Episode 31: Effort Over Pace: Their Effort is Not Your Effort

Today we’re talking about effort over pace because if you don’t understand the difference, you’re way more likely to plateau, overtrain, or mentally spiral (and I don’t want that for you).

Effort is the stimulus. Pace is the result.
If you chase the result instead of managing the stimulus, that’s where you get diminishing returns… in training, at work, and in life.

This episode is equal parts educational and real-talk. We get into why easy runs are mentally hard, why comparison wrecks your effort, and how to actually start training in a way that builds fitness that lasts.

In this episode, we talk about

• Why effort matters more than pace (especially on trails)
• The quick-and-dirty RPE refresher
• Easy effort and why most people mess it up
• Hard efforts and why they matter (raising the ceiling, clearing lactate, building race capacity) — without getting too science-y
• The grey zone trap: not easy enough to recover, not hard enough to improve
• Diminishing returns: why pushing harder doesn’t automatically equal better results
• Why easy runs are so hard mentally:
• Comparison (Strava, Instagram, race lists, pace talk with friends) and how it hijacks your training
• Giving yourself permission to run your effort and stop proving something every day
• Tactical tips to walk away with (simple, doable wins)

The lines to remember

Effort is the stimulus. Pace is the result.
and
Easy feels wrong because we’ve been conditioned to equate struggle with value.

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• See episodes 4 and 19.
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Transcript

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Hey y'all, welcome back to Dirt Knap Diaries. I'm your host, Brittany Olson, Trailrunner, Women's Trailrunning Coach, Hype Woman, and professional overpacker of the mid-run snacks. This show is for the everyday trailrunner, the ones training on real life legs and real life time. You've got work, relationships, laundry, pets, a group text message that never shuts up, and maybe a big goal sitting quietly in the back of your head that you're not totally sure you're allowed to want. 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. So let's get into it. Alrighty, uh personal life update. Uh nothing big again. I don't know. So uh running's going well, Kokodona training's going well. This episode idea actually came today. I'm recording on Tuesday, the day I'm gonna release it. Typically I try to do Sundays, but um Sunday was also full of Sunday shining. It's my friend Dave and his friends, so uh that was a good day. But um, yeah, so just busy weekend, uh training is starting to pick up, more back-to-back long runs are gonna be showing up. So uh, but feeling good, feeling strong. And today I had a steady state run, which is RP six or seven-ish for me. Um, and that's where we're talking about. We're talking about effort uh over pace today. So uh, but as I was out there, I was just thinking about how a lot of athletes can struggle to hit effort levels, especially that easy run effort level, um, for a variety of reasons, but most of it's in our head, so between those two ears. So uh yeah, so that's what we're gonna talk about. And I'm really excited, so I didn't want to talk too much about me today because like that hit me on my, like I said, on my run today, I was like, man, I really, really want to talk about this. I keep hearing things from friends, from athletes I coach, um, just in general from people who are always pushing themselves harder and harder, and not even just in trail running, but like at work and in life, and like how there are diminishing returns associated with that, um, and how to pull back uh and make sure you're doing what you need um for you. So, as you know, this focus on trail running, but we're gonna get that whole entire life aspect in it too. So, again, today we're talking about effort, and I do have an episode on rate of perceived exertion, which is RPE. You'll hear me shorten that in that episode. But we're talking, we are, we're gonna really hone in on effort and not pace. So if you don't understand the difference between the two, that's where you're either gonna plateau, overtrain, or really mentally spiral. Um, and I don't want that for you. So uh just know that effort is the stimulus and pace is the result. So, what can you control? You can control your effort, especially on trails. Um, because it's uphills, downhills, technical terrain, it's smooth terrain. It is what it is, and pace will not always be the same because of all of these factors. Roadrunning is very different with that. This is where trail running, um, I would say has a bit more, it's a different kind of challenge than roadrunning. So if you chase that result instead of managing the stimulus, that's where you get those diminishing returns. And we are going to get to those diminishing returns to it. So let's first start out um just briefly talking about RPE. Again, I've done a couple of episodes and I'll link them um in the show notes for you guys to see if you haven't listened and you want to reference back to those that have uh more information about RPE. But again, it's rate of perceived exertion. It is a scale of one to ten. It could be zero to ten. Some people say zero, but zero is basically not moving at all or doing anything. And then one is like really light effort, and then ten is that whole like totally intense, all out. You can't hold it uh for too long uh because your body won't let you, so you're maxing out. Okay. So effort is the internal load. It's it's what you're feeling. It's like when I say easy run, I tell my athletes you should be able to hold a conversation with somebody. Like that is an internal thing, though. Like you have to be able to work through that. Um, and then pace is that external output that comes from the effort. Again, you control your effort, you are not controlling your pace. Um, so if any of you struggle with that, by the way, just take