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RUN WEEK: Getting Through The Tough Runs With Aisha Praught-Leer · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: It's realizing when you can sort of be bigger than
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: your expectation, sort of remove your negative thoughts and shake
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: it up a little and maybe stay out there longer
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: than you thought that you could.
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: Hey, everyone, Emily Abadi here, you are listening to another
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: episode as a part of run week here on Hurdle.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: Now if you're just catching up after the long weekend.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: This week, in celebration of Global Running Day on Wednesday,
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  Speaker 2: June second, I am bringing five back to back episodes
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  Speaker 2: dedicated to the sport that.
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  Speaker 3: Changed my life.
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  Speaker 2: As you may know, I'm a UESCA certified run coach.
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  Speaker 2: I'm also a nine time marathoner, one who went through
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  Speaker 2: a long period of her life thinking that running just
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  Speaker 2: wasn't for her. I'm going to give you my whole
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  Speaker 2: backstory and talk about my journey with running this week
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  Speaker 2: on Wednesday. But first today I've got a conversation with
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  Speaker 2: Aisha prout Leer. She's a professional middle distance runner for Puma,
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  Speaker 2: a world finalist and Olympian, and seriously one of the kindest,
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  Speaker 2: most down to earth interviews. Now you've heard from her
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  Speaker 2: on the show before. I'm going to link that episode
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  Speaker 2: in the show notes. But today we are talking about
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  Speaker 2: a very important topic, the sucky run.
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  Speaker 3: We have all had them.
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  Speaker 2: Some days we get through them victoriously and it feels
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  Speaker 2: like you need a movie soundtrack, and other days you've
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  Speaker 2: just got to call it. And today with Aisha, we
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  Speaker 2: talk about how to navigate all the scenarios. She offers
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  Speaker 2: up a lot of really helpful tricks to get through
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  Speaker 2: the days that you actually can power through, you just
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: need a little bit of a pep talk to do.
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: So we chat about the importance of separating fact from feeling.
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: Something that really helped me in Sunday Nights Orchard Street
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  Speaker 2: Runners race here in New York. And I'm gonna tell you,
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: are you just the perfect person to talk about this
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  Speaker 2: because not only does she do a lot of running,
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  Speaker 2: so much so that she said she gets a day
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  Speaker 2: off once every ninety days.
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  Speaker 3: Reach it out about that, but because she's done extensive
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  Speaker 3: work on this very subject.
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  Speaker 2: Super grateful for her time and her outlook today, and
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  Speaker 2: really excited to bring this episode to a permanent home
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: on the feed. I want to say thank you to
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  Speaker 2: all of the hurdlers who submitted a question over on Instagram.
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: I made a call out asking for your running cues.
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: I'm going to be answering so many.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: Of them, and man, there are a lot of goodies,
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: trust me, in this Friday's newsletter with the help of
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: a lot of really great experts. So make sure by
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: clicking on over to the show notes that you are subscribed.
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: To the Weekly Hurdle.
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: It is free and I would love to be in
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: your inbox every Friday.
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: Last call out. If you like what you're listening to
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: this week, and I know that you.
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: Will, make sure to head on over in to Apple
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: Podcasts and rate and review the show. That's it for now.
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: With that, let's get to hurdling.
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  Speaker 3: Today. I'm sitting down with Aysha pratt Leer.
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  Speaker 2: She is a world finalist and Olympian, a record holder,
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  Speaker 2: a pro runner.
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  Speaker 3: How you doing.
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  Speaker 1: Today, I'm doing well. How are you?
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  Speaker 3: I'm so good.
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  Speaker 2: I'm so excited to have you back on the show
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  Speaker 2: this week to talk about something that we all struggle with,
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  Speaker 2: which is the crappy run. Oh just saying it. I
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  Speaker 2: honestly I had one this morning, if we're being.
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  Speaker 1: Honest, Yeah, it happens to literally every single person that runs.
