Running Facts vs Fiction: An Uncommon Approach to Common Myths

I'm doing it walking because I'm not trying to injure myself and I know me and I'm coming back from being injured and not steady like consistently training , and so I'm walking most of my miles and I've got it all mapped out through the end of the month . I'm doing it , so there's no excuse . Really , Make sure I'm working .

I'm getting a slow start because we had to go to Tybee Island and it was one run fest in Tybee Island and we're part of the Ultramax crew out of Columbia , so we had to go time and although we saw a lot of runners running , we didn't get to run much because it's a full blown , I don't know , just nonstop working for like 20 , 48 hours .

That was super cool . We got a couple of miles in day one . We had to fly into Tybee and then . Run fest is awesome . If you ever get a chance to go , you should go .

If you love medals , you're going to clean up so well because they do a 5K on Friday night and then they do a 10K first thing the next morning , followed by a half marathon , followed by a 2.8 mile beach run , followed by a one mile run . So if you , you can participate .

They're all individual races or you can do them all and get six medals , which is super cool and it's a really , really cool event and a really cool location , so highly recommend it . But we got to kick that off and now we're in Florida . We did a couple of miles in . Yesterday I got a seven mile bike ride in on the beach cruiser , which was pretty cool .

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So Angie and I wanted to talk about myths and we found an article on inrunnersworldcom that had 13 common myths . And as I read this , I called Angie . I'm like , look , I saw something in here . I'm finding there's a . In the health and wellness space , there seems to be like new articles that come out all the time that are constantly contradicting each other .

Like glass of wine is good , and then , like a few months later you'll see well , a glass of wine is bad for you . Ice baths are good , ice baths are bad . And we're like well , what ? How are we supposed to navigate this constant conflict of information ?

And we live in this incredible time where we have so much information at our fingertips , which is amazing , but in the health and wellness space especially , I think it causes so much confusion and we just kind of want to roll through some of these , talk about our perspectives on it , maybe give you , the listener , some ideas to think about , and we would love to

hear back what you think about , if there was a specific myth that we talk about today , that that you have a strong feeling about , or how do you navigate the challenges of information overload . What are your thoughts ?

You got social media and you really just need to find a credible source for your information and you need to make sure that this , your source , is up to date on the newest and latest studies that they're that they are getting their information from , from . You know science-based facts and studies , and not just , well , this is what worked for me .

That'll give me wrong . Sharing what works for you helps others , but you can't take that to the grave and you always need to understand that what worked for one person doesn't necessarily mean that's gonna work for you .

So I'm just just to quickly answer your question Get your , get a credible source , make sure they're up to date on on the latest , the latest findings and the latest you know , things that have been done to figure out what you're trying to trying to learn and know and understand , and then Apply it and see if it works for you .

Like you said , well , it works for one person may not work for someone else . The human body is really we're , it's so . It's so incredible how many people are on this planet and we're so uniquely Different from one another and so you just kind of .

You just kind of figure out what works for you and then stay on top of the research , find credible people to your point . So let's get through some of these myths , let's see what okay , what we say , what we'll come up with . So the first one there's an ideal running form that will solve all of your problems .

Who say ideal running form that will solve all of your problems ? And Really , what this one is talking about is that Our running mechanics are probably a result of our anatomy , our injury history and running history .

I'm a pose method running instructor . You are as well , are you , angie ?

But what I found with runners is it is it can be incredibly difficult to adjust someone's body mechanics when they have years and years of , I mean , injured , like they could have running related injuries they could have . You know there are anatomies are different . Like I'm 6-4 . I'm kind of a Clydesdale . You have a completely different anatomy for you .

You have some people that tend to be heel strikers versus , you know , midfoot strikers and , and so these techniques Can help you improve your form , but there's not like one specific form that's gonna solve every runner's problems and there's a lot of when I think of this as well as like there's a lot of methodologies and thoughts in Chew , like choosing the right

shoe , do you choose a zero drop ? You go with the hook , you know running on pillows , addition , you know there's there's a wide variety of different things and , once again , I think you know in this realm you should work on form aspects of your form , but there's not one form that's going to solve all of your elements .

If you have , you know need challenges and back challenges and things like that , form alone is not going to solve your problem .

