Latest / Eat More Carbs | A Period Recovery Podcast / 144. How to Build Speed, Strength, and Confidence as a Runner

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144. How to Build Speed, Strength, and Confidence as a Runner · Eat More Carbs | A Period Recovery Podcast

• 0:00
  Hey girlies, just a quick reminder before we dive into
• 0:02
  today's episode. The information shared on this
• 0:04
  podcast is intended to be general sports nutrition advice
• 0:07
  and education related to period recovery for female athletes.
• 0:10
  This is not specific to anyone individual and it may or may not
• 0:13
  apply to your situation. If you are looking for
• 0:15
  personalized guidance, be sure to apply to our RBSN Period
• 0:18
  Recovery nutrition coaching program.
• 0:20
  Our four month period recovery program is designed to help you
• 0:22
  sustainably get your period back and keep it.
• 0:24
  You can apply now to get started in our program and we'll leave
• 0:27
  the link for the program below. This is the Eat more Carbs
• 0:29
  podcast. Hello and welcome back.
• 0:36
  This is the Eat More Carbs podcast.
• 0:38
  We're Riley Beatty Sports Nutrition, and we're a team of
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  dietitians and we talk every Thursday about sports nutrition
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  for the girlies. I'm Jenna and I'm the host of
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  this podcast. And I'm Riley.
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  I'm the founder of Riley Beatty Sports Nutrition.
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  We like to call it around here our BSN.
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  We're super excited to talk with y'all today.
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  Before we get into today's episode, we are going to do our
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  high and low. So sharing just a little bit
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  about our week, the good, and the parts we wish had gone a
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  little bit differently. Riley is always can you kick us
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  off? Yes, I have such a silly high
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  today, but I've been so excited to share with you because it's
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  like made my like last couple of weeks, but I got platform Uggs
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  and I'm obsessed with them. No, like these, let me show you.
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  Of course I'm wearing them. No, they're like a platform.
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  Oh Dang, they're like more platform than mine are.
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  Wait, I love those. It gives me like 3 inches.
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  So I'm like, now I know how like Jenna and Lily fill up here.
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  Like, it's great up here. Yeah, you can see the top shelf
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  in your cabinet. Yep, I wanted them like so bad
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  last year. I like put off buying them and
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  then I was like, you know what, I'm doing it.
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  So I did it and it was a little bit of a ridiculous purchase,
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  but I'm just so happy with them. I wear them every day.
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  It's a good purchase. I wear them every day.
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  So I kind of related to like Ugg season is I, I feel like we went
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  from like summer running to winter running.
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  Like I feel like I didn't get any fall running in And I don't
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  know if that's because I was tapering and then I was
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  recovering from the marathon. But I feel like I just went from
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  summer running to like running in the freezing cold rain and
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  ice. And I know this is such a first
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  world problem but I'm just like what the heck guys?
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  So that's my low. You need to come to Arizona and
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  run here right now because I mean like it is the best time of
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  year to run outside. I'm a little jealous right now
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  of the weather. I do get through my platform
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  outside and I'm all cozy. I don't know.
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  I just don't know where it went. The pros and cons of living
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  somewhere with seasons. Yes, which I do.
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  I do really enjoy the seasons. I do really love fall.
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  Like that's something I definitely missed living in
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  California. So I'm glad to have the seasons
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  back, but I just now I'm like, I wish it was 70° and I was
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  running in Orange County because it would be beautiful out there.
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  How about you? How's your week going?
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  Week is going good. I actually have a high and low
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  to share from today. Also quick update, if you listen
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  to last week's episode, my why was that one of our clients had
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  told me that she thought we were much younger than we actually
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  are. And we had a whole conversation
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  about whether or not it was because of the way that we look
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  or the way that we act. And she clarified for me this
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  morning that it's because of the way we look.
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  So shout out to her again. Thank you so much.
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  My high is that I've been working with this client for a
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  bit of time to help her get her period back and she got it back
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  this morning. She's been working so hard.
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  She is in a position where like training is a non negotiable
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  from her coach. And so we had a lot of hurdles
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  to overcome. Even with all of the things that
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  she knew she was going to need to do, she did them and she got
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  her period back. And I just couldn't be more
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  proud of her. I'm so happy for her.
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  Yeah. Just like such a big pie to
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  start the day for me. I knew this was going to be your
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  high. I knew it.
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  I was so excited when she got her period.
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  Does she listen to the podcast? Yeah.
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  OK, congratulations. We're so excited, so excited.
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  Such a big win there. My low is that as we shared on
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  the podcast, also Riley and I both applied to the Chicago
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  Marathon and Riley got a rejection e-mail and I am still
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  sitting in the pool of pending application.
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  And I am just sad because one, I know what that means.
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  Like I know I'm going to get a rejection e-mail.
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  My late name is just like probably lower on the list.
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  I still legally have my maiden name.
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  So my name is technically probably pretty low if they're
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  sending out in alphabetical order.
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  So I'm anticipating that coming. But also, if I get an acceptance
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  1, I don't think I'm going to be super happy because I couldn't
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  run it with you. Like I wanted to run Chicago
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  together. So that's my low is the Chicago
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  Marathon and drawing did not work in our favor this year, so
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  there's always next year. Or maybe like, we run it for
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  charity. Or maybe our goal is to qualify
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  for Chicago, not Boston or something, you know?
