Marathon Mentality: Born To Go The Distance

I'll be home next week . I'm so excited . It's one more week . It's awesome .

So I looked it up , it was two hours away . Went to Roe Hoboth Beach and it's so funny because I went out there right and I went to the . I found a boardwalk Cool and I saw these people dressed as like Santas and elves and stuff and I'm like what is going on ? And they were like , oh , it's the Santa crawl for charity , blah , blah , blah .

So all these people were like running around . And then I see people walking down the boardwalk with beautiful medals , wearing running shirts and apparently earlier in the day there was a marathon and half marathon that , had I known about , I could have run it . Oh yeah , I did , I did , but I got there in time . The fog was coming .

I've never been to a beach where it was foggy . You know , I'm from the Gulf , not the like the other side , and so the fog was rolling in and I ran , I got my , I got a 5k in there , ran most of it on the beach and then went and ran up on the boardwalk when it started getting a little bit too foggy for my .

Well , I couldn't see somebody , like you know , in front of me , but it was amazing , like it was beautiful . Just the sound of the beach , just it reinvigorated my heart and soul . So it was awesome , so .

So there's like these states where you think of like I just got to get this one off the list , right , so you get this one knocked out and not thinking much about it . And then you get there and you're like holy shit , that was amazing .

And when I first got up in the morning the fog had led up and it was just I got to go out and get sea glass and you know , just yeah , it was a great , great Saturday . Sunday it was great , great weekend Meaches of Delaware .

It's the country's third largest adventure race in the country and they always give you the maps the night before and it was like all urban , like it was all going to be like in the city and city parks . I'm like you're usually tromping around in the woods and I'm like , oh , come on , I got to ride my mountain bike like through the city .

It turned out to be the funnest race yet because it took us in parts of the city that were we would ride our bikes to various parks and then you get to the park and the parks were just beautiful .

I've lived in West St Louis County for years , but they took us to parks that I had never been to and there was just a lot of like arts and sculptures and I don't know it . Just it was one of those things that it kind of to your point , like I went into it kind of hesitant and came out like man , this is amazing . So that's what we do this week .

I'm gonna do a detailed race report , separate podcast , on it but it was a lot of fun .

So we kind of wanna talk about the science of that and maybe give you some strategies to kind of help tap into that .

And I think that there's a great correlation with participating in these endurance types events , whether it be your first 5K or training for a marathon and your day to day life , that level of grit and discipline , something that can be kind of trained and honed into .

Before we get into that , make sure you smash that subscribe button so you're notified of future episodes of the podcast . Go to Apple leave us a review . They go a long way to helping us expand the Do Heart Things Nation , and this episode is sponsored by the Lions Guide Leadership Academy .

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We focus on Knowing yourself , leading yourself and leading teams , and our mission is to help everyday leaders become world-class leaders , and I'm the high performance development director over there and we host the FORGE , which is a high performance mindset community where we focus on networking frameworks and challenging and accountability .

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So all right let's see here All right , hang on .

It's a great story about the history of humans and the bottom line is basically there's a I'm going to butcher this a little bit , but down in Mexico there's a indigenous tribe of people that are natural endurance runners , or some of the best endurance runners in the world , and they basically , by studying them , they determined that you know , these people have been

thriving down there and they still hold these races , these endurance races , and the whole crux of the book is kind of like the the origin of humans and endurance sports , and a couple of highlights are that you know , cheetahs are the fastest land animal in the world , but humans can leave them in the dust and we can do this through the long run .

We actually are the most . Humans have the most endurance of all of the animals in the animal kingdom and so we can outrun wolves , cheetahs , even horses .

We're not very good sprinters , but we are very good hunters and we have the endurance that enables us to pursue and hunt these animals over the long haul , and really kind of the crux of the born to run book it kind of talks about that is like we can outlast the animals .

They may be able to out sprint us , but they eventually tire and we can stalk them and run them down through our endurance .

So , yeah , remember , in the summertime the dog comes in panting and gets hot , like he can run really fast , but eventually it's like you know I'll play fetch with it , but you know she'll eventually tire and she can't do anything . She's got a lot of fur right , so she's hot . So Dogs rely on panting to cool down .

