Peach Podcast
Two guys and an occasional guest breaking open topics on: Purpose, Energy, Attitude, Commitment and Health through shared experiences.
Peach Podcast
S4EP06: Beyond Plateaus: The Mental Game and the Power of Measuring Progress
Why does progress feel so addictive? That moment when you suddenly realize all your consistent effort is paying off delivers a powerful psychological boost that keeps you coming back for more.
In this conversation, we dive deep into Daryl's recent experience at the Buffalo Stampede 10-mile road race. After months of steady trail running, he surprised himself by maintaining a pace nearly a minute faster per mile than he'd ever achieved before. That recognition of progress delivered an immediate dopamine hit that left him craving more challenges and opportunities to push his limits.
We explore the psychology behind progress addiction, breaking down how our brains reward us when we experience breakthroughs and how we can intentionally create opportunities for those rewarding moments. From tracking apps like Strava that celebrate personal records to the power of surrounding yourself with a supportive community, we unpack the tools that help fuel sustainable improvement.
The conversation also tackles practical strategies for breaking down intimidating goals into manageable pieces. Whether you prefer dividing challenges into thirds (beginning, middle, end) or halves (get to halfway, then it's "all downhill"), finding a mental framework that works for you creates pathways for small wins along your journey. These mental strategies become crucial when facing inevitable plateaus and obstacles.
Perhaps most importantly, we discuss the reality that progress is never linear – approximately one-third of your training sessions will feel terrible, one-third will be average, and one-third will feel amazing. The key is showing up consistently, regardless of how you feel. Every training session is a deposit in the bank, and they all add up when it's time to make a withdrawal at the starting line of your next challenge.
Ready for your next breakthrough moment? Listen in as we share the frameworks, strategies and mindsets that turn progress into an addiction worth embracing. And stay tuned for Daryl's big announcement about his plans to tackle his first road marathon!
Hey, hey, hey. Welcome to the Peach Podcast. Just a couple of dudes and an occasional guest breaking open topics from everyday life on purpose, energy, attitude, commitment and health. So, if you're ready, listen in as we live, to learn from our losses, gain from our gratitude and laugh as we level up. Always remember, if you ever feel stuck, all you got to do is just start, come on let's happening and welcome back to Peach Podcast.
Speaker 2:We are going to just dive right in because I'm a little jacked up about this topic. Man, I'm pumped up. Daryl, I'm going to tell you, you got me pumped up, man. You sent me a random text in the middle of the week or the middle of the day. What was it? A few days ago, and I think you're Let me see if I can quote you here. You said something about oh, progress is addicting, slow, but when you recognize it, wow, and I'm just like oh, man, I love that. I love the psychology behind that statement, I love the power of small wins behind that and I love how we can break it down and also include overcoming obstacles. So let's break this podcast episode into three parts again, and I just named them the psychology of progress, the power of small wins and overcoming obstacles. So, daryl, kind of set this up and share with us. What were you thinking of, what were you reflecting on when you sent that quote to me, or those words to me?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I will give a little bit of an update. So first of all, I was sitting at Ava's I mentioned this last time, ava's play and Austin, a parent from the school that she's in, came up to me and I'd met him one time before and the reality is he kind of got a small running group together called Run Like the Winded.
Speaker 1:And we have about yeah.
Speaker 3:I think we had seven or eight people that were on the text group. Josephine joined, alyssa actually joined the race and it was kind of an encouragement thing. But we had. We were going toward a run this week. Last weekend it was a 10 mile run called the Buffalo stampede. It's been going for, I think, 51 years. It's down right across from Sac state and it was a road race. It was a 10 mile road race and, as you know, I've been doing a lot of trail running and so we had different people with different kind of versions of where they're at. But we all had some goals. And the very cool part is from the original text group that he formed until we were at the start line, we actually added three people to it.
Speaker 1:Everybody was there which was really cool, and we had a wonderful day.
Speaker 3:It was beautiful weather, everything was so good, and different people had different goals. Austin, who's as much faster runner than I am, had a goal of he used to be. It sounded like a pretty competitive runner. He hadn't run a race in 11 years. So you know life happens. He's got three kids and everything else. He's still very, very active, very in shape, but he hasn't actually ran a race in 11 years and I think he used to be more of a runner. You know that did a lot of events. We had Katie Ryder, josephine, susanna they're preparing and Alyssa they're preparing for several half marathons. They're kind of one group and then Tony and I and a few others.