I have a really good physical therapist and he's very he he stays up on the latest scientific findings but he's very much , you know , let's start at your feet and figure out what's wrong there and work our way up , and , you know , a lot of times it just comes down to strengthening the muscles , starting from the bottom , going up , and just , you know , maybe

your muscles you need to work on that , you know , versus on trying to work on how you're changing the actual way you run .

But when I unlocked , you know , my hip flexors and that chain , I'm now able to run , you know , and we run like a couple of 50 K's . And I've also learned that when we go to the gym to lift , you know , a lot of my lifting was , you know , dead lifts and squats and big major muscles .

And what I've learned is that doing some of those sillier exercises , like the Suzanne Summers , like you know , leg openers and clams and things like that , they don't look , they look kind of silly , but you have a lot of like smaller muscles in there that are getting worked when you run and you've got to strengthen those and you can't really attack those when you

are , you know , doing the bigger lifts and so doing some of that work . That's not , you know , it's not going to make you your legs look amazing , but they're going to help you with your ability to run and stay injury free , and doing that work is incredibly important .

It does keep you injury free and that works all those old muscles and stretches out all those little ligaments that you got , because I'm having issues right now , Like I got a hip impingement and it's like if I'm laying on my side and doing a leg opener , I'm finding I've got some weak muscles in there and it's causing some challenges right now .

So I got to work on that . But yeah , physical therapist , chiropractor , find people and find people that are medical professionals who run . If you can , that's yes , get it .

It was always let's figure out how to get you better so you can continue movement , so you can continue running . Because he knew movement is what is ? I mean it is .

I was listening to a podcast the other day and Sean Stevenson from the Model Health Show and he's a doctor and he is just , they used to think they used to prescribe bed rest as a way to get better , and they've just found out over the years that that is absolutely positively not true .

I mean , okay , yeah , in some cases , right , but in most cases , movement is key . Movement is key to healing , movement is key to longevity . Movement is key . And so when these you know it , just I can , I'm not going to go on a tangent about the medical professionals that tell you to stop moving because you're in pain . I'm not going to do it .

I'm not going to do it . So let's , let's move on before I start doing that .

You're going to tell me I'm not slowing down , like I'm not stopping , yeah , so help me figure that out . And this guy was overweight . I saw one before I got in the room . He was drinking a mountain dew . Like here's a health professional . I can't take you serious , like , yeah , so I'm going to get another opinion .

So to that point , fine , it's incredibly important to find medical professionals that are runners themselves to say get it , yeah , that exercise , yes , all right , here's one . running ruins your knees . How many times have you heard that one ? I've heard that one Running ruins your knees . Fact according to this article , your knees get stronger .

Running actually protect your knees against the development of osteoarthritis , while non light runners have about a third of the rate of neosteoritis as sedentary individuals . The more research learned about cartilage , the elastic tissue that protects our joints , the more those results make sense .

Cartilage is like any other living structure that it gets stronger with continual loading and so when you run , you stress the cartilage in your joints and , like muscles , the cartilage recovers and strengthens after workouts . So bottom line is it goes back to I think movement is good for the body . Yes , running can be hard on the knees .

The running is hard on your body in general , but this is where muscle strength and conditioning and flexibility work is incredibly important to do while you run so you mitigate the injury . What I tell my runners , like those warm up drills that you do , the lunges and the work afterwards . It's like brushing your teeth or paying your taxes .

You may not like doing it , but it's going to keep you in the game . It's going to keep you injury free . It's no one enjoys brushing their teeth . You don't look forward to it , but it's like it's work that you have to do . Brush the teeth you want to keep is what I tell my kids , and it's that work that will keep you running .

But yeah , running is hard on the body , but also not running and working out is also hard on the body .

You know a non-pavement on concrete surface . If you feel like when you're running that you're having that pain in your knees or your joints , then that's what goes back to . That's maybe when you might want to consider what does my form look like ? Do I need to tweak that a little bit ?

How can I tweak that and do it naturally and make that and integrate that into my running pattern as a habit , versus just trying to change your form because you just want to go faster , right , I mean ?

I think that's where these little things go hand-in-hand , where they marry one another , and that's where you start looking at making those those little tweaks and changes , if that makes sense .

Kind of goes back to the pose methodology that the idea is the more that you turn over , the more your whole legs and your body is like a shock in a car and the more efficient you can make that the less strain and stress that you put on any particular body part .

So if you can increase your efficiency it can help reduce the injury rate and wear and tear on certain components of your leg , just like your car . You're gonna like this next myth because we kind of talked , we kind of hit this one off right , right off the bat . Walking is weak .

