FEB23 5DC - AUDIO ONLY
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This is the real life runners podcast, episode number
[00:00:03] Angie: 295. Today we have a special highlight episode from our recent five day running challenge. So what we've done is we've taken the content from all five days of the challenge and just pulled out the highlights in the clips. So if you were not able to join us on the challenge, this is going to be a great episode for you to catch, to kind of get the highlights in the summary of what we covered in the challenge and if you did listen to our five day challenge when we did it back in february this is also going to be just a great way to highlight some of the most important takeaways that we went through that week so enjoy the show
[00:01:00] Hi everybody. It's the five day running challenge.
Let's dive into today's content,
one of the big things that we've found is that a lot of runners, when they want to get better, they end up thinking that they need to push harder because I wanna get faster, I wanna improve my pace.
We want you to understand that pushing harder on all of your runs is
not the best way for you to have a long-term sustainable relationship with running. It's a very good way for you to get injured, for you to get burnt out, for you to not like it anymore, and for you to not make the progress that you want to make, not see the results that you want. And that's so frustrating, and that's one of the things that we often see is that runners just are feeling so frustrated because they're doing the work, they're running the miles, and they think that they need to keep pushing harder or they think that they need to keep doing more, but when they do those things, they don't get the results that they want.once that happens, a lot of times they will go to Google or YouTube and try to figure out these things by [00:02:00] themselves. And so we are here this week to help guide you through all of this so that You don't have to try to figure this out on your own. We wanna help guide you in this process.
We think that running can be both effective and enjoyable,
[00:02:12] Kevin: I think you made a very good point there. we think that running can be effective and enjoyable. We also think that running can be more effective if it is enjoyable. You kind of reverse those things. , the more fun you're having with it, the more enjoyable, the more exciting the run is. the more effective it's gonna be.
[00:02:28] Angie: The four main problems that we see a lot of frustrated runners having are the following, number one,Pace or speed. A lot of times we see runners that are running at least three times per week, but they're not getting faster.
[00:02:41] Kevin: This is the runner who says, I just want to get faster.
[00:02:43] Angie: Number two is pain. Your body is constantly sore and achy and running just doesn't feel good.
[00:02:50] Kevin: I would like to go run three to four times per week, except my knee hurts. It's that runner.
[00:02:54] Angie: Exactly. Problem number three is endurance. you're running the same 5K and you just can't seem [00:03:00] to increase your distance.
[00:03:01] Kevin: And number four is inconsistency and oftentimes this is due to injury or motivation. Is your main problem, pace or speed? Number two is pain number three, endurance, or number four, consistency. you can be a combination, all of the above, right? We see people that have multiple issues that they wanna work on.
[00:03:21] Angie: We want you guys to get clear on where you are right now, and that includes what you want to gain, what are you trying to accomplish, are you someone that tries to push harder on every run trying to get faster or add more mileage trying to get faster? A lot of times people think, well, if I wanna get better at something, if I wanna get faster, I need to just do more of it. Or maybe I'm just not pushing myself hard enough.
then what happens is that if you are pushing yourself harder and just adding more mileage and you don't make the progress, Then you think something's wrong with you because you're like, well, I don't understand it. Like I'm [00:04:00] doing everything that I should be doing. I'm pushing harder and I'm just not getting results. And what we want to tell you is that the problem is not you. The problem is the way that you're training. You are able to get faster. You are able to improve your running if you go about it the right way. And that's what we're gonna be showing you guys that there is a method to get better at running.
[00:04:21] Kevin: Well, then it leads to this belief inside of our own head that we simply can't get faster. if you've been telling yourself for a while that running is a very simple process. The very logical thought is, if I run faster, I will simply get faster. And it's just not exactly how it works. Running is in fact more complicated than that. on a very short-term basis, over a short window, maybe pushing a little bit faster can lead to a little bit of a faster runner, but over a long window over, I'd like to get faster and continue improving and enjoy my running experience for years and decades to come. Pushing harder every single day is not a good long-term plan.
[00:04:58] Angie: a lot of times that's what happens when we [00:05:00] first get into running, we do see improvement right away, right? We start running and we see our endurance naturally start to improve. We see our speed naturally start to improve. So we figure, okay, well, If it's working, just keep doing more of that. Right? But we all come to a point, where that progress starts to plateau, and this is where a lot of times runners will double down and try to do even more. Because they saw it work for a short amount of time.
And that's just not the case. So if you are a runner that suffers from pain, tried to just ignore the pain and hope it'll just improve.
Now is running actually pain free? Probably not. There is an inherent level of discomfort that comes along with running, but in my mind there is a difference between discomfort and pain. Pain to me is indicating that something in the body is going wrong. We need to address it. We don't just ignore it and hope it gets better. Discomfort is something that we can push through. something that we have to expect as runners. Running is not supposed to be comfortable all the [00:06:00] time. It is supposed to be comfortable a majority of the time, but not all of the time.
[00:06:05] Kevin: You know that running includes plenty of discomfort. that does not mean that it has to include a large amount of pain.
[00:06:10] Angie: Exactly. All right. Problem number three is endurance. if you have an issue with trying to improve your endurance, if you feel like you have issues with your breathing or you're just not able to run longer, even though you're trying, have you ever just tried to run a little bit longer on each run? maybe like yesterday you did two miles, so today I'm gonna try to do three miles, and then I'm gonna just try to add another mile on and you just kind of try to add on miles But here's the thing Adding mileage just time after time after time, depending on how you're doing it, may or may not work. adding mileage can help to improve your endurance, but if you are pushing too hard on your runs, it's gonna be very difficult for you to just keep adding endurance because you're not actually improving your cardiovascular fitness. There's a specific way that you [00:07:00] can use your runs to improve your cardiovascular fitness more effectively, which means you're gonna be able to increase your endurance faster than you would if you were just trying to push as hard as you can all the time.
problem number four is that consistency.
