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#522 How to Know If You’re Overtraining or Undertraining
89 Plays8 days ago
In Episode #522 of the Grit2Greatness Endurance Podcast, we tackle one of the most common athlete questions: How do I know if I’m overtraining or undertraining? Coaches Rich, April, and Lauren break down the science, signs, and strategies to find your sweet spot for optimal performance. Plus, we share exciting announcements, the G2G Workout of the Week: Sleep, and a reflective Fun Segment: The Rearview & The Road Ahead. Sponsored by Vespa Power Endurance and TriDot Training, this episode is packed with insights to help you train smarter and race stronger.
#Grit2Greatness #CoachingTips #Ask A Coach #TriathlonCoach #TriathlonPodcast #303Endurance #TriDot #EnduranceAthlete #SwimBikeRun #GetGritty #TriathlonTraining #CyclingLife #RunningCommunity
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Coach Contact Info:
April.spilde@tridot.com
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RunDot Signup - https://app.rundot.com/onboard/sign-up/aprilspilde
Coach Lauren Brown
Lauren.brown@tridot.com
TriDot Signup - https://app.tridot.com/onboard/sign-up/laurenbrown
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Coach Rich Soares
Rich.soares@tridot.com
Rich Soares Coaching
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Transcript
00:00:17
Rich
All
Kickoff and 2025 Reflections
00:00:17
Rich
right. Happy new year and welcome to episode 522 of the grit to greatness podcast. We are your host coaches, Rich Soares, coaches, April Spilde and coach Lauren Brown.
00:00:29
Rich
We are on a mission to help endurance athletes train smarter, race stronger, and build the grit it takes to achieve greatness. Coach April, coach Lauren, are you ready to ring in 2026?
00:00:41
Rich
twenty twenty six
00:00:43
April
Totally ready, Rich. I have my chamomile tea here. I have my habits mug and I've got my amazing friends here to kick off 2026. So I couldn't ask for more to get this year started.
00:00:56
Lauren Brown
Heck yeah, same. I'm like so pumped for 2026. I feel like the momentum that was created at the end of 2025 was so high that I just know the three of us together and just, I'm just confident that this is going be an amazing year. So I can't wait. i love being here with you both. So ready to go.
00:01:21
Rich
Let's ring in the new year. We've got a great show. This is going to be 2026. It is your year to fill in the blank. Okay. So let's roll into today's show.
00:01:33
April
I love that. Fill in the blank. So we always start with our announcements and news. We're going to catch you up on all things grit to greatness. Make sure you have everything you need to start this year off on the right foot.
Finding Training Balance
00:01:45
April
We have our Ask a Coach, which is about understanding and knowing if you're overtraining or undertraining, which is a very valid question when it comes to our peak performance and how we make the most of this year.
00:01:58
April
Coach Lauren is bringing us our focus, ah our grit to greatness workout of the week. And it's a little different, although I would, I would categorize this as,
00:02:03
Rich
Thank you.
00:02:08
April
the most important thing for your workout, and that is your sleep quality. So we're going to talk about how to enhance and, and hopefully skyrocket your sleep quality into the new year. And then I have a fun segment that is dedicated to knowing, um, and looking at the rear view, right? So looking at 2025 and pulling out some key things that are, uh, that made and a difference for you.
00:02:35
April
And then looking forward, what are we getting ready to jump into in 2026? That's going to help us get started with impact, with growth and with continuing our grit and greatness journey here.
00:02:47
April
I did the same thing, rich, but yeah, it is ah it is a powerful two word combo.
00:02:50
Rich
Yeah, it's a great, this isn't great. Yeah, whatever.
00:02:53
Lauren Brown
Thank you.
00:02:53
Rich
It's okay.
00:02:57
April
but ah Thanks for indulging me there back to you, rich.
00:03:02
Rich
Awesome.
Community Engagement and Ambassadors
00:03:02
Rich
Awesome. So we've got a lot of announcements and news and you I'm going to start out with, you know first of all, are we did a great the post that went out, the video congratulating and welcoming our 2026 ambassadors was fantastic. Hopefully you saw that amazing reel on New Year's and just congratulations again to all of our all of our ambassadors. we are so proud that you represent us in the community and we are you know you all bring just that that courage and the you know the the warm hearts to the community and uh we're really happy to have paul hunziker caroline young henry laura applebaum ruth fountain alice costarich zed pitts michelle liddy they say that right
00:03:52
April
ah Michelle, lead. Like, I'm going to lead you into battle.
00:03:53
Rich
Lead, le lead, of course.
00:03:55
April
Yes.
00:03:56
Rich
Thank you. Oh, I like that.
00:03:57
April
Yeah, it's awesome.
00:03:59
Rich
Talk about courage. Sasha Goldsberry, Baron Thornhill, Chris Shothan, and Debbie Vasquez and Kristen Keen. Oh, sorry. And Sarah Barr. So.
00:04:10
April
Love it.
00:04:12
Rich
All right.
00:04:12
April
Yeah, Coach Lauren, I'll just...
00:04:12
Rich
And, you know, this isn't, yeah.
00:04:16
April
Coach Lauren did a fabulous job putting that video together. So I just want to give that kudos to her as not only as our ambassador program manager, but just like the tour de force for our social media.
00:04:28
Lauren Brown
I love doing it. I love celebrating other people and specifically our ambassadors, like finding the music and that like excitement behind each of them and and their names. and It filled my cup and we have we have a pretty awesome team. So seriously, like if you didn't check out the reel, go check it out, celebrate our ambassadors.
00:04:53
Rich
So be be honest. did you Who did you share? Like, did you share it with anybody over the holiday? Did you like like pull it out and like show it to somebody that you know?
00:05:03
Lauren Brown
The real, i i put that together when I was in my space.
00:05:04
Rich
Yeah.
00:05:08
Lauren Brown
So I had it, you guys were the first to see it. You both.
00:05:12
Rich
Okay. So when I got it, I actually shared it onto the screen on New Year's when we had all of our family here so all our whole family could see it.
00:05:22
Lauren Brown
Oh, that's so cool. Yeah.
00:05:24
Rich
So I wonder, my my hypothe hypothesis is, you know i wasn't even featured in that video, right? I imagine our ambassadors, I hope you guys got a chance to do this. If you haven't, this is your mission.
00:05:37
Rich
Share it with people, share and show them like what you're a part of and, or, you know, just be like me and like, you know, hold up your phone to somebody, make them look at it.
00:05:47
April
Cheers, that's amazing, Rich.
00:05:48
Rich
Um, yeah, no, it was, it was that good.
00:05:51
April
That's amazing.
00:05:53
Rich
it was, it was that quality of video.
00:05:53
April
Ugh.
00:05:54
Rich
So.
00:05:55
Lauren Brown
Thank you.
00:05:57
Rich
Well, speaking of videos, and this is not even a part of our show notes script, but I guess I better put a link here in the show notes. If you're listening to our podcast, good for you. That's awesome. Come watch our podcast. It is also on YouTube. So there's a link here in the show notes for our YouTube channel. Come watch us. Subscribe there.
