March 27, 2025 • 44 mins
Join Running Reconnected Today!
In this episode of The Real Life Runners Podcast, we’re diving into a topic that so many runners can relate to—using running as a stress relief tool, but sometimes this backfires. We’ll talk about the common mistakes runners make that can actually increase stress levels rather than relieve them. The key? Learning to reconnect with your body and adjust training to support—not strain—your system.
We’ll share the power of disconnecting from external pressures (including those ever-present phones!) and how tuning into your body can help you run stronger and feel better.
We’ll also dive into the connection between running and the nervous system, the impact of stress on training, and why this matters especially for women navigating perimenopause and menopause. Plus, we’re excited to introduce Running Reconnected—our program designed for runners over 40 who want to feel strong, capable, and energized by working with their bodies instead of against them. Stick around for a special offer to join us!
Join Running Reconnected Today for 40% off until March 31st!
00:54 Exciting News: Real Life Runners Retreat
02:31 The Importance of Disconnecting to Reconnect
07:16 Understanding Stress and the Nervous System
19:27 Men's Experience with Stress and Running
21:25 The Power of Disconnecting from Technology
23:46 The Phone Distraction Epidemic
24:01 The Importance of Silence and Stillness
24:33 Recognizing and Preventing Running Injuries
26:12 The Balance Between Disconnection and Connection
34:24 Listening to Your Body vs. Technology
36:38 Adapting Training to Life's Stresses
40:51 Introducing Running Reconnected Program
41:52 Special Offer
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
So if you're like a lot ofrunners, you may use running as
(00:03):
a way for you to handle orrelieve stress, but also if
you're like a lot of runners,the way that you're running and
the way that you're trainingcould actually be adding more
stress to your life instead oftaking it away.
So today we're gonna be talkingabout some of the mistakes that
runners make when trying to userunning as stress relief or as a
mental health tool.
(00:24):
What you can do to make surethat running is actually helping
you with your stress levelsinstead of just adding more.
So stay tuned.
(00:54):
What's up runners?
Welcome to the show today.
If you are listening to this onthe weekend that it's released,
which is March 27th through the30th, I we are both in St.
Augustine, Florida on our veryfirst real life runners retreat
and I am so excited about this.
We're obviously recording thisbefore the retreat, but when
this episode comes out, we willbe on the retreat.
(01:16):
I'm so excited.
Yeah.
Partying it up.
Spring break 2025.
Spring break, 2025.
There you go.
So a retreat has been somethingthat has been on my heart for
years and years, and I am soexcited that this is finally a
reality and we are having.
Women come in from all over, notonly just the United States, but
(01:38):
actually travelinginternationally for this
retreat, which blows my mind andI'm so excited to get together
with these amazing women thisweekend.
Yeah.
I'm really looking forward tothis one.
But you especially, I am veryexcited for the retreat, but I'm
very excited to watch theretreat come into existence that
you have been wanting for years.
I know, and like part of me islike a little nervous because I
(02:00):
have been.
Thinking about this for such along time, I want it to be
amazing and wonderful, and Iknow that it will be I really,
truly do know that.
I just wanna also make sure thatit meets my expectations and
everyone else's expectations,like they're taking time away
from life.
investing in themselves to comedown to this retreat.
And I wanna make sure that it'sa wonderful experience.
(02:23):
It's like Christmas vacationwhere you bring build up big
events in your head, like everyanniversary and holiday and
birthday.
I don't know what you're talkingabout.
Exactly.
So today we are going to betalking about.
The bonus and the benefit ofdisconnecting because that's
what we're gonna be doing overthe course of the retreat.
But it's more than justdisconnecting.
(02:43):
It's disconnecting to reconnectbecause sometimes the best way
for us to truly reconnect toourselves, to our bodies is to
first disconnect.
And we talked about howdisconnection is something that.
So many runners and so manyhumans are having an issue with
nowadays.
And I think that this is one ofthe underlying things, or really
(03:04):
one of the core underlyingthings that is leading to so
many running injuries and somany problems in a lot of
runners, is that they'redisconnected from themselves and
especially we as women.
In perimenopause and menopause,we feel even more disconnected
because all of a sudden ourbodies are going through all of
these changes that makes us feeldisconnected from the body that
(03:27):
we once knew.
Our body's not responding in theway that it used to.
We're not like training doesn'tfeel the same, running doesn't
feel the same.
What the heck is going on withthis body?
We feel very disconnected, andthat's really why.
We named our new signatureprogram Running Reconnected
because the whole point is tohelp you reconnect to your body,
to yourself, to this next phaseof your life and decide who you
(03:49):
want to be as a runner movingforward in your life.
And that really connects to theretreat and what we're gonna be
doing.
Over the next few days here,because sometimes, while I
believe that disconnection is amajor problem, sometimes we need
to disconnect from certainthings in order to reconnect
(04:09):
from our body, and that's reallywhat the retreat is allowing us
to do this week, which isdisconnecting from.
Kind of the outside world fromsocial expectations and social
media and to-do lists and all ofthese things, which can be very
powerful to help us to regulateour nervous systems and
reconnect to our body versusdisconnecting from yourself,
which can be very dangerous.
(04:30):
And I think there's twodifferent ways that we can use
disconnection.
And that's really what we'regonna start to explore more in
this episode.
I think this is fantastic.
It goes back to back in college,one of your college jobs of
working tech support for thecampus where, what is best job
ever, but what is directionnumber one, anytime somebody
calls up and says their computeris not working correctly, what
is the first piece of advicethat you give them?
(04:51):
Restart your computer.
Restart the computer because youprobably have, and it fixed.
The majority of issues becauseyou have a million programs
running in the background thatyou don't actually need to have
running.
Yeah.
And we all do this.
We have so many things onlinethat are constantly bouncing
around in our heads.
They're like, programs runningthe background of your computer.
You're like, why is the computergoing so slow?
(05:13):
And it's oh.
Because there's literally.
55 tasks running that thecomputer's doing that you aren't
even aware.
Same thing happens inside of ourheads.
We've got all of these thingsgoing where there's a million
things bouncing around inside ofour head.
If you just take time todisconnect and bring back on the
ones that you would.
Actually to be on the ones thatyou are consciously being like,
(05:34):
yes, this is the system I needback online.
This is a system I need backonline and I don't need that
system back online right now.
Being able to disconnect allowsyou to actually have a solid
connection where youintentionally want to bring it
100%.
I think you said that reallywell and.
I think that we, if you ever hadthis experience where you've
(05:56):
gone to a retreat or spent timein prayer or in silence, you
know that is what can happen.
But I think that there's a lotof runners that are unknowingly
doing the second type ofdisconnection, which is
disconnecting from yourself andfrom your body, and then using
running as a way to try to findthemselves again as a way.
(06:16):
To try to relieve that stressthat we're feeling, but we're
trying to disconnect and sothere's, it's not really working
right.
And there's a lot of women outthere, a lot of runners out
there that say, running is mytherapy and running is a part of
my stress relief because it is atime for a lot of people that
you're actually out there byyourself and it's up to you,
(06:37):
depending on if you are a runnerthat runs with no, nothing in
your ears.
There's a lot of people that.
Listen to us out on their runs,which we appreciate you all
listening to us, but if youhaven't run recently without
anything in your ears, I wouldencourage you to try it and just
see what it's like because that.
(06:57):
Allows a lot of people toactually have some space to
think and just to be in theirbody.
But even for those people thatdo that, that can even start to
get very nervous or very noisyif your nervous system is fried.
And that's what's happening toso many people and so many
runners.
And so we really wanna talkabout.
What stress does to our nervoussystem, because this is a very
(07:20):
underlying thing that we need toaddress.
If you are someone that wants torun to improve your mental
health, which I am reallyloving, like when I'm doing like
my challenges and my freeclasses and I ask people why
they run, I.
I was expecting a lot of peopleto say to get healthy, to get in
better shape, to lose weight,those kinds of things.
But recently, over the last fewmonths, I would say, I'm
(07:42):
noticing a lot more people thatgot into running for the mental
health benefits, which isfantastic.
And I wanna make sure thatyou're actually able to gain
those mental health benefits bytraining in a way that's
supporting your nervous systemand actually allowing you to
have those times of calm and ofpeace and of clarity.
Un.
In instead of just running sohard and putting your nervous
(08:06):
system on overload.
'cause we've talked about thisfor so often that stress on the
body is stress.
That your body doesn't reallyknow a major difference between
the physical stresses, themental stresses you're putting
onto it, mental stresses you'reputting on top of physical
stresses.
You essentially have a stressbucket and all of the different
things that show up in yourlife, whether it's issues at.
(08:27):
Work.
You've got relationships, you'vegot under fueling poor sleep and
running on top of this.
This is all going into the samebucket, not to mention hormone
shifts that I'm sure you'regoing to bring up here in a
second.
You've got all of thesedifferent things that are life
stressors that are all goinginto the same bucket.
And then if you're like, oh, Irun to help alleviate some of
the stress okay, that's a greattheory, but if you're running
(08:49):
and pushing yourself reallyhard, that's a.
Physical stress, and that stressonly has one space to go.
That's your stress bucket.
So if you're going out andrunning and pushing yourself
constantly, there are times thatcan relieve some mental stress.
But it's not purely relievingthe stress.
It is bringing some of its owncomponent.
It is bringing some of its ownstresses to the situation.
(09:09):
Which one of the podcasts I loveto listen to, he has a go-to
saying that is running isrunning.
Therapy is therapy.
And while running can betherapeutic, some people need
actual therapy, which is a veryimportant D distinction to make
here.
Like running can be stressrelieving, but running is not
therapy 100%.
(09:30):
And I think that it, like yousaid, it can be very
therapeutic.
It can be used as a wonderfultool to help support your mental
health.
But if you are already superstressed out and you're going
out and pushing yourself hard.
A lot of runners do.
And when I say hard, I thinkpeople sometimes mis
misinterpret that.
We like to gauge our runninghere on an effort level, scale
(09:52):
of one to 10.
So asking yourself on a scale ofone to 10, how hard did that run
feel?
And one means really easy, and10 is super duper hard, and.
If you are going out, mostrunners tend to head out on
their runs and they're somewherebetween a five and an eight on
the majority of their runs, andthat is too much for your
(10:14):
nervous system.
That is too much for your bodyto be doing on an everyday basis
because when you are doing that,you are just accumulating stress
on the body.
You are creating a more of aphysical stress on the body and
Kevin said.
You have one stress bucket, andso all stress has an effect on
you.