Some animals , like horses and camels , can sweat , but they just don't do it as efficiently as humans can , so they ultimately overheat and they must slow down . So that's a unique component of the difference between humans and other animals . We also have some special adaptations with our running mechanics . We're well suited for endurance running .

We have the human running gate . We have two main phases . We have aerial , with both feet off the ground in the stance with at least one foot touching the ground . When we're running , gravity is pulling us down , which generates a lot of kinetic energy , but we lose some kinetic energy when we decelerate . We're getting geeked out in science here .

The bottom line is that we are , as humans are , very springy with our tendons , which acts like a Pogo stick . We can store a lot more elastic energy over the long haul . We don't tire as easy . I guess that's the takeaway from that .

Because we're like Pogo sticks , we don't use as much energy as a lot of other animals do , which enables us to not run necessarily fast , but we have the ability to sustain over the long haul . That makes it interesting . Yeah , that's pretty cool .

Prior to that , I guess in 2009 , when we moved to Missouri , I was trying to get into running and , rudy , I would go run with him and he was trying to train me air quotes , military style , and anyone that's been in the military or run with people with the military running mindset it's horrible . Like they drain the fun from running , like it is horrible .

And so it was at mile one I'm like this is horrible , I hate this , I don't want to do this , but I didn't want to . I didn't let myself quit because I didn't like it , but I would say that's when I had to push through just to hit that two mile mark . Back then I was just like nope , this is horrible , I'm dying , no way .

But there's a difference between training the military way , where you're training to a certain standard and time and you've got to keep going , blah , blah , blah , versus when I found my happy place in running because I'm not in the military . You can stop if you want to , it's OK . You can go really slow if you want to , and that's .

Yes , sometimes you have to do the hard thing and kind of push through the workout , but every if you're , if every single time you go out and run and you're finding it to be like you're , you're really like it , it sucks the soul out of you . Well , of course , you're not going to stay with it . And there's a cool thing and this is when I train runners .

There's a variety of . There's five different paces that I train people at . Most people run the same pace , oftentimes the same course , and they're running harder than they need to be and it gets boring after a while or it's like you know it that it's what years of running in the military . It was like that .

It was like we got to run hard every time everywhere we go . Well , that's not smart , and the world's fastest runners don't even train that way . Even you know your Kipchogi and some of the fastest runners in the world run zone too . They run very , very .

Most of your runs should be very , very slow , conversational pace , enjoying it , with maybe you know one or two , one long distance run a week and then one speed work a week , and that's all you got to do . That's it , yeah .

Yeah , I mean , if you need to know it , look it up . If you want to know it , we'll talk about it on another episode . But yeah , when people tell you to slow down and just run at a slower pace , just do it . Just listen , Don't fight it .

What I've , what I've learned from endurance sports , is that you know when , when you think this I think of Goggins , there's another climber movie on Netflix and when you think you're only 40% finished or there's another effort that you can use , instead of finished you are , you still have like 60% left to go .

Like you , when your body thinks you're physically done , you actually have more on the table . And it's true , like you and this is what I love about endurance sports is it forces you mentally and physically to brush against the wall and push through anyway .

And that's , I think , that you will find an endurance sports , more than anything else , that most of it is mindset . It really is your ability to overcome when you are completely tapped out .

And that's what I love about putting myself in those positions because even like this weekend and with the adventure race , like there were moments where you're just completely physically tired and it's like you go from one phase to the next , like getting off the bike into the canoe and you're paddling your ass off and then you're soaking wet and you're tired .

Then you get out of the canoe . It's like , okay , cool , that part is over , give me a second , let me fuel up , give my mind right and then we'll get on to the next evolution . But it's like at that moment you could have completely . Every fiber in your body wants to quit .

But you just kind of rewire your mindset and kind of push on to the next event and you can keep going . You can go longer than you

think you can .

So when I'm running anything , when I'm running a 10K , or if I'm running a 15K or a half marathon or a marathon or whatever , whatever I'm running , I chunk that down into 5Ks and I click it off . Oh , there's another 5K . Oh , I've only got one 5K left , or two 5Ks left .

But that's how I chunk it down into smaller pieces , versus going oh my God , I've got another 10 miles to go . Like that's not , that's not what gets me through . What gets me through is just chunking it down , just bit by bit . And if you're a two mile person , if you're just training for two miles , break it down into a quarter miles and half miles .

