Race Day Simulation: How and Why to Mimic the Conditions of your Race in Training

Andie Cozzarelli [00:00:01]: We can use all types of experiences, workouts, all those things to really help us to prepare for things like that so that, you know, any unexpected things, we at least have something in our back pocket that we know how to manage or control.

Cory Nagler [00:00:15]: There's no doubt if you're running a full race, you wanna be as prepared as possible. This time, near the end of summer, is also the perfect time to practice your race day conditions, since we're still far enough out from most major marathons that you can figure out what works and tweak your strategy if needed. This isn't just limited to pacing though, since nutrition, warm up, and other variables are all things that you can practice ahead of time. Today, RC coach Andy joins me to talk about how and why you need to practice your race day strategy. I've personally been guilty of not worrying about my nutrition or what I'm going to wear, and hoping it all comes together on race day. And this might work some of the time, but practicing takes away a lot of the stress, and make sure that you're prepared for when things go wrong. If anyone else listening were in Boston this year, you probably knew to prepare for the hills, but it was a tough day if you hadn't planned ahead for the heat. That's just one example, but we covered 5 things you can practice ahead of time, including pacing, pre race routine, nutrition, course conditions, and your racing kit.

Cory Nagler [00:01:15]: They say there's no time like the present, so let's get started. 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, Corey 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 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. Andy, welcome back to another show. The Olympics as we're recording this are in full swing. But for the everyday runners, we're also getting close to race day, and that makes it the perfect time to start practicing.

Cory Nagler [00:02:06]: So, how are you feeling as we get close to a lot of your athletes running their goal races?

Andie Cozzarelli [00:02:12]: Yeah. So I this is a lot of the conversation I feel like we're having as we enter the fall, especially with a lot of the the marathons that are coming up starting, I think, you know, around September time frame. So, you know, I've been talking to athletes about this in in tune up races just because you can you can use a lot of different tactics in a variety of methods, you know, using tune up races, workouts, all those kinds of things to really start to prep for race day because, you know, race day is the is like it's kind of like if as if it were a performance. Right? You're not you're not just going to get ready the day of the performance. You're practicing through practice. So, yeah, excited to get to kinda dive into it.

Cory Nagler [00:02:52]: Yeah. And we're gonna cover a ton of topics over the course of this show. But just thinking from your own experience, I know you're, just healing up an injury right now and maybe not fully running. But typically, as you get ready for a goal race this time of year, what are some of the main things you're thinking about practicing?

Andie Cozzarelli [00:03:08]: Yeah. So depending upon I mean, even if I'm racing something longer, if it's been a while since I've raced, I wanna race. I want to have practice just sort of what it feels like to to kind of push yourself to your limit. And so from that regard, if you're if you haven't raced in a while and you have a big race that you're training for, you're just at the start of your training, you know, generally, like a 5 k is not gonna be the best translation to what your performance may be in the marathon. But from a racing perspective, it helps to have some some experience just sort of getting competitive or, just sort of, feeling what it feels like to just kind of reach that maximum, you know, push yourself. And some of that stuff is some of the things that I fear the most at the beginning of a training cycle is the the pushing yourself aspect of it. Like, it's a little bit scary to to kinda feel that, and you sorta have to train your body and your mind to be able to kind of experience what that's like to learn how to push yourself when it gets hard at the end. And so that's something that I always am thinking about from the very beginning of a training cycle, before I'm even getting close to the race the goal race.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:04:11]: And so those tune up races, we don't have to treat them exactly like our goal races, but we can treat them as, you know, to get something out of them. So finding what about every tune up you race you do, what can be something that we can utilize as tune up race that's gonna help us in the goal race. And so if you're running a 5 k early in the training cycle and you're getting ready for a marathon, then we can use that to just sort of, like, get our mind ready or get our legs kind of to to feel that into the spectrum, which we don't get in training. So there's stuff like that that I think about. The other things I think about are just, you know, how am I gonna what's my what's my pre race routine gonna be? How am I gonna fuel? What am I gonna eat? Those types of things, you know, in the summer months when I'm training, you know, if I have depending on when the race is. So if you're used to racing in the morning, but you're running an evening race, what are what are we gonna do to prepare ourselves for for what that feels like? Because I think that's something we don't always recognize as being something that could potentially be, you know, something we need to work on. Right? Because we think, like, oh, it doesn't matter. Like, I run-in the morning or on the evening, doesn't matter.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:05:15]: But from the perspective of racing, you know, how do you feel yourself throughout the day when you're on a race day if it's an evening race? And if you're used to running in the evening, how do you feel yourself just the morning of if it's a morning race? So those are other things that I consider when I'm thinking about, the races that I'm doing and and kind of what I'm preparing for is really trying to get into, what is this race gonna be like? What time is it gonna be at? All those different things are things that we can, you know, start to develop good practices around and really get a good system together so that when we get to race day, you know, all those pieces, we're just putting them together. And when there's not things we have to think about or or you don't have to look back at that race and be like, oh, I made all these mistakes. I didn't think about that or I didn't think about this. And I have one experience where I raced a hilly half marathon. It was going into the 2016 trials. I was I was I was like, oh, I'll do half as a tune up, but I didn't look at the course. And it was very hilly the first few miles. And so I was like, oh, I'm gonna go.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:06:11]: I'm gonna practice my marathon pace for the beginning and then try to finish strong. And not doing any of that background, that legwork to kind of be like, alright. What's this course gonna be like? Really ruined that whole it just didn't it just didn't come together the way I wanted it to. Whereas if I had been prepared from that perspective to know it's hilly in the front side, you know, really learning to to run with the effort on that, that could have benefited me. I still could have gotten the same thing out of it. But instead, it just kind of really put me in a weird headspace going into my goal race because that was the only race I had between that race and the trials. And so I kind of fumbled that opportunity to practice and that opportunity to really put all these things together. And so, we can use all types of experiences, workouts, all those things to really help us to, prepare for things like that so that, you know, any unexpected things, we at least have something in our back pocket that we know how to manage or control.

Cory Nagler [00:07:05]: I think those were some great points, Andy, especially the piece about the mental preparation is super relevant because the episode just before this, I'm not sure if you're, aware as you made some of those comments, but we have an episode, that just came out on kind of mental strategies for racing and and mental performance. So I think a lot of tie in there and how these strategies actually kind of prime you for race day. But I wanna make sure that we touch more specifically on a lot of the items you said because there's so many things that you can practice beforehand when it comes to racing that I think a lot of people don't even realize. The first one I wanna get into is for the race itself, your pacing. So what is it you can do to actually nail down your pacing before you get to race day?

