#86: Floris Gierman Solo Episode | Powerful Lessons for Improving Training, Racing & Life.

I feel every athlete is so absolutely unique and individual, and as much as the basic fundamental of low heart rate training I absolutely agree with, I still see too many people doing all of their runs at the top end of that zone 2 and thinking that that is the one way to train. I think there's something very powerful about some of your runs doing at quite a lower intensity, and even if during a base building phase or during whichever phase in training you feel like running a bit faster or running with a group, and there's so many benefits of running at race pace. Being kind to self and understanding that some training days are going to be easy, some runs are going to be— life can get in the way, and that is okay. And so adjusting our training accordingly, adjusting things on the day-to-day versus sticking so strict to a training schedule, absolutely key there. Welcome to another episode of The Extra Mileage Show. My name is Floris Gierman, and this episode is going to be different than the normal episodes that we have. Usually I interview an expert, a running coach, recreational runner, or elite athlete about ways to become a stronger, healthier, and happier athlete. But in this episode, I'm going to actually give you an update about my own training, racing, and life. There's been a lot of different things happening in the last 12 months, and so I thought give you a short update with some of the lessons that I've been learning. Um, yeah, I just completed the world major marathons. We'll go into that for a little bit. Um, there's been a bunch of different activities that I've gotten into outside of running too. So yeah, going to, um, share that. And like normally twice a week I jump on a Zoom call with our Personal Best community. And in that, those community updates, we often talk about, hey, what were some of the lessons that you have learned? And we do some recapping on a weekly basis. And so in that community, I'm pretty familiar with like talking about some of these things, but I thought it might actually be helpful to share that with a bigger audience here too. Because sometimes it's the smallest things that can start making a difference. And I think when you look back from time to time, I think it's very easy to keep looking forward of like, I've got this race coming up, or I've got this training cycle to go through. But sometimes actually taking a step back, zooming out for a little bit, see some of the things that you've done, see what has worked well, see some of the things that you can improve on. So that's what I've done in recent months, and I thought I would figure— I figured I would actually share some of this. This is going to be a hit the record button, and there's not going to be much, if any, editing in this episode at all. I just want to speak from the heart and speak openly and honestly and share some of the different things over here. So I want to basically circle back a little bit, zoom out for a bit, and give you a short background of my training and racing journey. So in the last 12 years, I've been running pretty consistently. Last year I came out with a video, and that was my lessons and takeaways from 10 years of low heart rate training. And in that video, I showed that I had run about 17,000 miles in the last 10 years. So when you look at that on a weekly basis, it's about 33— was it 33? Yep, that's about 33 miles per week, about 53k. And yes, I'm doing some hills in that. There's definitely some elevation gain. But if you look at it on a daily basis, it's only about 5 miles of running or 8 kilometers of running a day. Some days rest days, some days longer runs. But yeah, overall been running pretty consistently. Then in April of this year, April 2024, I completed the world major marathons. Um, so for me that was in the London Marathon and got the 6-star medal. 2 months before that I ran the Tokyo Marathon, then several months before that I actually ran the Berlin Marathon. Then a few months before that, I ran 2 solo marathons. So when I look back at like that 15-month period right there, I actually ran 5 marathons. All 5 of those marathons I ran sub-3 hours with a GoPro, and I made like a little video of that too. Like, that's for some of my own learnings. Sometimes I enjoy sharing some of the learnings from these running adventures and these races with the listeners or with the audience on YouTube. I enjoy sharing those videos with my family members. So they get a good understanding of what is it like to run through the streets of Tokyo. But yeah, basically 15 months, 5 sub-3-hour marathons, that's quite an effort both in training and racing. And so after I completed the London Marathon and the 6-star world major, it really did feel like an accomplishment. It felt like a check off the bucket list, something that I've been working on for a long time. But then after several days and several weeks of recovery, it's almost like, okay, I understand I have to focus on recovery for a little bit. I have to