1 00:00:00,200 --> 00:00:04,080 You're listening to episode 165 of the Marathon Running Podcast. 2 00:00:04,360 --> 00:00:08,160 In this episode, we're going to talk about the six phases of 3 00:00:08,160 --> 00:00:18,640 marathon training. This is the Marathon Running 4 00:00:18,640 --> 00:00:21,240 podcast by Letty and Ryan from We Got the Runs. 5 00:00:21,640 --> 00:00:24,520 Join us in our running community for weekly content that is 6 00:00:24,520 --> 00:00:27,600 motivational, educational and inspirational. 7 00:00:27,800 --> 00:00:30,280 And let the Marathon Running Podcast take you from the 8 00:00:30,280 --> 00:00:32,840 starting line to the finish line and beyond. 9 00:00:37,510 --> 00:00:40,910 Hey, runners, and welcome to episode 165. 10 00:00:40,950 --> 00:00:42,950 I'm your host, laddie. And I'm Ryan. 11 00:00:43,110 --> 00:00:45,710 And you're listening to the Marathon Running Podcast, a 12 00:00:45,710 --> 00:00:49,550 podcast on all things running, running, nutrition, training, 13 00:00:49,550 --> 00:00:53,750 inspiration, and so on. As always, we're very grateful 14 00:00:53,750 --> 00:00:56,790 for everyone that listens. Hopefully we provide some value 15 00:00:56,950 --> 00:00:59,870 or entertainment for your day and give you some good 16 00:00:59,870 --> 00:01:01,910 information that makes running more fun. 17 00:01:02,300 --> 00:01:05,060 Yes, absolutely. Thank you for taking us on your 18 00:01:05,060 --> 00:01:09,100 long runs with you. That was a mouthful and we're 19 00:01:09,100 --> 00:01:11,820 grateful that you have chosen to listen to this podcast. 20 00:01:11,820 --> 00:01:15,140 And as Ryan said, hopefully the information that you'll listen 21 00:01:15,140 --> 00:01:18,900 to today will provide you with what you need to make your 22 00:01:18,900 --> 00:01:21,440 running even better. So who do we got today? 23 00:01:21,440 --> 00:01:23,720 You talked about what we're talking about, but it's actually 24 00:01:23,720 --> 00:01:25,000 you're talking about a book, right? 25 00:01:25,520 --> 00:01:29,960 Yes, well, I'm actually talking about something someone wrote. 26 00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:33,200 That's a book, yes. Not always. 27 00:01:33,200 --> 00:01:34,720 But in this case it's a book, right? 28 00:01:35,080 --> 00:01:35,760 Yes. OK. 29 00:01:36,000 --> 00:01:39,960 So today we are actually talking about a part of the book by 30 00:01:39,960 --> 00:01:43,040 Chris Knighton, who is the head coach of Knighton Runs Marathon 31 00:01:43,040 --> 00:01:45,160 Coaching. He has written a book called Run 32 00:01:45,160 --> 00:01:47,680 Faster Marathons, the Proven path to Pr's. 33 00:01:48,020 --> 00:01:52,220 And one of the segments in his book, one of the chapters goes 34 00:01:52,220 --> 00:01:55,500 into the details of the six phases of marathon training. 35 00:01:55,700 --> 00:01:58,740 So he's a repeat guest to our podcast and hopefully some of 36 00:01:58,740 --> 00:02:00,780 the listeners have maybe bought his book and read it. 37 00:02:01,260 --> 00:02:03,620 Yes, at this point. However, we are still linking 38 00:02:03,620 --> 00:02:07,340 his book and his social media on our show notes. 39 00:02:07,340 --> 00:02:11,980 So if you want to know more and inquire, maybe talk to him, 40 00:02:12,220 --> 00:02:14,260 that's where you'll find that in our show notes. 41 00:02:14,340 --> 00:02:16,420 If you like what you hear, there's more. 42 00:02:16,850 --> 00:02:19,130 Exactly, Exactly. So we're diving into these 43 00:02:19,130 --> 00:02:21,210 topics pretty deeply, I would say. 44 00:02:21,210 --> 00:02:23,690 But of course there's always more information to be provided. 45 00:02:23,970 --> 00:02:28,290 It's a great read, and he has a great way of organizing his 46 00:02:28,290 --> 00:02:32,370 information concisely. So out of all, you know, the 47 00:02:32,370 --> 00:02:34,490 book's obviously much larger than what we're going over 48 00:02:34,490 --> 00:02:38,210 today, but like what made you choose the topics today? 49 00:02:38,950 --> 00:02:40,190 That's a really good. Question. 50 00:02:40,350 --> 00:02:43,990 And the answer to this is because we are in July right 51 00:02:43,990 --> 00:02:48,670 now, and fall marathons start generally towards the end of 52 00:02:48,670 --> 00:02:51,470 September and then October and then even some in November. 53 00:02:51,670 --> 00:02:55,350 So we are 12 weeks out from the Chicago Marathon, which is 54 00:02:55,470 --> 00:02:58,830 October 8th. We are 11 weeks out from the 55 00:02:59,510 --> 00:03:02,750 Berlin Marathon and all those marathons that people sign up 56 00:03:02,750 --> 00:03:05,010 for. So it makes sense to jump into 57 00:03:05,010 --> 00:03:08,890 that because a regular marathon running cycle is about 16 to 20 58 00:03:08,890 --> 00:03:12,570 weeks and I wish we would have had this interview sooner, but I 59 00:03:12,570 --> 00:03:15,090 was abroad. But also taken into 60 00:03:15,090 --> 00:03:17,930 consideration that a lot of the marathon training plans that are 61 00:03:17,930 --> 00:03:21,770 a little bit longer include a month and 1/2 or sometimes even 62 00:03:21,770 --> 00:03:24,530 more of base training. I think this is still coming in 63 00:03:24,530 --> 00:03:29,130 timely to where it can be helpful for everyone who is on 64 00:03:29,130 --> 00:03:33,820 the path to a fall marathon. Suboptimal timing, but still OK. 65 00:03:34,060 --> 00:03:37,060 No, I think it's still great because and also you know this 66 00:03:37,060 --> 00:03:40,260 is probably, even if it is your first marathon, is not going to 67 00:03:40,260 --> 00:03:44,260 be your last marathon because a lot of marathon runners, as you 68 00:03:44,260 --> 00:03:47,220 might have experienced yourself having run the Stockholm 69 00:03:47,220 --> 00:03:50,500 marathon, get hooked on it, don't want to run more marathons 70 00:03:50,500 --> 00:03:53,100 in the future. And you, I think you brought up 71 00:03:53,100 --> 00:03:55,820 a good point that a lot of these marathon training programs kind 72 00:03:55,820 --> 00:03:58,930 of start off generalized and. And it's not necessarily 73 00:03:59,370 --> 00:04:03,050 difficult to just add in or change or even do something 74 00:04:03,050 --> 00:04:06,850 different through later on parts of the training, as long as 75 00:04:06,850 --> 00:04:08,250 you've just been running at the beginning. 76 00:04:08,880 --> 00:04:11,560 It's going to be beneficial too. Yeah, exactly. 77 00:04:11,560 --> 00:04:14,720 And then you can learn and implement stuff. 78 00:04:14,720 --> 00:04:19,320 Or even if you have a separate coach, you can understand why 79 00:04:19,640 --> 00:04:22,680 your training cycle is built the way it is. 80 00:04:22,720 --> 00:04:26,440 If it's like Chris's training cycle, it includes a lot of 81 00:04:26,440 --> 00:04:29,600 these separate elements. And then you can understand why 82 00:04:29,600 --> 00:04:32,280 it's important for your body to do certain things and not just 83 00:04:32,280 --> 00:04:34,680 follow a random plan without asking why. 84 00:04:34,680 --> 00:04:38,000 If I like asking why is a really important question for anything 85 00:04:38,000 --> 00:04:41,360 we do in life. Yeah, you know I'm totally that 86 00:04:41,360 --> 00:04:43,720 way. As you've known living with me 87 00:04:44,080 --> 00:04:45,600 is that I always need to know why. 88 00:04:45,800 --> 00:04:47,920 If something makes sense to me, I'm fine with it. 89 00:04:47,920 --> 00:04:50,280 But if I if it, you know, if it any. 90 00:04:50,400 --> 00:04:53,240 If I have any question along the way, you have to explain it to 91 00:04:53,240 --> 00:04:54,080 me. Yes. 92 00:04:54,080 --> 00:04:56,400 Like why are you going running Letty. 93 00:04:56,980 --> 00:04:59,420 Why are you aren't home? Why is dinner not made? 94 00:04:59,460 --> 00:05:02,740 Yeah, right. Like the last questions. 95 00:05:03,100 --> 00:05:05,260 If anyone actually knew us. Now everyone's going to think 96 00:05:05,260 --> 00:05:08,140 that I'm like this person that wants like dinner at home. 97 00:05:08,300 --> 00:05:11,580 So anyway, I'm the one that usually cooks in this house, but 98 00:05:11,580 --> 00:05:14,060 you do do dishes, and I'm grateful for that because I 99 00:05:14,060 --> 00:05:17,580 don't really like doing dishes. But there's no, there's no point 100 00:05:17,580 --> 00:05:20,580 in our life where I was expecting dinner when I came 101 00:05:20,580 --> 00:05:23,220 home, because if I had done that, then I probably wouldn't 102 00:05:23,220 --> 00:05:25,220 be married. You wouldn't be here. 103 00:05:25,840 --> 00:05:28,440 Exactly. So anyway, so do you want to hop 104 00:05:28,440 --> 00:05:32,280 into this interview? Without further ado. 105 00:05:32,720 --> 00:05:34,640 We're not going to play our conversation with Chris 106 00:05:34,640 --> 00:05:39,600 Knighton. And all right, I'm back on here 107 00:05:39,600 --> 00:05:42,080 with Chris Knighton from Knights and runs. 108 00:05:42,120 --> 00:05:44,240 Thank you, Chris, so much for joining me again. 109 00:05:45,160 --> 00:05:47,440 Hey buddy, I'm happy to be back. It's always a pleasure. 110 00:05:47,940 --> 00:05:52,940 Yes, for us to our listeners are very happy with the series of, 111 00:05:53,420 --> 00:05:55,700 you know, run coaching advice that we're getting for you. 112 00:05:55,700 --> 00:05:57,220 So we're super grateful for that. 113 00:05:57,900 --> 00:06:01,980 And today we wanted to hop into the six phases of marathon 114 00:06:01,980 --> 00:06:04,580 training. So maybe briefly just tell us 115 00:06:04,900 --> 00:06:08,780 why there is 6 phases before hopping into into any of them. 116 00:06:08,780 --> 00:06:11,140 Just give us a little brief overview how you came up with 117 00:06:11,140 --> 00:06:13,040 that. Sure. 118 00:06:13,040 --> 00:06:17,160 So this is my original concept based on what you may have heard 119 00:06:17,160 --> 00:06:20,360 referred to as the in the past as periodization. 120 00:06:20,600 --> 00:06:23,920 And that's kind of a a scary, complicated sounding word. 121 00:06:24,480 --> 00:06:28,760 But what it really boils down to is do you want to have different 122 00:06:28,760 --> 00:06:32,360 focuses on what you're trying to train or what what you're trying 123 00:06:32,360 --> 00:06:37,800 to do at different periods of time throughout your running? 124 00:06:38,460 --> 00:06:40,300 You don't always want to be doing the same thing. 