February 13, 2025 • 37 mins
In episode 397 of the Real Life Runners Podcast, we focused on the often overlooked component for improved running performance and injury prevention: the nervous system. While many runners emphasize training plans, mileage, strength training, nutrition, and paces, the regulation of the nervous system is crucial for optimal results. We delve into the autonomic nervous system, explaining the roles of the sympathetic (fight or flight) and parasympathetic (rest and digest) systems. Signs of nervous system dysregulation, such as constant fatigue, trouble sleeping, and frequent injuries, are discussed. We explore the methods for better nervous system regulation, including proper training plans, HRV monitoring, recovery techniques, and lifestyle adjustments like adequate sleep and nutrition. The episode underscores the importance of balancing stress and recovery to enhance running performance and overall well-being.
02:26 The Importance of the Nervous System in Running
03:20 Understanding the Autonomic Nervous System
04:12 Balancing the Sympathetic and Parasympathetic Systems
08:45 Signs of Nervous System Dysregulation
12:44 Regulating Your Nervous System for Better Performance
16:09 Using HRV to Monitor Nervous System Health
23:03 Building a Stronger Parasympathetic Response
25:24 Lifestyle Factors for Nervous System Health
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Angie (00:00):
This is the Real Life Runners Podcast, episode number
(00:02):
397.
Today we're talking about themissing link to stronger, injury
free running.
So many runners only focus ontraining plans, mileage, and
pace, and even strengthtraining.
But one crucial factor is oftenoverlooked.
And it's more than just strengthtraining.
It's more than just yournutrition, or your mileage, or
(00:22):
your pace, or your trainingplan.
And that's what we're going todig into today.
Because once you master thisYour whole running life is going
to change.
So stay tuned.
(00:55):
What's up runners.
Welcome to the show today.
You've got a solo Angie episodetoday because life has been kind
of crazy lately.
We have had just all sorts offun things happening.
Um, last week was my birthday,as you know, and I also had a
week long virtual workshop withmy business coach and mentor,
which was amazing, but it wasthree very, very long days.
(01:18):
Kevin decided he was coachingtrack again this season.
So he's been busy every singleday with track practice.
Our girls are into theater andsoftball and Irish dance and all
the things.
So it has just been nonstopsince the start of the year,
which is all good things, youknow, and this is the, the
beautiful thing, obviouslyKevin's 100 mile race, you know,
(01:39):
we had that in January also.
So our life has been filled withso many good things and so many
blessings, and we are so, sograteful, and it's also been a
very, very busy time, and soKevin and I trying to find time
to record the podcast togetherhas been a bit challenging, and
so today, We're going to do asolo episode, and I'm really,
(02:02):
really excited to talk to youabout today's topic, because
this topic is one of the secretsthat so many runners don't
understand.
And even running coaches andphysical therapists don't really
understand this whole thing.
And it really holds the key toso much of how we respond to our
(02:23):
training.
So what am I talking about?
I'm talking about your nervoussystem.
Okay, your ability to runstrong, recover well and avoid
injury isn't just about yourmuscles.
It's just, it's not just aboutendurance as much as I love to
talk about strength training andmobility on this podcast.
It's not about all of that.
Those are all components of thisand your strength training and
(02:45):
your mobility and your nutritionand the way that you're training
and your runs and The 80 20 ruleand easy runs and hard runs, all
of those things feed into yournervous system because your
nervous system is the key thatcontrols all of it.
And that's why nervous systemregulation is that key to better
running performance.
And so today we're going to talkabout how you can train smarter.
(03:09):
By learning how to work withyour nervous system instead of
against it because so manyrunners get into problems with
their nervous system.
And today we're going to talkabout all of those details and
why.
Okay, so let's start off with alittle overview of what is the
nervous system and why shouldrunners care about this.
So today in Spanish.
In particular, we're talkingabout your autonomic nervous
(03:31):
system and your autonomicnervous system is essentially
this automatic system in thebody that happens without you
having to think about it.
It is, it is basically all runsubconsciously.
And so this is the cool thing isthat, you know, you don't have
to think about your heartbeating.
Your heart just beatsautomatically.
You don't have to think aboutbreathing.
You just breathe automatically.
These are things, thankgoodness.
(03:52):
That we don't have to thinkabout because these are
processes that are required andnecessary for our survival.
So your autonomic nervous systemcontrols things like
respiration, your breathing,your heart rate, your blood
pressure, your digestion, all ofthese things that are happening
in your body automatically thatyou don't have to think about.
So this is a beautiful thing.
(04:12):
Now there's two sides of yourautonomic nervous system.
There is your sympathetic.
nervous system, which is alsoknown as your fight or flight
system, which prepares your bodyfor action, right?
Fight or flight.
So your sympathetic nervoussystem is very important for
performance, but if yoursympathetic nervous system is
constantly activated, if it'soveractive, that can lead to
(04:34):
chronic stress, overtraining andburnout, which is what so many
runners experience.
On the other hand, we have yourparasympathetic nervous system,
which is known as your rest anddigest system or rest and
recovery system.
And so your parasympatheticSystem is responsible for
recovery, digestion and repair,which are obviously all
essential for injury preventionand long term performance
(04:57):
because we've talked aboutbefore running and your workouts
and your training.
All of these place stress onyour body and you're actually
breaking your body down whenyou're working out, which is the
point.
The whole point is Stressingyour body and then allowing your
body to recover and build backstronger than it was before.
This is why we train, right?
(05:17):
So this is a very good thing.
However, it becomes problematicwhen we are Activating the
sympathetic nervous system toomuch and not getting enough
parasympathetic action to helpbalance it out.
So balancing these two systemsis the key to optimize your
performance to help you avoidfatigue, injuries, and plateaus.
(05:39):
Okay, so when your sympatheticnervous system is overactive,
This can hurt your performance.
This can lead you to feelingtired all the time, right?
Like if you've ever just, Imean, I know that so many women,
especially when you're inperimenopause and menopause,
this is the most common symptomthat I hear them talking about
is fatigue.
Just, I am just so tired all thetime.
(06:01):
And so much of that is becauseof the chronic stress that they
are under from training, fromlife and from lack of recovery.
And so when we are in thischronic stress mode, our body
stays more in that fight orflight mode more, more in that
sympathetic activation.
And the more time we spend inthat, the more fatigued we are,
(06:23):
the more we are, uh, more proneto burnout.
We have slower recovery times.
We have lingering soreness that.
doesn't resolve after a coupleof days, you increase your risk
for injury because your body'snot recovered.
It's not building back stronger.
It can also lead to poor sleep.
It can lead to hormoneimbalances.
And those of us that are inperimenopause and menopause, we
(06:43):
are already dealing withhormonal issues.
And so we don't want to.
are training to add to that andthat's one of the things that I
try to help runners understandall the time is that the way
that you're training mattersbecause the way you're training
could be making your hormoneimbalances even worse it could
be throwing your system into astate of hormonal chaos even
(07:06):
more than what's naturallyhappening in perimenopause and
menopause and so when your bodyis constantly stressed when
you're in this sympathetic modeIt prioritizes survival over
performance.
Your body's just trying to stayalive.
And this is a beautiful thing.
Like, this is one of the thingsthat I talk to my runners about
all the time.
(07:26):
Because when people start tohear that, they get upset about
it.
And I help remind them, this isexactly what your body's
supposed to do.
Your body's doing its job.
It's your nervous system's jobto keep you alive, especially
your autonomic nervous system,right?
All of these functions likebreathing and heart rate and all
these things.
Those are the functions of yourbody In order to keep you alive
(07:48):
And so if your body's constantlystressed out It doesn't care how
fast you're running unlessyou're being chased by a lion,
right?
Which thank goodness We don'thave to worry about anymore.
But overall it doesn't care ifyou're running an eight minute
mile versus a nine minute mile.
It's saying, okay, I have a lotof fatigue here.
How can I conserve more energy?
(08:09):
And so in order to conserve moreenergy, you're probably going to
start running slower.
You're probably not going tohave the same level of energy
and endurance out on your runsbecause your body's just trying
to survive.
Your body's trying to make surethat it has enough energy to
stay alive, to keep your heartbeating, to keep breathing, to
keep doing all these things.
It doesn't care if you'rerunning a nine.
(08:30):
30 mile versus a 10 minute mile,right?
So it makes sense of why westart to see performance
declines.
If our bodies are in thisconstant state of stress and
sympathetic nervous system overactivation.
Okay.
So some of the signs of nervoussystem dysregulation in runners,
like some of the things that youmight be experiencing.
