Day 3: Action - AUDIO
===
[00:00:00] This is the real life runners podcast. And it's day three of our build your training plan challenge. If you've been listening to these replays on the podcast this week, and you want to access the worksheets that we've been talking about, especially for day three, you can head over to real life runners.com forward slash challenge. Sign up, put your email in there, and that will give you access to all three days of our video training, replays, as well as the worksheets that go along with it so that you can get even more benefit from the free training that we have been doing.
Doing this week. So really fronters.com forward slash challenge. Go over there. You can check out the video replays and get the worksheets now onto today's training.
[00:00:45] Angie: [00:01:00] All right, you guys. Welcome to day three of the Build Your Plan Training, build Your Training Plan Challenge. We're super glad that you guys are all here.
If this is the first day that you have caught one of our training plans, we're Angie and Kevin Brown. We are the founders of Real Life Runners, and this is the Build Your Training Plan challenge. And we are so glad that you're here because we love helping runners overcome frustration, self-doubt, and lack of progress so they can run faster and longer without constant setbacks.
And we do this by using customized training plans, coaching, education, and community, because we believe that running should make you feel strong and accomplished, not burned out and broken. And so that's why. We're here. Hopefully that's why you guys are here too.
[00:01:53] Kevin: I think that's why people keep coming back day after day because we are getting a good crowd in here throughout the whole week because people are [00:02:00] excited about being able to get a training plan that works for them in a sustainable manner, which is what we've been talking about all week.
[00:02:05] Angie: Yep. So you guys have to, um, forgive Kevin's voice. He's been fighting, uh, a bug this week, so he's gonna do his best. I'm probably gonna do most of the talking today because of that, and because I do most of the talking anyway. That's so, um, so that, that's how we're gonna roll around here. But if you guys notice Kevin's voice is a little, um, you know, that's what, that's just what's gonna happen.
So, okay. Before we jump in to today's content, I wanna ask you, what would it feel like to have a training plan that you felt confident about, one that made you look forward to every day of training, or at least most days of training? One that felt fun. And that left you feeling strong and energized. How would that impact your life?
How would that feel in your life? Let me know in the comments what that would be like for you to have a training plan that you were looking forward to, that you felt [00:03:00] was fun. Like we literally have clients tell us this exact thing that they look forward to every day of training, that they're excited to look at their training plan and see what workout is on their training plan for that day.
Because the training plans and the runs and the workouts that we have in our training plans are so much fun. I would feel prepared and confident. Yeah, it would feel great. It would make a change for me by a hundred percent. Super. A little piece of
[00:03:28] Kevin: consistency. Isn't that what we're all searching for?
Just that little bit of consistency leads to such amazing results. Well, I
[00:03:34] Angie: think it's a lot of consistency though. Like I think it's more than a little bit, Cindy. I think that you're kind of, um, downplaying how important that is. Yes, that piece of consistency is so important, but just imagine how that actually makes you feel.
I know for me, it was huge when I became more consistent with my training. Um, like I kind of told you guys a little bit on day one, I went through a period of time where I was very inconsistent with my training after I [00:04:00] had my second kid because I felt like it, I was being selfish. But what I ended up realizing was that it was selfish for me not to take care of myself because I wasn't showing up as the mom that I wanted to be, as the person that I wanted to be because I wasn't taking good care of myself and by me prioritizing my health and my fitness and my training.
I actually was able to show up better as a better wife, as a better mom, as a better human in the world, as a better physical therapist, I was able to practice what I was preaching to all of my patients. And I did that for a very long time. But then again, there was that period of inconsistency when I started having kids, cuz cuz I was trick trying to figure out how to navigate that major life change that was going on in my life.
Right. So maybe some of you have gone through some recent life changes. We all, all of us in the entire world went through some major life changes in 20 20, 20 21. Starting to kind of get back to normal now, right? But I know [00:05:00] that 2020 and 2021 with the pandemic really threw a lot of people completely off their game.
And maybe that was you. Or maybe there was something else going on in your own personal life that kind of threw you off of your game and made you not as consistent as you wanted to be in some area of your training. Maybe you were good with the, the running part, but you weren't consistent with strength training.
Or maybe you didn't even know you were supposed to be strength training until you found us, found our podcast, found this challenge or heard about strength training from another place, right? So when you came into this training, I know that some of you were feeling frustrated because you weren't making that progress, and some of you were feeling confused because you didn't know really which direction to go, and there were so many options out there, and some of you were just feeling overwhelmed trying to figure all of this out, right?
So what I want you to do is I want you to just take a minute and imagine how you could feel six months from now. When you are running and strength training consistently every single [00:06:00] week, what would that feel like? How would you feel about yourself? Okay, just take a couple 10 seconds just to think about that, right?
If you had the result that you really wanted, some of you that was running a half marathon, some of you that was just getting back to running three times a week consistently, whatever goal it is that you set for yourself after doing the the exercises on day two, imagine what's that? What is that gonna feel like in three months or six months down the road when you actually have that thing?
How are you gonna feel about yourself? How are you gonna feel about your health and your fitness? That's a great question.
[00:06:35] Kevin: I love that you pose it six months down the road because it's not a matter of consistency next week, and it's not a matter of being able to go out and run the next two or three days in a row.
It's consistency that's going to stick and last. Mm-hmm. For months to come, for years to come. It's consistency for as long as you want to continue running. Mm-hmm. At whatever level you want to continue running. That's the consistency that we're really
[00:06:58] Angie: talking about. Exactly. [00:07:00] Ashley makes a great point. I would love to already know what to do so I wouldn't waste time trying to figure out what to do every day.
That is huge, Ashley. Absolutely. Like, and that is the power of a training plan. That is the power of what we're doing here this week. Okay. And that's really why a personalized training plan is so important. And so far this week we've taken you through steps one and two, and today we wanna move on to step three.
Okay. So that's what we're doing this week. But before we jump into step three, let's just do a quick little recap of day on day one and take day two. Okay. So on day one, We talked about the first step to achieve any running goal, and that is awareness. All right? You have to know where you are now, if you want to move ahead, because this helps you train.
Where you are so that you can avoid over-training, injury and burnout, right? A lot of people, when they're not aware of where they are, they just jump into a training plan that they find on the internet or they find on an app and they start just doing whatever that training plan [00:08:00] says and maybe it's above where they're actually cap, what they're actually capable of doing right now, and they end up injured.
They end up not feeling good, they end up not motivated, and a lot of people end up falling off the plan altogether, right? Or they kind of start picking and choosing which days they do and which days they don't do, and then they don't end up getting the results that they want. Maybe they are able to finish the race, but they don't feel good during it.
They feel like crap the entire time and they're just trying to get through it. And what we want for you guys, we want you to be able to cross finish lines. If you are someone that is, has a race in your sight that wants to race and that likes to race, We want you to cross finish lines with a big smile on your face and your arms up in the air, like in victory.
Like just because you had so much fun in the training process and then also in that race. Yeah. Day
[00:08:46] Kevin: one awareness and also what we mentioned through awareness is also acceptance of where you are so that when you come up with a training plan that's gonna work for you, you just, you fully embrace, this is my starting point.
Not that it's good or bad, but it simply is your [00:09:00] starting point and you can move confidently forward from that point. Mm-hmm. Not hoping that you're at a different spot or disappointed in where you're at, but just with full acceptance, this is where I am and these are my goals. Now let's get some plans in place to start moving forward towards my goals.
