The plan between the plan: Answering the question of what the heck to do after your goal race is completed

Finn Melanson [00:00:09]: Hello, fellow runners. I'm your host, Finn Melanson, and this is the Run to the Top podcast. The podcast dedicated to making you a better runner with each and every episode. We are created and produced by the expert team of coaches at Runners Connect.net where you can find the best running information on the Internet as well as training plans to fit every runner and every budget. If you just finished a goal race, you might be thinking, what the heck do I do now? Well, let's talk about the plan between the plan. In a previous episode we aired 2 weeks ago, coach Michael gave us 5 great ways you can maximize your training between races. Now that you know why your training in this period is so important, we're gonna build on those lessons with how to train so you can maximize all the benefits we discussed. This is the plan between the plan.

Finn Melanson [00:01:04]: Finishing your race doesn't have to mean ditching training until the next race approaches. The period between your training blocks is the perfect time to give your mind and body a rest while building an aerobic base to set yourself up for success before the next hard stretch of training. In today's show, we'll guide you in crafting the perfect training plan between the plan with topics including how long you should wait until after a goal race to start training again, What volume and frequency of runs is right for you between training blocks? How to identify your weaknesses and then adjust your training to become a better runner? How group training or a boot camp can help set you up for success, and lots of other advice for getting yourself prepared to crush your next big race. So let's get into it with what to do between goal races. If you're tired of dirty and wet seats after your winter runs, then you have to check out the car seat covers made specifically for runners from dry seats. Head to dri seats.com to learn more, and use code r c two zero to get 20% off your first order.

Cory Nagler [00:02:17]: It's that time of the year as winter approaches that many runners, Including myself, have finished racing for the season and might be wondering, what the heck do I do now? After years of running, I still ask myself this question, I've got our head coach, Michael, with me to help answer that very question. Michael recorded a previous episode talking all about why training during this period is so important. But today, we're going to get into the nitty gritty of how to train between races to improve your specific weaknesses. Thanks for sharing this tough burden with me, Michael.

Michael Hammond [00:02:49]: Yeah, Corey. I know. I'm I'm happy to be here. This is a great topic, I think, that a lot of runners miss, and it's honestly something that we at Runners Connect, we've seen so many of our athletes have success with this by and and really make, like, massive changes and and massive gains in their fitness by utilizing this time between races. So, yeah, Happy to be here talking about it.

Cory Nagler [00:03:08]: Yeah. For sure. I think you spend so much time preparing for an event that it it's often hard to, you know, change your focus and start thinking about what's What's next or what to do in between after you finish your goal race? So I'm excited to dive into this. I guess maybe Yeah. Just on that topic. You know? You finish your goal race. You're Kind of what what advice do you have for runners in that very moment on the day of?

Michael Hammond [00:03:30]: On the day yeah. It's funny. We I was thinking about this of, what should I what kind of advice should I give somebody actual day of the race? To be honest, I don't want people thinking about this too much on the day of the race. I like for people to just enjoy it, enjoy the moment. Moment. You know, I I was thinking about, like, what should I tell an athlete? What should I tell them about their post race meal? What should they be focused on? And I was like, you know what? No. Go enjoy go enjoy a post race beer if that's your fancy. Go enjoy a good cheeseburger.

Michael Hammond [00:03:55]: What whatever it is that you you wanna have, go enjoy yourself. You're not gonna make that Huge of a difference in your recovery, you know, in post race, especially if you just ran a marathon. Look. The marathon demands a lot of recovery no matter what. I don't care what your Post race meal is. Whatever it is, you're gonna need to recover. So, honestly, day of the race, don't really think about this too much. This is really That after that post race recovery period, which you need to take and you definitely need to give its attention to, after that period, that's really where We see runners make the most gains with with their fitness and with their weaknesses and all that, after that post race period after you've taken some recovery.

Cory Nagler [00:04:33]: Perfect. So I think I'm not alone in that. You know, after I finish a race, I wanna still get better. I wanna prove as an athlete, but I wanna have Fun. Let's so let's assume the day of. You're you're having that burger. You're having that beer. You're enjoying yourself.

Cory Nagler [00:04:45]: How far Dialed in again, is it the day after? Is it 3 days out? When does that start?

Michael Hammond [00:04:51]: Yeah. That's a good question. I think that it really first, it depends on the race. If somebody just ran a marathon, which is you know, the majority of our audience tends to be people who are aiming for marathons, probably just ran a fall marathon. The the post race recovery, it kinda depends on the individual in terms of, like, how specific we get, but I typically say with people Pretty much of a week at least of almost nothing. Pretty much nothing for a full week. Maybe like some walking or light cross training just to Get the blood flowing a little bit, but, really, almost nothing is actually structured in that 1st week. I want people to take not just a physical break from running, but a mental break from running as well.

Michael Hammond [00:05:30]: I don't really want you thinking about a training plan. I don't really want you thinking about what what it is that you should be doing. You should just take the time to a recovery. Because, really, an important thing to think about is that when you're doing post race recovery, you're not just recovering from the race, You're also recovering from the training that you did heading into the race. You know, even though we work hard to get a proper taper and get you as fresh as possible For your race, you're you still did so much training for that race, especially, again, especially if it's a marathon. But even if it's something shorter, maybe it wasn't as much volume, but a lot of intensity, then you your body needs to recover from that. You don't really want to constantly be in, like, high, heavy training mode year round. That's not really good for you.

Michael Hammond [00:06:15]: You want to have a bit of an ebb and flow. So in terms of that post race recovery, I think regardless of your race distance, a week of, At minimum, very light jogging, even if you did like a 5 k and maybe you don't need that epic, you know, 2 or 3 week period of of almost nothing like you do after a marathon, At least a week just down where you're not really focused on anything structured. Chill out or get some rest. You know, go have some fun with your friends, go mountain bike if that's what you maybe that's something that you like doing, but you're not able to do it as much when you're in heavy marathon training or or heavy, you know, distance training. That's a good time to do something like that. But, typically, it's within that 1 to 3 week window. That's what I like to see people take after a race is 1 to 3 weeks of Either from progressing from, like, no running the 1st week, especially after a marathon, progressing into maybe some light jogging, again, Mostly unstructured, not really focused on, you know, hitting any certain paces, but just kinda getting out there and enjoying it and and getting some blood flow into the legs, Boosting your metabolism a little bit. And then depending on from there, that's where we'll decide based on the individual kinda what they need.

Michael Hammond [00:07:19]: I had an athlete run A great run-in Chicago, ran a 7 minute PR, and she just told me after. She's like, look. I like taking 2 weeks completely off post marathon. And I was like, cool. I'm not gonna stop you. You know, by no means, you just ran an amazing race. You you trained so hard going into it. I'm definitely not gonna force you because Physiologically, it might be a little bit better for you to get a little bit of jogging.

Michael Hammond [00:07:38]: I was like, no way. Enjoy your break. And now we've we've built her back up a little bit. She's getting ready to run a 5 k turkey trot, and things are going great. So 1 to 3 weeks depending on the race and kinda depending on the individual, but definitely enough to where At the end of it, you wanna be not only physically feeling recovered and feeling great, but also mentally, like, itching to get back out there. You know? You wanna you don't wanna be forcing yourself to get back out there. You wanna be feeling that itch a little bit where you're like, I wanna get back out there and do something even if it's not diving right back into Race training, I wanna get back out there and do something. That's what you wanna be feeling at the end of that period.

Cory Nagler [00:08:16]: Yeah. I'm glad you bring out that mental component. I'm just reflecting on my own experience back when I used to do high school and and university running. And I think when you when you think of the high school distances, Maybe the longest you're doing is cross country up to 7, 8 kilometers, and I'm I'm pretty sure you don't need 2 to 3 weeks physically to recover from that. But our coaches used to insist This takes 7 days to 10 days completely off, absolutely no running, and you're you're totally right. You just come back from it feeling refreshed and ready to go again.

