RTTC #217 The Non-Negotiable Everyone Should Add To Their Run

In this episode of Running to the Castle Dr. Ali shares the one non-negotiable every runner needs to add to their routine, and it’s not another workout, speed session, or long run. 

It’s recovery. She explains why recovery should be treated as part of your run—not something optional—and how skipping it is one of the biggest reasons slow, back-of-the-pack, or injury-prone runDisney runners end up sore, stuck, or sidelined. 

Using a relatable coffee maker analogy, she breaks down how to make recovery automatic and walks through her simple but powerful 3-part system: stretching, massage, and temperature-based techniques. 

The episode reinforces a key belief shift…you don’t need to do more to get better, you need to recover better so your body can actually handle the training you’re already doing.

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
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• 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 the non-negotiable everyone should add to their rhythm. 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. I was asked to be on the Rise and Run podcast, which was so incredibly cool. I am going to talk about that forever because I still can't believe that they invited me on there. That was incredible. And they asked me what a non-negotiable, like what does everybody need to do? And I really didn't even need to think about it. And today I'm going to expand on it. And it's really a recovery routine. And you may be thinking, well, Dr. Allie, you just said add it to your run. This is misleading. This is confusing. And yes and no. I try really hard to not do clickbaity stuff. I don't, I still don't even think that title is clickbaity, but somebody somebody may think it is, because it's not exactly what they signed up for when they clicked play on this podcast. But also, maybe you just click play on every podcast I do. And thank you so much if you do that. And I if that's you, if you hit play on every single podcast episode of me, of mine, thank you so much. It would mean the world to me if you shared these in social media posts, Instagram stories, tag me in it if you do it an Instagram story. The best way to support me is sharing these podcast episodes. This podcast has grown enormously over the past couple of years. I started this in February 2024 and I started it as a means to get more information out there to help address things I was seeing in our Run Disney world with the group of runners who can sometimes get left behind, right? Like I even feel that way for myself. Like seeing the majority of coaches and people who give running advice out there or what they're talking about, the majority of those people are talking about sub-three hour marathons. They're talking about getting a PR, a podium finish, you know, keep getting faster and faster and faster, like big faster, elite runner, master runner, wanting to get Boston qualifier, things like that. At least that's what's in my feed. Now, of course, the algorithm is very wildly different for everybody, but I will say the majority of like my Instagram feed, and I'm not on TikTok, and I post to Facebook because what I post on Instagram carries over to Facebook, but I'm not actively on Facebook. Like if you send me a message on Facebook, it's gonna take me days, maybe even weeks, to see it, including comments. But on Instagram, I'm right there. I live on Instagram, but like my feed is dogs, Taylor Swift, Coffee, Diet Coke, funny memes. It's really not running-esque, right? Like it's Run Disney, of course, that comes in, but I don't really follow other run coaches. I don't really follow elite runners, masters runners. It's running is not my life, and I am not all consumed by it. I I just I'm not. And so I don't see a ton of that. And maybe somebody listening will be like, oh, well, no, there are tons of people talking to the runners who are just trying to stay ahead of the balloon ladies. They're just trying to get a 15-minute per mile pace. We're out here for S and G's, we're out here for fun. Maybe there are a lot of other people like that. I don't know. It doesn't come come across my feed. But I started this podcast from a recommendation from my business coach. And honestly, I wish I had started this podcast sooner because it has been incredible. It it has let me give explanation to nuance that I just don't have time to give in Instagram. Because Instagram is really about maintaining attention. And there's only so much that we can do to do that. Like even look for yourself. What kinds of things keep your attention? Is it a 10-minute Instagram reel? Unlikely. But maybe. But on Instagram, the ones that do the best, get the most engagement, get likes, get comments, all of that kind of stuff are short, like about 14 seconds. I can't share nuance in 14 seconds. I can't share it in 60 seconds. I can't explain what I mean. I pretty much have to give like the statement. It's almost just me giving the title of the podcast episode and calling it a day and not being able to explain it very much. Of course, I can explain