[00:00:00] Is there anything that’s like, you don’t have to think about it. This is my

superpower. Throwing in strides at the end of a run. Ah, here we go. This looks like

a woman who’s almost done all seven Abbotts world marathon majors, just jogging

in Sydney, but she’s doing the one workout most runners completely ignore, and it’s

probably why you’re still stuck.

[00:00:21] In this episode, I’m gonna go over it and you’re gonna learn the easiest

speed workout. You’re probably skipping How Ego Quietly Ruins your Training, why

The Shoulds Will Burn You Out. How One Age Group Masters Runner built a system

for showing up. Every single day I’ll have a free training plan download that will get

you started doing strides, built up your base fitness, and help you set the foundation

for creating habits in your running life and a bunch more all to help you become the

kind of runner who doesn’t just train hard, but also train smart.

[00:00:51] Shows up with purpose and actually enjoys the whole damn thing. Okay.

I have Ms. Nicole Bernham. Yeah, de Burnham, and we are in beautiful Sydney,

Australia. We’re in Barangaroo, Aboriginal name. Nicole is obviously American from

the Boston area. She’s running the Sydney Marathon on a two days Sunday. So

we’ll be combining a bit of Nicole’s author writing career with habits and running.

[00:01:22] Even at the end of a run when I’m really tired, if I just throw in a few, like

15 seconds or you know, 10, 15 seconds hard, sprint and then walk a little bit.Alright, let’s talk about strides. If you heard them, you probably think, yeah, yeah,

yeah, I should do them. I. And then you don’t, and a lot of runners that I coach don’t

do it.

[00:01:39] Strides are these between 10 and 25 second bursts at the end of a run.

Not all out sprints, just controlled speed. I like to say about 80 to 90% run tall,

smooth, and fast. Most runners, they skip them because they seem really small and

they don’t matter, but they do matter because they’re small. That’s paradox.

[00:01:58] You don’t overthink. You just go really easy in. Theory but so much harder

in practice. ’cause if it was easy, runners would do it. Nicole gets it, she’s an age

group masters athlete. She runs marathons and she does strides religiously. It helps

my turnover and uh, I think it helps me build more muscle that’s run specific.

[00:02:17] Mm-hmm. You know, separate from anything you would do in the gym.

Mm-hmm. You know, it’s, it’s hard to replicate sprinting in the gym, that feeling, that

jolt at the end of your run. It’s not just physical, it’s psychological. It says I am still in

control. I got this. So if strides are this easy and this effective, why are most runners

still stuck and they don’t do them?

[00:02:38] What are strides and sprints and why skipping might be the hidden key.

So before we go into how to do all this, because if you wanna know how to do that,

just check this episode up here. Uh, if you’re watching the video or below the video

description or in your podcast player, I’ve got a link to the episode on strides and

Sprints.

[00:02:55] Where I do huge deep dive, but people throw a lot of different

terminology around running fast with distance running. They call ’em strides. They

call ’em sprints, call ’em windups, run throughs. I’ve heard it all. I’ve done them all.

There’s a lot of terminology that can get a bit confusing, but it really boils down to

this.

[00:03:10] Strides and sprints are short bursts of fast running, designed to remind

your body how to move quickly and efficiently with rhythm posture. Intent. You want

that? Pop, pop, pop. Most distance runners think of strides as just some 22nd

accelerations before, after a run. But when you look deeper, when you zoom in,

especially at how sprinters warm up, it’s clear that we might be missing a critical

and very important step.

[00:03:33] Let’s start with something no one talks about skipping. Yes, skipping like

you did when you were a kid. Stuart McMillan, arguably one of the best sprint

coaches in the world. He’s coaching Olympic sprinters, et cetera, says skipping is

the foundational warmup movement for speed. Not jogging, not butt kicks.[00:03:48] Skipping. So I’m gonna paraphrase what he said. He said The jogging is

basically rolling through your ankles. Jogging is not sprinting. Sprinters do not jog,

as he said. So skipping that’s tall, stiff, bouncy, it looks and acts a lot more like

sprinting. McMillan explains. So instead of thinking about strides as fast finishes.

