Better Running and Balance Goals

Pamela 0:04

But it is challenging to sit down , you know at the beginning of every month or you know the beginning of each week , and plan out your schedule and figure out when you're going to fuel , figure out when you're going to go easy , when are you going to go hard , like that . that is where the effort you're going to be better served at putting your effort in that way , as opposed to kind of the the stereotypical , like I'm not working hard enough because I'm not dripping sweat after my run , kind of thing .

Cori 0:30

Hey guys , it's Cori from Redefining Strength . Welcome to the Fitness Hacks podcast . Today I want to share an episode for runners . Whether you're an endurance athlete , running is your passion or you tend to turn to running when you want to achieve body recomposition , lose weight , i want to share some tips so that you can improve your running performance but also reach your other goals , because it's hard sometimes to find the balance between the two And , especially if you love running , it's hard to do things outside of the activity you love , even though you know they might benefit your actual training . So I want to discuss both nutritional strategies and workout strategies to help you do more of what you love while balancing those other goals . And I'm excited to have on one of my amazing coaches , pamela , to really discuss what it takes to see the best results from your running , because she is an amazing endurance athlete herself and loves guiding runners on their journeys . So we'll jump into all of that , but I just want to say a big thank you to everyone who has left a review . It really helps me keep these episodes sponsorship free , so if you haven't yet , please jump on over and leave a review for the podcast . All right , let's jump right in .

Cori 1:34

Sometimes , to do more of what you love , you have to do things you don't like . So I equate this to the line of like if you do what you love , you never work a day in your life . Well , i don't like that line because I think it's false . Okay , i think if you love what you do , you're willing to do all the things you don't like , to do more of what you love to do , and the same thing can be said for activities and sports that we love . If you are a runner , if running is your passion , if you are an endurance athlete and you want to be doing this till your final day on the planet , i salute you and support you . Do ? I think you're a little crazy ? Maybe a little bit because I'm not a runner myself , but I support that because I have my own passions that I always want to pursue . But I realized that it takes me sometimes stepping back and doing things I don't like in order to do more of what I love , and so I really want you to embrace this mindset when you're thinking about how you're going to get better at your running , at your sport . Right , think about all the things outside of it that maybe you don't love as much . Okay , maybe it's the strength work , maybe it's the warmup , maybe it's even changing your fueling and increasing your protein intake . What are some things you know will pay off but that you don't enjoy as much ? And in thinking about these things , the more you can remind yourself of why they are so important to getting to do more of what you love , the more you're going to embrace doing them , because if we don't embrace doing them , we're setting ourselves up for failure .

Cori 2:47

If you're skipping your warmup , it might be why aches and pains are adding up And in the process of skipping that warmup , sure that five minutes you might not want to spend that , 10 minutes You might not want to spend before your run because you might be short on time . But if you do , you get to do more of what you love . Right , you won't be out with injury . You'll be able to train as hard as you want . There are so many things that pay off And I think it takes some of them .

Cori 3:06

Stepping back and even reminding yourself of why we're doing these outside things and how they help us do our passion more . That is really key . So , if you don't like doing your warmup , instead of just skipping it saying I'm short on time , even right out on the warmup . I am doing this because this is going to help keep that IT ban issue away . So remind yourself of why these things are so important . But take that step back and realize that to do more of what you love , you have to do these other things . You have to focus on protein to build that lean muscle mass . You have to get a little sore , potentially from a new strength workout routine which might negatively impact your runs for a little bit , so that you could end up getting better at your running .

Cori 3:40

Sometimes we have to take that step back in order to get better , but remember , to do more of what you love , you have to embrace the mindset of doing some of the things you don't like . It doesn't mean , as I said , loving what you do doesn't mean that you love every moment of it . To do more of what you love , you have to do things you don't like . So really making sure that you're embracing this mindset as you're starting to schedule in other things that I'm going to go through in this podcast to really help you improve your running . So just remember you're not going to like everything that you have to do , but ultimately , it will help you do more of what you love .

Cori 4:14

I'm super excited to share some amazing tips from my coach and an endurance athlete herself , pamela . I'm going to share three key things if you want to improve your running , get more out of all of your training , even improve your fueling , whether you truly are competing and wanting to take your running to the next level in PR , or even if you're just starting out and you're getting into it for aesthetic reasons . But her tips are super amazing and I'm super excited to share them with you . So let's jump right in . I'm super excited to chat with Pamela , one of my amazing coaches , today about all the things you runners need to be doing , and some of the things you don't necessarily like doing , but all the things that will actually make you a better runner . So thank you , pamela , for joining me today .

Pamela 4:53

Thanks , thanks for having me . I love talking . I mean , any of you used to talk about running , so I'm glad to do it . But yeah , i mean , if you run , you're a runner . So it's not even necessarily people that kind of recognize themselves as a runner . Because I think we're going to get into some themes and some into some concepts that you might think like , oh , i just run occasionally or I don't , i'm not training for a marathon or something like that , but you don't have to look a certain way , you don't have to run a certain pace or a certain distance to actually be a runner . So I just kind of want to think about that And if you do run at all , you can benefit from all of these same topics . And then , from the reverse perspective , if you do , if you are someone who considers yourself like a really intense runner , you'd love to run .

Prioritizing Easy Running and Lifting

Pamela 5:32

There are really three main things that I'm going to kind of delve into a little bit deeper that are extremely important to focus on , even if we don't want to do them . The main ones . I'll go into a little bit more detail . The main ones are prioritized easy running , not necessarily . I'm not saying slow running . There is no slow running There's just different degrees of fast and or fast , slower or faster , not necessarily slow or fast And ultimately it's all about effort . It's not so much about that actual pace . And the other thing is prioritize feeling . And then the third one is lifting , and preferably lifting on the heavier side rather than kind of always focusing on the higher reps , lower weights . So those are the three main ones that runners fight against all the time .

