179. Unlocking My Fastest Half Marathon Time in 7 years!

Kind of heading to the start line. This race is a little unique in that the first 100 meters is actually on grass and also the last 100 meters. So the start and the finish is on grass, which kind of freaked me out a little bit because I never ever run on grass. Always on the road, we're a track. And I was like, all right, Dwayne, you better not roll your ankle, like PT brain and me kind of came out and was like, all right, don't spray your ankle, buddy. Are you constantly worried about getting injured or you don't know how to get faster as a runner and you want to continue to run for stress relief? Then this is the podcast for you. Welcome to Healthy Runner, the only place that provides you with training tips, injury recovery and prevention tools with actionable strategies by experts in the running industry. So you can develop a stronger running body and feel confident that you can overcome any obstacle as a runner. I'm your host, Dr. Dwayne Scotty, avid runner, running physical therapist and coach, educator, founder of Swarth Healthy Runner, where we help dedicated runners get stronger, run faster and enjoy lifelong injury free running with the perfect online running coach, even if you've been told to stop running with an injury or you think coaching is just for fast runners. We'll learn more about our signature coaching program at learn.sparkhealthyrunner.com. Every week on the show, we coach you to grow as a runner just like the process of building a strong, durable home that will last a lifetime requiring little maintenance. The design and planning is your mindset. The foundation is your strength training. The framing is your run plan. The electrical and plumbing is your nutrition. The insulation, drywall and flooring is your recovery. The landscaping and exterior is your race strategy. If you master the six parts of growing as a runner, your running will be strong and last long, hitting PRs well into your 40s, 50s, and beyond. Every week we help a runner just like you build their dream home. I'm your host, Dr. Dwayne Scotty. Welcome to the Healthy Runner podcast. Unlocking my fastest half marathon time in seven years. Last Saturday, I shaved off four minutes of my half marathon plateau that I have been stuck at for the last two years and six attempts. In fact, I have run 19 half marathon races since I last had a half marathon time. That was this fast. And to put the cherry on the top, I won this glass and placed in my age group. So trying to grow as a runner is overwhelming. Like we train, we put the work in, but sometimes we don't get the result that we put in. Trust me, I feel you. I have been there quite literally. I have been there the past seven years working on this now. And I just ran my fastest half marathon at age 43. Then I did in my late 30s. In this episode, I am going to share with you my race recap from this week's half marathon goal race to provide some context. And I'm going to give you five key takeaways and lessons learned in how I broke through this plateau in my running journey. So it can help you in your running journey. For those of you new to the podcast or Spark Healthy Runner YouTube channel, I am Dr. Duane Scotty. I am a running physical therapist and coach hosted the Healthy Runner podcast. And I get the privilege to lead an amazing team of coaches at Spark Healthy Runner where we help you get stronger, get faster so you can enjoy lifelong injury free running. And thank you for being here. And thank you for continuing to support the podcast. And at the time of this recording, guys, I actually just checked this out on Apple podcast. We have 197 reviews on Apple podcast. So my question to you is who is going to be lucky number 200? I am still like absolutely floored that our podcast remains a staple top 30 running podcast on the charts, really ever since its inception, honestly. And because it is so niche specific, focusing on health of a runner and enjoying like lifelong running. And it's not so much a personality podcast, because trust me, you're not tuning in for my personality. And it's not one that interviews like all the pros. I'm just here going through my running journey, sharing how we can do this the right way with training tips and to keep us healthy. So we can do this for a really, really long time. I know that's my goal and I know for many of you, it's your goal as well. So I appreciate all the support. And I thank you in advance for considering dropping a rating and review on Apple podcast as I read all them. And honestly, truly, it's like one of the best parts of my day because I love helping the runners who are in our coaching community. And I love hearing about their wins like my client Danielle last weekend who crushed her first ever marathon in San Diego at the rock and roll marathon. Shout out to you Danielle. Danielle is just amazing. She was a COVID Peloton runner, only treadmill runner and really learned the strategies to get over her knee pain and actually start running outside and ran a half marathon and then went on to go and run her first marathon. So I am truly like so proud of her, just amazing accomplishment. But I also love hearing from you, the listener, who I don't know on a personal basis. But I just get so overjoyed knowing that the content that we share on this podcast is actually helping you learn and grow in your running journey. So I just love reading your running journeys when you do drop a rating or review. So thank you in advance for considering being our 200th review on the show. So let's get into this last weekend. Oh my goodness, oh my goodness. This was the Hamden Fast Half Marathon, the inaugural Hamden Fast Half Marathon. They always have a 5K that is done on an annual basis. It's the first time they've done a half marathon. I ran a half marathon last year during this week at the same exact day, same exact time. But I knew when my local running community partners, champions, multi sports academy gym in Hamden, that I really originally started my practice out of and rented space from my local running community before we went to a fully virtual platform. I knew once they were kind of hosting this race, I was going to support Don and Clay, amazing people. So I kind of signed up for the race. I was like, this is going to be my goal race. And this was really after a long winter of base building. And it's really difficult for me to run a half marathon in April and May anymore. I always used to do one in April. And just because my girls like travel volleyball schedule is most of you know, probably I mentioned before in the show, both my girls do kind of high performance volleyball, travel volleyball. So we were, you know, in if you're following on social, you'll see, you know, I was in Boston twice. Over the winter, we washed in DC, went for a nice memorable run around all the monuments, went to Philly twice. We went to Providence. We were at Bohegan Sun here in Connecticut a bunch of times. So our weekends are totally full really from January until May. So, you know, honestly, like I love running. And I love the aspect of like definitely the mental clearing benefits are like first and foremost