What 20,000 Miles & 100+ Interviews Taught Me. Zone 2 Running Breakthroughs.

Today I'm going to run a sub-3-hour marathon, and I will share how you can experience a breakthrough in your running, in your health, and in your life. I'll share several lessons from my new book, Running Breakthroughs, that's available now. This video can change your life. I'll share how to run in a flow state using healthy heart rate training, and this is for runners of all levels, from beginners to advanced. Let's get started.

I'm running in Big Bear today. It's a beautiful cold morning in the mountains. Looking forward to today's run. Let's do this! I'm planning to run a 6:45 minute mile pace. That's about a 4:12 minute per kilometer. Should get me in at around 2:57, 2:58 for the marathon. Here are the topics that we'll cover in today's video: what is a running breakthrough, what are common challenges that runners experience, what is healthy heart rate training and how do you do it, finding your flow in running and in life— and we'll talk about awareness and flow states here— how to deal with frustrations, and that last one, how to reach your full potential, is my favorite part of this video. Look how beautiful it is over here in the mountains. I want to share a very relevant quote from my conversation with Eliud Kipchoge, the GOAT of marathon running. Start training and finish. Enjoy when you're running, please enjoy. Just run and finish. And all in all, day after day, week after week, month after month, you'll improve. One tip I'll tell you to improve for running is to walk your talk. It is to be consistent in training and to dedicate yourself fully. Improvements go hand in hand with dedication. And I couldn't agree with that more. So what is a running breakthrough? A noticeable leap forward in running ability, performance, or enjoyment, often after a period where progress felt slow or stagnant. A transformative moment in training, mindset, or health that elevates running to a new level of ease, speed, or consistency. The point where steady effort and small changes compound into lasting improvements, revealing potential beyond previous limits. I've experienced several breakthroughs in my own running and health, but it used to not always be like that. I used to experience many different challenges in my running and in my health. I would often feel very frustrated with my running. It would be challenging. I would be huffing and puffing, and I would have side aches. I would be running out of breath constantly. And even when I started low heart rate training there were still quite a few different frustrations that I experienced along the way as well. I would experience common injuries. I would often feel overtrained, burned out, exhausted, coming back from a run and just really feeling tired the rest of the day. But over the years, a few things changed. One of the key things is I learned the joy of low-intensity running. Learning how to slow down to become a faster runner over time. We'll talk much more about that in a bit. I also learned how to run much more in a flow state, much more present while running, much more in tune with my body and mind. And so everything started to click all of a sudden. It wasn't just that my runs became much more enjoyable, I became faster at the same heart rate, and my race time started to improve as well. My marathon time improved from a 4 hours 11 minutes to a 2:44 at the Boston marathon. Ended up running a 1:19 half marathon, and I completed a 100-mile run in 17 hours and 45 minutes. But it went much beyond running finish times. I started noticing more alignment in other parts of my life as well. So yes, my running improved, but my overall health and my business, my family life, it all started improving too. Loving this new Alphafly 3s from Nike. Super poppy, absolutely love how they feel. Over the years, I've coached many runners around the world, and it was fascinating to hear some of the breakthroughs that they experienced as well. Daniel Edwards, he's 51 years old, and he said it doesn't really seem fair to run this way. It is so much easier He ended up setting PRs from 5K all the way to the marathon. Heidi Moreno, as he transformed her mindset and her performance, it transitioned from running with ego to awareness and joy. William Bard, at age 70, he experienced decades of injuries, and all of a sudden he was able to run fast and controlled at a relative low heart rate. He ended up running a 3-hour 55 marathon in Chicago. Qualifying for the Boston Marathon. Ayako, age 59, she was sedentary for more than 50 years, then started running. First 5K, 10K, half marathon, marathon. She ran her first 50-miler within 3 years of starting to pick up running. She PR'd by more than 30 minutes in a marathon. And these are just a few examples of many where runners learn to get in tune with their body run with more clarity, slow down to speed up. It is really eye-opening. Let's talk about some common challenges that runners experience. This is something that I've experienced, that I see runners in our coaching program, but also some of our podcast guests that I've spoken to. Injuries from imbalance, often too much, too hard, too soon. Overtraining and burnout, this is very common. Losing joy in training, either beating yourself up or sometimes having to slow down a lot and just experiencing frustrations. Impatience, so wanting quick results. Not knowing how to train— there's so much information out there, so sometimes it can be confusing. Starting too fast, once again either in training or in racing. Fueling or hydration mistakes. The comparison trap, so either comparing yourself with other runners or with your previous PRs. The identity challenges and mental setbacks. There's a lot of negative self-talk as well that they encounter. Here are two beautiful quotes that apply to some of this. Courtney DeWalter, she shares: Every morning I check in with my legs, my body, emotions, and stress levels while drinking coffee. There's no real system to it, no data, no heart rate monitor. It is just about noticing how I feel. If something feels off, I adjust my training accordingly. It lets me listen to my body and adjust when necessary rather than forcing things. And here's another good quote by Kilian Jornet: If you do one hard session, the body will be stressed and return to normal. However, if you repeat that hard session after a few days and again after a few more days, the body adjusts and established a new sense of stability. It is not about one session. It is about the repetition of hard sessions throughout the year that leads to adaptations. Let's talk about what is healthy heart rate training. In some of my previous videos, I've often talked about low heart rate training. In my conversations with movement specialist Laurens van Lingen, him and I talked about healthy heart rate training. This is not necessarily tied into a low heart rate training or a high heart rate training, but it really comes down to tuning in with how you feel on a day-to-day basis. Some days your body just needs some more recovery and wants some more lower intensity running. Some days you're feeling well rested, you're feeling strong. By all means, some faster running can feel good there. Some days the body might require rest. So that day-to-day adjustment is absolutely crucial over there, and really listening to the body instead of only following the metrics from a heart rate monitor. For some people, that means 80% running at a low intensity, 20% at a higher intensity. For some people, that might mean a period of 100% at a low intensity and skipping high intensity for a while. And some other people can find benefits from doing some more than 20% high intensity. Every athlete is different there. Healthy heart rate training is about recognizing what your body needs. Less effort to build your aerobic base, meaning your body gets better at running longer without getting tired as quickly, less effort to recover properly, more effort to mix things up and sharpen your fitness. So that flexibility on the day-to-day is absolutely key here. 6 miles in, about 40 minutes, trying to stay hydrated. I want to real brief talk about 5 ways to calculate your easy and hard training zones. It's only going to take 1 minute. For a much more detailed video, click here in one of the corners. I never know which one to point at. You probably know. Method 1: the talk test.

