Couch to 50k STRENGTH: MONTH 3

Summary

In this conversation, the speakers discuss the journey of training for an ultra marathon, focusing on the importance of building both mental and physical strength. They emphasize the need for a sustainable training approach, the significance of enjoying the process, and the incorporation of specific techniques in trail running. The introduction of two-a-day runs is highlighted as a method to enhance training efficiency and prepare for race day challenges. Overall, the conversation is motivational, encouraging listeners to embrace the journey and find joy in their training.

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Takeaways

The first two months of training showed significant improvement.

Cramming for training doesn't work; consistency is key.

The focus should be on the health benefits of training, not just the race.

Winning can be personal; it's about beating your own records.

Enjoyment is crucial during the race; it's a reward for hard work.

Technique in trail running is essential for efficiency.

Two-a-day runs can enhance training and reduce recovery time.

Mental strength is as important as physical strength in training.

Training prepares you for the real challenges of race day.

The race should be seen as a celebration of your training efforts.

Sound bites

"Train to win, race for fun."

"You can make win personal."

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
What's up dude, How we doing today?
We are good. How are you?
I'm good, I'm good. Yeah, it's it's all progressing
feels good. I'm excited to dive into to our
next module here. This is this is going well.
Yeah, man, you're in it. This is Couch.
To 50K. How to finish?

(00:21):
Your first ultra marathon. Now we've arrived at strength,
Yep, it's time to to build some muscle and some mental muscle as
well, some grit to go along withthe dedication and and keep the
motivation high. So we're definitely excited for

(00:43):
this month. Yeah, man.
So how how you feel like the first two months of 1st?
We were good. We got off the couch it, it hurt
a lot less by the end of that first month than it did at the
beginning, you know, physically,mentally, all all the way
around. Went into month 2 feeling pretty
good and yeah, put in some, somedecent mileage out there, got

(01:05):
pretty consistent with it and found the, the points in my
schedule where I was able to, tostay consistent, which it was,
which was satisfying. You know, it's dude, that's the
IT, it maybe it's a personality thing.
That's certainly one of the harder bits for me.
I'm, I'm the, as I've mentioned before, I'm the kind of guy
who's like, let's just knock it out, right?

(01:28):
Like my, my mentality for a big project.
Sometimes it's just a pull an all nighter and get it done.
You know that clearly doesn't work here.
You cannot cram train like you can for a final exam, right?
Yeah, not if you want to enjoy it and be successful.
We've we've talked about you could probably at this point go
suffer your way through a 50K and then be back on the couch

(01:51):
for another year, but that's notthe goal.
No, it's not creating sustainability here.
Absolutely. Yeah.
Well, so on that note, our mentality for this month is
train to win, race for fun. We could also look at that like
train like it matters, race for fun.

(02:12):
You know, the, the idea being that the, what we're getting out
of this program is this 6 monthsleading up to the race, like
the, the race is the goal. And, you know, as everything
progresses and as we get there, that race should be a lot of
fun, you know, but that's, you know, 6 hours, 7 hours of your

(02:33):
life, where the rest of this like 6 months that you're
dedicating to doing that. And that's the real benefit.
The, the real benefit is like the health benefits, the, the
mental benefits that you get from the six months of training.
And it matters, man, it, it really matters.
The more that you do this, the more that it will matter in your

(02:54):
life. And remember that when you're
training like you are training for the training, you know, not
for the race. Right, right.
Yeah. I like that train to win.
I, you know, I'm, I have no dissolutions that I'm going to
win this 50K, but I will say there is a mentality that lives

(03:14):
in there which it like when I'm out doing my hill repeats, I'm
picturing myself passing people,you know, So when you make you
can make win personal, I think, right.
And and what you're either you're beating yourself or
you're beating the next person out there or maybe you're
clocking a few spots up the leaderboard there.
And that's that's all still verymotivating for me.

(03:36):
Actually I, you know, I've come close in a couple of big races,
but I've never really won like abig race.
I've won some little local things, but I've had some great
performances. But you know, in training I've
I've crossed, I've won so many races while I'm training.
You know, it's just in your headand you're just like, Oh, this

(03:57):
is the final push, you know, youknow, and, and it it is
motivating and it is fun and youknow, you got to be a little bit
delusional. But if that's what it takes to
get the most out of out of your workout, you know, with the
second part of it, race for fun,you know, when you show up at

(04:19):
the start line of the race, you kind of leave that behind.
And now it's like, OK, well, I, I did the work.
I'm going to do what I can, but I'm going to enjoy it.
You know, that's the whole pointof being here.
Now we get to enjoy it. So I love that.
It reminds me of being a kid. You know when you're a little
kid and you're hitting the buzzer beater shot in the in the
driveway, bottom of the ninth, two outs hit me, Dad, throw me

(04:42):
the pitch, right? That's it's, it's a fun thing to
channel. I mean, do you know what are we
doing if we can't have a little fun at the same time?
So for some specifics, we're still running three to four
times a week. OK.
We're going to increase our mileage again this month.
You know, really we should be kind of increasing every week

(05:05):
except for our recovery weeks, but really no more than like 10%
or whatever. So that's like a maybe a mile on
on a run. Last month we kind of
incorporated like specifics intoour runs with the hill repeats
or the hill runs and the tempo run.