It's so funny because it's so hard to get people to understand that you are still a runner . If you incorporate walk breaks in your running , what , wait , what ? Yeah , I can't believe it . No , I'm not a runner , I had to walk . Yeah , you're still a runner , you're still a runner . Walking during aid stations , it helps .

It helps you recover a little bit faster when you , when you do interval running and I'm talking about interval running , I'm not talking about all out 100 , you know doing , doing like just max every time .

I'm talking about just going out and running 45 seconds and walking for 30 , you know , for 10 miles that helps that lactic acid not build up as quickly in your muscles . That helps you recover a lot faster .

And when you incorporate interval running , which is walking , incorporating walking into your running cycle , if you want to go out and you want to run a marathon faster , you can run faster . Or half marathon , or 10k or 15k , you can actually run faster doing this method , doing the Galway method . So yeah , it's one of my favorites .

And , and that's one thing you know , the marathon is incredibly tough because you're running 26 miles on Pavement and I used to think that , man , because I ran running a couple marathon . So it's so hard that ultra runs like I can't believe people do more than 26 miles .

It's actually to me it's easier to run a 50k six more miles , than it is a marathon distance and on on , because usually when you're running these altars they're typically out on trail , somewhere they're , they're off the beaten path .

They're actually easier to run because you can take those momentary walk breaks when you're walking up the hill or down the hill or you're not on pavement . And and the the best runners you know in in these races you know they all walk a little bit .

So , and and part of the when I do my active recovery day , you know a 40 , a 20 to 45 minutes swift walk is a really great way to to recover the body . So Walking is weak as bullshit . We debunked it . It's and and you gotta let your ego go that that's really what it is .

It's it's if you're , if you're afraid to be seen walking , it's your ego getting in the way . No one really cares what you're doing . Just get out there and move the body , and I'm finding it far more enjoyable .

I walk in parts of my training and especially when I'm hanging , when I'm doing a social run , I want to hang out with my friends and they're walking or doing intervals . I don't care , I don't care . Someone's seeing me . Jays , after walking , what it doesn't matter .

Just move the body smooth by yes , so yeah , and and I Love rucking and that's walking with essentially a weighted backpack that burns more calories and does a tremendous amount there's a tremendous amount of value and strength training that goes along with doing that . So walking is weak debunked .

They're out there trying to get the PR and they're running hard and they're on a team and it can be intimidating , but I love just seeing the people in the back that are just out . There might be their first race , so they're just out there having a good time , right ? So you don't have to PR . It doesn't have to be a challenge .

It's about the event and the experience and for us , as you know , had a lot of experience putting on racing and timing . Yeah , we love watching the competitive runners come through quick , but I also love the mom out there . You know , push in the stroller . Or the person who has cancer that's , you know , one of the last ones across the line .

You know the person that's dropped a whole bunch of weight is making a change . That's more inspirational when , when most of the Crowd is gone and the clapping is , there's no one out there to clap . It's usually those moments at the very tail end of the race that are more emotional , like Daniel Barnes when he did the Frog Hill the last couple years .

He lost his legs and , you know , comes across like a few hours after everyone is already gone under the . You know we bring out a truck with headlights , you know . So , yeah , that is so incredibly inspirational and so you don't have to race to participate in a race .

So , before we go for time and I always tell my runners this your first race I don't want you to carry a watch , I don't want you to do anything , but just enjoy the moment . And that's what we're doing with with Lacey's first one . We're gonna , we were gonna do . We decided to go to Nashville because it's the rock and roll and what better way .

And so we're just gonna go and just have a good time . There's no time , worries , we're just gonna go and enjoy the bands that are playing it's supposed to be a lot of fun and just go for the party . We're not going for the PR , we're going for the party in the finish and that's that's it . That's our point .

Of that particular run , marine Corps might try to go for a little bit . That's probably gonna be another one . We're gonna enjoy the environment , then we're gonna find one that we can actually go race , and so , yeah , go , just have a good time with it . Enjoy , yeah , enjoy life for what it is . Yeah , all right , let's see what other we got time for .

Like one more myth one more Okay . Carbs are good , carbs are bad , fat is good , fat is bad . We think about fueling .

different . You need to find what works for you while training . So your training runs are meant to find out Well , they're meant to train Okay , number one , but two , they're meant to figure out what shoes work best for you , what gear works best for you , what fueling and hydration method works best for you .