Andie Cozzarelli [00:07:51]: Yeah. So I think this is one of those things that in training is super important that, when we're running you're running say, if you're running a marathon as your goal race, you wanna really start to nail down what your marathon pace is and what it should feel like. So, that's where when we have a workout word, you're targeting marathon pace. It's important that you don't go much faster because otherwise, it's it really starts to kind of create this this space where you think that you're it just kinda you're working harder than you should be for marathon pace, so we're not practicing what that feels like. So from that regard, I like to have workouts that I give some of my athletes where we sort of practice our pacing strategy. So one of the last workouts I give a lot of the athletes I work with who were training for a marathon is sort of a pace practice long run. And so we have a chunk that's at steady, like, a more of a steady effort, sort of like how you want to approach those first few miles of a race. So sort of like your your first threes or so miles of the race where you're just getting into it, really holding yourself back on that pace on that side of the pace range, and then doing a chunk of miles at the marathon effort.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:08:54]: And the way that I describe what these miles should feel like is, you know, you're gonna have already run some miles. You're gonna have miles in your legs, and you're not tapered. So that marathon chunk should feel like the, you know, miles between 13 and 18 or somewhere in that regard. That's what that marathon pace segments should feel like. So if you're if you're feeling like you're having to work way hard to run what your goal marathon pace is, then you probably wanna back that off a little bit. We wanna be mindful that that shouldn't feel like we're going all out in that marathon segment. And if we are, maybe we're running we're working a little too hard. And then the last little bit of this PACE practice is actually sort of, let let's let's push ourselves there.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:09:36]: Let's actually get ourselves into, like, what we wanna feel like when we're finishing. So simulating what those last few miles that maybe even the last 6 miles might feel like where it feels you're tired. Your legs are your your mind is starting to to doubt yourself, and you wanna sort of practice the pacing from both ends of the spectrum. How are you going to mentally handle what that feels like? How are you going to keep engaged, when it is hard in that space? And and how are you going to sort of remind your body that you can do it when you're tired? And so those last few miles there, practicing sort of going a little bit faster, help us from both the mental side and the physical side because we can sort of see how we how it shakes out. One way that I like to have people I recommend people race is that they don't look at their pace in the last little bit of the race just because I think that sometimes you're gonna you're gonna feel like you're slowing down because it feels hard. But a lot of times, if you don't know, you could be running faster, and that's why it feels hard. And so I have always sort of felt like I've run faster and better when I trick myself into thinking I am slowing down. And so I'm just racing, like I'm just trying to keep my pace.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:10:45]: And then I end up having surprising myself and having surprising myself and having run faster, which is something that, you know, we don't if you if you kind of take a look at your watch, a lot of times, you'll either you'll you'll be like, oh, this feels hard. I don't think you can keep going at this pace. So there's mind games that will happen. And so I like having something like that towards the end of a workout too to practice how like, not looking at your watch. I think a lot of us have that that, like, instinct of, like, oh, I need to check my pace when the when it beeps, you know. And so maybe if we don't practice doing that in training, we can sort of figure out what that feels like. And I I always now I feel excited when I don't look at my pace towards the end of a workout or a race because it's it's kind of for me to get to the finish line. It's kind of exciting to see, how fast I'm going to finish, whether that's great or not great, like, whether, you know, my last marathon, I was under traded for it.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:11:32]: And so I, don't know. I stopped looking at the watch when it started getting hard and just sort of just started racing by feel and trying to just, like, get to the finish line. I felt like I was just dragging. And when I looked back at my splits, I was like, I did slow down, but I was like, oh, it felt like I was going, like, a good 2 minutes slower than I actually was. So that was like that gave me some, I think, some, like, sort of positive energy, looking back at it given you know? And so that's something I've learned from it, and I feel like now in future races, I know that if it feels like that, then I'm fine. You know? I'm I'm okay. That I just need to keep going with what my body is going to do. And so the reason why I always say not to look at it is that your body is has its limits, has its capabilities.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:12:14]: And no matter what you see on the watch, it's not gonna change what your body's gonna be able to do in that last little bit unless you give yourself that mental block of like, oh, you know, I don't think I can hold this this pace towards the end of the race. You know? That's the only time it's gonna slow you down. So why why care? You know? Why why not just race with a little bit less abandon and just run? Because once you get to a certain point in the race, it doesn't matter if you start running 20 seconds a mile faster cause you're not gonna run out of energy before the line. You know what I mean? Then that point, you can just run as hard as you can. And the likelihood of you just completely bonking at that point is, you know, pretty low. Right? Unless you really are, going minutes faster or something and you don't realize it, which is hard to do at the end of a race. But but yeah. So like from the from any racing perspective, even if you're running a 5 k, even if you're running a half marathon, any of those things, like, we wanna know what it feels like to run our paces.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:13:10]: So doing some workouts at the pace that, we're gearing up for, feeling what those feel like. And, so that way when we put it together on race day, we don't start out too quick. We wanna make sure we don't do that. And then we wanna be able to get settled in and then hold that pace. And then, you know, know how we're gonna keep going through when it gets hard. And so how do we wanna approach that? And by the same token, if you want a negative split, practice negative splitting in in practice. If you're planning to positive split, which, you know, probably not the best solution unless the course is that way, practicing that in practice is important. And and then the other thing that I think that the this is the biggest benefit of practicing your pacing in in training is with your racing a course that's going to be hilly.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:13:56]: You're not necessarily gonna be holding a consistent pace throughout, and you probably shouldn't be. Because if you were to keep say your goal pace was 9 minute pace. If you were to keep 9 minute pace on the uphills and the downhills, you're gonna be wiped pretty quickly. It's gonna be a lot harder to race that way. So when you're racing a hilly race, you're gonna have to practice pacing on a hilly course, which means you're gonna have to get used to what the variability and pace is gonna be like. So you know what effort you should be going on the uphills and what effort should feel like going on the downhills to keep that consistent effort towards whatever goal pace you're hoping for. And so that's where really practicing your your pacing strategy through what the course conditions are going to be like is gonna have the a really big benefit. So

Cory Nagler [00:14:41]: Yeah. I really like that you emphasized practicing what it's gonna feel like instead of the pace because I've I've had the same experience as you described where a lot of the races where I haven't looked at my watch and I've gone by feel have

Andie Cozzarelli [00:14:52]: been some of my most successful. Yeah. Yeah. And, I mean, your body is is gonna be that's the one thing we also tell people is that, like, we can have a goal race for ourselves all day. And but if your body is not ready for that, or your body is if that's not the day that your body has has come with, then there's not a whole lot that you could do. But you can control how you respond to it and how you race to get the best out of yourself on that day. And so we can't force ourselves to run any pace, you know, as great as it would be to be able to just be like, I wanna run at 2:30 today and do it. We can't force ourselves into fitness.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:15:26]: So, you know, that's where those those training days really are important because, you know, you can have a goal pace given to you by and then those are all they're all kind of, you know, they're we give you goal pace. It's like this is your marathon pace, but you really have to be you be thinking about that in practice of, like, is this a realistic goal pace for me? Do I need to slow down? Is it hot? Do I need to sort of be a little bit conservative here so that I, and maybe when I get closer to race day, we will find out what that's like. But feeling out your efforts is gonna be the best way to know if we're actually training the right stimulus to get us ready for the goal race. And so that's where I encourage a lot of athletes to actually practice what things feel like and really trying to separate themselves from the watch a little bit, just generally, even in workouts, if you can find a way to maybe check your pace on the beginning side of things to keep yourself in control, but then start to kind of train yourself to just sort of get on autopilot a little bit and sort of feel those things out, that can be really valuable from a racing perspective because you're really training yourself to know what the effort should feel like. So if race conditions do end up hot, you know what the effort should feel like, so that if you need to slow that pace down on the front side, you can still match the effort and still get a really quality run out of it. Yeah.