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  Yeah. Always, always flexible with our
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  goals. I am kind of bummed.
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  Like I knew that we weren't going to get in, but I'm still
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  kind of bummed. Yeah, me too.
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  Today actually we are talking more about running specifically
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  we have a guest on. We haven't had a guest on in
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  quite a bit of time and I am very excited for today's
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  episode. OK everyone get ready because
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  today's guest is truly that runner, one of those athletes
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  whose story makes you believe in what's possible for yourself.
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  She grew up in Texas where she quickly made a name for herself,
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  becoming a two time state champion in high school before
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  heading to Texas AM where she became an All American in cross
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  country. After graduating, she kept
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  chasing the sport that she loved and eventually found herself
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  qualifying for the US Olympic Trials of the marathon.
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  Now working as a data engineer, she calls the Colorado mountains
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  home and when she's not on the trails or running Magnolia Rd.
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  you'll probably find her with her husband Ben and their cat to
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  lose. What makes her story meaningful
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  is the honesty she brings to it. She's experiencing the
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  realities, pressures, doubts, and the quiet questioning that
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  so many athletes carry alone. Instead of tucking those
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  chapters away, she's chosen to use them to create connection,
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  perspective, and purpose. And that's exactly how she shows
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  up in her coaching. She builds a space that feels
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  grounded and genuinely supportive, a place where
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  athletes can talk openly about running, confidence, and the
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  mental side of the sport without judgment.
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  She meets runners exactly where they are and helps them move
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  towards who they want to become with compassion and
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  intentionally leading the way. We are so excited and honored to
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  have her here today. Please join me in welcoming
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  Karis Myers. That was so.
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  That was so sorry. I'm gonna listen to that every
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  morning to hype myself up for the day.
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  Thank you. You're welcome.
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  Thanks for being here. So excited.
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  Huge fan in the pod so it's an honor to be here.
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  For those who don't know, Karis is the individual who helped
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  Riley run her New York City Marathon.
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  So a lot of what we are going to be talking about today is like
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  confidence in a runner, but also a little bit about like Karis's
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  background and how she like kind of got where she is today.
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  So Karis, do you mind sharing a little bit about like how you
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  got into the sport of running, like how that even started?
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  Yeah, so I started, like a lot of runners do, as a soccer
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  player growing up. But I hit puberty at a pretty
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  early age, which was like, great for the soccer field.
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  But then everyone kept growing, and I did not.
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  And so I was running at the time, cross country from my
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  middle school, just to stay in shape for soccer.
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  But as everyone kept getting bigger, I was getting pressed
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  around more on the soccer field while simultaneously seeing
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  natural success in running. And success is pretty addicting.
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  And so I kind of just found myself naturally fitting in with
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  running while soccer was not going as well, so just pursued
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  that. And running is one of those
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  things where the more you do it, the more you love it.
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  I think Riley and I could both agree on that part.
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  Yeah. For sure, I feel like the soccer
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  player to runner pipeline is strong.
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  It is. I love soccer players as like
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  laying a foundation for runners because whenever I think of
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  athlete, I think of soccer players.
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  Like soccer players are so athletic.
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  I don't care if like, my future children are runners, but I
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  definitely want them to play soccer.
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  And like, I want to build athletes here.
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  Like we're not going straight to running regardless.
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  Well. That works well because your
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  husband's a soccer player, right?
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  Oh yeah, he's already planning on being like the coach of our
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  future kids. He's like, I'm going to be the
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  best coach ever. So can you walk us through a
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  little bit about, you said you started in middle school, but
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  then what happened in college, What happened in high school?
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  And maybe that transition out of college sports, too.
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  Yeah, high school, I think I was fortunate and that everything
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  came pretty easy with running. I saw like a very natural
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  progression year after year, was getting faster and was really
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  addicted to what looked like a simple formula in my head of you
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  get out of running what you put into it and whenever like you
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  think that as someone who works super hard, when you think
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  that's all you have to do is just continue working hard, like
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  the sky feels like the limit. And so that was definitely my
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  mindset in high school. I became A2 time state champion,
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  finished fit that nationals 2 times, was one of the top
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  recruits of my class across the country.
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  The world felt like my oyster. And then college was a huge wake
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  up call. Whenever I realized that
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  everyone in NCAA athletics is working just as hard as I am.
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  I really struggled with that because my only framework for
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  getting better was working harder.
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  And so whenever everyone was just as good if not better than
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  me in college across the country, I just worked even
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  harder. To the point where it became
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  pretty toxic where I became an all American in college.
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  But I honestly think that was a, a godsend that I did despite
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  being chronically overtrained chronically, just like not
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  willing to adjust my framework of how to get better from OK,
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  maybe the only way to get better is not just like working harder
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  and being tired all the time. So college, I was thankful that
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  I was pretty healthy yet my entire college career, but I was
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  also chronically overtrained, very fatigued and definitely not
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  reaching the potential that my high school career had suggested
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  just because I I was not not a very good athlete like not
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  listening to my coach. I was let's work harder all the
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  time, but I still loved running. That's a hard thing to balance
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  too, is whenever you love it, you just want to work harder.
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  And sometimes the hard thing to do is to actually take a step
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  back or to work smarter. And I got better at that after
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  college, transitioning to the roads after college, I knew I
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  still wanted to run in some capacity.
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  Didn't know what that would look like.
