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

Watch short films, interviews and more: 👉 https://youtube.com/pyllon

Follow on Instagram: 👉 https://instagram.com/pyllon 👉 https://instagram.com/pyllonultra

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

There are only 52 weeks in a year.

In this quiet, reflective solo episode, I explore what that really means.

Not in terms of productivity, discipline, or becoming a better version of yourself, but in how we live inside our weeks. How many pass unnoticed. How many blur together. How often we tell ourselves we will get to the things that matter later.

This episode is an invitation to pause at the edge of a new year and ask a gentler, more honest question:

What will you choose to remember?

A meditative reflection on time, running, attention, and the small choices that shape a life, one week at a time.

🎧 Pyllon Ultra Podcast Thoughtful conversations and reflections on running, life, and what it means to live the ultra life.

📝 Substack Long-form writing and quieter reflections. https://pyllon.substack.com

📷 Instagram Personal: https://pyllonultra.com

In this episode of People Make Pyllon, Paul speaks with Douglas Emslie, a runner, entrepreneur and long-time coaching client who spent over 25 years building a global events business before selling it for over $1 billion.

But this conversation is about more than business. It's about what it takes to build something that lasts, and how running can reflect that process. Douglas shares the lessons he's learned from a career lived at scale, the importance of consistency during turbulent times, and why people and purpose matter more than pace.

They also explore Douglas’s personal path through grief, change and reinvention. That includes the launch of TrailCon, a new event designed to bring the trail running world together in a more open, collaborative way.

Whether you're building a business, a coaching practice or a life in motion, this one is full of ideas worth holding on to.

• What building a billion dollar business teaches you about endurance

• How running supported Douglas through grief, travel and transition

• The story and vision behind TrailCon

• The value of long term thinking in business, sport and life

• What the trail world needs next

• How purpose and people build resilience

Subscribe to The Ultra Life, Paul's weekly letter: 👉 https://pyllon.substack.com

Watch films and episodes on YouTube: 👉 https://youtube.com/pyllon

Follow on Instagram: 👉 https://instagram.com/pyllon 👉 https://instagram.com/pyllonultra

Interested in coaching or collaboration? 👉 https://pyllonultra.com

In this episode of People Make Pyllon, Paul speaks with Alex Copley - a passionate runner and geologist who helps us see the ground beneath our feet in an entirely new way.

From tectonic collisions to ancient mountain belts, Alex explains how the UK was shaped over hundreds of millions of years, and why understanding that history can change the way we run through the land today. They also talk about Greenland, recovery from toe surgery, and what it means to move through wild places with curiosity and care.

Whether you love the science or just the trails, this one might make you look at your next run a little differently.

• How the UK and Scotland were formed

• What geology teaches us about time and perspective

• Why knowledge of the land can deepen your experience

• Thoughts on creativity, risk, and Arctic solitude

• Bonus: toenail removal, and why it was totally worth it

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

Watch our latest films and conversations: 👉 https://youtube.com/pyllon

Follow us on Instagram: 👉 https://instagram.com/pyllon 👉 https://instagram.com/pyllonultra

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

What if the life you imagine - the one with more freedom, more courage, more meaning isn’t somewhere else, but just waiting beneath the surface of the one you already live?

This short reflection invites you to pause, breathe, and consider what your “second life” might look like… and how much of it you could begin living now.

It’s not a story about running, but it carries the same heartbeat - small steps, quiet change, and the courage to begin. A meditation for anyone standing at the edge of what’s next.

Listen. Reflect. Begin.

See you out there. pyllonultra.com | instagram.com/pyllon | youtube.com/pyllon | pyllon.substack.com

In the third instalment of our People Make Pyllon series with James Stewart, we explore the deeper forces that drive motivation, consistency and performance - and why fun, identity, and agency are often overlooked in training and coaching.

We talk about joy as a performance enhancer, the neuroscience of fun, and how ownership and self-identity play a crucial role in how we train, recover and stick with it over time. This is a reflective and practical conversation for anyone rethinking how they show up in sport, life and work - and how to bring more meaning to the process.

We only made it through the first five of ten planned themes - so look out for part four soon.

In this episode, Paul and James dig into the real drivers of long-term performance and engagement: joy, identity and agency.

It’s not about race results or training blocks: it’s about how we see ourselves, what we choose for ourselves, and how we make it all feel worth it.

They cover five key ideas:

1. Joy as a performance enhancer - Why joy improves consistency and psychological resilience

2. The neuroscience of fun - How novelty, play and reward reinforce habit and learning

3. Agency in training - Why taking ownership leads to better engagement and motivation

4. Identity as a hidden driver - How seeing yourself as a runner influences daily choices

5. Fun as protection against burnout - Why intentional variety and social connection matter

Throughout the episode, they draw from coaching experiences, athlete stories, and personal shifts, reflecting on how and why we stick with the things we care about.

This is for anyone trying to reconnect with the reason they started in the first place.

Subscribe to The Ultra Life – Paul's weekly reflections on running, endurance and life: 👉 https://pyllon.substack.com

Watch our latest short film Space to Return on YouTube: 👉 https://youtube.com/pyllon

Follow us on Instagram: 👉 https://instagram.com/pyllon 👉 https://instagram.com/pyllonultra

Explore coaching, community and more: 👉 https://pyllonultra.com