recharge the body, recharge the mind. But what is next? And funny enough, I've been getting that question quite a bit in the Personal Best program, on my Strava, like, hey, what's your next race? What is your next— and for me, honestly, after quite some time pushing it consistently in road running, in training, I would run some of the trails as well. I almost felt a little bit— not burned out on road running, but I just didn't feel that excited for road running. And like, I think it is so important to listen to your intuition. And I've had several conversations on this topic with my good friend Laurens van Lingen that we cannot force our running. We have to listen to that inner voice. And so sometimes if you don't feel that excited for training, like maybe it's time for a rest day. Maybe it's time to step back for a little bit. Maybe it is looking at what are some other things that do bring you joy. This episode was brought to you by Element. It's in the middle of the summer right now and it is hot out. I've been drinking about 2, sometimes even 3 of these packages a day. I've also been doing quite a bit of sauna training, so just sitting in the sauna and enjoying the sweat fest. So all I'm doing is mixing this with a glass of water and forking it around. There's probably a better way to do this, but typically just forking it around. It really rehydrates you well. Um, sometimes post-runs I would feel quite sluggish, low on energy, sometimes next day even headaches. I don't have that anymore. And so I can highly recommend that. Several members in our Personal Best Running coaching program are using it too. Noticing a significant difference in their training and in their racing. Once these days are getting hotter and hotter, more humid, more sweating, any run over about 60 minutes, I end up bringing a water bottle with me, and I do fill that up with a package of Element, and it works quite well for that. Element is offering for a limited time only a free sample pack of 8 different flavors, so you can try any of the different flavors, and you can get that with any order. The link for that is drink drinklmnt.com/flow. That is drinklmnt.com/flow. Hope you enjoyed this episode with myself. When I'm out for sunrise or for a sunset and I'm out on the trails, I really enjoy it. It doesn't even have to be running for me, even hiking or being out with my family, it's already really enjoyable. But in the back of my mind, there's also been this itch of I'm now 41 years old. I've not done that much consistent strength training. As much as I'm a running coach, I absolutely know the importance of strength training. I feel my lower body is pretty well developed. My legs are strong. I've, I've been in, in good shape from that perspective. With my upper body, I simply haven't put enough emphasis on that part. And so I started experimenting in the recent months, like it's been 3 months now, so 3— yeah, it's been about 3 months now since the London Marathon. I've been going to the gym consistently, and I've actually started doing things that I haven't consistently done previously. I mean, a variety of different things that my body was not used to, and I took a very beginner's mind in this. I ended up connecting with a few close friends that are very familiar with the gym that were able to show me exactly how they would go about certain machines. And a few of the things that I learned throughout this process that I want to share, because some of you listening here are very familiar and consistent, have been going to the gym for years, and there's those who might be focusing a lot of their energy on the running component and who might sometimes even be intimidated to go into a gym. And so what I do, probably about 3 or 4 times a week right now, early on in the morning, usually around 6:00, I go to my local little gym over here. There's no one else. It's It's just, it's just me. And I go there and I, at this point, I'm still early in my journey. I know I want to be careful not to overdo things, so I'm using pretty light weights. I'm not pushing it to the max. I'm actually doing a bit higher reps, and so sometimes I might do 12, 16, 20 with a lower weight, but I'm trying to really focus on the movements. And trying to get them right. And like, even when I'm finishing some of these strength sessions, I know I could have pushed it harder. I know I could have put more weight on it, but I've decided to really gradually adjust my ligaments, my tendons, my muscles, my bones. Like, I've broken my wrist 6 times from skateboarding, and so I've had surgeries on that. I have pins in there, and sometimes my nerves start getting pretty sensitive in there, so I have to gradually build this up. I see too many people going to the gym and instantly trying to see how much weight they can put on there and getting injured. Just like with running, there's a high injury risk. Even with strength training, you can get injured pretty easily. And sure enough, even in the last 3 months, I've sometimes tried to push it more and doing too much weight too soon for where I was