Episode 106 – The Paradox of Choice for Runners

Do you spend more time comparing training plans than actually running?

In this episode, I explore the Paradox of Choice and why having unlimited information, AI, YouTube videos and endless marathon plans may actually be holding you back.

I discuss why runners often fall into analysis paralysis, why chasing certainty can stop progress, and why the runners who improve the most are usually the ones who stop searching for the perfect plan and simply start putting one into practice.

I also share lessons from my own journey to running a sub-3 marathon, why experience will always teach you more than endless research, and how to avoid letting information become another form of procrastination.

If you've ever found yourself comparing coaches, plans or training methods instead of getting out for your next run, this episode is for you.

If you enjoy the podcast, please subscribe, leave a review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, and share it with another runner who might need to hear this.

Transcript

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Hello and welcome to the 12 months to Marathon Podcast. You'll be John Hill, the Running Podcast for the Ever 35s with Marathon Dreams, episode 106, The Paradox of Choice for Runners. Now, what's going on with me at the moment? Well, I am currently well, it's summer here in the UK, so holidays and stuff like that, and bits and bobs. I have just started a Hyrux training programme, which I'm starting in, I'm doing in October. So everything's focused on that really. It's a if you don't know what Hyrux is, you probably do, but if you don't, please look it up. But it's something that I find very challenging indeed to do, and it gives me a bit of variety in my training, so I do enjoy it. Um I love obviously marathon running and things like that, but of course, marathon running is just running, and for me, I don't think I'm ever going to be a multiple marathon per year person again because again, timings and things like that, but I do like to mix things up, so hence why I'm doing high rocks in October. Now I wanted to do this particular podcast because I sometimes I think okay, so let's let's preface this. I've I've spoken about this before, but I want to put it in this format. So obviously, as a running coach and somebody that put puts content out there, I get a lot of questions and chat, I have chats with people and so on and so forth. And a common one that I see is people will say, I am just comparing plans, I am just looking at different types of plans. And what I want to present to you today is the risk I think of excessive choice and information in the modern world, particularly for runners, because fitness, I'll bracket it as that to start with, because that's the the industry that I've worked in for the last 20 years, is uh fundamentally a physical activity. Yeah, sounds obvious, right? But the problem is with a lot of things like AI now, and a lot of things like online and our ability to do a lot more things online, which is great in terms of certain aspects, but certain things will always continue to be a physical endeavour. Now, we now live in what's called the information age. So you might have heard the industrial age, right? The industrial revolution. What we live in now is the information age because we are absolutely bombarded with information, and for runners, particularly, that's a problem because what it does, the paradox of choice is basically we believe that the more options we have and the more information that we have, the better it is. But the paradox of choice is the more options that you have, the less likely you are of doing something because it's harder to make a decision, and I'll illustrate that with this point. So when I first decided to get serious about trying to do a sub three marathon, which was back end of 2017, I did a two, no, I did a 316 in Birmingham here in the UK, and I thought to myself, could I go sub-3? Right, and that started when I started well, really it started before that when I started decreasing my times because I did a 324, I think, in Manchester of that year, and I just you know you get the thoughts and you think, well, actually, what's possible here, right? So what I did, I went on the I went online and I downloaded a sub three marathon training plan, okay. And I thought, let's see what this does, and I followed that plan I think for the next four, three or four marathons, and then I I downloaded another very similar one, right? And that plan worked for me in the end in 2023 of April of 2023 in Manchester. I did my first sub-three marathon. But the the moral of the story was I sort of bet the farm on that plan. I said, I am following that to see how it works. I didn't get 10 plans and then see which one worked the best because the only way of me knowing which plan works the best is by doing it and following it. Yes, and what gathering information is in a lot of senses is procrastination. Let's say you're buying a car, right? Now, I'll make this analogy. Years and years ago, when you bought a car, there was the stereotypical car salesman in in like TV programs, and it was always talked about as the car salesman, right? What a car salesman is and how they operate, and that you know, they have that sort of element of grifter about them or trying to do something dodgy, which is just a media representation or a program, yeah. And that was because when somebody walked into a car garage or or or car