Lessons from 2023 and What’s Next in 2024

Finn Melanson [00:00:09]: Hello, fellow runners. I'm your host, Fin Mollansing, and this is the Run to the Top podcast. A podcast Dedicated to making you a better runner with each and every episode. We're created and produced by the expert team of coaches at runnersconnect.net where you can find the best running information on the Internet as well as training plans to fit every runner and every budget.

Jeff Gaudette [00:00:37]: Everybody, welcome back to the Runners Connect Run to the Top podcast. This is coach Jeff checking back in. Now I know it's been a little while since I've done a solo coach episode, and I'm really excited to record today. I'm gonna admit, I'm not really a big fan of New Year's resolutions. That said, I am a big believer of using the turn of the calendar as a way to reflect on the prior year and put into focus my goals and aspirations for the coming year. You see, it's really pretty easy for me to get into the habit of putting out fires and just tackling the next thing day to day when it comes to training and with Runners Connect. So having this neat little day on the calendar that reminds me to reflect and look forward is really a good thing. And so that's what I did last Sunday and Monday.

Jeff Gaudette [00:01:26]: In today's episode, I wanna cover a few things. 1st, I'm gonna share with you 2 of the biggest lessons I learned last year that I hope I can carry forward into this new year. Then I wanna share with you a few of my goals for 2024. I'm gonna share a couple of personal slash training related goals, then I'm gonna get into some of the exciting things we have planned for the podcast as well as Runners Connect in general. Finally, I wanna share with you a few of my favorite podcast episodes from this year with some quotes that I found particularly helpful.

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Jeff Gaudette [00:02:40]: Let's dive in. Let's start with the lessons I've learned in 2023. Lesson 1, consistency is more important than I realized. One aspect of my own training that I really got right last year was consistency. And, man, did it really make a difference. Didn't have a lot of the same niggles and little injuries that seem to pop up out of the prior few years. I made a ton of progress even when I had down weeks from travel, work or family. And I was really able to enjoy my training more since I didn't have long periods of building back up.

Jeff Gaudette [00:03:14]: So let me explain. In my case, consistency wasn't about staying on track when I was wasn't training for something specific or when things interrupt my life. What would happen is I would have little hiccups in my training, whether they be from travel or injuries or just something where I wasn't able to train for maybe 3 or 4 days. And then that 3 or 4 days would build into 2 or 3 weeks. And then what would happen was I would have to focus my training on building back. You know, obviously, I wasn't able to do the same quality or quantity or intensity of workouts when I'd come back, so I'd spend 2 or 3 workouts kind of building back. And, honestly, that's just really not the most fun thing for me, and so my motivation would wane. Luckily, what happened this year in 2023 is I was so much more consistent, and I didn't let little things turn into 2 or 3 week breaks, whether they be breaks after a goal, Breaks from travel, injuries, that kind of thing.

Jeff Gaudette [00:04:07]: I was really able to stay consistent. Specifically, like, one of the things that I was able to do was A couple of times when I had, when I got hurt or after a specific goal, I actually changed up my training enough where wasn't obviously doing the same type of workouts, but it was doing something so different that not only was it fun, but it allowed me to kinda keep that progress going so that when I was really able to get back to senior's training, I was able to jump right back in and didn't have to build up that 2 or 3 weeks at a time. And Eliminating those 2 to 3 week buildup spots and also, obviously, the 2 or 3 weeks that I wasn't really training that hard, when you add that up over the course of a 52 week year, It really took up a good 3rd of my year in prior years of just kind of not training or using that period of time to build up. And so not needing to be able to do that really made a huge difference. So, you know, does that mean that a 100% of my time, I was dialed in and focused? No. And that's, I think, the thing that people get most confused about or I think have the hardest time understanding when we talk about consistency and Especially, like, between races or consistency when you're injured, that kind of thing, is that it doesn't need to be 100%, You know, dialed in, like, when you're right in the middle of your marathon training or something like that. It really just is about doing something so that when you start back up, It's not starting back at 0. So that was something that I did really, really well in 2023, and I'm really hoping to carry forward in 2024, because it say it made such a difference and made everything from a fitness perspective so much easier.