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  But post collegiate running honestly was a lot easier than
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  college because there wasn't specific NCAA defined days that
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  I had to be my best. That's a really stressful part
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  of the NCAA system that I don't think there's really a solution
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  to. But if you're not ready on these
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  three specific days throughout the year, like sucks that your
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  injury got timed that way. But in post collegiate running,
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  there's always a race. There's always another race.
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  I really learned to listen to my body because I could take the
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  mindset of like, we'll get fit and race whenever we're ready,
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  but I didn't feel the pressure to brush my body body as much as
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  I did during college. Now looking back at that, you
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  know everybody in the running world is competitive.
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  Everybody wants to be faster, everybody wants to be better.
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  When you have other runners that say to you, like I want to be
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  faster, what advice do you give them?
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  Yeah. My first question would be like,
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  how consistent are you with your running?
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  Not just like speed or times, but I'm just curious like how
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  often are you running? How many days, weeks, months and
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  years of training have you strung together?
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  Because it's never about a single workout, a single day or
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  just even a single month of training.
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  The only the best way to get better at running is to run
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  more. I think a lot of young athletes
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  would interpret that as like trying to run as many miles a
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  week as possible, but really it's straining the number of
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  weeks together as like many weeks as possible.
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  So that would be the first area that I look at is like, OK, what
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  are you doing now? Let's see how we can somehow get
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  you to more weeks and months of running together.
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  Sometimes that means running less on a day.
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  But if we can stock more weeks and months together, ultimately
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  that's going to end in more overall running over a lifetime
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  of running. I'm literally laughing because
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  Karis and I have definitely had this conversation like multiple
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  times and I definitely feel like she just called me out because
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  I'm always like OK I want to get faster.
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  OK, but Riley is such a good example.
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  Working with Riley was so fun because she would she's like a
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  relatively new runner. I mean, obviously an incredible
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  soccer player and like athletic background, but new to like just
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  running. And it's so fun to work with so
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  much potential while she like doesn't realize how much
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  potential she has. But she was so smart.
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  And I think that's another thing that being an overall athlete is
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  invaluable is the ability to listen to your body.
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  Because there were a few times in her training block up to in
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  New York where we had five days of running on the schedule.
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  She on her own, decided like, hey, I'm not going to run today
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  because I'm pretty fatigued or I have this life stress or
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  whatever. And those were her decisions.
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  That was not my coaching decision.
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  But she took the initiative to listen to her body.
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  And that resulted in US never having to miss any weeks of
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  training. So she missed a couple of days
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  of training technically, but it was like in the big picture, we
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  didn't have to take any weeks off because she was smart about
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  those single days. And so I think that's where I
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  get you with the consistency is like, let's not get married to
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  the single days and like try and make a superhero on a day.
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  Let's think about like big picture.
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  How can we like build that overall consistency?
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  I'm always viewing things through the lens of fueling.
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  So whenever like I hear somebody talking about thinking about
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  fueling, and I think that that parallels so well with fueling
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  from like the perspective of we can't be so hyper fixated on
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  like a single meal or a single day, but it's like the fueling
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  trends overtime. And what does that look like
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  when you zoom out in the big picture?
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  And even though we might have maybe under fueled one day, like
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  we can still be in a positive energy balance overall if we're
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  being like consistent with it and looking at like, what's the
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  trend? What are we doing and how are we
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  making sure that we're like making progress towards that end
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  goal? So I think it's very fascinating
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  that like that's also the same thing that you're saying is true
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  with running and improving your running ability.
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  Totally. So many parallels and especially
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  when you consider like the more consistent you are with your
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  fueling, the more consistent you're going to be with your
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  training as well. I think we're going to talk a
• 13:41
  little bit about this, but Kara, something that you mentioned is
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  like we made a lot of like customized decisions, right?
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  Or like we would provide feedback to one another like
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  during the coaching process. And that was really, really
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  helpful for me because before you and I started working
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  together, obviously we're friends, but I was using like
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  run and I was using AI to program for me and I was finding
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  that very, very stressful because it didn't know me,
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  right? So I think something that was
• 14:07
  really valuable is like our work together and us being able to
• 14:10
  individualize it. I don't even know if I have a
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  question in this, but that was just something that I wanted to
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  say because I think that you helped me really like start to
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  enjoy the process more versus just being stressed out about
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  running New York. Yeah, well, I really appreciate
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  that because obviously like as your friend first before your
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  coach, like making sure that you got to the starting line healthy
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  but also enjoying the process, like my number one priority.
• 14:34
  And I think that's like there's a lot of different reasons why
• 14:38
  an individual may find value in working with a coach.
• 14:42
  I think people from beginner runners all the way to Olympians
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  have coaches and what they get out of that coach is going to be
• 14:49
  different for every person, but also different for every like
• 14:52
  season of life. For you, who I would classify as
• 14:56
  a beginner runner, there was a lot of just like almost looking
• 14:59
  at a BJ's menu where there's just like too many options.
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  You don't even know where to start kind of thing.
• 15:04
  And so having a coach like take off that mental energy and say,
• 15:07
  like, look, this is what we're going to do today.
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  And as long as you stay this track, you're gonna get to the
• 15:12
  starting line fit and healthy. That's a huge help in terms of
• 15:17
  like saving mental energy that you can put into running and to
• 15:21
  your family and to everything else that you have going on.