Cory Nagler [00:16:45]: I think that makes a lot of sense. And when you think about sort of what race day is gonna feel like, I wanna extend on that and look at before the race with your pre race routine because I think this is something else that runners can practice. But in particular, I'd love to hear your thoughts on just how specific you have to be with practicing it. And what I mean by that is a lot of the time, if you have an early morning marathon at 6 or 7 AM, you could be waking up super early in order to make sure that you get to the start line on time and get in your fuel. So what are the elements of your pre race routine that you wanna make sure that you're practicing, and what are some of those elements that you can maybe leave to race day?

Andie Cozzarelli [00:17:21]: Yeah. I think getting some practice in on getting up early, doing going through your full routine of what you want to do to know what works and doing it a couple times because you wanna be able to see if you want if you wanna know, like, will it help me to hop in the shower real quick in the morning when I first wake up to just loosen up my muscles? You wanna know you wanna try that on a different day. Like, you wanna try that maybe on a long run workout day or something similar to what your goal rates will be, but not necessarily your goal race. So you wanna be able to know if those things are actually gonna do anything as as opposed to just being like, oh, they say you should do x. Right? Never wanna do anything. And even if they are valuable, you're taking a huge risk if you're just deciding to do something you read online, you know, just because it says that could be that could help you. And so those are things you really wanna make sure you because not everything's gonna work for everybody. I think even when we talk about caffeine, caffeine is one of those things that, yes, it can have a performance stimulating effect, but not everybody has the same response to caffeine.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:18:21]: So if you're like, oh, I wanna have this boost from caffeine, but you're not used to taking caffeine, you could cause yourself new issues by deciding to do that on race day. So, what I typically do is I I don't I've never really been one that kind of times it does all my practice, pre race practicing of race day stuff of waking up at a different time. I will normally just practice exact the timing of when I get up from that point to when I am gonna race. So if I'm gonna get up 2 hours before the race, I'm gonna wake up and and do something 2 hours before the race. If my race is at 6 AM, I'm not I haven't really done personally waking up at the 2 hours before that to train for. Like, I haven't done that before races before, just because from from my perspective, a lot of times in when there's a race coming up, people don't sleep well as it stands. And so when you wake up in the morning, you may be a little bit more, kind of like on edge, you're probably not gonna be waking up as groggy. So it's really hard to actually simulate what you're gonna feel like waking up on race morning because, like, I always end up like not sleeping well.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:19:31]: And then I wake up sort of wide awake at the time that I'm like, supposed to get up. So I feel like that if I did that in training, like if I was racing something that started at 6 am, and I had to get myself up at like, say, 3 am to simulate my you're more likely going to be getting not enough sleep. And that's not gonna be valuable to, the especially if you have a big workout that day. Like, you how what if that impacts how your workout goes? And if that workout doesn't go well, is that gonna impact your race day? So you have to kinda think about what are what are what are my like, what are my costs gonna be? So, you know, if waking up at 3 AM is gonna make you get less sleep and then impact your one of your biggest workouts or any of those types of things, then it's not worth it in my opinion. I think if you just kinda give yourself the same window of time from wake up to to when you start your workout as you're going to give yourself on race day, I think that's generally enough of of practice. By that same token, though, if you're racing in the morning versus the evening, that's where things really do change, like I mentioned. And when I was in school, we actually had practice at different times of the day depending upon the season because cross country races were in the morning, and track races are in the evening. That's just how it was.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:20:42]: So we would practice in the mornings in cross country season and in the afternoons in track season, just to kind of actually prepare ourselves for that, because those are drastically different things, you know, working waking up at 6 versus 8, not gonna be a huge difference. Right? But waking up and having a race that's like 12 hours later. Yeah. That's gonna be something that is gonna be different than you're gonna wanna have some, practice with. And so those are things that those are though that's where that timing of when you wake up is gonna have a little bit more significance. But in terms of your previous routine, the things that I would really focus on practicing are, your hydration, where you're gonna drink with with your breakfast, where you're gonna have in the morning, what's what's your plan for that gonna be, what are you gonna fuel with and when, whether that be like, okay, you eat a normal breakfast 2 hours out, and then you have a banana or a gel or something, like, maybe 30 minutes or you're at the start line of the race. Those things all those things are things you're gonna wanna sort of test out and see how they how they work and how you feel doing those things. So those are the main those are the biggest things that I'm like, go ahead and get that nailed down.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:21:48]: I pretty much before every single one of my workouts feel the same way that I plan to feel on my race day. It's just kind of my habit. I will have my my UCAN and with mix with some pre workout, and then I'll have some toast with peanut butter or nut butter or something. And that's what I do for races too. So I've gotten that really used to that. My stomach handles it well. I feel good with it. And, so those are things that I've sort of already nailed down.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:22:13]: Aside from that, like, there's other little things that you can do. Do you, do you like doing, stretches? Or do you, like I said, hop in the shower? Do you like to go do a little shakeout when you first get up in the morning? Any of those things are gonna be things that you're gonna wanna really make sure that they are things you like to do and practice them and see how they feel so that you have all that stuff nailed down. When you get to the race, what is your what is your pre race, like a warm up and stuff? Those are things you also want to consider. How much time do you need to be at the start like, at the starting area before? Like, I like to have get myself there at least an hour because I like some decompression time before I start my warm up, and then I tend to start my warm up around 45 minutes before the race so that I can get a little warm up jog in. I can do drills. I can do my strides. I can get my bib and everything, get myself situated for the race, and that's sort of my routine. It helps me to have that routine from a mental perspective just because I feel comfortable in the way that I I do my things.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:23:12]: It kinda helps me to get from being overly anxious about anything. If I don't feel like I have time or feel like I'm rushed, I end up more anxious at the start of the race. So, those are types of things I like to sort of have a plan for ahead of time. And I have an order of doing things so that it's not anything I have to think about because you don't want to have extra variables that you're not you don't you haven't thought about on race morning. And so, I mean, even more though so, like, these these days, like, the races do have added security now. And so, you know, do you need to make sure what what that's gonna be like race morning? Then that's something you're gonna wanna know. Because I know when I raced Philly, there was they had it really locked down. And so you had there was you had you kinda need to know exactly what you were getting yourself into the day before so that you weren't late to the starting line because the lines getting in were very long.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:24:04]: So those types of things are things that you you wanna know ahead of time so you can prepare for, which maybe not part of your previous routine and something you can practice in training, but still something that you're gonna wanna know going into that goal race.

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Cory Nagler [00:26:16]: And it doesn't include anything you don't like, such as extra sugar or artificial sweeteners. Even better, they're currently running a special deal, where you can get a free Elementi sample pack with any drink mix purchase. That means you can order your favorite flavor and get to try a new flavor for free. To get this special offer, and make sure you're hydrating properly this summer, head over to drinklmnt.comforward/runnersconnect. Yeah. I think preplanning some of those race day logistics is definitely important. I'm curious on the routine piece. You mentioned how you'll actually practice the the UCAN and the other pieces of your prerace fuel for most workouts.

