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The Endurance Athlete Journey
The Endurance Athlete Journey Podcast helps runners, triathletes, and endurance athletes train smarter, fuel better, and build long-term durability in sport.
Hosted by Coach Justin and sports dietitian Katie, the show explores the training, nutrition, recovery, and mindset challenges endurance athletes actually face—without the confusion and generic internet fitness advice that often leads to burnout, inconsistency, and frustration.
From first triathlons and swim anxiety to fueling mistakes, recovery, race-day expectations, and balancing training with real life, each episode combines practical coaching insight with evidence-based nutrition guidance and honest athlete conversations to help listeners better understand the “why” behind their training and fueling decisions.
Whether you’re preparing for your first race or trying to become a more complete endurance athlete, this podcast gives you clear, experience-driven guidance you can actually apply to your training, recovery, and performance.
The Endurance Athlete Journey
The Running Questions Everyone Gets Wrong (Answered by Coaches)
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Most runners are asking the same questions—but they’re often chasing the wrong answers.
In this episode, Coach Justin and Coach Katie break down 6 of the most common running questions they hear from athletes—covering frequency, pacing, injuries, nutrition, speed, and endurance.
If you’ve ever wondered whether you’re doing enough… doing too much… or just doing it wrong—this episode will help you simplify your approach and focus on what actually leads to progress.
🔑 What You’ll Learn:
- How often you should actually be running
- Why “good pace” is the wrong question
- How to get faster without burning out
- What really builds endurance
Timestamps:
00:00 – Introduction
01:15 – How often should you run?
05:30 – Running for triathletes vs runners
10:20 – What is a “good” pace?
17:50 – RPE vs pace explained
24:30 – How to avoid injuries
29:40 – Nutrition, sleep, and recovery
34:25 – What to eat before and after running
48:30 – How to run faster
56:50 – How to build endurance
1:02:50 – Final thoughts
For coaching inquiries:
Coach Katie → https://fuel2run.com
Coach Justin → https://tabularasaracing.com
Podcast Email → theenduranceathletejourney@gmail.com
Welcome everyone to the Endurance Athlete Journey Podcast. I'm your host, Coach Justin. I'm here with Coach Katie. And today is episode 88. And we are talking about some frequently asked questions that pertain to running. I know that I see these particular questions asked on a regular basis on social media. I fielded a couple of these questions from my athletes as well. And I know that Katie probably runs across these questions asked of her just as frequently as they are asked of me. So these are in no particular order. We have not ranked them to where, you know, the number one is the number one question. So we just we listed just six questions that we thought would spread the gamut over running on maybe what new athletes would ask, maybe experienced athletes to a certain extent. But these are, I think, some foundational questions that we do get from athletes. So we're going to cover six questions today. That's the goal. And so again, this is episode 89. So let's jump right on in. Uh Katie, do you want to bring up the first question?
SPEAKER_00And I just want to say, you know, for people listening, I'm I'm really sorry my voice sounds terrible. I'm just getting over. I got a respiratory illness this last week. So I'm getting over it and I sound terrible. So I'm sorry, it's probably not the most easy listening, but I'm gonna try. I think the first one was how often? How often should I run? Oh often? I don't know if you want to get started. And I'm I might let Justin do more talking and I'll just chime in a little bit when I can.
SPEAKER_01I'll do that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01This is like this is like the episode of Friends when Phoebe gets sick and and she's got the sexy, raspy voice. She's like, smelly shoes, smelly shoes.
SPEAKER_00I don't know if minus I don't think my voice Sweet Friends reference.
SPEAKER_01All right, so how how often should we run? I think it's a pretty loaded question. And I'll I'll start by saying, well, it depends on what your goals are. If your goals are to see improvement, then my response to that would be, well, you have to run more than you don't run. So out of seven days, a minimum of four days will start to generate increased performance, or and that performance is going to be either durability, endurance, some kind of measurable factor for improvement. Running three days a week is really kind of what I call to be maintenance running. If you're trying to just hold on to whatever your current level of fitness is, let's say that you've now finished your big race of the year and you're just kind of going into the off-season and you say, I want to I want to try and maintain some of my run fitness, then I would argue three. Three runs per week is is pretty solid to maintain that. No, they you do not have to have long runs when when you're running that infrequently. Now, the use of the long run again is still going to be determined by what it is that you're training for and your durability factors. So your injury history on whether you should have a long run or not. That's my approach. I don't necessarily give my athletes, my running athletes, long runs. Again, it just kind of depends on what we're training for and what their goals are. Because sometimes if if I load up an athlete with a long run, they have a hard time, hard time recovering from that run. Then it means that we've got to either go easy or we have to like take a few days off. And and to me, it's not worth the investment. You really don't get a high rate of return.
SPEAKER_00I guess it kind of depends on like the long run, like how you define that as, because it might be just that there's one longer run than the others, but it doesn't have to be like a long, long, you know what I mean? Like what I what I classify six miles and the others are like three or four. I don't know. You know what I mean? Right.
SPEAKER_01So I I addressed this answer actually today uh on social media uh where I was responding to somebody that posed a question and uh my response to them was well, the long run is the way I classify a long run is anything that is about 30 to 35% of your total weekly volume is how I would classify a long run. But I can what I will do with an athlete that I have not given long runs to, I just take that weekly run and or the weekly volume and divide it evenly, and we just run we run the same duration because I do my training plans in minutes, so we'll run the same duration for each session for that week. Now the focus of each run is going to be different. It's not like we just go out and we just run the same pace for all those runs. Uh there's a purpose behind each one, there's a little bit of maybe some structure to it, but in terms of volume, that's the way that I would that I manage that. So how often you should run? Uh baseline is however often that your body will allow you to run and absorb and absorb the demands on the body. Uh is it okay to run seven days a week? Yes, it is. It's okay to run seven days a week if your body can handle that kind of volume. Do you want to do that? Is there a difference?
SPEAKER_00I was curious, like if you know, we're talking about runners, but what about like a triathlete? Would how often is there a different thing for them?
