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Fuel for Thought Series: Fueling For Recovery with Alister Gardner
98 Plays5 months ago
You may be asking yourself why this episode is titled “Fuel for Thought”. Any guesses?
I mean if you know me, you know I love a good old play on words, hence the name of this new series that I’ve produced with Xact Nutrition.
Athletes train for hours, work with coaches on technique, join workout groups and sign up for big challenges but one of the things we feel could be overlooked by athletes that is so critical, is education regarding nutrition and how it helps you perform.
So we’ve put together a multi episode series to discuss specific topics pertaining to just that,
in hopes that you come away with more in depth knowledge and a better understanding of nutrition.
On this episode of Just In Stride, Fuel for Thought Edition, we’ll discuss all the ways we can fuel to recover with Alister Gardner.
We cover a wide range of recovery topics from training cycles, to sleep, ideal hydration and of course fueling windows before, during and after training.
It’s as important as the training itself and can help you reach your goals in a more efficient and sustainable way. It’s the small details that can make a big difference and we hope it’ll take you to the next level.
Some topics we covered were:
-Ideal sleep time
-Training cycles
-Feeding windows
-Better Hydration
-EZ days vs Workout days
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Offer from Xact Nutrition: This episode is presented by our friends at Xact Nutrition and they are offering you 15% OFF your order when you use the code JUSTINSTRIDE. So head to xactnutrition.com and fuel your goals today! Now shipping in Canada and the U.S.
Thanks for tuning in to the Just In Stride Podcast. I truly appreciate you taking the time to listen and I hope you enjoyed that conversation as much as I did. Please take a minute after this to rate and review our show on Apple Podcasts. With your feedback we’ll be able to make the show even better and it’ll help us reach new listeners too. You can also find us on Instagram @justinstridepod and YouTube @justinstridepod for all the latest episodes and updates. Glad you came along for the ride with Just In Stride!
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Transcript
Introduction to Justin's Drive Podcast
00:00:03
Speaker
Hello, and welcome to the Justin's Drive podcast. I'm your host, Justin Puyese. If you love endurance sports, you've definitely come to the right place. On this show, we'll talk to athletes, coaches, and professionals who can help us reach our true potential. Being a student of distance running for over 10 years and interviewing people in the sport for the last five, I've learned a ton, but there's always more to discover. Everyone has a story, and I know you'll resonate with each of our guests as we embark on this new journey together. Join us at home, on the road, or while you run. Together, we'll have some fun. So follow along on Instagram at justinstridepod and your favorite podcast platform and prepare to be inspired. Come along for the ride with Justin Stride.
00:00:51
Speaker
This episode is presented by our friends at Exact Nutrition, a tasty and healthy way for you to fuel your body before, during, and after a solid training session. I can't leave the house without a few fruit bars in my pocket and they never make it back home. Exact is offering you 50% off your order when you use the code justinstride. So head to exactnutrition.com and fuel your goals today.
Role of Nutrition in Performance
00:01:14
Speaker
You may be asking yourself why this episode is titled Fuel for Thought. Any guesses? I mean, if you know me, you know I love a good old play on words, hence the name of this new series I've produced with Exact Nutrition. Athletes train for hours, work with coaches on technique, join workout groups, and sign up for big challenges. But the one thing we feel could be overlooked by athletes that is so critical is education regarding nutrition and how it helps you perform.
00:01:42
Speaker
So we've put together a multi-episode series to discuss specific topics pertaining to just that, in hopes that you come away with more in-depth knowledge and better understanding of nutrition.
Recovery Strategies with Alistair Gardner
00:01:54
Speaker
On this episode of Justin Stride, Fuel for Thought Edition, we'll discuss all the ways we can fuel to recover with Alistair Gardner. We cover a wide range of recovery topics from training cycles to sleep, ideal hydration, and of course, fueling windows before, during, and after training. It's as important as the training itself and can help you reach your goals in a more efficient and sustainable way. It's the small details that can make a big difference and we hope it'll take you to the next level. Welcome back to the podcast, Alistair. Thanks for joining me.
00:02:29
Speaker
day how good I was going to say good morning, but it's good afternoon. How are you doing? Good afternoon for me. Yeah, we did the first episode of this series, the debunking of myths with you. And I thought, you know, it went really well. Today we'll take on a different topic, which is ah basically recovery, all things recovery, not just nutrition ah with carbs and protein, but all different ways we can recover to be just better athletes have better balance. um And, you know, you're obviously the perfect person to have on for that. So I'll give you a chance just to introduce yourself in case people didn't see the first one.