Whereas if you're going out andyou're running at an easy effort
level, then you really can gainmore of the benefits of stress
(10:38):
relief.
And yes, while it does feelreally good sometimes to go out
and run really hard, becausesometimes it is really good to
just burn off right some energy,that can be very helpful.
But if you're doing that dayafter day, you're really just.
Wiping yourself out and puttingmore stress in your bucket
instead of actually relievingit.
But then you've got the counter.
(10:58):
What if you go out there and youare in fact going at an easy
pace, but the entire time you'regoing at what is an actual
appropriate, easy pace, you'rethinking to yourself, this isn't
good.
I'm running too slow.
This is not worthwhile.
Now you're adding to the mentalstress.
Yeah.
Instead of actually using thisnice, easy.
Very good for you.
Very good for your mental andphysical health run.
(11:19):
As a stress reliever, you'vedecided to dump like judgment on
top of that and be like, ah,it's an easy run, but I'm not
really getting any benefit outof it and I should be going
faster.
Yeah.
And last week we talked aboutrunning and age.
And you know what, if it's notyour age, like a lot of people
think that the issue with thetraining is your pace, your
training plan or your age, butwhat if the real issue is not
(11:43):
any of those things, but justthat your.
Body is too overwhelmed to adaptto the training that you're
trying to do because that's areally big thing that we see
here.
It's not like when we placestress on the body, right?
Stress is a good thing.
Physical stress is a good thing.
If we want to become betterrunners, we need to run harder,
we need to increase mileage, weneed to strength train.
(12:06):
These are all things that arenecessary for us to become
stronger runners, however.
If we're just placing stressafter stress on the body, we're
just accumulating stress andwe're not actually allowing the
body time to adapt.
And this is really where thenervous system comes more into
play.
And I know that, there's, it'sbecoming a little bit of a
(12:26):
buzzword out there.
I still think it's somethingthat we are not talking about
enough, especially in therunning world because.
This is what controls everythingthat happens in our body.
It's what controls our body'sability to adapt to the stresses
that we place on it.
So there are two main statesthat your nervous system can get
into, your sympathetic state andyour parasympathetic state.
(12:49):
So sympathetic is your fight orflight response.
It is the one that increasesyour heart rate, increases your
breathing weight.
Rate it is the one it's yourstress mode, right?
So your cortisol levels arehigher when you are in the
sympathetic state.
That is what kind of primes yourbody for stress and to how to
deal with stress.
Whereas your parasympatheticstate is your rest and recovery
(13:12):
mode.
That's when your body canactually adapt and recover from
the stress that you place on it.
And the problem now is that somany people are spending.
A majority of their time in asympathetic state, and that's
from training, that's from theworld around you.
That's from all the stuff that'sgoing on in your life.
Because again, one stressbucket, stress is stress.
(13:34):
We are spending so much time inthis sympathetic state and we
are not.
Allowing our body to get intothat more parasympathetic state
where we can actually adapt tothe training and to the stress
so that our body can actuallyget stronger than it was before.
Yeah, you point out thatsometimes your body is literally
just too overwhelmed to actuallyadapt to what you just did.
If you just went out and did ahard lift session a designed
(13:57):
hard workout run, and then youfinish it up.
By taking a selfie and postingit onto social media, and then
right after you post it, youstart scrolling through social
media that is not putting youinto the recovery mode.
That's not allowing you to thenadapt and join these things
because scrolling through socialmedia is definitely a way to
move into flight or flight.
(14:18):
It can be.
It is for a lot of people, it isfor a lot of people.
I think it depends on what's onyour feed, right?
And that kind of gets into areyou being choosy with what
you're exposing yourself to?
Because I do think thatscrolling on social media can be
a way for some people to go intochill mode.
Not everybody.
It depends on what you'relooking at.
It depends on how well you've.
(14:39):
Structured your feed.
Yeah.
But if you post somethingyourself, if you have the
response about, Ooh, I postedthat.
I wonder if anybody's gonna putlikes onto it.
This is my issue with Strava.
Yeah, that's a, is peopleposting things to Strava and
then waiting around, hoping thatthey get kudos off of this thing
is.
That's not helping you actuallyreap the benefits of any of
those things.
Yeah.
If you finish a run and then goout of your way to put yourself
(15:02):
into a more stressful situation.
That's a poor setup.
Yeah.
Like it really, you're not goingto gain the benefits, certainly
not maximize the benefits fromwhatever the workout is that you
just did.
Yeah, I agree.
And I think that.
I've noticed for sure thatscrolling can definitely make me
feel stressed.
There's sometimes that I can useit to, to disconnect and
whatnot.
But I do feel and part of italso is the stress that I'm
(15:24):
adding on top of me scrolling onsocial media, like that idea and
that thought of, I shouldn't bedoing this right now.
Like I shouldn't be.
Wasting my time doing this.
I should be doing somethingelse.
I need to be, I need to shutthis down.
It's meta stress, right?
And so it's the stress on top ofthe stress, right?
So I think that's a really bigpart of it as well.
But going back to this idea of.
(15:45):
Nervous system dysregulation.
Some common symptoms that wesee, and this is like a
checklist that maybe you can gothrough mentally to see, okay,
am I suffering from some sort ofdysregulation here?
So one of the biggest thingsthat we see is fatigue.
Okay?
Especially fatigue.
That lingers, even though you'regetting quote unquote enough.
Sleep.
(16:05):
There's a lot of women that Italk to that say, oh, I don't
understand it.
Like I'm getting eight hours ofsleep, but I still wake up
exhausted.
Or I'm going out and I just feeltired on all of my runs.
Not just some of the runs, butall of my runs.
I'm feeling more tired.
You notice that you are maybe inbed for eight hours, but you're
not actually sleeping that wholetime.
So you're waking up during thenight, especially in that two to
(16:27):
3:00 AM window.
That seems to be a very commontime, or I should say two to
4:00 AM.
For a lot of women inperimenopause and menopause, we
tend to wake up around thattime.
If you're noticing recurringinjuries or new aches and pains
that just don't seem to go awayincreased levels of.
Soreness before I should sayafter your runs, but that kind
of linger throughout the week.
(16:48):
Your body's just always sore andachy.
If you're noticing increased gutissues and mood swings and brain
fog and some of those, this iswhere it gets tricky because
these are all symptoms ofperimenopause and they're also
symptoms of a dysregulatednervous system and.
Those two things are for sureconnected, right?
It's not like it's one or theother.
It's oftentimes thatperimenopause and the changes of
(17:10):
our hormones lead to anincreased nervous system
dysregulation because of theeffect that estrogen has on our
cortisol levels, becausecortisol is that stress hormone
and estrogen helps to keep.
Cortisol levels more in check.
So as we lose estrogen duringperimenopause, those cortisol
levels stay elevated and lead toour bodies being more in this
(17:33):
chronic state of stress.
So one way that I like to thinkabout this is driving with one
foot on the gas while you havethe emergency break on, like it
just doesn't work.
Like you're trying to do more,you're trying to go faster,
you're trying to do speed workand do strength training and do
all the things that you hear ustalk about here on the podcast.
(17:54):
But if your nervous system isstuck in stress mode, if it's
overloaded with stress, that'sbasically like your foot being
on the brake or having theemergency brake on, you're just
not gonna get very far no matterhow hard, like how much gas gas
you press, like how hard youpress on the gas pedal.
You're not getting very far andyour fuel economy is terrible,
which is why you feel exhaustedall the time.
(18:16):
And it also connects to, youhave to make sure you're fueling
yourself.
Yeah, one, take your foot offthe brake would be super, super
helpful, but under fueling ismassively connected to this
feeling of being tired all thetime and trying to regulate that
in the middle of perimenopauseis also a challenge of making
sure that you're fuelingappropriately because you're not
sure exactly what's going onwith.
(18:38):
Like hunger cues for one.
But you're getting this messageof, oh, should maybe I don't
need to be eating quite as muchduring this.
I if you're putting on weight,you're like I wanna pull back on
calories.
But under fueling the exercisethat you're doing is taking away
from the ability to actuallyadapt to that exercise itself.
Yeah.
That is definitely pushing onthe break.
So you have to be providing thefuel also.
(18:59):
So it's not about doing less,it's not about, taking your
training down a notch.
It might be, that could be apiece of it, but it's about
really understanding what yourbody needs right now and
understanding how your nervoussystem plays a really big role
in this.
And obviously we just talked alot about perimenopause, which
applies to all of our womenlisteners.
And this also applies to you ifyou are after menopause as well,
(19:21):
because after menopause, yourbody is done producing estrogen.
So we still have some of thesesame issues.
But Kevin, I would love for youto speak a little bit on the
men's experience because you area man in your mid forties and
you obviously aren't dealingwith the loss of hormones like I
am and like other people are inour.
Community, but like itdefinitely still affects men.
(19:43):
And you def definitely stillhave a lot of stress on your
plate right now.
Like how do you notice thataffecting you and other males in
this?
Age, there's, or time of life Ishould say.
There's still the idea that, youpointed out last week you took
my argument completely apart andsaid that my testosterone level
is not drastically reducing, butit is lower than it was when I
(20:03):
was in my mid twenties.
Yes.
That is a clear argument that itis lower and a lower level of
testosterone is then going toaffect metabolism.
Men, especially men in theirforties, are gonna start on.
Start putting on more weight.
And so depending on what kind ofa running background you've got,
you might go to one of there area lot of guys who ran
competitively through highschool and college that may have
(20:25):
never had an eating disorder,but definitely had some
disordered eating.
They have some issues aroundfood and if they're not looking
the same way that they were intheir thirties, they're like
maybe if I just.
Eat a little bit less or maybeif I just ramp my training up.
And both of those are notnecessarily gonna be your
appropriate option.
Yeah.
Because one, if you're notfueling the work, you're just
gonna be exhausted all the time.
(20:46):
I would think that, sorry tointerrupt you, but like you
said, eating less or ramping uptraining, I feel like men.
Tend to default to the secondone, like just ramp up training
some more?
Yes.
What would you say?
Yes, but that's becausedisordered eating is, I think,
generally more prevalent infemale population, but it is, it
certainly exists in the malepopulation, especially if you
(21:07):
are a competitive distancerunner throughout high school
and college.
It is.
It's in that population morethan it is across like your
average male population.
Yeah.
And I mean you cannot stopfueling yourself.
It's just that is a hundredpercent foot on the gas and foot
real hard on the brake.
It's just not gonna work.
Yeah.
So one thing that both men andwomen can do to help with
(21:29):
nervous system regulation isthis idea of.