Jeff Gaudette [00:05:42]: The second lesson I learned was that nutrition is kind of a snowball. So if you remember, I talked about a lot about earlier this year about I was wanting to focus more on my nutrition. That was one of my bigger goals from 2022 coming into 2023. And one of the lessons I learned last year was just how much of a snowball effect starting out the day right has on my nutrition habits. If I start my day with a large glass of cold water with greens and reds, it's so much easier to lay off the caffeine and push back my breakfast. That parlays into eating a healthier breakfast, which turns into being super conscious of my lunch choices and wanted to keep the day going good. This keeps snowballing throughout the day and ends with a really a a stronger desire to fight off those, you know, eating that box of cookies at night, that kind of thing, or having a dessert every night. However, when I don't start my day off right, for whatever the reason that may be, whether it's traveling or just not being able to get to it, I noticed it's significantly easier to get into the temptation of skipping the harder choices like making a healthy salad versus the easy to make frozen lunch.

Jeff Gaudette [00:06:48]: Those kind of things. Now I'm really happy I stumbled upon this pattern when I was reflecting on 2023. I didn't really realize it at the time. But as I reflected, I realized that the days that I or the days I just actually said the weeks or months that I strung together where nutrition was super on point were those times when I was super consistent in the morning and getting things right from the start of the day. And I noticed that just, again, snowballed throughout the day. So two reasons I'm really happy about this. One, obviously, it was a reflection point and something that now I can be more conscious of moving forward this year and making sure that I can make those consistent healthy choices, to start my day off. And second, it gave me a a way to reflect and think about any other things in my life that I'm kind of either falling off on or not doing quite as well as I'd hoped and trying to implement this snowball slash consistency perspective into those types of things.

Jeff Gaudette [00:07:39]: So really excited to learn about that, and, hopefully, this is one of those takeaways that you can make from listening to this podcast. So reflection time over. Let's talk about some of my personal goals for 2024. 1st is that I really actually wanna get my kids more involved in fitness. Now that doesn't really mean training per se, but it goes along the lines of, like, bringing them to the track more and having some Something fun for them do, like a competition or a fun obstacle workout or something like that. Because I realized over the last couple years, Getting away to workout has become a little more difficult or challenging, or at least personally, I've just felt more selfish when I take an hour or 90 minutes get away and get in my workouts. Now, obviously, I could start scheduling my workouts for times when they're at school or super early in the mornings, But I honestly find that those times are much better for me, to get work done and to be more productive when it comes to those types of things. Now I obviously realize a lot of you listening have kids of all ages, and I'm sure you struggle at times with the same issues.

Jeff Gaudette [00:08:43]: So I'm hoping to start kind of developing a strong sense of work ethic and a work of a love of working out with my kids. Now we're gonna see how that goes. Obviously, as any parent knows, you know, kids can throw the best laid plans out the window, And they don't always kind of go with things according to how we wish they would, but it's definitely something that I really hope that I can get them more involved with, in 2024. And just, Again, make it fun and make it something where we can do things together. I can still get in my workouts, and they can start develop those sense of things for themselves. Now the next personal thing I wanna work on is something I talked about a little bit earlier this year, especially after we got back from our Flagstaff retreat, and that is working on progression or paying more attention to progression. Now this applies more to my strength work and ancillary stuff than running itself. Now what I mean by progression is I often get stuck in the not tracking very well how my weights are progressing when I'm doing strength training or how well I'm you know, if I'm doing more reps, doing more sets, that kind of thing, I kind of I wouldn't say exactly get stuck in doing the same thing over and over, But I wanna be more cognizant of specifically tracking each week if I'm being able if I'm able to do more reps, Able to do more sets, able to add more weight, that kind of thing.