Cory Nagler [00:27:00]: How rigid are you with that, especially now when you're not actually regularly running? Is that something you still feel with to to stay in touch on how you're gonna feel for race day?

Andie Cozzarelli [00:27:09]: Yeah. I for the most part, lately, I haven't been doing as much of it just because I'm like, I'm gonna save my my fuel that I have for when I get back to running, and I'm also not doing any a whole lot of intensity where I'm probably gonna be at that same carb burning ratio. But if I was doing, say, a hard work on the bike, I would feel the same way. Right now, I've just been doing some aqua jogging and not and I'm trying to keep fitness, but not necessarily go crazy with it. So, but generally, like, if I was doing something hard on the bike, I would take some UCAN and do all that stuff beforehand and sort of kind of emulate that in a lot of ways so that my body's still used to it when I get back to a normal regimen of training. But, yeah, the the I think the one reason I haven't been necessarily doing that is, like like I said, I'm trying to conserve my things so that I'm not just, like, spending tons of money while I'm while I'm not running so I can save it for when I am running. But, yeah, no, I, I, I, I mostly just like to use UCAN for just general everyday health too, because it's just, it's good. I used to, you wanna make sure I'm getting enough protein, so I use their protein stuff for after and that kind of things, can still be valuable from an everyday training perspective for when I am back to running.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:28:18]: You know, I wanna make sure that I have been fueling well and have been taking care of myself in a way that's gonna benefit me so that when I do start running, I'll be able to really hit the ground running and, I guess, kind of literally. So yeah. Yeah.

Cory Nagler [00:28:34]: It definitely makes it a lot easier when you've practiced. I I probably tend to start taking more gels 2 to 3 months out because I find it's enough time, but it's really that same reason. The the price of gels really add up, but I do find it as beneficial to make sure you're practicing and not just saving them for race day.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:28:51]: Yeah. I mean, your body needs to know how to process them and utilize them quickly, and, that takes practice 100% just like anything else. Like, you need you you need to know how to your body takes them in when you're running slowly, and you need to know how your body takes it in running fast. And you also need to know sort of how much you specifically need because you may I mean, I find this with hydration. Hydration, I think, is the biggest piece that with fueling is so individualized that it's hard for anyone. It's hard for us as coaches, I think, to give exact science because everyone has different sweat rate. Everyone has drastically different sodium losses. We know that sodium is one of those electrolytes that's, lost in different quantities, and it's a huge spectrum.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:29:33]: Right? The other ones are pretty standard for the most part. There's gonna be some variable, but not quite as wide as sodium. So, but you could be a heavy sweater, but not a salty sweater, and you could be a salty sweater. But so those are things that are like that really take a lot of in there those are things that take a lot of individual understanding of what your body is doing and monitoring that. So that's something I've been doing because I'm finding that I feel like the one my most limited factor, my fueling seems like it's been good. I mean, I use UCAN gels every, say, 30, 40 ish minutes or something like that, closer to, like, 35, 40. But what I feel like has been my limit has been more my hydration. I think I'm a really salty sweater.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:30:18]: And so really figuring out ways to actually get enough in has been my my biggest challenge. And so, and it feels like I'm taking so much in and I'm like, I have to do more than what the bottle says, which I'm like, is that too much sodium? But, you know, you you we all lose it at different rates, and I find myself having the the salt on my skin. So the only way that I know what's gonna work for race day is if I really practice it and test it and sort of, you know, even in this hot weather, like, how many salt tablets, how much fluid do I individually need to feel good through an entire run when it's this hot? And, you know, in some ways, the heat is a different factor that like, you may not feel good because your body temperature is getting too high when it's hot. But from a hydration perspective, you're you'll know those types of things, you start having that dehydrated, feeling. And so, that that one, I think, is probably the most crucial for most people. But if you're not someone who's, feeling the effects of the hydration issues quite as much, it may not be something you have to practice as much. But if you're like me, you probably need to do a lot of lot of that and and recording and sort of paying attention to how much fluid loss you're deal you're getting because this is this is where the science comes into play. So

Cory Nagler [00:31:35]: Yeah. And then that is the next topic I wanted to get to is kind of your your intra race or during the race fueling. I I don't wanna spend too much time on this because I think you touched on a lot of great points there. I'll maybe get into some more specific challenges with mimicking your race day fueling and in particular the fact that I think most runners are not gonna cover the actual full distance of a marathon in their race day and are probably not gonna have the support of having aid stations while they're doing their training run. So how can you make sure that you're mimicking what that race day fueling is gonna look like even if the conditions might look a little bit different in training?