Disconnecting, but disconnectingin a way that is supportive of
your nervous system, notdisconnecting from your body,
not disconnecting from yourneeds and your effort level and
what your body's trying to tellyou, which is that negative kind
of disconnection that we weretalking about, but really
disconnecting from.
The hustle and bustle, thestress and choosing to take some
(21:52):
time to sit in stillness andsilence, in order to reconnect
to yourself and to a higherpower and to the world around
you in a different way.
And I think that this is sointeresting because we are just,
our lives are so filled withtechnology now, which can be so
helpful.
It is like the ways thattechnology has improved our
(22:14):
lives.
We can list, that list goes onfor a very long time.
But it also has gotten to thepoint where.
There's a device in your handalmost at all times, right?
How many people actually sit insilence and just take time to
sit and do nothing?
I know that for me, that issomething that's very difficult
to do.
Like it's something that I'vebeen literally working on, like
(22:36):
literally working on not havingmy phone, taking 10 minutes a
day to just sit in silence andnot do anything.
Not.
Be, productive, per se.
And it's it's getting better.
And I do notice that this isdefinitely improving a lot of
different things.
And I think that's one of thereasons why this retreat became
(22:57):
such an important thing for meto do, is to really allow.
Women to have this space todisconnect from the world in
order to reconnect tothemselves.
The times that people choose tojust live inside of their own
heads when a phone is so easilyavailable to, to provide them
distraction from any sort ofthoughts inside their own head.
(23:17):
People used to stand in line ata grocery store.
People used to stand in line atplaces, and all they could do
was stand in line.
Yeah.
Or talk to the person next toyou.
I'm really curious, this is offtopic, but like how much are
like those impulse purchasesright at the checkout line?
How much did those disappearover the last five to 10 years?
Yeah.
As people are staring at theirphone instead of being like that
(23:39):
piece of candy and that magazineand that pack of gum and those
mints.
Yes.
I actually really need all ofthose things.
Yeah.
People aren't even looking up.
They're staring at their phone.
Like the number of times I'vegone to the grocery store.
And watch the person not realizethat the person checked them
out, asked, how are you doing?
Because they're too busy staringat their phone.
Yeah.
Like I'm curious.
Someone should run a, run thenumbers on that thing.
Yeah, that is a very interestingthing, but.
(24:01):
Silence and stillness and takingthe time away from the stress is
so important that, and I thinkthat this is one of the big
components to why so manyrunners do get injured.
And granted, runners have alwaysbeen getting injured, right?
So you can't just say oh yeah,it's the phones that are, that's
leading to more of this.
(24:22):
Just like you can't say it's thephones that are.
Leading to all of these things.
It's a combination of a lot ofdifferent things.
But if you're staring at yourphone and you trip over a rock,
that is the phone's fault.
That would be the phone's fault,but.
Oftentimes, it's one of thosesituations where if you don't
slow down, if you don't listento your body, now, it's going to
force it on you later.
It starts with a feather andthen it's a pebble, and then
(24:44):
it's a rock, and then it's aboulder.
Unless you keep, actually stopand take time to listen.
And that's what happens to a lotof runners is, you don't
usually, unless you, trip over arock and fall on your face.
You don't usually get a hugeinjury just out of the blue like
that.
It's something that startsreally small.
It starts with a little niggle,like you start to notice a
little ache or a little pain andit, then it goes away, and then
(25:07):
it comes back and it lasts alittle bit longer.
It's usually.
Running injuries are repetitiveuse injuries, which means they
don't just pop up out ofnowhere.
They develop over time.
And if we don't start to payattention, if we don't reconnect
to what our body's trying totell us, because pain is a
signal from your body thatsomething is off.
And so if we don't listen and wejust try to ignore it and
(25:30):
disconnect from it, it's goingto eventually be forced upon us.
So it's injury, it's illness,it's burnout, it's.
Seizures, which is obviously avery extreme form of it.
I got pointed, but which onewould you rather choose, right?
Would you rather choose toactually connect to your body,
take some time to disconnectfrom the world and connect to
(25:51):
your body, or have an injuryforce on you or an illness or
something that's forcing you totake time off and not do the
thing that you wanna do.
Alright, so now I'm gonna dolike the thing you like the
least is ask you somethingthat's not on the the outline
here.
I don't mind it at all.
I just let's go, because thisone's pure opinion.
I'm not asking you to cite astudy from your memory here.
Yeah.
Okay.
(26:12):
Runners, especially when they'rein a race.
One of the things that allowsrunners to excel is to actually
disconnect.
Yeah.
From the pain signals of theirbody.
The pain is your legs arescreaming at you.
You've been at mile two of a 5Kbefore and you're racing it, you
legs are screaming.
I cannot continue to run.
Yeah.
And you have to send the messageback down to you are going the
(26:34):
appropriate pace.
We're not slowing down and we'regonna finish with a kick.
Yeah.
Is the whole idea that you haveto pick and choose when to tune
into your body and when tomentally overcome it.
There are times when you canlisten to the signals coming
from your body and be like, allright, I should slow down today.
But there are other times whereyou get to mentally flex your
mental muscle and say, actually,I get to be in charge of what
(26:56):
the voices are saying right now.
Yes, what exactly is yourquestion?
You're saying that part of theissue of running is helping us
disconnect from our body.
But I think that very high it'sany sort of competitive running.
You have to somewhat disconnectfrom your body.
Yeah.
So the question is, which isracing?
Bad for your health?
Not at all.
I think that the problem is notdisconnection because
(27:19):
disconnection can be helpful attimes, and I think the scenario
that you just described is aperfect time.
That disconnection can be a verypositive thing and can be very
helpful.
Because we know as runners, ourbody's always going to be
yelling at us in some way,right?
It's going to be telling us toslow down.
You're going too fast, or I'mnot gonna be able to keep
(27:39):
running because I'm reallytired, and you're just gonna
have to keep pushing through.
If you're in a marathon, thegoal is to cross the finish
line.
You do not wanna stop and justwalk off the course at mile 18
because you're feeling tired.
Yes, you do.
You really do.
Actually, you do want.
But you're not the goal is notto do that, right?
The goal is to get yourself overthe finish line.
And so I do think that it isvery helpful at times to be able
(28:02):
to do that.
The problem is how often that,that is happening and that so
many people are doing that on adaily basis with every single
run or every single workout, ormaybe not even every single one,
but.
50%, 60%, 80% of the timethey're disconnecting from what
their body's trying to tellthem.
So I think that it can be veryhelpful to disconnect in short
(28:25):
spurts and in specificcircumstances.
But overall, we need to be veryconnected to our body to
understand what is going onglobally with our body.
You could argue this reallyconnects to that whole 80 20
principle, is you don't need todisconnect from your body on
every single run.
You probably should.
Tune into your body on most ofthe runs and make sure that
(28:45):
you're going if you're runningby effort and you're supposed to
be going off on an easy effortday Yeah.
And you immediately throw onmusic or a super entertaining
podcast and you are finding itdifficult to tune into your
body, then that might not besuper beneficial from you.
You might, from time to timeneed to actually check into your
body, but if you.
(29:06):
Never check in with your body.
It's gonna be difficult to racealso.
Because at some point your legsare gonna be screaming,
whatever's gonna be hurting atyou, and you need to have the
mental tools that you can tryand actually handle the
situation.
But I think that we.
I, it's like we've overtrainedthe idea of gridding through the
workout so that we can go hardthrough the race and you just,
(29:28):
you don't need to build it.
Every time you're out running,you need to sprinkle in some
workouts where you're like,alright, no music, no anything.
Let's just see how I canmentally get myself through this
workout.
But for the most part.
I think we've gone done a prettygood job recently of this
workout needs to be a moderateeffort.
I'm not going so deep into theI'm not, carving into the pain
(29:49):
cave.
I just, I want a run that'smoderately difficult and finding
that effort level sometimescomes with I.
Putting some music or a podcaston and just finding a flow
state.
Yeah, I think that, again,that's very beneficial.
A lot of times, like I run withpodcasts all the time, and then
there are some days that I don'tlike, and there's other people
that don't like running insilence, and that's totally fine
(30:12):
too.
I just think that we need to bespending some time in silence.
It doesn't necessarily have tobe on a run.
I personally like to do it.
More on a walk than on a run on,on my runs, I'll usually run
with friends, and so we'll betalking and just chit,
chit-chatting and whatnot.
Or I have a podcast andsometimes I do runs without
anything, but that's pretty rarefor me.
(30:32):
But I do spend time outside ofrunning then silence.
So I'll walk without myheadphones on or I'll just sit,
like I said, I've been trying tospend 10 minutes a day in
silence where I'm not.
Listening to anything or tryingto consciously think about
anything specific, like I justallow myself to just be, and a
lot of it's been like sittingoutside on the patio and
(30:54):
enjoying the weather and justnoticing the sounds and the
breeze and the sights of mybackyard and the birds and those
kinds of things.
It's just practicing being inthe moment and noticing what's
going on.
And I think that we can do thatin lots of different ways.
So you don't have to do this ona run, but that is a good tool
that you can use now and then.
(31:14):
You like really using the runfor more of a meditative type of
experience, don't you?
It de it depends on what I'mgoing for.
Because now that most of mydriving takes place with our
daughter in the car, like to andfrom school.
I don't I can't listen to thepodcast that I like to listen to
with her in the car.
She would hate it.
Like it's not that it'sinappropriate, it would just
drive her nuts.
So that is really coming throughalmost entirely listening to
(31:38):
that podcast through running.
And so I've been listening to iton most of my runs.
But then I'll shut it off andI'll do strides and drills in
silence.
Because I have.
For a long time, I never likedto listen to anything on my
runs.
I really enjoyed the quietpeacefulness of going out for a
run.
Yeah.
And then when we started havingreally little kids, that was
when I started listening tomusic more on my run.
(31:59):
Now I can go either way.
If I feel like I'm behind andI'm really interested in the
podcast, I'll listen to apodcast.
Otherwise, I do enjoy going outwith.
Just with nothing, just headingout, especially like on a dark
morning.
Oh, it's really nice.
That's also male privilege, butI do enjoy going out in the dark
of a run with no headphones andjust going off and running for,
(32:19):
I don't know, 45 hour, somethinglike that.
Yeah, I'm glad that you.
Acknowledge the male privilegethat is inherent with that
statement.
Which, but I also think it'simportant for us, if we are
running in the dark to not haveheadphones, that is a very
important thing for safetyreasons, more especially for
women.
Yeah.
I mean that, that's front ofmind.
