March 13, 2025 • 32 mins
#133 - Today we sit down with Frank Walsh, an accomplished athlete and CrossFit coach with expertise in OCR, hybrid racing, and CrossFit. Frank shares his inspiring journey from being bullied in high school to finding his passion in running and how he now helps others reach their fitness goals.
With his CrossFit Level One certification and experience founding a local run club, Frank offers five powerful, actionable strategies to help anyone have a successful fitness journey, whether they're just getting started or looking to improve. Frank's approach focuses on making running accessible to everyone, including those intimidated by it.
Topics Covered:
- Frank's personal journey from high school track athlete to CrossFit coach and run club founder
- Five essential training techniques for beginner runners
- How to overcome common barriers to running and make it an enjoyable part of your fitness routine
- Practical strategies to prevent injuries and improve performance for beginning runners
Today’s Guest
Frank Walsh
With a proven track record in OCR hybrid and CrossFit, Frank discovered his true passion in helping others reach their goals. Armed with a CrossFit Level 1 certification and multiple other qualifications, he's earned a respected reputation in the community. Frank also founded a local run club, supporting both runners and non-runners alike in achieving their personal fitness milestones.
Follow Frank Walsh:
- Instagram - @franklyfitpt
- Instagram - @wknarf
- Instagram - @strive_dux
- Instagram - @strive_norwell
Resources:
- Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor
- Incrediwear: Code for 10% off RICHARDCONNER
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, my friend, today we have a great conversation
for you, as I sit down with anathlete and coach who not only
shares his inspiring journey,but also how he helps others in
their fitness journey, whetherthey're just getting started or
they're just kind of along theirfitness journey.
He shares five powerful,actionable things that can help
you have a successful fitnessjourney.
(00:22):
Hope you enjoy.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Welcome to Inspire to Run podcast.
Here you will find inspiration,whether you are looking to take
control of your health andfitness or you are a seasoned
runner looking for community andsome extra motivation.
You will hear inspiring storiesfrom amazing runners, along
with helpful tips from fitnessexperts.
Now here's your host, richard.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Conner.
Hi, my friend.
Welcome to Inspired to RunPodcast.
I'm happy to sit down withFrank Walsh today.
He's an athlete and CrossFitcoach and has a proven track
record in OCR, hybrid andCrossFit.
Frank discovered his truepassion in helping others reach
their goals and is armed with aCrossFit Level 1 certification
(01:06):
and multiple otherqualifications.
He has earned a respectedreputation in the community and
also founded a local run clubsupporting both runners and
non-runners alike in achievingtheir personal fitness
milestones.
Welcome to the show, frank.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
Thank you for having me, Richard.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Yeah, of course We've known each other for I think
it's been a couple of years,kind of through DECA and races
and through Underdog, and it'sreally cool to have you on the
show finally and just learn alittle bit about you and learn a
little bit about what you'redoing in terms of CrossFit
coaching and your run club andall that.
So you've got a lot of excitingthings going on and you know
it's just a pleasure for me tohave you on the show and chat
(01:46):
with you for a few minutes.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Yeah, I appreciate it .
Yeah, I think it's been sincethe underdogs first.
Decker Strong was when we firstmet.
Which was what?
2019, when that first kickedoff.
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Yeah, it was a long time ago.
Yeah, post-covid, post COVID,so maybe 2020, but that's, it's
been a while.
Time flies when you're havingfun, I guess.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
So yeah.
So let's hear a little bitabout yourself.
You know you're, you'reCrossFit coach, you started the
run club.
You've got a lot of greatthings going on You're you're an
excellent athlete, like I'veseen you perform many times and
you're just incredible.
So love to hear a little bitabout your story, like kind of a
little bit of your journey thatled you up to this point?
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Yeah, perfect.
So back when I was probably inelementary school, you know, I
did soccer, baseball, basketball, kind of everything, all the
sports that everyone did.
And then once I hit middleschool I kind of started to fade
off, stop really performing insports.
I biked with my friends aroundtown, kind of the only exercise
I got, biked with my friendsaround town, kind of the only
(02:47):
exercise I got.
And then once high school hit,my parents wanted me to get into
sports and I would try out andnot make it because I didn't do
these sports for so long and my,my mom and dad used to do track
in high school and they're like, why don't you try track?
Like you used to run soccer andyou know you used to bike.
So you got that endurance.
I'm like I mean, I guess like Iam the complete opposite of
(03:09):
what I used to be in high school.
But my friend and I justdecided to do it together.
It was sophomore year of highschool, it was winter track and
I just fell in love with it.
I did the 200 meter dash and Ialso did the relay and I just, I
just fell in love with it.
I I didn't really have the mostamount of friends growing up.
(03:32):
I was bullied quite a bit.
So I think I fell in love withthe sport just because of that
competition side, like you know,being able to beat someone and
hold yourself to that and Ithink that that's what really
started to kick off my fitnessjourney.
That led me into cross country,which I was able to hit my first
sub 25 K right out of highschool, which was awesome, and
(03:56):
since then I've been trying tofind other things to replicate
that.
So I found Decafit, which, asyou know, there's the teams
where it's that relay style yougo, I go.
Um, same thing for high rocks,that relay doubles race, and, um
, the thing that really kickedit off for me was Spartan back
(04:17):
in the mountains doing that.
You know it was a lot ofrunning and obstacles and just
kind of everything mashedtogether.
And you know, here I am now.
It's been 10 years since Igraduated high school already,
which is insane and I'm nowcoaching at a Strive CrossFit up
in Norwell and Duxbury,Massachusetts, and I started my
(04:39):
own run club, which, you know, asenior in high school wouldn't
have imagined this for myself,so no, yeah, of course.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
Yeah, well, you know it's interesting that you talked
about.
You know your other sports,like soccer and everything else
that you're doing.
And then you know your parentsencourage you to try track and
then eventually cross country.
And it's really funny becauseyou know a lot of guests we have
on the show and they have someother sport other than running
as their main sport.
(05:07):
Running is usually not liketheir favorite, Right and it's,
you know, they may look at it assomething they have to do to
kind of support their, theirmain sport or maybe, in some
cases, maybe a punishment.
But you really embraced it andyou moved on from track to cross
country and kind of, here youare, which is which is
incredible.
And you know, for me my sportwas cross country in high school
.
So to hear you, you know, go,progress the way you did and get
(05:29):
a sub 20 is like incredible,like that was my main sport and
I don't know if I ever hit sub20 in my, uh, cross country, but
uh, that's, that's reallyincredible and that kind of led
you to where you are here today.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Exactly, and it's I've and I've had so many
friends from the sport too, alot of healthy relationships,
something I didn't really havein high school, and it's growing
.
I'm meeting so many more greatathletes coaches at CrossFit, at
these races, volunteering atthe High Rocks booth at the
(06:06):
Boston Run Expo and met so manyincredible individuals that
walked by and were like, oh,what's High Rocks?
Or oh, I've been, I've heard ofthis for years and never done
it.
Just so curious.
And you know there's so manyamazing people out there that
haven't found their itch yet andyou know it's it's my goal to
try to get them to findsomething that'll, you know,
motivate them or get them on theright path.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
So I love that, I love that and I think we share
the same goal.
So you know, the more of usdoing kind of this work, I think
the more people that we canhelp.
