I found the books I used to write every single session in. Five of them, going back to the end of 2017, every workout in my own handwriting. Nine years ago. I've been training for about 15 years now and this is the first time I've sat down and actually read any of it back.

So that's the episode. I open them on camera and go through it, and I ask myself three questions on every session I land on. What was I chasing. What did it actually do. What would I write instead now.

Some of it is genuinely funny. A 12 Days of Christmas workout with Ben that took about three hours. A deadlift day with five separate components that ran two and a half hours. A 240 metre run, because the numbers before it added up to 24 and I was obsessed with things lining up.

Some of it is harder to look at. I was doing more than 20 hours a week, getting sick constantly, and adapting to almost none of it. There was so much noise my body had no idea what to respond to. I also get into why the sessions kept getting longer, because that part was never really about training.

Before the books I cover where my adductor is at, BUILD Season 4 going live, why a 12 week plan should finish on the Monday of race week, and why for the first time in ages I'm not putting pressure on myself to perform in Melbourne.

Heads up that I touch on disordered eating in this one.

No script. No edits. Just a real life Run Down.

What's covered

Where the adductor is at, and the squeeze test rule I use
BUILD Season 4 is live, and why my 12 week plan is actually 13 weeks out
Building the back end of the business and the new website
Melbourne, Hong Kong, and racing without pressure for once
There is such a thing as racing too much
Maturing as an athlete: sport is one part of your life, not all of it
Where the training started, and why
Following strangers around the gym and copying whatever they did
F45, two classes a day, then my own session on top
Book one: the Thursday Thrashers with Ben
The 12 Days of Christmas workout that took three hours
Twelve deadlifts at 150kg
The deadlift session with five components
Why I was doing thrusters on an upper body day
The 240 metre run and my obsession with numbers
So much noise my body couldn't adapt to any of it
Sessions getting longer and longer, and what that was really about
Double unders after deadlifts, and how everything started there
Signing up for an Ironman so nobody could tell me I trained too much
Working with a psychologist, and what's actually changed

I got quoted 60 grand to fit out my home gym.I didn't pay it.

This one is the story of how the gym actually came togetherand what I spent instead.

Then the full Hyrox Perth recap.

A 1:01:47, a hundred unbroken wall balls, and the moment on the rower where I wanted to stop.

That is also the race where I strained my adductor, which is why I havenot run all week.

Plus a bit on YouTube and what I am trying todo with it.

No script. No edits.

Just a real life Run Down

📲 Instagram: ~[https://www.instagram.com/anthony__dipaolo/](https://www.instagram.com/anthony__dipaolo/)~

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Episode 7 and I'm deep in a taper this week, so that's what this one's about.

I'm racing Perth Hyrox on Saturday, and rather than talk about something I'm not currently doing, I wanted to break down tapering while I'm actually in the middle of it.

I cover what a taper really is, why doing less is the hardest part of getting to a start line fast and fresh, and why so many people get it wrong by either doing nothing or doing way too much.

I walk through my exact taper into Perth day by day, and the single biggest rule: your taper has to be built off your own training volume, not copied from someone who trains completely differently to you.

I also get into the mental side. This is the first race in a long time where I feel genuinely ready, my fitness is the best it's been, and I talk about why that's more nerve-wracking than turning up undercooked.

Then: damper settings on the ski and row and how I actually think about them, why race SIMs aren't as useful as most people believe, and the training block I'm building after Perth (there's some Crossfit-style stuff coming back in).

I'm also dropping a new 12, 10 and 8 week Hyrox program in the lead-up to Hyrox Melbourne. If you want in early, links are below.

📲 Instagram: ~[https://www.instagram.com/anthony__dipaolo/](https://www.instagram.com/anthony__dipaolo/)~

💪🏻 Work with me: ~[https://forms.gle/NFJZ7osvnh5KtzaGA](https://forms.gle/NFJZ7osvnh5KtzaGA)~

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This is the episode I'd make myself sit down and listen to five or ten years ago.

If I had, I'd be fitter now. I'd be a better athlete.

