Ryan Morley is a cycling coach, bike fitter, data analyst,and former RAF serviceman. Ryan began his racing career in time trials at the age of 15 and entered the world of road and criterium racing shortly after. As a junior, Ryan raced extensively, competing for the Welsh national team. Having worked within the cycling industry for several years,he then pursued a career in the Royal Air Force. Which was then ended when he was diagnosed with an underlying heart condition that prevented him from e...
Jun 20, 2025•1 hr 1 min•Season 5Ep. 2
This is the first episode of a mini series on the Focused Mind Podcast that talks to high performers across the music business who talk about their life, mindset, and skills they've developed to have long careers. We look at what individuals have done to look after themselves and what they'd consider helpful for working in the industry in the current day. In the series, we’ve got interviews with people in roles, including DJs, performers and producers, Distributors, Marketers, Engineers, Booking...
Apr 08, 2025•48 min•Season 5Ep. 1
Mario Fraioli is the host of The Morning Shakeout podcast and the author of the weekly newsletter of the same name. As well as these well-known endeavours, he spends the majority of his work as a full-time endurance running coach . In this episode, timed to drop a month prior to a number of major marathon races Worldwide, FMC podcast host Stu Holliday wanted to discuss with Mario about how athletes can set and shift their mindset at key stages of the marathon training cycle and in readiness to r...
Mar 20, 2025•1 hr 1 min•Season 3Ep. 29
In this mini episode, Sport and Performance Psychologist Stu Holliday answers the question: Why should everyone know about the Valencia marathon? And the second question... and why should they care?! Whether you are a runner or not, this event is unique in the World of endurance sport and in the imaginations of the organisers. They put themselves in a different place to nearly all other marathon planners in so far of their aims to make the race 'The Everest of Marathons' for all runners. But wha...
Dec 05, 2024•34 min•Season 3Ep. 28
Nick Steel is both a rowing and executive coach in sport and business respectively. Having had a career in the energy sector all over the World, he dug into his love of rowing to set himself up on his return to the UK providing rowing training to all levels of ability. Last year he was selected as the rowing coach for Team UK at the Invictus Games in Dusseldorf (and again for Invictus 2025 in Canada). At the 2023 games we roomed together and shared many hours talking coaching, psychology, sport....
Nov 18, 2024•49 min•Season 3Ep. 27
Stu Holliday, Noel Brick, & Dan Robinson ‘The Psychology of Running’ podcast. This episode supports your understanding and use of the Psychology of Running book! Show Notes Intros and how this episode supports the book with added context Context of the RESIST project on endurance running and our respective roles and work within it. Recollections of RESIST and its impact within Sport Psychology Research Where listeners can find RESIST videos (see below) from the original project to support th...
Oct 30, 2023•49 min•Season 3Ep. 5
Following on from previous guest Chris Madden ( Episode 20 ), we wanted to bring the head of MITC ( https://musicindustrytherapists.com/ ), Tamsin Embleton on to have a more in-depth discussion on the work we do in the music industry supporting artists, staff, and crew in person, virtually, at festivals, and how needed the work of caring professionals is a necessity in this modern day and age. Tamsin gives us her background working for the likes of Anna Calvi and Standon Calling, and a bit about...
Oct 02, 2023•1 hr 11 min•Season 3Ep. 4
Sean Warburton (@seanaldo26.2) is a Manchester-based runner and podcaster (The Local Runners), who has completed 38 marathons, and holds a PR of 2 hours, 38 minutes. In this 3rd episode of the mini-series on Autumn marathon, we turn the spotlight on how to cope if you get injured in the build-up to your main race of the year. How can you mentally cope better, to improve both your overall well-being, and how you come out of the injury into your next training block? What tips, techniques, and stra...
Sep 22, 2023•42 min•Season 3Ep. 3
Ross Braden is an elite British marathon runner who finished in 12th place in 2022's London Marathon (in a time of 2:14:32). A client of mine, Ross has broken client confidentiality to talk and reflect on the psych skill training we worked on together in preparation for that event, and in preparation for his upcoming 2023 Amsterdam debut appearance, he is an exceptional talent and we discuss how he works on his mental fitness in order to help him fulfill his potential on race day. This episode i...
Sep 18, 2023•39 min•Season 3Ep. 2
Matt Fitzgerald is a running coach, retreat owner, and to most psych-curious runners and triathletes, a prolific author on how to improve performance. A dedicated, evidence-based, (and non-academic) researcher of how to wring as much out of your discipline as possible, his pithy, and eloquent prose has helped runners at all levels improve, covering topics including training , diet , and mindset . As a professional Sport Psychologist , I’ve wanted to interview Matt for a long time, as he has the ...
