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#45 - Five Days Out
0 Playsin 8 minutes
In this episode, I give you a raw recap of my 12-week prep for the 20-mile trail race. From the highs of locked-in training sessions to the lows of battling fatigue and doubt, I break down the process, the lessons, and the mindset shifts that got me here. It hasn’t been easy. Nothing worth doing ever is. Now, with race day closing in, I’m ready to crush it. Tune in to hear the unfiltered truth about discipline, sacrifice, and pushing through the ups and downs to meet the challenges head-on.
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Transcript
Pre-Race Reflections and Training Insights
00:00:21
Speaker
What's up everybody? Welcome back. It is 6.30 on Monday after a long Labor Day weekend. And I'm just going to give you, we'll make it quick, but I'm going to do a recap.
00:00:37
Speaker
I'm five days out from my 20 mile trail race. And I can tell you, I'm pretty beat. Actually, I'm smoked.
00:00:47
Speaker
um But I'm not concerned about that because this has just been 12 weeks of up and down, energy levels high, energy levels low, mindset up and down.
00:01:04
Speaker
And that's the whole point of the process, right? Yeah. You don't just show up and run 20 miles.
00:01:16
Speaker
A lot of people right now think that, at least what I'm hearing right when I'm listening to different people talk about mindset and and performance, people think that they can just show up and use their mind to you know to get 20 miles in. And I will tell you that that is not the case.
00:01:35
Speaker
You to train the body too, right? And um that's what I've been doing. And I'm super excited, show up, put on a show, um and really prove to myself, because that's the only person you got to prove anything to, and get this job
Mountain Run in Acadia: Challenges and Takeaways
00:01:51
Speaker
done.
00:01:51
Speaker
So five days away. i Last weekend was up in Acadia. Had a nice, think it was like a five mile. i don't even know what it was actually. It was it was a mountain run. It was beautiful.
00:02:06
Speaker
I had a great time. I set out to just get some quick mileage in and I was like planning on it kind of being like a flat run around a lake and it turned out to be so much more than that. um But it was absolutely probably one of the best runs I've had in a long time.
00:02:21
Speaker
It was five miles, about a thousand foot of vertical gain in about an hour and 20 minutes. 75% of it was runnable and ah the rest was a rock scramble. So you can you know you get used to main. Main trails are great because they'll pretty much send you straight up. New Hampshire tends to kind of fuck around a little bit.
00:02:39
Speaker
They'll send some switchbacks at you and whatnot, but Maine pretty much get you right up and right down and um That is something that I love but 12 weeks of prep.
Managing Energy and Maintaining Momentum
00:02:49
Speaker
I want to tell you what that looks like And I'll start with week one Week one was miles three 16 miles week two was fourteen point seven miles week three was sixteen miles Week four was 13.6 miles week 5 16 week 6 0 and that was one of the the low points that we hit here, which I've talked about then I was back at it for week 7 at 18 miles then had another dip to six miles then to zero um another struggle
00:03:28
Speaker
But climb back to 21 miles that next week Followed by 12 miles And then followed by this recent week Of 28 miles so um So I'm locked in I'm ready to fucking go I'm excited Can't wait to get through these next couple days at work And then just let loose on Saturday um You know I'm expecting the pain And I'm ready for it And I'll tell you I was prepping a little bit for it this week and this weekend And I'll get to that But
00:03:59
Speaker
Coming into, after the trip to Acadia, coming home, starting my week, Monday, Tuesday was just terrible. Completely smoked, had nothing to give anybody, um started to get down on myself, started feeling bad for myself. And, you know, I had done that podcast where I talked about building your own energy
The Importance of Perseverance and Work Ethic
00:04:21
Speaker
and how, you know, you can generate energy even from a point of where you're, you're you know, you're thinking that none will ever come again, right? so I was able to climb out of that funk by telling myself, hey, listen, man, and know you don't feel good. I know you're tired.
00:04:39
Speaker
I took two days, rested, slept like crazy. Boom, back at it, hit five miles on the treadmill the following day. so that was like I think that was a Thursday.
00:04:50
Speaker
um Then hit a nice seven miles on Friday. Great run. It was like 5.30 in the morning, earned my sunrise, which I think is also something to mention.
00:05:05
Speaker
I've talked about it a few times. i said, listen, just go out for a walk and you know early in the morning. you know and And I know a lot of people weren't gonna do it, but the one or two that do, you'll see what I'm talking about, man.
