 Now, as you've probably figured out, my training definitely emphasizes aerobic, steady state training way more than in the video. And away we go, everyone. How's everyone doing this evening? I'm jumping right into the studio, okay? Didn't do any outside filming. All the B-roll you're about to watch, yes. Many, not all, but many of my two-hour-plus marathon training sessions in this training block leading into the Amsterdam Marathon. And yes, today's run was in the Hoka Carbon Xs. I will talk about those here in a minute, or today's run here in a minute. And so, throughout my training block, I do take maybe like two or three times. I take a step back and I reflect and think about why I am doing what I'm doing, why I am putting my body through these two-hour-plus training sessions. And there's different ways I go about it, but tonight's vlog is a reflection on why even today I hit two hours again in another training run leading into Amsterdam. Now, because why? It's hard out there, right? Sometimes it's mentally hard. I was honestly very worried about yesterday's 22-mile run because I was so sore. I just wasn't sure if I'd be able to get it done. I got it done. Today I'm feeling much better. My legs are coming around. They're not nearly as sore, but I get it. And listen, it's starting to get a little chillier out. Eventually it's going to be really cold here in the United States. And so, I use these reminders two or three times throughout the training block going back to, yes, the science behind the training. These two-hour-plus runs to just remind myself, okay, if I do this run, and this run, and this run, I'm going to be that much better prepared for race day specifically in Amsterdam for me. So anyway, that's what we're doing tonight, talking about the two hours. And yes, the basic principle of my training and your training as well is in long-distance running is to develop enough stamina or endurance to maintain a desired speed over a given distance, whether you're training for a half, a full, a 5K, an ultramarathon, whatever the case may be. Now, for example, why is endurance or stamina important? So an example is that the 400-meter race, there's many runners around the world that can run 46 seconds for a 400-meter race. I cannot. I don't think I'll ever be able to run 46 seconds. I just don't have that leg turnover or those fast-twitch muscle fibers. But there's many, many runners that cannot run 144 or 52 seconds per lap in an 800-meter race, 144 for 800 meters, because they have not developed their endurance or their stamina to maintain that speed over the given distance. Now, in my training, why I strive for that two-hour-plus training session often, not just once a week, but throughout the week is because I am striving to increase what is called your cardiac efficiency. You're going to hear me talk a lot about that tonight. So your cardiac efficiency is really improved when you start approaching and then push through that two-hour window in a given training session. And yes, today's run, I was able to hit that two-hour mark exactly two hours and two minutes or 17 miles, 27 kilometers, 430 per kilometer or 715 per mile. Now, my goal in Amsterdam, in case you didn't know, I'm trying to hit a qualifying time for the Olympic Trials in Atlanta. So the Olympic Trials for the marathon is in February 2020 in Atlanta. So I need to run under two hours and 19 minutes to be accepted, invited to go race this Olympic Trials qualifying race in Atlanta, which has just been like a lifetime, a lifelong dream. It's just absolutely crazy that I might be able to do it. That is the goal. So I'm trying to run faster, race faster in Amsterdam. Now, as you've probably figured out, my training definitely emphasizes aerobic, steady-state training way more than anaerobic or interval training, especially for a marathon. If I was getting ready for a 10K or a 5K or even to like a half marathon, I'd be training quite a bit differently as far as adding more speed. But for a marathon, uh-uh, I'm going for that aerobic, steady-state training often. Why? Because I am trying to increase the volume of blood that my heart can pump and the speed at which that blood can be pumped and delivered throughout my body. And one more point on the anaerobic side. Like I think anaerobic training is important. I'm developing or going into oxygen debt and creating lactic acid in through our training to get used to that. But frankly, our body's ability to recover, you only have a given amount of days to train for a marathon. You know, whether you're in a 12-week training plan, a 10-week, sometimes people only do an 8-week training plan. There's only so many days when you're talking about the need for long runs, the need for recovery days, the need for a tempo or threshold day. So I do not emphasize anaerobic training as much because my body's ability to recover from that type of training to get ready for what I considered to be more important, a.k.a. the 2-hour plus training sessions. That is why I just don't emphasize it in my personal training. Now if we train for longer periods, what happens is that our blood pressure is higher throughout the day. So