Speaker 3:The reason I highlighted that it's been a while since I've done a road race. Right yeah, and you know I was like I have no idea how I'm gonna do Doug right. As you know, I've been training pretty hard. I'm very active, I'm very consistent. I hadn't really run and run road. Road runs are a little faster than a trail run. A trail run could be up and down anywhere from 10 minutes to 15 minutes depending on the terrain and it's more of a long distance.
Speaker 3:So I took off at this 10 miles and I had one goal I wanted to keep up with Austin for at least one mile. I was like, all right, I can keep up with anybody for the first mile, and you know you're all pumped up, right, right, I can keep up with anybody for the first mile, and you know you're all pumped up right, right, right. And I got to the end of one mile and he was cranking along he's super consistent, doug, just a really really, really consistent runner and I was with Tony and I got to one mile and I'm like you know what, I think I'm okay, right. So I was like let, and then I kind of slowly, kind of got back to a little bit more comfortable pace and I was telling myself, you know, mentally, you know you talk yourself through this super proud that I kind of kept up with them for a period of time and then I'll just run my race. Hey, I'm an ultra runner, I'll just go back to my slow pace and go.
Speaker 3:But I was a little encouraged and so I tried to keep up a little bit better, I tried not to look at my watch and I got to about mile six and actually caught up with Tony who was ahead of me, and then Tony kind of gave me some encouragement, the short version. I was able to keep up a pace, you know, probably about a minute faster per mile, about actually about 50 seconds per mile, than I had ever done before. And, doug, you know, and it really was a little bit of two things. First of all, was the pace faster than I was used to, absolutely, yes, was my heart rate higher than it normally is? Absolutely, but I was able to kind of manage it, doug it was. I was kind of like I'm OK, ok, yeah, yeah, this is harder, more exertion than I expected, but I was mentally able to kind of compartmentalize and say it was OK. And then there was a bit of you know, you know the beginning, the middle, at the end, and then when you got to the end, I felt like, hey, I've got a little bit in the tank, let me go a little harder. And so I crossed the finish line and I felt good. I felt good, I was pretty happy with my run. I was incredibly surprised that I was able to keep up.
Speaker 3:Austin crushed his time. He hit his goal. Tony, who did a really, really good job, finished right behind me. So which great crack coach we had Susanna that came in. We were literally waiting for the girls. We figured they'd be about 20 minutes behind us. Susanna came about 10 minutes. We saw her coming and she knocked over a minute I think in three seconds off of her mile. And so I think one of the things that I just kind of reflected on was the day after uh, I think it was Monday and Tuesday I said you know what A lot of the work I've been doing. I actually saw progress and I tell you what it felt good, doug, it felt good. That says, you know and I'm not talking like progress like over the last two weeks, like progress over like the last six months of work I actually was able to tap into it and see kind of that, that small wind. You know what I mean. It was probably a bigger wind than maybe a small wind.
Speaker 2:Let me just pause you for a second, because you said you know, when you, when you finished the race, um, you saw progress. Are you saying you saw you finally? Are you trying to say you finally saw progress? Because you've been training a very consistent, steady pace somewhere between the, I would say, the 10 and the 14 minute mile pace, um, depending on what trail you and you or you and Eric go do. And a lot of times that's your, that's just your mindset. You're like, hey, we're going to go out, we're going to run. You're not trying to increase your pace, You're just trying to do a long distance run and whatnot.
Speaker 2:And you guys have been doing that for a long time at least six months now and just steady, steady, steady. I know your super long distances have kind of fallen off over the last several weeks, but you got time. I know you're training for some other things, but you're still putting in some great miles, Like I've seen you do some six miles, some eight miles, some 10 miles, Because now we're going to get into the. I think this is a great segue into the psychology of progress. You know, were you in the, you know, let's say, several weeks back, were you feeling like okay, well, I can run this pace, but you know how do I make it better? Or like what was going on in your head.