Jeff Gaudette [00:10:03]: Because what I think tends to happen, at least for me, is you kinda get stuck in that comfort zone. So I know if I can I know that I can do 8 or 10 reps of a specific exercise, something like that? And, eventually, that starts to become somewhat comfortable, And I never get to the I last year, I noticed that I wasn't getting to the point where I was tracking enough to push. And what I've noticed I've I've started doing this last couple weeks. And what I've noticed is that when I track, that gives me the instant incentive to try to push and do more. So if I did 8 reps last week, When I get to my 8th rep this week or or the current workout that I'm doing, I notice I'm more inclined to say, can I get 9? And really push it that way. Whereas, when I'm not specifically tracking, I just kinda get stuck in a, like, 8888, that kinda thing. This is something that, like I said, I kind of Was reminded about when I went to the Flagstaff retreat and we when we went to one of the, talks, doctor Greg was talking about how with the elite athletes that they work with, It's all a progression. And he talked about that progression even applying to normal runners or people that are just training for fitness, that kind of thing, which applies to me now and a lot of you listening as well where, you know, starting out exercises and just making sure that each week or each month or whatever it may be, whatever the time frame may be, making progression.

Jeff Gaudette [00:11:24]: So, anyway, that's something that I'm really hoping to focus on in 2024 and seeing where that takes me and, really using that progression and tracking to be able to to progress more in 2024.

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Jeff Gaudette [00:13:37]: Now that I spent a little bit of this episode On the more personal, let's move on to some specific things for runners connect. Now 2023 was an awesome year for runners connect and more importantly, the athletes we coach. We helped 521 athletes record new personal best with distance in training from the 1 mile all the way up to 100 milers. Now that number still blows my mind. To to think that our team had an impact on 500 people we helped 500 people record new personal best is just amazing. And while certainly personal best aren't the only measure of how we help our athletes, I think it's it's obviously definitely the most easily quantifiable and a lot of ways the end result of a lot of the things that we like to focus on such as staying healthy, Being consistent, getting stronger, and just enjoying training more. I think if you do those things, if you're able to get somebody to Be consistent, stay healthy, etcetera. They're probably gonna run faster than they ever have before, so it's kind of a back end measure.

Jeff Gaudette [00:14:38]: On the internal side, I really couldn't be more proud of the team of coaches that we have put together. This has easily been one of the best years I think that we've had. I can't tell you how awesome it is working with such an awesome team who brings such knowledge and passion to the table. Every time we kinda get together, whether it be a podcast or Slack or, a coach chat, whatever it may be. I learned so much, and I'm just so impressed with the just the value that our coaches bring to the table. So from improving our coaching platform, growing exponentially on the podcast, hosting 2 amazing retreats, and more, 2023 has definitely been one of the best years that we've had. Now that said, how do I plan to make things better in 2024?

Guest [00:15:20]: So I'm

Jeff Gaudette [00:15:20]: gonna start with the podcast since if you're listening to this episode, it's likely the one that excites you the most. One of the things that we've always wanted to do with the podcast is make it a more collaborative experience. Last year, we made some big changes by adding a 2nd episode on Fridays. The idea was that we would use the Wednesday episodes as a way to bring in outside opinions and help share the stories and expertise of people outside our coaching staff. We've been doing this for 10 plus years, but I also wanted the podcast to showcase a little more of the amazing knowledge and experience our coaching staff had. So that's why we started our Friday episodes, which were designed to highlight the coaches in the community within Runners Connect. That said, Podcasting is still kind of a one way platform. We make episodes, and we hope you're gonna love you're gonna love them when we release them.

