June 28, 2025 • 40 mins
Episode 88: Breaking 2: The Journey to Self-Discovery through Running
In this episode of Conversations with Kimen, host Kimen Petersen shares his personal journey of inspiration, determination, and growth through running. Starting from his experience with elite athletes in 2015, Kimen sets ambitious goals for himself, including running several races such as a 5K, 10K, half marathon, and marathon. Despite facing challenges like COVID-19 disruptions and injuries, his unwavering commitment to self-improvement and the discovery of his 'why' drive him to continue. Kimen emphasizes the power of building a purpose-driven routine, overcoming inner critics, and the importance of health. He discusses his race experiences, training insights, and the profound lessons he learned along the way, aiming to inspire listeners to pursue their dreams and live a fulfilling life.
00:00 Introduction to Conversations with Kimen
00:28 Kimen's Journey with Elite Athletes
02:24 Starting the Running Journey
05:59 Overcoming Challenges and Setting Goals
14:01 The Power of Inner Advocacy
23:54 Creating a Purpose-Driven Routine
27:51 Race Day Reflections
39:48 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
. Conversations with Kimen is aboutinspiration, life lessons, and wisdom.
Your host, Kimen Petersen shareshis stories to inspire you to live
a more soulful and illuminated life.
The topics covered in this podcastare as personal opinions inspired by
life, experience, and conversationsshared with amazing people.
Kimen hopes to encourage you tobe guided by life in the flow.
(00:23):
So the whole journey is moremanageable and joyful and fulfilling.
Breaking two and a half my story.
(00:45):
It's interesting because I startedworking with elite athletes in 2015
and.
, just a couple years later, I got togo on my first trip with Athletics
Canada as one of the IST team, theintegrated sports therapy team.
(01:12):
And when I was on that trip
, and working with these incrediblerunners, I was so inspired by what they
can do and what they do and what they.
Overcome, like mentally,physically, emotionally,
that inspired me to set a goal for myself
(01:35):
to start running n Now I hadrun at one point in my twenties.
, I think I just did a 10 K ra, , race.
That was it.
, when I was really young,I'd swam, , played rugby.
But I was working withthese incredible runners
(01:58):
and just inspired whythey're what they're up to.
Like if you do, if you understandpro running in Canada, there's
not a lot of money in it.
These people aren't doingit and getting bags of cash.
They're just inspired.
To go for it.
And one of their big dreams,of course, is the Olympics.
(02:24):
So after going on my first trip, Irealized that probably one of the
most inspiring things to do wouldbe to have the opportunity to run
a shakeout run with the athletes.
So how it works is you fly in, you getthe hotel, we have a quick meeting.
You get , your gear, your Team Canadagear, , you get assigned your room
(02:50):
and typically the athletes will getdressed, , and go for a shakeout run just
to shake the travel outta their legs.
And I thought, wow,wouldn't that be inspiring
if I could say, can I come too?
And even.
Even if they go out and I just can runthe first whatever, 200 half kilometer
(03:13):
with them, whatever, , I think thatwould've been incredibly inspiring.
So I, I knew, , the best way tostart running is what, especially
if you , haven't really done it orhaven't done it in a long time, was
to start with a walk run program.
And a walk run program, or the one Ididn't, kind of looks like this, you're
(03:35):
gonna do a walk run every second day andyou're gonna start out doing a kilometer
run where you can still breathe, sorry,not, not a kilometer, a one minute
run with a three minute walk, andyou're gonna do that every second day.
(03:55):
And I continued that for two weeks.
And it was interesting in the rain,in the snow, in the cold, in the dark.
I would get up every morning, you know,I did this episode, what's your why?
And like, what was it?
Pulling me outta bed in the morning.
(04:18):
And the why was I was just so inspired.
I would like, I would visualize me goingout on a shakeup room with the athletes.
And it would get me outta bed every day.
And of course, slowly you'd acce you'd,you'd bump up the amount of running.
Now a walk run program is actually,it's not to create cardio specifically.
(04:40):
What it is, is it's a progressive loadingof the tissues of the body in order
to help them adapt to the new load.
And it's something you need to do veryslowly when you're coming back from
injury or when you're starting running.
And so I worked through theprogression like two and three.
(05:02):
Three and two.
, Two and four, two and five, twoand seven, two and 10, 2, 2 by 15.
And then.
, a 30 minute run.
(05:22):
And then I worked my way up throughthat progression for, , up to 5K.
Did a 10 K, and I did the 21.1 distance.
So that was the first set of goals was toget myself through each of those distance.
And then the next set ofgoals, , was to run a 5K race.
(05:46):
A 10 K race.
And a half marathon.
And a marathon.
So I think it was in 2022that I, I ran my first 5K.
Now there is some interesting thingsthat happened in your, , we all know
COVID happened and when COVID happened,, one of the trips I was supposed to go
(06:09):
with Athletics Canada , was canceled.
And then , since COVID,I haven't got another.
Trip with Athletics Canada.
So I haven't been able to,I hadn't been able to run my
shakeout run with the athletes.
, but before COVID I was alsoworking with the UBC track team
(06:30):
and, , volleyball Canada, theNational Women's Volleyball team.
So when we got through COVID and we gotto the point where the regulation said we
could be back doing this kind of thing.
, I got back with Val Volleyball Canada,and then I got back with UBC Track and
a couple Novembers ago I went, , withthe UBC team to, , London, Ontario
(06:52):
for their national, , championships,their, , their cross country
championships, youth sports championships.
And at that race I got to run myshakeout run with the women's team.
And I. I laughed at probably four or500 meters, but it was the greatest
thing accomplishing that goal.
(07:13):
And especially with these athletes, theseuniversity athletes are probably the most
incredible human beings I've ever metbecause we're talking about people who
are so passionate and so driven, but notonly doing their sport, but also getting
a university education at the same time.
(07:34):
And.
Like the UBC team is really specialbecause there's this team dynamic
there that, , is just supportive, likecompletely supportive of the whole group.
So that was incredible.
Now since then, I've actually, like Isaid, I've run a 5K and, . Then my, my,
(07:59):
my goal was to do a 5,000 on the track.
I wanted to break 25 minutes andthis really awesome athlete I worked
with was like, yep, I'm pacing it.
And they set it all up and, you know, it'slike I had five incredible pacers , and a
(08:19):
bunch of people cheering on the side and.
Afterwards I just had to say to 'em, Hey,you know, in my life I don't have a lot of
expectation of people showing up for me.
, haven't had a lot of experience with that,, aside from my wife who and a close friend,
(08:40):
and I just had to say thatlike those human beings really
showed up for me that day.
And although I didn't hit mygoal on that day, you know what?
I realized one thing in that 5,000, Ipushed harder than I thought I could,
and it was hard from 2K, maybe threeK, and I don't even remember the last
(09:04):
three laps, but I know I gave it theabsolute most honest effort I could
have done in anything in this life,and I was satisfied with the result.
By the way, we're gonna go back afterthat and I got the feeling that my
fitness is better, so it's gonna bea little bit easier ish, or I'm just
(09:24):
gonna revise the goal to a faster goal.
I think that would be a great idea too.
So then in , November of last year, I wentfor, , my first 10 K race and I completed
it, but I , really injured my hip.
And it was something that hadbeen coming up and, , for a while.
(09:46):
And in the race I knew it was bad,but I, of course, I pushed through
it because like I had all theseincredible people supporting me and I
just gotta go for it in life, right?