it in the caption. You would be surprised at how many people don't read the caption or don't read the whole caption. And so I started this podcast because of that. Get the word out there that you can train differently, you can feel good, and you do belong in this running world, no matter what pace you're at. And that's why I started it. And so thank you so much for being here. If you feel called to support me in some way, sharing these podcast episodes with your followers, no matter how many there are, even just one more person hearing this, if they can have the courage to sign up because of something I said, that would mean the world to me. So I know I don't talk about sharing this podcast all that often, but that is something that's incredibly helpful. So thank you in advance to anybody who does that. Okay, let's let's get into the real reason we're here. So the non-negotiable to me is a recovery routine. And recovery can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. What that means to me, and with my years of physical therapy experience and some years of running, my physical therapy experience and my running years line up pretty closely because I started running when I was in college, going through studying anatomy and physiology, trying to just exercise. I worked at the fitness center on campus. I was already there for a shift. I used to run between shifts, and shifts were about 90 minutes to two hours long. So often I would have these shifts from like three to five and then seven to nine. And I used to do that because I would just stay on campus all day. And sometimes between the shift, I would go in the back room and I would study, or I would walk across to the library, which was super close. My whole campus was super close. It was a hundred percent walking. And that you had to walk up the hill because it was Ithaca, New York, and the school is built into the South Hill, but that's besides the point. So I would run between shifts. So I would get off my shift at like five, and then I would go get changed, run for an hour. So take like 30 minutes to go get changed, clean things up, whatever, go run for an hour and then go shower and get ready, maybe go grab some dinner, bring it back, and start my seven to nine shift. And it was perfect. And I used to love doing that on Friday nights because I'm a huge nerd. And so as the year, as I got further into my physical therapy studying career, I didn't go out every weekend, especially if I had a test coming up. So often as the building manager for a couple of years, I don't even remember what how many years it was. Oh my God, that's a little embarrassing. But I'd be a building manager. And so somebody would need to stay on site if there was an event being held at the fitness center. And there often was because we had a basketball court, we had um, they called it the Mondo gym, but it had that rubber flooring. And so we used to have cheerleading events, we used to have rallies and people could rent it out for private events, things like that. But a building manager needed to be on campus and I mean on site. And I literally didn't have to do anything besides just make sure everybody was safe. But I pretty much would just hang out in the office. And so if the event was from nine to midnight, well, that was three hours I got to study, or not, and just watch Netflix on my computer, because this is when Netflix was still like heavy on the DVDs and or only DVDs. I don't even know if it was streaming yet, but I would pop a DVD. I could actually rent DVDs from the library on campus too. And I would just go grab something, put it in my computer, in my laptop, and watch. How did I get on this story? See, this is what happens when I don't give like a specific outline and I just start rambling. Um, oh, I was talking about how I started running. Anyway, running between shifts, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So with the physical therapy background and with my running background, I also hate being sore. I, it's one of the reasons why I really don't like strength training. And I am in my new, in my new block of training coming up. I'm still in rest and recovery phase after springtime surprise at the time of recording this and the time it comes out. But next block, I am going for a proof of time for a 10K. And in the beginning of that block, that also involves, I'm gonna say intense, but it's probably not intense to some of you, but intense strength training. And I'm gonna be strength training four days a week. I'm splitting it between uppers and lowers, not whole body all at once. Who am I? Um, because I have very different goals right now. I have a strength coach that's Betsy Foster, B. Foster strong, and I am following the program as she has it laid out. I have a brand new workout machine with a leg press, and I can do, I think it said you can do like 50 different exercises on it. I don't believe that. I think that there are more, and they just aren't thinking about the other ones that can be done. But so I'm very excited and I'm I'm I'm looking to gain strength. I need to be stronger. And it has been eye-opening for