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  Speaker 2: So before we kind of give our tips and tricks
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  Speaker 2: about how to maybe manage these crappy runs and mentally
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  Speaker 2: get over the hurdle that is the bad run. Why
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  Speaker 2: don't you give us a little bit of information. I
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  Speaker 2: know you've been on the show before. If anyone is interested,
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  Speaker 2: of course they are, I will link to your previous
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  Speaker 2: episode in the show notes. But just give us a
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  Speaker 2: little snippet of when you started running and when you
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  Speaker 2: took your running from recreational to not so recreational.
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  Speaker 1: Sure, I started running at long distance when I was
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  Speaker 1: sixteen years old, which is a little bit late for
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  Speaker 1: most pros, but I really lucked into running. I was
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  Speaker 1: a cheerleader and a black belt in karate, which is
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  Speaker 1: not a combo that people are used to. But I
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  Speaker 1: fell into long distance running, loved it. Went from pretty
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  Speaker 1: good high school runner to pretty good college runner to
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  Speaker 1: very good college runner. At the end, was able to
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  Speaker 1: be picked up by an agent a professional team out
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  Speaker 1: in Eugene, Oregon, where I spent my first four years
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  Speaker 1: as a pro, became a better pro, moved to Boulder, Colorado,
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  Speaker 1: And you have been in the process of being one
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  Speaker 1: of the founding members of an amazing training group and
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  Speaker 1: team boss. We have or primarily a women's group with
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  Speaker 1: some excellent men, but my training partners are some of
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  Speaker 1: the best female runners in the world, which is extraordinary.
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  Speaker 1: And I think we're up to maybe nine women and
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  Speaker 1: four men, and it's just it's the best. It's a
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  Speaker 1: sisterhood of excellence, and I love being part of it.
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  Speaker 3: I love the way you talk about it. I feel excited.
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  Speaker 2: I feel the excitement just radiating about it, and I
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  Speaker 2: love what you said because it is interesting. Right, So
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  Speaker 2: many runners get started early, but not starting until you
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  Speaker 2: were sixteen. Also side note, being a black belt is
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  Speaker 2: just like phenomenal in its own right. But not getting
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  Speaker 2: started with running until sixteen, a lot of people would assume, oh,
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  Speaker 2: she must have always been a runner, And I mean,
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  Speaker 2: I'm a very different type of runner than you are.
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  Speaker 2: But I also didn't start running until I was in
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  Speaker 2: my late teens as well. So it's kind of a
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  Speaker 2: reminder that you can start wherever you are, and an
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  Speaker 2: order or to start, you have to meet yourself where
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  Speaker 2: you're at. I'm sure at sixteen you were not like,
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  Speaker 2: oh my god, you know what I'm gonna do with
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  Speaker 2: this with.
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  Speaker 1: Fat My parents did not know that I could actually
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  Speaker 1: run three miles straight without stopping so before my first
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  Speaker 1: cross country meet. They didn't tell me this until after
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  Speaker 1: before my first cross country meet. They were really nervous
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  Speaker 1: for me. They weren't sure that I was going to
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  Speaker 1: even make it the distance to compete at the event. So, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: you can really start anywhere I made it.
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  Speaker 3: By the way, did you think that you were going
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  Speaker 3: to make it the distance at.
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  Speaker 1: The other totally? Yeah. I mean I was doing my training.
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  Speaker 1: I wasn't the best, but I was doing it.
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  Speaker 2: An unwavering sense of self belief. That's what we all
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  Speaker 2: that's what we all need to have. Okay, So as
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  Speaker 2: we went through your journey, we know a little bit
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  Speaker 2: more about you, your new training group. It all sounds
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  Speaker 2: so exciting. How many days a week are you running?
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  Speaker 3: Right now? All the days?
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  Speaker 1: All the days, at least once a day every day.
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  Speaker 1: I get a day off every three months or so,
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  Speaker 1: so it was amazing. I actually had a day off
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  Speaker 1: on Monday, and I didn't even know what to do
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  Speaker 1: with myself. It was bizarre.
