Fall Racing Considerations w/ Coach Patrick Cunniff

In this month's Instagram Live Replay we have host Will Benitez and Coach Patrick Cunniff talking about Fall racing considerations! Coach Patrick is no stranger to the Next Level Running Podcast and has been involved in running for over 40 years! 

Connect with Coach Patrick (today's guest):
https://www.rundoyen.com/running-coaches/patrick-cunniff/

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/

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

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

Questions for me: 
https://www.rundoyen.com/running-coaches/jacob-phillips/

Transcript

Jacob Phillips 0:31

Hello and welcome back to the Next Level Running podcast. I'm your host, Jacob Phillips, and I'm coming to you this month with an Instagram live replay. Coach Will Benitez, he is our on-site nutritionist here at Run Doyen. He is interviewing Coach Patrick Cunniff, and they're talking about fall racing considerations. So look, we've been we've been hammering those miles, we've been sweating out this summer. The fall racing season is coming, and so those guys they dive in deep to that. I want to apologize for the delay in the podcast this month. I had a battle of, I think laryngitis know this year, had no voice earlier in the month, and so I could not record uh the regular podcast, but we will be back in the month of September. And I'm really excited for this fall season of the Next Level Running Podcast. But tonight, what we've got for you, uh we've got Coach Patrick Cuniff. Uh, you know, he is not anyone new to uh the Next Level Running Podcast. He's been a guest a couple times, and uh but just to give you a rundown, Coach Patrick Cuniff, he comes to Rondoyan uh after 10 years at the University of Georgia as a cross-country and distance coach there on the track teams. He was at Long Beach State, TCU, the University of Texas. You know, he has experience working with everyone from uh cops to 5K to school record holders, national champions. Coach Cuniff has been a part of the running scene for a long time, including nearly 20 years uh at the Division I level uh at the NCAA. So this is a fun conversation. I'm gonna turn it over to Coach Will and Coach Patrick, and then I'll come back uh at the end and I've got some uh some show note details below. Talk to you soon.

SPEAKER_00 2:15

Hello, hello everyone. Oh gosh, it's a bad hair day. Hey everyone, welcome to this month's Rundolian Live. I gotta name this thing. It's all I call it, Rondolian Live. It's all we call it internally, nothing fancy. We're here today with Coach Patrick, and Coach Patrick is already in the house. Let's get Coach Patrick on here and we'll talk about our topic for today.

SPEAKER_03 2:51

I didn't even have to wait the normal awkward time until our guests arrive.

SPEAKER_00 2:58

So, Coach, thanks so much. There you are.

SPEAKER_02 3:03

Alright.

SPEAKER_00 3:04

Hey, let you got the Rondoin blue hat, you're a blue hat, and I got I'm marking the blue. That's the best I can do today.

SPEAKER_02 3:10

Yeah, I got the blue and gray trucker cap. I've really enjoyed it. It fits great and good for right on.

SPEAKER_00 3:18

Yeah, I know, I know, um, I don't know if it's kind of like public or live yet, but I I know there was some merch kind of being being talked and at least internally. So I'm glad you're uh you're repping some stuff there, coach. Um I remember the original trucker hats when when we started uh Jordan had a bunch of stuff created, and I was running local races here in Portland with that hat on.

SPEAKER_02 3:44

That's awesome. That must have been definitely way before my time.

SPEAKER_00 3:48

Yeah. Yeah, 2018. It's kind of crazy how how fast time flies. But uh yeah, Ron Doyen uh has been around for gosh, over six years now. It is it is kind of nuts. But we're not here to talk about that. We are here to talk about fall racing, some fun, I think. This is gonna be kind of a lighthearted conversation, and we can get into the wheezy if you want to, coach, but um, it does, at least from the topic and some questions that I've got for you, seem like uh you know, more casual, hopefully lighthearted topic. Yeah. Um hopefully, you know, plenty of takeaways though for some of the runners that are gonna watch this here live. Um, or you know, later we post this on the feed after this, and then I think our our marketing people put it in Facebook, and then I think it gets included in the um either on the podcast, something. Our team does something else with it too. So uh for any viewers or listeners, hopefully there's plenty of takeaways here. Um, whether you're a novice runner or an experienced runner, hopefully you're gonna you know get some nuggets from this one. Before we dive in today, uh, coach, how about you introduce yourself and then we'll we'll take it away?