I've just been helping peoplewith training planes that are
(32:40):
new to our Yeah.
Our group also.
And they're like, I and I can'trun in the morning.
Or late in the evening.
It's just too dark.
And that's a real thing that wewomen have to really be aware
of.
What does this look like when itcomes to running?
Because we want you to be ableto use running as a way to help
with your stress levels and notjust one more stress in your
bucket.
Something that's just continuingto wear you down.
(33:02):
So what does that look like?
Number one, ask yourself.
I think it's just about startingto reconnect and starting to
check in with yourself more ifyou're not doing this already.
So before a run, you can askyourself like, what am I feeling
right now?
How is my body feeling?
Do a body scan.
Notice if there's any aches andpains, if there's any soreness
or stiffness that you've gotgoing on, definitely make sure
(33:24):
you're doing that dynamicmobility warmup before your runs
and then check in again withyourself.
After that mobility and see,okay, how am I feeling now?
Because for a lot of runners,once you do that dynamic
mobility, your body's feeling alot better and it's a lot more
primed for the run, but takestock on what is your energy
level?
How are you feeling?
What's going on?
And then do the same check-inafter your run.
(33:46):
When you're done with the run,do I feel better or worse?
Do I feel more tired?
Do I actually have more energy?
Do I feel about the same?
It's normal for you to obviouslyfeel tired if you go out and run
five miles or three miles or 10miles or whatever it is to feel
a little bit tired, but.
You shouldn't be completelyexhausted and completely drained
on a regular basis.
(34:07):
Yes.
If you're finishing every runwith the need to lay down on the
sidewalk, you're pushing toohard on all of your runs.
That is the sensation that ifyou need to lay down at the end
of your run, that's like a onceevery two, three, maybe even
four week difficulty level of aworkout.
It's a periodic check-in.
But it's also, it's a personalcheck-in.
One of the features of my watchthat I am still, and I've had
(34:30):
this for a while and I'm stillnot sure my thoughts on it, it
lets me know how my run isgoing.
So I don't know.
Is it your like performancecondition?
Yes.
Thank you.
My performance condition is whatit calls it, but it doesn't tell
it to me until I'm likesomewhere around five to seven
minutes into the run.
I love that.
It doesn't tell it to me 30seconds in.
Because the last thing I need isto have just started the run and
my watch to be like gonna be abad day.
(34:51):
Yeah.
Like we talked about this Yeah.
Last week on my watch gives me asleep score.
I like to wake up and startmoving around.
I don't check what my watchsays.
My sleep performance was thenight before until I'm like an
hour into the day.
And then I go through and I findthe numbers.
Interesting numbers to see ifyou can follow patterns, but I
don't let my watch dictate.
Did I sleep well or not?
I don't let my watch dictate.
(35:12):
Is the run gonna be good?
I like that it shows up fiveminutes in and then I'm like,
huh?
Minus two.
You are wrong.
Like my watch gave me a zero.
On the day that I run a hundredmiles back in January, I was
five minutes in and my watchbeeped at me and I joked with
the guy that I was running with.
I'm like, ha, my Garmin saysthat I'm at a zero in terms of
performance.
(35:33):
Looks like I'm not making it tothe finish line.
And we both thought it washysterical.
He goes, oh, I don't even wantto see what mine is today.
Yeah.
Because it's'cause it'sirrelevant what it is.
This is the task that I'm gonnago do today.
You know when it's, when we saycheck in with yourself, actually
check in with yourself.
Don't use technology to let youknow how you're feeling.
And I think that's another pieceof the disconnection that a lot
(35:53):
of runners are experiencing isthat they don't know how they
feel.
They don't know what a run issupposed to feel like or what
the goal of the run is.
They just do what the watchtells them, and they just do,
okay, my heart rate is this.
And so if I'm looking at mywatch constantly throughout my
run, and if my heart rate is toohigh, I have to slow down, and
if it's too low, I have to pushand they're letting this
(36:14):
external device.
Disconnect them from their ownbodily sensations and how they
feel.
And when you can reconnect toyour effort level, when you can
reconnect to how your body'sfeeling and learn how to adjust,
you are going to make so muchmore progress than just allowing
some sort of external devicethat isn't even that accurate to
(36:35):
dictate that for you.
And I think that this is really.
Connected to the idea of inadjusting your running intensity
based on the other stress inyour life.
And this is one of the thingsthat we talk to our runners
about every week and whenthey're curious on, okay, I've
got all these things going on,what should I do with my
training plan this week?
(36:56):
How do I.
Make sure that I'm getting allmy runs in.
Should I do two runs on one day?
Should I go hard?
Back to back what should I dohere?
And sometimes the answer is, youneed to let go of a run.
You don't need to get that in.
You need to miss a run becauseyour life is so stressful and
you've got travel and all theseother things going on.
Or sometimes the answer is okay,you've got a hard run on your
(37:18):
schedule.
But you're feeling just friedmentally because of all the
things that you've been dealingwith this week.
Instead of doing that hard run,make it an easy run instead,
like it is very important for usto learn ourselves and our
bodies and what works for us sothat we can adjust our training.
Based on what else is happeningin our lives because the
(37:40):
training in the right is not theonly thing.
It's an important thing for alot of us.
But if you do a really hardworkout on top of a nervous
system that's already fried,it's just going to push you
closer to.
Injury and burnout and illnessand all of those things that
none of us wanna experience.
And maybe that is too far of ajump for some people listening
(38:02):
right now of, I know I feelfried and so I should probably
go on an easy day, but it'ssupposed to be a workout.
There's no way, like people aregonna get a lot of judgment on
top of that if they keepskipping their workouts because
their life is so stacked.
Go on an easy run and put acouple of strides at the end of
it.
Take a minute or two between thestrides and be like, all right I
(38:23):
still touched some speed.
It's a bridge.
It's not, that's not a go-toresult for always of saying,
let's put some strides, butmaybe Yeah.
That allows you to take some ofthe mental stress off of saying,
I missed a workout.
Yeah.
You can put a little bit ofsomething.
That isn't a huge amount ofphysical stress on top of you.
Yeah, so I have two things thatcame to mind there.
Number one, if you areconstantly feeling this way and
(38:43):
if you're like, oh, if I justdid this, if I adjusted my real
life, or if I adjusted mytraining based on how stressed I
feel, then I would never do myspeed workouts.
That's a sign, right?
That's a sign that.
You're overdoing it in somerealm and I would not be
surprised if you also told methat you have some aches and
some pains and some chronicinjuries that you're dealing
with because those things arerelated.
(39:04):
And the second thing I would sayis, if you do need more of that
bridge.
Instead, if you are like, have areally hard time giving up a
workout for an easy run, giveyourself five minutes, right?
Go in, do an easy warmup, get goout and do a nice dynamic
mobility.
Get an easy warmup in, and thenmaybe start the workout for five
minutes, and then allow yourselfto pull the plug.
(39:27):
'cause sometimes at thebeginning of our runs, we don't
feel so great, but when weactually get into it, we are, we
actually feel better, right?
There are those times that youfeel really tired at the
beginning of the run, but thenafter one or two miles you're
like, okay, yeah now my body'son board.
We're going.
So get into the workout, see howit feels.
If you really feel like you'rejust.
(39:47):
Pushing it even harder than youshould be.
Then allow yourself to pull theplug on it and just switch over
to an easy run.
And then yes, maybe add in somestrides at the end.
Yeah, that's the thing is givingyourself some grace and
adjusting based off of your lifeintensity, because you've only
got that one spot where you'resticking all your stresses.
So if that bucket is super full.
Pouring a whole lot on top of itis just spilling water all over
(40:10):
the place.
Yeah.
I think that's how that metaphorworked.
There you go.
So again, what we want you totake away from this is that the
problem isn't you.
It's the way that we've beentaught to ignore our bodies and
to disconnect and to alsoglorify overdoing like this
constant need for busyness anddoing more because we don't need
to, especially as we get intothis next phase of our lives
(40:31):
after 40.
You don't need to just keeppushing through and ignoring
yourself.
You need to reconnect to yourbody.
You need to reconnect to whatyour body needs and the way that
your training needs to look inthis next phase of your life,
especially if you're a womanover 40 that's dealing with all
of the hormone changes andthings that are happening in
perimenopause and menopause, andthat's.
(40:51):
Exactly why I created RunningReconnected, which is the new
program that we have mentioned acouple times.
I think I mentioned it lastweek.
And then obviously I'm gonnatalk about it right now, but
running Reconnected is thatprogram to help you understand
how to reconnect with your body,to your mind, to your body, to
your nutrition, to your nervoussystem, because your nervous
system.
(41:12):
Is that hidden key that isdriving your performance, how
you feel, your energy levels andthe way that your body recovers.
And so if this episode resonatedwith you and you're like, oh my
gosh, I didn't realize howdysregulated I was, and you are
ready to feel your strongest,your most energized self, again,
(41:32):
I want you to know that runningafter 40 it.
It has to look different than itdid when you were in your
thirties, in your twenties, butit doesn't mean that you have to
slow down.
It doesn't mean that you have tosettle for just getting older
and getting slower and thingshurting.
That is not what you need toaccept, and that's exactly what
I teach you how to do inside ofRunning Reconnected.
(41:52):
And because we renamed and rerebranded the program and we
have this new focus on nervoussystem regulation, I am running
a special this week until theend of March, you can actually
get 40% off of the program.
Until March 31st, and I'm doingthis because I want to help more
women to feel their strongest,to feel their best, to know that
(42:13):
their best running days are notbehind them, but their best
running days are ahead of them.
You just have to understand howto work with your body and your
nervous system instead ofagainst your body.
Instead of constantly puttingyourself into stress mode, you
have to understand how to flipthe switch, how to get your body
and your nervous system moreregulated and train in a way
that supports your body that.
(42:34):
Builds strength that buildsmuscle and how to fuel your body
in a way that's going to helpyou feel amazing and energized
and strong.
So if you want to learn more,you can head over to real life
runners.com/reconnect and youcan get all of the information
about the program.
Over there on that page, if youhave any questions, send me an
email.
I'm happy to answer any of thequestions that you have to
(42:56):
figure out if this program isright for you.
You get 40% off of the programprice that gives you lifetime
access to the program, and alsothree months of coaching support
inside of our memberships.
So I, my goal is really to giveyou all of the tools and all of
the information and all of the.
Action steps that you need inorder to feel better in this
phase of life.
(43:17):
That's fantastic.
It's a great way to celebratespring break.
I remember celebrating SpringBreak 20 years ago.
