Learning From Injury Setbacks to Run Smarter & Faster

Andie Cozzarelli [00:00:01]: There's going to be periods where you're faced with the fears head on, but you just kind of have to let yourself experience them and find a way through. And you're going to get to the other side and you're going to be like, wow, I just learned something about myself. Like, I'm fine, everything's fine.

Cory Nagler [00:00:16]: One of the hardest things as a runner is going through injury and trying to find your way back to fitness. We're no exception at rc and I really felt that a reflection on overcoming injury and adversity was the perfect last episode to tie together the many lessons we've brought on the show. That's right. After 13amazing years on the Run to the Top podcast, we're coming to a close. This is super tough because I get so much joy sharing running content with you all. Having said that, I'm grateful I got to bring Coach Andy on the show. For a really nice way to end off, please give it a listen and I really hope that you get something from it. So with that, let's get into my conversation with Andy.

Cory Nagler [00:01:03]: Hello, runners, and welcome to the Run to the Top podcast where our goal is making you a better runner with each and every episode. I'm your showrunner, Cory Nagler, and I'm not an elite runner, but together we'll explore new strategies and topics to take your running to the next level. This podcast is created and produced by the expert team ofcoaches@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. I feel like we've done endless different podcast episodes on how to avoid injuries or what to do if you're injured. And yet somehow we haven't done a single one about what we've actually learned from it, our own experiences. So, Andy, I'm really happy that you agreed to join me on this one.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:01:46]: Yep. And I am coming off of. Well, I guess it's been just about a year since I had surgery, so probably one of the most full blown injuries you could, you could experience as a runner. So, yeah, happy to chat about it.

Cory Nagler [00:02:00]: Yeah. And remind me, I. I know you gave me all these details, but you want to tell us a little bit about what was the surgery and what that comeback was like?

Andie Cozzarelli [00:02:07]: Yeah, I had my labrum repaired and I also had a PRP injection into my high hamstring tendon at the same time. So while I was under and so that was all to fix, I had a partially torn high hamstring tendon. And then I also had a labral tear in my left hip, so all in my left side. And so it was. And it had been sort of an ongoing thing. Most of my pain was in my hamstring, not in my hip, but the hip was inhibiting my glute function, so I was using. Overusing the hamstring to run. And so I was having a really hard time getting good power out of that side.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:02:46]: And then also I was having inconsistent pain. It would come and go, and that was getting frustrating. So that was why we decided to do the surgery. It was May 13th of last year. And so the first month following that surgery, you are not allowed to bend past 90 degrees. So you're limited. You have a very limited range of motion from that perspective. But you also do need to get the joint moving as soon as possible.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:03:10]: So I was instructed to get back on the bike and two days after surgery, actually, I think they even said that when I went to pt, I went to the PT the day after surgery, that I could go ahead and try that day if I wanted to. And I. I was not. I was a little bit cautious than that, and I was a little scared to try. The first day was literally 10 minutes of just rocking back and forth my legs. I didn't do full rotations, and I had to keep upright, so sitting on the bike with my crutches at my sides to hold myself upright. And so that was an arm workout in itself. And so I started just rocking back and forth, just getting a little bit of movement in the hip, and then progressed to doing full rotations very slowly with no resistance.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:03:56]: So. So I was instructed not to have any resistance for a period of time. And then it was just slowly building. Building up the. The time on the bike and then slowly building up some resistance as I was cleared to do so. And so that was kind of the first. The first month was really just getting range of motion back in the hip and preventing scar tissue buildup. And then after that, there's.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:04:18]: You. Lou loosens up on some of those restrictions in terms of, you know, bending past 90. But then you're. You're also coming off crutches. So I was on crutches for two weeks with no weight bearing. Uh, and then the two weeks following that. So those last two weeks, I think I was slowly transitioning off of just one crutch. Um, and so that was kind of the.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:04:37]: The process there. I saw a significant change in muscle mass fairly quickly between sides. Um, so my left leg just looked like it had atrophied pretty quickly, which I was shocked by. But that does happen a lot faster than we expect. When it's full, no weight bearing on on one side of your body. It's pretty wild. Uh, and then, you know, I think it was about, took me about 12, I think I, I had the surgery May 13th and I started running at the end of August and it was one minute run intervals with four minute walk to start. And then I slowly built that up.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:05:13]: I did 2 and 3 and then I went to 3 and 2 and then 4 and 1 and then transition towards more full running. Uh, so sometimes I think I was doing like three by mile with one minute walk between. So stuff like that. And a lot of it was in the, that was to help kind of build the strength in the hip flexor more so than anything else. Just getting that the hip flexor functioning a little bit better. And that's something that I've noticed even post, you know, post a year out now that we're. That might. I still need to work on my hip flexor strength on that side.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:05:46]: So um, I have a tendency to kind of want to side bend to my right and just sort of lean that way and not, you know, get full function out of that side. But now that it's healthy, it's, that's been the process of, of of reconfiguring how I was moving. So a lot of my rehab and the, the comeback was also res. Was being restrained by how my mechanics were because we really wanted to break some of the movement patterns I developed from, you know, probably dealing with this tear in my hip for, you know, I, who knows how long, years maybe. And some people, they injure it, it's a little bit more of a drastic injury. So their return to run is a little bit different because maybe they haven't been running on a dysfunctional hip for years. And so it makes it a little bit easier. But for me, I think I had developed movement patterns that were not great and they were, they were good for keeping me running but not good for, you know, making sure that I was moving optimally.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:06:41]: So I had to break a lot of movement habit or patients patterns of, of movement that were not great for long term health and training. So yeah, that's kind of a long winded synopsis there.

Cory Nagler [00:06:55]: Yeah, but I think that's such a common thing with running injuries is like it's easy to chalk it up to just like shit happens. And on a certain level like that that's true. You can't always Control it. But often I feel like there are oftentimes rather like, underlying either strength deficiencies or movement patterns that are correctable. And, you know, in a weird way, it's almost reassuring as a runner that, like, there are actually things you can do to prevent this from repeating, as hard as it is. As somebody who myself has had a lot of the same injuries repeat themselves again and again.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:07:26]: Yeah, I. And I. I always think back to, like, okay, how will this happen in the first place? And there's so many things with the hip, especially. Especially because, I mean, for women, even, there's just like a. We have a. We have a different alignment in our hips than men do. So whether that creates a predisposition to it, I mean, who knows? But there's also other things that people can have with hip dysplasia, things like that can make it more common. But for me, no, I played.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:07:52]: Grew up playing other sports. I played soccer. And, you know, I was dom. You have a dominant side, so I have a dominant plant leg and a dominant leg for kicking. And so, you know, I was played in the last. So I was pretty good with both, but I was still dominant on the right. And so my left leg was doing a lot of stabilization, and I was using my. My right leg for power.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:08:14]: And so, you know, whether that was maybe the timeframe where I could have done. Caused this injury is. It's hard to know, or if it was just that, you know, some of the movement patterns that I had from soccer that had forced me to run a certain way because maybe I was stronger on my left side. And, you know, just little things like that can influence the way we move. And, you know, whether that created some wear and tear in the joint. Just how I was running, you know, after that is hard. It's hard to say, but I really saw the injury, period, and coming back from it as more of a. Let's step back and fix things that weren't working well already so that when we are back, we aren't dealing with the same things over and over again or, you know, or how can I move more efficiently now that we have all these pieces back in a.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:09:08]: In a healthy state. So.

Cory Nagler [00:09:11]: And on, like, a scale of wishing you had that time back and would have been a better runner, if you're training through it to feeling like you're way stronger for having gone through it, where. Where do you find yourself on that spectrum?