• 15:24
  And then sometimes it's helpful to have a coach just, even if
• 15:27
  you don't have a goal, just to almost like hold you back.
• 15:30
  I know that I've had different seasons of my life where the
• 15:34
  coach held me back more than he or she pushed me.
• 15:37
  And that's really helpful too, because you do need to know, I
• 15:41
  think we all have different what we call security blankets in
• 15:44
  terms of training. And my college coach told me one
• 15:47
  time that my security blanket was mileage.
• 15:50
  And like that was actually a very eye opening thing for him
• 15:54
  to say to me. So I still think about it today.
• 15:56
  Whenever I get insecure about my own training, my own
• 15:59
  performances, I go to like, OK, let's just run more.
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  And that's not the answer all the time.
• 16:04
  So having a coach to give you that confidence of there's a
• 16:08
  different way to do this. Let's be let's think smarter.
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  I think that can be invaluable for an athlete.
• 16:13
  Jenna mentioned fueling a little bit earlier and how there's so
• 16:16
  many parallels with running and then fueling your body properly,
• 16:19
  especially with period recovery. And Karis, you just said
• 16:22
  something that I think is huge. Oftentimes, like in our period
• 16:25
  recovery program, like I feel like sometimes we are holding
• 16:28
  athletes back from trying to implement too many changes too
• 16:31
  quickly because a lot of people, they come and they're gung ho
• 16:34
  and they're ready to go to get their period back, which we love
• 16:37
  that. We want that, right?
• 16:38
  We want you to come, We want you to get your period back.
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  That's the whole premise of the program.
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  But sometimes people make too many changes too fast and
• 16:44
  they're not sustainable. And I think that's a big thing
• 16:47
  too with running is like, I'm gonna run a marathon or I'm
• 16:50
  gonna run a half marathon and I'm gonna start off, I'm gonna
• 16:51
  do all this mileage and then you get burnt out, you get hurt.
• 16:54
  And so I just think that's a really good point to bring up
• 16:56
  when it comes to fueling as well.
• 16:58
  Totally. Yeah, that's so good.
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  And I think the word sustainability and consistency
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  in both fueling and running have to be the foremost.
• 17:08
  Like focus, sustainability and consistency aren't really sexy.
• 17:12
  That's not like the stuff that you put on social media where
• 17:15
  you're like, look, I did the exact same thing today that I
• 17:18
  did yesterday. But those like small brick
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  stocking, that's what builds the mansion.
• 17:22
  It's not like a single day where you just like build a huge brick
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  that might, may look good on social media, but I think that
• 17:29
  foundation is like pretty flimsy.
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  And the smaller the bricks and the more you stack like, the
• 17:33
  stronger that foundation is going to be.
• 17:35
  I want that on AT shirt. I think that so many people kind
• 17:38
  of get into that mindset of like we should just kind of go All in
• 17:41
  all at once with things And similarly to like training and
• 17:44
  maybe even using some of like the AI generated training plans
• 17:48
  and things like that. Like I saw a huge shift just
• 17:50
  from like, obviously I work with Riley.
• 17:51
  I talked to her all the time, but I saw a huge shift.
• 17:53
  And when she started working with you about like how
• 17:56
  confident she felt in the training plan that she had and
• 17:59
  way more like settled knowing that like she was going to get
• 18:01
  where she wanted to be. And there was like way less
• 18:03
  doubt with like what she was doing.
• 18:05
  And I think that that was huge because like she was like you
• 18:07
  just mentioned, there were so many other ways that she was
• 18:09
  able to show up because she wasn't so pre occupied with like
• 18:12
  worrying about what was training going to be like.
• 18:14
  Was that too much? Was that too little in order to
• 18:16
  get her where she wanted to be? And again, I see a lot of like
• 18:18
  parallels with fueling there with like, is this too much?
• 18:20
  Is this too little to get me to where I want to be?
• 18:22
  Yeah, totally. I get asked a lot of the time
• 18:25
  about like AI and like trashy PT for period recovery.
• 18:28
  And I think what was really interesting to me is I was using
• 18:32
  like AI technology to help with running.
• 18:35
  But like Kara said, I was a beginner runner.
• 18:37
  Like I've been an athlete all my life, but I've never like, you
• 18:39
  know, really focused on running and, you know, done races and
• 18:42
  things like that. I didn't know when it was wrong,
• 18:45
  right? And I think that's something
• 18:46
  that we always talk about too, is like these AI tools, they can
• 18:50
  be helpful, but the problem is, is sometimes they're not helpful
• 18:53
  and we don't know when they're wrong if we're uneducated in the
• 18:55
  topic. And that's what I was really
• 18:57
  running into is like, I didn't know when like the training plan
• 19:01
  wasn't right for me or if I felt a certain way, I didn't know how
• 19:04
  to modify it. Again, just like we've said
• 19:06
  multiple times, there's so many parallels to that with like
• 19:08
  fueling and period recovery. Totally.
• 19:10
  This is something I actually wrote down, like in terms of
• 19:13
  individualized coaching and what the value is.
• 19:16
  There are actually some really good training plans online that
• 19:19
  you can find. The issue is those training
• 19:22
  plans are designed for the average person and it's almost
• 19:26
  like getting a fueling plan and it's saying you have to eat X
• 19:30
  number of calories a day because that's what the average person
• 19:33
  has to eat a day. Not just a whole can of worms
• 19:36
  where like you have no idea what the background of the person is
• 19:39
  or if this person is average in whatever way we're defining
• 19:43
  average. And then what?