Cori 6:15

And it's hard because we do want to do more of what we love . But in order to do more of what we love which for me is not running , but that's a whole other story But to do more of what we love , we do have to embrace some of these outside things , and I think even having that mindset shift is the hardest part . Right , it's not necessarily even the habits , it's the mindset shift , which was why I thought it was so interesting you brought up like easy running . It's not that , it's like you're not pushing yourself , but it's a different pushing yourself , and I think that mindset shift can be really challenging .

Pamela 6:44

Right , it takes a lot of effort in other ways to run easy . Like , for example , i run with a run group a lot and oftentimes , because I train differently than them , oftentimes I'm running alone . You know , i start with the group but I'm running alone . Or I really have to plan my easy running around , like with a schedule , and kind of really lean into that , which is challenging in a different way . But you can't always just push , push , push .

Pamela 7:08

I think in the lifting world it's more easily embraced that you're not going to go into a weight room every single day and try to one rep max , a squat , whether you're an experienced lifter or a new lifter , because that just doesn't make sense . I think it's more embraced that you're going to potentially do a posterior day one day , an anterior day in the next day , have a rest day . In there It's a lot more well . It can be complicated for sure . I think it's more accepted that that's the way we train .

Pamela 7:37

But with running runners I don't know if it's an ego thing or just runners or suburb . So I think that combination and then you can get away with it a little bit more . And running , you know if you are a newbie lifter , you know , if we throw a bunch of weight on and throw a barbell on your back , the likelihood that you're going to get injured is pretty high pretty quickly . So with the poster running you can get away with more intense running , or that moderate level running you can get away with it a little bit longer . So I think that's where that stubbornness comes into , because we do progress initially , even with not running easy . But if we're constantly in that middle ground or training too intensely , our bodies just never able to recover . We're not able to build that aerobic engine that we need to build .

Cori 8:22

So , in terms of what easy running actually is , can you dive into that a little bit more so that someone can understand how that might fit into their routine and why it's really important ?

Pamela 8:31

Sure . So that's a tough one because it's so person-specific . But oftentimes you might hear heart rate thrown around . It's usually 60 to 70 percent of your max heart rate . But what does that mean ? We might have a garment on our wrist or a heart rate monitor around our chest . But some of that data isn't always accurate And sometimes we just want to go by , feel . So some of it is just experience playing with different paces and seeing how that feels and seeing how that potentially translates to a race or overtime . So that's piece of it .

Pamela 9:01

Conversational . if you are running with someone else , talking with them and I'm not talking about like I have a sentence and then I need to collect myself . or I'm like full on talking , full sentences , not getting gasping out of breath , not kind of the I'm walking upstairs case and I have to regroup all the time . So that can be really beneficial . And then also just kind of after the fact , of course you're going to make mistakes , we make mistakes in our training , we're not perfect , we're not machines . So kind of after the fact , after a run , reassess , do I feel that was supposed to be an easy run , do I feel sometimes almost better , like if it's a true recovery run . you actually want to feel better after the run than you did going into the run . Same if you're doing more of like a prehab workout or a mobility type workout when you're heavy lifting or in the straight training . So it's kind of a similar concept as you . sometimes you want your body to actually feel better after the fact .

Cori 9:58

And how would you recommend someone would schedule these things in and embrace the mindset of putting them actually in ? Because whether you're a runner or a lifter , it can be hard to let yourself off the hook and do less to realize it will actually lead to more .

Pamela 10:12

Yeah , my favorite , and it's been life changing for me personally and for people that I worked with . I love to train by time and effort rather than pace and distance . I think it because if you have , you know , five miles on your schedule , well , that can mean , whether it's a workout or an easy run , that puts a lot of pressure on you . I have a toddler . I need to tell my husband , you know , after work if he's getting off , i want to be like hi , can you watch ? you know , can you watch my baby for 60 minutes ? Can you watch the baby for 60 minutes ? as opposed to five miles . He doesn't know what five miles means , right ? And also , that puts a lot of pressure on me to . Maybe I'm feeling extra tired , maybe you've had a hard week or you know , or you had an intense workout the day before and you really do need to go easy , but you have five miles on your schedule . That puts a lot of pressure on you or on your partner or whoever's you know in your life . Everything you have going on , it puts so much pressure on you and you end up running harder than you should as opposed to okay , i've got 60 minutes on my schedule , you know I'm going to be gone for 60 minutes and I'm going to be back and then we go from there . So that timepiece I think is so crucial . And then also even when you're doing something more intense . So even if you're doing a workout , think really training by effort And again , some of that comes with experience that we already mentioned but training by effort rather than constantly worrying

Fueling for Running Success

Pamela 11:35

about pace .

Pamela 11:35

Your body doesn't care . Your body doesn't care that you're going eight minute pace . It doesn't care that you're going 10 minute pace , because it's all relative on that day , from hydration how hot it is out , you know how big of a hill you're climbing , if you're going downhill , all of those factors play into it . So it doesn't care that your body doesn't care that you're going eight minutes versus that 10 minutes . It's about the effort that's involved , so kind of shifting your mindset away from the distance and the constantly worrying about pace versus time and effort . So even if you do have a garment watch , obviously kind of keeping track of your mileage , that's really helpful . But you can even , like , change your screen . I never look , you know , i don't even have it on my watch my pace ever . I only look at the time and I only look at my heart rate typically .

Cori 12:23

I love that you're using data and looking at it in a different way to allow yourself to meet yourself where you're at more , and this applies not only to running and even using the easier runs to balance everything out , but even our fueling right . I know we often think about data was fueling . You know tracking as something people do for only weight loss or only gaining muscle , but it's so beneficial . If you want to improve your performance and make sure that you're continually seeing those PRs and races with fueling for running , how do you make sure that you're fueling sufficiently for performance But then potentially even balancing in those aesthetic goals , if you do have them ?

