Most Runners Train Too Hard—Here’s What Elite Runners Do Instead

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As a distance runner, you’ve probably heard that resistance training is crucial, but have you ever considered tailoring your weightlifting routine to maximize power and speed? These two often-overlooked factors can be game-changers, helping you develop explosive acceleration, blistering sprint speed, and a killer finishing kick. Imagine harnessing the ability to effortlessly shift gears during a race, leaving your competition in the dust with a seemingly limitless speed reserve. This is where the magic happens – at the intersection of science and sweat-drenched pavement, where resistance training for power and speed meets the quest for ultimate running performance.

I have the weirdest and craziest resistance training program that no one has ever heard of.

You only need to do it once per week, for ten minutes and it’s as easy as walking. But it will yield the results of what people did if they went to the gym five times per week for hours.

Naw.. I’m messing with you… this does not exist in our reality… that I know of?! 🤨

Listen to audio podcast below on your next run or watch the video above to learn more

What’s In This For You?

In this article you’re going to find out what happens at the intersection where science meets the pavement – the quest for ultimate running performance. We’ll dissect the importance of power and speed in your resistance/weight training.

I’ll answer the question for runners; where do power, speed, strength, muscle endurance, and hypertrophy fit into an already crowded training plan? Especially for distance runners?!

I’ll even tell my personal story of how I switched gears in my training and embraced the fusion of lifting with speed and power. It wasn’t just a change in routine – it was a transformation in philosophy. This episode isn’t just about challenging how your muscles move; it’s about challenging your mindset.

By the end of this, you’ll not only rethink your 1% better training habits approach but you’ll also… (yes get ready for the laundry list)

Become more resilient so you have less nagging injuries
Generally more bounce
Develop that extra gear in your running
Become more efficient so your easy runs are close to the same speed as your more intense sessions
Develop your secret weapon at the end of races — speed reserve (more on that later)
And overall take your training to the next level.
Yes, that’s a big promise so let’s see if I can deliver.

Have you ever stopped to think if your resistance training routine is ideal for your running goals? Like really thought about it.

Oh and while we are here, I’m going to label what most people say strength training or strength and conditioning as resistance/weight training and also say lifting at times – they are different and It’ll tell you why shortly

You’re most likely a distance runner (anything 5k or longer is considered distance) and I’m sure you’ve heard that runners need to resistance train. At the time of this recording – The evidence and science is clear on this.

Resistance training benefits range from;

Injury Prevention:
Improved Running Economy_ – and energy efficiency
Enhanced Endurance
Better Running Form and Technique:

But have you thought about if you’re lifting the most optimal way for your personal needs and running goals? Not form-wise. Not even the magical number of reps and set- wise. I’m talking about improving your running speed and POWER!

I know what you might be thinking… “Well, Daren.. I’m a middle-of-the-pack amateur age group runner, why in the hell do I need to improve my speed and POWER!”

I’m glad you asked because improving your power and speed will in return improve your ability to generate force and produce explosive movements. This can result in faster acceleration, improved sprinting speed, and strong finishing kicks. So how would someone go about doing this?

High reps low weight?

Nope.

High weight low reps?

Naw.

8-12 reps?

No sir/ ma’am/gender neutral proper pro noun.

Someone can improve their power and speed by lifting… FAST!

And no, not cross-fit lifting fast.

I mean in a controlled manner, moving the weight through space and time (aka the air) as fast and controlled as possible 3-5 times in a set. Then rest for 2-5 mins. It’s two cool things called speed-strength and strength-speed, and they’re different but both important for athletes.

A bit of a deep dive explanation about the two things as this was something new that I never heard of;

Speed-strength is about moving super fast with the heaviest weight you can. It’s like when Olympic weightlifters lift quickly or track and field athletes in the shot put throw super hard. To get better at this, you do exercises that help you jump higher or move faster with some weight, but not too heavy.

Strength-speed is a bit different. It’s like pushing hard with a heavyweight but also trying to move it quickly. Think of pushing a sled with a lot of weights loaded on it across the ground as fast as you can. You train for this by lifting heavy weights, but not the heaviest you can, and still trying to move them fast.

Both of these help you become powerful, which is super important in distance running. If you only train to be strong (like lifting the heaviest weights you can), you won’t be fast – runners need this. And if you only train to be super fast, you won’t be very strong. But if you train both, you’ll be strong AND fast which will give you all those benefits I talked about earlier and that bonus which is speed reserve. We’ll get into that later.

Up until about a few months ago, I had never really knew how to resistance train and improve my power. To me “changing up my resistance training routine” meant doing some plyos and lateral side-to-side lunges. Or if I was feeling spicy I’d do complex and contrast stuff like squat jumps right after squatting.

It wasn’t bad but I felt like I was missing the mark.

What do you think I was missing?