00:06:16
Rich
It's a hoot. You ought to see how goofy we are when we're doing this. um this is This is not, you know, audio is great, but, you know, video is better.
2026 Training Opportunities
00:06:26
Rich
Mark your calendars for our Grit to Greatness community meeting this January 6th from 6 to 7 p.m. Mountain Time. We are hopping on Zoom again to connect as a team, share updates and some big news. We are announcing our Grit to Greatness training camp.
00:06:42
Rich
happening June 24th through the 28th it is going to wrap up with a race that weekend we are going to be ah racing culminating into a race with the boulder sunrise which is a just ah a season favorite and you'll definitely want to hear all of the details so that's a little bit of a teaser but wait tell you here who we are going to have at the camp it's gonna be awesome And yeah, Coach Lauren, Coach April, i I'm excited about our camp. I mean, this is going to be the second annual camp, a little different.
00:07:18
April
Yeah, I think the way we got this set up is going to be totally immersive, a great showcase of the front range of Colorado. We're going to have, um, I, we're not going to spoil it yet, but we're, we will have some amazing, uh, folks contributing to the camp and it's just going to be such fun, not only hanging out together and learning together, but racing together like this. This is one of the biggest highlights of, of 2026. So don't want you to miss it. It's going to be wonderful.
00:07:51
Lauren Brown
Yeah. And for anyone who is not local and gets an opportunity to fly into Colorado, take the opportunity. I cannot wait to be there training. I mean, listening to coach Rich and Coach April talk about the different places where we'll be doing some of the training,
00:08:12
Lauren Brown
sounds It sounds magical, honestly, to me from from little Jersey over here. So I just, I can't wait to have a reason to go out there. And just like April, what you said, i mean, racing together, racing with friends is so freaking fun. And the fact that we can all be rocking our grit to greatness gear and we're just going to be like We are here and it's it's it's gonna be awesome. So definitely mark your calendars. Like if you can get there, get there.
00:08:44
April
I'm getting goosebumps thinking about it, Lauren. That's just how how powerful this is going to be.
00:08:47
Lauren Brown
I just can't wait. I know, like ringing cowbells. im just kidding
00:08:52
April
yeah
00:08:53
Rich
it It really was. the The camp that we did this summer was really one of the, like it was like a dream come true. I think you know this is like something I always dreamt, like you know someday maybe I could do that. Like you know there would be a part of that or creating something like that.
00:09:08
Rich
and it was way beyond what we imagined in terms of just the bonding and the time together. And the I mean, it really is what sparked the whole ambassador program. So, yeah.
00:09:19
April
Yeah, I think it was the solidification of grit to greatness, endurance too, as a club. Like it really felt like we came together as a club.
00:09:29
Rich
Well, but wait, there's more. ah
00:09:32
April
who
00:09:32
Rich
We have, this is a part of our Grit to Greatness webinar series. It happens every third Tuesday of the month. January 20th is no exception, 6 p.m. Mountain Time.
00:09:44
Rich
We are bringing you and you more educational and empowering content to fuel your endurance journey. These sessions are all about giving you the practical tips and the expert insights that you need to train smarter and race stronger. So we are introducing Velocity. Velocity is a cutting edge training platform designed to help cyclists maximize performance through data driven insights and personalized coaching tools.
00:10:09
Rich
It offers structured training plans tailored to your goals. um It also allows us to do real time classes with you and real time instruction and give you real time analytics around your power and your cadence and your heart rate. And we are going to have such a blast with this.
00:10:31
Rich
We are going to be having the, having Velocity with us to help us kind of just talk through this program and all of its features. We're going to, you know, show you an insight on it and just how to, you know, how to get on the platform. We will also be setting you up For those who attend, we're going setting you up with a free trial so that you can join us on our, or our ambassadors can rather join us this first month in a trial ride together. And then we'll be launching this more formally in in February. So,
00:11:06
Rich
We're really excited. You guys, I know you guys are just as excited about this as I am We have been doing practice rehearsal training sessions so that we all are kind of got it dialed in. What's what's been your insight or your ahas or what are you excited about?
00:11:23
Lauren Brown
I'm excited to be on the bike riding with our athletes and like being in it with them and giving that real-time feedback, that real-time encouragement and education so that they become stronger, more confident cyclists when they're training, when they're out there racing. And yeah,
00:11:45
Lauren Brown
I love being on a bike and leading a workout. It's a lot of fun for me.
Training Intensity and Metrics
00:11:50
Lauren Brown
And um the the value of what we're able to do with the programming between, like we've talked about with cadence and power and really having that feel whether you're riding blind or not with what you're doing. And it's just, it's an amazing platform. And I think the more that we use it, the more people get on the platform and experience it, we'll just continue to become stronger as coaches and as athletes. So it's going to be amazing.
00:12:24
April
I'm excited about the variety. Like I've already started putting together some pretty fun mountain bike, uh, style rides that, uh, you know, I don't know how many people have experienced something like that.
00:12:35
April
So I think it'll be fun to add that little spice. And then, Lauren, you are an excellent coach and I'm, I'm excited to listen to you motivate the heck out of me but on your style of riding.
00:12:47
Lauren Brown
Yeah.
00:12:48
April
And then Rich has these really great stories he tells and Accoutrement. I will say that I'm not going to give it all away, but we all have our own individual personalities and training styles. And I think it's just going to really help add a lot of liveliness and fun. And just, again, getting to know each other in that way and our athletes, it's just going to be, it's going to be a lot of fun.
00:13:15
Rich
Awesome. All right. Well, you guys ready to roll into the ask a coach section?
00:13:22
April
Let's do this.
00:13:22
Lauren Brown
Yep.
00:13:23
Rich
All right. ah Let's do this. All right. So listen, I, this comes up all the time. Um, you know,
00:13:51
Rich
and that can lead to overtraining or maybe you are missing a few workouts or maybe a few workouts has turned into a few weeks and maybe you're under training. If you're trying to figure out whether you are overtraining or under training, we are here to try to help you peel back the layers and understand the, what are some of the, you know ways of first defining those terms and then what to look for and, and how to to, to manage that. So here we go. We're going to dive on in.
00:14:44
Rich
That worked for a while. In the 70s and eighty s elite runners were were logging 100 mile weeks because that was the belief, right? More is better. You ah you know you hear that all the time. um if If some is good, more must be better.
00:14:57
Rich
Fast forward to the 90s, we saw the rise of periodization. Now, this is where we started to look at structured cycles. you know We had the you know the the cycles within the entire season the the mes know the macro cycles that take place your base phase your build phase your peaking phase your recovery phase depending on what model There's also the idea of structured cycles, the mesocycles within those. So you know the idea of you know a
00:15:27
Rich
you know a a set of weeks that progressively give you more stress each week building. So think week one, you have the you know baseline stress. Week two, you get you know stress plus one, week one plus you know plus one.