Pamela 13:03

Yes . So tracking is so key , it can be really really helpful . So obviously , if you , you know , if you potentially have a history of overly restrictive eating or something like that and that does tend to show up a little bit more in the running community , certainly , and focusing more on the aesthetic goals , so if it doesn't work for you in that perspective , there are other ways to go about it . But if you're a lot of people , they're accidentally under fueling , they're not purposely restricting their calories , they don't even realize because , well , if you're going , you know , if you're incorporating a little bit of running here and there , you know 20 minutes here and there , maybe after a lift or something like that , ok , not huge energy demands . But if we're talking about training for 10 Ks , half marathons , marathons , ultramarathons , triathons , all of that stuff , it is huge energy demand , more than you probably even think . And while our body adjusts and we become fitter and that's actually kind of the metabolic demands lessen , we end up working even harder though because our body is that much fitter . So , and also , if you fuel , if you feel correctly , your body is going to adapt to that fuel . So if you're constantly under fueling , you could run .

Pamela 14:09

I've done it before . I've just like you with your training and stuff , learning from your own mistakes . I've learned from my own mistakes . I've run an entire marathon with zero water and zero fuel And while I finish I didn't feel good at the end And I certainly did not get as much out of my performance as I could have gotten .

Pamela 14:27

But my body adapts . My body was able to run 26.2 miles on no calories because I would get digestive issues and I got nervous And so I just wouldn't eat during my runs . But now that I've , you know , tracked and increased my calories and focused on increasing protein and carbs , it's just , it's amazing how much that data really helps . And kind of even looking , either planning it in advance so that you can really kind of , maybe the day before a long run or something like that , your carbs are a little bit higher , or even just reflecting back OK , you know , as I start tracking , you know increasing my training or I'm training for something in particular , and then after each run , or maybe weekly , you can look back at your food logs , like , ok , where where was my protein , where are my carbs , where was my fat And how did I feel ? How did I feel , kind of , after those runs or after that training cycle . It can be really beneficial .

Cori 15:19

And it does give you the power to adjust to , because , just like you wouldn't hold back your runs and not increase your mileage , you wouldn't necessarily hold back your calorie increase as your mileage increases . So by tracking you can always meet yourself where you're at as your like your workouts progress or adapt , even when you're adding in the strength work Right , like the whole strength thing . Like I know , sometimes it's like I just want to run , but if you are looking to improve your performance , you want to add that lean muscle . But as you add that lean muscle to , you need to eat more to keep supporting it . Otherwise you're just going to end up seeing your run slightly diminish the muscle that you've worked so hard and potentially even sacrifice some running to really build . So it's remembering that you're meeting yourself where you're at , as you're tracking , to give yourself power to adjust as your training changes to .

Pamela 16:05

Right , and it might even be to , as you are kind of trying to increase your calories and kind of figure out where that works . It might even be where you may be focused on just either a percentage of protein , but since your calories are in flux , that's a little bit difficult . So what I found can be really beneficial for both myself and runners that I coach is really focusing on that protein minimum Typically a gram per pound of body weight , but that can be different , obviously , especially if you're in more intense training . But focusing on that and then after that and feeling around your training and then the rest of the day .

Pamela 16:40

While intuitive eating can be really difficult I can go into that in a moment . With running it makes it even more challenging . But I do find that for me personally , sometimes I'm off , sometimes I don't . Maybe my run was a little bit more challenging or maybe my mileage was a little bit higher than I was planning , and so I can't stick to that calorie kind of goal that I had . I need to eat more , but I know that I'm just going to run better the following day And that my body composition is just going to improve if I'm really kind of listening to my body and meeting that protein minimum needs .

Cori 17:12

I think that's a really key point too The protein focus right there that you mentioned , because we do talk a lot about carb intake and it's so key . And I want to touch on this because I think , with you know , people Often even getting into running for aesthetic changes like they think I need to do more cardio . They're also trying to do that while they're trying to follow Which is one of the more popular diets right now a low carb diet and that can be very Have a negative impact right on the actual results . They want to see no only further running performance improving but their aesthetic changes . So you mentioned the protein being important And I want to talk a little bit more about why that is key , but also why carbs are key if you are looking for those aesthetic changes , not to mention Having the fuel to actually run as efficiently as possible .

Pamela 17:56

Right , it's one of the biggest keys because I mean our body's preferred fuel source is carbs , like especially the higher the intensity . So especially if you're . That's why we also encourage that kind of goes back to that encouraging easy running , because you want to try to stay as much as you can in that . It's called a subarobic threshold , so that point where you are burning primarily fat , the lower intensity and walking and then really really easy running . So that's why you want to kind of stay in that that area , because then you're sparing your carbs and you're saving that for more intense training .

Pamela 18:27

But as you get more and more intense racing , you know Trading faster , training harder and just longer , because your body can only store so many carbs in your glycogen , in your muscles .

Pamela 18:36

You burn through it throughout the week and it's it's pretty easy to burn through it . It takes a lot to get it back in , you know , to get it back into those muscles . So Carbs are not only a great energy source but they're also protein sparing , because if we get to the point of like too much glycogen Depletion , then we're going to at some point you kind of run out of fat too . I mean we always have some fat , but you know , in our body , no matter how lean you are , but the , that takes a long time to metabolize that fat and to kind of turn it into energy . So what the body does is then it turns to protein , and it both , you know Dietary protein , which then can have , you know , negative effects in the future as well . But , even worse , it turns down to turn store actual muscles . So that I mean , that's why cardio is catabolic , because it will ultimately break down , break down your muscle , especially if you're not feeling enough , both from a caloric perspective , but also from a carb and then protein perspective .