now. But I also love challenging myself, right? So we can continue doing that as adults. And so I like running races. And you know, June is really the only time, or the first time of the year that I can run a race now because I never want like my girls to be, you know, not having a father there cheering them on for their like tournament. And I'm like running a road race elsewhere. So I grew up without a dad in my life. And I never want that for them. So they come first and foremost. So that's why I really need to wait to June to do my goal half marathon. So it's a long time period for me. I did a fun 5K Shamrock kind of race with my daughter in March, which was awesome. I paced her. And then I actually did run a race in Philly when I was there for one of the volleyball tournaments did a gift for life 10K. So a great cause. And I ran that 10K in Philly. And I was really pretty proud of that effort as it was my fastest 10K since 2015. And I was really pleased to place second place in my each group, actually, it was a smaller race with the time of a 4635 for that 10K. And really coming into this half marathon training block, my goal was to really raise the floor of my base mileage to already come into half marathon training block really at a higher mileage and more fit based on doing longer long runs. Threshold work in the winter time that was really the first time that I've done dedicated threshold work in the winter. So just doing a little bit more than easy runs, nothing too aggressive, not like super long threshold runs, really keeping it at that 7 out of 10 effort level for those runs. And really before getting into half marathon specific training, and then also adding in once a week of strides. So that was really like the big difference in my winter base building months prior to really getting into half marathon training for those that have followed along on the podcast for years. I've probably done about maybe four or five of these kind of post race analysis. Usually like every six months I did one last year in June and then I did one after my marathon in the fall. And this coming or this past winter, I should say, my gym workouts really had me doing the heaviest lifting that I've ever done in my life quite frankly in terms of like dead lifts squats. We've talked about this multiple times on the podcast and how to kind of make sure you build your body up to that. And this was building on what I implemented last year at this time. If you remember, I really spoke to that. And this year it was kind of raising it to the next level, lifting heavier, less reps. And really integrating that on a consistent basis in my strength training. So that was kind of different this time around. And then my running really had me consistently running double digit long runs to really work on building that aerobic capacity. And we talked about the benefits of the long run with Coach Whitney in her episode. So if you wanna learn more about how to do a long run benefits, all that stuff, we got into a deep dive with Coach Whitney from our Spark Healthy Runner. The coaching team about that. And that's what I double down on. This winter is, I really wanted to feel like running 10, running 12 was like piece of cake like easy. Wasn't a struggle. So as I mentioned, I've been at this half marathon thing for a really long time now. It's like 12 years. This was number 30, 31, total like races. So not just half marathon for fun or like running 13.1 on the weekend, like talking races and like training for a race. And I really never, until last year, actually even ever ran more than 12 miles. So last year, like one of the half marathon training cycles was the first time I ran a 14. And then last June's half marathon training cycle was the second time I ever ran a 14 beforehand. And I really wanted this training block to almost mimic somewhat of what I did in marathon training without all of the mileage or all of the harder workouts. And that was kind of my goal, right? So I made double digit long runs like a easier thing to do. And actually, I actually remember quite vividly, my 12 mileer I did in February while I was in DC. And it was a nice warm day or the amazing run. I was actually on a tank top in February, which is really weird because I live in Connecticut. And it was awesome. Like I remember that. And it wasn't this like stretch for me. It wasn't super hard in February. And I've never ever run 12 miles in February before, right? Cause usually the half marathon to be in April and you'd build up. And I was following, you know, previously before becoming a coach three years ago following all the plans online and they all build up and you do a 12. And for first timer, second timers, like all of that is good and works. But when you're, again, experienced as I've done now this past decade plus of consistent running, you know, I really wanted to kind of see how this different form of training was. So coming into this goal race, I really completed progressive threshold tempo specific workouts. So I kind of did that in my base building phase to really work on building my stamina, which actually progressed into once the weather got warmer here into hitting up the track. And I really did a hard four week block of repeat 800s on the track. And I would increase my reps each week. And, you know, really hit my interval pieces that I wanted to hit. I also did a couple of hills after following our hill episode, right, a couple of weeks of that. So some hill specific workouts. And the goal there, like on the track stuff was to really get my speed and leg turnover and like improve that VO2 max. And then these were the longest long runs I've ever done in half marathon training. So I did a 14 mileer. And then I did a 14 mileer with some pace work in there or like as we like to call it long run with spice. And then I did a 16 mileer. And then another 16 mileer, which was a tough run and it reminded me of what I did in the fall for marathon training, where I did three miles at marathon pace. And I repeated that for three reps. So there's a mile in between of a kind of recovery running. But that was definitely a hard run. That's 16 mileer with some spice. And, you know, I enjoyed it. It felt great. I gradually kind of progressed up. So just kind of giving you a little context here and my total weekly mileage, you know, really raised up to 47 miles. And that was the longest I've ever done in my life where the most amount of miles I've ever done in my life. And this wasn't like an accident, right? Because I was just feeling good. Where the weather started hitting springtime. And you know what, I'm going to do some extra miles. No, it was strategic. Like I had a plan. It was all structured out. And this was really the third training cycle that I crossed that 40 mile threshold. With last May hitting 41 miles. And then in my fall marathon training, I hit 43. And now I hit 47. So I have been working methodically in the off season at elevating the floor. So my ceiling can raise, right? So you guys can honestly take a look at my Strava graphs and see the weekly mileage and like how it's graphed out and how it should be in a progressive fashion. So I just point that out because I don't