Episode #317: Race Training Tips & Tricks (From 5Ks to Ultras)

Intro:

Welcome to The Healthy Catholic moms podcast where we make moving and nourishing our bodies the priority so that we not only fulfill our vocations, but excel in our callings. I’m Brittany Pearson, a Catholic wife, mom, personal trainer, and I’m here to help you build healthy habits that actually fit your life. I am here to teach you how to get the results that you want and maintain the results that you want without spending hours at the gym, or meal prepping all weekend long. I understand I am right here with you getting my workouts done in the nooks and crannies of time, looking up recipes, while nursing babies and trying to prioritize my own health amidst everything else going on. But I have really good news for you, you can get the results you want. In less time without doing hours of cardio and restrictive dieting. I am going to teach you how to use strength training and eating in a macro balanced way to get you feeling so good and your skin full of energy and strong to carry out your life. Okay, on this podcast, we’ll delve into how to lose fat in a simple, sustainable way. What your workouts and nutrition should look like during different seasons of life, like during pregnancy and postpartum times. We’ll also discuss healthy quick meals and how to get them on the table make food that kids will actually want to eat. Mom hacks for making your day run more smoothly and so much more. All the while with continuous encouragement to stay the course and live with discipline. This is a place where we’re striving to steward our bodies. Well in order to joyfully serve. I am so happy you’re here. Let’s dive in.

Main Episode:

Hey, friends, okay, Welcome to I was gonna say the last episode of June but it’s not. We have one more episode coming up for June. But nonetheless, welcome to today’s podcast episode. Thank you for being here. And we are hopping back into running. So if you listened to last episode, I talked about some beginning to run tips and tricks. Maybe even if you’re not a new runner, you want to go back and hit that because maybe there’s some things that you haven’t thought about like safety tips or things that you’ve overlooked like buying new sneakers, I was not a new runner when I finally just bought good sneakers. So that might be worth your time to go back and hit if you have not yet. But today we’re going to take it a little step further. And I’m just going to share some tips and tricks that I have for training for a race could be a 5k could be a half marathon, a marathon, a Spartan, an ultra marathon. I have done all of those in the past. So I have experienced that I am you know just sharing from that is where I’m getting this from not from Runner’s World Magazine, but just my own personal thoughts and feelings. I’m sure there are tips and tricks, you could look up on the old Google machine if you would like to. Also, I mentioned this one last episode, just talk to some friends who you know who run and have experience running. That is always where you’re going to find the best tips and tricks is not from the person in a magazine who’s trying to sell you something that’ll work so great for your run. But from the person that you know, they can be silly, cheap little hacks that go so far. And then you’re like, thank goodness, that person told me that because that made all the difference, you know. So this is just my own personal
opinion. Really, this is more opinion than fact in this episode today. So take what you want, leave the rest. And let’s get into it.

So number one, just some general tips. Okay. Test out your race day clothes during your training runs. Oh, my heavens, the I cannot understate the importance of this. If we all I don’t know, I think this is a natural human inclination to want to buy something cute for race day and think, oh, I’ll just get a cute News sports bra and top or I’ll just get the shorts, whatever. No, no, no, don’t do it. I did that. I learned this one the hard way. I think it was one of my first half marathons probably the first half marathon that I went out and bought like shorts that I thought were cute or for race ethnicity by race day outfit. I’m not going to touch it like what we do I do this for like hospital clothes. When I have a baby. I will get cute pajamas and I will let myself wear them until I wear them in hospital. Don’t do that for race day because I had such bad chafing inner thigh chafing on controls pulling my shorts down, pulling the spandex down was not a good look was not a good move. So you need to test out what you think you’re gonna wear race day now this past summer. A year ago when almost a year ago when I did my 50 mile I knew better and I like Brittany. You just got to wear what you trained in or if you’re gonna buy some new clothes for a race. Make sure you have like a month to test them out and give them some
training time, give them some miles. So this past time, I just bought long bike shorts, because I knew I didn’t want to have any tie rub issues that they have any miles. And that’s what I wear all the time. They were not cute, they were not named brand, I just knew I needed a pocket and long bike shorts. That’s what I wore, I wore the same sports bra like every time I ran. So I knew the way that it fit by my armpit that that wasn’t going to shave all that good stuff. So test out your clothes, I will say I don’t have on this list here. But they do make like a glide stick, where you can put it over those areas that you are prone to chafing. I don’t know, I don’t think I did that for my 50. But I did do that for other races. So that’s interesting, because the 50 I didn’t have any issues. But they that was a tip I’d heard from somebody else to put it like under your sports bra line between your you know, on the your inner thigh, even between your toes, I’d heard so that you don’t get that chafing. But definitely test out your clothes, use the glide gel if you feel you need to, and go with what you’ve been doing.