Cori 19:30

Yep , and then you're gonna end up seeing your body recomb not happen the way that you like , your performance decrease . So it's so important that , even if you're coming into increasing your cardio for an aesthetic reason , that you make sure that you get sufficient carbs and you don't just think , hey , as tempting as it is and As much as we can see fast results with depleting our glycogen stores and losing water weight to see the scale change fast . We need those carbohydrates and we especially need them if we are also adding in that strength work right to build the lean muscle . So I want to talk a little bit about that , because I think this can be the biggest point of contention when you're trying to push a runner to sometimes do the weightlifting like they see the value . But so how did you get yourself really involved in lifting weights and how do you talk to your , your running clients about Lifting more and the benefits are going to see in terms of their performance ?

Pamela 20:20

Yeah , i mean it's huge from a performance perspective and an aesthetic perspective . So it's kind of cool that I can go from both angles because , like you said , some people are coming into running more from a weight loss Perspective than some people are coming in from performance . So it's going to help so much , especially from an injury prevention And that you know getting getting your glutes involved , activating kind of all your muscles all the way through , not just your lower body But your , your core and then your upper body as well . You know Running is kind of is a full-body activity , even though we constantly think of it as our lower body . So from that perspective it's huge

Balancing Running and Strength Training

Pamela 20:59

. And then I'm also from the from the more aesthetic side of things . You know , like we've talked about , running is Catabolic . So you need something , you need the protein and you need the resistance training to counteract Kind of the negative aspects .

Pamela 21:14

Cardio has so many amazing aspects to it . You know it's heart health , social outlet , it's fun . For some people It allows you to listen to podcasts and to listen to music , you know , to get away from everything , to be outdoors . All of that I mean I'm a huge fan . So I know all the positive aspects but there are some negative aspects , especially from an aesthetic perspective , potentially if you don't counteract with strength training and with Increasing your protein intake .

Cori 21:41

I think that can be some of everything right There's . There has to be a balance of finding things you love and also finding things that work you towards your goals . So , in terms of this , how do you convince a runner And I'm gonna say convince in this case How do you convince a runner to embrace strength training because and I bring this up because I think I even see this with like lifters too , where they don't want to do something outside of their training specifically because they feel like , oh , i'm sore from this now . Therefore , other things are being impacted in that transition into it . Obviously , we adjust and adapt , but in that initial phase We are going to be more sore , adding in the strength work and that's going to negatively impact your runs . How do you embrace Involving something that's detracting also , in a weird way , from the things that you love ?

Pamela 22:23

Sure , well , you can be creative , like you mentioned kind of about your scheduling , which I can talk about in a moment . But also that's where the easy effort running comes into play , like it doesn't really matter . You know how you feel , maybe if your legs are a little bit sore . You know on those easy running effort . Now , obviously , if you're going into a workout it's a lot more . You know , if you're doing like a speed workout , it will affect your performance more . But that's where turning your pace off , not worrying about your pace and only focusing on time and effort , can help you balance all of that . It can help you , you know , incorporate the things that you need to incorporate it without kind of being that that mental roadblock of But my run was that you know an eight minute pace instead of a seven thirty pace . It doesn't you don't even know , maybe you look at it afterwards But it's not affecting kind of what you're doing because they are .

Pamela 23:13

There's often times where you know You might have , you know , sore legs or something like that , as you're , as you're running . But sometimes it helps flush it out if you're running easy enough and then your body does adapt . So You know , if you are consistently incorporating in incorporating it in , you're not going to be as sore , you know , as you progress , and then you're able to schedule it creatively . I personally like , like to keep my clients and myself my hard day is hard . So if I'm doing like a harder running workout , i actually like to lift afterwards , although that can take away a little bit from the aesthetic gains because you're kind of already worn down a little bit from your running . So there's pros and cons , certainly , but you can get creative with your scheduling and you might not , you know , be in the weight room five days a week . If you're an intense , like peak marathon training , you might be able to just do one , two or three days . So it's finding that that balance within your schedule as well .

Cori 24:07

And that is like a key point . Your progression is going to change , right like you might be not in race season for running , so therefore you're going to focus a little bit more on lifting and maybe even put that first in the day So it gets the priority prioritization that needs . However , if you are trying to train speed , you don't want to go into a speed workout fatigue , so you're not going to want to lift beforehand because you're going to be training slowness . So it's it's learning what phase of the year you're in , what's your priority for that and then prioritizing the things that matter . But also , i think where some of the constant soreness comes into play is not having that clear progression , and you touch on that . I've scheduled out everything so that I know what I'm doing , so that the body does adapt . If someone were to be looking to start To schedule in , like training , what could be in a way that they might start to include strength workouts with their runs .

Pamela 24:52

Sure , yeah , i think it's . I mean , especially if you're if you're a beginner runner as well , it's a little bit easier because if you're a beginner runner , you should primarily just be doing the easiest suburbic threshold running anyway , and then you could almost even sometimes I Even have them prioritize their lifts first . So because you want to save kind of depending on your priority , you want to save your the most amount of energy and the most amount of effort for that . So if you're new to running and you're just kind of getting your feet wet in that area , i actually prefer them to lift first and then potentially go in there into their run or even split it . You know different parts of the day , so that can be helpful .

Pamela 25:30

But if you are more experienced , it's really about your schedule and how much time block you have .

Pamela 25:36

Whether it be You know you're doing your intense workout and then you're going straight into a lift or potentially splitting it , splitting it up Either way can work really well .

Pamela 25:47

It's really just meeting you where you're at on any given day on any given week and that's where the effort comes into play .

Pamela 25:53

So kind of our whole a little bit of our whole theme is like you don't need to be in this cycle of grind and grit and Constantly pushing , of constantly pushing like the way we think it is like in you know where we're just like dripping sweat and we're Sprinting and we're going hard and going hard all the time running and in the weight room and all of that . That's not where you're going to see the benefit . But it is challenging to sit down , you know , at the beginning of every month or you know the beginning of each week , and and plan out your schedule and figure out When you're going to fuel , figure out when you're going to go easy , when are you going to go hard , like that . That is where the effort you're going to be better served at putting your effort in that way , as opposed to kind of the Stereotypical like I'm not working hard enough because I'm not dripping sweat after my run , kind of thing .

