Summer Base Training w/ Coach TJ Garlatz

In this month's Instagram Live Replay we have host Will Benitez and Coach TJ Garlatz. And the topic is summer base training -- whether you have a race in the fall, or you just want to make sure you are training right this summer, give this one a listen.

You can connect with Coach TJ here:
https://www.rundoyen.com/running-coaches/tj-garlatz/

Connect with Coach Will Benitez:
https://www.rundoyen.com/coaching-services/nutrition-coaching/

Join the Next Level Running Facebook Group: 
https://www.facebook.com/groups/nextlevelrunning

Follow @RunDoyen for IG Live sessions: 
https://www.instagram.com/rundoyen/

Check out RunDoyen if you are looking for a World Class Expert Run Coach to help you crush your running goals: https://www.rundoyen.com/

If you aren't quite ready for a Run Coach, check out the Doyen Dashers Program:
https://www.rundoyen.com/dashers/

Transcript

Jacob Phillips 0:18

This is the next level running podcast brought to you by the expert coaches at RunDOI, helping runners of all levels get their goals on race by matching the perfect coach for training plans. Hello and welcome back to the Next Level Running Podcast. I'm your host, Jacob Phillips, and today I'm introducing our July Instagram live replay with host Will Benitez and Coach TJ Garlat. The topic is summer-based training. Whether you have a race in the fall or you just want to make sure you're training right this summer, give this one a listen. But before we jump into the conversation, I want to point you to the show notes below. As usual, I've got the contact information for both Coach Will Benitez and TJ Garlatz. Coach Will, he's our on-site nutritionist with Rundoyan. And Coach TJ is a veteran coach here at Run Doyen who's been a frequent guest of the podcast. Also, if you're looking to crush your running goals and take your running to the next level, please check out RunDoyen.com. If you aren't quite ready for a full-time running coach just yet, check out our Doyen Dashers program. For$39 a month, you get a training program written for you by one of our world-class expert run coaches at Rundoyan. That's a great program to follow. I enjoyed it this past spring semester, helped me get back into shape and kickstart my own summer training this summer. But hey, that's enough about me. Let's jump into this conversation with Coach Will Benitez and Coach TJ Garlatz as they talk about summer-based training.

SPEAKER_02 1:45

Hey everyone. And this is Will with Ron Doyan, the nutritionist on staff here. Gonna go live in just a moment with Coach TJ. And I think I think we're spot on time. Let's see, yeah, I got a request here.

SPEAKER_03 2:05

Coach TJ's gonna join us. We'll dive in. Thank you all for being here.

SPEAKER_02 2:17

Joining us on this hopefully fine, maybe hot summer day. Hey coach. Hey, how's it going, Well?

TJ Garlatz 2:25

Good. Good to see you. Yeah, it's uh toasty one, probably a little bit hotter in Portland, but yeah, it's nice and warm.

SPEAKER_02 2:33

You know what? It's probably hotter somewhere else too, but it is, it is. I mean, it's a hundred degrees right now, so it is toasty here.

TJ Garlatz 2:39

Yep. I'm complaining about the upper 80s, so no, I guess I shouldn't.

SPEAKER_02 2:44

It's relative. It's relative. I you know, I I I get it. Um no humidity here, right? So uh you know, east coasters and southern states and you know other areas can complain about a lot more. But yeah, it's been hot, but this is gonna be the last of it. It'll start to cool off here. Um we'll see if we get another little heat wave later on, but it's been all right, right? It's kind of on par for today's topic because I'm sure heat's gonna come up. We're talking about uh you know, building a summer base, right? Today. So um one of my questions and my curiosities that I'm sure other runners are um hopefully equally curious about, or um could be a nice takeaway at the very least, is you know, how to navigate that, right? The heat. What you know, what does that mean for two-a-days? What does that mean for people who need to train in the afternoons? They just cannot train in the morning. So I know we'll get into that, but before we do and get into other other uh questions around this topic of building a summer base, um, let's do some quick introductions and then we'll we'll dive in to our topic for today. Sounds good. Um awesome. I'll start, then I'll pass it to you, and then we can just dive right in. So hey everyone, I'm Will. Uh as I was saying at the top of uh starting this live, uh, I'm the nutritionist with Ron Doyan. Um, and I host these uh live conversations, these Instagram live monthly conversations with our coaches where we bring to you just kind of content based on the season or based on kind of what's hot at the moment, um, andor just what our coaches want to talk about. So hopefully it's uh been good takeaways here each month. Today we are talking with Coach TJ. So, Coach TJ, I'll let you introduce yourself and then we'll dive into our topic.

TJ Garlatz 4:35

Awesome, sounds good. My name's TJ Garlitz. I've been coaching for for a long time. I've I've coached at the NCA level for a little over 20 years. Once I finished my eligibility, I currently coach at Western Washington University, which is my alma mater, um in Bellingham, Washington, which is uh pretty nice place to be. And then uh I I coach at Run Doyan and I I started just after the the company got off the ground. So it's a little over six years that I've been working with Run Doyen. So it's really fun to kind of balance them both.