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  Speaker 3: What did you do with yourself?
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  Speaker 1: Well? I drove from Crested but Colorado, where we'd been
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  Speaker 1: training at nine thousand feet, back home to Boulder, which
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  Speaker 1: is you know, five and a half thousand feet and
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  Speaker 1: drank a lot of coffee. I wore jeans. It was
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  Speaker 1: a great day.
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  Speaker 3: Hard pants, hard pants.
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  Speaker 2: I saw some meme the other day that it was
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  Speaker 2: like start wearing hard pants and small increments to ease
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  Speaker 2: back into the experience.
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  Speaker 1: I was talking with a girlfriend who is really feeling
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  Speaker 1: that she wore hard pants for a whole day, and
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  Speaker 1: I am so into the high waist, low waist. I
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  Speaker 1: can leave it, we can leave that in the past.
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  Speaker 1: But she was wearing her high waisted jeans all day
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  Speaker 1: and then the next day was wondering why her tummy
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  Speaker 1: was sore, and it was because she was wearing hard
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  Speaker 1: pants and her the button of her pants bruised her tummy.
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  Speaker 1: And I felt that, I felt that hard.
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  Speaker 3: I felt that real hard. I felt that real hard.
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  Speaker 3: Oh my god, her poor tummy.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, okay, back to back to running, back to running.
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  Speaker 3: So okay, you are running.
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  Speaker 2: The fact that you get a day off once every
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  Speaker 2: three months is just amazing. I think before we start
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  Speaker 2: talking about the mental strength that it must take to
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  Speaker 2: literally run for ninety days continuously, the inevitable question that
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  Speaker 2: I think someone may have listening to this is what
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  Speaker 2: are you doing to stave off injury with that kind
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  Speaker 2: of load in your training.
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  Speaker 1: Right. So one of the great things about being a
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  Speaker 1: pro is I have the time to truly care for
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  Speaker 1: my body head to toe all the time. I have
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  Speaker 1: the resources. I'm sponsored by Puma. They make sure that
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  Speaker 1: I have resources to get body work, all that stuff.
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  Speaker 1: Not everybody has that same access. But what I will
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  Speaker 1: say is spending five to ten minutes before you run,
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  Speaker 1: five to ten minutes after your run, even if that
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  Speaker 1: means having to subtract minutes from your run, doing some mobility,
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  Speaker 1: doing some warm up exercises, doing a lot of mobility,
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  Speaker 1: and just movement, moving your body in ladder really and
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  Speaker 1: in different planes. When you're done, you will feel so
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  Speaker 1: much better. I think a lot of runners think that
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  Speaker 1: to become better at running, you just have to run
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  Speaker 1: all the time, which is true. You do have to
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  Speaker 1: do some running. Sometimes you have to run hard, sometimes
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  Speaker 1: you have to run easy. But we get we're in
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  Speaker 1: one plane. We're just moving forward. It's a really repetitive motion.
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  Speaker 1: So anything that you can do sort of before and
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  Speaker 1: after to get yourself out of that, you know, left foot,
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  Speaker 1: right foot, left foot, right foot, just opening your body
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  Speaker 1: up loosening your hips up, doing some some lunges, some
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  Speaker 1: side lunges, maybe some bandwalks, some breathing exercises, really opening
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  Speaker 1: up your back and shoulders. All of that is going
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: to help you be out there for more days in
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  Speaker 1: a row.
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  Speaker 3: Wow, a lot of work.
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  Speaker 2: So in your week of workouts, how many days are
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  Speaker 2: you typically adding in strength work as well.
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  Speaker 1: I we're in the gym every hard day, So my
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  Speaker 1: week kind of looks like this. I have hard days
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  Speaker 1: that are hard and easy days that are easy. So
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  Speaker 1: if I have a hard day and assume that every
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  Speaker 1: run starts with ten minutes of warm up exercises, so
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  Speaker 1: we'll do a workout like a track workout or a
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  Speaker 1: tempo or something where you know, maybe I'm getting ten
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: to twelve miles of work in the morning. Then we
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: go directly from that to a gym session where we're
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: doing plios, we're lifting heavy weights, we're deadlifting, we're we're
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: doing all the gym work. Then I rest and then
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: in the evening. I've been actually cross training a lot
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: this spring. In the fall, I can run and run
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: and run and run, and I don't encounter many issues.