I did not feel amazing.
At the end of Spring Break, Iphysically did not feel amazing.
My stress levels were possiblytoo high, physically, mentally,
all of them joining.
Running reconnected is certainlya way to have a much more
positive end of your springbreak.
Go for it.
There you go.
(43:37):
All right.
So head over to actually you caneven go to running
reconnected.com and that willget you to exactly where you
need to be and check out all theinformation for you over there.
And as always, if you thoughtthis episode was helpful, I
would be so appreciative if youleft us a review or shared this
with a friend so that we canhelp more people and more
runners like you to feel strong,have more energy and run their
(43:59):
life.
So as always, thanks for joiningus.
This has been The Real LifeRunners podcast, episode number
403.
Now, get out there and run yourlife.
So if you're like a lot ofrunners, you may use running as
(00:03):
a way for you to handle orrelieve stress, but also if
you're like a lot of runners,the way that you're running and
the way that you're trainingcould actually be adding more
stress to your life instead oftaking it away.
So today we're gonna be talkingabout some of the mistakes that
runners make when trying to userunning as stress relief or as a
mental health tool.
(00:24):
What you can do to make surethat running is actually helping
you with your stress levelsinstead of just adding more.
So stay tuned.
(00:54):
What's up runners?
Welcome to the show today.
If you are listening to this onthe weekend that it's released,
which is March 27th through the30th, I we are both in St.
Augustine, Florida on our veryfirst real life runners retreat
and I am so excited about this.
We're obviously recording thisbefore the retreat, but when
this episode comes out, we willbe on the retreat.
(01:16):
I'm so excited.
Yeah.
Partying it up.
Spring break 2025.
Spring break, 2025.
There you go.
So a retreat has been somethingthat has been on my heart for
years and years, and I am soexcited that this is finally a
reality and we are having.
Women come in from all over, notonly just the United States, but
(01:38):
actually travelinginternationally for this
retreat, which blows my mind andI'm so excited to get together
with these amazing women thisweekend.
Yeah.
I'm really looking forward tothis one.
But you especially, I am veryexcited for the retreat, but I'm
very excited to watch theretreat come into existence that
you have been wanting for years.
I know, and like part of me islike a little nervous because I
(02:00):
have been.
Thinking about this for such along time, I want it to be
amazing and wonderful, and Iknow that it will be I really,
truly do know that.
I just wanna also make sure thatit meets my expectations and
everyone else's expectations,like they're taking time away
from life.
investing in themselves to comedown to this retreat.
And I wanna make sure that it'sa wonderful experience.
(02:23):
It's like Christmas vacationwhere you bring build up big
events in your head, like everyanniversary and holiday and
birthday.
I don't know what you're talkingabout.
Exactly.
So today we are going to betalking about.
The bonus and the benefit ofdisconnecting because that's
what we're gonna be doing overthe course of the retreat.
But it's more than justdisconnecting.
(02:43):
It's disconnecting to reconnectbecause sometimes the best way
for us to truly reconnect toourselves, to our bodies is to
first disconnect.
And we talked about howdisconnection is something that.
So many runners and so manyhumans are having an issue with
nowadays.
And I think that this is one ofthe underlying things, or really
(03:04):
one of the core underlyingthings that is leading to so
many running injuries and somany problems in a lot of
runners, is that they'redisconnected from themselves and
especially we as women.
In perimenopause and menopause,we feel even more disconnected
because all of a sudden ourbodies are going through all of
these changes that makes us feeldisconnected from the body that
(03:27):
we once knew.
Our body's not responding in theway that it used to.
We're not like training doesn'tfeel the same, running doesn't
feel the same.
What the heck is going on withthis body?
We feel very disconnected, andthat's really why.
We named our new signatureprogram Running Reconnected
because the whole point is tohelp you reconnect to your body,
to yourself, to this next phaseof your life and decide who you
(03:49):
want to be as a runner movingforward in your life.
And that really connects to theretreat and what we're gonna be
doing.
Over the next few days here,because sometimes, while I
believe that disconnection is amajor problem, sometimes we need
to disconnect from certainthings in order to reconnect
(04:09):
from our body, and that's reallywhat the retreat is allowing us
to do this week, which isdisconnecting from.
Kind of the outside world fromsocial expectations and social
media and to-do lists and all ofthese things, which can be very
powerful to help us to regulateour nervous systems and
reconnect to our body versusdisconnecting from yourself,
which can be very dangerous.
(04:30):
And I think there's twodifferent ways that we can use
disconnection.
And that's really what we'regonna start to explore more in
this episode.
I think this is fantastic.
It goes back to back in college,one of your college jobs of
working tech support for thecampus where, what is best job
ever, but what is directionnumber one, anytime somebody
calls up and says their computeris not working correctly, what
is the first piece of advicethat you give them?
(04:51):
Restart your computer.
Restart the computer because youprobably have, and it fixed.
The majority of issues becauseyou have a million programs
running in the background thatyou don't actually need to have
running.
Yeah.
And we all do this.
We have so many things onlinethat are constantly bouncing
around in our heads.
They're like, programs runningthe background of your computer.
You're like, why is the computergoing so slow?
(05:13):
And it's oh.
Because there's literally.
55 tasks running that thecomputer's doing that you aren't
even aware.
Same thing happens inside of ourheads.
We've got all of these thingsgoing where there's a million
things bouncing around inside ofour head.
If you just take time todisconnect and bring back on the
ones that you would.
Actually to be on the ones thatyou are consciously being like,
(05:34):
yes, this is the system I needback online.
This is a system I need backonline and I don't need that
system back online right now.
Being able to disconnect allowsyou to actually have a solid
connection where youintentionally want to bring it
100%.
I think you said that reallywell and.
I think that we, if you ever hadthis experience where you've
(05:56):
gone to a retreat or spent timein prayer or in silence, you
know that is what can happen.
But I think that there's a lotof runners that are unknowingly
doing the second type ofdisconnection, which is
disconnecting from yourself andfrom your body, and then using
running as a way to try to findthemselves again as a way.
(06:16):
To try to relieve that stressthat we're feeling, but we're
trying to disconnect and sothere's, it's not really working
right.
And there's a lot of women outthere, a lot of runners out
there that say, running is mytherapy and running is a part of
my stress relief because it is atime for a lot of people that
you're actually out there byyourself and it's up to you,
(06:37):
depending on if you are a runnerthat runs with no, nothing in
your ears.
There's a lot of people that.
Listen to us out on their runs,which we appreciate you all
listening to us, but if youhaven't run recently without
anything in your ears, I wouldencourage you to try it and just
see what it's like because that.
(06:57):
Allows a lot of people toactually have some space to
think and just to be in theirbody.
But even for those people thatdo that, that can even start to
get very nervous or very noisyif your nervous system is fried.
And that's what's happening toso many people and so many
runners.
And so we really wanna talkabout.
What stress does to our nervoussystem, because this is a very
(07:20):
underlying thing that we need toaddress.
If you are someone that wants torun to improve your mental
health, which I am reallyloving, like when I'm doing like
my challenges and my freeclasses and I ask people why
they run, I.
I was expecting a lot of peopleto say to get healthy, to get in
better shape, to lose weight,those kinds of things.
But recently, over the last fewmonths, I would say, I'm
(07:42):
noticing a lot more people thatgot into running for the mental
health benefits, which isfantastic.
And I wanna make sure thatyou're actually able to gain
those mental health benefits bytraining in a way that's
supporting your nervous systemand actually allowing you to
have those times of calm and ofpeace and of clarity.
Un.
In instead of just running sohard and putting your nervous
(08:06):
system on overload.
'cause we've talked about thisfor so often that stress on the
body is stress.
That your body doesn't reallyknow a major difference between
the physical stresses, themental stresses you're putting
onto it, mental stresses you'reputting on top of physical
stresses.
You essentially have a stressbucket and all of the different
things that show up in yourlife, whether it's issues at.
(08:27):
Work.
You've got relationships, you'vegot under fueling poor sleep and
running on top of this.
This is all going into the samebucket, not to mention hormone
shifts that I'm sure you'regoing to bring up here in a
second.
You've got all of thesedifferent things that are life
stressors that are all goinginto the same bucket.
And then if you're like, oh, Irun to help alleviate some of
the stress okay, that's a greattheory, but if you're running
(08:49):
and pushing yourself reallyhard, that's a.
Physical stress, and that stressonly has one space to go.
That's your stress bucket.
So if you're going out andrunning and pushing yourself
constantly, there are times thatcan relieve some mental stress.
But it's not purely relievingthe stress.
It is bringing some of its owncomponent.
It is bringing some of its ownstresses to the situation.
(09:09):
Which one of the podcasts I loveto listen to, he has a go-to
saying that is running isrunning.
Therapy is therapy.
And while running can betherapeutic, some people need
actual therapy, which is a veryimportant D distinction to make
here.
Like running can be stressrelieving, but running is not
therapy 100%.
(09:30):
And I think that it, like yousaid, it can be very
therapeutic.
It can be used as a wonderfultool to help support your mental
health.
But if you are already superstressed out and you're going
out and pushing yourself hard.
A lot of runners do.
And when I say hard, I thinkpeople sometimes mis
misinterpret that.
We like to gauge our runninghere on an effort level, scale
(09:52):
of one to 10.
So asking yourself on a scale ofone to 10, how hard did that run
feel?
And one means really easy, and10 is super duper hard, and.
If you are going out, mostrunners tend to head out on
their runs and they're somewherebetween a five and an eight on
the majority of their runs, andthat is too much for your
(10:14):
nervous system.
That is too much for your bodyto be doing on an everyday basis
because when you are doing that,you are just accumulating stress
on the body.
You are creating a more of aphysical stress on the body and
Kevin said.
You have one stress bucket, andso all stress has an effect on
you.
Whereas if you're going out andyou're running at an easy effort
level, then you really can gainmore of the benefits of stress
(10:38):
relief.
And yes, while it does feelreally good sometimes to go out
and run really hard, becausesometimes it is really good to
just burn off right some energy,that can be very helpful.
But if you're doing that dayafter day, you're really just.
Wiping yourself out and puttingmore stress in your bucket
instead of actually relievingit.
But then you've got the counter.
(10:58):
What if you go out there and youare in fact going at an easy
pace, but the entire time you'regoing at what is an actual
appropriate, easy pace, you'rethinking to yourself, this isn't
good.
I'm running too slow.
This is not worthwhile.
Now you're adding to the mentalstress.
Yeah.
Instead of actually using thisnice, easy.
Very good for you.