Speaker 3:I was a little bit of hey, these are road runners, that's fine, I'll just do my pace, I'll knock out my 10 miles. I'm part of the group, that's cool. I'm the long distance runner, right? You know what I mean.
Speaker 3:And uh, then I was like you know what, let me, let me see if I can kind of keep up a little bit more, right, yeah, and I was pretty happy, and I know that you know we shouldn't be addicted to you know, necessarily, stra, two mile, five mile, 10k and 10 mile were all the fastest I've run in my entire history oh, you got all the little PR, uh symbols, all of them it wasn't just and, and I'm like, like, like, and first of all, I'm not a, I'm not a like I've been running on Strava for the last five, ten years years or anything else like this, but the idea that when I needed to kind of kick it in, it was there and there was a little bit of hey, you know this, you know I was able to keep up a little better and, more than anything, it just kind of proved to me that, um, it was that small link went on along the way and you know what?
Speaker 3:I didn't? Yeah, I, I, um, I didn't run Monday, tuesday, but I went to the gym and worked out, josephine and I running tonight, but I'll tell you what that little progress, that little snapshot on Sunday because I've got some much bigger goals next year, as you know um, man, it really gave me some encouragement and it was really addicting and, um, so it was, it was really nice. It was really nice and especially when you can recognize it and then you can hone in on it and, uh, we, you know, on Monday I talked to Susanna, she was feeling the same way and I think, just overall, I think, when you're consistent, I was able to tap into areas of my body and my mind and push it and be okay, and so it was just very, very nice.
Speaker 2:So tell me is this does this have you thinking a little different about your trail running and your pace and trail running and and your training for trail running?
Speaker 3:Um, it does, it does. Um, in fact, you know, like anything we always should learn, right there. Um, like everything you know, you start to research some things or some ways to do tempo runs on hills, right, um, and a few other things. So I just, you know, probably just increasing a little bit of some of these speed techniques and everything else into there. And let me give you just one example. Um, my, I looked at my watch and, as you all know, my heart rate was kind of at the high end and in the old days I would have said, ooh man, I gotta go bring that down, let me, let me go slower this time. I said my heart rate's pretty high, but I think I'm okay, let me try it for a little longer.
Speaker 2:You, know what.
Speaker 3:I mean and so um, I'm not saying when your heart rate's super high you should just ignore it. But I was able to a bit more just kind of manage and say I can kind of keep my pace at a higher threshold.
Speaker 2:Threshold. You're working at a higher threshold. Yes, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah and uh, it was, uh, it was nice, and then I think also the mentality of kind of breaking things down into smaller chunks when you know. You know we got to, uh, um, seven miles and I told Tony, I said, hey, we only got a 5k left, and I said your mom can run a 5k right. And he laughed and guess what, we and uh, I I get that off of off of one of these guys I follow he always says my mom can run a 5K right. So when you get to the end and so guess what, we pushed it a little harder right. So it was just, it was a nice fun group activity. Everybody did really well and I think a few of us surprised ourselves on how well we did.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's awesome, daryl, that's that is so cool to be in that environment. And then firsthand experience, you know the the, the physical benefits of just progress, the psychological benefits of progress. But in speaking of psychological benefits of progress, you know, let's let's just break that down a little bit, because I think, as people listen to us, it's important that if they can take a small piece of just knowledge and say, oh, this is how this is working, this is how this is working for me and this is why I'm moving faster and this is why I'm feeling better, there is a psychological aspect of progress and so and it does. You used the word in your freaking text the other day. You said it's addictive. Right, progress is addictive, and it is, and it is.
Speaker 2:And I think one of the reasons that happens is because you know, when you finished your race, daryl, you probably had no, when you, from the moment you started, when you showed up Sunday morning, you were thinking, okay, I'm just going to give it my best, whatever. And then you finished and you see your end result and you're like holy crap, right, that holy crap moment is dopamine man. It's just, it's firing on all cylinders. It's hitting your brain, your soul, your body's running through your veins and you're like, wow, this is freaking crazy. And so you get this dopamine hit. That kind of tells you, hey, this felt good because, daryl youl, in the past I have heard you really be concerned about if your heart rate is pushing too high. And it isn't until just now when I heard you say, hey, you know what, I saw a little high, but I'm going to stay there. And when you were explaining it just now, you were really relaxed about that. And that's the power of dopamine, when you can kind of go psychologically experience these things.