00:15:45
Rich
Week three, you get even more stress. So you're building, building, building. And that fourth week is a bit of a recovery volume and intensity comes down. those, you know that was based on the understanding that we were starting to get from coaches like Tudor Bamba.
00:16:00
Rich
So, you know this is where we really started to understand, ah, the the recovery part of this is is just as important, if not more important, because it's not about how much training you can do. It's about how many how much training you can absorb or how much stress the body can absorb.
00:16:16
Rich
Now in the era of data-driven training, where we can really measure things like training stress and recovery platforms like TriDot promote the philosophy of, you know, faster results with fewer injuries. Why? Because research shows that optimal, not maximal training stress drives adaptation. Studies, um, have shown, you know,
00:16:38
Rich
you know, overtraining syndrome and Dr. Steven Seiler's work on polarized training highlight the balance, how how the balance of stress and recovery are so key.
00:16:50
Lauren Brown
So how do you know if you are tipping the scale towards overtraining or if you're leaving gains on the table by under training.
00:17:03
Lauren Brown
And it's funny, i feel like we talk more about overtraining because we are, like at least in my mind, it's like you think injuries and you're not adapting.
00:17:15
Lauren Brown
And I'm excited that we're kind of talking about both sides and maybe calling out the the side of under training, even though some people might feel like they're getting called out.
00:17:23
April
Mm-hmm. whoop
00:17:25
Lauren Brown
Overtraining first. So indicators of overtraining, persistent fatigue despite rest. So if you are going to bed and getting what you feel is an optimal amount of sleep for yourself that you've typically had, if you feel like you're getting enough rest in between sessions, and again, feeling and what really is happening might be two different things,
00:17:53
Lauren Brown
But if that's happening and you're still feeling like you're constantly fatigued, you're not catching up and feeling fresh for a workout, that is an indicator of overtraining.
00:18:04
Lauren Brown
If you're finding that your performance is declining over multiple sessions. So it's fine. Every now and then you have a workout where you're like, couldn't hit my zones that day, or I felt like I was going harder and not the pace wasn't there.
00:18:24
Lauren Brown
Fine, that does happen from time to time and that doesn't mean, oh my gosh, red flag, you're overtraining. But if you find that it's your swim, it's your bike, it's your run, it's three sessions in a row, it's now two weeks in a row, that is definitely a sign that something is off.
00:18:44
Lauren Brown
Elevated resting heart rate. Again, this is something that you can have an elevated resting heart rate on a given day. like, if it was New Year's Day and you yeah and you drank the night before and you don't normally drink, you're probably going to have an elevated resting heart rate. So that does not mean you were you were overtraining necessarily the day before. But if you see chronic elevated resting heart rate, that is absolutely something to keep in mind.
00:19:10
Lauren Brown
Mood changes. So irritability, loss of motivation, pay attention to that because i would say like most of us who are in this sport are in this sport because we love it and we're excited by the idea of progress and pushing ourselves. And if you are not motivated, that's also an indicator that something you you need to do a little check in there.
00:19:32
Lauren Brown
Frequent illness or slow recovery. If you're finding that you're constantly getting sick, especially this time of year, winter, it's happening, but your immune system might be a little bit more depressed, right? So, and if you're not recovering, so you're wearing your garment, you're wearing your whoop and you're so you're finding that your recovery is just either always in the middle or lower, that is something to consider as ah you know a signal. And then the last one is poor sleep quality.
00:20:10
Lauren Brown
So if you're, again, if you have oh if you're wearing a wearable that will track your sleep, and you can also see that you're never getting into that restorative sleep, you're kind of you're not getting into your REM or your deep sleep, or if you don't wear a wearable, which if you're listening to this podcast, odds are you do have a garment or something. But if you could just tell that your sleep doesn't feel like the right quality, Those are all indicators of overtraining.
00:20:35
April
Well said, i think, um, this, you know, this, like you said, is more common. People talk about this more commonly, um, and going into under training this, uh, this can be sneaky at times because you feel good.
00:20:51
April
Right. But we're going to talk about what are the indicators that can, uh, point to or flag when we are not getting enough stimulus to adapt to performance. So when an athlete feels consistently rested, but performance isn't improving,
00:21:08
April
It's a red flag. Often recovery is only useful if there's enough stimul stimulus to recover from under training creates a false sense of readiness. Athletes feel good day to day, but there's no adaptive pressure pushing fitness forward over time. This shows up as a stagnant race result and unchanged FTP or repeated workouts that feel fine, but never break through.
00:21:36
April
So one of the things that can be an indicator of under training is low perceived exertion during key workouts. Key sessions are designed to challenge athletes. They usually you have a specific purpose, whether, physiologically or mentally and, or both if threshold or VO two workouts routinely feel easy, conversational,
00:21:59
April
or under control, uh, from start to finish intensity or volume is likely too low while not every session so should feel brutal, right? We're not doing hero workouts every day, consistently low RPE or rate of perceived exertion during sessions meant to be demanding, suggest the body isn't being asked to adapt.
00:22:21
April
So we're kind of just maintaining. Or that lovely Garmin indicator that says we are unproductive. but ah
00:22:29
Rich
Love that, right?
00:22:29
Lauren Brown
No.
00:22:29
April
Yeah, yeah, that might be ah that might be a burn right there. Ooh. All right. Another indicator of under training is lack of progress and endurance or speed metrics.
00:22:41
April
Under training often shows up quietly in data. Long rides don't get longer pace at aerobic heart rate doesn't improve and speed or power at threshold stays flat. So essentially with under training, you're looking at what could be a flat line or an even a ah decline because you're not, your body has reached a state of homeostasis, right? It's not reached a, uh, a stimulus that has provided enough
00:23:09
April
it has not reached a point where you have stimulated growth. So the athlete may be very consistent, but consistency without progression leads to maintenance and not growth without gradual overload fitness metrics, simply hover instead of climbing.
00:23:24
April
And then we have the, uh, training score. So TSS or train X scores, um, not the same thing, but if you are using training peaks, there's a metric within there called TSS. It can provide a snapshot of overall workload relative to the athlete's capacity when weekly or block level TSS remains well below what's required for the athlete's goals, adaptation stalls for, uh,
00:23:50
April
TriDot, the platform we use, we have a, um, a metric called normalized training stress, as well as a score that's given on the workout. And when the scores are consistently low, right. Or sorry, if the, um, NTS is low, we're not hitting that, uh, needed again, stimulus to require adaptation. So yeah.
00:24:14
April
you can literally see across the metrics when the body is not, um, being challenged enough to adapt and progress. So take away with under training.
00:24:26
April
Uh, like I said, it's sneaky because athletes often feel good. Like, Hey, I crushed that workout. I feel like I could run a marathon after that. Um, but feeling good without progress is a signal.
00:24:38
Lauren Brown
Thank you.
00:24:41
April
It's not necessarily success, right? So the goal isn't exhaustion. It's effective stress enough load to challenge the system followed by recovery that allows adaptation to take hold.