00:03:04
Speaker
Yeah, so I've been a trail runner at an elite level for about 10 plus years and sort of kind of seeing that ah they come to a close and I've been very much focused with my years at exact nutrition about spawn nutrition and basically how the body reacts to all this loading of training um how food and nutrition actually helps us and things and i'm going to say I've learned many things just from my own mistakes and so I can always decide I have a chance to share those if other people don't make the same mistakes. Yeah, no, totally. And it comes through experience, right? Like we have to trial and error. It's through coaching. It's through, you know, speaking to coaches, speaking to others.
Training Cycles and Stress Fractures
00:03:45
Speaker
And, you know, we just, before we got recording here, just, we're talking about a friend of ours that just had like a stress factor in their foot. And, you know, you know, so maybe give some insight as to, you know, what could cause that or
00:04:00
Speaker
Is it related to training cycles, nutrition? What do you feel like is the biggest component of that? It's going to be both. And obviously everyone is a little bit unique. um I think the ah two important things, training cycles, is we sort of take a step back from the day to day and those magic numbers which appear on Strava. I mean, everyone loves to see that graph, you know, up in the hundreds or something when it comes to running kilometers. ah But the reality is you should, from what I hear from other coaches and certainly with regards to how the body reacts, like one every four weeks so should be quite a relaxed week, a calm week, um either a bit of bike to reduce impact, but just let the body recover a little bit more after those three big weeks of training.
00:04:46
Speaker
It will certainly help you to do better going into the next three weeks and so what i've also heard about is how the bones reacts in a particular case here is the um is is a stress fracture. What's happening is and i'm i'm sure one of your listeners is gonna be able to describe it better than me but we have like two types of cells in the bones i think they're called osteoblasts and osteoclasts if i remember g correctly. and so one builds the bone and one dissolves it and so What's happening is there's it tiny little like breakages in the bone happening all the time i mean minuscule and then he will actually makes the bone stronger. What if we keep on loading know running a special impact when loading training after training on top of it.
Understanding Overtraining and Fatigue
00:05:27
Speaker
What's gonna happen is these tiny stress tractors are gonna become bigger and bigger rather than healing and stronger and So that's what happens you kind of just like overload to the point where the bones says we hold on a minute We've got a break here. We've not got a process happening so that's one part of it and that can be made worse with regards to like not fueling properly, you know bodies are requiring a huge amounts of energy to run these hundreds of kilometers each week. And so that requires a huge amount of fuel to not only fuel those workouts, but fuel all the other functions in our body, like what's happening to the bones, like what's happening to our hormones, all these things. And over training, I think we see it so much, especially in the in the endurance and the ultra endurance space, because people just see, you know,
00:06:15
Speaker
large amounts of training is essential to be able to accomplish these great big ultra marathons, Ironman events and things um that they think like fatigue is just part of the deal where there are two types of fatigue. Yes, there's being tired. Yes, wanting to go to bed and get a good night's sleep. But if you're feeling chronically fatigued, you're probably over-training and need to back off, probably feel a bit better in order to allow your body to improve. Because I think that's what we forget. We have to try and improve our body's to performance, not just be able to endure this long, difficult, you know challenging trainings. And so there's a difference there. Yeah. I mean, so many things came up in my mind as you were talking, but like, you know, what is, what does over-training mean? Like, how do we identify that we're over-training? You know, the idea around endurance sports is that this is going to be part of it. That you're going to train long, train hard.
00:07:12
Speaker
and And also like that, that relaxed week in your cycle, let's say week four, what percentage do you bring it down based off of what you're doing more regularly? Yeah. I mean, obviously that was a ton of information right there. And so two good questions. Um, how do we recognize over training? Um, there's been, I mean, some people don't, I mean, that's the, that's the thing. They just think in the head, okay, I'm tired. This must be what it's like to train. uh let's break it down a little bit if you're you know if you're having real trouble kind of waking up in the mornings and you spend the whole day feeling tired and you really have to like motivate yourself to go for that run and this is kind of into weeks and weeks maybe months of training towards something that is definitely a ah flag to to to group to to warn yourself hey you know what maybe if i uh
00:08:05
Speaker
just back off a little bit of my training or give myself just a couple of days to recover, even just two or three days. It's not going to reduce your performance. It's not going to reduce your fitness, but it's certainly going to allow you to recover a little bit um and just see how your body reacts to that. It could be a very positive thing, but for some reason, we're just scared of not working out. We're not training. um Another way to look at it, and I loved it, was one of the, I can see the OG Montreal runners was always saying, My interval training like at the track and he was a very fast track runner and a very fast marathon runner was was basically his indicator. His focus was around those speed workouts twice a week. And if he couldn't sustain exactly the type of training that he was supposed to be doing there, like he was too tired, um couldn't finish them, like not recovering in between intervals properly.