Very good for your mental andphysical health run.
(11:19):
As a stress reliever, you'vedecided to dump like judgment on
top of that and be like, ah,it's an easy run, but I'm not
really getting any benefit outof it and I should be going
faster.
Yeah.
And last week we talked aboutrunning and age.
And you know what, if it's notyour age, like a lot of people
think that the issue with thetraining is your pace, your
training plan or your age, butwhat if the real issue is not
(11:43):
any of those things, but justthat your.
Body is too overwhelmed to adaptto the training that you're
trying to do because that's areally big thing that we see
here.
It's not like when we placestress on the body, right?
Stress is a good thing.
Physical stress is a good thing.
If we want to become betterrunners, we need to run harder,
we need to increase mileage, weneed to strength train.
(12:06):
These are all things that arenecessary for us to become
stronger runners, however.
If we're just placing stressafter stress on the body, we're
just accumulating stress andwe're not actually allowing the
body time to adapt.
And this is really where thenervous system comes more into
play.
And I know that, there's, it'sbecoming a little bit of a
(12:26):
buzzword out there.
I still think it's somethingthat we are not talking about
enough, especially in therunning world because.
This is what controls everythingthat happens in our body.
It's what controls our body'sability to adapt to the stresses
that we place on it.
So there are two main statesthat your nervous system can get
into, your sympathetic state andyour parasympathetic state.
(12:49):
So sympathetic is your fight orflight response.
It is the one that increasesyour heart rate, increases your
breathing weight.
Rate it is the one it's yourstress mode, right?
So your cortisol levels arehigher when you are in the
sympathetic state.
That is what kind of primes yourbody for stress and to how to
deal with stress.
Whereas your parasympatheticstate is your rest and recovery
(13:12):
mode.
That's when your body canactually adapt and recover from
the stress that you place on it.
And the problem now is that somany people are spending.
A majority of their time in asympathetic state, and that's
from training, that's from theworld around you.
That's from all the stuff that'sgoing on in your life.
Because again, one stressbucket, stress is stress.
(13:34):
We are spending so much time inthis sympathetic state and we
are not.
Allowing our body to get intothat more parasympathetic state
where we can actually adapt tothe training and to the stress
so that our body can actuallyget stronger than it was before.
Yeah, you point out thatsometimes your body is literally
just too overwhelmed to actuallyadapt to what you just did.
If you just went out and did ahard lift session a designed
(13:57):
hard workout run, and then youfinish it up.
By taking a selfie and postingit onto social media, and then
right after you post it, youstart scrolling through social
media that is not putting youinto the recovery mode.
That's not allowing you to thenadapt and join these things
because scrolling through socialmedia is definitely a way to
move into flight or flight.
(14:18):
It can be.
It is for a lot of people, it isfor a lot of people.
I think it depends on what's onyour feed, right?
And that kind of gets into areyou being choosy with what
you're exposing yourself to?
Because I do think thatscrolling on social media can be
a way for some people to go intochill mode.
Not everybody.
It depends on what you'relooking at.
It depends on how well you've.
(14:39):
Structured your feed.
Yeah.
But if you post somethingyourself, if you have the
response about, Ooh, I postedthat.
I wonder if anybody's gonna putlikes onto it.
This is my issue with Strava.
Yeah, that's a, is peopleposting things to Strava and
then waiting around, hoping thatthey get kudos off of this thing
is.
That's not helping you actuallyreap the benefits of any of
those things.
Yeah.
If you finish a run and then goout of your way to put yourself
(15:02):
into a more stressful situation.
That's a poor setup.
Yeah.
Like it really, you're not goingto gain the benefits, certainly
not maximize the benefits fromwhatever the workout is that you
just did.
Yeah, I agree.
And I think that.
I've noticed for sure thatscrolling can definitely make me
feel stressed.
There's sometimes that I can useit to, to disconnect and
whatnot.
But I do feel and part of italso is the stress that I'm
(15:24):
adding on top of me scrolling onsocial media, like that idea and
that thought of, I shouldn't bedoing this right now.
Like I shouldn't be.
Wasting my time doing this.
I should be doing somethingelse.
I need to be, I need to shutthis down.
It's meta stress, right?
And so it's the stress on top ofthe stress, right?
So I think that's a really bigpart of it as well.
But going back to this idea of.
(15:45):
Nervous system dysregulation.
Some common symptoms that wesee, and this is like a
checklist that maybe you can gothrough mentally to see, okay,
am I suffering from some sort ofdysregulation here?
So one of the biggest thingsthat we see is fatigue.
Okay?
Especially fatigue.
That lingers, even though you'regetting quote unquote enough.
Sleep.
(16:05):
There's a lot of women that Italk to that say, oh, I don't
understand it.
Like I'm getting eight hours ofsleep, but I still wake up
exhausted.
Or I'm going out and I just feeltired on all of my runs.
Not just some of the runs, butall of my runs.
I'm feeling more tired.
You notice that you are maybe inbed for eight hours, but you're
not actually sleeping that wholetime.
So you're waking up during thenight, especially in that two to
(16:27):
3:00 AM window.
That seems to be a very commontime, or I should say two to
4:00 AM.
For a lot of women inperimenopause and menopause, we
tend to wake up around thattime.
If you're noticing recurringinjuries or new aches and pains
that just don't seem to go awayincreased levels of.
Soreness before I should sayafter your runs, but that kind
of linger throughout the week.
(16:48):
Your body's just always sore andachy.
If you're noticing increased gutissues and mood swings and brain
fog and some of those, this iswhere it gets tricky because
these are all symptoms ofperimenopause and they're also
symptoms of a dysregulatednervous system and.
Those two things are for sureconnected, right?
It's not like it's one or theother.
It's oftentimes thatperimenopause and the changes of
(17:10):
our hormones lead to anincreased nervous system
dysregulation because of theeffect that estrogen has on our
cortisol levels, becausecortisol is that stress hormone
and estrogen helps to keep.
Cortisol levels more in check.
So as we lose estrogen duringperimenopause, those cortisol
levels stay elevated and lead toour bodies being more in this
(17:33):
chronic state of stress.
So one way that I like to thinkabout this is driving with one
foot on the gas while you havethe emergency break on, like it
just doesn't work.
Like you're trying to do more,you're trying to go faster,
you're trying to do speed workand do strength training and do
all the things that you hear ustalk about here on the podcast.
(17:54):
But if your nervous system isstuck in stress mode, if it's
overloaded with stress, that'sbasically like your foot being
on the brake or having theemergency brake on, you're just
not gonna get very far no matterhow hard, like how much gas gas
you press, like how hard youpress on the gas pedal.
You're not getting very far andyour fuel economy is terrible,
which is why you feel exhaustedall the time.
(18:16):
And it also connects to, youhave to make sure you're fueling
yourself.
Yeah, one, take your foot offthe brake would be super, super
helpful, but under fueling ismassively connected to this
feeling of being tired all thetime and trying to regulate that
in the middle of perimenopauseis also a challenge of making
sure that you're fuelingappropriately because you're not
sure exactly what's going onwith.
(18:38):
Like hunger cues for one.
But you're getting this messageof, oh, should maybe I don't
need to be eating quite as muchduring this.
I if you're putting on weight,you're like I wanna pull back on
calories.
But under fueling the exercisethat you're doing is taking away
from the ability to actuallyadapt to that exercise itself.
Yeah.
That is definitely pushing onthe break.
So you have to be providing thefuel also.
(18:59):
So it's not about doing less,it's not about, taking your
training down a notch.
It might be, that could be apiece of it, but it's about
really understanding what yourbody needs right now and
understanding how your nervoussystem plays a really big role
in this.
And obviously we just talked alot about perimenopause, which
applies to all of our womenlisteners.
And this also applies to you ifyou are after menopause as well,
(19:21):
because after menopause, yourbody is done producing estrogen.
So we still have some of thesesame issues.
But Kevin, I would love for youto speak a little bit on the
men's experience because you area man in your mid forties and
you obviously aren't dealingwith the loss of hormones like I
am and like other people are inour.
Community, but like itdefinitely still affects men.
(19:43):
And you def definitely stillhave a lot of stress on your
plate right now.
Like how do you notice thataffecting you and other males in
this?
Age, there's, or time of life Ishould say.
There's still the idea that, youpointed out last week you took
my argument completely apart andsaid that my testosterone level
is not drastically reducing, butit is lower than it was when I
(20:03):
was in my mid twenties.
Yes.
That is a clear argument that itis lower and a lower level of
testosterone is then going toaffect metabolism.
Men, especially men in theirforties, are gonna start on.
Start putting on more weight.
And so depending on what kind ofa running background you've got,
you might go to one of there area lot of guys who ran
competitively through highschool and college that may have
(20:25):
never had an eating disorder,but definitely had some
disordered eating.
They have some issues aroundfood and if they're not looking
the same way that they were intheir thirties, they're like
maybe if I just.
Eat a little bit less or maybeif I just ramp my training up.
And both of those are notnecessarily gonna be your
appropriate option.
Yeah.
Because one, if you're notfueling the work, you're just
gonna be exhausted all the time.
(20:46):
I would think that, sorry tointerrupt you, but like you
said, eating less or ramping uptraining, I feel like men.
Tend to default to the secondone, like just ramp up training
some more?
Yes.
What would you say?
Yes, but that's becausedisordered eating is, I think,
generally more prevalent infemale population, but it is, it
certainly exists in the malepopulation, especially if you
(21:07):
are a competitive distancerunner throughout high school
and college.
It is.
It's in that population morethan it is across like your
average male population.
Yeah.
And I mean you cannot stopfueling yourself.
It's just that is a hundredpercent foot on the gas and foot
real hard on the brake.
It's just not gonna work.
Yeah.
So one thing that both men andwomen can do to help with
(21:29):
nervous system regulation isthis idea of.
Disconnecting, but disconnectingin a way that is supportive of
your nervous system, notdisconnecting from your body,
not disconnecting from yourneeds and your effort level and
what your body's trying to tellyou, which is that negative kind
of disconnection that we weretalking about, but really
disconnecting from.
The hustle and bustle, thestress and choosing to take some
(21:52):
time to sit in stillness andsilence, in order to reconnect
to yourself and to a higherpower and to the world around
you in a different way.
And I think that this is sointeresting because we are just,
our lives are so filled withtechnology now, which can be so
helpful.
It is like the ways thattechnology has improved our
(22:14):
lives.
We can list, that list goes onfor a very long time.
But it also has gotten to thepoint where.
There's a device in your handalmost at all times, right?
