RTTC #207 How To Stay Consistent Training for runDisney As a Slow Back of the Pack Runner

In this episode of Running to the Castle, Dr. Ali breaks down what consistency actually looks like for slow, back-of-the-pack, or injury-prone runDisney runners…and why it has less to do with motivation and more to do with how your training is structured. 

She shares how unrealistic mileage jumps, poor pacing, and lack of support at home quietly sabotage your ability to stay consistent…and why most runners blame themselves when it’s really the plan that’s the problem. 

Through personal examples and practical strategies, she explains how using smaller, nearly unnoticeable mileage increases, planning for life disruptions, and having honest conversations with your family can help you train in a way that feels sustainable…so you can keep showing up without dread, feeling exhausted, or injury.

Learn more about Stronger. Faster. Finisher. !

Ready to cross the finish line stronger, faster, and prouder at your next runDisney race? 

Get personalized support, smarter training, and strategies designed specifically for slow, back-of-the-pack or injury-prone runners who want to build a bigger buffer ahead of the balloon ladies, have time for character photos and energy to enjoy the Disney Parks. Learn more about the Stronger. Faster. Finisher. Program today and be the first to know when doors open!

Free Resources

• Follow me on Instagram @rundisneydpt
• Join the Facebook Community to get training support
• Check out FREE training plans for injury-prone runDisney runners on my website. 
• Book a Free 30 minute Call with me if you're wondering how you should train and if working together makes sense.
  
  Hi, I'm Dr. Ali
  I've been running for 15+ years and been in the rehab space since 2012 when I earned my Doctor of Physical Therapy Degree. I get injury prone runDisney runners across the finish line without feeling broken.

