This Long Run Didn’t Go to Plan… And That’s the Point

[00:00:00] Daren: We planned everything except for the part where it all went wrong. So he changed gels and decided to guzzle a bunch of them today. And a new drink mix, electrolyte drink mix, carb, drink mix. So it was all new. We ran quite fast, quite long, and just a recipe for disasters. In this episode, you’re gonna learn while we’re running on the actual run, while testing your fueling nutrition and pacing during long runs is so critical and not on race day.

[00:00:26] How controlled chaos builds more race confidence than the perfect session. So you need all those variables and all those changes to happen and you can’t control them. The importance of letting things go wrong so you can fix them now, not later. What trending your gut actually means and how it feels to mess it up and a bunch more.

[00:00:43] Oh, and if you wanna run a faster zone two without breaking yourself. I’ve got the perfect free progression based training plan that does exactly that. The link is below, or the QR code right here, I’m gonna talk about it later on. It’s helped a lot of runners get smarter, not just tougher, because you can’t grit and vary your way to a fast marathon in the long term.

[00:01:02] I’m Darren De Lake Run Coach Sub three hour marathoner, 10 hour Ironman finisher. And since 1996, I’ve been helping all the self-coach runners get 1% better each day because we only focus on lifelong tools for lasting success, not quick fixes. And back to the workout. This wasn’t the perfect run, but it was the perfect lesson.

[00:01:20] Let’s get into it. Alright, so back to the, I’m gonna call it the vlogging series, even though I don’t like vlogging. Put this sub three marathon for Mr. Brenton here and we’re gonna do a long 30 2K for me. 20 mile run. I think you’re gonna do like 34 Ks. Yeah, 21, 22 miles. But the main thing is. 15 miles or 15 Ks, about nine miles at marathon pace.

[00:01:47] And we’re gonna spice it up a bit right here. And we’re going to do 12 ks of marathon pace. Then we’re gonna go under slightly slower than marathon pace for one K. It’s slightly fast than around, not case for the 14th K. And then. Fast finish 5K pace. So see how we go on that. How you feeling? I feel alright.

[00:02:12] Rain couple Ks? Yeah. You’re feeling warm now? Yeah. Alright buddy.

[00:02:41] All right, with three Ks in four 15 Ks at marathon pace, which is about six 50 minutes per mile, or for the non-free metric people, that’s I hear. It’s uh, four minutes, 15 ish, bit undated hills, and it’s feeling good though. How you feeling? Yeah. Still early, huh? Yeah, still early we, yeah. Alright. 12 more Ks and a fast finish.

[00:03:24] And something I forgot to talk about is when some people say they have legs that are shorter than other. I thought it was just genetic. You were born like that. But my chiro, who I just went to, who I go to should go to every month, but. Every two or three months, he actually adjusted my hips and was like, your hip’s out of alignment.

[00:03:43] That’s actually what’s causing your leg length one shorter than the other, which is crazy. Blew my mind. I’m sure it is genetics also, but. Go to Kairos, stretch out your hips, those some tight things. Make sure you always maintain your body mobility. What do you think? Sounds good. He’s running his marathon pace and I’m talking to him trying to teach people.

[00:04:19] Future Darren here. So while editing this, I realized that to really make the stick for you, I should have some sort of interactive thing that you download. So I created a free quick and easy cheat sheet checklist and 30 day 1% better plan to improve your zone two heart rate speed. See the show notes or video description below to download that.

[00:04:41] All right. We are seven Ks in four miles, so a little bit more than halfway. We got the beach next to us. Prince is feeling okay. Not great, not bad. Okay, I’ll take that. I’m feeling pretty good. Heart rate’s low. Power’s high. Focus on the high cadence, lifting my legs up, not overshot, and I get alerts every, every three minutes.

[00:05:04] That tells me that it’s annoying, but small. 1% everywhere, 1%. Here, 1% there. Let’s get done.

[00:05:24] Alright, so we’re on the last 2K is one mile of this math marathon pace effort. We’re gonna do slightly faster than it just one or two seconds faster than the marathon pace to get used to that. And then over the next nine weeks, we’re gonna do that longer and get used to that. We wanna run slightly faster than the marathon pace for the race, just in case we over underrun the course.

[00:05:46] Overrun the course. Brent’s feeling all right. I won’t ask him again, but, uh, this is what training’s about. He’s not feeling great, but we’ll see how we go.

[00:06:15] All right, so we’re gonna play a game for the last three K where we feel out the pace we’re gonna go under, which is gonna be about 15, 20 seconds slower. The marathon piece for one K without looking at a watch, and then we’ll go over, which will be about five to 10 seconds faster than marathon. Four one K and then a fast finish.

[00:06:37] We can’t look at our watch for any of it. So that’s, that’s the game. I don’t think Brighton really wants to do this, but we’ll see.

[00:07:00] We had a, a fun issue. Got got this out with sorting out the problems in, uh, in training, right. And uh, another gut issue it was he changed gels and decided to guzzle a bunch of them today and a new grid mix, electrolyte drink, mix, carb, drink mix. So it was all new. We ran quite fast, quite long. And just a recipe for disaster.

[00:07:18] It’s probably too hot for him ’cause he melts ’cause he’s the wicked witch of the west white peel white skin there. I get it. My energy from this weather. He dies. But, uh, learning lessons, man, learning lessons. It was fun. That was a good run. We still got another, I got another 10 Ks left. AKs five miles gonna drop into some steady, slow their mouth on pace, but, uh, keep it steady.

[00:07:39] See how we feel. Good stuff, man. Alright, so some of the best runs, they don’t look like it, they don’t hit the paces, they don’t hit the splits, but they hit you right where you need it. Here’s the real question for you. Are you training to feel good or are you training to get better? If you’re ready to make even your zone two runs faster and more intentional, grab my free training plan at the QR code right here or below, or hit the link in your podcast player if you’re listening.

[00:08:05] The training plan is built for runners who are done wasting all those miles and all that time. And are ready to level up. And a bonus, you’ll sign up for my email newsletter, which is also free, and you’ll get tips, mental Fitness VO two Max Tempo each week so you don’t fall back into the same trap and you can live that 1% better Running habits, life Peace.

[00:08:23] If you wanna find out more about what we talked about in this last episode that you just listened to or watched, go to this next video right here.