00:08:57
Speaker
It was like, that means I'm pushing too hard around those trainings to not get the best out of the most important ones. And so that's a very important thing to recognize there. These are the most important moments in my week. And I'm not getting the best out of them because in my mind, I've got to be doing all these other things as well. Well, that's another way to sort of take a reality check on what your training plan is about. And I think that's where coaches really need to help their athletes and say, hey, this is your focus week. this or the This is your focus training. This is the most important one in your week. I don't care if you don't do this one because of that one, that kind of thing. So there's that kind of level of fatigue and that gets recognized, but I do think that maybe a little bit more
00:09:41
Speaker
of the experienced runners approach. Whereas I go back to my first comment about just that general feeling of fatigue um being something ah to to recognize. um And what I've seen, just to sort of add to that, and it's on the women's side, ah the menstrual cycle is also an indicator. And so there was an awesome research, and it was a couple of years ago, I'd love to be able to share it with you when ah but I dig it out. um If the women's mental cycles were getting irregular or something was happening to them, that was because of hormone issues, which was related to either fueling or overtraining as well. And it was becoming a common sign there. So that is something else that the kind of like the ladies have got a chance to say, Hey, there's a flag given to me here for this. If this is going off while I'm training to heavily, I wish guys had that as well, because they would probably be able to, to really recognize their, their overtraining more easily as well. Yeah. And you hear that more and more too.
00:10:36
Speaker
like with irregular, um, you know, cycles in the month. And like, do you, do you think like women work around that? You know, is that like maybe a way to look at it? Like what if they think that they know that they're going to have their cycle at a certain point, or do they generally, do you know this? I don't know. I don't know. Like I don't know this if they train through or if they, if they use that as their down week or. No, so it it goes beyond that. So, uh, I feel kind of um weird talking about something I have no experience in myself doing it, but what I've read, and this is kind of, you know, a little bit well, um, the women, and like they've been coaches have taken either a limp some Olympic athletes and said, yeah, no, I didn't care. Let's just push through, push through. You got to keep going, keep going. And that kind of just actually like doesn't help them.
00:11:26
Speaker
Whereas they could actually yet structure their trainings around. They've typically got sort of a two week period, which could be slightly less intense. And then they've got this other two week period where they're literally like, you should, you could train like a crazy, like go for it. And that'll actually be a great time for you to train. And so maybe a women's training cycle versus a men's is actually a little bit more based on their, on their cycles, um, because it will allow them to sort of fit in. um sort of, you know, getting the best out of themselves. The only problem is race days don't care where it fits in in the cycle. So that's a real sort of kick in the bum, unfortunately. um But you know, there are some huge things, huge recognition in that
Women's Training Needs and Nutrition
00:12:07
Speaker
respect. And I've forgotten the the lady's name, but she wrote a book called Raw.
00:12:13
Speaker
And again, I'll try and dig it out for you. ah But, you know, she does an exact a really good review of um how women will be better able to train to their needs as opposed to the general needs of a human like, you know, men i yeah and Yeah. And it's amazing what they're able to do on race day when they're, you know, you hear that story time and time again, too, like that they're leading in or, you know, it's just starting or whatever. And you see these performances where It's not a fun thing to go through. And like we have, as men, we have no idea what the pain pain is like at all. So, but yeah, I just wanted to touch on it because it's a topic, you know, we, we have ladies listening and I think it's important. so
00:12:56
Speaker
Absolutely. And maybe we can touch on you know like the ways we can prevent these you know injuries from happening, like the the optimal ways we can recover. ah you know We know fueling is super
Importance of Sleep, Nutrition, and Hydration
00:13:09
Speaker
important. but We know sleep is also important. And like what that looks like, you know he is it like a certain hours per night? I know eight hours is like the and number of hours that you you keep hearing, for sure. but is Is it important to try and get as many eight hours as you can or is it better if you if you sleep six to have like the most sixes in your week? I think everyone is individual. I mean, I look at myself and I could be in bed. I always want to be in bed by 10 and my long goes off at 5.30, but I'm never in bed properly until 10.30 and I'm awake at five. And so what is that? like Six and a half hours. And but that's sort of just naturally I wake up and I'm awake.
