July 2, 2025 • 24 mins
Summary
In this conversation, the speakers discuss the journey of training for an ultra marathon, focusing on the importance of frequency in running, building confidence, and overcoming doubts. They explore the logistics of fitting running into daily life, structuring workouts for success, and the mindset needed to embrace the challenges of long-distance running. The conversation emphasizes trusting the process and finding joy in the journey.
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Takeaways
This month is focused on frequency
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Let's get started. Yeah, Good to see you, Matt.
Cheers dude. How we doing?
We're doing good. We're doing good.
I'm. I'm pretty excited, actually.
This is the halfway point, right?
Let's see. Yeah.
When things start to get real. You know, we, we've got a little
more work to do now. This is month 4, which we've
named frequency. This is couch to. 50K how to
(00:24):
finish? Your first ultra marathon.
We were just talking before the episode.
I've, I've, I've been having to fight the confidence battle of
it's still feeling like a long scary distance and, and needing
(00:45):
and wanting to, to go out and doa lot because we, I've, I've
done a lot already. There's there's been a lot of
training in, in the, you know, the first month we got off the
couch. The second month we we activated
I think. Yeah.
That was the first month. I don't know we'll go back and
look at the terms, but anyway, it's built a lot.
The last the last I did do a lotof running last month and a
(01:07):
little bit of cross training andjust I feel great from it.
You know, kind of put that the constant soreness and fatigue is
is kind of in the rear view now.I mean, I'm still getting sore
from doing because everything isbuilding right, But but it's not
that same. Like I haven't used that muscle
in a year soreness, you know, which was kind of brutal in like
(01:30):
the second month when I really took it after we got off the
couch. Go up a little bit.
Like month 2 is hard from like asoreness and motivation
standpoint and just being tired all the time.
Yeah, I think we referred to it as the boring month.
Yeah, that's right. That's right.
Yeah. It was boring and kind of
demotivating, right. But with a little bit of faith,
(01:51):
I kind of turned that corner. And then the, you know, last
month was great and did a bunch of workouts, started feeling
strong, started noticing those times where I feel like I could
go longer or faster or find the bigger hill, which I did.
We did some hill repeats. I did the first couple in the
neighborhood, which you know if you just looked at it, you would
might not even call it a hill. Right.
(02:15):
But we got one behind the shop here that that kicked my ass
pretty good. That's a good one.
Yeah. So yeah.
Anyway, let's let's talk about what we're about to get into.
Yeah, I you're right, Frequency is the name of the game this
month. And to go back to what you just
mentioned about wanting to go longer, that's absolutely
something that I think is probably on the top of mind
(02:41):
right now for for anybody that'sfollowing this, this program,
like you're running often and you're running a lot more than
you were, but you're not doing anything close to 33 miles.
And so you've got enough time while you're out there to think
about like 30-3 miles, like I'm only going out for three today.
(03:02):
How 30? More like that's not even in the
realm of what I'm doing. So like, let me just go do 15
and yeah, I'm going to suffer through it, but at least I know
like I'm going to get through 15.
But what I'm going to say is like, let's trust the process in
that we're going to value the frequency of running over the
(03:24):
duration. Still at this point, I, it's,
it's just something you're goingto have to switch in your head.
You don't have to be running farright now in order to be able to
run far in June. You need to be good at getting
out the door and going out for arun.
And if you can double up, like we talked about some days where
(03:45):
you're running on tired legs, you're going to kind of mimic
how you feel at mile 15 anyway. But you're not going to have to
put in the like the 10 to extra 10 miles to get there.
You're still going to, your legsare going to be heavy.
You're going to be tired from a day of running in the morning
and then taking care of kids andworking and doing all the
(04:05):
things. And then you're going to go out
for an evening run and it's, youknow, you're going to be tired.
And so you're going to get thoselike like that overcoming like
being tired and running. You're going to get that through
the frequency, but you're not going to abuse your body as
hard. I like that.
I could also see it. You know, I thought is that
(04:27):
that's, that was exactly my thought.
I'm going to go run 15 miles just to tell my brain that, OK,
then I double it and I'm basically there, right?
That could backfire too, right? I go run the 15 and the last
five are absolute hell. Then you walk back in the door
like, can I do that? That's even worse.
And you're like going to be on the couch the next day and then
(04:49):
you're and you're going to be questioning like, oh, man, like
it. I feel you.
I'm training for Coca Dona rightnow as well, which is a month
before Holcomb Valley. I mean, I'm, you know, getting
ready to run 250 miles. And it's the same thing, even
(05:10):
though I've done it twice and I know I can do it.
I, you know, just, I'm in the same place of valuing high
frequency over duration. And so I'm running twice a day
most days, but not very far. And I'm, you know, doing that,
that run when I'm really tired in the middle of the night, you
(05:31):
know, I'm, I'm, I'm intentionally making it more
difficult. And I know that that works for
me, but it's still like, it's like this long term game of like
trusting that it's going to pay off when the when the time
comes. Because during some of my runs,
I'm like, are you kidding me? Like, dude, 255, like do you
(05:57):
like, do you know how far that is?