at, and things start to become quite sensitive and sore. To a point that I have to start taking more time off than I usually would. I've been messaging with Ryan Hall, one of the podcast guests who was, or still is, the American record holder in the marathon. And then he transitioned to strength training, and I just asked him a few offline questions. Like, we recorded a podcast, but afterwards I had a few more questions of if you're going to do strength training and you're transitioning into that from a roadrunner perspective, like, what are some of the some of the tips. And one thing that I thought was really important what he said is slow down your movement. Don't try to rush through it. Like sometimes when you know you want to hit whatever, 8 reps, instead of like trying to speed through it and counting down and like, take your time. So he said that might be a few seconds of like gradual movement, and by slowing it down you become more present, more aware of your movement and doing the movement right versus trying to rush through it. It's not right away about like how much weight can you put on it, but just doing the movements right, and over time the weight increase can get there. And I think that's the same with running. With running, sometimes people are forcing the speed so much, whereas your body might not be ready for that speed yet. But if you sometimes even slow it down a bit, over time the movement will become more natural, you'll become stronger, and over time that pace will start to become more doable. And so I see so many similarities of the running approach of gradually easing into it. Same here with the strength training approach too. And I would have never thought that I would find joy in consistently going to the gym until recently that I'm really like, I'm going to bed at night, I'm waking up in the morning, and I'm excited to go to the gym. And that's like something I haven't experienced before. And so what does that come down to? For me, it is kind of like James Clear. He talks about small habits and gradually getting small wins under your belt. Well, that's the same happening in here. Like, whether you want to get into consistent running and you just get that momentum going, go out of the door and run or walk for 10 minutes, and if you feel like it, go go jog for a little bit. That's almost the same with strength training too. Pick a few days, go out there consistently, make it easy, get your outfit ready in the morning, and then just start getting some of that momentum going. And yes, there's times that you have to be flexible, that some days the schedule doesn't work out or something else might happen in between. But being very conscious about it and trying to not overthink it, just get your outfit right, ready at night, go out there in the morning, and For me, these things are easier when I do them in the morning because otherwise sometimes my day just gets taken away. So a few other things that I've been enjoying. I started climbing, bouldering in the gym. And once again, this is with some friends. Sometimes I take my kids as well. My daughters are 7 and 11 right now. Just going out and playing. And like, yes, it is great strength training, it's mobility. Like, I've literally cramped up on the wall trying to climb up and realizing that climbing is really focused on your legs as well. Like, as much as I thought, oh, I have to be so strong in my arms and in my fingers, actually the importance of using your legs the right way. So even there, having a beginner's mind, trying to learn some new things. And yes, with any of these things, with going to the gym consistently or climbing, or now getting more into pickleball too. Like, I grew up playing tennis, now pickleball is very natural for me. Whatever that activity is that excites you. I, I see quite a few runners who are so married to running, who all they're doing is running, and they feel that's their identity. And to become a better runner, you have to be running all the time. Like, yes, I understand it is important to become a better runner, but a lot of these other activities are good too, both for the body and for the mind. Recently had another conversation with Laurence, and it was about like, we, we look, um, to some of the videos that are out there, whether that is Andrew Huberman, Peter Attia, or some other experts that talk about Zone 2 training, or that talk about different fundamental approaches to training, endurance training. And one of the topics that recently come up by one of the experts and it was about a question that came up: what is better to do, 30 minutes of cardio in zone 2 or 1 hour of playing basketball with your friends? And here the answer that was given was 30 minutes of zone 2 cardio is better. First of all, how is defined better? Like, in what sort of way? Is it to improve your fitness level? Is it for mental health? Anyhow, both Floris and I were leaning towards the hour of basketball The amount of checks in the boxes of like your social with friends, there's ball-eye coordination, there is the zone 1, zone 2, probably