Jeff Gaudette [00:16:10]: Getting input and feedback is really kinda difficult since where you listen, such as Apple Podcasts, podcasting apps, etcetera, Don't really give you an easy way to interact and leave feedback on the episodes that you love. Plus, social platforms like Facebook, Instagram, etcetera, They all kinda get spread out, so it's really hard to have a cohesive kind of conversation or community around the episodes that we're doing. Early this year, we are putting together a more centralized place where we can interact directly with listeners. And it's gonna help you get questions answered when about something that you may have listened to that you wanna follow-up on or get more info on, And, hopefully, an opportunity to see what guests are coming up and if you have specific questions for that guest, especially if you're a big fan of that particular author, coach, runner, etcetera. So I'm really excited for this and as a way to get better connected with you, especially when it comes to the podcast. Now for the coaching side, we've got some big updates coming based on your feedback, including better integration of some of the latest tracking devices, Adding more data around the types around the things that impact overall fitness such as sleep, nutrition, etcetera, and different plan types around power running, heart rate training, etcetera. We're also continuing to integrate other fitness elements and challenges directly into our schedules. We've always felt that one of the things that separates us from other custom schedules is the holistic nature of our training plans.

Jeff Gaudette [00:17:48]: I really hope we can double down on this for 2024 So that your running really just isn't about the race, but helping you become the healthiest, happiest, and fastest runner that you can be. So to close out this episode, I wanted to share with you a few of my favorite quotes from episodes we published throughout the year. There was something about each of these snippets or the entire episode itself that really resonated with me or I found to be super helpful given my current training. I'm gonna add links to each episode in the show notes, Which, if show notes aren't available in your podcast episode, they will be available at runnersconnect.net/673. I'll also add some playlist we put together around specific topics in training such as marathon training, 5 k training, etcetera. I think this can be really helpful to listen through for anyone training

Michael Hammond [00:18:37]: for a race this spring.

Jeff Gaudette [00:18:37]: 1st up is an episode from September 6th that featured Stephen Marshall and how to deal with mental fatigue and negative thinking during the race. Personally, after listening to this episode, I made a conscious effort to put a lot of the lessons and tactics he discussed into practice, and it's been a huge reason I was able to stay Still consistent this year. Here's the 1 clip I really love that centered around racing.

Finn Melanson [00:19:00]: What is your advice for When mental fatigue takes over or negativity is overwhelming, how do you deal with that during the race?

Guest [00:19:09]: You can't really ever expect yourself to come up with great strategies when you're already in the Hurt Locker, right? Because our chip train is running wild When we're already at threshold, or, you know, certainly at race pace. So so what we're trying to do is say, look, you have to practice these things so that you're more bet you're better equipped So use them when you're in the race. And one of the key strategies outside of practicing these strategies, one of the key things that enables your brain to have a chance of using these strategies is being able to cope with intrusive thoughts in the moment. So intrusive thoughts are thoughts of that you don't want. I want to feel excited, but I don't. I keep feeling as though I don't want to be here and this sucks and everyone looks fidgeter. You've got these intrusive thoughts and the cornerstone technique for being able to do that is mindfulness training. So mindfulness sometimes it's You know, a form of kind of meditation.

Guest [00:20:02]: We don't say meditation to athletes because their eyes will roll back in their head, and they'll think they'll be less asked to listen to Enya and lie on the bed and or something silly like that. So so mindfulness training is simply being able to cope thinking the here and now, Recognize that you have thoughts that are competing for your attention. They're screaming at you from your chimps, say, pay attention to me. But being able to block them out or or, I should say, in a more mindful way, recognize that they're there and let them float on by like you would watch A firework display or clouds floating pie. So we get athletes to practice that. One of the best ways that you can do that is an app called Headspace. So it's a free app, that teaches the backbone of mindfulness training. It's wonderful for athletes because they don't mention the word meditation.

Guest [00:20:49]: We've used it with beginners right through to world champion and pros. They love it 10 minutes a day that you practice it, and it's giving your brain, Teaching it the skills. So when you're in that moment and you're really suffering and you're trying or you're terrified it's the morning of and you're suddenly trying For the 1st time, say, I know facts and logic, so what? And, of course, you can't it doesn't have much of a fighting chance if you haven't practiced it. But if you've already got the ability or develop the skills to recognize that that thought is coming and to just let it pass on by, and there's some tricks or tricks, strategies that mindfulness and meditation training teaches you so that you can do that better. It's much easier to layer on these techniques of Segmenting and counting and purging and facts and logic and so on.