And it's like, I'm tired right now.
I've been running for, you know,30 minutes.
Yeah, I did. I there is the opposite of that,
even on shorter runs where you, where you have a great run
totally, you know, and it was nice and fast and it was, it was
a solid 5 miles, right? And then like there, there's
confidence there too, right? And like, OK, six times, you
(06:20):
know, it's a lot to do that six times back-to-back to
back-to-back to back-to-back to back or whatever that is.
But it's it, there's confidence there.
Like I feel great. And I know I would have kept
feeling great for a while if I'dhave kept going.
But yeah, trust the process thatthat's a big one, man.
I remember that from other typesof races where it's like you've
done all the training, you've done the recovery, you fueled
(06:43):
nutrition, everything's dialed and you're ready to go.
And you show up on race morning,everybody has a moment of doubt,
you know, unless you're a psychopath, right?
Who's like, I'm going to win everything I do.
Everybody has that little bit ofdoubt, like, am I ready?
Yeah, no, you know. I hope we're we're building up
to to limit that, you know, for you and and watch it kind of go
(07:05):
away throughout the day. One thing if we're talking
specifically about the, the planthat you want to start
considering is I know we're doing some strength training and
in the gym and cross training and, and you don't want to give
that stuff up, but I think now is a good time to kind of start
(07:27):
to steer it towards cardio basedmore than, you know, muscular
building. If you're, if you're thrown
around weights and stuff like that, maybe you limit the
weights a little bit more. I mean, the idea is like, as we
get closer to the race, we're going to specialize in running.
So we're, we're going to give upa little bit of the cross
(07:47):
training and gym time to make time more time for running.
Not that those things aren't beneficial, but we've, you know,
use them. And now we're going to like kind
of try to increase our running time versus our cross training
and gym strength time. And then another thing for our
(08:09):
our mentality, I wrote down here, I just felt like running.
It's a quote from the greatest American runner of all time,
Forrest Gump. But just the attitude of that
scene where he just is in pants and a button down and he just
(08:30):
like opens his door and runs outand runs down the road.
That's, you know, as we're valuevaluing frequency.
That's kind of the thing. Like it's going to become time
consuming. Your mileage is supposed to be
picking up and now you're running 6 * a week.
That's going to start to like eat into your everyday life.
(08:54):
So don't overcomplicate it. Just grunt out the door.
Like, you know, I've talked to you about it before.
Like I wear the same stuff. Like I wear the same clothes.
And at points I'm like, I got toput on the shirt and it's like,
Oh my God, you like wash it because it stinks.
But it makes it very, very easy to get out the door.
(09:15):
It's always in the same place. It's always the same stuff.
It depending on the temperature,there's a thing I do or I don't
grab or you know, but it's always right there.
It's always the same thing. And that's going to help a lot
when it comes to like increasingthe the number of times we've
run. Yeah.
But like, before we get into theactual specifics, there's a
couple things there that I really like the and we we should
(09:38):
do logistics episode as well, where we dive a little deeper on
laundry and and such because that that's something that I
struggle with my brain sometimes, like rationalizing,
you know, when do I go? What should I put on?
You know what I mean? Like just get rid of all those
decisions. But it sounds like you've
developed a little bit of a process for that, that I think
(09:59):
we can dive into too. It's impacting your life at this
point, right? You would say you're running
enough that it's become a thing in your life like.
That was it actually. So you, we talked early on about
the schedule, you know, that waspart of month 1 was figuring out
when in my week that I can get out the door.
(10:20):
It makes the most sense with thefamily and other obligations.
And that's going to be importantfor everybody.
But as like month 4 is now calling for more time, right,
there's so there's a consideration to be made there.
Like when is a longer run happening or from running twice?
Like how am I fitting in that second one, right?
(10:40):
A bit of planning. Let's talk about the specifics.
What are your? What are your times?
What do you run? When do you run?
I have limited ability to run super early, but that's an
option here at like usually twice a week.
I would say I can run before anything happens in the day,
like super early 6:00 AM around there.
(11:00):
Maybe that's not super early to everyone, but that's early for
me. Yeah.
And there's typically a, a quickwindow in the afternoon, right.
If I'm, if I'm trying to do somestacking work's done, I'm home,
the kids are home and I can justbomb out for 20 to 30 minutes.
(11:21):
That's a a reliable window. You know, if I was a little
crazier, there's of course the after everybody goes to bed
window, which I have not tried yet My.
Favorite. Hardest, but maybe best, I don't
know. It's it's, it's an interesting
thing that that could become important this month, I think.
(11:41):
Yeah. Well you, you have been able to
make some of the run clubs, right?
Are you incorporating that time into your your weekly schedule?
Like are the? Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
I mean that's, you know, of course we are kind of fortunate
in the, the business we've builtfor ourselves here that I that's
kind of part of my work day, right.
(12:03):
And, and yeah, those, but it's also the weekend so that there
is a compromise with family that's happening there.
Could we do Friday, Saturday, Sundays currently?
So I haven't yet made all three in a row.