Andie Cozzarelli [00:09:23]: I think when, you know, I think going into. When the injury started, I tore my hamstring. Um, all right, I'm assuming. I think I kind of like Tor. I remember the workout I did in Prep Indie Monumental in 2022. So I was going to run the marathon there, and I felt super fit going into that year. I was having a really good year. I'd built back up after having to take some time off.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:09:47]: And then within the two weeks to the taper, I started having this pain. And it, it did kind of. I remember the workout when it started, it was. I was on the track, and I just sort of, like, felt it kind of set in, but it wasn't super drastic that I thought I tore something, but then the pain didn't, couldn't. It couldn't get to go away. And in some ways before that, like, I think I had been neglecting my strength training a little bit for a period of time. So that might have been one of the reasons why I then tore it. But before that, I wasn't having a lot of issues.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:10:20]: But I did have. I did have a straight sacral stress fracture on my left side. And I had been having a lot of issues. My pelvis getting out of alignment for years. And so, you know, I think that it maybe was just a matter of time, but, I mean, it's hard. It's hard to know for certain on that front. But once the pain started, it started kind of giving me issues. From that point forward, I was, I, I.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:10:46]: The pain went away for a period of time, and I trained for another marathon in 2023, grandma's marathon in June, and didn't have pain for most of that training cycle. But I felt like I just couldn't get. I, it felt like I was, I was working just as hard and training just as well, but I was having trouble building fitness as easily. Like, it, it just wasn't coming as, as well. And so I was just like, yeah, like these paces just feel a lot harder this training cycle. And no matter what I did, it didn't feel like it was changing that. And then I got to the taper and the pain gradually came back. This time it wasn't sudden.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:11:20]: And so I just kind of was like, man, this must have just stuck around and just nothing got any better. And then, uh, we did the mri. We saw what was going on. We tried PRP for the hamstring in the fall and actually did get again, the pain went away. Uh, raced Philly Marathon in 20:23 off of 10 or 15 weeks, of five, maybe four or five weeks of just like, building back up some runs very slowly, and then 10 weeks of, of Trying to toss some workouts in, get the long run distance up. Did three long runs in prep. Um, so not a whole lot of training for it, but was able to run without pain and, and then recovered, built back up and then the same thing. Pain slowly started coming back again in February of 2024 and it just kind of felt like I was on this roller coaster of like you, I.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:12:09]: And I didn't feel like I had control over it. It was the most frustrating thing cuz you would just sort of like pain would just slowly start coming back and I'd just be like, God, like I, I'm doing literally everything I can. I'm strength training, I'm doing my pt, I'm, I'm taking care of myself, I'm listening to my body a lot better. And it was just there. If the pain was coming back, it's coming back. And so then I was just like I, there's. I could continue to train through, I could continue to train in this up and down cycle and just deal with it or I could go ahead and take a step back and let's just do the surgery and you know, come back stronger hopefully. And that was really what happened was that I was able to get rid of a lot of the pain.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:12:51]: And then also it helped me to correct those dysfunctional things that like the pelvis. My pelvis is still somewhat, I start to be careful with it because I still have that, that natural tendency and there's probably still some sort of imbalance on my right side that I need to address. So my pelvis gets off a little bit, but it's not been nearly as bad. And I also. The thing that I noticed the most looking at my form now versus before was that I can see that I'm actually getting my heel up in the back. So if you like. One of the things they look for, if you do say like a form analysis is that we, they want to see both heels like coming up in the back, almost like they're coming towards your butt a little bit. And we want to see the full face of your shoe.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:13:33]: And on my left side I wasn't getting that as easily. And so it was, it was definitely. And also I was getting off my right leg a lot faster. And so that could have been that maybe my right leg, you know, my, my. I've could have been getting off my right leg faster because I wasn't wanting to stabilize as much on my right, left side, who knows. But I was definitely had an uneven gait. You could see that locking of power on one side. And so once that was the one thing that we noticed the most coming off of it, now that I've looked at my stride a couple times, is that it's a lot smoother, It's a lot more balanced, it looks even.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:14:09]: And so I could that from that perspective, I can just tell, like, we're moving a lot better than we were before, and I'm going to be able to be more efficient, and I can be trusting in that. And, you know, if we can be more efficient, we can be faster without trying harder. So that's win, win.

Cory Nagler [00:14:25]: Yeah. I think a lot of runners in this situation, it's so easy to just feel down on yourself and nothing but disappointment when you're going through injury, especially one that's prolonged the way yours was. But what did it take to kind of turn it into something productive or find what you could actually do to correct it? In this case, it sounds like that being the gate on your left side.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:14:47]: Yeah. I think even just through the surgery and the injury itself, I kind of just was like, the urgency is not to get back to running. The urgency is to get back to being healthy, not. Not the opposite, which I think is the tendency that most runners have, is I gotta figure out how I can get back running as soon as possible. And for me, it was like, no, I wanna get back to running optimally, not just functionally. Like, I don't wanna be just like, I can do it. You know, I could run, but I really wanted to. To be able to get back to the same level of fitness and training that I had been at previously.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:15:20]: And so with that underlying goal, I wasn't gonna rush the process because I wasn't. You know, I think the other thing that I was thinking was, like, I don't want to have to do this again. I want this to be successful once. I want that. I want to go through this once and, you know, come out the other side being better than I went into it. Not sort of like, I'm lagging now and having trouble correcting. And so, like, the things that I work with my PT on was I was working with a really good pt, for one thing, that he was really focusing on neural firing patterns, because that's a lot of what happens when we get injured is compensatory pain. And a lot of times when we get injured from that type of stuff is because we've started to change our gait to.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:16:03]: To avoid pain. And that is. That's problematic because then we start to do something that's maybe not efficient, and it just becomes second nature to us. And so we have to then intercept those movement patterns that we've created for ourselves, which may just be our brain wired to tell our body to do this and this and this in an order that it's not supposed to do those things in. But that has been the most efficient, best way for our bodies to do that thing for so long that it's. We have to break that cycle. So I had to. We were doing exercises where we were literally like, just firing muscles in a specific order.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:16:41]: So turning on my core and then the glute and then the hamstring, not hamstring before the glute, which is a common tendency for a lot of runners, that their glutes are not working. They're. They're probably overusing their hamstrings to make up for the glute for one reason or another. And so, yeah, I had to. I had to actually practice the. The sequencing and then strengthen. So it was definitely these, like, more mundane exercises that were feeling like, you know, not getting a whole lot out of them, but they. I was.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:17:12]: Because it was just trying to, like, really reinforce what we want to happen. So that when I do go back to full weight bearing and running and doing all these things, that. That becomes second nature and not the old way of moving.

Cory Nagler [00:17:26]: And do you feel like you've broken that injury cycle? Like, did something kind of click where you feel like you've solved it, or is it more of a gradual process going through sort of the mystery solving of what it is and then correcting it?