Okay, number two, very similar to start with clothes, because it was the fun one, test out your nutrition. During your practice runs. I touched on this last episode just saying you know, figure out a good nutrition combo for you like if you’d like to run on a full stomach or not. But it goes a step further and further and further with truly like the mileage you add in. This is like totally different. It’s a different ballgame when you get into different distances. So say you’re running a 5k, probably very, it’s going to be a similar distance to your training runs. Now, if you get beyond that, like a marathon or an ultra marathon, I know for me, I don’t usually like to run with food in my stomach. However, when you’re running 50 miles, and that’s going to spend like 10 hours or more, you’re going to need some food in your stomach eventually, right? And that thought was crazy to me. Like I’m like I am not going to want to eat peanut butter, jelly sandwiches and watermelon and all this stuff that they have available. during your run. I’m just not going to want to. Yes, I did. I was hungry. But I tested all that out. So even if it was just like a 10 mile training run, and I knew I was gonna have to run 50 I would. I was doing laps like around by my house so that I could stop at my house in between. So I would do like three miles stop and eat a handful blueberries, three miles, not necessarily eating like this every time but I would make sure that I tried out everything I knew was going to be available at the run. Yes, even I think the highest I ran was a marathon to prep for the 50. So when I had to do like the 26 I waited till I got to like I don’t know 15 or something, then I had like half a PB and J then I ran to see how I handled everything. Definitely just do not. It’s tempting race day, they will put out stuff like if you have ran only with I don’t know if that was proper grammar there, but whatever will go with it. If in your training runs, you’ve only been using water, then you get to your half marathon and they’re handing on Gatorade. If it seems like oh yeah, Gatorade, I’ll just grab it that at that point can mess with your system and can throw your stomach off. So just whatever you’re going to do, I knew like these training runs, I use Gatorade, I used water, I tried different combinations of things found what worked, what didn’t work well what was too much. Sometimes I was like filling up too much and realize that helped me learn how to space it out. And don’t feel the need to overfill yourself if it is a shorter distance. This is something funny too with recovery like you’ll run a 5k you get to the end and there’s bananas and bagels and this and then you’re like oh my goodness, I just ran three miles like I don’t need to eat a feast after so you know use your judgment here but definitely test out anything that you’re going to use during the race.

All right next up, this is really big, whatever race it is whatever the distance is give yourself options for body temperature so by this I mean you need to layer you need to have options ready
you know, I typically if it’s like a half marathon and under I would even say a marathon and under I think I just always did a tank top and then like a nice tight fitting tank tops and a like long sleeve shirt. And I know for at least one or two of them I remember going to Walmart I think was a half marathon I just bought like a three or $5 long sleeve shirt that was kind of dry finish because it’s just usually cold or at the start line you’re cold when you’re first starting out usually races start early and I just literally tossed it I just tossed it in a garbage can as I was running once I got warm enough and thought well that was my $5 you know below the this race you know that was my throw away $5 But I did I’ve done that before you can obviously try it on you or if it’s a longer race duration in there’s like drop off points which is usually only for like ultra marathons. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a marathon with drop off points you’re maybe you have
Ratan, she’s going to come watch you. And you can give it to them at some point. But I definitely would have options. And then this is something else that you need to play with and see what works. Because last summer when I was training for the Ultra, that was in the heat of summer, and my race was end of August, end of August, beginning of August, it was like mid August, I think. And yeah, it was the Yep, mid August, that early matters. But I remember obviously, a lot of my training runs were on some of the hottest days of summer heat index warnings and things. And something that was always really tempting to me was, as I mentioned, I’d cruise by my house and I would soak my head, like great five miles, and I can go dunk my head in the baby pool, then I’ll keep running, then I’ll wet it with the hose. You know, I one time I literally stopped and asked a stranger who’s washing his car. And I was like, Can I use that real quick? Like, sure. I soaked my head and everybody was like, thank you. But what happened to me on one of the runs that was fine for short distances, that I did that on, like, I don’t know what, 20 mile day or something, and I soaked my head at 10 miles. The next 10 miles were terrible, I was shivering my teeth were chattering, I did not think I’d finished that run, it was a very bad training run. So what that taught me was I could not
change my body temperature that early. And like that. I just needed to roll with the sweat and just hydrate and not actually like a spritz would be okay, but not soaking my hair. I thought it was better, to you know, have a wet head. But it was not for that long. That saved me race day that learning that little lesson because I thought of it so many times I ran a race was a super hot day, it was very tempted to soak my head right around mile 25 I’d gotten back to like, the rest point was like, Okay, I really want to soak my head, I know this is gonna make me freezing in like five miles, if I do that, I can’t do that. I just need some water, some watermelon, get in the shade, and then keep pushing. And thank God because I think it would have definitely went that way with the teeth chattering and whatever if I had soaked my hands, so play around with body type.