Michael Hammond [00:08:43]: That's what it's all about. It's not necessarily recovery from the race. It's also recovery from the training. You know? And and I definitely think that there's a mental recovery aspect as well. You're just when you're grinding like that, you know, when you're heading into, let's say, a marathon, yeah, of course, you need to recover from the race, but you're really dialed in Training wise as well. You're hitting all these long runs and and getting up early and all this. Sometimes you just need that mental break, and that's where I think that It really does depend on the individual in terms of, like, how much time exactly, but, yeah, you definitely need to give your your mind a rest too, which is why, like I said, I I really like for people to take a week where They're not even thinking about training. They if I'm their coach, would we're not even talking, you know, unless they want to, if they wanna talk, but really, We we are not even speaking.

Michael Hammond [00:09:28]: I want them to go have fun with their friends and and enjoy themselves and just not think about it, really embrace that mental break.

Cory Nagler [00:09:37]: Yeah. So as this episode comes out in mid November, I think a lot of people are probably just coming off of this period. If you ran In October, maybe even early November race where you're in the middle or or past that 1 to 3 week window. I think, really, what I wanna focus on today is before you're in the depth of that next training cycle. But once you get past that and you're it's kinda start time to start, having some type of plan again to get fit. So when you're looking at this period at a high level, what should your running look like? Should you be doing as much running as you were doing in training, or should it be significantly less?

Michael Hammond [00:10:13]: That's a good question. I think that, yet again, it sort of depends on on what your goals are moving forward. You know, some people will jump right back into training for a race sometimes. Maybe if someone has a race that's only a couple months away, for instance, then, yeah, that might be a case where you're pretty much jumping right back in. For most people, that's not the case. Typically, if somebody just finished Chicago, New York, Marine Corps, CIM's coming up in December. Typically, when someone finishes one of those big races, they're probably not aiming for a real big race until, like, the Spring thereabouts. That's where it really it can kinda depend on your your goals moving forward, and also it can depend on how things went in your training Up to that race, if and and that's where I know we'll get into this in a few minutes talking about kind of the weaknesses and and how to work on that stuff.

Michael Hammond [00:10:58]: But From a volume standpoint, I will answer that. I think I don't say I don't like people to jump right back into what they were doing before. I think that that's a little bit dangerous. It's not that you have to start from scratch just because you took a break. An important thing for people to remember is that it takes 2 to 3 plus weeks of 0 running at all to actually evens begin losing fitness. I always like I say that I feel like I'm almost on every podcast episode because I like to remind people of that. So many people will come back from the break and be like, oh my god. I lost everything that I did, you know, going into that last race.

Michael Hammond [00:11:27]: You definitely didn't. You're just feeling a little bit rusty. You're exhausted from the training cycle. But from a volume standpoint, I think that I typically like for this period kinda that, you know, you you took your post race recovery. You're you're all fresh. You recovered. You're starting to train, but you're not necessarily jumping into an actual training plan for a race. I like for typically the mileage to be a little bit more on the moderate side.

Michael Hammond [00:11:48]: So Not not high, certainly. I I just don't think that that's really what the goal is at that point. It's sort of like a maintenance phase, but also not Nothing and and not really that low because, yeah, at some point, you will start to lose that fitness. I always like for running to be as cumulative as possible. You know, you you did this big training cycle for this marathon in the fall. Don't don't lose that. You know, you don't wanna lose that by either doing nothing or even even by just kinda doing a Little bit of jogging here and there for months months months. You don't wanna lose that.

Michael Hammond [00:12:18]: We want that to become cumulative. We want that to help us build into the next training cycle. So I think that keeping the volume a little bit on the moderate side as a general answer to that question, I think that Kinda makes sense. So not not quite at your peak of what you were doing in marathon training, but running some solid mileage may be somewhere in the, like, 70% of what you were running in kind of like peak marathon training at most.

Cory Nagler [00:12:44]: Right. So just to give a general sense to the audience, I think for a lot of RC athletes right now who are training for a marathon, their their peak mileage probably ranges anywhere from maybe 40 to 80 miles a week. If if you're in the middle of that, say, Sixty. Are are you looking at something in the 50 to 60 mile range during this period? Is that about right?

Michael Hammond [00:13:03]: Yeah. So that's a little high for what our athletes Typically, our our ours are typically in the more like 30 up to 50 miles a week range, 60 to 70 at the, at the kind of peak. Mean, those and those are very few and far between. Our most of our people are more like 30 to 50 miles a week, 50 be even 50 being very high. I would say so let's say someone's running 50 miles a week, then I would put them more, you know, maybe 30 to 40 miles a week thereabouts. It it it you don't have to have an exact number, but I I think the more important thing is that you're not necessarily doing as much intensity. You're not necessarily doing I've always thought that the intensity of training just to a degree is more important than the volume of training. You know, that's just because you're doing close to the same mileage doesn't necessarily seem mean that you're doing the same training.

Michael Hammond [00:13:48]: You could be doing the same exact mileage, but all of it easy, maybe like a steady day here and there. And that's gonna be way, way easier on your body than doing, like, Hard marathon training with, you know, 3 by 3 mile tempo and and 18 mile long runs and all those types of workouts. It's gonna be way different on your body. So I think, Yes. The mileage is important, but really, I like to focus on what are we actually doing with that mileage. What are we what kind of intensity level are we hitting? And I think that's gonna be a lot more important and keep it a lot more moderate.

Cory Nagler [00:14:19]: Yeah. So that that brings me perfectly to my next question, which was gonna be about kind of that speed work or more structured workouts. I guess on on one end, is that something that you need to be doing if you wanna make sure that you're incorporating your speed or or maybe even on the other end? I know some athletes absolutely love Their favorite part is going down to the track. If you fall in that camp, is that something that you are you are you hurting yourself if you're putting in too much speed work?

Michael Hammond [00:14:44]: Yeah. I don't wanna say that you're definitely hurting yourself if you're putting in too much speed work. I just think that ultimately speed work is It's kinda like playing with fire. Like, it can be really effective when it's done right, but it can really easily be overdone. And I think that post race, unfortunately I talked about this in that last episode where Post race, like, after you come back from your recovery period, is actually a very common time to get injured because you took this break, You took a lot of time off, and now you're jumping back in, and you're going and ripping 400 meter repeats on the track. That is just classic recipe to get injured. By no means am I saying that people can't do workouts. It does it's not that you have to go do all easy runs during this period.

Michael Hammond [00:15:24]: In fact, I think it's well worth it to do Some steady running, which by steady running, we mean roughly marathon pace or a little bit slower. Like, our we when we give our athletes a range, we say marathon pace to, like, to marathon pace plus 20 to 30 seconds a mile thereabouts. So it's it's a good range, and that's not a hard run. You know, if you're doing 5 miles steady. That's not a hard run. That's 5 miles at a little bit slower than your marathon pace. That's not a particularly difficult run. You know? That's something that can be really useful.

Michael Hammond [00:15:52]: Stuff like strides can be incredibly useful. Strides, for my athletes that I work with, strides are a staple Week in, week out, year round no matter what. Probably one of the only weeks that you won't do that is, like, the 2 weeks post race. That's pretty much one of the only times My athletes will not be doing strides because I want them to rest and chill, but strides are a great way to sort of incorporate a little bit of speed work without necessarily doing speed work. You know, by strides, we mean, like, roughly 15 second intervals with, like, a minute plus rest. This is not a hard workout. You're doing 15 seconds at 90% effort thereabouts. So you're working up to a to speed, but you're not necessarily sprinting, and you're taking plenty of recovery in between.

Michael Hammond [00:16:32]: So I like to see mostly easy running, a little bit of steady running just because I think it just helps build that aerobic engine, which is so important, Some strides, which are just fantastic for speed building even though they're they're really, really light on your body. They're not excessive. And then if you really yeah. Sure. If you really wanna get into it and you're feeling great, you're you're building up back into the mileage, you can start adding in some threshold work. No doubt. You could even add in a little bit of VO 2 max like speed stuff, but I would be very, very careful with that because I just I don't think it makes a lot of sense to add that stuff in when you're Just coming back from a race, just building back into mileage, and and just at such risk of of injury and and overtraining, I don't think it makes a lot of sense to do a lot of that. I think you can accomplish what you're trying to accomplish with other stuff.