want anyone to take anything I say today at a context and apply it specifically to you and your running. And that's why I'm trying to paint a very vivid picture of where my personal running journey is. And you can see how much of that relates to your personal running journey. And if it really doesn't relate whatsoever, please do not try to do what I just did for your half marathon training. If it's your first half marathon or second half marathon, you've ever run because you will get injured. Trust me, I've seen enough injured runners where, you know, that's why I am kind of painting this picture. This episode is powered by you can fuel smarter during a run with the best no sugar energy gel on the market, delivering up to 75 minutes plus of steady energy to power your best running performance. If you've been listening to this podcast and you know how important it is to fuel your body for your runs, especially those long runs and races. And one of the biggest questions we get from our athletes is what should I take with me during a run in order to get that fuel in? And our healthy runner coaching team and I have been using you can energy gels for all of our long runs and races since it launched over a year ago now. 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Forward slash healthy runner and use the code healthy runner during checkout when placing your order to get your 20% off. Go ahead and give you can't energy gel a try for your next long run. Trust me, you won't regret it. So let's talk goals. And this really goes back to our episode. If you guys heard our episode with Coach Carolyn Coffin in the beginning of the year in 2023, I'm not sure the episode number, but you can go back, take a look at it. We really talked about goal setting. Amazing episode. Coach Carolyn's awesome. Shout out to Coach Carolyn. We really talked about goal setting. And for this race, my goals were pretty specific and close together. So a lot of our runners that we work with, I usually encourage them to you know, you have your A, B and C goal that Carolyn talked about. A goal is like, you know, dream, pine the sky, everything goes perfect. Weather's perfect. You feel great, like training block has been awesome. The race conditions are perfect, right? Like that pine the sky, like would be like absolutely phenomenal goal. The B goal is like something that's attainable, but you're gonna be like very damn proud of. And the C goal is like, okay, it's like the third option, but you're still gonna be proud that you, and it's usually, and this is what I encourage most of you listening to this, is like you finish. You finish the race or for some reason, you do have an injury that you've been dealing with. And your pain is just so great during the race. And you actually are smart enough to actually like, not finish the race, right? Like you being smart, like that could actually hit your C goal, right? And not being dumb and doing something that is gonna like, you know, really leave you, especially if you have another race coming up anytime soon, right? So that was kind of the A, B, and C. So for my C goal, it was because this has literally been a plateau I've been stuck at for two years now, was hitting 144. If I honestly didn't hit that with all of the consistent training, the changes that I mentioned in my training to you, in terms of mileage, in terms of what workouts I was doing, in terms of like recovery ability, and how much I double down on recovery. And by the way, I just published, if you haven't seen it yet guys, we just came out with our ultimate recovery guide for runners. So if you haven't checked that out, go check it out on our site, learn.sparkhealthyrunner.com to check out our recovery blueprint. But I made all those changes. So I really felt like my C goal was definitely not to finish a half marathon. Like I've done that way too many times. I put in a structured training block, despite like my girls crazy volleyball, travel schedule that we had, despite all the other variables that were going on in my life this spring. So my C goal was like, I'm getting 144. Like if I got anything less than that, I honestly would have been pretty pissed. So if it was 145 or above, I would have been pretty pissed. My B goal was to get sub 144. I really just wanted to get a different number. Like I've been there like three literal half marathons have been that same exact time. The only one that wasn't was like a 146, or something at surf town because it was a lot hotter. It was humid. So it was definitely a harder race conditions to race in. But I've been kind of stuck there. So that was my B goal was to get sub 144. And my A goal was like, all right, like what's this kind of stretch goal a little bit? Like you haven't seen this time in a really long time, right? So I was like, all right, like 140, 141 range. So that was like my A goal. So let's talk about the race a little bit. I really enjoy doing a little warm up. So myself and Coach Latoya on our Spark Healthy Runner team, we did a little dynamic warm up before the race, which was great. So he's great to meet our local runners within our community and just show them how we should be warming up. It's primed the body for go time. And I did in my 10 minute jogging warm up then we did our dynamic warm up. And then I really did some strides beforehand. So jog around a little bit and did about three to four reps of strides. Time was getting a little close. I might not got the fourth rep in there, but I was feeling like warmed up. And kind of heading to the start line, this race is a little unique in that the first 100 meters is actually on grass. And also the last 100 meters. So the start and the finish is on grass, which kind of freaked me out a little bit because I never ever run on grass. I always on the road were a track. And I was like, all right, Dwayne, you better not roll your ankle, like PT brain in me kind of came out and was like, all right, don't sprain your ankle buddy. But the race begins and I was just really trying to watch my footing stay safe for that first part on uneven terrain. And then we kind of run around the soccer field and it was like a sidewalk kind of path. It wasn't exactly level. It wasn't very wide. So you couldn't run next to someone. So we were kind of, I guess, in probably a vertical alignment. And I was just watching my stepping there, just making sure I don't take like a misstep, like, hey, you don't want to like check yourself out of the race, you know, a minute into the race. So at about the half mile mark, this race did go on to a pived. We have these rails to trails, right? I know many of you have them around your neighborhoods. So it's like the historic Farmington Canal trail that we have here in Hamden, Cheshire, and kind of goes through Connecticut. And once I got on there, I was like in my comfort zone. So I probably recently shared the podcast at some point. I think this winner that I started working out a new gym. And the nice thing about this gym is the trail is only a half mile away from this gym. So when I go for my runs before my strength training sessions, I hop on the trail. And I've been finding this like super relaxing and actually, oh my goodness, I'm