me how just weak I am. And I always knew that. And even growing up, I was a gymnast, I was a soccer player. In gymnastics, we used to have to do conditioning days, which was all strength. And I am just a weak person. And even in those days, like upper body strength for sure was not there. Bars was not a strong suit of mine. Beam was, floor was, and I was actually very good at vault, but I did not like it. And but bars, heck no. And I've never been able to do a pull-up. So it'd be cool to be able to do a pull-up, but that's not the end of the world if that doesn't happen. But with the travel with Disney, I've been to Disney three times this year, 2026. I have had so much trouble putting my luggage in the overhead bin. It's embarrassing. It is embarrassing. And I have struggled, and normally I'm not somebody who doesn't ask for help, but I hadn't gotten to the point of asking for help yet. But I was struggling so bad every time I did this that people were coming up to me and being like, can I help you? And I just was like, yes, please. Because I think if I was a little bit taller, maybe that would be okay. I'm five foot seven, so I'm not short by any means. But lifting, I mean, my carry-on bags are like 50 pounds. I I take up that full carry-on in addition to my checked bag. But it has been become apparent to me, I really need to focus on strength. And since I am also focusing on speed, this is a great time to do both. Great time to do both because I'm not adding extra mileage, but I am going deep on the speed work. And that is an ideal time to work on strength. But in addition to the running, the non-negotiable you need to do 15 minutes into this podcast, the non-negotiable is a recovery routine. Like I said, I hate being sore. That's why I didn't like strength training before. And so I have developed the exact way to not be sore. And that is by having a recovery routine. And I consider it as part of the run. Like I'm not literally running, but in my mind, it is now part of the run. So when I'm planning out my calendar, when I think, oh, I'm going for a run, automatically the recovery timeline gets added to it. So a 45 minute run, like a 45 minute 30, 20, 10, that's not just 45 minutes. I then tack on one hour of recoveries. Now my run is an hour 45. So when Royal says, well, can you do such and such a thing at 10 a.m.? I can say yes or no appropriately, because if I am going to start my run at 9 a.m., nope, can't do that because I won't be done until 11. Or if I'm starting that run at 7:30 in the morning, yep, absolutely I can be, I can do that thing at 10 a.m. because I will be done and I will be ready. So when I say, as this title, it's a non-negotiable everybody should do for their run, that's what I mean. Because in my mind, it is part of the run. I was thinking about it today. I have this really fancy coffee maker. I love my lattes. Royal and I are very particular about our coffee in very different ways. And so we have a very fancy coffee maker, and I absolutely love it. It broke right around Thanksgiving, and Royal had to come in. Now, if you have been around for any length of time, you know part of my morning routine is I get up out of bed, I go make a cup of coffee, and I crawl back into bed and I drink my coffee. It takes like 45 minutes. And at some point, Levi will get up, he'll go get breakfast with Royal, and then he crawls back into bed as well, because his favorite place to be is either in Royal's skin or in bed. And so in bed it is in the morning. But he came in to me right around Thanksgiving. My parent, my mom was still here, and my parents came for Thanksgiving. My dad left the day after Thanksgiving, and my mom stayed for a few more days. And Royal came in and goes, I have some bad news. And he was giving me the news like somebody had died. And he said, How was some bad news? The coffee maker's broken. And I said, What? No, no, we we can fix it. He goes, No, we can't. There's an error message and it won't go away. I've already called them and we'll send it back and they'll fix it. And I was like, oh, okay. And so then I was talking to my mom and I told her about it. And she goes, Oh, you're in mourning. And that's exactly what it seemed like. I was in mourning for this coffee maker. So when I say I love my coffee maker and I miss it when I'm gone, I mean it. I love this coffee maker. It was the best purchase we have ever made. But I was watching the coffee maker today. And so it has this feature where I like lattes. And so I put whole milk into a canister and it just pulls the milk through for me. And so it does based on how much milk I want, how much coffee I want, how many shots of espresso I want, it it does it all. You have to clean the milk portion. Otherwise, it gets jammed, it gets gross. I mean, the canister is refrigerated, but the line between the canister and the coffee maker is not. Please, if you would like to imagine old milk sitting in room temperature for 24 hours, and what that would taste like, that's what I don't want to happen. And so the the manufacturer's recommendation is at the end of the day, clean there's a there's a clean cycle. There's