Michael Hammond [00:17:18]: Threshold, steady running strides, maybe even some a hill workout or two. Those can be really effective, but, yeah, not a lot of, like, heavy speed work.

Cory Nagler [00:17:27]: Yeah. No. And I think, one of our Poaches Alex Osberg, who we often have on the podcast as well, likes to use the, the phrase minimum effective dose, and I think that applies a lot when you're in this period. Is it can you sprinkle in those little things to maintain your fitness without really, you know, taking away or or draining yourself at a time when you really wanna be coming out of it refreshed?

Michael Hammond [00:17:48]: Something like strides is such a great example of that where minimum effective dose. So, yeah, you're not going and ripping 400 meter repeats on the track. You're doing 15 seconds of Close to sprint speed with plenty of rest. That's a that's a very low key, quote, unquote, workout, and yet it's gonna huge benefits. So, yeah, I like that minimum effective dose. That works really well, especially in a time like that.

Cory Nagler [00:18:09]: Yeah. So I I think that touches a little bit on the running piece. I just wanna quickly touch on some of the other stuff, your nutrition, strength, anything else you're doing to kind of, build around that running. That look dramatically different during this period, or should you be essentially doing something pretty similar to to when you're in the middle of training?

Michael Hammond [00:18:27]: That depends a lot on how that stuff was going for you in the last training cycle. So if your strength training was on point And your nutrition was on point during the last training cycle. I think most people are, you know, lowering their hands now from that because it is what it is. That stuff is really hard to keep track of on top of all the running. Then if if it's if that's all on point, then heck yeah. You should just jump right back into it. Keep doing what's working for you. But what I would say is I think that this period is a good time to to kind of hone in that stuff.

Michael Hammond [00:18:56]: I think that stuff is almost more important to hone in. A lot of coaches think the opposite. They'll be like, Don't worry about your nutrition, and don't worry about strength training. We're just running easy miles. Don't even worry about it. I actually think it's a tremendous time to work on some of those fundamentals before you get into heavier training for a race. I I'm not trying to make people, like, uber stressed about this stuff and and make it seem like we're just all serious all the time. Never take a break.

Michael Hammond [00:19:20]: Never relax. It's not that. It's more that you don't wanna go get into okay. Now I've got, you know, 8 to 10 weeks, 12 weeks thereabouts till a race, And now I wanna change up my nutrition. Now I wanna add back in the strength training, and now I'm gonna be sore from strength training. I'm gonna be sore from these workouts that I'm starting to do, And I'm trying to do this whole new nutrition plan heading into it. I like for people to really establish those fundamentals not only because You're not training as hard, and you're not training as heavy, but also because it's just a great way to form those habits. You know, I talked about that in the last episode that I really like for stuff like Nutrition and strength training to not necessarily be, like, something that you have to necessarily I mean, yeah, you always have to think about it, but something that you have to, Force yourself to do and as much of as possible to be a habit, something that's just built into your routines because ultimately, nutrition you know, we're we at Runner's Connect are very much of the mind of from a nutrition standpoint to be as, to make you as healthy as possible regardless of your running, if that makes Like, we're not we're not trying to restrict calories.

Michael Hammond [00:20:20]: We're not trying to, you know, do any crazy nutrition. We just want you to be healthy. We want you to eat healthy whole foods, be as healthy as possible. So that's something that Should really be on point all the time, ideally. You know? Not that you can't take a cheap meal here and there or and and, you know, have some fun, but that's something that ideally should be, You know, worked on all the time. I think this is a perfect time to work on stuff like that. Perfect time to to really focus on little things like that, like nutrition, Like getting into a good habit of strength work. So, yeah, I I think that should it change, it does depend on the individual and kinda where you're at.

Michael Hammond [00:20:52]: But I think especially if you're You've been falling short on that stuff. I think this is a tremendous time to really work on that stuff and and get it, you know, get it down pat.

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Cory Nagler [00:24:08]: Yeah. And, Of course, we could do a whole podcast just on nutrition during this period. In fact, we've done several podcasts on nutrition. But just to take a step back because you kinda got into this this piece during that period of if that's something that's not working well, building audit, and and just in general finding those Weaknesses. We have opportunities for improvement. So if you're coming out of this period and you maybe have a little bit more time as your training winds down to reflect, How do you go about figuring out what those weaknesses are that you really need to build on?

Michael Hammond [00:24:37]: Yeah. I I love this because I I think it's such a an optimal time to do that. It's easy to, for runners to go from race to race to race to race and never really stop and think about, like, how is my long term progression Going. Am I improving? Especially if someone you know, we all understand that, like, when you first start running, one of the beauties of first starting to run is that you just improve so fast. And then the years go by, those improvements get smaller, smaller, more marginal, more difficult to attain, and that's something that I think people get into a bit of a rut with is that it's just race, train you know, train, race, rest, train, race, rest. You never really take time to be like, what am I doing long term? What what are my what are my weaknesses? In terms of identifying those, I think the the most The easiest way to look at that is just literally look at the training plan that you just completed. Look at the training cycle you just finished and be like, What went well in that training cycle and, more importantly, what did not? You just talked about strength training and nutrition. If you were super inconsistent with strength training, Bam.

Michael Hammond [00:25:37]: There's a there's a big weakness that we need to work on. If your nutrition was super spotty, you're constantly crashing on runs, under fueled, Whatever. You couldn't keep your weight under control. I don't mean that as in, like, oh, you need to lose weight. It's it's more like if you weren't happy with where you're at, then That can be a big weakness to work on. If you're you know, we can talk about the other weaknesses, but that's really how you find them. You just look at your last training plan, and most of them will stick out to you Pretty obviously. Of course, this is where working with a coach can be very effective because a coach will be able to spot those much easier, but you can even do a quick audit of your own training, And and, really, this stuff is gonna jump out at you.

Michael Hammond [00:26:13]: Where were your weaknesses? What what type of, like, setbacks or obstacles did you face during that period? Did you have injuries? That's a big one. That that not only means maybe a weakness of yours is, like, is the fact that you got injured, but it could lead to other it can mean other things too. It could mean your lifestyle's on point. Maybe you're not getting enough sleep. Maybe your maybe your training is not properly built around you and your fitness and your strengths and weaknesses. Maybe We need to make some adjustments with that. So what obstacles did you face in that last training block? And also just like how does your overall how is your lifestyle impacting You're running. You know, how how is your sleep, nutrition, your you know, the strength training you're doing? Are you stretching? Are you doing all that extra stuff that has such a huge effect on running.

Michael Hammond [00:26:59]: So that's really the easiest way to look at to find those weaknesses is just look at, like, what went wrong, where am I coming up shore? Look even look at the race where maybe I maybe you bonked that last 10 k in the marathon. That's such a common thing that we have to work around. That's that's a thing that we need to work on, and that I think is such a this is such an interesting time to be able to to tackle that stuff instead of just diving into another training plan for a race Or alternatively, just taking a bunch of time off and then and then jumping jumping into a race plan. This is such a great time to do that because Don't do it when you jump into that next training plan and you're all stressed about having to train and you you're bumping up the mileage and you're close to race day or whatever. Don't do it then. Do it now when you have this kind of this time in between. This is the time to identify those weaknesses and take the time and and put in the effort to correct them because it'll it'll make you so much better long term, and it'll make that next training cycle that much better.

Cory Nagler [00:27:54]: Yeah. For sure. I think definitely use that extra time you have Reflect on it. The the other thing I might add just that I found works well for me is also making sure that you're you're writing down these things when you notice them. So to to give an example, I think when I'm in A training block, if if the last race went really well, it's often kind of glamorized in my head. I'll go, wow. Everything went really perfectly because the race was It was great. But if I look back at my training plan at the workouts leading up to it, I'll see, you know, I botched this workout or I under fueled in this one.

Cory Nagler [00:28:22]: And I think kind of Making note of these things to reflect on and all the better if you can reflect actually close to that race when it's fresh in your head makes it a little bit easier to to find what those areas of improvement are.

