I Got Fitter Than Ever—Then One Race Humbled Me

[00:00:00] Fitness. That’s easy to train. But racing, actually racing, it’s a skill. Most runners forget and you’ll see why in 10 seconds.

[00:00:17] This is my first official track race in 20 years, and back then I was doing one lap, 400 meters and two laps, 800 meters, and this is going to be, it’s gonna be fun. 7.5 laps as fast as I can. I knew my. Fitness was decent, but I wanted to test something way more important. How good am I at racing this three K, almost two mile track race, exposed all of it.

[00:00:39] You get it. You’re trained to run fast, but racing is more than paced. It’s managing nerves, pacing mistakes, and staying calm when it hurts. You don’t get that from time trials. You get it from racing. Today, I’ll show you how the three kilometer race, almost two miles, humble me and what you can learn from it so that you can race better.

[00:01:01] Nine. I’m going to 80. I’m gonna be cautious. I did you come through the last lap? You need time, right? Oh, I’ll, I’ll, I’ll pick it up. I’ll pick it up on the last. The plan, 80 seconds per lap. Stay smooth, close, hard. The reality. I panicked at two minutes, probably a little bit before that ’cause I went too fast.

[00:01:19] I overcorrected, but then I found myself in dead last place. So the start all the way to the first 200 meters I got pulled into the pace in the start. I’ve got fast twitch, so I start fast. The group was hot. Way too hot. I was already breathing hard at 200 meters. I looked down at my watch and was like, whoa, we need to back it down fast.

[00:01:40] So the first kilometer 0.6 miles, 2.5 laps, I overcorrected and I let the gap form I was in dead last place. ’cause even though I went out too fast in the beginning, went. Too slow or I backed it down too slow and it was a bit of a yo-yo. So it was like, ah, too fast, too slow. Second kilometer, this is five laps in, so we’ve only got two and a half more laps at seven and a half lap race.

[00:02:06] I started plucking people off slowly. It was like one person, one person. People went out too fast. It started blowing up. It was good. I surprised myself ’cause I was able to suffer, which I’m not very good at suffering. I need to get. Better at that and racing is how you do that. But it also showed that I had this like wacky top end fitness.

[00:02:25] This is something I did not have 15 years ago, and it’s the aerobic base that’s all from zone two. So zone two running and also doing a lot of VO two max workouts really helps with being able to have like a second gear to shift into for the last 600 meters. 1.5 elapse. Bit of a kick at the end. Started to close.

[00:02:42] I was looking at the clock. I was like, maybe I can get it a hundred meters in, and I ran outta time.

[00:02:54] That was rough.

[00:03:00] Oh, 10 0 7, I think official. I take that I’m all out. So 100%. It was a couple seconds, over 10 minutes. Didn’t get my sub 10 and that earlier mistake of me doing the yo-yo too fast, too slow, it cost me. Good job.

[00:03:23] So if you’re here, you’re probably wanting to improve your VO two max. I did a lot of high-end VO two max training to try to go sub 10 minutes in this three kilometer race. So to help you out, I created a free training plan that improves your VO two max and it’s also Habits Guide ’cause 1% Better Incremental Gains Consistency Habits.

[00:03:40] Think Running Therapist in your pocket. As a bonus, you’ll automatically sign up for our newsletter that has real world training. Racing and mental tactics so that you can get 1% better in each run each day. Hit the QR code right here or the link below in the video description or the show notes if you’re listening on your phone to get that ASAP Back to the episode.

[00:04:02] Good stuff. What’d you get? Uh, I don’t know, like 9.5 second 10. That’s up. Uh, 10 0 7. Oh, close enough. Alright buddy. How you doing? Hey, it’s good to see you, man. Oh, so after the race I was able to kind of decompress. I like to give myself a few days. So if you sit there and you’re trying to analyze and decompress and get into all the nitty gritty metrics and Strava data and garment and whatever, how your ground contact time wasn’t all that stuff, like, it’s too close.

[00:04:24] You gotta, you gotta have like, I minimum 24 hours is not 48 hours for you to just kind of be like, oh, that happened that hour. And then you sit down and then you go, oh, this is what I could have done better. So a few things that shocked me. Again after this race, my max heart rate is still the same as 10 years ago, which is crazy.

[00:04:40] I maxed at about a 1 93, which I did 10 years ago, and I’m like, yo, I thought my ma, your max heart rate’s supposed to go down, so either I’m not hitting my ma, my true max heart rate, I call death Max. Maybe it’s one ninety seven or I’m able to stay fit. I don’t know, genetics. There’s so many issues with that, but that’s pretty cool that I can get up there still.

[00:04:59] This is the fifth. Heart rate monitor that confirmed it. So I’ve had multiple heart rate monitors, different companies, so I know that it’s true. Maybe my ceiling is just high and my workable zone has shifted up because I do have a higher, uh, resting heart rate, and I’ve learned that everything has just kind of shifted up.

[00:05:17] But who knows? It’s pretty cool though. Also, my cadence dropped when I got tired. And actually you can see my form. Pretty much on like lap four, lap five. I started doing the, called the locomotive, where my neck was doing that, and I was like, whoa. I, I, I didn’t feel like I did that, but looking at video, it’s like, it means I’m tired.

[00:05:34] It means I got some stuff to do. I got some, some work to do on my form. I’ll also chop up my cadence dropping to. My headphones. So I run a lot with headphones and I have actually a DJ mix that has the exact cadence that I want, which keeps me at a high cadence, and I didn’t have that to anchor me. So while it does train me and I can run at a high cadence when I get tired, cadence drops.

[00:05:55] So that DJ mix, sometimes even though it’s in my ears and I’m trying to hit it on the steps to get 184 steps per minute. If I’m tired, it’s like, nah, I’m just hitting the ground. I don’t care. The, the DJ mix is actually noise, so it’s an easy fix for next time. Kind of. I mean, look, the end of the race, at the end of the race, like any, anything can happen on a, on any given Sunday as Remy be real says, who’s editing this video?

[00:06:17] Who’s been on here? A bunch of episodes of this or that series. So the race is a whole other beast. Here’s the thing. I’m aging, but somehow I’m not losing my top end aerobic speed. In fact, I’m faster now than I was 20 years ago. And I’m stronger. And I’m way smarter. Next up, after the race, I attempted to do a 400 800 meter, uh, time trial sort of thing.

[00:06:39] Did not go well. Achilles was not feeling it. So refocused on base training, marathon zone two training, and I’ll be getting back into 5K races, half marathon’s, doing my 1% better half marathon. You can check out that video up here. What I’m doing 1%. Better each year for 10 years in my half marathon, that might be turning into a marathon challenge.

[00:06:58] Come 20 26, 20 27, we shall see. But one thing that rings true is that racing is a skill and skills need reps and they need to be sharpened. So if you want to improve your VO two max and get faster, I’ve created a free training plan and habits got based on my racing experiences, my training experiences, and my life experiences.

[00:07:15] Think of it like having a running coach that also has a bit of psychology background. In your pocket. You’ll also join 2000 plus other runners and sign up for my free newsletter for weekly training tips and mental strategies that help you improve 1% better each run. Hit the QR code right here, somewhere up here, or the link below in the video description or the show notes if you’re listening.

[00:07:36] Thanks for rocking with me. So if youre still here and you want to learn more about VO two max, check out the video below right here.