00:05:16
Speaker
Get out there, earn the fucking sunrise, get a view that most people aren't going to get. And, um you know, you got to work for it, man. You got to work for it. And I think that's what's so special about it. So when I'm up 530 in the morning, I'm running.
00:05:30
Speaker
It's dark. I'm watching the sunrise. Right. And then I get up to Canoma Point, come around the corner and there it is. one of the most beautiful sunrises I've ever seen.
00:05:42
Speaker
And I know that there's other high performers looking at that same sunrise. So get out there, experience it. I love it. That's what it's all about. So anyway, I had low energy coming in. That's what I want to talk about, right?
00:05:56
Speaker
I felt like absolute shit was in the dumpster. Mindset was starting to waver. And I just knew that I had to get moving, right? Because when you're when you're down like that and you're not feeling good,
00:06:10
Speaker
you think that you need to just stop doing everything. And I've made that mistake. But when you stop doing everything, then the mindset starts to kind of slip. And then you start to get upset with yourself that you're not doing anything.
00:06:21
Speaker
And then for some reason, you start feeling bad for yourself. And then all your energy starts draining out. So when I start to feel that way, and I feel that way right now, and I know tomorrow is gonna suck, okay?
00:06:33
Speaker
But I'm ready for it. I know how I'm gonna feel, and I know that I got four days to really kind of recover hard.
Adapting to Unexpected Running Challenges
00:06:41
Speaker
Ramp up the carbs, eat a ton of food, sleep a ton, just try to have a low stress week, and and show up ready to perform.
00:06:50
Speaker
But the whole point is, Is that I made the end of my week one of the best weeks I've had for my training, even though the beginning of it started out terribly, right?
00:07:03
Speaker
If you had told me at the beginning of the week that I was going to crank out a 16-mile run on a Sunday, ah would have laughed at you. Because I can tell you, we were headed up to Wolfboro, and... um
00:07:18
Speaker
I was not gonna bring my bike or my running stuff. I just wanted to relax because I came off ah you know a low energy week, cranked five on the treadmill, seven on Friday, and I'm like, I need to just relax.
00:07:32
Speaker
My wife talked me into bringing my bike. Her cousin's kids love riding mountain bikes, and i love riding with them. So she's like, you know, convinced me to bring it. She's like, listen, dude, just go out for a nice easy ride. Have fun. Relax.
00:07:47
Speaker
She's like, all right, yeah, no problem. So I intentionally was like, I'm not bringing my running stuff. but i threw some shoes in the car i packed some clothes i could run in but i didn't bring my hydration vest i didn't even bring like um i have like a small carrier that'll like kind of goes around my waist where i can throw two like water bladders in and my cell phone uh and and you know some calories and i intentionally didn't even bring that i didn't bring any calories in it didn't bring anything right so i'm like all right maybe
00:08:20
Speaker
maybe I'll run like two to five miles just just because, right? Let's see how I feel.
00:08:27
Speaker
So I get there and, um you know, we spent a lot of years at the lake up in Wolfboro and we were visiting, you know, Devin's family, which was a blast. I had probably the greatest time I've had all summer. So anyway, rode bikes on Saturday, got some nice miles in, had a great little time.
00:08:46
Speaker
And then, you know, we came back to the place and we're hanging out and...
00:08:52
Speaker
There's a guy there who's trained for many, many Ironmans. And we were talking and I told him I have my 20-miler coming up. And he's like, well, hey, listen, you know, tomorrow get like a nice run in. You know, the trails around here are great. And, you know, just just easy. Enjoy yourself.
00:09:11
Speaker
And I didn't like have the heart to tell him like, oh, you know, man, i was like going to think about resting, you know, wah, wah, wah, right? Because, you know, he could probably do 20 mile hour in his sleep, you know, and here I was sitting there about to make an excuse.
00:09:28
Speaker
And instead I just shut my mouth and I was like, great, I guess we're running in the morning. So I had a great night. Saw a shooting star when we were out having a fire.
00:09:40
Speaker
Just had an all around amazing day. Woke up in the morning, felt like didn't want to run. um Sat there, looked at the shoes for a while.
00:09:51
Speaker
was like, you know what, just just get out there, dude. Just get out there, run into downtown. so there's like a rail trail. it's ah It's beautiful. And you can go left and left goes to downtown Wolfboro. It's about three miles.
00:10:03
Speaker
And then right goes out to like Wakefield, New Hampshire, and think it's like 11 miles one way, right? So I head down towards downtown, and I was like, oh maybe you know maybe I'll just run three, get a coffee, you know relax, and and run three back. I mean, to be honest with you, it started with, I'm going to run 2.5, turn around, and run 2.5 back, and then you know call it a day.