lot, depending on what language you want to use, to buy a car, they were very uninformed, right? So the the guy could sort of do the whole thing, the whole spiel, as it were, to an uninformed buyer. Now, in today's day and age, people are going into these places armed with information because they've done the full research on everything, yeah? Because you've got to check certain things with a car. The only way whether you're going to know whether a running plan is going to work is by doing it. You wouldn't spend $100,000 or £100,000 on a car and go, well, let's just see how it goes, unless, of course, you've got money to burn. But in running terms, you've actually got to go and then follow that plan to learn how it fits for you and how it works. And most people that run have got some sense of sense of common sense, right? So if you look at a plan and you're going to look at it and go, well, I can't follow that because some of the plans are quite hard, and some of the plans involve very, very extensive weekly mileage or kilometers. So unless you know you're totally delusional, um, you're going to look at it and go, Well, actually, that's doable. So when I saw my first sub three plan, I saw the runs and the different, I thought, okay, I can follow that. And that's where the win is the win and the success comes from the following. The win and the success does not come from the information. So if you think your goal is to go and research loads of stuff, research, research, research, gather loads of plans, gather loads of information, all that's doing is stopping you from going out and running and actually doing the thing which is going to get you better, which is again the paradox of choice, which is the problem with modern society. There is too much information out there, and there is too much reliance on technology to supplement what, in essence, is a physical activity, which again is causing problems. Because one of the biggest things that I deal with when people come to me as a coach is they'll say there's a lot of conflicting information out there, and there's a lot of confusing information there. Because what you've got to bear in mind is that people on social media, me included, so there's no preaching from the parapet here, are trying to attract eyeballs. Yes, because social media is about eyeballs, it's about getting people to engage with you. Now, let's say you listen to this podcast and then you go and follow me at 12 Monster Marathon Cheap Pelog on social media, you like my content, you get in touch with me, we have a chat about coaching, and it turns out that I can help you, then you win because you're getting a coach that on the face of it can help you. I win, of course, because I'm getting a client, because I'm in business, right? Now, if that if that falls out somewhere, if there's some if there's nothing, if there's something disingenuous in that, it's just not going to work. If you're not a good fit in terms of what you're looking for, and and vice versa, if I'm not a good fit for you, it just isn't going to work. It's about understanding that it has to fit, right? So, in in essence, we can do a bit of research on an individual or do a bit of research on a system, but you're not going to get any better by downloading 20 plans. You're going to get better by actually applying. Now, as soon as someone joins my program from a coaching point of view, my job is to get them to apply, to get them to do, go and do, go and do, do some stuff, and then come back to me and we'll talk about how it worked and what went on. And one of the biggest problems I think with humans is we're desperate for certainty. And I've said this to actually a couple of people in my coaching programme. You've got to sort of let go of that need for certainty and move towards uncertainty, which is the doing of the thing. Again, I will I will put the caveat in here of do it safely, because that's obvious, but I have to put it in here just in case you go and do some silly plan that's just not right for you. But again, even then, you'll still find out quickly whether it's going to work for you or not. So the whole point of this is not to not to say that you shouldn't do research, you shouldn't do that, but you're not buying a car, you're not buying a house, you're not buying a business. You're running. And to get better at running, you need to do it. You need to go out and run and find out. And if you don't, the the le the longer you leave it, the less likely you are to do it. Because the first thing is the law of diminishing intent, yeah, which is the longer you leave something, the less likely you are of doing it. Yeah. Like if you if you want to enter a race, for example, like a marathon or a half marathon or whatever it might be, and you get that urge, you need to do it as quick as possible because that urge will wane. That's that that can be used in a positive way as well with emotions. When emotions are high, if you let them settle, they'll they'll pass. Uh, but the flip side to that is diminishing intent. So if you're going to do something, you need to go and do it. Yeah, you need to act, you need to take action. But you've got to get to the doing as quick as possible. And with this need for certainty is a problem, is a real problem. And also the need for reassurance. It's like a question would be, oh, I've got this run planned. And you know, instead of just going and trying a different pace, looking for someone to reassure you before you try it, the better way to do it, because you