some shit off your watch face. I know people who glance at their watch quite often, take some data off there. That's part of my RPE episodes, is taking data off your watch so it doesn't distract you. But anyway, just know that pace is influenced by terrain, heat, sleep, stress, hormones, altitude, all the different things. Effort reflects what your body is actually doing. So even though your effort can be impacted by those things, you still have control of your effort, right? If you are going in an effort level of, let's say four, which is in that easy effort range, you should be able to talk to somebody. Um, you should be able to just like run very like it shouldn't feel like you're just out of breath. It shouldn't feel hard. It should basically feel like you could run all day, right? Because that's what we do in Ultra sometimes. We run all day into the night, sometimes in the next few days. So we want to make sure we are focusing on that. You're gonna hear me mention that quite a bit because it is so hard. People start, we're gonna talk about comparing themselves to others, seeing stuff on Strava, seeing stuff on Instagram, and they push, push, push, push, push, and they don't get faster. Maybe they simply plateau, which isn't fun, but then also at the same same time, they could start seeing that they start declining, they start getting slower, or they feel more sluggish, or they feel more fatigued. So that is why this episode is super important because mentally we're trying to push and push and push, and we're not getting the returns that we want to see. So, and we do have some control over that. So, all right. So, why does the effort actually matter though? So, when we think about that easy effort, uh, which is what I've been mentioning, right? Because I feel like that's one of the hardest ones for people to hit because we're not good at like easing back on ourselves. We think let's push harder and harder, let's work more and more, and we're gonna get faster, we're gonna get stronger, we're gonna get more efficient. We do the same thing at work sometimes, you know. Maybe we're going for a promotion, maybe we're new at a job, maybe that's just how our brain works, and we want to work as hard as we can and think the harder and harder we push, the longer and longer hours we put in and all this, we'll get more recognition. Uh, we're gonna learn more, we're gonna get all of this stuff. And that's not always the case because that's a result. Like you cannot control the result from that. So, but that easy effort, right? We're gonna build that aerobic base. That is so important in trail running, especially ultra running. It also improves recovery. Um, you'll see, like, if you've ever done a long run and you have to run the next day or even a couple days later, you're gonna have a recovery run that's an easy run. So it helps you continue to move, but still helps you recover at the same time. It helps build durability, it can help keep that cortisol level low or level lower too, and it also allows for consistency. If we do not do easy runs mainly, like that's what your main run should be, you're not gonna be able to be consistent for too long. You're not gonna be able to build off of that base. Um, so that is why that is important, and most of your runs are done in that easy effort level. So typically like two to five, you'll hear some coaches say two to four, some will say three to four. Um, it just depends on who's coaching you, but they should all be explaining it in that very in a very similar way to that. So just remember, it's it's a conversational pace. Then we get into those harder efforts, right? So that like five and above. Um, so five is that midway point all the way up to we can say ten. A lot of times though, like that ten, if you were going all out, you can't hold it um as uh you can't hold it for a very long time. So like for VO2 Max workouts, which are the ones where you push the hardest, like a lot of times I put like I prescribe like a nine for that. That way you can continue pushing because some of my athletes I get them up to four minute intervals for that. But what does pushing hard do? It raises that ceiling. So your your VO2 max ceiling, it's gonna raise that. And I am gonna do an episode on VO2 Max. It's actually already written out and everything. I just have to do it, so it will be later this month, hopefully. Um, but what that does, it helps improve that like oxygen efficiency. So um it also allows that lactate threshold, and I'm gonna talk about that in just a second, it allows that ceiling to raise too. So your VO2 max ceiling is where is it's basically as high as you can go. The next part of the uh training block will be lactate threshold. And what lactate does is, or what lactate threshold does is you it improves that lactate clearance. So you as you are running, um, and then if you start feeling some kind of way, if you start feeling a little bit sore or like your legs are starting to feel heavy, more than likely that lactate is building up. So if you can raise your VO2 max and then do workouts that raise your lactate threshold where to slap that are slightly less effort than what a VO2 max is, you can clear lactate better, which pushes back that soreness, which pushes back that heaviness, um, which then will help you in the very last block of your training, which is the endurance block of training, which is lower effort levels but higher volume. So all of it builds on one another. And I'm gonna summarize that because I went through it kind of quick and I am gonna do separate episodes on all of these. But VO2 Max is your first block when you get into a training block for a race and it raises your ceiling. That's gonna help you improve your oxygency. From there, that you go into that lactate threshold block. That also you want to raise because you want to clear that lactate, clear what makes your legs feel heavy, clear that soreness for a much longer period of time because you are gonna be out there for a much longer period of time. And then from