gonna give my client John a shout out on the podcast live. I haven't even told him this yet, guys. We actually got into a discussion about running without music or podcast. And he was talking about how that was like beneficial for him, have a little mental clarity for his work day. I've honestly always been reluctant to ever try that. And I was like, all right, John did he said it was, you know, beneficial. I've heard about it for many runners over the years. But I've never not done that. So it's something different. We don't like change as runners, right? And I've really been enjoying like literally for two straight weeks, John. I've been running without music at all. And oh my goodness, it's like amazing on especially those trail runs. So I'm just like there in nature, I'm like running, there's trees all around, there's the birds chirping in the morning. And I'm just letting my mind wander, go from thing to thing that I'm thinking about for that day, whether or not, which podcast, you know, content we have coming out or, you know, we're clients I'm seeing, right? Like things that are happening. And I've actually loved that. So thank you, John, shout out on the podcast. But I digress now getting back to the race. I'm in my comfort zone because I'm used to being around that type of setting now. I've never been one to run on the trail prior to this. We have our Cheshire half marathon that's also on the trail. And I've always found it boring quite frankly. It's not stimulating. There's not a lot of things to look at, right? It's like kind of the same scenery. But I've really learned how to relax and get in that comfort zone. So my goals for the first three miles here in my half marathon race strategy is, and this is our Spark Healthy Runner race day blueprint. If you haven't seen this blueprint again, you can download your free copy of our race day strategy. Just go to learn.sparkhealthyrunner.com to get your race day blueprint. But first three miles for half marathon, it's conservative start, consume as little energy as possible. That is the goal. And I looked down at my watch to keep it in check to make sure I was kind of running my plan. My plan was, because I was shooting for a goal of a 745 pace average. So my plan was to do 750 to eight minute pace for those first three miles. It did take a little bit to get the breathing in sync after that slight load of chaos, like running on the grass, running on the sidewalks. But I was honestly able to get my breathing in check even a little faster than like the huge races, where you're still dodging people for like the first two to three miles, right? You know, you get some slower runners. You get, there's like a lot of people around you. I did feel like I was able to kind of get in a rhythm and relax a little bit earlier than most of the big races. So mile one clicked off with 758 mile two, eight minutes flat, mile three, 753. So first part of the race, that was the only thing I was thinking about when that race started, was complete. I met my goal and now I was in control. My breathing was down. I felt relaxed. I wasn't going out too fast. So, you know, this was like huge because this was, again, mission complete for the first part of the race. So now I wanna introduce you to Ella. So the first part of the race was complete. I got in control and now it was, it was time to pick up the pace. And my goal piece, as I said, was 745. So now I needed to start surging a bit to kind of pick up my pace and get in that groove. And, you know, it was great. On the course, I actually saw some former patients of mine when I used to treat here locally. And they were volunteering at the water. Stance, it was nice to be like, hey Lisa, hey Gina, what's going on? Can I have water? We didn't want to electrolyte to that point, right? So I just wanted to water. That was great. It was nice to see friendly faces. And, you know, I took my first UCAN gel at that pretty much four and a half mile mark. I did fuel beforehand, right before 20 minutes before. And I did have my meal two and a half hours before my race. So I was well fueled. The music was starting to change. And, you know, strategically in my playlist, I did have really more calming music to start the race because I knew the goal was to kind of keep it in check. Don't get too pumped up, Duane. And I picked up the pace a little bit. And I noticed someone like running in front of me. And it appeared she was like running my pace. So I was like, hey, let's like hang with her. So she looked over her shoulder a couple times. And probably was like, you know, what is this dude doing? Like why is he like running, you know, close to me? Like there's plenty of room on the trail here. Like it's not like this was a packed race guys. This is the first time they've ever done this race, right? We're not talking huge numbers by any means. And once we got going, like things spread out, right? So, you know, she's probably like, what is this dude doing? But she like mentioned something to me. She said something to me and I like talk back and we got in a conversation. And yeah, I learned a lot about Ella, you know, she goes to Harvard, she lived around this region and she used to do cross country and was like a high school track athlete. And we talked about where she's going to like grad school after Harvard and these middle miles with Ella, like flew by guys. And I really think this was instrumental in keeping me honest with my pacing during these middle miles because I have tended to drift off in previous races. And this happened to me last June, in that half marathon I did when I kind of went back and looked at my pieces the first part nailed it. Second part in these middle miles really miles four to 10 really we look at for a half marathon. You know, I did notice that I drifted off and I didn't necessarily feel like I was drifting off. So it can get a little tough and really honestly running it with someone and actually like chatting with Ella throughout, like the miles were just clicking off. Like I wasn't even thinking I was in a race and like obviously I knew I was in a race but the time just like flew by. So like mile four was actually 733, mile five, 725. So I was going a little fast. So I was trying to slow it down a little bit. I don't want to burn out a little too quick here. My goal was 745, right? So then mile six, 745, mile seven, 741, mile eight, 732, mile nine, 741. And I wasn't able to like have a full-blown conversation by any means because I was going at race piece, my half marathon race piece. And I'm not a big talker when I run, even on my easy runs, like I can't like have a full-blown conversation. I mentioned this before in the podcast. You females, you guys are like incredible with this stuff. However, my coordination, my breathing just does not, it's not impressive by any means. But I was quite impressed. I was actually able to talk to Ella during a race and I think it was because I was so relaxed and I got in control early on and I got my breathing down. And this was like instrumental in having me not exert too much energy. So really Ella like helped me tremendously. Also get out of my own head, honestly, right? And it was like a nice