Cori 26:42

It's trusting in that plan and having that plan in place so that you can meet yourself where you're constantly at , i think is really the big thing that I've taken away from everything that you've said .

Pamela 26:52

Yeah , definitely . The plan is the biggest piece from every perspective , both aesthetic goals and performance goals .

Cori 27:00

And so in closing thoughts to help everybody . So we touched on the fact that you've got to include those easy runs . You've got to focus on your fueling , not just for aesthetic goals but also for improving that performance , and protein in both carbs are very key for maintainably muscle mass making sure that you're fueled . Eating more is also another hard thing I think that we need to embrace . And then you have to do that strength work . You have to get into the gym because it's going to help you do more of what you love .

Fueling for Performance

Cori 27:27

Any other closing mistakes that you really see runners making often , or closing tips , especially if someone is starting out and trying to find their balance .

Pamela 27:35

Yeah Well , there's a couple of kind of excuses for lack of a better term that I hear , or quotes that I hear often , kind of on all three of those main themes that we've touched on . But the one I want to kind of highlight is that I always hear is but it's hard to fuel , like it's hard to fuel right after a run or it's hard to fuel during a run . And I get it because , especially if you're training intensely or if you've just come in the door and you're tired and oftentimes you're not hungry , you're not hungry for a reason , because your body's not , you know , it's prioritizing performance , it's prioritizing kind of survival at that point , because you just maybe you just put it through a two hour long run . So it has kind of shut down some of your digestion , some of your other processes temporarily To focus on that . So your hunger hormones growling is suppressed . You know , leptin , your kind of hormone that makes you feel full , that's changing Kind of . All of that has changed right in that moment . And that's where , again , it's hard , like it doesn't seem , like it would be difficult to , you know , eat right when you walk in the door . But it is , it can be , but you've got to do it Like you've kind of got to make that a priority .

Pamela 28:44

If you do want to focus on your body composition , if you do want to get , you know kind of get all the benefits of that training , that you do , so whether that means , you know , having your post run meal or snack kind of ready for you on the counter You don't know how many times I've eaten like an RX bar in the shower . I know that sounds weird and that's , but it is what it is . That's what I have to do sometimes , that you know I can immediately get fuel in . So it's kind of back to what we were talking about before , like doing the hard , kind of doing the hard things , but they're different than what you would think that they would be .

Pamela 29:20

The , you know working on that gut training so that you can increase the calories that you can take in during your run . You know eating right after . You know the gym can be intimidating for runners getting in the gym or working out from lifting from home . It doesn't have to . You can make accommodations for yourself and for your lifestyle , but kind of getting yourself out of your comfort zone , i would say , and kind of retraining and reframing some of those excuses that runners runners love to throw around , especially like the but it's hard to run slow . That's another one that I hear a lot that we kind of need to reframe .

Cori 29:55

It's also understanding and this goes back to a little bit the intuitive , eating part of it . that intuitive and listening to our body means that our mind is interpreting things And unfortunately , our mind doesn't always interpret things the way it needs to interpret , which is where having that plan , so that you have something to hold you accountable , where you've even scheduled in easy runs , you've scheduled in your other workouts , you've scheduled in how you're going to fuel , can help you make sure that you're staying on track when your mind and body might not be communicating necessarily on the same page at all times .

Pamela 30:26

Exactly , i mean intuitive running , intuitive eating , like awesome concept right , but running , you know , 26.2 miles , isn't really an intuitive thing , like it's really hard on your body and you're dealing with a lot of physiological and metabolic things that , yeah , admit that connection isn't always there . Now your body , your cues and stuff will start to change . Like you'll start to notice it . For years and years and years and years , i could never eat right after I rate , but then as soon as I started , you know , focusing on that and making a priority and really really increasing my calories and all of that stuff , now I'm like starving right after I finished running because my body , you know it knows that it needs it and that cue has kind of shifted .

Cori 31:05

I love that because I think it takes the time to retrain our body and mind to communicate on some of those things , and so embracing that process is just so key .

Pamela 31:14

Definitely , yeah , exactly , and just the plan and all of the . all of those pieces are kind of part of the plan And it's . It seems overwhelming at first because we have so many different things we kind of need to check off , but it's finding those priorities and then they become easier and easier and easier , and then you don't even really think about it at some point .

Cori 31:32

And then you can start checking off more and more and see the opportunity and all the different options out there Exactly Well , thank you so much , pamela . There's so many helpful tips to help runners really dial in their nutrition , embrace those easy runs and even get into that strength work . So thank you so much for joining me today . Thanks for having me . Let's talk about fueling your performance , even fueling for outside goals that you might have . So whether you're an endurance athlete that that's your main priority you love your running and you also want to lose weight , build muscle , have an aesthetic goal , or you're even getting into running partly because you also want to see aesthetic changes . I do want to talk about the importance of fueling . So so often tracking comes up when we're just talking about weight loss . But even if you have no aesthetic goals as a runner , you're just trying to only focus on improving your performance . You need to track how you're consuming or what you're consuming . We track our runs right . We track maybe the pace that you're doing , the tempos that you're doing , how things felt . You're tracking all this data so that you can improve right . You don't just randomly go out and run a distance one day and then hope that stringing together different runs leads to you being able to do that marathon . No , you have a strategic plan in place and your diet should match that plan

Fueling for Performance and Aesthetics

Cori 32:42

. One of the main things I do with my runners is look at what their mileage is going to be over the weeks as they're increasing their mileage to end up at that race . And we go through and say , okay , each of these weeks we're going to do this amount of calories , we're going to even spike them on these days , we're going to do these macros . Right , you want to be tracking to make sure that your fueling is helping your performance , not hindering it . So if you've ever thought , well , tracking is just for weight loss , it's just for aesthetic goals ? it is not . It is even more key the more precise you want to be in terms of improving your performance . So the more advanced an athlete you are , the more you need to track your fueling , because it's going to impact your performance and your 1% differences . Right , you can maybe even adjust your post-workout meal timing , your pre-workout meal timing , to really see an impact .