• 19:44
  What happens when life happens? Like you get a little sickness,
• 19:48
  you get a work stress, you get whatever you can pivot, like
• 19:51
  work stress and like life stress, that happens.
• 19:54
  Like that's a very normal thing that's going to happen in any
• 19:57
  training block. But if you have this average
• 19:59
  training plan, fueling plan, whatever, and you're not
• 20:02
  equipped with the tools to know how to pivot and still meet your
• 20:06
  goals, I think that's where the individualized coaching, fueling
• 20:10
  plans, etc. Are the most valuable.
• 20:13
  Kind of the adaptation of what happens when life happens
• 20:16
  because some of those AI running tools run out.
• 20:19
  Wasn't able to like, take that feedback from Riley about like,
• 20:22
  how should I modify my training for the rest of the week to make
• 20:24
  sure I'm still making progress towards running New York, but
• 20:26
  I'm not continuing to injure myself.
• 20:28
  Whereas like when she started working with you, she could
• 20:30
  easily come to you and be like, this is how I felt today.
• 20:32
  What do I need to do? And that was, like you mentioned
• 20:35
  mental energy a little bit ago. Like, that was a huge piece of
• 20:38
  relief from her mental energy with like, having to try to
• 20:41
  figure that out out because she couldn't give that feedback to
• 20:43
  runner, but she could to you. It's not only the the training,
• 20:46
  but like running is so mental that I don't think I have any
• 20:50
  special workouts or training plans.
• 20:52
  I don't think any of the training that I wrote for Riley,
• 20:55
  a different coach would come and be like, wow, this was
• 20:57
  groundbreaking. Like it, it wasn't
• 21:00
  groundbreaking stuff, but the ability to support your athletes
• 21:04
  mentally whenever they're going through something, which we all
• 21:08
  go through something is I think the most valuable piece.
• 21:11
  He's about a coach. And so in coaching athlete
• 21:14
  relationships, just as I'm sure I know you guys have such
• 21:17
  intimate and special relationships with the girls you
• 21:21
  work with, those relationships are invaluable.
• 21:24
  And that's the value that you bring is the relationship piece
• 21:27
  because they trust you and having trust in your training
• 21:31
  plan and in your coach, whether it's a fueling coach or running
• 21:35
  coach or whatever kind of coach, like that's where the real value
• 21:39
  is. I.
• 21:39
  Think I'm really glad you brought up the mental piece
• 21:41
  because like running is so mental.
• 21:43
  Like there's so much that goes into that from like that
• 21:46
  perspective. Obviously Riley had a very
• 21:48
  successful New York City Marathon, so maybe this question
• 21:50
  doesn't so much apply to her. But when you're working with a
• 21:52
  runner and they need to rebuild their confidence maybe after
• 21:55
  like some type of a set back or injury or even what they might
• 21:58
  consider like a quote UN quote, like failed race.
• 22:00
  How do you do that? Yeah, that's a great question.
• 22:02
  Also just shot to Riley because she ran New York City like a
• 22:05
  pro. Such a master class.
• 22:08
  I like have her split into my refrigeration.
• 22:11
  She was so good and that was all her that was not me running the
• 22:15
  streets of New York. So she did amazing.
• 22:17
  But after an injury or a poor race, bad workout, it all
• 22:23
  happens. Each of those is a little bit of
• 22:25
  a different scenarios, but in terms of confidence building,
• 22:28
  something I like to remember is that in running, we are not
• 22:32
  defined by our worst days. We're defined by our best days.
• 22:35
  And so just because you have a bad race, first of all, that's
• 22:39
  called being human. It happens to every every single
• 22:41
  person at every single level. So that reminder like
• 22:45
  congratulations, you are human. Then two, what was a moment in
• 22:49
  your running career that you are proud of?
• 22:52
  Maybe it was a workout. Maybe it was the fact that you
• 22:54
  ran your highest mileage last week and it's and it didn't feel
• 22:59
  like a stretch. Like there are moments in each
• 23:01
  of these athletes careers that they're really proud of and
• 23:05
  reminding them of that because just because you have a poor
• 23:08
  workout or a poor race, that can never take away from something
• 23:11
  that you've already accomplished.
• 23:13
  Once you do something like muscle memory, nerve memory,
• 23:17
  like your body remembers stuff that you've done.
• 23:20
  And so one bad day, your body still remembers the good days
• 23:24
  and that's still there and we're going to get back there.
• 23:27
  In terms of injury, there's always a lesson to be learned
• 23:31
  with injury, like there's usually a reason why it
• 23:34
  happened. And so the thing that I'm going
• 23:36
  to focus on with injury and setbacks surrounding that is
• 23:39
  what is a lesson that we're supposed to learn here?
• 23:42
  Let's not just like focus on rebuilding, but let's focus on
• 23:45
  rebuilding with intention and see how we can use this injury
• 23:49
  as a way to build a better version of ourselves.
• 23:52
  I feel a little called out. She's like coming for us.
• 23:57
  Oh my gosh, I think that's such a beautiful reminder that like
• 24:00
  we aren't defined by like 1 singular race.
• 24:02
  And if we have a bad day, if we have a day that like we don't
• 24:05
  feel our best or we performed our best, that like, that
• 24:07
  doesn't mean that like that's the defining moment of our
• 24:10
  running career. It's it never is.