there, you're gonna get into your endurance block. Um, and those are even less effort, but again, more volume, and that's gonna help you build even more of that race capacity that you have to be able to go longer, stronger, more efficiently, and sometimes even faster. So that's why effort, those hard effort levels are important to figure out, because it does help you get to the point where you're not sore so early and you can keep moving. So, what's so important really though, overall about this? If everything is is ran at medium to hard, you don't adapt properly. That's where your diminishing returns live. I have had athletes, I have had friends be like, hey, I'm not getting any faster. And if you can really get them to dive into their effort level, they're gonna say they are definitely pushing too hard. Some might be a little stubborn about it, don't get me wrong, but like normally they don't, they aren't pushing hard enough. Somebody's like, well, this person's doing this and they're getting faster. We're gonna get into comparison comparison because that's where I see a lot of issues happening uh in our brains about effort. You can't do what somebody else does. Their experience is much different. I have been doing this for a while, I have been running for a while. My VO2 max block includes two VO2 max workouts a week. Two. I have athletes who I do one a week when they're in that block because they have never done them before, maybe they are newer to this part, and I know they're still gonna get the same physiological adaptations. Since I've been doing this longer, I need a bit more to get more of a bump. So that's why training will not look the same between runners. Because of that, we're different. We have different experiences. Maybe somebody's taking a 20-year break, maybe somebody's never ran before, maybe somebody's been running for 20 years and looking for some performance help, and they all they've only been doing easy runs. Or maybe they haven't pushing too hard for too long. So what I'm saying is don't compare yourself. I got ahead of myself, but don't compare yourself to others when it comes to working out based on effort. So, why do I keep mentioning diminishing returns? How many times have I said it so far? 10, 15? I don't know. We'll figure it out. But let's talk about this. When runners push their easy days too hard, when you turn recovery runs into the secret tempo run because you decide to push, um, when you chase a number on your watch, when you look down and you're actually running at a gr at a good pace for your e or you're running at an easy effort, but the pace doesn't show as you would like it, you start deciding to chase that number. When you compare your easy pace to someone else's easy pace too, that's when we see those diminishing returns. And what happens with when you do that? You start to accumulate more fatigue, you blunt your aerobic development, you're never truly recovering, which means you're not going to get any faster because your body is constantly trying to catch up. Um, and also you may never truly go hard enough either. On those other effort levels that I talked about, those higher ones, those VO2 max, the runs you do in your lactate threshold, you will struggle to go hard enough because you're already in fatigue from making your easy runs not actually an easy run. So you end up stuck in this gray zone where you're not going easy enough to recover, you're also not going hard enough to improve because you're not breaking up your runs like you should. And so what do people do then? They push harder and that's the trap. They they think more effort, but that's that that's gonna build. No, more effort means less adaptation, and that's the diminishing returns. So, what that means, if you chase the result instead of managing the stimulus, like I mentioned earlier, effort is the stimulus, you stall. So that is why this is so freaking important for runners. You keep chasing some result, you keep chasing instead of managing that effort, managing that stimulus, you're gonna hit a wall. Same goes for life, same goes for work, same goes for all that stuff. You keep pushing harder and harder, and that doesn't necessarily mean better and better. And typically it doesn't. You've got to figure out how to work through those things. So, what I really want to hone in though is why why is easy so mentally hard for people? Well, and it depends again on your background and all that stuff. I know for me, like I was told growing up in sports and I played sports a lot, like always give 110%. Um, and it's crazy, it wasn't until I would say like late 20s. I finally, I think I saw an I saw an interview with some athlete, couldn't even tell you who it was, or I read I'm pretty sure I read about it, but it was like the athlete's like, dude, we don't give 110%. We give like 60% at practice sometimes. Sometimes it's 80%. They're like, we can't always go, go, go, because our bodies break down and we can't perform like we do. We always have quality workouts, but we don't always push at that way up there. And by the way, you can't push 210%, that's bullshit. But that's neither here nor there. So like, but we were told that always put in that extra effort, always do this, always that. It's gonna like show up this way, and that is so false. It's just misinformation. And a lot of people who were saying this were not saying this to like make you run this hard later in life, or they weren't doing that to make you like be worse. They really believed that. So just so you know, me saying that, I'm not trying to diss the people who said it. I'm sure I said it when I was younger too, but like it really isn't how things work. Um, other things are we associate slow with lazy, or we we associate like if we're not pushing hard all the time, we're being lazy. We tie our identity too much to pace instead of effort. Um, and again, we cannot control our pace all the time, but we can control our effort. We fear we're gonna lose fitness. We fear we're not gonna gain fitness. We compare ourselves