How many people actually sit insilence and just take time to
sit and do nothing?
I know that for me, that issomething that's very difficult
to do.
Like it's something that I'vebeen literally working on, like
(22:36):
literally working on not havingmy phone, taking 10 minutes a
day to just sit in silence andnot do anything.
Not.
Be, productive, per se.
And it's it's getting better.
And I do notice that this isdefinitely improving a lot of
different things.
And I think that's one of thereasons why this retreat became
(22:57):
such an important thing for meto do, is to really allow.
Women to have this space todisconnect from the world in
order to reconnect tothemselves.
The times that people choose tojust live inside of their own
heads when a phone is so easilyavailable to, to provide them
distraction from any sort ofthoughts inside their own head.
(23:17):
People used to stand in line ata grocery store.
People used to stand in line atplaces, and all they could do
was stand in line.
Yeah.
Or talk to the person next toyou.
I'm really curious, this is offtopic, but like how much are
like those impulse purchasesright at the checkout line?
How much did those disappearover the last five to 10 years?
Yeah.
As people are staring at theirphone instead of being like that
(23:39):
piece of candy and that magazineand that pack of gum and those
mints.
Yes.
I actually really need all ofthose things.
Yeah.
People aren't even looking up.
They're staring at their phone.
Like the number of times I'vegone to the grocery store.
And watch the person not realizethat the person checked them
out, asked, how are you doing?
Because they're too busy staringat their phone.
Yeah.
Like I'm curious.
Someone should run a, run thenumbers on that thing.
Yeah, that is a very interestingthing, but.
(24:01):
Silence and stillness and takingthe time away from the stress is
so important that, and I thinkthat this is one of the big
components to why so manyrunners do get injured.
And granted, runners have alwaysbeen getting injured, right?
So you can't just say oh yeah,it's the phones that are, that's
leading to more of this.
(24:22):
Just like you can't say it's thephones that are.
Leading to all of these things.
It's a combination of a lot ofdifferent things.
But if you're staring at yourphone and you trip over a rock,
that is the phone's fault.
That would be the phone's fault,but.
Oftentimes, it's one of thosesituations where if you don't
slow down, if you don't listento your body, now, it's going to
force it on you later.
It starts with a feather andthen it's a pebble, and then
(24:44):
it's a rock, and then it's aboulder.
Unless you keep, actually stopand take time to listen.
And that's what happens to a lotof runners is, you don't
usually, unless you, trip over arock and fall on your face.
You don't usually get a hugeinjury just out of the blue like
that.
It's something that startsreally small.
It starts with a little niggle,like you start to notice a
little ache or a little pain andit, then it goes away, and then
(25:07):
it comes back and it lasts alittle bit longer.
It's usually.
Running injuries are repetitiveuse injuries, which means they
don't just pop up out ofnowhere.
They develop over time.
And if we don't start to payattention, if we don't reconnect
to what our body's trying totell us, because pain is a
signal from your body thatsomething is off.
And so if we don't listen and wejust try to ignore it and
(25:30):
disconnect from it, it's goingto eventually be forced upon us.
So it's injury, it's illness,it's burnout, it's.
Seizures, which is obviously avery extreme form of it.
I got pointed, but which onewould you rather choose, right?
Would you rather choose toactually connect to your body,
take some time to disconnectfrom the world and connect to
(25:51):
your body, or have an injuryforce on you or an illness or
something that's forcing you totake time off and not do the
thing that you wanna do.
Alright, so now I'm gonna dolike the thing you like the
least is ask you somethingthat's not on the the outline
here.
I don't mind it at all.
I just let's go, because thisone's pure opinion.
I'm not asking you to cite astudy from your memory here.
Yeah.
Okay.
(26:12):
Runners, especially when they'rein a race.
One of the things that allowsrunners to excel is to actually
disconnect.
Yeah.
From the pain signals of theirbody.
The pain is your legs arescreaming at you.
You've been at mile two of a 5Kbefore and you're racing it, you
legs are screaming.
I cannot continue to run.
Yeah.
And you have to send the messageback down to you are going the
(26:34):
appropriate pace.
We're not slowing down and we'regonna finish with a kick.
Yeah.
Is the whole idea that you haveto pick and choose when to tune
into your body and when tomentally overcome it.
There are times when you canlisten to the signals coming
from your body and be like, allright, I should slow down today.
But there are other times whereyou get to mentally flex your
mental muscle and say, actually,I get to be in charge of what
(26:56):
the voices are saying right now.
Yes, what exactly is yourquestion?
You're saying that part of theissue of running is helping us
disconnect from our body.
But I think that very high it'sany sort of competitive running.
You have to somewhat disconnectfrom your body.
Yeah.
So the question is, which isracing?
Bad for your health?
Not at all.
I think that the problem is notdisconnection because
(27:19):
disconnection can be helpful attimes, and I think the scenario
that you just described is aperfect time.
That disconnection can be a verypositive thing and can be very
helpful.
Because we know as runners, ourbody's always going to be
yelling at us in some way,right?
It's going to be telling us toslow down.
You're going too fast, or I'mnot gonna be able to keep
(27:39):
running because I'm reallytired, and you're just gonna
have to keep pushing through.
If you're in a marathon, thegoal is to cross the finish
line.
You do not wanna stop and justwalk off the course at mile 18
because you're feeling tired.
Yes, you do.
You really do.
Actually, you do want.
But you're not the goal is notto do that, right?
The goal is to get yourself overthe finish line.
And so I do think that it isvery helpful at times to be able
(28:02):
to do that.
The problem is how often that,that is happening and that so
many people are doing that on adaily basis with every single
run or every single workout, ormaybe not even every single one,
but.
50%, 60%, 80% of the timethey're disconnecting from what
their body's trying to tellthem.
So I think that it can be veryhelpful to disconnect in short
(28:25):
spurts and in specificcircumstances.
But overall, we need to be veryconnected to our body to
understand what is going onglobally with our body.
You could argue this reallyconnects to that whole 80 20
principle, is you don't need todisconnect from your body on
every single run.
You probably should.
Tune into your body on most ofthe runs and make sure that
(28:45):
you're going if you're runningby effort and you're supposed to
be going off on an easy effortday Yeah.
And you immediately throw onmusic or a super entertaining
podcast and you are finding itdifficult to tune into your
body, then that might not besuper beneficial from you.
You might, from time to timeneed to actually check into your
body, but if you.
(29:06):
Never check in with your body.
It's gonna be difficult to racealso.
Because at some point your legsare gonna be screaming,
whatever's gonna be hurting atyou, and you need to have the
mental tools that you can tryand actually handle the
situation.
But I think that we.
I, it's like we've overtrainedthe idea of gridding through the
workout so that we can go hardthrough the race and you just,
(29:28):
you don't need to build it.
Every time you're out running,you need to sprinkle in some
workouts where you're like,alright, no music, no anything.
Let's just see how I canmentally get myself through this
workout.
But for the most part.
I think we've gone done a prettygood job recently of this
workout needs to be a moderateeffort.
I'm not going so deep into theI'm not, carving into the pain
(29:49):
cave.
I just, I want a run that'smoderately difficult and finding
that effort level sometimescomes with I.
Putting some music or a podcaston and just finding a flow
state.
Yeah, I think that, again,that's very beneficial.
A lot of times, like I run withpodcasts all the time, and then
there are some days that I don'tlike, and there's other people
that don't like running insilence, and that's totally fine
(30:12):
too.
I just think that we need to bespending some time in silence.
It doesn't necessarily have tobe on a run.
I personally like to do it.
More on a walk than on a run on,on my runs, I'll usually run
with friends, and so we'll betalking and just chit,
chit-chatting and whatnot.
Or I have a podcast andsometimes I do runs without
anything, but that's pretty rarefor me.
(30:32):
But I do spend time outside ofrunning then silence.
So I'll walk without myheadphones on or I'll just sit,
like I said, I've been trying tospend 10 minutes a day in
silence where I'm not.
Listening to anything or tryingto consciously think about
anything specific, like I justallow myself to just be, and a
lot of it's been like sittingoutside on the patio and
(30:54):
enjoying the weather and justnoticing the sounds and the
breeze and the sights of mybackyard and the birds and those
kinds of things.
It's just practicing being inthe moment and noticing what's
going on.
And I think that we can do thatin lots of different ways.
So you don't have to do this ona run, but that is a good tool
that you can use now and then.
(31:14):
You like really using the runfor more of a meditative type of
experience, don't you?
It de it depends on what I'mgoing for.
Because now that most of mydriving takes place with our
daughter in the car, like to andfrom school.
I don't I can't listen to thepodcast that I like to listen to
with her in the car.
She would hate it.
Like it's not that it'sinappropriate, it would just
drive her nuts.
So that is really coming throughalmost entirely listening to
(31:38):
that podcast through running.
And so I've been listening to iton most of my runs.
But then I'll shut it off andI'll do strides and drills in
silence.
Because I have.
For a long time, I never likedto listen to anything on my
runs.
I really enjoyed the quietpeacefulness of going out for a
run.
Yeah.
And then when we started havingreally little kids, that was
when I started listening tomusic more on my run.
(31:59):
Now I can go either way.
If I feel like I'm behind andI'm really interested in the
podcast, I'll listen to apodcast.
Otherwise, I do enjoy going outwith.
Just with nothing, just headingout, especially like on a dark
morning.
Oh, it's really nice.
That's also male privilege, butI do enjoy going out in the dark
of a run with no headphones andjust going off and running for,
(32:19):
I don't know, 45 hour, somethinglike that.
Yeah, I'm glad that you.
Acknowledge the male privilegethat is inherent with that
statement.
Which, but I also think it'simportant for us, if we are
running in the dark to not haveheadphones, that is a very
important thing for safetyreasons, more especially for
women.
Yeah.
I mean that, that's front ofmind.
I've just been helping peoplewith training planes that are
(32:40):
new to our Yeah.
Our group also.
And they're like, I and I can'trun in the morning.
Or late in the evening.
It's just too dark.
And that's a real thing that wewomen have to really be aware
of.
What does this look like when itcomes to running?
Because we want you to be ableto use running as a way to help
with your stress levels and notjust one more stress in your
bucket.
Something that's just continuingto wear you down.
(33:02):
So what does that look like?
Number one, ask yourself.
I think it's just about startingto reconnect and starting to
check in with yourself more ifyou're not doing this already.
So before a run, you can askyourself like, what am I feeling
right now?
How is my body feeling?
Do a body scan.
