Oh, thank you for joining us today on this body insul podcast called Healthy Ish. I am Felicity Halley. Now I'm guessing you press play because you want to run faster for longer. Oh a lot of us do well to help us out. Today, I'm joined by a former NRL player and owner of Sydney's Flow Athletic, Ben Lucas. Now he has run a truckload of marathons, almost fifty, and he's here today to share his own experiences and
also those of the people he has trained. If you do want more running tips from Ben, listening to extra Healthy Ish, where he shares his top ones for improving your running technique, among other things, you can search for that where you get your podcasts. Ben.
Welcome back, he Felicity, thank you for having me.
I feel like this is what fifth time.
I don't even know you are a regular. Yeah, thanks having me. I love coming here seeing you. I've talking all things help and fitness.
Yeah now I want to talk about running. Yeah today, you are a runner. Now, in fact, you are a marathon runner. You are like extreme marathon runner.
Funny, I don't I don't even think of myself as a runner, but I guess I.
Am, yeah, well you want to do forty between before forty Now you're forty five, what are you up to?
So I've done forty six marathons. So after New York two thousand and eighteen, I saw actually a doctor that you would known from the Swans and he had a look at my press. Yeah, I look at my body and he said, Benny Buyer canoe, you are done for running. So I kind of took his advice for about eighty months, and then we had lockdowns and blah blah blah and whatever, and I got to my heaviest weight of all time, plus probably my least favorite mental health space I'd ever
been in my life. So I just started jogging again and then I'm just back into it where I've meant to be source, not even that sort, but I just placed my mental health over my physical health, not one or the other. I think they both. And now I'm back into a healthy weight range and hopefully a healthy mental health space. And a big part of that for me is running.
For people listening. You know, running running is cool, so cool right now, run class et cetera, et cetera. You've got your own at flow. You know, even if a listener is thinking, Okay, I'm fine with a five k, or if another person is thinking I want to do a marathon, how can we run faster or pick up our speed for longer.
I speak to people every single day about this. I have a gym myself where I've got lots of people that I either run ands I want to become runners, or I do a bit of work for Sydney Marathon as well. And I think, especially with how much running is all over social media, all over the streets, people place too much pressure on themselves to be a certain pace, to run a certain distance, to look a certain way. And I just think you need to, you know, remove yourself from that and run your own race.
I love that, you know, it's so refreshing to hear that, because it's quite when you get out and run. I mean, I'm also a runner. I'm actually having for a half marathon in October. I can't help but want to increase my pace. And with all your metrics and you can, I'm like, am I running fast enough? Oh? No, I can run faster than people passing you. It's hard not to place that pressure, for sure.
Yeah, And that's what I try to tell you know, I've got I help some new runners and they go, ane, only run five k's today or only running at five thirty percent. I'm like, that's good.
Thy paces quite far.
Yeah, but it's like, who are you comparing it against? Like your journey is different from everyone else's, and your body is different and your whatever. Just block all that out. Let's just focus on on you for you, you know. So I think that that's my best piece of advice is don't put pressure on yourself to be a certain
pace or running a certain distance from day one. Start slower, run less initially, but consistently, you know, and you'll actually end up getting there quicker by then saying I need to run this many k's and you to run this pace, and then getting injured overtrained over it.
That's really the keys in it. Consistency. If you do want to build up your k's or lessen your pace, then getting out consistency is how many times a week do you run? I mean, what's the kind of good amount?
I mean, or I run five times a week, but I think even two to three is still great and you will get benefit and will be able to see incremental change with that.
What about in the gym if we do want to. Actually, from my own personal experience, when I started lifting heavier weights and I really I do more yoga my running, I was actually stronger at running and it was amazing shift for me because I had always just gone out and run and not worried about the weight side of things.
I encourage my runners to do strength training, and it's more from like a prehab space, so just working on the joints that you may potentially get injured. A lot of people get itb issues, so that's the outside of your legs. So what can we do. We can do some deep lunges that work. They're inner quad so that will lessen that. We'll do some calf phrases so you don't get any ankle or calf troubles. We'll do some hamstring curves to negate any hamstring issues. So that's kind
of what I'd recommend for my runners. So therefore you can run longer is in weeks, months, years without injury. So that would be my biggest piece of advice which I follow myself, is that we do the strength training. Yes, it helps you with your running, but it also lessens the chance of injury. So then you have to take time out from your running as well recovering.
What about recovery? What's your go to? I mean, do you jump in the ice bath or do you just stretch?
Or yeah? I am time poor like the rest of it, like everyone. So you know, between we're kids, exercise bl blah blah blah, and we all are. So two biggest ones for me sleep okay, then two cheapest ones to hydration and I just have an ebbso salt bath, you know, because I.
Can you have that after your run like the same day or the next day or where? How does that look?
I just try to have two a week, okay. And it's just when can I get.
Thirty minutes at home no one coming in? Or can I jump in the bath with your data? And I'm like, yeah, sure, which I love it. I love my family kids, that's the honestly. And then a phone roller for me on those sort parts. So three things that cost minimal to nothing that I can do them in my off times and that you know, actually make the biggest differences. I love ice baths, I love infrared saunas, massages, massages, all
those things I think are very important. But I can't do them regularly enough to actually make them worth while. But sleep, soft bath, phone rolling and stretching I can do consistently. So with it's you're running, your strength, training, your recovery. To actually make it worthwhile, it needs to be done consistently, not once every now and then. You know, So what can I commit to consistently?
I like that. Ben, thank you for coming on healthy Ish.
Thanks so much.
I'll look a little shout out because Ben is an ambassador for Sydney Harbor ten and five K. If you do want to do that run, I will label link to it in the show notes. If you enjoyed this chat, jump on rate and reviewed. Of course, you can subscribe to this podcast anything else head to body insoul dot com. Do you followus on socials? Grab our print edition which is out in your local Sunday paper and until tomorrow, Happy running and stay healthy is