So you know, I love that you'redoing that and and then you
know, let's, let's talk aboutthat for a bit, you know.
So, like you know you mentionedthat your coach and you know
I'm sure you have a lot ofexperiences with your clients
and folks that are getting intofitness, whether it's running or
(06:46):
otherwise, and you know I'dlove to hear from you, like what
are the types of things thatyou trends or things that you
see with your clients that youthink others who are maybe are
just getting started wouldbenefit from?
Speaker 3 (06:59):
Yeah, so let me go to the run club that I started.
So let me go to the run clubthat I started.
So when I was coaching atCrossFit 1620 down in Plymouth,
I had a lot of people come up tome because, you know, they knew
I did all these races andthey're like, like I don't run,
frank.
Like, well, you know mostCrossFitters they don't.
They don't like running, evenif it's in their warmup, if it's
(07:19):
a hundred meter run, they'relike, oh, but they always came
to me for advice.
And then I went to the owner andwas like, hey, I think there's
a really cool opportunity herewhere we can get a run club.
Now we can get a group ofpeople.
We could do a track workout onSaturdays, just try to get
people out of their comfort zone, out of CrossFit and just focus
on running.
And he was like, yeah, let's doit.
And the first group I had itwas like two years ago I think
(07:46):
we only had like eight people.
It wasn't that much, but wewere gearing toward the Cape Cod
Marathon, which they have amarathon relay.
I don't know if you've heard ofa marathon relay, have you?
Speaker 1 (07:56):
I just heard of a half marathon relay, which,
ironically, I'm going to run myfirst one at the end of this
month.
Oh, awesome.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
Yeah, so it's just like that.
So it's spread out in differentlegs.
You know, there's a leg that'sthat's the shortest, usually at
the end, and then there's likethe longest leg which I think is
like seven miles, but you splitit however you want um and they
did that each year.
So it's like, oh perfect, wecan train toward this um.
And everyone ended up pr intheir, just their, their set
(08:22):
distance um.
Anyone from my age.
So at the time well, I was 26um to people that were in their
50s that were pring like forforever, like you know what I
mean.
They had.
They haven't done a race inforever and they pr'd.
So that was that was an awesomefeeling.
And then that led into thespring and then we were gearing
(08:44):
toward murph.
So like this is anotheropportunity.
You know, you got murph, yougot two miles of running plus
you.
So that was that was an awesomefeeling.
And then that led into thespring and then we were gearing
toward Murph.
So like this is anotheropportunity.
You know, you got Murph, yougot two miles of running plus
you got muscle endurance, alittle bit of gymnastics.
So we did that.
A lot of people PR there andthen that kind of just, you know
, got the fire going and thethird cycle I think we had
almost 20 individuals.
Oh, wow, wow, it really grew.
(09:10):
Since then I've moved up inWeymouth, massachusetts, a bit
of ways away from Plymouth.
I found a great gym, strive.
They're part of CrossFitSouthie.
Everyone that's in CrossFit andMass knows CrossFit Southie.
There's a reason for that.
They got a lot of greatathletes, great coaches and
amazing owners.
Those are great opportunities.
(09:31):
I got in there to coach a coupleof times a week and for this
cycle I'm doing this upcomingspring, but I do an online
version.
So that's just going to be.
You know, come to me, we'll doa free.
We could talk on the phone alittle bit, kind of see what
your goals are and I can make aprogram for you.
And then I'm going to try toget a group on Saturdays again
at the track for a worker thatwe can all do together.
(09:54):
So it's growing and evolving,you know, trying to always
change it.
Our first cycle we worked onnasal breathing.
Second cycle, we worked on alot of bike work, so a lot of
non-impact work.
And then the last cycle we justdid was power outage on the
rower, which a lot of people.
(10:14):
You know it's hard.
It's hard to slow down someoneon a rower, so that was a good
challenge and a lot of peoplebenefited from that.
So always trying to change itup.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
I love that, I love that.
So you know I have a lot ofquestions.
But I'm really curious, youknow.
So you start.
You said you started with eightpeople in the beginning and it
grew to 20 over a period of timeand like what inspired the
eight to kind of keep with it?
And then what do you thinkhelped inspire the other 12,
right Over time, to kind of jointhe group?
(10:43):
Like how did that kind of go?
I think?
Speaker 3 (10:47):
for a lot of people.
They, you know they foundsomething that wasn't in their
comfort zone.
You know, a lot of people, likeI said, kind of are scared of
running.
There's a lot of myths, youknow it's bad for your knees,
bad for this.
You know all all thesedifferent myths but you know
(11:08):
there's different ways to getaround that.
So there were always fivethings.
I kind of worked with everyone.
You know, if, if, oh, my kneehurts, oh, let's work on that,
or I can't run a mile in thisworkout, okay, that's totally
fine.
How about we do the bike?
Or the rower, or even the biker?
The biker's also an awesome umalternative.
So it was always.
(11:28):
You know it wasn't I'm tryingto, wasn't trying to make it
challenging for everyone, and Ithink that's after they saw the
first cycle and they saw howeveryone had so much fun, they
were like no, I think this isfor me and I can try it out.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
That's great.
So you helped them kind ofovercome whatever obstacle they
had in their mind or whateverfear they had of running, and
you really kind of went afterthat and then once they got over
that, it sounds like theyembraced it and went through the
other cycles Exactly.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
So then how did the group grow Like?
Was it just kind of word ofmouth?
Or you know, percent of membersdo my run club and then they're
the other.
You know other 15 percent werepeople from outside the gym.
So you know someone that saw itonline and came in and was
interested, um, and then, orsomeone that was related to
(12:29):
someone or had a friend.
You know, hey, I'm doing thisrun, do you want to do it with
me?
I can't believe it was thecycle of the 20 individuals we
had uh, for, for people thatweren't members, um, and two
were.
It was.
It was funny.
We had we had two that were inhigh school, that had cross
country Um, so they did it forlike a conditioning piece.
(12:50):
And then I had an individualwho is um, you know I I can't
speak on his age, but I knowhe's, he's over 60 and um, you
know he was keeping up witheveryone and so that's the thing
.
You know, it doesn't matter onyour age, it was just having
that group together, which wasincredible.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
I love that.
I love that.
So let's talk more about yourprocess, because I'm really
interested in this and you knowthe goal for this show is to
help inspire others to run aspart of their fitness, but also
kind of help them along thejourney with the three pillars
that we talked about.
So mindset, movement andmotivation and you touched on
(13:29):
the topic of you know movement alittle bit.
So they have this fear.
You help them really kind ofget over the fear.
But you know, sometimes thingsdo happen right.
So sometimes you know maybe wego about our training and not
the right way, maybe we don'thave good form, maybe we're not,
you know, kind of doing thethings to have a holistic
program, and that could lead toburnout, could lead to injuries,
(13:50):
it could lead to a whole lot ofthings.
So like as you're working withyour clients and as you're kind
of progressing in your, yourcoaching career, like what are
the things that you've seen orwhat are the things that kind of
you talk to your clients aboutto help them avoid those things
and really have a healthy kindof fitness journey.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
Yeah.
So there were five things Ialways worked with everyone.
First thing you know, nasalbreathing, that is so beneficial
and I think there's a lot ofindividuals I've been doing
running for years that, you know, never really thought of nasal
breathing.