00:13:49
Speaker
um Ideally, yeah, I would sleep a little bit longer. I do think, and let's say between seven and eight hours, if you were doing, I'd say five or six hours or something, and you're really kind of like, no, that's all I need, you could probably benefit and um from from more. At least it once or twice a week, enjoy yourself a lion and and catch up on some sleep. it is It is true that you do want to catch up on sleep, a bit like you catch up on on the calories. But again, everybody is individual, but it's definitely a good thing. Sleep is a very helpful thing with regards to recovery. um And it's just one part of a process. I think when we we like begin, you've got and a half Ironman coming up on the weekends and have done a lot of ultra races and things. When we look at during those effort, to some extent, recovery is within the event itself, as in we have to fuel within the event.
00:14:42
Speaker
If you're running a 5K, you don't need to do anything during that 5K. Just run it, finish it, go and get give yourself something to drink eat and drink. Same with a 10K. And then as you get these longer events, you want to be doing stuff during... And so definitely carbs during a part of that process, which is fueling, which is kind of a sort of recovery during. um Then we talk about just afterwards, what's the ideal thing to do? And that's where that sort of magic four to one or three to one ratio of carbs to protein has has come about.
00:15:14
Speaker
So what people were doing with that were fueling with carbohydrates afterwards like you know treating themselves to to something to eat afterwards. And then they got into a bit of research and found actually if they contributed a portion of protein to that, it would accelerate the rate of that glycogen recovery, like it being all the energy it's justs inside the muscles, perfect for mid to high intensity workout. um And so that's where that ratio came up. And something in the region of, let's say, 15 to 20 grams of protein, which would mean something like sort of 60 to 80 grams of carbohydrates, which is, we're talking, you know, a small meal here, is an ideal for having a quick recovery. There's a bit of a window there, which is possibly, people would say it's like 30 minutes, two hours, a couple of hours, but definitely soon after that big workout,
00:16:02
Speaker
Having that that sort of ratio of carbohydrates and proteins is ideal to really be ready for that next workout, to be recovered, to restore those glycogen reserves and be in a good shape to perform well next time. um and so That's sort of the process of fueling during and after, in the words of in a form of recovery. Hydration is, I guess that if we're starting to get to triangle here, sleep, calories and and fluids, hydration is the is the other part of that. um And I do think none of us hydrate enough when it comes to post-workout. And a great way to do it, better to check on that, is check your heart rate when you go to bed. Your heart rate's up. There's a good chance you're a little bit dehydrated. but I always, and I try to do it, and I know I don't do it enough, but I'll go and
00:16:56
Speaker
Chug water, chug drops of electrolytes, chug water, grab some food and stuff. But I always make a special effort to go and refill that bottle, chuck another tablet of electrolytes in there and spend the afternoon finishing it off. Even if I don't feel I need to like drink to my thirst, it just helps me rehydrate and puts me into a better position. We're just doing what we can to be able to be ready or at our best for our next training. Right. And is it, is it better to have electrolytes in the water or is like water water enough? Good. Great question. And it's really down to ah that flow of fluids through our body. Um, and I think this is one thing that so many people get confused about because that talk of electrolytes and cramps and things gets a little bit too entangled in the conversation. So let's just think of everything we're drinking.
00:17:50
Speaker
like water during um or after it is to help with that cooling process of our body, i.e. sweating the evaporation of fluids on the surface. So if I go and run or for one hour on a very cold day and it's just a jog, I go chat with my friends, the chances are I didn't go through that much fluid. And so a glass of water is enough because inside my body, I've got an electrolytes and a kind of a balance of water and minerals, which is quite stable, assuming so beforehand. And so a very small loss of fluids with a very small replacement doesn't change that balance too much.
00:18:30
Speaker
Now let's say it's a three hour run in the middle of July in Quebec where it's so hot and sweaty and humid and sweat is pouring off of you. Now think about that ratio you're starting with. And if you're just drinking water, you're going to hugely create a difference in that balance. So that's where electrolytes become hugely important. We want to be able to match the fluid loss, that water loss, and we see it on our skin with the salt there. We want to match intake with Outtake, is that the right word? i thought you what We're losing yeah and so maintaining a balance. So for me, yeah, definitely when you see just sort of like it's a big flow of water through the body, a hot day, a lot of sweating, the need to hydrate, definitely electrolytes become important. When it was a short run or a very non-sweaty workout, a glass of water without electrolytes would be fine because it's not a huge
00:19:26
Speaker
like change in that balance. Did that make sense? goes up Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like, like, um, cause you can do like sweat, sweat tests too, right? Like, uh, for those hot days and you know, the, the cold ones when it's raining, you don't really feel the need to drink that much, but yeah. Cause it's, you don't physically see it. So I guess sweat, if you think about it as water is leaving your body, then you need to replenish more than if you do on like a cooler day, I guess. and And that totally makes sense if if you've raced or have any kind of experience with like colder weather racing or or a heat heat racing as well. You know, that's always something that I'm like, I'm worried about too. Like, you know, do I drink water? Do I drink?