, so I did pay for it.
The pain was pretty, pretty excruciatingand it really slowed me down.
But, uh, as soon as I gotto the point where I could.
(10:09):
Somewhat run pain-free.
I started another walk around program and
back to getting up early in the morning
and it was hard.
I would, , sometimes I'd be inpain for a couple days after I
ran and have to take more days off
(10:32):
and.
Yet I knew that the body is builtand designed to heal itself.
It can and it will.
In fact, the body is incredible.
It's got all these little thingslike, , osteoblasts, osteoclasts,
which are always maintaining your bone.
You got fibroblasts that arehealing damage in inside.
(10:55):
You've got monocytes, macrophages,neutrophils, all these guys that are
helping with the inflammatory processwas the, which is the healing process.
And so I, I know that,but still, , it was hard.
'cause it's, I think when you're in themiddle of it, it's hard to realize that.
(11:19):
That like you have to actually keep onreminding yourself of these things that
your body's built and designed to heal it.
And it can and it will.
And literally it's, it's gonnatake as much time as it takes,
but not a moment longer.
So on my runs when I was afraid I wouldhave to, I would have to really, I, I
(11:42):
have to really, really focus in on that.
But you know what?
The incredible thingwas build on this build.
So once I got to the point where I couldconsistently run, I decided to do what
we call zone two running, which endedup for me being zone three running
because zone running or zone two runningwould probably be walking for me.
(12:06):
End zone three running, um,is running so incredibly slow.
It's not funny.
So I program my watch to yellat me if I went too fast, if
my heart rate got too high.
And it's really cool in thisbuild, there's so many things
I learned and there's so manyepisodes I created around this.
(12:28):
It's like I remember there would betimes when I was gonna go out for a
long run on a Sunday morning and I'mlike, this is gonna take so long.
And I saw this quote, youmight as well go for it.
The time is going to pass anyway,and that was episode six, six, or 76.
(12:48):
And it, this is one ofthe things that fueled me.
I realized that I had a choice.
I could be sitting on the couch,scrolling on my phone, watching tv,
or I could be out there running.
So I chose to be out there running.
I remember I saw this quote,and episode 77 was dedicated to
this idea that your brain will.
(13:10):
Try to give up long before your body does.
And I just remember I was doingthese probably 800 repeats, and
I was on the last of the lastrepeat, and I'm probably halfway.
And my brain's going,you can't, you can't.
It's too much.
This is too much.
It's too, no, you can't.
You can't.
(13:30):
And I just thought about thatquote and I thought, Hmm.
So I check in with my legs.
Hey legs, how are you doing?
Are you okay?
And the legs are like, , yeah, we're okay.
I'm like, , hips.
How's it going?
Are, can you keep on going?
Is there any pain?
I'm like, no, no pain.
We're fine.
And I'm like, , breathing, , areyou like, can you still breathe?
I'm like, , yeah.
We're good.
(13:50):
We're good.
I'm like, can you all go faster?
And they did.
That was a learning
then.
About,
, at one point I remember,
, I was running back and there'sthis song I'm not giving up,
(14:14):
and I got super emotional because Iremembered that there was a time in my
life that I was in this internal battle.
With the inner critic.
But the funny thing is I wasn'tfighting for the right side.
I was agreeing with the negativethings like you're, you suck you're
(14:36):
never gonna mount to anything.
You're worthless.
And I would just fight.
I would just repeatthat over and over again.
And when it got so loud inside, itwould come out and I would just.
Beat myself into oblivion and Iwas just fighting this massive
battle, but I wasn't fighting formy, the possibility of who I was.
I was fighting for this inner criticthat was trying to hold me back.
(15:02):
And as I'm running, like I've got tearsstreaming down my face and I realized
that I don't do that anymore and thatI never have to do that again because
the truth is I have to fight for me.
I have to fight for my dreams.
I have to fight for my goals.
I have to fight for thepossibility of who I can be
(15:26):
and every day I'm gonna fight for thatpossibility for the rest of my life.
And the truth is what I'm fightingfor in this run in running is health.
And why am I fighting for healthis because this podcast, this.
Message that I'm trying to put outthere, that my goal is just to help
one person with everyone I put out.
(15:50):
It's gonna take a while to really develop, my message, my approach, my delivery.
It's gonna take a long time.
Yeah, and I'm willing to do thatevery day to work on it in some way,
shape, or form, because I am fightingfor the possibility of who I can be.
And I, the truth is withhealth, I am fighting to extend
(16:15):
this life as long as I can.
And the dream of my life is the last daythat I'm on this planet in the morning.
Record one more episode,
one more.
Publish it.
I put it out to the world and thenmove on to what's ever next because
(16:36):
I'm fighting , for that episode.
That last gasp.
That's what I'm fighting for.
I've gotta fight for that.
That was episode 79, and thatrolls right into what's your why?
'cause I was just saying if you reallywant to do something destroying this
in this world, you need a powerful why.
(16:57):
And like , my why about my wholelife of the podcast, about my work,
everything is I want to help people.
And I understand that I can't takepeople's pain away, but you know what?
I can get really good at making sureif you're in my presence, you don't
feel alone when you're in pain.
(17:19):
And I can hold space and care.
And what is my why for getting up?
Like I literally get up in betweenprobably like three 30 and 4 26 every day
to either run or do strength and mobility.
(17:41):
And my why is that I know everysingle run is increasing my
health, my cardiovascular health.
I'm losing weight.
I'm getting healthier and healthier.
When I say losing weight,I'm losing adipose tissue.
, my, I say my percentageof body fat's too high.
And when your body fat's at a certainnumber, like , most of the people
don't, who are athletic, who they don't.
(18:04):
Need to worry about this.
They don't need to thinkabout their weight.
For me, it's more about I need tolike lower my body fat percentage
below 26% because above 26% I'm atrisk at multiple health concerns
and literally I want to continue.
I wanna stretch this life.
(18:24):
, I wanna squeeze every littlebit of juice outta my life.
Every little thought, everylittle inspiring message.
I just want to live tillstretch it the far as I can.
So, like I said, so the last thing I do onthis planet, the last day on the planet,
(18:45):
one more message to the world, publishit and then move on to whatever's next.
That is, that's my why.
And another thing I, I figured out alongthe way, 'cause there's so many learnings,
, and this was actually one of, one of myathletes comes in with all these great
(19:09):
ideas and it was like, if not now, when?
And that was incrediblyinspiring to hear that from her.
And it was funny 'cause , earlierin the week they opened up.
The BMO marathon in Vancouver, , signup and I was humming and hawing.
Am I gonna do it?
Am I gonna do it?
And I'm like, and I just remember themsaying, if not now, then when, because
(19:34):
the truth is all we have is now.
The past , it's a memory.
It's a shadow of what was real.
And it really dependson how we look at it.
And the future is a possibility ora potential, but it does not exist
until it comes into the present.
And that's what we have.
So if not now, then when, and if there'ssomething in your life that you're not
(19:55):
doing because you think I'll do it later,listen to episode 83 and get going.
So episode 84 was also inspired , duringthis build, you know, I'm gonna have
to do more builds because like I get inincredible inspiration , for episodes,
(20:16):
just from like dealing with my own inneradvocate and my own inner critic , and.
Ex episode 84, building your inneradvocate and overcoming your inner critic.