You know it helps witheverything, opening up your
(14:28):
second airwave, where you know,if you're in the middle of a
race and you die, instead ofgasping for the earth through
your mouth, you know, just takea breath into your nose, but
obviously don't do it withouttraining for it, um.
So then there's a lot ofbenefits to that, um, especially
for lung capacity.
What I had everyone do for ourfirst cycle was, you know, do a
(14:50):
10 minute run and just try tonasal breathe the whole time,
don't open your mouth, just,even if it's a 13 minute mile,
15 minute mile, just go slow andjust work on breathing in
through your nose.
And a lot of people wereshocked.
They were like, wow, like thatwas, that was extremely hard.
And then from there, you know,maybe do some intervals with it
(15:13):
and then when you rest, you canbreathe through your mouth, um,
so it's little things like thatto try to get everyone um, get
their breathing better.
And then from there was just,you know, work on your aerobic
base, so same thing.
So once you got your nasalbreathing in, you know just go
for 10 minute easy run.
Or even if it's an inclinedwalk on the treadmill or
(15:33):
Stairmaster, just something easy.
Because that's another thing.
I feel like a lot of people,especially CrossFitters, right,
they always want to go forintensity all the time.
They can't just, you know, slowit down.
You know, get on a bike for 30minutes, easy to work, that zone
work.
And you know it improveslongevity too with your
(15:54):
endurance.
It's something that I've addedin my training recently and I've
seen a lot of benefits from it.
And then from there runningmechanics too.
So running mechanics of.
There's a lot of individualsthat heel strike right, so they
could heel strike when they walk, run, you know, whatever.
So so there's a lot of just funwarmup exercises of working on
(16:19):
that midfoot and even if you'renot running on your midfoot for,
say that, easy run for 10minutes, just you know, add it
in for maybe 30 seconds on, 30seconds off, play around with it
.
It's going to help with kneepain, it's going to help with
your stride and prevent injurytoo.
That's huge because that's thething you could get injured.
(16:41):
You could get injured once fromrunning.
You're like I'm never doingthat again, I can't or I can't
afford to get injured againright, right, or you run through
it.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
You run through the pain and then it gets to a point
where you know you need to takesome action and that kind of
undermines right, your progressand undermines your future until
you take care of it.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
So yeah, totally understand that We've gotten
those three things down.
Rpe training is huge.
I use that a lot too, becauseyou know you could wake up one
morning and you know, say youwent out the night before or you
didn't get the best sleepbecause, say, you were getting
(17:23):
your kids ready for school, oryou know you stayed up late for
work or whatever it is.
Rpe is just that feel.
So you know, if it's a sevenout out of 10, that's a moderate
effort of how you feel.
So you know that 7 out of 10might be different on another
day depending on, obviously, howwe feel.
So you don't need a devicewhich is huge, because there's a
(17:45):
lot.
There were a lot of people thatdid the run club, like I can't,
I can't afford a watch, agarmin watch, or I can't this, I
can't that, I'm like well forthis.
You don't even need that.
It's just how you feel, just gohow you.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
So talk more about that.
Give me an example.
I'm going to go do a workout.
Maybe I'm going to do what Iwould call a zone two run or an
easy run where I'm able to havea conversation.
How would that fit within thatRPE?
Speaker 3 (18:14):
scale like zone one and two is just conversational.
So say, we're on a run togetherand we're just having a
conversation like this, right ornot?
We're not gasping for anything.
Zone three is when you knowthat's kind of like the um, the
magic, the magic juice orwhatever you want to call it,
(18:34):
like that's the, that's the zonewhere you're going to get a lot
of benefit from, for thataerobic base work, um, but
that's.
You know you're having aconversation but might have to
take a couple of breaths inbetween.
And then zone four is when youget into that threshold Um, so
you know you're not able to havea conversation comfortably, um,
and then up there is that'swhen you're in that anaerobic,
(18:58):
and then obviously you got maxheart rate after that.
That's more.
VO2 max training.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
So how does that relate to like RPE, like you
know for someone using the RPEscale and is it more like one to
10 or like how does that work?
Speaker 3 (19:11):
So think so, think of , think, think of, like seven
out of 10 effort, 70%, so it's a70% out of a hundred percent.
Or 10 out of 10, which youwould see for, like, you know,
30 seconds on, 30 seconds off,that's a hundred percent effort
out of a hundred percent.
Or you know one, one to four istypically like if you were
(19:34):
walking or walking, you know, inStairmaster or whatnot.
That's usually when you'll seethat, but most of the time
you'll see like six out of sevenor or even eight out of 10.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
That makes sense and it's, and the way you described
it, it sounds like it's based onyour effort, not necessarily
your performance or the outcome,exactly Right, so it's how you
feel.
So if you feel like, hey, onthis day, this feels like max
effort for me, but it may not belike the max of what you can do
, like your PR kind of thing, soso that's interesting for
(20:05):
someone to know.
Like, hey, if my training todayis supposed to be like a six or
a seven, it's based on how youfeel and the effort you're
putting in, not necessarily whatyour watch is saying.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
Exactly Cause, like I said, your watch could say you
know your heart rate's at 180and you're like, you're like, oh
crap, like I'm, I'm just goingeasy.
So it's, it's nice to kind of,you know, not have to always
look at your watch, especiallyduring a race too.
That's the thing, like beingable to go into a race and go
(20:36):
off how you feel is so important, because if you look at your
watch and your heart rate's alittle off than what you want,
it you're going to get in yourhead and it's just going to
overtake your, your racementally.
So it's, it's good to getcomfortable with how you feel.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
Yeah, no, that that makes a lot of sense.
And if I'm being honest, like Itry not to look at my watch too
much when I'm racing, Like I doit just for, maybe, the mile
time.
But you're absolutely right,Like even that on its own, like
I remember I just had a race,maybe about a month ago, and I
hit my first mile and I was Idon't know five to 10 seconds
slower than what my target permile pace was going to be.
(21:14):
So already in the first mile,like oh my gosh, I'm already
behind in this race, I got twomiles to go, Like what am I
doing here?
But then I had to kind of walk,you know, walk myself off the
ledge.
I'm like, look, it was the firstmile, you're getting warmed up.
You've got two miles to go,Like now's the time to push it.
And hey, by the way, negativesplits are pretty cool too.
So you know, it's not the endof the world that you can make
(21:36):
up the five or 10 seconds.
So so I totally, totally getthat and I try not to use my
watch, and especially in theraces.
But you know, you know that'shard to do.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
So I guess you have to kind of we're so used to it,
so we just want to get all thebenefits from it.
Um, but yeah, that's, that'shuge If you're just getting used
to how you feel during a raceor even during a training
session.
And then the last thing islactic threshold training.
So that's going to improveintensities for longer periods.
(22:05):
So say, like high rocks, for anexample, you know you got the
best of the best doing what it'slike.
I think 54 change now, and thenyou got an average individual
doing it like an hour 30.
So that's a lot longer.
But that intensity you knowyou're at, you're at threshold
for over an hour.
So that's when you really wantto start to work on that.
(22:31):
You know that feeling in yourlegs when they cramp up, that
lactic acid buildup.
That's kind of what you want tostart to work on boost stamina,
agility and all that.
But obviously you know youcan't.
You can't just work on that.
You got to work on everythingelse, especially that aerobic
base.