as soon as you stop running your blood pressure in your circulatory system, okay, it's higher. And so even though you're done running, let's say you run for 2 hours, 15 minutes, you start putting back your recovery mix, recovering so you can get ready for the next day, throughout that rest period, your blood pressure is actually higher and that is increasing your body's ability once again to deliver more blood to your muscles. So it's like a double benefit where you're not just sitting around at your office desk where you work or maybe you're a stay-at-home mom and you're cooking dinner, like you're still getting a benefit from that 2-hour plus training window by going further in your training more often in the training block. So if we train for longer periods, more often in a training block, which I get it, I fully realize it's so hard to carve out 2 hours in a day. Like we got school, we got work, we got family, we got like a million different things happening but I'm just going to propose that if you can somehow figure out, and it's probably not this training block but future training blocks to work into your training block to 2-hour training sessions throughout the week. So maybe it's Sunday, Thursday, okay, where you're hitting a 2-hour training session. Now we're just going to keep going here. There's so many benefits, it's insane, but to the steady state aerobic training is that at longer intervals it improves our pulmonary ventilation, the lungs become more efficient because they develop more active pulmonary capillary beds, you've heard me talk about that before which enables our blood to absorb oxygen faster and more easily. How crazy is that? Now I often get asked on Strava, a little bit on Instagram, but mostly on Strava about breaking up, you know, I get it, again you might not have that 2-hour window in a day but I get asked, can I break up a 2-hour long run into 2 separate 1-hour run so maybe an hour in the morning, an hour after work and I would say, I would discourage that. Basically, there's a study out of Cologne University that I reference quite a bit that talks about this sweet spot of this 2-hour plus training session and again, it gets back to those capillary beds that are in our lungs especially, where and what is a capillary bed, let's just define that real quick. Capillary beds are part of this intricate network of blood vessels that facilitate the exchange of nutrients, gases, waste and hormones between the blood and tissue cells. Okay, that's as far as I'm going to go with capillary beds. So the more we run at this steady state aerobic running and I'm not talking about slow running, not like a recovery day, but just steady state. When I put steady on Strava, that's what I'm talking about. This steady state running, for me, it's usually in that, it's really right around like that 630 range. Today was a little easier because I'm still recovering from the run, the race on Sunday. And so in conclusion, oh man, I know that was a lot that I just tossed at you and listen, I didn't study exercise physiology or anatomy, so some of this goes over my head as well. But I do my best to educate myself on these topics around exercise physiology and around our own anatomy because why? It gives me confidence and it gives me peace of mind when I arrive at the starting line in Amsterdam to know that I put in the work. There's nothing else I can do. If I put in the work, I trust the science, I trust the studies that I've read that okay, there's nothing else to do but to put the shoes on and let it rip because I believe my blood is ready, my lungs are ready. Not quite yet. I've got a little more work to do, but anyway, so I hope that helped at least paint a little bit of the picture behind why I train the way I train. That two hour plus window is just that sweet spot. And for me, now listen, again, it takes time, it takes years to develop the endurance and the stamina to feel confident enough to put in that type of training on a regular basis. So anyway, I will leave it at that question of the day. What are your resources for creating your own training plans? Where do you do your research? And I know like, gosh, maybe it's here on YouTube. Maybe it's Runner's World. Maybe it's actual like peer review studies and case studies from exercise physiologists around the world. So okay, that's the question of the day. What is your go to and maybe you don't have any. So therefore, I bet you'll find some good thoughts down in the comments below from a lot of the veteran runners out there who have done the research and looked for those good resources for this topic on training, exercise physiology, et cetera, et cetera. All right, I love you all. Thanks for being here. Thanks for watching. So I do have a playlist for you on the right-hand side right now all about how to run faster. A lot of you have already watched these blogs before, but if you haven't, it's about how to run faster and then on the left, I'll toss it back to another long run type vlog that I have done in the not so distant past. All right, thanks for watching. Thanks for being here. See you beauty, work hard, and love each other. See you tomorrow.