306: Motivation - PODCAST AUDIO
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[00:00:00] This is the real life runners podcast, episode number 306. Today we're talking all about motivation so stay tuned.
[00:00:10] Angie: All right, so today we're talking all about motivation because motivation is one of those topics that all of us struggle with at some point in time. So if you saw motivation in the topic of the title of this podcast episode and you're like, oh, I should probably listen to that one. Welcome to Being Human.
We are all struggling with motivation at some time or another, so. No matter who you are, if you are [00:01:00] inconsistent with your running, if you're inconsistent with your strength training, if you are already consistent with your running or your strength training, you will be able to take things away from this episode because motivation is something that we all struggle with at some point in time or
[00:01:14] Kevin: Yeah. Essentially kinda like to persevere to, to see that one, you're not alone with this lack of motivation. Yeah. Although I am fired up for this episode, I could not want to do this more. I definitely don't want to just eat dinner and take a nap like this.
Let's bring it.
[00:01:30] Angie: but that's a perfect example, right? And like you guys know that we talk about running on this podcast, but we are also real life runners. And so we talk about. Real life as well. And we talk about how running helps us in our real life and how our real life relates to running and how all of that stuff works together.
And so we're definitely gonna be talking about all aspects today. We're definitely addressing it when it comes to our running, our fitness, our health, but also tie in some of those times in our real life where. We might not feel motivated to do certain
[00:01:58] Kevin: things. Right. Because [00:02:00] it's, it's all, it's not a thread.
Yeah. It's a, it's a braid. They all come together. Mm-hmm. It's a whole giant intertwined thing. And motivation in one area does not mean motivation across the spectrum. Right. It could just be motivation in that one area that might even be pulling motivation away from a different area. True. How to. Like, do you, do you let the motivation say, I don't do this area?
That's, that's the
[00:02:20] Angie: concept here. Yeah. So before we jump into the episode, have you left us a review yet? Because if you haven't, we would really, really appreciate, if you headed over to Apple Podcast and left us a review or Spotify, you can leave us a star rating on Spotify, on Apple. You can actually write a little review.
It'll take you about a minute or two to just kind of write something that you liked about the podcast and leave us a star rating over there. Because the more reviews that we have, the more this podcast gets shown to other people When you go in and search for running podcasts or if you search for different topics.
so if you, especially if you found our podcast through a podcast search. Pay it forward and help another person find this [00:03:00] podcast too, especially if you've found it helpful.
So we're gonna start off, when we talk about motivation with this idea of what you want to do. And what you feel like doing, because they're not always the same thing. So maybe you don't feel like going for a run. Maybe you don't feel like doing your strength training.
Maybe you don't do your speed workout because you don't feel like it. You just decide to skip your speed workout and go for an easy run that day. And oftentimes what this leads to is a lack of progress. It leads to disappointment because you're not getting the results that you want from the training because you're not putting in the work, you're not doing the things that you need to do in order to get the results that you want to have.
And so what we want to look at is this idea of. Feeling like it versus wanting, and this is something that I brought up to Kevin today and he's like, wait a second, what do you mean by that?
[00:03:53] Kevin: Yeah, you threw
me at first. Yeah. Because it is what you feel like doing right now. Mm-hmm. I feel like this, right. I feel like [00:04:00] laying down.
Mm-hmm. I feel like, you know, I, I feel like having a snack. But I want to run a faster 5k Right. In, in a month and a half from now. Exactly.
[00:04:12] Angie: So you don't have to feel like it all the time. Right. What you feel like in any given moment might be sitting on the couch or sleeping in or Oh, sleeping in. Oh, right.
Sleeping in is the best. I, I look forward to my Sunday mornings mm-hmm. Where I can sleep in, going out with friends and having another, another one. You're out with your friends. Right. But what you want, if you really think about it, is to improve your pace, to improve your endurance, to run a half marathon, to run a faster 5k, whatever your goal is in your running and your health and your fitness to get stronger, to stop getting injured all the time, to be more consistent, to run three times per week.
There's so many different types of goals out there, and they don't always involve speed, and they don't always involve mileage or races, right? [00:05:00] Your goal, Is what you want. You want to be able to achieve this goal, but what you want and what you feel like don't always match. And that's the thing that a lot of people get wrong, I think because they think that they need to feel like I.