(08:52):
So if you answer yes to any ofthese things that I'm about to
mention, you be in a state ofnervous system dysregulation.
regulation.
So if you are always feelingtired, but wired, right?
It's a really weird sensationfor those of you that have never
really experienced this, butit's like you're tired.
A lot of people feel this,especially at the end of the
(09:13):
day, you're sitting on the couchand you're trying to relax and
you feel just exhausted, butyou're wired and you can't fall
asleep.
Or right.
Oh, I shouldn't say when you'resitting on the couch, I should
say when you finally get to bedat night, right?
You're lying there and you know,you're tired, your body's tired.
You can't fall asleep becauseyour brain's going all over the
place, and you're thinking of amillion things at once, right?
(09:34):
Uh, another sign of nervoussystem dysregulation is trouble
falling asleep or stayingasleep.
A lot of the times it's from thething I just talked about,
right?
Because you can't calm yourbrain down.
You know, I, I have a programcalled Press Play.
I might be renaming that toRunning Through Menopause.
But one of the things that wetalk about is sleep and how to
(09:54):
get better sleep.
And this one action.
That I suggest to my runners.
I'm going to share it with youbecause it's so powerful and so
many of them on one of our livecalls recently talked about this
one habit that they started thatthey learned about from the
program and How much it helpedthem to stay asleep not only to
(10:15):
fall asleep but to also stayasleep and that was keeping a
journal next to their bed andAnd just writing about their
thoughts before they go to bed,like learning how to just get
all of your thoughts down onpaper.
It's a skill, right?
Because we want to filter ourthoughts a lot, but just kind of
doing a brain dump and gettingall of your thoughts down on
(10:36):
paper, writing everything downbefore you go to bed.
And some of the ladies thatstarted to implement this habit
haven't been able to sleep.
Through the night in years andone one person said I've slept
through the night the last 10days straight, which is
Incredible because think abouthow much that then ripples out
(10:57):
to the rest of your life whenyou get better sleep and you
wake up Refreshed you just havemore energy.
You're in a better mood You'reable to be more productive
during the day your workoutsfeel better, right?
You're nicer to your family Likethere's all these things that
improve just because of this onedomino of, I got better sleep,
(11:18):
right?
So how can we get better sleep?
That's a really, reallyimportant thing that we go into
even deeper, um, inside of theprogram.
Um, so other signs that yournervous system might be
dysregulated, frequent injuriesor aches and pains that won't go
away, or just sore after all ofyour runs, your workouts feel
harder than they should.
Your heart rate stays elevated.
(11:40):
Even after easy runs, right?
You notice maybe on your easyrun that your heart rate is
elevated or it's higher than itshould be.
It's really hard for you to kindof get that heart rate down.
I know we talk a lot, not, notwe, but out in the fitness
world, people are talking a lotabout zone two training lately.
Which is a helpful tool.
However, it's going to be veryhard for you to stay in zone
(12:01):
two.
If your nervous system isdysregulated because your heart
rate is going to be high,basically all the time.
Now I shouldn't say all thetime, of course, because that's
a overgeneralization.
That's not really true, but yourheart rate does stay elevated.
Maybe more than it should, maybemore than you want it to.
People find it very, verydifficult sometimes to get down
into the zone two range.
And so they say, well, screw it.
(12:22):
I'm just not going to do it.
Right.
And that's one of the reasonsthat we teach effort based
training.
Instead of heart rate, um,training because it's easier to
kind of get a feel for does thisfeel easy and if it doesn't,
okay, maybe I need to slow downa little bit.
Maybe I need to take a walkingbreak.
It's really, really, reallyimportant.
Okay, so those are some signsthat your nervous system could
(12:42):
be dysregulated.
Um, so now let's get into how toregulate your nervous system for
a better running performance.
Cause I'm guessing that most ofyou probably answered yes to at
least one of those things,right?
Maybe not.
Maybe you're doing fantastic andthat's awesome, but maybe you
know somebody that is dealingwith these things.
And if so, I would love for youto just pause this episode and
(13:05):
hit share, share it with yourfriend, you know, share it on
social media.
Um, if you haven't left us areview.
Hit pause and leave us a reviewon Apple podcasts.
I know I've been asking forreviews for a little while now,
and I haven't gotten a new onelately.
So I would love for you, if youfind this podcast helpful to
let, leave us a review, let usknow, are we doing a good job
here?
Are we, you know, hitting someof the topics that matter to you
(13:26):
guys?
And if you're, there's topicsthat you want us to hear about
or, um, do some more episodesabout, let us know.
Okay, so let's get into how toregulate your nervous system now
for better running performancebecause now you know that your
nervous system is the key nowyou understand what nervous
system dysregulation looks likeso then the next question
(13:47):
obviously becomes okay well whatdo I do about it right how do I
regulate my nervous system sothat I can not only improve my
running but feel better in mydaily life and that's really
important.
Okay.
I think it all comes down to islike, you want to feel strong.
You want to have energy.
You want to feel vibrant invitevitality, have more vitality in,
in your life.
Right?
(14:07):
So the first thing that we needto do is really understand how
to train smarter and not harder.
And we've talked about thisconcept many times on the
podcast, because so manyrunners, especially over 40,
they tend to just pushthemselves harder when they feel
like they're losing fitness, butthis.
Pretty much always backfires,right?
Like it might work for a littlebit, but eventually at some
(14:30):
point it catches up to you ifyou're just constantly going out
and trying to push yourself hardall the time, most of the time,
if people are pushing hard allthe time, they end up with
injuries, they end up feelingburnt out.
So they end up withinconsistency.
There's lots of different thingsthat end up happening because
you're just pushing too hard allthe time.
And it's hard to do hard thingsall the time, right?
Like we have to have thatbalance of easy and hard.
(14:52):
And that's what polarizedtraining is.
Polarized training means thatyou're balancing your hard
workouts with true easy runs.
Okay.
Let me say that again.
True easy runs, right?
A lot of times I tell clients goout and run easy and they're
like, Okay, and I look at, youknow, what they did and what
(15:14):
their workout looks like andwhat their paces were.
And I asked them, I'm like, didthat, did that feel easy?
And they're like, well, it'sprobably like a four or a five,
four or five is not easy.
A true easy run is a level twoor three out of 10.
Okay, it's easier than you thinkand there's a lot of runners
that think oh if I go that easyI'm not gonna be making progress
(15:35):
and that is the opposite ofwhat's true.
Okay, you can only Do the hardstuff if you balance it with the
easy stuff if you're going hardall the time or even moderate
Medium effort level like thatfive six out of ten and then
you're doing hard sometimesyou're still overloading the
nervous system And you want totry avoiding that, right?
(15:58):
Avoid overloading the nervoussystem because you want your
nervous system to be moreregulated and be more balanced.
So what are some good tools forus to kind of assess this?
HRV is one.
And HRV is, is a term thatstands for heart rate
variability.
You may or may not have heardabout HRV.
It's kind of, you know, comingout more in the literature and
(16:22):
in, Kind of popular media andsocial media and HRV is a great
tool to assess how well yournervous system is handling
stress.
HRV basically helps you see howwell am I recovering.
So what is HRV and why does thismatter?
HRV measures the variation intime between heartbeats.
(16:44):
Okay.
And this is controlled by yourautonomic nervous system.
So unlike your resting heartrate, which is just a simple
beats per minute count, right?
Your resting heart rate is justhow many beats per minute is
like how many times per minutedoes your heartbeat when you're
at rest?
Which is also a very helpfulmeasure.
Okay, if you, if you don't havesomething to measure your HRV, a
(17:04):
lot of these watches andtrackers and things measure HRV
now, which is pretty cool.
You know, the accuracy of themis a little questionable
sometimes and you have to takeit with a grain of salt, right?
Whenever I look at some of thesemetrics, it's not that The HRV
is exactly correct, but it canhelp us track trends over time.
(17:24):
And that's really what we wantto look at more than the actual
number itself.
So your resting heart rate isalso a really good monitor
because, um, I'll give youmyself as an example, actually.
So my typical resting heart rateis In the high forties, I would
say like around 48 beats perminute, like overnight when I'm
sleeping and last week becauseit was a very, uh, stress, I
(17:49):
don't want to call it stressfulbecause I don't like thinking of
things as stress, um, andtelling myself that I'm stressed
because you know, your brain hasa lot of power over how you
experience everything in yourlife, but it was a very full
week.
It was very busy week.
It was very full calendar, lotsof things going on.
Yeah.
And it was also the week beforeI got my period too, which also
makes a difference in how yourbody's responding.
(18:10):
So last week my resting heartrate was, uh, like in the low
50s more.
