Top 11 Ways To Run Longer & Farther Without Hitting The Wall

How To Run Longer & Farther Without
Hitting The Wall
All with no more fatigue, effortless miles and a strong finish
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Ever wondered how your ancestors chased down prey without Nikes or energy gels?
Simple. They perfected the art of persistent hunting, which wasn’t about speed, but more
stamina. By jogging slowly, walking, and stopping here and there, they could follow prey for
days until the animal simply collapsed from exhaustion. This was possible thanks to their
incredible ability to sweat and harness the power of oxygen and fat as fuel. Now, how do
we channel that inner caveman to run forever without bonking and hitting the wall? I’ll
answer that and more up next. But before we get into that, who am I and what we get out of
this? I’m Darren, run coach, sub three hour marathoner, 10 hour Ironman finisher. And since
2012, I’ve been coaching other runners, researching and experimenting on how to get 1%
better each day. I do this through habits and incremental gains in my training, racing and
life, all so that you can run and live your best one step at a time. Let’s get in to the episode.
what you will learn in this video i’ll show you my 12 12 steps on how to run almost forever
without getting tired i’ll start with three super easy hacky almost like technique related
things that you can do right now then i’ll progress to eight critical habits you can
incorporate into your whole training life as you build your distance to run farther Ultimately,
if you follow these 11, 12 steps, it’s 12 technically, you can improve by 1% each day, run
without getting tired for as long as possible, and perform better as you age. Because no
one’s getting younger. Win, win, win, win, in my book. Let’s get into the whole episode.
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Number one, practice running slow.
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Start by running slowly and gradually increase your pace and distance to prevent early
fatigue, i.e. you getting tired later on. This is way easier said than done, but most
experienced runners, including myself, mess this all up because it feels good to run fast. It
feels easy in the beginning. One hack I found is to use the run walk technique. This method
was developed by former Olympian Jeff Galloway in the 1970s. Even I do it and I run a sub
three hour marathon. So maybe you should look to try it if you don’t already.
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Number two, use the talk test.
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If you use a five zone heart rate system, easy running is usually zones one and two. The
show notes or the video description provide more information about heart rate zones. I got
a video on that right here or somewhere on the screen. But how do you know you’re
running easy? You’re running easy if you can complete entire sentences without gasping for
air midway. How does this work? When running easy, you aerobic and mainly use oxygen
to fuel your muscles. Simply speaking, the air that you breathe in gets used to propel you
forward. It’s amazing. Are you into tech gadgets? Get a chest strap heart rate monitor and
pair it with your smartwatch. Find out your zone one and zone two from a few tests that you
can do and stay there. Some of the tests are in the show notes of the video description
below. Yes, it’s that easy. But without going on a rant, you must train your body in many
different ways to do this. If you want to run for hours on end and complete half marathon,
marathon, ultra, etc. If you want to find out your zones, we did a video on that here. You can
also check the show notes to get links for those videos. Future Darren here, so while editing
this, I realized that to really make this stick for you, I should have some sort of interactive
thing that you download. So I ended up creating a free, cool, quick summary, Cliff’s Notes,
TLDR, cheat sheet guide of everything that I mentioned, checklist for you to get started, and
a 30-day training plan to slow down your running so that you can run as far as possible.
See the show notes or video description below to download that, again, for free.
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Number three, sign up for a race, find a coach, or join a club.
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Find a race or event that excites and scares you, 50-50, 60-40, then follow a plan to stay
motivated and achieve all your goals. Finding a coach is the next step if you have capacity
and the money, but getting a training plan that adapts to your needs and life is just as
effective early on. A run community slash club is your last option, and you can combine that
with the two other things. They offer a community and social vibe that can boost your
motivation. But please remember, this is kind of caveat I have, a little asterisk, these groups
may only sometimes match your specific pace or training needs. Like not all your runs will
be perfect, but try it all. All right, here are eight more key steps that take a bit more work, a
bit more effort than the previous three. But if you stack them up, boop, boop, boop, boop,
boop, they create insurance for you to stay healthy, which means you could run forever,
which is the whole point of this episode. These are primarily based on injury prevention,
because the more you run, the more likely you are to increase the chance of injuries. It’s a
thing, it’s reality, it’s physics. That minor ache can turn into surgery. I’ve seen it from
amateurs to pros, literally tread lightly. And a bonus, these eight things also involve
improving your ability to use fat and oxygen as fuel more efficiently, just like the caveman
that I was talking about earlier. This is how you get 1% better each day. Do most of them on
most days and you’ll bank up enough health credits to get through the inevitable punches
that life will throw at you. Life happens.