Zone 1 and 2 is easy aerobic.

You can complete sentences, they flow easily. Zone 3, moderate, short phrases between breaths. Zone 4 or 5, hard, Only a few words at a time or no talking possible. Method 2: nasal breathing or nose breathing.

Zone 1 or 2: easy aerobic.

Comfortable breathing through the nose only. Zone 3: moderate. Nasal breathing becomes challenging. And Zone 4, 5: hard. Need to breathe through the mouth. Method 3: the Math 180 formula. You start with 180 minus your age to meet your base math number. And you adjust that based on your current health and fitness profile. You can pause the video here for more details. Then method 4, the Karvonen formula with heart rate reserve method. This keeps your resting heart rate and your max heart rate in mind. You can go to extramilers.com/heart-rate to calculate this. And then the last method, lab testing. You can get a lactate test done in a medical lab to get your detailed training zones. To get started with heart rate training, start with the simplest method be patient, be consistent. You can, through journaling, make some adjustment over time to fine-tune things. Garrett King shared a good one here on the podcast. A good indicator is after a run you can say to yourself, I could do that again. It is a sign that you're training easy enough. Let's talk about 3 dials of training, 3 very important key dials here. Think of your training as having 3 adjustable dials that you can turn up or down. Volume, how much you run, so your mile or your time on feet. Intensity, how hard you run, so your effort or your pace. And recovery, how well you recover, so the rest and the sleep. The magic happens when you can find the right balance for your unique situation. This can help prevent injury, optimize recovery, and just make sure that you're progressing in a consistent, smooth way long term. So what is the right running volume for you? It really depends on your goals, your experience, and your recovery ability. Also how much time you want to train and have available to train, because it's not always about training more. Sometimes it's about recovering more. You got to keep the adaptation curve in mind. Have a look at this graph over here. You can train hard, but you need to be able to recover well for that fitness improvement to happen. Let's take a look at some example training volumes broken down by athlete type. For health and longevity, train 3 to 4 hours per week in zone 2, the aerobic intensity. Include a small portion, 10 to 20%, of higher intensity work. The benefits are improved cardiovascular health, insulin sensitivity, fat oxidation, and brain function. For recreational athletes seeking performance gains, aim for 4 to 6 hours per week, approximately 25 to 30 miles or 40 to 50 kilometers. Follow the 80/20 principle to balance improvement and injury prevention. And then for competitive recreational runners, consider 6 to 10 hours per week, approximately 30 to 50+ miles or 50 to 80k+ kilometers. Maintain 80% in zone 1 and 2 with targeted higher intensity sessions. This is ideal for significant personal records, Boston Marathon qualifiers, etc. One note about training volume: I see some athletes overtrain where they just put in too much training volume. I also see some athletes undertrain, not getting enough training load. So volume and intensity combined. So it's all about that fine balance over there. Once again, journaling— we'll talk about it more in a little bit here. Rest and sleep cannot be underestimated. That is training, keep that in mind. About 9 miles in, running consistent, heart rate is gradually increasing. I'm at about 150 right now, feeling good. Let's take a look at an example training schedule for recreational runner, about 4 to 5 hours training per week. This can be on Monday, a rest day, or very easy cross-training This is at a recovery intensity. On Tuesday, an easy run in zone 2, 30 to 45 minutes. On Wednesday, a high-intensity session. This can be zone 4 with zone 1 recoveries. An example of this is a warm-up, then 6 times 3 minutes in zone 4 with 2 minutes zone 1 recovery, and then a cool-down. Total duration is 45 to 60 minutes. Thursday, recovery run, zone 1, 45 minutes. Friday, rest or very easy cross-training recovery. Saturday, long run. This is in zone 2 with the last 15 to 20 minutes in zone 3. This is about 60 to 90 minutes. And then Sunday, an easy run in zone 2, 45 to 60 minutes. In this video, I don't have time to go through the other training schedules, but in my book running breakthroughs. And in the resources, several different training schedules available as well. The 10th mile in— was it 6:42, 6:43? Run's going well so far. Running in the Alphafly shoes, nice and poppy. I'm also running in the Path Project Sentinel Half Tights. I switched over from running shorts to half tights and it's been phenomenal. I love the extra storage, can fit a bunch of gels in there. Feels very tight on the body but in a good way. The fabric, I really cannot feel it, zero bounce. Absolutely love it. I'm also wearing a lightweight tank top, the Wadi Tank by Path Projects. I'm running with a backpack by Black Diamond to hold my water bottle, water bottles, and I even have a copy of the book in there because I was running with it. Thing is quite heavy. Not sure what I was thinking there, but running with an Apex 4 watch by Coros. I got a few different watch settings over here. That you can see. I got the total mileage at the top, then I got my current pace, my current heart rate, my lap pace and heart rate. So that's over 1 mile. And the total pace and total heart rate. And then at the bottom, the time. That has worked really well for me. And then I have a backup watch over here in case the other