So you don't change up and do something new on race day . Do not change up and do something new on race day . Do not change up and do something new on race day just because you saw it at the expo doesn't mean you need to try it on race day . Okay , just kills me when people do that , oh my god . Anyway , I'm fueling everyone's different .

If you're an intermittent , faster , maybe you get up and drink a Cup of coffee and you have your water and you go out and you run for an hour and you're good , like maybe that's how your body operates . Or maybe , like me , I get up and drink some water , drink some coffee , have a cheese stick , a handful of nuts , and I'm good for about 45 minutes .

And then , every 45 minutes and these are long run days , guys , I'm talking about long run days Then every 30 to 45 minutes , I'm gonna have a goo gel pack because that's what works for me and does not upset my stomach . Short runs , less than three miles , I don't . I mean I've .

I've Listen to enough podcast from from Reliable medical doctors who you , most people don't need a whole bunch of fuel before a 5k , before three miles . You know , unless you , unless you're a back of the packer and it's your first one and you're still , you know , if you're , if you're gonna finish it , it might take you an hour .

My first 5k took me 52 minutes . I needed something , I needed a little bit of extras . It was in the summer , I was losing electrolytes , I was sweating , I was about a hundred pounds overweight and so , yes , in that instance , my body In that moment in time needed extra electrolytes , needed , needed the extra boost .

But someone like Jay who at that time could probably what ? What is your ? What is your 5k pace , jay , now , and probably around , 20 20 minutes for 5k that's where matter , yeah you . You probably don't need any extra fuel for a 5k right so .

Yeah , so you need to look at the distance you're going , you need to look at your individual specific needs and you need to tweak that while you are training . That's that's . That's that's my .

Now like how marathon , I got this in the bag right , okay , I can do this . I Did all the wrong things . I got a brand new pair of shoes from the expo Because I'm like they're gonna have food out on the course . They got bananas . They got propel . I never drank propel . This is what propel was like . New , I'm good to go .

I was good for about the first 13 miles and then the wheels just fell apart . I completely exploded . I mean , I did the run walk , my feet hurt , I had blisters so freakin bad . And my pride . I was like man . I am what the what is happening to me ? Yeah , found another .

Some Friend of mine gave me a banana and a goo and they got me by for a little bit and then later I saw that someone was pointing , a bunch of people were pointing at me . I looked down , I had blood all over my shirt because my nipples were bleeding . I was , I was a train wreck . It was an absolute disaster .

And I'm like , wow , and just you know , like in good , do hard things fashion , I learned things the hard way . I'm like , okay , I've got a . Really this is completely . I have to learn some methodologies here and train properly . And that's where I learned okay , don't buy things at the expo , no new equipment On race day .

That goes with adventure , racing on a cycling or anything . Anytime I've tried anything new , it does not work out . And it goes the same with food and fuel . You gotta be very , very careful because you get caught up in the moment . There's people on the sidelines trying to give you food or new it . You got it , you're .

You've been training for so long and the body is so fickle sometimes some people are more sensitive than others that , yeah , you gotta be careful with that , but we need fuel and and you need to train and and this is one of those things some people can take goose . I can't take goose and live off them , so okay it's . This is one of those areas .

You got to experiment with your body and you got to do it during training . So yes . Yes , so carbs are good , carbs are bad , fat is whatever , I don't know who no one knows .

She made a post yesterday . I'm not a runner , but I'm out here running and enjoying it and her she is having a mental and physical transformation as we speak and she's been very , very just , very inspirational , active in the group , sharing her journey openly , and I've been following her on Facebook and she's always posting growth mindset type stuff .

So I am inspired by Tessa . So thank you so much for being a part of the group . We're gonna send you a shirt for doing hard things and being a role model , because that's part of part of the challenge . We incorporated this on .

Purpose is the accountability where you have to post , and the reason being is because it truly , you may not know , someone may not like it , they may not comment , but it does inspire more people , it does reach out to more people than you realize and it's been inspiring me .

So I appreciate you sharing your journey with us and , I think you be , for being a part of the tribe . We're gonna send you a shirt for being freaking awesome , so keep doing hard things .

So if you ask me , continue to invite me places people , I'm probably gonna have to say no , but but just know it's only because I'm focusing on my health and wellness .

Nationcom , reach out or DMS directly and we will see you all in the next episode . Thanks , thanks .