zone 3 or zone 4 for some people. It's a variety, it's a mix of workouts. And so this is the part where I would challenge people sometimes of like, yes, to improve in your running, running more or running consistent can be helpful, but don't underestimate the power of some of these cross trainings as well. And sure enough, like now it has been about 3 months of me doing pretty consistent strength training in the gym, which is making me a better runner. I've been from time to time climbing. I've been playing consistent pickleball, which, let's face it, for a long period of time, I've realized that I was very much solo running. Most of my runs were solo, and it was early on in the mornings, or it was sometimes later at night or on the weekends. Now actually, the pickleball, the social component, it is so important too. And so once again, even whether you do that in any other sport or whether you do that in running and just going out for a group run, I think that social element cannot be underestimated. Now it has been about 3 months of like stepping back, doing a bunch of other activities, and sure enough, that itch to run again is starting to come back. And this morning, my friend Lewis from KOROS, he's the CEO and co-founder of KOROS, him and I, we went to the trail over here locally, Laguna Beach, and we ran for 2 hours. We ran about 10 miles, 16K. We just started and we were running at a conversational pace. The sun was rising, there was morning fog, and we were running the trails, we were running the road. We're doing like a competition on one of the hills. We're like trying to sprint up to see who would ever come the fastest. It was purely play and catching up with a friend. And so it kind of removed all of the barriers of running for a little bit. And I'm so beyond excited for, for those type of runs. And it's funny how it kind of ebbs and flows. And I see that even with some of the guests that I've had on the podcast, like Kilian Jornet. He would run a lot during the summer months, and then in the winter— he lives in Norway— he would go like skimo, ski mountaineering. He would go skiing, he would go like skiing uphills, downhills, he would go climbing and all sorts of other activities. And that recharges his engine again, that he is super duper excited and his body is ready to run again in the main season. And so don't underestimate the power of an offseason. Don't think you have to keep always building, building, building. You can maintain fitness in other sports too. And so yeah, that's been one of my key things over here. So as far as for what is the next race, I don't think I want to do any road races this year, but I do still have my eye on the New York Marathon for next year, which is the only world major I have not run under 3 hours. So that's something for 2025, I would love to, um, run that world major over there. So yeah, just to close this part off, I would highly encourage anyone to look at some of the things outside of running too that could bring you joy, um, and that can help check many boxes outside of just fitness, zone 2, and running, but even some of the other activities. And don't underestimate the power of the gym either. So when I transition to— so on this podcast, we often talk about ways to become a stronger, healthier, and happier runner. The stronger and the healthier we cover in quite a few details. Like, there's a lot of different videos that I've interviewed people about, like ways to do strength training, to do like low heart rate training, to like nutrition. All of the topics are there. The happier part is an interesting one, and I think after, for me, like after completing a world major like this and completing all 6, it's like it's a bit of a time to reflect, time to reevaluate my life. Like, I've trained really hard, I've raced quite a bit, I've traveled for that, but there's a lot of other things that are very important in my life. Like with work, we have our running clothing company, Path Projects. We're in full startup mode. It's super exciting to see more and more people out on my runs in the middle of nowhere that are all of a sudden wearing PATH gear. And like, recently— I want to actually share a story. Recently I was at a PATH Project shoot and went to Catalina Island. We came back and we were in Long Beach for a little bit, went to a coffee shop over there, just bought some coffee while the rest of the crew was shooting. And a gentleman came up to me, he stopped me and he said, hey Floris, I just want to say thank you, you helped me significantly. I was like, well, tell me more. And he said, I had cancer and I was going through chemo and I ended up discovering your podcast and got inspired to start running and ended up completing, like, not just went through chemo and the cancer went away, but actually was able to finish my first marathon. And that was so touching to me. It was— that was beautiful to hear. Like, that right there is the reason why I'm doing this podcast. And it also made me realize that Sometimes it's just a small message that you need to hear, whatever