Andie Cozzarelli [00:17:38]: It's been. It's. I feel like it kind of is like it's always a puzzle. No, we're not ever going to be 100% symmetrical. You're gonna have some movement patterns that are inefficient. And that's just kind of the way that it is. Like you're just. You just have to try to get it as equal as possible.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:17:55]: And I think when I. The first. This first training block back after my surgery was great. Like, I was. I think I built up really well and. And felt good and felt even side to side. And I mean, I had a couple of hiccups here and there where things were like a little tight in places. But no, no big issues besides just being a little bit tight and sore in different places.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:18:16]: Uh, this. Since I. I took a training break at the end of April and now I've been building back up for a new season. I have noticed that I've Been having more pain on my right side and so I've been sort of trying to decode what's causing like what, what am I doing, how am I running now that's putting a little bit more emphasis on my right side. Um, and what things do I need to reinforce and, and that kind of stuff. So it's always sort of a, an ever ev, you know, trying to figure out what's the next, what's the little thing that's at play. But it's, I think the, the bit the best thing you can do if you're, because you're gonna have aches and pains. You're running every day, you're doing an activity that's repetitive.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:18:56]: It's just not letting things get out of hand. Like you just, you gotta be able to intercept them and be really in tune with what your body's telling you and be able to adjust and react. So like last week I did a race and it was definitely premature. Like I could tell my body wasn't ready to run a race super hard. And after taking my training break, it only been a few months and I'm coming to the realization that I, I, that buildup phase for me is super important. I don't like to start workouts too soon. I think it's really important that I have a base of mileage before I really start to push my body too hard because I just feel better that way. My two best training cycles were ones that I was coming back from something and I had to slowly progress and I had the most success from that.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:19:39]: So I realized that just kind of like looking back at this, this, this buildup that I've been on right now and, and so that's been something I'm like, okay, I need to sort of think about how that looks. But I've all I, I used my last week, I was sore after the race and I used the lever and ran on the treadmill and put it at like 75% body weight. And if you don't know the lever is, it's kind of like an alter G or an anti gravity treadmill which it just helps to kind of take some weight off so that there's not full weight bearing. And that was also a tool I used in my recovery cycle because it really helped me to take some of that, take the weight off so that I, so that I could actually move, move more, you know, the way I wanted to. So that was a really. Because I was able to actually do the running mechanics without the full weight bearing and so that allowed me to really focus on good movement patterns and activating in the right order. And that was super helpful for me. So that was.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:20:40]: I've been sort of tossing that in even when I'm not injured to kind of keep moving efficiently, keep doing things, feeling good and being in tune with my body in a way that's going to help me to continue to stay injury free.

Cory Nagler [00:20:54]: Yeah. I found when you don't do these things, it almost just feels like a game of whack. A mole trying to like put out different fires. And I've almost come to not even love the word prehab because I, I feel like it almost denotes that you're trying to like prevent one specific injury that's happened when really I feel like more runners should be doing general maintenance year round to make sure that you're not developing these deficiencies. And again, I'm, I'm guilty too. I don't love the, you know, the stretching before a run and putting in your strength, work and mobility. But it's definitely, it's almost like you need to get fit to run instead of running being how you get fit. Because most runners already are very aerobically talented.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:21:33]: Yeah. I mean I've done tons of miles. I don't, I don't know that I ne. Like, I don't need to do tons more. But like I've got that skill set already kind of banked. But I, I know that I need to work on. Yeah. Like making sure that I'm moving efficiently when I'm tired and making sure I'm not doing certain things when I get fatigued or you know, one, one of the issues I've had, and this happened before surgery and also I've, I had it in my race the most recently is getting cramping on my, on my left side.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:22:01]: No, my right side. So it's the side that I tend to want to sort of side bend towards. Um, and so I had to be kind of cognizant of that and then also using my diaphragm better cuz I, I've notoriously just had issues with like breathing. Um, sometimes it's. I think I, when I'm more nervous for a race, I have more diaphragmatic cramping issues. And so those are things that I'm constantly kind of trying to be aware of. But yeah, it's, it's definitely. There's not like every time we fixate on a specific place that it hurts.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:22:29]: We don't, we don't look at the big picture of like, well, what if it's coming first, some from somewhere else? Like, my hamstring was where the pain was, but it was coming from my hip being dysfunctional. So, like, you know, I can't. We can't just isolate one spot. I gotta be a little bit more specific to, like, an entire area and really figure out where it's coming from. Like, where's the. Where's the dysfunction? And that's one of those things that I like having a PT that I see monthly. Like, I just. I need someone that I can check in with regularly.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:23:01]: They can assess and see how my hips are if they're getting out of alignment. Like, what, what do we need to do? Address that, just keep that from happening, that kind of stuff. And that, that's been really valuable to me is that being able to just check in with somebody and, and ensure that things are still moving the right direction.

Cory Nagler [00:23:18]: So is that your takeaway in terms of not focusing on the one muscle group? Are there other things you can do to make sure that if there are any deficiencies or sort of interactions between muscles that you're taking care of them?

Andie Cozzarelli [00:23:30]: Yeah, I would say. I mean, I. I think it's always good to just have a full body's perspective and then know where your weaknesses are. So, you know, I even. I think one of the things that this seems like, so off. Off of, like, okay, my hip was the injury. My hamstring was injury. But my.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:23:46]: I noticed that, like, my foot sort of swings in funny when I run and. And so my calves and my calves tend to get tight and I pronate a little bit on my right side too much. Like, my arch collapses. And so I've been focusing more recently on doing more foot mechanic stuff, strengthening the arches or walking on my toes and trying to keep my big toe involvement, like, kind of making sure that I am pushing off through the big toe and paying attention to not swinging that foot around, because I can't help but think that that's part of this whole. This whole thing is that, you know, why I keep getting out of alignment? Is it because my hip keeps wanting to kind of run the same way? Uh, so, yeah, I think I just have been thinking more. More big picture and, and kind of like looking at. Starting from where the first point of contact is, is my foot, and then moving from the first point of contact up for. To see kind of like where.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:24:42]: And I also like to do my exercises in the mirror so I can see which I was doing some. It was like a front foot elevated split Squat. And when I was with my. When I had my think my left leg forward, I can't remember which leg it was, I could see that I was like shifting my weight funny. And I was like, that's weird. And yeah, it was actually. It was my right foot forward and my left arm out with a weight and without the weight, I was not doing it as much it was with the weight. And I think it might have actually had something to do with my shoulder positioning, which I've also sort of.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:25:17]: My left shoulder sort of swings out, which was a counterbalance because of my hip. But it's still kind of a functional thing that it's not. Not ideal. So it's like you. You notice these little things here and there about how your body wants to shift when you're doing something. And I was trying to fix it. Like, I was looking in the mirror at it and I was like, how do I get that back in? And I'm just like moving around and I'm like, I can't even figure out why I'm doing that. And then you sort of like take the weight away and you see it and you're like, okay, so it's something else.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:25:48]: It's not just, you know, it's not simple. So it's good to just keep that, well, rounded perspective of, you know, we still need to pay attention to our upper body mechanics. We still need to pay attention to our lower body mechanics and our feet and our. All those things. And so keeping a consistent basis of strength for all areas that we use while running and thinking about them functionally. Because, you know, there's some strength exercises that just help us to strengthen the muscle groups that are involved in running. Um, but then you also need to incorporate the strength that's functional to the way that we're moving. Um, because that's what we're.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:26:23]: That's what you're gonna need on race day is, you know, you want. We want the. We want your soleus to be able to know how to absorb shock and then still be a spring to kind of push you back off. So, yeah.

Cory Nagler [00:26:40]: You might have read a lot the last few years about the benefits of ketones for endurance performance, such as mitochondrial efficiency and glycogen sparing. Your body naturally produces ketones for energy, typically during fasting, long periods of exercise or when you don't have as many carbohydrates. The problem is that you typically need to severely reduce your carb intake to produce ketones, which is difficult to sustain even for the most dedicated runners, but ketone IQ quickly delivers ketones right to your bloodstream, putting you into ketosis within minutes without the need to fast, restrict calories or carbs or exercise away your glycogen stores. I love taking it first thing in the morning before my run, which gives me a quick hit of sustained energy to support the carbs that I take in before and during hard workouts. It's also great post run for recovery too. The academic literature also supports the effectiveness of ketones for running performance. For example, in a placebo controlled study with trained athletes, ketone IQ boosted average sprint power by 19%, peak power by 13%, cut fatigue by 10%, and spiked blood ketones five times in just 20 minutes. A 2021 study also demonstrated that the ingestion of ketones improved mitochondrial efficiency by 7%.