Michael Hammond [00:28:32]: Yeah. And I I wanna add for people that the opposite can be true too. If you had a training cycle that didn't go very well and a race that didn't go very well, it's very easy to be super down about it and feel like I'm a failure. That was a horrible I gained nothing out of that training cycle, and I always tell people, no way. Running remember, running is a cumulative thing. Compound interest is very powerful in running even if you had a terrible I've had terrible training cycles before, like, where you'll go 3 or 4 months, and it'll it'll seem like you're not improving at all. Maybe the race that I run at the end of that is horrible, and everything seems to be going so crappy. And yet The next training cycle, it'll all click, and it it all comes in handy.

Michael Hammond [00:29:11]: And what that means is that that training cycle I did before, even though it seemed crappy, even though I didn't feel like it was it was working, It it was all cumulative it was all building up, and it was all making me stronger. So the fact that you're out there training, I just want people to focus on that because as much as we're certain you're talking this episode about identifying weaknesses and and looking at all these, like, low points of your training. The fact that you're out there training, you are improving. You are getting a lot better. It's it's good to note those. I I love what you said about kind of keeping actually writing things down, keeping track because it's it's easy to when I said you go from, like, Training cycle to training cycle to training cycle, it's easy to kinda just it all blends together. You know? You feel like you're not actually making progress. You feel like you're not actually improving.

Michael Hammond [00:29:54]: Can go the opposite way too where you feel like you're not actually addressing any of those weaknesses that that you actually have because you don't know them if you don't know what's actually going on. So definitely writing stuff down, but write down do the do the 2 columns. You know? Have the the pros and the cons. Have the the wins and the losses. Make sure you you kinda even those out. Don't don't look at it from a negative light, and feel like you got nothing out of it. You definitely got something out of it, but now is a good time to fine tune that.

Cory Nagler [00:30:19]: Oh, absolutely. Even if the race goes crappy, it's it's often easy to forget all the work you put in, but you don't lose that fitness. It's still there even if the race didn't go well.

Michael Hammond [00:30:27]: Exactly. It's still there. It's all cumulative. It all builds up.

Cory Nagler [00:30:30]: Yeah. Absolutely. So I I think this stuff is individualized, and runners, definitely, it's worthwhile if you spend that time kind of pinpointing your specific weaknesses. But I'm sure Michael is a coach of many athletes that you notice there's some trends. You maybe wanna touch on maybe some of those more common weaknesses you tend to see in runners, Especially marathon runners as I'm sure that's a lot of our audience.

Michael Hammond [00:30:51]: Absolutely. The majority of our audience is definitely running marathons, but we have a lot of people run Stuff as short as 5 k's or sometimes even shorter than that and and even some ultra marathoners, but we tend to find, 5 common weaknesses Amongst most of this doesn't mean that there aren't other weaknesses that people can can have, and this also doesn't mean that someone must fit into one of these. Commonly, people will have 2 or 3 of them and and feel like they need to work on all of them. But these are the 5 most common ones by far that we've we find, and I'll I'll list them out and and then we can talk a little bit more specifically about them. But number 1 is poor speed. You know, what what this means is, let's say, that you have a you're you're running solid at the longer stuff. Your half and full marathon are are going well. You're improving, but your 5 k is relatively speaking a little bit slower.

Michael Hammond [00:31:39]: And you you just struggle a little bit with the shorter stuff. You feel like you don't have good maybe the good mechanics for for shorter racing. That's that's a huge one that We see a very, very, very common one that we see. Second1 would be the total opposite of that, poor endurance. So your your 5 k is going well. You're you're able to rip those weekend 5 k's, But you can't quite figure out the marathon, can't quite figure out the half, can't quite build your mileage. That's also a super common one. We we see both of those very, very commonly.

Michael Hammond [00:32:06]: 3rd one would be I wrote injuries, but it's also sort of like lack of strength training. I I kind of lump those 2 together because they tend 1 tends to very often lead to the other. Lack of Drink training tends to lead to a lot of injuries, but if you're constantly getting injured, you know, that's that's obviously a huge weakness and something that needs to be worked on because it can create such drastic change. But even if you're not getting injured and you just have a lack of quality strength training or or a lack of consistency in strength training, huge weakness that we love to see people work on. 4th would be lifestyle in general, but specifically nutrition and fueling. And I don't just mean in run fueling or, like, How to fuel for a specific rum, but just general nutrition. That's something that people can can make such massive gains and I think is is so often overlooked. You know, the the classic, You know, outrun a bad diet or, like, I'll I'll eat this because I ran x.

Michael Hammond [00:32:56]: What whatever it is, whatever the thinking is that goes into that. That's something that Not that we can't ever reward ourselves, but good nutrition can go a long, long way for fueling, you know, long even marathon training, 5 k training, whatever it is you're training for. And then the last 1, I would say this one kind of stands on its own. People in this one tend to fall into one of the other buckets as well, but just beginners. For beginners, Feeling just totally lost. Even if they were able to go through a training plan and and run a race, they they tend to just feel Without any structure, without, like, any any coaching, they just feel like there's so many variables and there's so much being thrown at them that They're just totally lost. So that one I I know that this is a doesn't necessarily fall under the the banner of, like, a weakness, but it's something that we see so so often that I wanted to include it. So Those are the 5 biggest ones that by far, the most common ones that we see.

Michael Hammond [00:33:47]: And and as I said, some people can fall into multiple. Some people don't fall into any of those. It might have something else that they need to focus on, but by far, those are the most common ones that we see.

Cory Nagler [00:33:56]: For sure. Yeah. And as you're listing those, through, I definitely Can feel some different characteristics you're listing that apply to me, and I'm sure other listeners may have an idea. So maybe as you're listening to this, one of them jumps out, whichever that may be. So Just wanna kind of go into each one quickly and maybe spend a couple minutes talking about if that is one of your weaknesses, how to address it. Is is that alright with you?

Michael Hammond [00:34:18]: Absolutely. I I think that I I I wrote out some notes. I think these will give people a really good launch pad to to improve these because like I said, So many people have these. I I'm sure so many people listening I'm sure a lot of you listening were like, yep. That's me. Even if you don't wanna admit it, even if it's it sucks to kinda think about, It's like, yep. That sounds exactly like me. So I'll I'll dive into each of them, but, really, I'll dive in them 1 by 1.

Michael Hammond [00:34:39]: The first one was poor speed. I love doing this one first because it's my my favorite thing to work with people on. And one of the reasons it's my favorite thing to work with people on is because so many people you know, at Runners Connect, we tend to work with people in the 40 to 60 year old age range thereabouts. Not we have some younger and and some even much older. 77, I believe, is our oldest athlete. But it's something that's so common people have a very defeatist mindset on that, like, I don't have any speed. I can't have any speed. I'll never have any speed, especially I think we have the combo of, like, people who run marathons and also are a little bit older.

Michael Hammond [00:35:15]: That just a perfect combo for people to feel like they cannot improve their speed, and they're totally wrong. We've seen enough people at this point. I have seen enough personally that have improved their speed even in a short time frame that I know that it's absolutely possible. I think it comes down to 3 Big things. And I'll I'll say before I say those 3, the from a training standpoint. So let's say someone says, I have poor speed. I wanna work on it during this kinda period between the races. I've taken my post race recovery.

Michael Hammond [00:35:41]: I have some time before I really start a specific training plan for my next race. I would love to work on my speed. From a training angle, I like for the volume to be a little bit lower for these people. I I don't think we wanna we don't wanna be do this type of stuff in the midst of, like, marathon training because It's just a lot on your body. You know, you're gonna be epically sore from, like, all these drills and and sprints and stuff, and then you're trying to do marathon long runs. That's that's crazy. So I like for the mileage to be a little bit lower. If you're focused, if you wanna run a race, that's great.

Michael Hammond [00:36:11]: What we we've had people before when we did, our speed boot camp who have focused on, we've done like a mile time trial. The 1st time we did it was kind of at the in the height of COVID, so we there weren't any races anyway, and we just had people at the very end of it do a mile time trial because it's just It's so hard to find race. You know, it's not common to find mile races, and yet it's a great distance to focus on. But overall, the training on the whole should be lower volume, Lower, like, threshold intensity, not a lot of that stuff just because you don't wanna do it on top of this stuff. But the 3 big things, number 1 is Sprinting. You gotta sprint. If you wanna improve your speed, you gotta sprint. And I don't mean strides by this.