SPEAKER_02 5:05

Yeah, right on. Awesome. I can't believe, yeah, wow, you said six years, and I looked at the at the date here on my computer, and I was like, oh wow, it has been six years already. 2018. That's that's gone really fast. It's a little scary. Um, well, it's been great to have you here. I'm sure our uh clients have definitely benefited from having you coach them, and we're gonna reap the benefits of your wisdom and your experience as we talk about this topic, because I think a lot of people, or I hope a lot of people are gonna be interested in this one because it it's kind of a juicy one. It's kind of um it can be broad, and I think a lot of these, you know, um top like subtopics can be applicable to many people, whether you've got a half marathon coming up this fall, whether you know you're going after your first marathon or third or fifth, um, or if you're maybe uh gearing up for cross-country or just waiting for the heat to pass, and then you're gonna start your running journey in the fall because you don't you can't stand the heat. So I think regardless of of why you're here or why this topic may interest you, I think there's gonna be nuggets throughout that hopefully can be uh can be helpful. Um so building summer base. Uh what exactly, what exactly do we mean when when someone's reading this as a topic or hearing this, what what should they um kind of take away just from the topic title alone? Why does this matter in the context of training?

TJ Garlatz 6:35

So um a lot of times when when coaches and and runners think of building a summer base, uh, summer's a time when not as many people race uh compared to uh a lot of the other times of the year. The marathons tend to be in the fall and the spring, often just due to more predictably good weather with it. And then uh the high school, middle school uh collegiate cross-country runners, and I guess master's collegiate running too, or sorry, not collegiate cross country running um as well, that tends to be in the the fall. So the summer is a time when when in general people aren't racing as much, and so that's a good time to really build up uh a good foundation. And so the the foundation that that I try to build with my my runners is is really good, strong aerobic foundation that typically consists of good strong volume uh for them, uh depending on on where they're at and the events that they target, um, getting in some good quality long runs. And then oftentimes for me, I I like to have the up-tempo work that that's not the the ultra-specific stuff in terms of like the really fast if you're doing cross-country, like the VO2 Max type stuff, but but getting at a lot of threshold and hill strides and running economy stuff so that when it comes time to to hunker down and and really like gear up for the the last little push to to run fast um in your target events in the in the fall, that that you're feeling really prepared for it.

SPEAKER_02 7:57

Yeah, awesome. Does it change a whole lot? I think when people think base training, you they probably think more winter training. Does it change a whole lot? Um, or is it really just a matter of like what your spring goals may be and also what your fall goals may be? And that kind of dictates what winter base training or building and summer base training or building looks like.

TJ Garlatz 8:21

Yeah, I mean, for me, for for the athlete, most of the athletes that that I coach, I would say that the winter base and the summer base are quite honestly pretty similar. Um, depending on where someone's located and the exact races that they're targeting, it might have a little bit of uh differences with it. Um if if someone's in in Phoenix or whatnot, maybe maybe their summer base is a little less rigorous than their than their um winter base, if you will. Um but really like I I genuinely don't really think of it um too different for for for me. It's all it's all contextual just based on on what you're gonna be targeting at at the given time.

SPEAKER_02 9:00

Yeah, totally. And then so let's say someone is gonna you know take away from this and decide to start building their own base, right? Um, and not really have a coach kind of guide that or or finesse what that looks like. Um, are we talking when it when we when we're saying summer base training, do we mean like June 20 or 21 to you know all of August, maybe September? Or are we really just talking like a couple months? Is it like generally eight weeks, 10 weeks, 12 weeks? Like what are we looking at when we um when we're talking about summer base training? Like how in that proper like base building phase, how long are we uh is a runner typically there?

TJ Garlatz 9:40

Um, I mean, for me, I mean, that best case scenario is as as long as possible. I think that this is the type of work that that you can do that will really help you for for the short term. It'll help people for the for the medium term, and by the medium term I mean for their their goals in the fall or winter or whatnot. Um, but then similarly for for that real long term, as as as runners are able to um establish that that volume base underneath of them, it doesn't go away. It kind of builds and builds and builds and builds. And that's why oftentimes you see people hit their their prime later on in their running journey, just because it the it's a sum of what we've done so far. Um, and so if if you're wanting to have a good fall, have a good long, a good long summer. Um, but really like when we transition out of the the base building phase and and go more specific, it really just kind of depends on on the individual races that they're gonna do and and similarly their goals. If if you're if you're one of my Run Doying clients that's maybe training for something like a half or a full, I I generally think that that you can carry the that strength component of it, the the longer stuff, the threshold-centric thing without going really fast quite a long time. If you're someone that's doing something a little bit spicier, like high school cross-country and and whatnot, maybe, maybe you introduce some in overwork uh a little bit earlier. But even then, you could still do some of that stuff during a base thing. A base doesn't mean that you're just running slow. It doesn't mean that you're just running long. Um, it just typically means that you're training pretty darn hard and not racing during that time.