00:10:26
Speaker
So... I always tell everybody when I run, like, don't evaluate how you feel until you're past like two and a half miles. Because for me, at least every time one mile in two miles in, it always feels the same way.
00:10:43
Speaker
Like ass, like turn around. This sucks. Nothing good is going to happen from this. Like, let's get out of here. Right. So I ran downtown and I had intention of getting a coffee, sitting down and then running back.
00:10:55
Speaker
But I didn't bring like my carrier, like I mentioned earlier. So I had to like take my case off of my cell phone and just put my tuck my cell phone in. Like I have some running shorts that have like a tight pocket in them.
00:11:09
Speaker
So I threw it in there, holds it tight to your leg. But I took the case off and the case is my wallet. It has all my cards in it and stuff. So I get downtown and I'm like, oh, let's get a coffee. and I'm like, you know, fuck. I don't even have any money, you know.
00:11:21
Speaker
And um not to mention that the one place downtown Lydia is a cash only anyway. So, you know, don't even know what I was thinking. So I started running back. And so that's, you know, mile three plus hit mile three and a half. And I'm like, you know what, like, let's run seven.
00:11:38
Speaker
I like seven, you know, it feels good. So kept running, ended up running right past where I would turn into the shore to end my run. I was like, you know let's go a little bit further. So I get to like 10 miles and I'm like, oh man, like, fuck it. Let's do a half marathon.
00:11:54
Speaker
And when I put those things in front of myself, like if I, once I say, yeah let's do it, like I have to do it no matter what. And you as soon as the thought pops into my head, right? Because who, you know, who would want to do that before, you know, this big race, right? Most people are going to be, hey, like, like you know take it easy. Let's go. And here I'm like, you know, maybe, maybe just test myself a little bit before the main event, right?
00:12:16
Speaker
And that's kind of meant my mentality anyway. So i was like, you know, let's hit let's hit the miles. So problem is, is that I didn't have any calories. I didn't have any water because I didn't plan to be out there running. So I called in to my wife and I told her, I said, hey, listen, I don't have any food. don't have any water.
00:12:33
Speaker
Can you have, you know can you have the kids bring some watermelon and some water with electrolytes down on their bikes?
Adjustments and Lessons Learned from Long Run
00:12:41
Speaker
So I was like probably four miles away from where they were at.
00:12:46
Speaker
But it's a real trail so they can make some good time. So I just kept headed out. I just kept burying the miles and I ended up getting, i think it was probably 11 miles, 12 miles before I turned around. Came back about a half mile and there they were, showed up on their bikes, had some watermelon and about 30 ounces of water and they headed back and So did I so ended up rounding up 16 miles Longest I've ever run in my lifetime. I ran 15 back in May when I was in the Hamptons and So up in Wolfboro Cracked my longest run ever 16 miles Let me see I can look up the time here in case anybody's curious.
00:13:29
Speaker
I really don't I really don't care too much about it I know my pace started falling off after 10 miles, but I ended up finishing, I think it was, let's look, hold on one second.
00:13:42
Speaker
All right, so total mileage 16.02 with an 11.11 pace, two hours and 59 minutes on my feet. So what's important to know there is 20 miles on the trails. I'm gonna be out there probably if I have a good day I'd say probably two hours longer than that.
00:14:05
Speaker
So my mentality of being out there running all that mileage was to just say, hey, listen, like I'm suffering. This is gonna suck, but it's gonna be even worse 20 miles on the trail. So let's build up to it. Let's get a little bit of that pain in today.
00:14:20
Speaker
And let's discover some things that we need to know before race day. And I'll tell you what I discovered. So toes started getting a little tender, bottoms, pads of my feet started getting a little tender. So we discussed that and now we have to make sure to put some lubricant on my toes, Vaseline or like, um you know, like the, any gelatin, like substance, like, you know, what I think it's the stuff you put on your tattoos.
00:14:47
Speaker
That works good too. Keeps everything kind of lubricated. And then Not to give too much information, but that type of mileage, you know, your ass cheeks start rubbing together and they start to kind of chafe and they start to wear against each other. So I'd say probably around mile 14, you know, if if you've got no ass, you're in you're in good shape.
00:15:08
Speaker
But if you're like me and you got some cheeks, like you got to make sure, you you know, you put some, ah they make this thing called nut butter. So i'll be I'll be packing that in to make sure that I don't have any issues.