distraction. So I'm wondering like as you're listening to this, I've never done this before to race. Like I've seen people have like recognized me or kind of races and they say, hi, oh, I listened to the podcast. Hey, what's going on? Like we say like, you know, quick, hey. But like that's it. I've never like literally like had a conversation with someone during a race. Like have you guys done this before? I would love to hear when you are listening to this, you know, reach out, send me a DM on Instagram at Spark Healthy Runner. Let me know if you've actually done this a races and if you strategically try to do this and like chat it up with people on like courses to just like distract your brain during the middle mile specifically. Because like I think this was like super, super helpful. And so now we're getting to the point where the middle miles goal met complete. I didn't drift off. I maintained and I even did a little better than like what my goal pace was, right? And I didn't exert a lot of energy with it. And as Chris McClung said in episode 173 on the Healthy Runner podcast, that we need to get in a rhythm and stay relaxed at race pace. And Chris, you're probably not going to listen this. But if you did, I would say you'd be proud of me. Because I even tried and I've been trying the strategy to really relax the muscles and even try to get in that flow and that rhythm. And I was able to close my eyes for a little bit longer and try to really do that moving meditation to really relax each muscle group as I was going at race pace, just so I was conserving energy. And at this time, and we talked about, this was the mantra episode and the mental strategies for races episode 173. My rhythm mantra at this time was just smile and breathe. I was smiling at everyone I passed on that trail. I was smiling at every water stop. I was thinking all the volunteers, but now the race was about to begin, right? So this is where the race begins. And I knew it. I knew it was coming and I told Ella, I said, Ella, like, hey, you know, you're doing a great job. It keeping me honest during these middle miles, but you know what, like, you know, I'm really looking at kind of, you know, start this race at mile 10. And the tricky part about this race and how it went kind of out and back, on the trail and where the water stops were, there was like two every two, two and a half miles of water stops were, but because how it went out and back, I wound up having a water stop at about, I would say around the nine mile mark and I was ready for my gel like it ate eight and a half. And, but there was no water stop, right? So I had to kind of wait for the water stop. So I can have, you know, be able to swish down my fuel. So all of it can absorb. And so I had to wait a little bit longer for that gel. And then on the way back, I knew that same water stop was gonna be my last water stop. So I wound up having my second and third gel, probably a little closer than ideally would have liked. I would have, you know, liked to have them spread apart a little bit more. So that was kind of like the only weird thing, but I got my fuel in still and I made sure that I was fueling and hydrating, even though the conditions of the course weren't like ideal for when I needed it. And I was smart enough to not be stubborn. And be like, why don't you just don't need this last gel? Like just go for it. It's only two miles. You can do that without fuel. But I knew these were gonna be the hardest two miles of the race, right? And I've run enough half marathons where I know the importance of fueling and I've seen the difference when you fuel properly and Brooke talks about all the time on the podcast and how we need to fuel our bodies and have the carbs that give us the spark, right? I hope you are enjoying this episode and it is providing value for you. I wanted to take a brief moment to share a story of a real runner like you who is struggling with a common problem that you may be facing. Here's one of our athletes who got the guidance, support and accountability from our healthy runner coaching team to get clarity and structure on the six steps to growing as a runner with personalized strength, nutrition and run plans. I hope their story inspires you that there is hope to either get over your running injury or to continue getting faster or running longer so you can continue to get in those mental clearing miles and enjoy your running journey again. Here is their inspiring story. Hi, my name is Katya, Formulus Angelis and I would like to talk a little to you about my experience with Drain and the Spark Healthy Winner program. I started my journey with a program I think about a year, a little less than a year ago. I suffered from Achilles tendonitis that turned into a tendonopathy and just really struggled with running at that point and was really frustrated and probably like many of you came across Drain's podcast while I was trying to consult Dr. Google to find out what to do about this and how the heck to get out of pain and start running again and found a few of his videos where he talked about specifically Achilles issues and just was very intrigued. After a couple of weeks, I decided to reach out to him and jump on a call and immediately just geled with him and loved his enthusiasm and his energy and not just adore his personality and he just gave some solid advice and talked about the program and I took a chance at that point. I thought I would just take a chance and sign up for the program and it has been one of the best things I've done for myself. I had already signed up for two half-marathons Drain probably would have liked me to just run the second one but first one was a deferral from COVID times. So we saw it as a... maybe a tune-up race for the A half-marathon for my goal race. And it just went fantastic. I think both of us were really surprised how well that first one went and I had absolutely no Achilles issues this is just two months into the program. I crushed my second race, my A-race, which was the Rebel Mount Charleston downhill race. Just highly recommended after through that in there. Rennie P.R. already by almost ten minutes and had the best time. And again, without any issues, Achilles issues or otherwise. A few components that I really enjoyed about the program and that I think really helped me in my journey were the strength program, the strength component. I was not consistent in strength training before. Ten minutes here, 20 minutes there, definitely not consistent. And the program kept me accountable, set on my calendar, and I just saw on my calendar, I was like, okay, I'm running today, I'm strength training today, and I stuck to it. And that just really helps you know somebody's out there watching you as well. And Dwayne gave me some additional exercise, it tailored to me in my injury. That, yeah, successfully helped me overcome my issues. And I had bilateral Achilles tendonitis, I'm out in an apathy, so. And that was especially bad for me. And you know, you can work out a long Dwayne, so to speak, on the video set he's recorded for the strength program. And that was really fun for me, much more fun than, you know, just looking on a piece of