Transcript

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Hey, how's it going? Today I'm talking about how to stay consistent training for Run Disney as a slow back-of-the-pack runner. This is Running to the Castle, a podcast for injury-prone Run Disney runners on a journey to running magical miles. Join me, Dr. Alley, as I share the secrets I've gathered as a runner, doctor of physical therapy, and coach. You'll learn the exact ways I get my clients to the castle strong without feeling broken or held together with KT tape as they cross the finish line. So I have a Facebook group. If you didn't know, it's over on Facebook. Send me a DM on Instagram and I'll send you the link. I don't know what the exact link is for Facebook. I'll put it in the show notes. But so I do ask questions mainly, mainly ask it because bots can't answer the questions, but it is helpful for me to know the information so I know what runners need help with. I do use that information. And one of the most common things that runners answer in there is that they're having a problem with being consistent. And it it comes in a variety of ways. Some will say they need more consistency, they need help being consistent, they need to be motivated so that they can be consistent. They need to not be injured so they can be consistent. All in all, it comes down to they need to be consistent training because Run Disney doesn't allow us to opt out, defer, transfer the bib, or any of the kind. If you bought it, you are in it, right? Like if you bought the bib, you are in it. And of course, there is a very small possibility that if you call Run Disney and say, you know, I'm injured, something happened, they may, if you get a really kind cast member, you may get a partial refund back as a git uh as a gift card, but that's not guaranteed. And so of course we need to be consistent because if we're not consistent, we're not going to train. If we go and start training suddenly after having not trained, we could get injured. If we haven't trained and we go race, we could get injured. We don't want that. And it also is miserable. I don't know about you, it's miserable to me to be out of shape and get back in shape, right? Like be out of running shape and having to get back into running shape sucks. Like I would rather rather just be like low-key in shape all of the time and just doing the bare minimum and getting it done than take three months off and have to get back into it. Now, of course, that that makes it sound like a choice. It's not always a choice, right? Like stuff happens. Life gets lifey. I a hundred percent get it. I mean, right now I'm a hundred percent getting it because life got lifey for me. Training for springtime surprise has been the bare minimum. I have been training, I have been consistent with training, but I've been doing the bare minimum. And it's very possible that come race day, I just end up walking all three races because that might be what I feel the most comfortable with. Now, have I been running? Yes, I have. I haven't been running all of my long runs. I have been, like I said, been doing the bare minimum. I've been getting the long run miles in by walking them. And I've been doing the shorter speed workouts and I've been doing my regular cross training. Um, but it just, it's not the way I typically train, but I don't have to train that way, right? Like the way I typically train is in the middle. It's not bare minimum, but it's not all out, right? Like I like a happy medium of everything. Like I'm not, I'm not doing this to get on a podium. I'm not doing this for any other reason than running and walking for me is a great workout. It helps calm my mind, my body, right? Like friends, family, whoever, husband used to when I got in a bad mood and I needed to like change my mood, go for a run. Like have a fight, go for a run. Be sad, go for a run, right? Like it's it works for me. But this time around, just stuff has just been happening. And training has has not been what I want. I'll I'll admit it, I'm I'm not perfect. I am human. I have been doing the bare minimum, and that's two shorter runs during the week, one longer run um on the weekend, Friday or Saturday, whatever. I shouldn't say like during the week and weekend, because it's over the course of a seven-day period, two shorter runs, which tend to be speed workouts, um, one long distance, which may or may not be a run or a walk. And then um I walk Levi every day, and lately it's been a mile and a half. He's not gonna want to be doing that for much longer because he's been loving the weather. And actually, the weather in the morning is pretty good, but he doesn't do well in the heat. So he doesn't want to walk when it's super hot. And we are hitting temperatures lately here in Vegas. It's 20 degrees hotter than the average. So it's supposed to hit like 96 today, I think. And normally it would be like 76, 75, 76. So Levi's not gonna be wanting to walk for that amount much longer. But anyway, the the reason I'm bringing this up is one of the best ways. I'm gonna walk through like how to be consistent, how to set yourself up for consistency. Now, of course, it it all does come down to you. You you need to do the thing, but let's make it as possible so that you can do it. Like, let's not set you up for failure, right? So that's why I'm mentioning this because I follow the same structure of training that I put in my free training plan PDFs. I use with my stronger, faster finisher clients. I use with my one-on-one clients. If I am not willing to do it myself, I'm not going to program it for somebody else. I program the way I program from the years I've learned in physical therapy school with knowing like the body