Like, think of a house, right,you want, you want to work from
the ground up.
You can't work from the roof.
(22:52):
First you got to work on thebase, um, just like with
anything.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
So yeah, and I think the aerobic piece of it is is
easier to understand, causeyou're like hey.
I assume that, like hey, Iassume your RPE is going to be
relatively low, you're going tokeep your heart rate low and
you're going to do maybe thoselow intensity, maybe for longer
periods of time to build theendurance.
But tell me more about like thelactate kind of training.
Like what are one of the twothings that someone would do to
(23:19):
kind of train that piece?
Speaker 3 (23:22):
two things that someone would do to kind of
train that piece.
So for that I um, I always hadeveryone go to the assault bike
for that, right Cause you'reworking your whole entire body,
working your, your, your grip,your shoulders, your back, your
leg.
So something like that I woulddo.
You know, 90 seconds max effort, 30 second rest and do that for
(23:44):
for five times Right?
So it's that it's that longinterval with a short amount of
rest.
Same thing for running too, likeI was doing recently what was
it?
I was doing?
Like four, uh, no, sorry, itwas five minutes, um, at my race
pace.
Then my rest was three minutes,so it wasn't half and half,
(24:06):
it's just that short amount ofrest and you're going right back
into it.
So if that's a float in between, meaning you're jogging in
between, or if that's just acomplete rest, so those are
things to kind of get thatelectric threshold up, because
during a race you know your legsare going to start to blow up
and you got to get comfortablewith, with running at your race
(24:27):
pace, um, under fatigue.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
Okay, that's awesome, that's awesome, so that's super
helpful.
So I'd love for you to justkind of list out those five
things again.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
Yeah, of course.
So nasal breathing, I think, isthe first thing everyone should
work on.
There's a great book out therecalled breathe.
It talks about the benefits ofjust breathing in general.
Um, you know, working on, umbreathing exercises with your
nose.
You know there's now nasalstrips.
I don't know if you've seenthose at Overture.
Uh, you put it on your nose, itlike opens up your nose.
(24:58):
A lot of athletes are startingto use those.
So it's a lot of people are,you know, trying to find the
little things to help themperform better.
So, yeah, nasal breathing, getthat aerobic base work in, all,
right.
So going for those easy bikerides, runs, even walks, um,
work on your running mechanicsafter that.
So, really trying to work on,you know, running on your
(25:21):
midfoot, hips forward slightly,keeping your arms down,
shoulders relaxed, right,sometimes we just like tense up.
That's not the case at all.
And then RPE training, like Isaid, go by how you feel, and
then lactic threshold trainingshould be.
That's something that I think alot of people could benefit
(25:43):
from.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
Excellent, excellent.
This is really helpful.
I appreciate you sharing thosetips and you know a little bit
of background like how toactually do it, cause it sounds
nice, I guess, in theory, butyou know, I appreciate like the
practicality of like here's howyou can, you know, do those
things.
So you know, kind of.
As we wind down here, you know,I'd love to ask you a couple of
questions.
So like number one is you know,kind of throughout your journey
(26:05):
, I'd love to hear a little bitfrom you Like what was probably
the most difficult obstacle thatyou know you encountered kind
of in your journey and how didyou overcome it it was.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
It'll be two years this december.
Um.
I was at deco world.
My second deck of worlds was inum.
It was in dallas, texas, and afew weeks out I started to feel
ankle pain and I was like, oh no, like I've been doing this
training cycle for, for you know, the biggest race of the year.
I was partnering with my buddy,keiferfer Um.
Everyone underdog knows KieferUm, but I didn't want to let him
(26:48):
down, fighting with a lot ofbattles and you know I was just
like no, I just gotta keep keeptrucking.
Got to the race, didn't performhow I wanted to ankle, so
really hurt Um.
For some reason, the, the, themild teams, we got fifth out of
15, I don't know how with myankle, but we made it work and
(27:09):
then for months and months afterI just couldn't.
I couldn't find what was wrongwith it and I think that's what
really started.
You know, going back to thebasics of Frank, you can't go
hard all the time.
You need to go easy some days,or or I got to work on my.
(27:30):
My running mechanics, like myankles, obviously, you know,
screwed up.
Why does it hurt Um?
So I got to looked at andnoticed that my, my foot caves
in a little bit on my left side,worked on that, started doing
yoga, so started stretching morenasal breathing, like I said.
(27:52):
So kind of.
That's where I found, wow, Itook a step back and got all
these great results from justgetting back to the basics.
So that's what really kind ofstarted this like philosophy
that I have.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
I love that.
I appreciate you sharing thatand it's really important
because you know, the way we'retalking about this was maybe in
the context of folks that arebeginners, right, so they're
just getting into fitness orthey're just getting into
running and like, here are thethings to set up the right
foundation for your, yourfitness journey.
But in your case, right, you'rea coach or an athlete, you're a
Decker World Championships andhere you are, you're like wait a
(28:28):
minute, I need to step back andget back to the basics.
So you know, what you sharedand how you approach your
training is really great foreveryone to really think about
and how they're approachingtheir own training plan and
program.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
Yeah, exactly, and like that was the other thing
too.
I was going in and out of jobsaround that time too, so it was
just hard to find you know whenI could train.
And it was just like you knowwhat, like let's just take a few
months off, cause I was I wasstill injured my ankle.
So I was like no, I'll justtake time off, get the stress
(29:04):
away from an event coming up andjust work on my base and my
running mechanics, like I said,and all this, and I've seen a
lot of benefits from it, whichis awesome.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
Awesome, awesome.
Well, thank you for sharingyour story here, Thank you for
sharing the tips, and lastquestion for you is what's next
for you Like?
Speaker 3 (29:26):
what are you excited about in 2025 and what are you
working towards this year?
Yeah, so I just started atStrive CrossFit.
They're they're awesome.
They got a lot of greatopportunities there for me,
which I'm really excited about.
I got Hierox DC coming up atthe end of the month Really
excited for that.
I'm doing individual, my firstopen individual, which is
exciting.
(29:46):
I've always done pro.
Didn't always get the best time, so same thing.
Took a step back.
You know what?
Let's just do some lighterweight, try the open division,
see how that goes.
I got doubles and relay toowith my friends.
And then I just signed up forAtlanta, so that's in April.
Goal is to get to worldchampionships.
(30:07):
If that's not it, you knowalways next year and then
probably for the fall season,just trying to get my run club
to kind of, you know, geteveryone back.
I'm trying an online formatthis time for the spring and the
fall.
I really think you know there'ssome cool opportunities there
that I can try out.
So so, yeah, I know it's, we'reonly what's?
(30:29):
March, so three months in, butstill a lot of ways to go and a
lot of opportunities, so reallyexcited.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
Awesome, awesome.
Well, I'm rooting for you.
It's always great to see you,frank, you know, when you come
down for the underdog events orjust kind of when we have these
chats.
I really appreciate you andeverything that you're doing to
support the running community.
So, for our listeners, whydon't you share a little bit
about how they can find you andfollow you online?
Speaker 3 (30:55):
Perfect, yeah, so my personal Instagram is it's
everyone always laughs at itWicknerf, so it's just frank w
backwards.
So that's my personal one.
On there.
It has the gym um slash gymsthat I'm working at, so they
have two locations in duxburymass and norwell mass.