that message might be, whatever that might be that resonates with you. And for me, that message initially was slow down to get faster, or slow down, and it's actually fine to slow down to become faster, like slow down to speed up by Dr. Phil Maffetone was that pivotal moment for me. And I think just hearing someone like that who ended up getting inspired to end up running his own marathon and completing that, so improving in health, improving in fitness, and like a big mental win. And so yeah, that was, that was a big one. And so recently I've been reading a few different books. One of them was by Bronnie Ware, and she wrote The Regrets of the Dying. And I thought this was a powerful book. So basically, Bronnie, she ended up working with hundreds of people in hospice. So these are people that really are at the end of their life. She had conversations with them, and she wrote a book about the 5 regrets of the dying. And I will mention them real brief because it's super eye-opening, actually. The first one: I wish I had the courage to live a life true to myself and not the life what others expected of me. The second: I wish I hadn't worked so hard. The third: I wish I had the courage to express my feelings. Fourth: I wish I'd stayed in touch with my friends. And fifth: I wish I'd let myself be happier. And I think that part alone, like when sometimes reevaluating like where you're at in life and what— like, it's almost like a clean slate. Like, right now I haven't completed like a big bucket list item. Like, what's next? It's so easy to like, all right, now sign up for this, now sign up for that. But what if it's actually like, let's take a step back, let's recharge, and let's actually see what naturally comes to me? Like, for the last several years I've been working on writing a book, like, in the background. And that's like few hundred words a day. And over time that gradually builds up. Like, you can't rush through a process. Some people can, I simply can't. But like, I feel the whole working harder and always going pedal to the metal— I think we live in that society that is so driven to increase output, go, go, go. And my wife is much better in that than me, to like live in the now, to be present, to slow down. Whereas I've— I'm— I catch myself often like go, go, go, and all that. And so I think this period has really been a recharge period. But then hearing some of those stories of this gentleman who stopped me at that coffee shop, it did make me realize that some of these conversations or some of these topics are— they're helping people. And recently on Saturday, I was in the Angel Stadium and there were 50,000 people in the stadium for an event. We're out there, and recently it was funny, I was going through some of my YouTube videos and I did an analysis. The channel has almost at 10 million views, and so on average some of these videos are getting 50,000 or 100,000 views. And then I looked around in the stadium and I was like, that is freaking wild, like Normally I don't think anyone would actually listen to some of these videos, and then when something like that came up, it was actually an eye-opener. So I'm just going to continue making more videos. So I looked further into the author Bronnie Ware, and on her website, The Regrets of the Dying, she has some pretty interesting write-ups. I just want to share one part that I thought was pretty beautifully written. These days I live free of regrets, truly free. It is a blend of compassion for my old self and the mistakes she made, and there were plenty, and not caring a hoot how I'm perceived in the world. The dying people I cared for helped me understand how irrelevant the opinions of others are in the end, and my courage has set me free for such caring before the bad days arrive. I will always be grateful for that. I've also learned how important self-kindness is, which is the opposite of self-judgment that regrets stem from. I'm going to die one day. So are you. Yes, you're going to die. It is easy to assume it will be when you're 95 and in your sleep wearing your favorite nightdress. But just in case you're one of the majority of other people who die earlier, it is worth considering your time now as the incredible blessing it is. And so, yeah, I think to me that whole part of living a life true to self— and this is also where I think having a beginner's mind, leaving ego at the door, and I think in low heart rate training alone, not caring what other people think, it is so relevant too. Because I feel, yes, sometimes that is one of the main challenges that I see people struggle with. And so once I've stopped caring less and less about what other people think, like I literally, whatever. Yeah, there's, there's been a variety of different examples over here. I'll mention one being like posting on Strava. Like I'll literally post my runs on there and most of my runs I walk for 10, 15, 20 minutes and I, I honestly can't be bothered to pause my watch. I just let it run and do its thing and I just don't have the mental bandwidth to think about starting it and stopping it