5 Effective Ways to Embrace Discomfort in Training and Races

#132 - Inspire to Run Podcast host, Richard Conner, shares his recent experience with a Spartan DEKA Strong race and reflects on the lessons learned through embracing discomfort. Richard explores how pushing beyond comfort zones during training and races improves performance and details five practical ways to embrace discomfort in your training.

Topics Covered:

• How embracing discomfort in training improves performance
• Reframing discomfort as an opportunity for growth 
• Using mantras to push through challenging race conditions
• Incorporating regular hard efforts to prepare for race day 

Your Host

Richard Conner

Richard is a strategic marketing professional with experience in B2B marketing. Richard is the founder of Inspire to Run and is passionate about helping others reach their goals. He is a Connecticut native, a husband, dad, writer, Star Wars fan, and, of course, a runner! 

Resources:

• Incrediwear: Code for 10% off RICHARDCONNER

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Chapters

• 0:06 Reflections on the DECA race experience
• 1:00:39 Embracing discomfort to improve performance
• 1:53:30 What’s next in my running journey

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hey, my friend, I'm a little late in dropping this episode, but I wanted to come on and share a short recap about my Decker race last weekend, which is always a hard type of race for me, but it got me thinking about how can I embrace discomfort in my training and my races to help me perform better, and I'd like to share some of those ways with you. Hope you enjoy.

Speaker 2: 0:23

Welcome to Inspire to Run Podcast. Here you will find inspiration, whether you are looking to take control of your health and fitness or you are a seasoned runner looking for community and some extra motivation. You will hear inspiring stories from amazing runners, along with helpful tips from fitness experts. Now here's your host, richard Conner.

Speaker 1: 0:48

Hey, my friend, welcome to Inspire to Run Podcast. I hope you're doing well and I'm excited to share with you some of the updates that I've had in my races recently. I'm off to a decent start for the year, I would say, and I'd also like to talk about kind of embracing discomfort in your training and races. And this is directly related to the race I just had and it's just been something that's been on my mind for a few days after that race. And you know I keep telling myself after a DECA race that it's so uncomfortable but it's going to make me a better runner. So I kind of put me, put myself through all of that pain and discomfort but as an endurance runner, kind of doing a lot of the high intensity work and really moving fast, it's just a different type of race for me. It's a different type of race than I trained for and it just makes it harder for me to do. But I do that to get better at my road races. So I really started thinking about that and wanted to share, you know, the reasons why I do it, which I talked a little bit about, why I do Decker races in addition to my road races, but also like ways to embrace that discomfort and things that I've done and maybe that will help you kind of in your training and your races. But I'll just start off by just giving a quick recap of this.

Speaker 1: 2:02

So the race that I did was at Underdog Fitness. So, as you know, coach Kevin is my trainer and I've been going to Underdog for a number of years now and he hosted a DECA Strong Race last weekend and the DECA Strong Race has no running. So for a runner that's a little bit daunting, right, there's no running in it, but it's basically 10 functional fitness kind of stations, if you will. So you do lunges and box over, step overs, you have the skier and air bike and just a number of those types of stations and it's something I've been training for for quite some time. But it's been two years since I've run a Decker Strong and it's been one year since I've run an entire race all the way through, because last year I did teams races with a couple of my teammates, mickey and Chrissy.

Speaker 1: 2:55

So this was the first time that I did the Strong, first time in a couple of years, first time that I ran all the way through in a long time, and the reason why I did it was to just kind of see how I was doing at each of the stations and just to see how my fitness progressed, but also to see like, where are the stations that I think I'm pretty good at and confident at and where are the stations that I think I need help, and that's really going to help me kind of plan for my training for the year and also plan my races with my running mates. So that's the reason why I did it and the race went okay. I didn't get a PR like I did in my road race just a few weeks ago, so it's okay. I'm kind of okay with that because as I was going through the different stations, I really felt comfortable on each of the stations. I knew, you know, approximately what my pace was going to be on a number of the stations. My technique was okay, kind of going into those stations, and it kind of fell apart maybe about 75% of the way through the race. I kind of believe I know why or what happened kind of at that point in time. But out of the 10 stations I really kind of fell apart in the last three. I just kind of ran out of gas and pushed myself through. So that was kind of hard. But I would say, for the first seven I felt really good about my pace, I felt really good about my technique and I felt really good about kind of going through all the stations versus kind of a team's race where you may split the stations, you may split the runs and oh, by the way, there was no running, so there was no break and no running for me. So it was just straight up kind of going through those stations. So you know, all in all, I think it was an okay start to the year. I definitely know kind of where I'm at, I definitely have more confidence in those stations. But there's a lot of work that I need to do to achieve my goal, which is to qualify for at least two events at Deco World Championships this year on top of all the other races that I'm doing. So whether I qualify as individual or qualify for teams, either way I'm just looking to qualify for at least two of those races. So so really kind of looking forward to that and I have the whole year to train and I think I'm off to a decent start, but I've got a lot of work to do.