00:24:52
Rich
Awesome. And for those of you who want like a deeper understanding of some of the terms that we're using normalized training stress and what that means and how it's different than things like TSS or some of the other metrics that will measure your recovery, like residual training stress.
00:25:11
Rich
like how much stress do you carry for how many days, as well as um the normalized training load, which is that chronic training load or what actually is referred to as CTL in training peaks, you know, different.
00:25:13
April
Mm-hmm.
00:25:27
Rich
um the fit logic metrics, which we provided the, I've provided the links in here for, for each of those, it'll give you a much deeper understanding of how much more precise and nuanced measures like train, normalized training steps stress are.
00:25:43
Rich
Whereas something like TSS is a very linear, like as a percent times
00:25:49
Rich
things like normalized training stress really heavily weight more of an, more in a Fibonacci scale, more exponentially weight, higher intensity than they do lower intensity. And it also weights um your training, like a minute of high intensity at the end of a workout, two hours into a workout is going to be a lot higher than it is at the very beginning of a workout, things like that.
00:26:12
April
Pulling out the old Fibonacci.
00:26:12
Rich
So all of that will, oh yeah.
00:26:14
April
Wow, Rich, that was good.
00:26:17
Rich
You know what what? What sounds really good right now is a triple grande fi Fibonacci, nonfat Fibonacci. Just kidding.
00:26:24
April
I've never had one of those.
00:26:26
Rich
i sounds like ah It sounds like a Starbucks drink, doesn't it?
00:26:28
April
Cappuccino? Yeah, it does.
00:26:30
Rich
um So anyway, we'll put those in here. Thanks, Coach April, for that that understanding of those metrics. The biometrics to monitor. So we you know this has been this has been talked about or referred to a little bit by both Coach Lauren and Coach April, but You know, biometrics, if you have that wearable and I know that, you know, not everybody wears them, but it really does help. It really does help give you some insight on a daily basis.
00:26:56
Rich
Check your heart rate variability first thing in the morning. this is This is a metric that is measuring basically how stressed or fatigued your body is. When your heart rate variability is low, your body is under high stress or high fatigue.
00:27:11
Rich
When it is high, that's good. You want it, it's supposed to be high or at least but supposed to be balanced. That is a great, great thing just to check on a daily basis. it is a It is one metric. It is one signal to be taken into account with other things like resting heart rate.
00:27:29
Rich
As Coach Lauren said earlier, if your resting heart rate is high, higher than usual, let's say, you know, three or four or five, maybe 10 beats higher, and that could be a sign that you're stressed.
00:27:41
Rich
It could also be potentially a sign that you might have a pending infection, like, you know, a cold or something like that coming on. sleep quality, poor sleep, you know sleep duration and sleep quality. Are you, are you going through, you know, normal sleep cycles?
00:27:58
Rich
Are you getting enough of those sleep cycles? Poor sleep means poor recovery. I've got, you know, there's a great book up here called, good to go. Um, We had this author, we went through the, I'll show you, I'm going to pull it up here,
00:28:12
Rich
Because this visual podcast too. This book, Good to Go by Christy, what was last name? Oh, Ashwandan. You see all those flags on this thing.
00:28:21
Rich
This took 300 pages going through every recovery tool and methodology and technique, whether it's cryotherapy or, you know, recovery drinks or what have you.
00:28:36
Rich
It took her 300 pages to say the only thing that really works for sure is sleep.
00:28:41
April
sleep.
00:28:43
Rich
Yeah.
00:28:45
April
Oh, that's so good.
00:28:46
Rich
So sleep quality,
00:28:47
April
Thank you for saving me on that.
00:28:51
Lauren Brown
Don't read the book, just go to sleep.
00:28:51
Rich
yeah
00:28:53
April
yeah
00:28:54
Rich
Just get some sleep.
00:28:56
April
Oh, it's so good.
00:28:59
Lauren Brown
think too, it's funny with the sleep with poor sleep and poor recovery and how we talk about the duration of sleep, because there are times where i may not have the duration that i would like to have.
00:29:14
Lauren Brown
Like maybe I had five and a half hours of sleep, but my stages of sleep, like three and a half or four hours of the five, I managed to have deep sleep and my recovery or my readiness will be at like 80 or 90.
00:29:14
April
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:29:32
Lauren Brown
So doing things that help get quality sleep are extremely important as well. But you want to when you're looking at these devices and want to like make sense of the feedback that you're getting from them, it's it's feedback.
00:29:49
Lauren Brown
I always try to remind myself and remind people who are really like leaning heavily into, oh my oh my God, I'm unproductive. oh my God, I'm, you know, I'm peaking right now.
00:30:01
Lauren Brown
And, you know, it's, I mean, that's always great to see, but it is, it's, it's feedback that you use with everything else. So Garmin might tell you that you're overreaching because you just had a really hard block.
00:30:12
Lauren Brown
And that's not always bad to see that you're overreaching because you might be in a build phase and that's actually part of the plan.
00:30:20
April
Mm-hmm.
00:30:23
Lauren Brown
So you want to think about, the context. You don't want to panic because one day it's telling you, slow down, you had a demanding day, right? You want to look at trends and you want to combine the data that you're getting from the device.
00:30:42
Lauren Brown
Think about how you feel because again, it might say that you had terrible sleep, but you feel great. So you can probably still work out and push yourself and not be like, oh my God,
00:30:53
Lauren Brown
Garmin told me I'm kind of behind and I feel great, but I'll probably just take it easy today. And talk to your coach. and get Get outside feedback from somebody who can also take a step back and be like, calm down or actually listen and you need to slow down.
00:31:11
Lauren Brown
So.
00:31:12
April
Excellent bottom line here is training is a stress recovery equation, just like the Fibonacci sequence up in here. It is an equation. It's it requires maths too much stress without recovery leads to break down too little stress leads to stagnation.
00:31:29
April
The sweet spot it's personal and it's why smart training, not just hard training wins.
00:31:39
Rich
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00:32:04
Rich
I have my fridge and in my fridge, look
00:32:10
Rich
This is because my trainer and treadmill are just right over there.
00:32:15
April
Perfect.
00:32:15
Rich
um Always have this handy. Less sugar, higher performance, faster recovery. There's a link here in the show notes. we're going to save you 20% off of your first order using the code 303ENDURANCE20. So stock up.
00:32:29
Rich
Race season is coming, folks. Let's let's get gritty. 303ENDURANCE20 checkup.
00:32:36
Lauren Brown
I love it. Everything is about recovery today. Vespa helps with recovery. We're talking about training, overtraining and the workout of the week. My favorite sleep, most important thing, we keep on alluding to. So it makes sense that we are talking about it now. You know, we talk a lot about training stress, intensity, consistency, but the benefits of all of that work,
00:33:06
Lauren Brown
don't happen during the workout, they happen during your
Importance of Sleep in Training
00:33:09
Lauren Brown
recovery. And sleep is where the body adapts, rebuilds and gets stronger. Like we said, training is the stimulus, sleep is the adaptation.