Speaker 2:Now, here it is, daryl. Here's the truth. This didn't just happen overnight. You know, you have been training at a very low not I don't want to say low intensity, a very steady intensity. You and Eric like to stay in zone two a lot when you guys train for the long distance, which is absolutely brilliant and smart when you're training for long, long runs, because otherwise your lactic acid builds up too fast and your legs burn out too quick, your lungs, everything else just goes too fast. So training in zone two is great, but learning the ability to how to run at a high threshold for longer periods of time, that's actually a strategy man, and it's so cool because it jacks up your psychology. You're like, damn, I can do this. I can hold more pressure for longer periods of time, and that's exactly what happened to you. And what a great example of that and how it boosts your confidence. You feel a little more confident about picking up your pace now, darrell, let me ask you that.
Speaker 3:It does, it does, and I'll give, I'll give two examples from the race. Um, you know there are some great examples, um, the first one was when we got to about mile eight. Um, just about mile eight, both myself and Tony were kind of thinking, um, okay, mile eight, if we got anything left in the tank, let's try and push it for the last couple of miles. A mile late, uh, his wife, regina, uh, was on the side of the road with Mikey, her son, right, I didn't even know she had a sign and uh, he was.
Speaker 3:Uh, he was about I don't know about 50 yards ahead of me and I saw him pull over. Just a little bit, it didn't really didn't stop, it just kind of pulled over, gave a quick hug and then kept going. And, and as I passed Regina, she said to me Daryl, you better catch him, right, you can't let the, you can't let the short guy beat you. You know what I mean. And I just kind of got that little bit of and first of all, her first comment was wow, daryl, I didn't expect to see you, right.
Speaker 1:So he's like yeah, I thought you'd be way back there you know what I mean.
Speaker 3:So first she serves you'd be way back there. You know what?
Speaker 1:I mean.
Speaker 2:So that was really so. First she serves you up a little smack down, smack down Like wow, I didn't think I'd see you here.
Speaker 3:And then she's like go catch the small guy, and so we had some fun at the end and the other thing is I already mentioned, you know, after the race.
Speaker 3:We just finished, we just got our waters, we got our medals and we're kind of grouping at the, the finish line, and we kind of had an idea of when we thought the the ladies would finish. And we are just chatting away and talking about stuff with tony and um austin and all of a sudden we almost missed to suzanna coming in and when she, somebody said there's suzanna, and we were in shock. I mean like like absolute shock, and that gave us a big motivation and she came and she was doing good and we're like, oh, my goodness, you know. And then she, she crossed the line and it was funny, she crossed the line, came back cause she wanted to talk to us and we're like where's your metal? And she goes oh, I didn't even see the metal. She was like so focused on, we sent her back to go get her metal and came back and I also seeing other people's progress is is really, really motivating and um just kind of builds that confidence motivation group.
Speaker 3:You know it, when you're training or something, you can't compete every time you train. You know what I mean, right, um? And so there's a little bit of those small wins, that psychological it's when you can see progress. And I don't know about you. I mean, I've gone to the gym for four months, maybe, lifting weights, and I'm plus or minus five pounds on certain things. You know it's, it's not easy.