And if you don't know what an innercritic is, you know that negative
voice that comes into your head,that negative thought pattern that
comes in that like , it's liketrying to minimize you or stop you.
(20:37):
It's actually trying to protect you.
So it's not terrible.
But the problem is it protectsyou by keeping you small.
And if you don't wanna be small onthis planet, you can't listen to it.
You have to do what you do anyway.
You have to say thank you forsharing to the inner advocate,
or sorry, the inner critic.
(20:57):
So anyway, so one of my athletes cameback from the States and they were
working with a mental performancecoach, and, and this mental performance
person was telling them talk.
They were talking about the inner critic.
And this, me and this athlete havetalked about inner critic before.
And she said, yeah, we'retalking about the inner critic.
But then he said somethingthat you're gonna love.
And I'm like, what's that?
He said, and do you knowabout the inner advocate?
(21:20):
I'm like, what?
What is that?
And this idea that this inneradvocate, you know how the, the inner
critic is, seems to be automatic.
It comes up, it causes anxiety and stuff.
The inner critic is, when you actuallyhear that inner, or sorry, the
inner advocate is when you hear thatinner critic say something negative
(21:41):
and you go, no, that's not true.
I'm gonna do it anyway.
It's like when you stand in the face ofyour inner critic and you argue with it.
That's your inner advocate.
And the truth is it's not automatic.
It's intentional, it's deliberate.
It's something you have to createand like you have to practice
(22:02):
and practice and practice it.
And you know what?
Sometimes like you're gonna fail.
I fail too.
I do.
But now I am committed to going backafter I fail, even if it's a day or two
later and I'll go, no, that's not true.
This is who I am.
This is what I'm up to.
But the funny thing is there's on myrun runs, , when I'm crossing this one
(22:27):
street, , it's a pedestrian light, so Igotta be careful and I slow right down.
And then there's hill right after it.
And I always, my inner critic always popsup, oh, this is too hard, you can't do it.
And this was probably,maybe a week, maybe more.
It's hard time.
Time is interesting.
So I'm running across this street and I'mcoming across and I'm waiting for that
(22:52):
critic to say, oh, you can't do this.
This is too hard.
And I don't hear that.
What I hear is, keep going, you got this?
I'm like, what the hell was that?
Because I didn't have a name for that,because before the athlete told me the
word, the name inner advocate, I didn'thave a contact for an inner advocate.
I didn't realize, I mean eveninner critic, until I'd heard about
(23:16):
that, I thought that voice was me.
And then when I heard about theinner advocate, knowing that
it's intentional and deliberateand , it's something I can build.
And then before I even heard orunderstood what it was, it popped up.
Wow.
(23:37):
So.
Episode 84, building Your InnerAdvocate, overcoming Your Inner Critic.
, it hit before it hit,which is really crazy.
So I think I alluded it to, uh, alittle while ago, like if you want
to take on something big, right?
Episode 85 was creatinga purpose driven routine.
(23:59):
And this was like when I was.
Starting to get back to running.
I was like, oh, man, I can'tget up early every day.
I'm so tired.
I can only run every two days.
, and there was just blah,blah, blah, blah, blah.
I, I'm so tired.
My job is so hard, you know, uh, howam I gonna make it through the day?
And it's like, oh, I knowing.
(24:21):
So I started looking, so first Ithought about, , a bunch of years
ago when I was , really unhealthy.
I was over 300 pounds and Idecided it was time to lose weight.
And I used 90 minute hot yogaclasses every day of the week.
And I realized one important factis if you're a busy human being,
and most of us are, you cannot kindof fit something into your life.
(24:43):
You have to.
Find a way to build your lifearound what you want to do.
You actually have tobuild your life around it.
And for me it was easy.
It was like, okay, so I worked, if Iwas working the afternoon shift three to
11, I had to go to yoga class at 9:00 AMand , so I'd have to get up early, I'd
have to get on transit, go downtown, goto the yoga class, come home, shower,
(25:06):
get ready for work, and go to work.
And if I was working, it was eithersix to two or seven to three.
I would take transit straight tothe yoga class and do a yoga class
before I did anything else becauseI had to build my life around it.
And so I was, I'm sitting here thinkingI want to bring running in my life.
(25:26):
I'd already bring, brought podcasting,but I wasn't doing as much , and I knew I
needed to build my life around running so.
I just took a look at my life andI realized, , we have a puppy.
I typically take her for a walk at eight.
We're back by eight 20, pm this is.
And then, , we'll sit on the couch,get a little bit of scratches.
(25:49):
Eventually she'll stand up,she'll walk over to the bedroom
door, 'cause her crates in there.
She'll look at me, she'll look at thedoor back and forth, and then I'll go and
let her in and she'll go and lay down.
I'll zip her in.
And then when she's in there.
I'll sit watching tv, scrolling onmy phone till like 10 30 and , like
what a absolute waste of time.
(26:12):
So I decided that if I'm gonna runor go to the gym, do strength and
mobility every single day of the week.
I need to go to bed earlier.
So I would go, , I started going tobed in between eight 30 and nine.
, which gave me an extra hourand a half because I would be
sleeping an hour and a half early.
I could get it up an hour and ahalf early and I could do my run.
(26:35):
And the crazy thing about like gettingup early and running at first it was
like I get up, I put on my clothesand go up for a groggy run and , no,
I'm gonna get up a little earlier.
I'm gonna pour myself a coffee.
I'm gonna sit for 20 to 30 minutes.
This is me time.
, wake up, feel good.
And then I go, went for run.
And that worked so much better.
(26:58):
Yeah.
And then just do that , and the funnything is somebody asked me like, aren't
you tired getting up that early to run?
I'm like, I'm always tired.
I work six days a week.
12 hours a day.
I am always tired.
The difference is when I get upand do some form of exer exercise
and there's a study that shows thatlike probably 90, 98% of the world's
(27:22):
or North America's most successfulpeople have one thing in common.
They get up early in the mor every morningand they do some form of exercise and.
I know why now, because literallyI may always be tired, but when on
the mornings I exercise, I'm clear,alert, and tired and ready to go, I
(27:42):
may be tired, but I feel really good.
So there we go.
Creating a purpose driven routine.
Now, I promised I'd talkabout my own break too.
So I'm just gonna walk you through,, my race plan and how it went.
, if you're interested, so literally aboutfour or five weeks out from the race, I
(28:06):
was planning on getting a coach to helpme through, , the marathon next year.
And then I, I'm like,whoa, what am I doing?
Just get him start now.
, so my coach, , started working withthem about four or five weeks ago.
And they helped me rightthrough this build.
It was funny.
It was like the first thing they did.
'cause we always think , weneed to do more right?
(28:26):
And we need to gofaster, , or at least I do.
And he was like, the first thing , helooked at, it's , you're running too
much and you're running too fast.
You need to slow down.
You don't have to go faster to get faster.
Like, okay, I, I still had aproblem staying on pace and
I always go a little faster.
, It's a problem.
So anyway, so we got there.
(28:50):
The week before I practiced,, because , I practiced what I was
going to eat for my morning.
So picked a bagel, peanut butterbanana with a little bit of honey.
I tried that one day.
And then on my last hard workoutI did a full race simulation.
I got up three hours before.
I, and this is exactly what I did.
(29:11):
Race day.
I got maybe I was two, two anda half hours before on, on the
practice run, had my peanut butter,banana bagel., I went down, I did
mobility and activation in the gym.
