Ep 2: Pattern Recognition and Self Awareness with Brent Lalor

Today on Episode 2 of the podcast I chat to all round good bloke; Brent Lalor. Brent is an established physio, an athlete I coach, a 1:09 half marathoner,  2:30 marathoner and has endured chronic Achilles battles for much of his career… today we talk through the difficulties all runners go through when they are reasoning their way through training and injury management decision. This discussion flows nicely from Ep 1. and the idea of ‘Complex systems’ (so if you haven’t already, have a listen)

Today, Brent and I discuss the idea of ‘Pattern recognition’ and how the quest to find an accurate pattern is often more complicated than a lot of us initially suspect or are aware of:

• It involves an ability to be brutally self-aware of ‘what we know’ and ‘what we don’t know!’ In the show, hang out for ‘the elephant and the 6 blind men’ analogy, I feel if more people out there appreciated this, it could only be a good thing for the world.
• An awareness of how our biases or emotions can thwart the scientific rigour and accuracy of the clinical reasoning process.
• The need for a diverse and honest sounding board of people around you that challenge your perspectives and beliefs when necessary.
• and the fact that, runners that consistently achieve their goals overtime, know you need to be ‘open to being wrong’! It is with this thought process that you’re more likely to effectively work your way through running injuries/poor performance and eventually find out what training seems to work best for ‘you’!

I HOPE YOU ENJOY IT! I’d love to hear what you think.