SPEAKER_01For a triathlete, I I think that the main limitation is just time. You know, we have we have two other sports that we're trying to manage, and so it's it's hard to allow a triathlete to have that many runs in their training plan and still get in stuff like the bike volume, the swim volume, and any kind of strength conditioning that we're doing. It's just usually not that feasible. We're we're just more constrained with with time for that for that particular kind of athlete, which is why. So normally for a triathlete, I would like for them to run four days a week. Five days is really what I love for them to run if they can hold up. Um so you you just have to be cautious with how you sequence those runs and what you pair them with for a triathlete. Right. You know, if if I give them you know a really solid bike workout, then I'd have to be kind of cautious on what kind of run I'm going to give them, when they're going to execute it, because sometimes they they can't execute it like I would want them to, where they do, let's say, the run in the morning and then they bike in the evening, or you know, or vice versa. Sometimes they're limited and they're just like I have to get this all done in one training session. I can't work out twice a week, twice a day, in which case that does more harm for them than it would benefit them. So then I have to look, okay, how much run volume can we really have that that you can execute and recover from? So so for any kind of progression, I'm thinking I would say anywhere higher than four, seven if you can handle it. But then if you're a new runner, I I don't recommend running seven days a week. I would recommend just kind of like running every other day. If you're if you're a new runner, if you do have some experience and you've been running for maybe a couple years, uh, I will do back-to-back runs on consecutive days. But you know, again, it really depends on a what we're training for, what what their goals are, how much they can absorb, what are some of the other things that we're doing in the training plan. You know, are we are we going heavy on the bike? If we're going heavy on the bike, then I may not go and do that kind of run volume because I think getting the deepest bike fitness that you can get yields a higher rate of return for a triathlete. Now, if I'm just dealing with just a runner, a single sport athlete, then I start to say, okay, really we're going to be running and we're going to be doing strength conditioning. So I have to kind of cautious, cautiously look at that distribution of running volume on what we're doing in the weight room on those days as well. So Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I don't know if I have a ton more to add. Again, I think a lot of this is a little bit individual. So it's hard to say, well, this is how much you should everyone should be running, you know, because I've been running for so long, I can handle personally like seven days a week for sometimes several weeks on end before I actually take a day off. But, you know, but there are easier days and recovery days in there. But because I've used to that over the years and years I've spent running, I can do that. So if you looked at my training plan on training peaks, and you're a brand new runner, like, you know, somebody trying to follow that frequency or even the plan itself would easily get injured if they were really new to it. So it really is like cautious. I think being more cautious when you're first starting out every other day, four days a week, you know, three to four days a week, building up slowly. Yeah, not doing like shorter runs and then really, really, really long run, like kind of being cautious with the long run. I mean, not to say you can't do a long run, but like we've talked about that before, kind of how we build it and and you know, how we build the volume. But I think it's it's hard to say everybody needs to be doing, you know, a certain number of days. But I kind of agree. I think in order to improve, honestly, like the more you can do the better. But again, more equals better doesn't always mean you should do more because you'll be injured. So it is it may be for me, I kind of agree like about four days a week is probably optimal.
SPEAKER_01So I I like that four to five days. That's for me, that's the sweet spot.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_01You know, that that that gives me enough recovery time in between sessions and really and still be able to get in some solid, solid run volume. Because what we're looking for is we're looking for durability and consistency, is really what yields progress for the run. And so you you can't expect to see progress or durability if you're not running at that kind of frequency and you're running fewer times during the week. It just doesn't pay off.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So all right, question number two. Well, this is the second question that that we're gonna bring up, not not in terms of importance, but what is a good running pace? I see this question asked mainly by what I would classify to be kind of insecure, insecure runners. And I and that that's not meant to be derogatory or or anything. I think that these are runners that may be seeking a little bit of validation from others that they're kind of uncertain as to how their training plan is, or even if they have a plan. I don't know. They may be just going out and just running and they're just looking to see how quote unquote good they are. I think that this can be a dangerous question. Um to me, running pace is is relevant, is is relative. So it depends on where you are in your journey. And so you should be you should be okay with running slower paces and stop trying to find out if that pace is quote unquote good.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01A good pace is whatever whatever pace that you can sustain and still be able to run at the frequency that we're looking for. Right. In fact, running paces should vary across your runs. You shouldn't be running running every single run at the same pace. Because I mean, that's gonna lead into another question that that's on our list. So I don't want to go too too in depth on that one yet, but um, each day though, the pace might differ a lot.
SPEAKER_00I'm thinking about my own plan across the board. There may be like days I'm running, like the fastest I'll be running, and then it'll be like two or three minutes slower, you know, two minutes slower on my easy recovery days than the faster days. Like so, and then some of the fastest days, some of the top end speeds I might hit are pretty fast, but I'm not running that way the whole time I'm running. It's just because I'm doing an interval. Like if you're looking at my day-to-day, like myself, like it's it's it's very, it's a very varied. So there's some days it might be faster, some days quite a bit slower, some days kind of in the middle. Um, and so it to add that question itself, I've I guess it's relative. Like, do you with somebody asking that, like, how is what's a good pace for like a 5k? You know, if it's like specific to like a race, like, oh, what's a good pace for 5k or 10k? That kind of makes just a general question of like, is it a good pace just seems too ambiguous to me. Like you can't really even answer that because it's like compared to what, or like what are you doing? Is it easy? Like it, you know, there's too much like that is unknown in that question. But I could see someone asking, like, is it a good pace for a 5k? And then I mean, you can go out. I think I've seen articles on like Runner's World where they sort of have charts where it's like, this is the fat, like top, you know, 5% in the pace, the the times you would run for like the top 5% in the I don't know where they get this if it's like the whole nation or where they're pulling it from, but you can kind of see where maybe you compare, like in your 5k. But again, it's kind of like, I don't know. Is that like just because you're on the slower end of that, does that mean that you're it's not a good pace? Like, then does that make you feel bad about your you gotta start when you start, especially fresh and running, like you're going to be slower or not slower, but you're not gonna be like running at an elite pace. You know, it takes time to build into that, takes training, right? So, like, you know, maybe not being so caught up in what is comparable to like these charts and things like that, just kind of running at the pace that you need to be at in order to get better and trying to focus more on your on your own journey and less on what comparing it or or trying to figure out if it's good compared to something else.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Cause I mean, even for myself, sometimes I'll I'll be thinking I'm doing good, and then I'll look at how fast the women ran in the Boston Marathon per mile for 26 miles, and I'll tell you what, I'm like, I think I could run maybe one or two miles, maybe at that pace before I just had to stop because it was too fast, right? It's just very humbling. So it's best if it's best if I don't spend too much time thinking about that and comparing myself because then it might make me, you know, unhappy in in the process because I'm too worried about comparing myself to this like unachievable standard per potentially. So yeah.