[00:09:13] Angie: Exactly. On day two, we talked about training with intention, which includes understanding the why behind your training and getting specific on a goal that you want to achieve. Okay, so I want to know, you know, we talked a little bit about this on day two, but I know that some of you hadn't had a chance yet to go through and fill out all of the sheet, the worksheets from day two.
So I'd love to know in the chat, what is the goal that you've decided on? For your training, what is it that you are looking to achieve? Let us know in the goal, are in the chats, in the comments. Um, because when we understand our deeper why, it can help provide that long-term motivation that we need to be consistent.
Okay. I think that one of the biggest things that we hear from runners is that how, how can I find motivation? So many people are looking [00:10:00] for motivation because in the moment, sometimes we don't feel like working out. We don't feel like going for a run. We don't feel like doing the strength training, but that is the key to get us what we really want in the long term.
Right. A lot of you told us on day one and day two that you want better health. You wanna feel strong, you wanna feel fit, right? You wanna stay active as you get older, but. If we, if that's really what we want, that needs to be our long-term motivation, right? That's the thing that's kind of that lighthouse in the distance that's guiding us.
But some days we are not gonna feel motivated to go out. But if we remind ourselves of that deeper why of that long-term motivation, and understand that the day-to-day, the things that we do, you know, today, even when we don't feel like it or tomorrow. That's what's going to lead us to be able to achieve that goal, right?
So sometimes we might be looking for some short-term motivation, but we don't really [00:11:00] need short-term motivation if we can remember that long-term motivation. I know that me personally, I have plenty of days where I don't feel like training, like I don't feel like going out for a run because I'm tired and I've got other things going on, and I know I've got a busy day and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Right? Our brain, our brains are so good at coming up with reasons for us not to do something right, especially when that thing is a harder thing that that thing requires a lot from us. Physical exertion or mental exertion, and our brain's job is to keep us safe. Okay? So one thing I want you guys to understand is, Just because you have a hard time, like getting yourself out the door or finding motivation on a daily basis, that doesn't mean that anything is wrong with you.
That doesn't mean that you're not a real runner. That doesn't mean that something I is going wrong. That's your brain's job. Your brain's job is to keep you safe and to keep you comfortable. So when you think about the idea of like going out on a five mile run or going out and doing a, doing a speed workout, that seems hard.[00:12:00]
And your brain's like, yeah, you know what? Like bed is warm and comfortable. Let's just stay in bed, right? Like that's just what your brain is programmed to do. And that is a very normal thing. So that's why it's important for you to have that understanding of your deeper why. So that you can make yourself get outta bed on those days that your brain really wants to tell you, you should just stay under the covers in the warmth.
Especially for those of you in, in cold weather. You know, when it's winter and it's cold and the, the bed seems so, so nice and warm. Or for those of us here in South Florida and the tropics when it's a million degrees outside and we don't wanna go run because we know it's gonna be so hot and humid and disgusting, we have to have a reason deeper within us to actually get ourselves out the door.
And so I hope that the worksheets from day two really helped you start to gain a better understanding of that deeper why for yourself.
[00:12:52] Kevin: Okay. We've got some, we've got some goals coming in here. Yeah. But I do, I love that idea of the, the deeper why. Something that's gonna keep you going for years to come.
[00:13:00] Mm-hmm. Because you have that bigger picture out there in the, in, in the distance. It's nice along the way to have some small goals. You can see wins, which we'll talk about as we get into, to creating plans. But you need to have that big driving goal that says, all right, even when I don't want to, I still have this, this is my overall purpose.
And that also means that sometimes if you miss a day for one reason or another, it doesn't completely derail you because one day off does not suddenly alter the big goal that you have out in the
[00:13:28] Angie: distance. Exactly. All right. Marilyn says, right now I need to build strength. The running will come later, but strength is most important right now.
Good call. Great. I wanna run a full 5K without stopping running by learning how to run slow, gaining strength. I think once I am stronger and consistent with my running, I will be able to achieve this. I love, love that. You totally will, Cindy. 10 K in trail half marathon and continue to see what I can do for decades while staying healthy.
Absolutely love that. Brilliant. And I, and I love the timeline. Yeah. I love the timeline that you have set for yourself here to healer. Ugh, [00:14:00] here too. That is fantastic. Because you know, that's a big thing about what we talked about yesterday as well, is trying to get that timeline right, getting a clear on that goal, understanding where you are, and then working with that timeline, which we'll talk a little bit more about today.
Okay. So understanding all of those components, awareness of where you are, intention about where you wanna go, that takes us to step three, which is action. Okay? And so far this week, you've figured out, you know, steps one and two, or at least you have a better idea about that. So now, today we're gonna go about how to make a plan to get you there.
Okay? So, Like we've talked about already, so many runners make the mistake of not following a plan, right? And they just kind of go out and they do whatever they feel like that day. They, they do, or you do whatever you can fit in. So I know that this is one of the things that kind of, um, fell that I was guilty of at, at that time that I was being inconsistent, is I was putting everyone else's schedule and everyone else's [00:15:00] needs above my own.
And I think those of you that are out there that are parents can relate to this, right? You have kids, you have maybe, you know, a spouse or a partner or other people in your life. Maybe it's work that need things from you on a daily basis. And if you're a very giving person, you are often trying to prioritize other people's needs above your own right.
And that leads us to not making our training a priority, right? Because we're just kind of doing whatever we can fit in, putting everyone else's needs and schedules above our own. And then that leaves little to nothing for ourselves.
[00:15:41] Kevin: I was gonna say, it's okay to do this every once in a while. Mm-hmm. But if you have a big running goal coming up and you have all these other priorities, and you're putting running further and further down the priority list, when it comes time to race that race, and you don't get the result that you want, you don't have the time you want, it doesn't feel good throughout the race, [00:16:00] you're exhausted by the end of it.
You're hobbling around for a few days afterwards and you're like, well, what the heck happened with this? With I, I've been running for the last several months. But if running is last on the priority list, if you don't have a plan and you're kind of trying to, to piecemeal it together and be like, well, I have a small window that I can run here and I've got a little bit of time that I can put in here.
If it's not an overall comprehensive plan, you're gonna have a lot of holes and it's not really likely to lead to the result that you're aiming for. So you made it a low priority, but then got frustrated by not getting the results that you were
[00:16:30] Angie: aiming for. Yeah. So if you don't have a plan, it can lead to that frustration that Kevin's talking about, like, you're running, right?
Like you're doing things, but you're not making that progress. Okay. It can also lead to a lot of confusion. Like, who was it that said, I, I think it was Ashley, um, that said like, I don't know what I, I have to try to figure out what to do each day. Right. So it's, it's a very confusing, like, should I do a run?
Should I do a strength workout? Should I do a speed workout? What should my long run be like? You're trying to figure it out each day because you don't have a. [00:17:00] It all mapped out for you, right? Or if you're like me, there's a lot of guilt associated with it. Like, I wanted to run, I knew that I needed to take care of myself, but I felt guilty leaving my kids, you know?
And I wasn't feeling motivated to go work out because I felt like in my mind, a mom would stay with her kids and, and be with her kids. But what I realize now is that was not serving me, right? Like, there was one time that I re remember very, very clearly where I was gonna go out for a run, and one of my kids was literally holding onto my leg saying, mommy, don't go.