00:33:18
Lauren Brown
If we're not sleeping well, we're just stacking stress, stacking stress without allowing our bodies to absorb the work that we're doing. So again, it's only fair that sleep gets treated like a real workout, it gets its time to shine in your workout program.
00:33:34
Lauren Brown
And before I share anything about what's worked for me, I would love it if we can all share a little bit about our sleep rituals or things that work to help with your bedtime routine. So Coach Rich, can you share a little bit about your own routine?
00:34:15
Rich
I want to be like out of my computer and not looking and thinking and working, you know, with blue light and, you know, high brain activity, you know, right up until nine o'clock or right up until eight 30. If I do that, i am not setting myself up for success. What i try to do is start winding down at least by eight, try to close the laptop by eight,
00:34:41
Rich
That's a great time to turn the lights down in the house a little bit, maybe even, you know, turn on a candle or something like that. Take some, you know, um I am a fan of calm, which is ah just a magnesium, ah you know, drink just to kind of calm down.
00:35:02
Rich
and really start to just do some reading or some some meditation or some deep breathing or some you know some more static stretching, things that just kind of bring the the nervous system down.
00:35:17
Rich
i also am a total nerd. like i literally, like i try I want every piece of stimulation turned off. I wear a big eye mask, big old soft eye mask, and I have these earplugs. I'll put a, I'll put a link in the show notes. They're called mighty plugs. They're bright blue. They are made from beeswax and a bomb could go off and I will not hear it.
00:35:44
Rich
Like that the way I have to wake myself up is the the vibration. i set my alarm on my Garmin to vibrate. That's the only way I wake up.
00:35:54
Lauren Brown
Wow. Seeing on the opposite. I need to have a little bit of noise in the background.
00:36:01
Lauren Brown
I love that though. Thank you, Rich, for sharing that. ah April, I already have a little bit of an inside scoop on things that are working for you.
00:36:09
April
but And what I'm doing wrong. I'm just kidding. learning um
00:36:14
Lauren Brown
Abel and I have had conversations already about ah sleep habits and i am i think it'll be really helpful for people to hear what's worked for you in working on getting more sleep.
00:36:15
April
Come a long way.
00:36:18
April
Yes.
00:36:23
April
Hmm.
00:36:27
April
Absolutely. This is my number one focus for 2026 is to continue to invest in my sleep habits, my, my, my evening routine specifically. Um, cause I have a solid morning routine, which I have built over the last five years.
00:36:44
April
My evening routine has not been that consistent. Although over the last, um, about six weeks with you and I talking through it and working together, it has greatly improved. So a few things that I have started doing that have been difference makers for me. Um, I recognize just like rich, if I don't put a guardrail on, uh, digital time,
00:37:12
April
computer time or tv time that can really affect my ability to shut down, to cause that shift in my circadian rhythm, right. To want to fall asleep. So one of those things that I do also is,
00:37:28
April
about an hour prior to bedtime. I have a consistent bedtime, which is super important too. So I'm usually in bed by eight 30, give or take 10 minutes.
00:37:37
Lauren Brown
Mm-hmm.
00:38:03
April
It also helps get some moisture in the air because it is so dry in Colorado. And I can't tell you how many times I've woken up at like 3 AM m and like, felt like there was a desert in my mouth.
00:38:07
Lauren Brown
Thank you.
00:38:12
April
Like I'm going to die if I don't get a drink of water. And that usually is the problem. Cause I'll wake up at that time and it's hard to fall back asleep. So having the humidifier in the room has helped. Um,
00:38:25
April
The room is completely dark now. So that's really helped with, um, I I've tried eye masks. I've Lauren actually sent me a really great one that has been helpful, but it's just, I don't prefer it.
00:38:39
April
So if I can get the room dark and fall asleep that way, it's that's my preference.
00:38:40
Lauren Brown
See you.
00:38:45
April
Um, the other thing I am doing is this has been the number one game changer for me specifically is I don't use my phone anymore as my alarm clock. My phone is actually not allowed in the bedroom once I start my sleep ritual.
00:39:00
April
So I don't, when I wake up, which still happens, I'll still wake up around two 33. I'm not grabbing the phone to doom scroll and keep that brain lit up for another hour.
00:39:11
Lauren Brown
Mm-hmm.
00:39:14
April
Yeah. And then I get up. Right. So that's been the major difference for me now, when that happens, I try and, uh, breathe through it, which nine times out of 10, I have fallen back as asleep.
00:39:28
April
So, um, which has been so helpful if I don't, I usually just get up now and I'll, I'll get some, uh, some tea and some soft light, go into another room and try and read and try to bring back the sleepy feeling.
00:39:42
April
Um, but sometimes it it is what it is, but that, that has significantly helped me. Now I'm averaging about seven, sometimes seven and a half hours of sleep when I was, I was getting five and a half, six.
00:39:54
April
So I'm, I'm much better now, which is great. So yeah, we are on the road to recovery coach Lauren.
00:39:59
Lauren Brown
Yeah.
00:40:02
April
Yeah.
00:40:04
Lauren Brown
I love that. And it's, it's so, so important and it's, it's consistency. And I know Rich, you had said this when you first started sharing that it's like, it's the goal.
00:40:16
Lauren Brown
to do this most of the time. And so consistency in training, consistency in life isn't always exactly the same thing, but it's doing something most of the time. Right. So, um, I probably fall in that same category of, I try to do the same thing every single night. Does it always happen?
00:40:36
Lauren Brown
No. Cause like one thing that always helps me is if about an hour before bed, i could take a warm shower and just Breathe and calm down. That doesn't always happen, but I know when I can, i just feel super relaxed. It helps me physically, mentally, my nervous system. actually,
00:40:57
Lauren Brown
actually i My friend Amanda, she had referenced, and I'm going to botch it probably a little bit, but it's just the general idea. It's like the three, two, one, where it's three hours, have your last meal. like Don't have a big meal if it's more than if it's closer than three hours to your bedtime.
00:41:15
Lauren Brown
Two hours, try to really cut back on drinking too much fluids at that point. I'm talking about like water and everything, obviously not alcohol, but if you're drinking too close to bedtime, you might wake up. So I try to avoid too much to drink close to bedtime.
00:41:31
Lauren Brown
And then an hour before bed, electronics away. So I do my best to not put the TV on if I'm going to sleep. If, you know, I just try to, and now in my my bedroom, I don't have a TV. so that's great. But I, yeah, it's very, it's great. I will um read. i love Reading, i could read for like 10 to 20 minutes and i I always have deeper sleep when I read.
00:42:00
Lauren Brown
It's like hands down. And then the other thing that I enjoy doing while this is on my phone, So I do, but I do have recordings already saved on there that are meditations that just take you through some breathing and then just a guided meditation, usually thinking about like um just some like manifesting type of audio, but I keep it pretty low. I keep it, I set the timer for it and I put it on the dresser.