Okay, um, next up is to use music or whatever kind of motivator strategically. Now what I mean by strategically is I like to kind of break things up. And
I don’t know that it might be different for you. So I would say this is also different duration wise, if I was running a 5k, and I wanted to use music to help me out, I would make a playlist of however many songs that I thought would fill that time and make sure they’re all really upbeat songs that would keep me going give me that spark, like have a higher bpm. So that is that right? RPM BPM, one of those a high, fast beat for you to to run to because it’s a shorter race. And you can maintain that for shorter time. What I did instead for half marathon marathon and then altra was all a little different because the half then I did run with music as well. And I made a playlist to cover the time, but I just put it on shuffle so that I would be surprised by what came next. Be excited. I made. I kind of get into this in a second. But I made a little rule for myself during the one half that I couldn’t skip any song, I knew that I curated the playlist. So I’d like it that I had to get through every song because that was just another thing to keep me like discipline during it to make it go by. So that was fun. But why do you think strategically is sometimes you know when like a certain song is gonna hit you a certain way. So when I would train last summer and then for like the Ultra, I it was just different. That’s why I keep referencing like Britney, we know you did an ultramarathon. That’s not why I’m saying it, it was just a different beast. And if you are doing something like that, like a really long Spartan Race, or something longer than a marathon, I think there’s just a lot more ebbs and flows. It’s not all like a 5k you will stay pretty up the whole time, right? You can’t maintain that intensity in a marathon sometimes even or half marathon so say a marathon
I meant marathon or ultra marathon but say like marathon or higher. This is what I mean by strategically like there you cannot have this up tempo the whole time usually like yes, it should be up tempo, but you’re not going to be feeling CLOUD NINE the whole time there’s going to be hard points. So if you know yourself and you know where those hard points probably are mentally or physically, that’s where you want to put on a song you know is going to pop you up you know it’s gonna make you laugh or smile or bring you back to some other time. There was a song that
it’s God Love Her by Toby Keith. That back when I was in college, and I was in Austria studying abroad, I would run the mountains and that was one of the songs that would come on. And so for whatever reason, doesn’t matter what mood I’m in doesn’t matter what if I that song comes on I feel like I need to have a big smile on my face running outside like topspeed that’s where that song brings me back to. So on my training runs I would purposely go to that song when I was having a hard time if I was like, half miles in but needed you know that boost? I would just put that song on so use what you got, again for long
longer, maybe marathon maybe longer. Definitely for my ultra I peppered and other stuff I put in podcast. So it was like, okay, I’d listen to a podcast. So I was distracted, and I was could like listen to something. But then when I could feel my pace was lagging and my spirit was lagging a little bit, I would throw music back on Because Science does show that music can literally make us go farther, faster or longer because of the tempo and the way it affects our bodies and whatnot. So use your music strategically.

Now, this is related to that, in the next one have an intention, or multiple intentions to split things up, the next couple are kind of on this theme. So you know, if you’re running a 5k, and you want to offer it up for somebody offer up any of your discomfort, or whatever, you can do that you can do it for multiple people, you could break it down by mile. Same thing, then for other races, if it’s a longer one, you might want to say okay, miles one through five are for my god, god, children miles six through 10 are for my spouse or whatever, like, that gives you something to focus on something to kind of work toward it feels like you know, you’re meriting something from this and putting your suffering to use.