That was I thought I was going to do it last week didn't quite
get there. The body needed that Sunday off.
But yeah, so that's part of it. So yeah, we got early morning,
(12:26):
we got mid morning that may or may not eat into work, which
could get difficult. We're getting really busy.
We've got a lot going on here atthe company and we've got the
afternoon potentially. That's sort of like an on the
whim thing. It kind of depends on what's
going on, you know, and if I canbomb down to the end and back of
the street, you know, get a couple miles in that's.
(12:47):
So, so if I'm looking at, at what you're, what you're on the,
the hook here for this, this month, I would, if you have two
mornings that you can put into, into running, I would, I would
back-to-back them and I would put the tempo and a recovery
run. So like if it's a Tuesday and
(13:09):
Wednesday and you're going to goout early in the morning, you
know, Tuesday is a tempo run andthen Wednesday is like a
recovery run and then your, yourmidday stuff.
I would add in that would be like your hill repeats.
So fun your long run. Love those Hill repeats.
(13:34):
And and a hike, you know, that'sthat's how I would structure it.
And then and then you need to get in a couple more.
Those are your like late, like your, your late, your evening
runs or maybe your middle of thenight runs.
And I'm not even going to like don't even those aren't
structured. You're just trying to get out
(13:56):
the door, get out there. You might feel like walking, you
might you might feel like running.
You know, that's just like a run.
Just get out there for a run. Don't put too much thought or
effort into it. But you know, I mean, that's
it's an interesting process to go through.
I mean, I get I come into it a little bit more from like multi
day stuff. So running in the middle of the
(14:17):
night is something that like I have to get good at anyway,
being sleepy and running. But you know, like where did
where we live, like going out at3:00 in the morning and running
under the stars and it's like freezing cold and it's you're
like up in the mountains. It's pretty special.
Like it's pretty cool. Granted, that's going to throw
(14:39):
your work day into like that. It it's not just that run,
right? It's like you got to get up, you
got to get your stuff on. It ends up being a couple hours.
Even if you're going out for like 40 minutes, you know,
you're it's going to be a significant thing.
And then, yeah, you got to wake up the next day.
Do you have a easy run on the schedule the next day?
(15:01):
You know, and then and your kidsand everything.
So use it strategically. I mean, I don't ruin the rest of
the week for it, but I, I would,I would recommend throwing one
in there, you know, to see how it feels something different,
you know, it keeps things interesting as you dial in all
your gear and your ability to get out the door.
(15:23):
Anyways, it'll get easier and you know, it's kind of fun.
It's kind of like, but like the most rebellious thing you can do
running. You mix it up, you're out there
in the middle of the night. Yeah, even if it's, you know, I
could see people reacting like you're insane, right?
Which is which is fine. And every now and then I don't
(15:44):
think it's that crazy to get outthere in the middle of the
night. But I think that the the same
thing could also apply for running at 9:30 PM, right?
And you've, you're still like you're not setting the alarm
clock and going through and maybe, you know, cannibalizing
your morning with whatever you do for work and that kind of.
Thing no, yeah, I, I definitely have a little bit more of a, you
(16:09):
know, reason to run through the middle of the night, but the
same principle could be applied to like after dinner, you know,
Yeah, it's basically getting in a run when it's not like the
opportune moment to go run. There are benefits that you're
going to you're going to get from that.
And like you were saying and we were both talking about how we
didn't want to run yesterday andit's like crazy how much your
(16:34):
mental space shifts after your run or even halfway through it.
It's like, you know, then all ofa sudden you're like, I should
be going further and you know, then you, you're in a different
space when when you get back. Yeah, it's so fast It it's
what's crazy about that to me isI've never really done that with
with workouts, right. Like there's been other things
(16:57):
where I'm like, I just need to get started and I'll start to
enjoy it. But running especially like
that's that's a unique thing because most people I've never
really trained for a running specific event that that was
this big, right, Right. So I never had the like the
burning need to to go and do it,even if I didn't really want to,
(17:21):
right? You know what I mean?
Like I could get away with, OK, I'll not do it.
I'll just get up early and do something.
Else, because you're going to make it to the finish of the 5K
right now. You might not be fast at it, but
you're going to make it to the finish exactly.
But now that's on the table. Yes.
It's like, am I going to make itto the finish?
Of course. Yeah, not only how fast is it
going to happen, but like, am I even getting there?
(17:42):
You know right. Yeah, that'll get you out there.
Absolutely, Yeah. So I like where how you started
this when when we were talking about building out a week that
works for you and then the logistics of it.
So we're you know, I have an early a couple early mornings
available and we talked about a tempo run and and followed by a
recovery run. Yep, recovery being like as slow
(18:04):
and easy as I can go or. Well, I would, I would consider
it more like a scale on a run. So I would walk a little bit
longer at the start. Maybe.