SPEAKER_02 4:57

All right, sounds good. Uh again, Coach Patrick Cunniff. Uh been working with Ron Doyen coming up on two years very soon. And prior to that, a 20-year coaching career in the NCA, uh, all at the Division I level. Uh, and then also a little bit of a background uh with uh almost two years working for Luke's Locker in the the Dallas area and kind of concentrating on adult programs in that context. So, you know, from athletes from luckily uh a tiny bit of uh Olympic participation all the way down to Coach to 5K program. So and uh, you know, I think one of the things to help us get rolling, you know, you you opened this up, and in the notes you sent to me, you you spoke to it as fall racing season. And that was a great reframe because I think so often we think of it as fall marathon season. And I think opening that window to how many other great races and great racing opportunities are out there really allows us to have a much fuller fall.

SPEAKER_00 6:20

Yeah, yeah. I I'm glad you appreciated that. Um, you know, we do we do tend to think of the fall, at least in in the running world and and you know, the running community, uh, as like, oh, what are the big marathons, right? What are the big world marathons happening? Um, you know, people have their A races and they tend to be the marathon that gets the attention and you know, the local 5K, 10K, even half marathons don't get as much shine. Plenty of runners running them, but you know, they're just not talked about as much. Um, and I think there is a lot of room for that uh and hope and room for those runners, you know, who aren't marathonners, who don't want to be marathoners, or that's in the future, and uh what can they do this fall? Um so, well, speaking of, uh there's gonna be still plenty of marathon talk here, and then we'll, you know, we'll we'll create space for other distances. Um, in no particular order, these are just kind of the questions that I jotted down for you, coach. And uh let's just jump right into it. So the first one I had here was is it too late? It's you know, early August as as we stand here, is it too late to sign up for a fall marathon? Uh and then uh if not, uh what would some considerations be given where we are now and then you know when that fall marathon might be?

SPEAKER_02 7:43

Yeah. Yeah. Um I think I think physically, no. Um, you know, I think one thing we run into our sport, especially with the big marathons, is the the registration dash. And you know, making sure that the the race you want is still open. But I think certainly depending on the runner's background, yeah, the amount of mileage they do as a base, and particularly the date of the race they're gonna choose, I I think the possibility is on the table. Um and you know, I think an experienced runner or runner that that trains at kind of a reasonably high mileage level, um, I think those people could probably still find a late October, November. I think by the time we get to December, we might be talking about the the winter racing. But you know, I think those people could could certainly decide to ramp it up and and hopefully with some good coaching, you know, guide that through and and be able to do that. Um, I think for other people, you know, it may be too late, but you could possibly focus on a a half marathon or a local trail race and get yourself down the road to where you could either do a winter one or or be really ready for a spring one.

SPEAKER_00 9:18

Yeah, and I'm glad you mentioned even just a consideration, of course I forgot, uh registration deadline. You know, are is your local marathon or is a big major one near you um or is it too late to sign out? That's a very good possibility.

SPEAKER_02 9:34

Um popular some of these races have gotten, and you know, I know from Ron Doyle's perspective, talking with clients in January and just assuming that June and July races, and then having clients or athletes look for those and being like, oh, there's only a week, should I sign up? Yeah, really do have to consider it.

SPEAKER_00 9:59

Yeah, the I think the running running uh community, I don't want to say industry, but just the running popularity, I guess, is just really boomed. Uh and you know, I I'm gonna guess since 2020, really probably related to COVID and gyms being closed. That's what I saw in my clients. Uh, you know, I'm a nutritionist, but still I work with a lot of athletes and runners, and I saw I saw a lot more uh run running and trail running, those communities really boomed. I could tell just from my my own client uh kind of uh you know increase, if you will.

SPEAKER_02 10:33

Um I think at every level we can see that, you know, whether it's local running groups or you know, the the size of these half marathons and marathons.