, I got out there, I did a littlewarmup and did a couple strides,
and then I went out on my run.
So.
(29:32):
, this morning, , was the half marathon.
So I'm talking to you.
I'm recording right now at 3 43.
The race started this morning at seven30, so I got up three hours before, a
little more than three hours before,had my peanut butter and banana bagel
with honey coffee, water went down,did my activa activation mobility.
(29:55):
Came back, had a shower.
Got all my gear together, gotset up, had another coffee.
, my buddy came and met us.
My wife drove us up.
, we did a little bit of a like, kilometer, a half jog, warm up.
We did some strides and such.
Use the washrooms lined up.
And it's interesting, it's likesomebody was asking me a few
(30:18):
days before, are you excited?
I'm like, well, no.
I don't really getexcited until the moment.
, just who I am.
But I was getting a little bit anxiousand excited and my brain was going, it
was kind of flowing in between, , I'venever done something like this, so
I really don't know how it goes.
But it was also going like, you know.
(30:41):
I, um, on this build, I've never beenso focused, so honest in my effort.
I didn't slide back a bit.
I didn't like sellmyself short in anything.
I got up, I went for it every singleday, and, and I did everything I could
(31:03):
and I planned everything I could toa t. So I knew no matter what, , like
my goal was a sub two hour, and Iknew no matter what happens on the
day, that if I don't hit my goal, itjust means it was just the day because
there's nothing else I could have done.
And it was so comforting to know thatI've done everything I can and that
(31:27):
the result was gonna be the result.
But it's interesting, I, I got anxiousand I'm thinking about the first, the
first 10 K. It's 5K out downhill andthere was some really awesome human
beings in my life that were like one that,you know, on the way to like, probably
(31:49):
halfway taking pictures, cheering me on.
One just near half, half,uh, near the 5K cheer me on.
And it's funny, my brain wasgoing through, oh my God, this is
gonna be so hard to go up uphillthat I need to bank some time.
And I know my, my coach said,tells me this story about some of
(32:09):
his athletes who bank time at thebeginning and spend it at the end.
And I guess, I guess Ibecame one of those today.
But, uh, so I tried to keep areally, a little bit quicker
than I wanted to, uh, to go.
I was supposed to go, butI wanted to bank some.
'cause I knew that going back upwas gonna be hard and I wasn't sure
that I was gonna be able to evenlike, like, keep my pace or keep even
(32:33):
close to my pace on the way back up.
And as I'm turn aroundand we're start going up.
And each of the kilometers gotseemed to take forever, and it
seemed like they were so far to go.
I'm taking my gels every like4, 4, 4 and a half kilometers.
I take two gummy gels and eachtime I get this boost, I don't
(32:56):
know if that's psychosomaticor or placebo, but it worked.
And as I'm going, this is sohard, how am I gonna keep up?
I found this mantra in myhead, this little thing.
This is what I trained for.
This is what I trained for.
This is what I trained for.
So as it's getting hard, I'mlike, this is what I trained for.
And I, and the funny thing is,the more I said this is what I
(33:19):
trained for, the less I heard thisis hard and I'm not gonna make it.
And the faster I could go, this iswhat I trained for, this is why I
did this, this is what I trained for.
And it took a while, butsuddenly I was up at 10 k and.
Uh, my plan was to open it up on thedownhill and, uh, and I did quite a bit,
(33:43):
but like already feeling stiff and sore.
Yeah.
And that's the one thing I didn't sayis when I woke up, my calves were sore.
My, my legs were sore, my hipswere sore, everything seemed tight.
I'm like, hows is gonna go?
So as I'm going down this long pro,approximately two kilometer hill, I am
trying to open it up as much as I can, butmy, my quads are starting to get grumpy.
(34:06):
But I keep on going and I get down to thebottom and my plan for the bottom was to
stay on race base or a little bit quicker.
And at times it was harder.
And one of the things I noticed, uh,one of the things I learned is in
order to do something, to stay likepushing, you have to stay focused.
'cause every time I lostfocus, I'd slow down.
(34:30):
But so I kept on going.
And then there's this really crazyhill, and I'm actually, you know what?
Of all, all the stuff I did,uh, today, I'm proudest at this
moment because I told everybodyI am going to go to effort based.
And effort based means I'm gonnawatch, keep my breath in check.
(34:51):
I'm just gonna keep on powering upthe hill, keep my breath in check.
And like some people pass me atthe bottom of the hill and I just
kept my breath in check and kept.
Going at a smooth even pace.
And it was way slower thanI was supposed to be going.
But what I noticed when I got halfwayup the hill, all these people who
passed me were, were slowing downand I looked like I was speeding up.
(35:16):
Got up to the top.
There was a little bit moretop than than I expected.
So that was hard down.
Um, turn the co, turn the corner.
My wife and our puppy were there.
Uh, it was really hard.
It was a bump there that was really hard.
And then a little more, and thisroad called Point Gray Road.
(35:37):
My goal was to like hit five15 pace and I think the best I
could do was about five 30 pace.
Everything was starting totighten up and yet I was okay.
'cause like I'm gonna keep on goingand it's like I'm just gonna keep
on, keep on going, keep on going.
Like, this is what I trained for.
Hit another bump.
(35:58):
This is what I trained for.
I came past Kids Beach, took aleft on our butas, uh, and started
going up, and I'm slowing downand I'm like, this is the time.
I'm wondering, am I gonna make my goal?
Am I gonna make my goal?
I get up to the, the top of this littlebump and I see the two hour pacer.
(36:22):
And I was inspired.
I got about two or three blocks togo and I just jetted past and I just
push and push and push and push andpush, and I'm breathing like crazy.
Take a right, take a left coming down.
Um, cross the line.
Now the thing is, they, they letus out in waves and so my, my gun
(36:43):
time was something like 2 0 6.
And I'm like, I'm hoping I'm makingit, but I know my Strava, my watch
was measuring short by a hundred.
So I jogging my way through peopleuntil I get to, until it goes beep
beep, beep, beep, beep and done.
And it says, it says 1 58.
(37:08):
Now I only did that.
So that I can get the Strava thingthat says New PB in the 21.1.
Uh, but the truth is I stillbroke two according to my watch
and , my chip time was 1 59 11,
(37:31):
so I broke two.
See, I, I don't know what I'm capable of.
I'm just gonna try and I'm gonnause this as ev like, I tell people
to use these things as evidence.
You know when something goes, like,when something goes bad and then you
(37:54):
go and try again and it goes good andyou keep on seeing that pattern that.
That something going bad does not meanthat it's gonna continue going bad.
It's like
put the past, in the past it's like,like I told an athlete who's going
(38:18):
into a race today, um, and this personI know she's going to the Olympics.
I just know, I just know.
I, I like, I will not be surprised whenshe lines up and, uh, her legs gave out
just like at a certain point in the raceand she was on track to do something
(38:43):
incredible and she just got so mad.
And then she was kind of concernedabout going for this race today.
And I mean, I said two things to her.
One, and I hope I can takethis on when I need it.
Yeah, is the mattress new day?
The past means nothing.
(39:03):
New day.
And the other thing is, and Iwill live this till the day I
die For now on is One more time.
One more time.
Fall down.
Get up one more time.
Hold down again.
Get up.
See if you want to besuccessful in this life.