125 00:06:40,300 --> 00:06:43,860 You don't always want to be trying to train every attribute 126 00:06:43,900 --> 00:06:48,860 of your fitness simultaneously. It's helpful to take a phased 127 00:06:48,860 --> 00:06:52,940 based approach over the course of a marathon training cycle. 128 00:06:53,740 --> 00:06:57,420 The phases are sequential and for for those listening the the 129 00:06:57,420 --> 00:07:02,100 six phases are first is base building, second is speed 130 00:07:02,100 --> 00:07:09,130 development, third is marathon specific training phase. 4th is 131 00:07:09,330 --> 00:07:15,050 tapering, 5 is your actual race day performance and then six is 132 00:07:15,050 --> 00:07:18,850 post race recovery period. So these are sequential. 133 00:07:20,610 --> 00:07:24,690 Some of the things overlap so they layer on top of each other. 134 00:07:24,690 --> 00:07:27,370 So the easy running that you've been doing in base building, 135 00:07:27,570 --> 00:07:30,490 that's going to continue in the speed development phase, but 136 00:07:30,490 --> 00:07:34,690 you're going to bring in the addition of one or two. 137 00:07:35,730 --> 00:07:41,250 Significantly fast their workouts per week and and as we 138 00:07:41,250 --> 00:07:45,490 do that, you have a clear, you have a clear understanding of 139 00:07:45,490 --> 00:07:48,770 what you're doing at each stage and a clear focus, which brings 140 00:07:48,770 --> 00:07:51,290 a lot of confidence with it, because by the time you've got 141 00:07:51,290 --> 00:07:54,010 to your marathon, you know you've done everything you can 142 00:07:54,010 --> 00:07:56,410 do to get you most prepared for your race. 143 00:07:57,770 --> 00:08:00,170 OK, perfect. So this kind kind of comes in a 144 00:08:00,170 --> 00:08:05,430 perfect timing because it is. July 14th as we're recording 145 00:08:05,430 --> 00:08:09,310 that we are about 12 weeks away from the Chicago Marathon, but 146 00:08:09,310 --> 00:08:12,190 then we also have Berlin and other marathons around that 147 00:08:12,190 --> 00:08:14,230 time, all these upcoming fall marathons. 148 00:08:14,390 --> 00:08:18,510 So ideally, how many weeks should your marathon cycle be? 149 00:08:18,710 --> 00:08:21,590 And if we don't have enough time, would we still be able to 150 00:08:21,590 --> 00:08:24,790 implement something like this? Yeah. 151 00:08:24,790 --> 00:08:29,830 So I generally think of a complete marathon training cycle 152 00:08:29,870 --> 00:08:32,669 in terms of about 16 to 20 weeks. 153 00:08:33,780 --> 00:08:38,780 It's possible to sign up for a marathon, say three months from 154 00:08:38,780 --> 00:08:42,220 today and shorten this to as many as about 12 weeks. 155 00:08:42,700 --> 00:08:46,020 But to give yourself enough time, you really want to take 156 00:08:46,300 --> 00:08:50,060 about 6 to 20 weeks, so we're talking four or five months. 157 00:08:51,300 --> 00:08:52,140 Okay. Perfect. 158 00:08:52,180 --> 00:08:54,420 And so I guess you're going to tell me now that we're going to 159 00:08:54,420 --> 00:08:58,250 hop into these phases. That the base building phase, 160 00:08:58,370 --> 00:09:02,050 how many weeks should that be? And maybe if we're already doing 161 00:09:02,050 --> 00:09:04,610 that, that would be the one that we would shorten if we are 162 00:09:04,610 --> 00:09:10,050 looking at a full marathon. Yeah, this is right. 163 00:09:10,570 --> 00:09:13,970 So when people, when people come to me from marathon training, I 164 00:09:13,970 --> 00:09:18,930 include the base building period in that 16 to 20 weeks period. 165 00:09:19,810 --> 00:09:22,850 But if you're someone who has been, you know, running 166 00:09:22,850 --> 00:09:26,250 consistently for a while and then you decide you want to do a 167 00:09:26,250 --> 00:09:31,130 marathon and kind of short term, if you've been consistently 168 00:09:31,130 --> 00:09:34,570 running, sometimes you can kind of skip over the base building 169 00:09:34,570 --> 00:09:36,810 period. But that's generally not 170 00:09:36,810 --> 00:09:40,450 something that I want to encourage when you're thinking 171 00:09:40,450 --> 00:09:45,530 about doing a marathon. I really encourage folks to pick 172 00:09:45,530 --> 00:09:48,690 one or two in a year that they're going to focus on. 173 00:09:49,180 --> 00:09:54,180 And I think that if your intent is to run your your fastest 174 00:09:54,180 --> 00:09:58,220 marathon, perform your best, you really want to pick one that's 175 00:09:58,300 --> 00:10:01,860 in the the cooler months of the spring. 176 00:10:02,420 --> 00:10:07,500 So this would be like April is ideal, or the cooler months in 177 00:10:07,500 --> 00:10:10,220 the fall, which are going to be October or November. 178 00:10:11,180 --> 00:10:15,580 And so right now it's July. Most folks who are training for 179 00:10:15,580 --> 00:10:19,970 an October race are already. Maybe a month or so into their 180 00:10:19,970 --> 00:10:24,050 training, but folks training for a waiter race like November. 181 00:10:24,370 --> 00:10:26,810 I have a few athletes doing Philadelphia for example. 182 00:10:26,930 --> 00:10:28,970 They're just getting started with this now because we're 183 00:10:28,970 --> 00:10:33,970 still five months away. You asked about how long a base 184 00:10:33,970 --> 00:10:37,810 building period should be and you know I would give yourself 185 00:10:37,850 --> 00:10:42,850 at least a month for that. Typically in my in my 18 week 186 00:10:42,850 --> 00:10:47,650 programs, I give people about 5 or 6 weeks. 187 00:10:48,040 --> 00:10:53,520 So say you have 18 weeks of training, the first five or six 188 00:10:53,520 --> 00:10:55,320 of those are going to be base building. 189 00:10:55,640 --> 00:10:59,640 Then you're going to have about 12 weeks of workouts, speed 190 00:10:59,640 --> 00:11:03,080 workouts, more specific, faster workouts before you then taper 191 00:11:03,240 --> 00:11:06,080 for your race. Okay, Perfect. 192 00:11:06,080 --> 00:11:08,640 So let's hop into the space building. 193 00:11:08,880 --> 00:11:12,280 What is it for? How many miles do you run and 194 00:11:12,280 --> 00:11:15,000 what are some physical transformations or benefits that 195 00:11:15,000 --> 00:11:17,690 you can see in that? Sure. 196 00:11:17,890 --> 00:11:23,850 So base building is often also alternatively referred to as 197 00:11:23,850 --> 00:11:28,810 foundational training. Really it's preparing to train 198 00:11:28,810 --> 00:11:34,650 for a race. Running is physically demanding 199 00:11:34,650 --> 00:11:36,210 sport. It's it's pretty hard on our 200 00:11:36,210 --> 00:11:38,610 bodies. You know, a very high number of 201 00:11:38,610 --> 00:11:42,130 athletes end up getting hurt through running training often I 202 00:11:42,130 --> 00:11:45,270 think because they neglect. Doing a base building period 203 00:11:45,270 --> 00:11:49,270 before they get into much more challenging types of workouts. 204 00:11:49,870 --> 00:11:54,670 So a base building period is going to prepare you to do the 205 00:11:54,670 --> 00:11:58,750 longer runs and the faster runs, the harder work that's going to 206 00:11:58,750 --> 00:12:02,350 come later in training. This is why I like to give 207 00:12:02,350 --> 00:12:08,830 people 4-5, six weeks of just really easy, comfortable running 208 00:12:09,110 --> 00:12:11,190 before they get into any hard workouts. 209 00:12:11,930 --> 00:12:14,330 And this doesn't matter if you're an experienced runner 210 00:12:14,330 --> 00:12:17,530 who's been running for a decade or a brand new runner. 211 00:12:17,650 --> 00:12:21,250 You always want to go through a base building period of, let's 212 00:12:21,250 --> 00:12:24,490 say four to six weeks easy running before you then 213 00:12:24,490 --> 00:12:28,570 transition into a prolonged period of harder workouts. 214 00:12:29,890 --> 00:12:34,170 There's a ton of benefits to going through a base building 215 00:12:34,170 --> 00:12:36,650 period. First of all, it's going to. 216 00:12:36,930 --> 00:12:41,250 It's going to allow you to. Just get into good habits in 217 00:12:41,250 --> 00:12:45,410 good routines. Maybe you haven't run in a few 218 00:12:45,410 --> 00:12:48,570 weeks or or longer, and then you're picking up and running 219 00:12:48,570 --> 00:12:50,690 again at the beginning of a marathon training cycle. 220 00:12:51,170 --> 00:12:54,490 It's good for your first few weeks to be kind of easy so you 221 00:12:54,490 --> 00:12:57,090 can get back into the habits of regular running. 222 00:12:57,090 --> 00:13:00,050 You know, maybe it's getting up early or running right after 223 00:13:00,050 --> 00:13:05,090 work, figuring out how to fit in your additional strength work or 224 00:13:05,090 --> 00:13:07,170 mobility work, that kind of thing. 225 00:13:07,800 --> 00:13:11,720 Without the added complexity of of more elaborate workouts, 226 00:13:12,920 --> 00:13:16,920 you're also physically preparing your body for the harder work to 227 00:13:16,920 --> 00:13:20,560 come. So most of the benefits of 228 00:13:20,560 --> 00:13:23,960 running actually do come from running at pretty easy, 229 00:13:23,960 --> 00:13:27,480 comfortable paces. You can probably get at least 230 00:13:27,480 --> 00:13:32,080 75% of your potential out of just running at a comfortable 231 00:13:32,080 --> 00:13:35,200 pace. Hard workouts and hard long runs 232 00:13:35,360 --> 00:13:39,400 get you maybe that extra 25% to reach your full potential, but 233 00:13:39,400 --> 00:13:42,960 the vast majority of running fitness, physical fitness, 234 00:13:42,960 --> 00:13:46,880 strengthen your muscles and bones and ligaments and all 235 00:13:46,880 --> 00:13:50,520 that, that type of, you know, structural frame building that's 236 00:13:50,520 --> 00:13:52,320 going to prepare you for the harder workouts. 237 00:13:52,320 --> 00:13:55,160 And for fast racing, this just comes from running at an easy 238 00:13:55,160 --> 00:13:59,200 pace. So these are all reasons why. 239 00:13:59,690 --> 00:14:03,330 You you want to gradually ease into running, you can use this 240 00:14:03,330 --> 00:14:06,330 period to gradually increase your mileage as well before you 241 00:14:06,330 --> 00:14:09,930 get into harder work, but ultimately it's just setting you 242 00:14:09,930 --> 00:14:16,770 up for what will be more challenging 12 or so weeks as 243 00:14:16,770 --> 00:14:20,090 you move into harder and more specific workouts for the race 244 00:14:20,090 --> 00:14:23,120 you're training for. OK, perfect. 