Speaker 3:You know I'm, you know, you know, 55 years old, just turned 55 a few weeks ago, um, you know and uh, so it's not like you're going to see like, oh, every time I go I'm seeing progress. But it's nice to have that psychological and some of those dopamines. And you know you gotta, you gotta, carry them with you, doug, because you know, you know, training's hard. I'm going to carry some of these little nuggets. You know Regina saying something to me afterward, um, watching Susanna come in and um, talk to me about what you've seen, cause I know you, you experienced this too, where you have long periods of kind of you know things and then you get that little dopamine hit. So what are some of the ones you've seen in some of your training or your journey?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, I think that's one of the reasons it's important If you are training to improve. You know, there's a lot of people. I'm at a season in my life right now where I'm not so much looking for improvement, I'm working more so on commitment and consistency, because I get and I let the improvement or whatever take care of itself. I just want to be mobile, I want to be agile, I want to be fluid, I want to be all those things and that's, you know, just consistency, consistency, consistency that takes care of that. And that's just consistency, consistency, consistency, that takes care of that. And I find that I can do many things in life fluidly because I do some kind of movement almost every day. But when I was training for a marathon or a half marathon or a 5K man, I use my Garmin watch and Strava religiously. I'm looking at them all the time and I'll tell you when you open up, strava has this feature now where they use AI and it and it tells you man, you crushed this run. It's, you know, at higher level and a faster pace than your last 30 day average, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And those. And what that does is it gives you a dopamine hits like oh, wow, and it and it's. And in reverse it'll say, hey, it looks like you were doing a little active recovery. And when that gets you is when you weren't doing active recovery. You were out there just trying to train and trying to show up, but Strava recognizes that you're moving at a slower pace and so you get a different type of hit of like oh dang man, yeah, I was, I was really hurting today. And then we'll talk about that in the next part, about overcoming obstacles, because that's a mental obstacle. So, using gadgets and widgets and stuff like that and apps like Strava or Garmin just to really track your progress, it's important, especially if you're trying to get better, get faster, run longer, because those metrics man over time. If you you're trying to, you know, get better, get faster, run longer, because those metrics man over time, if you keep track of them, you can see, man, you can actually see, hey, today's going to be a pretty good day, or I, man, I, I improved, and I had no idea was I was improving. What have I been doing the last three to four weeks that can that I can kind of say, okay, this is why I've improved, and then use that to continue to build on. And then I also had a running coach when I trained for my marathon and that helped a lot. I got a lot of feedback there.
Speaker 2:So, just like you said earlier, being around that environment, being around putting people in your life that are winning and that are struggling and doing the same things you're doing, man, you learn so much and you actually their wins become your wins, their wins become your. I mean, just now, when you were describing Susanna coming across, you're like, oh my God, here comes Susanna. It's like that's another dopamine hit and you get the benefit of that, and so that's just awesome. Dara, I love the way you were breaking this down. I loved when you were talking about I'm just going to see if I can keep up with anybody for one mile, right.
Speaker 2:So you already in your brain, before the race even started, you set up a small mini goal where you were going to get, to get to or maybe not experience a win and in your case, on this particular day, you experienced a win and that one mile win led you to well, let me keep going. And then you had another win, I think you said for the first two or three miles, it was like, oh my God, I'm still running with these people. And then then you realize, okay, let me, let me back up a little bit and uh, and get grounded a little bit. But you set yourself up for a one-mile goal win and you ended up getting gosh through hearing your story. There were several wins, not just from your own personal journey, but you also recognizing and celebrating other people's journeys and stories as well.
Speaker 2:So it's all tied together, brother, it's just really, really cool stuff. So, to wrap up the whole dopamine effect when you can put yourself in experiences and around other people who are experiencing winning and you are celebrating your own wins and celebrating their wins and you're measuring this stuff, man, those are dopamine hits. And the more often you do that, the stronger it gets. The desire grows for wanting to do it more and more and more, hence it becomes very addictive. Grows for wanting to do it more and more and more, hence it becomes very addictive. Once you understand that and you take that knowledge, then you start intentionally seeking opportunities to put yourself in that situation where you can experience those dopamine hits, like you are the one that is causing the dopamine hit because you have set up some kind of event or challenge to do so.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I do want to talk about some of the shared strategies and I know you've got different ones. But you know how do you break, break down big goals into smaller, manageable tasks. So we started talking ahead of time and when we were running, tony breaks down his into beginning, the middle and the end, so kind of a third, a third, a third right, and he kind of talked about there and that's his. I'm a big first half, second half, and so we talked about it ahead of time. You know, as soon as it doesn't matter if it's the death ride or a 10 mile run, my thing is just get to the halfway point and psychologically in my mind, if I can, if I can achieve that in a pretty good, I have this thought that whenever I get to that 50% and the 49%, and then you're there, I feel like I'm on the downhill Right. So that's for me, like for me, that's how my thing is Get through the first half and guess what? Oh, second half is just downhill, no problem, that's how I do it.