SPEAKER_00 10:44

Yeah, yeah. So not too late to sign up. If again, like you said, there's some uh experience in the legs, you're healthy, you're not dealing with any uh injuries, and there's no risk there, very little risk. Um, and then uh I think we said experience. Um, and then of course, we're we're not talking uh you know late September, early October. Ideally, for most runners, ideally, we're talking at this point in time, late October, and then maybe in no or you know, or November.

SPEAKER_02 11:14

Uh so you would want, you know, even if you have a a decent consistency in your regular training, you would want eight to ten weeks to to do some focused marathon training.

SPEAKER_03 11:32

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 11:32

Yeah, you're completely crazy and really tough. Hey, those may be the best stories. Yeah, but about mine.

SPEAKER_00 11:41

Yeah. Yeah. I was gonna say, what about you know the people who just they don't they're just they just want to finish, you know, they just want to get one done. They don't mind if they have to walk, you know, every if they have like a walk-run kind of pattern going. Um, I imagine for those, then yeah, you know, if if you've got some still some endurance, right? Some sort of you don't want to, you know, jump into a really risky situation. Um, but maybe you have some more leeway there in terms of when you want to sign up. If your goal is just to finish at the six-hour cutoff or something like that.

SPEAKER_02 12:16

Yeah, and again, depending on what your fitness is, depending on what you can get out of it, and you know, that's something maybe we'll talk about too when we talk about runners who have done a full build, but then get a little dinged up, or you know, have had a really hardcore time goal and it doesn't look like they're ready for it, you know. Part of the decision to run the race or not run the race is kind of what can you get out of it from an experience standpoint, or what can you get out of it from an enjoyment? If you're only gonna enjoy it because you ran a marathon at six-minute pace, then your decision's different than someone's like, I wanted to be ready, but I'm going to Berlin or I'm going to Chicago. And as long as I get deep-ish and I run a good race, that's great. Right. It's a different different kind of mechanics of decision making.

SPEAKER_00 13:20

Yeah. Well, let's dive right into that, right? And you just spoke a lot about it a little bit more high-level. Um, but but that's a it's a perfect segue, and we were wrapped up with that first question anyway. And that is my next question, is and I'll frame it um to kind of uh tee you up and to kind of make our our viewers aware of this question, which is if marathon training has been you know interrupted by travel, vacation, illness, um, you know, whatever else kind of comes up for people, summertime, anything can happen, at least summer where we are. Um, is it disastrous at this point? And that and that, you know, you you mentioned it kind of depends on on uh the goals, perhaps.

SPEAKER_02 14:00

Um, but let's get into some of those uh I really, really don't think it has to be. Um again, it it might sound like I'm shilling for Ron Doyan, but you know, it it doesn't necessarily have to be our coaching service. It can be good friends, it can be people that know you. Um, but I I think having a a coach or someone that knows your training can help you make good decisions in this case. And again, you want to kind of evaluate what that injury is or what that illness is, and then kind of see what the timetable is to your race. But if you get something and your real concern is that you're losing your last long run, or you're losing your your mileage is down your last week, those things honestly wouldn't deter me too much. You know, that there's a huge history in the sport, honestly, of runners that have been saved from a bad injury by a small injury, or by getting a little sick, and then because of the time off, they're actually fresher and better and ready to go in in their race. Yep. And then, you know, vice versa, hey, we've got something, and in the back of my mind, I'm actually worried it's worse. Or, you know, it's just that really unfortunate or annoying injury, but it really won't let you go. I I think those those are the two sides. If you've just had an interruption, if your training hasn't been perfect, but it's been pretty good, and and again, if you have that person that you can talk with and and and say how you're feeling, I think you can figure out whether you can go. Do you adjust your goal, but you can still get your race and you know, any completed marathon is a is a huge accomplishment. Right. And and then like I said, the vice versa, the other side. Hey, there's enough going on, and there's evidence that you can kind of see and and you know with your runner's intuition that maybe it's not right. So a few things. I've had a bunch of people that man, they weren't gonna get their marathon, but all that training they were ready to crush a half.