Michael Hammond [00:36:46]: Strides are strides are fantastic for working on your form, Your efficiency and also your speed a little bit, but we really wanna if you're taking this time to really focus on this as a weakness and and to improve it, You'd gotta get some sprinting. What I love to have people do is what I call 60 meter acceleration. So, basically, you do a 100 meter interval. You use the first 20 meters to kind of build up. You start and and fly into this. Don't start from a standstill. Fly into it. So you so you jog into it.

Michael Hammond [00:37:13]: Use the first 20 meters to build up speed, then 60 meters fast as you can. Literally 100%. This isn't a strive where you're holding back and and trying to keep things relaxed 100% flat out fast as you can, then use the last 20 meters, 80 meters to a 100 meters to gradually slow down. Never come to a Flat stop after doing this. That's such such a common mistake I see for people to do after doing, like, these accelerate. That's why I say it's a 100 meters total because people will Do the 60 meter acceleration, screech to a sudden stop, and that's just a classic way to get hurt. But those you wanna take plenty of rest Between this, when when if you go see sprinters, 100 meter and 200 meter sprinters work out, it's fascinating. They will take, like, They'll do these super hard reps, and then they'll take, like, 10 minutes rest.

Michael Hammond [00:37:59]: You know, distance runners aren't used to this type of stuff because most of the stuff we do has, like, 1 to 3 minutes rest. They'll take all this rest. I like for people to take, you know, maybe 2 minutes thereabouts rest between those and only do as many reps as you're comfortable. The first time you do it, It's gonna surprise you how how hard it is to to to get into that. Most of us haven't sprinted since we were in, like, high school. You know? So This is gonna be new for people, but the number 1 is sprinting. Number 2 is drills. Drills are are so essential for building speed because So much of building speed is building, like, the neuromuscular connection between your your those muscles and your brain.

Michael Hammond [00:38:37]: That's such an important thing, and those are those connections are either weak or nonexistent with most of us because we just go out and plot along in marathon training all the time. I'll I'll list out some very basic drills to start with, and I'll also we'll include a link to a YouTube video, of mine actually that has these drills. I like it because I I don't just say, here are the drills, and here's here's what they look like. It's like, no. Here's how to do them from absolute scratch because when I work with people doing these drills in person, I I'll do it, and they'll be like, how did you do that? It's like I'm speaking a foreign language that they've never heard because these people have never done these type of movements. But a skips, b skips, high knees, and karaoke, I think are are some really great drills to start with. I won't describe on a podcast how to do them because that would just be disastrous and it wouldn't make any sense, but we'll include that link, in the in the show notes. But then then you can even get to more some more advanced stuff like Ladder drills are fantastic where you have, like, a little little ladder that just lays on the ground and you do, like, ins and outs and all these great drills.

Michael Hammond [00:39:36]: And then plyometrics are fantastic as well. That stuff gets a little bit more advanced, so most people listening aren't that's not gonna be as relevant because Just the other drills I listed are gonna be challenging enough, plenty challenging enough, but drills are great. And then the last aspect is strength training. Know, if you're not doing any strength training, you gotta start doing strength training. But even if you are, I like to add in when people are really doing a short speed phase like this. I like to add in a little bit more explosive work, so stuff like squats, deadlifts, lunges, and you don't even a lot of this, you don't even have to do use any weight. If you'd if you've never done, like, real deep squats before, that's something that just doing bodyweight squats is gonna go a long way for you with proper form, Really working those glutes and hamstrings into the exercise. Lunges are fantastic.

Michael Hammond [00:40:21]: You can even, like, hold a lunge to really strengthen those muscles. Jumping, one thing I when we do the speed boot camp at Runner's Connect, I always tell people to if you can, go out and get a a a cheap jump rope because a jump rope is such a fantastic way to just build that explosiveness, build that quickness within your feet because you'll get quicker and quicker, quicker, quicker with the jump rope, and that's just teaching that body quick quick quick movements that it's not really used to otherwise. I whenever I do stuff like that, I kinda relate it back to Karate Kid Where it's mister Miyagi teaches him to he's, like, making him wash windows, and he's like, why am I doing this? This is such a waste of time. And in reality, he's teaching him how to fight. That's kinda how this stuff works is that you're doing all these things that you're like, how is this gonna help me sprint? And yet you're you're really building that Those muscles and that neuromuscular connection that you need to run fast. So that's that's the speed one. I know I I know I kinda nerded out on that one because it's just some Huge passion of mine is helping, like, endurance athletes figure out how to run faster, how to actually get build in some speed. So that's that's speed.

Michael Hammond [00:41:22]: The the second one was was pure is pure end, or is poor endurance. This is a very simple one because, you know, in in 2 words, I guess I can just say run more, but I know it gets much more complex than that. If it were that easy, everybody would do it. What we need to work on during this at this point is a smart Mileage progression. You know, what did I say earlier where, ideally, I don't necessarily want people doing too many, like, super hard workouts? This is this is, like, Example a of of doing that. If you wanna focus, work on your endurance without necessarily having a race focus, which I think is great because you can just focus on Increasing the mileage in a smart, intelligent way. You can focus on good workouts, but not necessarily killing it each week so that you can handle that volume and really build up that endurance. Amazing time to do it.

Michael Hammond [00:42:09]: What I like people to do is to focus on vast majority easy running, a little bit of of steady running and threshold running, like I said before, and then we kinda sprinkle in a little bit of speed work just with strides strides and maybe some, like, hill sprints. Short short hill sprints, 10 seconds, Up a up a steep hill, jog back down, walk back down, do it again. So not really focusing on, like, hard none of these workouts are hard per se. It's really just focused on let's build that mileage. Let's get a quality long run, but not too much. You know? I I really don't want long runs to go much over maybe 2 hours During this time at most because we're not really in marathon training. We're totally focused on just building that endurance, building that mileage up So that when you go into that next marathon training block or whatever race it is you're training for, you're gonna have that foundation of endurance. So don't don't let that long run get too crazy long, but just focus more on the weekly mileage.

Michael Hammond [00:43:05]: And then also, I think the last element of the the endurance, piece is proper fueling. Make sure you're proper properly fueling day to day because if you're increasing your mileage, as any of us who've ever increased our mileage have found, Those calorie needs go up. Those calorie needs go way up, and you need to to understand that. You can use some of our calculators that we have that that show you your your calorie needs, how much they go up as you run more. But make sure you get enough calories day to day and make sure you you Learn how to properly fuel in during runs. Because if you don't do that, you're just not gonna be able to handle that running. You're not gonna be able to handle that increased mileage. You're gonna break down Both physically and honestly, even mentally, that that can affect you mentally too.

Michael Hammond [00:43:45]: When you try trying to increase that mileage, you can just, you know, feel exhausted all the time. So you that's what you need to learn how to do. Smart mileage progression, quality workouts, but not anything real hard. Just really mostly focused on building that endurance. Get a decent long run, but nothing too crazy, and then learn how to properly fuel. Okay. There's poor endurance. 3rd one is injuries and and lack of quality strength training, kind of lumping those both together because you can you can rarely get injured.

Michael Hammond [00:44:12]: A lot of people would be like, I never get injured, but I never do strength training. It'll catch you. Don't worry. It'll it'll catch up to you. I don't care who you are. It always catches you at some point. If if you have a specific injury, that's where it's obvious. You just need to focus on, like, specific routines for that injury first because You gotta get through that.

Michael Hammond [00:44:29]: You you have to get through whatever it is specifically that's going on. You have to address it specifically, and then you can kinda, like, Zoom a little bit out and address it more generally and then get into a more general strength training plan. But if you're if you don't necessarily have a specific injury, then I think just finding a good general strength training program is is great. I don't really necessarily wanna give you anything specific. Just find something. Find A routine that you're able to do consistently and that you enjoy doing. I I don't like for strength training to be this thing. So many people struggle with strength training That, what I always tell people like, for instance, people will say, what's the best time to do strength or the best day the best day or the best time to do strength training? And I just say, Whatever day and time you're the most likely to get it done because that's what matters is the consistency.

