About
About This Blog
The cost of accessing endurance sports information is now effectively zero. YouTube, Instagram, podcasts, training communities — more content than anyone could ever consume. But the democratization of information is also the democratization of noise.
When anyone can publish training advice, the burden of quality control falls entirely on the reader. Exercise science has a steep learning curve, and without sufficient background knowledge it’s genuinely hard to distinguish sound training principles from ideas that circulate widely yet have long been contradicted by the research. What makes this harder is that misleading advice tends to carry the most compelling narrative — intuitive, memorable, easy to act on, yet glossing over the places where the physiology actually gets complicated. You’re not failing to put in the effort. You’re navigating with a beautifully drawn map that points the wrong way.
The Right Pace starts from that problem. I’ve spent a lot of time reading books and research — not to accumulate information, but to find the ideas that actually hold up. Every article here is built on a foundation of extensive reading — books, studies, papers — not second-hand summaries or reposts, but views distilled through genuine engagement with the material.
Running is about finding your right pace. What I’m trying to do is help you find the right path.
The Right Pace & The Right Path.
What you’ll find here:
- Book summaries & reading notes: books, research papers, and professional podcasts.
- Training concepts explained: heart rate zones, polarized training, lactate threshold, VO2Max, and more.
- Motor control & running economy: exploring running mechanics through a dynamical systems lens, and how strength training actually transfers to running efficiency.
- Race reports & race-day strategy.
About the Author
I’m Paul. I run, and I study the science behind running.
My introduction to endurance sports was triathlon — swimming, cycling, running. What drew me in wasn’t just the pursuit of faster times. It was the long process of learning how the body works, pushing up against limits, and figuring out how to coexist with time.
Ten years of training. Breakthroughs, setbacks, and more than a few moments of recalibration.
But one thing never changed: the curiosity about why.
- Why does some training work when other training doesn’t?
- Why does the same programme produce completely different outcomes in different athletes?
- Why, after years of building fitness, does the real ceiling turn out to be something other than physical capacity?
Those questions sent me deep into exercise science, biomechanics, and training methodology. I’m particularly interested in running economy, motor control, and how strength training actually converts to running performance. I’m less interested in finding a universal formula and more interested in understanding the underlying principles — because that’s the only way to build a training system that fits you specifically.
Running isn’t just mileage accumulation, and it isn’t blind intensity-chasing.
It’s a process where physiological adaptation, movement learning, and psychological growth happen simultaneously.
Training data gives you direction. Research gives you a foundation. But the one who actually completes every session is still you.
Good training, I believe, doesn’t just make you faster — it makes you more knowledgeable about your own body, and builds you into a more complete runner over the long arc.
What The Right Pace wants to share is the deeper thinking that lives underneath the training:
- How to use science to understand running
- How to use wisdom to structure training
- How to find your own pace on a very long road
If you have thoughts to share or want to connect, feel free to reach out:
If you’ve found the content here useful, feel free to buy me a coffee ☕ and keep me writing.