SPEAKER_03 16:44

Sure. Right.

SPEAKER_02 16:51

Or as you suggested in in one of our kind of back and forths, you know, they put you together a couple a couple 10K's, you know, in the fall there's a lot of those odd distance, you know, 10 milers and 15k's and 20 Ks, and and just found a series of races to have a lot of fun at. And again, kind of rounded themselves out as runners, and ultimately that came back and helped their marathon.

SPEAKER_00 17:22

Sure. Sure, sure. Yeah, yeah. I'm glad you, I'm glad you kind of uh you mentioned that, right? It could be that you yeah, you pivot from that particular, let's say it was a marathon or even a half marathon, right? That that's the the the goal. And but but can you can you get healthy? And maybe it's not one of those races, you know, that race that you come back to, but can you kind of find a local 5k or 10k to maybe still you know get that similar accomplishment? Um, but also maybe, and if it is, let's say it is the marathon or half marathon, um can you just go into it with low, low risk? You make sure that you're you're healthy, but maybe you're not getting your you know a time goal that you are after. Um, but can you test something else? Can you try a negative split? Can you go for I'm gonna really try this, you know, my I'm gonna nail down my fueling strategy to just use that as an opportunity uh to kind of you know um test that or confirm that or whatever the case is. I love it. Um yeah. That's great. Yeah, and I appreciated what you said about um, because that was actually gonna be one of my follow-up questions on this topic is I imagine that if you're if you have that interruption and you're gonna potentially still go for it because you came out of it quickly, or if it was a week-long vacation, it's not the end of the world, if it was a minor, you know, four-day thing that sidelined you and then you're gonna come back to it, um, nothing you know, major injury injury-wise. Um but I imagine if before the interruption, and maybe it was a longer interruption, you weren't entirely consistent, or your workouts, you know, you just weren't really hitting the paces, you were kind of falling behind, or really not accomplishing what you were supposed to be in that program, then you get that interruption. That's a whole other thing to consider. Versus you were consistent, nailing the paces, you know, really on top of it. A goal was a matter of just getting to that race thing and accomplishing what you set out to accomplish. Though two different, two different scenarios. One is kind of a deeper reflection and thought process around like, okay, what do I do now at this point?

SPEAKER_02 19:36

Yeah, yeah, I agree. And I think at that point you're almost at the inflection point of you know, a little bit of self-evaluation, but I think you also want to be, you know, hey, can I get something? You know, can I, and you know, like you talked about using even a marathon as a teaching, you know, if we say, yeah, training's really been rocky, then I get an interruption. If I want running and running goal setting and enjoyment of running to be a big part of who I am and what I'm gonna be going forward, I do have to find a goal. Because you know, we can all easily get discouraged too. Like, oh, I'm just gonna skip that race, or I'm not gonna do any race, I'm just gonna put all of that in the the rear view mirror, and we can get into a cycle where we just talk ourselves down. You know, I in that situation, I really want to find a person who's, you know, even if we're going from the marathon down to a 10K and we're racing and we're getting some friends involved, and we're just getting my excitement, my enjoyment of running back, you know, I I want to see that. You know, I don't want to punt all the way to the spring and hope I get through the winter. You know, I wanna I wanna stoke my enjoyment at the very least.

SPEAKER_00 21:08

Yeah, yeah, totally. Well, great. That was a fun one to kind of punt back and forth. I like that one. Um, because that's big, right? I mean, everyone, especially during the summer, you know, people decide to take a vacation last minute all the time. You never know when injury is going to strike. Uh you've got young kids and they're sick, you can't really, you know, uh get to your program in the same way. You know, things kind of happen.

SPEAKER_02 21:32

Um, obviously heat issues for so many people this year. And you know, yeah, I've had probably more athletes this year doing half indoor, half outdoor runs because like they literally can't get through long runs and and that type of thing. So, yeah, there are so many things that in different parts of the US that yeah, that that training block can make you. Strong, but it it can it can be awfully hard to do perfectly.