You know , oh , I've only got , you know , a couple of half miles to go . And you'll be amazed at , when you reframe that thinking , how much easier it feels and how much faster it goes .

Yeah , when we get to that mileage , we'll see where we're at and then we break it down into like okay , I got one more to go , and then you finish . You finish strong there . So anytime that you're doing anything and I think that translates well into your day to day routine Anytime that you have a project , break it down into bite-sized chunks .

It doesn't seem nearly as daunting and you can kind of persevere and push through . Yep , every time every time and it's just breaking it . So just breaking it down in the sections as opposed to like tackling the whole beast , it makes it just so much more manageable physically and mentally . Wherever your mind goes , your body will go .

I would say don't do it like don't tow the line , then visualize you wanna do it leading up to the event . So visualize the entire , from getting their packet pickup through the entire sequence of events that's gonna happen during your race . And you know , I do this in my personal life when I'm working on projects as well . But focus on that .

There's a great story about Jim Thorpe . He was the Native American that I forgot what Olympics it was . But he's big story was that he was a I think it was a pentathlete . There's multiple events , his shoes he lost his shoes and he found a set of shoes and they were the mismatched size and he basically just destroyed everyone during that Olympic event .

But on the ship over there there was a reporter . He was sitting in a chair and , being Native American , they were kind of giving him some crap anyway . But the reporter was kind of snarky with him and basically ask him how he was gonna finish over there . He's like I'm gonna win . And he's like , well , what are you ? How are you gonna do that ?

Well , I'm visualizing myself doing the long jump , like right now , like he's like working through that , that sequence , just visualizing it . And that was like that was before visualization became really , really popular . That was the technique that he was using . The bottom line is , by visualizing kind of goes back into manifesting .

Right , you're already putting yourself there , you're already seeing it happen , you're already anticipating some things that could happen and you're kind of problem solving to that to make the entire event much , much smoother . Yeah , and it's like experiencing it before you even get there and there's some powerful mindset ability to endure , to get through it .

By doing that , how do you visualize things ?

Your brain does not know the difference , your thoughts don't know the difference between physical activity and thought . So when you're visualizing it , you bring up these emotions , you bring up these body processes .

I mean there's a lot of things that happen and these connections that start happening in your brain and then when you go out and do it , it's just , it's a completely different experience and we don't have time to go into all that , all the science , geeky stuff on that one .

But there is a lot of power and visual visualization that people don't take into account .

So because your subconscious is working and when you visualize things , it lines up your actions and thoughts to let your subconscious kind of like I Don't know lay the tracks , if you will , to where it is that you want to go , without you even thinking about it .

I think visualization is really powerful , like before you go to bed , because why you're sleeping , you're allowing your brain the opportunity to kind of work on the processes While you're sleeping .

I know it sounds kind of hokey for those that may not have done it before , but give it a try , give it a try next time you have a Run or if you're dealing with something in life like a project in life , just sit down , close your eyes and Just imagine the sequence , like visualizing yourself going through the entire process To completion and actually feeling it

. Like feeling like the sense of accomplishment when you're done and and it's amazing how powerful that the process works . Yeah , so visualize .

They don't want to give anything else . But every day I think about getting the certificate of completion and all the things in my career it's gonna open so many doors , right , and so when teachers , when the instructors or you know they'll , we'll walk in the hallway . They're like so how you doing ? I'm like I'm great . They're like are you still enjoying it ?

I'm like , hell , yeah , I am . Like I'm still here , I'm in the fight , I'm loving it . Like I'm so excited to be here because there's it I can . I Think about and I visualize the in-state that , completing the course and all the things that's going to happen . Because I've put in all the work in the course . I'm not . My life is not sucking for me .

It is hard . This is so mentally taxing , but it's worth it and there's so many rewards that I'll reap because of it . But people lose side of that and you can see it because you know that literally on Friday the teachers are like man , I think you're the only one that's still excited to be here . I'm like there's no reason not to be excited to be here .

Nothing but good can come from completing this course . Nothing but good can come from it , and it's just yes . Yes to Jay's point .