Michael Hammond [00:45:15]: Find a program that you enjoy find a YouTube video that you enjoy doing the strength, but we'll put some in the show notes we have a ton of them, but if and they're free on our YouTube. But if find 1 on YouTube that you enjoy doing, that you enjoy the person who's who's delivering it to, And do it consistently 2 to 3 days a week. I love seeing 3, but even 2 is gonna make such a massive difference in your training. Focus on stuff like your running form. You know, this is a great time to do focus strength training that will help improve your running form. If you have a weak core, you need to do more core work. Boom. Easy.

Michael Hammond [00:45:45]: If your hip flexors are tight and you're not getting good knee lift, boom. You need to work on the hip flexors. Easy. You know? This stuff is gonna make such massive improvements to your running form. And then I I also wanna include stretch stuff like stretching. I think it's not necessarily generally thought of as strength training, but it's something that is so vital To to so many people's success, especially when you do higher mileage, when you do a lot of more workouts, that stuff that If you can develop a good stretching routine, kind of that same thing, 2 to 3 days a week even is is plenty during this time that you're gonna be So well off for it when you go into the next training cycle. It's gonna give you such dividends, but I also wanna include yoga is is awesome for runners. A lot of runners swear by yoga.

Michael Hammond [00:46:27]: It's one of those things that everyone that starts doing it seems to fall in love with it and seems to say that it just helps prevent so many injuries. You know, I think it's kinda similar to what I talked about before where you may not think That you're working certain things and that you're helping prevent certain injuries and stuff and and helping, become a stronger runner in certain ways, and yet you are through a lot of the stuff that you do in yoga. Lots of core work, lots of quality deep stretching. So that stuff is great as well, but the the name of the game with injuries and and quality strength training is just consistency. Find a routine that you can do consistently, hammer it out for the 1st 2 or 3 weeks. It's gonna be hard at first because developing a habit sucks And this is hard, but once you do, man, you'll be so much better off for it in the long run. The the 4th one is nutrition and and sort of lifestyle fueling. I think the best thing to do what what did we talk about earlier? Corey gave a great tip with kinda finding your your weaknesses is to do a bit of an audit.

Michael Hammond [00:47:19]: I think it's worth it for people to Spend like, like, I tell people to this with nutrition a lot is to they'll I'll have them do I say, eat as normally as you do. Like, eat normally as possible, don't think about it for this week. I know that's easier said than done. Once you start one of the Schrodinger's cat. Once you start observing it, it changes. But, just do an audit. Do an audit of of, like, the way you normally eat, the way you normally sleep, everything that you do in your life. Just do a quick audit and just write it down, And and that will reveal to you, one one positive that's come from, like, a lot of the, wearables.

Michael Hammond [00:47:51]: You know, like like, people have Garmin watches having, like, Lifestyle stats and Oura rings and and WHOOP bands and all that stuff has been people realizing, wow. I don't sleep very much. You know? Like, Maybe people think, oh, I get I get enough sleep. I get enough. And then they realize, you know, Aura's given them, like, a 65, you know, sleep score every night, and it's like, wow. I do think sometimes it gets excessive. It get you can get a little bit, like, anal retentive about it and almost, like, neurotic, but it's good to do a little bit of an audit just to realize where the where the weaknesses are. Because so commonly with nutrition, there's 2 different things that I will see very, very commonly.

Michael Hammond [00:48:27]: 1 is actually under fueling, And that surprises people that they that you know, even people maybe who struggle a little bit with, like, weight loss or whatever, they'll realize that, wow, I'm not really eating enough to fuel All the training that I'm doing, and that can lead to increased cortisol, which can lead to, like, excess water retention, even weight gain, hormones being off. I won't get into that on this episode. Like you said, we could talk all day about nutrition, but doing that audit is so valuable to find what exactly is going on. The second thing That I find most commonly is people eating a lot of junk. And and I I I don't see that lightly because I I understand that sometimes, By the way, there's balloons appearing on my screen. I don't know why. I hate to I hate to interrupt myself, but I hope the listeners everyone listening. Me and Corey are sitting here on on this call, and and I have balloons appearing around me for some reason.

Michael Hammond [00:49:18]: My birthday was 2 days ago. I don't know if that's why I was doing it. But, anyway, with

Cory Nagler [00:49:21]: nutrition birthday. I think it's great. We wanna celebrate every victory.

Michael Hammond [00:49:25]: Thanks, Corey. I appreciate. The listeners are like, why are these guys talking about balloons on the screen? But from nutrition, really, the the the second big thing is just is just people eating a lot more calories in junk than they realize. And I'm never gonna be the one to tell you we at Runners Connect are never gonna be the ones to tell you, oh, eliminate all that and restrict. Restrict. Restrict. Restrict. I would much rather see people yeah.

Michael Hammond [00:49:46]: Okay. Eliminate some of the junk, but and replace it with Quality food. Quality, quality, quality. Whole foods. Healthy whole foods as much as possible. That's what I want people to to do. That's what I wanna see is healthy habits here. So Do the audit.

Michael Hammond [00:49:59]: Eliminate the obvious stuff, you know, the obvious stuff that sticks out from you. If you're sleeping 5 hours a night, bam. We got we gotta improve that. If you're Under eating by 500 calories a day, bam. We gotta improve that. If you're eating, yeah, 600 calories of of absolute junk every single day, we gotta we gotta Fix that. That's something we need to do. Focus on I like to tell people, I used to say 80/20, and I think 80/20 can be really effective.

Michael Hammond [00:50:22]: What that means is, like, 80% of the time, you're eating healthy whole foods. 20% of the time, you are more relaxed. Over the years, I think I've drifted more towards a 90 10. I used to tell people 80/20, 90/10 if you wanna really, really get get dive you know, get, like, heavy with it. But honestly, I think I'm to the point where I've I've drifted so much towards, like, a healthy diet and lifestyle being a norm like a normalized thing, not necessarily this, like, Stream. I don't want you following this, like, extreme diet, like calorie restricting or anything. I want it to be such a healthy thing on a day to day basis that it's not even hard to follow. Like, that's what this is about.

Michael Hammond [00:51:01]: It's developing the habits, developing making it such a natural part of your life that Doing it 90% of the time and then 10% of the time going out. You know? Yeah. Like, for my birthday, we went out with some friends last night and family and and had a couple beers, had a cheeseburger and and and French fries and whatever. I don't care because that's gonna be significantly less even than 10% of the time that I'm doing stuff that maybe is not so ideal. And yet I like to leave room for that stuff because it's good mentally. I'm definitely the type that, like, if I go too all in, if I were to go a 100% perfect, I'm in bed at 9:30 PM every single night no matter what. My diet is literally perfect. I don't eat any chocolate.

Michael Hammond [00:51:40]: I don't have anything that's that's less than ideal. I actually get I've talked to our other coach Andy about this. She has similar things where I actually get, like I developed, like, insomnia. I get like, my my mental state starts to Deteriorate a little bit. So you need to leave a little bit of room. That's why I leave a little bit of room for for fun and and, you know, some crappy food and and, you know, going out late with your friends, whatever. Corey Corey sounds like he has a, something to add there.

Cory Nagler [00:52:06]: Yeah. I was just gonna add on this point. Totally. I think it's way easier if it's, something that you actually enjoy doing. But even more so than that, call out on this piece. Coming back to that day of the race, you know, you're only running if you're doing a marathon, maybe 2 to 3 a year. That's that's 1%. So I think you can Totally, you know, have that general mindset for yourself and still not feel the need to stick to any specific kind of, diet or eating schedule the day after you've had Ray is, you know, go out and celebrate.