Going out for their run. They need to have the motivation to go out for their run. They, you know, I just don't feel like it today. So instead I'm gonna go sit on the couch. But what you feel like and what you truly want don't always match. And what you truly want takes time. It requires you to do things that you might not feel like in the moment so that you could have the future results that you
wanna have.
[00:05:40] Kevin: Yeah. I mean, that, that's really what it is, is the thing that you want is not necessarily gonna be immediately given to you mm-hmm. Based off of, off of your, your actions. Right. Like, I, I might not feel like going for a run, but ultimately the result that I want is only gonna come if I do these runs, if I build up the runs and the strength training and all of the [00:06:00] things.
Right. Right. Even if I don't feel like it right now, sometimes you do feel like it, and that's great. Mm-hmm. Like if what you feel like doing right now is also going to start building you towards the goal that you'd like to achieve, great. But sometimes the thing that you feel like doing right now is gonna be neutral or move you in the opposite direction of your goal.
And that can mean that you have to actually overcome what you feel like doing. What you feel like doing is usually continuing what it is that you're currently doing. Like that's how inertia works. If you're currently sitting on the couch, you probably feel like sitting on the couch because that's what
you're doing,
[00:06:38] Angie: or watching the next episode of that Netflix show that you're watching.
Oh, because it just automatically starts. It just rolls into the next, in 10 seconds, you have 10 seconds to like find the remote control and turn it off. Otherwise, the next. Episode just
starts
[00:06:49] Kevin: and God forbid you had a kid and they're hiding the remote. It's out in the kitchen right? By the time you've got the remote to turn it off, the next episode has started.
And so you might as well justwell make a snack cuz you're in the kitchen. The episode has [00:07:00] already started, and then you can go back to the couch.
[00:07:02] Angie: You might as well just continue on.
[00:07:04] Kevin: And, and it's a whole idea of matching up with what, what seems comfortable right now. Mm-hmm. And does what seems comfortable right now actually lead to the bigger goal of what you want.
Which it, it takes time. That's, I think that's part of the challenge, yeah. Is it takes time to get to these bigger goals. It's not an immediate result.
[00:07:25] Angie: Even the non-big goals, like how do you define bigger goal, right? Like even just really anything worthwhile that you want to achieve is going to take time and it's going to take effort and you're not gonna feel like it all the time.
And one of the best examples that I can come up with is cooking dinner, right? Like, How many people have days like, raise your hand. You're probably like out on a run right now, or driving in your car. Like, raise your hand or put a big smile on your face if there are. Is has ever, ever been a night where you didn't feel like cooking dinner but you knew you had to?
Right? Because you know it's important to eat or it's [00:08:00] important to feed your family and you just don't feel like cooking dinner and sometimes. When you don't feel like cooking dinner, you order out, right? Sometimes you, you pick up the phone, or I guess now it's not even picking up the phone, it's opening up the computer and putting on in an online order and you order out.
But if you order out every single time you don't feel like cooking dinner, you're probably gonna notice something that you don't like in your bank account and around your waistline. Yeah. Right. If you think that cooking dinner is going to make you a healthier person, if you think that cooking dinner is important for you as a, as a mom, as a dad, to provide for your family, if you think that cooking dinner is a, is a thing that you should do, and you know, we're not gonna get into shoulds right now, but.
Cooking dinner is a necessary means to an end of having food to eat for dinner. Right. If you take away the, the takeout option,
[00:08:56] Kevin: right. Like it's, it's a good long-term goal, right? Of the [00:09:00] health benefits of cooking your own food. But like you just said, like you don't have to cook dinner, right? Like that's the thing.
You don't have to go for a run. Mm-hmm. You don't have to do your strength training today. You could skip it, right? You could take an off day,
[00:09:11] Angie: you could get takeout.
[00:09:12] Kevin: Right. If, if that's the answer every time. Mm-hmm. If you simply live by what seems like the easiest next step Yeah. You're not necessarily gonna ever achieve the goals that it's going to take effort and, and I don't know.
Effort. It's really what's gonna take, it's gonna take
effort.
[00:09:30] Angie: Yeah. I mean the, if you wanna kind of zoom out even more, like being a mom, right? Being a parent I think is one of those things that you don't always feel like doing. There's lots of things that I don't feel like doing. I mean, How many times have our girls when it's Saturday and I tell 'em, it's time to clean the house?
