medal at the Tokyo Olympics next summer

In this episode we talk about a petition which Sarah set up to bring reform to the IWF Board. We’d love for our listeners to support by signing the petition via this link:

https://www.change.org/p/weightlifting-athletes-bring-reform-to-the-iwf-executive-board?utm_content=cl_sharecopy_25264305_en-GB%3A6&recruited_by_id=087372e0-0e6d-11eb-a70d-f169b73f9aaf&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_initial&utm_term=psf_combo_share_initial

Unlocking Athletic Potential proudly partners with Red Dot Running Company, who specialise in sports nutrition and running kit and are based in Singapore. You can find them at rdrc.sg

Big’s Backyard Ultra is a global event with a unique format which took place across 21 different countries simultaneously. It started this weekend and finished just a few days ago. Athletes complete a 6.7km course on the hour, every hour. If a runner can’t make it back before the end of an hour, they’re given a DNF. If they do make it back in time, they can use however many minutes remain in the hour to rest, eat or do anything else they need to do. This continues until only one athlete remains!

6.7km seems like quite a strange distance but if you were to complete 24 loops over 24 hours, you would have completed 100 miles and this is considered  a the benchmark goal for anyone taking part.

One person who did hit this mark was Singapore-based athlete Natalie Dau. Natalie is no stranger to competition and seems to excel in every and any challenge she sets her mind to whether it is sprinting, cross-fit, Elite Spartan or in this instance, ultra endurance.

In this episode we speak to Natalie about:

• How she got involved in the Singapore Backyard Ultra
• Her training to prepare for the event (even though she only knew she was taking part four weeks before)
• Her crew, kit and nutrition for the race 
• Her race plan and recount of the event
• What she would change if she did the race again
• How mindset and having a ‘Why’ is crucial to push the boundaries 

Unlocking Athletic Potential proudly partners with Red Dot Running Company, who specialise in sports nutrition and running kit and are based in Singapore. You can find them at rdrc.sg

fatburdevents.com create niche events for the outdoor community in Singapore and were the organisers for this year's Backyard Ultra in Singapore.

For the fourth part of our 5km mini-series, we welcome Coach Mark Williams to UAP. Mark originates from the UK, but has been living in Asia since 1998 and is currently based in Malaysia since 2008. He has been running competitively for close to 20 years and has won over 170 races in his career in distances ranging from 5 to 50k. He has ran 47 marathons to date, with 30 of them under 2:40.

Mark is a qualified athletics coach, fitness instructor, and secondary school teacher of Physical Education. He has coached running for over 10 years and has held the esteemed position of Head Coach of the Standard Chartered Kuala Lumpur Marathon since 2010 years. He has provided running plans for amateur and elite runners for over a decade.

In this episode we cover:

• What makes a great coach 
• Introducing the principles of structured training to Malaysia’s aspiring runners 
• How his coaching has evolved over the years
• What ‘Coach Mark’ would have told a younger ‘Athlete Mark’
• The influence of coaches like Chris Wardlaw on his own coaching style
• Key tips to CRUSH your 5km personal best

Unlocking Athletic Potential proudly partners with Red Dot Running Company, who specialise in sports nutrition and running kit and are based in Singapore. You can find them at rdrc.sg

We welcome two-time Olympian and Parkrun World Record Holder, Andy Baddeley to UAP. 

Andy, who is a middle distance specialist has had some impressive victories in the mile, clocking 3:49 in Oslo in 2008 to win the prestigious Dream Mile and then a year later, beating a stacked field to win the prestigious Fifth Avenue Mile.  Andy’s Parkrun World Record, where he ran 13:48 for 5km at Bushy Park,  is something that has gained attention across the globe but what makes it remarkable is that he only decided to go for this challenge after he was knocked out of the London 2012 Olympic Games just a few days earlier.

Andy is the founder and CEO of therunningchannel.com whose mission is to bring great content to those who love to run, no matter their ability or experience.

In this episode we talk about:

• His victories in the Dream Mile and Fifth Avenue Mile
• How pacing is key to fulfilling potential 
• His training group and the role of team dynamics in a very individual sport
• Failing to qualify for the London 2012 Olympic Final
• Setting the Parkrun World Record
• The rise of ‘The Running Channel’

The episode also contains a special guest appearance from Michael Skinner who was part of Andy’s training group and is the agent for many world class athletes including Mo Farah, Usain Bolt and Dina Asher-Smith.

Unlocking Athletic Potential proudly partners with Red Dot Running Company, who specialise in sports nutrition and running kit and are based in Singapore. You can find them at rdrc.sg

British International, Tim Bayley, started life a sprinter, running some pretty impressive times over 200m and 400m, routinely clocking 46 second relay splits in the latter before moving up to the middle distance and winning the British 800m title, where he has a personal best of 1:46.6 and 1500m where he represented Great Britain at the Doha 2010 World Indoor Championships.