Cori 33:26

So if you are trying to improve your performance , you need to track . If you're trying to also reach an aesthetic goal , it's really key you track And I do want to step back here and say you need to have one primary focus . So if you're training for a race and you want to lose weight , train for that race first and do different things that could help promote optimal body composition , but focus on that performance for that race And then afterwards maybe say hey , now that I'm not training exactly for this race , i'm going to focus a little bit more on my aesthetic goals . So you have to have that primary focus . It doesn't mean you can't work on things together and by tracking our food we can do things more precisely , but you do have to have a primary focus . Okay , but if you're tracking your food , you can make sure that you're doing everything you need to make sure you're retaining lean muscle mass and that you're also not gaining unwanted fat as you are increasing your mileage , because that isn't going to help your performance , while we think of aesthetic goals only as for aesthetic reasons , when we have more ideal body composition , when we have more lean muscle , this does improve our performance . So track what you're currently doing for your fueling to get a good idea of a starting point . Okay , because you don't want to make dramatic changes , because if you cut your carbs drastically or you increase your protein drastically , that's going to set back how you're sort of fueling and that's going to change your energy source , which is going to impact your run . So if you're in an off season or maybe prepared for that while working towards aesthetic goals , okay , maybe you make a bigger change . But if you are training for a race , make sure you're really meeting yourself where you're at And in terms of nutrition for performance .

Cori 34:47

We often talk about carbs when it comes to fueling endurance sports and carbs are super key . They not only are that instant fuel that we need for our runs especially when we are going to be running for longer , we need to make sure that we have full stores but they're also protein sparing okay . They help protect our lean muscle mass when we are doing a more catabolic activity . So we do want to make sure that we're consuming more carbs , that we have our glycogen stores full . However , people go a little crazy with the carb loading before a race . You only have so much that you can actually store And the more muscle you have , the more you can store . Therefore , another reason to step back sometimes and embrace being a little sore and maybe detrimentally impacting . You know , having a little negative impact on your runs during an off season to actually start that strength work , because the more muscle you have , the more glycogen you can actually store in your muscle tissue . So win , win right Stronger for your runs and your store more glycogen . But you can only store so much . So we get a little obsessed with the carb loading and we don't need to be quite as focused on that as we are .

Cori 35:42

However , you do want to make sure that if you are doing your long runs and you want optimal performance , while you might have trained yourself to do fast training or you might have trained yourself to work off a fewer calories , that's not necessarily ideal . So potentially starting to change those patterns could be really key and making sure you're getting enough carbs . But also do not forget the importance of protein . Protein is going to help you building muscle mass from your strength workouts . It's going to help you retain that lean muscle mass during more catabolic activity And it's going to help make sure that you also use the carbs when you really need them , and it can even be that instant fuel when you need , instead of going into your muscle mass as fuel , because we're going to try and reserve fat stores as much as we can , which is kind of weird , and it's a body mechanism of survival which hinders our weight loss results at times , especially when we cut our calories super low . But that's why even having that protein and those amino acids is so key . We do want to make sure we're getting them .

Cori 36:31

So , in terms of talking about ratios here , i did want to give you some general guidelines to really help With my endurance athletes . I usually like to try and get them to 30% protein , maybe not race week , but during strength workouts , during when we're increasing mileage , that 30% protein minimum is super key . If you are potentially in a phase where your mileage is a little bit down , you really are focusing on those muscle gains You might even want to think about 40% protein or going up towards that , but 30% protein is a really that high protein intake . It's going to be very beneficial . Then you want to think about at least 40% of your calories coming from carbs . That's a good place to start as you increase your mileage And this is where tracking comes into play , because we can adjust as our workouts change You're going to be going up towards that 50% carb minimum If you are currently the way far away from any of these

Nutrition and Mobility for Running Performance

Cori 37:18

things .

Cori 37:18

When you look at your calories and you look at your overall macro breakdown of the portion of the calories , don't make dramatic changes because that's going to impact your workouts . Make small adjustments to really see how you can meet yourself where you're at . And then no one size doesn't fit all , and the more we are adjusting based on what we're currently doing , the better off we're going to be . But the key is making sure that you understand that you can adjust your nutrition based on how your training is changing And also that you can use the tracking and these macro breakdowns to not only fuel your performance but see the aesthetic changes that you want . Too often we think that these goals can't work together and it's because we're not giving ourselves all the data .

Cori 37:54

When you just think calories in versus calories out , you are going to be hungry . You are going to end up dropping your calories too low . That's going to negatively impact your performance and not even lead to the weight loss results you want . Macros really matter for that body recomp if we want to feel full and fueled and see the best performance while also potentially achieving any aesthetic goals we want . So again , while you want to focus on carbs and even if you know keto is all the craze right now and you think low carb for weight loss and you want to lose weight , don't necessarily think , if you are doing a lot of endurance training , that you need to go low carb . Going higher carb might be beneficial , but protein might be the missing component . So consider trying to bump your protein intake to about 30% of your calories . That's a great place to start to not only fuel your performance but see those aesthetic changes , building lean muscle and losing fat . But please , guys , embrace the tracking . It goes back to doing some of the things we don't like to do more of what we love and see even improvements in what we love , so we can do more of our passion and pursue it to the fullest potential . Okay , but start tracking , embrace that protein a little bit more , but do not forget about the importance of macros , whether you want to fuel your performance or see those aesthetic changes .

