Day 1: Running Reignited: 5 Day Challenge

Welcome to Day 1 of the Running Reignited Challenge—I’m so glad you’re here. 🙌

You’re stepping into a new season of running—one that honors your body, your energy, and your power as a woman over 40.

Because let’s be honest…

If you’ve noticed running feels harder lately—more fatigue, more aches, more stubborn weight or slower paces—you’re not imagining things.
There’s a real reason behind the shift, and it starts with your hormones.

Perimenopause and menopause aren’t just about hot flashes and missed periods.
They affect every system in your body—especially your ability to recover, adapt, and improve with training.

But here’s the good news:
You have so much more power than you’ve been told.

And this week, I’m going to show you how to reconnect to that power—so you can run strong, feel energized, and train in a way that works with your body (not against it).

🔥 DAY 1 ACTION: RECONNECT TO WHERE YOU ARE NOW

Today, we’re starting with clarity and intention.

Before we change anything, we need to understand where you are right now—physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Your action item for today:

✅ Complete the Self-Assessment & Journaling Prompts
 This will help you reflect on how your running feels, what’s been working (and what hasn’t), and what you truly want moving forward.

Download the Challenge workbook here and complete the Day 1 activity.

✅ Running Self-Assessment: If you’re running today, notice how hard your run feels on a scale of 1-10. 1 = super easy, 10 = super hard. Just notice and write it down. If you’re not running today, write down what a typical run feels like for you on a scale of 1-10.

🎯 You can also find everything on the Challenge Access Page. It should take 10–15 minutes, and it will set the stage for real change.

We covered:

💥 The #1 mindset shift to run stronger after 40

💥 The real reason you feel different—and why it’s not your fault

💥 The first core ingredient to run without pain or burnout

💥 The root cause underlying all of the progress you make (or don’t make)

This will help you see why your body’s asking for something different—and how to start giving it what it needs.

👟 SHARE YOUR INSIGHTS!

We’re just getting started—and this first step?
It’s the most important one.

Let’s reignite your running—together!

Thanks for Listening!!

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Don't forget: The information on this website is not intended to treat or diagnose any medical condition or to provide medical advice. It is intended for general education in the areas of health and wellness. All information contained in this site is intended to be educational in nature. Nothing should be considered medical advice for your specific situation.