[00:04:07] Or sprints as go hard. Here’s a better way to think about it. So you got

strides all the way at this far end. They’re full body vertical, force driven expressions

of speed, if you wanna get really technical. And then we got strides, which are

controlled, rhythmic, expressive, running, where we’re mimicking, like sprinting.

[00:04:23] And then the, the beginner. Entry level. Let’s call that skipping. So we’re

doing skipping or even plyometrics as he called in the episode with Huberman labs,

but we’ll just call it skipping the neurological glue. That I think starts and kind of can

connect that and also connect. Plyometrics can also connect distance running,

jogging, et cetera.

[00:04:40] Get you all the way through to sprinting very hard. So next time you want

to go. Out and run really fast. Here’s a quick little workout that you can do a

warmup. It’s a little side workout. Skip for 20 seconds, walk for 40. Do that three to

four times so you can do the skipping and then do strides before or after your

workout, and you can start at 70 to 80%.

[00:04:58] And then after a couple weeks, get to 80, 90%. Then after a couple

weeks, so we’re at like, you know, two, three months. Get to 90%. Hold that for

about 15, 20 seconds, 25 seconds max. And that’s it. So if you wanna go deeper, I

break all of the stuff down from stride, sprints, skips, windups of run throughs, all in

this episode up here.

[00:05:15] If you’re watching or go down to the video description below, or if you’re

in a podcast player. Just go right in there and you can see the link and get straight

to that. The real block ego and the should trap. So the problem usually isn’t your

body, it’s your brain. Your mind ego shows up in a lot of weird ways, a race pace

that doesn’t reflect your fitness.

[00:05:34] Strava comparison, that voice. Saying you should be faster. I know I

should be faster. I’m always saying that in my head, I was faster three years ago. I

should be faster. I’ll never even be, you know, the top half of Strava in my tower run.

So it’s taught me to sort of dial back and set goals that are appropriate for me.

[00:05:56] Hmm. And have no judgment and no ego about it. That’s the key, is sort

of being able to lose the ego. Of, you know, what, what quote unquote you should

be doing. Mm-hmm. Because the should will kill you. Yeah. So I really try to focus

on what is a good goal for me, and like you say, 1% better, anybody can do 1%

better.[00:06:20] Mm-hmm. And you don’t have to be 1% better than the person next to

you. Yeah. Or some artificial standard. So it’s always setting the goal that works

best for you, whether it’s writing or running, or any other career or athletic pursuit

or. Even, you know, hey, I’m learning to knit, or that’s what running taught me is dial

it back and don’t feel like you have to be number one.

[00:06:44] So many of us train like we are on some sort of a trial. Like it’s a test. It is

not trying to prove something to your watch, to your past self, something I to you, to

your followers, to your mom, to, to your brother, et cetera. You don’t owe anyone

anything, just do you and enjoy it all. Easier said than done, but I’m giving you

permission to do that.

[00:07:01] And if you’re watching this thinking, yeah, I need to get back to the

basics. Don’t worry. I got you. I put together a simple, crazy, effective strides

training plan that might help. We make sure that you build up from jogging and easy

running and even a fast distance running to skipping to plyometrics, to strides, to

sprints and windups and run throughs, et cetera, all in that.

[00:07:21] And it’s also a base training plan because I feel like sprints and strides

and all that, that’s actually base training and a bonus, you’ll be subscribed to my

weekly email newsletter with tools and tactics and other mental deep dives around

running life. VO two Max Temple Running Run form and a bunch more.

[00:07:36] Click the QR code right here, or check the link in the description below or

show notes on your podcast player. Again, you’ll be signed up for free. Let’s get it

back into the episode. So what does actual long-term consistency look like? For

me, it’s always thinking the day before about what I wanna accomplish.

[00:07:55] So, and, and the biggest stress relief I have is in the evening I make a list

of what I wanna get done in the next day or over the next week, and I adjust it so

that when I go to sleep. Everything is soaped, and that helps keep me consistent so

I don’t end up in the middle of a day having nothing done or having too many things

on my plate.

[00:08:25] So, and I give myself permission to move things to another day if the day

gets busy. Yeah, that’s key. So. Yeah, that, that has really been key to me is to sort

of have a plan for the week. Mm-hmm. A plan for the next day, and to give myself

permission to move things around if I need to. That’s what real consistency looks

like.