one doesn't record well. And that is the Vertix 2. Then I have heart rate monitor, Coros armband, very comfortable there too. Morning. Hi. How are you? Good. Right on. Nice work. Let's talk about running and running in flow, because that is a topic I absolutely enjoy. What is running in flow? It is running with a lot of awareness, really being in tune with your body and mind. A lot of elite athletes talk about the importance of relaxed running. In my conversation with world champions Eliud Kipchoge and Taylor Knipp, and even movement specialist Laurens van Lingen, we often talked about the importance of relaxed running and almost like this flow state of running. The flow state, or in the zone, is a state of immersion where movement feels effortless. It is where high-performance athletes thrive. Here's how you can access a flow state. Create a pre-run ritual. I often start with a gentle walk and a few calming breaths, signaling my body and mind to relax. Practice mindfulness during your runs. Bring attention to the present moment, to your footsteps on the ground, your breathing patterns, and the wind on your face. 3. Use visualization. Picture yourself running smoothly, relaxed, and effortlessly strong, and focus on your rhythm. Notice the natural rhythm in your breathing and cadence that emerges when you stop forcing and you start flowing. So be here, be here now when you're running. I often try not to run with music, but I'm trying to find that rhythm between my breathing, between my cadence, and it really becomes this meditative style. Double inhale. When I'm running a decent pace, it's a great way to calm my nervous system, to get really into a meditative flow state. Sometimes just doing a 30-second check-in with yourself, like, how are my shoulders? Are they pulled up? How are my fingers? Are they clenched up? Just relax them. Drop the shoulders. I love cueing myself to run with an open heart. Keep the chest open, get a lot of air in there, rotate the shoulders. Feels so good. Here are your next steps for flow running. 1. Begin with awareness. During your next run, do a body scan. Notice where you're holding tension. 2. Practice running relaxed. Set aside one run per week, focus solely on staying relaxed. Don't worry about pace or distance. 3. Create a stress buffer. I love this one. Implement 30 minutes of screen-free time before and after your runs. 4. Develop a pre-run ritual. Find a simple routine that helps you transition into a flow state. Breathe intentional. Practice rhythmic breathing during your easy runs until it becomes natural. By learning to release tension and by running relaxed, you'll notice that your recovery becomes faster, you have more joy in your runs, And when you're in that flow state, you might be surprised what starts happening in other areas of your life as well. Half a marathon in 1:28:10. If you enjoyed this video, make sure to like and subscribe. Leave a comment, goes a long way to get this video in front of more runners. Let's talk about the power of the unhurried life. Here's one of my favorite quotes: quote from the Extra Mile podcast by Walter Linegar: Be patient and let joy lead your training, not your mind. Who says you have to be fast and strong to be happy? You are living now, not tomorrow or in the next second. That brings a feeling of ease, joy, and freedom. I love that quote. One thing that stood out to me from my conversation with Taylor Knipp, the GOAT of triathlons, is that she intentionally tries not to hurry. She takes her time. She really adds in a buffer so that she's not stressed. And the less stress she has, the more training load she can handle. What a beautiful place to run over here. I often catch myself rushing through life, and I think that part, being aware how that impacts you, can make a big difference. Meaning if you can take a few-minute buffer before dropping off the kids to school, before going to work. A few-minute buffer can really lower the stress levels you experience during the day, making your running easier too. So yes, calming the nervous system is an absolute big one there. Lawrence Taylor, several others talk about this. Out of all my conversations on the Extra Miles Show, journaling came up as one of the most used tools. If you want to start journaling, you can start out with 3 simple questions: How did my run feel? What went well? And what can be improved? If you want to take it a step further, here's a simple running journal template for before and after your run. Pre-run: the date and time, your sleep quality 1 to 10, your energy level 1 to 10, your mood your physical niggles, today's goals, and any other thoughts. And then after your run, the distance and time covered, how it felt 1 to 10, one thing that worked well, one thing that could be improved, your recovery plan, and any other thoughts. Doing this on a consistent basis can make a big difference in your running performance, in your health, and even in the rest of your life. Let's talk about how to deal with frustrations, because some of the biggest challenges in training are not physical but mental. There's an ego component, there's a mental component here too. I often talk about unexpected things that can happen on race day. Well, I just grabbed my water bottle and the top toot-toot flew off, so I can't put it back in my pack. So Going to have to be a bit strategic with water here. But yeah, that's race day. Always expect that unexpected things can happen. Keeps your mind calm and just keep going. Mile 17 in 6:46. I want to talk about 4 movement drills that have helped me a lot in my running to run in the flow to run smooth and to improve my running form. These are by Laurens van Lingen, and I'll let him briefly explain them.

The Awesomeizer. The Awesomeizer is a great movement screen. To perform the Awesomeizer, you want to find somewhere you can put your foot up that's between your hand height and your knee height, and you're going to just turn, put your foot up, and then basically it's a system of balance checks. So into your hip, release your hand, straighten The second component of the Awesomeizer is the same turn, step, and then we open up and close your hips. This is fantastic if you've been sitting a lot or if you're cycling, your hips can get really, really bound down. Third part of the Awesomeizer, again, turn and then step. You're going to rock from your heel off your forefoot. It's very, very good at rehabbing your Achilles, softening up your soleus so that your soleus has full range of motion. Fourth part of the Awesomeizer is your upper body at 45-degree angle. And what you're going to do is we rock to the one side and we practice getting our head over our foot and add upper body rotation. We do it on both sides, and what that does is it really helps get your head over foot when you're running, which is very, very important for balance, stability. It'll massively improve your endurance when you're running and also opens up your chest and gets your shoulders off your hips. So the flow rope is a rope that you swing. You don't jump with rope, and you want kind of a heavy rope, so about 16mm in diameter or 5/8 of an inch, and why we want to use it is because it's very, very good at teaching you to move from the center out. It'll also make your running fluid and symmetrical, and the other thing is we can teach people the exact shape and timing of running. An important concept with the flow rope is we can differentiate between anterior chain, which will be swinging the rope in a downward chopping pattern, and posterior chain, which is swinging the rope in a backward and up pattern. Backwards walking. Okay, backward walking is a hidden gem. It's very, very good for injury prevention, and it also really helps you shift forward when you run. So basically, you're going to learn to run better forwards by walking backwards. Two steps in learning how to do backward walking. The first one is you're just going to take a step backward with soft toes. Make sure that your toes are bent, and then you place your heel down. The second component is you need to get your belly button pointing towards the lead leg or the front leg. And so when you step back, this is my front leg, my belly button points through the front leg, and you want to add that movement into your backward walking. Tire walking is probably the best exercise in the world that is gait-specific to strengthen your hips. What that means is that if you pull the tire, you will learn the exact shape and strength and coordination pattern of your hips when you run, and it'll give so much confidence to your running because you'll know exactly what what you're supposed to be doing with your hips. And once your hips become dynamic and strong and articulate and your movement starts to come from your hips, your whole body will start to open up. You'll find length and space, your neck, your spine will release. It's a very, very powerful way of reframing your running.