But Tim continued to show further range, smashing the 4-minute mile and then clocking a sub 14-minute 5km in his one and only showing over this distance on the track. 

It was the power of positive self talk and psychological techniques that helped Tim unlock his athletic potential and inspired him to study for his doctorate in Sports Psychology.

In this Episode we cover:

• How Tim discovered his talent for running in a school endurance test
• Finding form in the 400m
• Stepping up the 800m after accepting a challenge by GB legend Steve Cram
• A recount of his 5km race where he dipped under 14 minutes
• The use of positive affirmations to curve pre-race nerves and help him break the 4-minute barrier in the mile 
• The pitfalls of being outcome orientated

Unlocking Athletic Potential proudly partners with Red Dot Running Company, who specialise in sports nutrition and running kit and are based in Singapore. You can find them at rdrc.sg

We flag off our 5km Performance Series with current England and Great Britain international, Nick Goolab, who specialises in distances from 3km, where he has run a PB of 7:42.22 up to 10km where he has clocked 28 minutes 22 seconds. He has won national titles on the road and has represented GB in both cross country and on the track. Arguably his greatest moment to date came earlier this year in Monaco, where he broke Mo Farah and Rob Demark’s shared British road record in the 5km, clocking an incredible 13:27. However this mark was recently beaten by Marc Scott… could this be a motivator to see him produce his best performance yet? 

In this episode we cover:

• A recount on breaking the British Record in Monaco, where he ran a road personal best of 13:27
• The training and key moments leading up to the race 
• The aftermath of breaking the record
• How things progressed after the race and during the pandemic
• Recently losing his record to Marc Scott 
• His goals moving forward 
• Thoughts on the carbon shoe revolution
• The perfect formula to try to unlock your potential in the 5km

Unlocking Athletic Potential proudly partners with Red Dot Running Company, who specialise in sports nutrition and running kit and are based in Singapore. You can find them at rdrc.sg

Ian and Johnny are joined by OCR and Fitness Coach, Raj Ahmed, who is from the UK but now based in Malaysia, to look back on Episodes 11-19 to discuss their best takeaways on how they can improve their own performances and unlock their athletic potential.

Raj coaches at The Obstacle Lab, in Kuala Lumpur, one of South East Asia's premier OCR training facilities. 

As mentioned in our introduction, George Crewe has recently launched the InnerFight OCR Academy which can be found at:
https://ifocracademy.thinkific.com
Use code UAPOCR10 for a 10% Discount

We welcome back to the podcast Spartan Pro Team members Lou Guenier and Chris Davis to talk training.

Chris was a guest on Episode 2: What Makes a Great Coach and we delve deeper into his reflections from that episode and how he has now enlisted the expertise of UAP co-host Johnny Tieu to help hone his training.

Lou Guenier was a guest on Episode 6: Battle of the Fitness Trackers and we discuss his recent move from Bali back to his hometown of Paris in France and the adjustments he has had to make to get his training routine back in order.

We also cover our current training and goals for the 2020 season and best takes from the podcast so far. Chris also advises co-host Ian, how to embrace a new addition to your family as Ian has recently welcomed a puppy to the Deeth household.

Jack Bauer is an Elite Spartan Racer and member of the Spartan Pro Team from the United States who has developed a specialism for the Stadion series, where he finished 4th place in 2019.

He has also had great performances in the hybrid endurance arena of Hyrox where he has had podiums in his age group and had top 10 finishes in the elite category.

Whilst a he is a high performing athlete in his own right, Jack is more widely known in OCR circles as the statistic guru and even though the spotlight of the sport often shines on the North-American scene, he has complied statistics from ALL spartan races worldwide.

This Episode is a MUST for Spartan Racers who have competed in Asia.

We discuss:

• Jack’s athletic background and how he found OCR
• How hooking up with Yancy Culp from Yancycamp.com helped him unlock his athletic potential 
• How the US scene compares to Asia 
• Statistics about the best male and female athletes in the Asia region

Jack’s unique Spartan rankings system as well as his training programmes with Yancy Culp can be found at Yancycamp.com

In 2019, Malaysian Colleen Augustin created history by winning gold medal at the International Mixed Martial Arts Federation (IMMAF) Asian Championships. Five months later, she stepped up to the IMMAF World Championships in Bahrain where she claimed bronze.

But choosing MMA was a far from straight forward choice for Colleen who was also excelling in OCR where she was regularly hitting podiums.

In Spartan Race she took 3rd in the 2017 APAC Series and then won the 2018 South East Asia Series the following year. She also competed for Team Malaysia at the 2017 and 2018 Spartan World Championships. 

In this episode we discuss:

• how a long term perspective helped her choose MMA over OCR
• her coaching set up and influence of both her mentors and family
• competing as a vegan athlete 
• spending time away from home to train with the best in OCR (Matt Murphy) and MMA

...and so much more including her advice to help you unlock your true athletic potential!