Easy training is meant to feel restorative. So why does it so often leave us feeling uneasy?

In this solo episode, I explore a feeling many runners carry quietly: guilt when training feels easy. The sense that if a run doesn’t hurt, it doesn’t quite count. That we haven’t earned it.

We unpack where that belief comes from, how endurance culture and comparison shape our relationship with effort, and why ease can feel undeserved even when we know it’s essential.

I also share personal reflections from my time training in Chamonix as a full-time athlete, and a moment on an easy run that turned into something else entirely, driven by ego and the need to prove commitment.

This episode isn’t about justifying easy days. It’s about questioning why discomfort has become our proof of worth, and what it might mean to let training be enough without suffering.

• Why easy training can feel emotionally uncomfortable

• How guilt creeps into rest and recovery

• The influence of comparison and endurance culture

• When effort becomes a measure of self-worth

• Reframing easy training as a skill, not a weakness

If this episode resonates, take a moment on your next easy run to notice what comes up. Sometimes the most important work isn’t visible.

If you’re interested in coaching, you can find out more at: pyllonultra.com

I also write regularly on Substack, sharing longer-form reflections on running, training, and the wider ultra life: pyllon.substack.com

You can follow along and subscribe here: YouTube: youtube.com/pyllon Instagram: @pyllon and @pyllonultra

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Thanks for listening.

In this episode of the Pyllon Ultra Pod, Paul sits down with Rebecca Hormann for a conversation that goes beyond results and race reports.

Rebecca had a remarkable year in 2025. A win at the West Highland Way Race. A recent victory over 200 miles in Portugal. But this conversation isn’t about splits, podiums, or outcomes.

Instead, it explores what happens underneath performance.

Rebecca talks openly about uncertainty, patience, learning to trust the work, and how her relationship with running has evolved as the distances have grown longer. We discuss decision-making under fatigue, how she approaches fear and doubt, and what it means to commit to a long-term process rather than chasing short-term validation.

This is a conversation about becoming - as an athlete and as a person - and about the quiet inner work that sustains endurance over time.

• Finding identity beyond results

• Learning to sit with uncertainty before and during big races

• The mental demands of very long formats

• What a 200-mile race reveals when there’s nowhere to hide

• Trusting process over outcomes

• How coaching can create freedom, not dependence

• Redefining success beyond podiums

Subscribe to the Pyllon Ultra Pod for thoughtful conversations about endurance, identity, and the inner life of training and racing.

Links

• Substack: pyllon.substack.com

• Instagram: @pyllon | @pyllonultra

• YouTube: youtube.com/pyllon

• Website: pyllonultra.com

In this final part of our series with James Stewart, we return to the deeper questions that sit beneath every long run, every hard session, and every season of training: how do we stay connected to what matters, and how do we keep going when things get tough?

This episode picks up where the last one left off - covering points six to ten from our list of ideas that influence long-term performance. From self-efficacy to community, identity to joy, we explore how these concepts shape how we train, how we lead, and how we show up in life.

It’s a conversation about real resilience, the value of play, and how success so often depends on what you believe about yourself when things aren’t going to plan.

If you’ve ever felt stuck, disconnected, or unsure where your motivation went, this one’s for you.

• Why confidence builds through small wins • How identity keeps you steady in hard times • Why community fuels long-term consistency • The role of fun in reframing pressure • How to balance play, purpose and progress • Advice for anyone feeling flat or lost in training

Subscribe to The Ultra Life - weekly reflections from Paul on running, life and everything in between: 👉 https://pyllon.substack.com

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Interested in coaching in 2026? Spaces are limited. Reach out early: 👉 https://pyllonultra.com