Number four, strength training. Most runners know they should strength train more, but
most fail to do it. This is the reason it’s a combo of time and mental energy. Not another
thing, right? I got to add this on. I got to think about it. Yes. But if you want to run without
getting tired, you need to set aside 20 to 45 minutes, two to three times a week to strength
train. That is all. It’s not that hard. Think of it as your insurance for your overall body. As you
get older, running is great for cardio health, but it doesn’t build strength. Running breaks
down actual muscle, how to do it. There are so many plans, websites, and exercises out
there that if you Google it, chat, GPT, whatever, that I won’t go into too much detail. I’ve
already done a few episodes on that here. You can click here and in the show notes. So if
you know the video description, my rule is that you should try to lift heavy, almost to failure
whenever possible. And with force power. in control, under control. Kettlebell swings, plyos,
box jumps, form drills, and even sprints, uphill sprints are simple, low equipment ways to
proper run strength training. But the best plan is the one you stick with for as long as
possible. If you want to step up your game, go to a specialized running physical therapist
and have them assess your running form and your body overall for imbalances and
inefficiencies. They will get your history and you’ll tell them your goals and they can give
you specific workouts for you personalized. I went into detail on that here and in the show
notes and video description.
Number five, footwear. In running, everyone thinks shoes are everything. While I don’t buy
all the hype around most of the shoes out there, I know that shoes in general are essential,
not specific shoes like all the super shoes. It’s the only thing that touches the ground and
your body, your foot. I won’t go into what shoes are best, I won’t give you a shoe review,
but I will just give you some simple guidelines and rules. you should rotate your shoes. If
possible, have two to three different shoes for different types of runs. Light, fast shoes for
fast workouts, races, and longer runs, and more cushioned and structured shoes for
shorter, easier runs. That’s how I split it. Sometimes the light shoes come out for the long
runs, and sometimes the super shoes with all the structure around them come out for the
short runs. Kind of do both, do all. Look to change your shoes out every 400 to 800
kilometers. That’s 300, 500 miles-ish for metrically allergic Americans. This varies based on
your shoe, your running form, your gait, your style, a lot of things. However, higher carbon
shoes or high heel drop shoes with a lot of structure around them usually wear out faster
from my research and what I’ve seen. Minimal essential shoes and lower heel drop do last
longer. I went on deep dive about shoes and feet all here or in the show notes video
description down below.
Number six, diet. What goes in your body is your fuel. Again, most people know this is
obvious, duh. But when you start ramping up your running, you get really hungry and eat
most things in sight. At least I do. I know other people do. I’ve seen other people around
me. I found meal planning and knowing what to eat after specific workouts at certain times
is best because everyone’s different. Don’t like eating the same thing all the time like me. I
love it. Add variety to your meals by having two to three variations of your staple meals.
Hydration throughout the day is another, duh, you need to drink water, but don’t overdo it.
Drink to thirst and make sure your pee, your urine, isn’t super dark. The whole lemonade
thing, sure, it’s been kind of debunked. So, I mean, that’s a decent rule, but it can be a bit
yellow. Salt, magnesium, and a range of electrolytes are just as important as drinking water
on hard, long, hot days. You need a healthy mix of good fats, protein, and carbs, so we’re
gonna get to macros. Yes, you can get away with running in a low-carb state. I’ve done it,
but if you wanna run very far, science and my own research has proven the body runs best
on carbs if you’re doing a lot of running, even slow running. Simple sugars get a bad rap,
but can be beneficial immediately before, during, and after hard workouts or long runs.
Should you be drinking fruit juice or soda all day though on a rest day? Probably not the
best move. Not sure what’s best? See a sports nutritionist dietician to dial in your diet.
Yeah, I did a whole thing on that episode on that you can see right here. Click here or in the
link in the show notes video description.
Seven recovery strategies. Recovery is an expansive area of running with three sub areas
being sleep, reduced training and active recovery. So let’s talk about sleep first. Do not skip
on this. Don’t say that sleep is just an extra. Get high quality sleep and you will see the
benefits in every area of your life. It’s not just running. If you’re training for 30 minutes
moderately, You need 30 minutes extra sleep than you normally would get if you’re not
training. Try to go to bed 30 minutes earlier than waking up later. I found if you’re training for
two hours, you need an additional one to two hours of sleep. So get to bed a little bit earlier.