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  Speaker 1: This fall was running nine to eet t tow one hundred
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  Speaker 1: miles a week, day in and day out. But when
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  Speaker 1: I add in speed, I just have to back off
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  Speaker 1: the volume, the running volume. So it's been the best
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  Speaker 1: thing ever. I've been getting on the ellipt to Go
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  Speaker 1: every evening and I put my heart rate monitor on,
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  Speaker 1: I make sure that I stay in the easy zone.
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  Speaker 1: I watch Netflix and I get on the ellipt to Go,
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  Speaker 1: and so that happens three times a week where we
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  Speaker 1: have this you know, sort of marathon training day. You
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  Speaker 1: could call it three sessions of training and then on
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  Speaker 1: an easy day, I will do a run in the morning,
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  Speaker 1: maybe a run in the evening, or an elliptic goo
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: session in the evening, and those are the days that
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  Speaker 1: I spend extra time on my body. So it's it's
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: been really great. As a team. We've been spending at
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: least twenty minutes after a run doing mobility exercises opening
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  Speaker 1: up the body. Somebody makes smoothies for everyone while we
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: do this. We listen to music, we you know, make
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: sure that we're feeling good again. So the easy days
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  Speaker 1: are really good body maintenance days for me too.
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: Sidebar would be I thought that the elliptic Goo was
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: something only that moved like outside. Can you make it
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: stationary as well?
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: Yes, and especially up in the mountains, the weather is
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: so variable in the afternoon that you could get out
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: there and get hit by a hailstorm. So we actually
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: just have it set up in my garage. We got
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: an iPad stand, we have speakers. You can just really
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: go nuts in there.
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: What are you watching on Netflix right now?
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: Oh? Gosh, Well, when I looked to go, I've already
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: watched it six times. But I watched Beyonce Homecoming. It
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: is I can't. I can't. I can't get sick of it.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: It's the best thing ever. It hypes you up. There's
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: something to watch. I like to do a little bit
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: of dancing while I'm on there, which isn't very coordinated,
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: but yeah, you know, just it feels good.
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: I'm into it. I'm into it. Okay.
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  Speaker 2: So we've got the training rundown and again we know
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: that you're running a hell of a lot. So talk
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  Speaker 2: to me about first and foremost. How often would you say,
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: if you had to guess that you have a I
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: really just.
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: Don't think that I can do this run day.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, I'm going to be really honest I don't ever
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: think I can't do it, but I do think. There
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: are days that a run takes in my mind three hours.
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: There are days that I feel very bad, but I
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: never I never have that I can't do it because
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: I have accountability built in with my team, so I'm
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: never I'm never questioning whether I'm going to get it done.
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: I know I'm going to get it done. But having
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: a bad run probably happens once every two weeks. Where
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: I'm out there, I'm thinking, good Lord, this run is
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: going to take forever, and how fast are we running? Okay,
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: we're not running that fast. Yikes, all right. I used
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: to just take a deep breath, one foot in front
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: of the other. That happens maybe once every two weeks.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, once every two weeks.
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: You have this, like a subpar run.
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: I love where you started this, which was talking about
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: the mental side of things, in that you understand that
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: you are bigger than how you feel, right, so you
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: understand that this may feel in the moment absolutely downright
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: and possible, but you have done so much work to
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: understand that impossible isn't a thing for you.
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: Correct, I've done so much mental work on this subject.
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: Specifically because often I don't know in a race, you
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: don't feel good. It's kind of the point that racing
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: is really hard. So I've tried to really detach feeling
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: from outcome, and I think that's one of the hardest
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: things to do. And there are a number of ways
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: that you can work on this and feel better about this.