constantly. Uh, you could be you could check out uh people other people who are running the same race as you, you could be on Strava, you could see it on Instagram. Wherever it is, you can see things and you're just constantly comparing yourself to other people, not even thinking about how different the backgrounds are between you guys, how different your experiences are, what your goals could be. Somebody could be doing a training race, somebody could be using for this a race, right? We gotta stop comparing. I'm gonna say that a million times during this episode, too, because you are your own unique self and your effort is your effort, your races are your races, your goals are your goals, so you gotta stop looking at other people. Uh, we think suffering equals progress. I think that is a big one for a lot of us and everything in life. We equate it to like, hey, like if we feel a little bit bad, we're making progress. It's I feel like I mentioned this a couple of podcast episodes, just briefly. But a lot of people, um, when I start working with them, if they've never lifted weights or they've lifted weights for a while and we're talking about things like, oh yeah, I just trashed my legs, I love it. But they're like they're always sore after weightlifting session, is what it is. Always, every single time. That doesn't mean you're making progress. You could actually be hindering recovery recovery. Why do I mention weightlifting now? Uh, first of all, because DOMS is a real real thing. Delayed onset muscle soreness, by the way, that's what DOMS is. I try not to throw too many acronyms in without explaining them. But that is when you get sore, like some people get sore 24 hours later, some are 48 hours later. And it's okay to be a little bit sore sometimes, but especially as a trail runner, ultralunner, like you don't want to be sore all the way all the time because that takes away from your running capacity. So why am I mentioning that? Because people think when they are sore after weightlifting that they've done something good, that that's a good thing. It's not always bad, but it's not always good. If I was sore every time I lifted weights, I think I'd feel crappy all the time. I think I probably would have given up on running um already. But all that's doing is the continuous push, is what I said, like the continuous suffering, all you're doing is breaking your body down. And that's gonna lead to those diminishing returns, which then can lead to burnout or just you never get any faster and you're just frustrated all the time, you're not even liking what you're doing anymore. So. Um, also we're just perfectionists. Uh, I always laugh, like I'm like, I'm I'm a recovering perfectionist and people pleaser, but I am. And maybe you're that way too. So you feel like you need to be doing things in this way. Like this run should be this perfect, so it should be this pace. And I'm gonna tell you, transitioning from road to trails, it was very, very humbling. And it was hard. There were times where I had pushed myself and I wanted to keep up with people. It's it's why I don't do a whole bunch of group runs, um, like go to different group runs because I want to do my own effort level. Like I have my own thing I'm doing out there because I do have my own goals. And I'm not saying group runs are bad, I think they're fabulous. It's how I started trail running, but it also makes us try to run at other people's paces. Um, so I'm also gonna do an episode about no-drop group runs because some of them are just liars. Uh, that's off topic. But so what we want what what what's what what I want you to take away from like this part? Like, what is it? Like, why why is this so mentally hard? I mean, I'm gonna repeat this a couple of times too. Easy feels wrong because we've been conditioned to equate struggle with value. And I'm gonna repeat that because I think a lot of us are gonna do the do this in everyday life. Easy feels wrong because we've been conditioned to equate struggle with value. And mentally, that's way harder than the physical discomfort. You can actually run easy physically. Like, that is something that like your body's like, yeah, like once you nail, I'd say I'm the queen of easy runs because I am. I will voice message my athletes when I'm running easy up a hill if I think about something. And I'm like, hey, this is how you should sound. This is how you should sound. Like, you should be able to talk to somebody. But mentally, mentally, that's where people start to crack. They are just like, no, like again, easy feels wrong because we've conditioned to equate struggle with value. So we keep pushing too hard, we keep pushing too hard, and we start seeing diminishing returns, so we push harder. And here's the deal it's not always because you don't know better. Uh, there are so many times that like people are like, hey, take a break, especially now there's more talk about mental health and all of that. Like, hey, take a break. Hey, go easy on yourself, hey, give yourself some grace, give yourself permission to take a nap. I'm really bad about that. All that, but it's not because we don't know better, it's because we don't trust it. We have had this solid foundation of struggle is awesome, struggle is awesome, struggle makes us better, struggle does this, struggle does this. No, that's not the case. I'm not saying challenges don't help challenges don't help us at all, but if we are always struggling, if we feel like we're on the struggle bus on every run, something's wrong. More than likely you're pushing too hard when you shouldn't be. And then when you have the opportunity to push hard because you get to work, you get a workout that says, hey, you gotta push hard. You're gonna get this if you push hard, you can't push as hard as you want to, so you're not getting those gains either. So you're just missing out. So easy feels wrong because we've been conditioned to equate struggle with value. So that's something we've got to change in our brains. Alright, also, I know I mentioned comparison