And I, I, I walked out and Kevin's Kevin came over and picked her up and, and he said, go, you, you need to go. And so I walked out the door and I closed the door behind me, and I just broke into tears, right? I just broke down because I felt like I was taking time away from my kids. And like, I now know, like I said before, I.
Thanks to that back injury that, that I suffered from by not taking care of myself, I was not being the mom that I wanted to be for [00:18:00] my kids. I was not being the example, I was not, I didn't ha did not have that strong body that allowed me to sit on the floor and play with them, pick them up, run around the park, like do the things that I wanted to do with them, right?
So by sacrificing what we want and sacrificing our health and fitness, a lot of times we think that we're helping and we're prioritizing other people and, and we're, you know, doing what we can for them. But in reality, I think that we can show up a lot better for other people in our life when we take care of ourselves first.
[00:18:31] Kevin: So those are some of the issues that show up if you're not really following a plan. But there are plenty of people that find plans. Mm-hmm. And, and follow them as best as they possibly can. Right. But they found a plan that was built into an app their watch, something that they found on the internet. And they're fine, but it might not be perfect.
And this is part of the whole, this was part of day one, of having awareness of where you are so that you know that that plan actually makes sense for you. If you're currently running three days a week and you find a plan that's running six days a week, [00:19:00] just jumping immediately into that plan is probably not the safest move for you.
It's probably a lot more, a lot too much for you. You're gonna get burnt out or hurt, or if you are running. Five, six days a week and you get a plan that's only at four days a week and far less volume than you're used to running. Suddenly you've got a plan that's not gonna help you get anywhere near your potential because that plan was under your current capabilities.
[00:19:23] Angie: Exactly. Um, the other thing that can often happen too is you have that plan, but a lot of the training plans out there might not be complete training plans. They might only include your running days, but like, you know, now there's more that needs to be to your training other than just running alone.
Right. You need to have strength training at a minimum. You need to be strength training. Um, you need to have rest days in there. Recovery is extremely important. You need to be doing some mobility training. You need to be aware of your nutrition. There's a lot of other things that need to go into your training plan, and if you're not following a training plan that has all of [00:20:00] those pieces put together, then a lot of times it leads people to kind of ignoring those pieces like they ignore.
Strength training, they ignore those cross-training days. Maybe you, you're skipping rest days. Maybe you think that in order to get better as a runner, I just need to run more. So you're going out and you're running every day, or you're running six days a week. And the only reason you're not running on that seventh day is because life kind of happened and, and kind of got in the way and forced a rest day on you.
But it wasn't actually a restful day because you were running around and doing all sorts of crazy things. Or maybe you were outside doing yard work all day long. So it wasn't actually a recovery day. Right? And so again, when you're not following that comprehensive plan, a lot of times there can be pieces missing and even those generic plans, um, like from a lot of the apps, if you don't understand what all of those plan, like what, what the runs mean and what the workouts actually are telling you to do, again, it can lead to a lot of confusion.
Like you're following this plan, but you're like, are you actually doing it right? Because I've seen a lot of these plans and it'll say, you know, I. 40 minute [00:21:00] tempo run, for example, but you're not supposed to be going out and doing all 40 minutes at a tempo pace on those runs. And, and it doesn't tell you that cuz you just download that one calendar that you can slap up on your wall and cross it off.
Something like that would be like a 10 minute warmup, a 20 minute tempo run in a 10 minute cool down would actually be what you would be doing on that day. But most of those plans don't give you those kinds of details. And what the heck does a tempo run even mean? Mm-hmm. Like what effort level is that?
What pace is that? You know, what pace is right for you is not gonna be the same thing that somebody else might be trying to run. Um, and then there's of course those plans that tell you all, if you wanna run a a sub two hour half marathon, here's the paces that you exactly. That you have to hit. And.
Running just doesn't work that way. Okay. It would be really nice if it did. It would be really nice if there was a one formula that if all of us followed this exact formula right here, we would all get the same result. Right. But it does not work that way because every single one of you [00:22:00] are individuals and every single one of you have a life and a lifestyle that is different than everyone else on the planet like.
Kevin and I live in the same house, right? But we have two very different lives. Lives, lives. Yes. We have two very different lives, right? Like I'm in charge of the business. I, I run our business here. Kevin is a full-time teacher, right? Both of us work full-time, but I work from home. He's in a classroom that alone is very different alone, right?
Yep. Um, plus he's a man. I'm a woman. That alone, our hormones, everything else very different. Kevin likes high mileage. I do not like high mileage. Again, very different. So there's a lot of things that even though we are similar people and have the same values and all, all sorts of things, our training is not the same.
[00:22:49] Kevin: In theory, you could run my training plan and not hurt yourself in, I would not want to. You would be mentally fried after a few weeks because you wouldn't enjoy the training plan. No, and just because the plan [00:23:00] might actually physically work for you. Mm-hmm. If after three weeks you hate the plan, right.
It's a terrible plan for you because you don't want to do it. Instead of being excited to be like, oh, what's my workout for the day? You're like, oh God, I have nine more weeks of this plan before I get to the race. And that's just, it's not an enjoyable process to go through. You have to have a plan that actually makes sense and sounds like it could be fun
[00:23:21] Angie: for you.
Have any of you guys ever experienced that? Let us know in the comments. I'd love to know, like, have you ever. You know, gotten your, uh, a plan and then just realized that it's not the right plan for you for some reason. And I, I'd love to know what that reason would be too, because I think, I know that I've experienced it.
Um, and I you have as well, um, way back,
[00:23:41] Kevin: way back with some way back training plans. I, I had to start figuring out my own training plan on the first marathon that I trained for. Cuz I looked at him, I'm like, eh, I don't really like this plan. I kind of hate this particular day and I've got engineering class to go to, so well, how am I gonna make it all
[00:23:55] Angie: work?
And you didn't really fit right. And I think that's part of the problem too, is like a lot of the plans that are out [00:24:00] there is like beginner, intermediate, and advanced, right? And it's like, okay, well what if you're in between where most people are probably in between a lot of those plans. Kevin was a division one runner in college and so when he stopped running for the team, he decided to, to start training and run his first marathon.
But like, he wasn't. A beginner. He had never run a marathon before. Right. But he wasn't a beginner. Clearly he had been running like a hundred miles a week Sure. With with your Division one program. So, but is he an intermediate, is he advanced? Like where does he fall on that spectrum?
[00:24:32] Kevin: Yeah, it was, it was very confusing and that, I mean, that goes many, many years back into my first frustration with generic plans.
Mm-hmm. That one came out of a book, actually, there were three plans at the back of the book, and I tried to figure out how do I blend plan two with plan three with my class schedule.
[00:24:48] Angie: Mm-hmm. Exactly. So this is why it's so important for you to make a plan that is right for you, and then also know how to adjust it.
Right. Because life is going to probably get in the way at [00:25:00] some point in time. And so not only do you need to learn how to make a plan, You have to know how to adjust it. Okay. So let's get into it. Let's get into building that plan. So let us know in the comments. Do you guys, um, did you download the worksheets from day three?
Gimme a yes in the comments if you have the worksheets from day three, because we're gonna walk you through these. Okay. Some of you might have downloaded them and you're like, okay, what am I supposed to do with these? Right? Like the, the first page is pretty self-explanatory, but the second page is what we're gonna really go through today.