Transcript

Audio Only - All Participants: 0:01

Alright, welcome everyone to the Running Reignited Challenge. You are here and we are starting. It is day one. I'm so excited that all of you are here and that you've decided to make this time for yourself, for your running, for your health, and for you to really understand what's going on in your body and more importantly, what you can do about it. And that's really the whole goal of this week. So I'm super excited. For those of you that don't know me yet, hello, my name is Dr. Angie Brown. I'm a physical therapist for the past 18 years, a running coach, a runner, all the good things. Say hello in the chat and let me know. Who you are and where you're from. So I would love to know, let me know your location and how long you've been running. Let me know that information in the chat because one of the reasons that I love doing these live challenges and live classes is to get to know all of you, because I am doing all of this for you to help you. And that is also the benefit of you being here live with me today because you get to get all of your questions answered. It's always way more fun to be here, live, right? And like actually see all the other people in the chat, see all the people, all the faces on Zoom. this is one of the things that I absolutely love. It's one of the reasons I love doing our live coaching calls. And I see some of our members here and I know that's one of the things that they absolutely love about, the real life runners team that. We get to see everybody and connect with everybody and know that you are not alone here. And that is one of my biggest goals because I know that this can be, running, can be a lonely place for some people. It is. A lot of people think of running as a solo sport, right? It is something that you can go out and do by yourself and there's a lot of people that then feel a sense of loneliness because maybe if they don't have other runners around them or if people in their family or friends aren't runners, then they don't really understand what you're going through. And especially as a woman over 40, there's a lot of changes that you're going through, right? Am I guessing correct? That's probably why all of you are here, is that you've started to notice some of these changes and they're not always the most positive changes. When we first. Experience them, right? I am gonna hopefully help to shift your perspective throughout the course of this week, but I am here over the next five days to help you feel better running and not only in running, but truly in your body and in the rest of your life, because I hope that. Over the course of this week, you're gonna see that it's a lot more than just running that we talk about around here. There's a lot of running coaches out there, and a lot of runners that want you to think it's just running, but as my members here can probably attest to, it's a lot more than that. And in order to improve your running, we have to look at a lot more things other than just running. Okay? And that is really my goal of this week. So this what this challenge isn't, okay? I will tell you first of all, what this challenge is not. This challenge is not me telling you, okay, today you're gonna go out and run a mile Today, you're tomorrow, you're gonna go out and run two miles, then you're gonna run three miles. That is not what this challenge is about. Okay? There's going to be some things and some tasks that I'm going to have you do in or around your run to help you feel better. And then there's also some tasks that have nothing to do. I shouldn't say nothing to do that are not. Directly connected to your running that might like today's exercise. So how many of you today have already started to go through the workbook? Gimme a yes in the chat if you have downloaded the workbook, and if you have started to look at some of the questions from today, awesome. Look at all you, look at all you rock stars. I love it. So over the course of this week, we're gonna have five days together. I'm gonna be giving you, you like, it's gonna be a daily email with some action items there. There's a workbook. If you haven't grabbed it yet, you can go to our challenge access page. I'm gonna put that link real life runners.com. I'm gonna put that link in the chat for you guys right now. If you haven't grabbed your workbook yet, go to this page here. Whoops. Hold on and grab your workbook. You don't need it for this live event, but you, but it will be helpful because there are some fill in the blanks and stuff to help you follow along and help you process some of the information that we're be going to be going through. So everything this week is designed for action. All right. It's going to take about 15 ish minutes because I want to show you throughout the course of this week that you don't have to put a ton of extra time in. Just to feel better. This week is about taking the time that you're already putting in and using it more effectively. So how many of you did the first workbook exercise? Actually, before we jump into that, I'm not gonna do that yet. let me know. Okay. I'm gonna go into the chat here because I wanna kind of touch base with all of you. I think we're still getting some people joining here. we've got lots of fun people from the uk, the us. hello. running for 15 years, a couple of years, 10 years. Just started running in September. Running newbie three years. Love this. So we've got seriously all over the board, which I absolutely love. We've got some of you that have been running for decades and some of you that are new to running and this is fantastic. and I would love for you all to share your experience because what I really want you to understand about real life runners is that everyone is welcome here. Okay? It doesn't matter if you are new to running, it doesn't matter if you've been running for decades. It doesn't matter if you have never run a 5K or if you're finishing your 37th marathon. Alright? One of the cool things about runners is that we all share common. Struggles. We all share common things that we like, right? And we all also share struggles. It doesn't matter if you're trying to extend your running to get to a 5K or to get to a marathon. Yes, there are different ways to train, of course, when we actually look at your training plan. But either way, you are pushing yourself, and that is something that every single runner can connect to, right? Running challenges us in lots of ways, in some expected ways, and some very unexpected ways, right? Am I right? Gimme a yes in the chat. If running challenges you in some ways that you've never expected, because I know that's one of the reasons that I connected with running is because I was not immediately good at it. There's a lot of things in my life that, I tried, I was good at it, but running was not one of those things. And so running kept me humble. Running was something that I really had to work at. It was something that I had to wrap my mind around because when I first started running, I did not consider myself a runner. At all. I hated running. All right. And I don't know if you, some of you can connect to that as well, but I hated running when I first started it, it was punishment in all my sports. I played volleyball, basketball, and softball growing up. And it running was always punishment. So I definitely didn't connect myself as a runner. I didn't call myself a runner. And today we're gonna go over the power of what, calling yourself a runner or not calling yourself a runner can do for your results. Okay? So we're gonna get into some really fun stuff here today. So let me know in the chat. What are some of the things that you've been experiencing lately in your running that you haven't really loved? Like some of the unwanted things? I know this was one of the questions that I asked, in the Facebook group. So if you're in the Facebook group and you've already answered this, thank you. but I know that there's a lot of people then when I start to talk to women over 40 that start to experience things like less energy, slower paces, more aches and pains, stubborn weight gain, let me know in the chat. What kind of things have you noticed over the last, like six months to a year in your running that you're not so happy about? Ran in high school, stopped and restarted a few times. Awesome. Ithaca, New York. Hello, Leah. Charity. And you are not old and I don't care if you're gonna be 70 in July. Don't call yourself old. You're awesome. Julie, Lisa, awesome. Hello, Amanda, Leah, Julie. Awesome. Look at all these yeses. All