Andie Cozzarelli [00:32:09]: Yeah. So one of the things I will say is that in training, you are at a you are gonna be in a higher glycogen deficiency than you would be on race day because you're gonna be fully loaded going into race day if you did all the carbo loading and all the things that prep for for going into the race and, you know, you decrease volumes that you can store more you can get all those glycogen stores up. But in training, you're gonna be at a deficit. So from that perspective, even if you're not going a full 26 miles, you're still gonna be probably starting that run with less glycogen. So you're gonna be sort of practicing what that's gonna be like in the middle parts of the races, which is where we we that fueling really makes an impact is when the, when your glycogen is starting to go down and you're trying to replace and keep up with it. So when we're starting long runs already sort of in a slightly depleted state, then then that's gonna sort of still give us that advantage of practicing on on so it's gonna you're gonna feel like towards the end of your long run, whether it be only 20 miles or 22 or 18, you're gonna feel like you would towards the end of a race just because you're going to be depleted in some regard because of the fact that we're not we're not tapered. We're not glycogen filled. We're not all those things aren't really taking place quite as much.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:33:23]: So, that's one thing I will say with, with the long runs and never really going 26 is that we still get, we still get that training in. We still know what that feels like. But when it comes to your your fueling, when you're not running quite as hard either, you're gonna be burning a little bit more of a, mixture of fat and and carb and not just carbohydrate. Whereas when you when you get tired or you're running your cold pace, you may be burning a little bit more carbohydrate to start there and you may you'll convert fully to carbohydrate by the end. But in some of your easy long runs, you're practicing your fueling. You may not necessarily be be completely depleting your glycogen. You may be burning a combination of fuel sources, just because of the fact that your heart rate's not getting up as much or any of those types of things. Like, we may not see that happening, but it still benefits you to train your body to know how to convert that the fuel that you're bringing in to energy.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:34:21]: So it your body actually needs practice at doing that. It's not necessarily just innate that it just knows exactly how and what to do. The more that you practice it, the more that your body's able to take in and store and do something with. If you're not practicing it a lot in training, then your body may not necessarily know how to convert that and use it and help you. So even if you were did get to race day and were following the guidelines of some whatever it is, 30 to 60 grams of carbohydrate an hour, you may it may be too much for your stomach to handle and it won't be able to get as much as it needs. And then you'll find yourself bonking because your stomach just couldn't handle what it needed to replace all that glycogen. So, when we practice that kind of stuff, that that helps us just to sort of get a good measure on on well, it helps us to just be able to take in more so that we have more on board. But then the other part of that is that when you're fueling, you you learn to how much you specifically need because we're all different.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:35:20]: Like, they have that that range for a reason. And so like, if you're, you know, I'm 5 feet tall, a 100 something pounds, versus somebody who is, you know, 6, 8 or something crazy like that, who's running a marathon, like, that's gonna be they're gonna need a fuel probably a lot different than say I would. So, those are things that you'll you'll know based on kind of how you feel when you do fuel. And that could be that sometimes you sort of, practice, like, taking fuel and then seeing how when you start to feel like you're getting depleted, and then knowing when that point is so that when you are in a race setting, you take that preemptively. You take it before you would reach that point. So so you feel like you're running you're doing a workout or something and you you sort of you take a gel at 60 minutes and then, 60 minutes later, you're starting to feel depleted, then you probably wanna start in in races or in harder efforts, anything like that, starting at 45. And then if you chest that out and you start to feel like you're getting depleted at 45, back that off even more to 30 or something like that. So it's really getting a good sense of of what you need and how you wanna balance that.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:36:24]: The hard like you said, with the the not being able to carry everything on you, that that's one of the biggest challenges. It's something I have run into, and I I I don't know how people do it. It's like, you know, so you can wear a vest. You can try things like that. The the challenge with vest is that they can bounce a little bit or they can be a little bit annoying from that front. They also will they also are added weight. So if you're a little bit slower, then that's okay. You know, know that that's okay, that that's fine, that it's not your fitness.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:36:52]: It's like running with a weighted vest on. Right? So, like, those types of things, just not be mindful of it if you're trying those out. I just bought sort of I don't know if it'll work, but I bought, like, one that was I didn't like running in my vest, so I bought one that was sort of like a little bit of a fanny pack that had still a bladder in it. So I wanted to see if that would work for me, but I haven't been running, so I don't know. But these are things that, like, you know, if you can just practice it in training and bring what you need in training, I know it's difficult, but it'll help. It'll help to kinda make you feel better, help to make your recovery even better. So that's the other side of this is that in training, we're practicing for race day, but we're also helping our body to recover faster. So when you're taking when you take fuel on them, when you take hydration on the run, you are benefiting yourself post run just doing those things because your body is gonna be in a better state post run, better hydrated to so that we can better fuel and so then we can better recover our muscles, all that stuff.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:37:51]: But yeah. So I think even from that perspective, like, your fueling during the run has so much value to you that, like, just, you know, wear some shorts with pockets, try to fit them in every different place that you can to make sure that you can get it. You can also, you know, stash things if you're able to in places that you can go pick it up on the way if you wanna practice grabbing. I one time did a workout on the track, and put a table for myself so I can grab stuff off of it and practice sort of that, that all that kind of things. And I like the track for practicing fueling sometimes because you don't have to necessarily carry everything, but you can run by, grab it, and continue running and then drop it if you need to and then come back and pick it up because you're always gonna have that consistency of it still being there. So that's something you can do, and I think it's worth it if you're if you're trying to sort of see what race conditions will be like to be in a a setting where you are doing laps and you can keep going back to your your fluids or your your fuel or any of those things. Yeah.

Cory Nagler [00:38:51]: I think that idea with the truck is really smart. It it kinda relates to something I do too that I find worse, which is kinda piecemealing the different elements of your race day. So, for example, wear that vest and practice my hydration on a long, so easy run. But then if it's a fast run, I might do things a little bit differently. And just know that I'm practicing the pacing and all the different opportunity to practice the hydration side. So, I think, probably a good message there that you don't have to do everything all at once perfect every time.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:39:19]: Yeah. You don't have to do it every time. I kind of am like, I will be more specific on certain runs. And then other runs, I'll be like a little bit more lazy about getting all those things together. Because that takes prep. You're like, alright, let me get my make sure I grab my water bottles and my all these things. And so it's kind of like, yeah, practice it when it's when it works. Do it a few times in training.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:39:40]: Practice it more if it's your first time. But if you're sort of gotten used to it, you still wanna do it, but you don't necessarily have to get, you don't have to do it every time. You can really be, choosy on on when it makes sense and when it doesn't. So

Cory Nagler [00:39:55]: Yeah. Absolutely. Okay. I think we pretty well covered the nutrition and hydration side. So I'll move on more to the racing conditions. And I think there's there's 2 main things that come to mind when I think of practicing your racing conditions. 1 is the race profile. So I'm thinking, like, what is the terrain you're running on? Is it hilly or flat? The other piece is really what weather do you expect and in practicing with that.

Cory Nagler [00:40:20]: So how can runners make sure that they are prepared for whatever the conditions may be for their chosen race?