I have the the links on thereso if you want to follow them,
(31:15):
see what they're about.
And then I also got my personaluh running account, which is
frankly fit PT.
I love puns, so that's whatI've been trying to name my, my
running programming frankly fit,and you can follow it on there
as well.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
So Awesome, awesome.
So I'm going to put that in theshow notes to make it easy for
our listeners to find you, andI'm also going to put in the
information about the book thatyou mentioned breathe.
So I thought that was a reallygreat recommendation.
So thanks again, frank, forcoming on the show and, you know
, with that, have a great day.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
Thank you so much, richard.
To the next level, be sure toclick the subscribe button to
join our community and alsoplease rate and review.
Thanks for listening.
Hey, my friend, today we have a great conversation
for you, as I sit down with anathlete and coach who not only
shares his inspiring journey,but also how he helps others in
their fitness journey, whetherthey're just getting started or
they're just kind of along theirfitness journey.
He shares five powerful,actionable things that can help
you have a successful fitnessjourney.
(00:22):
Hope you enjoy.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Welcome to Inspire to Run podcast.
Here you will find inspiration,whether you are looking to take
control of your health andfitness or you are a seasoned
runner looking for community andsome extra motivation.
You will hear inspiring storiesfrom amazing runners, along
with helpful tips from fitnessexperts.
Now here's your host, richard.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Conner.
Hi, my friend.
Welcome to Inspired to RunPodcast.
I'm happy to sit down withFrank Walsh today.
He's an athlete and CrossFitcoach and has a proven track
record in OCR, hybrid andCrossFit.
Frank discovered his truepassion in helping others reach
their goals and is armed with aCrossFit Level 1 certification
(01:06):
and multiple otherqualifications.
He has earned a respectedreputation in the community and
also founded a local run clubsupporting both runners and
non-runners alike in achievingtheir personal fitness
milestones.
Welcome to the show, frank.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
Thank you for having me, Richard.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Yeah, of course We've known each other for I think
it's been a couple of years,kind of through DECA and races
and through Underdog, and it'sreally cool to have you on the
show finally and just learn alittle bit about you and learn a
little bit about what you'redoing in terms of CrossFit
coaching and your run club andall that.
So you've got a lot of excitingthings going on and you know
it's just a pleasure for me tohave you on the show and chat
(01:46):
with you for a few minutes.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Yeah, I appreciate it .
Yeah, I think it's been sincethe underdogs first.
Decker Strong was when we firstmet.
Which was what?
2019, when that first kickedoff.
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Yeah, it was a long time ago.
Yeah, post-covid, post COVID,so maybe 2020, but that's, it's
been a while.
Time flies when you're havingfun, I guess.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
So yeah.
So let's hear a little bitabout yourself.
You know you're, you'reCrossFit coach, you started the
run club.
You've got a lot of greatthings going on You're you're an
excellent athlete, like I'veseen you perform many times and
you're just incredible.
So love to hear a little bitabout your story, like kind of a
little bit of your journey thatled you up to this point?
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Yeah, perfect.
So back when I was probably inelementary school, you know, I
did soccer, baseball, basketball, kind of everything, all the
sports that everyone did.
And then once I hit middleschool I kind of started to fade
off, stop really performing insports.
I biked with my friends aroundtown, kind of the only exercise
I got, biked with my friendsaround town, kind of the only
(02:47):
exercise I got.
And then once high school hit,my parents wanted me to get into
sports and I would try out andnot make it because I didn't do
these sports for so long and my,my mom and dad used to do track
in high school and they're like, why don't you try track?
Like you used to run soccer andyou know you used to bike.
So you got that endurance.
I'm like I mean, I guess like Iam the complete opposite of
(03:09):
what I used to be in high school.
But my friend and I justdecided to do it together.
It was sophomore year of highschool, it was winter track and
I just fell in love with it.
I did the 200 meter dash and Ialso did the relay and I just, I
just fell in love with it.
I I didn't really have the mostamount of friends growing up.
(03:32):
I was bullied quite a bit.
So I think I fell in love withthe sport just because of that
competition side, like you know,being able to beat someone and
hold yourself to that and Ithink that that's what really
started to kick off my fitnessjourney.
That led me into cross country,which I was able to hit my first
sub 25 K right out of highschool, which was awesome, and
(03:56):
since then I've been trying tofind other things to replicate
that.
So I found Decafit, which, asyou know, there's the teams
where it's that relay style yougo, I go.
Um, same thing for high rocks,that relay doubles race, and, um
, the thing that really kickedit off for me was Spartan back
(04:17):
in the mountains doing that.
You know it was a lot ofrunning and obstacles and just
kind of everything mashedtogether.
And you know, here I am now.
It's been 10 years since Igraduated high school already,
which is insane and I'm nowcoaching at a Strive CrossFit up
in Norwell and Duxbury,Massachusetts, and I started my
(04:39):
own run club, which, you know, asenior in high school wouldn't
have imagined this for myself,so no, yeah, of course.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
Yeah, well, you know it's interesting that you talked
about.
You know your other sports,like soccer and everything else
that you're doing.
And then you know your parentsencourage you to try track and
then eventually cross country.
And it's really funny becauseyou know a lot of guests we have
on the show and they have someother sport other than running
as their main sport.
(05:07):
Running is usually not liketheir favorite, Right and it's,
you know, they may look at it assomething they have to do to
kind of support their, theirmain sport or maybe, in some
cases, maybe a punishment.
But you really embraced it andyou moved on from track to cross
country and kind of, here youare, which is which is
incredible.
And you know, for me my sportwas cross country in high school
.
So to hear you, you know, go,progress the way you did and get
(05:29):
a sub 20 is like incredible,like that was my main sport and
I don't know if I ever hit sub20 in my, uh, cross country, but
uh, that's, that's reallyincredible and that kind of led
you to where you are here today.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Exactly, and it's I've and I've had so many
friends from the sport too, alot of healthy relationships,
something I didn't really havein high school, and it's growing
.
I'm meeting so many more greatathletes coaches at CrossFit, at
these races, volunteering atthe High Rocks booth at the
(06:06):
Boston Run Expo and met so manyincredible individuals that
walked by and were like, oh,what's High Rocks?
Or oh, I've been, I've heard ofthis for years and never done
it.
Just so curious.
And you know there's so manyamazing people out there that
haven't found their itch yet andyou know it's it's my goal to
try to get them to findsomething that'll, you know,
motivate them or get them on theright path.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
So I love that, I love that and I think we share
the same goal.
So you know, the more of usdoing kind of this work, I think
the more people that we canhelp.
So you know, I love that you'redoing that and and then you
know, let's, let's talk aboutthat for a bit, you know.
So, like you know you mentionedthat your coach and you know
I'm sure you have a lot ofexperiences with your clients
and folks that are getting intofitness, whether it's running or
(06:46):
otherwise, and you know I'dlove to hear from you, like what
are the types of things thatyou trends or things that you
see with your clients that youthink others who are maybe are
just getting started wouldbenefit from?
Speaker 3 (06:59):
Yeah, so let me go to the run club that I started.
So let me go to the run clubthat I started.
So when I was coaching atCrossFit 1620 down in Plymouth,
I had a lot of people come up tome because, you know, they knew
I did all these races andthey're like, like I don't run,
frank.
