 running in fear what a topic what a topic oh man this is and I'm not an expert in philosophy or I guess psychology or emotional well-being like I studied history at the University of Colorado I didn't study the hard sciences so you know give me a little slack here but I am excited to just bring up topics like this that are a little outside of the box when it comes to just straight-up training training advice or nutrition and hydration advice yes I'm taking out the lightest running vest in the world on my long run today and my legs are a little sore a little tired from yesterday's 15 mile tempo run they actually are waking up night I can tell they're gonna be okay but today is a long run because of the race this weekend in New Hampshire I don't want I need to get a long run in this week because Amsterdam is the the end goal but I don't want to do a long run too close to New Hampshire and I in an ideal world I don't like to go back to back hard I'm realizing though in this training block it's happening because of life because of scheduling and you probably have to figure out ways to get creative with your training as well as far as okay how am I gonna squeeze in these hard efforts when when life is busy and I might not be able to do the rut like in my world I love to do hard easy hard easy or even hard easy easy hard that's how I love to train but it just doesn't always play out like that so we talk about fear today not living in fear not living in fear with our training and not being afraid to see what we're capable of you know what I mean all right let's get this ready and yes I'm gonna put down a gel right now from Unaved before we get going and mix up oh boy we're gonna take out some more and that's right if I'm saying that right MAURTEN so a special drink I'm gonna mix it up here with 500 milliliters of water alright there we go everyone we're good we're keeping it simple today I am in full-on recovery mode after that run today I got the got the nutrition into me got the hydration into me I'm actually it's almost like I was in quite a bit of pain there in the kitchen drinking the Unaved recovery drink a recovery mix and but sure enough about 45 minutes later I just started to feel good and I'm making a cut by the way I have my compressed sport calf sleeves on hamstring quad and I'm in full-on recovery mode but I'm making a conscience maybe this is my tip of the day after a long run try not to just sit in a chair for hours and hours or lay on the couch like I'm a believer in keep moving keep moving you you'll you'll be able to rest when you go when you fall asleep like my legs feel so much better this is about I'm about five hours after the long run was over like they feel so much better because I've been moving around doing little tasks doing little chores taking the trash out all these little things to help keep the legs from basically tightening up so okay today's run in the hook of carbon X's I'm trying not to train or race eventually in fear okay and I'm gonna talk about that in a second so today's run 24 miles 38 kilometers I'm just gonna I'm just gonna read it 24 miles 38 kilometers 640 per mile or 410 per kilometer and after the tempo run yesterday I was just hoping to run I wanted to be right around seven to seven and it was all by feel I wanted to be at least seven to seven fifteen per mile I thought that's where my legs were gonna tell me you got you can't go faster than that because you're tired after your after yesterday's run but sure enough I think the combination of yes using the Raid light vest oh my goodness where is the bottle here bottle bottle bottle here it is 600 milliliters of the Morton gel sorry if I'm not speaking as clearly right now so 600 milliliters of Morton gel drink mix and then 600 milliliters of water I probably drank about 500 milliliters of both and yes I did take a gel along the way another gel from Unived salt water taffy or salt water no salt what is a vanilla salt something is the flavor it was amazing tasted amazing and sure enough I think the combination of all this and the Carbon X's just brought me through strong just brought me through like nice and smooth I think I posted on Strava I said just finding my groove just finding my groove hitting those paces and yeah I felt good I felt good so that is the longest long run that I will do in the training block I won't go past 24 miles in this training block so feeling positive about that and yes I should just say like the Raid light vest crushed it crushed it everyone I felt so secure so in control like it just was it hugged me so well and really no bouncing at all with the bottles even when they were full at 640 a mile so I'm I'm so excited about this vest now let's talk about fear just a little bit and I'm no expert in fear but I think it's a good topic to dive into because it's on my mind and it was on my mind especially two or three weeks ago I guess zooming out quite a bit I used to think a lot and dwell a lot as I was getting into ultra running around my knees I was just I was fearful for my knees when I'm a 60 you know 50 year old 60 year old 70 you know you hear about people having to get knee replacements and I guess the technology is getting really good in that department but I'm like I don't want to get knee replacements just because I'm running but frankly at this point I'm like if it happens it happens and I've accepted the fact that I'm putting my body through a lot as a 20 and 30 year old and hopefully 40 and 50 year old and I never want to stop running but for some reason like I guess I've known some runners that's where you know it's partially where it comes from I've known some runners who have had to get knee replacements and I'm like I don't want to do that so that's anyway one little fear that I used to have a lot more so but frankly I'm well over that I've gotten over it and it's like if it happens it happens but now also in the health department as far as fear around running certainly stress fractures you all know the story about Cleveland and my stress reaction and yeah I mean after Pike's Peak I knew that my volume was going to increase I knew the intensity was going to need to increase and those two things usually yeah not usually but have in the past have led to injuries for me now what I believe we're about 27 28 days to go until Amsterdam so I'm feeling good no made no sharp pains no niggles like crazy niggles so I'm feeling good but I must say to help alleviate that fear a little bit I have been in certain shoes like I did today in the Hoka Carbon X's so I have this Spenco see that green there so what it is it's basically this it's called Spenco you see it on your screen there for spelling and I don't use it all the time but for higher volume longer runs runs where I know I'm gonna be on pavement or concrete I slip this Spenco underneath the insole of a shoe and frankly this insole from Hoka in the Carbon X is a joke like it's it's there's hardly any cushion through this insole so basically you cut it out you can buy it on Amazon buy it from your running shoe store and you buy it over size and then you cut it out with scissors to match the the basically the size of your insole and I think it just helps alleviate some of the pounding and yes some of maybe the mental concern a little bit of the fear of another stress reaction or stress fracture happening leading into Amsterdam's just so you know I had to make a conscious decision two weeks ago not to train in fear I could easily be running 70 miles a week 80 miles a week and probably arrive in Amsterdam pretty fit okay but I want to do well and I want to see what I can do all right so I'm not allowing that fear of injury to dictate my decision-making now I'm not going crazy I've trained at higher volume than what I'm doing right now but I'm not I'm not letting fear drive my desire and to run well in Amsterdam I don't know how else to phrase it so the question of the day how have you had to deal with fear in your training and or racing let's say you know maybe it's and it could be around any topic it could be around anxiety it could be around injuries it could be around performance it could be around it could be around you know competition the competition around you so anyway I just bring this topic up to get the conversation going down below because it's been it was on my mind two to three weeks two two and a half weeks ago what are we at yeah about two and a half weeks ago and I just I decided I had to make a decision and I don't think I even mentioned it to you in a vlog from two and a half weeks I had to make a decision I'm not gonna let fear dictate my training and I'm gonna go for it and so far we're moving forward we're moving forward all right all right I love you guys and actually we do have a couple old blogs where we've talked about fear in the past so I'm gonna toss it up on the right and one on the left and both of them talk about fear and just that whole thought process of overcoming one's fears in training and racing all right I love you guys thanks for being here thanks for watching security work hard and love each other see you tomorrow