Tom Payn Performance Coaching

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Tom Payn Performance Coaching

Evidence-led, athlete-centred coaching for marathon and ultra runners.

Tom Payn Performance Coaching provides individual endurance coaching for marathon and ultra runners worldwide, alongside in person training days, weekends and retreats. Coaching is evidence-led, athlete-centred and built around each runner’s goals, experience and wider life. Led by Tom Payn — MSc Sports Performance Coaching, England Athletics registered coach, England international and two-time Great Britain representative at the Ultra Trail World Championships.

18/09/2026

Five questions before you push through fatigue:

1. What was this session meant to achieve?
2. How does the effort compare with normal?
3. Is this one difficult day or a changing pattern?
4. What has changed outside training?
5. What does the rest of the week need?

One score rarely settles the decision. Look at the direction across several days and add context.

Depending on the answers, the useful adjustment may be lower intensity, shorter duration, different timing or complete rest. Match the change to the reason, then reassess.

Pain, illness or concerning symptoms require a separate health decision. This checklist should not be used to justify pushing through them.

Today's email explains how I use these questions to adjust a training week without abandoning its purpose.

My one-to-one coaching roster is currently full. If you want to be considered when a place opens, join the coaching waiting list at tompayn.com.

The free Marathon and Ultra Runner's Training Audit remains a useful first step while you wait.

Evidence: Halson (2014); Saw, Main and Gastin (2016); Kellmann et al. (2018); Bourdon et al. (2017).

17/09/2026

Restraint is one of the hardest skills I practise as an athlete.
Ambition makes pushing easy. Good judgement sometimes asks for less.

A session can feel possible and still cost more than the wider plan needs. When the plan and the day disagree, I try to keep four standards:

• Purpose before proof.
• Today's response before the old plan.
• The whole week before one session.
• Health before completion.

Competing keeps me practising the honesty I ask from athletes. I want clear feedback, especially when the plan and the day disagree.

Where do you find restraint hardest in your own training?

16/09/2026

Fatigue is information. The pattern gives it meaning.
Fatigue can be a normal response to training. The coaching challenge is separating one difficult day from a sustained change that needs an adjustment.

A systematic review covering 56 studies found that subjective wellbeing measures often reflected changes in training load with greater sensitivity and consistency than commonly used objective measures. That makes honest self-report useful, but it does not make any single score a diagnosis or a complete explanation.

A simple check-in can use the same questions each day:
1. Rate fatigue using the same scale.
2. Rate soreness using the same scale.
3. Check sleep and wider stress.
4. Add one sentence of context.
5. Compare the result with your normal pattern.

Look for change across days. More fatigue than usual, rising effort at a familiar workload, poorer sleep, higher stress or a pattern that persists all deserve context.

Pain, illness or concerning symptoms require a separate health decision. A monitoring score should not be used to justify pushing through them.

Save the check-in and use it consistently for a week.

Evidence: Halson (2014); Saw, Main and Gastin (2016); Kellmann et al. (2018); Bourdon et al. (2017).

15/09/2026

The plan is written before the day arrives. My response only becomes clear when I train.

That is where judgement begins. Training keeps me close to the same decisions I ask other athletes to make: what was the purpose, how did the effort compare with the plan, what changed and what should change next?

I want my training to leave useful evidence. Protecting one planned number matters less than giving honest feedback about how the session landed and what the wider week now needs.

The plan matters. Honest feedback keeps it useful.

Which of those questions is hardest for you to answer honestly?

14/09/2026

A completed session tells me what the athlete did. It does not tell me the whole response.

Training load has two linked sides. External load describes the work completed, such as distance, duration and pace. Internal load describes how the athlete responds, using information such as perceived effort, heart rate and subjective wellbeing.

Those two sides do not always move together. A familiar session can land differently when accumulated fatigue, sleep, health, conditions or wider life stress have changed.

That is why one number cannot explain fatigue. After a session I want to know:

• Did effort match the plan?
• Was fatigue unusual for this athlete?
• Did sleep or wider stress change?
• Did pain or illness affect the session?
• What does the next session now need?