245 00:14:23,120 --> 00:14:27,160 So I love this. And you said it was about four 246 00:14:27,160 --> 00:14:30,480 weeks. And so then we go into the speed 247 00:14:30,480 --> 00:14:33,200 development, which is your Phase #2. 248 00:14:33,560 --> 00:14:37,400 What is speed development and why do we need to focus on it? 249 00:14:38,120 --> 00:14:39,880 Yep. So if you're training for a 250 00:14:39,880 --> 00:14:45,080 marathon, I really think it's helpful to get as fast as you 251 00:14:45,080 --> 00:14:50,120 can be before you start doing specific marathon training. 252 00:14:50,880 --> 00:14:56,160 What I mean by that is for most folks, the endurance component 253 00:14:56,160 --> 00:14:58,320 of the marathon is the biggest challenge. 254 00:14:58,720 --> 00:15:03,720 You know, running 26 miles at A at a quicker pace, that's the 255 00:15:03,720 --> 00:15:05,000 biggest challenge for most folks. 256 00:15:05,000 --> 00:15:09,840 It's it's it's not necessarily just how fast you are, it's can 257 00:15:09,840 --> 00:15:13,040 you go that distance without slowing down, without your body 258 00:15:13,040 --> 00:15:17,320 breaking down and rebelling. So I always like to have folks. 259 00:15:17,960 --> 00:15:20,480 After they've gone through a base building period, spend a 260 00:15:20,480 --> 00:15:24,400 little bit of time just working on their speed, getting as fast 261 00:15:24,400 --> 00:15:29,080 as they can, and this is in a stage of training. 262 00:15:29,440 --> 00:15:32,800 This is kind of in the the early to middle stages of training for 263 00:15:32,800 --> 00:15:36,240 marathon still, where the long runs aren't quite as long, your 264 00:15:36,240 --> 00:15:39,640 mileage isn't quite as high and you can just focus on good 265 00:15:39,640 --> 00:15:43,720 quality, shorter workouts that are designed to make you as fast 266 00:15:43,720 --> 00:15:47,980 as you can be. As efficient as you can be with 267 00:15:47,980 --> 00:15:53,020 your running form, and they're going to prepare you for the 268 00:15:53,020 --> 00:15:56,020 marathon specific training phase, which is going to come 269 00:15:56,020 --> 00:16:01,300 next, which is going to be slower paces, paces that are 270 00:16:01,300 --> 00:16:05,380 more specific to the marathon distance, longer workouts. 271 00:16:08,340 --> 00:16:10,940 But by the time you get to that next phase, hopefully you're a 272 00:16:10,940 --> 00:16:13,540 little bit faster than you would have been. 273 00:16:13,900 --> 00:16:18,220 Had you not gone through the speed phase, which is, you know, 274 00:16:18,220 --> 00:16:22,620 ultimately gonna help you set hopefully a faster, you know, 275 00:16:22,620 --> 00:16:26,260 marathon goal pace and a pace to kind of peg your marathon 276 00:16:26,260 --> 00:16:29,420 training around. OK, perfect. 277 00:16:29,420 --> 00:16:33,500 So now that we have this four to six weeks of speech development, 278 00:16:33,700 --> 00:16:37,700 maybe you can give us some examples or tell us how those 279 00:16:37,700 --> 00:16:39,980 are done? Yeah, so. 280 00:16:40,900 --> 00:16:43,900 There's different ways you can approach this kind of depending 281 00:16:43,900 --> 00:16:47,660 on your your preferences and the facilities and training areas 282 00:16:47,660 --> 00:16:49,060 that you might have available to you. 283 00:16:49,420 --> 00:16:54,620 So the key here is you want to include one workout per week 284 00:16:54,860 --> 00:16:58,740 that's going to have paces and kind of the 5K to 10K pace 285 00:16:59,020 --> 00:17:02,580 range. Different ways you can approach 286 00:17:02,580 --> 00:17:06,260 this, some of them are outlined in my book, but. 287 00:17:07,440 --> 00:17:10,920 The ideas would be speed based track workouts where you go to 288 00:17:10,920 --> 00:17:13,480 the track and you're running intervals like 400 meters, 289 00:17:13,520 --> 00:17:19,800 800-1200, potentially up to a mile length. 290 00:17:19,800 --> 00:17:24,760 Repeat for faster runners at 5K to 10K pace and then you would 291 00:17:24,760 --> 00:17:28,720 take maybe an easy lap recovery between each one. 292 00:17:30,150 --> 00:17:32,590 For the listeners who are familiar with VO2 Max style 293 00:17:32,590 --> 00:17:35,470 workouts, this is classic VO2 Max style workout. 294 00:17:35,470 --> 00:17:39,590 It's short, fast intervals, maybe one minute to 5 minutes in 295 00:17:39,590 --> 00:17:43,990 length, and you know, pretty pretty good recovery up to that 296 00:17:43,990 --> 00:17:46,590 same amount of time that you are running fast. 297 00:17:48,350 --> 00:17:50,510 If you're not going to be doing track workout, it's a good 298 00:17:50,510 --> 00:17:53,830 alternative to this is running a fart lick workout. 299 00:17:54,030 --> 00:17:56,390 Fart licks are one of my favorite style of workout. 300 00:17:56,590 --> 00:17:59,870 It's essentially a way of taking intervals off the track and 301 00:17:59,870 --> 00:18:03,230 doing them in a less structured manner. 302 00:18:03,710 --> 00:18:08,150 They're a great way to help learn to run by feel rather than 303 00:18:08,150 --> 00:18:11,510 strictly going off of paces on your watch or on a track. 304 00:18:12,070 --> 00:18:15,350 An example of fart lick runs would be something like going 305 00:18:15,350 --> 00:18:19,080 out and doing. A 20 minute run where you 306 00:18:19,080 --> 00:18:23,600 alternate between running fast for a minute, running slow for a 307 00:18:23,600 --> 00:18:27,280 minute, running fast for two minutes, and slow for for one 308 00:18:27,280 --> 00:18:30,360 minute. You could do 3 minutes fast, 2 309 00:18:30,360 --> 00:18:32,080 minutes slow. There's all sorts of different 310 00:18:32,520 --> 00:18:37,640 varieties with this, but in your fast minutes of the fart lick 311 00:18:38,000 --> 00:18:41,880 you'd want to be running about 5K to 10K pace and then in the 312 00:18:41,880 --> 00:18:45,680 recovery you're you're running on a slower jog to easy pace. 313 00:18:46,590 --> 00:18:49,550 And one of the great things about fart lick training is if 314 00:18:49,550 --> 00:18:52,790 you're doing it on, you know, a course outside, maybe you're 315 00:18:52,790 --> 00:18:55,870 running through where you live. You might be going uphill 316 00:18:55,870 --> 00:18:58,710 sometimes on the fast segments. You might be going downhill, you 317 00:18:58,710 --> 00:19:00,550 might be going through all sorts of different terrain. 318 00:19:01,030 --> 00:19:04,670 I can put a lot of variety into your training in a way that 319 00:19:04,670 --> 00:19:06,630 maybe just running on a track does not. 320 00:19:07,190 --> 00:19:11,750 So I'm a big fan of those. Another way you can do it is, 321 00:19:11,790 --> 00:19:14,790 you know, similar to a fart lick, but a bit more structured. 322 00:19:15,140 --> 00:19:18,060 Maybe this is this would actually just be like repeats 323 00:19:18,060 --> 00:19:21,020 but off the track. So you could go maybe to a local 324 00:19:21,020 --> 00:19:25,620 bike path or a safe running route that you have and do 325 00:19:25,620 --> 00:19:29,940 things like quarter mile repeats measured out on your watch or 326 00:19:30,420 --> 00:19:33,220 measured you know online and you know what the distance, quarter 327 00:19:33,220 --> 00:19:36,980 mile repeats with a quarter mile recovery, half mile repeats with 328 00:19:36,980 --> 00:19:39,780 a quarter mile recovery, you know, maybe a mile repeats with 329 00:19:39,780 --> 00:19:41,300 a quarter mile recovery, that kind of thing. 330 00:19:41,950 --> 00:19:47,550 But at that 5K to 10K pace, and if you do that for four to six 331 00:19:47,550 --> 00:19:51,750 weeks, you're going to feel a lot faster and and you know, 332 00:19:52,110 --> 00:19:57,670 physically prepared to then slow down your paces but go longer as 333 00:19:57,670 --> 00:19:59,990 you get closer to the marathon with more marathon specific 334 00:19:59,990 --> 00:20:01,870 workouts. OK, perfect. 335 00:20:01,870 --> 00:20:07,150 So once a week 5K pace and obviously as we start? 336 00:20:07,520 --> 00:20:10,560 Since we hadn't done any of them, you start with the minute 337 00:20:10,560 --> 00:20:15,000 like the the lower timed ones or distance ones and then increase 338 00:20:15,000 --> 00:20:19,840 it as we move on towards the next phase perfect. 339 00:20:20,160 --> 00:20:22,760 So next phase, phase three that we have here is the race 340 00:20:22,760 --> 00:20:27,800 specific quality, what is race specific running and why should 341 00:20:27,800 --> 00:20:33,320 we focus on that? So, race specific quality, 342 00:20:33,400 --> 00:20:37,710 marathon specific training. This is the the most important 343 00:20:37,710 --> 00:20:39,630 part of getting ready for the marathon. 344 00:20:39,830 --> 00:20:43,310 This is going to be the majority of your marathon training. 345 00:20:43,310 --> 00:20:44,710 Is this. So? 346 00:20:44,990 --> 00:20:48,750 Let's say you spent four so weeks, maybe a month or so in 347 00:20:48,750 --> 00:20:51,590 base building, then maybe another month or so do speed 348 00:20:51,590 --> 00:20:53,870 development. Then you're going to spend like 349 00:20:53,870 --> 00:20:57,110 2 months doing race specific training. 350 00:20:58,030 --> 00:21:03,790 So what this is is workouts that are very specific to the demands 351 00:21:03,790 --> 00:21:06,220 of the marathon. So this is where your longest 352 00:21:06,220 --> 00:21:08,780 long runs are going to come. You know if you're getting up to 353 00:21:08,980 --> 00:21:14,220 16 or 1820 or 22 or longer long runs, you're going to be doing 354 00:21:14,220 --> 00:21:19,140 them in this period. In terms of the speeds that 355 00:21:19,140 --> 00:21:22,220 you're going to be running during your workouts, you should 356 00:21:22,260 --> 00:21:26,180 primarily be running paces that are close to marathon pace. 357 00:21:26,420 --> 00:21:30,660 So the three, the three different speeds that I like to 358 00:21:30,980 --> 00:21:34,140 give my runners in this phase are. 359 00:21:34,770 --> 00:21:38,690 Marathon pace work, that's kind of the the main focus. 360 00:21:39,690 --> 00:21:43,250 Most of my athletes get a big confidence boost from doing 361 00:21:43,250 --> 00:21:49,290 marathon pace training, so we'll we'll start to include that in 362 00:21:49,290 --> 00:21:53,010 some of their long runs. I like to alternate each week 363 00:21:53,010 --> 00:21:56,490 between giving an athlete an easy pace long run and a 364 00:21:56,490 --> 00:22:00,970 marathon paced long run and maybe they'll do three or four 365 00:22:00,970 --> 00:22:06,000 marathon pace long runs during. Their their total training. 