You know, one thing I like to dois I count, I count in my head,
but I skip for like forward, I'll count to 30 while I skip
like 30 skips. And then I'll do, I'll turn to
(18:26):
the left and I'll do side strides, you know, count to 30
side strides. And then I'll turn backwards and
I'll go backwards for 30 and then I'll go to the other side,
right. So you're, you know, you're
activating your lateral movements and your stuff like
that and then like go through like a kind of a warm up
progression on the run and get up to like a decent heart rate,
(18:51):
like and then back off and then kind of do the thing cooling
down. That's kind of how I structure
my recovery runs. If it's just going to be like a
go out and plot along easy low like anaerobic output, like long
thing, to me that's not as much of a recovery thing.
I'm, I'm, I'm looking at a recovery run more like, it's
(19:15):
going to include like some stretch, you know, like kind of
like some like I'll bring my knees up for a little bit.
I'll, I'll walk, I'll kind of, I'll kind of take the run to
like really work out any kind of, you know, just, you know,
you, you're running a lot. So you're going to get sore,
you're going to feel things, your hamstrings are going to be
(19:38):
tight. You're going to want to stretch
things out. That's kind of how I I take on a
recovery run. So getting that body out of the
constant step right? We're doing it on the road a lot
because if you're on the road a lot, you're taking the the same
step a lot of Times Now as we move to trails, that's going to
get like let you're going to be taking different steps a lot,
(20:03):
but still like how often are youlike side, you know, like
stepping? So just keeping your that that
would be a recovery run and you know, I I think that's going to
be most important for you after you do speed work.
So that's why I would kind of layer them like that.
You know speed work is going to be the thing that breaks down
your. Your muscles the most.
(20:25):
That's So you go out and run hard one day, and then you take
a full day to recover from it and you're gonna want to ease
back into running again. I like it.
That sounds great. So then we also talked about
hill repeats, a hike, fun hike. That's I'm excited about that.
You get out there and just go for a.
Hike. That's one thing we added was
like, we're gonna take one of our runs and we're gonna make it
(20:47):
a hike. A couple of big parts, reasons
for that one, you wanna enjoy yourself doing this thing.
Hiking is super enjoyable too. Not everything is about like how
fast you can go. A lot of it is about how long
you're on your feet and hiking. You're going to be out there for
longer, easier. So it's also time to like play
with nutrition and fueling because you're going to be out
(21:11):
there longer and you're going ata slower pace.
You're able to digest food and eat food better.
And so you can kind of play withstuff, you know, see what you
enjoy while you're out there, try out some different things.
But another thing that another reason why you you want to hike
(21:32):
is you want to start getting vert in.
So hiking generally is going to be like going up.
I guess I just take that for granted around here.
But like, yeah, get yeah, hike up, hike up some hills, you
know, start to build that like uphill muscular system in there
(21:53):
and then don't beat your body upcoming down.
Keep Just hike, hike, hike, hike.
Nice. Yeah, I like it.
Yeah, that sounds great. Those are all pretty exciting
besides the hill repeats. Well, and I think a big part
about putting the hill repeats in the middle of the day is that
they're going to be brutal. Like that's suffer fest right
there, right? Because like if you do them
(22:14):
early in the morning, you're feeling great and you're out
there and it's like, Oh yeah. But then like now you've already
got the kids off to school and you ate breakfast and you came
in and you did some work. And then then it's like, oh, now
I'm going to like, go, I could go home and lay on the couch or
I could go do hill repeats. And it's like, you know, that's
a tough, that's a tough one. But we want, we want to have
(22:37):
some tough, some tough runs in there.
Yeah, well, you, I was just about to circle back to that a
little bit anyway, which becausewe talked about it earlier with
getting out there in the middle of the night and and doing
things like that and it goes back to mindset, right?
And in there I kind of just connected these dots right now
as we were talking through this.But there's there's a reason why
(22:59):
we do so many hard things, right?
Not, and I don't, I don't mean like hard workouts.
I mean like two workouts or getting out the door when you
don't want to or doing he'll repeats in the middle of the day
when you could do anything else or you could have gotten out of
the way earlier, right. You've chosen to do it at the
harder time mentally because in the middle of the race shit's
(23:23):
going to be. Hard right?
I mean, that's, it's just part of the we're we're doing
something big enough here that 20 miles go by, the sun comes
out, It's blasting on my head like it's going to be hard.
I would rather be at home on thecouch.
Yeah, man, you want to be good at not giving in to the hard
part. And that's like, you know,
that's the easy out. You're going to have easy outs
(23:46):
in the in the race. Like there's, there's a aid
station every 5 miles you're allowed to quit at.
So, I mean, other people are going to be quitting and they're
going to be sympathetic people at the aid station that are
like, oh, you look like shit. You know, like, you sure you
want to keep going. And they just like your wife and
kids are going to be there. Like, oh, Daddy, you don't need
(24:07):
to keep it. You like, yeah, I got to keep
going, you know? And like you're, you're teaching
yourself that you can make that decision, but you're also going
to teach yourself that, like, it's going to feel better
afterward anyway. So, you know, those are like
good lessons to have before you're in it, you know?
(24:29):
Yeah, for sure. I love it.
All right, We've got some workouts to do.
Yeah, we've got a focus, which is frequency.
Yep. We've got a little mantra from
Mr. Forrest Gump, Greatest American runner of all time.