They're like, do we have to? I don't feel like it. I was like, neither do I.
[00:09:53] Kevin: I don't
know how many Saturdays have existed since they can talk since the
dawn of their existence.
[00:09:59] Angie: or since they could at least [00:10:00] hold a vacuum, right? Yes. but it's like, Yeah, I know I don't feel like cleaning either, but what I want is a clean house.
I want the results, so I have to clean. If I want to have a clean house, and yes, I could hire someone to come and clean my house, but then I'm gonna have to add that to my budget. Maybe I'm gonna have to move around and make sacrifices of other areas so that I can. Not clean my house. Right. Because we don't have just an unlimited financial money supply.
[00:10:25] Kevin: Yeah.
I I don't think anybody wakes up in the morning and they're like, oh, thank God I get to vacuum today. Oh yeah. Like no one does that. And yet plenty of people vacuum right throughout the day because they want the result of clean
house.
[00:10:38] Angie: There are necessary things that we have to do, in All aspects of our lives if we want certain results or certain outcomes.
If you want a clean house, you have to keep it clean. And even if you have a cleaning person, maybe that still requires you to tidy up and put things away, right? Do some laundry every now and then. Run a vacuum when the dog brings in. God knows what from the outside, right? [00:11:00] There are things that you're gonna want to do or that you're not gonna feel like doing.
You're definitely not gonna want to do it, but you're gonna do it anyway because what you want. Is a clean house. What you want is dinner on the table. What you want is to be a good mom, so you're gonna do the things that you need to do or that you believe are important for you to do, to have that result, to have that outcome.
And the same thing goes for our health and fitness. You might not want to go out for that run. You might not want. Or sorry, feel like you might not feel like doing your strength training that day. You might not feel like doing your speed workout, but if you want to get stronger, if you want to stop getting injured all the time, if you want to run faster and improve your pace, That's what's necessary for you to do.
So, are you willing to do what's necessary to attain the things that you want, even on the days that you don't
feel like it?
[00:11:54] Kevin: Yeah, that's a good one. I mean, there are so many days, and this is the thing, there are I think a lot of people probably listening that are like, [00:12:00] yeah. But you understand how much I don't feel like doing this,
[00:12:03] Angie: then maybe this isn't the right sport for you.
Th
[00:12:05] Kevin: that's quite possible.
[00:12:06] Angie: I mean, I'm not trying to be jerk at all, but like maybe this isn't the right sport for you. If you find yourself dreading everything, go find something that you enjoy, like life is too short. I. Running should be fun. Most of the time. Strength training should be fun. Most of the time if it's not, go find something else to do or find a better way to do it.
And that's one of the things that I know that so many of our clients have talked about is like being able to enjoy the process. Again, being able to find the joy because they, they know that they're on a plan that actually works for them in their body, in their lifestyle, right? So maybe you're just not training the right way.
Maybe you don't have the right plan to make your body feel good because obviously, If it feels terrible every single time you're doing it, of course you're not gonna wanna do it, right? Mm-hmm. Of course, that isn't going to give you like, it's gonna be very hard to continue to motivate yourself if it feels terrible every [00:13:00] time you do it.
So number one, it shouldn't feel terrible every time you do it. It should feel easy. Most of the time it should feel good most of the time. There's always gonna be those days where it doesn't feel good, and you're gonna have to kind of just force yourself to do it when you don't want to, but, Sorry, I kind of interrupted you and got on a little soapbox
there.
[00:13:17] Kevin: That's okay. There's a different direction I'm gonna take that. I think sometimes it's okay if it doesn't feel good, many times like, this doesn't really, I, I don't really feel like doing it, but once you start, you're like, yeah, I am glad I've done this. Yes. Like if, if you find yourself. Even multiple days in a row being like, I really don't feel like getting out the door.
But you do it anyway. You put the shoes on, you're like, I'm gonna give myself the five minutes, and if I'm just not feeling it, then I'm gonna turn around. Yeah. And day upon day you find yourself, after five minutes, you're like, Hey, you know what? This is fine. I'm gonna go do my run. Mm-hmm. Then it's, it's working fine for you.
Yeah. Like you need just enough action that you've overcome your inertia, because there's so many other things that are easier than heading out for a run. [00:14:00] Like mm-hmm. The amount of time you could distract yourself on your phone or computer Oh yeah. Beyond the physical exertion of heading out for a run.