It was like more like 51, 50,51, which doesn't seem like a
lot.
But when it's day after dayafter day, and my average now
changes in this whole weekversus an average of 48, right?
Cause when it, when, when myaverage is 48, it basically
ranges from, I would say 45 to50, sometimes it gets down a
(18:33):
little bit lower, but that'skind of the average, whereas
when my average is 51, itprobably ranges more from like
50 to 55, right?
So I'm kind of looking at theseranges here.
And so I.
But by the time last week when Igot to Friday, like I was
feeling good all week long.
I was busy.
I was going, going, going.
Right?
The adrenaline was pumping.
(18:55):
And by the time I hit Friday, mybody was like, Ooh, we're done.
I'm tired.
Ange.
Right?
We need, we need to have a downday.
So Understanding that and thenkind of going back and looking
and saying, like, Oh, my heart,my resting heart rate has been
kind of high that can help ussee, like, how hard should I be
training this week?
And I was doing some, someharder things last week too,
(19:17):
right?
And so that's a little bit aboutresting heart rate, but going
back to HRV, um, The HRV kind oflooks at the subtle fluctuations
between your heartbeat, okay?
So if you have a higher HRV thatmeans that your nervous system
is balanced and it's respondingwell to stress and that you're
(19:37):
recovering well, okay, so A highHRV is what we want.
We want variability betweenthose heart rate, uh,
heartbeats.
A lower HRV means that your bodyis under stress, okay?
So whether it's from yourtraining, from poor sleep,
emotional stress, illness, or acombination of all of this.
I mean, there are so many peoplegetting sick right now.
(19:58):
So much is going around, right?
So if your HRV is lower, that istelling you that you might need
more recovery.
Whereas if your HRV is higher,it means, okay, you're probably
ready for a harder sessionagain, right?
Your, your body is recovered andyou're ready to go out and hit a
harder session again.
Okay?
So that's kind of how you canuse HRV.
(20:19):
If you're, if you have somethingto help you monitor your HRV,
okay, this isn't something thatyou can just monitor yourself,
um, like by checking your pulseor anything like that.
You would need some sort of HRVmonitor.
So if your HRV is high, thatmeans your nervous system is
good.
Like it's a great day for aworkout, right?
Let's go.
Let's time.
It's time to push it out.
(20:39):
But if your HRV is low, it meansthat your body is still
recovering.
So you might want to opt for aneasy run or an extra recovery
day.
Even if you have a workout onthe schedule.
Right?
Because especially if you areover 40, your body starts to
need more recovery time than itused to.
It doesn't recover from thoseharder sessions as well.
(21:00):
So if you have something totrack your HRV, it can be a
great tool to use to help youkind of make these decisions.
Now, every single time your HRVis low, does that mean that you
need to skip your workout?
No, of course not, right?
And that's why it's moreimportant for us to track
trends.
A single low HRV reading isn't abig deal.
(21:20):
Right?
Like if you have a single lowHRV, but you actually check in
with yourself and you're like,okay Well, how do I actually
feel and you the answer is Ifeel okay, you know I'm maybe
I'm a little bit tired, but I'mgonna go try this workout.
Anyway, that's totally okay andthis is really one of the
reasons that we Coach ourrunners so much on effort based
(21:41):
training and reallyunderstanding how to interpret
the body, the signs and thesymptoms that your body is
trying to send you, right?
It's not about just looking at anumber on your watch.
Okay, because one low HRVdoesn't mean that anything
really, okay, but it can be auseful tool to track trends over
(22:03):
time, because if you arenoticing like a downward trend
in your HRV, that could be asign that your nervous system is
struggling to keep up with it.
Okay.
Either your training stress oryour life stress or all the
different, maybe all of theabove, right?
All of the different ways thatyour body is being stressed.
So HRV can be a helpful tool.
But again, it is not the be allend all.
(22:24):
It's just a little window.
It's just a little monitor intoyour nervous system's readiness
for training.
Okay.
So.
Um, learning to use that as atool can help you to train
smarter, can help you to avoidburnout and optimize recovery.
But again, it's not everything.
Okay.
Checking in and just askingyourself, how do I feel today?
And really answering thattruthfully is so much more
(22:47):
powerful, quite honestly, right?
We have to, but that's the keyis truthfully, right?
Like we can't try to lie toourselves.
We can't try to pretend that I'mnot feeling this way.
I can't try to just keep pushingand like, you know, I'll recover
at some point in time becauseit's going to catch up to you.
All right.
All right.
The second thing that we want tolook at when it comes to how to
regulate your nervous system forbetter running performance
(23:09):
outside of our training is tobuild a stronger parasympathetic
response.
We have to teach our body how toswitch from sympathetic
activation into parasympathetic.
Okay, from that fight or flight.
Into that rest and recovery anddigest mode, right?
So there are tools that we canuse.
And this is something that wherepeople sometimes get a little
(23:31):
confused because you might besaying to yourself, Angie, you
just told me at the beginning ofthe episode that these, this is
my automatic.
Responses, right?
These all happen automatically,and I don't have control over
them, which is true, right?
Your autonomic nervous systemdoes happen automatically.
Your body shifts intosympathetic or parasympathetic
(23:52):
mode automatically.
However, some of the things thatwe do, like our training choices
that we talked about, and someof the things that we're going
to talk about now withparasympathetic, some of the
things that we do consciously,that we do, Have control over
that.
We do voluntarily can help oursystem to shift into one or the
(24:13):
other, right?
So if we're training too hard,that is a voluntary choice.
We're choosing to keep our bodyin that sympathetic mode by
doing things to help.
Stimulate more of aparasympathetic response.
Things like breath work, right?
Helps your body to shift intorecovery mode faster.
Things like cold, cold exposureor contrast therapy.
(24:34):
Now there's some differences inthe literature.
Males and females respond to icetherapy different and to to cold
exposure differently.
Okay.
So that is something to note,you know, things like grounding
and exposure to nature, help tocalm your nervous system and
restrict, reduce those stresshormones.
Okay.
Things like cooling down after aworkout, instead of like when
(24:57):
you finish your workout and youjust like, Move on to the next
thing in your day doing somecool downs, you know, either
cooling down by easy jog or awalk or some gentle stretching
or some breath work, differentthings that you can do to
basically help your nervoussystem.
No.
Okay, workouts done.
It's now time to shift intorecover and repair mode.
(25:18):
All right.
So things like that that canhelp to stimulate our
parasympathetic response.
And finally, the other thingsthat we absolutely need to do to
help regulate our nervous systemis to get enough sleep and to
make sure that we're getting theright nutrition for nervous
system health.
And these, again, these are thepillars inside the program that
(25:39):
I have, you know, for therunning through menopause
program.
These are some of the pillars.
Like we look at all of thesethings because they all matter
when you get.
More sleep and when you getbetter sleep, it helps your
nervous system to resetovernight, right?
Like especially getting moredeep sleep, you know, there are
different stages of sleepthere's four different stages of
(26:00):
sleep in the sleep cycle and onestage is deep sleep and Most
people are not getting enoughdeep sleep.
And when we don't allow ourbodies to get into that deep
sleep, it doesn't recover fully,which is why a lot of people
wake up.
Even if you're getting eighthours of sleep, if you're not
getting, if your body's not ableto shift into deep sleep mode,
you might still be waking upfeeling tired, okay?
(26:22):
Because your nervous systemdoesn't get that full reset.
Um, things like caffeine andalcohol also can affect nervous
system regulation, right?
Minimizing your caffeine intake,especially in the afternoon.
Like.
I'm a coffee drinker, y'all, soI am definitely not going to be
one to tell you to cut outcaffeine, all right?
I love my coffee.
I love the taste of it, thesmell of it, the experience of
(26:44):
it, making it, the ritual thatsurrounds my coffee.
Right, and there's a lot ofpeople are like you need to cut
caffeine and you need to cutalcohol.
I also love wine Okay, but I'vealso significantly decreased my
consumption of it.
It's not that you can't havethese things it's that you have
to be more mindful of yourchoices and How much you're
(27:05):
having?
And when you're having it, sofor me, caffeine, I pretty much
don't drink coffee afternoon,like sometimes I'll let it go to
like one or two o'clock at thelatest, okay, but I definitely
don't drink caffeine after twoo'clock, I like to leave at
least eight hours between mylast You Drink of caffeine and
(27:26):
my intended bedtime.
Okay.
I try to go to bed around 10ish.
Um, it's been harder to go tobed around 10 with the girls.
I'm getting older, but that'sstill the goal, you know?
So usually Kevin and I are inbed around like 10, 10 30, there
was over break.