What we see a lot of runners doing is that they decide, oh, I need a race on the calendar so that I will be motivated and actually go out and run consistently. they end up signing up for a race, not even realizing the timeline that's involved in training for that race. and then they decide, okay, I really need to get on a training plan so I'm gonna get on, you know, Google, I'm gonna find myself a training plan, and boom, like, how many weeks do I have to the race? where do I need to start on this training plan? And they end up increasing their load way too quickly. Now all of a sudden you decided you're gonna train for a half marathon. And so you jump on a plan for a half marathon that's in a couple of months,and your body's like, what the heck did you just do to me? so running doesn't feel good because a. you ramped up your training load [00:08:00] too quickly, when that happens, it's very easy to lose motivation and to lose that consistency because it's over your head. It's too much. you start getting pain and then you, that ends up working into an injury.
[00:08:13] Kevin: the gap is too big. And instead of saying, oh, I have this big gap, so I'm gonna take a long time period and slowly cross the gap people just try and leap halfway across the gap and be like, oh, now I'm closer to my goal and now I'll progress from there without realizing that that first jump is probably not the safest jump that you could possibly take.
[00:08:30] Angie: Exactly. a lot of runners do this guys and so this is nothing to feel bad about. We just wanna,bring awareness to where you are right now, what you've done up to this point that's gotten you here.
Because running is both physical and mental. But a lot of times, people only focus on the physical side while ignoring the mental side.
And that's kind of the mistakes that we just talked about. We focus on the physical aspect of running. But that's just not the way running works because [00:09:00] running is a mixture of physical and mental strength.
It's hard to say what the exact percentage is.But what I do want you guys to understand is there's a huge mental component to running, our thoughts and the mental side of running and the mental side of really everything that we do in our life controls all of our actions. So if we're thinking, I like running, it's gonna be probably easier for us to go out and go for a run. Than if we're thinking to ourself, running sucks. Just that thought is going to change the motivation level that we have because motivation is a feeling.
it's not that we can't overpower our thoughts, Because we can, yes, you can use willpower temporarily to force yourself to get out the door, but at some point willpower is going to run out. It's just, that's just the truth of the matter.
The point of this is to start to get you to think differently about you, your running, you're training your goals so that [00:10:00] you can start coming from the inside out. You can start approaching your running from a different place. And when you start to approach your running from a different place, you are going to have different results, better results.
we wanna help you figure out how to stop fighting your body and instead learn how to work with your body. And that progress starts with awareness. Physical and mental. we want you to like set an intention on what you want to learn, okay? And we like to think of this like a traveler on a journey. All right? So if you guys think about it, if you are starting out on a journey or a road trip, what's one of the first things that you do?
So the first thing that you do, like when you decide that you're gonna go on a road trip is you need to pull up Google Maps. Right?
But when you pull up Google Maps, what is the first thing that happens? What does Google Maps give you? Your current location. Boom.
[00:10:58] Kevin: It drops a blue dot and it [00:11:00] starts looking around to make sure that it narrows down.
[00:11:02] Angie: So this is all about finding that blue dot.And the more specific we can get with that blue dot the more likely it is that you are going to be more successful to get to your destination. So getting more specific will make it more successful and faster to get to where you want to go.
[00:11:24] Kevin: sometimes this needs to involve us starting down the path. so we can help figure out where we are.
You know, sometimes to test and see where we are with our run, we can't just like think about it really hard. Sometimes we have to put in just a little bit of movement and say, all right, this is honestly where I am.
[00:11:42] Angie: that actually brings up a really good point, because it makes me really question, if you find yourself wanting to have those results and wanting those results yesterday. Mm-hmm. , I want you to just pause and ask yourself, what's the rush? Why are [00:12:00] you in such a rush to have these results? And really just think about that. because I think we're so inclined to like get results and have them now and keep moving forward. And let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Because that's how we're programmed. a lot of us runners tend to be a little bit more type A right and want the results. We like seeing numbers. running is a very numbers driven sport, so we like to see those numbers improving. If we're not seeing numbers improving, then we automatically think that there's something wrong and we wanna fix it and change it and make, make it better. And we're gonna help you guys do all that because there's definitely a method to To improve and to improve long term. We are not all about the tips and tricks and hacks to give you results in a week. We are about long-term sustainable results.
And that's really what, what we love to bring because running is one of those ways that we can improve our lives. Yes, we can [00:13:00] become stronger, we can become healthier, we can become more fit. We can have maybe the physical appearance that we want. But it's also a way for us to challenge ourselves and to grow as humans, and that's really what we love to use running for how is it making us better, how, the challenges and the lessons that we learn from running, how is that benefiting us in the rest of our lives as well. And how can we connect the two pieces together? And that's why we've named our our company Real Life Runners because running needs to fit into your real life the same way that real life needs to fit into your running. And you need to have a personalized plan that's right for you, for you to have the most enjoyment and the most results and actually get to the place where you want to get to.
[00:13:44] Kevin: it's so fun to watch people just start getting into it.And not quite sure how to do it.
One of the things that we see that's very common as well, that we haven't quite mentioned yet, is that feeling of overwhelm that a lot of runners have, because the internet is fantastic. You can Google [00:14:00] anything. You can go on YouTube and there's tons of resources for runners. Um, there's books, there are podcasts. There are so much information out there, and all of that is so wonderful that we have access. But it can also feel very overwhelming
[00:14:15] Angie: We are here to help you guys, to get resultsto actually start to think about your running and your training differently so that you can get those long-term results that you want.
know your blue dot, but also realize that your blue dot is not where you started this running journey.
[00:14:29] Kevin: Like you've made so much progress already. We're just trying to help you make the next step to help set you up for even greater levels of growth.
[00:14:37] Angie: it's important for you to know how satisfied you are right now with your. Because again, that's part of that blue dot, right?