right, so you guys are all experiencing a lot of these things too here, right? The unwanted weight gain, the aches and pains. A hundred percent. Yeah. Fatigue. Fatigue is one of the biggest things that I hear from people. Legs feeling heavy, higher heart rate. Yes. When things tighten up and you start to feel like crap. Mid run. Uhhuh. Yep, exactly. I'm slowing down. Lack of it. Yes. You guys are all okay. You guys are all in the right place. I'm yes. trouble sleeping through the night and feeling tired the next day. Absolutely something related. All right, so all of you that commented in the chat, first of all, thank you. and the thing that I really want you to know, and please, if you're doing something, pause for a second and just hear me say this. You are not broken. There is nothing wrong with you. Okay. And I think that this is one of the things that we, especially as women, we start to internalize when things are not going our way, when we're not getting the results, when our body, it does feel like it's betraying us, right? It feels like I don't get it. I'm doing the things I'm running, I'm trying to eat healthy, I'm trying to do all these things, and I feel like crap. And so I'm here to tell you that, that is unfortunate. I don't wanna use the word normal, but I'm going to just because I don't, let's see, it's not normal, but it's a very common experience. How about that? And it is normal, I guess I am gonna go ahead and say it, it is a normal thing for women to experience, but the good news is it doesn't have to stay this way just because it's common and just because it's normalized. Maybe that's a better word to use, does not mean that this is how you have to stay. It does not mean that you need to be stuck here. It does not mean that you are too old to run. It does not mean that there is no hope for you. All it means is that you have to start doing things differently. What your body is trying to tell you now, when you are experiencing the slower times, when you are experiencing the aches and pains, the unwanted weight gain, I don't the ridiculous amounts of fatigue. I don't seem to be getting any fitter. Your body is asking you and sending you signs that things are not working the way that you're doing them right now. That's it. Isn't that great news, right? Because if things aren't working the way that you're doing them right now, all we have to do is start changing the way that we're doing things. Sounds great, right? That's what this week is about. This week is about teaching you and showing you, and actually starting to implement these different actions so that you can start feeling better, so that you can start feeling stronger. That you understand how to train in a way that works with your body and not against it. And that requires understanding a little bit of the physiology about what's going on inside your body in this phase of life. Because there's a lot of people that wanna tell you that you're just getting too old for this. Oh, I guess you're just too old. Anybody heard that one? Gimme a yes in the chat. have you told anybody that you were running, or have you talked to anybody about, what's going on in your body? And they're like, oh, maybe you're just getting too old. Maybe you should just stop running. Maybe you should just slow down. Maybe you should just do less of that. Maybe you should just walk. Yeah, exactly. More like getting weird looks. Yeah. Too old too. People say that all the time, right? what are you doing? Your doctors may have even said that to you. that's the one that drives me up the wall when the doctors starts saying it. I saw it all the time in the clinic as a physical therapist. I've been a physical therapist for the past 18 years, and people would come into the clinic and they would say, my doctor told me I should stop running. I'm like, why in the, it's time to find a new doctor? Okay, God bless, doc. I know doctors, they mean well. They're not trying to hurt anybody. They're not trying to sabotage, but they just don't know. And that's part of the problem. When we as women get into this next phase of life in perimenopause or post menopause, doctors just don't understand it. It's because they haven't been taught. This is a relatively new thing. It's not new. Obviously women have been going through menopause for, since the beginning of time, but doctors haven't been taught about it. And so your doctor's not trying to sabotage you. They just don't understand it. And so that's where I come in because I have decided to take it upon myself to do all of the research and to see all the things out there on perimenopause and post menopause to help women, active women like you runners, learn how to train in a way that supports your body, that helps you to get stronger as you age and not break your body down and decline. Sound good?'cause that's why I'm here. So I hope that's why you are here. Yeah. Perimenopause is for your gynecologist. Yeah, exactly. No, it's not that. Thank you, Beth for that because perimenopause and your hormones, and we're gonna be talking about some of the details here in a little bit, affects every single system in your body. So every single doctor should be concerned about this. So what I want you to understand is that you are not broken. Your body is just asking you to train differently. It's like an old iPhone. Anybody have an older iPhone? Like I, I think I have a 13 right now, but for the longest time, I had an iPhone six, and that iPhone six was like it, that served me well until it stopped, decided to stop charging. But at some point, there's gonna be a time where Apple stops updating your operating system, right? So even though you still have the phone, you can't actually use it. It can't, it won't download the latest apps. It won't, it starts to move really slow, right? And that's what's happening in our body is that a lot of times we're trying to do things on an outdated operating system, okay? There's nothing wrong with the operating system or there's nothing wrong with you. You're just running on the old operating system. It's time to upgrade. Okay. I haven't moved to the dark side yet. Still an Android user. Megan, we would, we could go, we could, debate on which side is the dark side and which one's not, right? All right, so let's jump in. Those of you that have filled out, the workbook from today, and even if you haven't, you can do this right now. Okay? Let me know in the chat, okay? There's a couple questions where I have asked you to reflect on how much time you're spending running. So how much time did you spend running last week? If you don't have your workbook in front of you, just grab a piece of paper and just jot these things down. Okay? How much time did you spend strength training? Okay? don't put them in the chat yet. Just write these things down,'cause I'm gonna have you add'em all up. All right. How much time did you spend running? How much time did you spend strength training? How much time did you spend walking? What about cross training? Swimming, biking, going to the gym, taking classes, any of that stuff, I'm gonna lump into cross training. All right. How much time did you spend preparing meals and eating? Okay, write all those numbers down. Do a quick add up. It's totally fine if you round. Okay. No, there's no points for exact numbers. Put that number in the chat when you add it all up, all of the time that you spent focusing on your fitness. Okay. Running, walking, doing something active and eating. Okay, cool. Perfect. 17 hours, 26 hours, two hours. 17, 21, 16, 7 and a half. 8, 20, 21, 7, 27, 9. Look at all these numbers. So we've got a huge range here, which is great because there's no one right answer. Okay? Four to five hours, eight hours. All right. What I wanted you to see,'cause there's a lot of people that tell me like, I don't have time. I don't have time to do all the extra things that I need to do. And what I want you to see is that it's not about how much time you have because all of you are already spending time on this, right? So what I want you to ask yourself now is, do you think that time was well spent? On a scale of one to 10, how effective do you think your training or exercise was last week, or what about last month? Two or three. Okay. 10 is the highest, right? 9, 6, 7, 1. Okay. 4, 9, 8. Yeah. all over the board. So I've got literally everything from one to nine here. I like that no one's putting 10 because we can always get a little bit better. I agree with you two. What about over the last six months? If I had to ask you to rate your, how effective your exercise was over the last six months, what would you say? 1, 4, 6, 8, 4, 5, 8. Three. 