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Community Member Focus - Matt Upston
61 Plays5 years ago
In this episode we begin our community member interviews. Kicking us off, today's guest is Primary School P.E Consultant & UKRunChat Ambassador Matt Upston. Matt has previously been the Chairman of the UKRunChat Running Club for 2 years and also hosts UKTriChat.
If you would like to be a part of our Community Member Interviews then please DM us on our social channels or email us on info@ukrunchat.co.uk
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Transcript
Introduction and Guest Welcome
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to this episode of the UK Sports Chat podcast. I'm Joe Williams, and on today's episode, our guest is Matt Upstone. This is the first of our new community member features where we will be interviewing you, the community. Matt is an ambassador of UK Run Chat and also host of UK TriChat.
00:00:28
Speaker
Hope you enjoy the first of our community interviews. And if you would like to be involved, please either send us a direct message on our social channels or send us an email to info at ukrunchat.co.uk. Thank you and enjoy. Thanks for joining us, Matt. That's a pleasure.
Matt Upstone's Background and Role
00:00:50
Speaker
How are you? I'm good. We've got a bit of a light day today, so it's all good to have a chat and see how you are.
00:00:57
Speaker
Thank you very much for joining us in the first of our getting to know the community interviews, which you've been a member of for some time, haven't you? Pretty much from the start, isn't it? I think you guys started off, and about three months later, I started joining the chats on Twitter and put myself forward to do a bit of work alongside. Seems a long time ago now, though.
00:01:22
Speaker
Yeah, it tells us over six years it's flown by. You've been one of our ambassadors since the beginning. Tell everybody what you do for your day job, Matt. My day job, I'm a primary peer consultant, which sounds very posh, but it's basically I'm secondary trained, but really I don't like secondary children for primary and I've been working with
00:01:47
Speaker
secondary smell and they kind of... All of them? You don't like all of them? Well, not all of them, but I think on the whole PE in secondary is a different and harder kind of deal, whereas I think I prefer working in primary where children are still open to new ideas and still open to have a go and have fun. And also I think a lot of people tell me it's because it's where my mentality is. So actually running around pretending to be a frog with year one is far more fun than trying to get
00:02:12
Speaker
a group of you. No but I see it's you not the kids then. I think probably me not the kids yeah. So yeah so I go into schools and I work with teachers and children and head teachers and anyone who listened to me really about the importance of physical health and well-being and PE and I model lessons with teachers and children just to make sure the quality of PE in primary schools is good. So as long as we continue with this with the government wanting this push that's what I like to be doing.
00:02:43
Speaker
How's, obviously with all the schools closing on Friday, so how's that impacted you then? Well, it's been really mixed. So part of my job, I work and I train staff with training courses, obviously they've all stopped. So quite a large part of my work has been stopped, so that's a bit of a worry.
00:03:05
Speaker
However, I have six schools I work with on a weekly basis and I've been working with staff there for probably two, three years with different staff, NQTs and head teachers and I'm continuing to support those schools because obviously every school is open for key workers and depending on your environment and where you are depends on how much that is.
00:03:25
Speaker
living in Exeter and living very, very close to the hospital. I'm a chair of governors of a school very, very close as well. And so we have quite a lot of key workers in our schools. So we have found that we've had some schools had over 20% of their school still in, so it's been business as usual. So I've been going in and helping out by doing some physical activity, especially near the moment with children and giving the staff a bit of support with that as well. And yeah, we'll just see how it
Impact of School Closures on Work
00:03:53
Speaker
goes and hopefully
00:03:55
Speaker
The government will come up with some ideas to support us, which I think they will. I suppose that happens quite... It's a good point you say there. If you've got a school that's close to the hospital, then you're going to have a lot more key worker parents there, aren't you?
00:04:11
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, the school I've been to today, there was quite a few parents who are like nurses, and then their husband was a policeman or she was a policeman. And he was a nurse or a doctor or a paramedic. So both family members are key workers, so they need the support because obviously they'd normally rely on parents, but obviously with the advice as well, we're not going anywhere near parents or grandparents. So it becomes much trickier for them.
00:04:38
Speaker
so much so that I'm going to be working every Easter so I'm offering one of my schools I'm going to be working for them for every Easter to be able to allow those teachers those parents to have some support but also it means that the teachers in the school can get a bit of a break as well.
00:04:54
Speaker
Yeah, very good.