Absolutely. I feel good, man.
Pass it off and go. Go after month 4.
Cheers man, Cheers. Couch to 50K is an elevated
(24:53):
SoCal project. All rights reserved.
Let's get started. Yeah, Good to see you, Matt.
Cheers dude. How we doing?
We're doing good. We're doing good.
I'm. I'm pretty excited, actually.
This is the halfway point, right?
Let's see. Yeah.
When things start to get real. You know, we, we've got a little
more work to do now. This is month 4, which we've
named frequency. This is couch to. 50K how to
(00:24):
finish? Your first ultra marathon.
We were just talking before the episode.
I've, I've, I've been having to fight the confidence battle of
it's still feeling like a long scary distance and, and needing
(00:45):
and wanting to, to go out and doa lot because we, I've, I've
done a lot already. There's there's been a lot of
training in, in the, you know, the first month we got off the
couch. The second month we we activated
I think. Yeah.
That was the first month. I don't know we'll go back and
look at the terms, but anyway, it's built a lot.
The last the last I did do a lotof running last month and a
(01:07):
little bit of cross training andjust I feel great from it.
You know, kind of put that the constant soreness and fatigue is
is kind of in the rear view now.I mean, I'm still getting sore
from doing because everything isbuilding right, But but it's not
that same. Like I haven't used that muscle
in a year soreness, you know, which was kind of brutal in like
(01:30):
the second month when I really took it after we got off the
couch. Go up a little bit.
Like month 2 is hard from like asoreness and motivation
standpoint and just being tired all the time.
Yeah, I think we referred to it as the boring month.
Yeah, that's right. That's right.
Yeah. It was boring and kind of
demotivating, right. But with a little bit of faith,
(01:51):
I kind of turned that corner. And then the, you know, last
month was great and did a bunch of workouts, started feeling
strong, started noticing those times where I feel like I could
go longer or faster or find the bigger hill, which I did.
We did some hill repeats. I did the first couple in the
neighborhood, which you know if you just looked at it, you would
might not even call it a hill. Right.
(02:15):
But we got one behind the shop here that that kicked my ass
pretty good. That's a good one.
Yeah. So yeah.
Anyway, let's let's talk about what we're about to get into.
Yeah, I you're right, Frequency is the name of the game this
month. And to go back to what you just
mentioned about wanting to go longer, that's absolutely
something that I think is probably on the top of mind
(02:41):
right now for for anybody that'sfollowing this, this program,
like you're running often and you're running a lot more than
you were, but you're not doing anything close to 33 miles.
And so you've got enough time while you're out there to think
about like 30-3 miles, like I'm only going out for three today.
(03:02):
How 30? More like that's not even in the
realm of what I'm doing. So like, let me just go do 15
and yeah, I'm going to suffer through it, but at least I know
like I'm going to get through 15.
But what I'm going to say is like, let's trust the process in
that we're going to value the frequency of running over the
(03:24):
duration. Still at this point, I, it's,
it's just something you're goingto have to switch in your head.
You don't have to be running farright now in order to be able to
run far in June. You need to be good at getting
out the door and going out for arun.
And if you can double up, like we talked about some days where
(03:45):
you're running on tired legs, you're going to kind of mimic
how you feel at mile 15 anyway. But you're not going to have to
put in the like the 10 to extra 10 miles to get there.
You're still going to, your legsare going to be heavy.
You're going to be tired from a day of running in the morning
and then taking care of kids andworking and doing all the
(04:05):
things. And then you're going to go out
for an evening run and it's, youknow, you're going to be tired.
And so you're going to get thoselike like that overcoming like
being tired and running. You're going to get that through
the frequency, but you're not going to abuse your body as
hard. I like that.
I could also see it. You know, I thought is that
(04:27):
that's, that was exactly my thought.
I'm going to go run 15 miles just to tell my brain that, OK,
then I double it and I'm basically there, right?
That could backfire too, right? I go run the 15 and the last
five are absolute hell. Then you walk back in the door
like, can I do that? That's even worse.
And you're like going to be on the couch the next day and then
(04:49):
you're and you're going to be questioning like, oh, man, like
it. I feel you.
I'm training for Coca Dona rightnow as well, which is a month
before Holcomb Valley. I mean, I'm, you know, getting
ready to run 250 miles. And it's the same thing, even
(05:10):
though I've done it twice and I know I can do it.
I, you know, just, I'm in the same place of valuing high
frequency over duration. And so I'm running twice a day
most days, but not very far. And I'm, you know, doing that,
that run when I'm really tired in the middle of the night, you
(05:31):
know, I'm, I'm, I'm intentionally making it more
difficult. And I know that that works for
me, but it's still like, it's like this long term game of like
trusting that it's going to pay off when the when the time
comes. Because during some of my runs,
I'm like, are you kidding me? Like, dude, 255, like do you
(05:57):
like, do you know how far that is?
And it's like, I'm tired right now.
I've been running for, you know,30 minutes.