Like, well, you know mostCrossFitters they don't.
They don't like running, evenif it's in their warmup, if it's
(07:19):
a hundred meter run, they'relike, oh, but they always came
to me for advice.
And then I went to the owner andwas like, hey, I think there's
a really cool opportunity herewhere we can get a run club.
Now we can get a group ofpeople.
We could do a track workout onSaturdays, just try to get
people out of their comfort zone, out of CrossFit and just focus
on running.
And he was like, yeah, let's doit.
And the first group I had itwas like two years ago I think
(07:46):
we only had like eight people.
It wasn't that much, but wewere gearing toward the Cape Cod
Marathon, which they have amarathon relay.
I don't know if you've heard ofa marathon relay, have you?
Speaker 1 (07:56):
I just heard of a half marathon relay, which,
ironically, I'm going to run myfirst one at the end of this
month.
Oh, awesome.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
Yeah, so it's just like that.
So it's spread out in differentlegs.
You know, there's a leg that'sthat's the shortest, usually at
the end, and then there's likethe longest leg which I think is
like seven miles, but you splitit however you want um and they
did that each year.
So it's like, oh perfect, wecan train toward this um.
And everyone ended up pr intheir, just their, their set
(08:22):
distance um.
Anyone from my age.
So at the time well, I was 26um to people that were in their
50s that were pring like forforever, like you know what I
mean.
They had.
They haven't done a race inforever and they pr'd.
So that was that was an awesomefeeling.
And then that led into thespring and then we were gearing
(08:44):
toward murph.
So like this is anotheropportunity.
You know, you got murph, yougot two miles of running plus
you.
So that was that was an awesomefeeling.
And then that led into thespring and then we were gearing
toward Murph.
So like this is anotheropportunity.
You know, you got Murph, yougot two miles of running plus
you got muscle endurance, alittle bit of gymnastics.
So we did that.
A lot of people PR there andthen that kind of just, you know
, got the fire going and thethird cycle I think we had
almost 20 individuals.
Oh, wow, wow, it really grew.
(09:10):
Since then I've moved up inWeymouth, massachusetts, a bit
of ways away from Plymouth.
I found a great gym, strive.
They're part of CrossFitSouthie.
Everyone that's in CrossFit andMass knows CrossFit Southie.
There's a reason for that.
They got a lot of greatathletes, great coaches and
amazing owners.
Those are great opportunities.
(09:31):
I got in there to coach a coupleof times a week and for this
cycle I'm doing this upcomingspring, but I do an online
version.
So that's just going to be.
You know, come to me, we'll doa free.
We could talk on the phone alittle bit, kind of see what
your goals are and I can make aprogram for you.
And then I'm going to try toget a group on Saturdays again
at the track for a worker thatwe can all do together.
(09:54):
So it's growing and evolving,you know, trying to always
change it.
Our first cycle we worked onnasal breathing.
Second cycle, we worked on alot of bike work, so a lot of
non-impact work.
And then the last cycle we justdid was power outage on the
rower, which a lot of people.
(10:14):
You know it's hard.
It's hard to slow down someoneon a rower, so that was a good
challenge and a lot of peoplebenefited from that.
So always trying to change itup.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
I love that, I love that.
So you know I have a lot ofquestions.
But I'm really curious, youknow.
So you start.
You said you started with eightpeople in the beginning and it
grew to 20 over a period of timeand like what inspired the
eight to kind of keep with it?
And then what do you thinkhelped inspire the other 12,
right Over time, to kind of jointhe group?
(10:43):
Like how did that kind of go?
I think?
Speaker 3 (10:47):
for a lot of people.
They, you know they foundsomething that wasn't in their
comfort zone.
You know, a lot of people, likeI said, kind of are scared of
running.
There's a lot of myths, youknow it's bad for your knees,
bad for this.
You know all all thesedifferent myths but you know
(11:08):
there's different ways to getaround that.
So there were always fivethings.
I kind of worked with everyone.
You know, if, if, oh, my kneehurts, oh, let's work on that,
or I can't run a mile in thisworkout, okay, that's totally
fine.
How about we do the bike?
Or the rower, or even the biker?
The biker's also an awesome umalternative.
So it was always.
(11:28):
You know it wasn't I'm tryingto, wasn't trying to make it
challenging for everyone, and Ithink that's after they saw the
first cycle and they saw howeveryone had so much fun, they
were like no, I think this isfor me and I can try it out.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
That's great.
So you helped them kind ofovercome whatever obstacle they
had in their mind or whateverfear they had of running, and
you really kind of went afterthat and then once they got over
that, it sounds like theyembraced it and went through the
other cycles Exactly.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
So then how did the group grow Like?
Was it just kind of word ofmouth?
Or you know, percent of membersdo my run club and then they're
the other.
You know other 15 percent werepeople from outside the gym.
So you know someone that saw itonline and came in and was
interested, um, and then, orsomeone that was related to
(12:29):
someone or had a friend.
You know, hey, I'm doing thisrun, do you want to do it with
me?
I can't believe it was thecycle of the 20 individuals we
had uh, for, for people thatweren't members, um, and two
were.
It was.
It was funny.
We had we had two that were inhigh school, that had cross
country Um, so they did it forlike a conditioning piece.
(12:50):
And then I had an individualwho is um, you know I I can't
speak on his age, but I knowhe's, he's over 60 and um, you
know he was keeping up witheveryone and so that's the thing
.
You know, it doesn't matter onyour age, it was just having
that group together, which wasincredible.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
I love that.
I love that.
So let's talk more about yourprocess, because I'm really
interested in this and you knowthe goal for this show is to
help inspire others to run aspart of their fitness, but also
kind of help them along thejourney with the three pillars
that we talked about.
So mindset, movement andmotivation and you touched on
(13:29):
the topic of you know movement alittle bit.
So they have this fear.
You help them really kind ofget over the fear.
But you know, sometimes thingsdo happen right.
So sometimes you know maybe wego about our training and not
the right way, maybe we don'thave good form, maybe we're not,
you know, kind of doing thethings to have a holistic
program, and that could lead toburnout, could lead to injuries,
(13:50):
it could lead to a whole lot ofthings.
So like as you're working withyour clients and as you're kind
of progressing in your, yourcoaching career, like what are
the things that you've seen orwhat are the things that kind of
you talk to your clients aboutto help them avoid those things
and really have a healthy kindof fitness journey.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
Yeah.
So there were five things Ialways worked with everyone.
First thing you know, nasalbreathing, that is so beneficial
and I think there's a lot ofindividuals I've been doing
running for years that, you know, never really thought of nasal
breathing.
You know it helps witheverything, opening up your
(14:28):
second airwave, where you know,if you're in the middle of a
race and you die, instead ofgasping for the earth through
your mouth, you know, just takea breath into your nose, but
obviously don't do it withouttraining for it, um.
So then there's a lot ofbenefits to that, um, especially
for lung capacity.
What I had everyone do for ourfirst cycle was, you know, do a
(14:50):
10 minute run and just try tonasal breathe the whole time,
don't open your mouth, just,even if it's a 13 minute mile,
15 minute mile, just go slow andjust work on breathing in
through your nose.
And a lot of people wereshocked.
They were like, wow, like thatwas, that was extremely hard.