Speaker 1: 5:13

So kind of after that I was. I kind of took a seat and I was feeling bad about myself for about 10 minutes as a as I brought my heart rate back down and I was starting to reflect on the race. But rate back down and I was starting to reflect on the race. But I really started to think about, well, why am I putting myself through all this torture if it's not the main race or sport that I do and I talked about this in other episodes as to why I do DECA. But I really started thinking about one thing about this race that may be different than other things that I do is that it's very uncomfortable. It's high intensity, it's work that I'm not used to. It's not part of my normal training, other than if I'm doing speed work or things like that. So you know it's really uncomfortable.

Speaker 1: 5:57

So I started to think about and research well, you know, what are the benefits of being uncomfortable? What are the benefits of kind of putting myself through this? And you know some of the things are first is you get greater confidence. So kind of going through these hard races or these hard workouts. When you're in it it's really hard and sometimes I just want to quit, but I don't and I stick with it. But after you're done, then you get that confidence like, yeah, I just did that, and even if you did it in training, you know, hopefully that translates into your races and where you need to perform. But now that you have the confidence that, hey, I did that before I could do it again. So that's the first benefit that it gives you of kind of being uncomfortable or embracing discomfort.

Speaker 1: 6:46

Next is improved performance. So, of course, if you're not pushing yourself, you're not growing. So you've got to do things that your body's not accustomed to. And yes, it's going to be hard, yes, it's going to be difficult, yes it's going to hurt sometimes, but those are the things that are going to help you improve your performance. It's going to help you get faster times. It's going to help you be stronger, because you have to go through those hard things to make your body stronger and to get faster. And if you're not, if you're just doing the things that you normally do and it's easy for you, you're not really going to be growing. So that's another reason why you want to embrace discomfort.

Speaker 1: 7:27

And then the next thing is resilience. So and it's not just resilience kind of physically for sports but also resilience in life, right, kind of that mental resilience. And the funny thing about this is I was talking to someone just a few years ago about my races and they made a comment to me. They were like you know what? I know that if you're training the way you do and you're racing the way you do and you show up the way you do in sports, that I know you're going to do the same thing here, kind of in the nine to five right in the office. And I really thought about that and it kind of stayed with me and I'm like, yeah, right, because it's not just me physically improving and embracing kind of this discomfort, you know physically, but it's also mentally being able to do hard things. So that really has kind of stayed with me over the years and I like to think that all the things that I'm doing, you know sports wise, is good for me physically but it also translates into other parts of my life. So those are just three reasons why embracing discomfort is so important, especially in your kind of in your races and the physical activity that you do.

Speaker 1: 8:38

But it's not an easy thing to do. So whether, again, you're doing your training, whether you're in the races. It's going to be hard, no matter how much you train, no matter how much you focus on your mindset. It's going to be hard, but those things are going to help you push through, those things are going to help you perform better. Those things are going to help you perform better. So how can you embrace the discomfort? Well, the first way to embrace discomfort is to kind of think about the discomfort as growth.