Jeff Gaudette [00:21:35]: Next up is an episode from October featuring Andres Barakova. I am sorry if I pronounce that wrong, but this episode is about the hero's journey in running. I really love this episode on a personal level because it reminded me of so much of my own running career, and I think it's gonna be a great listen for Anyone who listening who has been seriously running for a long time.

Finn Melanson [00:21:57]: I wanna come back to the hero's journey Discussion for a for a second because maybe midway through the book, you start to talk about personal reinvention and how it's It should be something that happens sort of continuously in the background of your life as opposed to being this readily apparent significant one time event, and I found that really interesting because, like, when I've and I could be wrong here, but when I've thought about the hero's journey in the past, I've always thought about it as this, Like event or maybe just this, like, really small period of time where you go through some difficult things, trials and tribulations. And from that, you come back with stuff that wasn't obvious or you you come back with something that wasn't readily apparent and you observe it into your own life or you you deliver it to your community. How come you think about personal reinvention differently? Like, why is it beneficial for it to be this like continuous thing as opposed to these like, you know, one time moments?

Guest [00:22:57]: This is actually linked to a principle that I use in, in my own coaching, and this comes kind of Dials back to my experience as a as a professional athlete. And as a professional athlete, you don't think in terms of One single race. You always think multiple years ahead. So Olympic athletes, they plan in in 4 year, kind of phases others plan maybe in in in 2 year phases. So I always think of each Race that a person comes to me for training, I always think of it as just a stepping stone. It's, it might be a peak, but, Often when, you know, you reach a peak, you realize there is an even bigger mountain to climb. So and training, you know, for a marathon, for ultra ultra race or or something like it's always involves long term development because a person might think that, okay. I have, you know, For for months to train for a marathon, there is a perfect 16 week marathon training program.

Guest [00:24:03]: I will I will use that. But in reality, There's limited amount of progress that you can make in, in 16 weeks, whereas if you think about it, From a from a long per long term perspective, then you are able to actually, you know, spend enough time to, you know, build your base, all of your muscle imbalances and and have enough time to work on your mindset and includes Good, lifestyle habits that foster proper recovery, and then you are able to build to an even higher peak. So You would be able to progress even further and that's that idea is basically at the core of the book that we go through circles of these experience. So for example, we train for 1 marathon. Maybe we we get that, you know, Runners high, and then we, you know, oh, this was kind of cool, kind of fun. I'm now much much faster. I should train for the next one. I should, you know, run faster.

Guest [00:25:07]: Maybe I should take, You know, or kind of it it builds from there. So it starts with the spark and then with with each if each of these Hero's journey, and I do believe kind of with every new season not built, you're kind of a almost like a different person in a different mindset, and you take On kind of a next hero's journey, kind of what you already learned, then you elevate it. And then in the next build, you you learn something else.

Jeff Gaudette [00:25:37]: Next up is an episode from professor David on metabolic flexibility and glycemic index sparing. Now I'm gonna be honest. The nutrition episodes and interviews that we did last year have been some of the more interesting to me. I've really been reading and watching a lot of content on nutrition Overall, the last year, and I really love this episode. Metabolic flexibility and glycogen sparing aren't something you're gonna hear a lot on, quote, unquote, mainstream nutrition content. So I really love the dialed in experience here. And here's just a snippet of what some of the things he talked about.

Finn Melanson [00:26:10]: I've heard a couple of phrases that I've also seen you use. The first is metabolic flexibility. I'm not sure if it was you, but I've seen this elsewhere in the podcasting sphere, the phrase glycogen sparing.

Guest [00:26:25]: Those are 2 very different things.

Finn Melanson [00:26:26]: Two very different things, but I I wanna talk about both. Because I I wanna talk about, you know, how we're using all of these macronutrients, know, in endurance exercise settings, what first, what does it mean to be metabolically like in lay terms, what does it mean to be metabolically flexible?