Sep 04, 2023•53 min•Season 3Ep. 1
Sarah Broadhead is a Chartered Occupational Psychologist based in Sheffield, UK. With extensive experience in business and sport (including 3 Olympic Cycles as the Psychologist for GB TaeKwondo), she set up ‘Broadhead Performance’ 5 years ago. In November 2022 she published her first book, Perform and Thrive: A Sportsperson’s Guide to Mental Health and Wellbeing, aimed at athletes, coaches and psychologists at all levels. In our conversation we discuss her background, history, and we can all imp...
Jun 16, 2023•39 min•Season 3Ep. 2
Chris Madden is a Counselling Psychotherapist based in Leeds. He helps clients explore and navigate new insights and perspectives to bring about a better way of relating to themselves, others or situations they may find challenging. He works with clients from all walks of life and has significant specific experience of working therapeutically with clients from the music, live events and other creative industries. We recorded this conversation in the week that would have been DJ and Producer Andr...
Jun 10, 2023•53 min•Season 3Ep. 2
Simon Freeman is the Editor and writer for Like the Wind magazine. It is a long-form magazine, printed every quarter 'for runners, by runners' including notable figures from the sport including Dick Beardsley, to interviews with Lance Armstrong, and Courtney Dauwalter, amongst many others covering 'why we run' rather than how to run. Digging into people's motivations, experiences, and how running plays a part in their overall life. Since starting 10 years ago, it now is self-sufficient, with a s...
Feb 24, 2023•1 hr 3 min•Season 3Ep. 1
Something different for episode 18. Former guest, athlete, and coach, Steve Hobbs (The Milestone Pursuit) from episode 6 returns to reflect on his 10th London marathon, and his views on the elite finishers in the men's and women's race as well as the problems the marathon faces as a spectator sport. We delve into what it takes to finish well in a marathon, from a psychological perspective and contrast his experience with a first-time runner, Claire Heron, who also competed in the same race. Whil...
Oct 11, 2022•42 min•Season 2Ep. 18
David Tilbury-Davis has helped triathletes achieve more than 3 World titles, 12 National titles, 4 Ironman Regional Championship titles, numerous wins, Ironman & 70.3 Worlds qualifications, Course Records & many many Personal Bests. David has worked with Olympic, Commonwealth Games, Professional, and Age Group athletes alike. He has also coached professionals in Triathlon, Mountain Biking, and Cycling. We cover subjects as diverse as Arsene Wenger, MMA, Eddie Jones, Core values, Coach-at...
Sep 28, 2022•52 min•Season 1Ep. 17
Dr Duncan Simpson is a British Sport Psychologist and the head of Mental Conditioning and the Director of Personal Development at the IMG Academy in Florida, USA. What that means is he oversees the mental well-being and performance needs of all student-athletes at this huge sporting institution. Formerly at Barry University as both an Academic and practitioner, he is vastly experienced in supporting both student and professional athletes across many different sports. After I'd been the guest on ...
Sep 02, 2022•32 min•Season 2Ep. 16
Ian Morgan is a 52-year-old Ultra Marathoner, who came to the sport later in life, having been a Cross Country runner in his youth. He's made a name for himself in the Masters World of marathon and ultra running. A lot of this is down to his fitness improvements from being 103kg at 38; to a now a lean 75kg, giving up his former corporate life after life changing events in his native New Zealand (the Christchurch earthquake, and heart surgery), to becoming a fully paid (not much, but enough), spo...
Aug 22, 2022•39 min•Season 2Ep. 15
Grace Lynch is a high-level distance runner from Ireland. She competed in her debut Marathon in Berlin 2021, posting a time of 2:40:06, and has since raced the Berlin half marathon in April 2022 in 73.50. Originally from South Kerry, Grace has progressed her running career from her initial years in her local running club and now trains with a high-level group based in Dublin. As a Sport and Exercise scientist, her background has helped her in adopting good practices across her training. Her posi...
Jul 04, 2022•28 min
Dr. Justin Ross is a clinical psychologist specializing in health and wellness psychology , human performance, and sport psychology based in Denver, Colorado. A 2:57 marathoner, triathlete, and Human Performance expert. Dr. Ross is a clinical psychologist, 2:57 marathoner, triathlete, and cofounder of Mind-Body Health, an integrative health psychology and counseling center in Denver. He is a thought leader in applied clinical psychology, bringing Psychological principles aimed at human performan...
May 06, 2022•38 min•Season 2Ep. 13
Ben Rosario is the Hoka NAZ Elite Head Coach & Exec Director Ben Rosario has led the NAZ since he formed it in 2017. A Hoka-sponsored team of elite men and women who live and train at altitude in Flagstaff, Arizona. Since the team’s formation, over 10 of their athletes have had top 10 finishes in World major marathons (as well as a plethora of top-end results in cross country and other major race distance events); In Aliphine Tuliamuk, they had the 2020 Olympic Trials Champion and at Boston,...