We started to, we noticed thatkind of kept getting pushed to
like 11 ish.
So we're trying to bring it backdown because sleep is so, so
(27:48):
important.
Um, so trying to minimize your,your caffeine intake, especially
in the afternoon.
And then alcohol too, like ifyou're someone that, uh, drinks
alcohol, drinking alcoholearlier in the evening and
drinking alcohol with food willhelp your body process it more
versus drinking alcohol laterbecause the later you drink it,
the closer to sleep, the moreit's going to affect your sleep.
(28:10):
And so if it affects your sleep,it's going to affect the way
that your nervous system is ableto regulate and reset overnight,
uh, nutrition before and afteryour runs, fueling properly.
Makes a huge difference in howyour nervous system responds to
stress because if you're out onyour run and you are not well
fueled, okay, this is where thewhole idea of like working out
(28:32):
fasted comes in, like if you aresomeone that doesn't eat before
you run, you need to stop thatyou need to fuel yourself before
running.
Because when you fuel properlybefore and after your runs, you
can help your body understand,I've got enough fuel on board
here, okay?
When you, your blood sugarfalls, when you have low blood
(28:52):
sugar, that stimulates morenervous system stress.
It overstresses your nervoussystem.
Your body doesn't think that ithas what it needs for the task
at hand.
So it gets stressed out and itstarts breaking stuff down,
trying to find fuel.
Your body kind of goes into likefloor alarm mode.
Like, I need fuel.
Where am I going to find it?
(29:13):
Right?
And it starts breaking down yourmuscle.
It starts breaking down bone.
Fat, unfortunately, is one ofthe last places it likes to go
because it takes more energy tobreak down fat.
And use fatty acids as energyproduction, especially when
you're running too hard becauseyou need appropriate levels of
oxygen to break down fat and tooxidize and metabolize fat.
(29:33):
So Getting the proper nutritioncan really really help to
support your nervous systembalance and again We go into all
sorts of specifics inside insidethe program.
So if you are someone I know Ikeep referring to it but if you
are someone that wants Theseaction steps that wants to
understand, okay, how do Iactually implement these things
(29:55):
without feeling completelyoverwhelmed?
Cause if you're listening tothis and you're like, gosh, this
is including everything.
And it's like, yeah, it does.
Right.
All of your choices have aneffect on your nervous system.
And if you're feeling tired andyou're feeling burnt out and
you're feeling stressed all thetime that stinks, right?
You don't have to feel that way.
There are lots of things thatyou can do, which is a beautiful
(30:15):
thing.
It doesn't mean you have to doall of them.
But you can start implementingsome of them.
And if you want that coachingand that step by step guide on,
okay, how do I actually start toput these things and apply them
to my life?
Get on the priority list.
Okay?
You don't have to sign up, butif you are interested in some
help with this, go over torealliferunners.
com forward slash priority andput your name and your email on
(30:38):
that list so that you're thefirst to know when enrollment
opens again for the program.
Okay?
And then you'll get to see allthe details of the program and
you'll just make.
be able to make the decision,um, for you that's right, you
know, to make a decision ifthat's, if this is the thing
that's right for you or not.
All right.
Part number three that we wantto talk about.
So now you guys, you understandwhy your nervous system is so
(30:58):
important and how to tell if youare in a state of nervous system
dysregulation.
You also are understand someways that you can start to
regulate your nervous system.
So the third thing that you wantto do is kind of like.
Figure out like how to tell ifyour nervous system is helping
your running or hurting yourrunning.
Okay, because like we mentionedRunning and training places
(31:20):
stress on the body and there butthere's a difference between
healthy stress and chronicstress Healthy stress is what we
want.
We when we go out and run longerdistances when we lift heavy
weights We are putting stress onour body and on our nervous
system And that's what we wantbecause stress forces your body
(31:41):
to adapt in some way.
So if it's a healthy level oftraining and a healthy level of
stress, your body's going toadapt and it's going to get
stronger.
If it's chronic stress that'sconstantly breaking the body
down, then your body's gonnaprobably keep breaking down and
getting weaker.
So if you have a strongregulated nervous system, it
(32:02):
adapts to your training, itbounces back, and it actually
gets stronger than it wasbefore.
Beautiful thing.
That's how you get faster.
That's how you improve yourendurance.
But if your nervous system isdysregulated, it makes you feel
like, what the heck am I doinghere?
Why?
I'm putting in all this work,but I'm not seeing progress.
(32:22):
And so many runners suffer fromthat.
And it doesn't have to be likethis way, right?
And this is really what I wantyou to understand.
Is that, like, when youunderstand your nervous system
and how it responds and how yourbody adapts to training, that's
where it all starts to cometogether, okay?
So ways that you can start tokind of track your nervous
(32:43):
system, you can start to look atyour HRV, if you have something
that tracks that.
You can look at your restingheart rate and your morning
heart rate trends, okay?
Like, check your heart ratebefore you get out of bed in the
morning.
And just write it down and startto see, okay, you know, am I
rested like is if, if yourresting heart rate is higher, it
could mean that you'reovertraining, right?
Start to kind of track thesethings, tracking your mood and
(33:06):
your energy levels, right?
Are you waking up and feelingirritable or sluggish or overly
emotional?
Not, not just when you wake up,but throughout your day, like,
are you finding it hard to dealwith kind of normal stress,
normal everyday stress?
This is people like we, we gothrough stressful times.
We have things in our life thatcan lead to stress, but how are
(33:28):
you handling it?
You know, if it's, if it seemslike it's getting to you or just
making you feel more anxious ordepressed or sad or just overly
emotional or irritable, if you,if you find yourself snapping at
people all the time.
These could be signs of adysregulated nervous system.
So, what are you going to doabout it?
(33:49):
Alright?
You have to understand how allthese things put together.
Alright?
You want to start thinking abouthow your training and how your
daily choices are affecting yournervous system.
Because when you learn to workwith your body, when you learn
how to work with your nervoussystem, this can help prevent
injury, it can improve yourperformance, and it can just
(34:09):
help you feel stronger and havemore energy in your daily life.
All right.
So just as a little recap here,check and see, okay, step number
one is to see, is my nervoussystem out of balance?
Is my nervous systemdysregulated?
You know, am I always, are yousomeone that's always in like
go, go, go mode?
Number two, you can start usingdown regulation techniques that
(34:32):
we talked about, like breathwork, grounding techniques,
making sure that your easy runsare easy, right?
Step three would be like lookingat your, at your training,
making sure that you are, okay.
Training easy most of the timeand then training hard some of
the time and getting enoughrecovery and making sure that
you've got your nutrition onpoint as well.
(34:53):
And then for number four islooking at your lifestyle,
right?
Starting to maybe track some ofthese things, tracking your
sleep, tracking your restingheart rate or your HRV or your
energy levels to see how yourbody's responding to all of
these things.
Because if you're tired all ofthe time, is it worth it?
Right?
(35:13):
Like, is it worth it?
Like, you want to train for yourfirst, first half, half marathon
or your first marathon?
Great.
Wonderful.
You don't have to feel exhaustedall the time.
That is a common misconceptionand a common myth.
They're like, Oh, well, ofcourse you feel tired.
It's, I'm training for my firstmarathon.
Like, yeah, your body's probablygoing to be more tired than it
normally is when you're nottraining for a marathon, but you
(35:34):
shouldn't feel exhausted all thetime.
You shouldn't feel irritable andmore anxious and you shouldn't
see your body gaining weight.
That's another actual symptomthat I.
We didn't even talk about todayis like, if you notice that your
body's gaining weight, it's alsoa sign that your nervous system
is dysregulated, especially ifyou're training hard.
You know, especially if you'reincreasing your training load, a
lot of people that train formarathons notice that they gain
(35:57):
weight and it's because theirrecovery is totally out of
whack.
So their body is holding on tothe weight instead of using it
as fuel.
Okay.
So I really, really hope thatthis episode gave you a new
insight that, you know, Nervoussystem is something that we
really need to be thinkingabout.
It's something that you'reprobably going to see me talking
a lot more about because thistruly is this missing link, this
(36:20):
secret that a lot of peopledon't know about and don't
understand.
And by regulating stress andstarting to balance your
training more and understandingnutrition and sleep and your,
how all of your lifestylefactors play into.
Your nervous system health,you're going to be able to run
stronger.
You're going to be able torecover faster and you're just
going to feel better overall.
(36:41):
And I think that's what it's allabout for all of us, right?
So if you found this episodehelpful, I would love for you to
reach out to me on Instagram,share it with a friend, or leave
us a review on Apple podcasts orSpotify.