SPEAKER_00 22:05

Yeah, yeah, for sure. For sure. Yeah, I know so many, especially in the south, right? Where uh they they they say the opposite of what I say. They're like, I can't wait for winter running. Like, oh no, no. Give me summer running, but of course I'm in the Pacific Northwest, so it's very different up here. Absolutely. Um we got a couple more here to go back and forth on. Um, because we did cover the you know, the one about um you know the shorter events, right? Like, is that acceptable? I think I think we kind of covered that satisfactorily. So um my next one here for you, coach, is uh should someone take a break after their uh fall A race, assuming they have you know a fall A race? And I'm opening that up. That could be a marathon, a half marathon, but maybe depending on your fall A race, that dictates if you should take a break. You know, you need to take a break after that 5K, even if let's say that was your key goal race of the year, was that 5K? Um, or does the response or answer of your yours change if it's a fall um uh marathon that we're talking about?

SPEAKER_02 23:14

Yeah, for me personally, I would say after the marathon, except under very kind of specific circumstances. I have one particular athlete that you know a couple times has tried to kind of piggyback that second one and has actually had some success, you know, really opened my eyes to that possibility. But I think I think generally, yeah, the marathon is really hard. And you know, if you do it right, it's really hard. And you know, at the very least, there's you know, I would say a a one-week soreness window that you know, I just know so many people that were excited by their marathon and didn't want to take a break, and that led to injury. Yeah. You know, I think the half can maybe be a smaller window, and it depends on how much you peak for it, how much, you know, anywhere on that spectrum from doing it for fun, trying to get a PR, to, you know, it was your fall peak. Um I think that gives you a bit of flexibility. And then I think with the shorter distances, you don't necessarily have to take a break then, but I think any of our runners, I think we we probably need to encourage them to to take a break at least once a year, if not twice. And you know, there's some people that just love to run every day, and and if we can just talk them into you know dialing it down and and letting their their mind and their body recover. And I think at the end of your fall season, you know, whether that is the one big event or a series of races, I think that's a great place to take a break. You know, for collegiate runners, you know, Thanksgiving works out perfectly. You know, a championship going home. So for adult runners, hey, that may be the same break that works great too. You're gonna travel with family, you gotta pack the kids up, you gotta, you know, there's a a lot of added stress. Take the training stress off.

SPEAKER_03 25:39

Right.

SPEAKER_02 25:40

Right. But marathon recovery, uh, if you don't take that seriously, it will it'll come back. I don't know what's your experience with with that as well.

SPEAKER_00 25:49

I I will tell you this, I have uh I've I've pity backed a marathon, not with another marathon, but with a with a couple 5K's. Um I think looking back, I was both foolish and lucky.

unknown 26:05

Right.

SPEAKER_00 26:06

Uh it was not recommended by a coach. It was actually wasn't with a coach at the time, and I was lucky to not have been injured. Looking back, right? Because I did a um, I think it was like a Sunday marathon, and then the next two weekends, I did a 5k age weekend that I, you know, probably didn't run my hardest at, but I I would say I was moderately competitive at. And again, looking back, only too lucky not to be injured. But then on the other side of that, and this was in the same same season, um, in fact, years apart, I had I did uh I tried running pretty much uh day two after um at the time, this was more than 10 years ago, um, a marathon finish. And I think uh on day three, again tried to run, couldn't. My my foot was just nope, you're not doing this anymore. Still, I can't remember, or I was never properly kind of told what it was, but I was out for about nine weeks. I just could not put um any sort of strain on that part of the foot. It was so inflamed. Um, I am and I was I but I felt nothing during the marathon. So I am sure I just overdid it in those, in those, you know, two or three days after, just foolishly trying to get back to normal running when I should have not necessarily been sitting on a couch, but I probably should have had a you know a lighter load, 20 minutes, easy, you know, two days, maybe even three days out when I probably tried to do something like a six, seven miler on day two. Foolish stuff.

SPEAKER_02 27:39

That's a time when if people have the access, you know, you'd love to start them on a bike or on an elliptical. And you know, especially people that don't like to sit still, but they they get to to do a little other activity, they get that blood flowing, they get the muscles flowing, but they're also not just either pounding or trying to move in the exact same pattern that they just did for 26.2 miles.