several times, but I have a whole section for it too. Um, comparison is killing your effort. Uh, whether you're actually running with people at that time, whether you're just running by yourself and you're thinking about this stuff, whether you're seeing it on social media and it's bringing you down, whether it's on Strava, uh, whether you're just having a chat with friends about runs and you hear their pace, and it's like, oh my god, like my pace isn't like this, and I've been training and I've been doing this and all this stuff. So, like, this is where like we've gotta stop. We've first of all we gotta say stop equating struggle with value, right? We've gotta stop comparing. All right. When you're checking up who signed it up for a race, the same race you did, when you're comparing those paces on Strava, when you're comparing your easy pace numbers to somebody else's easy or easy pace, we'll call them easy effort pace numbers to somebody else's, when you're comparing body types, when you're comparing mileage, all that stuff, you stop training for your effort, you start chasing theirs. And their effort is not your effort. That is a huge, huge problem. It is one reason why I will discourage some people from going to group runs if they cannot get into their effort level. I'm not saying no, no, no, don't ever go to a group run, run solo, you've got your own goals. No, the trail running community is social. That's one of the reasons I love it. But there are times when you need to go out on your own and figure out what the heck you need to do for you. And a lot of that has to do with effort. I've also got a lot of feels about how like doing things solo builds your confidence in everything you do. And I'm not just talking about running. I'm saying, what, last summer I went to a WNBA game solo, which may not sound like a big deal, but it's for me, it was like going to a concert solo. I just don't do the like that's for me is like a friend thing, or like going with a partner or doing those things. But like after I went, I was like, dude, that was so much fun, and I just talked and I cheered with people. So that's what I'm talking about when it comes to like, hey, like, you don't have to do what everybody else is doing, and sometimes you need that solo time because it helps build confidence, it helps you learn your effort, it makes you stop chasing others. So, again, still go to group runs, but figure out your own shit too. Uh so um, so just the one thing that you can repeat to yourself too, like some people have mantras, their effort is not your effort. If you're on a group run and you find yourself like I'm supposed to be running easy and you find yourself breathy, you're I mean, I don't know just breath, I mean like you couldn't talk, you couldn't sc uh spit out more than two words. You need to pull back. You need to say, their effort is not your effort. Because if you go their effort, you may think you're pushing harder and you are, and you may think you're gonna get faster and you think you're gonna get stronger, but you're not because you're running somebody else's run. So remember, you could have a different training age. What do I mean by training age? How long you've been doing this kind of stuff. Um, whether it's running, whether it's sports, I feel extremely fortunate that I've played sports all myself, and I think it's helped me with discipline like in ultra running, but I have met a lot of people who have not trained for as long as I have, and it does make a difference in what your effort levels versus your pace levels are. You have different stress, you have different terrain, you have different genetics, you have different life. I mean, life and work have a huge thing to do with your effort levels there. Some people have way more stressful jobs than what I have. Um, some people work longer hours, some people work Work midnights, like there are so many things that impact what you do out there on the trails. So nobody is exactly the same. So when you train based on someone else's output, you disconnect from your own body. And I am a huge, huge fan of people connecting to their own body, connecting to what you can do, connecting to yourself mentally, emotionally, and physically when you're out there running. Like it is so important to know yourself. Um, but this is literally when diminishing returns uh sneak in. When you just disconnect from yourself and you're just seeing what everybody else is doing. I I can't guarantee at a 100% that if you follow a certain plan, like your coach's plan, that you're gonna be like number one in every race you do. But you're if your coach knows what they're talking about, and I like to think I know I'm talking about because I do, you're gonna get results from that. You are gonna get faster, you are gonna get more efficient, you are gonna be able to run up that hill that you've been running to run up, but you can never figure out why. And it's because you've always been pushing yourself too hard, right? So you've got to be in touch with your body and figure out what your effort levels are, right? So stop comparing. But if if if it means taking Strava off your phone, take it off your phone. You can still be connected to Strava, by the way, just so you know if it's net absent on your phone. Um, it can still actually link. But like I I encourage people, hey, stop following people on social media that bring you down. And it's not because it's that person's fault, it's because that's on you. But what can you control? You can just take them off. You don't have to see what they're doing. Unfollow people on Strava, take it off your phone, like I just mentioned. There may be physical things you have to do to be able to get that mental clarity and stop comparing yourself to others, right? So their effort is not your effort. Write it down, use it as a mantra, remember it. It's a good one. So also, you gotta give yourself some permission, right? So we've talked about how like comparison is not good. We've talked about the diminishing returns and