I wasted years training for the athlete I wished I was instead of the one who actually showed up, and it cost me.

That gap between where you are and where you wish you were is what slows you down.

You chase paces slightly ahead of where you're at, week after week, and a few months later you're injured, burnt out, or going backwards.

I've done it more times than I'd like to admit. This block I'm 12 weeks into coaching myself and it's the best I've ever felt, purely because I stopped chasing a version of me that didn't exist and started training where I actually am.

I talk through the ego trap, the Strava obsession, why wishing feels like ambition but isn't, and the one idea that fixes all of it: the purpose of the session is the purpose of the session.

Plus a listener question on fuelling around high and low training days, and a proper look at how I rebuilt after Brisbane. If I hadn't pulled myself back, there's no way I'd be sitting here talking about a sub-60.

No script. No edits. Just a real life Run Down.

• Why I'm not actually the biggest athlete to go sub-60 (and who is)

• Week 12 of coaching myself: the best block I've ever had

• Coach what you know, not what you don't

• Training for where you are vs where you wish you were

• The ego trap and the Strava obsession

• Why wishing feels like ambition but sends you backwards

• What overreaching actually costs you

• The Brisbane rebuild that made sub-60 possible

• The purpose of the session is the purpose of the session

• How to actually build toward a goal (the sub-25 5K analogy)

• Listener Q: fuelling around high and low training days

• Ambition vs wishing, and coaching someone out of the wish gap

📲 Instagram: ~[https://www.instagram.com/anthony__dipaolo/](https://www.instagram.com/anthony__dipaolo/)~

💪🏻 Work with me: ~[https://forms.gle/NFJZ7osvnh5KtzaGA](https://forms.gle/NFJZ7osvnh5KtzaGA)~

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Sydney Hyrox. 59:32.

The time I've been chasing for two years is gone, and it happened because I raced in a way that sounds completely backwards.

This one's the full recap. The week, the seminar, the race play-by-play, and honestly the strangest part, hitting a goal I've wanted forever and it not feeling anything like I thought it would.

The big thing I want you to take from this one is a race strategy that sounds wrong. I stopped trying to make up time on my weaknesses and just leaned into what I'm good at. Pushed the sleds, sent the burpees, backed my runs to hold. And they did.

Plus how I dissect a race afterwards so you can do it to your own, why temperature might matter more than you think for a fast course, the burpees turning into an actual weapon, and what's next heading into Perth.

Maple Movement gels are the sponsor this episode.

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No script. No edits.

Just a real life Run Down.

📲 Instagram: ~[https://www.instagram.com/anthony__dipaolo/](https://www.instagram.com/anthony__dipaolo/)~

💪🏻 Work with me: ~[https://forms.gle/NFJZ7osvnh5KtzaGA](https://forms.gle/NFJZ7osvnh5KtzaGA)~

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Back from Stockholm and this is the full breakdown. The race, the week, the controversy, and the one thing I couldn't stop thinking about after.

Solo race went one second slower than Brisbane. On paper that's backwards. In practice it was probably my best Hyrox to date — best burpee time in 18 months, first unbroken wall balls in a while, and I came off the course feeling like an actual athlete rather than someone who just survived. I'm calling that a win.

What's really sitting with me though is watching how many people crossed the finish line at a World Championship and immediately started apologising to themselves. I've been that person. It sucks. And I wanted to talk about it properly.

Also this week: surviving a week in Stockholm as a vegan, the LSKD city tour, how I fluked my way into a Puma seeding suite and walked out with seven pairs of shoes, the Elite 15 race drama (Hunter's penalties, the Cole DQ, Dylan Scott's insane win), the new Hyrox rules and why I'm a bit worried about the direction the sport is heading, and three races in Sydney coming up.

No script. No edits. Just a real life Run Down.