Michael Hammond [00:52:33]: Exactly. That's that's why I kinda see the celebrating part, the the fun part as sort of being built in by default. I don't really like For people to have, like, a diet they follow when they're training and then a diet they follow when they're not training. I really like for stuff to become as much a part of your lifestyle as possible. So that's really I think that sort of encapsulates what people need to focus on. I know that's kind of general, but really, if You need to make it as much a part of your life as possible. I don't really like for people to follow this an extreme diet or or certainly not to To calorie restrict. As much as I said you're auditing it at first, I actually like for people to kinda stop auditing it.

Michael Hammond [00:53:10]: Once they once they work on these things and once they get it down, don't really want people to be excessively auditing this stuff because you want it to become as much a part of your just general lifestyle as possible, and you don't wanna get overly neurotic about it. You don't want it to be this this stressful thing. You know, I I mentioned coach Andy, and I only say this because she's been so upfront about it publicly is that she struggled massively with eating disorders in the past, and that's something that that we see so commonly in the running world, mostly with females, but not not uncommon with with men as well. And that's why as much as I mentioned all this stuff, it's not about restricting. It's not about, you know, the auditing thing. I don't want it to be this, like, Overly stressful, you know, excessively neurotic type thing because that's what that can lead to. I really want it to become a healthy habit for you instead of, like, a diet that you follow when you're training. Make it as as healthy of a habit as possible, and that's why we're focusing on it almost in the off season.

Michael Hammond [00:54:05]: We're not doing this while we're heavy training. This is in the off season so that you can develop those healthy habits, and that will then it's just a foundation. It's just built into you once you start getting back into training For your next race, it's already there. It's already built in. You don't have to be like, oh, I have to start focusing on my diet now. I've just developed these healthy habits that are gonna I'm just gonna carry right into the next the next training block. So I'll get I'll I'll do the last one, and then and then, we'll go back to it. But the the last one is just beginners feeling lost.

Michael Hammond [00:54:33]: This is a a simple one, really. Beginners need structure. Everyone needs structure in my opinion. Everyone I don't care where you're at in your running journey. You need some level of structure. Some people are advanced enough and, like, knowledgeable enough in running to be able to set their own plans. They've learned their own bodies over time and what works for them and what doesn't. Beginners, most of the time, are not at that stage.

Michael Hammond [00:54:53]: There's so much information out there. So so so much information. So much conflicting information even That I feel like the number one thing that beginners need is just structure to get started. They need a plan. They need something to get them going, something that they can look at and be like, alright. This is what my plan is. This is what I'm doing day to day. In terms of what that should include, I think very basic strength training is is almost, In a way, almost more important than running for for beginners at first because for multiple reasons.

Michael Hammond [00:55:22]: I think one being that a lot of beginners will will be so new to it that Even running a mile is hard. So instead, we need to we need to use stuff like strength training to sort of, you know, get build up their muscular strength, Build up their muscular endurance to the point where they actually can go out and and run more. So very basic strength training. It doesn't need to be a lot of time, But it needs to be consistent. Very similar to what I said before with with, people generally adding in strength training. Does not need to take a lot of time, but it does need to be consistent. You know, I even Even 15 minutes, 2 or 3 times a week can be massively effective. In terms of the fundamentals, you know, we're we're talking very easy volume, Slowly adding stuff in like strides, slowly adding in a long run.

Michael Hammond [00:56:04]: And for a beginner, a long run might be 5 or 6 miles. You know, and and I'm not gonna talk about right at first. A lot of beginners aren't ready to even do that. It might even they might only be ready to run 3 miles at a time. They might need to do a 2 mile Run walk, which is totally fine, but they need that structure. So the strength training, you know, basic lifestyle adjustments, as we just talked about for for several minutes before. And then as they get a little bit more advanced, a little bit more into it, we'll work on, like, running form, you know, improving your cadence, your foot strike, how to progress in your training, how to how to fuel properly is something that beginners are lost on so often, but really to encapsulate that, The most important thing for beginners is just having some structure by far.

Cory Nagler [00:56:46]: Perfect. Yeah. And I I think, you know, if you fall in that camp, it make sense that now is the perfect time to build a routine when you're not worried about an upcoming race, you know, in a a week or even 4 weeks.

Michael Hammond [00:56:56]: Exactly. That that's really that really encapsulates what I feel like is so powerful about that kind of that time between races is that You're just not even mentally speaking. You're not so focused on that next race. You're not stressed about it. You're not focused on, I gotta get my mileage up. I gotta, You know, do this or that for the next race. It's just a time to be like, I can focus on this weakness and turn it into a strength. I can I can Literally eliminate this weakness at the knees so that in my next training cycle, it's a strength of mine, and that'll that's just so powerful from a long term perspective? And I I said this in the last episode.

Michael Hammond [00:57:29]: I just wanna throw it in here. I really think that this matters for people whether you're someone who's very serious about running and is chasing PRs or even if you just run totally for fun. Because guess what? Improving is a lot of fun. Running healthy is a lot of fun, and being able to progress is a whole lot of fun. You know, running injured is no fun. Getting worse is no fun. You know? Even if you're doing it totally for fun, all this stuff is still relevant because you wanna be able to keep doing it. You be able to keep doing it long term, keep progressing long term, and keep it fun long term.

Michael Hammond [00:58:00]: So regardless whether it's serious or fun, I think all this stuff applies regardless.

Cory Nagler [00:58:04]: Michael, for the listeners, I just have to call out that right as you're talking about keeping running fun, we're seeing a bunch of balloons fly by again on your screen. So this is great. I think we definitely wanna celebrate keeping the sport fun. The next thing I wanna touch on is really just moving past this period as you do kinda inch closer to your goal race. When do you kind of transition towards just focusing on those weaknesses and start moving towards more of a structured training plan if you do have an upcoming goal?

Michael Hammond [00:58:31]: Yeah. That's a great question. I think that, as we said, of course, you take that post race recovery 1 to 3 weeks kinda depending on the race, depending on you, depending on your needs physically and mentally. After that, I really like to see somewhere around, like, 6 weeks devoted to something like this. 4 to 6 weeks thereabouts, I think, is usually a good amount of time because do we talk about it? So much of this is like habit building. You know? And and something like a couple weeks oftentimes is is just barely scratching the surface of really developing a proper and really, you know, making these things internalized as much as possible. And also something like think about, like, mileage building. You know, if you're if you're trying to work on your endurance, Just doing that for 2 weeks is essentially nothing.

Michael Hammond [00:59:10]: That's not you're not even you're barely gonna make any improvements. You're gonna improve by, like, 1% during that time. So I like for there to be a solid 6 weeks, which tends to work well. You think about somebody who just finished a race in October or November who's running whose next big race is in, like, April, Then that's a perfect amount of time after the post race recovery to to start thinking about, like, alright. I wanna take a a speed phase and really work on, like, my my five k speed. I wanna take a a a period where I'm just doing light mileage and really work on my nutrition and and get that down pat. I think 6 to 8 weeks thereabouts is typically a good amount of time because that's gonna lead you right into that time where you're like, okay. Now I'm x amount of weeks out, 12, 16 weeks thereabouts out from my goal race.

Michael Hammond [00:59:55]: Now is the time to to really kinda jump into a little bit more specific stuff. So I like to I like 6 to 8 weeks, And I think that builds you in nicely to, the period where you're gonna be starting to train for that next goal race.

Cory Nagler [01:00:06]: Yeah. I think that's a good amount of time to really kind of Devote some time to building on those weaknesses, but also really take a refresh before building in a training plan. So just in terms of kind of maximizing that time to build on your weaknesses, We we talked a little bit in your previous episode about some of the RC boot camps or other group training. Do you maybe wanna touch on some of the benefits there and how it can really help you to address some of those weaknesses?

Michael Hammond [01:00:32]: Sure. So I I I said this in the last episode, and I I love talking about this because the the boot camps were a a thing that we launched 2 years ago in in 2021, kind of the the very beginning of 2021 because we were in that that state of, like, there's no races. You know? What do we do? Like like, what can we have people focus on? And that's what we found was that people wanted they wanted to improve. They wanted to work on themselves even though they weren't necessarily preparing for races. So that That process is sort of what helped us identify those 5 common weaknesses that I talked about. It was stuff that we sort of knew intuitively before that, And yet it took that sort of time for us to realize, wow, these are things that people really want to work on, really need to improve, it's gonna help their running tremendously. So we over the years, we've developed 5 different boot camps that really address singularly All of these individual weaknesses in a in a very specific focused way. Each boot camp is 6 weeks long total.