Apr 19, 2022•53 min•Season 2Ep. 12
Chris Ward is a high-end Amateur Ultramarathon runner, originally from Nottingham, now resident in Manchester. In 2019 he was a client of mine and we spent most of the year preparing him for his target A race of the Spartathlon in Greece. A 253Km road and trail event that starts in Athens and finishes in the town of Sparta. Through a combination of very deliberate run training and extensive Sport Psychology mental conditioning, he finished in the top 150 in less than 35 hours - an incredible ach...
Apr 05, 2022•44 min•Season 2Ep. 11
Dr Noel Brick is a lecturer in Sport and Exercise Psychology at Ulster University. Along with Runner's World writer Scott Douglas, he is the author of the brilliant 'Genius of Athletes,' a book published this year that takes the psychological strategies and skills used by elite endurance athletes passed to you to learn and implement for success in any big endeavour. Originally from Kerry, his dulcet tones and advice are a welcome balm at the end of another bizarre year. Whether you're an elite a...
Dec 23, 2021•1 hr 1 min•Season 2Ep. 10
Sheryl Garrett is a writer. Over the past 30 years, she has been editor of The Face, the Observer magazine, and written for newspapers and magazines worldwide. Having started at the NME before moving to listings magazine City Limits, Sheryl wrote two books. Bliss to be alive, a collection of works by the late Gavin Hills, and one of the definitive books on the acid house scene, Adventures in Wonderland, in which she interviewed the movers and shakers of the movement about their experiences when ...
Jul 21, 2021•50 min•Season 2Ep. 9
Geoff Thomas is a former footballer, who won nine caps for England and captained Crystal Palace in the 1990 FA Cup Final against Manchester United. In June 2003, a year after retirement, Geoff was diagnosed with leukaemia, from which he recovered and only 2 years later raised over £150,000 for Leukaemia Research by cycling each of the 21 stages of the 2005 Tour de France a few days ahead of the race itself with a group of friends and riders. This is a feat he’s repeated a further 3 times, and th...
May 27, 2021•47 min•Season 2Ep. 8
Jon Egan is from South Carolina, and the Founder and Host of the “Studying Failure” Podcast, a show that focuses on normalizing the conversation about failure. His goal is to help people change the way they see their failures, setbacks, and adversity so that instead of seeing failure as something to be avoided, to see failure as a key to unlock their next success. In our chat we talk about his early life, work and pivotal moments that shaped him today where he juggles his time working, creating ...
May 27, 2021•41 min•Season 1Ep. 7
Steve Hobbs IS the Milestone Pursuit. That is the name of his business, podcast, and coaching method. Steve is a former MD of a media company, and skilled at working one to one with individuals and diverse groups of people to achieve personal and challenging milestones. Steve is adept at delving deep to help people set their goals (i.e. their milestones) and deliver step-by-step plans to achieve them (i.e. the pursuit). He has had success from beginner to elite levels in both sport and business....
Apr 06, 2021•49 min•Season 1Ep. 6
Colin Richards is a London-based Sex & Relationship therapist with over 15 years of professional practice. He helps people transform their relationships and sex lives covering anything from relationship conflict, sexual frustration, complacency, or helping people with a high or low libido and more. He has helped over 6000 people and takes a humanistic approach covering the biological, psychological, social, and anthropological influences behind human desire, curiosity, and fear through indiv...
Mar 05, 2021•57 min•Season 1Ep. 5
In the past 2 years, I've interviewed Pete twice along his journey and been impressed by both his drive and determination and his optimistically framed mindset in the face of slim odds. He has successfully pivoted his thinking, actions, and behaviours from the success of the business and sporting world to help others, raise awareness, and competing in events to help the charity. We spoke during another challenging time for Pete, during the Pandemic, when he has had to shield, about how the campa...
Feb 23, 2021•49 min•Season 1Ep. 4
Sara Symington is a former GB Olympic cyclist (2000 and 2004 games). After the Athens games she retired and worked as a policewoman and as a performance advisor for UK Sport. We met after the 2012 Olympic games when I worked as her psych for the GB Olympic Archery team where she had taken her first Performance Director role. In 2015 she left to work in the same position for England Netball. As PD she oversaw bronze medal success in the 2015 World Cup and in 2018, the team won Gold against the fa...
Apr 27, 2019•1 hr 1 min•Season 1Ep. 3
Peter Bromka is an Oregon based marathoner (with a PB 2:19:40) with the Bowerman Track elite group; an independent consultant, Dad and exponent of long-form writing (https://www.peterbromka.com/ and for Runners World). In the build-up to his second attempt at a US Olympic qualifying time at the 2019 Boston Marathon, I was keen to understand Peter's mindset and psychological strategies and what makes him tick. This episode covers his time from inside the labs & in races for Nike, his backgrou...
Feb 26, 2019•1 hr 24 min•Season 1Ep. 2