Importance of Lifelong Sports Participation
00:04:56
Speaker
It's an interesting point you make about secondary school as well, isn't it? Because that's where we see a real... It's quite a challenge for the nation, isn't it really? Because that's where you see a lot of children drop off doing sports. I'll give you an example. My daughter is 12, almost 13. She's played football the last couple of years and now she's recently quit. She doesn't want to do it anymore. She's
00:05:17
Speaker
out with her friends and she still does exercise, but I think that's quite a common age for teenagers to perhaps stop taking part in exercise. It's a bit of a challenge, isn't it? Yeah, I think the difficulty is
00:05:35
Speaker
is it's about lifelong participation. I think schools that have gone from a traditional games route have kind of lost that focus. I'm lucky with the secondary school I was working with, really up with it, and they kind of got the idea of how we should be working. And actually, we're trying to educate these children how to be physically active and healthy. So this is where running comes into it. The reason we have some people running is because they realize it's something they can do in their own time, on their own terms,
00:06:04
Speaker
how they want to, when they want to, rather than being prescribed, you have to be at this pitch in that kit at that time to play this game. And I think education, physical education is coming more around health and wellbeing and we're looking at giving children opportunities to try things out that they might then try and go on to further. So for example, lots of secondary schools I kind of have contact with are now doing fitness classes or they're doing
00:06:33
Speaker
aerobics or they're doing badminton, they're doing activities that children will more likely carry on with and would enjoy and feel more confident going to do when they leave school. You know, about 10% of the country I think carries on with team sports when they leave school. But most curriculums are very, very heavy games based. So that's the difference. We need to kind of be looking at giving those children an opportunity to see what they do enjoy and what they don't enjoy.
00:07:02
Speaker
Yeah, so they can then continue to do that as an individual beyond their education. Yeah. Makes sense.
Journey into Running and Triathlons
00:07:09
Speaker
So when did you start running that? I started quite late. I'm 45 and I have always been active. I played ice hockey when I was younger, played hockey, rugby, all through, but kind of lost my way a little bit. And I'm a bit of a
00:07:25
Speaker
I'm a bit of a kind of fad fitness guru in the fact that I will find something I really enjoy and I'll just smash it for a while and then I'll get bored and I'll move on to something else. And so I went through outdoor sports. I've been kind of into my kayaking, all this kind of bits and pieces, but it was a conversation at the school gates actually. It was really weird. I was picking my son up from school and there was a guy that I'd met a few times through work who was a blind Paralympian. He was picking his daughter up. He was in the same class as my son.
00:07:54
Speaker
And I was chatting in 2011 with him about how his training was going for London. And he said, I've been going really well. I'm doing loads and loads of strength work, doing loads of ball work and stuff. He said, but the only thing I'm really missing is I had to get and run a bit more. And I went, oh, OK. I said, well, I'm old and fat, but I don't mind coming out and running with you, bearing in mind he was in his late 20s. And I said, I'd more than happy to come out and run with you if you want to, but I don't know how, if it's going to be good enough or fast enough.
00:08:21
Speaker
So we started off runs running once a week, and we just go and run and do a bit of we do 5k, then we build up a little bit further. And we thought he basically set a program for us. So we would go off and do intervals, we do speed work, we do hill training, basically, he told us what we're gonna do. And I come along and I just steer and make sure he stayed safe. And, and then 2012 came along.
00:08:42
Speaker
And, you know, he's a blind footballer and the blind football team did reasonably well, but not as well as they wanted to. And he said, you know, any new target? So we then decided to train for half marathon. So then I started training with him and up the ante a little bit, trained a little bit harder. Yeah. And then suddenly... So he was a friend of yours then, but he was a friend of yours.
00:09:05
Speaker
Do you knew was training or did you meet how did you meet so he does a lot of inspirational talking for schools and does a lot of events for schools also my work within kind of events and so on with schools she meant to actually there but i knew he was a parent school as well so we had a chat at the school gate one day and it just
00:09:22
Speaker
And it all started from there. And now we've come really good buddies. We kind of converse all the time, see each other. We chat and we haven't run for a while because he's changed jobs. He's now retired from training. He's got a proper job as he says to me. So we don't get out as much as possible. But yeah, so we still chat. So he got me my first half marathon. He couldn't do it because the FAA decided it would not be wise before the World Cup. So I did the extra half marathon. So what they call the Great West Run.