know yourself, don't you? You know what your pace you're relating, you should know what your easy pace is, your tempo, and all that. If you don't do that, that's where coaching comes in, that's where support comes in. But if you do know that information, go and try it. If your easy conversational pace is six minute kilometres, hypothetically speaking, right? Or something like that, then go and run at five and a half minute kilometres for a bit. Yeah, if your conversational pace is ten minute miles, and putting it in a different way, then try and go and run a mile at nine minutes and see how that feels. Because we're not saying going from ten to five. Do you know what I mean? So sometimes you've got to go and get a little bit uncertain and get a little bit be a little bit risky, not unsafe, but risky. And that then's going to teach you the best lessons because I learnt my best lessons from doing not gathering information. And if you don't exercise or don't run or don't do anything physical, you will start to notice a difference in about a week. Yeah, a week to two weeks is when you start to see a little bit of a difference in your cardiovascular. Up to a month, you'll start to see a reduction in your cell energy production, which means that when you start again, it's a lot harder. Now, injuries off the table, all that off the table. So if you cannot physically move for whatever reason, that's different. What I'm talking about here is when we're choosing not to. And if you're gathering information, you're not acting, you're not running, and you're falling behind. And that's what you need to do. You need to be brave and you need to go and experience, yeah. So we what we don't want to do is be too rigid because there is another law called the law of requisite variety, which is the person with the most flexibility of behavior will end up controlling the system. You have to be flexible, like Bruce Lee said, you have to be like water, yeah. And that flexibility gives you a what's called a growth mindset, which is the ability to say, How can I make this work for me versus dogma, which is this is the way, I am fixed, I cannot change, I cannot do anything different. Um, and you only get that growth mindset by failing, by experiencing, by learning, and you don't do that by gathering information in running terms. You need as an a coach of mine said, and I love this expression, he said, you need to you need the minimum viable information possible to take action, not the maximum information to get some sort of comfort or certainty. You need the minimum viable information to take action because you will get caught in the paradox of choice, you will get caught in too much information, not enough action, and it is the classic metaphor of paralysis through analysis. Yeah, it stops you acting and it gives people a comfort for acting. So you don't need more information, you don't need tons of running materials, you don't need tons of running plans, yeah. You need to quickly get to a solution and then act. Example trainers, yeah. Running shoes. If you're really unsure, get a guide analysis done, take the recommendation, buy the ones they say, go and try them. Yeah, you don't go to six different shops and get six different gait analyses done because they're not I don't I doubt they're that different shop to shop or running store to running store. That makes sense. So hopefully today would have stirred you up a little bit, which was completely my intention, because there's too much information gathering and there's too much paradox of choice, and you need to act and you need to do, learn, and find out. It's exactly the same with social media. If you're documenting your running journey on social media, you are gonna potentially get pushback and negativity, and if you're getting that, you're making progress because it means you're reaching more people, but you have to be prepared for that. But that shouldn't stop you ever from acting, because if it does, you're never gonna act. If you're scared of failing, you're never gonna act. If you're scared of criticism, you're never gonna act. If you're desperate for certainty, you're never going to act. Because sometimes you've just got to build your wings on the way down safely. Yes, and hopefully you will do that because you've got some sense. Okay, so that is the paradox of choice for runners. Hopefully, it's been useful. If you want any more content and tips, as always, just hop over to Instagram and follow me at Torminster Marathon. I try to be as honest and transparent as I can, as supportive as I can, to help you to get to act as much as possible. And of course, while you're there, if you click on the link in my bio and join my free running community for the over 30 vibes, we can take you away from social media and get you some accountability over there. So thank you very much for listening. If you don't subscribe currently, please subscribe wherever you get your podcast from, Apple or Spotify. I do appreciate that. A like, share, and comment goes a long way either on Instagram or if you want to comment and share this podcast, it does appreciate it. I do appreciate it. If you are on Spotify and you are a regular listener, please take the time to drop me a quick four star review over there and review my podcast. It really helps me and it helps me reach more people and hopefully get more people to act on their running dreams. So thank you very much for listening as always. I do appreciate it, and I'll speak to you all very soon indeed.