(05:26):
Now we're going to like start toadd some difficulty to those
specific runs. So like, let's make the hills a
little bit bigger, you know, let's make the tempo runs a
little bit faster and like really like try and pay
attention to the way we're approaching those runs.
Our form, our technique. The technique on downhills is

(05:49):
like, that's the game. You know, you're especially when
we're talking about trails, you're like, you have to pick
every step. If you're, you know, when you're
coming down the hill and it's rocky and the trails winding,
you're engaged in every step andyou, you got to you, you want to

(06:10):
hone in this technique of like landing at on the right spot
while looking for the next spot,which is not something that you
do when you're running on the road, right.
So we're you want to start to really concentrate on those
things. That's going to make it.
It's going to make it less like you're going to exert less

(06:31):
energy, say coming down a hill when you can pick your spots
better. Same with going up a hill.
Like there's a difference. You could take a different path
on the same trail going up, likeI'm going to high step up onto
this rock or I'm going to like tiptoe around it.

(06:52):
And I'm not going to say which one's better.
But what you want to start doingis figuring out how to read, you
know, the trail in front of you so that you're like, you're a
step ahead of the step that you're you're taking.
Is that is that going to make sense?
Absolutely. Yeah, I've, I've thought about
that actually in the, the few trail runs that I've already

(07:14):
done is, you know, it is that, is it a better use of energy for
me to take that big step or take5 steps to that are smaller and
easier? And I, you know it in terms of
where I've been so far, it just depends on the moment, right?
If it's at the beginning and I've got the energy out, maybe I
just keep pushing, right? Go take the big step towards the

(07:35):
end. Maybe I'm conserving so I've
still got another mile. I want to get through and I want
to feel good doing it. I don't want to end of the run
right now, right? Yeah, but yeah, it's.
Jumping up on rocks usually is not the the path looks cool, but
it depends, you know, if you're feeling good, you got somebody
in your sight, you know, you want to get get around somebody

(07:56):
or whatever. Being able to take a big step
that that's going to be really helpful.
But I think a lot of it is more paying attention to the
technique that you need to be able to do either one and start
honing those in a little bit. One other thing I I enjoyed at

(08:17):
the end of last month during therecovery week, I took a moment
to actually look at a little bitof the data right, of of the
runs and kind of make just a double check.
You know what? I still we're we're not taking,
you know, times and pace too, too seriously quite yet, But it
was nice to see the progression,right?

(08:37):
And and that's what we're talking about now, adding a
little speed to the tempo, adding a little distance,
picking a bigger hill. That's motivating, man, right,
because if you're like, Oh, you,you get to look down and even
even in real time, right, I'm ona bigger hill today.
I feel just as good on this hillas I did on the smaller hill.
You feel that progression and and that's, that's definitely a

(08:58):
motivator for me. Yeah.
Well. And you've been at it now for a
minute. So you should be starting to
feel that progression. Use that as a reward.
And then and then put yourself in a position where you're doing
runs that feel like you did month 1, you know, So like

(09:22):
remember, you know, the next time you run up a hill, like, oh
man, that was like, that was wayeasier.
It's like, I probably need a bigger hill now, you know, And
that's how we're going to start slowly, slowly entering our way
into harder and harder territory.
Another big thing that we are going to incorporate this month,
which is a lot of fun, is 2 a day runs.

(09:44):
So not sure I've ever done that in my life.
Speak more. OK, so it's just one, one day a
week. This is going to be not on the
day you do a hill run or a temporun.
It's going to be on your base run.
You're going to add in another very short base run later in the
day. I love this.

(10:09):
This has been a huge part of my progression in ultra running and
training. I think it has two really big
benefits. One, I think it allows you to
not run as far in training, which the other thing that
allows you to do is to not spendas much time recovering.

(10:30):
So long runs are great and we'regoing to incorporate long runs.
You have to do long runs, but they take a lot of time to
recover. And if you want to keep running
and you don't want to have to recover as much, then running
two times in a day is like, it'salmost like a shortcut.
A couple of things that make it very beneficial in my, my

(10:54):
opinion. Getting out for the second run
is extremely challenging. Just getting out the door.
You're like used to getting a night's sleep after, you know,
and waking up and feeling good. Now I'm going to go out and run
you. You're going to have to like
find another time in your schedule, right, where you can
add in another run. It's probably going to be like

(11:17):
at night, like in the dark afteryour kids go to bed or something
like that. Like the least opportune time,
like the last thing you want to do is run.
So we're going to keep it short is like the main benefit that
you're going to get is from getting out the door and
activating your muscles. You don't need to run.
You don't need to run far. You need to get yourself out and

(11:38):
do it. And so like I have recommended,
like at the start of this month,it's a two mile run in the
evening, right? You're going to run a 6 Miller
base run in the morning or in the afternoon whenever you
normally run. And then later that day you're
going to go out and you're goingto go run for two miles.
That's it, Super easy. OK, yeah, super easy.