00:15:21
Speaker
come race day. But listen, i if I hadn't ran those 16, probably would have figured this out the hard way on race day. So note everybody out there pushing the mileage up.
00:15:32
Speaker
If you got some ass cheeks, you know, make sure you put the proper lubricant between the cheeks before you go out for a long run. um I don't want you to learn the hard way. So anyway, 16 miles down, i spent the rest of the day on a cloud, eating whatever I want, um just really enjoying the effort.
00:15:51
Speaker
Drove home last night, got back home, and this morning woke up fucking feeling like absolute shit, which was expected. um But, you know, my wife had some things planned. She wanted to go for a ride in the S2000, and we wanted to go to the beach. So I woke up this morning, got like 10 and a half hours of sleep, and I really didn't want to go drive my car even though that's like one of the most fun things right i was just Just didn't feel good Smoked for a good reason, right?
00:16:21
Speaker
But I said, you know what? Let's just push through it. Let's go get the car Let's go for a rip whatever so I go get the car came back to my wife up We hit a couple local farms got some stuff for dinner tonight. I got Dom's steak tips I got some great mozzarella to go with some of the Tomatoes I got at top of the hill farm and in Wolfboro um So yeah, going to have a great dinner tonight, packing some carbs, probably do some white rice with some but some really good butter.
00:16:48
Speaker
um Yeah, I'm already tasting it now. This is the only thing, this podcast stands between me and dinner right now. um
00:16:58
Speaker
So we'll we'll ah we'll go for a little bit longer and then I'm out of here. Anyway, got to drive my car today and then hit the beach and had a great day. And I'll tell you right now, I can feel the exhaustion kind of setting in. So I know tomorrow's gonna be difficult and then probably the day after, but right now,
00:17:15
Speaker
The strategy is right now hitting the foot bath with some Epsom salt, um using the massage gun on my legs and trying to stretch out a little bit and just trying to keep a positive mental attitude because that's what
Running as a Metaphor for Life
00:17:29
Speaker
starts to fade. You start getting kind of short with people.
00:17:32
Speaker
You know, you have little patience and you can just feel the overall fatigue setting in. So that'll go away soon here if I just lock in the sleep and just not overthink it. So this is just a preview to how I'm going to be feeling next Sunday when I talk to you guys after completing that race.
00:17:48
Speaker
So that will be a difficult one to jump on because I will be super tired, but I will be super stoked about completing it. And yeah, I get it. I haven't completed it yet and I'm already talking about completing it, but who would ever talk about not completing it, right? So I know I'm going to crush it.
00:18:06
Speaker
I'm excited. Got a text from somebody the other day that said, yo, listen, bro, this is light work for you. Light work, baby. And that that message inspired me. I was fucking stoked when I read it. I got started getting jacked the fuck up because I know like come the day that I got to perform, like I fucking know how to perform.
00:18:27
Speaker
I know how to flip that fucking switch and that's what's been going on. I've been buried in the process, struggling. You guys have heard it. I've been fucked up. Week to week, it's been a struggle. Ups and downs, fucking rollercoaster ride.
00:18:40
Speaker
But I'm ready. That's what this is about. So I walk in. When I tow the starting line, I'm ready to fucking go. That's the whole thing. There's no doubt. There's no fear. There's no insecurity. Like, I'm getting across the finish line. I got to fucking crawl there. I will.
00:18:54
Speaker
Like that's it. I know and I can trust myself that I'm going to get this fucking shit done. Right? So when I see a text like that, light work, like I'm like, yeah, fuck yeah. Light work, baby. Let's do it.
00:19:07
Speaker
I love the suffering. This is why I do everything that I do because guess what? The best part is not about the running. It's never been about the running. Okay? It's about the quitting.
00:19:20
Speaker
Because when you run, every single step you can quit. You set out to run X amount of miles. Nobody's going to make you do it. Okay? You can turn around at any time. No one's going to know.
00:19:34
Speaker
Fuck, you could still go tell everybody, oh yeah, I ran five and you fucking and you didn't even get out of bed, right? Only you know. The guy in the mirror fucking knows. He's the one keeping the fucking score, right? But it's about the quitting.
00:19:45
Speaker
So when I go out and run, every single step, I can quit. But every single step that I don't, that's just strengthening my mind. Okay. There's proof that the amygdala is like every other muscle in the body. You can strengthen it.