Cory Nagler [00:27:57]: Basically, all of this just means that you can be confident ketones provide an efficient source of energy. If you want to see more of the research, head to ketone.com RTTT/ For a limited time you can save 30% off your first subscription order plus receive a free gift with your second shipment. That's K E T O-N-E.com RTTT. You probably haven't heard of any detail, but this coenzyme is central to energy metabolism that can impact muscle strength, mitochondrial performance and overall energy levels. Your NAD levels decline from factors such as aging or poor diet, but just because NAD levels decline with age doesn't mean you have to accept it. NAD from Mass Edge is a groundbreaking formula that can increase your NAD levels by 67%. Their unique formula enhances absorption by 71%. It increases uptake and utilization in the body by 167% compared to generic NAD supplements.

Cory Nagler [00:29:05]: This means you can slow muscle loss, improve recovery, increase your energy levels and fight aging at the cellular level. You can check out the Results yourself@massedge.com NAD +Runner's Connect fans will automatically save 20% on any purchase. That's mas edge.com NAD if you're ready to fight all the typical signs of aging and feel a decade younger, this is a no brainer. Yeah, I like to talk about some of the single leg exercises because I find that there's such a gap between what I am physically capable of doing weight wise and what I can actually do with good form. And to me the second always takes priority because there's just no point in doing the exercise if I find that I'm like bending outward in weird ways. Definitely split squats is one of them, but I find too Sometimes if I do, like, single leg deadlifts, I'm flying everywhere if the weight's too heavy. And it's like, that's probably not really accomplishing anything at that point.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:30:09]: Yeah, 100%. It's not like you. Like, that was the thing that when I do core and stuff, I know that I had, I've had issues with like, doming in my abdomen. Like, I was doing. I did core all the time in college and just like, had no concept of like, what proper form was. And like, I could do the exercises, they looked fine. But then I didn't know that I wasn't supposed to be like, my core wasn't supposed to be like, doming out. And so I had, I was like, okay, that's not the way that it's supposed to move.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:30:34]: And now, like, when I do core, I have to do like a more basic option in order to strengthen it, because I can't, I can't do it without doming if, you know, So I like that I shouldn't be doing those exercises to the full extent, even if I think I can do them because I was doing them inappropriately. Like, they weren't, they weren't correct. And so it was like a bad functional movement pattern. And so, yeah, exactly. Like, I was doing those little split squats and like, I probably should have taken the weight off of that side and just did them. However, like, I was able to kind of like sit or just drop the weight on that side and figure out kind of how do we need to maneuver this? And then. But then beyond that, like, okay, but, you know, is it coming from my. If it is coming from my shoulder, is there a stretch or something I should be incorporating even before I do the exercises? Like, is it as simple as I need less weight or is it as.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:31:27]: Is it like I need to like, pay attention to sort of like something needs opened up better before I do this exercise, you know, and so that's kind of the challenge is in. But that's why it's important to know if you're moving appropriately and if it's. If it's good form. Because, you know, the other thing is that you do strength training without using good form and you're going to use different muscles and you're going to be strengthening things that you're not trying to strengthen, and then that defeats the purpose.

Cory Nagler [00:31:53]: Yeah, and there's limitations with flexibility too. Right? Like, you can strengthen the muscle all you want, but if you don't have the range of motion, it's only doing you so much. Good.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:31:59]: Yeah. And that's that I think that the really common place that people see that is in the squat, um, whether they have some ankle dorsiflexion range of motion, or whether it's low back or something like that, where they're rounding too much so they can't really get their pelvis, they can't sit back well enough. And so there's lots of things like that that can kind of be issues there. And they can also be, you know, they can get injured from doing those types of things wrong. Deadlifts, too. I was doing deadlifts. I did. I was doing a deadlift, a straight bar deadlift.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:32:31]: And I've never really done that before. Always did it with the trap bar. And I didn't realize I was, like, kind of, like, pulling up with my back, not with my hamstrings and glutes appropriately. And it was partially because I was kind of nervous about the bar hitting my knees. And so I was kind, like, doing this weird thing, and I definitely threw my back out. This was, I think, last year. I can't. I think it was last year, and I was like, oh, okay, that was dumb.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:32:56]: I need to be more cognizant of that. But, you know, like, things like that can be bad. And kettlebell swings is a big exercise to be really good for your glutes, but it's like a. Can be really dangerous if you're not doing it correctly, because, again, that'll put a lot of strain in the back.

Cory Nagler [00:33:11]: So I'm curious your thoughts on why it is that you find yourself with more injuries now than back in college when you were maybe less cognizant of all these things. And I ask it partially selfishly, because I feel like I'm doing a lot more of the right things now and still finding myself injured more. So I don't know what's going on there.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:33:32]: I'm sure, like, age is a factor. In college. I wasn't injured a ton, but I did have issues. I did have. I had a stress fracture my freshman year in my foot. I think that was more related to. I was having. I didn't know I had celiac disease.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:33:49]: So I actually had two stress fractures before finding out that was what was causing that. And so that was a problem for me. And then I had some IT band issues, which I'd had in high school, actually, and I had sprained my ankle in high school. And so, you know, some of those things might have been things that sort of, you know, becoming a Little bit more present as I got into college, so I had some, I had some things. But I do think that the, the young, when we're young, body recovers better and so you can, you can run too hard and your body will still recover a lot better and not put you at as high of an injury risk. So there's definitely that, that's, that's a factor. Um, but I think also just like how, how resilient you are with your mechanics and your movement patterns and your strength and all those things are super important. But then you know, when you're, when you're younger, I do think you have a little bit, you have a lot more leniency in terms of what you can get away with than when you're older.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:34:44]: And so when you're older it's very important that you don't run your workouts too hard. Cuz you're at higher risk for getting injured because you're running too hard. Uh, you know, you have to be a little bit more, the recovery runs have to be easier because we, we can't get away with that as much as we get older too. We have to make sure that we're, we're balancing all those things. Um, hydration I think becomes a lot harder as you get older. And if we're getting dehydrated, you can put yourself at higher risk for muscle tears and things like that. So it's, it's hard to say because there's definitely runners who have never been injured and they've gotten older and they've just been, haven't run into these issues. And that's the ideal.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:35:24]: So it's, it's hard to like really boil it down to a specific thing. I'd say I was relatively uninjured once I got past the IT band issues. My, I think that was, that was my sophomore year, spring of my sophomore year, I was running into a little bit more of that. But I mean I still, I had a bulging disc in high school or college. So I had things that I could kind of work through, but there were still issues. I just was able to train through them a lot easier or manage them a lot easier. And I also had the other thing that I think we discredit to is like when I was in college I had a training room. You could just go into the training room every single day of the week and go get, get treatment of some sort or have someone work on you.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:36:10]: I could get massages every other week, which don't have that financial ability. Like it was Covered and I didn't pay for it in college. But, you know, you get, you get into the real world and then, you know, so there's definitely luxuries that I had then that I think are impactful. And so I wouldn't say there's like a one size fits all answer to that. There's. We're all made differently. We have, you know, there's. I think one.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:36:39]: Something I learned recently in a, in a class that I took at my PT was just, you know, some of us have different ways that our bodies are structured that put us at risk for different types of injuries. And we all move in a way that suits our, our own specific strength. And so sometimes that's good, and sometimes that can be not good for injury prevention. Um, and so that's, those are things that like, you can work on, but there's also like, there's limitations on, you know, you might have to be a little bit more, you might have to structure your training a little bit differently. You might have to do more cross training in order to get the same cardio vascular benefits and aerobic benefits. You might, you know, have to do a little bit less mileage or whatever. Um, and so those things could be factors and then the other factors are just kind of like, what type of runner are you? Are you a more fast twitch fiber runner? Are you a more slow twitch fiber runner? And there's variations in how those different types of athletes should train to, to get the most out of it and prevent injury. So it's.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:37:42]: I think it's just super complicated. And there's never, I run into this with athletes I work with too, that sometimes it's just like, it's hard to boil down, like, why did you get injured? You've been doing everything. Like it's, there's not always an answer. And you know, it's sometimes it's like, how quickly did you catch on this thing was bothering you? How quickly did you adjust? How were you fixated on getting your miles in when something was bothering you? Or you know, that kind of stuff really has an impact on us and you know, how is our mindset about it. So.