After your next run, record what you did and add one honest sentence about how it landed. That context may be more useful than another screenshot.

Save this check for your next training review.

Evidence: Halson (2014); Saw, Main and Gastin (2016); Kellmann et al. (2018); Bourdon et al. (2017).

11/09/2026

Four ways to stop an easy run becoming medium:

1. Decide the purpose before you decide the pace.�2. Start more gently than your ego wants.�3. Use a hierarchy: speech and breathing first; perceived effort and heart rate next; pace last when terrain or weather changes.�4. Adjust before the run drifts.

An easy run that becomes moderate is not automatically a failed session, but it may no longer create the stimulus-and-fatigue balance the week was designed to produce. Coaching judgement sits in the whole pattern, not in one pace or one screenshot.

Today's newsletter gives the full explanation and a simple on-run protocol. If you are not on the list, the free Marathon & Ultra Runner's Training Audit is the best place to start: www.tompayn.com

Evidence: Esteve-Lanao et al. (2007); Seiler & Kjerland (2006); Foster et al. (2008); Achten & Jeukendrup (2003).

10/09/2026

Being a coach does not make training feel predictable. It changes how I respond when reality and the plan disagree.

Some sessions flow. Some do not. Competition, work, sleep, family life and ordinary stress all sit inside the same week, and I do not want to hide that part of being an athlete.

I keep competing because racing keeps the questions real: how hard should I push, when should I back off, and what does confidence feel like after a difficult patch?

The standard I try to keep is simple:�- purpose before pace�- consistency before heroics�- curiosity before judgement�- enjoyment alongside performance

Still learning. Still racing. Still coaching the person.

09/09/2026

The talk test is simple. That is why it can be useful.
In peer-reviewed studies, comfortable speech was generally possible below the ventilatory or lactate-threshold region. Speech became doubtful around that boundary and was not comfortable above it.

Research protocols normally use a standard passage and a clear yes / uncertain / no response. On an everyday easy run, use two natural full sentences as a practical check:

1. Say the sentences aloud.�2. Notice whether you repeatedly break for breath.�3. If speech is doubtful, ease back.�4. Retest after two minutes.�5. Keep the purpose of the session in charge.

This is a field guide, not a diagnosis or a substitute for individual thresholds, symptoms, medical advice or coaching context.

Use it alongside perceived effort, heart rate, terrain, conditions and the job of the session.

Try it on your next easy run and tell me what you notice.

Evidence: Persinger et al. (2004); Foster et al. (2008); Reed & Pipe (2014); Achten & Jeukendrup (2003).

08/09/2026

I do not want this page to show coaching theory without the athlete experience beside it.

I still train to compete. That keeps me close to the decisions I ask other runners to make: knowing the purpose of a session, noticing what has changed since it was planned, and deciding whether pushing will help the wider week or simply satisfy the ego.

A plan gives direction. It does not remove judgement.

I will keep sharing both sides here - what I believe as a coach and what the process asks of me as an athlete.

If you are also balancing performance with work, family and the rest of life, what is the decision you find hardest to make in your own training?

07/09/2026

Easy does not mean unimportant.
In research describing successful endurance programmes, most training is usually completed at lower intensity. That does not turn an 80/20 split into a universal prescription. It means the distribution of intensity should be deliberate - and the easy work should not quietly become moderate because pace, pride or a watch is leading the decision.
Easy pace will move with hills, heat, wind, fatigue and life stress. The purpose of the session should be more stable than the number on the screen.
A useful field check is speech: can you say two natural, full sentences without repeatedly breaking for breath? Research talk-test protocols use a standard passage, so this is a practical adaptation rather than a laboratory measurement. Combine it with breathing, perceived effort, heart rate and the purpose of the run.
Try it for the first 20 minutes of your next easy run before you judge the session by pace. What changed?
Save this for the next day when easy pace feels less obvious.
Evidence: Esteve-Lanao et al. (2007); Seiler & Kjerland (2006); Foster et al. (2008); Achten & Jeukendrup (2003).

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