 Amsterdam. So it's your caramie. All right. Thank you. Rick picking me up from the airport. Rick and bringing a coffee. That was so sweet in Americana. Are you right? Paul. Paul. And the sign. Right. Genius. I can't. Well, it's good to be home, everyone. OK, a couple of boxes arrived while I was gone. Hold on. A big one. We're going to open this up, not today. Yes, believe it or not, this big box does connect to running. So we're going to open up that soon. Not today. Today we are unpacking from Amsterdam yesterday's blog. If you haven't seen it yet, I break down the race. What happened in the race? The good and maybe the not so good, but today we're talking about the workouts that I think really helped me get ready for Amsterdam and maybe the workouts that weren't quite as effective as I had hoped. But big announcement in tomorrow's blog. Kind of a crazy announcement. Make sure you come back tomorrow's blog. It's it's a big one. It's a big. You're not going to want to miss it. So OK, first figure out how to open this up. Whoo. OK, there they are. There they are. I must say they treated me well. They treated me very well. I was very pleased with them. Whoo. That was a tough race. And for those that are new to the channel, welcome a lot of new folks here because of Vienna and Kichogi and then Amsterdam. Welcome. This is a running daily vlog YouTube channel. Make a video every single day for all of you. I love it. I love building a community around this sport that is hard. It's hard, you know, when things maybe don't go as plain when there's injuries that pop up. But at the end of the day, I think running gives us so much in return that we will never be able to fully understand here on this earth. So anyway, and in addition to the daily vlogs, I do running shoe reviews. That's what I was getting at. So this is the Nike rack of shoes that I'm testing and continue to test for all of you. The next percent's up here. So anyway, in case you're wondering what's going on in the closet, that's what it is. Now I was not sure everyone how sore I would be, you know, delayed onset muscle soreness. Two days later, I'll just say right now, I was more sore after the US Mountain Running Championships which was 2,200 feet of vertical gain and loss over seven miles. I was definitely more sore after that race. So this is, I'm actually very excited about how my legs feel right now. What is today? Today's Tuesday. So I raced on Sunday, so it's two days later. So this should be the most sore that my legs feel. We'll see how they feel tomorrow after a job today, heading to the pool and then into the sauna. I'm actually a big fan of warming the legs up and then I will do an Epsom salt bath as well. In addition to foam rolling and this guy, the balance disc rolling out my ankles and such. And today we are taking out the A6 glide ride. I have not had a chance yet to talk to you all about this shoe but I actually wore it once. I squeezed in a run just before leaving for Vienna in the A6 glide ride and it felt amazing actually. So I'm excited to get you the breakdown first impressions of the A6 glide ride. Oh yeah, by the way, sounds like there was a little bit of a takeover in the live stream during the Amsterdam marathon. I don't know. I guess you were watching on Facebook and YouTube and then right on the website and they had chat where you could chat live, so that was cool. And so thank you for all the support. Pretty amazing. I'm getting quite a few messages about how there was a good, strong, DeMor global running contingent there. So, okay, just rolling out here using the hyper ice. Oh man, that, oh man. Whew, cool. So did you get more Bobo bars yesterday? Perfect, it was so good. There we go. All right, I could clean up a little bit. I cleaned up a little bit. I'm putting a tie on in the studio. We're heading out on date night here in a minute after I filmed this clip for all of you. So a little special date night since we're going out somewhere nice to celebrate the Amsterdam marathon and what happened there. So hence the tie in the studio. Usually I'm not dressed up out here in the studio but tonight I am sitting next to the A6 glide ride on a nice three mile, 5K run today, 10 minute pace, beautiful, and then into the gym. I'm excited to see how the legs feel tomorrow. And yeah, so everything's feeling pretty good. Okay, what I just have completed over the past, let's say four to six weeks, really the last two months starting with the Pikes Peak Ascent which is a mountain race and for all the new subscribers, I am a mountain runner. I love running in the mountains. I'm actually, I've been doing ultra races for the past four to five years, four and a half years now and in 2019, I had this idea to try and qualify for the Olympic trials here in the United States. So that's why I needed to run under 219 in Amsterdam in order to qualify. Didn't happen, but that's okay. And I'm realizing the stark difference very quickly between the mountain and ultra racing and then marathon racing as far as really the pacing and kind of the scientific approach versus running a little bit more by feel, I would say, out on the trails and in ultra racing where there's a lot of elevation gain and loss. It's just out of no, it's a little different strategy. So I'm learning as I go and but I want to share tonight about the workouts that I think worked well for leading into Amsterdam and maybe the workout that didn't work quite as well. But I will say that this transition kind of to the road racing, the marathon racing, I am, again, back to that half marathon split, 106.53. I think this development of speed for longer distances, I think it's going to help long term when I do return to the trails, which actually is in like a month from now, or three months from now in Argentina for the world mountain running championships. I think speed, I think turnover, I think confidence at quicker speeds is just good. It's good for the mountain runners, especially since the race in Argentina, it's only a seven mile race. Now, first of all, will I mix in more pavement training into another marathon training block down the road? I think I will. Now, the reason I did not, I did zero high speed training on pavement for Amsterdam. Why? Because of the Cleveland Marathon, I wanted to stay healthy and sure enough, we did it. We arrived on the starting line in Amsterdam healthy, and that was the goal. So I don't regret not going on to the pavement, but how my legs reacted in the race, especially like from 16 to really 16 mile 16 to the end, but really 16 to, it was just incredibly painful. And my feet, my feet were also hurting a little bit. So again, I think just, I don't know if my feet were totally ready for the hard pounding on the pavement. So that's a little lesson learned there. Okay, the workouts. What did I do? I ran up many 