Speaker 1: 9:07

And I talked about a little bit when you're doing those really hard workouts. So let's say, I'm doing speed work on the treadmill. I used to dread speed work on the treadmill. I used to dread speed work on the treadmill. I still do. But when I do them now, I think about it as I'm doing the speed work on the treadmill or on the track or whatever the case is. I'm doing the speed work to get faster in my races and I believe that the better I'm doing at that speed work, the better off I'm going to be in my races. Same thing with DECA, specific training, right, if I'm doing a hard training with, you know, the skier, or I'm doing burpees or lunges, whatever the case is, that discomfort in that moment of time is temporary but it's going to help me with my races, but it's going to help me with my races. So don't think about it as, oh my goodness, I have to do this really hard workout. Think about it as I get to do this workout and this is what I need to do to be successful in my races or whatever it is that you're looking to do. Whatever goals and objectives that you had and I talk about races because a lot of my goals are kind of centered around the races, but maybe you have something different right? So, whatever those goals are, whatever those objectives are, think about this is what you need to do to achieve those goals and objectives.

Speaker 1: 10:35

Bit about this in a previous episode. It was episode 130, five ways to improve confidence and enhance your runs with positive self-talk. And you know I talked about the mantras that I use, which has kind of changed over the years. So at one point in time, especially when I was going through half marathon training and races, I was using the mantra I can, I will, I must, and that I had taken from a motivational speaker and I started to use that, you know, kind of through my own races and I've used other ones kind of throughout the last few years, but the one that I use most recently and not in the last DECA race.

Speaker 1: 11:08

But the race before was no excuses and that's what I said to myself just kind of as I started the race and as I progressed. I was like no excuses and I'll tell you why. So that particular race was on Super Bowl Sunday and it happened to snow here the night before. So they postponed the race to give the city enough time to kind of clear the streets, which they actually did a relatively good job, and it's great that it wasn't actually snowing during the race, but it was before and they did a good job clearing the streets.

Speaker 1: 11:38

But there's a lot of racers in this particular race. It's a very popular race, local here, and there's point in times where there might be a little snow and ice on the ground. There might be areas where there's not a lot of room because there's a lot of races and maybe because of the snow pile up on the sides, you're kind of crammed with a lot of room because there's a lot of races and maybe because of the snow pile up on the sides, you know, you're kind of crammed with a lot of the racers. And I started to think like how in the world am I going to achieve a PR on this particular course? If I have these conditions right, if I'm going to be bumping into people, if I'm afraid of slipping on the snow like, and the ground is wet like, how am I going to get a PR? And all I thought about was I don't want to get to the end of this race making a whole bunch of excuses. So that was kind of my mantra during that race no excuses, I'm just going to run this race as fast as I can, as best I can. I'm going to rely on my training, I'm going to focus, I'm going to try not to slip and fall. I'm just going to really do the best I can. And if there's times I have to slow down, I have to slow down. If there's times that I can speed up, I can speed up. But at the end of the day, no excuses. I don't want to look back and say, well, I could have done this and I could have done that, I could have done the other thing. So that's just the mantra I can, I will, I must, and kind of more positive mantra. So, whatever it is, just think about what is it that can help you stay focused on your race and help you kind of just kind of keep moving when things get tough.

Speaker 1: 13:11

The third way to embrace discomfort is train through tough conditions. So this one's kind of interesting because I flip-flopped on this a few times. So what are tough conditions? So the first thing is you really never know what you're going to get on race day, especially if you're running road races. You don't know if you're going to get a really hot day. You don't know if you're going to get a really cold day. You don't know if there's going to get a really hot day. You don't know if you're going to get a really cold day. You don't know if there's going to be wind or rain or, like an example I just gave you, snow. So you know it's helpful for you to kind of train in those conditions, because then you're kind of accustomed to it. Because if you haven't trained in the cold and then you're going to go out and run in the cold, that's going to be quite challenging for you, right? The challenging for you, right, the same thing for the heat. So that's one thing that you could do is kind of train for those tough conditions. I flip-flopped a little bit, so when I was doing a lot more outdoor running, I would do it kind of through the winter. Admittedly, I haven't done as much of it kind of this winter because I was really focused on doing my strength training. So I would do more kind of treadmill runs and I would mix it on doing my strength training. So I would do more, you know, kind of treadmill runs and I would mix it in with my strength training. But as I prepare for my summer races, I'm going to build in more and more long runs and get outdoors and again kind of prepare for those race conditions. And I talked about this as well on a few episodes that it's really important for you to kind of train in those conditions in which you're going to race.