Yeah, I did. I there is the opposite of that,
even on shorter runs where you, where you have a great run
totally, you know, and it was nice and fast and it was, it was
a solid 5 miles, right? And then like there, there's
confidence there too, right? And like, OK, six times, you
(06:20):
know, it's a lot to do that six times back-to-back to
back-to-back to back-to-back to back or whatever that is.
But it's it, there's confidence there.
Like I feel great. And I know I would have kept
feeling great for a while if I'dhave kept going.
But yeah, trust the process thatthat's a big one, man.
I remember that from other typesof races where it's like you've
done all the training, you've done the recovery, you fueled
(06:43):
nutrition, everything's dialed and you're ready to go.
And you show up on race morning,everybody has a moment of doubt,
you know, unless you're a psychopath, right?
Who's like, I'm going to win everything I do.
Everybody has that little bit ofdoubt, like, am I ready?
Yeah, no, you know. I hope we're we're building up
to to limit that, you know, for you and and watch it kind of go
(07:05):
away throughout the day. One thing if we're talking
specifically about the, the planthat you want to start
considering is I know we're doing some strength training and
in the gym and cross training and, and you don't want to give
that stuff up, but I think now is a good time to kind of start
(07:27):
to steer it towards cardio basedmore than, you know, muscular
building. If you're, if you're thrown
around weights and stuff like that, maybe you limit the
weights a little bit more. I mean, the idea is like, as we
get closer to the race, we're going to specialize in running.
So we're, we're going to give upa little bit of the cross
(07:47):
training and gym time to make time more time for running.
Not that those things aren't beneficial, but we've, you know,
use them. And now we're going to like kind
of try to increase our running time versus our cross training
and gym strength time. And then another thing for our
(08:09):
our mentality, I wrote down here, I just felt like running.
It's a quote from the greatest American runner of all time,
Forrest Gump. But just the attitude of that
scene where he just is in pants and a button down and he just
(08:30):
like opens his door and runs outand runs down the road.
That's, you know, as we're valuevaluing frequency.
That's kind of the thing. Like it's going to become time
consuming. Your mileage is supposed to be
picking up and now you're running 6 * a week.
That's going to start to like eat into your everyday life.
(08:54):
So don't overcomplicate it. Just grunt out the door.
Like, you know, I've talked to you about it before.
Like I wear the same stuff. Like I wear the same clothes.
And at points I'm like, I got toput on the shirt and it's like,
Oh my God, you like wash it because it stinks.
But it makes it very, very easy to get out the door.
(09:15):
It's always in the same place. It's always the same stuff.
It depending on the temperature,there's a thing I do or I don't
grab or you know, but it's always right there.
It's always the same thing. And that's going to help a lot
when it comes to like increasingthe the number of times we've
run. Yeah.
But like, before we get into theactual specifics, there's a
couple things there that I really like the and we we should
(09:38):
do logistics episode as well, where we dive a little deeper on
laundry and and such because that that's something that I
struggle with my brain sometimes, like rationalizing,
you know, when do I go? What should I put on?
You know what I mean? Like just get rid of all those
decisions. But it sounds like you've
developed a little bit of a process for that, that I think
(09:59):
we can dive into too. It's impacting your life at this
point, right? You would say you're running
enough that it's become a thing in your life like.
That was it actually. So you, we talked early on about
the schedule, you know, that waspart of month 1 was figuring out
when in my week that I can get out the door.
(10:20):
It makes the most sense with thefamily and other obligations.
And that's going to be importantfor everybody.
But as like month 4 is now calling for more time, right,
there's so there's a consideration to be made there.
Like when is a longer run happening or from running twice?
Like how am I fitting in that second one, right?
(10:40):
A bit of planning. Let's talk about the specifics.
What are your? What are your times?
What do you run? When do you run?
I have limited ability to run super early, but that's an
option here at like usually twice a week.
I would say I can run before anything happens in the day,
like super early 6:00 AM around there.
(11:00):
Maybe that's not super early to everyone, but that's early for
me. Yeah.
And there's typically a, a quickwindow in the afternoon, right.
If I'm, if I'm trying to do somestacking work's done, I'm home,
the kids are home and I can justbomb out for 20 to 30 minutes.
(11:21):
That's a a reliable window. You know, if I was a little
crazier, there's of course the after everybody goes to bed
window, which I have not tried yet My.
Favorite. Hardest, but maybe best, I don't
know. It's it's, it's an interesting
thing that that could become important this month, I think.
(11:41):
Yeah. Well you, you have been able to
make some of the run clubs, right?
Are you incorporating that time into your your weekly schedule?
Like are the? Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
I mean that's, you know, of course we are kind of fortunate
in the, the business we've builtfor ourselves here that I that's
kind of part of my work day, right.
(12:03):
And, and yeah, those, but it's also the weekend so that there
is a compromise with family that's happening there.
Could we do Friday, Saturday, Sundays currently?
So I haven't yet made all three in a row.
That was I thought I was going to do it last week didn't quite
get there. The body needed that Sunday off.
But yeah, so that's part of it. So yeah, we got early morning,
(12:26):
we got mid morning that may or may not eat into work, which
could get difficult. We're getting really busy.