00:42:31
Lauren Brown
where I could hear it, but it's far enough away that I'm not picking it back up. So for me, it's shower, read, meditate. Those are the things that that really work for me. And I always say it doesn't have to be fancy. it doesn't have to be anything crazy. Consistency, right? Consistent bedtime. it should be repeatable habits that signal to your body that it's time to rest. So you can Habit stack your sleep habits. And if you're looking to build your own routine, i'm just gonna leave you with ah five simple tips to get started. So one, aim for that consistent bedtime window most nights.
00:43:11
Lauren Brown
Create a short wind down routine that you can easily repeat. Reduce screen exposure and bright light in the evening.
00:43:22
Lauren Brown
Number four, keep your sleep environment cool, dark, and quiet. Minus that little white noise, if it helps, because I do need my white noise. And then number five, give your nervous system time to shift out of high alert before bed.
00:43:37
Lauren Brown
I'm going to toss it back to Rich.
00:43:41
Rich
Yeah, those are fantastic. You know, I'll tell you, you know, and this is not my, you know, this is not my saying, but this is a saying that I got from this gentleman named Dr. Kirk Parsley, who's been a guest on this podcast twice.
00:43:54
Rich
Think about, you know, the industrial age, right? the the The, you know, think about us as human beings from an evolutionary perspective. the you know The thousands of years of our evolution, hundreds of thousands of years of our evolution were done around the you know the the sun and the moon.
00:44:14
April
Mm-hmm.
00:44:15
Rich
If we approximate what cave men and women did we're going to get pretty close, which means when the sun goes down, that's the time to stoping start winding down.
00:44:26
Rich
that's that you You're not eating after that. You're not working after that. You're not like you know you're not harvesting. You're not hunting. you're not you're You're sitting around a fire and telling stories and you know reading a book.
00:44:37
Rich
you know
00:44:37
Lauren Brown
Yep.
00:44:38
Rich
So it was fantastic. All right, so listen, you know when it comes to when it comes to supplements, you know this comes up a lot, right? you know Should I be taking melatonin? Should I be taking you know whatever, a sleep aid um Listen, there are supplements that have been researched and you know can help you know associated with helping sleep. Things like melatonin and magnesium, which we've already talked about, valerian root, theanine, glycine. and these are all you know These are all could be some supportive supplements. I will say, and I'm going to actually make a, I'll put a link here into that interview with Dr. Kirk Parsley.
00:45:18
Rich
as it relates to things like alcohol or other sleep remedies like Ambien, you ought to hear what he has to say about those things that they do.
00:45:22
April
Wow.
00:45:28
Rich
They they do make you unconscious. They do, you know, make you stop being, you know, aware of what's going around, going on. um but they do not put you into a good sleep pattern. You are not getting good quality sleep.
00:45:42
Rich
um i you know I used to take ah you know half a Nambian before going to bed. After I talked to Dr. Kirk Parsley, I'm like, I have not touched an Nambian since. I'm like, no, thank you. So um if you're interested in exploring supplements further, you know, that's a conversation, you know, it's not our lane, but you know it's a conversation you should have with a professional who has the scope to assess individual needs, medications, maybe even give you a sleep study. I've also put in here a link to Dr. Kirk Parsley's sleep remedy. It is a supplement. It does have ah basically the same combination of things that are here that we just talked about here in the show notes.
00:46:22
Rich
um But when your habits are dialed in and you start to get, you know, and and maybe supplements have a, have a supporting role, you know, things like magnesium or, you know, within reason are, um are okay, but they're never the foundation. It really is your habits. It really is getting just good, you you act like a caveman or woman.
00:46:43
April
Hmm.
00:46:43
Rich
So April, bring us home.
00:46:45
April
Yeah. I do want to share two personal wins with this because you, um, you shared, i appreciate you sharing about the ambient. I didn't know that I'm, I'm so impressed that you were able to knock that.
00:46:57
April
Um, I used to be like every night I would do a Z equal. And, or um, oh, what is the Benadryl?
00:47:08
Lauren Brown
Thank you.
00:47:08
April
Right. Um, because that was a sleep aid, um, that was always recommended, um, to help stay asleep and working with coach Lauren and really drilling down on those good habits that have helped me with sleep.
00:47:24
April
uh, quality sleep, I've completely knocked that habit. And I'm so ah proud of myself because that was, that was a hard one to relinquish at first, because I, I was like, I don't know if I can even get four hours without this. So now that I have completely dropped that and am now actually getting seven, seven, half hours sleep consistently, I'm just, oh, my life is changing in a very positive way. So It can work folks that really can. If we just take it one thing at a time where we're optimizing our space and and starting to build on the circadian rhythm, which Rich talked about with the sun set sunrise, like it is a big part of training the body to access that sleep quality sleep.
00:48:12
April
And when we think about this from the real life decisions that we are facing every day, when it comes to our training and our sleep schedule and how we use it to optimize as athletes, this is where context matters.
00:48:27
April
One short night of sleep doesn't automatically mean you skip training life happens, but when sleep loss becomes consistent, that's when it starts to impact recovery and performance in a meaningful way. And just like we talked about earlier with overtraining sleep, if we're not getting quality sleep, that is where our heart rate is impacted. That is where our ability to absorb training is impacted. Um,
00:48:53
April
It can really have a long-term rippling effect. So what are we looking for? Red flags to include, um, when we look at multiple days of poor sleep is elevated, resting heart rate, suppressed HRV, heavy legs that don't improve with a warmup mood changes,
00:49:14
April
irritability, loss of motivation, or getting sick more frequently. And, um, I'll share here too, a little bit about this last weekend. I had a crash on my bike, which scared the crap out of me. Um, was, thankfully I didn't walk away with too, like a long,
00:49:35
April
standing injury, but I could definitely tell that my knees took an impact. My hips took an impact. And, um, this week I decided to bring my training down and focus on sleep because sleep for me was what I needed to recover from how,
00:49:53
April
Uh, how much I had been affected by this crash. And I think that's a big part of this too, is when you're injured, if you aren't prioritizing quality sleep, you really are leaving a lot on the table when it comes to recovery.
00:50:07
April
And that means recovery from injury as well. So this is hitting me in all the fields because i think this has been the the thing that has made such a tremendous difference in how I approach my individual training as well.
00:50:21
Lauren Brown
Mm-hmm.
00:50:21
April
so Ah, talking about these signs, um, these are signs in the body that the body isn't absorbing training and that's when sleep becomes a non-negotiable. So instead of an all or nothing approach, athletes must make smart adjustments. That might mean shortening the session, lowering intensity, swapping and intensity for aerobic work, moving the workout later, or communicating with a coach to shift sessions strategically. Okay.
00:50:52
April
Skipping or modifying a workout isn't weakness. It is appropriate decision-making. And the goal isn't to train at all costs. The goal is to train in a way that allows you to keep showing up healthy, consistent, and progressing over the long-term.
00:51:08
April
What a great segment, Coach Lauren.