Okay, good. You guys all have it? Cool. Lot, lot. Yes. Is coming. All right. So the first thing, uh, before we jump into that, I've got a comment here. The only you couch the 5K people in here. Yeah. The only plan I ever used was Couch to 5k and I did not understand how to run. They just told me to run a few days and do active rest, and I had no idea what that meant.
Exactly. Exactly. So active
[00:25:51] Kevin: rest might be even worse than just throwing the word tempo. Run onto a
[00:25:54] Angie: Yeah. Like what the heck does that mean? Yeah, exactly. That's so, so true. We, yeah. [00:26:00] Another couch to 5K plan. I had to adjust the length of the running minutes cuz I wasn't in shape. Right. That plan was above where you actually were.
So when you have to figure out how to adjust it, you're like, well, do I run three minutes? Do I run four minutes? Do I run two minutes? Like, and if you have to adjust it so much, if you're adjusting every single day of the plan, then you're not actually following a plan. It's not a plan. Right. Like you're actually trying to figure out a better plan for you.
So you're, you're trying to customize it, you're trying to personalize that plan, but without any sort of structure or knowledge behind it. Right. And that's really what type of coaches that you can chat with. Yeah. And that's really what we wanna try to help you guys with is understanding like, yes. The, like we use training plan templates in our coaching program, right.
Because there are some basics, but then we help, you'll figure out how to adjust it in a way that's right for you. Okay. All right, so let's talk about building your plan. All right, so day one you assess where you are. Okay? So you have an idea of how running feels when you go out and run. [00:27:00] You have an idea of like how far you're able to go out and run.
Most of you, right, like most of you know, like, can I go out and run for five minutes without needing a walk break? Can I go out and run for 30 minutes without needing a walking break? You have a, some sort of an idea of where you are right now. You know how many days a week you're running, right? You know how long each of those running days are.
Excuse me. Um, day two, you set a goal for yourself, right? So you have, you have an idea now of where you wanna go. So the first thing we have to decide when we look at starting to build that training plan is how many running days per week you want to run. And I believe that that was the first question on page two.
I should pull up. I should pull up our little thing here.
[00:27:44] Kevin: The, the how many days of running is a super important question. Mm-hmm. Because it is strongly based off of what you've been doing. And it's like, well, at the beginning of the month I got in like two days of running. Mm-hmm. And then the next week I got in four days, and then I got in another two and another two.
So I guess I [00:28:00] can run four days a week. Like you're not actually running four days a week. That goes back to the awareness of where you're actually at and fully accepting where you're at. If. In the last month, mostly you were doing two days outta the week and one of them happened to be four, but by the end of it, you were exhausted.
Then four days a week might be too much for you. Mm-hmm. Or maybe it's just that each one of your runs is a little bit too long. Maybe you could do four days a week if you cut the distance down. So yeah, knowing how many days outta the week you're currently doing and how many you're willing to do is a very good
[00:28:30] Angie: opening step.
Right? And so that's why the first question on that page two is, how many days am I willing and able to run? Right? You might be willing to run five or six days a week, but if you really look at your schedule and get honest with yourself, you really have maybe three or four days per week that you can dedicate to your, to your running.
Okay? So tell us in the comments, how many days are you willing and able to run? Okay. That's step number one.
[00:28:58] Kevin: And there's not a wrong answer. Like you [00:29:00] might be here and being like, well, I can do six. Yep. Sure. Some that fits some people's
[00:29:04] Angie: lifestyle. 4, 4, 4. Yeah, you guys are four days. Like me, I like, I, I really like running four days a week.
I've been, I've been experimenting with something new this week. Um, and I'm going to be, be for like, the next couple of months, but, um, I, I really like four days a week too. We've got three. We've got six. Okay. Perfect. Number two, how many rest days do I want or need? Okay. Now we suggest at least one rest day per week.
Some people want two, and that's totally fine. Okay, so tell us in the comments, how many rest days do I want or need? One or two? Two. Okay. Perfect. So we're talking about complete rest days. All right. We're not talking about ac well, you, okay. So there's a difference between like active recovery, passive recovery.
That's a little bit too much of for us to get into specifically today. Um, definitely we go into all of that inside the academy. Okay. We've got twos. All right, perfect. All [00:30:00] right. So now, now that you guys have, um, on, on page two, we're going through these questions on those worksheet, and then page three, you have kind of the days of the week.
So what I would suggest would be to write in on like your weekly plan there. Which days do you want to be your rest days? Okay? Put those in first. All right. And then which days do you want to be your running days? Okay, so just write, run, or rest on some of the days of the week. Some of you might not care and that's okay.
So just arbitrarily pick which days you want things, okay? And you also need to understand that some weeks you're gonna have. You know, things that need to shift around, because maybe normally you run on Tuesday, but then for whatever reason you have a meeting that that Tuesday, and so that one's gonna have to get moved to Wednesday that week or whatnot.
Right. Okay. So gimme, gimme a yes in the comments or gimme a ready in the comments when you guys are ready to move on.
[00:30:58] Kevin: I think the next one really ties [00:31:00] in importantly, to where you're dropping run versus rest also.
[00:31:04] Angie: Oh, that's true. Okay, number three. Let's, let's look at that, that question too. Number three is, are there any days, I know I cannot run or train, right?
There might be a day in your week that you are like, Nope, that day is completely packed. I definitely cannot run that day. And sometimes this, this changes again. Um, we have like, like we said, mentioned before, like we have people in our coaching program right now. That have work schedules that they know they can't train or work on a workday.
They can't train or run on a workday. Right. Um, we have nurses that, that work 12 hour shifts and they're like, Nope, we cannot. I'm not running on, you know, my 12 hour days because if I run beforehand, I'm gonna be tired all day long. And if I run afterwards, I just won't have any energy. Right. So, understanding which days you cannot run or train and then go make sure you make those, your rest days when you kind of plan this out.
Um, Marilyn, we're not doing strength yet. We're [00:32:00] getting there. Yeah. It's coming. It's coming. Well, strength be Well, don't, we're talking about strength soon. Don't
[00:32:05] Kevin: worry that, that is a very important question. Make sure that we do kind, we're going to Yep. Is does strength have to fall on a running or not? On a running day, we're gonna cover that.
It very much depends on the person. Yep. We'll get there.
[00:32:16] Angie: Yep. We're gonna cover that. Okay. All right. Moving on to number four. Are there any cross training activities that I need or want to include in my plan? So this might be something like yoga, this might be cycling or like a spin class that you really enjoy.
Maybe you love swimming and you wanna include swimming in your training plan. There, there are things that you want to include that make you happy, right? There are some people that just love swimming and they want to include swimming in their plan one or two days a week. Um, because they, they just really enjoy it.
And, and again, your training plan needs to make sense for you and your training plan needs to be something that you, you look forward to and that you enjoy. Great. And these
[00:32:54] Kevin: are cross-training activities that's going to actually somewhat tire you out. It's something that you have to take [00:33:00] into account what's happening the day before, the day after the day of, like, we have friends that, one of them plays tennis for three hours on Saturdays.
Mm-hmm. So there's no running on Saturday because there's three hours of tennis, and Sunday needs to be recovering from three hours of tennis. These are things that need to be taken into account. If, if you've got a spin class that's 30 minutes long, that needs to be taken into account because that's probably already some higher intensity run, like higher intensity exercise aerobics.
[00:33:27] Angie: It's aerobic exercise. Right. And so some of these things will be very beneficial to your training. Some of 'em may or may not have an effect on your training. Right. And we just kind of have to make room for them. Right. Some of them, like if you're doing like an a high level aerobic spin classes, or again, we have, um, another client that loves to go on long, uh, cycling rides.
You know, he has a, a group that he cycles with and most of his long run rides are on Sundays, but he goes out and he cycles for like two or three hours. Yep. That can sometimes take the place [00:34:00] of one of the runs that he might have had during that week. Right. Um, is walking cross training? That's a great question, Christine.
It depends on the intensity of the walking and it depends on kind of what, why you're walking. Like if you just kind of like go out, I, I walk my dog every day, you know, and so that pretty much adds like, probably at least a mile to my just kind of overall time on my feet. But it's not something that I personally include when I look at like training load, because most of that is like stopping along the way and the dog is sniffing and you know, like I'm out there for a while with the dog, right?
But it's not an aerobic type of, Exercise for me. But on the other
[00:34:38] Kevin: hand, if our dog was much bigger, we have a small dog. If our dog was much bigger and you were walking the dog up and down mountains and you know Right. It was an extra like hour long trail hike with the dog twice a day, then yes, that definitely needs to be included and taken into account.
Mm-hmm. The extra exertion of that. Right.
[00:34:54] Angie: Um, Cindy says, I enjoy snowshoeing this winter bike riding the summer. Perfect. Right. So those are [00:35:00] some things that you're gonna wanna put, um, in number four because, If you wanna include those in your plan, we need to know about that. Like, we need to take that into consideration because, um, again, thinking about length, duration, intensity, you know, is, is that gonna affect the rest of the training plan?
Um, Marilyn swimming is non aerobic though. No, it is. Aerobic swimming is an aerobic exercise. Okay. Again, all of these things do depend on the intensity of how hard you're swimming. They, it also depends on your experience with it. Um, someone that, you know, grew up swimming and swim in high school, that's gonna be different than me, who like has no experience with swimming.
Right. Um, swimming for me is going to probably be more anaerobic than it would be for them because it would be a more, it would be a harder intensity for me to do, to do the same thing,
[00:35:49] Kevin: right? Adding on five minutes of swimming at some point in time during my week is just gonna wipe that
[00:35:53] Angie: day out. Um, Cindy should what be as intensive as our running.
Whatever the crosstraining, the cross [00:36:00] training is. No, not necessarily. Right, and this is why we we're just get kind of getting it all out on the paper. Yeah, no, it does. It does not need to be as intensive. You know, for me, like one of the things that I like to include is yoga. I. I love doing yoga once a week, um, in my plan, and it's, I take it into consideration, but it's not like a high intensity type of exercise for me.
So I don't include it, like, it doesn't replace running days. Okay. So, um, no, it can be low intensity, it can be active recovery. There's a lot of things that, um, cross training could be, but the whole goal of this sheet is for you to kind of get it all out. Yes, yoga can be cross-training. Mm-hmm. Um, it sh it, it, it's, again, cross-training is kind of like this very general umbrella term for like, anything that's not running right.
So, technically strength training is cross-training and technically, you know, the elliptical is crossed, training or the bike. There's lots of things that can be considered cross-training. But we're looking at the intensity of that [00:37:00] activity, which is why, again, those generic plans that you download on the internet or on the app that just say cross training, right?
Like, oh, it's a cross training day. Like, what the heck does that mean? Like 30 minutes, 60 minutes? Like what intensity are we even talking about? Are we talking about aerobic cross training or anaerobic cross training? Like, there's so many different variables that go into that, which is why, again, you guys need to be having a plan that is right for you.
And then number five, are there any non-negotiables for me to consider when making my plan? Okay. Um, can you think of some non-negotiables? Um,
[00:37:34] Kevin: I mean, one, the, the big one that shows up in my head is work schedules that you cannot get around. Mm-hmm. That's like, that's my first thought. We have a lot of nurses that we work with and their schedule changes every other week.
Mm-hmm. And so the non-negotiable is basically like, I don't get a long run every other week. That's, uh, simply how this is going to go down. Yep. And that means that every other week also has much higher mileage, so their schedule looks very funky. And you're never gonna find that [00:38:00] guy online. No. But. The, the plan goes high mileage, low mileage, high mileage, low mileage, because that just, it has to happen.
Um, maybe you're, you're taking care of a parent and every Wednesday that wipes out your whole afternoon. Right? Like, there are certain
[00:38:12] Angie: things or like a kid's recital or something like that. Yes. Right. Like there are certain things that Yes, even though I said we need to put ourselves first, there are definitely times where we need to put our family first or our kids first, or like, something that's very important needs to go onto our schedule.
And, and sometimes these things do change, you know, week to week, month to month, right. But just kind of like getting this, um, in there. Like maybe some non-negotiables too would be like, you're going on vacation and I don't wanna work out on vacation, or I wanna do the absolute minimum on vacation. Right.
Like, I know, I know that, um, we, we took a vacation into the, the mountains of, uh, northern Georgia a couple years ago, and we were planning on running, but we didn't realize. That, you know, around our cabin where we were, you could not run. It was not safe to run because of the way [00:39:00] that the roads were very, very narrow.
Um, so we would have to like go to like find a park somewhere, and we did that, but it wasn't as frequent as we would've planned on. Yeah. You know? Yeah. There, there was no shoulder.
[00:39:10] Kevin: Everything was a one lane road and I just didn't really feel like getting hit by a truck.
[00:39:13] Angie: Um, Ashley, can you do a strength or cross-training on a running day or should it not have cross-training activities?
You can do whatever you want. Yes, you can. Okay. And this is really what we wanna tell you guys. You guys can do whatever you want. You can build a plan however you want with certain principles in mind. Okay. And we're, we will continue to talk about that. Okay. Um, all right, so now that you guys have kind of this layout of an idea of like some of the non-negotiables and those, those kind of things, let's use those answers to kind of build out your plan.
So, like I said, Take your weekly schedule here, your Monday through Sunday, and write out which days you want to be your rest days and which days you want to be your running days. Okay? So do that first and when you are done with running days and rest days in that [00:40:00] weekly plan, give me a yes in the chat.
[00:40:02] Kevin: This is not set in stone. You may, and we'll
[00:40:05] Angie: talk about change this, and now we're gonna next five minutes, right. All we're talking about right now is run and rest, and then we'll talk about strength and cross-training and all the other
[00:40:12] Kevin: things. Yeah. You may have floating boxes that don't have anything in it.
Yes.
[00:40:15] Angie: All right. Cool.
Yeah. Okay. We'll give you guys about another 30 seconds to decide and remember, like Kevin said, none of this is set in stone, right? Like you could be writing a pencil or pen right now, and none of this is set in stone. This is just to kind of give you guys an idea of how this process works. Okay? So now that you've got those set up, How many days do you have blank, right?
So this is where we start to fit in strength training and cross training. Now when, so part of me like hesitates to do this a little bit, right? Because strength training is absolutely essential, right? So I don't want you to think that it's less important than running, right? But since we are coming at this from the running [00:41:00] perspective, that's why we put the runs in first.
But you also noticed that we put those rest days in first, right? Because we don't want rest to kind of be like this second. Thought of like, oh, if I have a day that's empty, it's gonna be a rest. No, like your rest and recovery needs to be a priority because that's how your body gets stronger. Your body gets stronger during your rest and recovery days.
Okay, so to answer the big question that everybody has in their mind, can you do strength training and running on the same day? Yes, you can. Okay. It depends on your current goal as to which one goes first and which one goes second. It depends on your current goal as to the intensity of your strength session that you're going to be doing on those days.
So for example, If you are, if your goal is to build strength during this 90 day cycle, okay, we teach, um, 90 day training cycles inside of our academy, right? So we take a big goal, um, and we, I give you guys a worksheet for this on, on day two, right? We [00:42:00] take a big goal and then we break it down and we, we start to try to figure out, okay, if I'm gonna, if, if my goal is to run a half marathon, we'll take, um, Cindy's example, my goal is to run a half marathon in 2024.
Okay? What do I need to be focusing on now? Okay. So we kind of work backwards. We take that big goal, we work backwards, we call it a process of reverse engineering, and we walk you through this exact process inside of the academy. Okay? So say we decide that we wanna focus on building strength right now, we look, we went through and we did those strength assessment tests, and we realized we are not as strong as we need to be.
Okay? I need to focus on building strength for the first couple of months. So, When your goal is to build strength, your strength training sessions need to take priority over your runs. Okay? We never ignore our runs. We never, like, not, we train all pieces at all times, but we focus on different, we, we focus our attention and our energy more on one over the other, depending on what the goal is.
So we have a strength [00:43:00] building cycle. The, the goal and the, the focus needs to be on the strength sessions. And then the running is kind of secondary, right? Whereas if you are in a race training cycle where you're training for a half marathon, the running needs to come first and the, and the strength training is secondary.
It still needs to exist, right? Because you still have to strengthen and support your body to run that half marathon, especially as you're increasing your training load, right? So you can't just get rid of strength. But strength is more on like maintenance. As, as we ramp up your running mileage. Whereas if you're focusing on strength, then running kind of stays in a maintenance level as we build up your strength.
Does that make sense? You guys gimme a yes in the comments, if that is making sense.
[00:43:44] Kevin: So the answer is that you, you can put these on the same day if you're really focusing on building strength. Strength would be the first activity of the day. And then if you have a run going on that day, also you can have like a relaxing run in the afternoon.
[00:44:00] Or if the way your schedule works out, it ends up being a speed day that afternoon, the intensities are just gonna pull back because your focus is, I'm going to put what I, the effort that I need to right into the strength session. And then I'm also going to fill in the running stuff. Mm-hmm. Which may be backwards for what, what many of you have done before.
It's backwards from my head for for years there. But when I'm focused on a strength cycle, I'm going really hard on the strength training. It doesn't take me a huge amount of time, but by the end of that strength session, I'm pretty wiped out. And so the run that I do later in that day, I'm not feeling great.
It's not like it's super bouncy run. I'm kind of tired during that run. Mm-hmm. But I know that my focus is simply, well, I'm gonna go get this run in with whatever energy I'm gonna bring it. Mm-hmm. Because I went real hard during the actual strength session itself. Yep. Exactly.
[00:44:47] Angie: Okay. So now, all right, so now you know how many rest days you have now, you know how many running days you have strike needs to go in at least twice a week, no matter what cycle you're focusing on.
If you're focusing on [00:45:00] a race cycle, if you're focusing on a strength building cycle, I would, um, actually encourage you to add three days of strength training. Okay. Um, so put in your strength days on your calendar. All right. Just, just write the word strength. Okay. For now. All right. We're, because we, right now, the, the goal is just to kind of give you an idea of what this plan could look like, how, how to lay it out.
So minimum strength on two days. And then I would say three or four days if you're actually focusing on building strength right now, depending on, you know, what your, your goal is. Now, keep in mind when I say strength day, we're not talking about an hour strength session. Okay? You can have very effective strength workouts as a runner in 15 to 20 minutes or 30 minutes, right?
Mm-hmm. You can ha get a lot of benefit if you're doing the right exercises that benefit you as a runner. Okay? And again, this kind of goes back to what your goal is. Is your goal to kind of get strong overall [00:46:00] and fit overall or is it that I just wanna do as much strength training as I need to do so I don't get hurt?
Right. There are different ways that you can approach strength training as well. Again, going back to your goal, I personally like strength training a lot. I like to see muscle definition and so I tend to like, Do more strength training. Um, and Kevin kind of just does what he needs to do to get by. He's, he's starting to appreciate strength training more.
Right. Cuz of your ultra-marathon. You wanna tell him a little,
[00:46:32] Kevin: I I appreciate the benefits of strength training. Yeah. But I still don't wanna spend more, any more time, strength training than I need to. Right. So, God bless the physical therapist here that I had a full, like, the priority from January through March was definitely increased strength training, but I never did strength on a single day that lasted more than 30 minutes.
And I built a huge amount of strength over those three months. You really did? Because I just kept putting in the work day after day [00:47:00] saying, all right, during these 20 to 30 minutes, I'm gonna bring some intensity, I'm gonna. Push myself and I'm gonna increase my strength, but I, it would drive me nuts if I had to go, like actually lift and do a string session that was gonna take me an hour out of the day.
Right. I don't think it would've been sustainable for me. The same way that I'm not gonna throw Angie's, I'm not gonna throw my mileage at Angie. It's gonna drive her nuts.
[00:47:22] Angie: Exactly. And so again, it has to work for you. Okay. And you can get lots of benefits with shorter strength sessions if you are doing the right thing.
It's all about programming. It's all about the, the muscles that we're focusing on, the specific exercises that you're doing as a runner to benefit you in the way that you want. Um, It'd be benefited. So
[00:47:45] Kevin: it's not just doing exercise now for the sake of exercises. Like Angie has like a lineup of exercises that work and, and nothing superfluous.
Nothing, nothing superfluous. That's
[00:47:55] Angie: the right word. I nailed that one. It's like growing big words into this. I got into this, don't you? Mitochondria [00:48:00] superfluous. All, all sorts of stuff. I'm gonna take a break. Okay. So now you guys have your strength training into your calendar. Yes. Thumbs up? Yeah. Cool. Now let's talk a little bit real quick.
I know we, we only have about 10 minutes left here, okay? Mm-hmm. Um, about long runs and speed work. Okay. Now, depending, again, depending on your goal, do you need to do a long run? No. No, you don't. Right? Like if you are in a strength building ses, uh, cycle, you don't have to have a long run, but you can if you want to, right?
Even when I was in a strength building session, I, well I'm, I'm in currently in a strength building cycle. I still like to keep my long runs on the weekends, and I like to keep my, my long runs in that like, Eight-ish range, right? So like six to six to 10 is really my range that I like to stay in for my long runs.
Okay. Because I, my, like if I wanna jump into a half marathon training plan, I could just do that next, that I can make that easily, that jump easily, right? So I [00:49:00] personally like to keep a long run the weekend, but it's not as long as like my long run would be if I was training like in a half marathon training cycle.
Okay. So again, long run depends on what your goal is. Same thing with speed work. We believe everybody should do at least one speed work session per week because I. There are so many benefits, and again, we don't have the time to go into all of the benefits of speed work, but speed work can look like a lot of different things.
But essentially, speed work is anything above that. Level two that we talked about before. Okay, so in in, when you look at how many running days you're doing per week, you wanna think about the 80 20 rule. Most of your runs need to be at an easy level two pace, okay? And then one or one or two runs of the week, depending on who you are, what your volume is, all the things can be at a higher intensity.
Okay? And that's it, right? That's what speed work Now, speed work itself, there's a lot of things inside of speed work. There's interval sessions, there's tempo runs, there's steady state runs, there's [00:50:00] broken tempos. There's lots of different ways that you can do speed work. So the goal is not just like, okay, Speed work does not mean, all right, I'm just gonna go out and I'm just gonna run harder on this run.
Right? Like that might be able to benefit you, benefit you a little bit, right? But then that progress is gonna plateau. There's a lot, um, of ways to structure, just like we talked about structuring and programming with strength work, there's structuring and programming to speed work as well.
[00:50:24] Kevin: Right? But when you're trying to figure out where do I put my strength and my, my lifting my strength phase, uh, you have to realize like, Following a strength session, if you're focusing on strength, following that with a long run or following that with a speed session might not go as smooth as if you can separate those by a little bit more.
Mm-hmm. And there's only so many days out of the week, so it's also possible that if you're like I've, I would like to put two speed sessions in. One of those is probably gonna be awfully close to a lifting session, which means it's not gonna be as fast. And that's okay because it's all about finding the appropriate effort levels.
And it's not [00:51:00] like the whole time you're gonna be pushing really hard. There are gonna be sections of the run that are a little bit speedier and require you to push a little bit harder. There's also sections that run that are gonna be nice in recovery for you. So it all just has to be based off your particular effort levels.
[00:51:14] Angie: Exactly. Um, Ashley says, I usually run two to three miles at a time. What would a long run be for that? Anything more than that? Yeah. Right. So a long run could be four. Right. It could be five. If you wanna build up, build that up a little bit, but anything more than two to three miles would be considered your long run.
Okay.
[00:51:30] Kevin: If you're consistent at two to three, I would say start the long run no further than four. Well,
[00:51:35] Angie: here's the other thing that I was about to say too, is that it doesn't have to go by mileage. It can also go by time. Yep. All right. And this is another really fun thing, um, that we talk about inside our va, inside of the academy as well, is that you can do some runs by mileage and some runs by time.
Like some people I think get so caught up in what, what the mileage is or what my kilometers are, right. That that's the only number we look at. But your [00:52:00] body does not know pace, and your body does not know distance. Your body only knows effort and time. It only knows I was going easy for about 30 minutes.
I was going at a moderate pace for an hour. Right. Sorry. If you guys hear our dog in the background. Um, so. Is running on the treadmill the same as running outdoors? No, it's not. Okay. Um, it's, it's different. They're both beneficial, but they're, they're, they're different. Yep. Um, okay, so, um, what was I talking about?
Long runs? Yep. Time and distance. Okay. Right. Your body knows effort, level, and time. It does not, no mileage or pace. All right? And so there are different ways that you can structure your plan again. All right, so those are some of the basics. Okay. So hopefully you guys have an idea of kind of what your run, what your week kind of looks like.
All right? If you have any questions, you can put them in the chat right now, but again, This week, you guys, [00:53:00] what we gave you was, we, we basically had three hours with you this week, right? And so there's no way that we can cover all of the nuance that goes into a training plan in three days, right? Our goal was to give you the basics.
Our goal was to help you understand where you are, where you wanna go, and then have an idea of, of what you need to do to get there. Right? But we haven't yet talked about adjusting your plan when life gets in the way, right? When you're sick, like this guy, right? Like this guy had a long run planned. What were you gonna do?
Like 20 last weekend? I'm supposed to be 20 on Monday. He was supposed to do not happen 20 miles last weekend, and it didn't happen because he was not feeling well. Right? How do you adjust? Um, how do you adjust when you get sick? How do you adjust when you start to have a, that little acre pain that pops up so that it doesn't end up.
In an injury that derails you. Right? How do you adjust when you have family obligations or travel or work schedules that are getting in the way? Right? How do you incorporate mobility and nutrition into your plan? Right? [00:54:00] We teach five pillars of training inside of the Real Life Runners Academy, which are running mindset, strength, and mobility, recovery and nutrition.
Okay? And we've got probably, you know, five to 10 lessons on each of those, at least. Um, to teach you the specifics, you know, what is a warmup, what is a cool down, what are strides? What about running drills? Um, what about running form? We haven't even talked about running forum this week, right? Um, we talked, what about, you know, staying motivated, you know, weather when life gets in the way.
Right? Um, what about support and accountability? How, how, how does that play a role in your running? Right? Um, because a lot of you may, maybe some of you found us through Facebook, right? We. We ran some ads on Facebook to try to, to tell people about this free training, but a lot of you might be in like a free running group on Facebook.
And so you might be going in there if you guys are part of those running groups. Holy moly, that's the wild, wild West, [00:55:00] okay? Like they're all over the place in those running groups. I'm a member of some of them, and I see the questions that people ask and some of the advice that is given in those running groups.
And it is completely, I don't wanna say wrong, but it's wrong, okay? Some of it, some of it is like so non-scientific based and just based on like what worked for this one random person, right? So you don't wanna be going in and trying to find those people. And so what we wanna offer you guys is we wanna offer you support and accountability and training plan templates that adjust to your life.
All right? So hopefully if you've been with us this week, you kind of like us. You like what we stand for you, like what we're doing here, and um, We love helping other runners, right? And so now you basically have a choice. You can take the information that we gave you this week and you can continue to try to figure it all out on your own.
And some, for some of you that might, you know, mean putting a lot of, a lot more time into that, which is the one thing you guys can never get back, right? Time is one [00:56:00] thing you can never get back. Um, or you can make the choice to get some support on your journey. And that's why we, we created the Real Life Runners Academy because we wanted to give you the best of both worlds.
All right? The Academy is our group coaching program. We're gonna talk a little bit about that. Now, if you guys don't wanna listen, you can sign off. Okay? But, um, you know, we're not here to, to pressure you or convince you of anything, but we do wanna tell you that we know what it's like to not train in a way that's right for you.
And we wanna help you along the way. Okay? We've been coaching runners for over 15 years. I have my doctorate in physical therapy. I know the human body and how it works, and so well, and like Kevin said, I've created strength circuits so that you don't have to try to figure any of this out on your own.
All of our things are built into your plan. You can structure your week exactly how you want it, okay? We wanna give you a personalized plan that is right for you, and also coaching community and accountability along the way. Okay? If you join the academy, [00:57:00] you get training plan templates, okay? We've got training plans for all different goals.
So if you wanna build strength, if you wanna train for a race, if you wanna build mileage, we've got goals. If you're new to running and you just want, you wanna build up that consistency. Again, if you wanna train for a 5k 10 K, we've got race plans of all distances, even ultra-marathons, okay? Even the dopey challenge.
Even the dopey challenge, you have trading plan for that. Okay. There we have training plan template templates with drag and drop workouts so that you can move things around in your calendar to fit your life and your schedule. And if you're not sure how to do that, we offer live weekly coaching calls with us every single Tuesday.
Um, at noon we meet and do a live coaching call. We also offer evening calls if anybody is interested in those. Right? If you have a, a schedule and you can't make our Tuesday calls, we also add in other calls during the month to try to accommodate different time zones and different people's schedules.
Okay. So we have live weekly coaching calls where you can just come and, and answer ques or ask your [00:58:00] questions Okay. And get support. Um, Kevin and I are both on the calls every week. The rest of you know, the team, the community all comes and, and supports you along the way. It's, it's an amazing group, um, to be in.
Okay. And then since you guys joined us this week for the challenge, I'm off also offering, I. A bonus one-on-one call if you join this week. Okay? So if you join this week, normally you wouldn't get this one-on-one call. Um, because inside of our academy, once you sign up, it takes you through a step-by-step process of exactly what you need to do.
You guys have done a lot of the steps this week because like I sh I told you, like the, the worksheets that we gave you, I pulled a lot of them straight out of our academy workbook. All right? We, where we walk you through this process of being aware of where you are, understanding where you wanna go, and then building that plan, okay?
And there's a step-by-step process all inside the academy. So if you're a d i Y kind of person, you can just go in there and do it all on your own. You know, we've got plenty of people that like to do it that way. If you're someone that likes a little bit more support and handholding, I wanna gi I wanna give you a [00:59:00] one-on-one call with me.
I'll jump on a call with you. I'll help you build that plan in real time, um, so that you can really feel confident in, in your training plan. Okay? And so, um, that's a little bit about the academy and basically, It's a, it's a, we offer two different membership options. You can choose a quarterly membership or an annual option.
Okay. Depending on how long you'd like to commit to yourself and to the, to the program. Um, and all of that information is over on the [email protected] slash academy. Um, how much do you increase each week if you're planning for a race, how much
[00:59:37] Kevin: do you increase volume? I'm guessing is Tim's question,
[00:59:39] Angie: I'm guessing.
So, yeah, I'm gonna put that link right there in the chat if you guys wanna check out more information about the group coaching program, the Academy. Um, we'll, we'll answer Tim's question here in a second, but real quick about the academy, we're also right now offering. A seven day free trial. Okay? So if you're not quite sure, and if you're the kind of person that likes to try it [01:00:00] before you buy it, go over and sign up.
Okay? Real life runners.com/academy. You can have seven days. We give you full access to the whole program so you can see what it's about. All right? And then if you decide, yep, I love this, this is fantastic, then you can just, you can stay in the program and, and we'll continue to coach you and, and guide you along the way.
And that would be amazing. Um, and if you decide, Nope, this is definitely not for me, then you can cancel before the seven days and you'll never be charged, okay? Because our goal is not to convince you, our goal is not to, um, you know, trick you into anything. Um, we're, we're very transparent. We're very authentic.
Hopefully you guys have, have gained that from, from us this week. Um, and we just wanna help you guys. So, um, I would love to see you guys in the academy. All the information, uh, on pricing and all of that is, is at the website, real life runners.com/academy. Okay? So obviously like if you sign up for the annual option, you get a discount versus the quarterly option.
So, um, you can find out [01:01:00] all that information, all the pricing options over there on the website. I see if
[01:01:03] Kevin: you sign up over the weekend, then your free seven day trail is also gonna get you into Tuesday's group coaching session also.
[01:01:08] Angie: Yes, that's true. Yeah. If you guys wanna join our, our group coaching call on Tuesday, um, you'll get that link as well.
All right. Does anybody have any questions about the academy? Please feel free to put them in the
[01:01:20] Kevin: chat. Um, I'm gonna try and handle Tim's question on how much do you increase if you're planning for a race? Good luck with that question. Yeah, so it, Kennedy, there's a lot involved in answering that of how far is the race and how far are you currently running, and are we talking increasing each run over the week or just the long run?
A lot of people, if they're training for something like a half marathon, think that the only run that really matters is just making sure that they add an extra mile to every long run on the weekend and they just, they're like, I can currently do fives, that means next week I can do six and then seven. So it's gonna take me about eight weeks and I can do a half marathon, which is not technically wrong.
I just don't [01:02:00] think it's gonna be all that enjoyable and you're probably just gonna wanna cross the finish line and be done with running. So to me, You just want to, you wanna be able to increase enough from week to week that you don't feel exhausted and you wanna pull back periodically so that your body and mind can mentally recover from it.
So that's why even if you're capable of running like eight miles by the time you're gonna train for a 13 mile half marathon, I think it's still a good 90 day process because you build yourself up and then pull back a little bit and build up and pull back. Kinda the best I've got on that one. We've got iPhone.
[01:02:34] Angie: I joined the Academy last week. Love it. Yay. Who are you? iPhone. Is that Jenny? Jenny, is that you? I think she said she was gonna try to get on the call this week. We've got a couple Academy members in here. We've got Sarah on the call. Lisa on the call. Annie on the call. Um, So that shows you guys too, like our academy members just love to, to get in on these trainings as well.
These have been wonderful. Definitely checking it out. Good. Cindy, [01:03:00] please check it out. We would love to help you out because I love the timeline and the goals that you've set for yourself. Um, the o oh yeah, it is Jenny. Cool. Um, so here's the thing. You guys, um, that's the other thing too that I want you guys to understand is that inside the academy, you're not just a number.
We know all our runners.
[01:03:18] Kevin: And the fact that you knew iPhone was Jenny is pretty impressive.
[01:03:21] Angie: Well, she told me that she was gonna, I think she emailed me and she told me she was gonna make it on Friday. Um, and I didn't see her name on the list, so, Um, so yeah, you know, we, you're not just a number with us. You know, we, we care about all of the members inside the academy.
We want you guys to make progress. We want you to see results. Um, and we will do everything that we can to help you achieve the goals that that matter to you and that are important to you. And the really cool thing about our community also is that it really is a community. There are, um, runners that are supporting other runners along the way and cheering for people.
And they, we talk about, you know, when we do [01:04:00] have races or when we have our wins, um, for the week. And we're all there to like be in this and support of each other too. Because if you don't have a good support system already, I would really invite you to come check out ours, because the academy is really amazing and the people that we have in there are just fantastic humans.
Um, and, and all just running in order to live stronger, healthier lives. You know, we understand that. Yes, it's important for us to chase some of these performance goals. We wanna challenge ourselves, we wanna get better. We wanna run longer and run faster and do all the things, but we also wanna make sure that we're living the life that we wanna live and not like breaking down in other areas of our life because of our running, because of our training.
You know, um, one of my favorite. Uh, recent examples of an a win inside the academy is one of our members who is now in her seventies, just ran her first half marathon a couple of weeks ago. It must have been about a month ago at this point, roughly. Um, [01:05:00] and she is just a, a rockstar. She's awesome, but she didn't have her challenges along the way, right?
Like, she ended up developing pneumonia in March and missed a whole month of training. And her half marathon was, I believe, I believe in May. So it was like, we had, I think six weeks when she finally recovered to get her back to where she was, her first
[01:05:18] Kevin: half marathon ever in the seventies. And, and she still did it and could not stop smiling for, I mean, we've had a couple of coaching calls since then and the smile is still so big.
[01:05:27] Angie: Yeah. I know. It's so cool. It's so cool. And, and just like what she's gained outta that experience is just incredible. And it's been so fun to help her to do that. Uh, Marilyn previous client who had to stop due her traumatic life incidences and the time I was with the Academy was so successful for me.
Well, that's that's awesome, Marilyn. Well, we would love to help you again too. All right, you guys. Um, that's all we have for you. Thank you so much for joining us. I know we're a couple minutes over today, but thank you so much for joining us this week, um, in the Build Your Training Plan Challenge. We [01:06:00] hope it was super helpful for you.
We, we sure had a lot of fun, um, getting to know you guys and interact with you and help you with this process. And hopefully we'll see those of you guys inside the academy. If you are ready for more coaching, more support and uh, training plans that are right for you, head over to the academy and sign up for that seven day free trial.
All right, you guys. Take care. See ya. Bye.