And then from there, you know,maybe do some intervals with it
(15:13):
and then when you rest, you canbreathe through your mouth, um,
so it's little things like thatto try to get everyone um, get
their breathing better.
And then from there was just,you know, work on your aerobic
base, so same thing.
So once you got your nasalbreathing in, you know just go
for 10 minute easy run.
Or even if it's an inclinedwalk on the treadmill or
(15:33):
Stairmaster, just something easy.
Because that's another thing.
I feel like a lot of people,especially CrossFitters, right,
they always want to go forintensity all the time.
They can't just, you know, slowit down.
You know, get on a bike for 30minutes, easy to work, that zone
work.
And you know it improveslongevity too with your
(15:54):
endurance.
It's something that I've addedin my training recently and I've
seen a lot of benefits from it.
And then from there runningmechanics too.
So running mechanics of.
There's a lot of individualsthat heel strike right, so they
could heel strike when they walk, run, you know, whatever.
So so there's a lot of just funwarmup exercises of working on
(16:19):
that midfoot and even if you'renot running on your midfoot for,
say that, easy run for 10minutes, just you know, add it
in for maybe 30 seconds on, 30seconds off, play around with it
.
It's going to help with kneepain, it's going to help with
your stride and prevent injurytoo.
That's huge because that's thething you could get injured.
(16:41):
You could get injured once fromrunning.
You're like I'm never doingthat again, I can't or I can't
afford to get injured againright, right, or you run through
it.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
You run through the pain and then it gets to a point
where you know you need to takesome action and that kind of
undermines right, your progressand undermines your future until
you take care of it.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
So yeah, totally understand that We've gotten
those three things down.
Rpe training is huge.
I use that a lot too, becauseyou know you could wake up one
morning and you know, say youwent out the night before or you
didn't get the best sleepbecause, say, you were getting
(17:23):
your kids ready for school, oryou know you stayed up late for
work or whatever it is.
Rpe is just that feel.
So you know, if it's a sevenout out of 10, that's a moderate
effort of how you feel.
So you know that 7 out of 10might be different on another
day depending on, obviously, howwe feel.
So you don't need a devicewhich is huge, because there's a
(17:45):
lot.
There were a lot of people thatdid the run club, like I can't,
I can't afford a watch, agarmin watch, or I can't this, I
can't that, I'm like well forthis.
You don't even need that.
It's just how you feel, just gohow you.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
So talk more about that.
Give me an example.
I'm going to go do a workout.
Maybe I'm going to do what Iwould call a zone two run or an
easy run where I'm able to havea conversation.
How would that fit within thatRPE?
Speaker 3 (18:14):
scale like zone one and two is just conversational.
So say, we're on a run togetherand we're just having a
conversation like this, right ornot?
We're not gasping for anything.
Zone three is when you knowthat's kind of like the um, the
magic, the magic juice orwhatever you want to call it,
(18:34):
like that's the, that's the zonewhere you're going to get a lot
of benefit from, for thataerobic base work, um, but
that's.
You know you're having aconversation but might have to
take a couple of breaths inbetween.
And then zone four is when youget into that threshold Um, so
you know you're not able to havea conversation comfortably, um,
and then up there is that'swhen you're in that anaerobic,
(18:58):
and then obviously you got maxheart rate after that.
That's more.
VO2 max training.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
So how does that relate to like RPE, like you
know for someone using the RPEscale and is it more like one to
10 or like how does that work?
Speaker 3 (19:11):
So think so, think of , think, think of, like seven
out of 10 effort, 70%, so it's a70% out of a hundred percent.
Or 10 out of 10, which youwould see for, like, you know,
30 seconds on, 30 seconds off,that's a hundred percent effort
out of a hundred percent.
Or you know one, one to four istypically like if you were
(19:34):
walking or walking, you know, inStairmaster or whatnot.
That's usually when you'll seethat, but most of the time
you'll see like six out of sevenor or even eight out of 10.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
That makes sense and it's, and the way you described
it, it sounds like it's based onyour effort, not necessarily
your performance or the outcome,exactly Right, so it's how you
feel.
So if you feel like, hey, onthis day, this feels like max
effort for me, but it may not belike the max of what you can do
, like your PR kind of thing, soso that's interesting for
(20:05):
someone to know.
Like, hey, if my training todayis supposed to be like a six or
a seven, it's based on how youfeel and the effort you're
putting in, not necessarily whatyour watch is saying.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
Exactly Cause, like I said, your watch could say you
know your heart rate's at 180and you're like, you're like, oh
crap, like I'm, I'm just goingeasy.
So it's, it's nice to kind of,you know, not have to always
look at your watch, especiallyduring a race too.
That's the thing, like beingable to go into a race and go
(20:36):
off how you feel is so important, because if you look at your
watch and your heart rate's alittle off than what you want,
it you're going to get in yourhead and it's just going to
overtake your, your racementally.
So it's, it's good to getcomfortable with how you feel.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
Yeah, no, that that makes a lot of sense.
And if I'm being honest, like Itry not to look at my watch too
much when I'm racing, Like I doit just for, maybe, the mile
time.
But you're absolutely right,Like even that on its own, like
I remember I just had a race,maybe about a month ago, and I
hit my first mile and I was Idon't know five to 10 seconds
slower than what my target permile pace was going to be.
(21:14):
So already in the first mile,like oh my gosh, I'm already
behind in this race, I got twomiles to go, Like what am I
doing here?
But then I had to kind of walk,you know, walk myself off the
ledge.
I'm like, look, it was the firstmile, you're getting warmed up.
You've got two miles to go,Like now's the time to push it.
And hey, by the way, negativesplits are pretty cool too.
So you know, it's not the endof the world that you can make
(21:36):
up the five or 10 seconds.
So so I totally, totally getthat and I try not to use my
watch, and especially in theraces.
But you know, you know that'shard to do.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
So I guess you have to kind of we're so used to it,
so we just want to get all thebenefits from it.
Um, but yeah, that's, that'shuge If you're just getting used
to how you feel during a raceor even during a training
session.
And then the last thing islactic threshold training.
So that's going to improveintensities for longer periods.
(22:05):
So say, like high rocks, for anexample, you know you got the
best of the best doing what it'slike.
I think 54 change now, and thenyou got an average individual
doing it like an hour 30.
So that's a lot longer.
But that intensity you knowyou're at, you're at threshold
for over an hour.
So that's when you really wantto start to work on that.
(22:31):
You know that feeling in yourlegs when they cramp up, that
lactic acid buildup.
That's kind of what you want tostart to work on boost stamina,
agility and all that.
But obviously you know youcan't.
You can't just work on that.
You got to work on everythingelse, especially that aerobic
base.
Like, think of a house, right,you want, you want to work from
the ground up.
You can't work from the roof.
(22:52):
First you got to work on thebase, um, just like with
anything.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
So yeah, and I think the aerobic piece of it is is
easier to understand, causeyou're like hey.
I assume that, like hey, Iassume your RPE is going to be
relatively low, you're going tokeep your heart rate low and
you're going to do maybe thoselow intensity, maybe for longer
periods of time to build theendurance.
But tell me more about like thelactate kind of training.
Like what are one of the twothings that someone would do to
(23:19):
kind of train that piece?
Speaker 3 (23:22):
two things that someone would do to kind of
train that piece.