paper, and going exercise by exercise. So that was really, really beneficial for me as well. And just left working with him. I love the healthy runner community. I'm special shout out to Jonah and Owen. I'm so thankful to have met you and so many others in there. And that is also really, really important. And invaluable benefit of the program, really, that it's not just the coach that you have, it's the whole team that you have behind you. It's also the other coaches that are always there with advice and input, shout out to Whitney Latoya, do thank all of them. Brooke, the registered dietitian has been super helpful. She gave me some really good advice. And you know, all of that carried over into this. So more about this in a second. But when I ran my second half marathon, I remember clearly I said to Dwayne when we had our what's it called review and talked about it, that I said to him, I have no idea how I could ever run twice as far. And he said, but of course you can. He said, you know, you've trained for half marathon. So that's what you ran. And then you trained for full. And then that's what you do. And I just ran my first full marathon in Chicago just six days ago. Zero, first of all, zero Achilles issues, but zero issues in general. Honestly, it probably couldn't have gone any more perfect. Yeah, I had the best experience. Chicago was amazing. And Dwayne instilled that confidence in me. And I'm not sure if I would have stood at the start line without him or the program. So if you're still hesitant, my advice would be, you know, just shoot him an email, reach out to him, jump on a call, you know, see if you gel. Think about it for a day or two, sleep on it. I think you wouldn't regret it. It's been invaluable for me. I really, really enjoyed the experience and the community that came with it and found it invaluable. Happy running. I hope sharing that story inspired you and provided you some hope. If you want the one-on-one structure, accountability and support from our Healthy Runner Coaching team of experts, check out the Behind the Scenes video tour of our Signature Coaching program. You just heard about including other stories from runners who are just like you and we're struggling with the same sticking points before they signed up for our program. Just head to learn.spark. Healthyrunner.com to learn more and book your strategy call with me today. Now let's get back into this episode. So usually my go time is like after 10 miles, right? See there's 5K left of a half marathon and you know, if you look at my splits, you can really see that I started this a bit early and I think it was because Ella was like pushing the pace a little bit quite frankly. So mile 10 was 727. So it was getting like fast here and then because of that whole water stop taking my fuel, I needed to actually stop and walk and have my fuel because I didn't know when the water stop was coming. That next mile when it's usually go time was actually a little slower. So it was like a 749. And you know, this was like, I did for a second. I got a little mental like negative thought in my mind at that point when I saw a time that was a lot slower than the last mile. And I'm like, shoot. Dwayne, this is go time. Like this is three hard miles. This is the race has started. Like you've earned the right to race. You like met the first goal, right? In relaxing and just conservative start. You met the second goal. You didn't lose your pace in the middle miles. And then really the next two miles. Like I basically said megabytes to Ella and I was like, all right, I'm just going to like go from here. I'm going to push. I'm going to start to chase down some people. So this is where I started going fishing. And you know, seeing the guy in front of me. And I'm trying to attract. He's a magnet. I'm like attracted to that magnet. Right. So I'm going to catch him. Right. And this point when the going gets tough, it's like you got to start just picking people off. That's the strategy. Start chasing him down. And I caught up to this one dude. And I remember saying to him like, come on man, like we got this only two miles to push. And that next mile, mile 12, 720. So then the music playlist I created that morning was like perfect placement of the pump-up songs that would get me going. And it might be different for you. But it was just what I needed. And you can actually, if you want to see the songs, I actually created on Spotify. So it's public. You can search it. Half marathon. Spark. 2023 is what I labeled it. And you can see the playlist that I created. And if you want to give it a try and have some, or want some ideas for songs for your race, you might be able to save them into your playlist to give you some ideas. But, you know, at this point, I was like, all right, one mile left. This is it. It's like go time. And this is when the breathing really started getting heavy. I'm staring to make some weird sounds coming out. You know, it's like, you know, people are looking around as I'm coming. But I'm still feeling strong. And honestly, for those of you who have been listening a while, like I was asking my mom, I was like, you know, give me your angel wings. Like take me to the finish line, mom. I felt light. I felt fast. And I felt strong, even though it was really hard. And I really didn't want to slow down. And this is where I utilize those fight mantras. That Chris talked about in that episode. And my fight mantra was like, stay strong, stay fast. And I just had it to the pace of each foot as I was going. Stay strong, stay fast. Stay strong, stay fast. And I was really pushing that fight mantra, honestly, for the only like the last half mile. Because I felt so strong and light, even during go time in those last like two miles. And you know, that last half mile was definitely in, you know, entering the pain cave, so to speak. But mile 13, 720. So I see the finish line. And it's setting in that like, I'm not only going to meet my goal, but I'm like going to surpass it by minutes. And I give a nice, Scotty strong flex to the photographer, of course. Because I'm like flying on cloud nine now. I like raised my arms up. Like I just won the Boston marathon. Like, who does that? I don't know. Maybe you do, but you would have thought I did. Because I was just honestly feeling so strong and confident. And I didn't mind like running on the grass that I thought like initially I would. I didn't even notice it was grass, honestly. As I passed the finish line, I was like 140, 23 on the clock. So shaved off four minutes off my time. And you want to know what is better than 140, 23, 24 seconds faster. And that was my immediate primitive runner brain went there for like a second, but I'm wiser and I'm an experienced runner. So I was like, literally the wiser brain took over. And I finally broke through that 144 barrier that I've been stuck out for the last two years, which is four half marathons. And this is my fastest half marathon in seven years. Like that's huge. And if you guys have been out this for a while, like I have, like I said, 31 half marathons. The last time I ran a half marathon faster, it was 2016. And if you even said the word pandemic, I would have thought you were like