a clean milk cycle. And it says just at the end of the day, do the clean milk cycle. Well, that's not going to work for me because by the end of the day, I forget about it. And then the the whole coffee maker shuts off at a certain time because we don't use it after usually 3 p.m. Now, this this coffee maker does too have two bean hoppers. Those are the holders where you put the whole beans in. And so we have caffeinated and decaf because Royal can't have um very much caffeine based on some of the medications that he's on. The caffeine will actually negate the life-saving effects of those medications. So that's a no-go. So we found this coffee maker that has the two hoppers. So we we don't usually drink a lot of coffee after 3 p.m. If you know me, no caffeine past one. So my last cup of coffee is usually around 11, sometimes 10. Royal might have decaf throughout the afternoon. And that's okay, because that's fine. But we have it scheduled to turn off at three. And so if I go to clean it after dinner, which is when I'm cleaning up a bunch of stuff, the thing's already off and I am not going to turn it back on. And if I haven't cleaned the milk portion yet by that time, it's not happening. And then I am most definitely gonna throw up during my coffee the next morning because whether the milk has gone sour or not, which it probably has, I will have in my mind that it's gone sour and I will think about that and then I will just feel disgusting. So cleaning that milk section is part of making a cup of coffee now. It is just ingrained. It's make a cup of coffee, clean the milk thing. And it's just all in one part. Like even if Royal and I are gonna make a cup of coffee at the same time, I tell him, make yours now, because he's gonna have to sit through. It's only a minute, maybe two minutes. It doesn't take very long. But go make your black cup of coffee first, and then I'll make my cup of coffee because part of that process is cleaning the milk system. And it's just ingrained in my mind, if I'm making a cup of coffee, that also means it's two minutes of cleaning the milk system. Same thing for your run. Include the recovery aspect, which a solid, well-balanced recovery routine includes post-workout stretches. So that's static stretching while you're still warm, a massage-based technique, and a temperature-based technique. So we have stretching, we have massage, and we have temperature. So stretching, those are the static stretches. All major muscle groups, calf muscles, quad muscles, hamstring muscles, glute muscles, abs, low back, especially if you have a sore back. I don't know if you've ever heard me say this phrase before. Like people will ask me, well, what do I do for stretches for X pain? And a lot of times it's low back pain from running. When you're thinking about stretches, you need to think about the opposite of what you have just been doing for a prolonged amount of time. So this mainly affects the back right now. But if your back has been sore from running, you have been upright and your back has been straight. What is the opposite of a straight back? A curved back, a rounded back, a bent back. So to stretch out a sore back from running, curl up in a ball. So lay on your back, single knee to chest, double knee to chest, um, prayer stretch or child's pose, things like that. Now, if your back is sore from sitting for too long, that is a rounded back. That is a bent back. What is the opposite of it? A straight back. So you stand up and you bend backwards, right? So that's how I think about stretching, especially when you have soreness. But when you're stretching after a workout, it's all major muscle groups to keep everything balanced. That includes your neck, shoulders, chest, and upper back. I know you're not running on your arms. Running is a full body workout. It is a full body workout because your arms are pumping, your abs are engaged, and when you're breathing, if you're really huffing and puffing, you're using accessory muscles in your neck. You need to stretch the whole body. Then after you've done your stretching, you either foam roll or you use a massage gun. So that's the massage based. Foam rolling is massage, massage gun is massage. And again, all major muscle groups, calves, quads, hamstrings, glutes, you can use it in front of your shoulder. You can use it on different parts of your neck. Use it on the meaty part of your neck, not the bone. So not straight up and down the middle. Don't use it in front. On your throat, but on the sides, that's fine. Uh, you can use it on your shoulders, you can use it on your upper back. It is hard to reach your upper back, but you can use it there. Maybe get a friend to help you, or get a professional massage a couple of times a month. And then the last one is temperature-based. So Olaf likes warm hugs. Dr. Allie likes warm baths. I take a hot Epsom salt bath. Hot Epsom salt bath or an ice bath compared to a hot pack or a cold pack are best. However, it's not realistic for everybody, and it not everybody enjoys it. A lot of people don't like sitting in a hot Epsom salt bath because they don't like thinking about sitting