Andy and another runner discuss how to set goals that actually work. Start small and scale up gradually. Nasal breathing improves endurance, and training with consistent friends who learn proper form makes the difference.
Chapters
I would just say for anyone going into it, it's patience, persistence, and consistency. Look, we all talk, we have had our downs, we have had our ups. No one's going to be Eliud Kipchoge. No one's going to be Jim Walmsley at the very get-go. It's ridiculous to think that they just became what they became just overnight. They've done this for all their whole entire lives. And the same thing with us. We're not going to be at that high level just going at it, just start running in 2 or 3 months, you're just going to be an elite athlete. It doesn't work that way. And that's the same thing with, uh, with running. You have to go small and work your way up. And really, from what I've gone with math running, that it's the most easy to attain. And also your goals become greater and greater as you go along with it. Uh, like I said, I'm curious to keep going with it. Uh, experimenting with the nasal breathing and it's helped me a lot with, uh, with going longer distances. So yeah, for anyone going into this, yeah, you're not going to be a sub-3-hour marathoner just at the very get-go. It takes time. Just, just relax and just, just keep getting better.
Yeah. I agree. I'd say, uh, patience is huge and those kinds of, those kinds of results and progress do take a lot of time, a lot of years. And, um, it's, it's fun to see the consistent improvement and it's been, I think the results sort of speak for themselves. You just have a lot of friends that want to keep training, um, too inconsistently or too hard too often. And over, over time I've had more and more friends that have like kind of started to have a better understanding of How to train correctly that have reached out and I've started to— it's been really cool to have conversations with them and start seeing them learn and to start to train correctly. And it's not because I had to like beat them over the head with math running, just training consistently and being patient myself. Like the results speak for themselves and it's really wonderful to see my friends starting down that that journey.
Well said.
How about you, Bill? Yeah, so to add on that, I think for me in the beginning, before I even step out the door, there was two things I think about. One, you have to have support because what we're doing is a lot of physical and mental challenges that we could run into, and to have support at home or through friends is amazing. It makes you a better runner and a better athlete overall. So I'm lucky to have both. My family's great, my friends are great in supporting everything I do. Second, you have to define what type of runner you're going to be. That should change every 6 months, every year, but pick a couple goals that are attainable and reasonable for you to shoot for. Oftentimes you just see someone say, I'm going to qualify for the Boston Marathon this year, and like Andy was saying, well, you've been running for 6 months, that's probably not going to happen, and then you're going to go along and get frustrated, and then you're going to go back. I think if you can pick some smaller goals to get you the consistency and the motivation to keep going and the progression, then you're more likely to hit it sooner rather than later.