limits, like muscle limits, ligament limit limits, tendon limits for healing, repair, what it takes to get injured, and then what I physically was willing to do or could do, right? And we already said I'm not an elite runner and I'm not just going and running all of the miles all the time. That's not fun for me. I want to enjoy my time doing my activities. I like staying active. I am here for the long term, not to get a quick fix and whatever. So I program what I do myself and what I recommend you do the same. And so I can stay consistent when life gets lifey because I know what the bare minimum is. And I'm not putting out unrealistic expectations. I know I have the 10 miler to do, I'm gonna train up to seven miles, 70% of race distance, 30% slower than what I anticipate or plan to do on race day. And if it's hot in Florida in April, which everybody this week is like, you're gonna die of heat in April with what you chose to wear. If it's hot, then I just slow down. But going back to that comment, so I posted a reel on Instagram. I wanted to know about the color scheme that I chose for genie. And I chose a light blue top and a navy blue legging bottom, not full-length legging. It does look deceiving because I am wearing high socks in there, but it's like low shin. It's the 25-inch um legging, fast and free legging from Lululemon. So it's like a it's above my ankle bone, not all the way down, but it's certainly not like knee length pedal pusher height. And I got roasted in the comments. Everybody was like, you're gonna die. You're gonna be so incredibly hot. I would never in leggings in April in Florida. And friend, it never crossed my mind to not wear leggings. Like I'm wearing a tank top, which I normally wouldn't wear to run because it's going to be hot. So I was like, okay, well, it's it's earlier in the day, so I don't need to worry about being covered up because if you don't know what I look like, I am very fair skinned. I am one of two colors at any given moment, and that is Casper or Lobster. So I am very pale and white, or I am red like a lobster or a tomato. And I would much rather be Casper. And it's also better for my skin. My family has had uh skin cancer, and I do not want that. But I also don't want a sunburn. Sunburns just take it out of you and they look horrendous and they peel and everything. And I just I don't want it. So I'm usually covered head to toe, usually in a hat, sunglasses. I have UV, long sleeve protection, zip-up shirts. Um, I put the hood on, I it covers my arms. I put sunblock wherever is out in the open, ears behind the ears, nose, face, neck, hands, back of hands. And then I wear tall socks now instead of the cutoff socks, even though my millennial heart doesn't want the high socks, my Casper skin does. And everybody, like, it never even crossed my mind. But anyway, wearing the tank top because it's going to be early enough in the day that I'm like, okay, it's okay. I don't need to worry too much about skin coverage. It's going to be dark for a fair amount of the run. But everybody was like, oh my God, you are going to be so hot. And I just, it never crossed my mind to consider not running in leggings. I haven't run in anything but leggings for 15 years. Like, I think the last time I wore shorts to run was when I was in college. And like, that's what I owned. And I was a broke college student, so I wasn't buying anything new. Like I had my soccer gear. I was wearing a cotton t-shirt to run and my soccer shorts. And I was probably running in Sambas. That's the last time I was wearing shorts. Other than that, it's been leggings in Rhode Island, in Massachusetts, here in Vegas. I ran my first half marathon July 13th in Rhode Island. It was humid. I don't know, Florida comparison humid. I I'm not gonna do that comparison. But I thought that was so funny. So funny. I'm like, I am out here in a hundred degree heat. Now I'm not gonna say I'm out there in 120 degree heat because I don't leave the house if I don't have to in that kind of heat in July, but I'll go for a walk in 100 degree heat. Yeah, absolutely. And I'm gonna be on the treadmill in the garage in the summer. And I mean, granted, it is a little cooler in the garage, but it's not that cool. Like it's not AC. I'll have a fan blowing on me and stuff. But anyway, it was it was really funny. Um, thank you for everybody's comments. That was great engagement. Um it's just really funny. It never crossed my mind that anybody would comment on the fact that I was wearing leggings as opposed to the color combination that I was looking for, but I didn't blatantly say it. I also didn't realize I had to blatantly say it. It was a big learning experience for communication style. And so anyway, let's get back into consistency. So consistency. So the biggest thing with consistency, or the biggest mistake that throws consistency, consistently throws consistency, is the mileage jumps. So other plans will have runners go up one mile a week or even one to two miles every other week with a drop down in between. And they do that because that is a low increase. And with that drop down in between, they say that that delo helps your body accommodate. Now, my professional opinion from physical therapy standards and knowing how much it takes to cause an injury, that a one mile jump every week or one to two miles every other week with a dip in mileage in between over the course of four to six weeks causes an injury. It rarely will cause it one time, but when you do it repeated for four to six weeks, it causes an injury. One to two mile increases, even with that dip, is too much on the body. It's not a progressive overload anymore. It is overload. Progressive meaning like a slow increase, it