I help runners exit the cycle of improper training & injury to lead them to running new PB’s.
Dr. Brian Barney grew up in South Holland, Illinois, a southern suburb of Chicago, with his parents and older brother. He played several different sports in his childhood but eventually settled on track & field as his main sport throughout high school. He then attended the University of Cincinnati, where he ran the 800 meters for the men’s track & field team and studied for his Bachelors of Scienc
05/06/2025
You just finished your big race. What’s next? How much time should you take off from running before getting back into it?
One of the athletes I coached asked me what post-race recovery should look like. Here are a few helpful tips.
Congrats to everyone who raced this weekend!
05/02/2025
If you really want to nail your race, you have to have a strategy for how you’re going to feed yourself for max performance. This is especially true if you’ll be running for longer periods of time (2+ hours).
It’s not just carb-loading (although that is important), it’s also the content of the food, the timing of eating it, and knowing how your body will respond to it.
Check out these do’s and don’ts for specific advice on eating before race day.
To everyone running the Flying Pig races this weekend: good luck!
04/15/2025
What’s one of the most common ways to compromise your race or workout performance?
Being dehydrated before you even start.
Don’t let that be you. Being properly hydrated is one of the easiest but most overlooked ways to optimize your training and racing abilities.
These slides contain great information from Essential Sports Nutrition by . Grab her book to learn even more!
02/03/2025
If you’re running any of the Flying Pig races this spring, then it’s time to get started with training!
Should you find a training program on the internet and start using that? How do you know if that program is appropriate for you?
If you don’t know where to start in terms of preparation–how many days to run per week, how much to run each day, how fast to go during each run, how to manage your hydration and nutrition, how to do strength training and work on mobility–you might need help.
In my training program, we go much further than just talking about the training plan. The bigger goal is to teach you the basics on how to train for races moving forward. This means that we have to talk about more than just the number of runs and your weekly running mileage.
If you’d like me to help you train for the 2025 Flying Pig, time is running out to get started! The program officially starts one week from today. DM me if you’re interested and I can get you going!
12/03/2024
Successful training is not just about how hard you can train, but it’s about how well you can recover from that training. It’s important to keep this in mind as 2024 ends and we naturally begin thinking about goals for 2025.
You want to increase your weekly running mileage so you can shave a couple more minutes off of your half marathon personal best. Or maybe you want to start strength training or cross training to supplement your running. These are great ideas! But what are you going to do on the other side of the coin to recover from this increased amount of stress on your body? Will you aim to get 15-30 minutes more of sleep each night? Or maybe increase your protein intake?
One of my college track coaches would constantly tell us, “train hard, recover hard.” I wish I had taken his advice more seriously when I was running in college. Many people are willing to train harder to achieve increasingly faster race goals. But fewer people consistently commit themselves to what happens outside of the training runs. I didn’t take recovery seriously during my collegiate track career and saw the consequences of it.
Don’t let that be you! Let’s work together to do better in 2025.
If this post resonates with you, give me a follow. I’ll be doing more education on what actually matters in terms of recovering from training.
10/31/2024
Mental toughness is required for great race performances.
I was having this discussion with one of my run coaching athletes earlier this week. He is planning on running a Thanksgiving Day 10K in a couple of weeks and was asking for advice on race strategy.
Racing a 10K requires you to run right at or slightly faster than your lactate threshold or at ~90-95% of your VO2max. That means that this race is not easy nor comfortable running, especially in the last third of the race.
So, we talked some about a smart pacing strategy based on his performance in recent races and workouts, BUT we talked even more about mental toughness. Because this race will get hard if you’re racing it right.
What do I mean by mental toughness? It’s answering this question: How am I going to handle discomfort in this race when it comes?
The best endurance athletes have developed multiple strategies that they can use to help them manage the discomfort. These could be things such as repeating a few key words (“I’m built for this”), taking more control of their breathing, or simply just focusing on making it to the next mile marker or landmark.
The point is, you won’t be able to see your true potential as a distance runner without having the mental toughness to push yourself to the limit.
Want to learn more about building mental toughness?
has a great book out on this topic (Do Hard Things). I’ll also be hosting an in-person workshop next Saturday where we’ll cover mental training among many other topics as I help you prepare to run faster in 2025. The link is in my bio for more information.
10/10/2024
What do you want to accomplish from your running in 2025?
We’re in the middle of the race season for this fall. But a few weeks from now, you’ll be reflecting on how you performed during your races and figuring out what you want to do in 2025.
Or maybe you just run for fun, or to blow off steam, or to meet new friends in your run club, but you’re thinking about crossing a race off your bucket list in 2025.
In either situation, the question you’ll have to answer for yourself is, “how do I train harder and run faster in 2025 WITHOUT getting injured?”
I want to help you answer that question. Running is a pretty straightforward activity, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t fundamental principles that give you a better chance at success.
Join me at next month for a FREE intensive workshop on how to become a faster, more resilient runner in 2025. You’ll learn about:
🏋🏾 Strength training for runners (how to get it done in less than an hour a week!)
🏃🏾💨 Different types of running workouts, how to warm-up for workouts and execute them
👣 Running drills to improve strength and practice good form
📶 How to progress your training, measuring your progress with training
🩼 What should you do when you have pain during and after runs?
🦵🏽 What matters in terms of recovery, how do you know if you’re recovering properly from training?
Click the link in my bio to register. See you there!
08/06/2024
The phrase “if you don’t use it, you lose it” is true for older adults and their physical function. Why does this happen? As we age, we lose a little bit of our muscle mass each year, have more difficulty balancing while standing, and lose the ability to do quick movements (this helps you “catch yourself” if you lose your balance). The only way to not “lose it” is by staying active - doing resistance training to build strength, doing aerobic exercise to keep your heart and lungs strong, and doing activities that challenge your balance and require you to move quickly.
Unfortunately, most people become less physically active as they get older. Less adults who are 65+ years old meet federal physical activity guidelines than their younger adults (only 15.3% of men meet guidelines, 10.8% of women do.)
How does this play out in everyday life? Losing physical function can become a vicious cycle - 1) people move less because 2) they have a harder time moving than they used to, which leads to 3) even more loss of function. Gradually everyday activities become harder. Going up and down stairs to do laundry, taking their dog for a walk, cleaning their home, or standing up from sitting in a chair.
So, how do I help the older adults that I treat address this issue? Regardless of what they initially came to see me for, I do my best to get them on a regular routine of physical activity. I find that most people know they need to be more active, but they need help doing so. So as they get ready to “discharge” from PT, my main question to myself is: “how can I make it as easy as possible for them to maintain what they’ve gained while working with me?” Some people will want to go work out at a gym on their own or go to group classes or hire a personal trainer. Some people want to exercise by themselves at home. Some people have exercise equipment at home, some don’t.
Whatever the situation, we work together to create a plan that’s best for them. Being able to use your body in the ways that you desire is really important—feeling independent is important. And as a PT, that’s what I help people do.
07/25/2024
Guidance makes the difference.
You want your confidence to be high heading into your goal race. An important part of confidence is feeling good about your body at the start of the race.
This is harder than it sounds. Because running is such a repetitive activity, runners get injured fairly often (especially newer runners).
Having some pain with running does not always mean that you need to stop activity immediately. This was the case for Linda. She was concerned that she was going to cause long term damage to her knee because of the pain she was having while running.
In her situation, I used my expertise as a PT to figure out what was going on, explain the issue to her, and make some slight changes to her training plan to keep her moving forward.
Need some help training for your half marathon this fall? Shoot me a DM and let’s talk about getting you to your goal.