We've got a lot going on here atthe company and we've got the
afternoon potentially. That's sort of like an on the
whim thing. It kind of depends on what's
going on, you know, and if I canbomb down to the end and back of
the street, you know, get a couple miles in that's.
(12:47):
So, so if I'm looking at, at what you're, what you're on the,
the hook here for this, this month, I would, if you have two
mornings that you can put into, into running, I would, I would
back-to-back them and I would put the tempo and a recovery
run. So like if it's a Tuesday and
(13:09):
Wednesday and you're going to goout early in the morning, you
know, Tuesday is a tempo run andthen Wednesday is like a
recovery run and then your, yourmidday stuff.
I would add in that would be like your hill repeats.
So fun your long run. Love those Hill repeats.
(13:34):
And and a hike, you know, that'sthat's how I would structure it.
And then and then you need to get in a couple more.
Those are your like late, like your, your late, your evening
runs or maybe your middle of thenight runs.
And I'm not even going to like don't even those aren't
structured. You're just trying to get out
(13:56):
the door, get out there. You might feel like walking, you
might you might feel like running.
You know, that's just like a run.
Just get out there for a run. Don't put too much thought or
effort into it. But you know, I mean, that's
it's an interesting process to go through.
I mean, I get I come into it a little bit more from like multi
day stuff. So running in the middle of the
(14:17):
night is something that like I have to get good at anyway,
being sleepy and running. But you know, like where did
where we live, like going out at3:00 in the morning and running
under the stars and it's like freezing cold and it's you're
like up in the mountains. It's pretty special.
Like it's pretty cool. Granted, that's going to throw
(14:39):
your work day into like that. It it's not just that run,
right? It's like you got to get up, you
got to get your stuff on. It ends up being a couple hours.
Even if you're going out for like 40 minutes, you know,
you're it's going to be a significant thing.
And then, yeah, you got to wake up the next day.
Do you have a easy run on the schedule the next day?
(15:01):
You know, and then and your kidsand everything.
So use it strategically. I mean, I don't ruin the rest of
the week for it, but I, I would,I would recommend throwing one
in there, you know, to see how it feels something different,
you know, it keeps things interesting as you dial in all
your gear and your ability to get out the door.
(15:23):
Anyways, it'll get easier and you know, it's kind of fun.
It's kind of like, but like the most rebellious thing you can do
running. You mix it up, you're out there
in the middle of the night. Yeah, even if it's, you know, I
could see people reacting like you're insane, right?
Which is which is fine. And every now and then I don't
(15:44):
think it's that crazy to get outthere in the middle of the
night. But I think that the the same
thing could also apply for running at 9:30 PM, right?
And you've, you're still like you're not setting the alarm
clock and going through and maybe, you know, cannibalizing
your morning with whatever you do for work and that kind of.
Thing no, yeah, I, I definitely have a little bit more of a, you
(16:09):
know, reason to run through the middle of the night, but the
same principle could be applied to like after dinner, you know,
Yeah, it's basically getting in a run when it's not like the
opportune moment to go run. There are benefits that you're
going to you're going to get from that.
And like you were saying and we were both talking about how we
didn't want to run yesterday andit's like crazy how much your
(16:34):
mental space shifts after your run or even halfway through it.
It's like, you know, then all ofa sudden you're like, I should
be going further and you know, then you, you're in a different
space when when you get back. Yeah, it's so fast It it's
what's crazy about that to me isI've never really done that with
with workouts, right. Like there's been other things
(16:57):
where I'm like, I just need to get started and I'll start to
enjoy it. But running especially like
that's that's a unique thing because most people I've never
really trained for a running specific event that that was
this big, right, Right. So I never had the like the
burning need to to go and do it,even if I didn't really want to,
(17:21):
right? You know what I mean?
Like I could get away with, OK, I'll not do it.
I'll just get up early and do something.
Else, because you're going to make it to the finish of the 5K
right now. You might not be fast at it, but
you're going to make it to the finish exactly.
But now that's on the table. Yes.
It's like, am I going to make itto the finish?
Of course. Yeah, not only how fast is it
going to happen, but like, am I even getting there?
(17:42):
You know right. Yeah, that'll get you out there.
Absolutely, Yeah. So I like where how you started
this when when we were talking about building out a week that
works for you and then the logistics of it.
So we're you know, I have an early a couple early mornings
available and we talked about a tempo run and and followed by a
recovery run. Yep, recovery being like as slow
(18:04):
and easy as I can go or. Well, I would, I would consider
it more like a scale on a run. So I would walk a little bit
longer at the start. Maybe.
You know, one thing I like to dois I count, I count in my head,
but I skip for like forward, I'll count to 30 while I skip
like 30 skips. And then I'll do, I'll turn to
(18:26):
the left and I'll do side strides, you know, count to 30
side strides. And then I'll turn backwards and
I'll go backwards for 30 and then I'll go to the other side,
right. So you're, you know, you're
activating your lateral movements and your stuff like
that and then like go through like a kind of a warm up
progression on the run and get up to like a decent heart rate,
(18:51):
like and then back off and then kind of do the thing cooling
down. That's kind of how I structure
my recovery runs. If it's just going to be like a
go out and plot along easy low like anaerobic output, like long
thing, to me that's not as much of a recovery thing.