The blue dot is great when we are trying to find out where we are physically, but we also wanna figure out where we are mentally with our running because that's what our company real life runners is about, helping you to become a physically and [00:15:00] mentally stronger runner. So we wanna talk abouteffort based training and learning how to tune into our bodies. we talked about the four main problems that we see runners having, which are pace, pain, endurance, and consistency. we really wanna focus on pace or speed, You want to get faster, you want to improve your pace, you want to improve your speed. have you ever felt that you're not making the progress that you want, you're putting in the work and you're just not getting the results that you hope you would get or that you think you should be getting or that you've seen other people getting. And then the other question is, do you feel tired because you're pushing all the time? these are the, two big things that we often see.if you are someone that wants to improve your speed or improve your pace, a lot of times we see a lot of frustration and some confusion there, right? Because people tend to push harder on every run thinking that that's going to make them faster. that's one of the biggest mistakes that we've [00:16:00] seen. They are subscribing to this idea of, if I just do more, if I just try harder, then I'll get the results that I want. So when they go out on the run, most of their runs feel moderately uncomfortable.
[00:16:14] Kevin: maybe you've heard that you're supposed to go easier on easy days, but there's the number in your mind that says, if my watch says I'm running slower than this per mile, slower than this per kilometer, then that doesn't really count.that is not true. There's not really a pace that you're going, that your watch is gonna be like, Ooh, that's too slow or the watches that you finish your run and it actually tells you that you're unproductive. you can be smarter than the watch. You can wear a watch, you can use the watch. I love the watches. They provide all sorts of use, useful information, but sometimes I don't need my watch telling me whether i'm productive or unproductive. And we don't need that internal voice. When we look down and we see the pace that we're currently running, telling us that's not good enough for today. we're gonna get more into this whole idea of effort based training and not just pushing harder every [00:17:00] time. the way that you feel from one day to the next means that an easy run could be very different paces. A medium run could be very different paces.this is a matter of disconnecting your effort and how hard you're working from what the numbers on the watch say and more what your internal numbers say how does this feel to me?
[00:17:21] Angie: Yeah, exactly. we want you to start learning how to turn internal and actually feel effort level in your body. as great as all of these external devices are, they can sometimes lead us to disconnect with our body and the importance here is for us to reconnect and understand what our body is trying to tell us.
Effort level is one of the first ways that we like to teach people how to do that. this mistake of pushing harder on all of your runs, trying to get faster, can lead to a whole host of problems. If you believe that running should feel harder, should feel [00:18:00] uncomfortable for you to get results It's gonna be very difficult for you to slow down. It's gonna be very difficult for you to trust that easy running could be a path for you.
if you are willing to look at this a different way, if you are willing to think about you're running differently. The results that you will get are going to be beyond your wildest dreams just absolutely phenomenal.being able to transform your relationship with running is going to lead to so much progress because you're gonna want to do it, you're gonna want to listen to your body, you're gonna want to connect with yourself, and you're gonna want to do things to both honor your health and your performance.
You have to be willing to put in the small steps instead of trying to take these giant leaps in progress. and part of that is realizing that the steps are not that difficult. We all wanna be able to say, oh man, I've taken this, this huge amazing challenge and it's, you know, leaped me forward in my physical [00:19:00] ability. My health is so far forward. That's not how we make long-term improvements. That's not how we're going to turn to the best running you can for the rest of your life. That comes in little steps, bit by bit by bit that you enjoy the process.
Yeah, absolutely. the key to effort based training is asking yourself on a scale of one to 10, how hard did that run feel? And what we want you to understand, number one, is that your thoughts are the controllers of all of your actions and all of the results that you have in your life. So by thinking about things differently, you'll start acting differently, and then you'll start getting different results. So the thoughts are the key,but also that most of your runs should feel easy. so on a scale of one to 10, most of your training should be around a level two. We coach our athletes using something called the 80 20 Principle, and a lot of you may be familiar with this. There's been books on it. There's been research done on it. It's a scientifically based approach to training, but it is [00:20:00] relatively new.
[00:20:01] Kevin: There were some of the best coaches in the world who fully believed that the idea was run harder every day. there are other coaches that were like, no, no, no. If you run super hard every day, you can't get in much because your athletes will get hurt.So coaches went the other direction. They're like, no, no, no. Just run easy. Mm-hmm. so that you can do lots and lots of running. And it turns out that neither of those are really correct. You have to find the balance. And it's not at the halfway, it's most of your running can be easy. So you can go out and run and enjoy lots of running, but some of it of it has to be pushing a little bit harder.
[00:20:33] Angie: Right. And I will tell you that it is a skill that needs to be developed. I don't know, most runners that we've worked with, including ourselves that naturally can go out and just run easy. It's a skill. Okay. So this is one of the things that we coach our athletes on all the time, is like, Don't expect to just go out one day and like, poof, understand L two, easy [00:21:00] running. It's gonna be a practice. You're gonna have to go out and run and practice trying to find L two and trying to connect with your body and actually feel what that feels like in your body. Because if we are connected with our bodies and with what we are thinking, we are going to have so much more success, both physically in our running and also mentally the way that we feel about our running, the way that we think about our running. A big one that we've heard is like, oh, I'm a slow runner. They put this label on themselves and they're like, oh, I'm a slow runner, or I'm not a fast runner, or I'm not a real runner. What does that even mean? Right? What I want you guys to understand is, you are the one that puts that label on yourself, most of the time.someone else is not coming over and be like, you're a slow runner. Like maybe. if you think of yourself as a slow runner, and I, and a coach comes in and tells you, you need to slow down your pace. You're like, whoa, whoa. I'm already slow. I can't go slower because in your head, that [00:22:00] number on your watch, that pace, that speed, whatever you think it is, is already low And so if I'm telling you, go slower, you're like, no way. This lady doesn't know what she's talking about. But what I want you to understand is that a number is just a number. You are the one that attaches the meaning to that number.