Speaker 1: 14:35

In, the fourth way to embrace discomfort is to incorporate hard efforts regularly. So what does that mean? So if you're, you know, if you're running Decker races, you know hybrid races that could be you know the workouts that you do as part of those races, right? So there's workouts that are kind of centered around the different stations. So you could do those. If you're, you know, runner, road runner, you could do the speed work, you could do hill workouts, you could do intervals. There's a lot of different things that you could do, but the important thing is is to do those hard workouts. Now it doesn't mean if you're training five, six days a week that you're going to have four to five days of really hard workouts, right? So you need those easy runs, you need those longer runs, you need to be able to kind of mix up your training, but you need to also incorporate those kind of hard workouts again to help you to grow, to help you get it faster, help you get stronger and prepare for race day.

Speaker 1: 15:35

So typically what I do is, if I'm running three days a week, I typically will do one long run, maybe like at a zone two pace. I'll do a shorter run, that's probably between a zone three as my base and then zone four, and then I'll do, you know, like speed work, which is which is going to put me like zone four, zone five, and it's typically going to be faster than my, my race pace. So, whatever that looks like for you, that's something that you need to consider, to kind of build into your workout. So, again, if I'm doing three days a week, at least one of one of those days, those running days, is going to be a hard workout. If I'm doing four days a week, then I'll mix it up a little bit and maybe have one to two days of you know hard workout or kind of that medium intensity.

Speaker 1: 16:23

And then the fifth way to embrace discomfort is really just kind of stay present and focus on you know what's in front of you. So one of the things that I've really been focusing on, especially for the longer races, is, if you're thinking about a half marathon, let's say, and you have to run 13 miles, if you're thinking about the 13 miles that are ahead of you, or the 12, 11, 10 miles, that's going to be really daunting and that's probably going to be a little discouraging. Daunting and that's probably going to be a little discouraging. So I always say run the mile that you're in. So if you run that mile, you focus on your breathing, you focus on your stance, you focus on your pace and you just kind of move through it and you focus on the mile. Don't worry about the next mile or don't worry about the next station, because that's just going to distract you and slow you down from that mile. So, like, what's your goal for that particular mile and just get after it and the next one, and the next one, and the next one, and then eventually you're going to get to 13 miles or you're going to get to that 10 station for a deck race. So really just focus on the mile that you're in.

Speaker 1: 17:31

Stay present, try not to think about anything else, because sometimes, even for me, my mind wanders. I'm thinking about the workout I got to do the next day. I got to thinking about what I need to do for work or for home. If your mind starts to wander, especially if you're doing a hard effort workout, like you're not going to be focused, it's going to derail you and it's going to be really hard to do that. Now, if you're doing a leisurely long run, you've got eight miles to go and it's a zone two pace and you've got your music on and the sun is shining. That's one thing. You still need to focus on your breathing. You still need to focus on your form and your pace. But that's a very different kind of workout than if you're doing speed work or if you're doing something that's really, really challenging. You need to focus 100% on that and just kind of run the mile that you're in. So that's it.

Speaker 1: 18:21

That's what I wanted to share with you kind of the reasons why to embrace discomfort and the five ways to embrace discomfort, and these are things that I do. I'm sure there's a lot more and I'd love to hear from you. So if you go into your podcast app, into the show notes for Inspired to Run podcast, you'll see, send a message. I'd love to hear you know what are the things that you do to embrace discomfort and I'd love to share that here on the show. So what's next? What's next for me?

Speaker 1: 18:48

So I've done a couple of races so far. I had about 16 races that I signed up for for this year, so I have 14 to go, plus I think I'll add a couple which I said I wasn't going to do. But I think I'm going to do it anyway and I'm really really, really excited about this year. I feel like my strength training is going really well. I feel like I'm building back my base for my running to get me ready for the longer races this year, and I know what I need to do for DECA to reach my goals there. So it's the beginning of March and I'm really excited about what I've done so far in the first couple of months of the year. I hope you're doing well, I hope your training is going well and I hope you have a successful year. So with that, thanks again for listening and have a great day.

Speaker 2: 19:34

That's it for this episode of Inspired to Run Podcast. We hope you are inspired to take control of your health and fitness and take it to the next level. Be sure to click the subscribe button to join our community and also please rate and review. Thanks for listening.