SPEAKER_00 28:08

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so fortunately and unfortunately have experience on on you know both sides of what I guess could happen. Um nothing fortunately like metabolic, right? Which is also a risk for some people that you kind of develop some more health-related issues um as a result of kind of pushing it too hard um and not giving your body that recovery. So, you know, crossing my fingers, I don't run into that. Um, I did want to on this same topic, I want to pitch a scenario to you though. So as is probably the case in most kind of city metropolitan areas, um, here in Portland, we have this uh early December, somewhat popular race. You know, as you can imagine, it kind of ends the season, right? Until our our shamrock run, our March race kind of opens up the season locally. Um so that one's uh for for anyone who is familiar, it's called the Holiday Half. So it's an early December race. I can't remember if it's the second or first or second weekend for any non-CIM runners, uh, you know, locally they tend to take part. Now, let's say your goal race was uh, you know, October, maybe early November marathon. Uh went really well, but it was a hard effort, you know. Whether or not you were competitive, hit a PR, whatever, it was a hard effort, hard in the body, you definitely need that recovery time. But the holiday half, you signed up for it a long time ago, your buddies wanted you to join, it's the first time or you're on a streak because it's a local race. Um what is a good approach to, you know, are do you go out there, maybe not at your you know, marathon pace, but you go out there and can you be a little speedy with it, or uh can you or should you uh just kind of go out there to to have fun and and run at a calm pace? And what if it depends, which I'm sure it does, what does it depend on?

SPEAKER_02 29:57

Yeah, and I would I would lean towards being conservative. Um, you know, again, it's gonna depend on what that recovery window was and how that recovery window went. Um and then, you know, I mean, the best-laid plans of of mice and mad, but also, you know, the nice thing is if you're a runner and you've been running for a while, and we all know that you know great races come from weird places too. And you know, I I think if you get out there and you're starting with your buddies and you just feel really good, you know, then like most race plans anyway, if you start a little conservative and then you start to build and it's there, you know, go for it. And you know, again if you go out there and a couple of your buddies are starting to push a little and man, you know, it gets hard early, then you know, you know, you you you pull yourself back. But you know, certainly give yourself the opportunity, you know, be open to you know, use that your own parameter, you know. Hey, I'm gonna go in looking for any possibility, or this is where I am, I'm gonna make sure I just you know, I get through, I get the t-shirt, I get the medal, it goes it goes on the wall with the other 20, and you know, next year I'm gonna kick those guys' butt. Yeah, yeah. Awesome, that's or not, you know, no, but you know, again, if you come out of your big race or your series of races and you're healthy, you have taken a little bit of rest, and there's this this add-on there, you know, again, so much of being a runner is being part of a community. So much of a runner is what we make it, and and those races, you know, we have people here in Atlanta who run Pea Tree every year. You know, they're gonna they're gonna push a gurney out of the hospital to get on that course. And and then sometimes, you know, again, we can just go out there and have fun. And and as runners, sometimes fun is we get out there and we're feeling good and we just want to enjoy that for 30 minutes or an hour and a half. Sure.

SPEAKER_00 32:33

Sure, sure. Yeah, no, this is that that that's helpful because I like you said, you got a situation there with with Peachtree. I feel like every kind of city might might have their similar scenario, you know, everyone doesn't want to miss that one, right? But you know, you kind of got to go into it smart and and maybe if you have a coach, um, ideally you're having that conversation, you know, with with your coach or whoever's kind of guiding you. Um, and also you're being honest with yourself, you know, what what can you take on uh given other kind of stuff that might be going on outside of running necessarily, right? Um, and then of course, there might be the option similarly to what you know we were talking about before was can you bump the the half to a 10K or can you bump the 10k to a 5k? Uh or bump bump the opposite way. Um, and then maybe that's easier on the body, you know, given given maybe what's going on or what you're kind of feeling. So could be just an email to the race director and see what's possible there.