SPEAKER_02 11:13

Right, sure. How does um I feel it's a good segue for this question? I mentioned two-a-days earlier. How does how does kind of double days or two a days, whatever you call them, um fit in? Does it fit in to summer based training?

TJ Garlatz 11:26

Yeah, I think it I think it can go in really well depending on the individual that that we're speaking with. Um running running twice a day, obviously it's it's got the time component to it. The that it's it's there and and and and whatnot. Um when it's when it's quite hot, um, it it can be quite difficult to to put in all of our volume just simply in singles. Um unless you get up pretty early and you're hydrated. Maybe you carry a water pack or um have a water bottle stash somewhere, you know where all the water fountains are on your run and whatnot, and you plan it that way. I mean, those are those are those are some tricks that some of us start to learn. It's like, okay, we know we can go here to here to here, and you'll keep filling up water and and whatnot with it. But um, for for a lot of the the the runs, yeah, you can totally, totally break it up if you're I'm just making up numbers. But if you're chasing 50 miles a week or whatnot, yeah, you wanna you want to have a good quality long run if you're gonna do some other stuff. So you don't want to break up every single run every single time. Um it's you don't want to run like 14 times a week and have like 14 three mile runs and say you ran 50. That's probably not the most effective way. Um but but but on some days, you totally, hey, instead of instead of running like just dying in the the heat when it's a you're trying to knock out a midweek 10 miler or whatever, you could you could go six and four, five and five, seven and three, whatever, and and get realistically pretty darn similar benefits with it. When you start to to fatigue, not fatigue out, but when you're you're when you're suffering some of the heat stresses, sometimes just the quality of your running just kind of goes downhill, and it's not as good as if you're you're just being a little bit more uh just feeling good with it. So you don't want to put yourself in that situation. So doubles doubles can be totally good uh during the summer and and the rest of the time too, it's a good way to boost up your volume even higher. Um but the summer the summertime when it gets hot is a time that's maybe a good a good opportunity to get a few miles in the morning, a few miles in the afternoon. Sure, awesome.

SPEAKER_02 13:20

Now, similarly, what about cross-training? So uh people who, especially maybe the summer, this is a good time for them to hop on the bike. You know, they like to kind of shake it up, they like to do the summer rides, got beautiful courses near them, routes, things like that, or swimming. How does that fit into base training?

TJ Garlatz 13:39

Oh yeah, it's it's it's amazing. Um aerobic, aerobic cross-training, it's it's a it's a huge component to to unlocking the success for a lot of people. Um running is the the joy of running is why a lot of us are in the sport. We we genuinely like it, but just the other some of the the demands of running, uh they can be pretty hard on the the body. And so um splitting it up, whether it be you're just taking a a day when you're you're just in essence giving yourself a rest from the pounding, but you're still getting the heart pumping. It's it's great. You can swim, you can bike, you can elliptical, you can bear step, you can hike. I mean, there's so many, so many different ways. I'm sure I skipped some. You can elliptigo. I've never actually that, but but a lot of different things that that people can do. And and especially if you're talking a little bit about the heat, there are there are a lot of people who do actually have access to stationary bikes in their house. I I'd say it's a decent percentage now compared to to maybe what it was like five, 10, 20 years ago in that situation. And so some days when it's hot, you can just, you know what, watch, watch something on Netflix or whatever and and put point a fan at you and and and get get your work in without maybe maybe separating from some of the heat stuff outside, or you can do a little bit of you can even do a double. Um that's one of the things I sometimes recommend is actually doubling where you're running for half of or a portion of your your day and then you're doing aerobic cross training for the other half or portion of your day as well.

SPEAKER_02 15:07

Yeah. So what would that be like a double day where you're running in the morning and then if you had to do something later but it's too hot maybe to run, you can do another whatever hour, hour and a half, two hours, maybe if that's part of your schedule.

TJ Garlatz 15:20

Oh yeah. Um in the afternoon. Yeah, yeah. And and also, I mean, you you can, depending on if it, if if you do have that time block in the morning, but it just it just gets too hot and you're starting to struggle, you really can start early. Like maybe you're I'm just making, like I said, I just make up scenarios. Maybe you're starting, you're running at seven in the morning and by 7.45 you're you're pretty spent and it's hot. You can then pop in, pop in your house where maybe it's a little bit cooler, um, point the fan at you, drink some ice water or whatever, and then get on the bike and kind of finish up a longer hour that you don't have if you don't want to like take up your evening. Sometimes that's a hard thing with doubles, is sometimes it it just occupies your time and it can be invasive. And with running, you besides the physical aspect of it, you want to you want to enjoy it, not feeling like it's it's consuming and the training is the life like a lot of people with, even be my college kids or my my my Ron Doyan people, um, it's it's not just all about uh the how fast can we actually go. You have to love it, you have to enjoy it. So if we can, hey, morning time I'm gonna run, work out, do whatever, and then go about my normal part of the day, and then in the evening I get to relax, that that there's something to be said about that too.