00:20:11
Speaker
Do I put an electrolyte in my drink or you know is ah is it enough? you know yeah Is that enough for that? so um And so how much water? How much electrolytes do you need? so so Okay, so how much water and how much electrolytes are actually two things. Now we're going to start getting even more complicated. and let's go um why There was a great test. And so there's not that much research specific to runners, but that doesn't really matter. It's just down to individuals. And so we saw a university footballers being tested and there was quite a range in that sweat test of the amounts of sodium found on and other minerals found on the surface and skin. And so there was a huge sort of area in the sort of 500 milligrams, half a gram per liter.
00:21:02
Speaker
lost and it's going well that's that's okay but there are other people right up to two grams and so that's talking about a huge and a very very salty sweaters and so to get to like a sort of i a sweet spot definitely I'd say around about a gram if per liter is an ideal amount um because they also factor in let's say a race day where you You know, you're drinking some Coke. this Coke is lovely to drink on it or during a big an ultra racing stuff or just drinking water or something. Again, that overall intake of fluid may become reduced even if your bottles that you get handed at the at the feed stations and at the transitions has got that electrolyte in it. If you drink other things, those that combination reduces that ratio. And so I'd always lean to more electrolytes than not enough.
00:21:53
Speaker
in in that way of being able to better cope with that fluid intake because particularly the electrolyte need is that it's a co sodium as a co-transporter. It's helping that water pass through your body. and I remember one of the ultra races way back in the day and I had such a slushy stomach because I was just drinking water because I was not ah did not have the electrolytes to help it flow through the body. ah you know it very it was going It was absorbing into the system very slowly. And so that ratio of electrolytes, I would always aim for about a gram per liter. It does vary person to person, but I think that's a very good average for for folks. And then the actual how much fluid, um a general rule of thumb is often around the drink to need. But I also see that drink to need is very subjective.
00:22:45
Speaker
um If I only have one bottle and it's another 10Ks to the next fuel station, um my need is going to be broken down. Like I've only got $10 to last me to at the end of the month. I'm going to be very thrifty with that $10 to get me through. So that need changes. Also our sense of thirst as we get older, it goes down as well. You can be very detailed and literally weigh yourself before and after a big workout and start to get a sense of those fluid losses. There's a bit of glycogen loss in there as well to factor in, but fluid loss you can start to calculate and aim to always be within about 5% of your your body's ah yeah average weight. Some people argue that you can perform or you can run with more loss in your body weight because of fluid loss.
00:23:35
Speaker
However, let's focus on being the best we can rather than running with the toughest situations, you know, like being completely dehydrated. yeah they done it bearing um And is there such thing as like over hydrating over fueling for like, cause you know, some people might say like, well, if I drink like the most and if I eat the most and I'll recover the best. That's what I mean, I love that. I mean, if people could do it, great, especially on the fueling side of things, who are over fueling and they're not having stomach issues, are probably performing as well as they could, unless they're literally walking, eating slices of pizza, and you know, they're sacrificing their performance. So we're aiming to be the best we can in in whatever we're doing. ah Yes, you can over hydrate. They talk about that a lot. And so,
00:24:22
Speaker
hyponatremia is when you drink too much water without electrolytes, it actually causes that swelling effect in cells. um That's not good. It stops the flow of the water. The other thing is you can see when you're ah hydrating too much as well. Go and look at let's say you've got your watch and you start to see the swelling, the print of your watch strap around your arm or where your socks are and you're kind of like bulging boy checked you're bulging around where the elastic of your socks is that means great you're consuming lots of fluid with electrolytes because you're getting water retention thanks to the electrolytes however you don't need that much your body's literally starting to balloon so yes there is too much um and you can recognize it do you think that these things all these factors play a bigger part in
00:25:15
Speaker
in recovery or performance? Does that make sense? Like in, or like injury prevention, you know, like, is it, you know, cause like the training is going to also make you perform. Of course you need things that are going to help you recover so you can do the next one. Cause it's like stacking efforts, right? Yeah. But yeah, do you think it's more on one side or the other?