366 00:22:06,000 --> 00:22:11,440 And during this specific period, what that would look like is 367 00:22:11,440 --> 00:22:17,840 maybe a 14 mile run with the middle 10 miles at marathon 368 00:22:17,840 --> 00:22:20,800 pace. That's a great simulation for 369 00:22:20,800 --> 00:22:22,600 what it's going to be like to run your marathon. 370 00:22:23,080 --> 00:22:27,360 Then maybe a few weeks later you increase that and do a 16 mile 371 00:22:27,360 --> 00:22:29,920 run with the middle 12 at marathon pace. 372 00:22:30,820 --> 00:22:34,940 And then you might even get up to doing 14 to 16 miles at 373 00:22:34,940 --> 00:22:38,140 marathon pace and maybe as long as an 18 or 20 mile long run. 374 00:22:40,060 --> 00:22:43,580 For most of the athletes I've worked with, they think those 375 00:22:43,620 --> 00:22:46,980 are the most powerful workouts they do, and they get a lot of 376 00:22:46,980 --> 00:22:52,180 confidence from those. I think it's also really helpful 377 00:22:52,180 --> 00:22:56,180 to do training faster than marathon pace throughout this 378 00:22:56,180 --> 00:22:59,780 phase because you don't want your marathon pace to feel. 379 00:23:00,150 --> 00:23:02,150 Fast. It really shouldn't. 380 00:23:02,150 --> 00:23:03,670 It needs to feel pretty comfortable. 381 00:23:03,830 --> 00:23:07,190 I mean, you got to do it for hours on end for 26 miles, so 382 00:23:07,190 --> 00:23:09,670 you need to continue to do faster work. 383 00:23:10,270 --> 00:23:13,160 But. You can slow down your paces a 384 00:23:13,160 --> 00:23:15,800 little bit. So rather than doing what you 385 00:23:15,800 --> 00:23:18,480 were doing in the speed phase where you're doing you know 1 to 386 00:23:18,480 --> 00:23:23,080 5 minutes of 5K to 10K pace, we're going to slow that down to 387 00:23:23,280 --> 00:23:27,960 half marathon or or tempo pace which which may be like 10 to 15 388 00:23:27,960 --> 00:23:31,280 seconds faster per mile than what your marathon pace would 389 00:23:31,280 --> 00:23:34,640 be. And here rather than doing 390 00:23:34,640 --> 00:23:36,760 things like quarter mile, half mile. 391 00:23:37,710 --> 00:23:39,950 Maybe up to a mile repeats, you're going to start to do 392 00:23:39,950 --> 00:23:42,870 longer things. So mile repeats, 2 miles, maybe 393 00:23:42,870 --> 00:23:46,870 even three mile repeats at that kind of half marathon or or 394 00:23:46,870 --> 00:23:50,790 slightly faster than marathon pace intensity. 395 00:23:51,750 --> 00:23:55,190 And that's going to be your speed training for the final two 396 00:23:55,190 --> 00:23:57,630 months or so of of marathon training when you're in this 397 00:23:57,630 --> 00:24:00,710 phase. That's a lot more of a specific 398 00:24:00,950 --> 00:24:05,510 endurance building workout which you need for the marathon. 399 00:24:06,060 --> 00:24:08,740 Then shorter, faster, VO2 Max style workouts. 400 00:24:08,740 --> 00:24:12,420 And that's why I like to make that the the main focus for the 401 00:24:12,420 --> 00:24:15,500 majority of training, especially as you get closer and closer to 402 00:24:15,500 --> 00:24:20,220 your marathon. The last thing during this phase 403 00:24:20,220 --> 00:24:24,020 is it's really important to continue to do running slower 404 00:24:24,020 --> 00:24:29,500 than marathon pace as well. Easy runs at this period during 405 00:24:29,500 --> 00:24:32,700 your training really transition to being recovery runs. 406 00:24:33,480 --> 00:24:36,280 The runs between your workouts and your long runs, you got to 407 00:24:36,280 --> 00:24:38,640 go really, really slow to recover between them. 408 00:24:38,880 --> 00:24:41,480 Your body's going to be pretty fatigued from the the long run, 409 00:24:41,480 --> 00:24:44,040 which is your your biggest workout of the week and maybe 410 00:24:44,040 --> 00:24:46,040 your speed workout or two midweek. 411 00:24:46,360 --> 00:24:48,920 So the runs between that need to really just be slow. 412 00:24:49,200 --> 00:24:53,080 They're really just covering the mileage at this point and 413 00:24:53,080 --> 00:24:57,000 getting you ready for that next hard workout or race and then 414 00:24:57,000 --> 00:25:00,040 some of your long runs too, you know, should be slower than 415 00:25:00,040 --> 00:25:03,070 marathon pace. Marathon pace can be really hard 416 00:25:03,070 --> 00:25:06,710 to hold in training, especially for faster athletes. 417 00:25:08,190 --> 00:25:10,110 And especially, you know, this time of year when you're 418 00:25:10,110 --> 00:25:13,710 training in the summer, it can be really, really hard for some 419 00:25:13,710 --> 00:25:17,030 athletes to hold marathon pace. And you don't necessarily need 420 00:25:17,030 --> 00:25:23,790 to, you know, work out long a long run that, say, 14 to 20 421 00:25:23,790 --> 00:25:27,190 miles where you're like 30 seconds slower than your 422 00:25:27,190 --> 00:25:29,710 marathon pace, that's a fantastic workout. 423 00:25:30,890 --> 00:25:33,410 And some of the faster marathoners out there, that 424 00:25:33,410 --> 00:25:37,290 might really be all they can manage when it comes to long 425 00:25:37,290 --> 00:25:39,450 runs because they're so tired from all the training they've 426 00:25:39,450 --> 00:25:40,610 been doing over the course of the week. 427 00:25:42,810 --> 00:25:46,370 That's cool. So, so just to kind of sum it up 428 00:25:46,370 --> 00:25:51,570 a little bit, so when athletes train with you, there's about 3 429 00:25:51,570 --> 00:25:54,050 workouts that they get during the week. 430 00:25:54,170 --> 00:25:55,970 The rest of the runs is easy runs. 431 00:25:56,290 --> 00:26:01,140 One of them is your. Pace specific marathon run on 432 00:26:01,140 --> 00:26:04,180 the weekend, which you mentioned, But my question is 433 00:26:04,460 --> 00:26:08,820 you also mentioned that you alternate those with long runs 434 00:26:08,820 --> 00:26:12,500 that are easy. We alternate between it just 435 00:26:12,500 --> 00:26:16,380 being comfortable pace and it being a faster, more intentional 436 00:26:16,380 --> 00:26:20,220 pace. So this weekend, for example, I 437 00:26:20,220 --> 00:26:25,140 might say to my athlete Melissa, hey Melissa, go out and run 16 438 00:26:25,140 --> 00:26:28,300 miles comfortable pace. I don't care how fast you go, 439 00:26:28,300 --> 00:26:31,620 just cover the distance. That could be a good opportunity 440 00:26:31,620 --> 00:26:34,300 to run over a hilly course or go explore a new route. 441 00:26:34,980 --> 00:26:37,780 And then next weekend, Melissa, you're going to go, you're going 442 00:26:37,780 --> 00:26:42,220 to do 16 miles again, but you're going to do the middle twelve of 443 00:26:42,220 --> 00:26:47,700 those at your goal marathon pace or you know, as slow as 30 444 00:26:47,700 --> 00:26:50,500 seconds per mile slower than that, something in that range. 445 00:26:51,460 --> 00:26:54,340 And that's going to be an opportunity for you to run out, 446 00:26:54,340 --> 00:26:58,760 Of course that is. Simulating where you're going to 447 00:26:58,800 --> 00:27:00,160 where you're going to do your marathon. 448 00:27:00,160 --> 00:27:03,200 So if you're training for a flat marathon, you do a flat long 449 00:27:03,200 --> 00:27:06,600 run, you practice running your goal pace, maybe you wear the 450 00:27:06,600 --> 00:27:10,320 gear, bring the fuel that you want to take and try to simulate 451 00:27:10,360 --> 00:27:12,000 as many aspects of it as possible. 452 00:27:12,400 --> 00:27:13,560 And then that's the following week. 453 00:27:13,560 --> 00:27:16,360 The third week you'd you'd go back to a slower, easy, 454 00:27:16,360 --> 00:27:19,800 comfortable pace, long run. And that cycle typically will 455 00:27:19,800 --> 00:27:22,640 continue over the course of two months or so as you approach 456 00:27:22,640 --> 00:27:24,570 your marathon. Okay. 457 00:27:24,570 --> 00:27:26,450 Perfect. And then my second followup 458 00:27:26,450 --> 00:27:28,810 question with that. And I see that with basically 459 00:27:28,810 --> 00:27:30,610 all coaches. I just want to have it be 460 00:27:30,610 --> 00:27:35,650 explained to our listeners why when we do marathon pace runs, 461 00:27:36,050 --> 00:27:40,170 do we cap out with that specific pace being at no longer than 16 462 00:27:40,170 --> 00:27:42,370 miles? Why don't we make ourselves run 463 00:27:42,370 --> 00:27:44,970 longer than 16 miles at the marathon pace? 464 00:27:45,970 --> 00:27:51,570 So this is sort of a nuanced answer and it and you know. 465 00:27:52,170 --> 00:27:55,650 There's not necessarily a maximum distance that that 466 00:27:55,650 --> 00:27:57,090 someone should go or should not go. 467 00:28:00,450 --> 00:28:04,050 Largely how how long you should train in your long run is going 468 00:28:04,050 --> 00:28:07,530 to depend on your your personal ability, your speed, your 469 00:28:07,530 --> 00:28:10,090 experience, and what your body can handle. 470 00:28:10,370 --> 00:28:14,810 So I've had athletes train for the marathon, do really well, 471 00:28:14,850 --> 00:28:18,490 run PR's, I've had people BQ, and then maybe never run longer 472 00:28:18,490 --> 00:28:25,730 than 16 miles. I think that, you know, you can 473 00:28:25,730 --> 00:28:28,330 run a great marathon maxing out at 16 miles. 474 00:28:28,330 --> 00:28:31,610 And for people who maybe they haven't trained for a marathon 475 00:28:31,610 --> 00:28:35,490 in a while, maybe they're not going to run a huge amount of 476 00:28:35,490 --> 00:28:37,250 mileage. Like they may only get up to 30 477 00:28:37,250 --> 00:28:40,610 or 40 miles per week. That's a great compromise 478 00:28:40,610 --> 00:28:45,370 between between distance and, you know, it's enough where it's 479 00:28:45,370 --> 00:28:48,370 going to get the job done, but it's not too much where it's 480 00:28:48,370 --> 00:28:51,390 going to kill them in training. And you don't want to train so 481 00:28:51,390 --> 00:28:54,230 hard in training that then you can't actually perform to your 482 00:28:54,230 --> 00:28:56,070 best on race day. And I think a lot of people 483 00:28:57,150 --> 00:29:00,870 think they need to do these super long runs when really 484 00:29:00,870 --> 00:29:02,710 they're just overvaluing the long run. 485 00:29:03,390 --> 00:29:06,070 And it's really your the total package of everything you've 486 00:29:06,070 --> 00:29:09,590 done over training that's going to let you kind of summon up a 487 00:29:09,590 --> 00:29:12,070 huge amount of energy on race day and and to your best. 488 00:29:12,940 --> 00:29:15,700 But that said, you know, for more experienced runners, I do 489 00:29:15,700 --> 00:29:18,100 like to get them up to at least 18 miles. 