Speaker 3:Tony had some good strategy about the beginning, the middle and the end and whatever works for you, but very few times if you're off, taking off on a 10 mile or 50 mile, 100 mile or 14,000 feet climbing. It's hard to manage that. So it was interesting to see how different people do it. Austin, he wanted to have a consistent pace for a period of time and then I think he got to mile five or four and then he kicked it off and he, he just said, and then he, he lowered, he, he was faster in the second half. So I think it doesn't really. I don't think there is a single strategy that works for everybody, but how do you break it down into smaller ones? And it's so psychological, and if you find something that works for you, keep it going, but that's. It was funny that we had we had at least the three people I talked to. We all had different ones, but we all had a strategy of breaking it down from bigger into smaller.
Speaker 2:That's brilliant. I love that you shared that, because if you're going to get into any kind of running or cycling or anything, having a strategy isn't uh, and the strategy you're talking about is more of a mental strategy really. I mean, there is the physical, it affects the physical, and I love your strategy and I love tony's also, because I broke my marathon marathon down into thirds, so I I know what that strategy felt like. But the halves breaking it down in halves that's also cool too, because and it's all really perception, daryl Some people might get to the halfway and play halfway point and say, oh man, I'm only halfway finished. But in your case you get to the halfway point, it's like, oh, it's all downhill from here, like it's a whole different perception, a whole different language, and so how we speak to ourselves and what we choose to perceive, that's our reality, and so having that kind of a strategy is definitely going to impact you physically as well. So I'm glad you mentioned that. We're kind of talking about overcoming challenges now, overcoming obstacles and plateaus and stuff. And I'm always Darrell, I got to tell you, man, when you brought up I think it was an article you read or something you saw on social media about the thirds.
Speaker 2:You know a third of your training is going to be crap. A third of it is going to be not bad, not good, it's just going to be, you know, a decent day, and then a third of your training is going to be freaking outstanding. It's going to. You're going to feel like damn man, I just blew it up. And I think you know what's really cool, daryl, because I've been rucking pretty consistently for the last gosh, I don't know 45 days, 50 days, something like that. Not for the first 30 days was 30 days in a row, but now I'm down to like three to four days a week. That's my whole strategy.
Speaker 2:But, man, I'll tell you, I hit those Thursdays. I'm out there rucking and I don't want to put on the vest, I don't want to go out. It's freaking 90 degrees out. I'm feeling my bones and back are tired, everything is tired. But I go out and I remember the thirds. I'm like, hey, you know what I'm feeling. Like it's one of those shitty thirds, but you just show up anyways. Like it's one of those shitty thirds, but you just show up anyways. You just you don't let that be an excuse or reason why not to show up. You have to embrace all the thirds of your training and so that when the event, when if you're training for an event, it all you know, if you do it right, it all shows up at the event as a hopefully you're in your top thirds where you're kicking some butt.
Speaker 3:Yeah, let's um, let's hit overcoming obstacles and plateaus. I think that is so important and we chatted before we started this. Yeah, it's a fact, you will have obstacles, you will have plateaus. That's a, that's a given right and there's not a debate, there's no straight up into the right line, right. Yeah, um, you know, um, you know common obstacles and you know plateaus.
Speaker 3:I think one of the things is kind of like, um, one of the obstacles, kind of feel like you've got long periods of training, um, kind of like boredom, same old, same old. You talk about this a lot, a lot of remember your uh, when you do your uh, aerosol and your, your, your biking, some of the, some of these, some of this just boring, right, and just the mental, the mental fatigue of that, um, you know, um, I can tell you right now, all of a sudden, you know you run a lot on the trails and I swear it's kind of scary, uh, doug, how sometimes we run the same, the same route and it's the same time. You almost feel like you're like in Groundhog's Day. You're like like, am I doing the same thing over and over and over again and you just don't see that and I, I think a little bit of boredom, a little bit of that, uh, sometime fatigue with me. You know what I mean. Um, you know just just feel kind of right, um. But I think the big thing is, just how do you press through them? Um, I, I.
Speaker 3:One of my big best phrases right now is um, I'll do it anyway. Have you seen that? That's like the new thing? Yeah, you know. Uh, I, I had a bad day, I'll do it anyway. It's raining outside, I'll do it anyway. You know it's it's sunny outside, I'll do it. You're like somehow just you got to just overcome there. What are your some of your strategies of overcoming obstacles and plateaus?