and doing this and that. I just, I couldn't care less what other people would think about it. And so yes, that's sometimes easier said than done, but I think that applies in other parts of your life as well. Maybe this is an aging thing too. I think when you're, like I see it in my daughter, she's 11 years old and she cares very much what other people think. And then as you get older, like yeah, in your 20s and 30s you still do, and probably once you get around 40, which I'm 41 right now, it starts to become less and less. And I can only imagine once you're like at your deathbed. So anyways, just a few thoughts there. So, um, want to give a few training updates because I've had some additional thoughts on the whole zone 1, zone 2, like MAF training, like healthy heart rate. Um, so I feel every athlete is so absolutely unique and individual, and as much as the basic fundamental of low heart rate training I absolutely agree with, um, I think I still see too many people doing all of their runs at the top end of their zone 2 and thinking that that is the one way to train, and I think there's something very powerful about some of your runs doing at quite a lower intensity. And even if during a base building phase or during whichever phase in training you feel like running a bit faster or running with a group or specifically dedicated blocks of speed work are absolutely good for the mind and for the body. And there's so many benefits of running at race pace. And so I would, I would be cautious to be too strict on yourself and the flexibility and training on a day-to-day is so extremely important there too. Last night I just had a plan of going to bed in time and waking up reasonably early and going on a morning run today. Instead, my daughter came homesick. She ended up throwing up all over the rug, which we ended up having to clean the throw up. Ended up reading her a book in bed, and by 7:45 I fell asleep right next to her in bed. And I woke up at 3 AM, and I was right awake. And sure enough, I was like, well, that was a little bit different than I had planned. So by 3 AM this morning, I was already working for a few hours, and then ended up going on my morning run. Just adjusted, like no intensity running really. Well, a little bit, but it was purely Being kind to self and understanding that some training days are gonna be easy, some runs are gonna be like, life can get in the way and that is okay. And so adjusting our training accordingly, adjusting things on the day-to-day versus sticking so strict to a training schedule, absolutely key there. Um, and so I think it is indeed not always so formulated, do this in this zone for this long, but that flexibility is key there. And Laurens and I, I often talk about Laurens because I freaking love that guy and I think he has made such a positive difference, not just in my life, but in the lives of many other people. And I still think it's a lot of people haven't heard of him yet, but I'm fairly sure that that is going to change in the coming years here. But we talked actually about healthy heart rate running. So it's not low heart, low heart rate running or high heart rate running or whatever you wanna call it. It's healthy heart rate running. And so that is very unique and individual to each athlete based on a day-to-day basis. So let's talk about focus on recovery for a little bit. Obviously the last 3 months for me has been more of a recovery mode, not just physically, but I think even mentally recharging that, switching things up a little bit. Once again, can't emphasize enough the importance of quality sleep, quality food, stress management. Sometimes I've noticed I'm so— I have a hard time sitting still sometimes. And I think quite a few people do. And that kind of goes hand in hand sometimes with phone behavior too. Whereas I've deliberately tried to sit still a little bit more and just meditating or journaling or doing some of that versus being glued to the dopamine hits that you're getting from a phone. But that's like a whole separate conversation over there. One interesting part, after running a little bit less now and being more active in the gym, I started actually focusing on taking in more calories and it's actually been something that right now I'm at my heaviest I've been in 12 years, but I'm actually feeling stronger. Uh, when I first got into running, I lost about 30 pounds. I went from about 180 pounds to 150 pounds. Sometimes race weight was even like 145 pounds, 142 pounds. It was quite skinny. People would say like, oh yeah, you're a runner, runner body, skinny, da da da. And over time, it just— I kind of accepted it, but it wasn't something that I was very deliberately trying to focus on this race weight. I would just eat X amount of calories and I would just run a lot, and that's kind of naturally where my body was at. Now that I deliberately, like, I'm running a little bit less, but I deliberately started taking in more calories and actually started doing for a few days some calorie counting. Where am I at? What is my output? If I actually want to increase