• 24:13
  Like no one. Whenever someone even asks you
• 24:16
  tell someone you're a runner they don't say what is the
• 24:18
  slowest 10K you ever run. They ask you what your fastest 1
• 24:23
  is. They all want to know like what
• 24:24
  are your best days? Tell me about your best days.
• 24:27
  Yeah, we don't. We don't define ourselves by the
• 24:29
  worst moments. I love the phrase you either win
• 24:32
  or you learn. Totally.
• 24:34
  Sometimes you got to learn before you can win.
• 24:36
  Just makes it mean a little bit more I think sometimes.
• 24:39
  Oh, for sure, yeah. I mean, I think that's why we're
• 24:41
  all so addicted to this sport, right?
• 24:44
  It's because it's really hard and nothing is satisfying that
• 24:48
  comes easy. And I know that that's something
• 24:51
  I really cling on to during seasons of where I haven't been
• 24:54
  competing in the way that I wanted to is I really hold on,
• 24:58
  like envisioning that moment where it all becomes worth it.
• 25:02
  I was listening to something the other day and an athlete was
• 25:04
  talking about like winning a race and how it's almost like
• 25:08
  synonymous to a woman giving birth.
• 25:10
  And like how there's like an amnesia effect of it of like,
• 25:14
  once you get the child, you're like, oh, my gosh, like giving
• 25:17
  birth, that was no big thing. And like, you totally forget how
• 25:19
  painful it was. And like, that's what's running
• 25:21
  too. It's like the the pain, the
• 25:23
  struggle, whatever we're going through, like it's gonna be
• 25:26
  worth it. And so just like holding on to
• 25:28
  the hope of that moment because if you like this, if you love
• 25:32
  this, it's going to be worth it. I mean, like, obviously, I don't
• 25:34
  have the ability to compare any type of race to giving birth.
• 25:38
  I don't have any kids of my own. Riley maybe could speak better
• 25:40
  to that. But I feel like, yeah, I feel
• 25:43
  like so much of that still spoke to, like, what I felt about,
• 25:46
  like, my last marathon, which I've been very open about.
• 25:48
  Like, I did not meet my goal. I learned a lot in that
• 25:51
  marathon. But like, I still have also that
• 25:53
  same sense of like, amnesia and want to like do it again but do
• 25:56
  better. And like, even though, yeah, it
• 25:58
  sucked that I didn't meet my goal, what you said there I feel
• 26:00
  like speaks so strongly to like just about anybody like that,
• 26:03
  almost that you like, forget the struggle because you want it so
• 26:06
  bad. Yeah.
• 26:07
  And like the good days are so good that they make all of the
• 26:11
  hard days like worth it, which is absolutely incredible because
• 26:14
  when you think about like a career of running the hard days
• 26:17
  versus like the flow days where everything came easy, I don't
• 26:20
  even want to know the percentage breakdown.
• 26:23
  But the flow days are so few, but they're so powerful and
• 26:27
  strong that they make all of those other days completely
• 26:30
  worth it. What do you feel like is the
• 26:32
  most overlooked piece of training when it comes to
• 26:35
  running? I think we we've talked a little
• 26:38
  bit about this already, but I think it's just all the stuff
• 26:41
  outside of training, as coaches would love to say, come to me, I
• 26:46
  have the magic workout to make you achieve your goals.
• 26:50
  But the reality is all of our workouts probably look pretty
• 26:53
  similar. And I want a coach who's going
• 26:56
  to ask me about the stuff outside of my training.
• 26:58
  He's going to make sure that I'm getting enough sleep that I'm
• 27:02
  feeling correctly. How is my life stressed right
• 27:05
  now? Because all of those things
• 27:08
  impact our ability to adapt to training.
• 27:11
  As a coach, I can't increase your training if you're not
• 27:13
  already adapting to what we're doing.
• 27:17
  So just because you ran X amount this week doesn't mean we're
• 27:20
  going to run X plus whatever next week.
• 27:22
  Like I need to make sure that you're adopting to this first
• 27:26
  and everything that you're going outside of training impacts
• 27:29
  those things. And so as it should be, Riley, I
• 27:32
  know whenever Riley went on a work conference, I know whenever
• 27:35
  there was like bad sleep, when there was sickness and all of
• 27:38
  that, because that's the nature of a coach athlete relationship.
• 27:41
  Like all of those things impacted her ability to execute
• 27:45
  what was on the training plan. That's a normal part.
• 27:47
  That's what life is. I think working with a coach in
• 27:50
  silo where you only checking about training is missing a huge
• 27:54
  chunk of it. When I was playing soccer in
• 27:56
  college, this was something that I completely overlooked.
• 27:58
  Like I had a similar kind of mindset as you did, Karis.
• 28:02
  Obviously, I wasn't running, but I thought like more and more and
• 28:05
  more. So like, how can I spend more
• 28:06
  time on the field? How can I run more?
• 28:08
  How can I be more fit? Like, how can I lift more?
• 28:10
  How can I get into a smaller body?
• 28:12
  Because right, I thought, you know, smaller is a better
• 28:14
  athlete, which we know now is not the case.
• 28:16
  But I never valued what I was doing off of the field.
• 28:19
  And I think it really held me back when I was playing soccer
• 28:23
  in college. Same story, yes.