Cory Nagler [00:38:19]: And knowing that the takeaway cannot be just be younger and more injury proof, what have you maybe learned about yourself along this way and the, the type of runner you are that's helping you become less prone to injury?

Andie Cozzarelli [00:38:30]: Yeah, I think that the biggest thing has been listening to my body a lot better. I used to not. I used to kind of like have a plan for myself and goals for Races and workouts that I were, I would kind of get more frustrated if I didn't meet them and I didn't kind of factor in outside influence like weather and things like that. I just kind of was like gotta do it. And I also was constantly in this headspace to prove to myself that I could run X pace on this workout or you know, I had, I was stubborn about what I wanted to run and not about what I should be running. And, and so I think that I've, I've had to kind of look at that, take a hard look at that and be like, am I even building fitness in the way that I want to by doing these workouts this way? Probably not. And so that was something I had to, to terms with and be mindful of is just like the balance of it is gonna get me farther than running hard and faster every day. I'm just gonna be more broken down.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:39:28]: Uh, I do think I tend to be a little bit more of a fast twitch, kind of more intermediate fiber. I think I've kind of fallen the middle. I'm not quite like a mile 5k runner, uh, but I think I am probably my best suited distances are probably like 10k half marathon. And so, you know, I'm training for marathons now so I have to kind of adjust what that means and training to kind of make sure I'm still working towards my goal. So something I'm going to try. This training block is actually doing a little bit shorter of a marathon block. Like I'm going to see if I, you know, if I feel a little bit better. And that's actually what I did in my first marathon.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:40:03]: I didn't, I wasn't doing, I think we had increased the workouts but I was still training with the girls at NC State when I ran my first marathon. Uh, we were just kind of tacking on extra intervals or, or whatever for a period of time. And then the last six weeks I, I started working with a coach who was giving me marathon specific training. So I think it was just six weeks and it was successful. Like it worked really well for me. And so I'm thinking, you know, if I am a little bit more of a fast switch intermediate fiber athlete and I lean more that direction, I don't want to lose that skillset when I reach marathon training. So I want to, I want it to still be something that I had touched on recently enough that I don't start to kind of lose my, myself and my strength within a cycle. And so I'm gonna See if maybe like doing just a little bit shorter of a build.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:40:49]: Um, I also know that I think I'm a pretty salty sweater and so I've been a lot more mindful of my hydration and that has been, I think, really helpful and in just being able to, you know, feel better and recover faster and all that from runs in general, just being better hydrated. Also been doing a little bit of heat acclimation, just trying to see what I can do and just kind of making myself a little bit more uncomfortable at times and you know, in a safe way just to kind of work on those elements. But the same time, like, that's going to be harder on my, on me. It's going to be a lot more to take, it's going to take a lot more out of me if I am a really salty sweater because I'm getting dehydrated a lot more often. That's, that was another reason why I was like, you know, maybe a shorter marathon block, especially with the race I'm doing being, you know, October 20th, I think it's 20th. Either that or the 19th. Um, you know, with that being the goal race, my training is gonna, part of it's gonna be in the heat. So, you know, we have to kind of weigh that out.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:41:51]: And so I was like, yeah, let's just like try that and let's focus on speed for a while over the summer without doing too much crazy volume and then wait to kind of jack things up. So that's been, that's been something I've, I've been sort of thinking about and toying with and um, but then again, yeah, like if I need to adjust. Last week I was recovering a lot slower from the race than I would've liked. And so the workout that I did last week, later in the week was a cut down, but it was, I did, I took 1 minute rest intervals between each of the cut down miles and that was what I needed because I, my legs were still a little bit sore and not in a prime condition to do a hard workout. So I thought let's do a cut down starting from a steady effort, not overdoing it. Um, last mile got hard, but the rest of them were pretty much where I, where I think I was like got, got a benefit of it but didn't work too hard. And so I think that's been something I've been really trying to just play around with is, you know, adjusting being flexible, using things like the lever to my advantage, being able to just go ahead and take A rest day, if things are feeling a little bit too much at any point or something's not feeling right, you know, always being counter, you know, get ahead of it, get ahead of the aches and pains can help.

Cory Nagler [00:43:13]: I think a lot of runners get really attached to being in shape and it can almost be hard to let go of it. And it sounds like you're doing a lot of things to sort of wait to be in shape at the right time. Whether that's a shorter training cycle or taking more rest or you're doing more of your mileage at kind of a, a lower, lower weight bearing percentage on the lever. What, what do you think is the shift in mindset that, that led to training in that different capacity?

Andie Cozzarelli [00:43:40]: I think it was just kind of like reminding myself that at the end of the day, like, what's the, what are the big goals? Um, what, like am I having? I want to enjoy it. I want to feel good doing it. I don't want to feel beat up by it. I don't want to feel like, you know, I think the other thing, and I posted this on Instagram recently, was that like when we're, when we, when we let sort of fear guide our training, whether it's fear of being losing fitness or fear of not being fit or fear of injury or fear of anything, we tend to, we tend to kind of make bad decisions around our training. Whether that be to run when we shouldn't be running or not resting when our body's telling us to. It just kind of ends up just in. Then it ends up just being more stressful and, and mentally not as fun. And so I kind of was like coming to that realization.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:44:30]: But then I also was like when we let our bodies and sort of how we're feeling and all that just enjoyment and the goals and all the things that are coming with it, be the driver in our confidence, then we tend to make better decisions because we're confident in the fact that I can take this rest day and I'm going to be just fine. And sometimes that's just like a learned behavior, like I've had. I. When I first, when I ran my half marathon pr, I had stopped using my GPS watch for a period of time because it was making me crazy. Like I was obsessing over the paces that I was running. And then I stopped doing that and I was running with friends and not paying attention to my. I was running for time. I wasn't running for miles technically, but I would kind of equate amount of time to Miles.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:45:15]: And it didn't matter what pace I was actually running. I was still just going to go by whatever that was. And I had just, you know, generic old Timex on. And I found that to be super valuable because I did slow down on my easy runs. I just wasn't super cognizant of it. I was just kind of like, doing my runs and not worrying about that part. And I ended up running my half marathon pr. And so I sort of learned from that perspective that, like, it doesn't matter what pace I'm running and, you know, taking it easier and having good workouts come out of that really helped me to realize that I can have that flexibility there too.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:45:49]: That, like, that's not going to be the thing that breaks me. Like, running slower may actually be what I needed. And so that gave me something to sort of reinforce that part of me that. So sometimes it's actually being a little bit open to just doing things that you're feel fearful of or are a little bit unsure of. Like racing. For me, this last weekend, like this last week, I knew it was a little soon and I knew that I wouldn't love that. And I knew and. But it was a good learning experience and practice for me.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:46:22]: I. I realized when I feel like I don't. When I don't feel ready, I'm a lot more nervous and that impacts me a little bit more. So I, I don't love racing from that perspective. And, and yeah, like, it's probably a good thing that I raced a little bit under, under trained just to kind of like have that perspective, but it's like, I don't. This doesn't feel good to me and I don't really enjoy it. I like to feel ready. I like to give myself more time.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:46:47]: I like to have this good basic training before I really push my body hard. And so, you know, ideally I wouldn't, I wouldn't do that in the future. I would try to make sure I have races that are pushed farther out so that I don't run into that again because, again, like, I don't want to be. I had to rush things a little bit more than I would like to. I threw in workouts sooner than I would, um, just to be ready for the race. And I think it. I think I was fine like it. And I.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:47:11]: But I just didn't feel as good racing either. So, you know, coming off of that, I was like, yeah, let's go ahead and just monitor that. Think about. I was gonna. I was thinking about running a race this coming weekend. And then I was like, you know, no, I think I'm better off stepping back, thinking about the end goal, which is my marathon in the fall. You know, I want to make sure that I'm prepared for that. And so if I, you know, keep pushing in and don't give myself the space to kind of make sure I'm developing all these systems in the right order and in the right way, then I'm not going to be where I want to be in October.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:47:44]: So we're a long way out and I have to kind of keep reminding myself of like, yeah, I love to have been really in fit and ready to go and rent all these races, but there, it's not going to suit my long term goal. And so, you know, we have to kind of put your ego aside and be like, yeah, this isn't the move, this is not the move. I got more important things I want to do. So, you know, listen to your body.