4, 2 7. Cool. Awesome. So again, I want, I'm really glad, and I want all of you to be honest here, right? This is not about judgment. This is first about awareness. So if you are anything less than an eight, you are in for a treat this week. Those of you that are. Eight and nines. I see a lot of them are my, are the people that are on the team. So I'm happy about that, which I love, right? but you're exactly where you need to be. All right? Because if you are not at least an eight or a nine in feeling that what you're doing is effective, you are, there's plenty of you for you to take away this week. All right? So what I wanna start with is just a little bit of an overview of what's happening in your body in perimenopause. So let me know in the chat how many of you are in perimenopause. If you wanna tell me your age, please feel free. Are you perimenopause, like before menopause or are you post menopause after menopause? So gimme in the chat age and if you're Perry or post cool post Perry, 43 51. Cool. All over the board. I love it. Cool. Post menopause perimenopause. All right, so those of you that are post menopause, you don't have to zone out because this applies to you too. Okay? Because you've already been through this transition. So basically what's happening in perimenopause is known as, it's like the 10 years before menopause. So menopause is that one period of time where it has been 12 full months since your last menstrual cycle. Okay? That is your date of menopause. It's one date, okay? Everything before that is pre menopause. Everything after that is post menopause. The five to 10 years before menopause is known as perimenopause, and this is when your body starts shifting and changing. Okay? Your hormones start to shift and change. And the two main hormones that we need to think about, there's a lot of hormones that get affected here, but the two main ones are estrogen and progesterone. And those two are declining and shifting as we get closer to menopause. And what doctors didn't understand until recently is that estrogen and progesterone, but especially estrogen, affect every single cell in a woman's body. And this is why perimenopausal symptoms are all over the board. Yes, every, everybody knows hot flashes, right? People think, okay, if it's not hot flashes, it's not menopause, or it's not perimenopause, and that's completely false. So things like fatigue, brain fog, joint aches, muscle cramps, seriously, every single body hair thinning, problems with all sorts, skin changes, right? Every single cell in your body is affected. And so women experience perimenopause very differently. And these hormone fluctuations affect your energy, your recovery, your body's ability to maintain and build muscle, and also your mood. And so this can feel like a total, change for your body, a total disruption in the way that your body normally was responding to life and to training right, to running. So as we lose estrogen, our training choices affect us even more. The amount that you're running, the intensity of your running, whether or not you're strength training, how much rest and recovery you're getting, your nutrition, all of these things matter more because we are losing estrogen. And those of you that are post menopause, your body doesn't produce estrogen anymore. So unless you're on hormone replacement therapy, you don't have estrogen in the body. So again, your choices matter more. Now, this is not a bad thing. This is just why this is happening. And so I think of information as power, right? The more information that we have, the more power that we have to make the choices, they're gonna help us get the results and feel the way that we wanna feel, right? So the changes are normal. All of this, if you live to a certain age, you are going to experience menopause. And it is not a bad thing. There's nothing wrong. It is a normal human process. But what we do need to understand is that our training, our running, our exercise, our nutrition, these things need to adapt. Okay? So perimenopause is not the end, it's just a new chapter. And post menopause is a new chapter that requires a stronger foundation, all right? Because. You don't have control of whether or not you go through menopause, but you do have control over the way that you experience it. And the truth is, unless you wanna go on hormone therapy, which can be a good choice for some women, and that is something that we talk about inside of our program. We don't have time to talk about it too much this week.'cause there's a lot of other things that I'd rather talk about. But unless you have supplemental hormone therapy, you can't change how much estrogen and progesterone you have, they're going to decline. Okay? But what you can control are your exercise, your nutrition, your recovery, your hydration, those choices which have a huge effect on how you experience perimenopause and menopause. Okay? And how, also how you experience this is largely determined by your nervous system. All right? Your nervous system controls everything in your body. And the changes that we experience through perimenopause and menopause affect your nervous system. So the problem is not perimenopause or menopause, it's what it does to your nervous system. And this is one of the keys that we're gonna be talking about this week as well, because your nervous system controls how your body responds to stress, to training, to exercise, and to recovery. So there are two main parts of your nervous system that I'm gonna be talking about this week. There's your sympathetic nervous system and your parasympathetic nervous system. Your sympathetic nervous system is known as your fight or flight, okay? This is the part of your nervous system that increases your heart rate, it increases your breathing, right? So when we're running, that is a sympathetic activity. Your body needs to mobilize its resources to give you energy so that you can go out and run. When you're strength training, when you're doing exercise, you are doing a sympathetic activity, all right? Your parasympathetic is known as your rest and digest, or your rest and recovery system, okay? It is important for our nervous system to be able to switch back and forth between these two systems because both are necessary. We have to stress the body through exercise if we wanna improve, right? If we wanna challenge ourself, if we wanna become better runners, if we wanna get stronger, we have to stress ourself through the sympathetic nervous system, but then our body needs to also be able to shift over into our parasympathetic nervous system to actually rest and recover and gain the benefits of our training. Is this making sense? Give me a yes in the chat so far. I wanna make sure you guys have a good understanding, but not get too sy. Cool. If you have any questions as I'm talking, please put them in the chat. I will do my best to answer everything by the end of the session today. Okay, so what's happening now is during perimenopause and menopause. So estrogen is one of both. Estrogen and progesterone help our body shift from sympathetic to parasympathetic more easily. Okay? So as we lose those hormones and as we go through this transition, our body tends to get stuck more in para or in, sorry, in sympathetic mode, in that stress mode, in the fight or flight response. And part of the reason for that is that estrogen helps to regulate cortisol levels. Cortisol is known as our stress hormone. So as we lose estrogen, our cortisol levels are automatically higher unless we're doing something intentionally to help control our cortisol levels. Okay, so what's happening to so many women in this phase of life is that they're getting stuck in sympathetic mode. They're getting stuck in stress mode, and they're having a very hard time and not spending enough time in parasympathetic rest and recovery mode. And this is causing all sorts of problems. Anybody ever feel like they're exhausted, but also wired like tired, but wired? You're laying in bed and you know you're so tired, but you just can't fall asleep. Yep, exactly. That's part of this, okay? Look at all those yeses. Yep. even on some days, right? Yeah. We all experience that sometime. So if your nervous system feels unsafe, physically, emotionally, mentally, it shifts us over into sympathetic mode and it pulls back our progress because when we are in sympathetic mode. We cannot make progress because we are not shifting over into building and recovering to allow our bodies to get stronger, okay? Because