Try to wake up at the same time. Rest. The second kind of sub part B. Take days off as
necessary. Listen to the training plan, listen to your body. If you’re new, take a day off every
other day. More advanced runners can take one day off every week or two days off every
month or every six weeks or so. And the third part C, reduced training. If you are
progressing in increasing your distance, take a recovery week every three to four weeks
during training blocks. for your race build. So if you’ve got a big race coming up, usually
training is ramping up to ensure my body doesn’t get lazy. I don’t reduce intensity, but will
reduce volume to 60 to 80% depending on how I feel and what’s going on in my life. Active
recovery can also be cross training, which leads to our next point. But before we get to that,
we went into detail on sleep and rest, and it’s all in this video here or in the show notes
description down here.
Eight, cross training. Cross training takes many forms. You don’t have to take up a triathlon
and learn how to swim open water to cross train. A local gym has many cross training
options, such as elliptical, exercise bike, rower or stair machine. If you’re into the gym, you
can also do short, hit high intensity, interval training workouts with weights, stairs, body
weight, etc. on your off days if you’re feeling up to it. Yoga, Pilates, dancing, basketball,
soccer, etc. All forms of cross training. What is the easiest and cheapest cross training
activity of all though? Walking. Yes. So simple. And I should do more. Want to make it more
enjoyable? Go hiking in the trails with a backpack. Some people call it rucking. Throw all
your water or some weights in there if you want to make it harder. Get creative. Have fun
with it. While running is a large part of your life right now, you have a lot of living to do. And
later in life, you might not be in the season of running. So a bit of YOLO.
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Nine, progress tracking.
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Use tools and apps to track progress and set realistic, achievable goals. These don’t have
to be sophisticated. For some, a notebook and pen work or get a fitness app to track
everything. Make sure to put in how the workout felt and any notes to review what went
right or wrong in the future. Yes, you’ll want this. Even that one workout that you had three
years ago, you want to see what actually happened and what you were thinking. When you
are in the day-to-day, you don’t think anything productive is happening. But when you look
back after two to three months, you see you’ve accomplished a lot. Those graphs are
awesome. I love seeing those graphs, slow ramps.
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Number 10, follow the 10% rule. This is easy.
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Don’t increase your weekly run distance or runs by more than 10% each week. It’s very
simple, but yet people argue it or people don’t do it. If you usually run 20 miles or
kilometers, 20 kilometers weekly, don’t increase by more than two kilometers. That sounds
crazy. That sounds like it’s not that much, but the more you push the weekly or long run
distance, the more you increase the risk. When you get injured, you can’t run consistently
and you don’t improve your ability to run without getting tired. The whole point of this
episode. It’s the don’t die rule of running. Don’t die. Well, don’t stop running and you can
outlast anything. I know the 10% rule doesn’t apply to everyone. A lot of coaches might be
screaming at me if you if you’re watching and listening, but 80 90% of runners should play
by this rule and is applicable to them. This is particularly true for new runners and myself,
who I’d say I’m experienced. I even drop it down to 5% for safety as I get more advanced
and into my training blocks and in the season. Too cautious? Probably. But an intelligent,
healthy runner with no ego can run forever. An injured runner is crying at home, licking their
wounds.
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Number 11 mental strategies and dealing with the setback.
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Let’s focus on mental strategies during running first. So the first part is sub parts under this
running forever isn’t about pushing through challenging runs and being out of breath that
that is part of it, but not really running leisurely is sometimes dull closer to discomfort. than
actual pain. The monotony is the discomfort. I liken this to a form of active meditation. And
whereas passive meditation is actually sitting there with your thoughts. Be aware of the
suck and lean really deep into it. Your brain gets used to all that boredom and it doesn’t feel
as long the next time you go out and run 90 minutes. I talk more about the mindfulness of
running here in this video right here or there’s a link in the show notes or video description
below. The second sub part is dealing with setbacks of the mental side of things. Look, if
you want to run without getting tired and push your personal best distance, your best time
or both, you’re going to be rolling the injury dice. It’s not easy managing an injury, seeing
specialists hobbling around and Googling every small thing that you’re feeling. It’s not fun.
You also won’t have as much time for other life things, like going to the meetings, planning
the meetings, and you will need to prioritize, which can be mentally frustrating. Remember,
you are choosing this hard. You chose all of this running stuff. It is not luck. You did not get
hit by a bus. Because you choose it, you have complete agency over how you show up for
the wrong and bad side of running. Follow this and you’ll be running almost forever in no
time at all. Get it? Want more? We go into more detail about base training, which is the
whole base and foundation of running forever in this video here, or keep listening if you’re
on the audio podcast. Thanks for rocking. And again, if you really want to drive this home
and make sure that you learn it and it sticks, I made a more engaging and free personal
quick reference guide checklist and a 30 day plan to help you run longer. Check the show
notes or video description below to get your copy for free.