Cory Nagler [00:48:09]: Yeah. And I think we've talked a lot about some of the things you've learned about treating your body better over time. But I think, you know, hindsight is 20 20. We all learn over time. One of the most dangerous things is falling into that trap of doing the same things again and again. And, you know, I've fallen victim to this too. So looking ahead, say four months close to your marathon or even years beyond that, is there anything that you really hope you remember from this experience to make yourself a better runner in the future?

Andie Cozzarelli [00:48:38]: Yeah, I'd say that honestly, I learned a lot about this experience going into this surgery. From the period of time in 2020, I had to take 2020. Beginning of that year, I was really having a lot of health issues. And then I had a sacral stress fracture in the middle of that year. I think it was end of April. So kind of similar timing to my surgery. I had a stress fracture in my sacrum and but I had been having trouble just getting consistent training together before that. And then coming back from it, I was having the health issues had gotten worse and I was.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:49:12]: So it ended up being that I had like a reactivation of mono or the EBV virus. And so that. Or ebv. And so that was what was causing a lot of the issues. So I wasn't allowed, I couldn't, didn't have a good training year in general. And then I had to take three months off to recover from that autoimmune issue. And so when I went through that period, that was super hard and I. That was it really ended up testing a lot of the things I'd been struggling with.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:49:40]: So I'd been having issues with, like, you know, the body image and eating disordered stuff that had lingered even though we were, like, had been working on it really hard. The break was what I needed to get my body to reset and kind of go back and. And get some trust back with it. So that period was really challenging and really hard, but I think it really helped me to come back and know that I could. And so when I went into this injury cycle, I was like, you know what? I know that I can do it because I just did it and this is not going to be nearly as hard. And the other thing I learned from it was the first three months when I'd take that time off, I wasn't allowed to get my heart rate up, so I had to kind of keep things very light. I wasn't allowed to do a lot, a whole lot of training. I was on this kind of more restricted diet.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:50:23]: I'd been already not able to do a consistent training for over a year. And so the comeback took a lot longer this time. I just. Even the smallest amount of cross training, like that first month, I was like, barely going any distance on the bike. It would go like 10 minutes and go 0.1 miles, you know, like it you. I wasn't going anywhere. But the small amount of just sort of like putting two feet in front of the other and just sort of seeing my progress, I got a little competitive with myself, I will say, through the. The recovery part, but that was kind of motivating to me.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:50:55]: You know, I was like, oh, I'm going to do 15. I was going to. I was kind of like trying to do longer, like go farther. So like, you know, 0.2 on 10, 10 minutes. Um, so it's kind of like focusing a little bit on that, not going crazy to the point where I would re injure myself. But that was kind of a good focus for me. Um, but you know that I was able to really have good trust in my body that it was going to be fine. And so I wasn't having this, like, crazy ups and downs feeling.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:51:25]: And so I was able to appreciate the process a lot better of recovery and appreciate the process of rebounding and coming back. And I was able to come back so much faster. I was honestly shocked. I. My first race after the surgery was. It was not really a race. I wouldn't say it was. It was a little bit premature, but I really wanted to do the fiftieth anniversary of the Virginia 10 miler.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:51:45]: So I think that that race was actually my first race that I did where I ran the entire like or first run that I had done in my recovery. That was a full run. That was walk breaks and I was third overall in the four mile. I ran I think six, forty something pace. Um, so definitely like, you know, far off. A lot of my, my times, my.

Cory Nagler [00:52:08]: Pr Talk about ripping off the band aid.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:52:09]: Yeah, I honestly I was like, that might have been. I was a little nervous. It was a dumb decision, but I, it, I was, I felt good, I felt fine. I was, form felt good. I didn't feel like I caused any damage from it. Everything was good. So that was a positive. Uh, I went right back to my run walking.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:52:25]: I didn't just all of a sudden just be like, cool burst, we're healed. I think I actually gave myself a little bit more time to kind of continue to put those pieces back together before I started to kind of push anything. Uh, and then the second race, I did it at 10k here locally in our new city, Chattanooga and I was running a six minute pace for that 10K. So you know, we could, I could see that progression in real time. And then the third race I did was a four mile and I think I actually ran faster in that four mile than I did a couple years before when I ran that race. So I was able to really see that come back like so much quicker. Um, my body was just in such a good. So I think that so much of the time if you just are patient with yourself and then trust your body, don't feel like you have to do this like overwhelming amount of cross training I was doing.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:53:13]: I, I think I started like after I got past the, the bike. I was doing some more aqua jogging. I was throwing in some aqua jogging workouts, but I was doing, I think the longest that I did in the pool was like I did a long, I was doing some long runs that were maybe like 90 minutes max. I wasn't doing any like crazy intense long runs or long bike rides. I was doing some longer stuff but just like I would in training, just like a longer stint on the bike or a longer pool or aqua jogging session. Um, but I was kind of structuring just like I would training most of the time during the week. I was only doing like 45 to minutes to an hour of, of exercise and then still giving myself a rest day every week. So I didn't go crazy with it.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:53:52]: I had a plan, you know, enjoyed it. Really kind of embraced the, the ability to kind of just do more and focus on that. And then I was focusing on the, the. Then I started focusing on just sort of like moving functionally and then. And you know, all came from there. And so I, that really helped me. I think the three months where I had to really play, like really go back to basics and start over basically back in 2020 really prepared me for being able to. So if you're going through this cycle and like this rest really scares you, just really, it's going to be hard.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:54:28]: I mean, there's going to be periods where you're really kind of like faced with the fears like head on, but you just kind of have to let yourself experience them and, you know, find a way through and you're going to get to the other side and you're going to be like, wow, I just learned something about myself. Like, I'm fine, everything's fine. When I went through it the first time, I had a, like a. I think I gave myself a cue or I would do something. Whenever these like sort of negative or fearful thoughts of like, I'm not exercising enough, I'm not doing enough came up, I would just sort of do something that made me feel strong and that really helped me to remind myself that like, like I'm still strong, I'm still capable, like all these things are still here, you know, so that, that, that process felt a little bit less anxiety producing and that was kind of what how I was able to get here. And so I really focused on enjoying the process through the recovery. And then also the build back up was enjoyable. I was able to really see that, that process, that progress in real time and that was super fun for me.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:55:29]: So. Yeah.