And let me know what's one thingthat you're going to start
doing.
to support your nervous system.
I would love to hear from youover on Instagram at real life
(37:01):
runners.
So as always, thanks forspending this time with us.
This has been, or I should saywith me since Kevin wasn't here
with me today.
Um, hopefully he will be backnext week.
Um, I actually have some reallycool guests coming on the
podcast as well.
So stay tuned for all of thosethings.
We've got a lot of really coolthings planned for the podcast
and for our coaching programthis year.
(37:22):
So.
Thanks for joining us.
This has been the Real LifeRunners podcast, episode number
397.
Now get out there and run yourlife.
This is the Real Life Runners Podcast, episode number
(00:02):
397.
Today we're talking about themissing link to stronger, injury
free running.
So many runners only focus ontraining plans, mileage, and
pace, and even strengthtraining.
But one crucial factor is oftenoverlooked.
And it's more than just strengthtraining.
It's more than just yournutrition, or your mileage, or
(00:22):
your pace, or your trainingplan.
And that's what we're going todig into today.
Because once you master thisYour whole running life is going
to change.
So stay tuned.
(00:55):
What's up runners.
Welcome to the show today.
You've got a solo Angie episodetoday because life has been kind
of crazy lately.
We have had just all sorts offun things happening.
Um, last week was my birthday,as you know, and I also had a
week long virtual workshop withmy business coach and mentor,
which was amazing, but it wasthree very, very long days.
(01:18):
Kevin decided he was coachingtrack again this season.
So he's been busy every singleday with track practice.
Our girls are into theater andsoftball and Irish dance and all
the things.
So it has just been nonstopsince the start of the year,
which is all good things, youknow, and this is the, the
beautiful thing, obviouslyKevin's 100 mile race, you know,
(01:39):
we had that in January also.
So our life has been filled withso many good things and so many
blessings, and we are so, sograteful, and it's also been a
very, very busy time, and soKevin and I trying to find time
to record the podcast togetherhas been a bit challenging, and
so today, We're going to do asolo episode, and I'm really,
(02:02):
really excited to talk to youabout today's topic, because
this topic is one of the secretsthat so many runners don't
understand.
And even running coaches andphysical therapists don't really
understand this whole thing.
And it really holds the key toso much of how we respond to our
(02:23):
training.
So what am I talking about?
I'm talking about your nervoussystem.
Okay, your ability to runstrong, recover well and avoid
injury isn't just about yourmuscles.
It's just, it's not just aboutendurance as much as I love to
talk about strength training andmobility on this podcast.
It's not about all of that.
Those are all components of thisand your strength training and
(02:45):
your mobility and your nutritionand the way that you're training
and your runs and The 80 20 ruleand easy runs and hard runs, all
of those things feed into yournervous system because your
nervous system is the key thatcontrols all of it.
And that's why nervous systemregulation is that key to better
running performance.
And so today we're going to talkabout how you can train smarter.
(03:09):
By learning how to work withyour nervous system instead of
against it because so manyrunners get into problems with
their nervous system.
And today we're going to talkabout all of those details and
why.
Okay, so let's start off with alittle overview of what is the
nervous system and why shouldrunners care about this.
So today in Spanish.
In particular, we're talkingabout your autonomic nervous
(03:31):
system and your autonomicnervous system is essentially
this automatic system in thebody that happens without you
having to think about it.
It is, it is basically all runsubconsciously.
And so this is the cool thing isthat, you know, you don't have
to think about your heartbeating.
Your heart just beatsautomatically.
You don't have to think aboutbreathing.
You just breathe automatically.
These are things, thankgoodness.
(03:52):
That we don't have to thinkabout because these are
processes that are required andnecessary for our survival.
So your autonomic nervous systemcontrols things like
respiration, your breathing,your heart rate, your blood
pressure, your digestion, all ofthese things that are happening
in your body automatically thatyou don't have to think about.
So this is a beautiful thing.
(04:12):
Now there's two sides of yourautonomic nervous system.
There is your sympathetic.
nervous system, which is alsoknown as your fight or flight
system, which prepares your bodyfor action, right?
Fight or flight.
So your sympathetic nervoussystem is very important for
performance, but if yoursympathetic nervous system is
constantly activated, if it'soveractive, that can lead to
(04:34):
chronic stress, overtraining andburnout, which is what so many
runners experience.
On the other hand, we have yourparasympathetic nervous system,
which is known as your rest anddigest system or rest and
recovery system.
And so your parasympatheticSystem is responsible for
recovery, digestion and repair,which are obviously all
essential for injury preventionand long term performance
(04:57):
because we've talked aboutbefore running and your workouts
and your training.
All of these place stress onyour body and you're actually
breaking your body down whenyou're working out, which is the
point.
The whole point is Stressingyour body and then allowing your
body to recover and build backstronger than it was before.
This is why we train, right?
(05:17):
So this is a very good thing.
However, it becomes problematicwhen we are Activating the
sympathetic nervous system toomuch and not getting enough
parasympathetic action to helpbalance it out.
So balancing these two systemsis the key to optimize your
performance to help you avoidfatigue, injuries, and plateaus.
(05:39):
Okay, so when your sympatheticnervous system is overactive,
This can hurt your performance.
This can lead you to feelingtired all the time, right?
Like if you've ever just, Imean, I know that so many women,
especially when you're inperimenopause and menopause,
this is the most common symptomthat I hear them talking about
is fatigue.
Just, I am just so tired all thetime.
(06:01):
And so much of that is becauseof the chronic stress that they
are under from training, fromlife and from lack of recovery.
And so when we are in thischronic stress mode, our body
stays more in that fight orflight mode more, more in that
sympathetic activation.
And the more time we spend inthat, the more fatigued we are,
(06:23):
the more we are, uh, more proneto burnout.
We have slower recovery times.
We have lingering soreness that.
doesn't resolve after a coupleof days, you increase your risk
for injury because your body'snot recovered.
It's not building back stronger.
It can also lead to poor sleep.
It can lead to hormoneimbalances.
And those of us that are inperimenopause and menopause, we
(06:43):
are already dealing withhormonal issues.
And so we don't want to.
are training to add to that andthat's one of the things that I
try to help runners understandall the time is that the way
that you're training mattersbecause the way you're training
could be making your hormoneimbalances even worse it could
be throwing your system into astate of hormonal chaos even
(07:06):
more than what's naturallyhappening in perimenopause and
menopause and so when your bodyis constantly stressed when
you're in this sympathetic modeIt prioritizes survival over
performance.
Your body's just trying to stayalive.
And this is a beautiful thing.
Like, this is one of the thingsthat I talk to my runners about
all the time.
(07:26):
Because when people start tohear that, they get upset about
it.
And I help remind them, this isexactly what your body's
supposed to do.
Your body's doing its job.
It's your nervous system's jobto keep you alive, especially
your autonomic nervous system,right?
All of these functions likebreathing and heart rate and all
these things.
Those are the functions of yourbody In order to keep you alive
(07:48):
And so if your body's constantlystressed out It doesn't care how
fast you're running unlessyou're being chased by a lion,
right?
Which thank goodness We don'thave to worry about anymore.
But overall it doesn't care ifyou're running an eight minute
mile versus a nine minute mile.
It's saying, okay, I have a lotof fatigue here.
How can I conserve more energy?
(08:09):
And so in order to conserve moreenergy, you're probably going to
start running slower.
You're probably not going tohave the same level of energy
and endurance out on your runsbecause your body's just trying
to survive.
Your body's trying to make surethat it has enough energy to
stay alive, to keep your heartbeating, to keep breathing, to
keep doing all these things.
It doesn't care if you'rerunning a nine.
(08:30):
30 mile versus a 10 minute mile,right?
So it makes sense of why westart to see performance
declines.
If our bodies are in thisconstant state of stress and
sympathetic nervous system overactivation.
Okay.
So some of the signs of nervoussystem dysregulation in runners,
like some of the things that youmight be experiencing.
(08:52):
So if you answer yes to any ofthese things that I'm about to
mention, you be in a state ofnervous system dysregulation.
regulation.
So if you are always feelingtired, but wired, right?
It's a really weird sensationfor those of you that have never
really experienced this, butit's like you're tired.
A lot of people feel this,especially at the end of the
(09:13):
day, you're sitting on the couchand you're trying to relax and
you feel just exhausted, butyou're wired and you can't fall
asleep.
Or right.
Oh, I shouldn't say when you'resitting on the couch, I should
say when you finally get to bedat night, right?
You're lying there and you know,you're tired, your body's tired.
You can't fall asleep becauseyour brain's going all over the
place, and you're thinking of amillion things at once, right?