Balancing Training and Recovery
00:25:40
Speaker
Okay. So. Yeah, so they go hand in hand. First of all, they are going to compliment each other so well. um The fact is, you know, you can't perform better unless you put the hard work in. I'm not going to be able to sell you a magic, magic protein bar or anything. I wish I could, but it's, it's going to be down to the hard work that goes in. It's going to be down to those uncomfortable, you know, hours on the track or and on on the road or the mountain and things. those That's the reality. It's,
00:26:11
Speaker
intelligently supporting that with good fueling, which is going to help you get the best out of that. And like what we were talking about at the very beginning, recognizing that over-training, that sort of, we need to stimulate our body not too much too often, but we want to sort of keep a minimum like growth level as you know, challenge level so that we don't stagnate and we we're actually constantly, constantly improving because I think we always want to get better. um How much better and how much pain we're ready to put ourselves through is is our individual case. Some of us are ah crazy for it. Other people are just ready to have some fun and just want to get a little bit better. um But yeah, the two go hand in hand, but number one is going to be the the the actual work you put into it.
00:26:56
Speaker
And if you had to rank these things, like let's say, you know, I know people are just getting into the sport. They don't really know enough about any of these topics, but like if you had to rank them in terms of importance, could
Incorporating Strength Training
00:27:09
Speaker
you do that? and And also like, what's the, like the, you know, the basics that someone can do just as like an intro to these things? Um, that's, that's a really good question. I mean, if I was going to sit down, I think what's going to stand out and possibly resonate with, uh, with a new athlete is simply the training plan themselves. I mean, it's the most important thing is get out there and do it. And my hat goes off to the person that puts that effort into that training plan, whether they were the last person over the finish line or the first person, the difference is they've had more time to train to do it first person. That's the difference.
00:27:47
Speaker
And so everyone just gets out there and does something. And I think having those highlights in your week, you know, let's say it's an interval training or a long workout or some sort of special flat leg variations, whatever it is, putting those focuses in there. Um, and then after that, I do put a lot of emphasis, uh, and I maybe not ranking it as I would like to ah spend more time to focus on that, but I do put a lot of emphasis on the ability of going to the gym and doing strength training. So strength training is what's going to help you avoid injury in a big way. um That's you straight not just the power muscles, but the stabilizers and all the muscles around. I think that's a huge game changer for for people that get injured a lot.
00:28:31
Speaker
We're talking about our friend at the beginning there who's got a broken metatarsal. Yeah, it's periodization. So in that three to four weeks of those training, having it bit a bit of time to rest and recover, great to just sort of, you know, do other stuff and spend all your time time training, you know, see friends, have a bit, you know, kind of do other things. That's a a good way to to create balance in your life. Um, but again, all of these things, I think if they're just sort of, you know, plug in, attach a bit of fueling, a bit of thought, a bit of fueling, once you know it, you kind of get a feel for it becomes part of the process. But a bit of fueling and hydration with each of these things being done is going to be, uh, is going to be sort of a great part. So you build up to it. Don't expect to have no, all of these things straight away. Um, just enjoy the process. I think that's possibly the most important thing.
00:29:22
Speaker
is enjoy getting into it, enjoy the fun parts of it and you know just keep your ears open, keep learning. Sure. Yeah. No, it's, that's great tip. It's like, just touch on all these things. Like you touch on tempos and speed work and easy running, just like, it's just like getting to know yourself a little bit through the sport. And then, but also with the other thing is also like what you like and how you like to hydrate and different products and stuff like that too. So, yeah um, and the strength work, do you normally suggest doing the strength work on like an off day or on a workout day before or after a hard workout or run?
00:29:55
Speaker
Again, it it comes down to the individuals. I'm sure there are optimal moments, which are probably on the days off. Don't go and do your heaviest squats the morning of the afternoon. You're going to go hit hit the track and do high speed workouts. You're probably going to have some heavy legs trying to do that speed work. So there's definitely factors of getting you know intense things too close to each other. Um, uh, I think I was in a period and again, this is periodization more on a monthly scale. And so I was really enjoying my December's off typically, you know, just definitely taking it easy, having some fun with life. But, you know, January 1st, I was back in the gym and sometimes even before then. And I did a lot of strength work, big strength work in January, February and March.