• 28:26
  I think that's the sad reality for a lot of athletes.
• 28:28
  What would you say your biggest piece of advice for runners is?
• 28:31
  Like general advice. I would say to find a system and
• 28:35
  an environment that feels sustainable and is enjoyable
• 28:40
  because sustainability is going to equal consistency.
• 28:44
  Consistency is going to equal performance in the long run.
• 28:47
  And then also this is a really hard thing to do.
• 28:50
  Sport is hard if we are all in this with the mindset that it's
• 28:55
  only going to be worth it whenever we achieve a specific
• 28:57
  goal, like that's just not a way to live in general.
• 29:01
  And a happy runner is going to be a fast runner.
• 29:04
  And so making sure that you're in an environment and I, I
• 29:07
  include like training again, outside of training environment,
• 29:11
  the people that you surround yourself with and just a
• 29:14
  lifestyle that you're living. Are you doing stuff outside of
• 29:16
  training that fills your heart, like making sure you're building
• 29:19
  a life that is enjoyable and you could still see yourself doing
• 29:23
  into five years from now That's it's going to be ultimately like
• 29:27
  the recipe for your happiest and fastest?
• 29:30
  Self building, a lot of longevity in what you're able to
• 29:33
  do. Totally.
• 29:34
  I always think whenever this is not something I always did, but
• 29:38
  whenever I make decisions now in terms of training for myself, I
• 29:42
  think about myself a year from now, about myself five years
• 29:47
  from now. Whereas like a past version of
• 29:49
  me may have been like, well, I have this race on the calendar,
• 29:52
  so I'm going to do this workout or these numbers miles.
• 29:56
  But now I'm like, all right, what?
• 29:57
  Let's think about my career a year from now and make like the
• 30:01
  smartest decision today that's going to support where I want to
• 30:05
  be 12 months down the line. We haven't done this in a while,
• 30:08
  but you are our first guest in a while, so I'm going to do some
• 30:12
  ending questions because this is the Emer Carbs podcast.
• 30:15
  Curious. We have to know what your
• 30:16
  favorite carbohydrate is. A chocolate chip cookie.
• 30:19
  Nice thick boy half baked in the middle.
• 30:22
  Is there any other way to eat a chocolate chip cookie?
• 30:23
  Like honestly. No, like if you give me a crispy
• 30:26
  cookie, I'm just going to be sad.
• 30:28
  Like crunchy cookies shouldn't exist.
• 30:30
  Do you have like a favorite recipe or favorite restaurant,
• 30:33
  or is it just generally chocolate chip cookie?
• 30:35
  I do have a few favorite. The Pillsbury Doughboy makes
• 30:40
  great chocolate chip cookies. You can never go wrong there.
• 30:43
  Especially the cookie dough from Pillsbury is great.
• 30:46
  I do have like a favorite coffee shop in Boulder and it's like a
• 30:50
  super tiny coffee shop. The man who owns it bakes his
• 30:54
  own chocolate chip cookies. They're massive.
• 30:57
  I think I weighed it one time and it was over half a pound.
• 31:01
  They are like super gooey in the middle.
• 31:03
  The chocolate chip ratio and the cookie is just so good.
• 31:07
  It's an absolute mess to eat like that's how many chocolate
• 31:09
  chip cookies are. But thankfully my husband is a
• 31:12
  is a disgusting human like I am so we can eat them together.
• 31:15
  So those are my absolute favorite.
• 31:17
  But Mary's mountain cookies and Fort Collins are also very good.
• 31:22
  Big fan of those. And we had those at my bridal
• 31:25
  shower. We like brought in those because
• 31:28
  those are like nice and they do international shipping if you
• 31:31
  ever want to try them. Mary's.
• 31:33
  Mountain cookies are my favorite.
• 31:35
  Yeah, they're so good. What's your?
• 31:38
  Favorite pre workout fuel? Bananas.
• 31:40
  I can eat a banana 10 minutes before I start my run and be
• 31:43
  totally fine. Green or brown?
• 31:46
  Oh my gosh, it very much matters.
• 31:48
  I will like stress buy bananas to like make sure that they
• 31:54
  appropriately ripe for each day of the wee.
• 31:57
  And sometimes I'll have to go to the grocery store just to get a
• 31:59
  banana. And then I'm like looking for
• 32:01
  like the perfect level of like green to yellowness because I'm
• 32:03
  like this is for a banana 6 days from now kind of thing.
• 32:07
  So it's very calculated. I want brown spots and that's
• 32:11
  why they digest so well because it's like super simple sugar.
• 32:13
  Your banana connoisseur. I am.
• 32:16
  We have mini bananas on our kitchen table.
• 32:19
  Sometimes if I have like the perfect banana, I actually hide
• 32:22
  them from my husband because like, sometimes he'll eat them
• 32:24
  and I'm like, no, no, no, this is like Sunday's banana and it's
• 32:27
  Tuesday and I'm like, you can't eat some days banana.
• 32:31
  You'd be horrified to hear that I'm a green banana person.
• 32:34
  Like I need it green. Oh my gosh, how do you run on
• 32:37
  Savage? Do you an iron stomach over
• 32:40
  there? I don't eat them like before I
• 32:42
  work out though like that's not my pre workout feel of choice
• 32:45
  but like I have them like later in the day and I don't put them
• 32:48
  green like in a smoothie or cooking wise but if I'm just
• 32:51
  going to eat a banana it has to be at least light green.