Cori 38:57

So I want to talk about mobility work to keep you healthy so that you can run further , faster and not get injured , because common injuries are plantar fasciitis , knee pain , hip pain , it band issues , hamstring strains , right All these things that are really annoying that don't allow us to do more of what we love . So there's two joints I really want you to focus on when you're doing your mobility work , and this three part prehab process can be included prior to your runs . If you do want to see video demonstrations of any of the moves and you're listening to the podcast , please check the YouTube video because I am going to run through these . But you want to make sure you're focusing on two joints the hip and the ankle most of the time . And the reason why is the knee is often injured because it's caught between those two things like while there can be structural things like meniscus tears and such that happen at the knee a lot of time that overload is a result of either ankle mobility or stability issues , or hip mobility or stability issues , which is why we're going to focus most of our attention right now on these two things .

Cori 39:52

But this full prehab process can be included as part of your warmup . It can be just broken down into 10 minutes . Just focus on the areas or muscles that are tight for you mobilizing those joints . But it can also be part of the recovery workouts you do and the warmup you do for your strength work as well . We have to think less as like a full session of recovery necessarily , and more as frequent little bouts , because those consistent ways of changing our recruitment patterns and improving our movements are so key to reverse all the sitting and even the repetitive movement of running and address any compensations we might have . So think less in terms of full recovery workouts , even with this , and more as part of your warmup before your rod , including these things .

Cori 40:28

So , starting at the hip , one of the things I wanted to touch on was the hamstring . So your hamstrings can often feel tight and this doesn't mean they're in need of stretching . What often happens , because we spend so much time seated , whether it's in a car , whether or not it's at our desk is we end up with anterior pelvic tilt or even an over stretching of our hamstrings , and this can lead to them becoming synergistically dominant for our glutes , so they work when our glutes should during our running gait . Also , it can mean that they're stretched overly or overly lengthened and stretched , which is what can lead to hamstring strains . So you can take a ball up on a bench and you're actually going to sit on the ball . You can work all the way from under your butt and when you work under your butt you might even want to push it sort of up under your glute to get to the deep external rotators and that hamstring origin . That can often be injured And we can see like tendinopathy is there and tendonitis and such .

Cori 41:17

So think about pushing it up under your butt as you start and then even lifting your leg out in front of you and relaxing because you're going to want to tense and relax the muscle So you can even curl a little bit to tense against it and then relax as well . But you want to think about stretching it against the ball a little bit too . But you can work all the way down the back of your hamstring and you want to hold . Okay , so we think foam rolling you see people roll really quickly . That doesn't help the muscle relax and release . You actually want to hold tension on the muscle and then breathe in as you apply that pressure . So it's like when you get a deep tissue massage you want to relax as they're holding . If you're tensing against it it's too much pressure and you need to reduce it . But you can use a ball again , extend the leg out , relaxing back , even flexing a little bit , and then relaxing Work all the way down the back of your leg .

Cori 41:59

You can work out from the side of your leg towards more medial , towards your adductors , but you want to think about holding on any spots you find . The first time you might move a little bit more quickly to find any tight spots , and then you can sort of go to those on other times , but you want to hold on any spots you find that are tight . If you don't have a bench , if you don't have a ball , if the ball is too much pressure , you can use a roller as well . Just know that using the roller isn't going to apply as much pressure And if you do use it off the ground , you have to hold yourself up a little bit more versus being able to relax and just sit on the bench . But you want to focus as much as you can on one side at a time , because you might even find that you only have tight spots on one side and that's okay to just address those . You don't have to spend time on areas that aren't tight .

Cori 42:37

So hamstring rolling can be really key instead of stretching more , which can actually result in injury because it's stretching and overstretch muscles . You're basically taking a rubber band that's already pulled tight and stretching it further . That's what leads to it Someone is breaking right , so you don't want to do that . Second , so you always want to think foam roll , stretch and activate when you're doing this , because you're foam rolling to relax and release overly active muscles . You're then stretching to mobilize joints And then we're activating to keep that stretching process in place while getting that underactive muscle working to stabilize the joint as well . So with this stretch , you're both going to activate your glute a little bit but also stretch out your hip . So you're going to pull one knee into your chest as you lie back on a bench and you're going to tuck the other knee in and then squeeze the glute to extend the hip . So by activating your glute and squeezing your glute , you're extending and stretching that hip flexor . So this is sort of a double whammy where , when you're stretching , you do want to also think about activating . However , the primary focus isn't activating . It's on feeling that stretch . So you're going to tug it back in and then extend that foot back down , squeezing the glute . You want your butt right on the edge of that bench as you're doing this movement .

Improving Running Gait and Stability

Cori 43:39

If you don't have a bench , you can do a standing quad stretch . However , if you're doing this basic standing quad stretch , make sure you're actually squeezing your glute . So the quad stretch comes into play by that knee flexion , but also the hip stretch comes into play by squeezing the glute here and that hip extended . If you keep your hip flexor , you're not actually stretching your hip flexors . And , fun fact is , only one of the quad muscles actually connects to the hip . Otherwise they're involved in that knee extension . So the final move is three-way hip circles that I wanted to go over Again foam rolling , stretching and then activation . When you're doing these , you can also do these standing . You could do them with your hand on the bench , but you want to think about kicking back , keeping the hips level , okay , so you're working on that glute max there , then bringing the knee out to the side , so the glute medius or that hip stabilizer , and then you're using your abs to actually tuck the knee forward and engage the hip flexor just a little bit . So these are all the things that promote hip stability and that core stability .

Cori 44:31

When you are in that running gait . If you are doing this off the ground , you can not only do a straight leg kick back , but you can even do a donkey kick . Again , don't rotate open . You want to stop the move almost with your glute to engage that glute max . Lift it out to the side and don't rotate open , because that's where you can get your piriformis or your TFL compensating . But straight , lift up to the side , don't get ego and the range of motion . Think about even lifting the knee a little bit because it's awesome , we'll let the knee rotate in and that's where the TFL takes over , so that a lot of our raise out to work the side of the butt and then that tuck in engaging those abs , because that's what's going to create the hip stability , so that we aren't seeing our hips go like this when we're running . We actually have that stability on that single leg Makes for a much more efficient running gait . It helps make sure that we're actually using our glutes properly so we're not going to end up with hamstring issues or IT band issues or knee issues .

