March 20, 2025 • 44 mins
Feeling slower despite consistent running routines is a common concern among runners over 40. This episode addresses the frustration experienced by seasoned runners who feel their performance is declining with age. Key topics include the real reasons behind this perceived slowdown—beyond just age—and actionable strategies to combat them. The discussion covers the importance of nervous system regulation, updated training strategies, the critical role of muscle maintenance, and effective fueling. Additional insights highlight the significance of polarized training, the necessity of strength and plyometric exercises, and the pitfalls of outdated high-mileage approaches. This episode is designed to help runners regain speed, strength, and enjoyment in their sport with practical advice and resources like free live workshops and membership programs.
03:35 The Importance of Strength Training
05:27 Introducing the 'Running Reconnected' Program
14:23 Outdated Training Strategies
19:44 Unmanaged Stress and Nervous System Dysregulation
20:43 Impact of Estrogen on Cortisol Levels
21:10 Understanding the Nervous System States
23:01 Personal Experiences with Stress and Health
28:22 Managing Stress and Nervous System Regulation
34:16 Optimizing Training Approaches
36:28 Fueling Your Body for Performance
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Angie (00:00):
Have you ever felt like no matter how much you run,
(00:02):
you're actually getting slowerinstead of faster?
Like your legs feel heavier,your pace is dropped, and
running just doesn't feel asgood as it used to?
If so, you are not alone.
We hear this all the time fromrunners over 40.
People who have been running foryears but suddenly feel stuck,
frustrated, and wondering, Isthis just aging?
Is this it?
Is this what I have to lookforward to for the rest of my
(00:25):
life?
Is this just how it's going tobe from now on?
But here's the truth.
It is not just your age.
There are very real, veryfixable reasons why this is
happening.
In today's episode, we are goingto be talking about the top
three culprits that could beslowing you down.
Plus, of course, how you canreverse them and start feeling
stronger, faster, and moreenergized in your running again.
(00:47):
So if you're tired of feelingsluggish and you're ready to
take back control of yourrunning, this episode is for
you.
(01:16):
What's up, runners?
Welcome to the show today.
We're so thankful that you'rehere with us on episode number
402, just
Kevin (01:23):
coasting into the four hundreds here
Angie (01:25):
in a wild.
so before we jump into today'sepisode, I want to announce that
I am doing a new free workshopfor you.
It's a new free training,because you all know, obviously
one of the reasons that we dothis podcast is to spread the
word and to help.
As many runners as we can forfree.
And that is also why I do livetrainings to go deeper into some
(01:46):
of these topics.
Cause you know, you listen tothe podcast, you get some of
some really great information onthe podcast, but if you want to
come live and interact with meand get your questions answered,
that is one of the huge benefitsof joining me live on one of my
classes.
And also we go even deeper andfigure out.
what exactly is going on?
And a big thing that I'm goingto be talking about is what
(02:08):
we're discussing in this podcastepisode today and how to connect
all of these dots, right?
Because a lot of times we feellike we're doing all the things,
but we're not seeing theresults.
And there's so many runners thatfeel this way.
And even on our team call thisweek, we had runners talking
about.
how they were just thinkingabout, Oh, it just must be me
(02:28):
getting older.
And it's no, it's, I don't likethat excuse at all.
We're not gonna, we're not gonnago ahead and blame it on age
because there's so many otherthings that we actually have
control over.
Aging is one of those thingsthat happens, right?
as we, we are getting older bythe day and that is a beautiful
thing.
and.
I don't want us to ever look ataging as a negative thing
because it's a blessing to stillbe here and be active and be
(02:50):
running.
And we can't stop time, but wecan change our experience of it.
We can control a lot of thingsthat are going on in our bodies.
And that's really what we wantto dive into today.
Kevin (03:02):
Age is not a time to be like, all right, I have to be
getting slower.
Like there, there is going to beat some point.
At some point, there's a pointwhere you're not getting faster,
but you can have differentstrategies.
You can take on differentapproaches so that day doesn't
necessarily have to be today.
The day doesn't necessarily haveto have already occurred.
there are ways to go at this andchange the way that you're
training.
Angie (03:23):
Yeah.
And also speed is not the onlything to look at either, right?
there's lots of other ways thatwe can.
Track progress and improvementin our running
Kevin (03:31):
speed was the only way to track running enjoyment.
I would have been done a longtime
Angie (03:35):
in your teenage years But yeah, I've actually so anyway
before we dive into the episodeI forgot to tell you about how
to register for my free class.
So head over to real liferunners comm forward slash
strong if you want to registerfor that class I'll be live on
Thursdays, I will not be, Idon't know when you're going to
listen to this episode.
It actually comes out onThursday.
(03:57):
So if you're listening to thison the day it comes out, I will
be live on that day, which isMarch 20th, at noon and at 4 p.
m.
Eastern time.
I will not be live the followingweek because we will be at our
very first annual Real liferunners retreat, which I'm so
excited about.
We have our retreat with ourmembers next week, and I'm
(04:18):
prepping for that.
And we have so many amazingthings planned.
Our members are going to bejoining us in sunny Florida for
spring break.
and we're going to be joined.
Enjoying the sun and the beachand community and running and
yoga and mobility and amazingfood.
And it is going to be such anincredible time.
so if you want more informationon that, when we do our next
(04:40):
one, I'll be make sure youobviously stay listening to the
podcast, but the best way to dothat is to become a member of
real life runners, because that.
Our members always get firstdibs on all of our events.
and this one, since it's ourfirst one is members only.
So I didn't even reallyadvertise it to non members.
So I'm so excited.
Behind
Kevin (04:59):
the velvet ropes, you will.
Angie (05:00):
Behind the velvet ropes.
Oh, wow.
That sounds awfully exclusive.
And it should
Kevin (05:04):
be like the theme of the week.
Angie (05:05):
There you go.
I also have some really otherexciting updates coming out.
we're essentially, I've renamedmy, our signature program here.
And I'm going to be telling youguys all about that.
very soon.
I can maybe talk about it nowbecause I am going to be running
a special since we, since Ireally redid all of the program.
Kevin (05:24):
I'm going to try woohoo again and see
Angie (05:26):
if my voice doesn't crack.
Woohoo! If you've been followingalong, you know that I created a
program specifically for womenover 40 and perimenopause and
menopause and last year I namedthis program Press Play, which
Kevin (05:38):
I loved,
Angie (05:39):
which I, it was okay.
I never, I was never in lovewith it.
And it was an
Kevin (05:43):
awesome pun,
Angie (05:44):
right?
Because it was menopause.
So I was thinking press playinstead of pause, but even so
Kevin (05:48):
good,
Angie (05:49):
but even people in the program didn't really get it.
And I was never in love with iteither.
And so I've been sitting withthis for literally months and
months, trying to figure out,okay, what do I want to name
this?
What is this all about?
And so the new name of theprogram, drum roll.
Do I get a drum is runningreconnected nice and I'm in love
(06:10):
with this name because it's sowell, it just perfectly explains
what we do here at real liferunners and what we are doing to
help runners feel more connectedto their bodies, to their
running, because we are justtaught to disconnect from our
bodies, from our running, fromthe.
signals, to push through whenour body's screaming at us to,
ignore the signals that our bodywants to send us, to ignore
(06:32):
hunger cues and all the things.
But when we get over 40 intoperimenopause and postmenopause,
it's so important that we starttraining differently and we
learn how to reconnect with ourbody.
And so that's really what thisprogram is all about is helping
runners reconnect to themselvesand to their running so that
they can get stronger, getfaster, build a strong, active,
(06:53):
vital vitality, lots ofvitality, in their body now and
in the future.
And I'm so excited about it.
Kevin (07:00):
really gung ho on this program.
The program's phenomenal andyou're just so much more
excited.
Do you think the issue with thename the first time is that it
was essentially a dad joke for awomen's running program?
Angie (07:11):
Maybe.
Kevin (07:12):
You think that was the issue?
Maybe that
Angie (07:14):
could be a problem.
Kevin (07:15):
Maybe that's why I was so gung ho but the program wasn't
designed for me.
I just really thought the namewas awesome.
Angie (07:20):
Yeah.
if you want to learn more aboutit, join me on one of our live
classes.
I'm going to be running somespecials, to, to celebrate the
new naming of the program andthe new structure inside the
program as well.
so if you want more informationon that, head over to
realliferunners.
com forward slash priority andget on the priority list so that
you're the first to know whenthe door is open for that so
that you can get in on theamazing specials and bonuses
(07:42):
that I have planned, for therelaunch of this program.
Yeah,
Kevin (07:45):
and just be following us on Instagram because Angie posts
everything there.
That's how, everything's
Angie (07:49):
happening.
Not necessarily.
I will be posting more.
Yes, I will be posting.
You know who classes are
Kevin (07:53):
coming when you post them.
Angie (07:53):
Yeah.
So anyhow, all right, let'sactually get into today's
episode and, talk about whyyou're feeling slower and how to
reverse it because we have somany clients come to us and this
is one of the main.
Things that they complain aboutfatigue.
I would say is number oneThey're just feeling so much
more tired.
Just exhausted all the time.
(08:14):
No energy And then slower pacesis a very close second to that
in for obvious reasons You knowwhen you're tired and you don't
have energy it's gonna be hardto run fast,
Kevin (08:25):
right?
They're very much connectedthey're the same thing.
Sometimes they're stated in onecontinuous sentence I just feel
tired all the time and I'mslowing down like those might
just be one One statement.
But then it leads to thefollowup, which is the point of
this podcast here is I'm tiredall the time and I'm slowing
down.
Is it because I'm getting olderand you always are very quick to
(08:45):
jump on.
No.
and just like you end it thereand you follow up, there's a
great explanation.
We have a whole episode on theexplanation behind this thing,
but you put a good.
solid no period pause and justend the conversation there
before an explanation so thatit's very clear that the answer
is no, that's not the clearcause here,
Angie (09:04):
right?
And age is a related factor,right?
But it is not because of yourage that you are getting slower.
Age is one of the factors.
to consider and can lead to someof the other things that we're
going to talk about today if youdon't do things about it.
age, I would say, is indirectlyrelated because as, especially
as women, when we get into thisphase of life after 40 and we
(09:28):
start to go throughperimenopause and menopause and
we start to have these hormonalchanges, that's what leads to a
lot of the symptoms that we areexperiencing in this phase of
life.
And It's indirectly related toage, but just because you go
through these changes and you gothrough these hormonal shifts,
don't, does not mean that youhave to experience some of the
(09:50):
changes that we're going to betalking about today.
Some of the reasons why you'regetting slower, those are
actually fixable and those arein your control.
And that's what we're reallygoing to get into.
Kevin (10:00):
Excellent.
All right.
So let's jump into them.
We're starting to get somereasons.
Angie (10:02):
Yes.
Okay.
So the first reason that you'restarting to feel slower after 40
is muscle loss and strengthdecline.
So after 40, actually, thisstarts as early as age 30.
