The Next Move

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’Donnell
00:27 — Are Most Training Plans Built for Men?
01:37 — The Coach Who Taught Her Patience
04:55 — When Did Her Progress Begin to Stall?
06:44 — “They Didn’t Know How to Coach Women”
08:30 — The Hospital Visit That Changed Everything
10:26 — 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 Career
20:12 — Why Lydia Started Coaching Herself
23:02 — From Personal Struggle to Founding FEMI
26:43 — 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 Track
36:16 — Are Runners Too Obsessed With Data?
37:31 — Why Lydia Once Avoided Drinking Water
39:04 — Should Runners Lift Heavy?
42:16 — Inside Lydia’s Strength Sessions
45:19 — 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

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 Build
01:23 — The 12 Seconds She Can’t Forget
02:10 — How Far Can Carolyn Go in HYROX?
03:00 — Balancing Elite Training With a PhD
05:02 — Why Hockey Was the Perfect Foundation
08:41 — The Injury That Changed Everything
11:25 — What Went Wrong in Las Vegas?
12:23 — Can Cross-Training Replace Running?
15:02 — The Brutal 5K SkiErg Test
16:02 — Faster Ergs—or Simply More Efficient?
17:27 — Why Austin Is a HYROX Hotspot
19:16 — Inside a 15-Hour Training Week
21:25 — What Makes Compromised Running So Hard?
23:45 — Building Strength for the Sleds
26:02 — How Easy Should Easy Training Feel?
27:52 — The Recovery Lesson Carolyn Had to Learn
29:11 — 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 Most
34:37 — Can Everyone Handle Huge Training Volume?
36:09 — Defending a PhD One Week Before Worlds
37:30 — How to Balance Training With a Demanding Career
39:24 — Does Elite Training Require Sacrifice?
41:15 — Could Biosensors Transform Performance?
43:36 — The Case for Continuous Lactate Monitoring
44:43 — How Carolyn Studies the Science of Training
45:49 — 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

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 Vienna
In 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 15
00:26 — The Race That Nearly Made Him Quit
02:44 — 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 Exist
09:35 — Where Are HYROX Races Really Won?
11:50 — How Hard Should You Push the Sleds?
13:11 — From Gaelic Football to HYROX
16:31 — Can Four Kids Make You a Better Athlete?
18:41 — Why There’s a Treadmill in His Kitchen
20:28 — The Team Behind an Elite 15 Pursuit
24:16 — What Does “Recovery Isn’t Optional” Mean?
25:28 — Inside an 18–20-Hour Training Week
27:49 — How Do You Find Eight Extra Training Hours?
29:53 — Why There’s No Fast Track to Sub-60
31:35 — 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

In this episode, Dan Plews returns for a deep dive into fatigue and recovery, clarifying the difference between functional overreaching, non-functional overreaching, and true overtraining. He breaks down the key warning signs to watch for—including changes in motivation, performance, sleep, and heart rate—and how to interpret them within the context of your training. We also explore the role of life stress and nutrition in maintaining consistency, including practical approaches to energy balance and carbohydrate periodization.
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Episode breakdown:
00:00 Intro: Dan’s injury recovery and return to training
00:08 Post-surgery routine: why “something is better than nothing”
01:54 Fitness retention during downtime and early cycling comeback
02:18 German Volume Training: Dan’s bench press surprise
03:21 John’s training update: increasing volume for Hyrox progress
04:57 Can you turn weak stations into strengths?
07:12 Beginner frustration on ergs and skill-based endurance work
08:20 The “snowplow” analogy for long-term aerobic development
11:42 Fatigue vs overtraining: when should athletes worry?
13:52 Functional vs non-functional overreaching explained
17:23 Motivation, performance, sleep, and HRV as warning signs
22:14 Elevated vs suppressed heart rate: what they can mean
23:09 Training through illness: when to push and when to rest
23:51 Life stress, consistency, and unavoidable training disruptions
26:18 What uninterrupted training looks like at a high level
27:32 Nutrition for consistency: energy balance and recovery
29:49 Carb periodization: fueling for the work required
33:48 Outro: next Q&A episode and listener questions


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

Joel Jamieson is one of the leading experts in conditioning and recovery science, known for his work with elite athletes across combat sports, endurance sports, and professional teams. He is the creator of the 8 Weeks Out coaching program and founder of Morpheus, a recovery-based training system used by athletes to optimize performance through heart rate and HRV data.
In this episode, Joel breaks down the physiology behind HYROX performance, explaining how aerobic capacity, strength endurance, and efficiency combine to determine race outcomes. We discuss why maximal strength has limited transfer to HYROX, how athletes should balance running and strength work across the training week, and why building a deep aerobic base is essential for sustaining performance across a 60–90 minute race.
Joel also explains how tools like heart rate monitoring, HRV tracking, and dynamic training zones can help athletes personalize their training, improve pacing, and make better long-term progress. Finally, we explore what heart-rate data from elite HYROX athletes might reveal — and how emerging AI-driven coaching tools could shape the future of performance training.
Episode breakdown:
00:00 Intro to Joel Jamieson, 8 Weeks Out, and Morpheus
00:28 The energy system demands of Hyrox
01:43 How to balance running, strength, and endurance in training
04:06 Powerlifting vs. Hyrox: very different physiological demands
07:31 Does max strength actually transfer to strength endurance?
11:01 Why more max strength is not always better
13:04 The best strength exercises for Hyrox athletes
14:45 General training vs. sport-specific training
17:03 What aerobic fitness really means
18:57 How Joel defines anaerobic threshold for sport performance
20:50 Why zone 2 and easier training matter
25:57 Resting heart rate, stroke volume, and aerobic progress
28:09 Why aerobic development takes years, not weeks
29:10 What Morpheus is and how it works
31:37 Static vs. dynamic heart rate zones
36:35 How to measure HRV properly
41:35 What elite Hyrox heart rate data might reveal
44:39 Why economy is everything in Hyrox
46:18 The most useful metrics to track besides heart rate
48:01 How AI could transform personalized training
50:47 Outro


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