00:20:00
Speaker
Okay. That is the muscle that stops you from quitting. Okay. So I keep standing in there every single step, every single mile, because I know it's not about the running. Okay, because it's about everything else in my life building the business Okay, there's been so many times where i've had so much doubt so much fear so much insecurity about you know putting myself out there And there it is The running has taught me not to quit. It's taught me how to push through that doubt that fear that insecurity Right. It's not about the running.
00:20:31
Speaker
It's about not quitting So that's why it's so important to me
00:20:37
Speaker
So I'm going to tell a story that goes back to my childhood that I draw on for, I wouldn't say confidence, but
00:20:54
Speaker
I guess maybe not faith either. it's just more about like knowing who the fuck I am and how I was raised. Or not even that, the expectations.
00:21:07
Speaker
of who I should be, right? And my father set that expectation for me and my mother, but my dad's a ah big part of this story. So when we were kids, we would do a lot of hiking in the White Mountains. And I've mentioned this before, but I've done all the 4,000 footers in New Hampshire. And I didn't realize how cool of a feat it was until I started you know getting to know you know some people As an adult when I would tell people that they think that was really cool as a kid I fucking hated it um Every weekend going up and hiking mountains, but you know that taught me something and I'll tell you if you have kids Get them on the woods so get them climbing mountains. It teaches you a lot But there's this one particular hike and I'll never forget it.
00:21:51
Speaker
It was an overnighter out of the Pemajawasa wilderness and bond and bond cliff little bond it was a fucking like 24 mile loop or some shit but anybody that knows the pema juas at wilderness there's like an eight mile walk into the trailhead and like you can't ride a bike that's fucking cheating right so you gotta walk so you carry your pack your overnight pack you're just humping it in all the miles look the same dude you know and it's and it sucks and So we do this big, long loop, spend the night below treeline, hang your food, do all that jazz.
00:22:25
Speaker
And I think well I was probably 12, say probably 12 years old. give give me Give or take a few years, I'm not sure. don't even if my mom and dad would remember how old I was.
00:22:36
Speaker
But I can tell you I was i was young. And on the way in, this is what makes it even crazier. On the way in, we're we're headed into the, like there's this giant like gable bridge, like cable bridge that goes across. And we're going down the cable bridge and there's a woman like hysterical.
00:22:56
Speaker
I'll never forget it. She was in her 60s, hysterical. And we ended up finding out that her husband had a heart attack on the mountain and they had to airlift him. So here we are, I'm like, I'm a little kid, my brother's young, we're heading in for an overnight hike on a trail that somebody just had a heart attack on, right? So that just adds to it.
00:23:18
Speaker
So anyway, we bang out the first night, coming out the second day, tired, low on food, low spirit, right? And then we finally get to this eight mile stretch out, right?
00:23:31
Speaker
and i can remember my brother and i couldn't feel our legs crying the whole way right just like crying walking and crying and my dad would just look at us and say hey five more minutes and he must have said five more minutes for the next three hours but we got there and i can remember how i felt how my legs felt, how my spirit felt.
00:23:57
Speaker
still remember that. And I just kept going five more minutes. I just kept surviving five more minutes, five more minutes, five more minutes. I have yet to feel that pain, that Break of my spirit.
00:24:13
Speaker
um But that rally. Haven't felt that since then. And I'm searching for that. um I'm searching to be crying. On that fucking trail.
00:24:25
Speaker
And still pushing through it. Do I think 20 miles is going to do it? I don't know. We'll find out. But if 20 miles doesn't do it. And I'm putting this out here right now.
00:24:37
Speaker
Because if I know I put it out there right now. I'm going to have to fucking do it The next, after the 20 mile, I'd love to say it's a marathon, but maybe it's just a 50K ultra, right?
00:24:53
Speaker
50K ultra marathon, maybe that. If the 20 mile doesn't find the tiers, maybe that will, okay? And the lesson from that story that I take with me is that you can push to tears and you can keep going.
00:25:11
Speaker
And then you can learn something from it. And then you can be really proud of it. And then it can define the rest of your life and how you show up. So for any of you, wherever you are in your life, push to tears.
00:25:27
Speaker
Whether that's physically, whether that's mentally.
00:25:32
Speaker
We all know that I have pushed to tears mentally. And that has taught me tons of things, but I'm looking for the tears physically.
Embracing Race Day with Anticipation
00:25:42
Speaker
And I think that will be a very special moment that I make sure to share with you.
00:25:48
Speaker
So we're ready to roll. I'm locked the fuck in, looking forward to the pain. i know it's going to hurt, but I can assure you, I will be fucking smiling the entire time.
00:26:06
Speaker
Catch you later.