SPEAKER_02 16:28

Sure, especially you know, if you got family or you know, you've got young kids and you don't want to put too much extra stress on your partner to you know do that and I gotta put another couple hours in the evening. Like you're saying, there's so many scenarios where you might just want to kind of get it all done at one go.

SPEAKER_03 16:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:45

Um in that particular scenario that you mentioned, you don't want to dilly-dally, is that right? Like you want to get back from that run, and then if you're gonna bike for the last like 40 minutes, 45 minutes, um, are you kind of like semi-quickly moving into that, you know, transitioning into that, or are you just kind of moseying along? Like I'm thinking of like having the muscles kind of cool down, you're getting into an air-conditioned house.

TJ Garlatz 17:07

Yeah, I would, I would, I would say efficient. I mean, you don't have to be like a trahlete that's in the middle of a race doing like a a triing to do the the 15 second like clipping you do do with that. But I mean, like, yeah, it's it's it's one where be be quicker and then just just the body's already warmed up, you don't need the to to saddle to saddle too much. Like I I personally, if if I were doing two sessions like that, I wouldn't go for um like a say 45 minute run and then take like 15, 30 minutes or whatever just in between to get on my bike. I if I'm if I'm bad, I'm probably just gonna double back in the evening. Um, so normally when I I I split it between two different modalities, um, I definitely will um yeah, just try to be efficient with it.

SPEAKER_02 17:54

Yeah, yeah. Awesome. Um, well, I mean, we started to talk about heat, and I feel like let's just do it the fullest due diligence that we can. Um I'm just thinking of you know, what can runners do, what maybe should runners do to get through the rigor of basically training through the heat. You know, what are what are some like maybe like three tips or something that that um can be pretty universally applied to get through the the hot you know summer months of training outside?

TJ Garlatz 18:26

If I if I had to say three, I would be I would say one, I would be intentional about your planning of your day as to when you're gonna go. If you're picking a smarter time of the day to go, that that is super important. Um hydration, uh both before and during, if if needed, that that is is pretty big too. And then this is something you can talk to more than me, but but making sure that you're you're appropriately fueled um with regards to like whatever caloric or like electrolyte needs that you you're needing. Like I just I'm I got challenged by a group of former, I guess I coached him when they were in college, and and one of them, I I guess I didn't quite coach him, I recruited him in. He's actually the founder of Run Doyen, uh Jordan Welling. A lot of us want to have an alumni uh event where we go to Boston and run the Boston Marathon um this next uh this next spring. And I was running in Anchorage out of all the places can't really complain about being hot. It was really only like 65, 68 degrees, so it wasn't actually hot that day, but it was direct sun. Anchorage has a weird mystique to it that you can basically add 10 degrees to it, and that's the perceived temperature uh and and whatnot. But I was running a marathon and it was hot. And so I took like I took salt tablets during just because I when you're sweating, you're losing a lot of the stuff there and you're hydrating in with water and whatnot, and trying to do those different things with it. But yeah, so the three pick a good time to run. Uh make sure you're going and hydrated, make sure you're taking care of the fueling stuff.

SPEAKER_02 19:54

Yeah, awesome. What about um of course I I challenge you with picking three? Um, clothing though. Oh, clothing, like like just the white, you know, wearing white or or like reflective, you know, something like how how helpful can can that be? Like whether it's wearing white or just getting the right type of kind of hot, thin, you know, ideal summer type workout apparel.

TJ Garlatz 20:20

I guess when you're when you're saying that, it made me think of another one. A second, another thing I should have said is is sometimes if you have the option to do it, picking a good place to run. And so sometimes a place that's shaded, a place that's closer to the water and whatnot, that can be good. But then obviously apparel too. Like you're not you you want to make sure you're you're wearing minimal clothing so that you're not overheating just in that aspect um with it. I yeah, you definitely feel better if you're wearing white versus wearing something that's dark that's that's there in in that aspect. Um some people will will go with uh a hat. Um I have a I have a white um like running specific like hat that I sometimes wear. I couldn't find it this morning. It was a little bit frustrating, but um, it's there.

SPEAKER_02 21:03

And sometimes I'll even actually just lost your volume for a second. Oh no, hold on, hold on, coach. I can't we can't hear you. You're you're there, I see you moving clearly. Yeah, kind of breaking up. Go go again.

TJ Garlatz 21:23

Can you hear me now?

SPEAKER_02 21:24

Yeah, you're good.