some weight and gain some more muscle, um, taking in additional calories but without pushing it too hard and going overboard with it, but once again gradually increasing that, that's been an interesting journey as well. And so So now I'm definitely well above my average race weight. I'm the heaviest in 12 years, but I'm actually feeling stronger as well. Like, I feel like I'm sleeping well, I'm recovering well, my energy levels are good. And I think that's a very important one to keep in mind too. In our Personal Best Running coaching program, I see quite a few athletes underfueling, simply not taking in enough calories because they are burning quite some calories, but not necessarily replenishing enough of them. So one of the signs can be that you have signals of hunger, but that doesn't have to be the only thing. It can be your energy levels. It can also be your recovery. It can also be waking up in the middle of the night. If you wake up 1, 2, 3 o'clock in the morning, it might be that your blood sugar levels are dropping or that you might be low on, low on calories. So sometimes just doing a few days of calorie tracking might be quite eye-opening for you, um, in that journey there. So let's talk for a minute. I just made a few bullet points over here, like didn't script anything out, but just a few bullet points. And one was like the power of nature. I touched on it briefly earlier, but I have found sunrises and sunsets to bring me positive energy. Like I very often look at like, all right, you got a baseline energy of like 100. If you spend a lot of time working, being on your phone, being stressed out with a lot of things, like those all take things out of your energy bucket. Let's say they take 20 or 30 units of energy out of your energy bucket. Well, I feel during a sunset or sunrise run, yes, it might cost you some energy, but the amount of recharging that it does as well, I feel like it might give you like 10 or 20 bonus points of energy. And so sometimes I'm just looking like, what is giving me energy? What is taking energy? And but there's something so magical about it. You don't have to run hard. Yes, you could, but even just going out and about for a walk, there's something very special. I prefer morning runs over evening runs purely because the world is often still asleep, and I love the sounds of birds around me and just looking around. And so, yeah, if you ever feel like, ah, you're kind of in a, in a slump in your running, if you feel like you're kind of stuck in your running, just go out on a morning hike, morning walk. And then from there on, if you feel like running, go for it. But if not, just keep walking for a little bit and just letting nature kind of recharge you. There's a, there's a big one for that. One thing I did recently, and I've done it a few times now, is I go on a morning run. It's about 2.5K, so whatever, a mile and a half. Run to a hill. There's a rock on there. I actually go sit on that rock. It's a beautiful viewpoint. I meditate for 10, 15 minutes, and then I just run back. Total running is very short. And like, it's a steeper hill. Sometimes I run a little bit, sometimes I walk a little bit. That part right there, that's a recharge for me. Once again, yes, it might not be the top end of zone 2 training, but I can guarantee you there's a lot of positive benefits there. One more note about the sleep component that we talked about earlier is I've been going through the transcript of several of my older podcasts. There was one podcast with Dr. Steven Seiler, and he talked about the impact of sleep on athletic performance where they actually studied the performance of students who had exams. And when they had exam week, their race performance were always lower than when they didn't have exams. And so I thought that was about as clear of an example example of like, yeah, your stress levels do impact how much you can give on race day there too. So, and once again, every athlete is unique. And so the whole personalization of what works well for you, what your training approach should be, is a very important one there. Just want to give a short update on the book because I've been, I've been writing for the book for several years now. And this is an interesting one where I'm not a writer. This is— yes, I write my thoughts on paper, but English is my second language. Like, writing was never like my skill, but I do have the information in there that I just want to put on paper. The basic concept of the book is based on the podcast, and it is lessons, takeaways, quotes from 100+ episodes of the Extra Mileage Show. And so it is quite a bit of compiling information, going through it, but it's also sharing some of the things that I've taken away from that. And it is a book that I wish I would have read at the beginning of my running journey. So it's a lot of short chapters, 2, 4, 5 pages. And the reason why I'm writing it this way, short, is that Personally, I typically don't have the bandwidth to read a book from beginning to end, to read like a 300-page book. But for me, to open a book where