[00:22:17] Kevin: your brain is telling you this L two pace is not giving you the the benefits that you want it to have. And we're telling you it does give you those benefits. You just have to override that thought in your head.
[00:22:30] Angie: most people don't come in just naturally knowing what L two feels like, so you have to figure it out. But once you do, running feels so much better. Like it, it just like, it's more enjoyable. You get to like look around more at the birds and the scenery and like the other things you get to like, enjoy your time just out moving your body without feeling like you're constantly pushing and constantly grinding. the way that you think about things means [00:23:00] everything. And so we want you to start bringing more awareness to that and to touch just one little part on this idea of identity. If you give yourself an identity of like slow runner or not a real runner, your brain is going to want to do things that line up with that identity because identity is the core of who you are. If you identify as a slow runner, you're gonna do things that you think slow runners do. you're not fast or slow, you're just, you're a runner and you have a pace And that pace changes on every single run. The likelihood of one run being exactly the same pace as the next run is pretty low. be aware of these labels that you're giving yourself. Okay? So I would love for you guys, you know, to go out when you do your run. Number one, assess that effort level. And then if you want some extra credit, Also start to write down some of those identities that you give yourself. Start to notice some of those thoughts. that you have about yourself, about your running. and then go on from there.[00:24:00]
There's a couple things that we wanna kind of dig into here, which is that tuning into your body. trying to figure out how to tune into our body, what our body's trying to tell us, and then what we wanna make all of that mean. That's a whole nother thing that we're gonna start to dive into a little bit more as well of like what all of it means, whether that's the distance we run, whether that's the pace we run, whether that's how we feel on our run, those are just circumstances. so your thoughts actually create your feelings and your feelings then drive your actions. this is why a lot of people think, that they need motivation because they wanna feel motivated because they know that when they feel motivated, they're more likely to go out and do the things that they wanna do.
[00:24:51] Kevin: finding your weak spots. As runners, it's important for us to feel and be strong. Strength is one of those [00:25:00] values. I don't care how old you are, I don't care how long you're running, if you want to decrease your risk of injury. If you want to run faster, longer, stronger, you need to be doing some form of strength training. Now that that strength training can look different for different runners. All right. And I think that it should look different for different runners, but there needs to be some level of strength training. the point is to bring awareness to those weak spots,Because we don't want you to make the mistake that we've seen so many runners making when they feel pain. their body is just constantly sore and aching and running just doesn't feel good, or those aches and pains just seem to pop up out of nowhere.
[00:25:44] Angie: Not saying that you'll never feel that way. but if it's happening all day every day, that's probably not the feeling that you want. a lot of times when people are experiencing pain, they're probablypopping some ibuprofen and hoping it will [00:26:00] just go away, and a lot of times one of the causes of pain is that they're just trying to run more in order to improve, or they're ignoring cross-training, ignoring strength training. They're skipping their rest days and not getting enough recovery. They're ignoring that pain again, right? Maybe you felt that pain coming on, and so you took a couple of days off. Maybe you even took off like a week or two. because that's what people tell you. Even well-meaning doctors. And I'm not trying to speak negatively about any medical professionals out there, but there are doctors that just don't know better. Especially if they're not runners. If they're not athletes, they'll say, oh, Take some time off, right? And so you take some time off and that's that injury or that pain starts to improve a little bit, and then as soon as you get back to running, or you know, maybe it's not right away, maybe it's like a week or two later, that pain comes right back because you didn't actually address the source of the pain.
[00:26:54] Kevin: I mean, that last one is so common. If you don't fix the underlying weakness, which is [00:27:00] usually what's gonna bring about the pain, like going out and running, maybe you go on like a one month cycle, I got two weeks where I feel great and I build and then I hurt. So then I take a week off and then like I run through pain for a week, then I take a week off and that then I'm back and I'm just building again. You're never able to actually build, because every time you take that week off, you get back to your starting point. Mm-hmm. . So you're just doing this continuously and you're never actually climbing.
[00:27:24] Angie: Yeah, absolutely.
We all acknowledge that we can't address physical weak spots withoutaddressing mental weak spots.
[00:27:32] Kevin: Sometimes you're not pushing through the discomfort, you're just living with the discomfort. You know, sometimes you just have to sit in the uncomfortableness and accept that this is just what it's going to be and this is not going to hurt me. This is not going to destroy me. I can simply feel uncomfortable right now and I can live in this discomfort. That is an acceptable response. You don't have to avoid it. You don't have to get through it. You can actually sometimes just sit inside of it.
[00:27:59] Angie: Yeah, [00:28:00] there are a whole host of ways that we help teach people how to do that because trying to like live in the discomfort is not an easy thing to do. and there is a difference between discomfort and pain
the awareness that there is a difference between pain and discomfort is a really big thing. going back to pain and going back to strength. and Some of the things that we want to help you guys understand is first off, physical strength. Okay. Like I said before, I think that every single runner needs to strength train, and this is because we as runners and really as humans, they have weak spots in our body. when you compare, there are often imbalances, and that's one of the biggest things in my career as a physical therapist that I would always try to look for in people are where are the weaknesses and where are the imbalances? So if you're stronger on the right side versus the left, then the forces that are going through your body while you're running are going to [00:29:00] be different, if the right side's stronger, it's gonna be able to absorb those forces better than the left side. you're gonna be able to maybe propel yourself stronger forward than on the left side so that might lead to like a little hitch in your gate. as runners, running is essentially jumping from one leg to another over and over and over again. And so our muscles need to be able to, in less than one second, stabilize our entire body weight on one leg while that other leg is moving forward. Because we're balancing on one leg as our other leg is moving forward to take the next step. that's a lot of steps that your body needs to stabilize and propel you forward every time. So can you see how if there was a weakness present, it might make sense that you might have pain. And so when we strengthen the stabilizing muscles, We have less wasted energy and better [00:30:00] running form. A lot of times people think I need to fix my running form, and I'm like, let's not worry about your running form specifically right now, because if we increase your strength, your running form will likely, naturally improve. Alterations in your running form are due to weaknesses. if we are able to produce more power through our muscle strength, we are going to be able to produce more speed. And the more muscles we recruit, the more efficient our running will become.