(39:24):
If you really want to achievegreat things, there's.
Only one thing you have to do isget up one more time than you fall,
because it's only one more time.
That's it.
Just one more time.
One more time.
New day.
(39:47):
Thank you for listening.
Thank you for indulging me.
I really appreciate it.
Have a great day.
Thank you for listening to thisepisode of Conversations with Kimen.
Please remember to follow andlike this podcast on Instagram,
Spotify, apple Podcast, Pod Beanor wherever you find this episode.
(40:08):
Please share this podcast withanyone you feel would be inspired
and benefit from this content.
. Conversations with Kimen is aboutinspiration, life lessons, and wisdom.
Your host, Kimen Petersen shareshis stories to inspire you to live
a more soulful and illuminated life.
The topics covered in this podcastare as personal opinions inspired by
life, experience, and conversationsshared with amazing people.
Kimen hopes to encourage you tobe guided by life in the flow.
(00:23):
So the whole journey is moremanageable and joyful and fulfilling.
Breaking two and a half my story.
(00:45):
It's interesting because I startedworking with elite athletes in 2015
and.
, just a couple years later, I got togo on my first trip with Athletics
Canada as one of the IST team, theintegrated sports therapy team.
(01:12):
And when I was on that trip
, and working with these incrediblerunners, I was so inspired by what they
can do and what they do and what they.
Overcome, like mentally,physically, emotionally,
that inspired me to set a goal for myself
(01:35):
to start running n Now I hadrun at one point in my twenties.
, I think I just did a 10 K ra, , race.
That was it.
, when I was really young,I'd swam, , played rugby.
But I was working withthese incredible runners
(01:58):
and just inspired whythey're what they're up to.
Like if you do, if you understandpro running in Canada, there's
not a lot of money in it.
These people aren't doingit and getting bags of cash.
They're just inspired.
To go for it.
And one of their big dreams,of course, is the Olympics.
(02:24):
So after going on my first trip, Irealized that probably one of the
most inspiring things to do wouldbe to have the opportunity to run
a shakeout run with the athletes.
So how it works is you fly in, you getthe hotel, we have a quick meeting.
You get , your gear, your Team Canadagear, , you get assigned your room
(02:50):
and typically the athletes will getdressed, , and go for a shakeout run just
to shake the travel outta their legs.
And I thought, wow,wouldn't that be inspiring
if I could say, can I come too?
And even.
Even if they go out and I just can runthe first whatever, 200 half kilometer
(03:13):
with them, whatever, , I think thatwould've been incredibly inspiring.
So I, I knew, , the best way tostart running is what, especially
if you , haven't really done it orhaven't done it in a long time, was
to start with a walk run program.
And a walk run program, or the one Ididn't, kind of looks like this, you're
(03:35):
gonna do a walk run every second day andyou're gonna start out doing a kilometer
run where you can still breathe, sorry,not, not a kilometer, a one minute
run with a three minute walk, andyou're gonna do that every second day.
(03:55):
And I continued that for two weeks.
And it was interesting in the rain,in the snow, in the cold, in the dark.
I would get up every morning, you know,I did this episode, what's your why?
And like, what was it?
Pulling me outta bed in the morning.
(04:18):
And the why was I was just so inspired.
I would like, I would visualize me goingout on a shakeup room with the athletes.
And it would get me outta bed every day.
And of course, slowly you'd acce you'd,you'd bump up the amount of running.
Now a walk run program is actually,it's not to create cardio specifically.
(04:40):
What it is, is it's a progressive loadingof the tissues of the body in order
to help them adapt to the new load.
And it's something you need to do veryslowly when you're coming back from
injury or when you're starting running.
And so I worked through theprogression like two and three.
(05:02):
Three and two.
, Two and four, two and five, twoand seven, two and 10, 2, 2 by 15.
And then.
, a 30 minute run.
(05:22):
And then I worked my way up throughthat progression for, , up to 5K.
Did a 10 K, and I did the 21.1 distance.
So that was the first set of goals was toget myself through each of those distance.
And then the next set ofgoals, , was to run a 5K race.
(05:46):
A 10 K race.
And a half marathon.
And a marathon.
So I think it was in 2022that I, I ran my first 5K.
Now there is some interesting thingsthat happened in your, , we all know
COVID happened and when COVID happened,, one of the trips I was supposed to go
(06:09):
with Athletics Canada , was canceled.
And then , since COVID,I haven't got another.
Trip with Athletics Canada.
So I haven't been able to,I hadn't been able to run my
shakeout run with the athletes.
, but before COVID I was alsoworking with the UBC track team
(06:30):
and, , volleyball Canada, theNational Women's Volleyball team.
So when we got through COVID and we gotto the point where the regulation said we
could be back doing this kind of thing.
, I got back with Val Volleyball Canada,and then I got back with UBC Track and
a couple Novembers ago I went, , withthe UBC team to, , London, Ontario
(06:52):
for their national, , championships,their, , their cross country
championships, youth sports championships.
And at that race I got to run myshakeout run with the women's team.
And I. I laughed at probably four or500 meters, but it was the greatest
thing accomplishing that goal.
(07:13):
And especially with these athletes, theseuniversity athletes are probably the most
incredible human beings I've ever metbecause we're talking about people who
are so passionate and so driven, but notonly doing their sport, but also getting
a university education at the same time.
(07:34):
And.
Like the UBC team is really specialbecause there's this team dynamic
there that, , is just supportive, likecompletely supportive of the whole group.
So that was incredible.
Now since then, I've actually, like Isaid, I've run a 5K and, . Then my, my,
(07:59):
my goal was to do a 5,000 on the track.
I wanted to break 25 minutes andthis really awesome athlete I worked
with was like, yep, I'm pacing it.
And they set it all up and, you know, it'slike I had five incredible pacers , and a
(08:19):
bunch of people cheering on the side and.
Afterwards I just had to say to 'em, Hey,you know, in my life I don't have a lot of
expectation of people showing up for me.
, haven't had a lot of experience with that,, aside from my wife who and a close friend,
(08:40):
and I just had to say thatlike those human beings really
showed up for me that day.
And although I didn't hit mygoal on that day, you know what?
I realized one thing in that 5,000, Ipushed harder than I thought I could,
and it was hard from 2K, maybe threeK, and I don't even remember the last
(09:04):
three laps, but I know I gave it theabsolute most honest effort I could
have done in anything in this life,and I was satisfied with the result.
By the way, we're gonna go back afterthat and I got the feeling that my
fitness is better, so it's gonna bea little bit easier ish, or I'm just
(09:24):
gonna revise the goal to a faster goal.
I think that would be a great idea too.
So then in , November of last year, I wentfor, , my first 10 K race and I completed
it, but I , really injured my hip.
And it was something that hadbeen coming up and, , for a while.
(09:46):
And in the race I knew it was bad,but I, of course, I pushed through
it because like I had all theseincredible people supporting me and I
just gotta go for it in life, right?
, so I did pay for it.
The pain was pretty, pretty excruciatingand it really slowed me down.
But, uh, as soon as I gotto the point where I could.
(10:09):
Somewhat run pain-free.
I started another walk around program and
back to getting up early in the morning
and it was hard.
I would, , sometimes I'd be inpain for a couple days after I
ran and have to take more days off
(10:32):
and.
Yet I knew that the body is builtand designed to heal itself.
It can and it will.
In fact, the body is incredible.