you have individual chapters where you can easily just read one chapter on a specific topic is much easier for me. And so this is kind of how I'm writing it. So even in the writing process, for me, it's easier to write a few hundred words and over a period of time end up writing like one article, or— and that article ends up being part of this bigger picture book. But it's been interesting. I think the whole part of learning how to sit still and write and to basically focus— I think we live in a society with a lot of distractions, and I think ability to focus is going to be a superpower in the next decade plus. So yeah, it's, it's exciting. There's, there's more to come on this in the coming months and years probably. But yeah, I would say for anyone who's looking to tackle a big project, whether this is in your training and your running and your racing or even in your work life, in your personal life, It can be very overwhelming to go after a big goal, but when you chop it up in very small doable parts— writing 100 words might be doable, writing a sentence might be doable— but doing that over a longer enough period of time, you might be surprised once you start getting these small wins back to back, the momentum that you start to gain, the systems, the routines, the habits that you set up to see what works, what doesn't work, just to gain that momentum. So that's what I would encourage you— like, if you have a big picture project on your mind, just cut it down in smaller projects. Really take it one day at a time. Don't focus on, I have this much more to do. That's the same as when you're running a marathon and you're at mile 5 and you think you have 21 more miles to go, or whatever that is in Ks, 30 Ks to go. Oh, 35Ks. It's like, it's so overwhelming. All you want to do is run in that kilometer you're at. And I think that's the same with some of these work projects. Like, yes, you can spread it out over a long enough period of time, but just focus on one day at a time, one project at a time. So for anyone listening over here, like, I know this has just been a ramble. This is literally like just being an unorganized brain dump over here. But I do feel hopefully there might be a few things in there for you. That you can pick up on or that you have taken away from this. I would encourage you to look what brings you excitement. And absolutely, that can be running. That can be road running. That can be trail running. For me, last year, that was actually doing something else. And it was swimming in the ocean, riding a bike, and then climbing a mountain. That was just an adventure that we set up with a few friends and doing some non-traditional races. You don't always have to run. Your local 10K or half marathon or marathon or this, this race. Like, what brings you excitement? What, what is like— what— don't be afraid to have a beginner's mind. Leave the ego at the door. Like, one thing in the back of my mind, like, I would love to pick up yoga one day. My body is pretty stiff. I'm not very fluent. If I'm trying to do any sort of yoga pose, I look like an absolute idiot. But Then again, those are all things that I'm telling myself, right? Like, what if you just go out there with a beginner's mind and you just don't care what other people think and you put in some of the consistent effort and over time things will become easier? So that's what I would encourage you as well. Don't be intimidated. Like, I'll mention one example. Last week we had a parent relay race with swimming with my kids and I went diving for the first time off a diving board. It took me a few good belly flops in front of a few other people too, in order to eventually learn how to dive off a belly, off a diving board. So yeah, you have to be humble sometimes. You have to be okay with, with some of that. And then once you do it, you feel awesome. It feels really nice. And so yeah, whenever you feel kind of uncomfortable, lean into that. That's an area of growth. So that's it. Um, several more podcasts in the works. I'm going to be interviewing more elite athletes, recreational athletes, different running experts that I still want to get on the podcast. If you have any suggestions for podcast guests, please let them know in the comments over here on YouTube. And I would love to hear from you. What was your favorite lesson, takeaway, or quote from this episode? Please let me know over here in the comments as well. If you would like to learn more about our running coaching program, the Personal Best Program, this is where I am active twice a week in the Zoom group, uh, in the Zoom coaching calls answering questions. Several other coaches from our program are active in there as well. We have a Facebook group, a Strava group, more than 1,000 people around the world, super supportive community. We all learn from each other. We're all very supportive. But yeah, if you want to learn more, check out pbprogram.com for that. I would say have fun out there, not only on your runs but also in all the other areas of your life. Thanks for listening, have a good one, bye now.