(09:34):
Uh, another sign of nervoussystem dysregulation is trouble
falling asleep or stayingasleep.
A lot of the times it's from thething I just talked about,
right?
Because you can't calm yourbrain down.
You know, I, I have a programcalled Press Play.
I might be renaming that toRunning Through Menopause.
But one of the things that wetalk about is sleep and how to
(09:54):
get better sleep.
And this one action.
That I suggest to my runners.
I'm going to share it with youbecause it's so powerful and so
many of them on one of our livecalls recently talked about this
one habit that they started thatthey learned about from the
program and How much it helpedthem to stay asleep not only to
(10:15):
fall asleep but to also stayasleep and that was keeping a
journal next to their bed andAnd just writing about their
thoughts before they go to bed,like learning how to just get
all of your thoughts down onpaper.
It's a skill, right?
Because we want to filter ourthoughts a lot, but just kind of
doing a brain dump and gettingall of your thoughts down on
(10:36):
paper, writing everything downbefore you go to bed.
And some of the ladies thatstarted to implement this habit
haven't been able to sleep.
Through the night in years andone one person said I've slept
through the night the last 10days straight, which is
Incredible because think abouthow much that then ripples out
(10:57):
to the rest of your life whenyou get better sleep and you
wake up Refreshed you just havemore energy.
You're in a better mood You'reable to be more productive
during the day your workoutsfeel better, right?
You're nicer to your family Likethere's all these things that
improve just because of this onedomino of, I got better sleep,
(11:18):
right?
So how can we get better sleep?
That's a really, reallyimportant thing that we go into
even deeper, um, inside of theprogram.
Um, so other signs that yournervous system might be
dysregulated, frequent injuriesor aches and pains that won't go
away, or just sore after all ofyour runs, your workouts feel
harder than they should.
Your heart rate stays elevated.
(11:40):
Even after easy runs, right?
You notice maybe on your easyrun that your heart rate is
elevated or it's higher than itshould be.
It's really hard for you to kindof get that heart rate down.
I know we talk a lot, not, notwe, but out in the fitness
world, people are talking a lotabout zone two training lately.
Which is a helpful tool.
However, it's going to be veryhard for you to stay in zone
(12:01):
two.
If your nervous system isdysregulated because your heart
rate is going to be high,basically all the time.
Now I shouldn't say all thetime, of course, because that's
a overgeneralization.
That's not really true, but yourheart rate does stay elevated.
Maybe more than it should, maybemore than you want it to.
People find it very, verydifficult sometimes to get down
into the zone two range.
And so they say, well, screw it.
(12:22):
I'm just not going to do it.
Right.
And that's one of the reasonsthat we teach effort based
training.
Instead of heart rate, um,training because it's easier to
kind of get a feel for does thisfeel easy and if it doesn't,
okay, maybe I need to slow downa little bit.
Maybe I need to take a walkingbreak.
It's really, really, reallyimportant.
Okay, so those are some signsthat your nervous system could
(12:42):
be dysregulated.
Um, so now let's get into how toregulate your nervous system for
a better running performance.
Cause I'm guessing that most ofyou probably answered yes to at
least one of those things,right?
Maybe not.
Maybe you're doing fantastic andthat's awesome, but maybe you
know somebody that is dealingwith these things.
And if so, I would love for youto just pause this episode and
(13:05):
hit share, share it with yourfriend, you know, share it on
social media.
Um, if you haven't left us areview.
Hit pause and leave us a reviewon Apple podcasts.
I know I've been asking forreviews for a little while now,
and I haven't gotten a new onelately.
So I would love for you, if youfind this podcast helpful to
let, leave us a review, let usknow, are we doing a good job
here?
Are we, you know, hitting someof the topics that matter to you
(13:26):
guys?
And if you're, there's topicsthat you want us to hear about
or, um, do some more episodesabout, let us know.
Okay, so let's get into how toregulate your nervous system now
for better running performancebecause now you know that your
nervous system is the key nowyou understand what nervous
system dysregulation looks likeso then the next question
(13:47):
obviously becomes okay well whatdo I do about it right how do I
regulate my nervous system sothat I can not only improve my
running but feel better in mydaily life and that's really
important.
Okay.
I think it all comes down to islike, you want to feel strong.
You want to have energy.
You want to feel vibrant invitevitality, have more vitality in,
in your life.
Right?
(14:07):
So the first thing that we needto do is really understand how
to train smarter and not harder.
And we've talked about thisconcept many times on the
podcast, because so manyrunners, especially over 40,
they tend to just pushthemselves harder when they feel
like they're losing fitness, butthis.
Pretty much always backfires,right?
Like it might work for a littlebit, but eventually at some
(14:30):
point it catches up to you ifyou're just constantly going out
and trying to push yourself hardall the time, most of the time,
if people are pushing hard allthe time, they end up with
injuries, they end up feelingburnt out.
So they end up withinconsistency.
There's lots of different thingsthat end up happening because
you're just pushing too hard allthe time.
And it's hard to do hard thingsall the time, right?
Like we have to have thatbalance of easy and hard.
(14:52):
And that's what polarizedtraining is.
Polarized training means thatyou're balancing your hard
workouts with true easy runs.
Okay.
Let me say that again.
True easy runs, right?
A lot of times I tell clients goout and run easy and they're
like, Okay, and I look at, youknow, what they did and what
(15:14):
their workout looks like andwhat their paces were.
And I asked them, I'm like, didthat, did that feel easy?
And they're like, well, it'sprobably like a four or a five,
four or five is not easy.
A true easy run is a level twoor three out of 10.
Okay, it's easier than you thinkand there's a lot of runners
that think oh if I go that easyI'm not gonna be making progress
(15:35):
and that is the opposite ofwhat's true.
Okay, you can only Do the hardstuff if you balance it with the
easy stuff if you're going hardall the time or even moderate
Medium effort level like thatfive six out of ten and then
you're doing hard sometimesyou're still overloading the
nervous system And you want totry avoiding that, right?
(15:58):
Avoid overloading the nervoussystem because you want your
nervous system to be moreregulated and be more balanced.
So what are some good tools forus to kind of assess this?
HRV is one.
And HRV is, is a term thatstands for heart rate
variability.
You may or may not have heardabout HRV.
It's kind of, you know, comingout more in the literature and
(16:22):
in, Kind of popular media andsocial media and HRV is a great
tool to assess how well yournervous system is handling
stress.
HRV basically helps you see howwell am I recovering.
So what is HRV and why does thismatter?
HRV measures the variation intime between heartbeats.
(16:44):
Okay.
And this is controlled by yourautonomic nervous system.
So unlike your resting heartrate, which is just a simple
beats per minute count, right?
Your resting heart rate is justhow many beats per minute is
like how many times per minutedoes your heartbeat when you're
at rest?
Which is also a very helpfulmeasure.
Okay, if you, if you don't havesomething to measure your HRV, a
(17:04):
lot of these watches andtrackers and things measure HRV
now, which is pretty cool.
You know, the accuracy of themis a little questionable
sometimes and you have to takeit with a grain of salt, right?
Whenever I look at some of thesemetrics, it's not that The HRV
is exactly correct, but it canhelp us track trends over time.
(17:24):
And that's really what we wantto look at more than the actual
number itself.
So your resting heart rate isalso a really good monitor
because, um, I'll give youmyself as an example, actually.
So my typical resting heart rateis In the high forties, I would
say like around 48 beats perminute, like overnight when I'm
sleeping and last week becauseit was a very, uh, stress, I
(17:49):
don't want to call it stressfulbecause I don't like thinking of
things as stress, um, andtelling myself that I'm stressed
because you know, your brain hasa lot of power over how you
experience everything in yourlife, but it was a very full
week.
It was very busy week.
It was very full calendar, lotsof things going on.
Yeah.
And it was also the week beforeI got my period too, which also
makes a difference in how yourbody's responding.
(18:10):
So last week my resting heartrate was, uh, like in the low
50s more.
It was like more like 51, 50,51, which doesn't seem like a
lot.
But when it's day after dayafter day, and my average now
changes in this whole weekversus an average of 48, right?
Cause when it, when, when myaverage is 48, it basically
ranges from, I would say 45 to50, sometimes it gets down a
(18:33):
little bit lower, but that'skind of the average, whereas
when my average is 51, itprobably ranges more from like
50 to 55, right?
So I'm kind of looking at theseranges here.
And so I.
But by the time last week when Igot to Friday, like I was
feeling good all week long.
I was busy.
I was going, going, going.
Right?
The adrenaline was pumping.