So for that I um, I always hadeveryone go to the assault bike
for that, right Cause you'reworking your whole entire body,
working your, your, your grip,your shoulders, your back, your
leg.
So something like that I woulddo.
You know, 90 seconds max effort, 30 second rest and do that for
(23:44):
for five times Right?
So it's that it's that longinterval with a short amount of
rest.
Same thing for running too, likeI was doing recently what was
it?
I was doing?
Like four, uh, no, sorry, itwas five minutes, um, at my race
pace.
Then my rest was three minutes,so it wasn't half and half,
(24:06):
it's just that short amount ofrest and you're going right back
into it.
So if that's a float in between, meaning you're jogging in
between, or if that's just acomplete rest, so those are
things to kind of get thatelectric threshold up, because
during a race you know your legsare going to start to blow up
and you got to get comfortablewith, with running at your race
(24:27):
pace, um, under fatigue.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
Okay, that's awesome, that's awesome, so that's super
helpful.
So I'd love for you to justkind of list out those five
things again.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
Yeah, of course.
So nasal breathing, I think, isthe first thing everyone should
work on.
There's a great book out therecalled breathe.
It talks about the benefits ofjust breathing in general.
Um, you know, working on, umbreathing exercises with your
nose.
You know there's now nasalstrips.
I don't know if you've seenthose at Overture.
Uh, you put it on your nose, itlike opens up your nose.
(24:58):
A lot of athletes are startingto use those.
So it's a lot of people are,you know, trying to find the
little things to help themperform better.
So, yeah, nasal breathing, getthat aerobic base work in, all,
right.
So going for those easy bikerides, runs, even walks, um,
work on your running mechanicsafter that.
So, really trying to work on,you know, running on your
(25:21):
midfoot, hips forward slightly,keeping your arms down,
shoulders relaxed, right,sometimes we just like tense up.
That's not the case at all.
And then RPE training, like Isaid, go by how you feel, and
then lactic threshold trainingshould be.
That's something that I think alot of people could benefit
(25:43):
from.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
Excellent, excellent.
This is really helpful.
I appreciate you sharing thosetips and you know a little bit
of background like how toactually do it, cause it sounds
nice, I guess, in theory, butyou know, I appreciate like the
practicality of like here's howyou can, you know, do those
things.
So you know, kind of.
As we wind down here, you know,I'd love to ask you a couple of
questions.
So like number one is you know,kind of throughout your journey
(26:05):
, I'd love to hear a little bitfrom you Like what was probably
the most difficult obstacle thatyou know you encountered kind
of in your journey and how didyou overcome it it was.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
It'll be two years this december.
Um.
I was at deco world.
My second deck of worlds was inum.
It was in dallas, texas, and afew weeks out I started to feel
ankle pain and I was like, oh no, like I've been doing this
training cycle for, for you know, the biggest race of the year.
I was partnering with my buddy,keiferfer Um.
Everyone underdog knows KieferUm, but I didn't want to let him
(26:48):
down, fighting with a lot ofbattles and you know I was just
like no, I just gotta keep keeptrucking.
Got to the race, didn't performhow I wanted to ankle, so
really hurt Um.
For some reason, the, the, themild teams, we got fifth out of
15, I don't know how with myankle, but we made it work and
(27:09):
then for months and months afterI just couldn't.
I couldn't find what was wrongwith it and I think that's what
really started.
You know, going back to thebasics of Frank, you can't go
hard all the time.
You need to go easy some days,or or I got to work on my.
(27:30):
My running mechanics, like myankles, obviously, you know,
screwed up.
Why does it hurt Um?
So I got to looked at andnoticed that my, my foot caves
in a little bit on my left side,worked on that, started doing
yoga, so started stretching morenasal breathing, like I said.
(27:52):
So kind of.
That's where I found, wow, Itook a step back and got all
these great results from justgetting back to the basics.
So that's what really kind ofstarted this like philosophy
that I have.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
I love that.
I appreciate you sharing thatand it's really important
because you know, the way we'retalking about this was maybe in
the context of folks that arebeginners, right, so they're
just getting into fitness orthey're just getting into
running and like, here are thethings to set up the right
foundation for your, yourfitness journey.
But in your case, right, you'rea coach or an athlete, you're a
Decker World Championships andhere you are, you're like wait a
(28:28):
minute, I need to step back andget back to the basics.
So you know, what you sharedand how you approach your
training is really great foreveryone to really think about
and how they're approachingtheir own training plan and
program.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
Yeah, exactly, and like that was the other thing
too.
I was going in and out of jobsaround that time too, so it was
just hard to find you know whenI could train.
And it was just like you knowwhat, like let's just take a few
months off, cause I was I wasstill injured my ankle.
So I was like no, I'll justtake time off, get the stress
(29:04):
away from an event coming up andjust work on my base and my
running mechanics, like I said,and all this, and I've seen a
lot of benefits from it, whichis awesome.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
Awesome, awesome.
Well, thank you for sharingyour story here, Thank you for
sharing the tips, and lastquestion for you is what's next
for you Like?
Speaker 3 (29:26):
what are you excited about in 2025 and what are you
working towards this year?
Yeah, so I just started atStrive CrossFit.
They're they're awesome.
They got a lot of greatopportunities there for me,
which I'm really excited about.
I got Hierox DC coming up atthe end of the month Really
excited for that.
I'm doing individual, my firstopen individual, which is
exciting.
(29:46):
I've always done pro.
Didn't always get the best time, so same thing.
Took a step back.
You know what?
Let's just do some lighterweight, try the open division,
see how that goes.
I got doubles and relay toowith my friends.
And then I just signed up forAtlanta, so that's in April.
Goal is to get to worldchampionships.
(30:07):
If that's not it, you knowalways next year and then
probably for the fall season,just trying to get my run club
to kind of, you know, geteveryone back.
I'm trying an online formatthis time for the spring and the
fall.
I really think you know there'ssome cool opportunities there
that I can try out.
So so, yeah, I know it's, we'reonly what's?
(30:29):
March, so three months in, butstill a lot of ways to go and a
lot of opportunities, so reallyexcited.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
Awesome, awesome.
Well, I'm rooting for you.
It's always great to see you,frank, you know, when you come
down for the underdog events orjust kind of when we have these
chats.
I really appreciate you andeverything that you're doing to
support the running community.
So, for our listeners, whydon't you share a little bit
about how they can find you andfollow you online?
Speaker 3 (30:55):
Perfect, yeah, so my personal Instagram is it's
everyone always laughs at itWicknerf, so it's just frank w
backwards.
So that's my personal one.
On there.
It has the gym um slash gymsthat I'm working at, so they
have two locations in duxburymass and norwell mass.
I have the the links on thereso if you want to follow them,
(31:15):
see what they're about.
And then I also got my personaluh running account, which is
frankly fit PT.
I love puns, so that's whatI've been trying to name my, my
running programming frankly fit,and you can follow it on there
as well.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
So Awesome, awesome.
So I'm going to put that in theshow notes to make it easy for
our listeners to find you, andI'm also going to put in the
information about the book thatyou mentioned breathe.
So I thought that was a reallygreat recommendation.
So thanks again, frank, forcoming on the show and, you know
, with that, have a great day.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
Thank you so much, richard.
To the next level, be sure toclick the subscribe button to
join our community and alsoplease rate and review.
Thanks for listening.
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