SPEAKER_02 33:30

Um you know, I specifically said that when we were talking about the marathon interruption, but that a lot of the marathons do have that half marathon option, particularly. And you know, you should just be aware of what your options are and and put that in, you know, as a possibility.

SPEAKER_00 33:52

Right, sure. Yeah, yeah. It could it could be helpful to kind of have, especially if you're hiring a coach for some like big you know goal that you're after, talk about the contingency plans or options, right? Like if this happens, you know, can I pivot to a low a lower that way, you know, you're not trying to troubleshoot and juggle a bunch of things all at once should something happen. Maybe you just kind of have these conversations early on during the goal setting process, um, which hopefully you know you you're having with your coach when you kind of come aboard or kind of start talking about new goals or whatnot. Um, coach, do you have time for last last question here? Yeah, all right.

SPEAKER_03 34:30

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 34:31

Just a few more minutes here. So um I like this one a lot. I added this one recently because uh, you know, there's so much fun Olympic track and field stuff happening right now, right? I mean, it's just all over. I don't want to talk about anything for today. No spoilers, no spoilers here. Don't worry, people. Um, but wow, is it exciting? So uh, you know, many people are getting inspired, right? I mean, this happens to me after, you know, every kind of uh marathon Monday, right? I watch the Boston Marathon, especially now here, wake up nice and early, and then I I want to run a marathon, you know, that day. But it doesn't happen, but I I want to, right? I want to just lace up and go run 26.2. Um, same thing happening now with the like I want to jump on the track and just go run a you know 330, 1500. I'm not gonna do that in my dreams, but I want to after watching the Olympics. Um, so you know, so many people get inspired by seeing all this Olympic activity, especially seeing the fall marathon activity, you know, all the focus, especially social media-wise on Chicago and Berlin and you know, all their favorite running accounts, you know, posting, you know, left and right about all these different um marathons, all their friends posting about all their marathons they're running. So, how is that energy best harnessed? You know, if you're someone exposed to all that, you like me, you you want to just sign up that next day or that very same day and kind of just like jump in, you know, uh to something big. Is that the best approach? What's the smarter approach or what's the process that can happen there?

SPEAKER_02 36:06

You know, um, you know, and I I think in one of the other questions you talked about, can you let people pressure you into it, you know, with both those things. In some ways I say yes, you know, is especially in the modern world. You know, I I think there's we have so many scheduling conflicts and we have it's so hard for that that one big thing to get on your schedule, especially if it's something new. So in a lot of ways, I I I say yes. If watching the Olympics is what gets you to even start the journey towards a marathon, yes. And you know, if it's a bunch of friends, you know, the famous story that you know the the Ironman triathlon came out of a bunch of Navy guys drinking in a bar in Hawaii, you know, that sounds like from a coaching perspective, the stupidest way to decide something to do, but it got out there and now we have this insane event. Right, you know, so all of us have to be open to to letting enthusiasm carry us away a little bit. Now once you've done it and you've signed up, you know, we can joke that you could have just gone in your driveway and burned 175 bucks. And we gotta make sure it doesn't turn out that way. And like you were saying before, we have to have a little bit of contingency plans and point A, point B, point C, and and before we get to that date, maybe we do switch to a half marathon or or something like that. But yeah, go with that initial wave of enthusiasm. Vice versa, don't necessarily if it's positive peer pressure and your your friends get you into there and that gets you out there and you do something where you surprise yourself, I think that's awesome. If we get you to somewhere that you're miserable every Saturday morning, right then we probably should have adjusted. But but hopefully, again, I know they really are ramping up here at our local running store. And you know, there are people surprising themselves every week. I'm dealing with clients that have hit their first 16 or first 20 or you know 21. And like those things are awesome. And you know, again, this is all centered around the fall season. You know, the fall is a great time to run. I think it's a great time to run in in almost every part of the US. I'm fortunate enough to deal with a lot of international runners. There's places where you know that's a time where they can kind of jump to you know, maybe from from Asia to Europe or from the the Middle East to north or south and catch good weather. And you know, I would encourage anybody to take catch running fever in the fall and and find something fun and and focus on that and and make the most of it.