Andie Cozzarelli [00:40:25]: Yeah. So I think, we get this question a lot too. I think I've managed to connect when an athlete's like, oh, my race is really hilly. I need lots of hills in my training. And it's not necessarily that you need just hill training. It's that you might need to do some of your efforts on hills, right? So you might need to do some of your tempo efforts on hills. So not necessarily worrying about pace like we talked about. You wanna practice what that pacing strategy should be for that race course.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:40:52]: So even if the pace says x, think about any paces that you're given by based on your PRs or whatever whatever paces that your coaches give you, they're gonna be mostly assuming almost perfect conditions. Right? Because that's what your PRs are based on. So, you know, when you that's how we know sort of that's how we give paces, but those aren't gonna be accurate all the time because you're not always getting perfect conditions. And so when when you're given a pace, it's it's kind of like give yourself a spectrum. Don't feel like you have to aim for the the fast end of that spectrum every time. If you're training for a race that you know is not gonna be as fast as the as what you ran your PR in, what's a reasonable estimate for the same effort level for the conditions? And making making sure that that's what you're targeting in training. So when you're doing if a tempo workout says 2 by 2 miles at at 9:20 pace, and you're like, I don't know if I'll be able to, like, handle that on this hilly course. I'm gonna do this on a hilly course.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:41:48]: What's a reasonable pace for me to sort of shoot for on this hilly course that I'm gonna do this workout on? And kinda give yourself that sort of perspective and then practicing the ups and downs like I mentioned, being slower on the ups, a little bit faster on the down, and balancing what that effort should feel like. So, it's not necessarily that if you're running a hilly race that you have to just do tons of hill workouts. Like, we can we can transform. You can do any of your your longer efforts, your tempos, your your threshold. We can do those on courses that are rolling or anything that'll mimic your race day. The other with the heat and the humidity and all that stuff, that's something that I think that can be one of the most challenging things to prepare for if you're racing. And and I I think we had this in in Boston this year where, conditions in Boston were significantly warmer than most people had up until that point. I think that the the weather had been fairly cool and mild and a lot lot better conditions for training through most of the the winter and up into up until Boston, like even in North Carolina.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:42:52]: I my wedding was the weekend before and I remember I ran in long sleeves, on a on my shakeout runs those mornings like it was chilly. Right? And then Boston comes in at 70. So no one a lot of people didn't have a whole lot of opportunity to prepare for that because their weather outside was not conducive to that. But there's things like I've seen, and this may not be something that everyone take can take advantage of, but like using a sauna and stuff like that, just sort of sitting in the sauna can just kinda get yourself prepared for, some of that heat acclimation if race day is gonna be hotter than where you're training. Those are things you can do. I've seen people wear, you know, more layers than they need and running in outside or running on the treadmill and more layers than they might actually need to stay warm. Just so they're sort of getting their body temp up a little bit so that they're experiencing sort of what it would feel like to be a little bit warmer. We wanna be careful with that kind of stuff, though.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:43:48]: You don't wanna overheat yourself. You don't wanna cause yourself more issues. But it's just some things that you can test out in training, just to kinda get yourself in in somewhat of a way of what it's gonna be like when you get to your goal race. And those are things that like, like, wearing more layers is is easy to do. Like, you can do that no matter where you live, you can throw on more. If you're living in, like, the depths of a very cold climate, then that's gonna be something where you're probably gonna have to go indoors to do. And if you have that accessibility, great. But if you're living in an area that's cold, but, like, you can just throw on tons of layers and just go run hard or whatever and and sort of get your body temp up, and that's still gonna give us some benefit there.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:44:29]: Other things that we can think about, if it's gonna rain on your race day, this is something that's probably more that like, you're not gonna be able to just decide on race week that you're gonna go do a run-in the rain to prepare for it, because it may not rain on race week. This is where in training, if it's gonna rain, it's not storming, but it's raining. It's okay. You can do a workout in the rain. It's you you might have race you might have rain on race day. When you're looking at a a forecast and it's it's if as long as it's not like unsafe conditions, if it's just just like a rain rainy day, you can you probably should go still do your workout in it. So that just in case if that's what race day is like, you know how to how to handle it. And I think that we can use Boston as another example, because the year before this last one, it was raining.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:45:16]: And, so then there was the whole conversation of how what do you do with your shoes? How do you manage all of those pieces? And those are things you can practice. Like, if you're like, oh, it's raining. Great. I'm gonna test out, how I'm gonna what I'm gonna do and how I'm gonna how things are gonna feel if it races. Like, do I need to wear plastic bags over my shoes or something something like that? Like, those are days that we can get something out of it. So, like, don't be afraid of a rainy day. It might be good for us to at least have some practice as long as it's safe, as long as there's no threat of any, flooding or, huge thunderstorms or anything like that, then don't be afraid of that. The other thing is, like, if you're running a trail race, we we wanna do some of our training on trails.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:46:03]: We don't have to do all of it on trails, of course, like, if you wanna still we can do we can still do speed workouts that are on the roads just to kind of still work on our our strength and our fitness. But then we can also do some of our workouts on trails to just note to to do them on the similar terrain. But again, all of this requires that we give ourselves that space on our paces to be slower or to kind of adjust based on on what the conditions and the and the feel and the terrain is going to provide. And so it's all gonna need you can do any of this stuff on different varying terrains. We just have to be mindful of how those things might impact us and be willing to adjust for those conditions. We don't have to just we're not going to be able to just keep things super precise, when we're doing different things, or else it would be like we'd see these crazy fast times on the trails too. Right? Like, trail races is gonna be a little bit slower than the roads. Typically, it's what we normally see.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:46:59]: And if that wasn't the case, then we wouldn't see his we wouldn't see a big difference in paces. So if you think about it from that perspective, it's okay to be slower if you're training on different train. Your GPS may also be awful, like it may not pick up, it may be just completely inaccurate on the trail. So knowing that you might even just be like, I'm just gonna keep go by effort on this, which it might also be what you have to do on race day. So those are some things I'd keep on keep in mind, when it when it comes to all that stuff. And then and then when we're talking about stress and crowds and stuff, that crowds and things like you may not really ever get a huge opportunity to be impacted by that when you're in training unless, I don't know, you have a club that you run with, and you're able to go be surrounded by tons of people. But, you know, most people are not necessarily gonna have that at their disposal. So, you know, from a stress perspective, this is something where, it's hard for you really to prepare.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:47:53]: But one thing that I had a I had a sports psychologist sort of tell me to do was actually sort of put myself in the position of, like, what would I do if something that would stress me out happened? And so we were talking about this from this perspective of I was kind of nervous that I was gonna run. I hadn't been running well in every race. It was kinda like all of us. It would just sort of go south at a certain point. So I was racing sort of with that expectation. And so I he asked me, okay. What would be the time or the what would what would you have to run for you to be really upset? And I he was and then I said that, and then he was like, okay, so pretend like that's happening right now, and then react to it. So I it was sort of training myself to be able to react to whatever I feared the most happening.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:48:42]: And when I did that, it takes away sort of some of the other stressors that are a little less meaningless, like you're like, you know, if you're if the worst thing that could happen to you in in your mind on race day is happening, like, who cares if you dropped your one of your gels at some point, like those things sort of like start having less significance. So we're, we're immune to some of that. But we also have some practice of sort of training ourselves towards what is the thing that we fear, that would be the most stressful thing that could happen. And when we have a response to it, it lowers how much it can stress us because we know how we're gonna respond. So I think those are ways that you can prepare yourself for stress, but it's always gonna be like, you have to remind yourself that things may not always be perfect. You You know, things could happen on on race day that you didn't expect. And if you as long as you know that ahead of time and you can have the the mindset of, like, okay. I'll be fine.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:49:36]: Everybody's gonna be fine. You know, then you'll you'll probably come out of it better. I ran half before I ran Philly last year. And I was a local half and I was doing it as sort of a practice run for I was doing it as sort of my practice run for my for Philly. And I forgot my bib. And I drove had driven downtown. And then I had to run back to my house, which granted it wasn't that far from where the race was, but it was far enough. Like, I did a longer warm up than I intended, like, much longer than I intended.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:50:08]: And I was changed, got back to my car, changed my shoes and was still like a decent distance from the, race start. So I was running down the street as they everyone's lined up on the course. And I'm like, it was like 4 minutes to race day. And I was like, well, okay. I got this under my belt. If something happens in Philly and I end up having this scenario, like, it'll be fine. You know? That was probably the the first time that, like, my fear of missing a race start, like, the nightmare that I have used to have before all my races was that I was gonna miss because I'm always late to things. It was, like, coming true a little bit there.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:50:43]: And but it was fine. Everything was fine. And so, like, not that I want I'm telling people to to forget their race, but we're just be late to the race. But if it happens, like, it's gonna be fine. But also, it made me more apt to be like, alright, be better prepared, have your bib in your bag night before. So I put my bib in my backpack now, like, when I'm when I'm thinking about it, like, I'm gonna do this right now so that tomorrow morning, I'm not thinking about it. So yeah.

Cory Nagler [00:51:15]: This feels like a runner's twist on, like, very common nightmares. I feel like a lot of people have have nightmares about missing, like, tests when they're in school, about being late to work, but this this feels very relatable about missing the start for your race.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:51:27]: Yeah. I I feel like I I haven't had it as much recently when I've been racing, but I used to have this dream all the time that I'd get to the race when I thought was the right time, and the race would have already gone off, and then I'd have to just be trying to play catch up with everybody. And, like, half the time, it would be like, oh, we started, like, 2 hours ago. No. No. And so like that, and I feel like I'm not alone in that. I don't know if you've ever had that. But I used to have this dream before every one of my big races.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:51:58]: So I even had a dream one time where they, there I we started racing. And then somebody while we were racing told me that they weren't gonna have any fuel on the course, and you had to bring it yourself. And that was like, oh my god. And like, I was freaking out because I didn't have anything. Yeah. Things like that.