SPEAKER_01I think this is one of the main reasons that I moved away from pace as a coach. I re I do remember when I first started coaching and I was working with with some just single sport running athletes, and I would give them pace targets to hit, and that's how we judged intensity. And so I would say, you know, hey, for for this interval, I want you to try and hit this pace and and then these paces for recoveries and and things like that. I had to be cautious because we had winter, winter running paces, and then we had summer running paces, because they're not the same. And so I st I moved away from it, I think, because I believe that it put too much pressure on the athlete itself to try and and hit this what can be just an arbitrary range. Um a and the reason that I say this is because just because you're running this quote unquote good pace does not mean that you have good running economy, which is really what we're looking for. We're looking for this being able to maintain this effort under good form and build durability. Now, running a potate a particular pace that you can't sustain just because you think it's a good pace does you no good. Because really, all it does is it increases your probability of injury and burnout and just overall frustration for lack of improvement, because it's just not the way that you should go about doing it. Pace is affected by so many external factors that you have no control over to begin with. Like I said, when I had athletes that were that we were training under that methodology, I gave them summer paces and winter paces because running in Virginia in the middle of July and August is going to yield a particular effort level, which is going to be significantly higher than if that same athlete ran the same course under the in October or November. Very, very different environment doesn't mean that that athlete was less fit or more fit. It was the environment in which they were running. Now, what it would tend to do is athletes would find easy routes to run. And that was one of the consequences of me using that methodology. So, in order for them to feel to feel comfortable hitting those paces, they would go out and find the flattest course that they could run, which does them a disservice. I would much rather see that athlete run a hilly course and take and you and have a slower pace because to me, that athlete is now building durability and they're building strength. And that strength is going to yield a less of a decline in pace over the duration of a race. If you get the the stronger you get, the less your pace is going to decline as the race progresses. I would much rather see that than have an athlete just go out and just run faster and then try and hold on for dear life for that particular effort. It to me, it does not yield significant improvements because it's not sustainable. I find that the athlete tends to get frustrated and burned out long before they see the improvement that they're looking for. And so when I kind of figured out like what was going on and I wasn't getting the adaptation that I wanted from my athletes, I switched to an RPE scale of running, which I much prefer that I was like, hey, just go out and I want you to run zone two at an effort level. We're not using heart rate, we're not using pace, we're not using any of these metrics to judge it. I just want you to tell me if that's how it feels. And that's fine.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I do that. I mean, for the easy runs, it's really more RPE. There's really no pace goals. It's just like I really want you to just this to feel easier, this RPE. For like the workouts, sometimes because maybe I have an athlete that wants to break three hours in the marathon or something, and we have to, there has to be a discussion about pacing if they're even if that's realistic for them, you know, is that even a realistic goal? But also like if it is, then they have to kind of know a little bit about the paces they're trying to hit, because sometimes if you're just kind of going totally off of RP, you may have no idea like what paces you're hit, you know. So I mean, you might just based off your watch and what you're maybe after the fact. But I do, I do sometimes have like a range that I'm like, this is kind of where we want to be. But I also really want you to focus on RPE because if you're having one of those days, which I have sometimes just at marathon training, that that are that pace just feels harder. Like it's okay. You know, I want it to be in this RPE. So if it just feels harder, it's okay to go a little bit slower. You're still gonna get an adaptation, especially if it's like hot out or something like that, or they're running like around here. I have to remind myself of that because I live where there's hills everywhere, up and down hills, like and it's dirt, you know, so it's not even as fast of a surface. So sometimes out I have to, even though I have like a certain pace I want to hit, just remind myself it's gonna be slower because there's gonna be hills and I can't always find a flat court, you know. Like then there is a tendency to want to go find, you know, for my workouts, always running on flat stuff. But yeah, I think it's sometimes like it's hard because, you know, sometimes people want some something to a target of pace and or they have a specific goal that's very pace oriented because they have to break three or something like that in the marathon. So I think it's it's some sort of art of like getting both of those, you know, a little bit, you know, how much of each you you sort of focus on, maybe it's more RPE and like a little bit on pace. But I do think sometimes there has to be a conversation about pace a little bit. But yeah, I don't think that should be everything. You know, I definitely don't give my athletes I work with all pace, you know, and a lot of it is RPE, honestly. And so then sometimes I'll be like, okay, like let's see, you know, if you're feeling good, try to hit this pace. And sometimes it'll be just like ranges. Like if you're feeling good, the RP, you know, should be here. But if you're not, it's okay to run and giving them permission to run a little bit slower if they're just not feeling like if they're feeling like it's really hard that day. And then obviously I want that input. Like maybe we're just training, maybe they didn't recover enough, and I I need to know that. So I do look at paces as a coach as an addition to RP and kind of put that all together. But yeah, it's it's an it's a hard one because yeah, it's not it's not easy to get I look at pace.
SPEAKER_01I don't, I just don't prescribe pace. So what I do in that kit in that particular situation, if I have an athlete that comes to me and says, Yeah, I want to break, I want to break this three hour, three hour marathon or whatever, what I will typically do is start that athlete's training plan and then evaluate how their long runs are going or some of the like their benchmark runs, like their tempo, tempo efforts during the week. I'll say, okay, is that is the paces that they're hitting going to be in the range that we would need for a three hour for a three hour goal? And if I see that they're able to sustain those and and hit those, then I say, okay, yes, this is I believe that this is a reasonable goal for where you are right now. And I think that we can build on this and improve it so that you can hold that pace for the marathon. Now, there is the other side of the coin. If I'm not seeing if I'm not seeing those particular paces materialize in their workouts, Then I have to I have to put on my coaching hat and I have to sit down with them and say, look, the pace, this is the pace that you need to hit in order to get the three hours. This is the pace that you're hitting right now, and you're telling me that these are zone three efforts. I I don't know if the three hour goal is realistic. So I'm going to coach you to get you as close as we possibly can, but I'm not guaranteeing or anything that you're going to hit this three-hour goal because anything can happen on race day. You know, we could you could show up and you could be hitting, you know, a particular slower pace throughout all your runs and you feel comfortable. And then on race day, you feel fantastic and you're able to bust out that three-hour marathon and you're just like, I don't know where it came from. Then consider yourself lucky person that particular day. Had a great day on that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's it.
SPEAKER_01Anybody can have a good day. But then again, we can all have we can we can have a bad day regardless of of how the training went.
SPEAKER_00Even if you're doing a great training plan, you know. But I one thing I was gonna say is on the other flip side of that is let's say you have a pace prescribed, but you're feeling like, you know, that could hold someone back too. And that's you know, for me, that's something I've like I did my before I got sick, the long run last week. I had set a pace and I felt good. And I was actually, for a lot of it, a little bit faster than that pace that I sort of thought I was gonna do. And I was like, I'm this is where I feel good. I'm gonna kind of it wasn't extremely faster, but in that, you know, it feels good to do that, but it should know that it's okay if you're feeling good and your RP is where it should be. Sometimes, you know, if you're prescribing paces and you're trying to hit a pace and that's all you're focusing on, but you feel good, it might be you might not like an athlete may be limited by that too. So yeah, it's that's the other side of the coin is you know, sometimes the training's going great and someone's way more fit than they thought they were. And so it's yeah, I think that that's why I I I agree. I think sometimes just focusing on pacing is not not a great idea. So just wanted to put that out there.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. No, that that is a really good point. If you're if you're prescribing a pace, like you said, and that that particular day they're feeling good, then you're leaving food on the plate. You know, if if you can just go ahead and just run by RPE and just be surprised by the pace, you're like, wow, I didn't know I had that in me. That can that can lead to some serious momentum and training. And that big boost of confidence can can stay with you for multiple weeks at a time throughout the training plan. And so I I think if you're just trying to hit some particular pace, you may be leaving stuff on the table.
SPEAKER_00So yeah.
SPEAKER_01So all right, so number three we've got here is how do I avoid injuries from running? We just did a whole series on building a training plan. And and honestly, I think that you could refer back to to those three episodes and get a pretty solid foundation on how to build a plan so that that's what it all boils down to is how do I avoid injuries? You have a plan that is responsible, meets you where you are right now, not the athlete that you were at one particular point in time in the past, nor does it try and get you to the athlete that you're trying to become. You will become that athlete when you get there. So constantly trying to chase that person that you're trying to become may not be the most reasonable approach, as what I found is that it typically results in injury. And yeah, you start to overextend yourself.
