Episode 24: Running Research : Why It’s Not Always About You

Running research is everywhere. One study gets shared and suddenly it feels like there’s a “right” way to fuel, train, or perform — and if you’re not doing it, you’re behind.

In this episode of Dirt Nap Diaries, I talk about why research isn’t wrong… but also isn’t always about you.

Using a recent fueling study shared by David Roche as an example, this episode covers:

• Why elite-focused research doesn’t always translate to everyday runners
• How studies often get shared without enough context
• Why women are still underrepresented in endurance and fueling research
• How comparison sneaks in when research turns into rules
• Why not being an elite actually changes what’s useful
• How to use research as information, not instructions
• Simple ways to decide what’s actually worth trying for your body and goals

This episode is for runners who want to be informed without feeling overwhelmed and who are tired of assuming something is wrong with them when a “proven” strategy doesn’t work.

Research can be helpful.
But it’s not personal.

Enjoying the show?

If this episode resonated, share it with a friend who’s excited about a goal this year.
 Make sure you’re following or subscribed so you don’t miss future episodes.
 Ratings and reviews help more than you know.

• Follow me on Instagram
• Visit my website: www.sunrisetrailscoaching.com
• Want to work together? Learn about 1:1 Coaching
• Free guide: What’s In My Pack? Download here
• The research article that has a super long name
• David Roche's email for the study

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey y'all, welcome back to DirtNap Diaries. I'm your host, Brittany Olsen, Trailrunner, Women's Trailrunning Coach, Hype Woman, and Professional Overpacker of the Midrun Snacks. This show is for the everyday trailrunner, the ones training on real-life legs and real life time. Jobs, kids, pets, laundry dishes, emails, and still trying to squeeze in a run without losing our minds. You're not out here chasing podium spots, you're chasing finish lines, sunrises, and maybe a little sanity. This podcast is about trail running, but it's also about navigating life. The hard seasons, the joyful ones, and the ones where everything feels like too much. And before we get into it today, uh let's just throw this out there. The uh the country is very heavy right now. I feel the heaviness. Um, if you aren't feeling the heaviness, if you're okay with uh everything that's going on, you probably don't want to listen to what I have to say normally. But um, yeah, so just want to throw that out there for you. But we've got so much happening in this country, and I think, you know, a lot of us like, can it get any worse? Or and then it does, right? Like it's this continuous thing that happens. And just, you know, this episode is not about this, but I want to throw it out there because I have struggled to write content uh for social media for my business for the past like year. Um, I have struggled to write some of these episodes um because sometimes what I'm doing feels so little compared to what is actually happening out there. Like, how can I best spend my time um to really help out what's going on here? That is very, very serious to some people. I've been honest about this before. Right now, my actual day-to-day, like what I do, um my training and everything else, has not been impacted by what is happening in our country, right? I have the privilege of a white woman and I have been able to go about my day-to-day. Now, that doesn't mean I don't feel things. That doesn't mean mentally and emotionally, even physically, it has an impact on me. But like, I am not going through what other people are going through with being scared to even go outside, worried about their kids going to school, all of those things. I don't have all of that. So, um, but it is like, okay, how can I use my privilege through that? Um, so I do want to do a whole episode on that because I have been in the process of gathering different information, figuring out how we can actually help, because I've been tired of hearing uh people say, um, especially I've heard this from a lot of white women, women too, um, about, well, I voted the right way, so like there's really nothing else I can do. And there's a lot we can do um locally, um, politically, all of that. There are things that we can do. Does it like get somebody out of the White House? Maybe not, but can we help actual people and families? Um, yeah, we can. So there are things to do, but I just want to start us out with that heaviness because I mean, we've had so many people, and we're gonna we're gonna I'll specifically call it ice that have been killing people, like literally killing people. And as I just mentioned, like it makes me think, why am I doing like this coaching? Like, what does it all mean? And this episode in this, like, specifically is not about me, but it does make me pause. And what I am learning, um, and like what I need mentally and emotionally is to do these things, is to coach, is to do this podcast, because it does help me like process things that are going on in my brain, but I am also helping people in some capacity, and we can't always be, at least for me, heads down, like constantly doing things, being on social media, learning all the things, because our brains need a break. And for me, what that means is doing coaching, is being there for people who need help, is showing um how running should be inclusive, all of that. So, does that mean hey, I'm better than anybody because I'm doing these things? No. But