490 00:29:18,340 --> 00:29:21,180 Most people feel a lot of confidence when they do a 20 491 00:29:21,180 --> 00:29:25,540 mile where you know whether that's helpful physically or 492 00:29:25,540 --> 00:29:27,660 not. I think it is for most folks. 493 00:29:27,660 --> 00:29:31,180 But confidence from a confidence perspective, most people do want 494 00:29:31,180 --> 00:29:36,500 to do it, you know, But I like to, I do like to get people up 495 00:29:36,500 --> 00:29:39,420 to like 50 miles per week if they're going to train for 496 00:29:39,420 --> 00:29:42,650 marathon. And and really perform their 497 00:29:42,650 --> 00:29:45,770 best and if they're can do 50 miles per week I think they can 498 00:29:45,770 --> 00:29:49,050 do a 20 mile long run. If they're doing more than 50 499 00:29:49,050 --> 00:29:52,450 miles per week they can do many 20 mile or longer long runs and 500 00:29:52,450 --> 00:29:57,010 that's good you know you don't want to is the long run is the 501 00:29:57,010 --> 00:29:59,690 most important part of marathon training and the distance 502 00:29:59,970 --> 00:30:03,450 training for the distance is super important but it's really 503 00:30:03,450 --> 00:30:06,730 just for for newer runners maybe first time marathoners or people 504 00:30:06,730 --> 00:30:09,290 who are still building up who are who. 505 00:30:09,960 --> 00:30:13,160 Training for the marathon and trying to trying to get by with, 506 00:30:13,800 --> 00:30:16,080 you know, kind of minimal training where I would consider 507 00:30:16,080 --> 00:30:20,200 doing like a 16 or mile long run or shorter. 508 00:30:22,480 --> 00:30:25,760 Hope that answers the question. It does, yeah, absolutely. 509 00:30:25,760 --> 00:30:27,800 Thank you so much for explaining this. 510 00:30:28,280 --> 00:30:32,920 And then let's talk about your Phase #4, the tapering for peak 511 00:30:32,920 --> 00:30:36,110 performance, first of all. For the listeners that don't 512 00:30:36,110 --> 00:30:39,670 know what is taper, why is it important and what does a taper 513 00:30:39,670 --> 00:30:45,150 look like? So basically, the last two weeks 514 00:30:45,270 --> 00:30:49,030 before your marathon, you're going to reduce the amount of 515 00:30:49,030 --> 00:30:50,750 running you're doing by about half. 516 00:30:51,270 --> 00:30:55,950 So it takes like 10 days to two weeks to benefit from any 517 00:30:55,950 --> 00:30:57,910 workout. So you're going to want to do 518 00:30:57,910 --> 00:31:01,190 your final workout. I usually say about 10 days 519 00:31:01,350 --> 00:31:05,540 before your marathon. Then in that final week and a 520 00:31:05,540 --> 00:31:10,260 half to two weeks, really, you cut all your mileage in half. 521 00:31:10,260 --> 00:31:13,420 You maintain the same frequency, you go out and run, you know the 522 00:31:13,420 --> 00:31:16,260 same number of days, you run the same speeds, but you just do 523 00:31:16,260 --> 00:31:18,300 half. So you cut the time in half, you 524 00:31:18,900 --> 00:31:22,060 you go half the distance. If you normally run 6 miles a 525 00:31:22,060 --> 00:31:28,300 day, you cut that to three, and this allows your body to rest 526 00:31:28,300 --> 00:31:30,820 from all the training that you've done over the past. 527 00:31:31,170 --> 00:31:35,650 Three to five months, and unless your full fitness come out, one 528 00:31:35,650 --> 00:31:39,410 of the biggest principles with how marathon training works is a 529 00:31:39,410 --> 00:31:43,690 principle known as cumulative fatigue, where you enter every 530 00:31:43,690 --> 00:31:47,410 run tired from the runs you've done earlier in the week. 531 00:31:48,250 --> 00:31:51,810 And this is one of the big reasons why you can you can do a 532 00:31:51,810 --> 00:31:55,690 marathon off of only like a 16 or 18 or 20 mile long run. 533 00:31:56,050 --> 00:31:59,410 It's because when you start that long run, you're already tired. 534 00:31:59,730 --> 00:32:02,490 If your body, it feels like you're maybe already 10 miles 535 00:32:02,490 --> 00:32:05,850 into a run, so then if you just go, do like a 16 mile or that's 536 00:32:05,850 --> 00:32:11,010 like the last 16 of a marathon. But you don't want to be tired 537 00:32:11,010 --> 00:32:12,850 when you show up to marathon race day. 538 00:32:12,850 --> 00:32:16,130 You want to feel 100%. You want to feel 110% if you 539 00:32:16,130 --> 00:32:18,450 can. So that's why you really cut 540 00:32:18,450 --> 00:32:19,970 down the intensity of what you're doing. 541 00:32:20,930 --> 00:32:24,810 Do it for 10 to 14 days. This isn't enough time to lose 542 00:32:24,810 --> 00:32:28,730 any fitness, but it is enough time to let your full. 543 00:32:29,410 --> 00:32:33,890 Energy level and full fitness emerge for one big performance 544 00:32:33,930 --> 00:32:41,090 on race day, and the taper is essential because it it's going 545 00:32:41,090 --> 00:32:46,810 to allow you to be your best. And this is a big reason why I 546 00:32:46,810 --> 00:32:49,370 always tell folks they really need to just pick one or two 547 00:32:49,370 --> 00:32:52,610 marathons per year to focus on because you have to go through 548 00:32:52,610 --> 00:32:56,380 this whole sequence. And then taper down for race to 549 00:32:56,380 --> 00:32:59,020 let your full fitness to emerge, to really have you know an 550 00:32:59,020 --> 00:33:03,940 amazing performance. People who say do like 6 551 00:33:03,940 --> 00:33:07,780 marathons a year, you're never able to reach that level of 552 00:33:07,780 --> 00:33:11,380 fitness because you don't go through this period and and of 553 00:33:11,500 --> 00:33:14,700 face building speed development specific training and then 554 00:33:14,700 --> 00:33:16,380 taper. It's just it's just too much 555 00:33:16,380 --> 00:33:20,180 racing to to train properly if your goal is to you know be your 556 00:33:20,180 --> 00:33:24,110 best on that one specific day. Perfect. 557 00:33:24,110 --> 00:33:27,710 I love how you explained that and I love how you explained 558 00:33:27,710 --> 00:33:31,830 specifically of why 16 miles might be enough because it's 559 00:33:31,830 --> 00:33:34,230 exactly that. We are training really hard. 560 00:33:34,230 --> 00:33:37,990 We're tired from all the weeks worth of mileage and then we go 561 00:33:37,990 --> 00:33:40,790 into our long run having that much under our belt. 562 00:33:40,790 --> 00:33:44,150 So that makes a lot of sense. Thank you for explaining that. 563 00:33:44,590 --> 00:33:48,350 So another question then I have in regards to the taper phase is 564 00:33:48,350 --> 00:33:50,510 when we look at. Other things that we should 565 00:33:50,510 --> 00:33:53,270 change in our lives. Besides obviously taking down 566 00:33:53,270 --> 00:33:55,870 the long runs and the intensity of the runs, what else should 567 00:33:55,870 --> 00:33:58,110 change when it comes to that nutrition and maybe some mental 568 00:33:58,110 --> 00:33:59,590 preparation that you can recommend? 569 00:34:01,030 --> 00:34:05,990 So the taper period, the final two weeks before your marathon 570 00:34:05,990 --> 00:34:10,830 is really a time where you want to give a lot of intention to 571 00:34:11,190 --> 00:34:13,510 setting yourself up to run the best race that you can. 572 00:34:14,710 --> 00:34:17,310 You know all throughout training it's it's good to to do that 573 00:34:17,310 --> 00:34:21,120 stuff but. You know, during the taper phase 574 00:34:21,120 --> 00:34:24,560 you really want to prioritize sweep, good nutrition and 575 00:34:25,120 --> 00:34:29,800 mentally getting ready. So a lot of people during the 576 00:34:29,800 --> 00:34:32,880 tapered don't really know what to do with themselves because 577 00:34:32,880 --> 00:34:34,440 they're only running half as much. 578 00:34:35,320 --> 00:34:38,400 Sometimes they, I don't know, worry that they're going to lose 579 00:34:38,400 --> 00:34:40,520 fitness or aren't ready or something like that. 580 00:34:41,639 --> 00:34:45,960 I think it's really helpful to try to counter those feelings 581 00:34:46,239 --> 00:34:53,320 with with positive feelings, so. You know, during this phase, 582 00:34:54,400 --> 00:34:58,360 really start to think about how your race is going to go. 583 00:34:59,040 --> 00:35:03,400 I think it's really helpful to make a race plan to start to 584 00:35:03,400 --> 00:35:05,280 visualize how the race is going to feel. 585 00:35:05,880 --> 00:35:09,200 You know what you're going to do in each stage of the race. 586 00:35:10,440 --> 00:35:13,080 You know you can kind of start to look at the weather. 587 00:35:13,080 --> 00:35:15,600 You don't want to freak out. You know it can change, but. 588 00:35:16,220 --> 00:35:18,660 Start to visualize. You know it's do you think it's 589 00:35:18,660 --> 00:35:21,020 going to be a cool day? Is maybe going to be a warm day? 590 00:35:21,660 --> 00:35:23,660 What are you going to bring with you? 591 00:35:23,660 --> 00:35:24,860 You know, what are you going to wear? 592 00:35:24,860 --> 00:35:28,580 How's it going to feel? What are your goals for the 593 00:35:28,580 --> 00:35:29,700 race? Like what? 594 00:35:30,180 --> 00:35:32,780 What's going to make it a successful race for you? 595 00:35:32,780 --> 00:35:36,660 Is it about the process? Like do you want to feel a 596 00:35:36,660 --> 00:35:38,980 certain way? Do you want to react if 597 00:35:38,980 --> 00:35:40,580 something happens in a certain way? 598 00:35:40,580 --> 00:35:41,900 Is that going to make you feel proud? 599 00:35:42,140 --> 00:35:44,740 Is it strictly a time based thing like you you? 600 00:35:45,650 --> 00:35:47,050 Really adamant. You want to run this certain 601 00:35:47,050 --> 00:35:49,770 time, and if if you don't, you know that the race won't be 602 00:35:49,770 --> 00:35:52,370 successful for you. Like there's not necessarily a 603 00:35:52,370 --> 00:35:56,130 right or wrong way to do it. But what do you want to get out 604 00:35:56,130 --> 00:36:00,050 of this race and then convince yourself that you can do it? 605 00:36:01,730 --> 00:36:05,770 Marathon training always takes a little bit of a leap of faith. 