during our workouts, you are actually building your body. I'm sorry, you're actually breaking your body down, okay? During re rest and recovery, especially sleep, that's when your body is building up stronger. All right? So if we're constantly stuck in stress mode, our body's ne doesn't have the ability to get stronger, okay? So what we have to do is we have to tell our nervous system, it's okay. You're safe. we can shift back over and we can recover now, we can build stronger muscles, all right? We have to stress our bodies during exercise and then on help our nervous systems shift back over into recovery mode. So this is where. Our thoughts and these outdated strategies that we've been taught come into play. So today is really about understanding how your identity and the way that you're thinking about your training and what's possible for you in this next phase of life is going to affect the results that you get. Okay? Because your thoughts control everything. So when we think of, okay, I'm not getting the results that I want, I should just push harder, right? How many people got get stuck in that trap? I must not be doing enough. we don't see the results. When we start to see all these things happening, we figure I just need to do more. I must not be pushing myself hard enough. And so we double down, right? We do more, we push harder. We restrict our calories because we don't like what the scale is saying. And all of those things are keeping your body in sympathetic mode. So if your body's asking for recovery and you're telling yourself, no, I just gotta run more, I just gotta push harder. your body, your system gets confused and your progress stalls. So your body is never working against you, and your body is never trying to sabotage you. And this is the most beautiful thing in the world. Your body is always trying to keep you safe. Your body's always trying to keep you alive. Okay, let that sink in for a second because there are so many people that think my body's sabotaging me, like my body's not cooperating. Your body's doing exactly what it's supposed to do. Your body's keeping you alive. All right? So when you're in sympathetic mode, we can't make progress.'cause your body's just like on go. It's like running on a hamster wheel. All right, so if we can honor that before we move on to fixing it. Honor our bodies are doing their job right now. They're doing exactly what they're programmed to do. We just have been running on outdated strategies and are trying to push our bodies to the edge, and they're telling us, some of them, our bodies are screaming at us to slow down, to pull back a little bit, to start doing things differently. And this doesn't mean that you have to accept getting slower. That's not what I'm saying. Okay. So it's important for us to understand that these stories that we've been telling ourselves, I just need to do more. I just need to push harder. That's part of the problem. Okay. It's not your body's starting to shift and change. We have to shift and change what we're telling ourselves and the operating system, the strategies that we're using in order to get better. So how many of you, in the, in your journal prompts today, one of the question was, one of the questions was, do you consider yourself a runner? Yes. Or a no? And then if yes, what kind of a runner are you? And what I mean by that question is, do you put some sort of adjective on it? I'm a slow runner, or I'm, I am just, I'm a back of the pack runner. Do you put some sort of adjective or, thing on it? Slow and steady. Slow runner. Yes. Strong, resilient, and gritty. Love that Sarah. Yes. I'm a logger. I'm a plotter. I'm a recreational runner. Slow social runner. Cool. Yes. Someone has to finish last. I always call myself a turtle. I like to call it party pace. Cool. I run for fun runner. Cool. I used to be a runner. Yes, but I'm not a hardcore runner. Awesome. Okay, cool. So the first step of all of this is really awareness, right? Just becoming aware that these are some of the stories that you're telling yourself. And when I say story, I don't mean that they're true or false, I just mean that they're a story that you're, that you are choosing, right? We all, this is what our brain does. Our brains make up stories, okay? The way that the human brain is designed is that we have to find reasons for things, and we also have to answer questions when they're asked. Your brain can't not answer a question. So what color is the sky? All of you probably answered that in your head, right? Maybe some of you said blue, maybe some of you were trying to be contrarian and say like gray today, right? Pink, yellow during sunset, the sky can be all sorts of different colors, right? But notice how your brain had to answer that, right? This is the power of questions, and this is where we really start to tap into curiosity. And curiosity is one of my favorite things to tap into. It's what I'm gonna ask all of you to tap into this week, is to just get curious, right? Because when we don't get the results that we want, when we're doing the things and we're not seeing the results, a lot of us tend to go into judgment. A lot of us tend to go into, it must just be me. I must be doing things wrong. Why isn't this working? But there's a layer of judgment on it, and this week I really wanna make it about awareness and curiosity. So knowing and starting to see some of these stories that your brain is telling about who you are as a runner. Whether or not you're a runner or not, or what type of a runner you are. These beliefs and these sentences, these stories that you're telling about yourself, shape your behaviors and your outcomes through your nervous system. So I'm gonna share my screen with you guys here for a second and gonna explain how this works. All right. Can you guys see my screen? Gimme a yes in the chat, or a thumbs up. Cindy, I say your thumb up. Thank you. All right, perfect. So here is your identity, okay? Your identity is who you are, right? And some of you say, I'm a runner. Some of you say I'm a slow runner. That is all an identity that you've decided to give yourself. Okay? What are some of your other identities? Tell me in the chat. It's not like you have one identity. We've got lots of different identities in the chat. So tell me in the chat, what are some of the other identities you have or that you've given yourself? Mom, coach. Yes. Happy belated. Mother's Day to all of you. Wonderful mothers here. Mother, nurse, cook, wife, soldier. Student, hairdresser. Investigator. Pt. Ooh, another pt. Love it. Employee Sunday School, teacher, wife, students. Yes. Mom, Christian, wife, mother, grandmother. Exactly. Beautiful. Okay, so you can see we all give ourself lots of identities. So runner is one of those identities, right? And I hope all of you that are here, if you care enough about your running to come to a presentation and join a challenge about running y'all. You're a runner, okay? So if you don't call yourself a runner yet, please add that to your list of identities, okay? I don't care what pace you run, I don't care what, distance you run. If you run, you're a runner. And yes, even if you're injured right now, you're still a runner. Okay? Because a runner is a choice. Being a runner is a choice. And when we choose these identities for ourself, it shapes how we show up in the world, right? So if you are a mom, how does it shape how you show up in the world? Gimme one example, right? As a mother, how has this changed or how has this shaped the way that you show up in your life? How many of you put your kids first, lower stress levels, healthy example of aging, right? How many of you sometimes at some point, have ever put your child's needs above your own? Yep. Often. All the time. Yep. Always. Exactly. Okay. So you see that by taking on the role of mother, you are now putting someone else's needs above your own. Yes. That is an action. That is a way that we operate in the world. Is this making sense? Okay. So if we choose to be a runner, there's a new set of things and ways that we choose to operate in the world, right? And a lot of us have been operating on. If I'm a runner, that means I've gotta run longer, I've gotta run faster, I've gotta do more, I've gotta push harder, right? But those are the outdated strategies that we're talking about. So we look over here on our power of identity. Your identity is made up of four main things. Okay? The first one, come on, you're supposed to show up when I click you. No. Okay, hold on. Maybe if I have to click over here. I, we go the first one. Are your thoughts