Next, and very closely related, I would suggest setting overall or periodic goals. So say you’re running a 5k what your goal could be not to walk the entire time that you can run slowly, but you’re not going to walk. When I ran my first half marathon, those were my only two goals. were number one, I didn’t set any kind of time goals. It was number one not to walk at all, I could slow down to a very slow jog, but I couldn’t walk number two was to
not skip a song. And what that does, I know that certain other races, you cannot just set a no walk goal, right? We need that walk break. But I tend to be This is annoying myself being the kind of person that once I’ve opened the door, I will keep going back to it. If I just make something off the table, it is off the table. In my mind, that’s kind of zero options mentality, I talk about a lot like Nope, you’re just not walking. So don’t even think about it. It’s like having a plan B for something, it’s like you’re assuming that your plan A is not gonna work, make plan a work. That’s how I feel with some of these things. Again, not across the board, that was not the same goal for my marathon or ultra marathon. You know, you’ve got to tailor to what you’re doing. But I knew that it would be too tempting for me to see other people walking, and think I can just walk and catch my breath. But then I will not gain my momentum back. And all that. So those are my two goals. That’s something you can do. You can also, you know, split up your run, like I mentioned with intentions, but have different goals for little different like blocks of time, like, okay, maybe you are doing a half marathon, but you do usually run walk, but maybe you set the goal to not walk to mile three, then once you walk a little bit to not walk to mile five, or to come in at a certain time for the Ultra. My goal was to come in now I forget how long it took me to do anything, it was just over 10 hours. But my goal was for it to be under 12 hours, I think. But then as I was running, I was realizing I was going to meet that goal. And then I think I set it to be under 10. And I think I was like 1007 I don’t really I don’t remember honestly. But um, you know, it’s a good thing to keep you focused and to not let yourself take the out when you see other people taking the out. Or or just you know, it gives you something else to work towards when you’re in the middle of working towards something.

Last two tips for you will push yourself in your training to have a better time out there. What I wrote down, but it’s very true.
training runs are rough. And that goes like from day one to maybe like the day before your race. I remember the one half marathon I ran the day before the race. My training plan told me to run. I think it was two miles to loosen up. And it was a terrible two mile run. And I was like Brittany, how are you going to run 13.1 Miles tomorrow when you are a train wreck today, which is two. And obviously you have a lot of different things helping you out race day, you’ve got the crowd, the momentum, the support the community, and that’s all great. And that carries you so far to that can’t be understated. But, you know, the harder your training runs are, the better. In my experience the race usually comes out to that’s not to say they’re still not like braces that are harder than others. I haven’t talked too much about Spartans burdens that have stuck out in my head as being super hard was I did want to five months after having my first child that was not smart. I shouldn’t have done that. I will not do that again.
On my core, you know to try to lift yourself over a wall some of you might be trying to be in that boat and I would just suggest giving your body longer time than that to give I was still nursing like get the relaxed and out of your system and get you know your core ready to do monkey bars and those kinds of things. And that was not a great race. I did it again.
have the most fun, but the ones that I did have, I had an absolute blast last year with a 50. And it’s because of my training runs mostly sucked.
There was like I said, it was like, I started in January. So I had blizzards in my face. Then I had high wind warning days where I felt like I was literally just being pushed backward as I ran. Then I had sweltering heat days where I thought I was gonna melt. And it’s all good. I gave me a wonderful race day, and I was ready for it. So the harder you train, the better time you’re going to have at your race. Now, lastly, this is for post race. So once you’ve crossed the finish line, you’re feeling good. Bring a change of clothes, or at least a sweatshirt and flip flops. The first thing you’re gonna want to do is take your sneakers off. Yes, you can hobble around barefoot. Many people do that might feel best to you.
And then obviously, you’re just gonna want to go home and shower. But for the 52 I just gave my husband a hoodie. For one, he was going to meet me at the end. And I was so happy to peel off my clothes that were sweaty and disgusting. And put on some flip flops and hobble home to get into that shower. So trust me you don’t want to spend another minute in those clothes. Usually by the end of this so some of you who have had experienced this are nodding like yeah, I totally know what you’re talking about. It’s just good to have an option or sometimes they give you a shirt at the end and then you can put it on or whatever that looks like but I would just be prepared have something ready for you however you’re getting home so that you can have a bit of a comfortable ride home. All right, I hope you had fun today. This was super fun for me to think about in preparation for recording this and that’s what it’s supposed to be these things are for fun and maybe they’re for a good cause sometimes and the discipline that we you know apply in our physical treaty has absolute carry overs in our spiritual life and in daily disciplines elsewhere. You know, putting yourself through grueling physical tasks helps with mental discipline and fasting and all of that. So we’re connected it’s all it’s not just an isolated like, Oh, I’m just running for myself. No, this is there have been many saints who preach about how important and how wonderful physical activity is and being with nature, which is typically what you’re also getting reading so all good things. All right. I hope you guys had a good time here today and if you would leave a rating and review and have not done so that will be wonderful. And I will talk to you next time. Have a great rest of your day.

Time stamps: