Inspire to Run Podcast

How to Bounce Back from Burnout for Marathon Success

• Richard Conner • Season 2 • Episode 117

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#117 - Have you ever hit a wall at a point in time during training or races? It could be burnout and it manifests itself in different ways; and is an experience that many dedicated runners face at some point in their journey. In this episode, I talk about the topic of burnout, using my personal experiences as a case study to shed light on how runners can overcome this challenge. 

As I share my journey through recent races like the Spartan DEKA races and the Gulf Beach half marathon, discover how I managed the highs of personal bests and the lows of unexpected fatigue, as well as the critical lessons learned about balancing training regimens and managing expectations. 

Topics Covered:

  • Hear about my recent race experience and steps leading to burnout
  • Listen to how burnout was affecting me and the toll it can take 
  • Learn about ten ways to bounce back from burnout 


Resources:


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Speaker 1:

Hey, my friend, welcome to Inspire to Run podcast. It's been a few weeks since I've been here behind the mic and recording an episode, so happy to be back and really want to share what's been going on with me personally. And you know, really it has a lot to do with burnout, which is the topic of this conversation today, and I want to share a little bit about what's been going on with me and, you know, an update on my races and kind of how I've been kind of working through what's been going on. So you know where we left off. In the last episode I was talking a little bit about my races over the summer. So I talked a little bit about the Spartan Deca Mile, which I did a team's race with my teammate, mickey and we had a really great race and it was the first time that we had done a team's race together and we learned a lot and really kind of prepped this for races that we did after that and one that's coming up. So that was one of the races we talked about. And then I talked about my father's day, five miler, and then that brought me to the Spartan Deca fit in Charlotte, which is when I did another team's race with Mickey and I share a little bit about that in the last episode. So since then I had a really great race.

Speaker 1:

I did the Woodmont 5K, which is a race in the town that I grew up in, lived there for many years and then moved away for many years and then met the race organizer and never knew that there was a 5k kind of in the town that I grew up with, grew up in. So super excited to learn about that, sign up for it and I ran it for the first time this year and it was just an incredible race. You know I went into the race, not having run it before, with very little expectations but I really just wanted to do well and just kind of be in line with, you know, my times and just kind of how I felt and performed, as with my other recent races, and I actually did much better than I expected. I ended up doing, I want to say like seven minutes and 55 seconds a mile um on a relatively flat course and a relatively mild day, so not too cool, not too hot. So I was really happy with myself kind of going through that race and how I performed. And you know I went from there to the next DECA fit, which was in Philly.

Speaker 1:

So I did another team's race with another teammate Chrissy. She's incredible. She did really well that day in her age group and in another team's race and I think we had a really excellent team's race together and it was a lot of fun and she's just a phenomenal athlete. So we did that and then after that I kind of rolled into the Gulf Beach half marathon and I think this is my third year doing that half marathon and I really enjoy it Again in the town that I grew up in. Relatively flat course, you know, a couple of hills here and there, but just really beautiful. Big part of the course is kind of along the beach and the shore. The race organizer is excellent, there's always a lot of great energy and the shore the race organizer is excellent. There's always a lot of great energy in the race and Chrissy actually runs that race as well. So it's been kind of cool for a couple of years in a row that we've been able to run it.

Speaker 1:

So I'll talk a little bit about kind of how I did in that race, because that really is going to lead into the conversation for today. So you know I hadn't really been doing all of my training kind of leading up to the race but I've been feeling pretty good Again. I did the Woodmont 5k and I did really well. I did the Decafit in Philly and it was. The runs were hard but I just chalked it up to just being that day and it just kind of kept up with most of my runs and training, but not to the extent that I had been doing kind of for previous races in the past.

Speaker 1:

So I walked into the Gulf Beach half marathon thinking, you know, feeling pretty good about myself. So I would say that you know my best time was about an hour 54. I was looking for, you know, one minute or two minute PR and you know I started off the race doing really well, I want to say you know, first few miles I felt pretty good, I tried to keep my heart rate in check and I had a pretty good pace. And then, before I knew it, I would say, about halfway through the race, I found myself with about a two minute buffer, meaning I was two minutes faster than my goal time, which was already a couple of minutes faster than my PR. So I was super excited about how I was pacing and I was even more excited about how I was feeling. I was still feeling pretty good and I can't tell you what happened, but I hit maybe about mile seven or mile eight, and that's when I really started to feel it.

Speaker 1:

Maybe the race started to catch up with me and I started to burn through my buffer, which you know, at that point in the race is fine, right, so you have about five miles to go. So all I really needed to do was just kind of hang on to that goal pace, which was about eight minutes and 30 seconds a mile. So just hydrate, just fuel, and just kind of hang on to that pace. And I just got to the point where I was just losing more and more buffer and then I started to fall behind and I just did the best I could and I kept moving and I just tried to hold on, but just got really slower and slower as I progressed through the race. So I ended up finishing the race in a much longer time than I anticipated, very far away from my PR and very far away from my goal time.

Speaker 1:

Unfortunately, this is the part that kind of leads into the conversation, because typically when I finish a race. You know, I start to think about like here's everything I think I did well, here are the things that I think I could have improved on, and sometimes I kind of beat myself up over the performance if I don't really hit exactly where I wanted. But you know, I ended this race and I just had a really different feeling and the feeling was I did. What I did was the race. I'm just going to move on and really didn't think deeply about like here are the things I could have done better and here are the things that I think I did well and really excited to kind of get back into my training and get to the next race. Or, you know, think about, you know how I want to do next year. And that part kind of bothered me more than my performance in the race, because it's not typically, you know how I am, how I kind of react to my performance. So I started to think maybe there's something else that's kind of going on right and that's kind of what led me to maybe I'm just kind of burning out.

Speaker 1:

You know, it's been a really long year of training, it's been a really long year of races. There's been a lot of things happening kind of in my personal life that I've been working through, you know, professionally and personally, and it's just, it's been really heavy this year. So I'm like gosh, maybe I'm just burnt out, maybe I just need to take a break, maybe I just need to kind of rethink the rest of this year or maybe even rethink next year. So some time has passed, you know, a couple of weeks have passed, and I've really thought about this deeply and I want to share with you some of the ways that you can kind of bounce back from burnout and kind of share with you my personal experience over the last couple of weeks and share with you my personal experience over the last couple of weeks and share with you kind of what's coming next and why this is so important for me to bounce back, because the exciting news is I have a marathon that's coming up in France towards the end of November, so just right before Thanksgiving, and this is my first marathon. I'm really excited about this one because it's one that I have friends that have run it before and I really wanted my first marathon to be special. And then after that I have the DECA Fit World Championships, which at this point I don't know if I'm in yet, but really hoping that I have the opportunity to run teams with Mickey and or Chrissy at World Championships, so really looking forward to that.

Speaker 1:

So I really needed to kind of settle what's been going on with me, you know personally, so then I can get back on track and get ready for those races. So I just kind of wanted to share some of the things with you on really ways that you can bounce back from burnout. If you know, if you're feeling this now, if you felt it before, you feel it kind of coming on. You know, here's some of the things you can think about. So the first one is acknowledge the burnout and you know, maybe I've been in denial for a really long time. Maybe I started feeling this months before again a lot of races on the list this year which, as I thought about it, I was like gosh, I really kind of slimmed down the number of races that I'm doing, but all in all it's still a lot of races compared to what I used to do in the past. Really, going back three, four years ago, I really didn't do a lot of races a year, maybe just a couple. So this is a big change for me over the last couple of years.

Speaker 1:

So that was the first one is just kind of acknowledging that I'm burnt out, acknowledging the way I was training or reacting or responding to my performance, which is different than had it been before, and that for me was just kind of one of the signs like hey, maybe something's not right. Plus, there's just other signs that I would say of things that I just didn't have interest in and I'm just wondering, hey, maybe there's something different here that I need to address. So the first one is really kind of acknowledge the burnout and the second one is probably, I would say, obvious, right, but it's important to note you need to rest and recharge. So sleep obviously is a big part of that, and I assure you I got plenty of sleep, kind of after the half marathon and I took time off. So I didn't run for about a week, I didn't do anything, I didn't run, I didn't work out, I didn't train for about a week because I really just felt like, not only just physically but just mentally, I just needed to step away from the training and from the running just for that amount of time. And I know that's hard, I mean I'm thinking about it like I don't have time to take a week off. I have my first full marathon that's coming up, you know, in less than just about two months, maybe a little bit over two months, so I don't have time to take off, but I feel like if I didn't, I probably would be in much worse shape at this point. So I took the risk, I rolled the dice and I took some time off from running and I want to reference some past interviews and episodes in this conversation because you know, I even received this advice and we've even talked about these things on the show in the past and as I've been reflecting and as I've been preparing for this conversation, I'm remembering hey, you know, there's some interviews and episodes that I want to share with you now that touch on these topics. So the first one, kind of under this rest and recharge kind of step, is take a listen to episode 97, how to improve recovery as a runner, and that was with Ryan Hurley. Ryan is the founder of Lagoon Sleep. We had an excellent conversation around recovery and I would recommend that you take a listen to that episode.

Speaker 1:

The next one is set boundaries, and this one, for me, is super important because it goes way beyond just training and running for races probably an area of opportunity or, I would say, challenge that I've had for many, many years personally and professionally, around kind of setting boundaries and thinking about, you know, the commitments that I make and I'm the kind of person that tends to say yes and there are a number of cases where I probably need to say no, and I've gotten a lot better about it over the years. Again, there's a number of races that I said I'm just not going to do this year. There's a number of other things that I just said no, because if I do those things I'm really going to put other things at risk. Right, I'm either not going to do them on time or I'm not going to do them a good quality, because I have a lot of things kind of on my plate and setting those boundaries and having commitments that I can actually do and fulfill is really important to me. So that's something that I've worked on over the years and something that you know I continue to kind of think about and work on. So making sure you have the right set of commitments and setting your boundaries right. Set of commitments and setting your boundaries.

Speaker 1:

The next one is reconnect with activities that you enjoy. So this one's kind of an interesting one because I enjoy running. That is an activity that I like to do, right. So that kind of takes me away from all of the other things that I need to kind of deal with and do in life. So for me I'm like all right, well, what else do I do, right, if I'm not running and I'm not training? I had to think about, you know, what are some of the other things that I like to do. So I don't watch like necessarily a lot of TV, but I do enjoy movies. So you know, kind of during that time I spent some time watching movies, which I enjoy doing from time to time.

Speaker 1:

I also have started to get massages, which I've kind of done in the past, and it's not something that I totally enjoy but it does kind of help me relax. And it does help me, obviously, if you know physically, you know if I've done a lot of training or I've done a lot of running, massages is something that helps out a lot. So that's something that you know I've been doing lately. And then something else is not entirely relaxing but it's definitely helped me is getting things done around the house and I think, you know, having things linger and not getting them done on time and having clutter or whatever the case may be, I feel like has been this mental load for a really long time. So by getting those things done, it's checking those things off the box and just kind of getting them off my mind and then kind of freeing me up to think about other things or just even relax, so while getting things done around the house I don't know if I call it an activity that I enjoy I think it definitely kind of helped me during this recovery period.

Speaker 1:

The next one is physical exercise and again I needed to step away from physical exercise because I feel like that had been a large source of what has been burning me out, among other things, in my life Not the only thing, but that was one thing that I had to step away from. But if it's not physical exercise, that's kind of what you're facing right now. It is a really good way to kind of help with burnout and I had a really great conversation with Fitz Kohler. She's the founder of Fitzness, I've had her on the show a couple times and go ahead and listen to episode 94, avoiding Burnout and Enhancing Performance and Enjoying Workouts and we had a really great conversation about how physical exercise can help boost your mood and help you overall. But she talks about how different types of exercise, too, can kind of break things up and the monotony of it. So really good listens. I'd recommend that.

Speaker 1:

The next one is around mindfulness and relaxation. So mindfulness, meditation, deep breathing exercises you know, those are all things that could help you kind of manage stress and it's something that I've done in the past that I keep saying, gosh, I really got to get back into it. And as I work back into my routine, that's something that I have to do, but because I feel like when I did it before, it really really helped me kind of during that time. So one of the episodes that we had a really great conversation around, especially deep breathing exercises, was episode 105. And that is six pillars of optimal performance and the power of grit. And that was with Brad Ritter and Brad's a great guy. We had a really great conversation. He has a really incredible story. I definitely recommend that you listen to this episode. He also has a book out that you can pick up. But a lot of great tips in this area and really love his framework. And another one is episode 114, embrace the Power of Mindfulness in your Running Journey, and that's with Holly Zajur. So take a listen to that one again. Really great conversation around mindfulness.

Speaker 1:

The next one is seek support. So just kind of depending on your situation and what you're going through and what you're comfortable with doing, you know, talking to friends and family or, you know, health professionals could be an option for you, just again, given what your individual circumstance calls for. But that is definitely a good option for you to take as you're kind of bouncing back or recovering from burnout. Next one is reevaluating your priorities. So this one has been kind of related to a previous one that we just talked about. So this one I've been really thinking about how do I establish those priorities and then how do I kind of establish my calendar accordingly? So, knowing that I can't do everything in one day, how do I figure out, well, what are the things I'm going to focus on today? How do I focus on, you know, the things I'm going to do tomorrow? So what really comes to mind is I heard this podcast episode.

Speaker 1:

I don't even remember who I was listening to at the time, but the guest was really talking about there's really only five things you could do in your life that you could have at any one point in time. So, like five projects or initiatives or big things that you can do that you could do, there's really only five. So you may have a list of 10, 15, 20 things that you think you're doing, but in reality there's probably only five things that you're doing effectively at any one given time. And if you, if you want to be successful, you got to pick those top five things and you got to be really intentional about doing those things. And if you say, hey, there's really a sixth I need to pick up, then maybe you need to drop one of the original five.

Speaker 1:

So you know, for me, I think about, like, what are those five things for me? So, for me, number one is, you know, my, the professional work that I do is is on my list. The second thing is everything to do with my family and and home. The third one is, um, volunteer work that I do. So so that's that's number three, um. The fourth one is fitness and the fifth. The fifth one is everything that I'm doing here with inspire to run and inspire to run podcasts. So not in any order, although I listed them, it felt like in a specific order, but not in any order. But those are the five things that I focus on. So I say, okay, for each of those five things. Here is my goal, maybe for this week, maybe for this month, maybe for this quarter.

Speaker 1:

And then what I do is every day I say you know what? I really can only focus on two or three of those five things a day, right? So I know, if it's a day where I'm going to do a long run, like a six mile run, like I did yesterday, I'm probably not going to be able to do two other things that day. I probably can only do one more thing that day, probably related to family and home, as an example. Or if it's a day where I'm not doing any kind of fitness, right, maybe it's a rest day. Maybe that gives me more opportunities to do something related to the podcast, or maybe it allows me to catch up on work or volunteering.

Speaker 1:

So what I've started to do again is I started to think about every day, kind of planning what I'm going to do really surrounding those five things. So those are my priorities and if something new comes into play, I have to make a decision. Do I bring in that new thing or do I say you know what, no, or not now, or do I drop something from my original five, which I just gave you, the list. Probably something really hard to do for me to drop something from that list, but maybe I deprioritize one thing to prioritize something else. But that's kind of how I'm thinking about you know my priorities and again, that's kind of what stuck with me for a while is really just those five things.

Speaker 1:

So the next one is around kind of getting back into your routine slowly. So after about a week and a couple of days I started to feel relaxed. I started to feel like all right, physically I feel better, mentally I feel better. And oh, by the way, in just about two months I have this marathon coming up and I really need to kind of get back into my routine. So what I did was, you know I I just kind of picked up the plan from where I am at this point, being two months out, and I just kind of slowly just did my own thing and got back, you know, put my running shoes back on and got back out there and did just a little bit, just quick 10 minute run. You know, I did a little bit of strength training and just just to kind of get my body back into the groove. So just slowly returning to where I was and then doing my you know plan over the next two months getting me to my marathon.

Speaker 1:

And then the last one here is around lifestyle changes. So lifestyle could be anything around diet and sleep habits and work-life balance, you know, really just making sure that you have balance basically between those things and you're making good choices. And I would say I hadn't really been thinking about it lately because maybe I just felt like I was on the go all the time or I was just kind of moving through life just getting things done by brute force clock. Three, four years ago I was really strict about my diet and then here, you know, fast forward, I'm not as strict about the diet but I have pretty good habits. But lately I haven't. Honestly, over the last two or three months, my diet has not been very good and I've been eating things or drinking things that you know more frequently than I normally would.

Speaker 1:

Right, when I then when I was more strict about my diet and I think that that's kind of had an impact on me, and one of those examples is sugar. I'd realized how much sugar that I was taking in per day was way more than it had been over the last few years and way more than I should have been. So I was drinking a lot of caffeine, I was popping a lot of sugar with the caffeine and just a lot of other different things that I think was really just kind of not not good for me, right, physically and mentally. So that's one of the things that I, when I realized it and I reflected, I changed right away. Right, I'm like all, right, immediately have to cut down on the sugar not necessarily cut out, because I don't want to deprive myself of a lot of these things, but I definitely needed to get back to where I was, which is, you know, much reduced level of, you know, sugar and some other things that I was eating. But that's one of the examples, I guess, of the lifestyle changes.

Speaker 1:

And the next is kind of around sleep habits. So for me, sleep has been really important and I've done a lot to ensure that I get good, restful sleep over the last few years. So I don't know if I've changed necessarily any habits in terms of going to sleep. But what I've realized is, to some extent I was probably oversleeping, right? So in the morning and maybe this is again kind of traces back to being burnt out In the morning I should be up 530 ish, six o'clock. There are days where I'm getting out of bed at 730, maybe eight o'clock, maybe on the weekends even later, right so, and I'm oversleeping and I'm sure you know to some extent that's doing me more harm than good. So, even though my sleep habits wasn't necessarily me staying up late at night or not getting enough sleep, what I've realized is I was probably staying in bed longer or, you know, not getting up until later in the morning, especially on the weekends. That probably wasn't doing me, you know, as much good either.

Speaker 1:

And the last one is, you know, kind of around that work-life balance. So you know, just really figuring out a way of getting what I need to get done, you know, at work, and then you know being able to do all the other things that I need to do related to, you know, my personal life, you know, with family and with the podcast and fitness and otherwise. So those are some of the steps that can help you, hopefully help you, bounce back from burnout. You know, and I'm hoping, by sharing my experience and the story will help you or someone you know, if you're going to through something similar. So you know, at this point I feel like I'm slowly getting back to where I want to be.

Speaker 1:

I have this marathon that's coming up in two months in France, which it's I'm really excited about, because you can basically call it like wine country and it's you know, it's it's really cool to to go back to France. I spent a lot of time there. It's probably one of the top three countries that I've traveled to in my life and I really enjoy my time there. So the ability to go back there after about a year, year and a half, and then run this race and oh, by the way, it's my first marathon. So I'm starting to kind of get back into the swing of things and I'm getting really excited about it as the days progress. So that's all good news. And then, of course, you know, spartan, deca, world championships. It's would surely be an honor for me to, you know, get the email invite that I'm in and I can, and I've qualified to to run this, uh, world championships. So probably most likely that the DECA fit um the team's race with Mickey and or Christie, so really excited about that opportunity as well. So that's what I wanted to share with you today Kind of you know all my life updates and share these tips with you that can hopefully help you.

Speaker 1:

And we have a number of exciting things that are coming with Inspire to Run podcast. So just kind of look out for those. I'm excited to bring on some new guests and have some new conversations and share these stories with all of you. So if you enjoyed this episode, if you have tips of your own, if you have stories of your own, reach out, just look in the show notes and there's a way to message me. And I'd love to hear from you and love to hear your stories and we'd love to even share your stories on the show. So with that, I want to thank you for listening today and have a great day.

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Richard Conner

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