We are about 18 miles in, 18 and a half. Don't really know where to go from here. A lot of red lights. So we're just going to wing it. Starting to feel it though. Let's go. Less talking, more running.

Wait, walk sign.

These traffic lights. Let's see where this trail takes us. Chaos running through Redlands. Ambulances, helicopters, police, traffic lights, obstacles. Hard to maintain a flow right now. Oh, looks like they had a race. Hopefully the road is closed. Let's go. Mile 20 and 7:05. This is where the race really starts. Not going to lie, going to have to dig deep. Let's go. Mile 21, 21, 21, 702. These stop lights, have to stop every time. Wait, wait. Wait, wait. It's mile 22 and I don't think I can do it. Come on, keep the mind positive. I'm lost. 23 miles. I'm out of it. Not happening today. This here is the path I wanted to get to. Completely missed it. So I had to go through a bunch of traffic. Wait, I did not expect it this busy here on a Sunday morning. Can't stop the time because that doesn't count. All right, let's go. 24 miles in. The police pulling someone over again.

Wait, wait.

A lot of cops around, so I don't want to keep running through a red light. It's all good. I'm not running sub-3, and that is okay. Traffic light number 20. I'm just cruising it in at this point, enjoying the last few miles over here. Mile 25. Let's go! Almost there, mile 25. Legs feeling it, feeling sore, but still enjoying it. Cruising. Let's finish this thing. Come on, traffic lights, let's go! Hello, hello, how are you? I should have planned this route better, man. One big learning experience. It's more about what can we make out of the moment. Just make the best out of the situation. Let's enjoy it. Let's be present. Take a deep breath in. Smell those fumes. Yeah, finally. Gee, that took like a minute. Oh, all right. 26 miles. Let's finish strong here. Let's go. I always run a bit extra just in case the GPS is off. Wow, gee, so many thoughts here. 3:05:51, 7:05 minute mile average. That was not sub-3, but we learned a lot once again. So that didn't really go according to plan.

So what were a few of the things that went wrong here today?