and your beliefs. Okay? And these are the stories that we tell ourselves exactly what we've just been talking about, right? What does it mean to be a runner? What are the stories that we have about running? How do you become a better runner? Okay? Those are the thoughts and the beliefs that we have about running. So if you think I'm a slow runner, that is a thought. You might have evidence if you look at your paces that you think prove that you were a slow runner, but someone else could look at those exact paces and times and tell you that you're fast, you're a fast runner, right? So it's relative. So you're your thoughts and your beliefs. Move this chat box over here. Okay. So these are the sentences in your brain and the stories that you're telling about yourself, the stories that you tell about the world, your circumstances, et cetera. Okay? Your thoughts then lead to your feelings. The feelings are the sensations that you feel in your body. Things like happy, sad, motivated, frustrated, confused, aggravated, joyful, excited, exhilarated. Okay? These are all our feelings, and your feelings are created by your thoughts. So if you just, we just had Mother's Day yesterday. We're gonna go along with this mother theme. If you think I am so blessed to have the children, my children that I have, how will you feel? Gimme just a word in the chat. If you think about what blessed you, how blessed you are to have your children happy, joyful, thankful, proud, peaceful. Love it. So you can think about how that thought is leading to that feeling. Yes. If we think about, I don't know how Mother's Day is like one of those mixed bags, right? Sometimes they nail it and sometimes you're like, really? My, my kids got me a cup. I think it was for Mother's Day. I might have had my birthday, but I think it was Mother's Day last year or two years ago. And it was a total miss. It was a total, like the, there was words on this wine glass, and it was like something about no matter what happens in life, at least you don't have ugly children or something like that. And I was like, what? In what world would I, would you think that I would like this glass like number? Like never would I call anyone else's. what do you ugly chil what? I was totally thrown off by this right. The thought that came to me. So they gave me this glass and I looked at this glass and my thought is like, they don't know me at all. Why? they actually thought that I would like this. So what feeling do you think I had? Have you ever been given a gift and you're like, what in the, what were they thinking? Do they even know me? What's the feeling then that would come Probably not joyful. Blessed and proud. Disappointed. Exactly. Disappointed. Disbelief. So you notice that feeling came from that thought. I felt disappointed because of the thought of do my kids even know me? Like, why would they think that I would like this? Which seems I'm gonna be, I'm be very raw and honest with y'all, even though we just met. Because I think that sometimes we're told like, oh, we should always be thankful, but we're humans too. And sometimes people disappoint us, and that's okay, right? It's not all sunshine and rainbows all the time unseen. Ooh, good word, Felicia. Yeah. So that feeling, okay? Our feelings then lead to our actions. Our actions are what you do, how you show up in the world, right? Whether or not you go out for a run or not go out for a run, whether or not take your kids out for an outing or not like your actions, right? Those are the things that we do. This is the pretty obvious one. And then your actions lead to the results in your life, okay? So if you think and your, the results are your outcomes, right? The outcomes of your actions or the outcomes of your lack of actions, and then your results start to circle over again. Okay? So let's look at one of the results. A lot of you put in the chat, I'm a slow runner, right? So if you believe I'm a slow runner. What's the feeling that comes from that? And this is gonna be different. Some of you might be like, no, I love being a slow runner. that's fine. Some of you might not like that. Okay. So what is it for you if you think I'm a slow runner? What's the feeling that comes up? Yep. Disappointment, discouragement, always less. I'm disappointed about being so slow. I'm discouraged. Yep, exactly. Inadequate. Yeah. Good word. Not good enough. Yep, exactly. Okay. Discouraged. So if you're feeling inadequate, not good enough, discouraged, how will you show up? What are the actions that you're gonna take? What are some of the some possible actions that you might take if you were feeling discouraged? Disappointed, inadequate. I lose motivation. Yep. Afraid to show up. I will give up. Exactly. I wanna quit. I miss training. I skip training. Exactly right. So then if you, if we're skipping training and we're afraid to try, we don't commit to things, what results do you think you'll have? what results do you think you'll have? Do you think you'll improve? You'll get even slower. It becomes self-fulfilling. Worse performance. I will just stop. Never get better. Poor results. Exactly. So you guys see how all of this is really rooted in your identity and what you choose to believe about yourself. No improvements. I spiral down. This is the cool thing. And sometimes the frustrating thing about our brain is that our brain loves to be right. Get over here and close this down.'cause I feel like there's a little bit of a lag. Alright. Our brain loves to be right y'all. Okay? So whenever we have a thought or a belief or an identity that we've created for ourself, our brain is always trying to find evidence that is true. Okay? Always. So if you go out for a run and it feels like crap, you're like, yep. See, that's what's happening. If you believe that perimenopause and menopause are the end of your running and you're just gonna get slower from there on, guess what? Your brain's gonna find evidence of that. Okay? Your brain's always trying to find evidence for the primary stories that you're telling yourself. So what can we start to do here at the root of all of this, at the core of all that? Yep. We're gonna get into lots of actions this week, but why am I starting with this on day one? At the root, at the core of all of this, it doesn't matter how many action items I give you throughout the course of this week, if you still believe that you're a slow runner, if you still believe that perimenopause and menopause are the downfall, is anything gonna work long term? It might work short term, right? We might be able to muster up some motivation. A lot of people, when I ask what were you hoping to gain from the challenge? People said, motivation. Motivation is fleeting, willpower is temporary. Okay? My goal for you this week is sustainable change for the rest of your life. I know that's a big, that's a big order. I don't play small around here, y'all. My goal is to change your life. All right? That is my goal. I. But you have to Exactly. All of you. Thank you. You have to change your mindset. We need to be our own cheerleader. Change my story. Yes, Joe. Exactly. Mind over matter. Everything begins with your mindset. Yes, absolutely. But you've heard that before, right? You've heard you have to think positive and all the things, but now do you understand why a little bit better? Gimme a yes in the chat if something I, I've taught you so far today has given you a little bit of an aha moment. Awesome, awesome.'cause it's not just about thinking positive. I'm not sitting here telling you, you just have to think positive all the time. No. We have to realize the stories we're telling ourselves and what that's leading to. And then we gotta change the story. If we don't like the outcome that we have, if we don't like the results that we have, we gotta change the story. And that is not easy. Okay. I'm not saying, okay. Yep. We're just gonna write a new story and. Magic wand, everything's fine. I would love that if we could do that right, it'd be super cool. But what happens is remember that loop, your results lead back to your thoughts, right? So you get a result. And then we have a thought about that result. And then that leads to feelings, actions, and more results. So this is a loop. And sometimes we're gonna have some negative things come in there. Sometimes we're gonna have some positive things in there. Totally cool, right? Awareness, noticing. Is this a thought I wanna keep? Yes or no? Is this thought leading me to the outcome that I want in my life? Yes or no? Okay. If the answer's no, if the answer's yes, great, keep it. If