reading some comic book or something, right? I was like still in my mid 30s. I was 36. I was still writing my dissertation for my PhD at that time. I hadn't started my business yet as an entrepreneur. This podcast wasn't even thought of by any means. And so much has changed in these last seven years. And I'm now 43 years old. And faster than I was in my late 30s, which really makes road race number 70 for me in my 12 year running journey that much sweeter. So half marathon number 31 will be one to remember for a really long time. And it's really been the culmination of a full six months of consistent 4 30 AM wakeups and implementing all that I preach on this platform. And all the things that I'm sharing with you, whether it's from my own knowledge or experts we bring on the show, I'm not only like spouting stuff that I'm just reading somewhere. And I don't do it myself, right? Like I'm implementing what I've been practicing. I've been practicing what I've been preaching, right? And how I want to break this down. And I'm sorry for the really long race recap. By the way, I did not plan on going to that much detail. But hopefully some of that was helpful for you in hearing my race recap and like what was going on in my head. What what strategies I was employing. But I really want to kind of summarize this in five key points where lessons learned from this past spring half marathon training cycle. Number one. Building mileage must come slowly and progressively. I see a way too many times that people here that faster half marathons, there's my air quotes there. Faster half marathoners are doing 40 something miles a week. They're doing 50 something miles per week. Or you hear the pros doing 80 something miles per week. If you're not anywhere close to that, you should never be anywhere close to that, right? Like our bodies need time to adapt to the demands of running. So again, I share my story with you to give you perspective, right? My third time going over the 40 threshold. Now I've only done over the 40 in this training block. I had three weeks that I was over the 40 miles in the fall training block at two weeks. Last year I had one week over the 40, right? So you see the slow progression. And my goal, hopefully for this fall marathon cycle, maybe I could hit 50, it's only three miles away and 50, it's like a big number, right? So we'll see if my coach agrees to hit the 50 mile per week mark. But we need to build this mileage slowly and progressively. Point number two. Think in six month blocks or years and not in days and weeks when evaluating your progress in your running journey. I see it all too often. I see many people running way too many races trying to race way too many races. Right? I just gave you the exam. It's been literally six months since I ran my last half marathon in November. And then the half marathon I ran before that was September as a tune up before my marathon, right? So you have to minimum have four months in between races. If you're racing them, if you're doing it for fun, if you're doing it with a friend who is a lot slower piece, like me, I mentioned my 5K, right? My daughter runs it pretty much. It was like my easy effort. So that wasn't a race for me. That's okay. But I see too many runners getting frustrated that they're not getting faster, but they're racing way too much. And they're focusing on like the smaller weekly, they're not getting faster. Like this stuff takes time. So think in six month training blocks and years, not days and weeks, if you're looking to do this for longevity and the long run like I am. Third point. Balance in the hard running. So for me, that was my six, my seven wraps of eight hundred mile repeats on the track and my long runs with spice. Were those piece miles I was telling you about? You got to balance that with slow and easy running on the other days. Do you know how many runs I went on in the 10 to 11 minute mile pace range? Like I really do think you'll be surprised. You can look at my Strava. It's public. Like go look at it. Like you will see all of my easy runs pretty much are in the 10 minute range. You will see some in the 11 because I was going on feel an effort and how my body needed to respond after those harder runs. And that's like key to balancing staying healthy as a runner. As you do harder training and as you go to the next level in your training, like I just did during this last half marathon training block. Fourth point. Strength training keeps your body healthy and strong to be able to tolerate the demands of running and get to that next level and milestone in your training. It's not the next super shoe. It is not the faster workout. It is not getting your easy paced faster. That's another misconception. I see a lot. Like I don't know why people are so obsessed with getting their easy pace faster. If it happens, it happens. Like I'm cool with that if it happens. But again, guys, I just mentioned seven years. Haven't been able to run a half marathon this fast. And I shaved off four minutes. Like in the past seven years out of what did I say 19 half marathon. I've done in that seven year period. And I'm running the slowest easy runs I've ever run in that time period. I'm more efficient as a runner. I know I am. I'm more fit. I'm able to hit tempo threshold workouts. Don't feel as hard. I'm able to hit interval paces and they don't feel as hard. I'm like running them in the proper effort zones. So stop the obsession with trying to get your easy pace faster. Like strength training is going to keep your body healthy and strong. To be able to get to that next level and milestone in your training. And then fifth and final point in this is a brand new point for me. Some of the others I've probably talked about in previous race recaps. Or some variation of it. This fifth one was brand new to me. So if you're an experienced half marathoner. And I'm going to use or let me just make the statement first. If you're an experienced half marathoner, you need to train beyond the half marathon. In terms of long runs and weekly mileage. So what do I mean by that? So going by general guidelines. And this is not evidence based whatsoever. This is the Scotty or the spark mileage guidelines here. If you have run and race not just run, not training run, not a fun run, a race. At a half marathon race effort. Eight plus. I'm going to give you eight plus half marathons over the course of five plus years. Eight plus half marathons and you're kind of like little loopy. And you did race that many in one year. That's not going to cut it from me. You got to give me that consistency over a five year time period. And you've raised eight plus. That's my number I just made up there. That I think is a good. A good gauge of who I'm really trying to target with this message. Then you really want to think about almost approaching your training. Like a marathon training cycle minus the really stressful 18 and 20 miles. Because those are really stressful. And that's why we don't run a lot of marathons. Throughout the year. Right. So start to consider this. If you were like me and at this plateau that I've been at. And I've run 31 right like half marathons 19 in the last seven years. And