606 00:36:06,770 --> 00:36:11,050 You never are going to feel like you can run the speed you want 607 00:36:11,050 --> 00:36:15,930 to run until actual race day. That's a very normal feeling. 608 00:36:15,930 --> 00:36:19,290 So you just need to trust the process and commit to your 609 00:36:19,290 --> 00:36:22,650 goals. When I've set some of my biggest 610 00:36:22,650 --> 00:36:25,730 race goals, what I've liked to do is actually just the week of 611 00:36:25,730 --> 00:36:27,970 the race. Write down my goals on paper, 612 00:36:28,530 --> 00:36:31,130 look at them every single day. I just keep it on my desk. 613 00:36:31,490 --> 00:36:33,730 You know, when I was trying to be Q for the first time, it was 614 00:36:33,730 --> 00:36:37,170 like run under 3 hours in the marathon and I wrote the pace 615 00:36:37,170 --> 00:36:40,410 down and every single day I would look at it and I would 616 00:36:40,410 --> 00:36:45,570 wish read it and I would say to myself like I will run. 256, I 617 00:36:45,570 --> 00:36:48,650 will run 640 per mile. I'm ready. 618 00:36:48,650 --> 00:36:50,250 I can do this. I've done the training and I 619 00:36:50,250 --> 00:36:52,730 would literally say that every single day. 620 00:36:53,050 --> 00:36:56,810 And I think that if you can convince yourself that you're 621 00:36:56,810 --> 00:37:00,770 going to do it, then when you show up running is really 622 00:37:00,770 --> 00:37:02,450 simple. It's if you've done the 623 00:37:02,450 --> 00:37:04,850 training, you can do what's expected of you. 624 00:37:04,850 --> 00:37:07,570 It's just a matter of you know when your training's done. 625 00:37:07,570 --> 00:37:11,570 You got to get your your head in the right mindset so the hard 626 00:37:11,570 --> 00:37:15,550 work is done during the taper. It's really about relaxing, but 627 00:37:15,550 --> 00:37:19,670 the mental work is the most important thing in these final 628 00:37:19,670 --> 00:37:24,350 two weeks to to be prepared and do your best. 100% agree. 629 00:37:24,350 --> 00:37:27,150 I couldn't stress this anymore myself. 630 00:37:27,670 --> 00:37:30,870 The mental part is the hardest part because it's like you said, 631 00:37:30,870 --> 00:37:32,790 whatever you tell yourself is what you're going to start 632 00:37:32,790 --> 00:37:36,230 believing. So that's that's a good tip. 633 00:37:36,710 --> 00:37:37,670 All right. So. 634 00:37:38,780 --> 00:37:44,660 Now we move on to the last two phases and they are actually not 635 00:37:44,780 --> 00:37:48,220 the training parts anymore. Now we're talking about race day 636 00:37:48,460 --> 00:37:53,220 performance and then phase number six is going to be the 637 00:37:53,220 --> 00:37:57,020 post race recovery. So before we hop into those last 638 00:37:57,020 --> 00:38:01,060 two phases, can you please tell our listeners why you have 639 00:38:01,060 --> 00:38:04,660 decided to include those into the six phases of a marathon 640 00:38:04,660 --> 00:38:08,130 training? So race day performance is a 641 00:38:08,130 --> 00:38:10,530 phase that lasts literally one day. 642 00:38:11,410 --> 00:38:14,290 If you're training for a marathon, you go through four to 643 00:38:14,290 --> 00:38:19,730 six month period to be in your best fitness for one specific 644 00:38:19,730 --> 00:38:22,970 day. One race, that's it. 645 00:38:23,090 --> 00:38:26,090 You're never going to be you, the full fitness you want to be. 646 00:38:26,090 --> 00:38:28,530 Like you're never going to be peak fitness until that one 647 00:38:28,530 --> 00:38:30,210 specific day. And when you go through 648 00:38:30,210 --> 00:38:32,610 training, this is its own unique phase. 649 00:38:33,010 --> 00:38:36,290 This is the one day. Where you're going to feel like 650 00:38:36,290 --> 00:38:39,090 you can actually run the marathon at the pace you want to 651 00:38:39,090 --> 00:38:42,810 run it, so it is a distinct phase. 652 00:38:42,810 --> 00:38:46,530 It's a really short phase, but this is when you're at peak 653 00:38:46,530 --> 00:38:51,050 fitness and if you combine all the training you've done with a 654 00:38:51,610 --> 00:38:56,930 a smart approach, you're going to run the race you want and 655 00:38:56,930 --> 00:38:59,210 then the final phase post race recovery. 656 00:38:59,730 --> 00:39:01,850 I like to include this as the last phase. 657 00:39:03,100 --> 00:39:07,940 I think it's essential to take time off after a marathon and 658 00:39:07,940 --> 00:39:11,300 not run for a predetermined amount of time. 659 00:39:11,900 --> 00:39:15,300 Give yourself a break. Okay. 660 00:39:15,300 --> 00:39:16,620 Perfect. I like it. 661 00:39:16,940 --> 00:39:20,820 So literally that phase, as you mentioned, phase five lasts one 662 00:39:20,820 --> 00:39:22,860 day and it starts on day of your marathon. 663 00:39:23,220 --> 00:39:25,780 In your book, you are mentioning the six P's. 664 00:39:26,270 --> 00:39:29,750 And for which is the proper preparation prevents piss poor 665 00:39:29,750 --> 00:39:31,350 performance. I love that because it's 666 00:39:31,350 --> 00:39:34,630 something that, you know, those acronyms always stuck with me 667 00:39:34,630 --> 00:39:38,630 since law school. So maybe let's talk about all of 668 00:39:38,630 --> 00:39:40,110 this. Maybe you can unwrap that for 669 00:39:40,110 --> 00:39:41,590 us. Yeah. 670 00:39:41,750 --> 00:39:46,350 So you know, two things that I think are really helpful to set 671 00:39:46,350 --> 00:39:50,230 yourself up for success on race day are being prepared. 672 00:39:50,840 --> 00:39:55,600 You know logistically as well as just simply being prepared with 673 00:39:55,720 --> 00:39:59,800 with a race strategy, you have to know what you're going to do. 674 00:39:59,800 --> 00:40:02,680 And you'd be surprised how many people just show up to these 675 00:40:02,680 --> 00:40:05,680 things and have absolutely no plan at all. 676 00:40:06,880 --> 00:40:11,520 One of the things that I'm a big proponent of is having my 677 00:40:11,520 --> 00:40:15,120 athletes do practice races before their marathon. 678 00:40:16,720 --> 00:40:19,800 You know, for some folks this is going to seem like a nobrainer, 679 00:40:19,800 --> 00:40:21,440 but. You'd be surprised how many 680 00:40:21,440 --> 00:40:25,200 people just sign up for Marathon Train for three months to five 681 00:40:25,200 --> 00:40:26,800 months, do no racing and show up. 682 00:40:26,800 --> 00:40:29,320 And it's like the first time they've ever done a race. 683 00:40:31,480 --> 00:40:34,680 What, you know, knowing how to plan the night before race, the 684 00:40:34,920 --> 00:40:39,200 get there the morning of and logistically show up to the race 685 00:40:39,240 --> 00:40:43,160 like comfortably. You know, feeling, feeling like 686 00:40:43,160 --> 00:40:46,120 it's not a stressful experience. This is something that comes 687 00:40:46,120 --> 00:40:48,950 from practice. And I think it's really helpful 688 00:40:49,270 --> 00:40:53,110 throughout training to race maybe once a month or every two 689 00:40:53,110 --> 00:40:55,710 months. I don't think you want to race 690 00:40:55,710 --> 00:40:57,670 more frequently than that because I think it's too much 691 00:40:57,670 --> 00:40:59,310 racing. But you want to be very 692 00:40:59,310 --> 00:41:03,950 confident with just the process of hacking for a race. 693 00:41:04,070 --> 00:41:06,270 You know, planning, the logistics of what time to leave 694 00:41:06,270 --> 00:41:09,910 your home, what to bring, how to go to bed the night before, what 695 00:41:09,910 --> 00:41:12,710 to eat the night before, you know, what time to show up the 696 00:41:12,710 --> 00:41:14,950 morning of how to go through your warm up routine. 697 00:41:16,530 --> 00:41:19,170 If you're an expert in all that, if it's second nature and you 698 00:41:19,170 --> 00:41:23,250 feel totally comfortable, you're going to feel great at the 699 00:41:23,250 --> 00:41:27,410 morning of your marathon. So these are all things you want 700 00:41:27,410 --> 00:41:31,810 to kind of practice throughout training to make the most of the 701 00:41:31,810 --> 00:41:36,410 fitness that you that you've earned on the actual race day. 702 00:41:37,770 --> 00:41:41,730 You know some things you just might want to be sure to to do, 703 00:41:41,730 --> 00:41:44,490 you know, read all the important details of the race. 704 00:41:45,200 --> 00:41:47,880 Read all the emails. Make sure you know how to get 705 00:41:47,880 --> 00:41:50,640 there beforehand. You know, check the weather. 706 00:41:51,240 --> 00:41:54,320 It can make a huge difference. You know the difference between 707 00:41:54,600 --> 00:41:57,440 40 degrees and 60 degrees is is pretty big. 708 00:41:58,160 --> 00:42:00,120 So know what you're going to be most comfortable in. 709 00:42:01,440 --> 00:42:03,680 Make sure you know how to like get to the event, where to go. 710 00:42:03,680 --> 00:42:07,160 You don't want to just be like showing up and not know where to 711 00:42:07,160 --> 00:42:09,810 get your bib or. I actually have this recurring 712 00:42:09,810 --> 00:42:11,890 dream that I like miss the start of a race. 713 00:42:11,890 --> 00:42:14,290 I don't, I don't know if anyone else has this but like I'm like 714 00:42:14,290 --> 00:42:17,010 in the porta potty, you're off doing something and then like I 715 00:42:17,010 --> 00:42:18,970 go to the start line and the race started 4 minutes 716 00:42:18,970 --> 00:42:21,650 beforehand, like don't have that happen to you. 717 00:42:23,850 --> 00:42:26,090 You know I think it's really helpful to bring like a gear bag 718 00:42:26,130 --> 00:42:28,970 with stuff in it that you know you're going to you're going to 719 00:42:28,970 --> 00:42:31,730 want me, that's a change of shoes maybe that's food for 720 00:42:31,730 --> 00:42:34,330 before or after the race water bottle, that sort of stuff. 721 00:42:35,530 --> 00:42:37,570 And one thing that I think is really helpful and and maybe 722 00:42:37,570 --> 00:42:39,870 this is just. The way I think, but it's like 723 00:42:39,910 --> 00:42:42,110 have a schedule written down for the morning. 724 00:42:42,310 --> 00:42:44,910 So I'll actually write this out on paper. 