what it is is this is right now a uh outlet for me to um really like recover from all the work that's being done outside of coaching and all the things that are happening and just seeing all the news. We all need some space like that. Maybe it for you it is getting on the trails and running, maybe it's reading, um, maybe it's like getting lost in a Netflix series. I just want you to say, like, give yourself that permission to do that because it is hard to be heads down 100% of the time trying to change the world or change the local school, whatever it is that's there that needs help. Um, we do have to have a break because we will burn out. We will have uh end up having like more and more issues. So give yourself permission to do those things, but also don't be the person who's like, well, I voted the right way, so like that's it, because there's so much more to it than that. Um, so throwing that at the beginning, there is no clear segue into the actual topic, but like I just want you all to know that if you feel this heaviness, I feel it too. Um, one thing that's keeping me going is the coaching, is the podcast, and continuing like to move my body, which I am grateful that I can physically and mentally still move as I can. So, like, keep that shit up, keep moving forward, um, and know that if you smile and laugh sometimes, if you take time to escape from what the reality, it's okay to do at times, but also get back to it and do the work. Okay, now again, there's no clear segue. So let's get into what we're gonna talk about. Um, and today we're talking about research articles. Um, and not because research is bad, we need research, right? To to know how our bodies work, um, to to make medicines, like all the things. But a lot of times when we look at research, um, sometimes we see, first of all, we see like summaries of it, and not everything is explained, so we don't have all the context around it or who was studied or all that, or maybe who was studied is in the fine print instead of like right up front, which I think should be right up front, is who was in this study. Um, but the thing is, is when we see research study, it doesn't mean it's applicable to us, and it doesn't mean it's not applicable. We need to look at all the pieces of this. Um so this sparked because I saw um a research article or a research, uh, it was a research done in general in Liverpool, but David Roche, who I think is absolutely amazing, um, shared about this research article. And I as I was reading it, I realized like people are going to take this and try to run with it without looking at like who the research like actually studied, um, where it was done, like what these people go through their day-to-day. Like it missed some really key points. And again, that doesn't mean the research is bad or it won't work for people, but we really have to look at these, like, these things that we see, especially when we see summaries from elite athletes or influencers, um, or even scientists who who do like summarize it for us and see like what else is out there and how it can apply to us and how it can't apply to us. So, like, more like, hey, we gotta look at these things, but sometimes we gotta take it with the grain of salt and figure out if it applies to us or how we can use it. So I do want to say, like, this, you guys know I'm not anti-science. This is not an anti-science episode. It's not a call-out episode. Um, and like I love research, like how I coach my athletes, how I learn things, how I share with you is I do, I read it, I learn from it. So it's not inherently bad. Um, the big thing is I do see runners um constantly taking those research headlines or the research summaries or even just the first couple paragraphs um or the conclusion and being like, okay, I'm just gonna try this, or they're confused and they don't want to apply it at all. Um, or they feel like they're doing something wrong because they see, oh my gosh, if I take in this many carbs per hour, like I can do this, this, and this, I can see this percentage of increase in all of this. Um, you know, and normally like when we when you read these research articles and you feel like you're doing something wrong, you're probably not, um, just so you know. But again, the whole point of this is to really get into like how we can look at these research articles, like what we can take from, and also how we don't always need research research articles to tell us how our body's feeling, right? We never actually need that. But um, so you should get quite a bit from this one. Uh, and I'm actually excited, I'm real excited. I'm always excited. Have you ever heard me not excited? But I'm really excited for this one. So, again, this is not like me trying to put anybody down. I've already talked, like, David Roche, uh, I think he's awesome for our community, amazing. Just it just happens that the article that he put into it, I got the the an email from the feed where this article was that he put in there, as soon as I read it, I felt like there were things that were just missing that were not prominent. And I always feel like when an elite person or an influencer, somebody puts something out there, I like to see people be like, hey, like this research included these people. Um, they are their elite runners, like this may not work for you. Like, just give like things because as everyday athletes, we get we do, we love our elite trail runners. I hear people talk about them quite a bit. Um, so what they do is they take what they're saying and they take it at just total, total face value without really applying it to what their life is. So