SPEAKER_00Like a flexible plan, you know, too, is important because inevitably you're gonna have like little setbacks. And sometimes um I think some in my experience with injury with athletes or just in myself, it's it's when, and and this is a learning process, and why it's sometimes helpful to have a coach is like continuing to to go keep running when you know we shouldn't, you know, when there's like that little something going on, and and instead of saying, maybe I should take a day or two off, it's like, no, I'm just gonna keep going. And I've I've had success with that before where I've done that and I'm like fine and it goes away. But I've also experienced the other side of that where it doesn't, and then all of a sudden I'm late, you know, I I have to take three weeks or even more than that, you know, when I had my IT band thing, you know, several weeks off. So it's backfires sometimes more often than not. And so it's just like sometimes with a coach, like I think of an athlete I was I've just been working with recently, she's training for a marathon, and she had some hip flexor issues that were sort of pop up, and it was like, okay, you need to take a few days off. And then I had her go see a PT and she she did that right away, and we and we fixed it. You know, it got before it became a real issue, we we got taken care of, and now you know, she's doing fine. She's gonna run that marathon, I think, next week. So it's it's you know, it's important to have sometimes have that like second that somebody like looking over and and you know, watching over you a little bit and saying, yeah, maybe you need to take some time off instead of you just being responsible for it. Cause I know for me, and I'm I've learned that lesson, you know, now I think I'm a little better about it. But sometimes the injury thing is having a smart training plan is a key, not just following someone else's plan and not a training plan you just find online because again, you know, it's not really individualized or really taking into account your injury history, but also sometimes it's just knowing when to take it a step back or take a few days off and allow yourself to you know nip it in the bud, so to speak, before it gets to be something even worse. So I don't know. What are your you have any other sights on that one?
SPEAKER_01I do. I think there's there's two points that I want to make for this particular question. The next one, the first point is that, yeah, I just said that following a concert uh a responsible training plan is is key. However, I will say that there's a caveat to that. It is not a sufficient and necessary condition that you know a good training plan will keep you injury free because this is part of the game. I experienced this when I was training for Iron Man Florida 70.3 in December, last December. I had a completely responsible plan given my injury history and the things that I was that I was dealing with at the time. I I feel like I built a very conservative plan to get me through the training period and set me up as best as I could for race day. Three weeks before race day, I was on crutches with posterior tibial tendonitis. I don't believe that the training plan contributed to that. I honestly I have no idea where it came from, but I don't believe that it came from the training plan. And so there are things that just come up.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And it just happens. It's it's no fault. It's not it's not anybody's fault. It's so true. It's not like, oh, you know, it it's not the training plan's fault, or I went too hard, or I went too all I went too hard too often. I mean, yeah, are those our reasons that you get injured? Absolutely, yes, absolutely. But you could do everything right, and then stuff still kind of pops up. It's just this is part of the game.
SPEAKER_00And so I mean, I think um there's other factors too. Like here, it's not just the training plan. I mean, we've talked about it. Genetics plays a good factor, genetics, but also like, you know, other things outside like again, like we've talked about stress and how it's kind of like a bucket, and you have the training plus everything else going on, you know, kind of lead, like I'm sick, it's probably because of stress, right? I'm not gonna go into that right now. I'll talk more about it on my grandma's episode. But yeah, I mean, it's just sometimes there's things that happen and we don't, it's hard to really quantify how much that's impacting us until it's like too late. Plus, I think another thing, I mean, being a dietitian here, is like nutrition, you know, like you could have the best plan in the world. And if you are not eating enough, like underfuel underfueling is a big one. I think that leads to, especially, I guess for women, the biggest thing that you would probably see would just be your loss of your menstrual cycle. But if you don't have one because you have some kind of birth control you're taking, that can be really hard to figure out. But there's sometimes symptoms and signs that show up before you get to that point where you have a stress injury or something. But depending on the type of injury, it could be not anything to do with the plan, but more to do with your nutrition. So just making sure you're eating enough, like fueling your body adequately, calcium, vitamin D, magnesium, you know, those are all nutrients that our body needs for like bone mineral density. And then also, like, you know, maybe there's it's controversial, but like collagen, whether or not we can consume collagen and actually a lot of it maybe doesn't actually end up in our tendon, but there might be some benefit. But just like having the basic just eating enough is is a huge one because if we're underfueling, we're depleting those nutrients and depleting our body, and it does impact our bones and and our tendons and things like that. So that's probably, you know, one that I would say here is like from my perspective, a lot of people come to me with injury, or I have a lot of PTs that refer people to me because they had an injury for that very reason. And they kind of suspect, hey, I think there's something nutrition related going on here, and you should go see Katie, you know, so I can kind of help with that.
SPEAKER_01So that's I think Yeah, that was that was that was that took like my the second point that I was just no, no, no, because there was more, there's more to it. The reason that that my second point was going to be sometimes it's the small things that that we do that that will keep up that will stave off these injuries. A the nutrition is is a big thing, and it's like your everyday nutrition, it's not your nutrition during your training sessions. Yes, those are in those are important in order for for energy levels and things like that, but it's the everyday stuff. You know, what are you eating throughout the day? How often are you eating? What are you eating? When are you eating? Are you fueling around workouts? Are you going into workouts that are fasted? So that's a big factor. The second one is sleep. If if you're running low on sleep and you're you kind of struggle to get quality sleep, then I would argue then you're opening the door for injury and you could have the best training plan on the planet that's really responsible and conservative and you know meets where you are. But if you're not sleeping well during that time, then you know you're kind of shooting yourself in the foot a little bit. And and the self-care. I I know that some coaches will tell you, Oh, I've never stretched a day in my life and I don't believe in stretching, but I can tell you from my perspective and my own experience as an endurance athlete myself, stretching is important. I know that I tend to my muscles tend to run tight. And it doesn't matter how often I stretch or how often I'm rolling and doing percussion therapy and all that kind of stuff, my muscles just stay tight. And if you're that particular athlete, then you have to be really purposeful on those types of things outside of your training plan. You know, do some do some regular stretching, do some rolling, some trigger therapy, you know, whatever it takes. If you have to get uh biweekly massages or monthly massages, that kind of stuff really pays dividends in the long run and staving off some of these injuries because you start to hit those trouble spots before they become embedded and really inflamed and become a serious issue. Now, if you say, okay, I'm I'm experiencing a little bit of knee pain when I'm running, chances are it's probably nothing wrong with your knee. You know, it's something further up the chain. So we'll say, okay, what are your glutes like? Oh, my glutes are really tight, my hips are tight. Okay, that's what we need, that's what we need to hit. And we just need to hit this for a couple weeks and really stay focused and purposeful with it, and it tends to work itself out. But it's it's those things that lie outside of the training plan that are just as important as the as the workouts that you're doing in order to to keep you healthy and being able to execute those workouts.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, absolutely. I think yeah, it's a it's a kind of like sometimes the injury thing is all of the things outside of the it's not the plan itself, it's what's happening outside of that. So yeah, that's a good point.