00:09:53
Speaker
And he was going to do that with you, but the FA said no. Yeah, he was about to do a campaign to the World Cup, I think it was, so they decided that a long distance would have an effect on his training because obviously they wanted to do speed work and faster and more explosive stuff because that's what football is like for them and they were concerned that the long distance might obviously
00:10:17
Speaker
cause injuries, but also kind of might do changes fitness profile. Yeah. Makes sense. We laid off that, but I ran it anyway. I did probably one of my fastest times. 145.09, so I was quite chuffed with that. Yeah, very nice. He was knowledgeable. You had quite a good intro, really, if he was doing hill work and speed work and things like that, you mentioned from the off.
00:10:46
Speaker
Oh, yeah, completely. That's a good way to be introduced, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, it was, I let him completely guide the sessions and obviously he knew I was new to it. So we, so we just went, we went by feel a lot of the time, but he was like, this is what we're going to do today. And because I'm quite competitive, you know, there was many a time that he was dragging me along and I'd be like kind of dying, but I was just making sure he didn't fall over anything or fall over again or things like that. And it was funny because obviously post
00:11:13
Speaker
2012 and when I trained for the half marathon, we've been running every now and again ever since. The tables have well and truly turned now and I'm actually dragging him along, which is quite fun. Very nice. Now he's got a proper job. Not spending his day training.
00:11:33
Speaker
So what's your favourite event you've done then since 2012? Was it the first one or any other standards? It's a really hard one to answer because now I've moved over to triathlons after the physio telling me that it was not a good idea to just do as much margin as I was because coming from an ice hockey background my knees are pretty shot.
00:11:51
Speaker
So the cross training was a really good idea. So I started cross training for triathlon and I've done a couple of triathlon races now. And obviously that's what I tend to do now. What have you done? So I've done London triathlon. I've done Blenheim, which I really, see probably Blenheim is probably one of my favorite races I've ever done because the atmosphere is fantastic. But the swim is amazing. Running around the stately home and kind of the closed grounds was quite fantastic.
00:12:21
Speaker
The cycle on the London triathlon, doing all the London landmarks is pretty impressive apart from you've got to remember you're not cycling, you've got to try and cycle faster because absolutely that kind of confuses you a little bit. I think I've done some really nice smaller race. I've done quite a lot of trail racing as well, so trail running. One of my favorite races I think I've ever done is a race called the Classic Quarter.
Favorite Race Experiences and Challenges
00:12:46
Speaker
And it's a 44 mile race, and it is long, and I've never done it as a wonner. I'm not at that stage. I can't see me ever doing a marathon, but I can't see me doing another one because it just doesn't appeal to me. But I've done the classic quarter as part of a team of four, so we've done 11 miles each, and I've also done it as part of a team of two.
00:13:06
Speaker
So we've done half of it each, 22 miles each. And where's that one? Is it the Jurassic Coast one? It's part of the endurance life teams races. It starts at Lizard Point and ends at Land's End. So you basically go a quarter turn on the map, as it were. And it's all on the southwest coastal path. But when you're running, I mean, lucky, I've been quite blessed. I've done it three times now. And in the three times I've done it, I've never had poor weather.
00:13:36
Speaker
It's running June time. You've got the sea on one side and you're being hit by sea spray as you're going around the coastal path. I saw dolphins, seals out in the sea.
00:13:50
Speaker
You run up over the Monac Theatre with all the tourists and the locals not having a clue why these people are running up the steps, the colour of the water. It's an amazing task and actually trail racing is very different from road racing in the fact that it's got a different feel. It's got a really different feel to it.
00:14:11
Speaker
It's not so much who can run the fastest, it's more of a camaraderie. If someone stumbles, people will stop as they go past you and check you're okay and help you out. You're going to support each other up hills. Also, I like the fact that the hills are normally quite big, so you're allowed to walk up them.
00:14:30
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. It's very much a trend and the trail races becoming so much more popular for all those reasons you're saying. They're just beautiful. There's so many of them that are beautiful. I've done it quite a lot of night races as well, which is quite interesting. Night trail racing is a completely different cut of the fish. You need to have a decent torch and it completely changes the kind of dynamics. It's quite an interesting one. If no one's done it, it's worth having a go at just one, just to see if you like it or not.
00:15:00
Speaker
You definitely run faster when you're at the bottom of the woods and you're on your own. It's a gruffalosa. How did you find that transition over into triathlon then? Could you already swim? Were you already a cyclist? You said you've done lots of other sports. I played out cycling. I used to mountain bike quite a lot. I did a couple of mountain bike events when I was younger. I wasn't too fussed by the cycling, but then I realized once I got on the bike, it was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be.