00:51:11
Lauren Brown
Thank you. It very important. I like after the holidays too, when all of us have been kind of spreading ourselves thin, this was that reminder that time to get back on track, prioritize yourself, prioritize your recovery, your future self will thank you.
00:51:18
April
Ooh.
00:51:27
April
Yes, it will. Oh my gosh. shit That is truth. Okay. We have reached the fun segment and I was excited about bringing this one together because one, I'm a sucker for reflection. It's something that you rich Lauren and I do every night when we send our three wins, uh, and our, what we're grateful for. So thinking about this in the context of looking at the rear view of mirror of 2025, I wanted to ask five questions that kind of provoke and and also key into the audience that we should all be doing this, but provoke some serious
00:52:08
April
um thoughts around what are the things that we learned?
Reflections and Goals for 2026
00:52:13
April
How did we grow? How are we different now than we were on January 1st of 2025? And what are the things we're, we're celebrating? So we spend so much time chasing what's next that we forget to actually process what just happened and growth doesn't come from constant motion. It comes from noticing. So this segment is about two things, the rear view mirror and the road ahead. We're going to look back on 2025, which stretched us, surprised us and shaped us.
00:52:44
April
And then turn our attention to 2026, not with pressure, but with purpose. So I am going to ask our first question here. These are recapping 2025.
00:52:55
April
I'm going go with rich first, rich. What surprised you most about yourself in 2025?
00:53:02
Rich
Well, one of the things that really surprised me was that after I cut my foot in Milwaukee, I then dove into the Lake Michigan and splashed around in there for about a half an hour before, you know, you know, I didn't even realize what a dumb idea that was until I was in the ER later that night. And they're like you did what?
00:53:25
April
ah
00:53:26
Rich
um That's not, I'm just being a little silly here. I think the thing that surprised me most, and I don't know if this is about myself, I guess that would be about myself, but I guess one of the things I'm surprised by is that, you know, ah a year ago, you know, i think our biggest problem with Grit to Greatness was, you know, just kind of getting launched, you know, getting started.
00:53:46
Rich
And now it's, you
00:53:47
April
Getting a website up.
00:53:49
Rich
yeah Yeah, just getting the website up. I think, yeah, actually this time last year, I think we had just like secured the domain and here we are a year later and the biggest problem we have is managing some of the growth.
00:53:52
April
Yep.
00:53:58
Rich
So it's good.
00:53:59
April
I love it. Coach Lauren, what surprised you most about yourself in 2025?
00:54:05
Lauren Brown
So I'm going to go with something that might seem little bit more depressing, but what surprised me most was um how I responded to grief. So i lost my uncle, which was probably, it was definitely the the hardest loss that I've had up to this point in my life, which I'm very fortunate that I've made it 43 years and it took that long to have my hardest loss.
00:54:29
Lauren Brown
Um, and that loss spiraled and kind of coincided with a lot of other changes that happened in my life that I wasn't, didn't necessarily want. I wasn't really prepared for. And, um, I guess you just never, I mean, you never really know how you're going to respond, but, um, it was a very different feeling and response than I would have anticipated.
00:54:54
Lauren Brown
all good.
00:54:55
April
Yeah, I can.
00:54:56
Lauren Brown
but all good
00:54:57
April
Yeah. Thank you for sharing that. And that is something that is, it's an unteachable moment, right? You have to go through it to, to understand what it's like.
00:55:02
Lauren Brown
yeah
00:55:06
April
So it appreciate you talking about that, Lauren. What surprised me about twenty most about 2025? I think it was honestly the amount of courage it's taken to
00:55:21
April
I don't know how to put this in a way that's, oh man.
00:55:25
April
So I've been in the air force for 18 years. We all know this and what surprised me the most is understanding that there's life after the air force.
00:55:35
April
And I'm just so excited because you two have been fundamental in my growth as a person, as April Spilde, as coach April, as a triathlete, as, someone who has a lot to offer outside of senior master Sergeant Spilde.
00:55:51
April
Right. So that's been the biggest surprise to me is like, oh my gosh, I feel like I'm a fully functioning human.
00:55:56
Lauren Brown
Perfect.
00:55:56
April
Oh, oh All right. Our next question. And I, I fully appreciate that. We are, um, we're almost at an hour here, so we will, we're going to do three on three. All right. So next question on our recap, what was one moment big or small where you knew? Yeah, this is why I do this.
00:56:21
Rich
want me you go first again?
00:56:22
April
Yes. Thank you, Rich.
00:56:23
Lauren Brown
Thank you.
00:56:23
Rich
Okay. Well, I'll tell you what, i I can't narrow it down to just one moment, but I'll tell you, it was probably there at the finish line of Boulder 70.3 and at the finish line of Ironman California.
00:56:36
April
Hmm.
00:56:37
Rich
seeing our athletes come across the finish line. And probably the thing that, you know, you know obviously that just it just you know fills you with pride and and you're just so, you're you're just living all of the joy that those you know that that athlete is living because you've been there for their journey.
00:56:56
Rich
But it is just such a soul fulfilling thing, you know, to be there and and be a part of, you know, the whole, you know, the whole, you know, the family experience too, right? You know, we had family members at these races too. And you're, you're, you know, it's just a, it's just a ah moment of boy, if you just bottle this up and sell it, you know,
00:57:21
April
Yeah.
00:57:21
Lauren Brown
amazing I will say for me, um having Kristin Keen on the podcast So Kristen, if you didn't listen to the podcast, you should totally give it a listen. coaching her was amazing. And if you didn't listen to the podcast, she shares openly that, uh, very early on we were training and she found out she was pregnant and she unfortunately miscarried in the first trimester and ended up having a very different narrative.
00:57:55
Lauren Brown
to her season than she had anticipated when we first started working together. And after going through it and processing it, she really wanted to also have a space to share her story because there's not enough conversation around what it's like to be a female going through a miscarriage. And especially like in the endurance space, it's not always talked about. I think it's talked about a little bit more often. So being there for her through that and then her racing after, and again, i'm so grateful to both of you that we were all able to give her the space to share her story. So that was like a powerful moment for me.
00:58:37
April
Ooh, right in the feels again, Lauren. Yeah, that was a that was one of those conversations that stuck out to me as one
00:58:47
April
very personal, but also very universal, very needed. Like her, I'm sure there are tons of people who resonated with that and drew strength from her ability to share.
00:58:59
April
Whew. Um, one moment, big or small where you knew, yeah, this is why I do this. I, I gotta go with, um, is kind of this really cool impact and then reverse impact. So Rich and i absolutely had a blast at Boulder 70.3. We had an incredible amount of athletes who had an, and just an insane day, amazing, like,
00:59:34
April
But what happened like two weeks later as Rich and I did Xterra Lori and our athletes came out to support us as we were racing. And it just was like this in incredible moment where i felt like, man, it,
00:59:52
April
How cool is it to do this as a coach, but also have your athletes come out and cheer you on too? Like that just, wow.