SPEAKER_01All right, number four. This is gonna I I I'm glad this one's positioned the way it is, and we just finished talking about nutrition, uh, because number four is a nutrition-related question. What should I eat before and after? Let's make this as a statement. It's like, what should I eat before and after running workouts? And let's then further classify as like what should I eat before and after a long run or just like a a normal a normal run, like a moderate run or a high intensity run. Let's kind of classify this a little bit because that that the answer to that question can vary based on the workout that you have coming up.
SPEAKER_00A little bit like the timing ahead, but I would also say like just any workout in general, even cycling. You could, although sometimes in cycling you could tolerate a little bit different stuff like before, because you're not jostling your gut, but you can kind of, you know, we can kind of just generalize and say generally any workout. But yeah, I'll I'll I'll take over with this one, I guess. And then you can add any thoughts too. But yeah, it will depend a little bit on timing. So I think that's where it's it's challenging. But really, I think the big key here is just carbohydrate. Like when you're asking what should you eat, especially before, the big key will be eating enough carbohydrate to fuel your workout. So if you have like a really early morning workout, what you eat might be a little bit different because you're not gonna wake up three hours ahead to eat a big meal and get, you know, a huge amount of carb. And what they recommend is it's like one. So if you have like three hours before, you would have like three grams per kilogram of carb. Two hours before would be two grams per kilogram. So just remember your weight divided by 2.2 gives you kilograms. So I don't know what that would all be in gram and you know, pounds, but jet it's an easy conversion. And then one hour before be like one gram per kilogram. And then if you have 30 minutes, it'd probably be like a bit less than that, just because you wouldn't have as much time, right? To digest all of that. So the more further out, the more car grams of carb essentially, and then the closer in, you just can't tolerate like four grams per kilogram would be too much. So if it's an early morning, you might just, you know, eat a little something, just a little bit of carb as you're heading out the door, versus if you do a workout mid-morning and you have three hours, then obviously you're gonna want to kind of time that out and think about your carb intake and have a meal. And it's really just generally gonna be high carb, moderate protein, low fat, because fat and protein slow down digestion. So if you eat a lot of fat and protein, let's say you have like a big old, I don't know, like egg bowl with eggs and cheese and avocado and like that's probably not gonna sit well. I mean, maybe if you have four hours, you would be fine. But if you have two, it's probably not gonna sit well for your workout. So ideally you'll be keeping it kind of on the lighter side. I mean, can have some protein, maybe like 20 grams or something like that, and hopefully not a really fatty source of protein. Um, and then, you know, it's kind of individual. This is where I think it's like just experimenting with what works for you. Um, but yeah, and then if you are like let's say in the scenario, like you're doing afternoon workout, then you kind of have to think about the timing of lunch. And if you're gonna have a snack, oh, maybe you eat lunch and you're gonna go run at four or five, you may want to have a small snack, like an hour or two ahead with again some carbs, moderate protein, low fat. If you're doing an early morning workout, because you're eating probably less carb, like I do know people that tell me adamantly, like I don't feel good if I eat before. Well, that's fine. If it's a shorter workout, like it's you're you're gonna be fine. You if you've had enough the day before, you'll probably be fine. However, if it's like, oh, I'm I'm gonna do that before my long run, I don't think that's a great idea. I think to eat a little something, you know, before if that means you have to wake up a little earlier, you know, as long as it's not like really, really early, like it's gonna affect your sleep tremendously, then it's probably best to try to eat something like I'll do like a waffle, like a toaster waffle, or like, I don't know. Sometimes I've done applesauce squeezy things or something like really easy that I can just get down when I've had to wake up at 4:30 or 445 and get out by five. This doesn't happen very often, but I've had to do that before. But as long as you're not doing something very long, otherwise you're gonna have to take carbs with you during um, you know, you may want to do that anyways, depending. But then when you get back, what you eat is gonna be really important. Like if you have a big breakfast and then you go out, you know, it's still important what you eat after, but arguably if you're not eating a lot before, you're gonna have to really prioritize what you're getting after. But then after the workout's a little bit, a little bit different, but it's still similar. It's like carbs, you know, protein, maybe like not super high in fat. And then you can have those components, the fat and the protein at other meals later, but you're just really trying to prioritize recovery. So carb, you know, again, roughly maybe like one gram per kilogram. Um, and then maybe a couple hours you're eating another dose of carb, depending on if I mean, let's just say like for like a really easy workout or a light workout, you don't really need to worry as much at all about what you're eating, actually. You don't want to have actually like tons and tons of carbs for like a 30-minute easy run. You probably just need some, you don't have to be like following exactly those rules. But the longer you go, the more intense it is, the more those gram per kilogram goals might be really helpful. So if you're doing like an hour of intensity or like 90 minutes or more of like low intensity, like, but it's just long duration, this is where it's becomes really important. And so, like then after then, maybe you're having like a three to one, a four to one carb to protein ratio where you're eating, yeah, maybe you know, just some protein, you know. Generally 20 to 30 grams is gonna give you enough amino acids to like help you recover and give you what you need so that you're you're not breaking down protein or whatever. But like, yeah, just kind of generally that's what I would recommend. I can't tell you exactly what you should eat before and after because it's so individual to your preferences, but hopefully that gives people some idea of like thoughts there. And I think the big thing to remember is carbs are gonna be king when it comes to our workouts. Like, I know there's like we've talked about this before, there's people that do like low carb, but I really think that we've realized with all of the research and the literature out there that fine if you want to do that, maybe there's a turn certain time in your periodized trading plan to try to optimize lower carb to maybe be a little bit more fat adapted or metabolically efficient. But in general, when it comes to getting the most out of your workout and recovering and avoiding injury, yeah, carbs are gonna be what really helps you, you know, get all of the bases, you know, get meet your workout needs, feel great, feel good, recover well, avoid injury. So don't avoid carbs. It's not a great idea as an athlete to do that. So yeah, I don't know if you have any thoughts or things.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Um Let's see, I think it was last weekend I was at the kinetic uh kinetic multi-sports. There was our sprint triathlon, sprint and Olympic triathlon. It's called Rumpus and Bumpus. And I was there, I've I've created a a tour this summer where I'm going to uh some of these triathlons and I set up a big canopy and I have a banner, and so it's like ask a coach. So it's the race day coaching tour for Tabula Rasa Racing. And this is actually one of the questions that I got from an athlete during packet pickup. I showed up during packet pickup and did a transition clinic, you know, to show people, you know, efficient ways to lay out their gear and all that kind of stuff. Anyway, I'll get to the question. Uh the guy asked me, he's like, What should I eat before my race? And I said, Wow, this is a pretty this is a pretty loaded question. I said, A, stick with what you've been doing. So, you know, if you have been eating, stick with it. Whatever you've been eating, stick with that. General rule of thumb is like the three hours kind of thing. And I told him that. And I said, But if you don't have the three hours, if you're doing the sprint, which you know can be like an hour 15 to an hour and a half, maybe. I was like, dude, seriously, you're probably just fine with a piece of toast with straw with some preserves on it, you know, and just go with that. I mean, and they make they make convenience items like honeystinger waffles and all that kind of stuff. And I mean, I don't have an affiliation with with that company, but I do use their products. Sometimes just eating one of those waffles that's in the car, you know, driving to the trailhead or wherever it is that you're going to be pre-training for the day is enough to kind of start things rolling, right? So you're like you're stoking, you're stoking the fire is the way that I've always kind of thought about it. You know, are the are those carbs going to be directly helpful during your session? Probably not, because the body still hasn't has enough enough time to absorb those and and turn them into fuels. So you're really still tapping into those glycogen stores for these sessions. But I think it's enough to get the get to get the ball rolling, right?