After the age of 30, we startlosing muscle mass, lean muscle
mass at the rate of about 3 to 8percent per decade, unless we
are actively exercising.
(10:23):
Okay.
Building muscle unless we aredoing resistance training and
actively building muscle becauserunning does not Build strength
running may help to maintainstrength if you're doing it the,
in a healthy way, but if you'reover training, if you're running
too much and you're not fuelingyour body, which we're going to
get into in a little bit here,then that's leading to further
(10:45):
muscle breakdown.
So our bodies just naturallystart to lose lean muscle mass
after the age of 30 because ofthese shifts in our hormones.
And If we are losing muscle,that means we are losing power
and we are losing speed becausemuscle helps us to create power
and the more power we have, themore power that our muscles are
able to put out, the faster weare able to run.
Kevin (11:08):
Right, which is It ties that whole part of muscle is
power gets you to speed, is howsometimes running can be enough
to maintain, but it's onlyenough to maintain for a little
while.
if you don't keep trying toenhance your muscle capability,
your strength, it'sdeteriorating.
you're fighting a slippingslope.
A sli A slippery?
(11:30):
But that's not really what I'mgoing for you're trying to build
a sandcastle out of dry sandIt's really hard to get it tall
because it just keeps slidingdown the sides.
So if you're like, oh, no I'mdefinitely maintaining this
you're only maintaining it ifyou keep piling sand on top of
it because it just keeps slidingaway because without doing
anything, it's deteriorating.
So anytime that you're takinglittle breaks from your running,
(11:52):
anytime you get inconsistency,you start the deterioration.
And that's only assuming thatyou're running in a way that is
actually trying to create power,that you're running at some
higher outputs, that you'redoing some like devoted uphill.
Powerful inputs, which a lot ofpeople aren't
Angie (12:08):
most runners, I would say, are not like, unless you're
following a plan that gives youvery specific instructions on
what you're supposed to bedoing, which most generic
training plans don't, mostrunning plans out there that
you, unless you are working witha coach, most running plans that
you will just get online or inan app don't give you those
types of specifics.
And like Kevin said, it.
(12:29):
It's most runners also go outand run.
You didn't say this part, butI'm adding this in.
Thank you.
Unless you're trained.
What you said was that unlessyou're training specifically for
power and speed, you're mostlikely not building it because
most runners, when they go outand run, they're running at
about an effort level of a fiveor six out of 10.
That is not hard enough toactually build power and speed.
(12:51):
And it's also not easy enoughthat you're recovering in
between sessions.
So it's like in this gray zonewhere.
some of that is okay, and someof that can be helpful if you're
training for half marathons,etc.
But if you're doing all of yourruns at that pace, you're really
just breaking your body down dayafter day.
And so that's actually leadingto the reverse of what you want.
Kevin (13:11):
And looking at it from a pure muscle loss and strength
decline perspective, doing abunch of runs at L5 or the ever
popular L2 training, that is allover.
So running, keep it in zone two.
That's not doing anything foryour muscle.
It's not doing anything for yourpower.
It's really not.
It's
Angie (13:29):
good for cardio.
It's great for yourcardiovascular health, but it's
not building muscle.
No,
Kevin (13:33):
you are not fighting muscle loss and strength decline
unless you are doing thingsdirectly devoted towards power,
which is going to involve awhole heck of a lot harder and
probably uphill.
Angie (13:42):
And one of the reasons this is happening, especially
for women, is our loss ofestrogen during perimenopause.
And then, of course, the lack ofestrogen after menopause,
because estrogen is an anabolichormone, which means it helps us
to build muscle and bone.
So as we lose estrogen, itbecomes harder for us to build
and maintain muscle and bone.
So we have to do things toactively do that, and which
(14:05):
we're going to be talking aboutin the next section.
So let's move on to the secondreason that you're.
Probably feeling slower after 40and that is one of those things
that actually I'm going to dothis one last I know I outlined
it in this order, but I'mactually gonna do this one last
we're gonna move on to numberthree first I'm with
Kevin (14:23):
you.
Angie (14:23):
Okay.
So the first the second reasonis out that outdated training
strategies Okay, we did apodcast about this a couple
episodes ago where we talkedabout ditching the high mileage
model and There is this beliefin the running world that if you
want to get better, you justneed to run more or you just
(14:44):
need to push harder.
I just need to go out and keeppushing myself harder.
But this does not work as wellafter 40.
And again, it's because of thesehormone shifts as we as women
are experiencing.
And men are experiencing changesas well.
they're just not as drastic asthe shifts that women are
experiencing.
Kevin (15:02):
Nope, it's just a gradual downhill from like 25.
You just keep sliding the otherway.
It
Angie (15:08):
is a much more linear decline, right?
Of testosterone.
That is one of the big thingsthat happens.
You just, you tend to losetestosterone over time, but it
doesn't affect men the same waythat the loss of estrogen
affects women because estrogenaffects every single system in
the body.
And we go through this.
essentially, zone of chaos inperimenopause, where it's not
just this steady decline thatour bodies can get used to, it's
(15:30):
up, it's down, it's thisrollercoaster ride, which is why
we have all these crazysymptoms, and a lot of women
think they're going crazy.
Kevin (15:37):
Yeah, you showed me the graph of, estrogen levels, and
I'm like, that's just ludicrous.
Whereas, if you graph,testosterone levels of a man
over his lifetime, it really isa linear trend.
Angie (15:47):
Significant.
if you actually look at it, likeit goes down a little bit over
time, but for most men, it justlike flatlines a little bit, and
then goes down just a littlebit, but over the course of 50
years.
Yes.
Kevin (15:59):
Yeah.
Over a long period of time,there is a gradually downward
sloping line, but that'sessentially what you got there.
And there's no period of chaos.
Is that what you just called it?
Yeah.
Zone of chaos.
Zone of chaos.
Yeah.
No, that got that term.
Angie (16:10):
I got that term from Dr.
Mary Claire Haver, who is one ofthe leading experts.
what happens, a lot of people,when they notice that they're
getting slower, theirinclination is to do more,
right?
Because that is what we've beentaught.
We've been taught that.
If you want to get better, youneed to do more.
(16:31):
That the reason you're gettingslower, the reason you're
gaining weight is just becauseyou're not doing enough.
And so this leads a lot ofrunners to pushing harder on
their runs, to adding moretraining sessions, to skipping
easy runs and trying to makethem more moderate or harder.
they.
They don't understand thebenefit of strength training,
which we're going to get into.
and so they just focus on justrunning more because they don't
(16:52):
see what we just talked about inpart number one about muscle
actually equals power and powerequals speed.
Like you need to build muscle ifyou want to get faster and they
think I just need to run more toget faster.
and then the big thing is thatthey start skimping on recovery.
They don't.
Prioritize sleep.
They're not getting enoughrecovery, especially in between
those harder sessions.
(17:13):
And so their body's justconstantly in breakdown mode
Kevin (17:16):
Yeah, when you talk outdated training strategies,
you can go online and find someyear you're like running
influencers that are like Ohwhat you really need to be doing
is and they're highlighting thethings that are the exact
problems You just mentionedskipping easy runs skipping the
recovery days and just goingharder every day
Angie (17:33):
I love when I watch like a 28 year old male Running
influencer say those things.
Yeah,
Kevin (17:38):
which need to be doing is interval training five days out
of the week.
It's okay, that's great.
But you were at peaktestosterone level.
And what are you talking about?
And the issue is when you talkoutdated training strategy,
that's 80 years outdatedtraining strategy.
Like you're looking at like the40s where that was.
the cutting edge of training wasinterval training five days out
(17:59):
of the week
Angie (17:59):
We know so much more now
Kevin (18:01):
like we're a little beyond that but that was the
peak It was like I don't think
Angie (18:05):
most people are doing that though,
Kevin (18:06):
but you can see it online There are people that are
pushing it because they want tosound new and different and so
you can just let our
Angie (18:13):
contrary and just to be contrary and of course then
Kevin (18:16):
you can justify anything and be like That person's doing
it and they look supersuccessful, but no, they're just
being contrarian You have noidea what that person online is
actually doing and
Angie (18:26):
yeah,
Kevin (18:26):
what kind of supplements they're taking
Angie (18:28):
I know it's so interesting like with the fall
of some of these MLMs.
I'm not gonna name any specificcompanies but how a lot of the
people are coming out thecoaches that were in these
businesses are coming out nowand talking about how They were
not doing their own workouts.
Like the, their gym routines andtheir diet was so much more
(18:49):
extreme than the diets and theworkout routines that they were
pushing on, the infomercialsthat they were.
Advertising.
Kevin (18:56):
It's because you either have two options, either the
plan has to be so extreme thatpeople are drawn in because it
looks crazy, you're like, oh,it's crazy, it's gotta work, or
it's so comfortable and invitingthat you're like, oh, anybody
can do it, I will sign up, Iwill give you money and try that
plan, and then it's noteffective.
You're like, I didn't get theresults they showed me on the
infomercial.
It's not that it's noteffective.
Angie (19:15):
It's not that it's not effective, it's just not going
to give you the results thatthey're necessarily showing.
Kevin (19:20):
Because results may vary.
Or, the training plan may becompletely different.
Angie (19:23):
Yeah.
Okay, so following outdatedstrategies, that's another
reason, pushing hard thinkingthat you just need to run more
is not the best way anymore, forsure.
That may have worked when youwere in your 20s, but it's not
going to be working for youafter the age of 40.
And then the third biggestreason why you feel like you're
getting slower is unmanagedstress.
(19:44):
and nervous systemdysregulation.
Now, this is a really big onethat not a lot of people are
talking about that I really havedove deep into, especially after
Kevin's history of seizures andall the things, if you guys have
been with us for a while and youknow our story.
I dove really deep into theresearch to figure out what the
heck was going on with his brainand his nervous system and why
(20:07):
it was so dysregulated.
and so much of this comes backto stress.
And When we are in midlife inour 40s, a lot of us have kids,
a lot of those kids are becomingteenagers, a lot of us have
parents that are now aging thatwe have to figure out More
complicated end of life andaging and living situations for
(20:28):
our parents.
And we're dealing with all ofthese different things not to
mention houses and careers andpets and all of the things.
There's a lot of things going onwhen you're in midlife and going
back to our hormone shifts as awoman as we lose estrogen.
Another thing that estrogen doesis that it keeps cortisol levels
in check.
Now, cortisol is our stresshormone, and so as estrogen
(20:52):
declines, our cortisol levelsstay elevated, and this can lead
to chronically high cortisollevels, especially if you're not
doing things to help manage thatstress.
And that increased cortisol canlead to fatigue, poor recovery,
and slower paces because yourbody's never able to fully
recover.
You don't.
There is, there's essentiallytwo, main states that your
(21:13):
nervous system can get into, thesympathetic nervous system and
the parasympathetic state.
so your sympathetic nervoussystem gets activated in times
of stress, that's more of yourfight or flight mode.