the answer is no, okay, how do I start to change that? Okay. And it's not like flipping a switch, unfortunately. It is a practice, just like when you have a running injury, unfortunately you don't. You don't just go for, go in for one session of ultrasound and it's fixed, right? It's a practice. It's a practice, and that's what we're gonna, I'm gonna start to teach you that practice this week. So once we find those thoughts and those stories that we don't want, I'm gonna help, we're gonna help take your power back by number one, starting to release the outdated story, starting to release the comparison, the guilt, the shame that, or the fear that you have around your performance or what this might mean for you. We're gonna continue throughout the course of this week to uncover the stories you've been telling yourself, some of you for decades, and start to release them. Start to let them go. Okay? They're gonna keep popping up and it's okay. All right. That's okay. That's one of the reasons that I created our, the coaching program that we have.'cause it's not like it's an overnight thing. We need to practice and we need systems and processes to help us do this mo more effectively. So once we start to release that outdated story, we're gonna have to reconnect with your why. What does running mean to you now in this phase of life? How many of you have even thought about that, right? Maybe you started running for one reason, but running is changing. That's totally okay, right? I told you in the beginning I hated running. I got into running to lose weight, okay? Because I wanted to look like a runner. I wanted to have a runner's body, right? My running, my reason for running has cha changed and shifted so many times throughout the years. Okay? So what is your new reason? What is your new why? We need to reconnect to that. Then number three, we need to reclaim your identity. You get to choose it, not based on pace, not based on mileage, but rooted in intention, strength, and alignment. I want you to be strong, whether that's running really strong, just being strong. I'm a physical therapist, as you all know. Now, one of the things that I saw in the clinic time after time are women especially coming in because they fell. They fell and injured themselves. Some of them broke a hip. Some of them just had really bad bruising. Some of them broke their shoulder. That required surgeries, that required hospitalization and stints in rehab, muscle wasting. They were so weak. I've done home therapy where I've seen them right when they got out of the hospital and they're trying to figure out how to get in and outta bed, how to get on and off the toilet. I don't want that for any of you. I want you to be strong and active and healthy as long as you live. And I know that's what you want. That's why you're a runner. That's why you're active, right? None, nobody wants to end up needing someone to help them on and off the toilet, okay? But if we keep on with these outdated strategies and pushing harder and doing more, and just running ourselves into the ground, what you're actually doing is breaking down muscle and bone. You are actually making your body weaker in the process. And we're gonna get into that in like days two and three. Okay. More in, in details. But we need to stop training that way, and we need to start training in the way that is sustainable, and that is going to help you build a strong mind, of course, and also a strong body. All right? So reclaiming that identity to be strong and healthy fitness. It makes me feel good about myself. Beautiful. Okay, so if you haven't yet, I would love to invite you to please fill out the coaching, the prompts inside of the workbook, okay? and start to just write, what story have I been living about myself as a runner? Some of you already started to share it here. Okay? Go through some of those workbook exercises and then decide, what do you, what's, what do you want your new story to be? What do you want to accomplish? And for that question, I'm gonna ask you to tap into hope. Okay? I'm gonna tap, I'm gonna ask you to put aside some of the frustrations and things that you've been experiencing, which are very real. And I want you to just tap into hope and say, if I could have exactly what I wanted, what do I want to be true? What do I want to be possible in my life moving forward as a runner, as a strong woman? Okay? Because it's so much more than just running. Yes. I wanna make you whatever runner you wanna be. If you wanna run a 5K, if you wanna run a marathon, if you wanna run a half marathon, an ultra marathon, whatever, goal lights you up, I can help you and want to help you accomplish that thing. I wanna be able to run half marathon ads again. Beautiful. You just gotta start doing things differently. And that starts with the way that you're thinking about yourself. It starts with the limitations that we put on ourselves. We all do it. I do it all the time. Okay? the key is becoming aware, starting to catch ourselves when we're like, okay, wait, hold on. Is that true? Do I want that to be true? And if we don't want it to be true, that's not the thought that's leading us to the outcome that we want. We have to start to rewire the brain. Thanks, Amy. All right. What questions do you guys have? All right, so let me, before we jump into questions, actually, can you guys tell I'm a little passionate about this, right? Can you tell, this means a lot to me, and this is about so much more than just running. All right. I really want you to know by going through this week that you are starting a new chapter in your life, in your running life, and truly in just in your life, right? You're starting a new chapter after menopause, and you get to choose whoever you wanna be right now, regardless of what happened in the past, okay? And I will help guide you there. If you want the help. I can't force you. I can reach my hand back and invite you to come with me, all right? But I can't force you to come on this journey with me. But if you want to, I would love to be your guide on this journey. Okay? So tomorrow we are gonna be diving into what's really going on in your body a little bit more, right? We started a little bit of that today with the perimenopause and the hormones. So tomorrow we're going into the what. I don't know if you guys noticed in the workbook, my kind of framework for the week is who, what, where, when, and how. So those are the kind of the topics, the big topics for all of our days. So today we talked about the who. Who do you have to be in the next phase of your life, right? Who have you been up till this point, and who are you going to be moving forward? Who do you want to be moving forward? Tomorrow we're gonna be talking about the what. We're gonna be talking about, what you need to start doing specifically in your running. So tomorrow we're gonna be talking more about running and what your running needs to look like. Wednesday we're talking about where your energy is coming from and also where it's leaking out.'cause we wanna start to plug some of those holes. Thursday we're talking about when to push and when to pull back. We have to start to understand and listen to our body and train with more intention. And then day five is the how. It's like, how to put all of it together. Okay. Yes, Lori, there will be a replay. I would love to invite everybody to come live because this is so much fun, right? Like when the chat's blowing up, like it's so much fun to be here live. so I would love for you to all join me again live, the rest of the week. If you can't make it, all the replays will be posted on the challenge access page. Okay? So that's real life runners.com/five dc like the number five DC five day challenge. Okay? That's a challenge access page. I'll put it here in the chat. Again, real life runners.com five DC Okay? That's the challenge access page. That's where all of the daily content will be posted every single day, and also all of the replays. Okay? So that's your hub for everything. Thank you, Felicia. I'm glad that you're prioritizing this. I love that. All right. So I would love to open up the floor right now to any questions that you all have. again, that's one of your bonuses of being here live. What questions do you guys have? What do I think about wearing a Garmin? I've got one on right now. So Lisa, I love Garmin. I wear it to bed. I wear it all the time unless it's charging basically. Garmin is great, but we have to take all of the data with a grain of salt. Okay. So Garmins are great. Data is great. All of these different smartphones