SPEAKER_00Yo, you'll those carbs will be digested very quickly. It doesn't take much. If you've ever seen like a glucose curve, like as soon as you eat something very processed like that, it's just like the body just breaks it down. So it is helping, but it's if it's like a honey stinger waffle with 20 grams of carb, like you're only that's only gonna get you so far, right? So you are relying a lot on glycogen. And if you have like a longer session, you're just if if it's 90 minutes, you know, in and you've all only had a honey stinger waffle, that's just it's not gonna be enough if you're gonna. To keep going, right? So you do need to take stuff in while you're going. But yeah, unless you have, I don't know, something really like high fiber, like again, then that's just gonna sit in your stomach and be like, but it'll all be digested and absorbed. So don't worry about that. But it just you may only be able to take in like 15, 30 minutes before something like a honey stinger waffle. You're not gonna be able to eat unless you're like me and you've sort of trained your gut to do this. Like I can have a whole bowl of oatmeal, like with peanut butter, like 45 minutes before I go run and it and I can do it. You know, it it's uncomfortable. I've done it before. And I can tell like eventually I just kind of like my stomach digests it or whatever, and I'm just fine, but it's just a little uncomfortable, like a little full feeling for the first 30 minutes. But I'm not saying I'm recommending people do that. I've just, in the sense of like in the summer, sometimes when I have to wake up and do like a really long run when I've trained, and I I just don't want to wake up any earlier. I'm like, this is what I'm gonna do, so that I don't run out of fuel and I'm just gonna be a little uncomfortable. But you have to kind of be used to that uncomfortable feeling. And it's, I guess, sort of training the gut. So you can sometimes train yourself to be able to have more. But again, it's that's something I've done and learned to do over the course of many runs. It's not like I just woke up one morning, had a big old bowl of oatmeal, and was like, all right, I'm gonna go run in 30 minutes, right? Like, but you know, that's why it's sort of individual and why it, you know, you don't want to wait till race day to be like figuring this out.
SPEAKER_01What do you say to those people who have a hard time eating after a training session? That's true. That's that I I think that's more that's more common than I think anything else. It's just like I really struggle to eat anything. You may not have an appetite, and this is could be something like that we see, especially during the summer times in in hot and humid areas of the country. So what do you what do you tell them?
SPEAKER_00You know, I I do personally is I I am and this is something I relied a lot on actually this during this training cycle is smoothies because I struggle really hard, even when it's not hot. I just don't want to eat generally, especially after my harder sessions, my longer running, you know, you'd think, oh, you're gonna be so hungry. And a lot of runners just aren't, you know. So I make a a big smoothie and I'll just drink that or a shake. And I think having the liquid calories when you need it is absolutely okay. If you have all you can do is like a sports drink, like a Gatorade and some easy, you know, banana. I don't know, like just kind of getting what you need to get. And I think in those instances that's okay, or even one of those, you know, high carb sports drinks that you would take in during, you might have to take in some of that after, just to get the especially if you're just really struggling to get stuff down. It's just so important that you get something in and you recover. So, yes, like optimally you would eat a meal that had a lot of like healthy foods and nutrients and get it that way. But you know, I think then sometimes people get so caught up in like I have to have a meal. It has to be like health, healthy, it's got to be these components, it has to have a protein. I can't have anything like processed or anything. And it's like, I think you're kind of holding yourself back because sometimes optimal health and optimizing performance doesn't always jive. And you can always have that really healthy meal like I do. I have my smoothie, which is actually pretty healthy because it has fruit in it. But sometimes I'll do like a chocolate shake with like cho, you know, bananas and a chocolate chocolate milk and things like that. But then I'll have my healthy meal in a couple of hours when I'm like finally hungry, right? And that's when I do that. So I think yeah, it's just it's okay to have some even more processed carb stuff after to get those carbs. Your body's just gonna get those right into glycogen. It's not going, I just promise you, it's going somewhere that it needs to go. It's not gonna be stored as fat, it's not causing any issues. Like the body is gonna use it, and you don't, it doesn't have to be like the perfect thing. So it's okay. Yeah, giving you permission to have the the shake or the Gatorade or whatever. I don't have to be Gatorade, it'd be something a little bit with less artificial, you know, whatever's, but it's like just try fruit juice. I guess what you know, whatever you could get that has the carbs that you need.
SPEAKER_01Okay, good. All right, let's see. Number five, how do I run faster? And I do see this question asked a lot. I've had I've had athletes come to me, it's like, you know, this is my goal, is I I want to get faster this year, which which is a reasonable goal, and something is reasonable for an athlete to tell their coach. So let's kind of break it down pretty pretty simple. All right. In order to get faster, you have to run faster. Yeah, that's that's it. That that's the secret sauce. Um, and so but I'll I'll expand on it. So I'm not gonna have it.
SPEAKER_00Well, you go and then I have a a thought, but yeah, go ahead.
SPEAKER_01Leave it there. Some of your runs have to be done at a faster or harder pace. I put in the word harder there because not everything has to be faster, because you can be a stronger runner and then actually yield a faster finishing time, and but you weren't running at a faster pace. So uh what I would typically do is just start start off with really, really short, short intervals. Um, and this is not to be done in every single workout. What I would do is probably dedicate I would start off with one work one of your runs that each week and throw in some strides. Keep them to 20 to 30 seconds at the start, um, and ample and like uh 60 60 seconds of a moderate paced run, like uh I would say like a low zone two effort. That's what I've been doing in in my training plan this this cycle is throwing in these strides just to try and improve that that leg turnover rate. And really that's that's the key to getting faster is trying to get those legs to turn over faster uh and quicker. Because when you start to extend your there's two ways to get faster, right? You can either get your legs to turn over faster or you can extend, you can lengthen the stride. But the problem with lengthening the stride is what it if you start to over stride, then you start to get into a more prominent heel strike. And I think that that starts to break down athletes, and that's where we start to see injuries a little bit where people trying to get faster. They think, well, if I just lengthen my stride, then then that's going to do it. We still want that footfall to be like under our center of gravity. So, you know, the key to then is just trying to get those legs to turn over quicker. And the only thing that I can tell you is just to be patient. The speed does not come quickly, and if it did come quickly, everybody would do it. And you know I thought on that. All right, go for it.