And so what part of your body, a weakness in which area is limiting that? that's what we want you to start to become aware of because once we find those things, then we can start to target them. We can start to do specific exercises to actually target those areas of weakness and help you to get stronger and to feel stronger. So moving from the physical to the mental. when we look at mental strength, what are some of the thoughts that are stopping you from continuing on?,
And when you [00:31:00] understand that on a deeper level, you can understand, okay, today's the day that I should be pushing through. Today's the day that I need to pull back if it's not feeling good.
[00:31:08] Kevin: Yeah. knowing what you're supposed to get out of the workout. Knowing that if it's a hard day, it's okay to feel uncomfortable To have some discomfort. figure out what's going on with the situation around you and, and take the appropriate steps to rectify it. But don't get yourself into a situation where you're pushing really hard and then complaining about it being uncomfortable. You chose the discomfort. Enjoy the discomfort. You probably even paid for the discomfort if you have a number on your chest.
[00:31:33] Angie: I know. Isn't that funny? Like when you think about it
Like as runners, like, we literally pay to be uncomfortable, which is the craziest thing, but it's not supposed to feel uncomfortable all the time because it's gonna be really hard for you to like get to the race and be able to push yourself in that race if every run coming up to that also feels uncomfortable, right? And a lot of people are like, oh, no, no, no. Those runs are preparing me for race day but those runs, if, if [00:32:00] every run feels uncomfortable, you're just breaking yourself down both physically and mentally. You have to also allow yourself the wins to build back up stronger, right? those runs that feel great to give you that feedback that you are getting stronger.our thoughts do control our actions and our results, but by thinking differently, you start doing things differently, which means you start getting different results and then those results can help reinforce the positive thoughts that you're thinking. When we talk aboutimproving the mental side of running, a lot of people think, oh, that just means I just need to be positive all the time. And that is not what it means. Okay? It's using mental strategies that you can learn just like other skills.
And that's the way that you're gonna have those long-term successes, both physically and mentally.
[00:32:51] Kevin: the path of motivation is you don't have to bring a huge amount of motivation in, in my opinion, to start the run. , sometimes you just have to bring some openness. you don't even [00:33:00] need to fire yourself up and be like, this is gonna be an amazing run. Just put your shoes on. Mm-hmm. and head out and start. Right. And give yourself the opportunity for it to be a good run. Yeah. But at the same time, give yourself the opportunity for it to be not a good run and be like, you know what today? Honestly, this is not the day for me to push through, to grind it out and to put a run. But give yourself the chance and the ability to honestly listen to yourself and feel what you need that day. Maybe it is the day that you can continue running. Maybe it's a day that you need to be like, yep, five minutes is what I had today. and that doesn't mean you gotta get yourself fired up and get all the like rah rah music and the inspirational YouTube video, you don't need those to just head out the door and start. Just say, I'm gonna head out the door and start, not, I'm gonna head out the door and crush it. I'm gonna head out the door and I guess it's gonna be okay. Just, I'm gonna head out the door. That can be the full statement. And then see what happens from there.
[00:33:57] Angie: Yeah, totally. And I think that [00:34:00] people,they over emphasize the importance of motivation, because motivation is a feeling and like all feelings, it comes and goes, right? Sometimes we're happy, sometimes we're sad, sometimes we're energized, sometimes we are feeling a little lazy, right? There's lots of different feelings, and motivation is a feeling. Also, we don't have to feel motivated for us to go out and do things like think about things that you do every day. There's just certain things that we do that we don't have to feel motivated to do. We just do them because we're disciplined
so if you are someone that finds like you're always trying to struggle and always trying to find motivation, I would like you to change your gaze, right? Start to look at different things instead of always saying, I need this motivation. Instead start looking at what kind of person do I wanna become here? And what would that kind of person do?
[00:34:53] Kevin: Yeah. And sometimes that person takes a rest day. It's okay to have an off day. Sometimes you don't feel good and pushing through [00:35:00] is not the best answer. Sometimes the answer is off day.
There's something bigger there and you need to kinda look underneath and figure out what is it that that is preventing you from heading out the door and being, you know, at all excited about it.
[00:35:13] Angie: Yeah, and that really connects withTune into your body and figure out what's going on here, right? Because if it's one day here and there, that's one thing, but if it's happening day after day after day, that could be a sign that you're over training, you're overdoing it. You need a rest day. That could be a sign that maybe that goal that you chose, you're not feeling connected to anymore. it's okay for your priorities to shift. It's okay for you to change your goal if you don't feel a connection to that goal anymore. That's totally okay.
and that's really kind of what brings us to finding those restrictions and, and helping you to work through those restrictions. So we talked about the four main problems that a lot of runners haveso we wanna focus a little bit more on consistency if you're like thinking to [00:36:00] yourself, oh, well I already run three times a week, so I'm consistent. Great. Are you also consistent with your strength training? with your mobility work? with your nutrition, your hydration, your recovery? There are a lot of different aspects to our training outside of just running. what area of your life do you feel like you are not as consistent as you want to be yet? What area of your life do you think you could use a little work in your consistency? I would say most of us suffer from inconsistency in some area of our life at some point in time. And maybe that changes, right? Based on what we're choosing to focus on right now.
[00:36:41] Kevin: when there's all of those things and I'm trying to find consistency in all of them, I end up being inconsistent in all of them. I get excitement for all sorts of different things, but it comes in waves. Sometimes I show up at school and I am like, woo, boy, it is geometry. Let's go for it . And other days I'm like, okay, let's get through [00:37:00] class today. I think we all get this in so many areas of our life. The excitement comes in waves. consistency doesn't mean I'm at a hundred percent on all things all the time. That's the trap. that we fall into so that we can feel bad about ourselves cause we're not a hundred percent consistent in a hundred percent of things.