(12:01):
Actually. I was going to say I'm noticing
A recurring theme of doing hard things as a part of this
training plan, more for the mental side, even the even than
the physical right? Because I know I can do that,
but like you said, it's that much harder knowing you already
ran that day to go do it again. It is a big, it is, it's mental.

(12:21):
I, I think you will find very quickly that as soon as you
start moving, like literally within a few minutes, you're
feeling good. Like I bet it's hard for you to
only run 2 miles when you go outon that second one.
But I, I think keep it short. You'll have plenty of two days

(12:46):
later where the second one isn'tshort.
So right now we're just going toestablish that time commitment,
that pattern and that like knowledge that, you know, you
can get out the door for the second run.
That's going to make, that's going to make the later months
easier when we're like stacking longer runs in two a days and
and we're starting to build it up.

(13:06):
But it's, you know, it, it's notmaybe conventional.
I think it's picking up a lot more steam.
I, I, I have heard a lot more people talking about multi day,
like 2 and two a day in the position I'm in.
It's, you know, gets ridiculous.I'll run like leading up to Coca
Dona, like I'll have a month of two or three a day.

(13:29):
So I'll run, I'll go out for a long run in the morning.
I'll do like a really obnoxious,like repetitive.
I do laps at the campground or hill repeats in the middle of
the day. What?
And then at night I'll go like anice, really easy recovery like
jog, hike type thing. And last year when I ran Coco

(13:51):
Donut and all of my training, I never went over 25 miles for one
long run. What I would get up to like 40
miles in one day of training, but never once for a long run.
And so when we talk about recovery, we'll talk about like
immediate recovery, post run recovery, which allows for the
second run to be a lot, you know, easier to get out and, and

(14:15):
even a third one in addition to like the whole recovery week to,
to let your body. Yeah, yeah, no, it's great.
I, I want to unpack it just a little bit more because I do
feel like there's a magic in this that is not something
that's talked about a lot and that it seems that the stacking
of the runs, right? Like it's not only going to be

(14:36):
hard, just get out the door and maybe it will feel great as you
say, we'll see. But I also recognize this going
to make that next morning hard as well, right.
So you've just made you, you, you already were going a little
harder. You're adding an extra run there
in the middle and now you're waking up even little more

(14:56):
depleted than you then you were in the past and having to push
through that. Right.
So I guess my question is beyondthe things that you've already
spoken about with stacking multiple runs in a day, like
what benefit do you see in the in the long term, right?
Like on on race day, right? Like what do you feel like you

(15:18):
can sort of harken back to that?First of all, for the people who
don't know, Coco Dona is a 250 mile race, very long multi day
event with a lot that we don't need to get into here.
But and saying that you never ran more than 25 miles to
prepare for that. There's people out there that
would say you're nuts, right? But your results speak for

(15:39):
themselves and and that philosophy has worked really
well for you. So how did, how did doing that
in training translate to race day and how you were thinking
about it as you're going throughthe race?
Yeah. Like for that race, like for me
in a race like Coca Dona, you know, you take naps and so
waking up from a nap and starting to run again is is a

(16:01):
whole thing. Wait, I don't.
Get to take a nap. No naps.
Well, I was going to say for you, you're going to sit down at
an aid station, right? You're going to get to an aid
station. You're going to sit down and
you're going to, you're going tobe like, oh, you're going to be
tired, right? And you're going to want to stay
in that chair and, and you're going to get some food and
you're going to be what, you know, some ice on you and you're

(16:21):
going to be ready and you're going to have to get up and
start running again. And I think that is, that is
what we're training our body to do is to go out again.
You aren't always going to be starting feeling like you just
got 8 hours of sleep and had a great dinner last night.
And you know, like that's not the way that it works.

(16:42):
You go to the aid station at mile 26 and you sit down for
three minutes and eat some watermelon and you replenish
your pack. And then it's like, oh man, I
got 7 miles in a mountain to climb.
And it's like you, you need to train your body to know that you
can get up and go do that again.So I think that's the biggest

(17:03):
like real world, you know, real race impact that running multi
times a day is going to have. I like it.
Yeah. That, that makes a lot of sense.
I see that link between doing that in training, even if it is
split over the day, that feelingof of that second one going out
or even the next morning when the light goes off.
Yeah, I think. You're about good.

(17:26):
Anyway, look, we're we're makingthe runs harder.
We're going to add a 2A day intothe week and yeah, we're going
to remember that the benefit that we're getting is all the
training that we're doing and the fun parts at the end when we
get to race. I like it.
The race has a little bit of a reward.

(17:48):
Just go out there. It's like a party, right?
It's the party at the end of thework.
Very cool. I'm excited.
That sounds good. We're going to train to win,
whatever that means personally, and race for fun.
Yeah, ma'am. Sounds great.
It's good all right, man. Cheers, couch to 50K.

(18:11):
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