like how we how why we do that, like because we're told to go to 100 to uh 10%, because we tie our identity to our pace, because we fear losing fitness, because we think uh that struggle um is equated, or sorry, that to equate struggle with value is what we do, right? We've talked about all of that. So what's the permission piece? You have permission to run easy on your easy days. My coach tells me, and I will tell my athletes this same thing, it is better to go too easy than too hard on your easy days. And what do I mean by that? Heck, sometimes I'm running at a two instead of like a four, and that's okay. Like there's nothing wrong with that. So run easy on your easy days. Give yourself permission to do that. Do not give your permission to yourself permission to run hard on your easy days. Leave those easy runs feeling like you could have done more. I'm not saying you're training for a huge race and you went out for like a six-hour long run and you're like, man, I could totally do some more. Like, that's great. I mean, hopefully you still you don't feel wrecked, but you still might be at the end of six hours, right? I don't get I I know how those long training run goes. You're just like, okay, like I'm good, I want to go home eat eat breakfast or lunch or whatever time of day it is. But like, but don't, but you should not leave those long runs feeling like you're just dead and you need to take three or four days to recover. Like, you should still be able to at least feel like you can move. Stop adjusting your pace to look better. So give yourself permission to stop adjusting your pace to look better. If you are going at a comfortable pace and it is an easy effort and you are happy and you're moving, and then you look down, you're like, oh my gosh, this is a 14-minute mile. What? And then you adjust so you're faster instead of actually connecting to what your effort level is is at, that's a mistake. So give yourself permission to stop adjusting. Again, I gave that tip earlier. Take some stuff off your watch. I need to actually take pace off my I I only have I before I got this watch, new watch, and it's been, by the way, almost two years since I've had this watch, so it shows what I need to change. I had total time because I run based on time on feet, as everybody who is on the trail should do, by the way. Yes, I said should do. Running by mileage is not a good idea. I actually do coach one person by mileage because they request it when I was a newer trail running coach, and I still honor that, but it is very hard for me to do because I'm always thinking about the time on feet. So, but yeah, see, totally, look at that. Went on a total tangent. Imagine that. That's just me. But what you want to have on your watch, like if especially running by time, I would say have, if you want, time on feet. You could have just that one single thing. We already know why in an older episode of why you don't need heart rate on there. Um, medically, by the way, if you have a medical thing, I hope you have over the right heart strap and all of that. That this does not go for you, but like most people, as long as you like have a well-functioning heart, nothing's wrong with it, don't have the heart rate on there. So have time on feet, do not have pace on there. Sometimes I do have mileage on mine. It has nothing to do with anything on in terms of like my pace. I literally just w whenever I'm trying to figure out like where the heck I'm going and where I'm at, I do know, hey, I've got two miles left, but I've got an hour left in my run. Uh, okay, like I learned when I say two miles, I'm two miles left to the trail, not two miles left run, two miles left on the trailhead, but I have an hour left in my on my run. I know that I want to do some kind of backtraging because I don't want to get to my car because I know I still have more time on feet left, right? So that's why I have mileage on my watch. So like I say, time on feet, time of day if you want it on there, and mileage. But take off that pace. That way you can actually focus on effort, right? So that way you can't look down at your watch and be like, oh my gosh, that's how slow I'm going. No, that's not what trail running is about. It is all about effort. Give yourself permission to stop checking who entered that same race as you. Don't look at it. What why do you care so much about who else is in that race? If it is a race you are on fire for, and when it comes to ultrarunning, especially, any of my athletes will test this. I say pick the one you've got fire for. Get a little fire in your belly and go for it. I'm not saying you never sign up for a race with a friend or a partner or anything like that. But when you are doing a 50K, especially if it's your first one, if when you were doing a 100K, 100 miler, 150 plus miler, 200 plus miler, all of those races, you gotta get a fire in your belly for that. Because when you have that fire, you're not so worried about what other people are doing. You are too focused on yourself to even think about those other people, right? So also give yourself permission to not listen to whatever the hell elites are saying. Um, I'm not saying they're all wrong, but they are in that top 1%. So their workouts are gonna look different than yours. Their fueling is gonna look different than yours. All of that is going to look different, right? So I follow the rule pretty much it, it's it's not exact. Most of your runs are easy. You get one workout a week typically. Some of my more experienced athletes get two workouts out a week, depending on where they're at in their block and what they're training for and what their goals are. But like these other athletes, their volumes higher, they normally have some more intense workouts, they fuel differently, all of those things. Give yourself permission to not take their advice. Maybe that sounds counterintuitive to you, but the more I look at the research that's out there, the more I see a lot of the research, it's based on elite athletes. And we are not elite athletes, and