you're stuck and you keep getting the plan off the internet. That's like the intermediate or the advanced half marathon training plan. And they always have you build up to 12 and maybe do a couple of 12s. Maybe you had some peace work into your 12. But you never go beyond. I found it super helpful to go beyond the 12. Go beyond the 13. Right. And you can go beyond the 13s maybe do some 16s. As long as your body is tolerating the training. And it's not breaking down. You're not getting injuries. Right. So this is a new concept for me, honestly. And most of you advanced marathoners probably already knew this concept. But I'm really speaking to a lot of the half marathoners out there that you have like. No desire to be like a frequent marathoner. You don't have the time. Right. You don't think your body can handle 20 miles in training. Start to think and consider about training for your next half marathon in order to break through that plateau. Like if you were training for a marathon, making sure you stay healthy, modifying the plan as you go. And doing maybe more weekly mileage and maybe getting used to longer long runs and allowing your body to adapt to that. So that's the fifth and final key takeaway from this spring half marathon really breakthrough. I'm going to call the breakthrough breakthrough in seven years. And I really hope, you know, obviously none of this is I'm sharing this with you because I'm like bragging by any means, right? Like half of you guys listen to this right now are faster than me. Right. It's all relative. And the only reason I share numbers is to give you perspective at what I'm referring to. And I hope by me sharing my journey with you really either helps inspire you that you can actually get through your breakthrough and elevate your running to the next level. And as always, like I love hearing your comments, questions, connect with me like Instagram is definitely where I am at most frequently. So at spark healthy runner like shoot me a DM. I would love to hear from you. Those you who start to follow me on Instagram, like you're going to get a message from me like me personally reaching out to you because I love to connect with people who want to follow learn more. I want to learn about your running journeys. And that's a little more of a two way conversation versus the podcast, which is just like one way of me like talking at you essentially without actually you talking back at me. So if you have struggled to like get faster, stay healthy, get stronger, get through your half marathon breakthrough. Or you want some guidance on actually your own marathon training like and you're new to the marathon distance. And you want to maximize your training and you don't want to get injured along the way. And you want to be able to do this for a long time like I do. And all the coaches on our team that's exactly what we specialize in in our high touch point one on one signature healthy runner coaching program. So within that coaching program, you have a team behind you have experts each step of the way myself as the running PT. We have broke our registered dietitian. We have our amazing team of coaches who are just super, super knowledgeable. I joke with them all the time because I think half of them can help a lot of runners. More than I know a lot of medical practitioners can, which is can be somewhat of a sad statement for me to make as a physical therapist. But if you really want to learn more about our one on one signature coaching program. And I'm behind the scenes video tour. See if it's right for you. Like just go to learn that spark healthy runner dot com forward slash coaching. If it sounds good for you and you want structure support and accountability. Take away the guesswork, provide you clarity. What do you need to focus on? I know you're doing like five or 10 random exercises that you heard from different people on YouTube. And you've been doing that for a while and you notice no results. We're going to get you to hone in, focus in or if you know you're like your own worst enemy. And we've gotten this a lot recently. It's like you're good at following a plan. You always follow a plan. But you never modify the plan when your body is telling you it probably should be modifying. We take the guesswork away. We modify it for you to maximize your recovery. So you can feel strong and fresh for those hard workouts that you got to get in, which is going to make the difference in your training. Like you did for my half marathon. So I would love to chat with you. We hop on a call, see if you're a good fit. No pressure. None of that. If it's a good fit, we'll talk about what it will be look like to have you in our community and work together. It's not a good fit. I'm going to give you your best recommendations moving forward. Like I love connecting with any of the listeners on the podcast. I tell you guys that all the time who I hop on calls with. It's just again, I get that two way street. So thank you so much for listening to my journey. Hopefully it wasn't like to boring. Hopefully you'll learn something. You got it like some golden nugget out of it that you can really take with you. And if you're watching this on our spark healthy runner YouTube channel, I appreciate you guys. Don't forget like follow the show wherever you are listening to this subscribe. So you can get more running health tips inspiration. If you're watching on YouTube, like hit that like button. It will just help you to be like, Hey, this is content that maybe it would be helpful for other runners. So if you do that, I appreciate it. I appreciate you guys. As always, let's maintain a strong mind, strong body. And let's just keep on running until next time. Bye. Thank you as always for listening to the healthy runner podcast where we help you get stronger, run faster and enjoy lifelong injury free. If you found this content valuable, here's five ways we can help you grow as a runner for free. One, grab a free copy of our six steps to growing as a runner framework at learn dot spark healthy runner dot com forward slash grow. Two, follow our Instagram page at spark healthy runner. Three, join our free group by searching healthy runner in Facebook for subscribe to our YouTube channel at youtube dot com forward slash spark healthy runner. Five, leave us a five star review so we can gain access to more experts in the running field and bring those lessons and trainings back here right to you. Don't forget, hit the subscribe button on apple podcast or the follow button on Spotify so you don't miss the next episode of healthy runner so you can maintain a strong mind, a strong body and just keep running. Lastly, if you've been struggling with the constant injury cycle, not eating the right foods for running or not getting faster as a runner and you are ready to invest in becoming a lifelong injury free runner. And to spark healthy runner dot com forward slash coaching to apply for a one on one signature coaching program. Thank you again. I really truly mean it from the bottom of my heart that I appreciate you for listening and sharing this podcast with a running friend who can use the help. Now go and crush your run today. See you next week. You