[00:37:15] Angie: Right. That's that all or nothing mentality that so many people have fall into and that is not the best way for you to be consistent in your health, _in _your running in general. in your health and fitness. You are not supposed to be, and this might be wake up call for some people, you are not supposed to be 100% perfect 100% of the time in all areas of your health and your fitness or your life, right? Like Kevin said, things come in waves. We have to choose where we're placing our focus, and that's one of the things that we talked about with the 80 20 rule. How 80%. Your training should be at an easy level, 20% should be harder. The 80 20 rule is [00:38:00] something that you can apply to so many areas of your life.
As humans, we have to be kinder to ourselves and we have to understand that we're doing our best and if we're we're good, 80% of the time that's winning. That is hugely above 50%, right? That is 30% above 50, which is half and half, right? Like we're doing really well. That's gonna be a lot better than trying to just go all in as hard as we can a hundred percent of the time. you usually get burnt out and you usually get injured and you usually fall off the wagon. And that's what leads to that inconsistency that so many people suffer from.
[00:38:34] Kevin: that's okay to sometimes take a day off of running. But this isn't just our running, like this involves all aspects of life.Making sure that you've kind of established priorities, but that doesn't mean that it's, it's all or nothing or priorities. It's a balance and it's not a 50 50 balance, right? It's a changing balance.
[00:38:52] Angie: Balance doesn't mean that you're giving equal attention to every single thing in your life. Balance means that you're figuring [00:39:00] out what your current priorities are in your, in this season of your life, and you are at allocating your energy, your attention, your effort level in a way that matches those priorities. And this is one of the really, really important things that we help people understand knowing those priorities and those core values and those goals and working towards those. When my second kid was born, well, when my first daughter was born, got right back into it, right? Like Kevin and I, we had one kid. We're like, okay, we traded off our, you know, you're running now. I'm running Then. Got right back into the gym. I actually trained for my first half marathon and ran that when she was two. Like, so things were good. And then I found out I was pregnant with kid number three. I mean, kid number two, Lord, kid number two, our second kid. I was thinking the inconsistency for three years was the three of my,
[00:39:57] Kevin: I'm leaving the phone call now.
[00:39:58] Angie: I jumped, [00:40:00] jumped out in my, in my story. Um, when I, after, after we had our second baby, I was inconsistent for three years after that because of that mom guilt. I tell this story often and vividly remember leaving my house to go for a run and my girls literally holding my legs saying, mommy, don't go. And that made me feel like I was the worst mother, that I was putting myself above my kids. Like I walked out the door, Kevin's like, go, go, go. I've got this. It's gonna be fine, just go. Babies crying, all the things. I walk out the front door and closed the front door and just broke down into tears because I felt like, what am I doing? Like this is not what a good mom would do. But in my mind, at that time, I had defined a good mom as someone that put her kids above herself and gave up the things that were important to me to, in order to take care of them. I have since [00:41:00] changed that definition. Okay. And this is what, it's, what's important is that you start, Work from a definition that works for you and an identity that works for you. So my definition of a good mother now for me, okay? And, and this isn't how I judge other people, this is how I judge myself. Being a good mom means taking care of myself first. So that I can be better for my kids and for my husband, because if I don't take care of myself, then I'm not showing up as the best version of myself. I'm not being the best mom I could be because when I work out, when I take care of myself, when I eat healthy, I have more energy, I'm stronger and I can pick up my kids. I'm more patient, Because I know I've already taken the time to take care of myself. By taking care of myself, by making sure that I'm strong, I'm gonna be able to be that active, energetic, loving, fun mom that I wanna be.
[00:41:57] Kevin: that's one of the big mistakes that people fall [00:42:00] into when they're dealing with inconsistency is putting other people first. I had the same thing last year. I was gonna train for an ultramarathon and I knew the time commitment for coaching the track team. If I wanted to be a good coach, that was gonna be a whole heck of a lot of time commitment. I couldn't swing that and train the way I wanted. And so instead of doing like a poor job at both, I said I need to give up coaching the track team this season. I, I cannot do both because I couldn't feel good about both things. It was not going to be in alignment with me. There's a whole lot of reasons for inconsistency
[00:42:32] Angie: our thoughts create our actions, which give us our results, and then our results reinforce those thoughts or help us break those thoughts,If you think of yourself as a good runner and then you do things that good runners do, then that's gonna give you a different result, which is going to help reinforce that thought of I am a good runner, which is why our thoughts are so important. The other mistake that we see a lot of people making if they're suffering with consistency is that they're not following a plan.[00:43:00] This is a recipe for lack of success, for disaster, for inconsistency, because when you're just trying to get something in, if that's what you're telling your brain, then your brain's thinking, oh, that's not a priority.
But if you're saying, no, I'm going to get this in, I gotta figure out what to do. And if you have a plan, this is one of the hugely important reasons that we should all be following a plan. All of those things should have a plan because the beauty of a plan is you don't have to figure it out every day. I would suggest for you guys to actually plan in your workouts, if consistency is an issue, whether it's running or strength training, or doing your mobility or meal planning, or whatever it is that you wanna be more consistent with, find a time in your day to do it and stick it on your calendar and keep an appointment with yourself. Honor that appointment with yourself. Because it's important for you to show up for yourself in that way because you've already decided that that's a priority, that that's important.
[00:43:59] Kevin: knowing why [00:44:00] is super helpful and then just having that plan laid out for you, so then if anything comes up, you know what the schedule is. It makes rearranging things easier. If there's no plan, something comes up, running, gets pushed the back burner, something comes up. Strength training is out the window. If you've got a plan, something comes up, you had a strength session, now it goes somewhere else on the schedule. it has to get rearranged. it doesn't just disappear. Right. And if there's not a schedule, but not, it wasn't really there in the first place. It was kind of sort of there, but without a schedule, without a plan. It was in your head that it was there so if something else comes up, it's very easy for it to not have it.