the site I'm talking about, again, I said it was in Liverpool. Um, it talks about very um high carbohydrate like loading um and intake during hard running. Uh like, and it did find that there was improved running economy. I believe it was 120 grams of carbs. Um, you guys I will actually link this research, by the way, in in the show notes just so you can look more into it. Again, this is not for the actual like whole research. This is not what this episode's for, but I just want to give you an example of what I'm seeing. Um, so within the article, about like three or four paragraphs in, it said uh the athletes studying in this article were eight elite male rowrunners with an average PR for the marathon at 222, maybe even a little bit below 222. Two hours and 22 minutes, right? That's fast. That is not an everyday just athlete, right? That's not one of us that's out there doing this. Um, and it was also done under controlled conditions, right? How often are we in controlled conditions? We don't normally get that kind of privilege just because of how life is, and that's okay. So, what can we note from this, right? First of all, there were no um females in this study. Like, so that means this research does not apply to us, period. Like, unless you have females in your research, it cannot apply. And I do want to pause here, I should have done this earlier. I am gonna going to say male and female in this episode. Um, that means the biological sex. Um, I believe trans women are women, I believe trans men are men. That has not changed, but because this is how this article is worded, I will be using male and female um for the biological sex of that. We're not talking gender here, okay? So just want to be clear. Um, so they have talked about like they're gonna do a companion study with females, but are they gonna do it with elite runners again? Probably, right? Because that's what they're comparing it to. We are not elite runners. Our bodies, our lives, everything are not doing the same thing as what these runners are doing. Okay. So it also didn't measure actual race performance. Um, so like, what the heck? What's up with that? Um, and then all groups did report some GI symptoms, um, especially at the highest intake. So that is something just to consider too. Like, there there can be GI symptoms, um, even for elite runners with what they're taking in, right? Again, I'm not breaking this down, like it showed different, like, d different like timing of carbs and all of those things, but just know, like, it did have a very high intake of carbs. Um, it did not include females in the study, and it also was around elite um male roadrunners. Okay. So, so just so you know, it's an interesting ver it's an interesting article. I went in and looked at the actual whole article, by the way, or the whole research study. Um, it's legitimate, and yes, it can tell us some useful information because as I've talked about before a lot of times, that carbon intake can help us out. Females typically need more carbs too, by the way. Um, but it also like it tells us who this actually applies to. This research article, yeah, we can take some of it with us. Maybe we increase our carb intake a little bit to help us out. Um, but it doesn't exactly apply to us. So why does this matter to you all? Well, because a lot of times when people are seeing these, either these elite runners, you know, or influencers share these articles, like so the summaries, or whether we're doing we're actually reading the research studies themselves. Um, people will try to do exactly what it says to do. And normally as an everyday athlete, we are not at a level where we can just we're gonna use carbs right here, because that's what the research article was about. We can't just like increase our carbs like super, super high. Like it has to be done in small increments to do that. Also, we are not running as fast as elites normally or as hard. It doesn't mean like our effort's not there, but they are running at a very different pace. Again, these are road runners too. I mean, they may be trailrunners too, but it was a road study. Um, and a lot of people are on trails that hopefully listen to this. I hope you're on roads too. I hope you're just moving by the way, but like there are definitely um things that are different in trail, especially because we're out there for a longer duration, typically. Okay. So, again, I'm gonna jump into this um about like how it doesn't translate to us cleanly. I'm gonna give some real life examples, all that good stuff. But you'll hear me repeat some stuff too, because I want to get it through your heads that, and I know because I had to get it through my heads because before I started coaching, well before I started coaching, like I would do that comparison to like pro athletes and things like that. And you have to realize like all the training facilities they have, well, men especially have a little bit better training facilities. We won't get into that right now. I have a lot to say about that, but they've got that this is their job, this is what they're doing, and it's not that they don't have kids or anything like that, or maybe they're coaches too, but they are they do have a different lifestyle than what we have, right? They're sponsored, they have different help. So um, that doesn't make them bad, that just makes it different. Um, but think about elite athletes too, like the elite training volume, it's more than ours. The training intensity is more than ours, the elite recovery, the elite fueling habits, the elite performance goals, all of these things are different than us. Um, so