The Distance Dr

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The Distance Dr

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Helping endurance athletes go the distance - without breaking down 🏃🏼‍♀️
Physio | PhD | Sport Sci
Fun, friendly & practical science 🧠

04/11/2026

Ever hit 30-35 km and felt your legs go heavy, your stride shrink, and suddenly holding pace feels like a terrible idea? Yep, that’s marathon fatigue 🙃

Most runners think it’s one thing going wrong, but it’s actually a lot of systems changing at the same time:
🫀 cardio drift
🦵 muscle function
🏃‍♀️ running mechanics
🧠 mental tolerance
🧬 fuel availability

How well you hold all of that together is called durability. Runners with good durability still hurt (sorry!), they just fade less and fade later. The good news? You can train it. I’ve put together 6 evidence-based ways to work on it in the slides above 👆 Nailing these won’t make your marathon feel easy… but it will stop you falling apart earlier!

Save this if you’re building for a PB (or you’re just over blowing up at 32 km), and send it to the runner who always says “I always die at 30k.” We all know one… or are one 😉

📚 Nerdy friends, comment STUDY and I’ll DM you the key papers with links!
Maunder et al. (2021), Smyth et al. (2022), Zanini et al. (2025), Hanley et al. (2020), Zhang et al. (2025), Ross et al. (2007), Brownstein et al. (2022), Balcetis et al. (2025)

19/10/2026

An Ironman is a very long way
to find your weak spots.

What I’m changing in the gym
between Wales and WA.

This is some of the exercises I’m changing. It’s not my full program but if you’re limiting on running kms, these may help you too (everyone is different!)

1. Face pulls - Ironman Wales was hilly which meant I could have time out of the aero bars (a lot of time) but IMWA is as flat as they come so I’ll be focusing on these to help with TT comfort

2. GHD - it’s no secret your back extensors and glutes work hard in an Ironman, but I’m really targeting these to handle a more aggressive position in IMWA.

3. Tib ant work - I spent soooooo much time strengthening my calves and Achilles and paid no real attention to my tib ants (shins) and I felt them fatigued by the end of the run so these are a must for me. Don’t be fooled, they are harder than they look!

4. Iso calves. I won’t have time to do a big run build for IMWA so these are a staple to work on Achilles loading and improve running economy. And they don’t make me too fatigued. Win win!

5. Heavy hip flexions - to compliment the endurance work of the hip flexors, I also want to improve their overall strength.

3. Hip flexion hold - re**us femoris is a biarticular muscle crossing both the hip and knee joint, meaning it does hip flexion and knee extension (it works hard!). By the end of the race I felt like they were really fatigued so these work on endurance. They also target my tib ants by keeping my foot pointing up.

11/10/2026

We’re back from our UK/Euro trip and I’ve been diving into some research again. Here are 5 2026 papers I thought were worth sharing 👀

There’s a bit of everything in these. Some training volume, super shoes, recovery, mindfulness and REDs. I’ve kept each one short with the main finding, my take, and the nerd note that changes how I’d interpret it.

If you want to read the full papers, comment “STUDY” and I’ll send you all 5 links. I’d always rather you read them yourself and happy to discuss 🤓

Which one caught your eye most? Thinking I’ll do a deeper dive on the cycling extra 4 hours study!

Stayed tuned for more papers, research, training tips and training insights!

29/09/2026

Cannes you believe this is my running route?

28/09/2026

Plenty more sport science content coming soon but for now we’re enjoying a little break in Cannes with plenty of beautiful open water swimming and good food 🥐 and drinks 🍹

24/09/2026

There are parts of my health and the last few years that I still don’t really know what to do with. So apparently I train for Ironmans instead. Therapy is probably cheaper, but here we are 😂

Wales gave me something I didn’t realise I needed quite so badly, I felt like myself again. The finish line was just the cherry on top. 💛🧡🩷

Now, enough deep stuff. Apparently I have another Ironman to train for with my girl gang and home team in Busselton. A few more weeks off holiday with my (Nicks) Welsh family then home ✈️

Busselton Tri Club Bad B*tches who Try Tri

14/09/2026

I faced the dragon, and conquered it 🐉🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿
That was an insanely tough, beautiful, horrible, incredible race all at once. I had a true Welsh experience that’s for sure!

The national anthem gave me goosebumps and this start line is so moving and powerful I can’t even explain what it felt like. What an amazing thing to experience!

It was non-stop raining and incredibly misty/foggy for the bike, which means my descending skills went from fairly poor to non-existent 🫠 I reminded myself I’m in Wales (duh) and honestly, what did I expect?! 😂 I just couldn’t ‘race’ in those conditions and wanted to get around safely and enjoy this race for what it is. I absolutely bleed time on the bike and got passed by sooooo many people descending which was hard but I’m still super happy to have the courage to take on this race. It was a big thing for me to conquer it and I did it. I must say, I loved the hills though! They were great 😂😂 The crowd support in parts was insane and like nothing I’ve ever experienced, especially heartbreak hill.
Off the bike I was very happy to just get that marathon done and do my run to each aid station. Again, it was kind of nice to not ‘race’ and just love it for what it is! The crowds were so loud in parts it was deafening and I’ve never been called ‘smiling lady’ so many times in my life. I even got to run some of the run with Nick Baldwin which is something I’ll never forget and felt truly special.

I did everything I possibly could in training around my endometriosis op and I have never been more proud of myself. This was the toughest race and I did it, even on a really hard day. I told myself ‘I am strong and can do hard things’ and ‘for the girls’ ‘for Lily (representing everyone back home william.susanto ) and ‘for Nick, and Al and MY BOYS’

So glad I’ve done it so I never ever have to do it again 😂😂
I’ve had so many messages of support and thank you so much to everyone. It truly means the world to me 🥹

06/09/2026

Taper week 🥹 Five months ago I was sitting in a hospital bed after surgery and now I’m about to stand on an Ironman start line, which still feels pretty unreal 🤯. I’ve been thinking a lot about this build and, I strangely feel like I have (almost) got everything out of this process that I wanted.

I’ve learnt to stop expecting everything to go to plan, to appreciate what my body can do, to breathe when things feel hard, and that the people around you make such a huge difference. And I already feel really satisfied before I’ve even raced.
Also, Nick Baldwin and I have now confirmed that two married people with two young kids probably should not train for an Ironman at the same time 😂
Would not recommend.
Would probably do again.
Race week next 💛🧡🩷

29/08/2026

This morning I took the new custom DistanceDr kit for its first proper spin and… I. LOVE. IT. Having this vision Nick Baldwin and I created come to life on a kit for the Distance Dr team is a dream and Korupt Vision nailed it and made the whole process so enjoyable👌

And the new helmet 🥹 A very special present from a very special friend who wanted to support me getting to Wales. I feel incredibly lucky to have some wonderful people in my corner and in my life in general.

I felt speedy but also it all just felt FUN. I couldn’t stop smiling. Whether I’m actually speedy in Wales is another question, but at least we know one thing is for sure…I’m going to look bright and fast 💨😂💛🧡🩷🧠

william.susanto

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