(18:55):
And by the time I hit Friday, mybody was like, Ooh, we're done.
I'm tired.
Ange.
Right?
We need, we need to have a downday.
So Understanding that and thenkind of going back and looking
and saying, like, Oh, my heart,my resting heart rate has been
kind of high that can help ussee, like, how hard should I be
training this week?
And I was doing some, someharder things last week too,
(19:17):
right?
And so that's a little bit aboutresting heart rate, but going
back to HRV, um, The HRV kind oflooks at the subtle fluctuations
between your heartbeat, okay?
So if you have a higher HRV thatmeans that your nervous system
is balanced and it's respondingwell to stress and that you're
(19:37):
recovering well, okay, so A highHRV is what we want.
We want variability betweenthose heart rate, uh,
heartbeats.
A lower HRV means that your bodyis under stress, okay?
So whether it's from yourtraining, from poor sleep,
emotional stress, illness, or acombination of all of this.
I mean, there are so many peoplegetting sick right now.
(19:58):
So much is going around, right?
So if your HRV is lower, that istelling you that you might need
more recovery.
Whereas if your HRV is higher,it means, okay, you're probably
ready for a harder sessionagain, right?
Your, your body is recovered andyou're ready to go out and hit a
harder session again.
Okay?
So that's kind of how you canuse HRV.
(20:19):
If you're, if you have somethingto help you monitor your HRV,
okay, this isn't something thatyou can just monitor yourself,
um, like by checking your pulseor anything like that.
You would need some sort of HRVmonitor.
So if your HRV is high, thatmeans your nervous system is
good.
Like it's a great day for aworkout, right?
Let's go.
Let's time.
It's time to push it out.
(20:39):
But if your HRV is low, it meansthat your body is still
recovering.
So you might want to opt for aneasy run or an extra recovery
day.
Even if you have a workout onthe schedule.
Right?
Because especially if you areover 40, your body starts to
need more recovery time than itused to.
It doesn't recover from thoseharder sessions as well.
(21:00):
So if you have something totrack your HRV, it can be a
great tool to use to help youkind of make these decisions.
Now, every single time your HRVis low, does that mean that you
need to skip your workout?
No, of course not, right?
And that's why it's moreimportant for us to track
trends.
A single low HRV reading isn't abig deal.
(21:20):
Right?
Like if you have a single lowHRV, but you actually check in
with yourself and you're like,okay Well, how do I actually
feel and you the answer is Ifeel okay, you know I'm maybe
I'm a little bit tired, but I'mgonna go try this workout.
Anyway, that's totally okay andthis is really one of the
reasons that we Coach ourrunners so much on effort based
(21:41):
training and reallyunderstanding how to interpret
the body, the signs and thesymptoms that your body is
trying to send you, right?
It's not about just looking at anumber on your watch.
Okay, because one low HRVdoesn't mean that anything
really, okay, but it can be auseful tool to track trends over
(22:03):
time, because if you arenoticing like a downward trend
in your HRV, that could be asign that your nervous system is
struggling to keep up with it.
Okay.
Either your training stress oryour life stress or all the
different, maybe all of theabove, right?
All of the different ways thatyour body is being stressed.
So HRV can be a helpful tool.
But again, it is not the be allend all.
(22:24):
It's just a little window.
It's just a little monitor intoyour nervous system's readiness
for training.
Okay.
So.
Um, learning to use that as atool can help you to train
smarter, can help you to avoidburnout and optimize recovery.
But again, it's not everything.
Okay.
Checking in and just askingyourself, how do I feel today?
And really answering thattruthfully is so much more
(22:47):
powerful, quite honestly, right?
We have to, but that's the keyis truthfully, right?
Like we can't try to lie toourselves.
We can't try to pretend that I'mnot feeling this way.
I can't try to just keep pushingand like, you know, I'll recover
at some point in time becauseit's going to catch up to you.
All right.
All right.
The second thing that we want tolook at when it comes to how to
regulate your nervous system forbetter running performance
(23:09):
outside of our training is tobuild a stronger parasympathetic
response.
We have to teach our body how toswitch from sympathetic
activation into parasympathetic.
Okay, from that fight or flight.
Into that rest and recovery anddigest mode, right?
So there are tools that we canuse.
And this is something that wherepeople sometimes get a little
(23:31):
confused because you might besaying to yourself, Angie, you
just told me at the beginning ofthe episode that these, this is
my automatic.
Responses, right?
These all happen automatically,and I don't have control over
them, which is true, right?
Your autonomic nervous systemdoes happen automatically.
Your body shifts intosympathetic or parasympathetic
(23:52):
mode automatically.
However, some of the things thatwe do, like our training choices
that we talked about, and someof the things that we're going
to talk about now withparasympathetic, some of the
things that we do consciously,that we do, Have control over
that.
We do voluntarily can help oursystem to shift into one or the
(24:13):
other, right?
So if we're training too hard,that is a voluntary choice.
We're choosing to keep our bodyin that sympathetic mode by
doing things to help.
Stimulate more of aparasympathetic response.
Things like breath work, right?
Helps your body to shift intorecovery mode faster.
Things like cold, cold exposureor contrast therapy.
(24:34):
Now there's some differences inthe literature.
Males and females respond to icetherapy different and to to cold
exposure differently.
Okay.
So that is something to note,you know, things like grounding
and exposure to nature, help tocalm your nervous system and
restrict, reduce those stresshormones.
Okay.
Things like cooling down after aworkout, instead of like when
(24:57):
you finish your workout and youjust like, Move on to the next
thing in your day doing somecool downs, you know, either
cooling down by easy jog or awalk or some gentle stretching
or some breath work, differentthings that you can do to
basically help your nervoussystem.
No.
Okay, workouts done.
It's now time to shift intorecover and repair mode.
(25:18):
All right.
So things like that that canhelp to stimulate our
parasympathetic response.
And finally, the other thingsthat we absolutely need to do to
help regulate our nervous systemis to get enough sleep and to
make sure that we're getting theright nutrition for nervous
system health.
And these, again, these are thepillars inside the program that
(25:39):
I have, you know, for therunning through menopause
program.
These are some of the pillars.
Like we look at all of thesethings because they all matter
when you get.
More sleep and when you getbetter sleep, it helps your
nervous system to resetovernight, right?
Like especially getting moredeep sleep, you know, there are
different stages of sleepthere's four different stages of
(26:00):
sleep in the sleep cycle and onestage is deep sleep and Most
people are not getting enoughdeep sleep.
And when we don't allow ourbodies to get into that deep
sleep, it doesn't recover fully,which is why a lot of people
wake up.
Even if you're getting eighthours of sleep, if you're not
getting, if your body's not ableto shift into deep sleep mode,
you might still be waking upfeeling tired, okay?
(26:22):
Because your nervous systemdoesn't get that full reset.
Um, things like caffeine andalcohol also can affect nervous
system regulation, right?
Minimizing your caffeine intake,especially in the afternoon.
Like.
I'm a coffee drinker, y'all, soI am definitely not going to be
one to tell you to cut outcaffeine, all right?
I love my coffee.
I love the taste of it, thesmell of it, the experience of
(26:44):
it, making it, the ritual thatsurrounds my coffee.
Right, and there's a lot ofpeople are like you need to cut
caffeine and you need to cutalcohol.
I also love wine Okay, but I'vealso significantly decreased my
consumption of it.
It's not that you can't havethese things it's that you have
to be more mindful of yourchoices and How much you're
(27:05):
having?
And when you're having it, sofor me, caffeine, I pretty much
don't drink coffee afternoon,like sometimes I'll let it go to
like one or two o'clock at thelatest, okay, but I definitely
don't drink caffeine after twoo'clock, I like to leave at
least eight hours between mylast You Drink of caffeine and
(27:26):
my intended bedtime.
Okay.
I try to go to bed around 10ish.
Um, it's been harder to go tobed around 10 with the girls.
I'm getting older, but that'sstill the goal, you know?
So usually Kevin and I are inbed around like 10, 10 30, there
was over break.
We started to, we noticed thatkind of kept getting pushed to
like 11 ish.
So we're trying to bring it backdown because sleep is so, so
(27:48):
important.
Um, so trying to minimize your,your caffeine intake, especially
in the afternoon.
And then alcohol too, like ifyou're someone that, uh, drinks
alcohol, drinking alcoholearlier in the evening and
drinking alcohol with food willhelp your body process it more
versus drinking alcohol laterbecause the later you drink it,
the closer to sleep, the moreit's going to affect your sleep.
(28:10):
And so if it affects your sleep,it's going to affect the way
that your nervous system is ableto regulate and reset overnight,
uh, nutrition before and afteryour runs, fueling properly.