that's okay. There are things that we can build up and there are things we can learn. I learned so much from those research articles. I learned so much even from elite athletes, but a lot of us cannot take what they do and say, take it with a grain of salt and only apply what is for you. That's why I'm a coach. I like to help people with that. But give yourself permission to not do exactly what elite athletes do. Give yourself permission to stop feeling following elite athletes on Instagram. Give yourself permission and maybe unsubscribe from the feed email because I'm getting really irritated at those because that has become so sales and they're putting so much research about elite athletes and how you should buy this carbon, how you should buy this electrolyte, and how you should buy this supplement. So give yourself permission to unsubscribe from the feed. I did that. That's why, that's why I think Catherine might have too. Hey, Catherine. But they are putting out so much information now about all these things you should buy because this elite does that and this elite does that, and buy this supplement and get this thing and all these things, and it's become so salesy that, first of all, it doesn't tempt me to buy anything. I just get annoyed. But the whole point of those marketing materials from anybody, not just the feed, but other places, is to get you to buy their shit. And you don't need all that shit. I'm just telling you. So I will still order from the feed because they have sample packs and things that I like and they have certain sales, but I will not be, I am uns, I have unsubscribed from their emails because they have so much information in there that's overwhelming, and all they're trying to do is sell you stuff. So a little bit of a tangent, but give yourself permission to do that. Unsubscribe. That way you're not seeing stuff that does not actually apply to you, or you're not sure how to what information you can take from it. I love it. I have a couple athletes who actually send me articles they'll see, not just from the not from like the feed emails, but like other stuff too, and they'll be like, What do you think? Or like, hey, I saw this, and like sometimes it's like, oh, that's actually really cool. Other times it's like, yeah, like I'll I would take this from it if I were you and take this from it, but this is like, man, that's really for an elite athlete. So um, anyway, that's that. That was my kind of tant and my kind of rant and rave about that. Um, also stop, give yourself permission to stop trying to prove something every single run. If you want to prove to yourself that you can run easy, I'm all for it. Go for that. Prove to yourself you can run easy, but stop trying to prove that you can always push harder, that you can run faster, that you can do do all these things. Do your prescribed runs because that's when you will see returns. You will see that positive. You will see improved fitness, you will see improved pace, you will see that you can go up a hill stronger, you will see that you can go downhill with more control. You will see more results by doing those easy runs easy, by doing your hard workouts at the prescribed RPE that you're supposed to be in, by doing your long runs at the prescribed whatever it is, whether it's race specific specificity at an easy effort, whether you're doing some intervals in there, whatever it is, but stop fighting so hard about what you actually really need to do. Stop trying to be like somebody else, stop trying to chase somebody else, stop comparing to other people. Your job is to focus on your effort, not theirs. And from there, you build and you're gonna have improved fitness. You're gonna see the things that you want to see. So, alright. So let's let's talk about a couple like tactical things. I'm not gonna make this long so I've kind of been uh interweaving them in there because I get jump ahead and jump around and my bullet points are ridiculous. But think about like could the could I do more tests, which I mentioned earlier. So if you finish an easy run and you feel like you could have gone another 10 or 15 minutes without without dread, like it would have been fine, you definitely nailed it. I know for long runs that's not always the case because well, I don't know, I don't know how many live in hot climates in Arizona or Phoenix gets really, really hot. So there are sometimes after like even a three-hour run, you're like, okay, done. But it's not from the effort just because it's freaking hot outside. But if you finish an easy run, you could have done another 10 to 15 minutes without dread. You nailed it. You fucking nailed it. Yeah, you do it. All right, go out and try that. Um, I mentioned like taking some data off your watch. I know people who will tape over their watch. So cover your watch on easy days. I would cover it all the time, really, but like if you are struggling, because I did I mentioned easy the most here, because most people are willing to push themselves hard. I'm not saying those effort levels that are higher aren't harder to like nail for the different like levels, but the hardest one is easy because when you push your easy self so hard, that's whenever you can't push yourself hard enough when you're supposed to, and you get those diminishing returns, or you plateau. So cover your watch if you want. If you don't want to take it all off, or if you hate technology because sometimes taking stuff off is not easy, I totally get that. Cover it up with a piece of tape, maybe flip it over so it's on the bottom of your wrist. I don't know if that would stop anybody. I don't think it'd stop me. But run by your breath and feel and check your pace when you're done. Like just look at you can still look at those data points when you're done and you can be like, ah, I what I really like to do is like I don't glance at my watch often. Um like I just don't. It's just become a habit. But if I have an easy effort run and like one week I did a certain route and then the next week I did the exact same