Notice if there's any aches andpains, if there's any soreness
or stiffness that you've gotgoing on, definitely make sure
(33:24):
you're doing that dynamicmobility warmup before your runs
and then check in again withyourself.
After that mobility and see,okay, how am I feeling now?
Because for a lot of runners,once you do that dynamic
mobility, your body's feeling alot better and it's a lot more
primed for the run, but takestock on what is your energy
level?
How are you feeling?
What's going on?
And then do the same check-inafter your run.
(33:46):
When you're done with the run,do I feel better or worse?
Do I feel more tired?
Do I actually have more energy?
Do I feel about the same?
It's normal for you to obviouslyfeel tired if you go out and run
five miles or three miles or 10miles or whatever it is to feel
a little bit tired, but.
You shouldn't be completelyexhausted and completely drained
on a regular basis.
(34:07):
Yes.
If you're finishing every runwith the need to lay down on the
sidewalk, you're pushing toohard on all of your runs.
That is the sensation that ifyou need to lay down at the end
of your run, that's like a onceevery two, three, maybe even
four week difficulty level of aworkout.
It's a periodic check-in.
But it's also, it's a personalcheck-in.
One of the features of my watchthat I am still, and I've had
(34:30):
this for a while and I'm stillnot sure my thoughts on it, it
lets me know how my run isgoing.
So I don't know.
Is it your like performancecondition?
Yes.
Thank you.
My performance condition is whatit calls it, but it doesn't tell
it to me until I'm likesomewhere around five to seven
minutes into the run.
I love that.
It doesn't tell it to me 30seconds in.
Because the last thing I need isto have just started the run and
my watch to be like gonna be abad day.
(34:51):
Yeah.
Like we talked about this Yeah.
Last week on my watch gives me asleep score.
I like to wake up and startmoving around.
I don't check what my watchsays.
My sleep performance was thenight before until I'm like an
hour into the day.
And then I go through and I findthe numbers.
Interesting numbers to see ifyou can follow patterns, but I
don't let my watch dictate.
Did I sleep well or not?
I don't let my watch dictate.
(35:12):
Is the run gonna be good?
I like that it shows up fiveminutes in and then I'm like,
huh?
Minus two.
You are wrong.
Like my watch gave me a zero.
On the day that I run a hundredmiles back in January, I was
five minutes in and my watchbeeped at me and I joked with
the guy that I was running with.
I'm like, ha, my Garmin saysthat I'm at a zero in terms of
performance.
(35:33):
Looks like I'm not making it tothe finish line.
And we both thought it washysterical.
He goes, oh, I don't even wantto see what mine is today.
Yeah.
Because it's'cause it'sirrelevant what it is.
This is the task that I'm gonnago do today.
You know when it's, when we saycheck in with yourself, actually
check in with yourself.
Don't use technology to let youknow how you're feeling.
And I think that's another pieceof the disconnection that a lot
(35:53):
of runners are experiencing isthat they don't know how they
feel.
They don't know what a run issupposed to feel like or what
the goal of the run is.
They just do what the watchtells them, and they just do,
okay, my heart rate is this.
And so if I'm looking at mywatch constantly throughout my
run, and if my heart rate is toohigh, I have to slow down, and
if it's too low, I have to pushand they're letting this
(36:14):
external device.
Disconnect them from their ownbodily sensations and how they
feel.
And when you can reconnect toyour effort level, when you can
reconnect to how your body'sfeeling and learn how to adjust,
you are going to make so muchmore progress than just allowing
some sort of external devicethat isn't even that accurate to
(36:35):
dictate that for you.
And I think that this is really.
Connected to the idea of inadjusting your running intensity
based on the other stress inyour life.
And this is one of the thingsthat we talk to our runners
about every week and whenthey're curious on, okay, I've
got all these things going on,what should I do with my
training plan this week?
(36:56):
How do I.
Make sure that I'm getting allmy runs in.
Should I do two runs on one day?
Should I go hard?
Back to back what should I dohere?
And sometimes the answer is, youneed to let go of a run.
You don't need to get that in.
You need to miss a run becauseyour life is so stressful and
you've got travel and all theseother things going on.
Or sometimes the answer is okay,you've got a hard run on your
(37:18):
schedule.
But you're feeling just friedmentally because of all the
things that you've been dealingwith this week.
Instead of doing that hard run,make it an easy run instead,
like it is very important for usto learn ourselves and our
bodies and what works for us sothat we can adjust our training.
Based on what else is happeningin our lives because the
(37:40):
training in the right is not theonly thing.
It's an important thing for alot of us.
But if you do a really hardworkout on top of a nervous
system that's already fried,it's just going to push you
closer to.
Injury and burnout and illnessand all of those things that
none of us wanna experience.
And maybe that is too far of ajump for some people listening
(38:02):
right now of, I know I feelfried and so I should probably
go on an easy day, but it'ssupposed to be a workout.
There's no way, like people aregonna get a lot of judgment on
top of that if they keepskipping their workouts because
their life is so stacked.
Go on an easy run and put acouple of strides at the end of
it.
Take a minute or two between thestrides and be like, all right I
(38:23):
still touched some speed.
It's a bridge.
It's not, that's not a go-toresult for always of saying,
let's put some strides, butmaybe Yeah.
That allows you to take some ofthe mental stress off of saying,
I missed a workout.
Yeah.
You can put a little bit ofsomething.
That isn't a huge amount ofphysical stress on top of you.
Yeah, so I have two things thatcame to mind there.
Number one, if you areconstantly feeling this way and
(38:43):
if you're like, oh, if I justdid this, if I adjusted my real
life, or if I adjusted mytraining based on how stressed I
feel, then I would never do myspeed workouts.
That's a sign, right?
That's a sign that.
You're overdoing it in somerealm and I would not be
surprised if you also told methat you have some aches and
some pains and some chronicinjuries that you're dealing
with because those things arerelated.
(39:04):
And the second thing I would sayis, if you do need more of that
bridge.
Instead, if you are like, have areally hard time giving up a
workout for an easy run, giveyourself five minutes, right?
Go in, do an easy warmup, get goout and do a nice dynamic
mobility.
Get an easy warmup in, and thenmaybe start the workout for five
minutes, and then allow yourselfto pull the plug.
(39:27):
'cause sometimes at thebeginning of our runs, we don't
feel so great, but when weactually get into it, we are, we
actually feel better, right?
There are those times that youfeel really tired at the
beginning of the run, but thenafter one or two miles you're
like, okay, yeah now my body'son board.
We're going.
So get into the workout, see howit feels.
If you really feel like you'rejust.
(39:47):
Pushing it even harder than youshould be.
Then allow yourself to pull theplug on it and just switch over
to an easy run.
And then yes, maybe add in somestrides at the end.
Yeah, that's the thing is givingyourself some grace and
adjusting based off of your lifeintensity, because you've only
got that one spot where you'resticking all your stresses.
So if that bucket is super full.
Pouring a whole lot on top of itis just spilling water all over
(40:10):
the place.
Yeah.
I think that's how that metaphorworked.
There you go.
So again, what we want you totake away from this is that the
problem isn't you.
It's the way that we've beentaught to ignore our bodies and
to disconnect and to alsoglorify overdoing like this
constant need for busyness anddoing more because we don't need
to, especially as we get intothis next phase of our lives
(40:31):
after 40.
You don't need to just keeppushing through and ignoring
yourself.
You need to reconnect to yourbody.
You need to reconnect to whatyour body needs and the way that
your training needs to look inthis next phase of your life,
especially if you're a womanover 40 that's dealing with all
of the hormone changes andthings that are happening in
perimenopause and menopause, andthat's.
(40:51):
Exactly why I created RunningReconnected, which is the new
program that we have mentioned acouple times.
I think I mentioned it lastweek.
And then obviously I'm gonnatalk about it right now, but
running Reconnected is thatprogram to help you understand
how to reconnect with your body,to your mind, to your body, to
your nutrition, to your nervoussystem, because your nervous
system.
(41:12):
Is that hidden key that isdriving your performance, how
you feel, your energy levels andthe way that your body recovers.
And so if this episode resonatedwith you and you're like, oh my
gosh, I didn't realize howdysregulated I was, and you are
ready to feel your strongest,your most energized self, again,
(41:32):
I want you to know that runningafter 40 it.
It has to look different than itdid when you were in your
thirties, in your twenties, butit doesn't mean that you have to
slow down.
It doesn't mean that you have tosettle for just getting older
and getting slower and thingshurting.
That is not what you need toaccept, and that's exactly what
I teach you how to do inside ofRunning Reconnected.
(41:52):
And because we renamed and rerebranded the program and we
have this new focus on nervoussystem regulation, I am running
a special this week until theend of March, you can actually
get 40% off of the program.
Until March 31st, and I'm doingthis because I want to help more
women to feel their strongest,to feel their best, to know that
(42:13):
their best running days are notbehind them, but their best
running days are ahead of them.
You just have to understand howto work with your body and your
nervous system instead ofagainst your body.
Instead of constantly puttingyourself into stress mode, you
have to understand how to flipthe switch, how to get your body
and your nervous system moreregulated and train in a way
that supports your body that.
(42:34):
Builds strength that buildsmuscle and how to fuel your body
in a way that's going to helpyou feel amazing and energized
and strong.
So if you want to learn more,you can head over to real life
runners.com/reconnect and youcan get all of the information
about the program.
Over there on that page, if youhave any questions, send me an
email.
I'm happy to answer any of thequestions that you have to
(42:56):
figure out if this program isright for you.
You get 40% off of the programprice that gives you lifetime
access to the program, and alsothree months of coaching support
inside of our memberships.
So I, my goal is really to giveyou all of the tools and all of
the information and all of the.
Action steps that you need inorder to feel better in this
phase of life.
(43:17):
That's fantastic.
It's a great way to celebratespring break.
I remember celebrating SpringBreak 20 years ago.
I did not feel amazing.
At the end of Spring Break, Iphysically did not feel amazing.
My stress levels were possiblytoo high, physically, mentally,
all of them joining.
Running reconnected is certainlya way to have a much more
positive end of your springbreak.
Go for it.
There you go.
(43:37):
All right.
So head over to actually you caneven go to running
reconnected.com and that willget you to exactly where you
need to be and check out all theinformation for you over there.
And as always, if you thoughtthis episode was helpful, I
would be so appreciative if youleft us a review or shared this
with a friend so that we canhelp more people and more
runners like you to feel strong,have more energy and run their
(43:59):
life.
So as always, thanks for joiningus.
This has been The Real LifeRunners podcast, episode number
403.
Now, get out there and run yourlife.
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