Cori 45:17

Okay , the next move . As I said , you want to mention work on two specific joints the hip and the ankle . Okay , so the perennial is one of those muscles that can become tight . It is this muscle down the outside of the lower leg . Okay , that's where we can see ankle issues . It's can even lead to hip issues or there can be tension into that lower leg because of the TFL compensating . So we want to address this and help improve our ankle mobility because that's so important to an efficient running gait .

Cori 45:45

So , pressing down into the ball on the ground , you can circle the foot as you hold , but you want it in the outside , that lower leg , and you can work from where there's that little bone right there All the way down to your ankle bone . You want to focus mostly in the meteor part of the lower leg And if this is too much pressure you can always use like a little block or books and put the ball up on it underneath that lower leg as you press down And again , circling to tense and relax , holding on these spots . You fine , we're working down the outside of that lower leg to really make sure that you're helping improve your ankle mobility , because you want to be able to not only plan a flexor , point your toe , but draw that shin up toward or the toe up toward your shin , because that dorsiflexion is so key to that efficient running gait . Okay , so peroneal foam rolling would be the first thing you want to start with with your ankles , then a bare squat to foot stretch , and this can be really good to do without shoes on too , because we often forget how locked up or big toe can be , which you wouldn't think is that important , but it's really important to that stability , that ground impact , that transfer force . So you want to sit back on your heels with your toes tucked under . Then your hands will go down in front . You'll drive your heels down Again .

Cori 46:48

This is working on the dorsiflexion , or the ability to draw your toes up towards your shins . Now , if you're thinking , corey , that's all well and good , but I can't kneel down like that , you can always do a more knee-friendly version , either using a stair , a block or whatever , by putting the ball of your foot up on that and then driving your knee forward to work on that dorsiflexion or the ability to pull the toe up towards the shin . You're not having your knee go past your toe , which can be a lot more knee-friendly . Okay , so you can always do that as well as you even do a little big toe stretching . Okay , so you can take your foot off for that . But you want to think about that bare squat to foot stretch to work on the foot and ankle mobility .

Cori 47:22

We often ignore these things , but they are our first point of contact , they are our foundation , they are what transfer the force and make sure that we're actually loading correctly , okay , and we're even able to activate our glutes better if we have that better connection to the ground . Okay , the last move and I like to do this off a stair , a plate weight , you can use the block , but you want to even come over to a wall for that extra stability . So , yes , we can just use the calf raise off the ground , but this isn't actually strengthened . So we're going to tighten everything back up . So when we're doing all this mobility work , the only way we maintain it is if we actually strengthen through the full range of motion . So if you're like doing all this hip mobility work and then you're going in the gym and squatting these half squats , you're going to tighten everything back up .

Cori 47:58

So when we're thinking about doing the calf raises , you'll want to stand on the block , step , okay , even on a plate weight , and you can let that heel sort of come off So that you get that extended range of motion and then you can push up off of it . Okay , that extended range of motion , and then you can push up off of it , okay , and so I'm working on one side at a time . You can do both sides , but I want to hold that block in place So I don't kill myself and I'm going to drop the heel all the way down and then press back up , okay , just sort of keeping the other ball of the foot on there . But I'm working on going through a bigger range of motion that I would off the ground . You can also do just a toe raise to the heel raise , so off the ground if you don't have something nearby or you're outside . If you even just dorsiflex and bring the toes up for the shin and then come up , that's at least going to get that little extra work in to help you improve that ankle mobility . But the more you can strengthen through that full range of motion , the better off you're going to be .

Cori 48:49

The final note I want to make because I did focus a lot on the lower body and while you know a lower body does get a lot of impact , running is a full core , full body movement . We want that proper transfer of force through our core and that efficient contralateral movement are using the opposite , upper body and lower body together , so that's sling through our core is super important to focus on . And if our lats are tight , not functioning correctly , we're not going to have that proper transfer of force between our upper and lower body . Our lat and glute are really connected through that thorac olumbar fascia or like our lower back area , and so if our lats are tight or not functioning correctly , we can have SI , joint issues , our glutes won't really function as well as they should , we can have shoulder pain , hip pain , all

Upper Body and Running

Cori 49:30

that jazz .

Cori 49:30

So we have to remember that , even though you know we often think of running a lot for our lower body , there is an important upper body and core aspect to it .

Cori 49:39

So I do just want to pay attention to the lats a little bit .

Cori 49:41

If you turn your palm up towards the ceiling as you sort of roll your lat , you can rock backwards and forwards , working all the way up to that armpit , in the back of the armpit all the way down slightly towards the bottom of your rib cage , rocking back and forth to find a tight spot and then moving the arm .

Cori 49:55

This way you're going to stretch out the lats to help really make sure that you're keeping your upper , lower and lower body , you know , healthy and happy and you have that proper transfer of force through your core as well .

Cori 50:05

So don't ignore your upper body , even if you're a runner . It's super , super key and you want to think about how you can create that efficient transfer of force . But those are some great moves to include in your mobility work as part of your warm-up routine , even as part of your warm-up routine before your lifting sessions , to make sure that you're promoting that optimal gait , that healthy running gait . Being able to run further , faster , is so key and this little bit of extra work , even just five to ten minutes , can really pay off to keep you doing more of what you love . So for all my crazy , wonderful endurance athletes and runners and newbie runners who are looking to not only improve their performance but reach aesthetic goals , hopefully these macro tips , these mobility tips , pamela's amazing tips , all helped you really find ways to now see opportunity in doing some of the things you maybe don't like as much , to do more of what you love .