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: For me, it's a lot of distraction of Okay, not
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: feeling great, I'm going to draw my mind to something else.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: I know that I don't feel good, That's fine, that's okay,
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: I'm training hard, maybe I didn't sleep well the night before,
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: whatever the case is. But what am I going to
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: focus on instead? So I will, especially on days that
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: I'm not feeling good, I'll think about my form, or
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: I'll think about how my feet are contacting the ground,
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: or I'll think about a happy memory, or I'll go
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: to the front of the group and just put myself
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: in the front of the group, lead the group, bring
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: it outside of myself of like, okay, now I'm in
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: charge of the pace, or you know, when I'm running
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: with people, I'll bring up a funny conversation or bring
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: up a fiery conversation so that you know my brain
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: is just going somewhere else. So it's a lot for me.
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: It's a lot of like, yes, okay, I understand I
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: feel this way. What else am I going to focus on?
• 16:11
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  Speaker 2: Do some good today Head on over to tractsmith dot
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: com slash hurdle and use code hurdle at checkout to
• 17:57
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• 18:00
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• 18:04
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• 18:16
  Speaker 2: I love that tidbit that you had about kind of
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: changing your speed or your pace a little bit to
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: kind of do a little bit of pickup and come down.
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: Some days when I am feeling super sluggish, I'll just
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: do a little I'll just pick up the pace a
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: little bit, and then I'll fall back into where I
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: felt that I was and I'll pick up the pace
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: a little bit and it wakes me up and sometimes
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: it helps me shake off the feeling that like today
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: is just going to be a quote unquote slow day.
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: I was totally having one of those runs this morning
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: where I felt like my legs were one thousand pounds.
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: I took my first spin class in since pre pandemic
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: last night, and I went up for my run this
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: morning and I was like, what do you think you're doing?
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: This is just like you have cement for legs. And
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: so I did a few of those pickups and did
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: the run like feel totally not impossible now after those Yeah,
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: before them, it was like, should I call this?
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: What am I doing?
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: Let me see what my options are so that I
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: can keep going because I knew that I wanted to
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: keep going.
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's really smart. And it's always a fine line, right,
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: Like listening to your body is super important, and do
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: I think every single person needs to run ninety days
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: in a row. Absolutely not, but it's realizing when you
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: can sort of be bigger than your expectation, sort of
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: remove your negative thoughts and shake it up a little
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: and maybe stay out there longer than you thought that
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: you could.
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: And when you say you've done a lot of mental
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: work on this, what else have some of your takeaways
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: been or what else do you kind of talk to
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: yourself about in these moments of distraction or hurt or Oh.
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: For me, it's a lot of just trying to silence
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: the judgment, a bit of bringing awareness, like I am
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: aware of something, but I'm not letting that guide my
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: decision making. And this is really important in racing and
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: something that I've had to relearn off of a two
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: year hiatus from racing, that like, yes, there are moments
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: that are just supremely painful, but if you just silence
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: the mind for a little bit and then reassess, you'll
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: find often that you feel better. And in workouts, I'll
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: tell myself, okay, just one more lap. We re assess
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: after a lap. Okay, a laugh goes by, I quiet
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: my mind, Hm, I feel better. Imagine that it's like
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: not giving power to those thoughts of your body saying
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: I don't really love this, just realizing that they're there. Okay,
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: we'll revisit you in a little bit, and sometimes when
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: you revisit, you feel a lot better.
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: And this is just so applicable to so much beyond
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: the run, this methodology and this mindset work. It's like
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: when you exercise these mental tools when you're out there
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: and you're lacing up, then you sit down at your
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: desk later in the day and an email comes in
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: and before you start to freak out and like completely
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: feel like you're losing control, you like take a deep
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: breath and you're like, Okay, I can.
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: I can do this totally, totally.