TJ Garlatz 21:25

Okay, you're good. So every single time I I I was like, what is it that I always forget to do? I've got the 15-minute Instagram or whatever social media, and I thought I had a different timer. I was like, what do I need to do? And it was that, and so it just totally popped up. It's like, okay, I need to turn off my my timer. Uh yeah. But what I was gonna say is that sometimes I'll even put like my hat in cold water or even put a couple ice cubes in it and just have that on my head ahead of time. Uh to that, it's not gonna help you so much if you're going like 20 miles or whatever, you're doing 15 miles. It gets through the little bit and then you sweat out and it's it's it's totally but yeah clothing, places that you're gonna go, um time of day, hydration, all those, all those other different things, it's it's a big deal. Sometimes I I'd even recommend for people if you don't have access for water and you don't want to carry it, just even do it's boring as anything if you're needing to go kind of longer, but just do smaller loops so that you can loop back to home or loop back to wherever your car is and just access a water bottle at that point. You don't you don't want to be you don't want to be lazy um in that regard. A lot of people they hate carrying water, but not carrying water when it gets legitimate hot or not taking in water, I guess I should say, is it's it's kind of silly um in that aspect. And so you need to be smart with that.

SPEAKER_02 22:40

Yeah, for sure, completely agree. Um you know, when I think of I'm just trying to think in the in the mindset of either a new marathon or a relatively new runner, and they're here listening, or they're gonna watch this later on. Thinking of what might be a really good takeaway for them. And I can't help but think about like weekly volume. Like what might that, and there actually is a comment here, there might be a question for us after this one. Um, thank you for whoever just wrote that in. Um, like for some, maybe maybe you can like give us a scenario where there's like you know, a half marathoner, and then there's a marathoner. But what might be for like like July, August, let's say, where someone kind of wants to hang out in terms of weekly volume in an in an ideal scenario, not like your top performer or someone who can only run you know at most 20 miles a week just due to all their time constraints. And they're somewhere in the middle there. Um, what might where where might the half marathoner want to hang out in terms of weekly volume? And then uh where might the marathoner who's gearing up for let's say a October marathon, um, want to hang out in terms of weekly volume throughout these summer months. Yeah. Obviously they're building up to that point. Yeah. And then what where's a good where's a good range for them to be?

TJ Garlatz 24:03

Yeah, I mean that's that's a hard one for me. And and sometimes I just I won't give like a specific answer. I think it's so contextual to where someone has been in the past. And honestly, I would I would go so far as to even throw it to to the the kids that are running cross country by the kids, they could be high school or college or whatnot. I genuinely think the summer for a marathoner, a half marathoner, a 5k runner, a 10k runner should be probably your highest volume of the year for for the most part with most people. And so some marathoners will will will go high. I mean, there's there's marathoners that are that are in the hundreds. I've got I've got kids on my college team that um are running a 10K cross-country, they'll they'll go up into the hundreds um in the summer and in and whatnot with it. And so it's it's it really is relative to where someone has been in the past. I genuinely think that if you've stayed healthy recently, uh say you had a a a healthy spring um in and whatnot, and and and you're ready, you're you're challenging yourself to run a little bit better. I think it would be a time that someone could probably bump up their their their peak mileage from what they did in their last training cycle up maybe five or ten miles, um, if if things have have gone well. And so like I said, I know I didn't give like an exact specific number, but I do think that that it is one where the summer is that time for a lot of people to to take it to a zone. The the younger kids, the the high school kids, the college kids, they have it oftentimes easier than they do during the academic year because they're not having to go to class. I know some of them are having to work and whatnot, but um, being able to attend to sleep and not be as busy with with things, it makes it better. Um, a lot of the the rundoing clients and even just people like my, I guess I'm a running coach. So that summer's actually pretty easy in that regard. Um, but but there's a lot of people who are professionals that that the summer is actually a little bit harder to put in volume because they're actually taking care of their own kids and and whatnot. They're spending more family time and and and whatnot, or maybe they have like more um, I don't know, challenging uh weather conditions or whatnot. But but all all things being equal in the ideal scenario, I think the summer is the time to challenge yourself to to kind of boost up your volume to to new levels.

SPEAKER_02 26:18

Okay, awesome. And and you do generally speaking find that to be like, again, it someone stays healthy, does that well, a a good setup for you know what hopefully is a good racing uh scenario in the fall.