progressively increases, kind of like a slanted line. No, that's no longer a progressive increase. It's like a straight and then a dip, and then a straight line up and then a dip, and then a straight line up and then a dip. It's jagged and then it's up, down, up, down, up, down, and then it's a it's just big ups. It's no longer progressive. One mile increase is too much. Even if it feels fine, like most runners will say, well, like the first month went great. Yeah, I was sore, but I'm running. You're gonna be sore running. Like running's bad on your joints. It's hard on your knees, it's hard on your back. I expect to be sore. Friend, don't expect to be sore. Like, no, let me back up. I'm gonna eat my words for a hot second. Like, yes, you're gonna be sore, but you're gonna be sore like you you used a muscle that hasn't been used in years. Not joint pain. Like your muscles should be sore. Maybe they quiver a little bit the next day. Like, oh, I forgot these muscles existed, right? But it went fine for the first month because your body can start taking care of minor disturbances, minor injuries right away when they're happening. And it hasn't been happening too much, like too often, too much frequency for it to get out of hand. But each time you go for a bigger jump in the mileage, your body can't handle it as well anymore. And so you're sorry for longer, it takes longer to recover. And then you hit the threshold where your body can't take take care of it anymore. And that's like the five or six week mark. Have you noticed if you're following my training plans, which if you're not, they're free. They're on my on my website. Every five to six weeks, it's a D-load week. That's not an accident. That's from my professional experience that that's when your body or your mind says, we need a little bit of a break. That's fine. You and everybody else. I just happen to have picked up on the pattern and put it into the training plan. But when you increase too much, not only do you potentially get injured, it's it's overwhelming and you start dreading it. And when you dread something, you don't want to do it. And when you don't want to do it, you don't do it. And that comes out looking like you're not consistent. It's not your fault. I wouldn't do it either. Why would I want to go from three miles to five miles to seven miles to nine miles in a month? That sounds miserable to me. Like if I were to look at that training plan, and I have looked at that training plan, if I were to look at a training plan that looks like that, I would see by the end of the month, I need to do nine miles. How am I ever going to do that? And I'm going to start thinking about that on mile, on long run mileage three, three miles. And I'm going to keep thinking about that for when I'm doing long run miles five. And then the next week, I'm going to think about that when I have to do mile seven, because I'm thinking to myself, oh my God, if this is how I feel doing seven miles, oh, can you imagine how sore and pain in pain and how heavy my breathing and how sick to my stomach I'm going to feel at mile nine? Friend, you're still seven days away from that, or you're four weeks away from that and you're already dreading it. It's not that you're not consistent. You have a crummy training plan. But that's okay because I created a new free one just for you. Go download it. It's on my website. But that's why I created my training plan with mileage increases so small, you barely notice it. Most runners, when they see my training plan, they think, Allie, am I seriously doing 3.1 miles this week and 3.41 miles next week? What's the difference? Why can't I just like go up to four? Because it's strategic. For one, that's a literal 10% increase. Okay. A 10% increase is the safest way to increase anything and not cause injury. Mileage jumps, time on your feet, weight in the gym, right? Like if you let's think about it in terms of eating. If think of your favorite food. Think of your favorite food. I'm gonna think about a cheeseburger. I kind of want a cheeseburgish tonight. It's not gonna happen, but that's kind of what I want. And it's only not gonna happen because I'm too lazy to drive to In N Out cheeseburger, uh, in and out to get a cheeseburger tonight. It's the only reason. If I was already going out, I would get one. Actually, the line at In N Out, I don't know how many West Coasters we have here. The line at In N Out for dinner, it takes 90 minutes to get through. I'm not sitting in line for that. I will go at 11 o'clock in the morning when nobody is there. It's delicious. But let's think about that cheeseburger. If I was going to eat more than one cheeseburger, eating two cheeseburgers is too much and my stomach is gonna explode, right? Not literally, but that's what it's gonna feel like. But what if I just ate one more bite of Royal's cheeseburger if he were having one? He's not having one. All of that gluten? No way. But right, let's say I I want more because I'm training my stomach for something. I don't know. I don't know what a real life scenario of this would be. But I have one cheeseburger instead of having two, which would made make it feel like my stomach is exploding, but maybe I have one bite. One bite of somebody else's cheeseburger is not going to be massively different, right? It's I'm probably not even gonna notice that I ate more than just one cheeseburger. Same thing with these mileage jumps. 