just keep it in mind as I'm talking. Most of you listening, probably all of you listening, are not elites. It'd be cool if there's an elite listening and they took something from this, but like we're everyday people, and there's nothing wrong with that at all. But we're training around work, family stress, sleep issues, hormones, life stuff. And again, it's not that elites don't have this, but it's very different when you have so many different focuses, and like training is something that sometimes you're just trying to fit into your life because it's not your job. Um, and it doesn't make us less serious either. It just means our context is different, which is why, again, these research studies aren't always applicable to us or aren't fully applicable to us. All right. So how does this actually show up though in real life? I've had my own athletes, I've had my own friends, I've even had my own thoughts around this, but like I'll have them say, like, well, I I sh I should be, I heard I should be eating more carbs during every run, or I saw the study and I feel like I'm under fueling. Um, and there's other studies too about like speed duration, where they're like, I feel like I'm not running enough, or I feel like I'm not running hard enough, or all of this. So, like, right now we're just focusing on fueling because the most recent article I read was about carbs. Um and my first response, and it's not always said in this way, but it's like, okay, compared to who? Right? Who are you comparing yourself to? Just think that you are underfueling um or you should be eating way more carbs during every run, right? Because it does matter, right? I always I always talk about how we're unique individuals, we are unique athletes, we have different needs. I mean, I swear I'm not a very big person, but I have ran with people, and by me big, I mean I am just short and like medium body-sized, um, that like I will run with people who are like who dudes who are like bigger than me, um, women who are small than me, whatever, and I feel like I actually eat a little bit more than everybody out there like so I'll be like, huh, well, I'm eating quite a bit. Um, so it just shows the different uniqueness of us where just because like I'm 5'2, 144 pounds, like I'm gonna look different than somebody who might be like six to 100, you know, 90 pounds um and all that. So just just keep it in mind, like there's so much different with fueling um when we're out there. But think about like how fueling like an elite marathon during a Tuesday easy run or during a stressful work week or when your gut already struggles, it's not automatically helpful for you, right? I have had gut issues. We know I DNF'd in September due to this too, but like sometimes it can actually make things worse. I mean, think about if you were taking in, and my my guidance is 60 to 90 um grams of carbs per hour for long runs. Um, so that doesn't even get into the short run piece of it. But like, and you are already at a point, like you started at 40 grams, and you're like, I have to get up to 60, right? We're not going from 40 to 60, even. You know, we're going 40 to 45 to 50. Like we are gradually getting there because your gut has to be trained to be able to take that in. Um, so if you're like, oh my gosh, like this person says 120, this person says 150, and you start trying to just increase that, you're gonna get some gut bombs there. Okay. So that's just a specific example. But normally it's gonna be, it's gonna make things worse. You're gonna have more bloating, you're gonna have more GI issues, there's gonna feel it's gonna feel more frustrating. Um, your runs aren't gonna be as happy, you're gonna have less joy. It really, really just sucks. So it doesn't mean carbs are bad. You know me, I eat carbs, it's totally fine. It just means that timing, context, and goals do matter. So, and I am gonna, you know, reiterate that whole there are no female athletes in this research study. This is not new. Um, I think a lot of people know this. Females are very different, and doctors and scientists have not always been on board with uh doing the studies for us because it is more complicated. Um, we have different, like we have menopause, paramenopause, and we have hormones start changing at like 11 or 12. We have so much going on in our body. We have like something else at like 18 and 19. There's all of these things that happen in our body, and we're still unrepresent underrepresented, not unrepresented, underrepresented. Underrepresented, it's in it. I can't say it, guys. I'm just gonna leave that in there too. Um, in sports science. And it's not just in sports science, it's in a lot of science, but right now we're talking about sports, so let's keep it at sports and endurance. Um, but especially in endurance, it's like that. And when it comes to fueling, so like you keep on getting narrower and narrow, and we're so underrepresented. I still can't say the word, wow, um, in all of these pieces. Even though the female uh is growing, like the female elite runners, there's more of them. The everyday female runners, like trail running is growing in general, which is fantastic, but we are lacking research. And even when females are included in these, a lot of times like they're not in they're not looking at the cycle phase. They're not seeing those hormonal shifts, they're not totally fully exploring that, they're not looking into like birth control, like, are you on birth control? Do you menstruate on your birth control? Do you not? All of these things, and then long-term health isn't the focus either. So there's so much things