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: But there's a caveat here in that some days you're
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: gonna have a run where you go out and it's
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: bigger than just the mind situation. It is, I am
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: not feeling well and you have to cave in. So
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: the question arises, how do you know when it's that
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: kind of day versus the I really I I should
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: tough this out.
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: Kind of day.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that is something that has I'm thirty one, I've
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: been a professional for nine years, and this is one
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: of the hardest things in the world for me. To
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: do and I successfully did it last week. It's truly
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: learning yourself right. It's like, of course we're all gonna
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: have bad days. We're gonna have days that we feel off,
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: but your body will tell you if you're really off.
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: I should have to the track to work out last week,
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: and I warmed up just kind of feeling off. My
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: body wasn't wasn't really flowing well. You know, my hips
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: felt a little off, my foot felt a little sore,
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: and you know, I continued the warm up. I warmed
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: all the way up for the session. I did my
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: strides on the track, you know, the sprints that we
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: do before we start something hard. I even did the
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: two hundred that we usually do to prime for the workout.
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: And I said to my which, I feel kind of off,
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: like I don't feel quite right, and he said, yeah,
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: you look like you're not running in a straight line.
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: Let's push this to tomorrow. And past Ayisha would have
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: freaked out and would have been like, no, no, no,
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: I have to do this, like my training partners are
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: doing this today. If I don't do this today, then
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna be behind, or you know, I'm being a
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: weenie or whatever. You know, all these like negative thoughts
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: that you tell yourself, these stories that you tell yourself
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: that are you know, trying to convince you to do
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: something stupid. So I thought, hmm, okay, I yeah, no,
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: I'm not right. I'm just gonna wait. I'm gonna wait
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: a day. Just pushing something a day isn't gonna, you know,
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: destroying my season. Like that's actually a really good idea.
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: And I think, what is a pattern that I see
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: with a lot of runners. A lot of runners tend
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: to be pretty tight, a perfectionisty tendencies seem to be
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: pretty prevalent. But if you make a choice that hey,
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: this isn't my body's not feeling right, feel a little
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: like dangerous in a bad way of if I do this,
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: maybe I'm gonna end up hurt, or maybe I'm gonna
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: walk away feeling like, oh man, I really shouldn't have
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: done that. That's kind of like a little win if
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: you really have listened and you make a smart choice
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: for your body. It's almost like, hey, give yourself a
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: pat on the back, Like it's really easy to push
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: through and do what everyone else is doing and just
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: say yes to everything. But it almost takes a confidence
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: in yourself to back off for a day and say
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: today is not perfect, Let's try again tomorrow. And it's
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: just a little reward that you can give yourself of like,
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: oh wow, nothing bad happened from taking a day and
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: realizing that, like maybe the body just needs a little
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: bit more generation and that's okay. You know, training plans
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: should always be written in pencil. It's not a deal
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: or die situation every day. So yeah, taking taking a breath,
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: or going and getting some body work or you know,
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: whatever you have to do, take an ebbs and set
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: back and see how you feel the next day. That's
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: a perfectly reasonable and important thing for us to do sometimes,
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: like oh yeah, huh listening to the body.
• 25:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah, what a smart idea.
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: No.
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: One hundred, one hundred and fifty one hundred and fifty percent.
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: We've broken down the difference between when you should just
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: call it because like, let's talk safety. Let's talk just
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: like sometimes you need to take that personal day versus
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: the days when you you can push through even though
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: you may not feel your best. There are the tactics
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: and tools that you can use to push through on
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: those hard days.
• 25:51
  Speaker 3: So let's just recap what some of those tactics are.
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: We talked about shifting your pace a little bit, which
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: can be super helpful. We talked about if you have
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: the opportunity to run with other end of jewels conversation
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: especially I think you use the word spicy.
• 26:06
  Speaker 3: Spicy convo excellent tool.
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: And then I think something maybe we haven't even really
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: brought up here is if you're the kind of person
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: that is a hobby jogger, recreational runner, a really great
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: way to stave off these like I don't know if
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: I can do it days is to diversify your training.
