All Things Performance #15
3 concepts = thoughts I've had, things that I've seen, and ideas / hopes - all in the health & performance space. Once a week.
thinking out loud
some of my thoughts this week
With the rise (and continued rise) in popularity of ‘fitness’ — specifically Running & Hyrox, you’ll also see many photos like the ones below:
image above from Red Bull.
image above from Rox Lyfe.
What do you notice? Well — the top image is quite obviously the male race, and the bottom image is the female race.
But now, look at what they are wearing (and also not wearing). Look at the branding differences between the male and female competitors. Female sports bras have 4+ logos, where as there’s no “space” for male competitors for brands to showcase their logos.
What you do see in men’s racing is temporary tattoos on male competitors to show their affiliates.
image above from Adidas.
Why do I bring this up? Well — expect to see a few things from brands & companies innovating moving forward.
For females — I’d expect (and hope) to see more innovation into sports bras. Not that there hasn’t been any, but now that they are shown & seen more.
For both females & males — watch for a surge in innovation & new products in shorts, shoes & accessories. Things that will always be worn, no matter the competition.
Brands will want to be seen on the biggest stages (both races & on social media), and if there are no tops to be worn, they need other product to be worn.
But also, there will be some brands who will try create & innovate new tops, and give athletes a reason to wear them in situations where they aren’t! (always different ways to think about solutions…)
through the lens
things that I’ve seen this week
I love seeing different AMAZING sporting feats, and here are a 2 completely different activities I have seen recently.
I don’t think rock climbers get enough credit for how strong they are. The body control & orientation is insanely impressive.
These hurdle jumps from a national level high jumper are incredible. Jumping and plyometrics, in particular reactive strength is a quality that really can separate elites from everyday, and are usually much more nuanced & focused to train & gain adaptations.
the drawing board
ideas, brainstorming, etc
I have a marathon this weekend, and this week I was reviewing some of my training data in the lead up. It was never an A-race (a key race) for me this year, but was one as part of a trip & to get another marathon under the belt.
Below is a 7-day rolling sum of distance (km) leading into the race this weekend. The x-axis shows days relative to race day. I have compared the last build for Dublin Marathon 2025, vs this one for Paris Marathon 2026. You can already see quite the difference in the middle third, with respect to running volume. My peak 7-day distance for Dublin was 105km, and my peak for this build was only 74km.
One of the reasons I use a rolling 7-day sum of running distance, instead of the traditional Monday-Sunday, is just simply because it’s better! (I really wish strava would allow for this option). I know a lot of people who love the mindset shift of starting a new week on 0km, but our bodies don’t work like that. The recent days of running still effect and influence the start of the week.
One of the main challenges with marathon training is committing to a program, but also shifting things around life, work, travel (assuming you are not a pro athlete). Sometimes long runs need to happen in the morning before work on Thursday or Friday instead of Sunday. Sometimes you take an extra rest day, or move sessions around within a week. A traditional Mon-Sun view fails to account for these changes, which can and do have big effects in terms of fatigue. If you are training for a marathon this year, I would highly recommend setting up a very simple chart & calculator like this in excel or Google sheets.
You’ll also notice the very low volume for the last 2 weeks for me this time — unintentional, with travel and illness. Let’s see what happens this weekend!