Keeping Each Other Motivated with Goals, Marathons, and Togs

In this episode of Rolling with the Dolans, Patrick and Tamekia share how they keep each other motivated through fitness and goal setting.

Patrick talks about running marathons and the discipline it takes. Tamekia introduces her “tog,” the Tamekia jog, and explains how she’s building toward her own fitness goals. Together they explore the mental side of training, the value of accountability, and the importance of showing up for each other.

Whether it’s a marathon, a Pilates class, or a small daily goal, this episode is about finding encouragement and being the encouragement your partner needs too.

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Transcript

Welcome to Rolling with the Dolans. I'm Patrick Dolan. And I'm Tamekia Dolan. Our podcast focuses on the joys and challenges of blending families, our interracial marriage, parenting children of multiple ages, and the journey of entrepreneurship. We share our daily life experiences with a positive but real perspective. Today's topic is focused on setting goals.

I'm going to lead this because Mr. Dolan has no idea what goal setting is. Even though we just had a conversation about goal setting for our careers, you're saying I don't set goals? No. I'm saying you don't know which direction I'm going with this podcast. I don't. Are you ready for it? I am ready for you.

The topic of goal setting is... I need the drum roll.

Oh, that's it. Okay. Why you want to run a marathon? We covered this once before, but it’s going to be more me talking. That's the only problem. So I'll have to try to make this quick. But it won’t just be you talking, because then I can tell you what it looks like from the person who is not training.

Okay. I am big about goal setting all the time. Micro goals, it could be like a daily goal. It might be a monthly goal, it might be everything. I'm very big about goal setting. If I don't have goals, it is basically what Tamekia said in the past: then you're just living, like you're really spinning your wheels a lot of the time.

I feel like if you don't have a goal in mind... yes, a marathon is a specific goal that I have, and it's for specific reasons. I believe that people become complacent. You just go through the motions and you don't really push yourself hard enough.

So my goal had always been to run one marathon a year. Almost to torture myself and to remind myself not to get too complacent. Because what is the definition of torture? Like you're really not enjoying it. Okay. And you don't enjoy it. It can be stressful leading up to it.

The effort and everything involved with it is a lot. You have to be really disciplined. How I'm disciplined as far as what I eat, what I drink, the whole... they call it tapering ahead of time, and then you can't really do much for the week afterwards.

Because your body is just destroyed. So it's like you really put yourself through a grueling process. It makes everything else easier, I think. If you do things that make you uncomfortable, then things that might make other people uncomfortable later are easy to you. Okay, that makes sense.

We probably should clarify the difference between a half marathon and a full marathon and which torture you chose. The full, which is 26.2 miles. And what is the half? 13.1. Okay.

So my next question is: the training that it takes to get there, what percent would you say is mental?

Oh, geez. It's 70% mental. Okay. Yeah. The problem is, as I get older, I used to be able to use my mental capacity and my knowledge, just knowing that I can get something done and push my way through it. But now that I'm older, I can't just rely on that. Now I have to physically worry more about my capabilities.

Is that why you push yourself more at the gym? Yeah, because being older—53, to those out there—every year it gets a little bit harder to maintain what you've built up. If you have gaps, you basically lose more. So you have to push more too. You have to make changes.

Okay. So for someone like me, who is not a runner, what do you recommend? Because one thing that you do that I'm not sure makes sense is running up a steep hill. Yeah, that's not fun again, that's painful, to go up a half mile, basically straight up.

Okay. Why would you do that? Why not just run a straight path? Because the marathon isn’t going to be straight, right? Or is there actually downhill? And it's terrible. Oh, okay. So even the downhill is just dreadful. Actually, it really hurts because there's no training for downhill, except for the times I come down the hill.

So it's multipurpose. One, you're running up the hill and it really hurts to the point where you just want to stop. And then coming down uses different muscles that aren't used as often. Okay. So if you do something you haven't done in the last year, like bowling, the next day your arm might feel different because you're not used to using those muscles.

And people aren't used to running downhill and you don't train going downhill. So you're using a whole slew of different muscles in your legs.

Yeah. Okay, one more question. So this marathon is going to be in St. George, Utah. What's the name of the marathon? The St. George Marathon.

Okay. So for our listeners, if your spouse was running a marathon, a full marathon in St. George, Utah, and you live in Phoenix, Arizona, would you travel with your spouse or would you not travel with your spouse? Tamekia is traveling with Mr. Patrick, but he doesn't think that's necessary. I am. While I am happy for you to go, it's just a big sacrifice for you to take that time away from other things.

Even though it didn’t look like I would last time, I will live. So last time he did this marathon and he did not finish, and so I had to take the bus of shame. It was not the bus of shame. But I was there to support him and I just want to make sure that I'm there to support him this time.

Yep. And the only reason I didn't finish—I won’t repeat that error again—it was hotter than normal, and I got dehydrated and had to stop. Okay, that's fine. It won’t happen again. I even got my hydration belt. It won’t happen again. Okay. Okay. All right. We can wrap this up.

Wait a minute. Oh, it's not all about me. Okay, go ahead. So what's your goal when it comes to fitness? I have gotten back on the train, or the bus, whatever you want to call it, after being stagnant for a couple of months during the summer. I am going back to Pilates as well as going to the gym, and I will incorporate some jogs.

And what is a “tog”? It is a Tamekia jog, which is at a different pace than most people's jog. He's basically saying that my pace is horrible, however I'm getting out there. Correct. And I don't have as many years of experience as you do. So thank you very much. It's all mental. No. It's not just all mental. Not when I'm 50 years old. No. No, sir.

Okay. Anyways, any more questions or concerns for Tamekia today? Yes. What's your short-term and long-term goal with your exercise? Okay. Short-term is what I just explained to you. Long-term is that I will do a 5K. Then later I would do a 10K, and then I'd probably stop there. No half marathon. That would probably be a negative.

Yes. I do like how my body feels whenever I do a “tog.” Yeah. And what was your last workout like at the gym? What do you mean? What was it? What did it include? That was today. It included 20 minutes of cardio on the treadmill and then a couple of arm exercises. Do you need any more details, sir? Nope. Okay. Thank you very much.

But I'll wait for the future. I'm going to show you some stuff. We're going to introduce some new things into the repertoire. Okay. All right. You ready to wrap this up? Let's wrap it up.

📍 All right. Thanks for listening today. Wherever you found this podcast, we invite you to join the discussion on our different channels. So find us. Oh, it's not the creepy look. Definitely, we welcome people to join in the conversation, share your experiences, and keep the conversation going.

Okay. Until next time, have a fitness-filled day. Have a super duper week. Super duper? That doesn't go with fitness, does it? Sure. Okay. All right. Until next time. Bye bye.