Guest [00:26:41]: Yeah. So when we use the term metabolism, metabolism is the breakdown of food stuff. When we say food stuff, we mean macronutrients. And when we say macronutrients, we really mean carbs or fats. Proteins, don't really break them down for energy. Metabolism is the breakdown of those macronutrients, food stuff, to derive energy. When we say energy, we mean ATP, adenosine triphosphate. It's the energy currency of the body.

Guest [00:27:08]: It's the it's the it's the phosphate bonds. You know, adenosine triphosphate, there's 3 phosphates. It's the breaking off Hydrolysis of the cleaving of those phosphates off that releases energy, and it's that release of energy that contracts your muscles. So if we wanna run faster, we have our metabolism has to increase. So we have to break down more nutrients for that ATP or that energy. Metabolic flexibility is and you're gonna almost see, like, some slightly different schools of thought on, like, how we specifically define it. But in general, it's what does it mean to be flexible? You know? It increase like, someone who's very has an increased range of motion. So we use that concept.

Guest [00:27:53]: It's well, when you're doing a variety of different intensities, How flexible are you at switching from fat and or switching to car? As someone naturally trains And as someone becomes just generally more fit, at rest, and during exercise, they're gonna be able to burn more fat. So a metabolically inflexible individual doesn't typically have a really high capacity to burn fat. The other idea behind it is when you all of a sudden do very rapid, intense exercise. Somebody's just Just randomly jogging and someone says, hey. I'll race you to the next, you know, light post or aid station, whatever. You just immediately start Sprinting, metabolic flexibility is someone who has the capacity to tap into the fast burning stores, which are typically your glycogen, How how quickly they can tap into those, and then when they're done that sprinting, how quickly they can go back to burning the fat. Burning the the much more abundant, you know, fuel. Does that make sense? So it's the flexibility and your ability of using fats versus carbs.

Jeff Gaudette [00:29:03]: And finally, one of the episodes we published in October on overrated and underrated recovery modalities was one of my favorite episodes of the year. And the overrated, underrated topic was something that we kinda brainstormed together as a team, and I really liked all the episodes. And this is just probably my favorite in particular, Because I just really love hearing other people's opinions and experiences on all of the kind of new age gadgets and things that, You know, kind of may fly under the radar or things that people may have tried that have worked surprisingly well. Those are just really fun to me, and I loved getting the experience of All the coaches that were on the podcast, just getting your experience of different modalities, different things that they've tried, what they liked, what they didn't. It was just a really cool experience. So Here's, coach Michael talking a little bit about, the Nortek recovery boots.

Cory Nagler [00:29:53]: I'm gonna move on to our last category of the day, which is recovery tech. So the first thing I'm gonna talk about is quite a broad topic, but this is compression gear. What do you think of this topic, Michael?

Michael Hammond [00:30:06]: I'm gonna say compression gear is overrated. It was about maybe 10, 11, 12 years ago where this started to become such a huge thing in the running world, like The compression socks, compression sleeves, and I'll never forget when I was working at a running store at the time, and I'll never forget when, like, the the tech reps Started telling, like, the stores that you needed to be a little bit careful with the calf sleeves because they were finding that blood was, like, pooling in people's feet When they when they if they wore calf sleeves, like, not walking around, if they were just sitting around. And I was just like, this is just crazy. I think that I don't see how Constant compression can be a good thing. People, NormaTek is something I don't have a lot of personal experience like those, the the recovery boots. People people love them. People say they feel really good, but, ultimately, I guess that's just a a way of doing massage. You know? So I look at compression gear as sort of like stuff like ice baths.

Michael Hammond [00:30:56]: It might make, like, logical sense. Oh, reduce inflammation right after you workout, but then you find out that inflammation is good. It's a part of the recovery process. So ultimately, overrated. Overrated.

Cory Nagler [00:31:07]: Okay. Good answer, Michael. And let's bring it to the extreme side of tech. What do you think of, like, NormaTek boots or these ultra pricey tools? Are they any more helpful or do they fall into that same category?