01:00:02
April
That was so special and just stood out to me like, yeah, this this is why I do this in such a powerful way. So, w deep breaths. ah ah Okay, moving to...
01:00:19
April
Looking ahead to 2026, what is one word you want to be defined
01:00:27
Lauren Brown
Do you want me to go?
01:00:27
Rich
need to think on this still.
01:00:29
Lauren Brown
Okay.
01:00:29
April
yeah
01:00:29
Lauren Brown
I'll go while you think on it. You think on it maybe, maybe I'll spark something. So it's funny because April, you've said courage a lot and coach K has said courage a lot.
01:00:42
Lauren Brown
And that word speaks to me, but on the same breath, I'm like, well, Let me not use the same word.
01:00:49
April
You can, you can by all means, but yes, I hear you.
01:00:51
Lauren Brown
But then the other word that comes to mind that wouldn't happen without courage for me is evolution. And I said, takes courage to be able to feel like you're creating this evolution. And I feel like There are so many amazing things that are marrying each other and so intertwined, but that are going to make 2026 look drastically different than every other year of my life in so many amazing ways.
01:01:27
Lauren Brown
So i just picture like all of these things coming together and evolving into something amazing. So while again, courage was my knee jerk, um, I wanted to,
01:01:38
Lauren Brown
think a little bit on does that really translate to for me in 2026. So we'll go with evolution.
01:01:46
April
Oh, it's beautiful.
01:01:47
Rich
I like that.
01:01:47
April
It's beautiful.
01:01:49
Rich
You know, i would say that, you know, i would say, i think if 2025 was, you know, summed up by just growth, personal, professional,
01:01:49
April
Richie's still thinking.
01:02:02
Rich
operational, communal growth, I would say it has been a little bit like catching a tiger by the tail.
01:02:10
April
hu
01:02:11
Rich
And, You know, or or holding onto to the, you know, the fin of a rocket, you know, the side of a rocket ship. I would say for 2026, for me, it's about balance.
01:02:20
April
Yeah. Great.
01:02:21
Rich
Keeping things in balance, right? Do nice and you know steady growth, but balance growth.
01:02:26
April
Yeah. It doesn't always have to be a surge.
01:02:29
Rich
Life is not a race.
01:02:29
April
I think that's good. Yep. Yep. Exactly. My word. I had a banner year with courage. That was the, that was the supreme word for me for 2025. That was the headline.
01:02:42
April
My word for 2026 is fun.
01:02:46
Lauren Brown
Heck yeah!
01:02:47
April
I am yeah, I am going to lean into having fun and looking for opportunities to have more fun because man, I've been serious for so long.
01:02:57
April
but Like I'm about to have a serious heart attack. And that's why i just appreciate, um, I appreciate so much that I get to do the fun segment for this pod because it brings me a tremendous amount of joy. And it's absolutely, even though I'm such a corny corn ball, uh, you, you, you both have helped me honestly,
01:03:19
April
develop another side of myself that I've desperately needed. So, um, fun is my word of 2026 and I, how I'm going to incorporate that is, you know, I posted a video of me doing my workout with dance breaks. I've never done that before.
01:03:37
April
Lauren.
01:03:38
Lauren Brown
I loved it. I was like, heck yeah, you dance.
01:03:39
April
Yeah.
01:03:42
April
Yeah, I dance like a white chick that doesn't know what she's doing, but I I'm intentionally looking for opportunities to break out a fun dance.
01:03:45
Lauren Brown
Okay. Okay.
01:03:52
April
Even if I look stupid, I don't care. Like that's, that's the, that's the, that is the beauty of this is like, we're going to have fun. We're going to crack jokes. We're going to smile. We're going to look for opportunities to, uh, to bring the joy. So that is, that is where I'm leaning for, uh, 20, 26.
01:04:10
Rich
Awesome.
01:04:11
April
All right.
01:04:11
Rich
Well, thank you, Coach April. That was a lot of fun. I really appreciate you bringing the fun.
01:04:17
April
The pun, you brought the pun fun there.
01:04:20
Rich
ah you go
01:04:21
April
do you guys want to do one more?
01:04:24
April
What's something you're willing to do differently next year, even if it feels uncomfortable, what's something you're willing to do in 2026, even if it feels uncomfortable.
01:04:34
Rich
Well, sure. i'll I'm already doing it, I guess, which is the Almageddon. It's another winter triathlon that has a fat tire bike, a Nordic ski, all uphill, by the way, and then snowshoeing or ice running.
01:04:41
April
yeah
01:04:52
Rich
I don't know what what it's going to be. Back to a Nordic ski and then back to a fat tire bike. And that's just in a couple weeks. So watch out.
01:05:01
April
That's so cool.
01:05:03
Lauren Brown
Love that. Well, then I'll go with something that's more fun than the serious thing i was going to say with something that I'm willing to do differently. I'm going piggyback off of Rich and kind of copy you. And this combines that as well as the one thing I'm excited to train for. So something I'm willing to do differently is bump it up from the 70.3 and do the full distance Ironman, which I know I've mentioned before, but that's my excited to train for.
01:05:33
Lauren Brown
I'm doing it differently. So that's going something totally new for me in on my big girl pants.
01:05:38
April
Boo big time.
01:05:39
Rich
Nice.
01:05:39
April
Yes.
01:05:39
Rich
nice
01:05:42
April
Okay. Um, yeah, you up Lake Placid too. Just so everybody knows that's the Ironman that, uh, coach Lauren has taken on, which is iconic.
01:05:48
Lauren Brown
Mm-hmm.
01:05:53
April
Um, I think do differently. um I, so all of my races last year, 2025 were in Colorado and I wanted to do like a tour of Colorado this year. I'm doing, um, my goal, my big hairy goal is to, qualify for exterior world championships. So one thing that I'm doing this year is going out to Pelham, Alabama to qualify at the goal is to qualify via nationals. So.
01:06:28
April
We're going gritty, real gritty with this one. Um, and if it doesn't happen there, we're, we're going to figure something out. Cause this, this is come hell or high water.
01:06:36
Lauren Brown
Thank you.
01:06:37
April
We're doing it. So that's the challenge for me. That's where I'm going to grow. Okay. Thank you so much coaches. This was excellent. Um, if you're listening right now, we want to invite you to answer at least one of these questions for yourself. You don't necessarily need a full plan, just a moment of clarity because the way you finish one season has a lot to do with how you start the next.
01:07:02
April
Thank you for reflecting with us. Thanks for being a part of this community. Wherever 2026 takes train with purpose, lead with intention, and don't forget to celebrate how far you've already come.
01:07:14
Rich
Awesome. Folks, thanks for spending time with us today on the Grit to Greatness Endurance podcast. If you have enjoyed this episode, please follow us on Instagram at Grit to Greatness Endurance.
01:07:25
Rich
Leave us a rating or a comment on Apple Podcasts or on YouTube. It helps us reach more athletes just like you. Stay gritty, train smart, and keep chasing greatness. We'll see you next week.