It's got all these little thingslike, , osteoblasts, osteoclasts,
which are always maintaining your bone.
You got fibroblasts that arehealing damage in inside.
(10:55):
You've got monocytes, macrophages,neutrophils, all these guys that are
helping with the inflammatory processwas the, which is the healing process.
And so I, I know that,but still, , it was hard.
'cause it's, I think when you're in themiddle of it, it's hard to realize that.
(11:19):
That like you have to actually keep onreminding yourself of these things that
your body's built and designed to heal it.
And it can and it will.
And literally it's, it's gonnatake as much time as it takes,
but not a moment longer.
So on my runs when I was afraid I wouldhave to, I would have to really, I, I
(11:42):
have to really, really focus in on that.
But you know what?
The incredible thingwas build on this build.
So once I got to the point where I couldconsistently run, I decided to do what
we call zone two running, which endedup for me being zone three running
because zone running or zone two runningwould probably be walking for me.
(12:06):
End zone three running, um,is running so incredibly slow.
It's not funny.
So I program my watch to yellat me if I went too fast, if
my heart rate got too high.
And it's really cool in thisbuild, there's so many things
I learned and there's so manyepisodes I created around this.
(12:28):
It's like I remember there would betimes when I was gonna go out for a
long run on a Sunday morning and I'mlike, this is gonna take so long.
And I saw this quote, youmight as well go for it.
The time is going to pass anyway,and that was episode six, six, or 76.
(12:48):
And it, this is one ofthe things that fueled me.
I realized that I had a choice.
I could be sitting on the couch,scrolling on my phone, watching tv,
or I could be out there running.
So I chose to be out there running.
I remember I saw this quote,and episode 77 was dedicated to
this idea that your brain will.
(13:10):
Try to give up long before your body does.
And I just remember I was doingthese probably 800 repeats, and
I was on the last of the lastrepeat, and I'm probably halfway.
And my brain's going,you can't, you can't.
It's too much.
This is too much.
It's too, no, you can't.
You can't.
(13:30):
And I just thought about thatquote and I thought, Hmm.
So I check in with my legs.
Hey legs, how are you doing?
Are you okay?
And the legs are like, , yeah, we're okay.
I'm like, , hips.
How's it going?
Are, can you keep on going?
Is there any pain?
I'm like, no, no pain.
We're fine.
And I'm like, , breathing, , areyou like, can you still breathe?
I'm like, , yeah.
We're good.
(13:50):
We're good.
I'm like, can you all go faster?
And they did.
That was a learning
then.
About,
, at one point I remember,
, I was running back and there'sthis song I'm not giving up,
(14:14):
and I got super emotional because Iremembered that there was a time in my
life that I was in this internal battle.
With the inner critic.
But the funny thing is I wasn'tfighting for the right side.
I was agreeing with the negativethings like you're, you suck you're
(14:36):
never gonna mount to anything.
You're worthless.
And I would just fight.
I would just repeatthat over and over again.
And when it got so loud inside, itwould come out and I would just.
Beat myself into oblivion and Iwas just fighting this massive
battle, but I wasn't fighting formy, the possibility of who I was.
I was fighting for this inner criticthat was trying to hold me back.
(15:02):
And as I'm running, like I've got tearsstreaming down my face and I realized
that I don't do that anymore and thatI never have to do that again because
the truth is I have to fight for me.
I have to fight for my dreams.
I have to fight for my goals.
I have to fight for thepossibility of who I can be
(15:26):
and every day I'm gonna fight for thatpossibility for the rest of my life.
And the truth is what I'm fightingfor in this run in running is health.
And why am I fighting for healthis because this podcast, this.
Message that I'm trying to put outthere, that my goal is just to help
one person with everyone I put out.
(15:50):
It's gonna take a while to really develop, my message, my approach, my delivery.
It's gonna take a long time.
Yeah, and I'm willing to do thatevery day to work on it in some way,
shape, or form, because I am fightingfor the possibility of who I can be.
And I, the truth is withhealth, I am fighting to extend
(16:15):
this life as long as I can.
And the dream of my life is the last daythat I'm on this planet in the morning.
Record one more episode,
one more.
Publish it.
I put it out to the world and thenmove on to what's ever next because
(16:36):
I'm fighting , for that episode.
That last gasp.
That's what I'm fighting for.
I've gotta fight for that.
That was episode 79, and thatrolls right into what's your why?
'cause I was just saying if you reallywant to do something destroying this
in this world, you need a powerful why.
(16:57):
And like , my why about my wholelife of the podcast, about my work,
everything is I want to help people.
And I understand that I can't takepeople's pain away, but you know what?
I can get really good at making sureif you're in my presence, you don't
feel alone when you're in pain.
(17:19):
And I can hold space and care.
And what is my why for getting up?
Like I literally get up in betweenprobably like three 30 and 4 26 every day
to either run or do strength and mobility.
(17:41):
And my why is that I know everysingle run is increasing my
health, my cardiovascular health.
I'm losing weight.
I'm getting healthier and healthier.
When I say losing weight,I'm losing adipose tissue.
, my, I say my percentageof body fat's too high.
And when your body fat's at a certainnumber, like , most of the people
don't, who are athletic, who they don't.
(18:04):
Need to worry about this.
They don't need to thinkabout their weight.
For me, it's more about I need tolike lower my body fat percentage
below 26% because above 26% I'm atrisk at multiple health concerns
and literally I want to continue.
I wanna stretch this life.
(18:24):
, I wanna squeeze every littlebit of juice outta my life.
Every little thought, everylittle inspiring message.
I just want to live tillstretch it the far as I can.
So, like I said, so the last thing I do onthis planet, the last day on the planet,
(18:45):
one more message to the world, publishit and then move on to whatever's next.
That is, that's my why.
And another thing I, I figured out alongthe way, 'cause there's so many learnings,
, and this was actually one of, one of myathletes comes in with all these great
(19:09):
ideas and it was like, if not now, when?
And that was incrediblyinspiring to hear that from her.
And it was funny 'cause , earlierin the week they opened up.
The BMO marathon in Vancouver, , signup and I was humming and hawing.
Am I gonna do it?
Am I gonna do it?
And I'm like, and I just remember themsaying, if not now, then when, because
(19:34):
the truth is all we have is now.
The past , it's a memory.
It's a shadow of what was real.
And it really dependson how we look at it.
And the future is a possibility ora potential, but it does not exist
until it comes into the present.
And that's what we have.
So if not now, then when, and if there'ssomething in your life that you're not
(19:55):
doing because you think I'll do it later,listen to episode 83 and get going.
So episode 84 was also inspired , duringthis build, you know, I'm gonna have
to do more builds because like I get inincredible inspiration , for episodes,
(20:16):
just from like dealing with my own inneradvocate and my own inner critic , and.
Ex episode 84, building your inneradvocate and overcoming your inner critic.
And if you don't know what an innercritic is, you know that negative
voice that comes into your head,that negative thought pattern that
comes in that like , it's liketrying to minimize you or stop you.
(20:37):
It's actually trying to protect you.
So it's not terrible.
But the problem is it protectsyou by keeping you small.
And if you don't wanna be small onthis planet, you can't listen to it.
You have to do what you do anyway.
You have to say thank you forsharing to the inner advocate,
or sorry, the inner critic.
(20:57):
So anyway, so one of my athletes cameback from the States and they were
working with a mental performancecoach, and, and this mental performance
person was telling them talk.