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: So earlier you totally elaborated on your week of training,
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: and listening to that, the hurdler here is, Wow, you're
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: doing a lot of different types of stuff. So that's
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: such a great way to help you get through those
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: iffy days because it gives you like a purpose and
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: a mission that's different from day to day.
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: For sure. I mean pulling up YouTube and grabbing a
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: yoga class or a mobility class, or lifting some weights,
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: even going on a hike, taking a spin class. It's
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: all training and it can all benefit you in different ways.
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: It doesn't have to be as I said before, right,
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: you're training plants and pencil, give yourself a little bit
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: a wiggle room, do something that's going to make you
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: feel better the next day.
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: And I'll also say this, I was going through a
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: period a couple months ago where I felt like I
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: was having a lot of these days, and a lot
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: of that I believe had to do with the fact
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: that it was, as many of us were dealing with,
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: just I wasn't racing, I didn't have something to look
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: forward to. I was still kind of like in and
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: out of the COVID way of working out. And so
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: I decided, Okay, what is in my control to change this?
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: And so I decided to start working with a coach
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: for a couple of months. And that was a really
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: fun way for me to find some renewed purpose in
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: what I was doing, and reporting in a little bit
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: to that person was like, oh wow, I feel a
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: lot less alone in this, and that makes me feel
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: excited and invigorated and like I want to show up
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: and a little less like, oh, I just don't know
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: if I can today.
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: That is such a great strategy, and I think it
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: also offloads your mental capacity if you have somebody else
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: planning for you. Oh my gosh, so much easier. I
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: love being coached. I think it's one of the coolest
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: things that we have is to have somebody who's looking
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: after your best interests, who understands running, who understands what
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: you can do personally, and can assign you stuff that
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: you can just like you don't even have to. It
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: just takes some of that resistance away of like oh,
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: should I run three miles or should I do some
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: hill sprints. You don't even have to go there. You
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: can just see what they assign you report back. It's
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: a really fun relationship. So I yeah, I anybody is
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: able to get a coach, I say go for it.
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: It's really fun.
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: And if price is your barrier to entry, then what
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: I'll talk up just briefly is certainly looking into the
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: on demand or free audio guided runs. A lot of
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: companies are doing this now, from Peloton to Active to
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: Nike has some really great ones as well, so that's
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: something certainly to keep in mind. And you can literally
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: just write down on your personal training schedule that you
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: ditty up yourself, like Tuesday, twenty five minute Nike Plus
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: guided run and this is what I'm going to do
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: on this day. And it just it gives you someone
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: to talk you through whatever effort that you're like, I
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: don't know what I'm going to do otherwise it.
• 29:19
  Speaker 3: Takes the pressure off, which is important.
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: Before I let you go, something that I think is
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: really great for us to touch on on the mindset
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: side of things would be if you have any suggestions
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: for books, podcasts, sports psychologists that you follow that really
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: help you kind of take your mental to the next level.
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: Yes, I having a mental strategy is super important, so
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: I see a sports psych every other week. And my
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: favorite book and a lot of where we work from
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: with me is the book Mindset by Carol Dweck. And
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: one of my favorite takeaways from this ideology is just
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: because you've done it one way in the past doesn't
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: mean that that's the only path to success. And you
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: can always grow, you can always fix mistakes, you can
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: always be better than you were before. And that's a
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: way that I love to live in my entire life,
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: not just on the track, but also off the track.
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: So yeah, if you can check out Mindset by Caroldwack,
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: that's a great that's a great book.
• 30:22
  Speaker 3: I love it. I love it.
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: Aisha, Thank you so much for your time and your wisdom.
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: How do the hurdlers keep up with you? How do
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: they follow along with you as you train? And give
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: us the details.
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: My most active social media is Instagram and you can
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: follow me at my name, at Aisha.
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: Proptleer Beautiful, I'm Over, at Emila a Body, and at
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: Hurdle Podcast Another Hurdle Conquered.
• 30:45
  Speaker 3: Catch you guys next time