Michael Hammond [01:01:25]: Just like I said, I think that's like a perfect amount of time To develop those habits, get get the routines down because most of these things, the 1st week is just about learning them and also Incorporating like, finding ways to incorporate them and then especially you think about something like strength routines. You're just gonna be sore at first. You know, that 1st week, you're gonna be sore, Which is normal. That's good to be sore from from that stuff, but then over the weeks, you're gonna get stronger and stronger and stronger, and I think 6 weeks is a great amount of time. So we have the the 6 week speed boot camp, which is what did we just talk about improving that speed? You know, you need that period where your Your volume is a little bit lower. You're working on sprints, drills, and strength training. 6 week speed boot camp is tremendous for that. You're you are gonna get A focused running schedule as well, but you're also gonna get the extra stuff.

Michael Hammond [01:02:14]: You're gonna get those specific exercises that you need to be doing each week, those specific, drills that you need to be doing that's that focus strength training that's really focused on that explosiveness and and improving that short in foot speed In a way that's gonna translate so well. That's what I wanna say to people is this isn't just I mean, it's fun. I think it's a a blast. Every everybody that does the speed boot camp has such a blast, but it's not just To say, hey. I wanna work on my speed, and this is totally irrelevant. It's stuff that's gonna translate up to your longer races. It absolutely is. Improving your speed is gonna improve your form, your running economy, that neuromuscular connection that we just talked about.

Michael Hammond [01:02:50]: It's gonna improve all of that, and you're actually gonna find that over the long term, it's gonna improve even your marathon. No doubt. So the 6 week speed boot camp is fantastic for that. We have the 6 week, strength boot camp, which is totally focused on Strengths training. Same thing. You're gonna get a running schedule. It's gonna be more of a maintenance phase, not necessarily high volume, but not necessarily, you know, just Jog in 30 minutes either. It it's gonna have some a little bit of volume in there, but totally focused on building strength routines for you.

Michael Hammond [01:03:18]: Like, Absolutely focused on what you need. So let's say you do have maybe a more specific injury, we're gonna we're gonna focus on that at first, but then we're gonna build you into just general strength Plans that are gonna holistically strengthen you, prevent injuries, make you stronger, make you faster, and and develop those habits and those routines that are gonna help you long term that you can take with you into the next training cycle. It's not that maybe you won't do that much strength training during that next training cycle, but this is gonna be a That's why we call it a boot camp because it's really dive dive all in for 6 weeks and then develop the habits that are gonna help you even if you only do 50% of it when you actually start training for Don, it's gonna help you so, so tremendously. We we have, the 6 week mileage building boot camp, which when we talked about that that big weakness of poor endurance, So something so many people struggle with is they have poor endurance, and they just don't really know how to up their mileage. As when I I said that tongue in cheek, when I said just run more, that's totally tongue in cheek because it's not that simple. There's injuries to deal with. There's time. How do you maximize the time that you have? So many of our listeners have Very busy schedules.

Michael Hammond [01:04:25]: They may not have time if they're running, you know, if you're running 11 minute pace on your easy runs per mile. That's a lot of time out there to to build up your mileage. That's very difficult. So that's something that we work on in the mileage building boot camp is how to safely, We say become an aerobic monster because that's what you want. You really want that aerobic system just maximized. You know, a a a stat that I always like to give people is even the five k is 80% aerobic. The 5 k is an 80% aerobic event. That surprises people because they think of the 5 k as like a speed event.

Michael Hammond [01:04:55]: The 5 k is 88% aerobic, so building up that mileage, so, so important. I would say if anyone listening is Consistent not consistently running in especially marathon training more than, like, 40 miles a week, which is a lot of people. I understand. I think it's worth it to do the Mileage Building Boot camp to really learn how to run higher mileage in an effective way that's gonna improve that aerobic strength, get you ready for those longer distances. We have the 6 week weight loss boot camp. This one is is very focused on on weight loss specifically because it's something that we just So commonly fine, but what we do with the weight loss boot camp, it's not you're not gonna join it and just be like, alright. Reduce your calories. Not at all.

Michael Hammond [01:05:34]: We give you a daily running and strength training plan that's Combined with step by step nutrition guidance and accountability as well, that's gonna get you on the path to a long term healthy weight. It's not as much as we call it the weight loss boot camp. It's not just about losing weight. It's about finding that healthy weight, not about numbers on a scale, finding a healthy weight for you for your, You know, your metabolic health as well as your your running health. Then last, we have the 6 week beginner runner boot camp, which is totally focused on beginners, totally focused on Giving you that structure that you need to to get build the habits, build this into your routine. So daily mileage, exact paces, strengthen injury prevention work, And then plus access to our to our course. We have a beginner runner's course that helps answer all your questions, sort of build in some those basic fundamentals at first and then gradually get you into the more advanced stuff to help you become a stronger runner long term. And then last, I do wanna mention just our general training plans Our do include a lot of nutrition work as well.

Michael Hammond [01:06:31]: We have a lot of nutrition information and and help available for you. So anyone who just wants to work on nutrition in general But doesn't necessarily wanna focus on weight loss. We have we have just our general training plans. We have a lot of nutrition resources available, and it's something that a lot of our athletes have worked on So those those are our boot camps. They're these are an extremely powerful resource. I think that the reason we do them for 6 weeks is because We want it to be very we want it to be short in a way. We don't want you know, if we did a 100 week boot camp, sure. Yeah.

Michael Hammond [01:07:01]: That'd be great to establish those routines, But it wouldn't necessarily be that that short burst of effectiveness. So it's just long enough to develop the habits and just short enough to be That sort of in between race type thing. I think it's well worth it for anyone out there regardless of what race distance you're doing to to to do these boot camps To do 1, pick your weakness, and and do 1. Pick something that you wanna work on, somewhere you wanna improve. If you've always wanted to improve your speed but never knew how to do it, speed boot camp is money for you. If you wanna build up your mileage, mileage building boot camp, fantastic for you. We're gonna give you exactly what you need to do those things and to make those weaknesses into strengths. And if you're interested in those, just head to runnersconnect.net/focus.

Michael Hammond [01:07:41]: That's where we have all of our boot camps listed out, And, really, we'd love to have you in them. They're they're a lot of fun. They're a good time, and people find that they improve so much. Even if it may not seem like that at first, you're looking at it. You're like, this is a lot. Only in only 6 weeks, you're gonna be a different person at the end of those 6 weeks. No doubt.

Cory Nagler [01:07:59]: Awesome. Thanks so much, Michael, and we'll definitely link in the show notes, Both to some of the videos you talked about as well as to the boot camps. But just in general, thank you so much for joining me today just to talk about how runners can really maximize that period between training plans.

Michael Hammond [01:08:13]: You bet. It's a fun topic. I know it's it's a lot of runners don't even wanna think about it. And like I said, after the race, you don't really need to think about this stuff immediately. Take the time to to rest, recover, and And don't think about running for a little while, but once you're ready to come back, I think these this type of stuff working on those weaknesses is a tremendous way to Maximize that time between the races, and you're gonna be better off for it in the long term, undoubtedly.

Cory Nagler [01:08:34]: Fantastic. Thanks so much, Michael. This was a lot of fun. And to everyone listening, hope your races went well, and good luck with the next training block.

Michael Hammond [01:08:42]: Yeah. Thanks, Corey.

Finn Melanson [01:08:58]: Thanks for listening to the Run to the Top podcast. I'm your host, Finn Melanson. As always, our mission here is to help you become a better runner with every episode. Please consider connecting with me on Instagram at Wasatch Finn and the rest of our team at Runners Connect. Also, consider supporting our show for free with a rating on the Spotify and Apple Podcast players. And lastly, if you love the show and want bonus content, Behind the scenes experiences with our guests and premier access to contests and giveaways, then subscribe to our newsletter by going to runnersconnect.net backslash podcast. Until next time, happy trading.