And so when you're running hardand you're training really hard,
your cortisol levels are high,that's putting you in more of a
sympathetic state, whereas yourparasympathetic state.
(21:33):
Is more your rest or diet restand repair state and we're
spending so much time with highcortisol levels in that
sympathetic state That we're notallowing our bodies to get into
that Parasympathetic state asmuch and as regularly to
actually repair from all ofthose times of high stress and
high training If
Kevin (21:52):
if I remember correctly, this is also just a brutal cycle
is you've got the lack of thecortisol It increases your
fatigue, but then increasedfatigue leads to an increased
cortisol level it just keepsworking on itself because you're
feeling tired and when you'refeeling tired it just gives you
a feeling of Stress of thethings around you because you're
(22:13):
just not moving as fast andyou're not getting things done
Well,
Angie (22:16):
you can't handle stress.
you're tired.
Yeah, I mean think about likewhen you're tired Everything is
annoying right?
Like you get hangry you get likepeople just annoy you more like
zone of
Kevin (22:26):
chaos It's my entire existence.
Yeah, it's how it goes and so ifyou then, as you said, if you
remove the estrogens, that'sthen controlling the cortisol,
that's just gonna make all ofthese things more difficult,
which then makes managing yourstress that much more difficult.
Angie (22:43):
and your hormones helped to regulate your stress levels
help to regulate your runningperformance, and so When these
things are out of balance andyour nervous system is
dysregulated, you're not goingto be able to run the speed or
the distance.
you're going to see an effect inyour speed and your endurance.
But again, this is not just forfemales.
And do you want to talk a littlebit about what you've been
(23:04):
dealing with lately?
Because this is one of thosethings that we talked about this
from 2017 when it caused aseries of seizures, which was
really bad.
but even recently you've beenaffected by this kind of stuff.
Kevin (23:15):
Yeah.
As you may notice from notexactly the smoothest of voices
on this podcast or from podcastsa few weeks ago where I wasn't
on it cause I didn't have avoice or the month before that,
where I didn't have it because Icouldn't record that month
either.
I've been getting sick on theregular, and not just a little
sick, but bedridden for a day,sick, and then sick on the front
(23:37):
end and back end for severaldays around that day, where I
basically spend an entire day inbed.
Back in 2018, when I was comingback from, the history of
seizures, I started the newmedication.
If I started feeling off, Iwould be like, ooh, that kind of
feels like I felt on days whereI'd have a seizure.
I would just, I would take a napand I'd be fine.
(23:59):
And the nap sometimes was likean hour, sometimes it was a
couple hours and I'd be fine.
And lately I've been gettingjust incredibly run down, just
super, super exhausted.
And I thought, as I was movingthrough November, December, it
was like, I've got some realhigh mileage, a lot of buildup
heading towards anultramarathon.
Then I ran the ultramarathon andafter recovering from that, I'm
(24:22):
like, I don't feel like I'mrecovering.
And I got really sick inFebruary and now I'm really sick
again in the middle of March andit just seems Every time I try
and get my training back up andI'm not out there pushing crazy
Like I told you I think earlierthis week.
I want to say Monday or Tuesday.
I was like, this is probably thefirst Good run I've had since
(24:43):
January like I've gone out andI've run and I felt okay But
that was the first time that Ifelt good that I felt like my
legs were actually movingappropriately So it's not like
I'm out there pushing superhard, but every time I string
four running days together I'mjust wiped.
And that's how I've been sinceJanuary, not to mention the
sickness that I had last year.
trying to figure out exactlywhat is causing all of this,
(25:06):
it's, it really comes down tothere's a huge amount of
stresses going on.
And in 2017, that huge amount ofstresses led to some serious
issues and into the hospital afew times.
This, these last few months,those have led to almost every
month.
basically every month, everythree to four weeks, I get
incredibly sick and I'm out fora few days, which is not a great
(25:29):
way to go through life.
Angie (25:30):
No, it's not.
And this is one of those thingswhere we need to find some
answers again.
Because I can see what'shappening and as a wife, it's
hard to tell you what to dobecause I don't want it.
I don't want to do that.
Like I want to help problemsolve and help you see what's
(25:51):
going on because I can see itfrom the outside.
I can see how stressed you are.
And not only is it just thestress and Kevin and I had this
conversation a couple days agowhen we were discussing this.
It's, there are certain thingsthat cause stress in our lives.
There are circumstantial thingsthat There's a lot going on
right now in our lives and thereare those things and then
(26:14):
there's the stress that we addon top of it.
There's all the stories that wetell ourself about what those
things mean.
So one example for him was likeyou, you Had a stack of grading
tests of tests that you neededto grade.
Kevin (26:27):
Yes.
There's literally a physicalstack of It's 350 pages tall.
Angie (26:34):
And so that is a fact of the matter.
If you look over at our kitchentable, there is a stack of tests
that need to be graded.
Now that is the circumstance,but the story that Kevin is
telling is, I am so behind.
I just can't seem to catch up.
So can you see how that isadding another layer of stress?
on top of the test that he stillhas to grade.
Kevin (26:57):
Right, and so that, that stack of papers that I bring
home and then back to school andthen home and then back to
school because I'm grading itany second of free time that I
can find, then one, eats up allmy free time, but two, I'm
literally carrying the stressback and forth to work and home
every single day.
Angie (27:16):
Constantly.
Kevin (27:17):
I'm physically carrying the stress around with me.
Which is terrible, but I'm alsothen mentally, I have that
stress with me at all point, atall times because I have it with
me, it's something that I couldbe doing.
So if I'm not, I'm like, Oh, Ireally should be doing that
right now.
And so that's this additionalstress of I should, and you are
not a fan of shoulds, but.
(27:38):
it it presents itself all thetime of, Oh, I should be running
more.
I should be doing more strengthtraining.
Oh, if only I had the chance tobe, get an extra hard run in,
get in another recovery day.
I need to be doing all thesethings.
You have the time to do what isgoing to be able to fit.
You have the time to prioritizewhat it is that you want to
prioritize.
You can't prioritize everything,but then you can't freak out
(28:01):
that you're not prioritizingeverything.
Angie (28:04):
But you do.
Kevin (28:05):
Yes, I do.
Angie (28:06):
Yeah.
And there's a lot of people thatdo that, right?
there's a lot of people thathave that stress.
And then on top of that, theyhave the stress about the stress
or the stress over the lack oftheir ability to do certain
things.
And that's just makingeverything so much worse.
So that kind of is a nice segueinto what do we need to do about
all this, right?
Like how can we actually reversesome of these things and start
(28:29):
running stronger, start toregain some of our speed.
And we might as well just gointo this first one.
The first one is regulating yournervous system.
this is a really important thingbecause this is what controls
everything that goes on in ourbody.
your nervous system controls howyour body gains muscle.
It controls your endurance.
It tells your body, the, itsends signals throughout your
(28:51):
entire body, through yournerves, through your
neurotransmitters, through yourhormones.
to let your body know what it'sdoing.
It tells it how, when to burn anenergy, when to store energy,
all of these things.
And so when your nervous systemis dysregulated because of
stress and lack of sleep andlack of recovery and all these
other things, high cortisollevels that are going on in your
(29:12):
body, it's really hard for youto build strength, build speed,
build endurance.
So we really need to focus onsleep number one and stress
management.
We have to learn how to Not letthose things affect us as much
because yes, we can sometimeschange our circumstances Like
(29:32):
there are some things that wecan do to try to make the those
papers go away You can you know,try to carve out more time.
There's things that we can do toactually deal with the physical
The thing that's right in frontof us, but then there's also all
the things that we can do tochange the narrative around That
(29:53):
stack of papers or whatever thatother stressful thing in your
life is
Kevin (29:56):
right It's some of my favorite thoughts on sleep is
and sleep is one of the bestBiggest things to go to, to
start with nervous systemregulation, in my opinion.
I don't know if you're fully on,on with me on that.
100
Angie (30:06):
percent sleep is one of the most important things.
I just, I like start went overit because a lot of people have
problems sleeping because ofstress.
Kevin (30:15):
So this is my, why I love the hit on sleep because is the
line of focusing on your sleepis one of the most important
ways to improve your health.
But if you can't get enoughsleep, worrying about it is one
of the worst things that youcould do to hinder your health.
you're gonna sleep however muchyou sleep.
if you're normally sleeping likeeight to nine hours and one
night something goes on, you'reup late or you wake up in the
(30:39):
middle of the night, likewhatever it is that you just
can't get good sleep that nightand you get five.
You get like four, whatever thething is, you can't freak out
that you only have four.
Yeah, you're going to be tired,but then freaking out that
you're going to be tired is justgoing to make things worse.
Angie (30:56):
Yeah, they actually did a research study where they took
two groups of people and Each ofthem got the exact same amount
of sleep three groups of three
Kevin (31:05):
groups of people.
Oh,
Angie (31:06):
you know the study I'm talking about.
Oh, yeah.
All right, go for it
Kevin (31:08):
three groups And they but they gave them all alarm clocks
that told them what time theywere waking up And so the one
group thought based off of theclock that they were getting one
fewer hours of sleep one fewerhours I don't think that was
grammatically correct at all.
And there was
Angie (31:22):
I know
Kevin (31:23):
you are saw that side, I hear Oh, I'm keeping that right
there.
And one group based off theclock thought they were getting
an additional hour of sleep andjust
Angie (31:33):
group three.
Kevin (31:34):
group three got what the clock actually said.
So you have you have yourcontrol group and then you have
the people that think thatthey're getting extra sleep and
the people that think thatthey're getting less sleep and
they gave them cognitive testsand the people that thought that
they all
Angie (31:46):
got the same amount of sleep.
let's be clear on that.
They all had the same amount ofsleep.
They just had a clock that toldthem that they got.
Less sleep, more sleep, or theamount of sleep that they
thought they were going to get.
Kevin (31:56):
and then they gave them cognitive tests, and the people
who thought that they got lesssleep performed, actually
statistically worse on thetests.
Because they thought they sleptless.
And
Angie (32:06):
the people that got more sleep performed better.
which
Kevin (32:08):
does not make any sense.
Angie (32:09):
So it was literally the only thing that was different
was the amount of sleep thatthey thought They got not the
actual amount of sleep that theygot.
So again, this goes back to thestory that you're telling
yourself about the sleep.
So if you are missing out onsleep and you're talking in your
head about how terrible this is,Oh my God, I'm just, this is
going to mean that tomorrow isgoing to be awful.
(32:30):
I'm going to be so tired.
My run's going to suck.
the day is just going to be sostressful.
Guess what's probably going tohappen, right?
Like it's going to be becomeoftentimes a self fulfilling
prophecy.
Kevin (32:41):
100 percent which is why I like to get up and start
moving around and see how I feelBefore I check my watch which
tells me a sleep score Which iscompletely a made up number by
the company that makes my watchlike There's a bunch of random
data that goes into a black boxand then they spit out a number
They won't tell you what thatformula is, but my watch does it
there's all sorts of brandswatches that do it People have
(33:02):
different brands of rings thatdo it for them.