2 weeks ago there was a big mudslide over here in Big Bear, so the route I was initially going to take started 7 miles or 8 miles earlier, and now I had to start further down the hill. So all of a sudden I had to run way into Redlands, into the city where I wasn't initially planning on running, and there were so many traffic lights, there were road closures, there was fire trucks, police cars, everything. It kind of threw me off quite a bit. Also, honestly, my fitness level was not that high as previous training cycles. I've run dozens of sub-3-hour marathons, made probably 10 videos while making a sub-3, so that's not the thing. I don't really feel I have anything to prove over there. Yes, it would have been fun for the launch of this book to, uh, share like this while running a sub-3, but 3:05 is a great time as well. Also, I ran with the book in my backpack, and I think I kind of underestimated how heavy the book was. The book is like close to 2 pounds. So yeah, originally I was planning to like finish the race and, uh, show the book, but, uh, I realized the book was actually kind of heavy, about 2 pounds over here. Didn't really bounce. It was just more weight with the book and the water and everything in my running vest. The vest was a little bit hot, but not too bad over there. My Uber is here to take me back to the car where I started, so I'll finish the rest of the video in a bit.

I wasn't going to post this video because I felt embarrassed.

I felt like a failure.

Setting out that I was going to run a sub-3-hour marathon and talk about how to get a running breakthrough. Yet here I was, completely missing that goal for a variety of different reasons, and it really got me in a negative headspace there for a bit. Yes, in hindsight, training for 22 miles per week— so whatever that is, 34k or 36k— it's not enough in order to do this. And I only really ran 3 to 3.5 hours per week in the last 12 weeks leading up to this. And one of the main things was I was just so busy writing this book. I was so busy working full-time, raising 2 young children. And so there's a variety of different reasons why I missed my goal. But it did get me to realize that a goal finish time is not everything either. I really had to go through this process internally of being okay to show what happened over here.

I really, I promise I wasn't gonna show any of this.

I decided let's just run this thing again in like a few weeks' time. Train some more, make a few changes, don't talk so much, leave the book at home, and figure out this new route. Yet deep inside, I wasn't very excited to do that. I was forcing it. And when I would coach another athlete looking at this situation, I would have totally said put the video out there as is. Yet there was this ego component of like, ah, I'm gonna be a failure if I'm showing that I missed my goal and any of these kind of things that it took me a while to wrap my head around that. I had a conversation with my wife about vulnerability and about showing not always everything so perfect and that that actually resonates more with everyone, including with myself. When I had a conversation with Demi, my friend, she also said something similar of there's still a lot of good information in this video. And when you show that things don't go according to plan, how you respond to certain situations, that's keeping it real. The moment I decided I'm not going to run this same run again just to try to lower the pace by a few minutes, this huge weight lifted off my shoulders. And I was like, oh, I don't have to go out there and train hard even though I'm super tired and in the middle of this book launch. And it was burning the candles at all different ends. And so once I decided not to run it, I felt so good because I was being true to self. And my life coach Troy Eckert had such a great quote about this. There's no effort in being who you are, but there's tons in being who you're not. A breakthrough in running and in life goes far beyond the finish time or the goal you're hoping to accomplish. For me, the breakthrough here is really to live more and more from a place of truth, from authenticity and vulnerability. It's about not forcing things, but by being real, going with the flow of life and being gentle and kind to self. I've been gentle in the coaching of other athletes, yet sometimes I can be my own harshest critic. And that's what I would tell you too: stop being so hard on yourself. To reach your full potential and to experience breakthroughs in running and life, I would say let go of the outcome, stop forcing it, and focus on the things that you can control. Surrender and follow where the energy flows. Put in the effort, work hard, but also be flexible. Be flexible and gentle. Kindness to self, patience, consistency, and joy are all important ingredients. When dealing with challenges and frustrations in your running or in life, getting to that acceptance phase rather than getting stuck in the frustrations phase and actually taking the learnings out of the whole process goes a long way. I've seen that work well for myself and for many members in our Personal Best Running Coaching Program. If you would like to find out more about that program, check out pbprogram.com. The book Running Breakthroughs is available as audiobook, printed book, and ebook on my website floresgiermann.com and on Amazon worldwide. Incredible to see that the book reached number 1 bestseller on Amazon in the categories running and sports during the launch. With more than 150 5-star reviews. I would love to hear from you. What was your favorite lesson, takeaway, or quote from this video? Please let me know in the comments below. Also, if you have bought a copy of the book Running Breakthroughs, let me know in the comments as well. I would love to personally thank you for that. Have fun out there on your runs. Bye now.