Cory Nagler [00:55:32]: Well, first off, congrats on the race. 6:40 Miling pace after not even having done a straight run after recovery. That's insane.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:55:39]: Yeah, I was honestly pretty shocked. I was like, oh, that's not too bad. And it's a hilly course, so I was like, okay, it goes like downhill the first mile and then kind of rolls and then it was back up that hill at the end. So I intended to try not to make that race too hard and then. But when I finished I was like, that's the best I've ever raced that race. Never, never managed the course as well until that day. So yeah, it was, it was a, a good place to start, good motivating place to start. I wouldn't rush that though.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:56:09]: You know, don't, don't feel like you have to race I wouldn't have run that race if I in normal. Under normal circumstances I did have clearance. I did talk to people the pts beforehand.

Cory Nagler [00:56:19]: But that's a good note. Do. Do as I say, not as I do. Right?

Andie Cozzarelli [00:56:24]: Yeah. 100%. Like don't be in any rush to. To actually like fi. Figure out what your motivations are behind doing that race. I lit. I wore my trainers. I didn't put on my racing shoes so that I to just really work on not overdoing it.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:56:39]: Cuz that was the number one goal was to not get too and too overly invested in it. Uh, it was really just to kind of like run, just run and try to run a good race without going too hard and keep. And so I actually that I think that's how I raced it so well. Like the fitness was not there yet. So that I think that's why it ended up getting hard there at the end. But I did feel like I managed it so much better than I ever have. So. Yeah.

Cory Nagler [00:57:08]: And if we're to take some of this in kind of a broader context, even beyond recovery or injuries, is there anything through the last year or two and the surgery and coming back to it and getting back to racing that, that you've really learned about yourself for running or just. Just what makes you better as an athlete?

Andie Cozzarelli [00:57:26]: I mean I think it just boils down to I have built more. A little bit more confidence in myself and I've been. I mean the biggest things have just been able. Literally listening to my body, which I think I could just keep saying over and over again, but that was the biggest thing I didn't do well before. And it's the thing that I've. I've started doing workouts where I him sometimes not even looking at the. Like I, I go out and I'm like okay, go, go by effort. And so I'll start off and I will start.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:57:57]: I won't start by looking at the watch. I'll start by feeling what it feels like. And I'm like, okay, do you think I can hold this for the entirety of this workout? Does this feel like a half marathon effort or does this feel like whatever effort? Um, and then I'll look at the pace when I see the split come up. And so then that sets the tone of like, okay, you know this workout. Say it was like I think I was doing. I think I have a. I specifically remember a workout I did that on. It was four by two and it was a little bit warmer that day, full sun.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:58:25]: And I was like all right, let's aim for whatever effort. And so I started off. I looked down at the pace, which was slower than I had written on my calendar. But I was like, this is the effort for today. This is the right effort, I think. And so I was like, let me just stick with this, and if I can stick with this, this is a success. And that was what I did. I think I did end up getting a little bit faster just from getting into the workout a little bit farther, but it was not a whole lot.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:58:50]: I kind of is able to keep it super consistent and feel strong throughout. And so I remember being super proud of that effort. I was like, that was great. Like, you know, this was exactly what my body needed today. And I feel like in the past I would have forced. I would have tried to go for the pace, and I would have ended up having to cut the workout short or adjusted the workout in some way because it was not coming together. And, um, instead of just being afraid and of, oh, it being in the heat and I gotta, you know, can I do this workout? I just sort of gave myself flexibility to approach it in a way that I would be able to finish. And then, you know, if.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:59:29]: If even if I slowed it down and I still needed to do adjust, like, that's okay, that's totally fine. But I adjusted and I let myself go by effort, and I finished the workout as planned. I didn't have to adjust it. I just was a little bit slower, and that was what I needed that day. So I think those are the things that I've become better at. Um, I. I've been coaching myself right now just because I've kind of been enjoying sort of just the. The flexibility of that, of being able to sort of adjust and fluctuate things based on how my body's feeling and not.

Andie Cozzarelli [01:00:01]: And I think I've been giving myself permission more that way. I know that not every athlete has is that way, but that's been. I think something that's been good for me is just being able to not feel, you know, like I have to do something. And I know myself right now, so I'm like, okay, I feel confident in doing this workout versus this one. And it feels like the right move for what I need. So that's been good. But that's, you know, not everybody has that. That luxury.

Andie Cozzarelli [01:00:27]: But, yeah, I think it's been nice to. I don't know how long I'll do. I'll coach myself for. But coming back from injury, it was helpful. So. Yeah.

Cory Nagler [01:00:38]: And at this point in your running, what do you define as your main objective or reason for the run? And that, that can be a race or, but it can also be like is there, is there something else that's motivating you, motivating you right now more than anything?

Andie Cozzarelli [01:00:51]: Um, I mean I, I do, I, I really want, and this is probably like a little bit like surface level, but I really want to qualify for the 2028 Olympic Trials Marathon.

Cory Nagler [01:01:04]: Announced the standards, right?

Andie Cozzarelli [01:01:05]: Yes. It's 2:37 for the women. They haven't, they're going to do an AB standard, but they haven't announced what's A versus B. But I, I ran the 2016 trials. Dropped out and I think in a lot of ways that was, that defined a lot of how I was training then my I, that marathon, I was like gotta run a hundred mile weeks, gotta do all these things, gotta. And I wasn't listening to my body at all. And I got to the race. I was sick that week, which is common.

Andie Cozzarelli [01:01:35]: If you overdo it, your immune system is heightened and not, not in a great position. So I got sick the week before the race. I had over trained, I was having issues, I was having symptoms of over training prior to the race and I did not adjust on race day. I did not look at the trials as like a, this is a great opportunity to just, just run and finish and say you ran the Olympic trials. Like that was not the approach I had and I dropped out. So for, in a lot of ways I really have been these last, this last cycle I wanted to qualify in 2024, but the hamstring stuff and the hip stuff was kind of the reason that that never came together. Uh, I felt ready for it. I felt like I was fit enough, but it just, you know, the injuries really prevented me from being able to race.

Andie Cozzarelli [01:02:22]: Um, but you know, so ever, you know, thinking back, you know the oly are in LA, which is where I ran the 2016 trials. I don't know where the trials will be this year. Probably la, who knows. But that's been the big motivating factor. I mean eight years later, if I could qualify for the. I guess not eight years, 12 years later. I can't do math right now. Yeah, 12 years after I qualified, being able to go back and finally re qualify, I think it would just kind of be a really good cap because this could be, I don't know.

Andie Cozzarelli [01:02:53]: I have no idea where, where my rest of my running career will go. And I'm definitely getting up in age now. Um, so it Just feels like it would be a good full circle moment to be able to qualify and race again at the Olympic trials and finish. Like, that's, that's literally like the, the one thing I would just super love to accomplish. If that doesn't happen for me, that's, you know, that's totally fine. But, yeah, I just sort of want to be able to go back and take a. Just have that opportunity over again and, and do it in a way that I can just redefine that moment for myself, not have it be what it was in 2016, which was just sort of a rough. A rough go.

Andie Cozzarelli [01:03:36]: And also kind of the period where I started going in the wrong direction training wise, where I just sort of started really struggling. And so I'd really love to just be able to have that be the cap to all of this and all the running in my career, you know, may not be the end of my career, but it would just be a really good way to come back to it. So. Yeah.

Cory Nagler [01:03:57]: What. What would it mean to overcome those setbacks, to achieve that goal that you'd been chasing for so long?

Andie Cozzarelli [01:04:03]: I mean, I think that it would just sort of bring. I don't. I don't know. I. So much of my career since I ran my first marathon to now through this, the up, through the. A lot of the downs that happened coming off of my 2016 Indie Monumental Marathon, where I really struggled for a few years, it. I kept. I was sort of counting the years, like, since I had run well, and I don't.