I'm, I'm, I'm looking at a recovery run more like, it's
(19:15):
going to include like some stretch, you know, like kind of
like some like I'll bring my knees up for a little bit.
I'll, I'll walk, I'll kind of, I'll kind of take the run to
like really work out any kind of, you know, just, you know,
you, you're running a lot. So you're going to get sore,
you're going to feel things, your hamstrings are going to be
(19:38):
tight. You're going to want to stretch
things out. That's kind of how I I take on a
recovery run. So getting that body out of the
constant step right? We're doing it on the road a lot
because if you're on the road a lot, you're taking the the same
step a lot of Times Now as we move to trails, that's going to
get like let you're going to be taking different steps a lot,
(20:03):
but still like how often are youlike side, you know, like
stepping? So just keeping your that that
would be a recovery run and you know, I I think that's going to
be most important for you after you do speed work.
So that's why I would kind of layer them like that.
You know speed work is going to be the thing that breaks down
your. Your muscles the most.
(20:25):
That's So you go out and run hard one day, and then you take
a full day to recover from it and you're gonna want to ease
back into running again. I like it.
That sounds great. So then we also talked about
hill repeats, a hike, fun hike. That's I'm excited about that.
You get out there and just go for a.
Hike. That's one thing we added was
like, we're gonna take one of our runs and we're gonna make it
(20:47):
a hike. A couple of big parts, reasons
for that one, you wanna enjoy yourself doing this thing.
Hiking is super enjoyable too. Not everything is about like how
fast you can go. A lot of it is about how long
you're on your feet and hiking. You're going to be out there for
longer, easier. So it's also time to like play
with nutrition and fueling because you're going to be out
(21:11):
there longer and you're going ata slower pace.
You're able to digest food and eat food better.
And so you can kind of play withstuff, you know, see what you
enjoy while you're out there, try out some different things.
But another thing that another reason why you you want to hike
(21:32):
is you want to start getting vert in.
So hiking generally is going to be like going up.
I guess I just take that for granted around here.
But like, yeah, get yeah, hike up, hike up some hills, you
know, start to build that like uphill muscular system in there
(21:53):
and then don't beat your body upcoming down.
Keep Just hike, hike, hike, hike.
Nice. Yeah, I like it.
Yeah, that sounds great. Those are all pretty exciting
besides the hill repeats. Well, and I think a big part
about putting the hill repeats in the middle of the day is that
they're going to be brutal. Like that's suffer fest right
there, right? Because like if you do them
(22:14):
early in the morning, you're feeling great and you're out
there and it's like, Oh yeah. But then like now you've already
got the kids off to school and you ate breakfast and you came
in and you did some work. And then then it's like, oh, now
I'm going to like, go, I could go home and lay on the couch or
I could go do hill repeats. And it's like, you know, that's
a tough, that's a tough one. But we want, we want to have
(22:37):
some tough, some tough runs in there.
Yeah, well, you, I was just about to circle back to that a
little bit anyway, which becausewe talked about it earlier with
getting out there in the middle of the night and and doing
things like that and it goes back to mindset, right?
And in there I kind of just connected these dots right now
as we were talking through this.But there's there's a reason why
(22:59):
we do so many hard things, right?
Not, and I don't, I don't mean like hard workouts.
I mean like two workouts or getting out the door when you
don't want to or doing he'll repeats in the middle of the day
when you could do anything else or you could have gotten out of
the way earlier, right. You've chosen to do it at the
harder time mentally because in the middle of the race shit's
(23:23):
going to be. Hard right?
I mean, that's, it's just part of the we're we're doing
something big enough here that 20 miles go by, the sun comes
out, It's blasting on my head like it's going to be hard.
I would rather be at home on thecouch.
Yeah, man, you want to be good at not giving in to the hard
part. And that's like, you know,
that's the easy out. You're going to have easy outs
(23:46):
in the in the race. Like there's, there's a aid
station every 5 miles you're allowed to quit at.
So, I mean, other people are going to be quitting and they're
going to be sympathetic people at the aid station that are
like, oh, you look like shit. You know, like, you sure you
want to keep going. And they just like your wife and
kids are going to be there. Like, oh, Daddy, you don't need
(24:07):
to keep it. You like, yeah, I got to keep
going, you know? And like you're, you're teaching
yourself that you can make that decision, but you're also going
to teach yourself that, like, it's going to feel better
afterward anyway. So, you know, those are like
good lessons to have before you're in it, you know?
(24:29):
Yeah, for sure. I love it.
All right, We've got some workouts to do.
Yeah, we've got a focus, which is frequency.
Yep. We've got a little mantra from
Mr. Forrest Gump, Greatest American runner of all time.
Absolutely. I feel good, man.
Pass it off and go. Go after month 4.
Cheers man, Cheers. Couch to 50K is an elevated
(24:53):
SoCal project. All rights reserved.
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