and smart watches and data, they're, they can be helpful. They can also be harmful depending on the way that you use them. like any science, right? Any scientific research study can be interpreted multiple ways, so we have to, all right, let me, I'm just gonna scroll up real quick. Cindy, I don't know if you are available to maybe scroll through the chat for me or one of one of my other team members. If you could scroll through the chat and see, if there's any questions above that I missed, I would love some help.'cause I wanna make sure, will we touch on how to ignore, eliminate the static? what's happening here? Eliminate the static from other people, doubting our possibilities or goals. Sarah, that's a good insight. Yep. we can, I will try to. I don't necessarily, that's definitely something that we talk about inside of our team. like in the membership, which I will be talking about later in the week. For those of you that wanna continue this journey with more support, with an amazing community of other women on this journey, training plans, coaching calls, all the things we talk about, that kind of stuff a lot. but the short answer is you have to. Stop caring as much what other people think. That's the short answer. I know that's much more easily said than done, right? And yes, I have strategies and coaching to help you with that. but, you gotta start caring a little bit less about what other people think of you, which I think is one of the beauties of being over 40, is that like we start to care less and care more about, the people and the things in our lives that actually make a difference. How can I stop the negative thoughts that creep in while you're running, Beth, you can't, you cannot stop negative thoughts. the goal, your power lies, and where you choose to place your attention. Okay? Negative thoughts. Your brain. Our human brains are actually wired for negativity. All right? It's called the negativity bias. it's a survival. Our brains are wired for survival, so our brains are constantly scanning the environment and trying to find threats. This is more, some more nervous system running, especially if we're running really hard, is a threat to our survival. That's how your brain perceives it, right? what the heck are you doing to me? So your brain wants to throw in lots of negative thoughts to make you slow down and stop, make sense, right? So your brain's just doing its job. You just get to choose if you're gonna listen to it or not listen to it. So your power lies in your attention. So if your brain's telling you, an example would be like, why are you even doing this? I know my brain gives me that one. Why are you even a runner? Like sometimes it goes all the way there, right? what are you thinking? Why are you doing this to yourself? I could continue down that path, or I could I can reroute, right? And so what you learn how to do when we start to get deeper into this, and I go deep into this. Inside the program, is learning how to rewire that thought and reroute those thoughts. Okay? Would you say it's okay to run short miles every day? Yep. Just like Sharon. It depends on your goal. Everything's okay. Okay. Everything is okay. If you like to go out and run short miles every day, amazing. If you like to go out and run long, amazing. Just, you need to do what's right for you based on the goals that you have. And if you just wanna be consistent and go out and run every day and get a couple miles in, that's a beautiful thing. As far as I'm concerned. My goal is not to tell you what's right and what's wrong. My goal is to help you find a goal that means a lot to you and know how to achieve it. Okay? There are no, to me, there's no right or wrong answers. I run the, I haven't run my. I typically run, I shouldn't, I don't wanna put any, my husband races 100 mile races. Okay? I do not. I do way less than that. Okay. But he and I just have different goals, right? So his training and my training are just going to look totally different and I have no desire to do what he's doing. Okay? So what I'm doing is not wrong, and what he is doing is not wrong. They're just different. Okay. So I hope that answers your question, Jenny. How do I keep my runner identity when I'm out with an injury? Joe Ru, being a runner is a state of mind. So if you are an A runner that is injured, what would a runner that is injured do to try to get back to running? That's what I would start to look at. What are the thoughts you wanna have? What are the feelings that you wanna feel? Do you wanna feel discouraged and lacking hope, or do you wanna feel hopeful? We can start to look at that. So you wanna look at the thoughts and the feelings and then the actions of if you are injured, right? What are the actions that you wanna do as an injured runner? You wanna just sit on the couch all day, or do you wanna do some rehab exercises, right? Maybe go see a physical therapist. If you've already seen a physical therapist actually doing the rehab exercises, actually allowing your body to rest, right? Getting enough protein and nutrition to and sleep and rest and recovery to actually let your body heal as quickly as possible, right? All of those align with that runner identity. Yes, right now you have an injury, but what can you be thinking and feeling and doing to help support yourself so that you can get back to running as soon as possible? Does that help, Joe? Awesome. All right. Have to go back to my desk. And you're the best. But know that I'm not here to motivate you, okay. That my job is not a motivator. My job is a doctor and a coach, and hopefully a life changer. I'm here to help you shift, okay? Because like I said, motivation is short-lived and so is willpower. I'm here to actually help you shift. That is my goal. is it good to run every single day? Josie. I, again, there are no good and bad. There are no right or wrong. There is simply more effective and less effective. And I think personally, especially for women over 40 in perimenopause and post menopause, this depends on a lot of different factors. Okay? But having a rest day and non-running days are very helpful. For your overall progress. And yes, training has to be done, but what I'm gonna be showing you throughout the course of this week is that sometimes less training is better, and you can actually get better results by training less because you're, it's more important about the effectiveness of your training and doing the right things versus just adding in and running every day. Okay. You're welcome. Thank you, Cindy. I appreciate your help. I like totally put you on the spot, but I was like, I need somebody that I know that I can trust to you this for me. So thank you. All right. Looks like we've answered all the questions. So thank you everybody for being here. if you haven't yet, download your workbook. Fill out those journal questions. Take some time, to actually go through that, because that's where the shifts are gonna happen. The shifts are not always gonna happen just by listening in. Yeah, you might've gotten some insight and good things, but now take whatever you got from today's session and put it down and apply it to yourself. Okay? Apply it to yourself. Susan, I'm so glad it resonated with you. Thank you. It makes me very happy. That's why I do this, right? That's why I do all this. Yay, Julie. Good. I'm glad. Thank you, Lisa. Thank you. Thank you, all of you. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for taking this time out of your day. please know that this is not something I take lightly. I know that time is your greatest resource. so you all choosing to be here with me is such a gift and I'm glad that you are giving that gift to yourself also, because you're not doing it for me, you're doing it for yourself. And that is such a beautiful thing that you're giving a gift to yourself right now. And by completing the challenge this week, you are also giving a gift to your 80-year-old self. As you go through this week, I really want you to think about your 80-year-old self as well, and everything you do this week is a gift to your 80-year-old self and your 90-year-old self and your 95-year-old self, however old you wanna live to be, right? Okay, keep that in mind. All right, you guys, thank you. Thank you for being here. I love you all already. and I will see you all tomorrow. Same bat place, same bat time. Those of you that are our team members, you guys know we have our normal weekly coaching call at noon, and then we're coming right into this at one o'clock, so you get a double dose. All right, y'all. See you tomorrow. Bye.