route, uh, it's or maybe it's even three weeks later that I did the exact same route route, and I was like, man, that felt really good. Like it felt easy. And then I realized I did that route a little bit faster because I've been focusing on doing my easy efforts easy, my workouts at the prescribed RP, and then my long runs at the easy effort if that's what I'm doing at that time. So it's okay to check it later. It's actually kind of fun to check it later because, you know, again, you can see your progress when you do that. But how you compare progress, it's comparing an easy effort to an easy effort. Not your easy effort to somebody else's run, but your, your effort to theirs. And it needs to be the exact same route because we've already talked, terrain is different, elevation is different, climbing and descending is different. So it is fun to see those things. Um, and you can see those very easily, apparently, if you pay for Strava. I do not, um, because I don't look at my data that closely. Uh, but I look at my athletes that closely, but it's in a different app. But like you can actually see that in Strava, just so you know. So you don't have to worry about looking at while you're running. Strava has it all for you, or Garmin, or Koros, or whatever you run with. Okay, so cover your watch, change the data on it, whichever one you want to do, but don't have data on there that distracts you from being in the moment of your run. Commit to true hard days. So, what do I mean by that? If it's a workout day, show up like it's a workout. Push. Push like you're supposed to, whether it's a VO2 max and an eight to nine, whether it's uh running your lactate threshold block of like a si seven-ish. I say seven-ish because, well, lots of ish. But like, get that seven. Show up and do that work. Again, why do we not do that work normally? Normally it's because we think we're pushing at that harder effort and we're trying, but we're so focused on pace, we have no idea what effort we're in. So focus on the effort. Show up for the workout with effort in mind. So, easy effort days, keep it easy. Workout days, do the prescribed RPE. That's it. That's it. And I understand, like, if you do not have a coach, that's perfectly fine. I know plenty of people who do not use coaches. Um, but you can find plans online even that are templated that will have prescribed RPEs in there. If you are looking at an ultrarrunning plan and it has miles um and no like prescribed runs of like this is a tempo, this is um, this is an easy run, whatever, I wouldn't use those plans, but you can find plans that actually have all that information in there. So make sure that when you are looking at these plans, though, like it does have effort levels in there because it will help you. A coach will help you a little bit more because you can get explanations, you can ask questions, all of those things. But like make sure that you're running most of your runs should be easy. If you get a plan where it's 50-50, 50 hard 50% hard days, 50% easy days, so there's something wrong there. So if you are looking at finding a plan, you know, you can use the 80-20 rule, which is 80% easy, 20% like harder, and long runs. Um, it could be not long runs, I'm sorry, harder runs. Um, it could be 90-10, you know, something like that. It could be 70-30. It is very nuanced. However, if you're looking for a template plan because you cannot afford a coach, you do not want a coach, that's the tip to look for something like that. You don't want to have something that pushes you too hard all the time. You also don't want to have one that lacks workouts because it does help. All right, so again, those are could you do more after an easy run? Uh cover your watch or or change the watch screen so you don't have so much distracting data. And then commit to show uping up on your on your really hard days. Like make those, I don't know, not all really hard, some are like medium hard, but commit to showing up for those, like at the right effort level. Now, most runners don't plateau because they're not capable. They plateau because they don't trust easy. They chase pace, they chase comparison, and they chase validation. And they forget the most powerful thing in endurance sports, which is effort is internal. It's honest, it's adjustable, and it's yours. If you can master your effort, not your ego, not your watch, not someone else's entry list, you build something that actually lasts. So train your effort, and then the pace just follows. Right? So, what did I say earlier? Do you guys remember? I'm just gonna repeat this one because I think it needs to be said. Easy feels wrong because we've been conditioned to equate struggle with value. Struggle is not value. I'm not saying struggle is never helpful, but don't make easy feel wrong because of that. So walk away with that one. So train your effort. Your effort, not theirs. Alright, this episode hit for you. Even if it didn't hit, why don't you share it with a friend? Why don't you give me a follow if you haven't any in at all? Um if you haven't yet. Wow, words. I need some water. Um, but yeah, like totally go ahead. Send it to a friend, send it to a training partner, send it to somebody who you think could hear about this, who's always pushing hard, even if it's not and running. Uh, make sure like you've subscribed, followed, you know, so you don't miss mix the next one, miss the next one. Because I could talk about VO2 Max. I could get something else, you know, that I decided to talk about too. Uh, and if you got a minute, you know, leave a review, leave a rating. It does help reach um other people. You don't have to type anything out. You can just hit the star. You can just hit the star, and that's it. That's it. I know there's people listening who haven't ranked me yet, so let's do ranked me, rated me. So, all right, that's all I got for that. But now go move your body, drink some water, stretch your calves, and if you're listening while running, loosen your shoulders. You're welcome. Good effort, positive attitude.