SPEAKER_00Yes, it is possible to get faster by just doing only VO2 max work all the time. But you'll get fast real quick, but there's a ceiling to it. Like you're yeah, you're you can only do that. And if you're not already like an efficient runner or you don't already have like good running economy and the endurance and all the other things that you need, it's gonna kind of you're gonna get fast quickly, but then you're gonna hit hit kind of a ceiling with it. And you won't be able to really and you won't be able to sustain that sort of training. So yeah, I mean, technically, if you want to get fast real quick, you could do it, but that's not really a recipe for continuing to get fast over the long haul and becoming a better runner over years or you know, gradually improving. And it's probably a recipe maybe for just burning out. Yeah, if you're just like what you want to do is you have a month and you want to do a 5K and you're like, I'm just gonna run this 5K and then I'm never running again, and I just want to do it as fast as I can, you can just do that, you know, but it's not gonna get you faster in the lot, like so. What I'm trying to say is maybe there is a way to do it, but you're taking a shortcut and then you're gonna end up just getting somewhere and then not being able to kind of progress anymore. So you kind of need, you need to sort of build all of these components. You need the maybe the longer run or the easy run, the aerobic work, the maybe the lactate, you know, work, you know the lactate threshold work, maybe a little bit of VO2 max, maybe a little bit of strides to really work on turnover. I mean, all these little components, you know, even strength training we talked about, like build you into maybe a more um resilient, you know, stronger, better form, better running economy. And that over time gets you faster and probably will get you faster than you would ever get just doing really like speed focus work for a short period of time. So that's a that's just that's all I have to actually say about that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I I guess the way that I think about it is like when I say how do I get faster, I want to be able to sustain that. I want it, I don't want to like gain speed and then lose it and then have to regain it back. If we want to gain speed and hold it and actually continue to grow it, then that's going to require patience. But yeah, I mean, if you just like you said, if you're just gonna run that 5k and you would just want to go zone five and just drop the hammer and not worry about you know being able to replicate that or continue to run at those efforts, then sure, yeah, you you can take the shortcut, but you're going to get short-term results.
SPEAKER_00But yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_01You know, I think the way that I coach is I'm not interested in short-term results. I want long-term results because I want athletes to be in be in there. And I know you want the same thing. So I do.
SPEAKER_00I'm just I also think there's a lot of like, I just think like influencers out there or like these help people, you know, taking the research on VO2 Max and saying, oh, like all we need to be doing is these like BO2 Max workout. Like that's you know, everything else that's gonna get you the most gains. And they're like losing the perspective of the entire, like, yeah, that does temporarily like get you there, maybe, you know, but it's yeah, you're you're you're not gonna be able to sustain that type of intervals. And, you know, you it's you're just gonna have a ceiling or you're gonna have to take a break, and then you're gonna lose all of that fitness. Whereas if you're doing all these other components, you're building on it and you're, yeah, the VO2 Max stuff does become important in certain times of the training plan to get you a little bit faster, but we don't want to be doing that all of the time. And I just do think there's a lot of this. I hear it like, even sometimes people that are knowledgeable in the space, like I think of, and I don't know, I'm just maybe I shouldn't name names, who are saying, like, you know, you need to be doing this only. And I just think that they're kind of losing the, I don't know, they're they're not, they're not seeing at least for runners. I mean, maybe that's true for somebody just trying to get better fitness in general, and they're not really like a runner, but I think for someone who's really wanting to be a better athlete over the long haul, that's just not good advice. So that's kind of why I mentioned that because I think people probably see that online.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And and no, the 8020 method of running all zone two stuff, or like let's just say running zone two does not make you a fast runner. You will not get faster running zone two.
SPEAKER_00Only zone two all the time.
SPEAKER_01Only zone two. The the key, the reason that that method is successful is because of the 20% that you are running hard. So, no, easy running will not make you faster. Easy running will allow you to run your fast and hard workouts at the effort that you need to in order to see that adaptation. That's the key that's a good thing.
SPEAKER_00For like a new runner, you know, they're starting out, they're still they're gonna seek improvement no matter what. They could probably do only as well.
SPEAKER_01By simply coming off the couch. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. But it's gonna limit limit then that itself, it's both extremes, right? That limits you to a certain point. You aren't gonna be able to get faster just doing zone two at a certain point. After being, you know, a novice and starting, you you're gonna hit a wall and you're gonna need to add speed work. And on the other side, you can only do you know the top end speeds VO2 max work without, you know, so that there's some sort of meeting in the middle that needs to happen, I think. So, or some sort of space in the middle. Anyway, I think we covered that one pretty well. I think we got that one.
SPEAKER_01I don't know if we exactly s told you exactly how to run faster, but we at least gave you um I I think we cut we covered the the the technical aspect of what it means to run faster. I think we got it.
SPEAKER_00Okay, we got it.
SPEAKER_01The last the last question is how do I build endurance for running? And to be quite honest, those two questions are the two questions that I see and field way more often than any other question that that's been on this list is do you have an athlete that either wants to run faster or run longer? Those are the two things that that I see as a coach all the time. And let's just say building endurance and running does not necessarily mean that you always have to run slower. That's that's the piece of advice that I always see people try and give these athletes when they ask, you know, hey, how do I how do I run longer? How do I build endurance? They're the first thing they say is well, you gotta run slower. And that's I I don't agree with that, not at all.
SPEAKER_00It kind of depends on it the context of that.
SPEAKER_01Because because building endurance takes time, consistency, and patience. I I think that those are the three things that really factor in to endurance. Because for me and the athletes that I work with, our long runs aren't at all like slow, easy, easy pace. There are reasons for doing interval work within the long run. So you know I agree.
SPEAKER_00I do that all the time, you know.
SPEAKER_01So running running slow and doing all your runs slower in order for you to run for a longer duration. A doesn't mean that you're running further, because it's taking you longer to get there. So chances are you might be running the actual the same distance, but it's just you're on your feet longer. Does that mean that you're that you're that you're building endurance? To me, I I'm I would question on then what your definition of endurance means. Do you just want to run the same distance but take you longer? Sure. You know, we'll call that endurance. But you know, if you're saying, you know, I want to most of the time when I say when people say I want to be able to run longer, they mean I want to run further. And they kind of they just use the wrong phrasing. And you know, running running further is just a time consuming, it's a patient game that you have to play uh in order to slowly build things up responsibly in order to keep you from getting injured and burned out and keeping you healthy. So running slow doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to become a more efficient runner, and efficiency plays a big role in building endurance. So some of your runs, do they need to be slow? Yeah, absolutely. Should some of your runs be faster? Yes. Should some of them be kind of like right there in the middle, you know, and that right there in the sweet spot? Absolutely. So the point is that we're we're spreading the gamut, right? We're we're looking at all different effort levels, paces, all this stuff. This is what builds endurance. It's not being able to go longer, it's being able to consistently run and have that frequency builds the durability. The durability is what leads to endurance, and the patience is what allows you to be able to do this over a longer period of time so that it is sustainable because there's no point in trying to build endurance if you're not going to hold on to it. To me, that it doesn't make sense. It's just like the last question that we talked about. You know, it's like, oh, I want to get faster, but I I don't care about being able to hold that speed or actually get better in the long run. This is a one and done kind of thing, and I really don't care about it. Then really, endurance isn't part of your equation at all because it takes too long to build it, because it comes from just running and running and and doing the the rolling and eating well and sleeping well and recovering and absorbing, and then you start to stack on this foundation and you're you're building the house. It takes a while. So that's why I say that that patience is is a really, really big piece of it.