725 00:42:45,070 --> 00:42:46,630 But for me, it takes a lot of stress out. 726 00:42:46,990 --> 00:42:50,150 Like if I know a race starts at 8:00 AM, I'll write out a little 727 00:42:50,150 --> 00:42:53,030 schedule backwards from there. So I'll say, like, you know, 728 00:42:53,190 --> 00:42:58,550 line up for the race at 7:50, begin my warm up at 7:00 AM, 729 00:42:58,990 --> 00:43:02,910 pick up my bib at 6:45, arrive at the parking at 6:30, leave 730 00:43:02,910 --> 00:43:06,110 home at 5:30 and then that means my alarm clock needs to go off 731 00:43:06,110 --> 00:43:10,030 at 4:30, so. Writing this out the night 732 00:43:10,030 --> 00:43:15,270 before a few nights before just systematizes it, and it makes it 733 00:43:15,270 --> 00:43:17,830 so I don't need to think about how to how this is all going to 734 00:43:17,830 --> 00:43:22,470 work on the actual race day. And then, you know, just making 735 00:43:22,470 --> 00:43:26,710 sure you have good dinners the first few nights before and 736 00:43:26,710 --> 00:43:30,910 getting his best sleep as you can the final nights before make 737 00:43:30,910 --> 00:43:33,150 a big difference. I love this. 738 00:43:33,150 --> 00:43:36,750 I love these tips. I think they can help all of us. 739 00:43:37,310 --> 00:43:40,270 Even if we are seasoned travelers from marathons, one 740 00:43:40,270 --> 00:43:43,950 thing I realized that as many places I've flown to every 741 00:43:43,950 --> 00:43:46,870 single morning of the race, I realized, oh, I don't, I didn't 742 00:43:46,870 --> 00:43:50,550 bring anything, you know, for breakfast or I don't have the 743 00:43:50,550 --> 00:43:53,790 same items here as I should. And even if I write it down, I 744 00:43:53,790 --> 00:43:56,430 put down snacks and I usually just think about the goose, but 745 00:43:56,430 --> 00:43:57,590 I don't think about anything else. 746 00:43:57,590 --> 00:43:59,630 So. And I really like the timeline 747 00:43:59,630 --> 00:44:01,590 too, because that's another thing, you know, whoever you're 748 00:44:01,590 --> 00:44:05,630 staying, it depends on on that, like how far are you from the 749 00:44:05,630 --> 00:44:07,230 actual race start, What kind of race? 750 00:44:07,310 --> 00:44:09,470 Is that if you're going to the Chicago Marathon, there's a ton 751 00:44:09,470 --> 00:44:12,630 of security and all that stuff. And then you wrote in your book 752 00:44:12,630 --> 00:44:15,910 another thing that obviously always grabs my attention 753 00:44:15,910 --> 00:44:17,990 because I love these mental strategies. 754 00:44:17,990 --> 00:44:21,110 You wrote down the simple mental strategies for racing, the three 755 00:44:21,110 --> 00:44:24,190 C's, the comfortable, confident and compete. 756 00:44:24,470 --> 00:44:26,870 So maybe you can hop into those a little bit. 757 00:44:27,430 --> 00:44:30,190 So you want to have a race strategy for every race that you 758 00:44:30,190 --> 00:44:34,470 do? The one that I really teach the 759 00:44:34,470 --> 00:44:36,950 most I think is is most helpful for folks. 760 00:44:37,280 --> 00:44:43,000 Is what I call the three C's, and this is basically any race 761 00:44:43,000 --> 00:44:49,040 you do, be it a 5K or marathon, you break into three parts and 762 00:44:49,320 --> 00:44:52,760 the three parts are beginning, the middle and the end, and each 763 00:44:52,760 --> 00:44:57,200 one of those is assigned a word that starts with C So the three 764 00:44:57,200 --> 00:45:01,680 C's are comfortable, confident, and compete. 765 00:45:03,160 --> 00:45:05,640 What this means is your plan is very simple. 766 00:45:05,980 --> 00:45:08,580 The first third of the race, you want to stay very comfortable. 767 00:45:09,260 --> 00:45:11,820 The middle third of the race, you want to build your 768 00:45:11,820 --> 00:45:14,940 confidence. And then the final third is when 769 00:45:14,940 --> 00:45:19,260 you want to be competitive. People often talk about race 770 00:45:19,260 --> 00:45:22,900 mantras. This is all you need to think in 771 00:45:22,900 --> 00:45:24,980 each stage. You think stay comfortable, stay 772 00:45:24,980 --> 00:45:27,820 comfortable, stay comfortable, be confident, be confident. 773 00:45:27,980 --> 00:45:31,020 I can do this. I'm getting ready to be 774 00:45:31,020 --> 00:45:33,140 competitive. Get to that third stage. 775 00:45:33,380 --> 00:45:34,900 Then you start to be competitive. 776 00:45:36,360 --> 00:45:39,960 The way this looks with a marathon, it's going to be 777 00:45:39,960 --> 00:45:42,280 different than it looks for something like a 5K. 778 00:45:42,840 --> 00:45:46,760 But for marathon, since we're talking about that, you know, 779 00:45:47,040 --> 00:45:48,720 marathon's a really, really long way. 780 00:45:49,400 --> 00:45:53,240 The biggest challenge for most folks in the marathon is getting 781 00:45:53,240 --> 00:45:56,240 through the wall, jumping over that point and finishing the 782 00:45:56,240 --> 00:45:59,890 race strong. When you look at people's race 783 00:45:59,890 --> 00:46:02,890 results on Strava or anything like that, you're either going 784 00:46:02,890 --> 00:46:05,210 to see a race go one or two one of two ways. 785 00:46:05,650 --> 00:46:07,930 They're either going to run really good until they hit the 786 00:46:07,930 --> 00:46:11,370 wall around miles 16 to 20, and then it's going to be, you know, 787 00:46:11,570 --> 00:46:15,890 slow and terrible after that, or they're going to run pretty 788 00:46:15,890 --> 00:46:20,770 steady, you know, to the end. Sometimes people pick up the 789 00:46:20,770 --> 00:46:22,890 pace a little bit at the end. That's pretty rare. 790 00:46:24,050 --> 00:46:26,250 But you know, generally you're either steady. 791 00:46:26,910 --> 00:46:30,190 Hit the wall or you're pretty steady until the end. 792 00:46:31,230 --> 00:46:35,310 I want you to avoid hitting the wall, so stay as comfortable for 793 00:46:35,310 --> 00:46:39,430 as long as possible. The 1st 10 to 13 miles of the 794 00:46:39,430 --> 00:46:41,430 race, maybe the first half marathon of the race. 795 00:46:41,710 --> 00:46:44,310 The only thing you need to think is stay comfortable. 796 00:46:44,710 --> 00:46:47,270 This is like a transportation stage in the race. 797 00:46:47,270 --> 00:46:50,790 You're not even racing yet. You're getting ready to race. 798 00:46:51,510 --> 00:46:53,990 You just stay comfortable as long as possible. 799 00:46:55,350 --> 00:46:59,310 How long might depend on the exact map of your race. 800 00:46:59,310 --> 00:47:01,630 Maybe there's a turnaround point if there's a big hill or 801 00:47:01,630 --> 00:47:03,910 something you want to plan around, but let's just say the 802 00:47:03,910 --> 00:47:06,990 first half marathon at stay as comfortable as possible. 803 00:47:07,590 --> 00:47:12,430 Then after that you switch your mind set to being confident. 804 00:47:12,790 --> 00:47:15,750 Once you pass the halfway point, it's probably not going to feel 805 00:47:15,750 --> 00:47:19,430 comfortable anymore, but you need to maintain your confidence 806 00:47:19,430 --> 00:47:22,870 because again, the race still hasn't really started yet. 807 00:47:23,560 --> 00:47:26,280 The racing really only starts at about mile 20. 808 00:47:26,840 --> 00:47:32,360 So if you can move from mile 13 to 20 with a sense of 809 00:47:32,360 --> 00:47:35,480 confidence, tell yourself I can do this. 810 00:47:35,520 --> 00:47:37,160 You know I'm past the halfway point. 811 00:47:37,960 --> 00:47:40,520 I can sense how far away the finishes. 812 00:47:40,520 --> 00:47:43,920 Now you know as each mile gets goes by, you're like okay, I'm 813 00:47:43,920 --> 00:47:45,040 getting closer, I'm getting closer. 814 00:47:45,040 --> 00:47:49,320 I can do this, Set yourself up for success. 815 00:47:50,530 --> 00:47:53,410 When you get to mile 20, flip the switch in your mind to start 816 00:47:53,410 --> 00:47:58,570 to compete, to start to race. If you do this mentally, if this 817 00:47:58,570 --> 00:48:02,410 is the approach you take, you can avoid hitting the wall. 818 00:48:03,370 --> 00:48:07,450 You can get to mile 20 and then you just say, OK, all I need to 819 00:48:07,450 --> 00:48:11,050 do now is race hard for six miles and I'll be at the finish. 820 00:48:11,330 --> 00:48:12,810 This is where the racing happens. 821 00:48:12,810 --> 00:48:15,050 This is always the hardest part in the marathon. 822 00:48:15,570 --> 00:48:20,170 You know some people. It amazes me They're actually 823 00:48:20,170 --> 00:48:22,330 able to run faster after mile 20. 824 00:48:22,730 --> 00:48:25,170 I don't know think that's I've ever been able to do that, but 825 00:48:25,170 --> 00:48:26,330 it's definitely been the hardest. 826 00:48:26,330 --> 00:48:29,450 It's where you really need to dig deep and, you know, be 827 00:48:29,450 --> 00:48:33,690 competitive. The marathon is such a long 828 00:48:33,690 --> 00:48:35,370 race. It's hours on end. 829 00:48:35,690 --> 00:48:38,530 I think breaking it into chunks like this is a really good 830 00:48:38,530 --> 00:48:41,050 approach and it's what I typically teach. 831 00:48:42,630 --> 00:48:45,150 And if you know, if you do this, I think you'll you'll have a 832 00:48:45,150 --> 00:48:48,230 really successful race. This concept has resonated 833 00:48:48,230 --> 00:48:51,430 really well with the people who have read my book and my 834 00:48:51,430 --> 00:48:54,870 athletes, and it's still to this day of the approach that I 835 00:48:54,870 --> 00:48:57,550 personally take with all my races, I think it works really 836 00:48:57,550 --> 00:48:59,270 well. No, I love this. 837 00:48:59,310 --> 00:49:02,670 I've always been the one looking for mantras and trying to find 838 00:49:02,670 --> 00:49:05,750 something that resonates with me and when I read that. 839 00:49:06,320 --> 00:49:09,480 It makes it makes complete sense and it always makes sense. 840 00:49:09,480 --> 00:49:12,920 Whereas your mantras will shift because not every race you do it 841 00:49:12,920 --> 00:49:16,040 for the same reason you know and things in your life change. 842 00:49:16,040 --> 00:49:18,920 So that mantra that you had last year might not work for you. 843 00:49:18,920 --> 00:49:21,320 I think this is something that I'll definitely take to heart at 844 00:49:21,320 --> 00:49:23,360 my next race. So thank you for that. 845 00:49:24,080 --> 00:49:26,360 All right. So let's hop into our last 846 00:49:26,360 --> 00:49:29,880 phase, which is the post race recovery as you mentioned, you 847 00:49:29,880 --> 00:49:31,680 include that in your training because. 848 00:49:32,050 --> 00:49:36,850 It's really important to have a downtime for for your marathon 849 00:49:36,850 --> 00:49:39,010 cycle. Can you hop into that a little 850 00:49:39,010 --> 00:49:43,730 bit and talk about how taking time off works with your body 851 00:49:43,730 --> 00:49:45,650 and gets you ready for your potential next cycle? 