3.1 miles to 3.41 miles is such a silly amount that most of my runners think it was a mistake. They think I programmed it in wrong. But 10% of 3.1 miles is 0.31 miles. So 3.1 plus 0.31 equals 3.41. That is 10% increase. And I know it's 10% increase without a mathematical error because I put it into Google Sheets and I said, multiply this number by 1.1. That means by 10% and add it to it essentially, by 110%. It adds it to it. It adds 10% to that previous number. That's why it is that way. Because I want you to look at that number and say, oh, 3.41 miles this week. Well, I just did 3.1. That's practically the same. Great. I want that reaction because that reaction makes it feasible. That reaction Causes zero dread each week. And you're like, oh, I know I can do this and I know I'll feel fine because I just did it last week. And I'm only doing a little bit more, right? As opposed to last week I did three. This week I have to do five. For slow back of the pack runners like me, that's like another 32 minutes. If I'm doing a 16 minute per mile, which on my long runs, I am. Maybe even race day I am. Or maybe if you're doing 16 minute per mile pace on race day, maybe your long run pace is actually 18. Well, that two miles is another 36 minutes. As opposed to 10%, that's another five minutes. Right? I'm not doing that math very quickly in my head. So don't quote me on the five, but I do know that 18 minute per mile times two is 36. Right. Like if we put it in terms of that, if your if your long run is taking you 18 minutes per mile at 3.1 miles, that's already, that's already like 55 minutes, right? 56 minutes because we got the point one in there. Now we have to add another 36 minutes. I'm like two weeks into training and I'm already out there for an hour and a half. How can we expect to stay consistent when already early on we're so many hours into it? Like our body isn't ready for that. Our mind isn't ready for that. So that's one of the things to do to stay consistent. Set yourself up for success, not failure. Use a training plan that increases so slowly, your body and your brain don't recognize it. That by the end of it, you're like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I can totally do that again next week. Plus a smidge more. I can totally eat that cheeseburger, plus one more bite. And my stomach won't feel like it's exploding. And my legs won't feel like they're gonna fall off. And you increase it so slow. And then every five to six weeks, because something's gonna happen in the middle of that first month, right? Like every five to six weeks is a deload week. So then your body can catch up if for some reason it's not feeling good, but if you're following the proper mileage increase and you are going slow on your long run because you pace tested, you're not running in the gray zone where all of your paces mush mesh together. You're running uber slow, crazy slow, wildly slow on your long run, and then going fast on the short speed workouts. You're increasing so slow, you're keeping your pace low. You're going to want to keep training. You shouldn't feel like you're getting injured. You shouldn't have an injury if you're following that. But maybe life got lifey and your kid had the science fair that you had to go to the day that you were supposed to do your long run. Maybe you do your long run during the week and you had to go to the science fair. Or maybe you do your long run on the weekend, but it was gymnastics championships and your long run didn't happen. Well, that's okay. Make up it, make it up at the five to six week mark when it's a mileage drop drop. So you've just pushed your long runs. Now you don't need to feel bad about missing your long run because you went to little Susie's gymnastics championships or little Jimmy's gymnastics championships. Right. And so you can stay on track. And it doesn't snowball because you missed one and now you just miss, oh, well, I missed one week. No, you just push it. And so instead of the let's call it 4.17, I don't know if that's a mileage I have. My runners are probably screaming, no, no, it would be 4.32. Yes, it does go into those decimal points since it's an actual 10%. But instead of doing that one that was supposed to be during Jimmy's gymnastics championships, you do that 4.17 the next week. And you just had your quote unquote deload week during Jimmy's gymnastics championship, right? But you didn't run that week. That's okay. That's why that is built in there to accommodate life getting lifey, or to let your body slowly adjust to the fact that you've just built it up. But we also get just not really motivated. We don't really want to go on a run sometimes. Every once in a while, that's fine. It's only a problem when it's week after week after week. And when you adjust the training plan for your mind and your body, that will happen fewer and fewer, less often. Is fewer the right word or is less, less and less the right? If I used to be all up in the grammar, I am not anymore. It does not, it's not that serious. But it's going to happen less and less. I think, yeah, maybe less and less, right? So set yourself up for success. Follow a training plan that goes up so slowly, your mind and your body doesn't know that you actually went up. I want you to look at that training plan and think, oh, Allie, my perfection, perfectionism is going bonkers here with your two decimal place training plan. So you're gonna have that reaction. That's gonna happen. I'm I'm not sorry about it. I'm a recovering perfectionist. I'm not sorry about it. And I want you to have the reaction of, oh, that's like that's barely increasing. I could totally do that. I don't want you to have the reaction of, oh, that's barely increasing. I'm gonna skip these weeks. Don't do that. Don't do that. I set it up like that for a reason so that you can stay consistent. You don't get overwhelmed and you don't start dreading it, and you don't start subconsciously having all of these other things become more of a priority.