SPEAKER_00There's no like short shortcuts. I don't you know, that way otherwise I don't know. I don't think anyone's come up with any, like I said, like you there might I don't know for endurance if there's like an equivalent to the VOT. You know what I mean? I mentioned that for the the speed, but I don't know if there's like an equivalent type of thing that would get you endurance quicker that I don't think so. I think you just you're right, it's just patience, it's just running consistently, gradually increasing your long run slowly and building um yeah, you know, gradually kind of building the volume, you know, that you're actually able to sustain. And I don't know, like everything you've talked about, there's no I don't think there's a shortcut I can think of that would get you there.
SPEAKER_01Unfortunately. Sorry guys.
SPEAKER_00Unfortunately, I wish I there's no shortcuts, there's no hacks. I've been doing this for 30 years and I have not, yeah. But I haven't discovered anything for endurance, anyways. It's just the reason I'm able to do what I do and be able to run what I can run at that and train for marathons and all that is because I've worked on this for 30 years. I don't know to tell you it's endurance, endurance is is the is the cake. It doesn't take 30 years, but I mean you can build endurance quicker than that, but you know you get but it's it's the foundation, it's the aerobic foundation that you have to lay.
SPEAKER_01And so you can't you can't expect to have endurance if you don't have a solid foundation in which to build on, because that's that's where the endurance comes from, and that's where the speed comes from. Because if you don't have that solid foundation, trying to overlay speed is gonna break you down and wear you down, and you're gonna get hurt. So trying to introduce speed too early into the equation is a recipe for disaster. The same goes for trying to push your quote unquote endurance before you have a foundation that is required in order to build that. So my my my response to you is to keep going forward, running four to five days a week. Enjoy the grind, keep it, enjoy the process, keep stacking on top of it and getting stronger, and then start to introduce some speed, and then you'll be able to cover cover that that distance in a shorter amount of time because of the increased leg turnover, the increased running economy and efficiency. That's this is the key to running, and there is there are no shortcuts to it. Sorry.
SPEAKER_00Right. So I think we covered that.
SPEAKER_01That's it. Mic drop.
SPEAKER_00That's it.
SPEAKER_01All right, so that's that's been your six uh six questions from from Coach Justin and Coach Katie here at the Endurance Athlete Journey Podcast. If the content has been helpful to you in some way, if any of the other previous episodes have been really helpful and you you've learned something, and if you know another athlete that you that that would benefit from it, I encourage you to share those episodes with them. Feel free to leave a comment and a review if this has been helpful and you're enjoying the content. That's the one thing that will help support this podcast because we do not monetize it. We have no ads, no sponsors, no nothing. So it's just just the two of us coming to you weekly, twice a week, actually, and uh coming to you for for free and offering and giving you solid coaching advice and guidance. And these reviews and comments is what increases the exposure and will draw other people and be able they will be able to see it as well and start to gain some of those um benefits that you have. So those are greatly appreciated. We also have the Endurance Athlete Journey Podcast group on Facebook, so it is a closed group, and we're we're growing out this community, we're posting reels and additional content that's that's out there as well. But it is a great way for you to interact with other people that are interested in the podcast. You can interact with us directly because both of us are members in that group and we monitor it very closely. We're always commenting and communicating on there, and uh so all you gotta do is just search for the Endurance Athlete Journey Podcast group on Facebook, answer one simple question and agree to the rules, and then you're you're in. So we hope that you will consider that as we grow this community. We are we are active coaches, so we are always looking for to bring athletes on to our rosters. If you're interested in coaching, you can go to fuel the number two run dot com for coach Katie. She does dietetics for for any sport along with with run coaching. And I will give out a little shout out to Katie right now. So over the over the week, Katie has passed her sports her certified sports dietitian.
SPEAKER_00It's a board certification and sports. Yeah, so I'm now a board certified sport specialist in sports dietetics, or it's a CSSD certification.
SPEAKER_01So it's a congratulations, Katie.
SPEAKER_00Thank you. I got it.
SPEAKER_01So awesome, proud of you.
SPEAKER_00I had it before, and then I didn't have it for a while, and I'm like, I gotta get that. So yeah, thank you. I'm just glad it's over.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so so Katie is she does the dietetic plans for for all sports along with run plans. Uh you can come to tabula rasseracing.com and you can reach out to me. I do training plans for multi-sport and single sport athletes. Uh, but sorry, no dietetics. And uh I know that both of us have tons of content that are on our own websites. I know we have blogs and videos, and I have documentaries and all all kinds of other stuff that's out there for you, uh free of charge. And we hope that you'll just go out and just start perusing our our websites and see what you can learn and then reach out to us if if we uh we resonate with you. I think that there are let's see, this is episode eighty-nine, so there's eighty eighty-eight previous episodes, and I think you you've got a pretty good understanding on our coaching philosophies. I know that I have a short little video that's on my website that talks about my philosophy for coaching, but uh you know if if we we resonate with you, we hope that you will reach out and we would love to talk to you. So I think that that takes care of all the housekeeping.
SPEAKER_00So yeah.
SPEAKER_01Thanks, guys. So this is like I said, this has been episode 88 of the Endurance Athlete Journey Podcast. We are quickly approaching triple digits. Super excited, and uh, we will continue to come to you twice a week, and we look forward to the conversation next. So, again, from the endurance athlete journey podcast, I'm your host, Coach Justin, along with Coach Katie, and we'll talk to you all again next time.
SPEAKER_00Bye.
SPEAKER_01That wraps up today's episode of the Endurance Athlete Journey Podcast. Endurance sports have a way of teaching us patience, humility, and resilience. Lessons that carry far beyond the workout. Progress in endurance sports doesn't come from shortcuts, it comes from consistency, discipline, and doing the work when it's not glamorous. Wherever you are on your endurance journey, keep trusting the process and honoring the work you put in each day. If today's episode resonated, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone to help on their endurance journey. Don't forget to join the conversation on our social sites to help build and foster a community where we all learn and support one another. We'll be back with more stories and insights from Coach Justin and Katie. Until then, visit the podcast website at the endurance athlete journey.buzzsprout.com for more episodes from the Endurance Athlete Journey Podcast. Have questions or comments about the podcast? Feel free to send us an email at the endurance athlete journey at gmail.com. For all things coaching, visit Coach Katie at fuel the number two run.com and Coach Justin at taboularassa racing.com. Again, thank you for listening to the Endurance Athlete Journey Podcast and remember to find joy in the journey.