[00:08:46] Yeah. I have a purpose for the day. Something where when I wake up in

the morning, I don’t have to think about it. She’s not relying on hype or chasing

motivation. She’s got a simple system. It works. She doesn’t just show up as arunner. She’s a writer, a traveler, a mom, a business person, a wife, a family

member, a community, et cetera.

[00:09:03] She’s a whole human. But what happens when you zoom out from the

habits and actually get to know the person behind them as you transition from writer

to runner? What’s up? Something unique. That you found out about yourself in that

process that maybe that then gives back to your writing? So writing, running, and

then back to writing.

[00:09:27] Oh, I think that I’ve always been very Type A. Mm-hmm. Which gets

priced. I mean, you want to be driven and you wanna have goals, but I can be too

much. So if you could go back to your, to yourself writing that first book, would you

tell yourself to change anything? And if so, what would that be? I would be more

true to what I wanted to write instead of chasing a market or what a publisher.

[00:09:56] Believed would be good. Mm-hmm. Because I think it’s a lot like

Hollywood. You get something that’s successful and they wanna do 20 of it. It’s a

derivative. Yeah. Everything. Yeah. Capitalism go right. And I think there are ways to

do that and write your own book, but still make it where, you know, a publisher can

market it.

[00:10:20] But without it being so on the nose. Yeah. And I did end up writing the

books I wanted to write. Mm-hmm. But it was a big battle along the way of, uh,

trying to fit a mold. That wasn’t necessarily what I wanted to write or what readers

wanted to read from me. Yeah, you need to write with your own voice.

[00:10:41] Mm-hmm. I think I would’ve chased that a little less. You know, you have

to learn the lessons. You have to learn. Yeah. But I would like to think I could have

learned a. Faster. I think some of the best lessons don’t come from training and

running. They actually come from life because running mirrors life, life mirrors

running.

[00:10:57] They’re both the same. And Nicole lives that better than most. I don’t

think she’s trying to win any medals. She definitely says that a lot. She’s just trying

to show up well for herself, which makes her show up well everywhere else. I’m

never gonna be super fast uhhuh, but if you throw on a few strides at the end,

suddenly you’re awake.

[00:11:16] Mm-hmm. It will wake you up. A lot of times we’ll run more. I might finish

and think, oh, so glad to be done. When I throw in some strides at the end,

suddenly I have a lot more energy. It’s like, okay, head home, take that shower, and

I feel awake. Mm-hmm. And ready to take on the day. It’s such a simple thing.[00:11:35] So let me ask you, what’s one small thing you can actually do today?

Can you do strides? Can you do skips? Can you just do some fast running? Can

you do base running, et cetera? That’s a good place to start. You don’t need to run

fast. You just need to run. Honest, gonna get a bit woo woo. But it’s true. Run with

what you have, not what you wish you had.

[00:11:52] And again, if you want that training plan to learn how to do strides, build

up your base and those mental habits, click the QR code right here, the link below

in the video description or the show notes in your podcast player. Thanks again for

rocking with me. Peace. Time, time, time. I’m obsessed with it as it’s the one thing

we can’t make more of, but ironically, we as humans, we made the whole concept

of time.

[00:12:13] Thanks for giving us your time by listening, watching or reading this. We

love helping runners get 1% better each day. One step at a time and can only reach

more runners by people like you sharing us out to runners like you. As I might have

mentioned earlier in the episode, if you haven’t already, you can get a free

step-by-step 30 day base training and habits guide to getting 1% better in running

and life each day by signing up for our.

[00:12:37] Email newsletter. Unlike other running videos and podcasts, we are not

about the quick hack and fluffy motivational quotes. Instead, the 1% Better Runner

focuses on how small daily habits ripple into broader life success, helping runners

perform better on and off the road, or the trail, or track, wherever you want to be

doing your workouts.

[00:12:55] All in five minutes per week. This episode and all this content is produced

in Sydney, Australia, and I’d like to acknowledge the Gadigal of the Your nation, who

are the traditional indigenous custodians of this land. Much, much, much respects.

If you wanna contact us about anything, email talk@dlakecreates.com.

[00:13:13] We’re also on the socials, mainly Instagram and Strava. Right now, just

search one Better Run or D Lake runs small steps now. Lifelong Impact later. Peace.