They were talking about the inner critic.
And this, me and this athlete havetalked about inner critic before.
And she said, yeah, we'retalking about the inner critic.
But then he said somethingthat you're gonna love.
And I'm like, what's that?
He said, and do you knowabout the inner advocate?
(21:20):
I'm like, what?
What is that?
And this idea that this inneradvocate, you know how the, the inner
critic is, seems to be automatic.
It comes up, it causes anxiety and stuff.
The inner critic is, when you actuallyhear that inner, or sorry, the
inner advocate is when you hear thatinner critic say something negative
(21:41):
and you go, no, that's not true.
I'm gonna do it anyway.
It's like when you stand in the face ofyour inner critic and you argue with it.
That's your inner advocate.
And the truth is it's not automatic.
It's intentional, it's deliberate.
It's something you have to createand like you have to practice
(22:02):
and practice and practice it.
And you know what?
Sometimes like you're gonna fail.
I fail too.
I do.
But now I am committed to going backafter I fail, even if it's a day or two
later and I'll go, no, that's not true.
This is who I am.
This is what I'm up to.
But the funny thing is there's on myrun runs, , when I'm crossing this one
(22:27):
street, , it's a pedestrian light, so Igotta be careful and I slow right down.
And then there's hill right after it.
And I always, my inner critic always popsup, oh, this is too hard, you can't do it.
And this was probably,maybe a week, maybe more.
It's hard time.
Time is interesting.
So I'm running across this street and I'mcoming across and I'm waiting for that
(22:52):
critic to say, oh, you can't do this.
This is too hard.
And I don't hear that.
What I hear is, keep going, you got this?
I'm like, what the hell was that?
Because I didn't have a name for that,because before the athlete told me the
word, the name inner advocate, I didn'thave a contact for an inner advocate.
I didn't realize, I mean eveninner critic, until I'd heard about
(23:16):
that, I thought that voice was me.
And then when I heard about theinner advocate, knowing that
it's intentional and deliberateand , it's something I can build.
And then before I even heard orunderstood what it was, it popped up.
Wow.
(23:37):
So.
Episode 84, building Your InnerAdvocate, overcoming Your Inner Critic.
, it hit before it hit,which is really crazy.
So I think I alluded it to, uh, alittle while ago, like if you want
to take on something big, right?
Episode 85 was creatinga purpose driven routine.
(23:59):
And this was like when I was.
Starting to get back to running.
I was like, oh, man, I can'tget up early every day.
I'm so tired.
I can only run every two days.
, and there was just blah,blah, blah, blah, blah.
I, I'm so tired.
My job is so hard, you know, uh, howam I gonna make it through the day?
And it's like, oh, I knowing.
(24:21):
So I started looking, so first Ithought about, , a bunch of years
ago when I was , really unhealthy.
I was over 300 pounds and Idecided it was time to lose weight.
And I used 90 minute hot yogaclasses every day of the week.
And I realized one important factis if you're a busy human being,
and most of us are, you cannot kindof fit something into your life.
(24:43):
You have to.
Find a way to build your lifearound what you want to do.
You actually have tobuild your life around it.
And for me it was easy.
It was like, okay, so I worked, if Iwas working the afternoon shift three to
11, I had to go to yoga class at 9:00 AMand , so I'd have to get up early, I'd
have to get on transit, go downtown, goto the yoga class, come home, shower,
(25:06):
get ready for work, and go to work.
And if I was working, it was eithersix to two or seven to three.
I would take transit straight tothe yoga class and do a yoga class
before I did anything else becauseI had to build my life around it.
And so I was, I'm sitting here thinkingI want to bring running in my life.
(25:26):
I'd already bring, brought podcasting,but I wasn't doing as much , and I knew I
needed to build my life around running so.
I just took a look at my life andI realized, , we have a puppy.
I typically take her for a walk at eight.
We're back by eight 20, pm this is.
And then, , we'll sit on the couch,get a little bit of scratches.
(25:49):
Eventually she'll stand up,she'll walk over to the bedroom
door, 'cause her crates in there.
She'll look at me, she'll look at thedoor back and forth, and then I'll go and
let her in and she'll go and lay down.
I'll zip her in.
And then when she's in there.
I'll sit watching tv, scrolling onmy phone till like 10 30 and , like
what a absolute waste of time.
(26:12):
So I decided that if I'm gonna runor go to the gym, do strength and
mobility every single day of the week.
I need to go to bed earlier.
So I would go, , I started going tobed in between eight 30 and nine.
, which gave me an extra hourand a half because I would be
sleeping an hour and a half early.
I could get it up an hour and ahalf early and I could do my run.
(26:35):
And the crazy thing about like gettingup early and running at first it was
like I get up, I put on my clothesand go up for a groggy run and , no,
I'm gonna get up a little earlier.
I'm gonna pour myself a coffee.
I'm gonna sit for 20 to 30 minutes.
This is me time.
, wake up, feel good.
And then I go, went for run.
And that worked so much better.
(26:58):
Yeah.
And then just do that , and the funnything is somebody asked me like, aren't
you tired getting up that early to run?
I'm like, I'm always tired.
I work six days a week.
12 hours a day.
I am always tired.
The difference is when I get upand do some form of exer exercise
and there's a study that shows thatlike probably 90, 98% of the world's
(27:22):
or North America's most successfulpeople have one thing in common.
They get up early in the mor every morningand they do some form of exercise and.
I know why now, because literallyI may always be tired, but when on
the mornings I exercise, I'm clear,alert, and tired and ready to go, I
(27:42):
may be tired, but I feel really good.
So there we go.
Creating a purpose driven routine.
Now, I promised I'd talkabout my own break too.
So I'm just gonna walk you through,, my race plan and how it went.
, if you're interested, so literally aboutfour or five weeks out from the race, I
(28:06):
was planning on getting a coach to helpme through, , the marathon next year.
And then I, I'm like,whoa, what am I doing?
Just get him start now.
, so my coach, , started working withthem about four or five weeks ago.
And they helped me rightthrough this build.
It was funny.
It was like the first thing they did.
'cause we always think , weneed to do more right?
(28:26):
And we need to gofaster, , or at least I do.
And he was like, the first thing , helooked at, it's , you're running too
much and you're running too fast.
You need to slow down.
You don't have to go faster to get faster.
Like, okay, I, I still had aproblem staying on pace and
I always go a little faster.
, It's a problem.
So anyway, so we got there.
(28:50):
The week before I practiced,, because , I practiced what I was
going to eat for my morning.
So picked a bagel, peanut butterbanana with a little bit of honey.
I tried that one day.
And then on my last hard workoutI did a full race simulation.
I got up three hours before.
I, and this is exactly what I did.
(29:11):
Race day.
I got maybe I was two, two anda half hours before on, on the
practice run, had my peanut butter,banana bagel., I went down, I did
mobility and activation in the gym.
, I got out there, I did a littlewarmup and did a couple strides,
and then I went out on my run.
So.
(29:32):
, this morning, , was the half marathon.
So I'm talking to you.
I'm recording right now at 3 43.
The race started this morning at seven30, so I got up three hours before, a
little more than three hours before,had my peanut butter and banana bagel
with honey coffee, water went down,did my activa activation mobility.
(29:55):
Came back, had a shower.
Got all my gear together, gotset up, had another coffee.
, my buddy came and met us.