Speaker 2:Man, it's uh, you know, there are a lot of times just talking with you and talking with, uh, team peach and and surrounding myself with people in my life who are, you know, cycling or runners or Rutgers, uh, and just having conversations. I think that in itself, so I might be out having coffee with somebody and they're like, oh, I'm going to go do this ride and it's going through these beautiful places and all of a sudden, internally, I'm inspired to go. Oh shit, you know, that sounds really good and I need to get my ass out there on my bike or I need to get my vest on and go rucking and and also beingucking and also being connected to people on, because now Strava has kind of turned into a. It's kind of like a social media app for athletes, for people who like to train, and so people are giving you kudos, they're commenting on your feed and it's all encouragement. It's all really good. It's different than regular social media. There's no, it's all encouragement. You know it's all really good. You know it's different than, you know, regular social media. There's no. At least me personally, I have not experienced anything but enthusiasm, encouragement, celebration on apps like Strava or on Garmin, and it's just. I think my. So my strategy to answer your question my strategy is to surround myself and put myself in position and posture myself in positions where I'm going to get a lot of good feedback and encouragement and also be challenged. Also be challenged and I think you know you've been doing that with Team Peach for a long time.
Speaker 2:Daryl just the way you ride and the way you run and the way you show up day in and day out, you know, sometimes we see your feed and it's just it's like a Rolex watch man. It does not stop ticking, it's just constantly moving, it's constantly in motion. It's like damn, you know, and if we, if one of us, misses a day here or there, you know we're we're. When we get together as a group, it's like, oh shit, man, darrell ain't stopping. You know Darryl ain't stopping. You know, darryl. So you know it's in the back of our heads that you can move. You know you can do something every day.
Speaker 2:And what I love about your routine is that you know it's not massively aggressive but it is. There is some strategy, there is some rhyme to the whole reason and when you show up to an event, like you did on this running event, it freaking shows that it doesn't take a lot of intensity. It just takes massive amounts of consistency and all of a sudden, without realizing it, you're breaking records, you're PR and all kinds of stuff and you're running your fastest pace, over 10 miles that you've ever run, and so you know. Just that's.
Speaker 2:That's the biggest lesson is just really be consistent. Just show up, no matter how you feel and um, and it might be at the end of the workout, at the end of the run, at the end of the ride, at the end of the weightlifting session, whatever it is. You might feel like that, like it wasn't worth it, but trust me, trust me, it's worth it. It may not feel that way in the moment, but over time, with consistency, you will benefit from the results of showing up when you absolutely don't feel like it or when you feel like you wasted your time, but you showed up anyways. It all adds up, man. Every deposit counts. Every deposit counts, especially when it's time to take a withdrawal at the race start line.
Speaker 3:Remember um Mark, who ran in the uh shamrock with this a friend of David's buddy all of a sudden. Yeah, Mark was there running the race. So oh my goodness Mark, how you doing Great. He actually is training with a group that had five or six people, a couple pretty competitive runners. They got a small group. They were running together. So I got to talk to him and he said hey, listen, I'm going to, I'm going to be trained. Have you heard of this Johnny Cash trail?
Speaker 3:I laughed, Of course that's that's basically Doug's old backyard, right, he knows every inch of that place and I said that's great, I'll probably run it with them.
Speaker 3:So sometimes for me it's like you said um, you know, connecting with new people, trying some new things, you know, and real quick, I've run Johnny, but I'm going to go run Johnny Cash for them this weekend and, um, so kind of change it up. The other hand, doug, I'll tell you this there's been some times where I get so used to running with Eric or other people. Sometimes I say to myself and you've seen me as like, I'm going to go run by myself. I want to make sure I can do this by my, you know. So sometimes it works both ways for me, right? Sometimes I, because I don't want to be so, like, oh well, I can't run with someone. So sometimes I got to challenge myself. So I think, kind of just mixing it up and, like you said, like you were very articulate, sometimes it's the encouragement or the motivation with people around you and sometimes you got to just kind of get in your own head and say I'm going to try this by myself.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know that's something that I've had to embrace massively since I moved out out of Folsom and living out in the sticks right now, you just don't see people out. I mean it's a two lane highway, country road, daryl, you know where I'm at, and so it number one. It's not the safest place to run, so you don't see. You know, I've been seeing a couple of runners, man, and sometimes I feel like running after them saying, hey, when are you running? Let's get, can we do it in a group or something, cause I'd feel a little more safe. But you know, out here you just have to run by yourself. And so I have, uh, I have embraced and I have kind of fallen in love with just like man, being alone, letting my mind just detox and finding my own balance and my own breath.