Makes a huge difference in howyour nervous system responds to
stress because if you're out onyour run and you are not well
fueled, okay, this is where thewhole idea of like working out
(28:32):
fasted comes in, like if you aresomeone that doesn't eat before
you run, you need to stop thatyou need to fuel yourself before
running.
Because when you fuel properlybefore and after your runs, you
can help your body understand,I've got enough fuel on board
here, okay?
When you, your blood sugarfalls, when you have low blood
(28:52):
sugar, that stimulates morenervous system stress.
It overstresses your nervoussystem.
Your body doesn't think that ithas what it needs for the task
at hand.
So it gets stressed out and itstarts breaking stuff down,
trying to find fuel.
Your body kind of goes into likefloor alarm mode.
Like, I need fuel.
Where am I going to find it?
(29:13):
Right?
And it starts breaking down yourmuscle.
It starts breaking down bone.
Fat, unfortunately, is one ofthe last places it likes to go
because it takes more energy tobreak down fat.
And use fatty acids as energyproduction, especially when
you're running too hard becauseyou need appropriate levels of
oxygen to break down fat and tooxidize and metabolize fat.
(29:33):
So Getting the proper nutritioncan really really help to
support your nervous systembalance and again We go into all
sorts of specifics inside insidethe program.
So if you are someone I know Ikeep referring to it but if you
are someone that wants Theseaction steps that wants to
understand, okay, how do Iactually implement these things
(29:55):
without feeling completelyoverwhelmed?
Cause if you're listening tothis and you're like, gosh, this
is including everything.
And it's like, yeah, it does.
Right.
All of your choices have aneffect on your nervous system.
And if you're feeling tired andyou're feeling burnt out and
you're feeling stressed all thetime that stinks, right?
You don't have to feel that way.
There are lots of things thatyou can do, which is a beautiful
(30:15):
thing.
It doesn't mean you have to doall of them.
But you can start implementingsome of them.
And if you want that coachingand that step by step guide on,
okay, how do I actually start toput these things and apply them
to my life?
Get on the priority list.
Okay?
You don't have to sign up, butif you are interested in some
help with this, go over torealliferunners.
com forward slash priority andput your name and your email on
(30:38):
that list so that you're thefirst to know when enrollment
opens again for the program.
Okay?
And then you'll get to see allthe details of the program and
you'll just make.
be able to make the decision,um, for you that's right, you
know, to make a decision ifthat's, if this is the thing
that's right for you or not.
All right.
Part number three that we wantto talk about.
So now you guys, you understandwhy your nervous system is so
(30:58):
important and how to tell if youare in a state of nervous system
dysregulation.
You also are understand someways that you can start to
regulate your nervous system.
So the third thing that you wantto do is kind of like.
Figure out like how to tell ifyour nervous system is helping
your running or hurting yourrunning.
Okay, because like we mentionedRunning and training places
(31:20):
stress on the body and there butthere's a difference between
healthy stress and chronicstress Healthy stress is what we
want.
We when we go out and run longerdistances when we lift heavy
weights We are putting stress onour body and on our nervous
system And that's what we wantbecause stress forces your body
(31:41):
to adapt in some way.
So if it's a healthy level oftraining and a healthy level of
stress, your body's going toadapt and it's going to get
stronger.
If it's chronic stress that'sconstantly breaking the body
down, then your body's gonnaprobably keep breaking down and
getting weaker.
So if you have a strongregulated nervous system, it
(32:02):
adapts to your training, itbounces back, and it actually
gets stronger than it wasbefore.
Beautiful thing.
That's how you get faster.
That's how you improve yourendurance.
But if your nervous system isdysregulated, it makes you feel
like, what the heck am I doinghere?
Why?
I'm putting in all this work,but I'm not seeing progress.
(32:22):
And so many runners suffer fromthat.
And it doesn't have to be likethis way, right?
And this is really what I wantyou to understand.
Is that, like, when youunderstand your nervous system
and how it responds and how yourbody adapts to training, that's
where it all starts to cometogether, okay?
So ways that you can start tokind of track your nervous
(32:43):
system, you can start to look atyour HRV, if you have something
that tracks that.
You can look at your restingheart rate and your morning
heart rate trends, okay?
Like, check your heart ratebefore you get out of bed in the
morning.
And just write it down and startto see, okay, you know, am I
rested like is if, if yourresting heart rate is higher, it
could mean that you'reovertraining, right?
Start to kind of track thesethings, tracking your mood and
(33:06):
your energy levels, right?
Are you waking up and feelingirritable or sluggish or overly
emotional?
Not, not just when you wake up,but throughout your day, like,
are you finding it hard to dealwith kind of normal stress,
normal everyday stress?
This is people like we, we gothrough stressful times.
We have things in our life thatcan lead to stress, but how are
(33:28):
you handling it?
You know, if it's, if it seemslike it's getting to you or just
making you feel more anxious ordepressed or sad or just overly
emotional or irritable, if you,if you find yourself snapping at
people all the time.
These could be signs of adysregulated nervous system.
So, what are you going to doabout it?
(33:49):
Alright?
You have to understand how allthese things put together.
Alright?
You want to start thinking abouthow your training and how your
daily choices are affecting yournervous system.
Because when you learn to workwith your body, when you learn
how to work with your nervoussystem, this can help prevent
injury, it can improve yourperformance, and it can just
(34:09):
help you feel stronger and havemore energy in your daily life.
All right.
So just as a little recap here,check and see, okay, step number
one is to see, is my nervoussystem out of balance?
Is my nervous systemdysregulated?
You know, am I always, are yousomeone that's always in like
go, go, go mode?
Number two, you can start usingdown regulation techniques that
(34:32):
we talked about, like breathwork, grounding techniques,
making sure that your easy runsare easy, right?
Step three would be like lookingat your, at your training,
making sure that you are, okay.
Training easy most of the timeand then training hard some of
the time and getting enoughrecovery and making sure that
you've got your nutrition onpoint as well.
(34:53):
And then for number four islooking at your lifestyle,
right?
Starting to maybe track some ofthese things, tracking your
sleep, tracking your restingheart rate or your HRV or your
energy levels to see how yourbody's responding to all of
these things.
Because if you're tired all ofthe time, is it worth it?
Right?
(35:13):
Like, is it worth it?
Like, you want to train for yourfirst, first half, half marathon
or your first marathon?
Great.
Wonderful.
You don't have to feel exhaustedall the time.
That is a common misconceptionand a common myth.
They're like, Oh, well, ofcourse you feel tired.
It's, I'm training for my firstmarathon.
Like, yeah, your body's probablygoing to be more tired than it
normally is when you're nottraining for a marathon, but you
(35:34):
shouldn't feel exhausted all thetime.
You shouldn't feel irritable andmore anxious and you shouldn't
see your body gaining weight.
That's another actual symptomthat I.
We didn't even talk about todayis like, if you notice that your
body's gaining weight, it's alsoa sign that your nervous system
is dysregulated, especially ifyou're training hard.
You know, especially if you'reincreasing your training load, a
lot of people that train formarathons notice that they gain
(35:57):
weight and it's because theirrecovery is totally out of
whack.
So their body is holding on tothe weight instead of using it
as fuel.
Okay.
So I really, really hope thatthis episode gave you a new
insight that, you know, Nervoussystem is something that we
really need to be thinkingabout.
It's something that you'reprobably going to see me talking
a lot more about because thistruly is this missing link, this
(36:20):
secret that a lot of peopledon't know about and don't
understand.
And by regulating stress andstarting to balance your
training more and understandingnutrition and sleep and your,
how all of your lifestylefactors play into.
Your nervous system health,you're going to be able to run
stronger.
You're going to be able torecover faster and you're just
going to feel better overall.
(36:41):
And I think that's what it's allabout for all of us, right?
So if you found this episodehelpful, I would love for you to
reach out to me on Instagram,share it with a friend, or leave
us a review on Apple podcasts orSpotify.
And let me know what's one thingthat you're going to start
doing.
to support your nervous system.
I would love to hear from youover on Instagram at real life
(37:01):
runners.
So as always, thanks forspending this time with us.
This has been, or I should saywith me since Kevin wasn't here
with me today.
Um, hopefully he will be backnext week.
Um, I actually have some reallycool guests coming on the
podcast as well.
So stay tuned for all of thosethings.
We've got a lot of really coolthings planned for the podcast
and for our coaching programthis year.
(37:22):
So.
Thanks for joining us.
This has been the Real LifeRunners podcast, episode number
397.
Now get out there and run yourlife.
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