There are some things in life that we carry alone.

Not because we don't have supportive friends or family, but because nobody else can quite carry the weight of something that matters deeply to us.

In this solo episode, I explore the quieter side of commitment. The emotional cost of caring deeply about a race, a business, a creative project, or simply the person we're trying to become.

Drawing on experiences from racing around the world, building Pyllon, creating films and writing, I reflect on why pursuing meaningful things can sometimes feel surprisingly lonely, and why perhaps that's not something to fear, but something to understand.

This isn't really an episode about running.

It's about what running, and other long pursuits, reveal about the way we live.

I hope it resonates.

If you enjoyed this episode, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

You can find me here:

Substack: https://pyllon.substack.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pyllon Pyllon Ultra: https://www.instagram.com/pyllonultra YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@pyllon Website: https://www.pyllonultra.com

You can also find The Pyllon Ultra Pod wherever you listen to podcasts.

If you're enjoying the podcast, sharing it with a friend or leaving a rating and review really does help more people discover it.

Thanks for listening.

In this episode of the Pyllon Ultra Pod, Paul sits down with Pyllon coach John Connolly for a more informal conversation about training, racing and the things that often sit beneath the surface for endurance athletes.

This is not a polished lecture or a neat list of training tips. It is more of a coach-to-coach conversation about what we notice in athletes, what people often struggle with, and how easy it can be to overthink the process when training starts to feel uncertain.

We talk about the messy middle of training, the gap between what athletes think they should be feeling and what they are actually experiencing, and why honesty is such an important part of long-term development.

A quick note on the audio: we had some technical issues during the recording, so Paul’s side of the conversation is not quite where we would normally want it to be. We have cleaned it up as best we can, and decided to share the episode because the conversation felt worth putting out.

In this episode we cover:

• The uncertainty athletes often carry into race season
• The value of honest conversations between coach and athlete
• The importance of staying connected to the bigger picture
• What we are noticing in runners at this point in the year

This one is a little more relaxed, a little less polished, and hopefully useful if you are somewhere in the middle of your own training process.

Thanks for listening.

You can find more from Pyllon here:

Substack: https://pyllon.substack.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pyllon and https://www.instagram.com/pyllonultra YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/pyllon Website: https://www.pyllonultra.com

At this point in the season, a lot of runners start to question themselves.

Races are getting closer. Training suddenly feels more exposed. Sessions that felt perfectly normal in winter now feel loaded with meaning. A flat run becomes evidence that something is wrong. A bad session suddenly feels significant.

And yet, objectively, many runners are actually in a very good place.

In this solo episode of the Pyllon Ultra Pod, I explore the strange gap between what’s actually happening in training… and what it feels like is happening emotionally. Why confidence often lags behind fitness. Why uncertainty never fully disappears, even for experienced athletes. And why learning to tolerate that uncertainty might be one of the most important skills in endurance sport.

I also reflect on my own training, conversations with athletes, old experiences in Chamonix, and the subtle psychological effects of comparison culture and social media.

This episode is about trust. Trusting consistency. Trusting the process. And trusting that progress often feels far less dramatic than we expect it to.

• Why runners often feel behind even when training is going well
• The difference between objective progress and subjective feeling
• Why confidence reacts faster than fitness
• The hidden psychological cost of comparison and constant visibility
• Why endurance sport demands commitment before certainty
• How experienced athletes learn to tolerate ambiguity rather than eliminate it
• Why patience and emotional steadiness matter more than most people realise

And maybe most importantly:

How to keep moving forward even when you don’t fully trust where you are yet.

If this episode resonates and you’re interested in coaching, you can find out more at:

pyllonultra.com

Pyllon is about more than training plans. It’s about building something sustainable and meaningful around running and life.

I also write regularly on Substack:

pyllon.substack.com

And you can follow along here:

YouTube: youtube.com/pyllon Instagram: @pyllon and @pyllonultra

If you enjoyed the episode, subscribing or sharing it genuinely helps support what we’re building.

Thanks for listening.