Andie Cozzarelli [01:04:29]: I can't. There's a. I ran okay in 2017. I had some good races, but it was hot, so my times weren't as fast. And so I was kind of giving myself a. And kind of giving myself negative feelings about that year, but it wasn't that bad. But I, It. It did keep getting worse after that, and I struggled and I struggled and I just.

Andie Cozzarelli [01:04:47]: And I just feel like the ability to kind of bounce back and. And prove to myself that I. That I. That my potential that I knew I had then is still there or that I. I had that potential then. And, you know, maybe I could have expressed it, that that's the thing that has been really weighing on me is that I felt like I had so much potential when I ran my first marathon and all the halves to qualify for the trials, I had so much potential, and then I lost it or it just felt like I. It got farther and farther away. And in the back of my head, I've just been like, I know That I have more potential in the marathon in the half than I was maybe in the marathon, maybe not in the half.

Andie Cozzarelli [01:05:28]: I don't know. I ran pretty fast in half. Um, I feel like I have more potential. Uh, and I, I just would, you know, being able to run and qualify for the trials and run a 2:30 sub 2:37 would be able to kind of remind myself like, yes, I, I didn't waste. I think the other hard part is the, the health, the health part of that and the eating disorder part of that has really made me super. Have a lot of regret for things that. That happened and things that I. Choices I made.

Andie Cozzarelli [01:05:59]: And so I really want to be able to say, like, you can rebound from it, you can come back from it and really see my potential. I just want to be able to, like, have that opportunity to really see the potential that I had come back here and. Yeah. So, yeah, I don't know.

Cory Nagler [01:06:20]: Do you think there's other runners who maybe will never run at the Olympic trials, but who will look at that as a, you know, a pretty cool thing that you're managing to come back and achieve such a lofty goal?

Andie Cozzarelli [01:06:29]: I hope so, because I think that. But it's been something that I also think about when, especially with, like, younger athletes and things like that, that if they're kind of feeling the pressure or they're in this position where they're, you know, under fueling or doing something that's not going to be good for them long term, that they'll think about sort of just like, I don't. Let's skip that middle part. Let's not go down that path and have that sort of negative, not even negative, but just like to have to deal with that because it's. It has been sort of the thing that's been the hardest about going through this, this injury cycle and the timing of it was that it really cut into the. The timeline of time that I have left to continue to see. See how much faster I can get, just because I'm, you know, about to be. I mean, I am mid-30s and so there's definitely like a little bit of a window of time here for me.

Andie Cozzarelli [01:07:25]: And you know, I would, I just, I would hate to have. If other athletes experience that and, and kind of not get to get to see themselves continue to succeed and reach whatever goals they would like to reach. So part of me thinks a lot about that. Like, you know, this is not, you know, you don't have to do it this way. Um, be healthy, think about that first, you're gonna be able to take it a lot farther if you do that. Um, you have so much time to develop and do stuff like that. Um, but then for athletes who are just like, generally training and, And. And just trying to meet their goals, like, yeah, if you.

Andie Cozzarelli [01:07:58]: If there was something that happened in your training and it kind of took you away from it and you've been struggling with that, I mean, there's still. Just listen to things, listen to your body, be able to give yourself grace and be able to take rest when you need to. Consistency is just so much more important. So finding ways to be consistent and get out there and do the thing and knowing that it's going to be a challenge, but, you know, all you can do is try. And so that's really where I've been is like, you know, I may never reach. I may not. I may not reach this goal, but I'm. I want to be able to get to the end of my time as a elite, competitive runner being able to say that I.

Andie Cozzarelli [01:08:39]: I did everything I could in the process, that I didn't. I didn't let things. I didn't let the experiences I had in my past prevent me from trying. And so same thing goes to, I think, any other runner out there that just keep. You got to keep trying. If you. If you have something is really motivating, if you want to go out there, Boston Marathon or something like that, you know, keep. Keep doing, putting it together and enjoy it.

Andie Cozzarelli [01:09:04]: Like, have fun, embrace it, embrace the process. Because honestly, like, this last year was great because I was able to look back on it and be like, look how much progress I made. Look how much, like, what I was able to do. I was so proud of it and shocked, honestly, that I was able to make such good progress, us. So that stuff has been really great. So even if I don't reach it, like, I did all the things right, I did this last my 30s. I've been running smarter, training better, enjoying it more. And so those are things that I'm going to be able to carry with me.

Andie Cozzarelli [01:09:39]: So I hope that for everyone.

Cory Nagler [01:09:41]: Yeah, I think that's part of the fun of running, right, Is that it's hard to do and you don't know if you're going to achieve your goals. But. But it. It really is the journey rather than the destination. And whatever happens, I think super cool that you can chase big, lofty goals and put it all out there to really go after it and, you know, tell the world literally on this podcast what those Goals are.

Andie Cozzarelli [01:09:59]: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So fingers crossed. Hopefully good weather and things for my marathon in the fall, but either way, just sort of taking everything in stride and enjoying the process. So, yeah, yeah, just have. Just keep, keep focusing forward and, and what kind of you want to achieve and yeah, not letting it define you, but enjoying it.

Cory Nagler [01:10:21]: Well, I hope so much that you crushed the race. And what, what is the marathon that you're gonna be running in October?

Andie Cozzarelli [01:10:25]: Oh, Columbus. The Columbus Nationwide Children's Hospital Marathon. So I love. I've. That's where my PR half marathon is. So I've been wanting to run this marathon for a few years and so I was like, why not this year? Let's do it, be fun. Haven't run the marathon there, so thought it would be a good one to tackle.

Cory Nagler [01:10:45]: Nice. No time like the present, right?

Andie Cozzarelli [01:10:47]: Yeah. And I've been on a journey to like, also be like run races you haven't run before. I got stuck doing the same ones over and over again and I was like, no, we gotta experience more. So, yeah, I love it.

Cory Nagler [01:11:00]: Well, best of luck, Andy. I know you're well, hoping for good weather for you and if all goes well with the recovery and stuff, that it's a great run and hopefully. And I know you'll have a little bit more time before that to run that trial standard. So excited to watch that journey. And thanks for coming on to share with us about what's gone into to coming back from injury and surgery, to getting on your bike with. With crutches, all the way to now running 10 milers and hopefully a marathon in October.

Andie Cozzarelli [01:11:25]: Yep, 100%. Yeah. Thanks for having me on. And it's hopefully motivating for some people to, to keep moving forward if they're kind of in this. In this position with injuries.

Cory Nagler [01:11:37]: So, yeah, I think it definitely was. Thanks, Andy.

Andie Cozzarelli [01:11:41]: Yep.

Cory Nagler [01:11:55]: Thank you for listening to the Run to the Top podcast. I'm your showrunner and host, Cori Nagler, and after two incredible years, years hosting, I want to end off by thanking you for supporting the show. I'm really just a normal guy who works at a desk during the day and loves to run. When I first got offered the chance to interview coaches, athletes and other runners from all over the world, I couldn't have possibly been more excited. This has become a passion project for me and I really love sharing those conversations with the running community. I'm sad to see the podcast come to an end, but the mission to help runners train smarter and stay injury free doesn't stop here. If you want to continue getting great running content, then head to runnersconnect.net to subscribe to the newsletter and find lots of great blog articles. As for me, you can follow my running journey on Strava if that interests you, by putting Cory Nagler into the search bar.

Cory Nagler [01:12:49]: That's Cory C O R Y and Nagler N A G L E R. Thank you for listening, listening and one last time, Happy running.