00:15:29
Speaker
because road riding is different from mountain biking. You tend to go fast in one direction continually. Building up the stamina was quite a tough idea to start with. Swimming, I've always swam. I swam since I was tiny, but I never had any lessons. I think I looked like I was drowning more than swimming.
00:15:53
Speaker
So it's taken, I still don't, it's my frustration. I love swimming and I love being in water. I do a lot of outdoor swimming, but I don't feel I'm as fast as I could be. And that's the thing that I've been taking a bit more kind of support from other people on to try and develop and improve. I do, you know, cycling is one of those things where the more you do,
00:16:12
Speaker
And if you do the right training sessions, then you'll get faster. Whereas I think swimming is not a case about brute force and ignorance. You need the fitness to be able to swim fast, but actually technique pays far more than fitness. So yeah, I'm taking guidance all the time and kind of getting people feedback on my swim stroke and trying to help me out as best I possibly can. Yeah, I just can't ever get the breathing right.
00:16:38
Speaker
No matter how hard I try with swimming, my partner's an ex-lifeguard and she swims like a fish and whenever we go for a swim, she keeps saying to me, just breathe normally.
00:16:51
Speaker
Yeah, I think I need someone who's a bit more objective to give me a lesson or two because I think it'd make a big difference. Everyone says that. I think it's one of those things that clicks. The running club, I've got quite a few of the people in my running club that are saying, oh, I might do some try now. And they struggle with swimming. And I've just been saying to them, just get in the pool and do some laps and then just try some things out. There's loads of stuff online about how to try it and kind of get your head around it. And it's one of those things that just suddenly clicks, I think. Yeah.
00:17:19
Speaker
So what are your goals for this year? I'm sure they've actually moved with everything that's going on. Yeah, it's a bit of a strange one this year, isn't it? I think, you know, I think there's very few goals left now. I think my main goal, to be honest now, is to keep my fitness and try and do the best I can to improve it. But I was hoping to do my first ever half Ironman distance race this year. I was going to do one of the outlaws. So that's, you know, that's
00:17:47
Speaker
a 1.6 mile swim. I keep forgetting this because I've been blocking out as much as I possibly could. It's about a 60 mile bike and then you do a half marathon at the end.
00:18:03
Speaker
It was the next stage for me, the next challenge for me. I was going to do it for a cancer charity because I've been affected by it quite a lot this year. So yeah, I was going to do it for that. And then obviously that's now on the back burner because that was in June.
00:18:19
Speaker
So I'm quite relieved in some ways, because I wasn't really where I felt I needed to be at the start of January, because I had a big layoff for injury and lost my run mojo a little bit, which we all do. Yeah. So what are you going for now then? So I've got a swim event in September, which is swim around Burr Island. Burr Island is a little island down here in South Devon, which is a mild swim around the outside, which is normally good fun for a charity swim. So I'm going to do that. Sea swim? Yeah, sea swim.
00:18:49
Speaker
Very nice. I want to do a bit of swimming down the river dart again this year. I was lucky enough I did some swim run events last year. I want to do a few more of those. Chunky scared swimming in the sea. No, I love it. I'd be in the sea every day if I could, quite regularly. We'll go down to the coast, being blessed by being in this place.
00:19:11
Speaker
I can be in the sea within 10 minutes. Yeah, you're in a beautiful park culture. It's lovely. The dog swims along with us. He's faster than me, which is quite annoying. Sea swimming is just completely different. I love it. I find pool swimming just monotonous. It's like running around the track. When you see these people who run marathons by running around the track, you think, well, how can you do that?
Adapting Training Goals Due to Event Changes
00:19:39
Speaker
For me,
00:19:40
Speaker
doing 2,000 meters, 4,000 meters in a pool it's just it's it's just soul destroying yeah well yeah if you know what motivates you and you know what you like then
00:19:51
Speaker
That's a big part of your training, isn't it? So you're doing that swim? What else do you do? Anything else? I think now with everything going on, I think I will most likely look for some autumn half marathons and try and do some races then. Haven't got anything pinned off yet. I might end up doing the Great West run again this year. It's not my favourite course, but it's local, it's easy. But I think I should look out for which ones are around. And I think I've decided I'm not
00:20:22
Speaker
looking for anything yet because actually it just adds more disappointment and frustration, doesn't it? I think organisers are quite rightly being very cagey and I don't blame them because obviously they need to make sure everything's safe and also it costs a lot of money as we know to run races.