that are missing from this that even as a woman myself, when I see these articles, and even if I see female are included, like I'm digging and digging and digging because if it's not going into every single cycle we have, and y'all, we don't always have the same cycles, do we? Women know this especially, but you know, that's it says it's a 28 to 35 day like cycle for the whole thing to happen. Some women could be under 28 days, somebody, some people could be over 35. There's still so many uh variables here that it takes a lot for me to look at a research and be like, yes, that's exactly what I need to do. A lot of times I have to look through them, use what I use what I think will be applicable, and then like go from there. And that's how I treat my athletes too. Like I, if I if they send me a research article, or if like I keep saying article, but research study, um, and then like, and or if I see it, whatever it is, I do look at it, and there are some things that I pull from articles that like would work for me or that I think would help me, but then they might not help one of my athletes. So I'm not just giving out this information like all willy-nilly. Um, it does have to be applicable to that individual athlete. So keep that in mind, like as you're looking through, if you see an article and then you want to dig into the study, think about like, okay, what is really applicable to me? What can I try? And sometimes you try something and it doesn't work, and that's okay too, right? Maybe you increased your carbs a little too much and you like shit your pants on the trail. That's not fun, but like you learned something, didn't you? So you pull it back. But it doesn't mean never ever experiment. That's what these training runs are for. But you also don't just want to jump in and do whatever that article says, especially if women aren't included in the research. Um, so just think about it too, like, um So when women do try to just just just in summary, because I said that really brambled on that one, just when females try to apply research that's done on elite men, it just doesn't work. They and then they assume the problem might be them. And we don't want that, right? The research just wasn't built with us in mind. Uh and why do I specifically call that? Well, first of all, because I'm a child running coach for a woman, so I want you women to hear this. Um, but also because some people still don't realize how much research is lacking on females when it comes to the endurance space, when it comes to even just running in general, right? We are figuring out things. This is why I love coaching women. We're figuring out things as we go a lot of the time. Like I will have one athlete try one woman athlete try something, another one try something try the exact same thing, and it doesn't work for the other one. So we're like, okay, let's figure out how you need to eat, what intervals do you need to eat at? I have a couple athletes who eat every 20 minutes. I have some that eat every 30, a couple in that 35 to 40 minute range. Um, and it's different quantities too, and different qualities, right? So, I mean, because there's so many different kinds of sugars out there too, but it's very, very important to know, like it's lacking in research, and a lot of times we have to experiment still to figure out what works for us. Okay. I do want to say, like, it doesn't mean research, it doesn't mean research is wrong. It's just specific. So that's the point I really want to land here. Um, they're not research articles aren't necessarily lying to you, like, you know, um, they're just and they're not useless, and they're not something we should just ignore, but they answer very specific questions for very specific populations, especially in this instance of the one that I mentioned earlier, right? Um, they are information though, they're not instructions. So, you know, take an article, look at it, says, oh my gosh, like this elite male marathoner runs sub-222 and took in this many carbs and saw this a little over 2% um improvement in their running economy. Okay, great. What does that mean for you? Does that mean you just up your carbs to 120? No, it doesn't. But maybe you're looking, you could do look back at the carbs you've taken in on a long run, and you've realized, like, man, the last hour and a half of that four-hour run didn't feel really great. And then you were like, man, I didn't I only took in 40 grams of carbs. Well, when you look at 40 and see somebody doing 120, I don't want your mind to go, well, let me do 120. I want your mind to go, hmm, well, they did really well with a lot of carbs. They're elite, like this is their life. But I'm only doing 40, so there's probably a way I can, you know, up that and pick that up, right? So, you know, again, I mentioned earlier, gradually go up. Maybe you're eating every 45 minutes, and that's why you're only getting so many carbs in per hour. So you try to eat every 30 minutes instead, right? There's different things to experiment with, but like I just said, these research studies, these research articles, they are information, they're not instructions. So if you take one thing away and you stop listening now, that's great. Hopefully you take that away with you. Um, now, where do we see a lot of issues? And this is where I think the internet can be a really great space and also at the same time a terrible space. I mean, there's many reasons it can be a terrible space. And when I say internet, I mean like social media, Google, um, AI, like all the things. Everything internet now, that's what that's what I'm talking about. So