Cory Nagler [00:52:18]: Yeah. I don't think I've had that specific nightmare of, like, miss missing the start of the race, but I I've definitely, had dreamed where it's like suddenly you forget how to run or you're slower. But there was actually a local race in my area where I had a lot of people have that nightmare play out because it was like a local 5 k, and they had published a time that was, like, 15 minutes different. So they actually had to, like, correct results because a lot of people missed the start.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:52:41]: Oh, man. Oh, that's oof. That would be that would be stressful. I could see that being, especially if it's 15 minutes earlier than you thought. And you're just sort of like, not ready for it. Yeah, there there was a race here locally where there was a girl running the 5 ks and she was she didn't realize the with this on the track. So the on the track, like, the finish is different than the start for the 5 k. She was standing near the start or the finish line and realized, oh, shoot.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:53:07]: Right. It's over there. So she's, like, sprinting across the trap the infield trying to get to the start line. It took off. She, like, had she was, like, started a little, like, 50 meters behind everybody. And I was like, oh, it's my nightmare. It's happening. But she did that track.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:53:22]: Ran well.

Cory Nagler [00:53:23]: Yeah. I could see the marathon. You could be, like, miles away if you went to the finish line.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:53:27]: Oh, yeah. For sure. Right? Especially if you're in in, like, Boston. Right? You're 26.2 miles away.

Cory Nagler [00:53:34]: You're gonna have to run 2 marathons just to get to the start line.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:53:38]: There you go.

Cory Nagler [00:53:39]: Alright. Let's let's go on to our last topic to practice, which is gear. And I think for a lot of runners, they get excited for race day. You get your shiny new super shoes, your nice singlet, your nice shorts. Do you save it for race day, or do you need to practice with that race kit in advance?

Andie Cozzarelli [00:53:57]: I always practice with the race kit in advance. I will I will practice the shoes. I won't overuse the shoes because I don't like to I like to do all of my most of my workouts and and something that's not gonna be a super shoe or, something that's a little bit less just because, you know, there's I think that I worry about sort of losing some of my foot strength or some other mechanical things, only running in, super shoes. I think there's can be some some challenges if you're doing a lot of your running in those. I really encourage a lot of runners to stick with more of the standard shoe for all of their training, especially their training easy training runs. And then also for workouts to kind of like occasionally wear the super shoes, and then occasionally do something and then use something in, other types of shoes, a flat, something lightweight or something like that, but not necessarily always using the and that also saves your $203100 shoes for where it matters a little bit more because they don't last very long. And so it's probably it's you're a lot better off, you know, doing a few key workouts in them and then race day. So I you know, for for a marathon, for instance, like, I would wear the shoes I'm planning to wear on race day for, maybe one of my long efforts to see how they feel for a long continuous amount of time.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:55:13]: And then also one workout that I feel like I'm doing a lot of pace work in. So that's what I will, that's how I will stage it is maybe do a call me a couple of workouts in them to make sure I know how they feel, how they're going to work for me. For instance, I one thing that so I got a pair. This was sort of like I didn't have enough time to practice in them. And generally, like from every other time that I've gotten a new pair of shoes and worn them, I've never had this issue before. But I had a pair of the Alphafly, Nike Alphafly tubes, I think. And I wore them for a workout that was 2 by 5 miles with, so it was 2 by 5 miles with 4 miles at marathon pace, 1 mile faster at the end in both sets. And I thought, perfect.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:55:56]: I'll do my workout on this. It's a long effort with lots of marathon pace work in it, a lot of pace work. It'll be perfect. So I wear them, and I got halfway out and my feet were blistering so bad. Like, I got these huge blisters, both feet on the arch of my foot. And so I was like, that was it was bad. They were, like, bigger than a quarter sized, blisters. And I then for the next, like, and I think I've worked, I think that workout was maybe like, 3 or 4 weeks out from race.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:56:29]: Maybe it's 3 weeks, 3 weeks, maybe I think it took, well, because I kept I needed to run still. But then I had these blisters in the least helpful place on my foot. So I was then I was running funny doing all these things to try not to put stress on my on that spot. And so it was really impacting the training for the next few weeks as I was trying to taper. And I don't think I really got rid of them until, like, the week of the race. And when I finally found something that I could use on my feet to help prevent the blisters from reopening or to help them heal. So I finally found something that I could run-in that didn't hurt. And so so that was and so then I was like, now what do I do? Like, was that a fluke? Was that? Who did is that what happens with these shoes? That that is what happens with those shoes for me.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:57:18]: I literally I I've was still wearing them occasionally until the last race I ran them in. I was like, no. I'm not doing this again because I I I don't tape up my feet if I didn't put stuff in my like, I forgot liquid. I forgot what it's called, 2nd skin on my feet and then tape it on my foot. I could not I cannot wear those shoes. They blister every single time. And so I

Cory Nagler [00:57:40]: think a lot of people have that issue with the AlphaFly too.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:57:44]: Yeah. So it's stuff like that where it's like those things, you don't want those to happen on a race. It'll ruin your race. I've had I had a race similar experience with a different a pair of spikes one time that I, was wearing, and they were blistering me in practice a little bit. But I I was just being dumb and decided I would just still wear them on race day, and then it just completely distracted me. And I ran a horrible 10 k. We're running in them because it was all like it just hurts so much that I couldn't even focus on, like, running the race hard felt like just I couldn't even think about doing that. It hurt so bad.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:58:17]: And so, like, those are the types of things that you wanna get out of the way ahead of time. You wanna make sure that those things don't happen. Give yourself plenty of space for that. Like, if I had tested the issues maybe 2 months before the race or something farther out, I would have known sooner, and I probably would have had a better ability to get rid of the issues with it, like, get get rid of those blisters and get back onto my training and be fine. But instead, I was, like, way too close to race day, and they took too long to heal. And so that was started to impact me as I was getting closer to race day. So it just sort of was like a not sort of the perfect storm of of not what to do what not to do with your your racing shoes. So I would I would practice them ahead of time, in a few key workouts, but not every workout.

Andie Cozzarelli [00:59:01]: You don't need to do all of them because, again, the the the cushion on that will compress. And if you do all your workouts in them, you're just gonna get a new pair by race day, and god forbid they change something in the shoe between the time or you get one that's a little bit deflective, it may not fit or feel like the exact same shoe, and you still need to do workouts in that that one before you race. And so those are, like, we wanna we don't wanna just completely so if you buy a new shoe for a race that you're doing coming up, plan it out, know how many know how many miles you're putting on those racing shoes so that you know exactly how long you can wear them and, as a racing shoe before you need to retire them, from at least racing. I know some people use them as workout shoes after they've retired them from racing, but, just kind of keeping an eye on those types of things. Other equipment that you we can we can talk about, you know, your watch, you know, if you're using it every day, you should be pretty reliable as long as you know how to use it. Right? It can always break, but, you know, that's that's like, that's something that, you know, it's what are you gonna do at the end of the day, you're gonna have to that's where you're that's where knowing how your pace feels comes into play because as long as there's there's time times on the actual, courses on the monitor of the course. So, like, if there's, like, if you can see what your splits are, you're gonna be fine. You're gonna know it.