• 32:55
  I know. Nightmare.
• 32:58
  But that's why feeling is so crazy and it's so
• 33:00
  individualized, like running right?
• 33:01
  Because so many different preferences.
• 33:03
  What's your favorite post workout fuel?
• 33:05
  Are you doing a banana afterwards or do we have another
• 33:07
  option? This is funny.
• 33:09
  The way I was going to answer this question is it's a post
• 33:11
  workout smoothie is my favorite, a nice chocolate smoothie.
• 33:15
  It also has banana in it. Because as you can imagine, when
• 33:18
  I'm trying to like optimize my pre workout banana situation,
• 33:21
  sometimes you get it a little wrong.
• 33:23
  And so I end up with like a lot of bright bananas.
• 33:25
  I just have a lot of bananas in my household but it's fine
• 33:28
  because I can just freeze them and then it becomes part of my
• 33:31
  workout gal movie. So I'm A2 banana kind of gal 2
• 33:35
  banana a day at least. And then this is like the
• 33:38
  hardest question, but maybe is the easiest.
• 33:40
  What is your favorite pair of kicks?
• 33:42
  Right now I'll tell you my favorite racing shoes are the
• 33:46
  Puma R threes. Love those.
• 33:49
  They feel so fast. In terms of trainers, I feel
• 33:52
  like I've always kind of bopped around ever since.
• 33:55
  Anyone ever run in the Gel Nimbus 2000 or something?
• 33:58
  I think, wait, I think it's just Gel Nimbus.
• 34:00
  Nimbus 2000 Harry, but I. Think so?
• 34:03
  I'm still going to say yes. We were both like, yeah, yeah,
• 34:06
  we know exactly what you're talking about.
• 34:08
  But I know what. You're talking about it.
• 34:09
  Yeah. I ran in nose in high school for
• 34:11
  years. And then in college, we were a
• 34:14
  Nike program, so we had to find Nike shoes.
• 34:17
  And every Nike shoe I found, like, Nike went through a season
• 34:21
  of life where they discontinued a shoe every single year and,
• 34:25
  like, replaced it with a new kind of shoe.
• 34:27
  And it was always the shoe I was wearing.
• 34:30
  I just like bopped around a different Nike shoes and then
• 34:33
  ever since then I've just kind of like, I'll try anything and
• 34:36
  I'll be like, it's fine. I'll run in it.
• 34:39
  I need a new pair in four months anyway and then I'll try a new
• 34:42
  one. So right now I'm in the New
• 34:43
  Balance 1080s, which those are good.
• 34:45
  They're nice and cushy. I'll probably try something new
• 34:47
  next. Let me know if you have any
• 34:49
  recommendations. I'm kind of surprised you didn't
• 34:51
  say you're Birkenstocks. Oh, I thought we were talking
• 34:54
  running shoes, but yes, I have an embarrassing number of
• 34:58
  Birkenstocks. I would have to literally pause
• 35:00
  and count in my head to tell tell you how many Birks and
• 35:03
  socks it's the season. Stocks and socks?
• 35:05
  I hear you. Is there a favorite pair of
• 35:07
  Birkenstocks that you own? Well since it's December, I'm
• 35:10
  really into my Boston's right now, but I have several pairs of
• 35:14
  Arizona's that I love. I just love the two strap thick
• 35:18
  situation. Two of my Arizona's are pink,
• 35:22
  which I love, one of them are fuzzy pink which I love.
• 35:27
  And so those are my fancy Birkenstocks.
• 35:30
  So if we have a date night, the pink fuzzy Birkenstocks are
• 35:33
  coming out. We're gonna link all of Karis's
• 35:36
  favorite shoe choices in the podcast description.
• 35:39
  We're also going to leave some of her information for anybody
• 35:42
  who, like, wants to reach out, follow her, ask her questions
• 35:44
  about, like, background running and all of that.
• 35:46
  So Karis, what is the best way for people to find you, follow
• 35:49
  you and reach out to you? Sure.
• 35:50
  My Instagram handle is my first name and then my maiden name
• 35:55
  it's Karis KARIS. And then Yokin is how you
• 35:59
  pronounce my maiden name, but it's JOCH in.
• 36:02
  I think we're going to leave those in the ship notes.
• 36:04
  And then also my e-mail address is karisyokin@gmail.com.
• 36:08
  I am taking on new clients and so if any runners are interested
• 36:13
  in seeing if we would be a good fit for a running coaching
• 36:16
  situation, they're welcome to DM me or e-mail me and we can just
• 36:21
  get talking and see if it's a good fit.
• 36:23
  Karis, thank you so much for being on this episode.
• 36:26
  I know that Riley and I have been asking and excited about
• 36:29
  this episode in particular for quite a a bit of time.
• 36:32
  So we appreciate you taking some time out of your busy day to
• 36:34
  spend it with us. If people have questions for
• 36:38
  Riley and I, you can always find us online.
• 36:39
  You can find us on Instagram. You can find Riley at easy dot
• 36:42
  sports dot nutrition and you can find me at Jenna dot Fisher dot
• 36:45
  nutrition. Thank you so much for listening
• 36:46
  to this episode of the Eat more carbs podcast.
• 36:48
  Please make sure you rate, subscribe and review.
• 36:51
  And as always, remember to eat more carbs.