14ers leading up to the Amsterdam Marathon. What is a 14er? It's a 14,000 foot mountain. That's what we call them here in Colorado. We have 50, some people say 54, some people say 58. We'll go with 54 for now, 14,000 foot mountains in Colorado. So I probably averaged one to two 14,000 foot mountain runs per week for really the last two to three months starting way back with Pike's Peak. And most of those runs were between 14 and 21 or 22 mile runs at, you know, slow paces, but getting up into high altitude, which I love getting up there. Okay, so I did that two long runs of 24 miles each. We'll talk about that in a minute. And then two threshold runs, one nine mile threshold run and one 13 mile threshold run. And then only one, only one interval session. I don't mind interval sessions, but it's not my true passion, like getting on a track and, you know, cranking out 800 meters or 800 meter repeats or a ladder workout. So I only did one 12 by 1K repeat workout with 90 seconds rest. So that was my only really major and the reason, okay, so what worked and what did not work? I think definitely the best workouts for my marathon training, 100% were those threshold runs, no doubt. That's probably no surprise to you. Whenever I finished the nine-miler and the 13-miler, the confidence I had that I could run 517 pace, even though I went too fast in Amsterdam at the beginning, the threshold runs here in Denver were just spot on for my confidence and yes, for pushing my threshold, my anaerobic threshold a little further down. Okay, so that's one and then the long run. So the 20, I did two 24-mile long runs. I think the second one I could have cut back to 22 miles or 21 miles actually. I'm actually, the reason I did two of them is because in 2018, I'm pretty used to doing 25, 28, even 30-mile long runs, getting ready for a 50K or a 50-mile race, which I was doing in 2018. So a 24-mile long run, I would not recommend that. I think 20 or 21, maybe 22 is just fine for somebody that's training for a marathon or especially if it's your first marathon. But for me, I think that second 24-mile long run could have been reduced to 21 or 22 just to save the legs a little bit, okay? Okay, and then the 12x1K spot on, but I wish that I would have replaced maybe, and this is that battle. This is the inner battle between the passion for mountain running and the discovery of the roads. And again, everyone, I had so much fun chasing Mikkel Butter. I called him Michael Butter, but this gentleman who is a pacemaker in my group in Amsterdam, I think it's pronounced Mikkel, which is Mikkel. So Mikkel Butter, and who knows how you pronounce it in, I guess is it Dutch? No, it's not Dutch. Anyway, I was chasing this Mikkel Butter and so anyway, I had so much, even though I love the mountains, I had so much fun getting into that pack for, I was with them for 15, 16 miles. I think it was about mile 16 where I lost them and maybe a little before that. Anyway, it was so fun. So I'm discovering as I go, this passion for getting in a pack because it doesn't really happen like that in an ultra race. You're usually alone out there on the trails. So I probably would have added another 1K repeat workout and replaced a mountain run with a 1K repeat workout, probably eight by 1K, maybe even six or seven by 1K with like 60 seconds rest, okay? So that's a little lesson learned just to continue to work on that turnover speed and yeah, that advancement of the anaerobic work. So that is a little lesson there. And last but not least, the tempo runs which for me, I always struggle with finding because tempo runs, I really try not to look at my watch. I just, again, just going by feel and like what feels good and up tempo on that day. Maybe I'm tired, maybe I'm not as tired but usually it's around six minutes, six 15, maybe six 20 pace somewhere in there and I would do one of those a week leading into Amsterdam and I think it was spot on usually between 12 and 15 miles. So really enjoyed the tempo runs. I would not change really anything about them. Maybe actually, okay, maybe in the next marathon training block I will do one of those tempo runs every other week on pavement perhaps just to get the legs a little used to pavement. That's just an idea I need to think a little bit more about. And just in conclusion, again with Amsterdam, it was amazing. I went out too fast. I know that now. I definitely, I went out too fast but again, I don't have any regrets about it because it really, I think it's planted a seed that 106 time is just planted a seed that okay, if I can just be a little more patient at the beginning and really attempt to perhaps even try a negative split at some point in another marathon like I think good things can happen. And that question of the day. All right, here we go. It's hard. It's hard to reflect back on a marathon training block and just be really brutally honest with yourself and ask this, what is a workout that I did or maybe a couple workouts that I did in the marathon training block that just didn't work. Maybe made you too tired. Maybe caused an injury. Maybe you feel like just set you, like wasn't quite on point to like for me maybe staying away from the pavement completely wasn't ideal. Who knows, who knows? So anyway, that's the question of the day and I think it's good to for me especially now that I have one marathon under my belt to really go inward and start to think about these questions for the future. All right, all right, that's it everyone. Okay, actually we're not, we're not signing off yet. Come on now. We're going on date night. Here we go. We got the bump. All right, life is good in America. Back in America. Oh, we're back. We're back. He's home. You want to give a shout out to everyone in Amsterdam took care of me. I thank you. Rick picking me up from the airport and bringing a coffee and so sweet in Americana. Are you right? Paul, Paul, right? Genius. I literally never thought of that. And you are brilliant. We're going to hang it up in the studio. And we're taking it to every place. Brilliant. Brilliant. All right. You're after him. You're good people. Good people in Amsterdam. Hello. Yeah, so the audio is not working. My mic is, the battery died. So you're getting all the ambient noise of the restaurant just so you know. It's like you're here with us. Boom. It's delicious. Hello. Better than I remember. So good. It's so fun to be together again. We're back. We're back. Actually, we might just close it out right here. Oh. Yeah, let's do it. All right. We're signing off. We love you all. Thanks for being here. Thanks for watching. You're the best. We, we just love you. We, I want you to know we feel your love. And guess what? It's your typical. Typical. Too wasted. We'll show them. Boom. Boom. Let's go. It's a beauty. Work hard. And love each other. We'll see you tomorrow.