SPEAKER_00 39:27

Yeah, right on. I love that. I love that. Tap into it, you let the enthusiasm kind of take take over, wash you away. But then, but then like you said, once you sign up, time to get smart, right? Time to get, you know, put a plan together. Is that a coach? Is that a plan? Is that uh you like you said, reaching out to your local running store or local running group and kind of figuring out like trying to actually put the building blocks in place, um and and make sure you're not just you know burning the$175 in the driveway, so to speak, but actually, you know, kind of getting the most out of what that enthusiasm kind of kicked off for you.

SPEAKER_02 40:06

Um on some level, all running is crazy, and if we waited till it made sense, probably wouldn't do anything. So, but no, I think it's super important. Then once you've got that goal, figure out what work you've got to do and and how you're gonna do it. And you know, again, I think uh a good coach or a good group is a huge part of making that that enthusiasm into a an actual accomplishment.

SPEAKER_00 40:33

Absolutely, absolutely. Well, I love it, Coach Patrick. I think that this is a great place to to wrap up here. So I appreciate you know the 40 or so minutes that we've had to chat about this uh fun topic. Uh I I really I love I love it. I I love you know we didn't have to get super science-y here, but this is all maybe even for the for the better, uh, I think super applicable and a lot of good takeaways that I'm gonna I'm gonna remember here.

SPEAKER_02 41:00

So yeah, um I think like you said, a lot of people are coming to the end of the summer and and they don't know which way to turn. I I think it's uh a you know very applicable and certainly enjoyable conversation.

SPEAKER_00 41:14

Yeah, and I think plenty of people are you know seeing the buzz on on the Olympic track and field and marathon soon, and they may stumble upon this, you know, conversation here uh soon enough, right? And hopefully that's helpful for them too. So I'll leave it with this, coach. How can people get in touch with you? Should they uh be curious to kind of see, are you a good fit for them?

SPEAKER_02 41:36

Um obviously go to the Run Doyan site and uh go through the matching feature. We've got a ton of coaches, uh a wide variety of all spectrums of age and gender and experience. And uh I am at the point where I had my matching feature turned off for a minute and I'm about to turn back on and and hopefully you know worked with a great group of younger runners and now they're going into their team cross-country situation. So, yeah, I'm I'm gonna be out there too. So look at we've got so many good coaches. Go to you know, the Run Doyan site and follow links on Instagram, and then you'll get matched with an awesome coach.

SPEAKER_00 42:23

Yep, that's right. Rundoyan.com. You can't miss that get matched button, it's top right corner, bright orange button, uh, and follow the steps. Pretty straightforward stuff there. Coach, thanks so much. Really appreciate your time. You have a good rest of your evening, and uh yeah, enjoy the rest of the Olympic season here.

SPEAKER_02 42:41

Oh, I can't wait to go watch some more raids. There you go. All right, take care, everyone. Good night.

Jacob Phillips 42:47

See ya. Thanks so much once again to Coach Will for hosting another great IG live event for us. Remember, each month you can check out the replay here on the Next Level Running podcast. But if you want to catch it live, click that follow button at the at Run Doyen Instagram account. I've got that info below here in the show notes. I've also got the uh the link to the next level running Facebook group. Uh it's similar to the Instagram account there for Run Doyen, um, but it's a little bit more interactive. It gives you an opportunity to post, to ask for advice, to really join that conversation there. Um but also I want to tell you look, if you're looking for uh an expert run coach to help you crush your running goals, uh look no further than rundoyen.com. Look, if you want to take your running to the next level, that's what this podcast is about. That's what rundoyen.com can do for you. We have a unique matching feature that will help you uh find the perfect coach for you and your goals. If you're not quite ready for a run coach yet, check out the Doyen Dashers program. For only$39 a month, you get a training program written for you and for what you're trying to accomplish by one of those world class. Expert run coaches for Run Doyan. It's cheaper. It gives you some flexibility without the strict accountability of a coach. It's that step before you want to grab a running coach. But hey, thanks again so much for listening. We'll be back in September. We'll have another Instagram live replay as well as a full form podcast. Can't wait to jump on there for that. But 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.