a lot of time when we see this research, and and the problem is how some people share it, right? Like how they're like, do this. Like, I've read this re uh article, so do this. Or they say, this is optimal. Or if you're not doing this, you're leaving performance on the table, right? They use that language that makes you feel almost a little bit panicky. And I'm not saying you're like, ah, I'm panicked, but you you read something and you're and your brain starts spinning a little bit, like, oh my gosh, like what if I do this? What if and you start having these what ifs because somebody read an article and they might not even even read the whole research study, and they said, you know, this is optimal. If you do this, you're gonna see this. If you do this, like they don't put any parameters around it, they don't tell you enough about the research study, who was studied, why they were studied, what exact what the exact these people's lives look like. Like you don't have all that information. So, but this is where I see those everyday trial runners start doubting themselves. And I've been in that boat, so this is not a judgment, it just is what it is. Um, and it's not because like you are failing at anything, it's because the nuance gets lost in this. Um, I feel like there's a lot of repetitive things in here, but it is because like we keep seeing these things and we keep getting in our minds about like these people are doing this, so I should be doing this. And the goal here, when I said earlier about how like my coaching and my podcast is a way to kind of like get away from from like that real world like shit right now, this is where I feel like I can help individuals, right? Like, this part is like repeating myself and telling you, like, you're not doing things wrong. Like, this is where like I can come in and coach somebody and be like, hey, I'm not just coaching you to run, I'm coaching you to stop comparing to others and be yourself and work on yourself and put in that effort and that attitude towards yourself. And that's what I'm trying to get to the point here is with these research studies, these research articles, all these things you see, it doesn't mean you shouldn't read them. It doesn't mean there's not good information in there. It simply means there's nuance and you need to take what works for you, or you need to experiment. You don't just need to say, oh my gosh, I need to do this or I'm not doing this, and then I'm a failure if I don't, if I don't figure it out because you're not. So, who do you listen to? Me, of course. That's why I have this podcast. No, kidding. I I learned things too, I have said things wrong, and I will admit it when I do, but this is a big question, right? Like, if research isn't universal, if elites aren't relatable in some ways, um, if influencers don't live your life, who do you listen to? Well, here's my answer. You use research as a starting point. Um, and granted, there are different things, like if you're seeing a blog, it's probably not research. Maybe they summarized something and hopefully they linked the actual research study. Um, but like use it as a starting point. Okay. And what's great now, um, and I will put throw out like AI, Chat GPT, whatever it is, you use Microsoft Copilot, I know Claude, there's a whole bunch out there. Um, you do have to watch doing this, but some of these research studies do get very, very, very, very, very long. Um, and you can have them go in there and be like, hey, can you help summarize like this article for me? Say, like, ask it like who was studied? What were they like? Um, obviously you want to know what the results were. Uh, what are the benefits and considerations, right? So you can take that, um, especially if you don't have time to read an entire research study, and ask it very specific questions to break down for you. Um, and then take that and start reading through that at least. Now, if you have more questions, what's great is if you have that whole entire research article in there, you can dig deeper and deeper. I'm not saying AI is perfect. I am just being real life with people having to read uh scientific research articles and studies that can be super, super long or super complex and use words that I don't even understand, right? How you can at least start digging into it. Um and again, one of the first things I always ask is who was studied? Because I see so many articles and studies um and running and endurance sports. I mean, just just they're not even endurance sports, like sports in general, um, where it's only males who are studied or male elites. Or when when when females are included, female and male elites. So, right, so we want to know who the heck was studied. Um, and normally if I see somebody is an elite athlete um and they're sponsored, I know a lot of their life is spent around the um actual training. And when I say training, I mean fueling, running, recovery, weightlifting, all the things, right? And then these studies don't always show these people lift weights too, or they don't lift weights, right? So there's so many factors and variables that we don't even know about. So we use those research articles and studies as a starting point. And you add the context to it. And I don't mean you add context to the actual article and start typing. I mean more like, okay, like I can see like these people took in this many carbs, they're elite runners, um, they are males. Well, that's not me. Uh, but I am taking in a lot less carbs than like what I what I think I need, and I have been bonking at the end of long runs. Let's try to increase that carb intake