00:30:40
Speaker
And then as those longer, sort of more weather got better and we're spending a more time out outside of the roads and doing, and trails and spending time, like long time time outside, I would start moving away from that a little bit and just sort of maintaining my strength work. So a lot of strength stuff in the off season and there was more maintenance. So maybe just once or twice a week going to the gym, repeating those things and sustaining the power that I had developed, not trying to increase it. Um, if you're a bit less sort of, let's say seasonal and you just, you know, you want to build a routine in your life, I'd say, yeah, you know, on the, on, on the off day, um, it's a great time to go to the gym or if you just want to profit from your off day than the day before. And then you've just got that whole day off to to enjoy doing other things. And, and like I, like what you said about the off season, cause some people think, Oh, I got a power through, like they just had a great year and they don't want to take a break because they think they're going to lose something. And so how, like.
00:31:36
Speaker
How important do you think those, you know, those breaks are? Let's say on a month, if we look at a month um or even a season, like taking that one week off every every four weeks and maybe like a month off at the end of the year, maybe December is a good time with the holidays and everything. And and um how important do you think that is? And and is it enough to prevent injury?
00:31:59
Speaker
Well, again, so, yeah, lots of things come to mind when you say that. And so I think again, it depends on your focus. Let's assume you're someone who's really getting into the sport, seeing yourself wanting to progress and spending time there, then definitely looking at that seasonal approach and taking time off is really important. thinking, okay, I'm just going to get to this like weekly, intense, 100K, 150K a week, like average, and just keep on doing it through, you know, every week, because that's who I am, is going to probably either just ultimately result in total plateau of performance, like improvement, um or just repeated injuries, because you're constantly at the edge of your your physical ability. And then a bit of your brain will say, I've been off because I've been injured, I need to get back all the stuff that I've been missing out. And so you're probably rushing into the next injury.
00:32:48
Speaker
Is it taking a bit more of a step back and always if you are better in the long term to be not injured and progressing slower than progressing fast and constantly injured because that's just a hectic kind of approach. It's going to be totally chaotic doing that. But if you're, let's say, just in the sport and you're going, hey, I love running. I want to go and run with my friends, maybe do a marathon or maybe just you know join a half marathon in the spring or something and just enjoy being out there. I think the periodization takes a little bit less importance because it's more a part of building a routine than a lifestyle.
00:33:22
Speaker
It's that difference between an intense lifestyle, expecting a lot from yourself versus, you know, just sort of enjoying running and things. And so let's go back to the, let's call them the athlete who is really keen to sort of it progress. I think going into these monthly cycles, giving he yourself a ah week off, and I've heard of athletes who do 10 day repeat, you know, 10 day cycles or four days off. or three weeks on and one week off, it can vary. But give yourself that time to recover. Give that time to off. Your body feels so much better after even just three days of chilling and then going back in. You'll start seeing in the next weeks how you progress and how your body is going, you know what, I can now recover and get back in it harder. Yeah. And I've thought about this too, like coaching athletes as well, just
00:34:12
Speaker
this idea of, you know, we we always build plans like on a week to week, you know, for the seven days, seven, you know, seven days. but Like, do you think there's, so you're saying maybe there's a benefit to to doing it like a 10 day week or, and then having a rest or, you know, like, how does, I mean, you've, you hear some like amazing athletes, especially like in the trail space that i've I've heard recently speak about it, but just like really going on feel and listening to their body and, and what they want to end up accomplishing on that day. Obviously, they can have the benefit of playing with less of a structure because they you know professional the one I'm speaking about is a professional, but of just kind of what you think about that. Well, I think we're we're kind of dipping into slightly the nuances of the individual, the lifestyle, and beauty of being a professional athlete and being able to do that you know as a one you wish. I mean,
00:35:09
Speaker
I wish I had been doing that. That was just the best thing. um So I would really look at it and say, yeah, we live in a kind of a seven-day work week. um It's good to build in a routine. So let's not kind of confuse things with ah with sort of a 10-day training plan, so this and this and this. If you know that Mondays are a great day to go for a swim and Wednesdays are a great way to date to get to the track, do it, then you can build in it and build in that thing. And if it's because of the week, you know, you make Sunday arrest day or even Friday, I love Friday's arrest day because the weekend was obviously a great window to train and Friday's at the end of the week. And, you know, you either want to just catch up with family or just take a, you know, at the cinema, take some time off, but find that day where you can kind of enjoy an off day. Um, and again, I think that athlete and however we live our lives is, is how it's going to be. It's, it does vary person to person.