Like, you would never have to go for a run. Like the internet has enough holes to dive into that you would never have to get up from the computer. Like you'd be fine. So, But the, the thing is that if you get that, like, just enough that you start the action and then you're like, oh yeah, I'm off on my run.
This is great. I'm gonna go do my thing. That's a different, different ballgame. Running can still totally be your thing. Sometimes you just have to start.
[00:14:30] Angie: Absolutely. Absolutely. And I think that that's, that's a really big part of it. And so my goal for what I saw set on my little mini soapbox, there was never to discourage anyone from running.
Because if you want to be a runner, if you want to love running, like there's totally a way to do that. But if every single day is completely miserable for you, there's lots of other things to do.
[00:14:49] Kevin: There are plenty of other things you could do.
[00:14:50] Angie: Yeah. And I saw a great, reel about this the other day on Instagram about, you know, people that go and do cardio at the gym, right?
Yeah. Like they have to, they do the stair stepper or they do the [00:15:00] treadmill or they do the elliptical. And this guy was talking about how he goes out and plays pickleball because pickleball, like 90 minutes of playing pickleball burns like a thousand calories for him. And he is like, And I,
[00:15:10] Kevin: he plays
pickleball differently than I do.
[00:15:12] Angie: Right? Yes. He, he is a, sounds like he's a pretty competitive pickleball player, right? So he is like, if I go out and do that, I burn a thousand calories. I get my cardio in and it doesn't feel like cardio uhhuh, it doesn't feel like I, I need discipline to do it. People talk about, oh, I, you just need discipline.
You need, need to get in there and do that cardio. And it's like, yeah, but I, I got it done and it didn't have to feel so difficult. Yeah. But it's like, and if you that, if you can say that about running, then. How amazing is that, right? Like it doesn't feel hard, it doesn't feel like it's drudgery or that you have to go out and do it like you were talking about.
feeling good and looking forward to the runs. And I know that I recorded a, a reel, I think it was last week, about not wanting to go out for my run because it was kind of gross out and I was tired and I was sore This morning. I walked out of the house and it was [00:16:00] 70 degrees. It was cool. Yeah. And like this weekend was so gross and so hot and humid, but then we had like a really bad storm yesterday and it blew.
All of that outta here. And today was so lovely. And so when I was walking the girls to school this morning, I could not wait to go out for my run because I was just like, yay. It's like a little bit cooler. Right. And it's May 1st, which is nice. Yeah, it's May 1st. And so this is like a little gift that the weather is giving to us.
But yeah, we'll see How long in the last,
[00:16:25] Kevin: no,
don't worry. It was, it was full blown summer by this
afternoon,
[00:16:28] Angie: by the time you ran this afternoon. okay, so. That's a little bit about feeling like it and wanting like the difference between feeling like something and actually wanting something. So I would encourage you to, on those days that you don't feel like it, ask yourself what do I actually want?
And then make your decision from that place. The next thing we wanna talk about is short-term versus long-term motivation, and this kind of looks more at our results. Okay. When we talk before about the things you feel like versus the things you [00:17:00] want, that's kind of talking more about like your thoughts and your actions.
This is talking a little bit more about those results. And so what we see a lot of times people doing is that they want to see these results very quickly because we live in a culture that rewards. Very, you know, immediate gratification and we, our technology has gotten us very used to getting things like right when we want them right at in this moment.
And so as runners, we wanna see results quickly. And they're, a lot of people go into running with this short-term focus. Maybe it's a race. Maybe they, they, they choose a race and they decide, okay, I'm going to, I'm gonna train for this race. And that's really the only thing that they're focusing on. or they just wanna get faster.
And so they just start doing a lot of speed work cuz they wanna get faster. But ultimately, If you are going into running with just your, a short-term focus, it ultimately ends up in disappointment because those results are not sustainable. Maybe you get results at the beginning. You, you do see some of that short-term improvement, but then [00:18:00] that progress stops or it, you even start to decline in some circumstances.
[00:18:04] Kevin: Right? Because if
you're going for the short-term wins, short-term wins are not sustainable. Yeah, and this is like the new runner phenomenon. If you start. If you just start running, you're going to start improving pretty quickly. Yep. Because any type of training is going to be better than not training, so you're just gonna improve your global fitness.
You get better at anything. Mm-hmm. You get better at running faster, you get better at running slower at your medium paces. Everything just improves when you start.
[00:18:28] Angie: Yeah, and
Kevin and I are high school cross country coaches, and we joke about this all the time. It's like the freshman effect, like or, or the new runner effect, right?
Yeah. It's like our job as coaches is to not break them. That is what, because as when you start running, you are going to continue to get better for a period of time as
long as you don't get hurt.
[00:18:45] Kevin: Yeah. I mean the freshmen, as long as, as long as we don't do anything dumb and get them hurt over the season, they will definitely be faster in October than they were in August.
Right. It's just going to happen. Right. even if they, they even like skip most of practices, just the weather's going to improve. If we don't break them, they're going to [00:19:00] be better.
[00:19:00] Angie: Yeah. And they're hormones too.
[00:19:01] Kevin: Yeah. That right. They're have the hormones of high school bodies, students, they're, they're going to improve.
Yep. But this works with so many of us. It also works, even if you've been running for a while, if you switch up your training, you try something new, you're going to make some quick adaptations at that fit. But if what you're going for here is long-term overall health improvements, I'd like to get better for year upon year, upon year.
Mm-hmm. You can't stack up teeny tiny short-term wins by just chasing short-term wins. Right. Like you can, you in fact can stack small wins on top of each other, build its giant foundational base. But if, if you do it by simply trying to stack tiny winds, it, it's, it's not a stable base, it's just, it's too many.
It's. Chasing too many short goals.
[00:19:47] Angie: Well,
so there's a caveat to that, and I think that short-term wins are important. Yeah. And we can stack those as long as we have a long-term focus. Because I think, thank you for explaining what I was trying to say there. Right. So basically [00:20:00] what we want you guys to understand is that.
We need both short-term and long-term motivators. So it's not that your short-term goals are bad, and it's not that these short-term races and and motivators are a bad thing. We just need them within a long-term focus. We need both. Okay? We need those long-term motivators and bigger goals to keep us going because they provide direction.
They, they help us understand, okay, this is what I'm working towards, and then we need those short-term wins to reinforce that we are moving in the right direction. They're like checkpoints along the way, and they're also those that little hit of dopamine of like every time you hit a win and you accomplish that short-term goal, you're like, sweet, let's keep going.
What's next? What's next? Right? You've probably had that experience where you've crossed a finish line of a race. That you've set for yourself or that you decided to do. And as soon as you cross the finish line, whether or not you are happy about your result or whether you're disappointed about the result, pretty soon [00:21:00] afterwards you're like, okay, what's next?
You know, what am I gonna do next? Or if, even if your brain doesn't offer it, I bet your running friends are gonna ask you about it. You know, what are you gonna do
next?
[00:21:09] Kevin: Yeah. I mean, how many people have the running friends that you finished, whatever, like. Ridiculous marathon. Yeah. You've, you've just finished a six month marathon training block.
You cross the finish line, and as you still have the metal around your neck, they're like, so when's your next marathon? You're like, can I like recover from this one? Yeah. Like, let, let's enjoy what's currently happening. But you're right, like we need the short term wins Yeah. Within the framework of the, the longer, the bigger picture.
Mm-hmm. One of the things on this one is, Runners can get really good bang for their buck and short-term victories if they focus on higher end speed. Mm-hmm. Like if you do one or two workouts a week at a speed that it's a little bit faster than your 5K speed, you're going to pretty quickly improve your 5K race.
But only up to a limit. Like you're not going to reach [00:22:00] your running potential by cranking out all of your workouts at like a little bit faster than 5K pace. All you're gonna do is get yourself exhausted. Mm-hmm. You will, over the course of maybe two, three weeks, get faster, but then you're going to plateau.
Also very, very quickly. Yeah. Whereas if you sprinkle in some of that speed and you work on the, the longer, slower runs and the moderate paced workouts, and you fill in all sorts of the aspects of your training plan, then you can keep improving. You're as, as you get faster. The ceiling also keeps climbing, so you don't almost immediately like bump up against your ceiling.
Yes. You went from floor to ceiling, but the ceiling was really, really short. You have to keep moving the ceiling up also. That's what the, the. Long-term picture
works on.
[00:22:46] Angie: Right. And that's why it's so important to have that long-term training plan, or not necessarily long-term training plan, but that long-term goal, and then have a comprehensive training plan that's going to help you get to that [00:23:00] long-term goal while also accomplishing short-term things along the way.
Yeah, because you can have different focuses, and this is a concept that we teach inside the academy called Training Cycles. Where maybe you have a big goal that's going to take you a year or a couple years even to try to achieve, but. You have to break that down into training cycles, and you have a different focus for each training cycle.
So maybe you have an ultimate goal to run a marathon, but right now you're able to run a 5k. So there's a big difference between a 5K and a marathon. How are you going to safely build yourself up to run that marathon? And maybe you take it one step further and you have a time goal for that marathon.
Okay? So you need a certain amount of time to build up to that marathon. Then you need a time to actually try to improve your time. For the marathon. So your training needs to be broken up into training cycles, each with their own individual focus. And when you have those training cycles, you can then stack them.
You can take those short-term goals and [00:24:00] short-term wins, and then stack them on top of each other to help build you up to that long-term goal that you want to achieve.
And the final thing that we wanna talk about when it comes to motivation and trying to find motivation. I think is the most powerful one. This is where we really get at the core of who you are and your identity. And this takes time. Okay. This, well, actually, I shouldn't say it takes time, it takes the decision is really what it takes.
Mm-hmm. Because it doesn't actually take that much time. It takes you making a decision and then sticking to it. And this is one of the conversations that I was actually having. On Instagram last week with someone, talking about motivation and talking about, like this, this person had sent me a DM and was talking about how they, motivate themselves when they're not feeling like it.
And she said, how did, how do you get out the door? And I said, well, I just decide that that's who I am. I am a runner. I am a healthy person, and this is what I do. It comes from my identity, this deeper level of [00:25:00] myself. And so there's a couple ways that you can kind of look at this. Number one is, who am I right now?
And. Who do I wanna be also? And then looking at your present self versus your future self. This is another way that we can kind of delineate this because a lot of times we make decisions based on our present self and what we want right in that moment. Or we try to jump ahead to our future self and skip the path to get there.
And so if we really, in either. Wait, we end up feeling stuck. It keeps us stuck. If we make decisions only based on our present self, it keeps us stuck in not making progress. But if we jump ahead to our future self too quickly, then we end up doing too much too soon, which often leads to injury. And so we need both.
We need to make decisions and think as if we are the future version of ourselves. And or, you know, make decisions to benefit the [00:26:00] future versions of ourselves, but we need to train according to the ability of our present
self.
[00:26:05] Kevin: Okay. So I want to take this on a more practical level. Let's do it into like, how does that actually translate to training?
Yeah. Like I get the idea of like the, for the present and the future. Yeah. But on a much more practical level, if. You're currently running three days a week and you're like, okay, but I'd like to train for a marathon and I'd like to be able to run six days a week and lift twice a week. That does not mean that next week you should go from three days a week to six.
Right? Like that's, that's trying to train based off of a future potential. Mm-hmm. Which is just a setup for disaster.
[00:26:40] Angie: Right. And so that's what I mean when I said train according to the ability of your present self. Right.
[00:26:45] Kevin: Like you can totally, from one week to the next, in fact, make a substantial jump.
Mm-hmm. You just then have to fall back like it, it is doable. It's like a, it's a training camp philosophy. Like you can boost yourself for a week, but then you have to recover from it. Yeah. You can't go from one week [00:27:00] and then massive leap in, in volume, and then another massive leap in volume. Like you have to slowly work your way there.
It's what we've talked about is these larger goals they take time to accomplish. Yep. But it's, it's keeping in mind. Where do you want to go? while understanding and and respecting where you currently are.
[00:27:19] Angie: Right? And then to take it even one step further, it's who do you want to be in the future? Like, who is the future version of you?
Who is the future, Angie? What has she done? What has she accomplished? How does she think? How does she feel about herself? How does she feel about her health and her fitness in her training and making decisions from that place, not from. The person that you maybe are today. So this is where it starts to get kind of, you know, a little more woo and a little bit more like ethereal and nebulous because.
Yes. Like I just, I, I started this off by saying, you know, be that person and then make the decisions from the identity of that person. [00:28:00] But if you don't currently identify as that person, if you don't currently believe that you are a healthy person, if you don't currently believe that you are a good runner or a marathoner or whatever it is, that, that future goal.
So if they think about the goal that you want to achieve and then attach an identity to that. So if the, as an easy example, If you want to run a marathon one day, you can at attach, attach the identity of marathoner to that. So you're not a marathoner right now. Technically you've never run a marathon before.
Right. But in the future you are a marathoner. So you have to think and start acting like a marathon or would like when we were talking about before, about when it comes to what you feel like doing versus what you actually want and making decisions from the point of view of someone that. Has run a marathon or that is training for a marathon or that wants to run a marathon versus the current version of you that has not done that yet.
[00:28:58] Kevin: Right. But then train [00:29:00] based off the ability of your present self. Right. And so yes, I'd like to become a marathoner, so I'm going to need to have a long run of 15 to 20 miles. My current long run is. Four, you should not suddenly try 15 over the weekend. It's not a good sustainable path. Right.
[00:29:16] Angie: And people
do this all the time.
People are like, oh, I just ran a half marathon without training. It's like, cool. It probably felt terrible. And you can't do that all the time. Right. Like,
[00:29:25] Kevin: or they're freakish,
genetic, outlier and just ignore that comparison entirely.
[00:29:28] Angie: Yeah, exactly.
But most, for most humans, they might, you might be able to do it, they might be able to accomplish that thing, but they're probably not gonna feel good in the process.
And it's definitely not a sustainable way to train
in the future.
[00:29:40] Kevin: Right? So train based off of your current ability. But this is like, this is how, okay. But if I thought like a marathon or a marathon is gonna go out and they're going to run multiple times during the week, right? Probably four or five, maybe six days out of the week, depending on what kind of level marathon you were talking about.
But if you're currently at three, [00:30:00] How does, how do those mesh with each other? Right. And I think part of that is, well a marathoner get out of the details of they go five days a week, they. What they have is running consistency. Mm-hmm. What they have is workout consistency. They don't worry about how many days during the week they, they go.
What they do is on days where they're supposed to get out and run cuz their schedule says, get out and run. Mm-hmm. They don't make excuses for why they don't do it. Right. They actually just get out and run, and that goes all the way back to that immediate motivation. Do they feel like doing it? Not necessarily, but they still do it.
That's where the marathon mentality comes from.
[00:30:40] Angie: Exactly. You don't ha, your schedule doesn't have to match what a marathon. runner would be doing during marathon training season if you're not there yet. Right. That's not what we're saying. We're not saying that you need to act like a marathon in every single detail and specific, but the mindset, like Kevin said, is that consistency, having, that.[00:31:00]
Ability to go out on the days that you don't feel like it, to, to stick to your schedule, to do your runs and your strength training and make sure that you're getting enough sleep and that you're hydrating and that you're eating well and fuel in your body, all of those things, the scale is going to look different.
And I don't, I I don't mean the, the weight scale, I don't mean like the, the type of scale that you step on. I mean, the. The scale of the actions that you're taking, right? Like the marathon runner might be running six days a week where you're currently running three days a week, but. If your plan says three days a week, you are consistent with that three days per week.
[00:31:34] Kevin: Right. It's, it's a consistency. Yeah. Because beyond any other training, like whatever the efforts and the workouts and all the things, consistency wins over almost anything else you can throw at it. Right. And so if you don't feel like doing the thing, whether it's the strength training or the mobility or the, the long run.
It's the consistency day after day, week upon week, year upon year, that leads to the [00:32:00] huge long-term results. Right. And if you just keep falling in the trap of, I don't feel like it today. I don't feel like it today leads into, I don't feel like it this week. I don't feel like it this month. And eventually years have passed and you still don't feel like it and you don't have what you want.
[00:32:15] Angie: Right.
Give them the example that you were tell telling me about earlier about the b plus. Ah, okay.
[00:32:20] Kevin: So that was a good example. I was listening to, God forbid I was listening to a different podcast than ours.
[00:32:24] Angie: Well,
I mean, would you really, what would people think if you were just listening to ours all the time?
[00:32:28] Kevin: You know, as I'm sure, I mean, I don't really care what people think
to be honest with you, but as I'm sure many of our own listeners have, if you've ever heard your own voice, you're like, oh God. That's what I sound like. So I, I still, I like listening to myself. I like listening to you also, which is why when we have episodes where you interview somebody else, I listen to all of those episodes, my own voice on the other hand.
but the, the concept behind this, and it was. It was, great coach Mark Coogan was given the interview and his pre, his concept was putting in B plus work day upon day. Are you supposed to go [00:33:00] for an easy run? And it's supposed to be, and he works with professionals, so maybe it's supposed to be a 10 mile, but you're not feeling great that day, but you still put in eight.
Okay. It's supposed to be, you know, six by a mile, repeat at five minute mile pace, but you're not really feeling great that day. And so you get in three and then you cut it down and you're doing half mile repeats at the end. Right. And you have to stretch the recovery. You still did the work. It just wasn't knocked outta the park.
A plus work, right? But you also didn't bail
on it.
[00:33:30] Angie: Right. And we're not saying that you can never adjust. Right, like you can adjust your plan, you can adjust your workouts if you're not feeling them. That's not what we're saying here, but it's saying like every single time, you shouldn't have to adjust every single time.
If you're adjusting every single time, then it probably means that your training plan isn't right for you.
[00:33:47] Kevin: I mean, I think that that idea of not wanting to adjust every single time, that's really the goal. You can make the adjustments. It's, it's the constant need to adjust every single thing that suggests that you may be overreaching just a bit [00:34:00] too
much.
[00:34:00] Angie: Yeah, exactly. And so when we think about this idea of like thinking. And acting like your future self or your presence self. One example that comes to mind is this idea of money, right? Like people tell you you should think like a millionaire. Like there's always enough make decisions from abundance, but which which is all good, right?
That's great. That's great. That's wonderful. Great advice, but. You can't actually spend money like a millionaire or you're going to end up in massive debt, right? Like yes, you can start thinking if your goal is to make a million dollars, fantastic. Start thinking that way. But you can't start spending money as if you already have a million dollars, and that's kind of what we're talking about here.
You have to start thinking like the future healthier, faster. More endurance version of yourself, but then meet yourself where you are right now and then start taking the actions that are gonna build you up to get there. And then when your present self is telling you, I don't feel like it. I don't wanna do it, I'm not there yet.
You say, yeah, yeah, but this is what we need to [00:35:00] do in order to get ourselves there. This is what I'm going to do to help honor my future self and start to make decisions that's that are going to benefit my future self. Versus benefit right now, in the moment.
[00:35:12] Kevin: Well, otherwise you never get to be your future self.
Like if you don't That's true. Take the steps. You never reach the future self. But if as you point out, if you spend as though you're a millionaire, when you are not a millionaire, now suddenly you're like the classic N B A first round draft pick. Mm-hmm. Who. Blows out his knee in like the fourth game of the season and is bankrupt almost immediately because they spent like, they were a super multimillionaire.
Yeah. Even though they had not quite had all of the paychecks yet. You cannot train as though you're like a two hour marathoner if you are currently a 5K runner. Like it's just, that's not gonna be a good balance. You can have the mindset and you can start making the steps to get there, but you're not there now.
So you have to train with some respect for where you
currently are.
[00:35:56] Angie: Yeah. I mean, you could argue that people that are playing basketball in [00:36:00] high school should be training with the mindset of an NBA player. Yep. If that's the goal. Of course. Right. Thinking like an B player, even though they still have to finish high school and probably go to college and then go into the, like go, go to the draft, there's a lot of steps to
get there.
[00:36:13] Kevin: At least that one year in college that they're required to do.
[00:36:16] Angie: Yeah.
Nowadays. Right. but it's about, The way that you're thinking and how you're identifying. And I would encourage you to start identifying as that person and then making decisions from that place. But then also figuring out how to meet yourself from where you are.
And if that's something that you guys want help with, this is something that we absolutely love helping people with. And if you join the Academy, the Real Life Runners Academy, we can help you. Create a personalized plan to get you from where you are to where you want to be. We want to help you improve your pace, improve your endurance, and do it all without injury, or at least with decreased risk of injury, and know how to adjust things along the way.
If those aches and pains pop up, we wanna help guide you. So if you are interested in that, [00:37:00] And you want some help and some guidance, head over to real life runners.com/academy and you can find all the details there. We would love to help you with that process. And as always, thank you so much for joining us today.
This has been The Real Life Runners podcast, episode number 306. Now, get out there and run your life.