and see what happens. And let's try to increase it gradually so I don't shit in my pants on the trail. Make sense? Okay. Um, but again, that's what it is. You experience based on your goals and your body. So these elite people who are being studied in these research um studies, they're not, they don't even have your same goals. Not only do they not have your life, but the goals are different, their experience is different, their background is different, all of that. So until we see articles, and I'm not saying there's none out there, I haven't looked at every single research study that's out there when it comes to trail running, but until we're we see until I see an article about like trail running females every day who aren't sponsored by somebody, it's very hard to always like look at these articles and just take them at face value. You will more than likely always have to dig in. Or if you're like my athlete, just ask me because I know I love research. So like that's what I do. And again, this is not me saying all this stuff that's shared is inaccurate, it just isn't all applicable to you. So, how do we do it without losing our minds, right? How do we use this research without just being like, holy shit, this is a lot? So I already talked about it a little bit before, but I mean a simple filter that I I tend to use with my athletes, myself, my friends, is who is this studied on, right? That's the first thing. That's what I've mentioned several times, but who was studied on this? What problem was this trying to solve? Like what or what were they looking at? Like what what were they like for this one in particular? Like, it wasn't necessarily a problem, but it's like how can we optimize performance? Like how can we do better, right? So that's the problem they were they were trying to solve. As you're looking, does this align with my current goal? Um, this research study was for roadrunners, uh, road male male roadrunners who were who are marathonners. That's what that was. Are you training for an ultra marathon? Are you training for a 50K, a 50 mile, a 100K, a 100 mile, a 200 plus mile, right? Very, very different. This marathon goal, my my head, I'm head down, heads down, Coca-Dona 250 training. This marathon article does not really apply to me too much. I agree I need to figure out my fuel intake over over like days of running. That's gonna be very different. But this one doesn't apply to my goals right now at all. Maybe if I was running a road marathon, if I ever race a road marathon, y'all, that would be the day. Um, and I may do it again, who knows? But like I I would probably look at it a little bit deeper. Okay, I'm not elite, I'm not a sub 222, that's for sure. But like, what can I take from this? So just think about like what your your current goal are, or your current goals are. Um, what's the downside if this doesn't work? Uh so for example, um, you know, what if I take in this many carbs and bad stuff happens? Or or what if like I'm actually feeling really great during my long runs and I'm feeling really strong, and then like what what happens if like I increase my carb intake somewhat and it gets worse? Like, what does that do? And how can I test this in a low risk way? So don't test it on race day. I feel like that's always a really, really great piece of advice there. But like, what what do I test it on like a long run? And if I have a long run, do I test it so like I can like loot back like to a b- I always say bathroom because fueling, honestly, that's where you get a lot of gut issues. Um, so like I'm close to a bathroom. Um, do I do it so like if I need to, like, I can get back to my car and just like tr grab different fuel instead of what I have on me? You know, do I do I get back to my car so I can sit and reassess? Um, like what is that, like, what is the low risk way to do this? So if your answers don't line line up, or if your if the research study, I should say, doesn't really line up with what what you need, you don't have to force it either. I've read articles that I do nothing with. Um, I keep it away for future knowledge, maybe, or just so it's in there, but like there's articles I read, especially like this this one that I just did that was all males. I read it to read it because it was there and I was interested. But then I also was like, well, it's elite male, marathoners. Not a huge thing for me as a coach or as an athlete myself. But so well again, like I've mentioned the coaching lens a bit here, but um this is why coaching isn't just handing someone a studyings and saying, go. It's why coaching, at least my coaching, is not a cookie cutter plan. I have athletes who are gonna run the same exact race and they'll tell you that it is not the same between um between people. That's not how I coach. Um, that's just not. We have different backgrounds, experience, goals, um, ages. I mean, uh everything. Like, there's so many differences. So, like, I'm not just saying, hey, here you go, go. That's not how it works. For me, it's looking at the season of your life you're in, your training history, your stress load, your relationship with food, your long-term goals, your short-term goals, your like timing, uh what you want to work on. For example, some posts, somebody might want to run their first hundred miler, but their goal within that hundred miler may be like, I want to run more of these inclines because I have found myself when I run further distances, I just automatically walk. Even if I have legs in me, I still walk a little bit, right? So, like, we are looking at each, hopefully, all coaches. I can't say this, why do I keep