• Stockholm travel and jet lag management

• Surviving a week in Europe as a vegan

• LSKD content day and city tour

• The Puma seeding suite

• Walk of Nations and athlete check-in

• Elite 15 races: women's and men's (Hunter, Cole DQ, Dylan Scott)

• Solo race breakdown: burpee breakthrough, unbroken wall balls, heat and humidity

• Will Martin's burpee tip that changed everything

• Open doubles with Ben

• Sunday island day and relay

• Why watching people beat themselves up after their race was hard to see

• How to define a good race beyond just the time

• Self-coaching update post-Stockholm

• New Hyrox rules breakdown and honest take

• Concerns about Hyrox's direction as a sport

• Three races in Sydney: solo pro, open doubles, mixed doubles with Amy

📲 Instagram: ~[https://www.instagram.com/anthony__dipaolo/](https://www.instagram.com/anthony__dipaolo/)~

💪🏻 Work with me: ~[https://forms.gle/NFJZ7osvnh5KtzaGA](https://forms.gle/NFJZ7osvnh5KtzaGA)~

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Episode 3, and by the time this drops I'm somewhere over the ocean flying home from Stockholm. I recorded this one early so I could keep the fortnightly thing actually happening. So this is me before the race, not after.

Here's where I'm at with my running. Six months ago I couldn't string two weeks together without my hip falling apart. Right now I'm five weeks deep over 50km and feeling strong.

The fix wasn't more training. It was finally addressing the thing that was holding me back instead of working around it. I get into exactly what changed.

The other big one this episode: I reckon I wasted the better part of 7 years of strength training. Not because I wasn't working hard, but because I was lifting in no man's land and never resting properly between sets.

I talk through what I'd do differently, and why I now get more out of one proper strength session a week than I used to get out of a pile of half-arsed ones.

Plus how I'm thinking about Stockholm. No PB chasing, just a race that feels good. And why mileage matters less than people give it credit for.

Then a big batch of your questions: progressing from Open to World Champs, unbroken wall balls, the biggest mistake I see endurance athletes making, and what proper strength training actually looks like for Hyrox.

Fuelled by Myprotein. Code ANTH for up to 50% off.

No script. No edits. Just a real life Run Down.

What's covered:

• Why my running broke down, and the one thing that actually fixed it

• Five weeks over 50km and feeling strong for the first time in ages

• Training now vs 12 months ago, and why changing coaches didn't fix the real problem

• Does mileage actually matter? (the poll answer)

• Why I wasted 7 years of strength training

• Stockholm: how I'm feeling, no PB expectations, the long game

• The mystery explosion, changing my own oil, and building a proper home gym

• Myprotein, and the misconception around fuelling

• Listener Qs: Open to World Champs, wall balls, strength vs running, the biggest mistake endurance athletes make

• What's next: Stockholm recap, then Sydney

📲 Instagram: ~[https://www.instagram.com/anthony__dipaolo/](https://www.instagram.com/anthony__dipaolo/)~

💪🏻 Work with me: ~[https://forms.gle/NFJZ7osvnh5KtzaGA](https://forms.gle/NFJZ7osvnh5KtzaGA)~

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Back for episode 2.

This week I'm calling out the thing most people get completely wrong with recovery — skipping the basics and jumping straight to the fun stuff. Saunas, ice baths, compression boots. None of it means anything if your sleep and nutrition are a mess.

I break down my actual routine, what's non-negotiable versus nice-to-have, and what I've changed recently that's made the biggest difference.

Then I get into heart rate monitor training — why I cap almost every session by heart rate now, which monitor is actually worth using, and why your wrist sensor is probably lying to you.

Also: a shift in how I think about coaching, a rant about social media call-out culture, the snap your fingers responses, and listener questions on training and mental health, motivation, and knowing when to push through versus back off.

Leaving for Stockholm World Champs in less than two weeks. No script. No edits. Just a real life Run Down.

Spotify links

📲 Instagram: ~[https://www.instagram.com/anthony__dipaolo/](https://www.instagram.com/anthony__dipaolo/)~

💪🏻 Work with me: ~[https://forms.gle/NFJZ7osvnh5KtzaGA](https://forms.gle/NFJZ7osvnh5KtzaGA)~

🧬 Myprotein — code ANTH for up to 50% off: ~[https://creatorlink.shop/3PBzBef](https://creatorlink.shop/3PBzBef)~

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