00:20:40
Speaker
Yeah, nobody knows when this is going to end at the moment. So it's difficult to sign up for things and put a definite stamp on it. Also, some quick fire questions then for people to get to know you more. What's your go-to accessory? My aftershocks, both my water ones and my Bluetooth ones.
00:21:05
Speaker
Yeah, phone, so music, yeah, I saw a nose bit of a... That's a given, yes. Road or trail? Trail. I think I can guess after we set. Morning or evening training? Morning. Morning? Well, you weren't sure then. No, it depends on what it is though. For me, it really is depends. I love to run first in the morning, especially trail running, because it's amazing, the views and kind of getting out there. Quite regularly get run over by deer up at Holden if you're running up at Holden in the morning, and it's quiet. But cycling,
00:21:35
Speaker
If I'm doing a turbo, so doing indoor session, I'll do it in the evening because it doesn't feel so bad because you're in the dark. And swimming, you get in the pool when you can, and when there's space, which is another frustration. So is that any time?
Quickfire Preferences and Community Engagement
00:21:50
Speaker
Yeah, when I can fit it in around school and children, I think. Yeah, that's fair enough. Okay. Team red or blue? Red, always. I have been since the start. I think I was the first red. Apple watch.
00:22:04
Speaker
No, Garmin, all the way. Garmin. Being about as smooth or crunchy? Both, depending on what you're doing. This is a bit of a weird one. If you're having a sandwich, it's got to be smooth. If it's going on toast, it's got to be crunchy. I've got both in the cupboard. Oh, right. I've never heard that before. Greedy. I've got both. Dog or cat? Dog. Tea or coffee? Coffee, as long as it's proper coffee.
00:22:29
Speaker
What does that mean? As in not instant, it's got to be kind of... Your coffee snub. Yeah, I am a quip of a coffee snub, as you know that. I think most of my Instagram posts are about ex-coffee or me drinking proper coffee. I'm going to have one after this. So yeah. Netflix or Amazon Prime? Oh, that's tough. I think both at the moment, to be honest. I'm kind of going through kind of just funny films that I haven't seen forever. So yeah, I've been using both.
00:22:57
Speaker
What's the best series you've watched then, Boxer? Ooh, that's difficult. It depends on what you're going for. I have just introduced my son, who's 11, to the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, which was great fun. We've watched every single episode in the last
00:23:11
Speaker
five weeks. I think we watched it, not binge watched it, we watched a couple each, like a couple of nights after tea. So I've loved that. I love Homeland. I think Homeland's brilliant. It is superb. The new series is really good. I haven't caught up yet, so don't tell me anything. I've got it all on catch up, so I'm waiting to watch that. Oh, it's loads of stuff. Yeah, it's too much to mention. Beer or wine? Neither. I don't really drink.
00:23:39
Speaker
You don't drink it, no? No, I have, actually, I say that's wrong. Beer would be preferred over wine, but I've actually found, my guilty pleasure now is really sad, is I found Lidor do this non-alcoholic wheat beer, which is lush. It's amazing. It's only 69p. Yes, I've done it. It's lush. You can tell you would teach you to spend time drinking it, man. It's lush. Yeah, I know. Pineapple and pizza, yes or no?
00:24:09
Speaker
No No toilet paper So yeah toilet paper will be in it No, no pineapple No Toilet paper we're being topical with this one over wonder over I Didn't think I was I didn't think under was a thing I
00:24:37
Speaker
We're talking about how you hang it on the air. Yeah, I know what you're all about, but I never realised, why would you put under that? We're weird. Favourite non-running hobby? Paddle boarding. Paddle boarding. Yeah, I love it. So I was out. So before we got locked down and I knew it was coming, I took myself out on the river, River X, and paddled all on my own for three hours.
00:25:05
Speaker
Literally didn't see a soul. It was lush. Very nice. Yeah. It was lush. Some was beaten down on me. Yeah, it's great. Dogs at the front. Cool. Matt, thanks for joining us. Watch your Twitter and Instagram handles for people to follow and interact with you and say hello. It's just simple because they're both the same. It's at Matt Upstone. So M-A-T-U-P-S-T-O-N. And they're both the same.
00:25:32
Speaker
Brilliant, thank you very much. It's been a pleasure and I enjoy being part of the team. It's great fun. Thank you. No worries.