in their own filth. Well, I take a shower before I sit in the bath. So I get away from that. But you could also go sit in a hot tub, which has the chlorine. Maybe you aren't thinking about sitting in your own filth there. Um, some people don't have the luxury of being able to do an ice bath. And I say luxury as meaning like it's not something you have in your household every day, but for sure the ice bath is not a luxury. It's not luxurious, it's not enjoyable. But some people do better with cold than they do with heat. So maybe you want the ice bath or just part of your body. Like if you have planners fasciar fasciitis, an ice bath is better than rolling the bottom of your foot on a water bottle. And the good thing, not the benefit, but the good thing about an ice bath, you only need three to five minutes. That's it. That's enough shock to your system to get that inflammation under control. And being submerged in the water, whether it's whole body or just the body part that's gives you problems, that gets the whole area surrounded and changing temperature quickly. So that's why it is so much better than a hot pack or a cold back. Now, when I went through physical therapy school, we actually tested the how cold the body part got at certain segments when using a hot pack, we would take the temperature like every minute or something. We did it with a cold pack. We did it with a cold pack where it was just like ice cubes. We did it with a cold pack where it was one of those gel pads. We did it with a cold pack with a cold pillowcase. So if you're doing an ice pack or a cold pack, put it in a cold pillowcase as opposed to using a towel and it will work better. Um, we also compared like contrast baths, so hot and then cold. We compared just ice baths and hot baths, and we went through all of these different steps to figure out what got what had the change of temperature the fastest and what had the change of temperature lasting the longest. And if you were submerged, it lasted the longest. So that's why I recommend those. But again, it's not realistic for everybody. And so doing a hot pack or a cold pack is better than nothing. Like I said, if you do a cold pack, put it in a cold pillowcase. If you're doing a hot pack, don't do the electric kind that you plug in, do the microwaveable kind because it's moist heat as opposed to dry heat. And some forms of dry heat do work better than others, but the electric heating pad is like low on the totem pole. So microwaveable, they typically call them bed buddies. Microwavable heating pad, a cold pack in a pillowcase, an ice bath, or a hot Epsom salt bath. If it's an ice bath, it's three to five minutes. If it's any of the others, hot pack, cold pack, hot Epsom salt bath, at least 20 minutes. You don't necessarily get more of a benefit going longer than 30 minutes. But like for a hot Epsom's hot Epsom salt bath, it might just be enjoyable to stay in there. But don't worry if you only have 20 minutes, that's fine. Bare minimum is good enough. And so you can do it that way. And if you need to use a temperature-based thing multiple times a day, like let's say you have a current injury that needs pain and inflammation control, do it for 20 minutes and then have it off for 20 minutes, and then do it for 20 minutes and then off for 20 minutes. So however long it was on is the amount of time it needs to be off before you do it again. So on 20, off 20, on 20, off 20. And if you do back and forth, do hot first, then cold. That creates a wave effect. So it increases circulation to bring in the good materials that help the healing process. And then the cold instantly stops that system. And it means it leaves the good stuff in there for a little while longer to really help that process. So you want that wave effect. So it's heat first, then cold. And you just include that as part of your workout. I say workout, it's your run, it's your cross-training, it's your strength workout, whatever you are doing. The recovery aspect is part of that. And that's how you start balancing out what you're doing to build up your body, build up your strength, build up your endurance, build up your speed with not going overboard so that you don't over-train, so that you don't get injured. And the longer or harder the workout, the longer you need to spend doing the recovery. So a long run for 3.1 miles, like a D-load week, doesn't need as long of a recovery as a 20-mile long run. If you are used to doing those longer miles, if 3.1 miles is your longest, then you do need a long time for the recovery, right? Like it's all subjective to what your body is used to. If it's a lot for you, you need a lot on the recovery side. So that's my non-negotiable, the recovery aspect. My favorite part of a workout is the stretching. And I know that's not for everybody. It's not everybody's favorite. But if you are feeling like you are tight, stiff, and sore the next day after a run or after a workout, the stretching and the recovery aspect needs more TLC. You need a little bit more TLC in your body, and that comes with the stretching, the temperature based, and the massage based recovery.