They will all give you a sleepscore There's a million ways to
track your sleep score and It'llthen tell you whether it was
restorative or productive sleepand it's just a number.
How do you actually feel whenyou wake up?
Because if you wake up feelingamazing, and then your watch is
actually, you got really subparsleep, is it gonna bring you
down?
(33:23):
I like to feel how I'm feelingbefore I check what my watch
says
Angie (33:26):
actually connect to your body.
Kevin (33:28):
Yeah.
Actually connect to my body.
Angie (33:29):
Fantastic.
So that's the first thing isgetting more sleep, improving
the quality of your sleep andthen managing stress, which also
has an effect on your sleep.
So those things will help withnervous system regulation,
making sure that you're takingrecovery, understanding and
starting to.
See the signs that your body isgiving you to let you know that
you're recovered well and maybeyou can go out and push it a
(33:51):
little bit harder today or signsthat you're not recovered well
and you have to start tounderstand what those signs are
and especially how those signsappear in you and what your body
is telling you.
Again, that's one of the bigthings that we do inside of
Running Reconnected is liketeaching you how to interpret
these different things that yourbody is trying to tell you
because it's just too much to gointo in a podcast episode.
(34:14):
So nervous system regulation isnumber one.
Number two, you need to shiftyour training approach.
So going out and running all thetime at that five or six out of
10, you already know is not whatwe recommend.
It is not a good idea.
there's so many better ways foryou to train and the biggest one
is polarizing your training.
So making sure that you have acombination of both easy days
(34:36):
and hard days, making sure thatyour easy days are actually
easy.
So when we say easy, we'retalking about like a two or
three out of 10 and your harddays are actually feeling hard,
more of an eight or nine out of10.
Some days even going to that 10level because that's how your
body is going respond that andthere's a whole lot of
physiological mechanisms that wecan get into that we don't have
(34:57):
time for right now in thisepisode, but easy days, easy,
hard days, hard, more easy daysthan hard days is for sure
important.
and then of course,incorporating strength training,
plyometrics and mobility.
Okay, that's going to help yourbody actually build the muscle
because like we talked aboutbefore, you have to build muscle
if you want more power, you wantpower if you want more speed.
(35:19):
So you have to start liftingheavier.
Not just light repetitionsanymore and when I say that with
an asterisk because if you arenot currently strength training
You want to start with bodyweight only you don't want to
just jump into lifting heavyweights So this is all a
progression But you want toprogress to lifting heavier
weights two to three times perweek so that you're actually
(35:39):
building muscles You want tomaking sure that you're doing
mobility work so that yourjoints are Moving fluidly, and
we can loosen up anyrestrictions that may be
happening because of the tissuechanges that tend to happen
with, with age, and thenplyometrics will also help with
improving your power output, thefast twitch muscle fibers.
(36:00):
your body's explosiveness.
those are all really good.
And plyometrics are also reallygreat for building bone, and
improving your bone density aswell.
Kevin (36:07):
Yes.
But again, much like strengthtraining, if you're not used to
heavy lifting, if you're notused to plyometrics, don't just
jump right into those.
Did you like what I did?
Thank you.
Nailed it.
Angie (36:17):
Yeah.
I think I, I did the plyometricsepisode that I did was just me.
So you know,
Kevin (36:21):
I was in that one.
Oh, you were in that one?
Oh yeah.
We were just endlessly punningon that one.
Angie (36:25):
All sorts of the Yeah.
Yeah.
shifting your training approachis number two, and then number
three is absolutely critical,which is fueling your body for
speed and energy.
You have to eat differently whenyou are, as you get older.
Your body is shifting.
Again, those hormones arechanging.
We need more protein.
We still need carbohydrates.
(36:46):
There's a lot of runners thatthink perimenopause and
menopause, They cut carbs, theyrestrict their calories.
That is the last thing that youwant to be doing because if you
are not getting enough food andnot getting enough calories and
you are underfueling your body,now your body needs to break
down something.
It needs a fuel source if you'regoing out and going for a run or
(37:08):
training hard, and so it startsto actually break down your
muscle and your bone if you'renot fueling it properly.
It does not go right to fat.
As much as you might love towant it to do that and you might
love to hear Some influencer onsocial media telling you that if
you train fasted, then yourbody's going to be more likely
to burn fat.
It's a big fat lie, especiallyif you're a woman, your body
(37:29):
needs carbohydrates as fuel.
Carbohydrates are actually likethe lighter fluid to help
kickstart fat burning.
You have to have carbohydrateson board in order to, for your
body to burn fat.
Kevin (37:41):
Yeah.
And if you're doing any sort offaster running, you're just not
burning fat.
Like you're not, it's.
a hundred percent carb basedfueling off of that.
So if you don't have carbs toburn your one, you're just not
really going to be able to doany sort of
Angie (37:54):
maintain that kind of intensity.
Like you
Kevin (37:56):
can't, you can't hold the intensity if you don't have
carbs on board.
So you have to make sure thatyou are actually fueling the
work that you are doing.
If you're taking in the proteinand the carbs, you cannot ignore
hydration on this either.
Okay.
hydration, super, superimportant.
But the whole fasted trainingthing.
Oh my word, it doesn't even workfor like most elite men.
It works for 1 percent of elitemen that fasted training might
(38:18):
have a chance of working andpeople are still spouting its
greatness.
Angie (38:21):
No!
Kevin (38:22):
It's a really bad call.
Angie (38:23):
Don't do it!
Kevin (38:24):
If your only time to run is first thing in the morning
before everybody else gets upand starts their day, is you
have to get up and run at thatpoint in time, you've gotta find
a way to take in calories beforeyou're out the door.
What do
Angie (38:37):
you take in?
Kevin (38:38):
half banana, sometimes a gel, something that I can get
calories in if there's
Angie (38:44):
I tell people a lot of times that like tell me that
they can't eat at 5.
15 in the morning.
Liquid?
Yeah, that's what I tell them.
I like choose liquid caloriesthen, right?
Yeah,
Kevin (38:53):
sports drink is a massive win at that point in time.
Because then you're alreadygetting the hydration.
Because I'm not a huge fan atthat point of taking in a huge
amount of liquid.
You drink a large amount ofwater before you head out the
door.
It's not like a crazy largeamount of water, but relative to
what I take in, it's a lot ofwater.
If I'm doing anything at allover 30 minutes, or putting any
(39:18):
sort of intensity into it,including just like strides at
the end of my run, there's gottabe fuel on board.
there just has to be, you can'tdo it fasted.
You're not going to get thebenefits and then you have to
eat afterwards.
Like you have to fuel before youhave to fuel after if the run is
going of higher intensity orover an hour, you should
probably be fueling during.
(39:38):
And that could also be liquid.
Like you can get to a pointwhere you're taking another
things, but if you're like, Ooh,I've got like a light stomach on
that one, liquid calories aregoing to be, it'll probably be
your easiest way to get thecalories in.
Angie (39:50):
Yeah.
Okay, we just threw a lot ofstuff at you guys, and I'm
hungry
Kevin (39:54):
now.
Angie (39:56):
And I want you to understand, too, we, we know
this, and sometimes we even makethese Mistakes as well like we
just talked about with Kevinlike Kevin has not been doing a
great job Managing stress andthat's leading to a breakdown of
his immune system.
He's granted.
He's a high school teacher he'saround a lot of germs and At the
same time his immune system islike doing its best But it's
(40:20):
lacking here right because ofhow frequently he's been Sick.
I also want to let you know, metoo, I, cause I, I want you to
know that we don't always get itright and we're not just sitting
here on our high horse spoutingoff what we do perfectly and,
what you, everyone else shouldbe doing and following our lead.
Absolutely not.
I realized because I was feelingmore tired, I was feeling more
(40:41):
sore, as well.
And so I started tracking mycalories, tracking my intake and
I realized I was not eatingenough food period.
And then also specifically noteating enough carbohydrates.
And so I've been making a pointto eat more carbs and more
calories over the last two weeksand I feel so much better.
Like already just in a couple ofweeks I'm less sore, I'm
(41:03):
recovering better after myworkouts.
I, Just feeling all over better,and I even lost a couple pounds,
which was fun.
Kevin (41:09):
That's a fantastic win.
that's an extra add on.
Now that we've done thisstrenuous podcast I feel like I
need to get some post podcastfuel myself.
Angie (41:15):
I need water I like forgot to grab a water over
here, and so my mouth is verydry right now, so I apologize if
you guys felt like that was likea fire hose that just got opened
on you and we just threw out alot of stuff, but we really
wanted to pack this episode witha lot of really good information
for you so that you can start tosee some of these things and
(41:36):
understand that it is not justabout your age.
You are not feeling slower justbecause you're getting older.
There's a lot of training thingsand lifestyle choices that you
may be making that could beleading to.
These things.
And that is great news.
This is not to point the fingeror tell you that it's your
fault.
(41:56):
This is fantastic news becausethese are things that you can
change and you can experimentwith and you can control and so
that you can start actuallyfeeling better.
And if you want more details, ifyou want.
Some coaching.
If you want me to help youfigure out how this applies to
you, come to my live workshopover at realliferunners.
com forward slash strong.
(42:16):
I would love for you to join meon one of my live classes.
I love interacting with peoplelive.
That's another reason why I dothis.
I get to talk to people all overthe world.
every week, which is super fun.
and then also if you want more,coaching and support, and we
have live weekly coaching callsinside of our membership inside
the program, keep your eye out,get it, get on that priority
(42:37):
list for running reconnectedbecause that's going to be
relaunching.
Later this week or next week andlike again, there's going to be
some special bonuses attached tothat as we relaunch the program.
check that out, realliferunners.
com forward slash priority ifyou want to get on the list for
that, or forward slash strong,if you want to join my free
class and with that, if youfound this episode helpful,
(42:59):
Thank you Please leave us areview, share it with a friend
that you think could benefitfrom it as well.
I know that people that aremaking these mistakes.
So do them a favor and hit theshare button and send this
episode to them so that they canhear what's going on and why
they're feeling this way, right?
Because it stinks when you feellike you're not getting better
(43:19):
and you're getting slower andyour progress is slowing down
and you feel like there'snothing you can do about it.
That is a terrible pain.
thing to feel.
So help your friends out, sharethis episode, and let them know,
what's going on in their bodiesso they can start feeling
better.
Kevin (43:33):
Yeah, that's excellent one.
There should be a way to sendthis thing out like anonymously
share Podcasts to people thatyou're like, oh that person
needs it Yeah, because I feellike some people are they don't
want to tell their friend thatthey're doing it wrong part of
but it's super helpful.
if yeah, they're doing somethingwrong just Send them out and be
like, Hey, this guy makes sillyjokes in the podcast.
You might find that funny, butin reality, you just want them
(43:54):
listening to Angie because she'sspouting just wisdom over here.
Angie (43:57):
Or you can screenshot and share it on social media.
That's a way to get it outthere.
Like you're not guaranteed thatpeople, certain people will see
it, but yeah, but you can makeanother excuse of why this
podcast, is a good idea forpeople to listen to, haha, it's
this running couple and wow,this guy had such a crazy story
and.
All these fun things.
So anyway, as always guys,thanks for joining us.
(44:19):
I hope to see you guys on one ofmy live classes or inside of
running reconnected, because Iwould love to help you to feel
stronger, to get faster and toachieve your running goals with
more joy in your life.
this has been the real liferunners podcast episode number
402.
Now get out there and run yourlife.
Have you ever felt like no matter how much you run,
(00:02):
you're actually getting slowerinstead of faster?
Like your legs feel heavier,your pace is dropped, and
running just doesn't feel asgood as it used to?
If so, you are not alone.
We hear this all the time fromrunners over 40.
People who have been running foryears but suddenly feel stuck,
frustrated, and wondering, Isthis just aging?
Is this it?
Is this what I have to lookforward to for the rest of my
(00:25):
life?
Is this just how it's going tobe from now on?
But here's the truth.
It is not just your age.
There are very real, veryfixable reasons why this is
happening.
In today's episode, we are goingto be talking about the top
three culprits that could beslowing you down.
Plus, of course, how you canreverse them and start feeling
stronger, faster, and moreenergized in your running again.
(00:47):
So if you're tired of feelingsluggish and you're ready to
take back control of yourrunning, this episode is for
you.
(01:16):
What's up, runners?
Welcome to the show today.
We're so thankful that you'rehere with us on episode number
402, just
Kevin (01:23):
coasting into the four hundreds here
Angie (01:25):
in a wild.
so before we jump into today'sepisode, I want to announce that
I am doing a new free workshopfor you.
It's a new free training,because you all know, obviously
one of the reasons that we dothis podcast is to spread the
word and to help.
As many runners as we can forfree.
And that is also why I do livetrainings to go deeper into some
(01:46):
of these topics.
Cause you know, you listen tothe podcast, you get some of
some really great information onthe podcast, but if you want to
come live and interact with meand get your questions answered,
that is one of the huge benefitsof joining me live on one of my
classes.
And also we go even deeper andfigure out.
what exactly is going on?
And a big thing that I'm goingto be talking about is what
(02:08):
we're discussing in this podcastepisode today and how to connect
all of these dots, right?
Because a lot of times we feellike we're doing all the things,
but we're not seeing theresults.
And there's so many runners thatfeel this way.
And even on our team call thisweek, we had runners talking
about.
how they were just thinkingabout, Oh, it just must be me
(02:28):
getting older.
And it's no, it's, I don't likethat excuse at all.
We're not gonna, we're not gonnago ahead and blame it on age
because there's so many otherthings that we actually have
control over.
Aging is one of those thingsthat happens, right?
as we, we are getting older bythe day and that is a beautiful
thing.
and.
I don't want us to ever look ataging as a negative thing
because it's a blessing to stillbe here and be active and be
(02:50):
running.
And we can't stop time, but wecan change our experience of it.
We can control a lot of thingsthat are going on in our bodies.
And that's really what we wantto dive into today.
Kevin (03:02):
Age is not a time to be like, all right, I have to be
getting slower.
Like there, there is going to beat some point.
At some point, there's a pointwhere you're not getting faster,
but you can have differentstrategies.
You can take on differentapproaches so that day doesn't
necessarily have to be today.
The day doesn't necessarily haveto have already occurred.
there are ways to go at this andchange the way that you're
training.
Angie (03:23):
Yeah.
And also speed is not the onlything to look at either, right?
there's lots of other ways thatwe can.
Track progress and improvementin our running
Kevin (03:31):
speed was the only way to track running enjoyment.
I would have been done a longtime
Angie (03:35):
in your teenage years But yeah, I've actually so anyway
before we dive into the episodeI forgot to tell you about how
to register for my free class.
So head over to real liferunners comm forward slash
strong if you want to registerfor that class I'll be live on
Thursdays, I will not be, Idon't know when you're going to
listen to this episode.
It actually comes out onThursday.
(03:57):
So if you're listening to thison the day it comes out, I will
be live on that day, which isMarch 20th, at noon and at 4 p.
m.
Eastern time.
I will not be live the followingweek because we will be at our
very first annual Real liferunners retreat, which I'm so
excited about.
We have our retreat with ourmembers next week, and I'm
(04:18):
prepping for that.
And we have so many amazingthings planned.
Our members are going to bejoining us in sunny Florida for
spring break.
and we're going to be joined.
Enjoying the sun and the beachand community and running and
yoga and mobility and amazingfood.
And it is going to be such anincredible time.
so if you want more informationon that, when we do our next
(04:40):
one, I'll be make sure youobviously stay listening to the
podcast, but the best way to dothat is to become a member of
real life runners, because that.
Our members always get firstdibs on all of our events.
and this one, since it's ourfirst one is members only.
So I didn't even reallyadvertise it to non members.
So I'm so excited.
Behind
Kevin (04:59):
the velvet ropes, you will.
Angie (05:00):
Behind the velvet ropes.
Oh, wow.
That sounds awfully exclusive.
And it should
Kevin (05:04):
be like the theme of the week.
Angie (05:05):
There you go.
I also have some really otherexciting updates coming out.
we're essentially, I've renamedmy, our signature program here.
And I'm going to be telling youguys all about that.
very soon.
I can maybe talk about it nowbecause I am going to be running
a special since we, since Ireally redid all of the program.
Kevin (05:24):
I'm going to try woohoo again and see
Angie (05:26):
if my voice doesn't crack.
Woohoo! If you've been followingalong, you know that I created a
program specifically for womenover 40 and perimenopause and
menopause and last year I namedthis program Press Play, which
Kevin (05:38):
I loved,
Angie (05:39):
which I, it was okay.
I never, I was never in lovewith it.
And it was an
Kevin (05:43):
awesome pun,
Angie (05:44):
right?
Because it was menopause.
So I was thinking press playinstead of pause, but even so
Kevin (05:48):
good,
Angie (05:49):
but even people in the program didn't really get it.
And I was never in love with iteither.
And so I've been sitting withthis for literally months and
months, trying to figure out,okay, what do I want to name
this?
What is this all about?
And so the new name of theprogram, drum roll.
Do I get a drum is runningreconnected nice and I'm in love
(06:10):
with this name because it's sowell, it just perfectly explains
what we do here at real liferunners and what we are doing to
help runners feel more connectedto their bodies, to their
running, because we are justtaught to disconnect from our
bodies, from our running, fromthe.
signals, to push through whenour body's screaming at us to,
ignore the signals that our bodywants to send us, to ignore
(06:32):
hunger cues and all the things.
But when we get over 40 intoperimenopause and postmenopause,
it's so important that we starttraining differently and we
learn how to reconnect with ourbody.
And so that's really what thisprogram is all about is helping
runners reconnect to themselvesand to their running so that
they can get stronger, getfaster, build a strong, active,
(06:53):
vital vitality, lots ofvitality, in their body now and
in the future.
And I'm so excited about it.
Kevin (07:00):
really gung ho on this program.
The program's phenomenal andyou're just so much more
excited.
Do you think the issue with thename the first time is that it
was essentially a dad joke for awomen's running program?
Angie (07:11):
Maybe.
Kevin (07:12):
You think that was the issue?
Maybe that
Angie (07:14):
could be a problem.
Kevin (07:15):
Maybe that's why I was so gung ho but the program wasn't
designed for me.
I just really thought the namewas awesome.
Angie (07:20):
Yeah.
if you want to learn more aboutit, join me on one of our live
classes.
I'm going to be running somespecials, to, to celebrate the
new naming of the program andthe new structure inside the
program as well.
so if you want more informationon that, head over to
realliferunners.
com forward slash priority andget on the priority list so that
you're the first to know whenthe door is open for that so
that you can get in on theamazing specials and bonuses
(07:42):
that I have planned, for therelaunch of this program.
Yeah,
Kevin (07:45):
and just be following us on Instagram because Angie posts
everything there.
That's how, everything's
Angie (07:49):
happening.
Not necessarily.
I will be posting more.
Yes, I will be posting.
You know who classes are
Kevin (07:53):
coming when you post them.
Angie (07:53):
Yeah.
So anyhow, all right, let'sactually get into today's
episode and, talk about whyyou're feeling slower and how to
reverse it because we have somany clients come to us and this
is one of the main.
Things that they complain aboutfatigue.
I would say is number oneThey're just feeling so much
more tired.
Just exhausted all the time.
(08:14):
No energy And then slower pacesis a very close second to that
in for obvious reasons You knowwhen you're tired and you don't
have energy it's gonna be hardto run fast,
Kevin (08:25):
right?
They're very much connectedthey're the same thing.
Sometimes they're stated in onecontinuous sentence I just feel
tired all the time and I'mslowing down like those might
just be one One statement.
But then it leads to thefollowup, which is the point of
this podcast here is I'm tiredall the time and I'm slowing
down.
Is it because I'm getting olderand you always are very quick to
(08:45):
jump on.
No.
and just like you end it thereand you follow up, there's a
great explanation.
We have a whole episode on theexplanation behind this thing,
but you put a good.
solid no period pause and justend the conversation there
before an explanation so thatit's very clear that the answer
is no, that's not the clearcause here,
Angie (09:04):
right?
And age is a related factor,right?
But it is not because of yourage that you are getting slower.
Age is one of the factors.
to consider and can lead to someof the other things that we're
going to talk about today if youdon't do things about it.
age, I would say, is indirectlyrelated because as, especially
as women, when we get into thisphase of life after 40 and we
(09:28):
start to go throughperimenopause and menopause and
we start to have these hormonalchanges, that's what leads to a
lot of the symptoms that we areexperiencing in this phase of
life.
And It's indirectly related toage, but just because you go
through these changes and you gothrough these hormonal shifts,
don't, does not mean that youhave to experience some of the
(09:50):
changes that we're going to betalking about today.
Some of the reasons why you'regetting slower, those are
actually fixable and those arein your control.
And that's what we're reallygoing to get into.
Kevin (10:00):
Excellent.
All right.
So let's jump into them.
We're starting to get somereasons.
Angie (10:02):
Yes.
Okay.
So the first reason that you'restarting to feel slower after 40
is muscle loss and strengthdecline.
So after 40, actually, thisstarts as early as age 30.
After the age of 30, we startlosing muscle mass, lean muscle
mass at the rate of about 3 to 8percent per decade, unless we
are actively exercising.
(10:23):
Okay.
Building muscle unless we aredoing resistance training and
actively building muscle becauserunning does not Build strength
running may help to maintainstrength if you're doing it the,
in a healthy way, but if you'reover training, if you're running
too much and you're not fuelingyour body, which we're going to
get into in a little bit here,then that's leading to further
(10:45):
muscle breakdown.
So our bodies just naturallystart to lose lean muscle mass
after the age of 30 because ofthese shifts in our hormones.
And If we are losing muscle,that means we are losing power
and we are losing speed becausemuscle helps us to create power
and the more power we have, themore power that our muscles are
able to put out, the faster weare able to run.
Kevin (11:08):
Right, which is It ties that whole part of muscle is
power gets you to speed, is howsometimes running can be enough
to maintain, but it's onlyenough to maintain for a little
while.
if you don't keep trying toenhance your muscle capability,
your strength, it'sdeteriorating.
you're fighting a slippingslope.
A sli A slippery?
(11:30):
But that's not really what I'mgoing for you're trying to build
a sandcastle out of dry sandIt's really hard to get it tall
because it just keeps slidingdown the sides.
So if you're like, oh, no I'mdefinitely maintaining this
you're only maintaining it ifyou keep piling sand on top of
it because it just keeps slidingaway because without doing
anything, it's deteriorating.
So anytime that you're takinglittle breaks from your running,
(11:52):
anytime you get inconsistency,you start the deterioration.
And that's only assuming thatyou're running in a way that is
actually trying to create power,that you're running at some
higher outputs, that you'redoing some like devoted uphill.
Powerful inputs, which a lot ofpeople aren't
Angie (12:08):
most runners, I would say, are not like, unless you're
following a plan that gives youvery specific instructions on
what you're supposed to bedoing, which most generic
training plans don't, mostrunning plans out there that
you, unless you are working witha coach, most running plans that
you will just get online or inan app don't give you those
types of specifics.
And like Kevin said, it.
(12:29):
It's most runners also go outand run.
You didn't say this part, butI'm adding this in.
Thank you.
Unless you're trained.
What you said was that unlessyou're training specifically for
power and speed, you're mostlikely not building it because
most runners, when they go outand run, they're running at
about an effort level of a fiveor six out of 10.
That is not hard enough toactually build power and speed.
(12:51):
And it's also not easy enoughthat you're recovering in
between sessions.
So it's like in this gray zonewhere.
some of that is okay, and someof that can be helpful if you're
training for half marathons,etc.
But if you're doing all of yourruns at that pace, you're really
just breaking your body down dayafter day.
And so that's actually leadingto the reverse of what you want.
Kevin (13:11):
And looking at it from a pure muscle loss and strength
decline perspective, doing abunch of runs at L5 or the ever
popular L2 training, that is allover.
So running, keep it in zone two.
That's not doing anything foryour muscle.
It's not doing anything for yourpower.
It's really not.
It's
Angie (13:29):
good for cardio.
It's great for yourcardiovascular health, but it's
not building muscle.
No,
Kevin (13:33):
you are not fighting muscle loss and strength decline
unless you are doing thingsdirectly devoted towards power,
which is going to involve awhole heck of a lot harder and
probably uphill.
Angie (13:42):
And one of the reasons this is happening, especially
for women, is our loss ofestrogen during perimenopause.
And then, of course, the lack ofestrogen after menopause,
because estrogen is an anabolichormone, which means it helps us
to build muscle and bone.
So as we lose estrogen, itbecomes harder for us to build
and maintain muscle and bone.
So we have to do things toactively do that, and which
(14:05):
we're going to be talking aboutin the next section.
So let's move on to the secondreason that you're.
Probably feeling slower after 40and that is one of those things
that actually I'm going to dothis one last I know I outlined
it in this order, but I'mactually gonna do this one last
we're gonna move on to numberthree first I'm with
Kevin (14:23):
you.
Angie (14:23):
Okay.
So the first the second reasonis out that outdated training
strategies Okay, we did apodcast about this a couple
episodes ago where we talkedabout ditching the high mileage
model and There is this beliefin the running world that if you
want to get better, you justneed to run more or you just
(14:44):
need to push harder.
I just need to go out and keeppushing myself harder.
But this does not work as wellafter 40.
And again, it's because of thesehormone shifts as we as women
are experiencing.
And men are experiencing changesas well.
they're just not as drastic asthe shifts that women are
experiencing.
Kevin (15:02):
Nope, it's just a gradual downhill from like 25.
You just keep sliding the otherway.
It
Angie (15:08):
is a much more linear decline, right?
Of testosterone.
That is one of the big thingsthat happens.
You just, you tend to losetestosterone over time, but it
doesn't affect men the same waythat the loss of estrogen
affects women because estrogenaffects every single system in
the body.
And we go through this.
essentially, zone of chaos inperimenopause, where it's not
just this steady decline thatour bodies can get used to, it's
(15:30):
up, it's down, it's thisrollercoaster ride, which is why
we have all these crazysymptoms, and a lot of women
think they're going crazy.
Kevin (15:37):
Yeah, you showed me the graph of, estrogen levels, and
I'm like, that's just ludicrous.
Whereas, if you graph,testosterone levels of a man
over his lifetime, it really isa linear trend.
Angie (15:47):
Significant.
if you actually look at it, likeit goes down a little bit over
time, but for most men, it justlike flatlines a little bit, and
then goes down just a littlebit, but over the course of 50
years.
Yes.
Kevin (15:59):
Yeah.
Over a long period of time,there is a gradually downward
sloping line, but that'sessentially what you got there.
And there's no period of chaos.
Is that what you just called it?
Yeah.
Zone of chaos.
Zone of chaos.
Yeah.
No, that got that term.
Angie (16:10):
I got that term from Dr.
Mary Claire Haver, who is one ofthe leading experts.
what happens, a lot of people,when they notice that they're
getting slower, theirinclination is to do more,
right?
Because that is what we've beentaught.
We've been taught that.
If you want to get better, youneed to do more.
(16:31):
That the reason you're gettingslower, the reason you're
gaining weight is just becauseyou're not doing enough.
And so this leads a lot ofrunners to pushing harder on
their runs, to adding moretraining sessions, to skipping
easy runs and trying to makethem more moderate or harder.
they.
They don't understand thebenefit of strength training,
which we're going to get into.
and so they just focus on justrunning more because they don't
(16:52):
see what we just talked about inpart number one about muscle
actually equals power and powerequals speed.
Like you need to build muscle ifyou want to get faster and they
think I just need to run more toget faster.
and then the big thing is thatthey start skimping on recovery.
They don't.
Prioritize sleep.
They're not getting enoughrecovery, especially in between
those harder sessions.
(17:13):
And so their body's justconstantly in breakdown mode
Kevin (17:16):
Yeah, when you talk outdated training strategies,
you can go online and find someyear you're like running
influencers that are like Ohwhat you really need to be doing
is and they're highlighting thethings that are the exact
problems You just mentionedskipping easy runs skipping the
recovery days and just goingharder every day
Angie (17:33):
I love when I watch like a 28 year old male Running
influencer say those things.
Yeah,
Kevin (17:38):
which need to be doing is interval training five days out
of the week.
It's okay, that's great.
But you were at peaktestosterone level.
And what are you talking about?
And the issue is when you talkoutdated training strategy,
that's 80 years outdatedtraining strategy.
Like you're looking at like the40s where that was.
the cutting edge of training wasinterval training five days out
(17:59):
of the week
Angie (17:59):
We know so much more now
Kevin (18:01):
like we're a little beyond that but that was the
peak It was like I don't think
Angie (18:05):
most people are doing that though,
Kevin (18:06):
but you can see it online There are people that are
pushing it because they want tosound new and different and so
you can just let our
Angie (18:13):
contrary and just to be contrary and of course then
Kevin (18:16):
you can justify anything and be like That person's doing
it and they look supersuccessful, but no, they're just
being contrarian You have noidea what that person online is
actually doing and
Angie (18:26):
yeah,
Kevin (18:26):
what kind of supplements they're taking
Angie (18:28):
I know it's so interesting like with the fall
of some of these MLMs.
I'm not gonna name any specificcompanies but how a lot of the
people are coming out thecoaches that were in these
businesses are coming out nowand talking about how They were
not doing their own workouts.
Like the, their gym routines andtheir diet was so much more
(18:49):
extreme than the diets and theworkout routines that they were
pushing on, the infomercialsthat they were.
Advertising.
Kevin (18:56):
It's because you either have two options, either the
plan has to be so extreme thatpeople are drawn in because it
looks crazy, you're like, oh,it's crazy, it's gotta work, or
it's so comfortable and invitingthat you're like, oh, anybody
can do it, I will sign up, Iwill give you money and try that
plan, and then it's noteffective.
You're like, I didn't get theresults they showed me on the
infomercial.
It's not that it's noteffective.
Angie (19:15):
It's not that it's not effective, it's just not going
to give you the results thatthey're necessarily showing.
Kevin (19:20):
Because results may vary.
Or, the training plan may becompletely different.
Angie (19:23):
Yeah.
Okay, so following outdatedstrategies, that's another
reason, pushing hard thinkingthat you just need to run more
is not the best way anymore, forsure.
That may have worked when youwere in your 20s, but it's not
going to be working for youafter the age of 40.
And then the third biggestreason why you feel like you're
getting slower is unmanagedstress.
(19:44):
and nervous systemdysregulation.
Now, this is a really big onethat not a lot of people are
talking about that I really havedove deep into, especially after
Kevin's history of seizures andall the things, if you guys have
been with us for a while and youknow our story.
I dove really deep into theresearch to figure out what the
heck was going on with his brainand his nervous system and why
(20:07):
it was so dysregulated.
and so much of this comes backto stress.
And When we are in midlife inour 40s, a lot of us have kids,
a lot of those kids are becomingteenagers, a lot of us have
parents that are now aging thatwe have to figure out More
complicated end of life andaging and living situations for
(20:28):
our parents.
And we're dealing with all ofthese different things not to
mention houses and careers andpets and all of the things.
There's a lot of things going onwhen you're in midlife and going
back to our hormone shifts as awoman as we lose estrogen.
Another thing that estrogen doesis that it keeps cortisol levels
in check.
Now, cortisol is our stresshormone, and so as estrogen
(20:52):
declines, our cortisol levelsstay elevated, and this can lead
to chronically high cortisollevels, especially if you're not
doing things to help manage thatstress.
And that increased cortisol canlead to fatigue, poor recovery,
and slower paces because yourbody's never able to fully
recover.
You don't.
There is, there's essentiallytwo, main states that your
(21:13):
nervous system can get into, thesympathetic nervous system and
the parasympathetic state.
so your sympathetic nervoussystem gets activated in times
of stress, that's more of yourfight or flight mode.
And so when you're running hardand you're training really hard,
your cortisol levels are high,that's putting you in more of a
sympathetic state, whereas yourparasympathetic state.
(21:33):
Is more your rest or diet restand repair state and we're
spending so much time with highcortisol levels in that
sympathetic state That we're notallowing our bodies to get into
that Parasympathetic state asmuch and as regularly to
actually repair from all ofthose times of high stress and
high training If
Kevin (21:52):
if I remember correctly, this is also just a brutal cycle
is you've got the lack of thecortisol It increases your
fatigue, but then increasedfatigue leads to an increased
cortisol level it just keepsworking on itself because you're
feeling tired and when you'refeeling tired it just gives you
a feeling of Stress of thethings around you because you're
(22:13):
just not moving as fast andyou're not getting things done
Well,
Angie (22:16):
you can't handle stress.
you're tired.
Yeah, I mean think about likewhen you're tired Everything is
annoying right?
Like you get hangry you get likepeople just annoy you more like
zone of
Kevin (22:26):
chaos It's my entire existence.
Yeah, it's how it goes and so ifyou then, as you said, if you
remove the estrogens, that'sthen controlling the cortisol,
that's just gonna make all ofthese things more difficult,
which then makes managing yourstress that much more difficult.
Angie (22:43):
and your hormones helped to regulate your stress levels
help to regulate your runningperformance, and so When these
things are out of balance andyour nervous system is
dysregulated, you're not goingto be able to run the speed or
the distance.
you're going to see an effect inyour speed and your endurance.
But again, this is not just forfemales.
And do you want to talk a littlebit about what you've been
(23:04):
dealing with lately?
Because this is one of thosethings that we talked about this
from 2017 when it caused aseries of seizures, which was
really bad.
but even recently you've beenaffected by this kind of stuff.
Kevin (23:15):
Yeah.
As you may notice from notexactly the smoothest of voices
on this podcast or from podcastsa few weeks ago where I wasn't
on it cause I didn't have avoice or the month before that,
where I didn't have it because Icouldn't record that month
either.
I've been getting sick on theregular, and not just a little
sick, but bedridden for a day,sick, and then sick on the front
(23:37):
end and back end for severaldays around that day, where I
basically spend an entire day inbed.
Back in 2018, when I was comingback from, the history of
seizures, I started the newmedication.
If I started feeling off, Iwould be like, ooh, that kind of
feels like I felt on days whereI'd have a seizure.
I would just, I would take a napand I'd be fine.
(23:59):
And the nap sometimes was likean hour, sometimes it was a
couple hours and I'd be fine.
And lately I've been gettingjust incredibly run down, just
super, super exhausted.
And I thought, as I was movingthrough November, December, it
was like, I've got some realhigh mileage, a lot of buildup
heading towards anultramarathon.
Then I ran the ultramarathon andafter recovering from that, I'm
(24:22):
like, I don't feel like I'mrecovering.
And I got really sick inFebruary and now I'm really sick
again in the middle of March andit just seems Every time I try
and get my training back up andI'm not out there pushing crazy
Like I told you I think earlierthis week.
I want to say Monday or Tuesday.
I was like, this is probably thefirst Good run I've had since
(24:43):
January like I've gone out andI've run and I felt okay But
that was the first time that Ifelt good that I felt like my
legs were actually movingappropriately So it's not like
I'm out there pushing superhard, but every time I string
four running days together I'mjust wiped.
And that's how I've been sinceJanuary, not to mention the
sickness that I had last year.
trying to figure out exactlywhat is causing all of this,
(25:06):
it's, it really comes down tothere's a huge amount of
stresses going on.
And in 2017, that huge amount ofstresses led to some serious
issues and into the hospital afew times.
This, these last few months,those have led to almost every
month.
basically every month, everythree to four weeks, I get
incredibly sick and I'm out fora few days, which is not a great
(25:29):
way to go through life.
Angie (25:30):
No, it's not.
And this is one of those thingswhere we need to find some
answers again.
Because I can see what'shappening and as a wife, it's
hard to tell you what to dobecause I don't want it.
I don't want to do that.
Like I want to help problemsolve and help you see what's
(25:51):
going on because I can see itfrom the outside.
I can see how stressed you are.
And not only is it just thestress and Kevin and I had this
conversation a couple days agowhen we were discussing this.
It's, there are certain thingsthat cause stress in our lives.
There are circumstantial thingsthat There's a lot going on
right now in our lives and thereare those things and then
(26:14):
there's the stress that we addon top of it.
There's all the stories that wetell ourself about what those
things mean.
So one example for him was likeyou, you Had a stack of grading
tests of tests that you neededto grade.
Kevin (26:27):
Yes.
There's literally a physicalstack of It's 350 pages tall.
Angie (26:34):
And so that is a fact of the matter.
If you look over at our kitchentable, there is a stack of tests
that need to be graded.
Now that is the circumstance,but the story that Kevin is
telling is, I am so behind.
I just can't seem to catch up.
So can you see how that isadding another layer of stress?
on top of the test that he stillhas to grade.
Kevin (26:57):
Right, and so that, that stack of papers that I bring
home and then back to school andthen home and then back to
school because I'm grading itany second of free time that I
can find, then one, eats up allmy free time, but two, I'm
literally carrying the stressback and forth to work and home
every single day.
Angie (27:16):
Constantly.
Kevin (27:17):
I'm physically carrying the stress around with me.
Which is terrible, but I'm alsothen mentally, I have that
stress with me at all point, atall times because I have it with
me, it's something that I couldbe doing.
So if I'm not, I'm like, Oh, Ireally should be doing that
right now.
And so that's this additionalstress of I should, and you are
not a fan of shoulds, but.
(27:38):
it it presents itself all thetime of, Oh, I should be running
more.
I should be doing more strengthtraining.
Oh, if only I had the chance tobe, get an extra hard run in,
get in another recovery day.
I need to be doing all thesethings.
You have the time to do what isgoing to be able to fit.
You have the time to prioritizewhat it is that you want to
prioritize.
You can't prioritize everything,but then you can't freak out
(28:01):
that you're not prioritizingeverything.
Angie (28:04):
But you do.
Kevin (28:05):
Yes, I do.
Angie (28:06):
Yeah.
And there's a lot of people thatdo that, right?
there's a lot of people thathave that stress.
And then on top of that, theyhave the stress about the stress
or the stress over the lack oftheir ability to do certain
things.
And that's just makingeverything so much worse.
So that kind of is a nice segueinto what do we need to do about
all this, right?
Like how can we actually reversesome of these things and start
(28:29):
running stronger, start toregain some of our speed.
And we might as well just gointo this first one.
The first one is regulating yournervous system.
this is a really important thingbecause this is what controls
everything that goes on in ourbody.
your nervous system controls howyour body gains muscle.
It controls your endurance.
It tells your body, the, itsends signals throughout your
(28:51):
entire body, through yournerves, through your
neurotransmitters, through yourhormones.
to let your body know what it'sdoing.
It tells it how, when to burn anenergy, when to store energy,
all of these things.
And so when your nervous systemis dysregulated because of
stress and lack of sleep andlack of recovery and all these
other things, high cortisollevels that are going on in your
(29:12):
body, it's really hard for youto build strength, build speed,
build endurance.
So we really need to focus onsleep number one and stress
management.
We have to learn how to Not letthose things affect us as much
because yes, we can sometimeschange our circumstances Like
(29:32):
there are some things that wecan do to try to make the those
papers go away You can you know,try to carve out more time.
There's things that we can do toactually deal with the physical
The thing that's right in frontof us, but then there's also all
the things that we can do tochange the narrative around That
(29:53):
stack of papers or whatever thatother stressful thing in your
life is
Kevin (29:56):
right It's some of my favorite thoughts on sleep is
and sleep is one of the bestBiggest things to go to, to
start with nervous systemregulation, in my opinion.
I don't know if you're fully on,on with me on that.
100
Angie (30:06):
percent sleep is one of the most important things.
I just, I like start went overit because a lot of people have
problems sleeping because ofstress.
Kevin (30:15):
So this is my, why I love the hit on sleep because is the
line of focusing on your sleepis one of the most important
ways to improve your health.
But if you can't get enoughsleep, worrying about it is one
of the worst things that youcould do to hinder your health.
you're gonna sleep however muchyou sleep.
if you're normally sleeping likeeight to nine hours and one
night something goes on, you'reup late or you wake up in the
(30:39):
middle of the night, likewhatever it is that you just
can't get good sleep that nightand you get five.
You get like four, whatever thething is, you can't freak out
that you only have four.
Yeah, you're going to be tired,but then freaking out that
you're going to be tired is justgoing to make things worse.
Angie (30:56):
Yeah, they actually did a research study where they took
two groups of people and Each ofthem got the exact same amount
of sleep three groups of three
Kevin (31:05):
groups of people.
Oh,
Angie (31:06):
you know the study I'm talking about.
Oh, yeah.
All right, go for it
Kevin (31:08):
three groups And they but they gave them all alarm clocks
that told them what time theywere waking up And so the one
group thought based off of theclock that they were getting one
fewer hours of sleep one fewerhours I don't think that was
grammatically correct at all.
And there was
Angie (31:22):
I know
Kevin (31:23):
you are saw that side, I hear Oh, I'm keeping that right
there.
And one group based off theclock thought they were getting
an additional hour of sleep andjust
Angie (31:33):
group three.
Kevin (31:34):
group three got what the clock actually said.
So you have you have yourcontrol group and then you have
the people that think thatthey're getting extra sleep and
the people that think thatthey're getting less sleep and
they gave them cognitive testsand the people that thought that
they all
Angie (31:46):
got the same amount of sleep.
let's be clear on that.
They all had the same amount ofsleep.
They just had a clock that toldthem that they got.
Less sleep, more sleep, or theamount of sleep that they
thought they were going to get.
Kevin (31:56):
and then they gave them cognitive tests, and the people
who thought that they got lesssleep performed, actually
statistically worse on thetests.
Because they thought they sleptless.
And
Angie (32:06):
the people that got more sleep performed better.
which
Kevin (32:08):
does not make any sense.
Angie (32:09):
So it was literally the only thing that was different
was the amount of sleep thatthey thought They got not the
actual amount of sleep that theygot.
So again, this goes back to thestory that you're telling
yourself about the sleep.
So if you are missing out onsleep and you're talking in your
head about how terrible this is,Oh my God, I'm just, this is
going to mean that tomorrow isgoing to be awful.
(32:30):
I'm going to be so tired.
My run's going to suck.
the day is just going to be sostressful.
Guess what's probably going tohappen, right?
Like it's going to be becomeoftentimes a self fulfilling
prophecy.
Kevin (32:41):
100 percent which is why I like to get up and start
moving around and see how I feelBefore I check my watch which
tells me a sleep score Which iscompletely a made up number by
the company that makes my watchlike There's a bunch of random
data that goes into a black boxand then they spit out a number
They won't tell you what thatformula is, but my watch does it
there's all sorts of brandswatches that do it People have
(33:02):
different brands of rings thatdo it for them.
They will all give you a sleepscore There's a million ways to
track your sleep score and It'llthen tell you whether it was
restorative or productive sleepand it's just a number.
How do you actually feel whenyou wake up?
Because if you wake up feelingamazing, and then your watch is
actually, you got really subparsleep, is it gonna bring you
down?
(33:23):
I like to feel how I'm feelingbefore I check what my watch
says
Angie (33:26):
actually connect to your body.
Kevin (33:28):
Yeah.
Actually connect to my body.
Angie (33:29):
Fantastic.
So that's the first thing isgetting more sleep, improving
the quality of your sleep andthen managing stress, which also
has an effect on your sleep.
So those things will help withnervous system regulation,
making sure that you're takingrecovery, understanding and
starting to.
See the signs that your body isgiving you to let you know that
you're recovered well and maybeyou can go out and push it a
(33:51):
little bit harder today or signsthat you're not recovered well
and you have to start tounderstand what those signs are
and especially how those signsappear in you and what your body
is telling you.
Again, that's one of the bigthings that we do inside of
Running Reconnected is liketeaching you how to interpret
these different things that yourbody is trying to tell you
because it's just too much to gointo in a podcast episode.
(34:14):
So nervous system regulation isnumber one.
Number two, you need to shiftyour training approach.
So going out and running all thetime at that five or six out of
10, you already know is not whatwe recommend.
It is not a good idea.
there's so many better ways foryou to train and the biggest one
is polarizing your training.
So making sure that you have acombination of both easy days
(34:36):
and hard days, making sure thatyour easy days are actually
easy.
So when we say easy, we'retalking about like a two or
three out of 10 and your harddays are actually feeling hard,
more of an eight or nine out of10.
Some days even going to that 10level because that's how your
body is going respond that andthere's a whole lot of
physiological mechanisms that wecan get into that we don't have
(34:57):
time for right now in thisepisode, but easy days, easy,
hard days, hard, more easy daysthan hard days is for sure
important.
and then of course,incorporating strength training,
plyometrics and mobility.
Okay, that's going to help yourbody actually build the muscle
because like we talked aboutbefore, you have to build muscle
if you want more power, you wantpower if you want more speed.
(35:19):
So you have to start liftingheavier.
Not just light repetitionsanymore and when I say that with
an asterisk because if you arenot currently strength training
You want to start with bodyweight only you don't want to
just jump into lifting heavyweights So this is all a
progression But you want toprogress to lifting heavier
weights two to three times perweek so that you're actually
(35:39):
building muscles You want tomaking sure that you're doing
mobility work so that yourjoints are Moving fluidly, and
we can loosen up anyrestrictions that may be
happening because of the tissuechanges that tend to happen
with, with age, and thenplyometrics will also help with
improving your power output, thefast twitch muscle fibers.
(36:00):
your body's explosiveness.
those are all really good.
And plyometrics are also reallygreat for building bone, and
improving your bone density aswell.
Kevin (36:07):
Yes.
But again, much like strengthtraining, if you're not used to
heavy lifting, if you're notused to plyometrics, don't just
jump right into those.
Did you like what I did?
Thank you.
Nailed it.
Angie (36:17):
Yeah.
I think I, I did the plyometricsepisode that I did was just me.
So you know,
Kevin (36:21):
I was in that one.
Oh, you were in that one?
Oh yeah.
We were just endlessly punningon that one.
Angie (36:25):
All sorts of the Yeah.
Yeah.
shifting your training approachis number two, and then number
three is absolutely critical,which is fueling your body for
speed and energy.
You have to eat differently whenyou are, as you get older.
Your body is shifting.
Again, those hormones arechanging.
We need more protein.
We still need carbohydrates.
(36:46):
There's a lot of runners thatthink perimenopause and
menopause, They cut carbs, theyrestrict their calories.
That is the last thing that youwant to be doing because if you
are not getting enough food andnot getting enough calories and
you are underfueling your body,now your body needs to break
down something.
It needs a fuel source if you'regoing out and going for a run or
(37:08):
training hard, and so it startsto actually break down your
muscle and your bone if you'renot fueling it properly.
It does not go right to fat.
As much as you might love towant it to do that and you might
love to hear Some influencer onsocial media telling you that if
you train fasted, then yourbody's going to be more likely
to burn fat.
It's a big fat lie, especiallyif you're a woman, your body
(37:29):
needs carbohydrates as fuel.
Carbohydrates are actually likethe lighter fluid to help
kickstart fat burning.
You have to have carbohydrateson board in order to, for your
body to burn fat.
Kevin (37:41):
Yeah.
And if you're doing any sort offaster running, you're just not
burning fat.
Like you're not, it's.
a hundred percent carb basedfueling off of that.
So if you don't have carbs toburn your one, you're just not
really going to be able to doany sort of
Angie (37:54):
maintain that kind of intensity.
Like you
Kevin (37:56):
can't, you can't hold the intensity if you don't have
carbs on board.
So you have to make sure thatyou are actually fueling the
work that you are doing.
If you're taking in the proteinand the carbs, you cannot ignore
hydration on this either.
Okay.
hydration, super, superimportant.
But the whole fasted trainingthing.
Oh my word, it doesn't even workfor like most elite men.
It works for 1 percent of elitemen that fasted training might
(38:18):
have a chance of working andpeople are still spouting its
greatness.
Angie (38:21):
No!
Kevin (38:22):
It's a really bad call.
Angie (38:23):
Don't do it!
Kevin (38:24):
If your only time to run is first thing in the morning
before everybody else gets upand starts their day, is you
have to get up and run at thatpoint in time, you've gotta find
a way to take in calories beforeyou're out the door.
What do
Angie (38:37):
you take in?
Kevin (38:38):
half banana, sometimes a gel, something that I can get
calories in if there's
Angie (38:44):
I tell people a lot of times that like tell me that
they can't eat at 5.
15 in the morning.
Liquid?
Yeah, that's what I tell them.
I like choose liquid caloriesthen, right?
Yeah,
Kevin (38:53):
sports drink is a massive win at that point in time.
Because then you're alreadygetting the hydration.
Because I'm not a huge fan atthat point of taking in a huge
amount of liquid.
You drink a large amount ofwater before you head out the
door.
It's not like a crazy largeamount of water, but relative to
what I take in, it's a lot ofwater.
If I'm doing anything at allover 30 minutes, or putting any
(39:18):
sort of intensity into it,including just like strides at
the end of my run, there's gottabe fuel on board.
there just has to be, you can'tdo it fasted.
You're not going to get thebenefits and then you have to
eat afterwards.
Like you have to fuel before youhave to fuel after if the run is
going of higher intensity orover an hour, you should
probably be fueling during.
(39:38):
And that could also be liquid.
Like you can get to a pointwhere you're taking another
things, but if you're like, Ooh,I've got like a light stomach on
that one, liquid calories aregoing to be, it'll probably be
your easiest way to get thecalories in.
Angie (39:50):
Yeah.
Okay, we just threw a lot ofstuff at you guys, and I'm
hungry
Kevin (39:54):
now.
Angie (39:56):
And I want you to understand, too, we, we know
this, and sometimes we even makethese Mistakes as well like we
just talked about with Kevinlike Kevin has not been doing a
great job Managing stress andthat's leading to a breakdown of
his immune system.
He's granted.
He's a high school teacher he'saround a lot of germs and At the
same time his immune system islike doing its best But it's
(40:20):
lacking here right because ofhow frequently he's been Sick.
I also want to let you know, metoo, I, cause I, I want you to
know that we don't always get itright and we're not just sitting
here on our high horse spoutingoff what we do perfectly and,
what you, everyone else shouldbe doing and following our lead.
Absolutely not.
I realized because I was feelingmore tired, I was feeling more
(40:41):
sore, as well.
And so I started tracking mycalories, tracking my intake and
I realized I was not eatingenough food period.
And then also specifically noteating enough carbohydrates.
And so I've been making a pointto eat more carbs and more
calories over the last two weeksand I feel so much better.
Like already just in a couple ofweeks I'm less sore, I'm
(41:03):
recovering better after myworkouts.
I, Just feeling all over better,and I even lost a couple pounds,
which was fun.
Kevin (41:09):
That's a fantastic win.
that's an extra add on.
Now that we've done thisstrenuous podcast I feel like I
need to get some post podcastfuel myself.
Angie (41:15):
I need water I like forgot to grab a water over
here, and so my mouth is verydry right now, so I apologize if
you guys felt like that was likea fire hose that just got opened
on you and we just threw out alot of stuff, but we really
wanted to pack this episode witha lot of really good information
for you so that you can start tosee some of these things and
(41:36):
understand that it is not justabout your age.
You are not feeling slower justbecause you're getting older.
There's a lot of training thingsand lifestyle choices that you
may be making that could beleading to.
These things.
And that is great news.
This is not to point the fingeror tell you that it's your
fault.
(41:56):
This is fantastic news becausethese are things that you can
change and you can experimentwith and you can control and so
that you can start actuallyfeeling better.
And if you want more details, ifyou want.
Some coaching.
If you want me to help youfigure out how this applies to
you, come to my live workshopover at realliferunners.
com forward slash strong.
(42:16):
I would love for you to join meon one of my live classes.
I love interacting with peoplelive.
That's another reason why I dothis.
I get to talk to people all overthe world.
every week, which is super fun.
and then also if you want more,coaching and support, and we
have live weekly coaching callsinside of our membership inside
the program, keep your eye out,get it, get on that priority
(42:37):
list for running reconnectedbecause that's going to be
relaunching.
Later this week or next week andlike again, there's going to be
some special bonuses attached tothat as we relaunch the program.
check that out, realliferunners.
com forward slash priority ifyou want to get on the list for
that, or forward slash strong,if you want to join my free
class and with that, if youfound this episode helpful,
(42:59):
Thank you Please leave us areview, share it with a friend
that you think could benefitfrom it as well.
I know that people that aremaking these mistakes.
So do them a favor and hit theshare button and send this
episode to them so that they canhear what's going on and why
they're feeling this way, right?
Because it stinks when you feellike you're not getting better
(43:19):
and you're getting slower andyour progress is slowing down
and you feel like there'snothing you can do about it.
That is a terrible pain.
thing to feel.
So help your friends out, sharethis episode, and let them know,
what's going on in their bodiesso they can start feeling
better.
Kevin (43:33):
Yeah, that's excellent one.
There should be a way to sendthis thing out like anonymously
share Podcasts to people thatyou're like, oh that person
needs it Yeah, because I feellike some people are they don't
want to tell their friend thatthey're doing it wrong part of
but it's super helpful.
if yeah, they're doing somethingwrong just Send them out and be
like, Hey, this guy makes sillyjokes in the podcast.
You might find that funny, butin reality, you just want them
(43:54):
listening to Angie because she'sspouting just wisdom over here.
Angie (43:57):
Or you can screenshot and share it on social media.
That's a way to get it outthere.
Like you're not guaranteed thatpeople, certain people will see
it, but yeah, but you can makeanother excuse of why this
podcast, is a good idea forpeople to listen to, haha, it's
this running couple and wow,this guy had such a crazy story
and.
All these fun things.
So anyway, as always guys,thanks for joining us.
(44:19):
I hope to see you guys on one ofmy live classes or inside of
running reconnected, because Iwould love to help you to feel
stronger, to get faster and toachieve your running goals with
more joy in your life.
this has been the real liferunners podcast episode number
402.
Now get out there and run yourlife.
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