unknown 28:28

Right?

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Because that's what that is another thing that will happen, where you're like, oh, well, I have to do this first. And I don't know how long that long run's gonna take, those extra two miles, that nine miles this week. How long is that gonna take? I better do X, Y, and Z first. So I make sure these things happen. And then before you know it, it's four o'clock. Kids gotta eat, families gotta eat, time for dinner. Oh, well, I just ate a big meal. I don't want to go out for a run, right? Like things are gonna start happening. Let's make it so. Oh, well, I know that last week my eight miles took me, you know, whatever time it took you, three hours. So I know that this is gonna take me three hours and 18 minutes. We know. We know it will take the three hours and 18 minutes. And we don't have to guess about it and we don't need to start thinking, oh, well, I better get everything else done because uh, is it gonna take me 75 hours? I don't know. I don't know. Because I don't know if it's gonna take that long because I don't know how I'm gonna feel in the middle either. Right. Like now we're starting to be able to predict how we're feeling too, in addition to all of these other reasons. But follow a training plan that so ramps up so slowly, you are like, no problem. That's the number one reason why it consistency goes to the wayside. Now, another reason consistency goes to the wayside is because family members aren't on your side. And I have mentioned this before. You may need to have a very real and very frank discussion with your whole family, little kids included, and say things like, mommy or daddy needs to go and run. She's training, he's training for something hard, training for this race, and this is what it requires. So on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, mommy or daddy is going to go do this. With older kids, same kind of conversation, not as dumbed down like you would for the little kids, but have a legit conversation that Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, I can't drive you to Johnny or Susie's house. You can go to Johnny or Susie's house, but Johnny or Susie's parents have to take you. Or when you, when I drive you to soccer practice, I'm gonna run around the track at soccer practice. I know you're embarrassed to see your mom running around the track while you're at soccer practice, but otherwise I can't bring you to soccer practice, right? Or maybe it's with your spouse or your partner and it's a conversation of on these days, this is what I'm doing. This is a priority. How do we make that happen? Can you do dinner on those days? Can you drive Susie to soccer practice on those days? Can you do this for those three days? Or maybe those aren't options and you need to get a sitter, get a family member to another family member to come in and help. Uh, maybe you're, I don't know what your life is like. Those are examples of things that I've had conversations of recently, so they come to mind. But every family dynamic is different. I do recommend having a frank discussion with your family. It does, it does make a difference. I had a frank discussion with my family, Levi, my dog, and my husband. And it was something along the lines of this is a priority for me. This is what it's going to entail. And so on these days or my long runs, I'm going to be unavailable except for emergencies. I'm going to be either on the treadmill or I'm going to be out. This is what I'm going to do before. And it's part of my responsibility in our house is I make breakfast and I take Levi for a walk. Royal feeds Levi and makes sure he goes potty in the backyard. That's part of our morning routine. And Levi will go potty in the backyard, but then he also will poop two more times on a walk with me. And so the routine is Royal gets up, does some work. I get up, get my coffee, get back into bed always. Once I get up, or excuse me, once when I'm drinking my coffee, I try and send Levi out to go and get breakfast. Royal will feed him. Royal will send him out in the backyard to go potty and then sends him back to bed with me. Once I get up, I make breakfast for me and Royal. And then it's medicine for everybody who takes medicine. I get dressed, I get changed, and Levi and I go for a walk. And then I try my hardest. As soon as we come back in from that walk, it's time to work out. It's time for my run. It's time for my strength workout. It, and that's what's happening. And that that's the conversation. And that worked really, really well. And that's what happens now. So it's just part of the routine. It was a hard conversation at first because I used to, I would just push my run aside, like, oh, you need me to do X, Y, and Z today, whether they said it needed to be right now or not, or whether I actually need to be the one to do it or not. And then we had a conversation. And it's like, no, this is important to me. I need to do this for my sanity, uh, for I signed up for it. I made a commitment, and I want to follow through. So part of being consistent may be having a frank conversation with your family. It's hard. It is. If this Run Disney journey is important to you, I recommend that you have it. So those are the two biggest things with consistency. I would say pace ends up indirectly being part of it, but I'm not going to talk about that today because I'll talk about pace on many other podcast episodes. Just know that knowing your pace, I will say this knowing your pace and keeping it easy on the easy days and going hard on the hard days, as opposed to just a mix of everything every single time makes it so that your runs can be more consistent time-wise and you know how you're going to feel after that, right? Because if you're running nine miles and normally you run it at an 18 minute per mile pace or close to it, and then all of a sudden you're doing it at a 15 minute per mile mile pace. That's a three minute per mile pace difference. You are going to feel like garbage after that one. And that's not going to be fun after suddenly doing that nine miles. And so then you're going to skip the next week because you're probably going to need to rest and recover. And then it feels like you're not being consistent. You are. It just your body needed more time to recover. So keeping the pacing in the appropriate spots, keeping your mileage jumps low, having that frank conversation, help make it so that you can be consistent and keep training for this Run Disney race.