00:36:01
Speaker
Yeah. and And like you said, for everyday people, it's a, you know, they, their lives are built on weeks, right? With work and everything like that. We don't. all of the luxury of having a two hour run on ah on a Wednesday or or or longer than that, you know? So yeah, it's important for
Stretching, Drills, and Injury Prevention
00:36:17
Speaker
sure. And and balancing all us other aspects of life with family and and whatnot. um So that's that comes in to be pretty important as well. Any other things you can think of in terms of prevention? Like are you incorporating like, ah and and and recovery, just like stretching and that kind of stuff. It doesn't necessarily have to be weight training per se, but maybe that's another component that we can
00:36:39
Speaker
We can talk about, you know, drills too, I think. or yeah oh drill so yeah Stretching in drills, I mean, oddly as my strength training like had an effect on me and I started seeing muscles I'd never seen before and I was kind of a skinny guy in and I actually was at my best when I put some muscle weight on, like three or four pounds of muscle weight on. And I noticed two things. I needed it to stretch less because I think the muscles were coming tighter less often. They were sort of able to like do all the hard work that I was putting into them. um And I was actually able to stay more flexible as well. yeah sort of i was my My strength coach was very focused on doing the full range of movement, and therefore the muscle had strength over the whole
00:37:23
Speaker
like ah spectrum of its movement. And that really helped. Yeah, I did stretching, but I gotta to say admit, I was not the most flexible person. um I knew my weaknesses, and that was probably one of them. I wish I could have been like, a bit more flexible. However, strength training really sort of is a big help. And so you know, Start by stretching, do strength training, you'll be able to, you'll be in a better situation. Uh, the drills thing, that that's an interesting one. So having coached a lot, like groups of people, and we do these drills and we see how the brain connects with different parts of their body. They're focusing on getting their knees up or, you know, the heel to the bum and things doing like broken down, like run drills.
00:38:07
Speaker
And you see how their arms do different things to what they were doing normally. And so that's actually just simply, and yeah it's it's it's the learning process and there's four steps to it. You didn't know you were doing something wrong. And then you learn that you're doing something wrong, you're doing it wrong. And you have to then thirdly, consciously focus on doing it right until the point where you're doing it right without thinking about it. And so there's that kind of like migration of of of working out. And it was great and we we're doing a ah four steps with the trail club ah for for training to see people doing that transition and i say everyone got to the third stage focus on um doing that and i just think that's just a very healthy thing to better.
00:38:50
Speaker
have communication with our brain and our body it will allow us better when it comes like trail running for example we have to be very nimble and reactant stuff our body is actually able to respond better to the things it's doing rather than you know almost just going okay i've got to run i've got to run fast i'm gonna do that and now we'll have a better sort of like a neural connection with our body it's something i'm seeing and or and maybe have woken up to more. And I think it's going to benefit people hugely. And it takes just a couple of minutes you know before your workout. It's a great chance to warm up and things. And I got to say, it's always nice to see people
00:39:29
Speaker
run well, it will be more efficient for them. They will reduce their injuries and a good looking runner is in like someone who runs with a good technique is fantastic to watch. Even though you can still get good runners, as in they can run fast, but with bad technique, it's just that those people with good technique will be able to develop further. That's a weird thing to say, but yeah, that's right. Yeah, well, they have greater potential because they're just like more efficient and whatnot.
Conclusion and Listener Feedback
00:39:56
Speaker
So I think that's a great way to wrap up this conversation. I think it's it was awesome to talk about all the different things that help us recover. And um for a lot of people, they don't know a lot about ah these topics. And I always find it interesting and refreshing to kind of
00:40:12
Speaker
speak about them and and touch on them a little bit more. So I appreciate it. I think it was extremely, it was like a bit of information dump from my end. So by all means, anyone that's listening, feel free to drop in a question or a comment. and we'll We'll try and jump on it. Yeah. And we'll also try and add the links to the resources that you were talking about. If you can pull them up, that'd be it'd be amazing. Thanks so much, Alistair. Hey, much appreciate Justin. Cheers. Thanks for tuning in to the Just In Strive podcast. I truly appreciate you taking the time to listen and I hope you enjoyed that conversation as much as I did. Please take a minute after this to rate and review our show on Apple Podcasts. With your feedback, we'll be able to make the show even better and it'll help us reach new listeners too. You can also find us on Instagram at JustinStrydPod for all the latest episodes and updates.
00:41:03
Speaker
Of course, this show wouldn't be possible without a solid team behind me. With logo and design by Vanessa Pugliese, as well as audio, music, and editing by Forest McKay, a huge thank you goes out to both of them. Guest outreach, social media, writing, and advertising are handled by me, your host, Justin Pugliese. Finally, we'd like to thank you, our listeners, for coming along for the ride with Justin Strad.