Endurance, strength, and long-term health in all its forms. The Next Move features conversations with athletes, coaches, scientists, and thinkers exploring how to train, think, and live better.
By John Paton - @johngetstrong johngetstrong.substack.com (https://johngetstrong.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast)
“I Sacrificed Years of Performance by Not Eating Enough”—How Lydia O’Donnell Broke Every PB (#34)
Lydia O’Donnell is a New Zealand 10K national champion, a 20th-place finisher at the New York City Marathon and the founder of FEMMI, a running app built specifically for women.In this episode, Lydia shares how years of underfueling, overtraining and pressure to make her body smaller brought her running career close to breaking point. After losing her period and eventually landing in hospital, she began learning about female physiology, changing her relationship with food and adapting her training around what her body genuinely needed. The result was a remarkable late-20s breakthrough in which she improved her personal bests across every distance from 5K to the marathon.We explore the warning signs athletes commonly ignore, why weight loss isn’t the answer to better performance and how women can adjust training across the menstrual cycle. Lydia also explains how FEMMI personalises its running programs, why every female athlete should track her cycle, how she approaches hydration and heavy strength training, and where research into female physiology still needs to improve.Episode breakdown:00:00 — Meet Lydia O’Donnell00:27 — Are Most Training Plans Built for Men?01:37 — The Coach Who Taught Her Patience04:55 — When Did Her Progress Begin to Stall?06:44 — “They Didn’t Know How to Coach Women”08:30 — The Hospital Visit That Changed Everything10:26 — What Warning Signs Did She Ignore?14:48 — Is Your Body Asking You to Stop?16:42 — Does Losing Weight Really Make You Faster?19:14 — The Book That Saved Her Running Career20:12 — Why Lydia Started Coaching Herself23:02 — From Personal Struggle to Founding FEMI26:43 — How Does the FEMI App Work?28:32 — Should Training Change Across Your Cycle?32:55 — Can AI Create Truly Personalised Training?34:41 — The One Thing Every Female Athlete Should Track36:16 — Are Runners Too Obsessed With Data?37:31 — Why Lydia Once Avoided Drinking Water39:04 — Should Runners Lift Heavy?42:16 — Inside Lydia’s Strength Sessions45:19 — Why Is Female Physiology So Understudied?48:12 — Can Self-Knowledge Improve Performance?49:02 — Where Can Women Find Credible Information?51:37 — Giving Female Athletes a Bigger Platform This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit johngetstrong.substack.com (https://johngetstrong.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)
8 Sept 2026
“For the First Month, It Was Only the SkiErg”—How Carolyn Watkins Finished 4th in HYROX North America (#33)
Carolyn Watkins finished fourth at the HYROX North American Regional Championships—just 12 seconds from the podium—despite tearing her hip labrum and spending two months unable to run during the build-up.In this episode, Carolyn explains how SkiErg, rowing, and assault-bike sessions helped preserve her fitness through injury, and how she balances 14–15 hours of weekly training with the final year of her chemistry PhD. We break down her more polarized approach to training, including high-intensity running, compromised sessions, strength work, heart-rate-controlled aerobic training, and the recovery habits that allow her to perform consistently.Carolyn also shares where she believes she can find her next one or two minutes, why fueling during hard sessions changed her approach to racing, and how her background in ice hockey and marathon running shaped her into an elite HYROX athlete. We finish by exploring her interest in biotechnology, wearables, and the emerging potential of continuous lactate monitoring.Episode breakdown:00:00 — Fourth Place After an Injury-Plagued Build01:23 — The 12 Seconds She Can’t Forget02:10 — How Far Can Carolyn Go in HYROX?03:00 — Balancing Elite Training With a PhD05:02 — Why Hockey Was the Perfect Foundation08:41 — The Injury That Changed Everything11:25 — What Went Wrong in Las Vegas?12:23 — Can Cross-Training Replace Running?15:02 — The Brutal 5K SkiErg Test16:02 — Faster Ergs—or Simply More Efficient?17:27 — Why Austin Is a HYROX Hotspot19:16 — Inside a 15-Hour Training Week21:25 — What Makes Compromised Running So Hard?23:45 — Building Strength for the Sleds26:02 — How Easy Should Easy Training Feel?27:52 — The Recovery Lesson Carolyn Had to Learn29:11 — Should You Take Gels During HYROX?30:25 — Where Can She Find Two More Minutes?32:30 — How Do You Train a Major Weakness?33:38 — The Athletes Who Inspire Her Most34:37 — Can Everyone Handle Huge Training Volume?36:09 — Defending a PhD One Week Before Worlds37:30 — How to Balance Training With a Demanding Career39:24 — Does Elite Training Require Sacrifice?41:15 — Could Biosensors Transform Performance?43:36 — The Case for Continuous Lactate Monitoring44:43 — How Carolyn Studies the Science of Training45:49 — What Happens With a Perfect Training Block? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit johngetstrong.substack.com (https://johngetstrong.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)
4 Sept 2026
“I’ve Got a Treadmill in My Kitchen”—How a Father of Four Became a Sub-56 HYROX Athlete (Ronan Lindsay #32)
Ronan Lindsay is one of the fastest HYROX athletes yet to qualify for the Elite 15, with several sub-57-minute performances—including a 55:58 in London and a 56:19 in ViennaIn this episode, Ronan explains how he transformed his performance by increasing his training from eight or nine hours to 18–20 hours per week, building toward 100 kilometres of running and making aerobic development the foundation of his program. We break down his double-threshold days, strength sessions, long Zone 2 work, race-specific training and the pacing lessons that helped him cut almost seven minutes from his HYROX time.Ronan also shares how he fits elite-level training around a full-time job and four children—including why he keeps a treadmill and C2 BikeErg in his kitchen. We explore the family support behind his Elite 15 pursuit, why consistency experience and patience matter, and why consistency heavier sled training isn’t always the best way to become faster.Episode breakdown:00:00 — Meet Ronan Lindsay: Chasing the Elite 1500:26 — The Race That Nearly Made Him Quit02:44 — When Did Ronan Go All In?04:11 — Was He Simply Training Too Little?05:42 — Is Sub-55 Fitness Already There?06:54 — Why a Perfect HYROX Race Doesn’t Exist09:35 — Where Are HYROX Races Really Won?11:50 — How Hard Should You Push the Sleds?13:11 — From Gaelic Football to HYROX16:31 — Can Four Kids Make You a Better Athlete?18:41 — Why There’s a Treadmill in His Kitchen20:28 — The Team Behind an Elite 15 Pursuit24:16 — What Does “Recovery Isn’t Optional” Mean?25:28 — Inside an 18–20-Hour Training Week27:49 — How Do You Find Eight Extra Training Hours?29:53 — Why There’s No Fast Track to Sub-6031:35 — Are You Training the Sleds Too Heavy?33:59 — How Far Can Ronan Go in HYROX? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit johngetstrong.substack.com (https://johngetstrong.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)
Inside a recent episode
Athletes Showing ‘Overtraining’ Symptoms Often Perform Better—When to Push Through Fatigue (and When to Pull Back) (Dan Plews #31)
Published 23 Mar 2026 · Transcript excerpt
[…] So you train, you train to a specific point where you're wanting to achieve an overload. So you're purposely making yourself feel tired after training. And that's the point where you get to something called functional overreaching. So functional overreaching is, clue is in the title, it's a functional part of your training. You should be feeling tired, you should have days when you feel tired, you should have days when you're feeling the thugic. But the point is that when you take recovery, you should therefore recover. So there's that. The next part is non -functional overreaching. So this is, this is when you have fatigue a non -functional period where you don't actually want to be tired. […]
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