[00:44:38] Angie: Yeah,this is one of the reasons why having a goal and then having a plan that progresses you towards that goal, having a progressive plan is so important. is your plan actually progressing you to where you want to be. And that is the key, and that is the importance of a more holistic, more comprehensive training plan, and even more a personalized [00:45:00] training plan be that's going to take you, your body, your lifestyle into consideration. This is one of the reasons that generic training plans often don't work for a lot of people. They work for some people, but those people that generic plans work for usually are more willing to rearrange their lives to fit the plan instead of having the plan fit into their life. So going back to our analogy of our traveler on a journey.
It's important for you to choose the purpose of your trip, for you to get very clear on what you want to achieve. And then you also want to pack for your trip, right? So what do you wanna bring with you to be best prepared? What thoughts do you wanna bring with you that's going to make this journey most enjoyable and most successful for you? that's kind of looking at the mental side of things, but if we look at the physical side, physically we need to find those areas of restriction also.
without proper [00:46:00] mobility, your body is going to compensate with other movement patterns. And when I say the word mobility, I mean the way that your body is moving. Mobility is different than flexibility.
When we talk about flexibility, that's how you know how flexible you are, how much your muscle stretch. That's a different thing.
Flexibility is a component of mobility, but there are more things involved in mobility.
Mobility is a more overarching term that includes, the way that our muscles move, the way that our joints move. and then our movement pattern as a whole as well.
Let's go onto goal setting.
I think there's a couple of like really big mistakes that we see a lot of runners making. I know I've done it also, a lot of these things.
[00:46:42] Kevin: I think I've done all of them. That's how we came up with these, is these are mistakes we have made.
[00:46:46] Angie: Exactly. But a couple of the big mistakes that see runners making, number one, they don't have a clear and specific goal. Like have you defined what faster means to you?
And realistically, how long do you [00:47:00] believe that it's gonna take you to get there? Is that work that you're willing to do? Are you willing to wait a year, two years, three years, to be able to achieve that goal? Because I think that a lot of people want results,understanding what specifically your goal is, is a really important step. The second big mistake that we see people making is that they don't follow a plan. there's so many different circumstances that we all have in our lives, and so we're running around, we're trying to live these busy life and then, oh yeah, we also wanna try to fit in our running. And when we don't fit it in because we're not following a plan, so we don't really know what we're supposed to be doing, then you end up not doing anything and then we end up feeling guilty about it. And so then what happens is people say, oh, okay, I need a plan, then they download a plan from the internet. They go to coach Google, and they say, Training plan for a half marathon and they download a training plan and they start following that blindly, [00:48:00] and that plan might not be right for them. Okay. That might not be right for you if you've ever done this. I've followed generic training plans before, you know, before Kevin and I started like learning everything that we learn. We've done this.,
And that shows you one of the biggest problems with generic training plans is that we're like, okay, yeah, I'm gonna follow this plan. But then sometimes we pick and people pick and choose, you know, I know I did it. I am guilty. So if you're not actually following the plan the way that it's written, you're not getting the full benefits of that plan, which is why it's so important for you to have a personalized plan that's realistic for you to follow, so that you know that you're not skimping out on certain areas of your training.
[00:48:39] Kevin: But there's a reason why you're ignoring those, those are probably the parts that you need the most. So then you end up overemphasizing the parts that you're already good at and de-emphasizing the parts that you really need to work at and you get to the, to the race and you're like, I don't know why I didn't perform better. I, I had a plan. You had a plan, but the plan didn't work for you. there was [00:49:00] technically a plan, it wasn't your plan. that plan can't just be a random plan that you hope works. You need some way of taking that plan and making it work for you. as we like to say here at Real Life Runner, you need to be able to run your life. You need to be able to actually, Fit running into your life. Mm-hmm. so that running doesn't take over. The life doesn't take over. They actually work together with each other.
[00:49:22] Angie: So if you're constantly feeling guilty and ashamed that you're not getting in what you should be doing, or that it's not going the way you want, it's actually giving you the opposite results. We don't want you guys to have to suffer like that anymore. You know? We want you to understand that your past does not determine your future. You don't have to feel bad about it. You know, if you aren't happy about where you've been in the past and you'd like it to change, you can, you know, starting today, starting today, you can make different choices. You can start to identify as a different person. And, you know, it might not be [00:50:00] easy.
the evolve evolution of ourself, of our identity might not happen overnight with a snap. But you could start today to start practicing the identity that you wanna be and start reminding yourself of like, I am a healthy person and this is what healthy people do. I am a runner and this is what runners do. I am a real life runner. I want to be the kind of runner that improves, and in order to do that, this is what I need to do.
[00:50:32] Kevin: People are like, man, if I could just like skip through the training and just get to race day and just be in that shape, you're missing the point of it. Like all of that building, that's where the excitement, that's where the growth comes. That's where you really find out who you are. Then you can celebrate. That's why they give you a medal at the finish because it's time for a party. It's not this time where it's like, oh man, if I could just get to there, all of the training, and we don't really have a timeline on exactly [00:51:00] how long that training's gonna take. Everybody adapts at a slightly different level. Right. That's why taking the generic plan It'll do maybe. Maybe you'll adjust on that timeline if you happen to actually fit perfectly to the starting generic identity that that plan was made for.That is your running journey. Your running journey. Not somebody else not your friend in a running group, not somebody you saw on Instagram. Your running journey. Make sure that you enjoy all of that.
[00:51:26] Angie: Yeah, absolutely. Because that's how you become the person you want to become. Like Kev, you said something very quickly in there that I really like, wanna point out You said
[00:51:37] Kevin: How beautiful my coach is. .