852 00:49:46,530 --> 00:49:49,010 Yeah. So if you want to be the best 853 00:49:49,010 --> 00:49:51,570 runner you can be, you have to take plan time off. 854 00:49:51,930 --> 00:49:58,220 I have a huge believer in that. Rest is an integral part of 855 00:49:58,220 --> 00:50:02,420 training and getting stronger and and becoming better from 856 00:50:02,420 --> 00:50:06,780 from race to race. Consistency is super important, 857 00:50:07,500 --> 00:50:13,020 but simultaneously running is a longterm sport that you get 858 00:50:13,020 --> 00:50:16,420 gradually better at over the course of maybe a decade. 859 00:50:16,820 --> 00:50:21,300 You know, people get better and better from race to race to race 860 00:50:21,300 --> 00:50:25,560 when they practice. Strategies like these six phases 861 00:50:25,560 --> 00:50:28,920 of marathon training, and they do it for several years on end. 862 00:50:30,120 --> 00:50:32,840 You want to be consistent, You want to run as much as you can. 863 00:50:33,560 --> 00:50:37,440 But I also think you don't. You can't run every single day 864 00:50:37,440 --> 00:50:40,360 for like without breaks, you can't run every single week of 865 00:50:40,360 --> 00:50:43,080 the year. I think it's important to take 866 00:50:43,480 --> 00:50:46,800 time off, both from a physical and a mental perspective. 867 00:50:47,800 --> 00:50:50,710 So. You know, after you've been 868 00:50:50,710 --> 00:50:56,870 training for 16 to 20 weeks, four to five months, I think 869 00:50:56,870 --> 00:51:00,070 it's essential to take like 2 weeks off. 870 00:51:00,190 --> 00:51:04,950 No running after your marathon. Give yourself a break. 871 00:51:06,150 --> 00:51:07,630 Some people are happy to do this. 872 00:51:07,670 --> 00:51:09,070 Other people really don't want it. 873 00:51:09,070 --> 00:51:10,670 They're just like obsessed with running. 874 00:51:10,670 --> 00:51:15,390 I think a lot of runner people are like running is such a big, 875 00:51:15,550 --> 00:51:17,670 like, helpful thing for them. It's good for their mental 876 00:51:17,670 --> 00:51:19,070 health. And I get it. 877 00:51:19,070 --> 00:51:22,670 You don't want to take time off, but there's so many reasons why 878 00:51:22,670 --> 00:51:25,910 I think it's helpful. You know, physically you've just 879 00:51:25,910 --> 00:51:28,830 gone through a really challenging period. 880 00:51:29,190 --> 00:51:32,150 You know, marathon training is kind of extreme. 881 00:51:32,470 --> 00:51:34,030 We don't always think of it like that. 882 00:51:34,030 --> 00:51:35,790 But you're putting your body through a lot. 883 00:51:36,070 --> 00:51:38,990 And if you've done it for four or five months, you probably 884 00:51:38,990 --> 00:51:44,350 need a break, especially after you just ran 26 miles as hard as 885 00:51:44,350 --> 00:51:47,660 possible. There can be a lot of damage 886 00:51:47,660 --> 00:51:49,700 that you might not even know about. 887 00:51:50,260 --> 00:51:52,700 Whether you're feeling any kind of injury or not from your 888 00:51:52,700 --> 00:51:55,540 training or from your race, You know there can be things under 889 00:51:55,540 --> 00:51:57,540 the surface that you're not aware of. 890 00:51:58,340 --> 00:52:01,140 So you want to take a break before you get back into 891 00:52:01,140 --> 00:52:04,660 training so that when you start up training again, you're you're 892 00:52:04,660 --> 00:52:07,420 physically ready to go. You don't have any lingering 893 00:52:07,420 --> 00:52:10,620 damage from the training or the racing in the previous season 894 00:52:11,180 --> 00:52:14,460 staying with you as you start up training again. 895 00:52:16,320 --> 00:52:21,680 And also I think that just from a mental perspective, marathon 896 00:52:21,960 --> 00:52:25,400 training is it's really mentally demanding and and it can be, 897 00:52:26,720 --> 00:52:29,720 it's time consuming, it's takes a lot of focus, takes all the 898 00:52:29,720 --> 00:52:34,000 mental energy And you know if you're just, if you think of 899 00:52:34,000 --> 00:52:39,520 your training AS26 month periods per year with a substantial 900 00:52:39,520 --> 00:52:42,960 break in between, I think that's a lot more sustainable longterm 901 00:52:42,960 --> 00:52:45,850 than. Just like always, trying to be 902 00:52:46,610 --> 00:52:49,850 racing and doing hard workouts and long runs with with no 903 00:52:49,850 --> 00:52:54,250 break. If you think that taking time 904 00:52:54,250 --> 00:52:59,490 off is bad, I think you should change your perception on that. 905 00:52:59,610 --> 00:53:03,770 And you know when time off into your schedule, into your year 906 00:53:05,290 --> 00:53:08,210 there, there's a lot of a lot of reasons to do it. 907 00:53:10,560 --> 00:53:13,680 Yeah, I like this. It's a good it's a great tip for 908 00:53:13,680 --> 00:53:17,040 our bodies recovery and all the things that you mentioned and I 909 00:53:17,040 --> 00:53:21,000 have a tip for that myself. If you if you really want to 910 00:53:21,280 --> 00:53:25,720 take time off, the best thing of doing that is if you travel 911 00:53:25,720 --> 00:53:29,240 somewhere for a marathon, turn it into a vacation, bring your 912 00:53:29,240 --> 00:53:33,040 family and then that way there's so much pressure on you to not 913 00:53:33,040 --> 00:53:36,920 be running that sometimes I can can work for you as well so. 914 00:53:37,840 --> 00:53:39,270 Yeah. I love it. 915 00:53:40,110 --> 00:53:45,150 You know, I I I think that using your time off to do fun things 916 00:53:45,150 --> 00:53:48,070 that maybe you normally don't prioritize in your life is is a 917 00:53:48,070 --> 00:53:51,030 great way to do it. So you know whether that's going 918 00:53:51,030 --> 00:53:55,150 on a vacation after a race or for me, I often like to go on 919 00:53:55,150 --> 00:53:58,830 long hiking trips or you know go on bike rides or or kayaking. 920 00:53:59,590 --> 00:54:02,430 Those are activities that I I don't prioritize when I'm 921 00:54:02,470 --> 00:54:05,790 training really hard but they're things that I love to do and 922 00:54:05,790 --> 00:54:07,630 it's nice to just do other stuff and. 923 00:54:08,050 --> 00:54:11,570 You know not have to worry about when are you going to fit in 924 00:54:11,570 --> 00:54:13,610 your run each day and where are you going to do it. 925 00:54:13,610 --> 00:54:18,370 And you know can relax a little bit on your sleep and your 926 00:54:18,370 --> 00:54:21,610 eating habits and stuff and and trust me, you won't lose any 927 00:54:21,610 --> 00:54:23,090 fitness. This is actually going to help 928 00:54:23,170 --> 00:54:28,010 make you better in the long term as long as you kind of get back 929 00:54:28,010 --> 00:54:31,650 on a training cycle after your after your rest period is over. 930 00:54:32,530 --> 00:54:33,370 Perfect. Love it. 931 00:54:33,730 --> 00:54:37,290 Thank you, Chris, for sharing those six phases with us. 932 00:54:37,290 --> 00:54:40,530 And then now for our listeners, let us know how they can find 933 00:54:40,530 --> 00:54:44,530 you on social media if they want to follow you and your podcast. 934 00:54:46,370 --> 00:54:50,050 So my book is called Run Faster Marathons, The proven path to 935 00:54:50,090 --> 00:54:52,850 PR. It's by me, Chris Knighton, and 936 00:54:52,850 --> 00:54:56,290 you can find it on Amazon. It's available in paperback and 937 00:54:56,290 --> 00:55:00,690 Kindle format. I also have a podcast The Night 938 00:55:00,690 --> 00:55:05,170 and Runs podcast and you can find that links to the book and 939 00:55:05,250 --> 00:55:08,010 the podcast and info about my coaching and training plans at 940 00:55:08,010 --> 00:55:12,050 my website thatsnightandruns.com. 941 00:55:12,330 --> 00:55:17,450 And I'm also on Instagram at night and runs where I mostly 942 00:55:17,450 --> 00:55:22,210 just share the successes of my athletes nowadays, so check 943 00:55:22,210 --> 00:55:23,890 those out. Perfect. 944 00:55:23,890 --> 00:55:26,410 And as always, we'll link that in our episode descriptions. 945 00:55:26,410 --> 00:55:28,370 And thank you so much for talking with me today. 946 00:55:29,480 --> 00:55:35,800 You're welcome, Letty. Thank you Chris for spending 947 00:55:35,800 --> 00:55:39,080 time with us and hopefully the listeners found some of this 948 00:55:39,080 --> 00:55:42,920 information valuable and will go out and pursue more. 949 00:55:42,920 --> 00:55:46,840 Like Letty had said, she's going to link in the description all 950 00:55:46,840 --> 00:55:50,400 the places you need to go if you want to learn more or get in 951 00:55:50,400 --> 00:55:52,170 touch with him. Exactly. 952 00:55:52,210 --> 00:55:56,730 Also, well, we try to do stories on Instagram and little videos. 953 00:55:56,730 --> 00:55:58,330 That are also. Entice you to listen to the 954 00:55:58,330 --> 00:55:59,690 podcast. So if you're not following us on 955 00:55:59,690 --> 00:56:03,170 social media yet, we are at running podcasts and hopefully 956 00:56:03,170 --> 00:56:06,250 we can connect there. Also, let us know about how 957 00:56:06,250 --> 00:56:09,330 you're doing with your runs and if you're improving, if you're 958 00:56:09,330 --> 00:56:12,250 not improving, if you're just enjoying it, we love to hear 959 00:56:12,250 --> 00:56:13,940 that stuff. Yes, definitely. 960 00:56:13,940 --> 00:56:16,860 Also let us know what fall marathon you're training for 961 00:56:17,140 --> 00:56:20,340 because if you're running Chicago or any of those, maybe 962 00:56:20,340 --> 00:56:23,340 our paths will cross. That would be awesome. 963 00:56:23,780 --> 00:56:27,420 We also have our group on Facebook called Speedstriders 964 00:56:27,420 --> 00:56:30,540 that we invite you to join. It's just a bunch of runners, 965 00:56:30,540 --> 00:56:34,060 probably a group of no more than 800 people, where we just post 966 00:56:34,060 --> 00:56:35,580 our runs and encourage each other. 967 00:56:35,580 --> 00:56:38,060 It's all love. Positivity is good. 968 00:56:38,380 --> 00:56:41,460 Absolutely. So let's end this podcast on a 969 00:56:41,460 --> 00:56:44,360 positive note. Have a good week of running. 970 00:56:50,160 --> 00:56:52,600 Thanks for tuning in For more information. 971 00:56:52,600 --> 00:56:57,920 Head to www.runningpodcast.us and as always have a great week 972 00:56:57,920 --> 00:56:58,480 of running.