My wife drove us up.
, we did a little bit of a like, kilometer, a half jog, warm up.
We did some strides and such.
Use the washrooms lined up.
And it's interesting, it's likesomebody was asking me a few
(30:18):
days before, are you excited?
I'm like, well, no.
I don't really getexcited until the moment.
, just who I am.
But I was getting a little bit anxiousand excited and my brain was going, it
was kind of flowing in between, , I'venever done something like this, so
I really don't know how it goes.
But it was also going like, you know.
(30:41):
I, um, on this build, I've never beenso focused, so honest in my effort.
I didn't slide back a bit.
I didn't like sellmyself short in anything.
I got up, I went for it every singleday, and, and I did everything I could
(31:03):
and I planned everything I could toa t. So I knew no matter what, , like
my goal was a sub two hour, and Iknew no matter what happens on the
day, that if I don't hit my goal, itjust means it was just the day because
there's nothing else I could have done.
And it was so comforting to know thatI've done everything I can and that
(31:27):
the result was gonna be the result.
But it's interesting, I, I got anxiousand I'm thinking about the first, the
first 10 K. It's 5K out downhill andthere was some really awesome human
beings in my life that were like one that,you know, on the way to like, probably
(31:49):
halfway taking pictures, cheering me on.
One just near half, half,uh, near the 5K cheer me on.
And it's funny, my brain wasgoing through, oh my God, this is
gonna be so hard to go up uphillthat I need to bank some time.
And I know my, my coach said,tells me this story about some of
(32:09):
his athletes who bank time at thebeginning and spend it at the end.
And I guess, I guess Ibecame one of those today.
But, uh, so I tried to keep areally, a little bit quicker
than I wanted to, uh, to go.
I was supposed to go, butI wanted to bank some.
'cause I knew that going back upwas gonna be hard and I wasn't sure
that I was gonna be able to evenlike, like, keep my pace or keep even
(32:33):
close to my pace on the way back up.
And as I'm turn aroundand we're start going up.
And each of the kilometers gotseemed to take forever, and it
seemed like they were so far to go.
I'm taking my gels every like4, 4, 4 and a half kilometers.
I take two gummy gels and eachtime I get this boost, I don't
(32:56):
know if that's psychosomaticor or placebo, but it worked.
And as I'm going, this is sohard, how am I gonna keep up?
I found this mantra in myhead, this little thing.
This is what I trained for.
This is what I trained for.
This is what I trained for.
So as it's getting hard, I'mlike, this is what I trained for.
And I, and the funny thing is,the more I said this is what I
(33:19):
trained for, the less I heard thisis hard and I'm not gonna make it.
And the faster I could go, this iswhat I trained for, this is why I
did this, this is what I trained for.
And it took a while, butsuddenly I was up at 10 k and.
Uh, my plan was to open it up on thedownhill and, uh, and I did quite a bit,
(33:43):
but like already feeling stiff and sore.
Yeah.
And that's the one thing I didn't sayis when I woke up, my calves were sore.
My, my legs were sore, my hipswere sore, everything seemed tight.
I'm like, hows is gonna go?
So as I'm going down this long pro,approximately two kilometer hill, I am
trying to open it up as much as I can, butmy, my quads are starting to get grumpy.
(34:06):
But I keep on going and I get down to thebottom and my plan for the bottom was to
stay on race base or a little bit quicker.
And at times it was harder.
And one of the things I noticed, uh,one of the things I learned is in
order to do something, to stay likepushing, you have to stay focused.
'cause every time I lostfocus, I'd slow down.
(34:30):
But so I kept on going.
And then there's this really crazyhill, and I'm actually, you know what?
Of all, all the stuff I did,uh, today, I'm proudest at this
moment because I told everybodyI am going to go to effort based.
And effort based means I'm gonnawatch, keep my breath in check.
(34:51):
I'm just gonna keep on powering upthe hill, keep my breath in check.
And like some people pass me atthe bottom of the hill and I just
kept my breath in check and kept.
Going at a smooth even pace.
And it was way slower thanI was supposed to be going.
But what I noticed when I got halfwayup the hill, all these people who
passed me were, were slowing downand I looked like I was speeding up.
(35:16):
Got up to the top.
There was a little bit moretop than than I expected.
So that was hard down.
Um, turn the co, turn the corner.
My wife and our puppy were there.
Uh, it was really hard.
It was a bump there that was really hard.
And then a little more, and thisroad called Point Gray Road.
(35:37):
My goal was to like hit five15 pace and I think the best I
could do was about five 30 pace.
Everything was starting totighten up and yet I was okay.
'cause like I'm gonna keep on goingand it's like I'm just gonna keep
on, keep on going, keep on going.
Like, this is what I trained for.
Hit another bump.
(35:58):
This is what I trained for.
I came past Kids Beach, took aleft on our butas, uh, and started
going up, and I'm slowing downand I'm like, this is the time.
I'm wondering, am I gonna make my goal?
Am I gonna make my goal?
I get up to the, the top of this littlebump and I see the two hour pacer.
(36:22):
And I was inspired.
I got about two or three blocks togo and I just jetted past and I just
push and push and push and push andpush, and I'm breathing like crazy.
Take a right, take a left coming down.
Um, cross the line.
Now the thing is, they, they letus out in waves and so my, my gun
(36:43):
time was something like 2 0 6.
And I'm like, I'm hoping I'm makingit, but I know my Strava, my watch
was measuring short by a hundred.
So I jogging my way through peopleuntil I get to, until it goes beep
beep, beep, beep, beep and done.
And it says, it says 1 58.
(37:08):
Now I only did that.
So that I can get the Strava thingthat says New PB in the 21.1.
Uh, but the truth is I stillbroke two according to my watch
and , my chip time was 1 59 11,
(37:31):
so I broke two.
See, I, I don't know what I'm capable of.
I'm just gonna try and I'm gonnause this as ev like, I tell people
to use these things as evidence.
You know when something goes, like,when something goes bad and then you
(37:54):
go and try again and it goes good andyou keep on seeing that pattern that.
That something going bad does not meanthat it's gonna continue going bad.
It's like
put the past, in the past it's like,like I told an athlete who's going
(38:18):
into a race today, um, and this personI know she's going to the Olympics.
I just know, I just know.
I, I like, I will not be surprised whenshe lines up and, uh, her legs gave out
just like at a certain point in the raceand she was on track to do something
(38:43):
incredible and she just got so mad.
And then she was kind of concernedabout going for this race today.
And I mean, I said two things to her.
One, and I hope I can takethis on when I need it.
Yeah, is the mattress new day?
The past means nothing.
(39:03):
New day.
And the other thing is, and Iwill live this till the day I
die For now on is One more time.
One more time.
Fall down.
Get up one more time.
Hold down again.
Get up.
See if you want to besuccessful in this life.
(39:24):
If you really want to achievegreat things, there's.
Only one thing you have to do isget up one more time than you fall,
because it's only one more time.
That's it.
Just one more time.
One more time.
New day.
(39:47):
Thank you for listening.
Thank you for indulging me.
I really appreciate it.
Have a great day.
Thank you for listening to thisepisode of Conversations with Kimen.
Please remember to follow andlike this podcast on Instagram,
Spotify, apple Podcast, Pod Beanor wherever you find this episode.
(40:08):
Please share this podcast withanyone you feel would be inspired
and benefit from this content.
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