I've learned to better be able to control that . Good for you . I don't think the last time I had like a fit , I think was like at the epic 150 and I threw my bike . I'm like I'm like I'm just creating more problems . I was like I was only like four miles from the finish but I was just like so done .

I was laying on the road and I'm just like so done , and I remember throwing my bike . I'm like this bike has carried me all the way this far .

I'm not doing anything but being an ass and I'm probably gonna break my bike and I'm gonna have to walk this thing home and I'm like , and I haven't had , I haven't done that since , but I used to have for you , regulate you , being able to regulate your , your emotions . I still have challenge with that in my day-to-day life .

From time to time I get pissed off about things . I got it like remind me the whole hey , who's father thing .

And I did in those moments and I didn't like that about myself , mm-hmm , and I'm like it's not that serious , I'm not . You know , I am not . I Might go for age group from time to time , but I'm not like overall winner . So like I just need to just calm down . I'm just grateful that I can be out here .

It kind goes about good , goes back reminding myself my gratitude , yeah , and I can be here . So mm-hmm .

when things get hard is a really good . It just creates such a positive environment to be around .

When I first got here , I was running a 5k , right , because I , you know running Stopped and ran in Indianapolis , stopped and ran in Ohio , ran in West Virginia , came here , ran the next day . My lower back has caused I've got some stupid injury from the Tough Mudder last April and Pain so bad that I almost couldn't finish a 5k and a 5k to me .

Normally I won't even go out for less than a 5k because that's , that is my easy , that is my easy . And when I got a mile two and I could barely walk , I lost it on the track . I was crying like , oh my god , I can't do this and that .

And then by the time I got to the elevator , I'm like get your shit together , man , like what is wrong with you ? It's okay , you're gonna be fine . Listen , your body , heal , rest , and then get back out there and kill it and then you can start training back up again . You know .

I think it just makes you . I don't know it goes hand-in-hand it . It allows you to , to just be , to get better so many ways .

It's what I love about these events that push you to your absolute limits , yes , and then you get to be in that state of really , you know , working through , like you know Talking , talking yourself off the ledge , and yeah emotions and feels and everything so .

We highlighted him a few months ago I'll remember exactly what month , but it was probably over the over the last summer and Bob recently , as just yesterday , he passed , and so this is . This is sad , but we're also celebrating , because I truly believe that he wanted to go be with the Lord and we should celebrate that . Bob was a I don't know .

I got to meet him at the end of life and he was just such an inspirational and kind man and he had , you know , he had been struggling with with health . He just really . He just recently lost his son too , and but he's , you know , he's in a better place now and we just want to thank Bob for for just Demonstrating what kindness .

When I think of Bob , I think of grit , determination and kindness , because he was incredibly just kind . I mean , he just just a . I'm gonna cherish my , my , my , my , my friendship with him the short time that I , that I got to know him .

He's wearing the shirt that that we sent him to remember why he started , and he was a veteran US Army and we just appreciate . You know a life well live and demonstrating what kindness and grit determination look like . So Absolutely . So , bob , we know that you're .

You're looking down on us from heaven and just keep getting after it and we look forward to seeing you eventually . See you again , buddy . But yeah , kind of a Sombra , somber bad news it's . You know you hate to hear about these things , but also knowing he's in a better place . So Absolutely All right , so well , that's it for for today's show .

Whatever your endurance is , I want you to really just , next time you're out there , next time you're putting in the work , I really want you to just Lock it in , dial it in , get , get in your , in your head and and really Talk yourself up . Man , talk yourself up . You can do it .

You can stay in the game , chunk out those long segments of time into smaller ones , and you've got this . And , as always , as we always close the show , go out and and do something to make somebody smile , but first make yourself smile .

But , yeah , just go go , spread the love , spread the happiness , spread the kindness and have a kick-ass Monday and we will see you next time . Hey , you're back . I Just close the show out , but I don't know how to turn it off , so we're still recording live .

I just love this . I can't hear you you're . I have no idea what's going on , but I see you're laughing . I see you're You're laughing . I don't even know how to close the show out . I Did that . I did that . Hey , I did it . I did it . I reminded everybody to go smile and to make somebody smile and make them so smile .

I did it when you disappeared on me . Have a happy Monday , everybody .