Michael Hammond [00:31:19]: Yeah. That's where I I I have to look at it from all perspectives. I can't just look at it as as like, I look at something like money as very important. You know, when I talked about a foam roller, one of the biggest positives to me was the low price point. When I look at NormaTec Recovery Boots, the insane price tag is just a huge turn off to me. I don't think that that stuff is worthwhile for for almost anyone to to look into. Even if it has benefits, they're probably marginal, and I I just don't think that they're yeah. I don't think they're worthwhile.

Michael Hammond [00:31:48]: I think they're hugely overrated.

Cory Nagler [00:31:50]: Okay. So I, do you know what those NormaTek boots cost? I'm I'm assuming it's in the hundreds, but I guess you can save your money if you were thinking about going out and splurging online.

Michael Hammond [00:31:59]: I think if it were only in the 100, it would probably be a maybe a little bit more digestible if it were only $100 or so, but it's I I think it's Significantly more than that for for, like, the the top end. I think people have found, like, Amazon knockoffs and stuff that are much cheaper, but you're still gonna run a a Pretty big price tag for those, and I I like I said, I I think all things considered, I just don't think it's worth it with all the other recovery tools that you have available for you for much cheaper And also much more proven to be effective.

Cory Nagler [00:32:27]: Yeah. Yeah. Running, warm ups, all free.

Michael Hammond [00:32:32]: Exactly. Exactly. All that stuff's free. I mean, good food isn't free, unfortunately, but but it's something that we all know is just so hugely effective, and you're gonna get way more out of that in good sleep, then you are out of, you know, NormaTec recovery boots. It's not that they can't help. It's not that they don't do anything. It's it I just I have to look at the, you know, cost benefit analysis is ultimately and I think that, it just doesn't doesn't quite ring, you know, worth it to me.

Cory Nagler [00:32:55]: Yeah. Yeah. Makes sense. Okay. The The next piece of tech I'm gonna touch on is massage guns. So where do you stand on this topic?

Michael Hammond [00:33:03]: I stand mostly the same in terms of they're they're a little bit Overrated. I think that I gotta say that, at our at our retreat in Flagstaff in July, I used one for the first time. Jeff had had brought one there, and I was like, Dang. This thing feels pretty good. So by no means are are these in, like, recovery boots and compression stuff, by no means am I saying that they have Zero effect. I think that they they can feel really good. There can some maybe there's a little bit of placebo effect going on, but, ultimately, I look at this stuff like It's massage. It's foam roller.

Michael Hammond [00:33:32]: Like, really, it's it's not that much massively different. I know there's compression with, like, the the recovery boots and the massage guns can really get into, like, certain spots, But, ultimately, I just think that for me, a a foam roller and a and one of those little massage sticks, which total run you under $50 for the for both of them, That to me is is a full package. And then a stretching band that costs, you know, $5 at Dick's Sporting Goods or something like that, that's That's like the full package to me. I I just anything else is gonna have to, like, really, really convince me that it's worth the price point in order for me to say it's worth it. So, Yeah. Underrated or, overrated, I should say.

Jeff Gaudette [00:34:09]: So I really hope you really enjoyed this episode that kind of Back on 23. Obviously, some of my own personal things as well as what we have what we did well in 2023 for 2023 with Runners Connect as well as what we have coming up for 2024. And I hope some of my personal stories can help you in internalize and learn learn from some of the things that I did in 2023 or didn't do well. So thank you so much for listening today. I was really enjoy to to do this episode. I'm so excited about what we have in store, and I hope you are excited about What you have in store with your own training and own fitness. So thanks again, and have a great run.

Finn Melanson [00:35:00]: Thanks for listening to the run to the top podcast. I'm your host, Finn Melanson. As always, our mission here is to help you become A better runner with every episode. Please consider connecting with me on Instagram at Wasatch Finn and the rest of our team at Runners Connect. Also consider supporting our show for free with a rating on the Spotify and Apple Podcast players. And lastly, if you love the show and want bonus content, behind the scenes experiences with our guests, and premier access to contests and giveaways, then subscribe to our newsletter by going to runnersconnect.netbackslash podcast. Until next time, happy trading.