Andie Cozzarelli [01:00:18]: But that's where having practice your pace really well comes into play. It's a good backstop if your watch breaks on race day. That's good to know. You know, know how your equipment if you're gonna run with a fuel, like a vest or something, know how that's gonna feel if you're gonna run with a water bottle on your hand, know how that's gonna feel. All those things are things you're gonna wanna know exactly how you're you're gonna you're gonna do it, how you're gonna feel doing it, or you're gonna ditch that bottle at some point, or you're gonna do this or that. And so we wanna have all of that nailed down ahead of time. I've seen stories too of people whose whose race belts or things like that have broken on race day. So do you have a backup? Be prepared with a backup of everything, like when I'm going to a big race, I pack anything I might need.

Andie Cozzarelli [01:01:03]: That's harder when I'm flying. I don't fly I won't fly like Frontier or any of those airlines when I have a big race I'm going to because I need to pack everything, and I'm not gonna be able to just bring a carry on. Right? And I'm not paying for that check back. So, I I kind of like will be like, this is worth it for me to just bring anything I might need, whether that be like you have an extra pair of shorts that's got plenty of pockets in it in case your fuel belt does break and need to put everything in your pockets, that kind of stuff. So, know exactly where and what you're gonna do and have a plan for anything that could go wrong on that regard. And, and yeah, so I would know, the last thing I say, and this may not be necessarily something that, everyone has to experience. But if you are bringing yourself a water bottle, for instance, like, what something that I that happened to me in my first marathon, I had bottles out in the course. So for a lot of the elite athletes have they're allowed to put bottles out so they can have their personal fuel on the course.

Andie Cozzarelli [01:01:59]: So I had that, but I used bottles I had never used before. So, I and they had these little ice pack cores in the center of them. And for whatever reason, in one of my bottles, I just left it in there. Like, I was like, whatever. It'll be fine. The other one I took it out of, and so that one was fine. But when I got to my first bottle on the course, it was completely frozen, and I couldn't get any fuel out of it. So I basically had wasted, and I didn't have backups.

Andie Cozzarelli [01:02:25]: I had a little bit of backup fuel on me, but not enough. So all of that just was, like, such a mess that, you know, I I it was because I was being cheap, and I just bought bottles from Target, the cheapest ones I could find, and was like, these will be fine. I didn't practice with them. I didn't test them out. I didn't think about the fact that the freezer thing is gonna be even more cold when it is 30 degrees outside. So those types of things are things that you wanna know ahead of time. So if you're bringing your own bottle, and and it has a core in the center of it, like, maybe if it's hot, that'll be great. If it's not hot, think about it.

Andie Cozzarelli [01:03:00]: It's not it may not it may freeze. It may not be the perfect solution. So practice that ahead of time. Know how that stuff works. You don't run into the problem that I had, which, you know, I wasn't running with that bottle in my hand the entire time, which maybe if I was, it wouldn't have gotten quite as cold. But, still, like, it it really kinda messed up my and and for me, like, that was my first marathon, so I didn't know any better to know, like, what's gonna feel like when I get to less 10 ks longer fuel. But, so I wasn't quite as like stressed about that happening. I was just kind of like, well, that sucks, but we'll move on.

Andie Cozzarelli [01:03:34]: Nowadays, I think I'd be a little bit more like, oh, great. But I always pack extra stuff on me so that in case that happens, I have extra. So

Cory Nagler [01:03:44]: Yeah. I get the impression and let me know if I'm misinterpreting, but it sounds like, you know, practice as much as you can, but you also need to prepare for the fact that stuff will go wrong.

Andie Cozzarelli [01:03:54]: Yeah. Exactly. Like, it's just it's just it's the the inevitable that something may go wrong. And you've got to know exactly how you will how you will respond to it, whether, you you don't well, if you don't have backup gels, like, that's that's all there is to it. So, like, you don't have them on you. Panicking won't make that any better. So how is your what is your response gonna be? Can you divert pretty easily and and use what's on course? Those kinds of things. So you wanna be mindful of like, okay, what is what what are what is at my disposal? What's gonna be on the course? What's gonna be available to me at any point in time as I'm racing so that if anything goes wrong, and I don't have the capabilities of providing that thing, there's a backup or there's an option for something.

Andie Cozzarelli [01:04:42]: So a lot of this practice is really to practice, you know, preventing catastrophe and but also, you know, giving your body the ability to to know how to respond to different stimulus and be ready for anything.

Cory Nagler [01:04:59]: I certainly hope with this podcast that we've helped at least a few listeners avert catastrophe. For yourself, I know you're not running right now, but whether that's a race or something else, what are you gearing for or preparing for right now?

Andie Cozzarelli [01:05:13]: Yeah. So I I so I'm hopefully gonna be able to start back to running by either September or the end of August here. So, sort of counting down the days on that. But, you know, I think for me, I really have been working really hard on all of my cross training and my PT and everything because, you know, I just wanna be able to come back from the surgery I had and be able to see if I can, you know, I don't know if there'll be a little bit trials in the marathon, really hoping they continue that, but that's what would be would be my goal is in 2028 to be able to get back there. The last time I qualified for Olympic trials, I qualified for with a half, and I dropped out for the full marathon there. So and now and then I had several struggles of getting back to the Olympic trials, just with different mental health things and and other health issues. And and now that I'm like, okay. Or if we fix my hip, now let's, like, not get injured.

Andie Cozzarelli [01:06:11]: Let's keep strengthening. Let's let's get back there. And at the very least, I just wanna be able to put together a solid training cycle and really start to to see if I can sort of work back to to the potential that I I felt like I had back in back when I set all my PRs and then sort of ran into some other some other issues, but I'm excited to just see if I can just get there. So in my my goals are I feel like far off, but, you know, I think that I'm gonna take some stepping stones this fall to get back into racing. And I'm hopeful that by December, I may be able to injure a half if that's possible. And then hopefully, maybe in the spring, be looking at a marathon of some sorts or or maybe another half. We'll see. Yeah.

Cory Nagler [01:06:59]: Yeah. Those sound like some awesome goals. Good luck with all the preparations and practicing, and thanks for all these fantastic tips on, practicing for race day.

Andie Cozzarelli [01:07:07]: Yeah. And if you're racing coming up, hope you have a great race, and I hope all of these things will help you to, have at least the most fun, the most stress free day that you possibly can.

Cory Nagler [01:07:19]: Awesome. Yeah. Good luck to everyone listening. Thanks for listening to the Run to the Top podcast. I'm the showrunner at Runners Connect, where as always, our mission is to help you become a better runner with every episode. You can connect with me on Instagram at Corey underscore Nagler. Worth your Strava by searching Corey Nagler. And please consider connecting with the rest of our team at runnersconnect.net.

Cory Nagler [01:07:53]: If you're loving the show, you can help us reach more runners by leaving a rating on Spotify or Apple Podcast. Lastly, if you want bonus content, behind the scenes experiences with guests, and premier access to contests, and consider subscribing to our newsletter by going to runnersconnect.netforward/podcast. I'll see you on the next show. But until then, happy running, everyone.