[00:51:39] Angie: You're so cute. Um, it's not, you just like, you're throwing me off now.
Like, and, and like people don't need to see this anyway. Um, so. The, it's not about finding yourself during the journey, it's about creating yourself during that journey. . And it's about [00:52:00] becoming the person that you want to be through that journey. Because I think that like, people wanna find their purpose, find their passion, find this when it's all within you, you just have to start deciding who you want to be and then doing things that back, that identity up.
[00:52:20] Kevin: And that's not easy. Your brain is gonna give you so much pushback. Your brain's gonna think to yourself, you've never run a marathon. That sounds really far kind of dangerous. And you're likely to be unsuccessful. Maybe you get it, maybe you don't. But man, it seems so much more exciting to strive for the huge goal than to just stay where you. Yeah, that's, I think that's the fun of running.
[00:52:44] Angie: Yeah. And it's about the journey. It's not about the destination. Right. That's one of the things that running, I think teaches us,
if you enjoyed the process, if you focused on the process and made process-oriented goals that you knew you were getting, even if you [00:53:00] haven't gotten to the outcome yet, you know that you're checking boxes along the way, how much more satisfying would that be?
we start taking those big goals that we want to achieve and we start breaking them down into smaller goals that will actually get us to those goals. And that is the key for long-term success and long-term goal achievement. Going back to our analogy that we've been working here of our traveler on a journey. You have to know the destination, right? You have to, you pull up Google Maps, you find your blue dot. Now we have to check the destination. And so you figure out, okay, where do you wanna go? Input that into, in, into the map. And then what happens?
Usually Google Map will give us multiple options to get to the same place. And this is what we want you guys to realize is also true of your running. there are different paths that you can take that all get you to the same place. So which path would you rather take? There's lots [00:54:00] of different options that you can take in Google Maps. Same thing with your running, right? Do you want the shortcut to get to your goal? Do you wanna take the really long and scenic route?
and sometimes Google Maps is wrong, but if you had someone with you that knew the area that had traveled that path before, that had traveled from where you are to where you wanna go hundreds of times and helped hundreds of other travelers to do the same, wouldn't you want that person along for the ride with you?
what we wanna show you, is that, that's possible with, with us in inside of our academy is, is real life runners. You know, there are lots of paths, you know, You could download the generic training plan, like we said, and you could try to figure out how to adjust it and figure out how to make it work for you and make sure, you know, try to, again, it's gonna take a lot of time to do it that way. There are people that will tell you that running is good for you. And there are people that will tell you, running is terrible for you. Running is bad for your knees, running is good for your knees. Like [00:55:00] it's literally all sides of the spectrum out there, so you have to find the one that you connect with. And if you guys connected with us we would love to continue to be your guides on your path inside our real Life Runners Academy. So, um, Kev, do you have any other wrap up thoughts
[00:55:17] Kevin: you know, when you're looking at training for a race it's great. Once you have the plan, even if you have a plan that's sort of designed for you, things still show up the same way that maybe you've got the route that you're like, this is the route I want, I, I'd like it to be fast and efficient. But what about when the sickness shows up? what about when weather hits and you, you can't go run for the day. It's nice to have coaches with you that can help the rerouting process. Because otherwise it's a lot of guess in check. You know, if, if you're using Google Maps and trying to drive through construction, it sends you down a dead end half. When you have a coach with you, they're like, no, no, no. That's a dead end. Some of this is still a little bit of experimentation. Because every runner is different. Every runner out here [00:56:00] is very unique. Right.
[00:56:01] Angie: But when you have, and we, and we will tell you very honestly, like we don't get it right 100% of the time. Like we are still human. We are as your coaches, right? Like it's not.
But we also understand that you are still an individual and your body might not adapt the same way. because you are an individual. So we can help you, you know, to guide you in the best way that we think, and then also help you adjust along the.
[00:56:25] Kevin: Right. Because it's, it's not just following the physical exact steps.
there's going to be some solid benefits to it, some physical benefits that you're gaining, but, Beyond physical. It gets to be fun.
[00:56:37] Angie: I hope that you guys, you know, uh, gained a lot from this and like I said, if you would like to continue with us inside of our coaching program, we would love to have you. The name of the program is The Real Life Runners Training Academy.
we do personalized coaching, 1 0 1 coaching or, um, group coaching.
we have clients currently, um, in the us, uk, in Australia, [00:57:00] in, we've got people all, all over world.
[00:57:04] Kevin: We've all in, in various parts of the uk. Yeah. Um, I'm not sure what's all in
[00:57:08] Angie: Ireland.
Um, Canada,
So we just wanna help , we really do. Yeah, we, we just wanna help you guys.
The Academy is our coaching program. it entails is that inside the academy we have three main modules and we went deeper into module phase one this week. Phase one is all about intention. It's bringing awareness to where you are right now. It's bringing awareness to your thoughts, to your identity, helping teach you how to rewire your brain for success. It's more about goal setting, it's setting that intention and figuring out where you are.
Phase two is all about building a foundation and creating that personalized plan that's right for you.
then phase three is optimization. So after you build that plan, and we give you training plan templates to use inside of our coaching program, because we wanna make plan creation easy for you. Like we teach you exactly how to build it [00:58:00] from scratch if you want to. And then we also have templates for you to use and then teach you how to take those templates and personalize them for you.
And then as a bonus on top, we throw in three months of group coaching that's included. And group coaching includes, Um, live weekly calls on here, here on Zoom. It includes email access to your coaches for any questions that you might have. Um, we have like team challenges that we'll do. it includes access to our community. We have a private community of other runners around the world that are all trying to be the best versions of themselves and the best runners they can be also. And it's fantastic, a fantastic group of people in there.
all right you guys, thank you so much for joining us and sharing this podcast with your friends. We really, really appreciate it. hopefully we'll see some of you inside the academy. This has been The Real Life Runners podcast, episode number 295.
Now, get out there and run your life.