Speaker 2:And, and I got to tell you, there was a time when I was comparing myself and my pace and my distance to so many people on Strava and so many people out there, like when I lived in Folsom.
Speaker 2:You know, natoma's Lake, natoma, every weekend, man, it's packed with runners and you see all these fit runners, young runners, old runners, and people just getting after it. And I started out as a newbie runner back then a few years back and feeling inadequate and not qualified, and when you're around that crowd, at least myself, I found myself comparing a ton. So it's been nice to kind of be out here alone and find my own lane and my own stride and listen to my body. And it takes longer. It definitely takes longer, but, man, there's a lot more peace, there's a lot more enjoyment, um, and it's just, uh, you know it's, it's awesome. But I tell you, though, when I get an opportunity to run with other people or rock with other people or ride with other people, um, I love it, I enjoy it. I realize how much I miss it, so, but it is important to mix it up, you know, to learn how to train solo and also with other people as well.
Speaker 3:Cool stuff, cool stuff. I've got any last kind of takeaways or encouragement from you. I've got one thing at the end I'll close with.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, just I think it's just. I'm glad you sent that text. You know, it kind of opened up a topic for this week and and it's an important topic it's important that progress is comprised of their psychological progress, the power of small wins and then overcoming obstacles. When we can unpack those in our mind, in our hearts, and train, knowing what's behind each one of those segments, man, it just just makes training so much more enjoyable and it makes the events that you show up to, that you're training for, so much more enjoyable. And you realize there is no. Even though every event has a big banner that says finish line, in this whole thing there really is no finish line. Each finish line at an event is really a starting line for the next event. So that that's all I have for this. Daryl, what, what do you want to end with? What do you got on your mind? What do you? What's up your sleeve, you little sneaky sucker?
Speaker 3:Uh, no, I've been putting off. I've been putting off something that, uh, that you and other people have talked to me about. You're like why don't you do a road marathon, right?
Speaker 1:Yes, I was like I don't need.
Speaker 3:No, I don't need to do those. I've already done some ultras, don't worry about it. I've done that. But um, uh, I will be doing one in the next three months. Um, the CIM is sold out, but they do have a transfer portal that opens in October and uh, so I applied for that and so if I do get one of the slots, I'll run CIM. But, um, I I was like all right, I got to get this over with, I got to get a road marathon in, so if things work out, you are so primed for a road marathon.
Speaker 2:You're ready, Daryl. You're ready.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. I don't know if I'm ready, but I'll be ready in a couple months, but either way. So Eric is going to. I need to tick this box, so, um, that's the plan.
Speaker 2:I love it. I love it. Well, you know, my son Max will be out there, I know, I know it.
Speaker 3:So I'm I'm hoping. I think that would be amazing. Uh, max is killing it. Max has got what like two, two signed up in like three weeks, uh, both CIM and uh, and one in Honolulu. So yeah, so we'll see. So Eric and I are working on that, but it opens up in October. So if CIM works out, great, I'm going to train for it. If it doesn't, there's a couple in January that I'll look at.
Speaker 2:Darrell, CIM is going to work out. Trust me.
Speaker 3:There's a lot of people that drop at the last minute, so start training, because it's coming.
Speaker 2:It's coming.
Speaker 2:Well, I love that, darrell. What a great way to end this podcast. Congratulations for making that commitment, because I know once you say it, it's pretty much done. So you just got to wait for the date to show up and then get on that starting line and Team Peach will be out there on our bikes supporting you at the turns, like you guys did for me. That was so awesome Cool. So, without anything else left to say, I'm going to just sign off, like we always do, and say God bless and peace out, peace out, we're out.