TJ Garlatz 26:34

Yeah, no, I think I think I I think that I think it tends to do well. And and one one of the it kind of leads on to the the to the question that was that was posted into the chat about specifically just the wording of of the the psychological impacts of of whatnot. They were saying that they're in a hot place and sometimes the the the paces for probably easy runs and long runs and interval work um legitimately it it just decreases just because of uh the heat and whatnot. That's a very that's a very true thing. Um during when when I'm working with some of my athletes that are in some of those uh hotter areas and in and whatnot, I'll often prescribe um workouts based on time as opposed to distances. So instead of saying, hey, let's do a mile repeat with uh two minutes rest, you very much know how long it took you to run that mile and whatnot. Whereas, like if I prescribe, like, hey, we're gonna do five minute reps or six minutes reps with equivalent rest and whatever, yeah, you can look at your watch and you can guesstimate and whatnot. But when you're running that that effort and whatnot, we're not as 100% sure what it all means and what it all ends up meaning in in what regard. Uh, and so there's ways to do that because really what we're often trying to run for is based on um effort and and not that. Our bodies don't know why we're running, they don't know that in essence we're running. I don't want to come across the wrong way. I jokingly use this to a lot of people, but a lot of us when we're running, we're running for our health. We're running for our own like personal satisfaction or almost like a personal vanity of saying you wanted to achieve this or qualify for this or run this fast time. Um, our bodies think that we're running for survival. Like, are we having to migrate to get food or who knows? And so it it will, we the whole purpose of training is to get positive adaptations. So if you run longer, our body will get uh better running longer. If we run harder, our body will get better at running harder. Um and it doesn't necessarily adapt to like your weekly mileage as well. Like it doesn't count and say, hey, I ran 64 miles this week or 62. It doesn't, it doesn't know probably know the difference, quite honestly. Um, and paces, it doesn't always know the difference between 550 pace and 540 pace. Um, but it can sense the efforts and whatnot. And if you're pushing it, our body will have those physiological changes happen inside it to hopefully help us run faster. So if you're running hard and you feel like you're pushing yourself appropriately hard, you can you can know that our body will be doing what it needs to do such that you'll be prepared in the future. So if you're in an unfortunate place for summer training like Texas or North Carolina or Florida or whatnot, or all across the world, there's a lot of places that are hot, obviously. Or even in the winter when you're in places that are tough. If you're running hard, our body will be adapting and you just kind of have to trust it. Is it fun looking at slow paces? No. Um but you just have to like, hey, sometimes you know one of the things I'll say is that you're actually building up a toughness, just because there's something to be said about getting out there and running in adverse conditions. If you're always running it 64 and sunny or 64 and partly cloudy or whatever, I'm just kind of making up things, yeah, you can really build up that physiology, but when we're racing, we have to be tough. And when you can think back to all of those mild in the summer, all those hard workouts that you did, that gives you that that that bit. So when you're one of those people that are grinding in Florida in the in the summer, when all of a sudden you start to get good weather, man, you know, you know that you're ready to rock. Right. So that's kind of what I try to to like to do with with my athletes, just hey, think back to how hard you chained, and that that's a good indicator that you're gonna be able to prepare, you'll be ready to run when it counts. Sure.

SPEAKER_02 30:13

Now, are there given given that though, are there certain workouts or um is it like if the heat continues into September, especially for those southern states, um just speaking to the US here, um, where you will start to like maybe like schedule those workouts to be, let's say, in the morning or in the evening, just because you do want them to be hitting or getting close to a certain type of effort or a certain pace or pace range, um, where that becomes a little bit more important. So you do want them either again for the for like a key workout, or uh again, it's kind of getting into September or it's well into September already. Um, and those workouts, you know, we're really needing to build that speed for a November marathon or half marathon, let's say. Um, and you will kind of like want to be a little bit more specific about the numbers. Um, will you kind of move workouts or schedule them or um yeah, yeah, do anything differently about that?

TJ Garlatz 31:17

Yeah, definitely. I I will say like with my Rondoian work, like I'm not physically with the people, and I I it's more obviously recommendations. And if someone schedules says, like, hey, I can't run at this time, then you kind of play the hand you're dealt. And so it's more of an advice, even for my college kids in the summer, like I can I can tell them what I'd I'd like them to do, but there's there's no making. It's it's just totally like what the person, the athlete wants to do with that situation. Um, but there the like the recommendations I'll give people all sometimes type it in the the notes. It's like, hey, try to make sure that you can do it early enough in the morning if uh so that the conditions are are good enough, or or in the evening if it actually is gonna cool down um in those places. Um, or the the option that a lot of people they don't like to do, but but really doing it on a treadmill. Sometimes you actually get significantly better um quality of workouts on a treadmill. So boring. Totally acknowledge that. I lived in Alaska for 11 years and so I got more than my fair share of treadmill running. Uh, it wasn't in the summer, I'll tell you that. It was in the winter. Um, but when you're when you're trying to run a good quality long run or a good quality threshold session that um the the conditions are going to uh aversely affect, then yeah, I mean, sometimes you gotta kinda not worry about having fun. It's just we're gonna got to get the work done. And if you're gonna be melting because you're too hot, then you kind of defeated the purpose of that session, or not even defeated the purpose, you just didn't get maximal um benefit from that session. So yeah, sequencing, sequencing um or or switching to um bet a place with better conditions, like typically going inside on a treadmill is is is a way to go for most people.

SPEAKER_02 32:54

Yeah, totally. Or or maybe for some like driving to a place where you know there's a shaded route or something, um, that could work really well. And yeah, you gotta drive, but you're gonna get a better workout for it.

TJ Garlatz 33:06

Yeah, I mean, there's and you don't need to do it all the time, but when when you have those key sessions, there you go. Um, and and sometimes for me, like I the longer the workout, the longer the run, the harder it is to do with regards to heat. And so there's times if if it's not constant heat, like you know, some of us like say like right now you're in Portland and you're in the middle of a little bit of a heat spell, but it's probably not gonna last more than like seven or 10 days or whatever, like that. There's times when maybe we would sequence like a shorter, like fartlic session where it's like, hey, let's get a shorter warm-up in than what we often would do, but you'll be very warmed up because the temperatures are there. And then let's get minute on, minute off, because you can keep your focus in that bit. Maybe we do 15 by minute on, minute off, and 30 minutes later we've got a good quality VO2 max session when maybe maybe we wouldn't normally do that there versus running that like four by 10 minute threshold session that you're just gonna get so frigging hot um in, and then that that second or third rep or the third or fourth rep, excuse me, are just gonna be borderline pointless. Maybe we push that one to the a day when maybe the high temperature is 80 versus a day that the high temperature is 98.

SPEAKER_02 34:13

Sure. Yeah, makes a lot of sense. Yeah. Um, okay, lastly, just thinking summertime. Uh and maybe, of course, I always invite if there's other any other things you want to share or nuggets you want to drop by all means. Um, but the last question I have that I actually just thought about as you were talking uh uh uh a few minutes ago is thinking of summer, thinking of uh people going on vacation, um, where maybe you don't really have this scenario um with a lot of clients in the wintertime, for example. Um maybe some, right? Some people want to get get away in the wintertime, makes sense. Um, but you know, mostly summertime, and uh how important um or how okay, maybe I'll rephrase it, how okay is it uh for those runners to you know take a week off and and and barely run or not really stick to a formal plan because you know they want to spend the time with their vacation with their uh family or they're going somewhere and they just they don't feel safe running in a new place, uh whatever the case is, you know, they're not gonna run to this extent that they're training when they're home. How okay is that? And I feel like that might be a a somewhat common scenario for more of our you know, rondo Rondoyan tech clients who you know aren't aren't your collegiate athletes or elite athletes necessarily. Um so how do you navigate you know taking that week off or you know, vacation time during the summer months for people training?

TJ Garlatz 35:42

Yeah, so what what I it and it's super common. Um ideally, I I will say our body does a pretty good job of treading water with regards to fitness. If you'll even just do as little as like 15 to 30 minutes like every other day. So like if we can get that, then I don't think like we're really beating away or really like losing like what we've we've put together. Sometimes I'm more worried actually about losing like the running specific strength, the running specific flexibility during that that little break. I've I've noticed that sometimes people take a week off. Um, it's not that that their um their aerobic fitness is just totally like going in the can, but it's a situation where when they come back, because they've tightened up a little bit, they're more prone actually to get a little bit injured. But what I often recommend is if you can um get a little bit of a little bit of running every other day at a minimum, that's great. Um, if your vacation allows you to to walk and move and be active, that's that's great too. Um and so that's obviously uh an option with it. And then the other thing, it's it's not exactly um to this, but one of the things I often try to tell my athletes ahead of time is that if we can if we can schedule like in essence a recovery week during a vacation, that's so much better. So if you're working with and oftentimes uh training is periodized, and during a period there will be uh weeks that you do have lower weeks. So you might be a high volume in the summer where you're knocking out like some 90 or 100% weeks. And so I use 100% week. So say you max out at 50, 50 would be your 100% week, or and and 45 would be your 90% week and and whatnot. Um maybe we could uh schedule it so that okay, one of our down weeks happens to to coincide with that um vacation. So don't don't do it like don't don't just spring it on your your coach um right before right right before you're gonna go. Give them give give him or her uh a couple a couple weeks' notice saying, hey, I'm gonna go to Disney World at the end of the month. And then so it's I might I might sequence a couple weeks of of high volume training right before they're they're going to to Disney and then their their their trip to Disney or Europe or camping or whatever they're doing, um, that happens to to coincide with their recovery week. And then then psychologically, they won't feel like, hey, I wasted a week of training because it was they actually accomplished a goal of freshening up. And so that you can you can you can you can be intentional with regards to some of these things too instead of just being negative. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 38:35

Yeah, totally. I love that. Yeah, give like talk with your coach, give them as much heads up as possible. Um let let them know what's coming, and then yeah, maybe plan for it, around it, like include it in in what's going on for that month or that that cycle.

TJ Garlatz 38:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 38:53

Also, right on. Um, well, like I said, is there anything that um I'm sure I'm sure we did not cover everything that could possibly have been covered. Um, that's just how it goes with any conversation. But is there anything that you um thought of or have been thinking about that you want to make sure anyone listening takes away in terms of uh building that summer base?

TJ Garlatz 39:17

One of the things I always just try to encourage the people who I work with uh over the summer is just to really, really enjoy it. Take time, like if you do have a little bit more, and I'm working under the assumption that you have that some people have more, sometimes people have more time in the summer. And so if you can have a little bit more time to drive to that trailhead that you sometimes don't always get to go to, or meet up with some friends, or if you're on a vacation, explore new places, do things that that make it fun. Um, it's it we all love running, or else we we wouldn't be watching uh uh Instagram live with me at least. Uh unless you guys love running and you're wanting to get better uh at it. Um but but you need to to just embrace the journey and and have fun with it. And the summer is is a great time to to change the mental focus instead of maybe being as as particular about the exact splits or the exact mileage or whatever, get onto a trail like today. I I was running up in the trails near my house and they're technical and they're hilly, and today it was a little bit hot and and whatever. It's like, but I loved it. It was an amazing run. And and and it was one where I didn't care what my Strava says afterwards or any of those things. It's just one of those like the the mental, it's it's why I run. And so hopefully if you can find some at least take some time for yourself to to have some of those experiences that that get you back to why you run in the summer, I think that that's a a good thing. And and then yeah, just get out there and and yeah, and and enjoy the enjoy the time and be ready for that when when you're most people when their target events get a little bit closer, when they're running Chicago, when you're running Berlin, when you're running New York or you're running cross country um in the fall, when you start to do some of those those harder sessions and whatnot, that can we'll still enjoy it, but that's maybe a little bit more work. This is this is the funny part, this is the fun part of of running, not the the work part. Even though you're laying, it's you could argue it's a pretty darn important time of the year to to lay it. Obviously, we talked about building that huge base, it's so huge. But but if you can if you can have fun during it, it makes it a heck of a lot easier instead of feeling like you're grinding for 24 weeks until you're you're running your next your next bit.

SPEAKER_02 41:24

So yeah, totally. There does I think you're right. There does some seem to be like a sense of a little bit more time, or like a lot of workplaces have a little bit more leniency in terms of like slower paces, or like you can leave a little early or arrive a little late. Like there's in a lot of places a lot more of a relaxed you know, environment or atmosphere. So that does lead you to you know be able to run with a buddy, yeah, you know, on an easy run, or um, you know, drop a pin at a nearby lake that you just can't get to at other times because of the weather or whatever. Um, but you know, you can get 45 minutes in around a lake, that could be pretty cool. Um, so totally right. I think I think the summer is a really good opportunity to, yeah, build volume, super important, but um, like you said, enjoy it in in maybe some different ways that the rest of the year doesn't really for most people allow for. So I think that'd be really huge. And that really does kind of avoid burnout and really just speaks to and and kind of supports that longevity that we're all here for in this running sport. Um, awesome, right on. Great place to end. Thanks, Coach TJ. Um, how can people get in touch with you if they want to um because they can uh message you or uh see if you're a good fit for them? Um how do you recommend that?

TJ Garlatz 42:46

Yeah, a couple couple easy ways. You can go to to rundoyan.com and there you can either click on the coaches and you can scroll down to find me. I think my link is rundoyen.com slash TJ. You type that in and it it zings me. Or if you're someone you you just want to email me directly, it's just runcoach tj at gmail.com and then there I can send you the link to to schedule a free consultation or to to sign up for for coaching through Run Doyan.

SPEAKER_02 43:12

So awesome, wonderful. Yep, couple places to get in contact with you, coach. So appreciate you uh sharing that. And uh, and like I said, you really can, especially through the Rondoyan site, you can message or schedule a call with Coach TJ and see if uh if it's gonna be a good fit. And uh, if not, we have other coaches, of course, but uh as you can tell, Coach TJ knows what he's talking about, he's been around, at least with Rondoyan, um, for the past six years. So hopefully uh you got some people getting in touch with you uh as as they have been here listening to you. And then of course this will be on the feed for others to enjoy later. So um, coach, thanks for your time. Thanks for uh jumping on here and talking about this important topic. Awesome. Thank you so much for hosting. Yep, definitely. All right, everyone. Have a good one.

Jacob Phillips 43:58

Take care, happy summer training. And that does it for this month's episode of the Next Level Running Podcast. I want to thank Coach Will Benitez for all the work he does with our Instagram live interviews. Also want to thank Coach TJ Garlands. He's a uh multiple time guest on our podcast and and always uh yeah, it's just always such a great listen. He's got such a wealth of knowledge. Like I said in the show notes below, or before the show, in the show notes below, I've got both Coach Will's contact information and Coach TJ's contact information. Look, if you want to crush your nutritional goal goals, reach out to Coach Will. He can help you there. And if you're looking to c uh crush your running goals, uh Coach TJ knows a thing or two. Uh he is uh he's an awesome coach. He has crushed it at the NCAA level, um, at the post-collegiate level, at pretty much all levels. He is a veteran coach here at rundoing.com and just does a tremendous job. But hey, thanks for joining us again. We'll be back in a couple weeks uh with a full form episode of the Next Level Running Podcast. And uh hey, it's summer based training time. It's hot, hydrate, run the cooler times of the day. And uh until next time, have a great run. Thank you for joining us here on the Next Level Running Podcast, your source for training advice from the expert coaches at Rundoyan. If you're ready to take your training and racing to the next level, head over to Rundoyan.com and get matched to your ideal coach who will provide you with the highly customized online training you need for crushing your goals on race day.