saying we? I look at what's going on to you as a unique individual. All of my athletes will tell you, I know as much as I can about them and not just their training and their and their lifting and their running and all that stuff. I mean, it's every bit of information that they feel comfortable sharing with me because it all matters. Um, it really, really does. And I don't care if you're training for a 5K or a 300 miler, it all matters. Um, being able to take a step out and figure out what you want to do. And even if it's a 5K, and I've had people be like, you coach people who like are running ultras already, and I'm just trying to get through a 5K or a 10K at this pace, it all of that still matters in what you're doing. Does it take as much time to train for a 5K as it does for a hundred miler? Of course not, right? That's different, but all of the things in your life and your training history, your stress, and all of that matter. Um, and because performance that comes at the cost of health and joy and sustainability isn't actually a fun performance. It's not even, it's not who you are. Uh, because if we are constantly focused on comparing ourselves to a research study or comparing ourselves to uh what like this elite runner told us or what this influencer told us, it's not fun. Um, it can cost us not only our physical health, but mental and emotional health too, right? If we are trying to load our guts up so much, that's physical, right? But then think about what that does to us mentally and emotionally. I know a MOG and I DNF'd and I'd practiced my food so much and my gut went downhill and I was doing what I was wanted to be doing and like what I had trained to be doing and it didn't work. How much that bothered me mentally and emotionally. So think about like trying something that like you haven't even heard, like you've tried once and you kept trying to push it and push it and push it and it doesn't work at all. I mean, that does take away from the joy and the excitement of what you do as a trail runner. But so, guys, I really do hope you got a lot like from what I've talked about here because I as you know, that when I when I run, like I do, I don't race a lot. I rate, I I don't because I am a racer. I am a lifelong athlete, and I like to push myself when I'm out there. I struggle to use races as training races. I love it that people can use races as training races because it's a great time to practice aid stations and all of that good stuff. Maybe you're just working on downhill running, whatever it happens to be. But like when I'm saying this, when I talked about earlier about performance and how you don't want to cost you your health or your joy, if you're reading studies, if you are comparing yourself to influencers and to elites, it takes away the joy of running. And the reason why I run, and I hope the reason why a lot of you are running is because of the joy that you feel out there. It helped maybe it helps you escape from this everyday shithole that's going on in our country right now. I know that's what I used my long run yesterday for. I have been doing a lot of solo running because of this, because I just don't feel like talking to a lot of people while I'm out there. Like my brain is processing through things. Um, and I am just thinking to myself, and I have been quieter. Even when I've been with somebody, I've been quieter when I've been running because I just don't have it in me. But running is that space for me to have some joy and be appreciative of the body that can do these things, and also our brains do. When we move, it helps our our brain juices. Yes, that's scientific. Brain juices uh flow. So all right. I promise you, this one's not as long as my last few. I don't know what's going on here, but I am gonna leave you like with one thing, and it's this research isn't wrong, but it's not personal. You're not behind, you're not broken, and you're not failing because something didn't work for you. You're just a human with a life and a body that deserves more context than what a research study can give you. Use research as a tool, not a rule. Alright, if this episode hit home or if you think it hit home with somebody else, be sure to share it with a friend. It doesn't have to be a trail running friend, but you know, give it to somebody who's tired of feeling like everything they're doing is wrong, guys. You can apply this not just to running research studies, but to all the research studies that are out there, especially for females who are going through stuff. Like it's not just the running world, it's all of the research there hasn't been enough female studies on. Okay? I mean, I have read so much on this, too much on how the research is not applicable to us because we're not being studied. So share it with a friend. Um, make sure you're following the show, y'all too. Uh leave a rating or review if you want to support it. Uh, it does help uh more people reach it. Share it on your Instagram story if you can, whatever that looks like, and also if you have specific questions about research studies, feel free to reach out to me. I look at them quite often so I can see how it can make me a better coach and I extra it can explain things better. So I'm in them quite a bit. But like I really, really want you all to like feel comfortable just pinging me, pinging me, or emailing me, whatever. My uh information is in the show notes. So anyway, thanks for being here. Uh go move your body, stretch your calves, drink some water, and if you're running while listening to this, loosen your shoulders. You're welcome. Good effort, positive attitude.