Well, I had a fortunate meeting with a physiotherapist therapist during a weird ankle twist incident and through it, I was able to link with Axis Performance Lab. Axis is Sydney Australia’s leading performance lab. They strive to elevate your athletic performance with tailored programs just like pro athletes.

I was able to work with Exercise Sports scientists/physiotherapists David Guest and Mike Dale to show me exactly how to become a more powerful distance runner who uses speed to help them get those 1% variables that will, in turn, help me perform better as I age. All of us are getting older, and I run everything I do through the “Will this help me in 10-20 years and can I sustain this?” Filter. If it’s a yes, then I sign up ASAP.

Please note – this is just a personalized documentation of what I’ve done to help my specific situation. This is not prescriptive advice for you – consult a medical professional for your own needs and get a training plan specific to your goals from a certified and local physio/physical therapist or personal trainer.

What this won’t be about

At the top I told you about what you will learn – let’s talk about what this won’t be about

Convincing you to resistance train if you don’t already

This isn’t a guilt trip into why silly runners don’t resistance train and why you’re missing out. I’m sure you already do enough of that to yourself (if you care about resistance training) so I’m assuming you already have a set-in-stone weight training routine. And to that…

This also won’t be a general “how to resistance train guide for runners”

There is enough out there on this and I’ll be doing a bunch of deep dives in the future on this topic – so stay subscribed. This is very specific for improving power and speed in the gym which translates to fast times out on the road/trail/track.

This won’t be about choosing exactly what workouts you need to do for your personal goals

While I love you… I’m sorry but I don’t know you. I also don’t know what your weaknesses are.

This is why you need to see a professional to assess you, and your goals and get you the exact training plan that matches this. If you’re in Sydney Australia – Definetly go down to beautiful Surry Hills and see Axis Performance Lab. I’ve already spent hours there nerding out with the team and learning a shit tonne.

My background in particular as an athlete is probably different than most amateur distance and endurance athletes. I came from the track and basketball space when I was young. I was focused on running fast for short periods of time (10 seconds to 2 minutes max) and doing explosive things like jumping and changing direction.

This has been a great thing to use as I get older and do more longer slower stuff because the power and speed can be a great foundation for endurance sports. It also allows me to enjoy this new type of training. You are most likely not like me and may not enjoy it, but you can – it just takes time. And I’ll tell you how later on.

What is Power and Speed?

So before I show you all the crazy testing protocols and new workouts that I’ve done – Let’s define a few things so it all makes sense to you and make sure we are speaking the same language.

Power and speed – two sides of the same coin, yet each with its unique flair. Let’s unravel these terms.”

Power – Imagine the explosive start of a sprinter or that powerful push-up a steep hill. That’s power – your muscles’ ability to exert maximum force in minimal time.”
Speed – Now, speed is all about velocity. How fast can you sprint that 100 meters? It’s about maintaining a swift pace, stride after stride.”
Fun bonus third term – Speed Reserve Improving your maximal output with this type of resistance training also improves your submaximal output since you are now working at a lower intensity.

Speed reserve, in a scientific sense, is the difference between a runner’s maximum sprinting speed and the speed they maintain during a longer-distance race. Imagine you’re a runner who can sprint super fast for a short time, let’s say your top speed is 100%. But in a long race, like a 5K or a marathon, you run at a lower speed, maybe around 70% of your top speed.

This way, you can keep going without getting too tired too quickly. The gap between your all-out sprint speed (100%) and your long-distance running speed (70%) is your speed reserve. It’s like having extra speed you can use when you need it, such as sprinting to the finish line or overtaking another runner. The bigger your speed reserve, the more powerful and versatile you are as a runner. It means you can run comfortably at a good pace in a long race, but you also can suddenly go much faster when the situation calls for it.

Difference between Power, Speed, Strength hypertrophy and muscle endurance in the weight room

This confused me until I finally dug in and asked a few people wtf are the differences. I just defined power and speed so let’s move on to the others.

What is Hypertrophy?

Hypertrophy is the growth of muscle cells from challenging exercises like weightlifting or intense activities.

Side note – This is what most people want from lifting weights, but as distance runners, we don’t really need or want the bulk. Fat loss is a plus, but too much muscle gain isn’t ideal. The type of training we will get to later on in this episode won’t make you bulky but in fact, has many many direct benefits to your endurance running.

What is Strength and how do we improve it?

Increasing strength focuses on improving your muscle’s ability to exert force, mainly through neural adaptations and muscle coordination. Hypertrophy is about enlarging your muscle fibers, making them bigger and bulkier through repeated, intense workouts. While strength gains can occur without significant muscle size increase, hypertrophy always involves larger muscles.

What is Muscular Endurance and how do we improve this?

Increasing muscle endurance scientifically means enhancing your muscles’ ability to perform repeated actions over a longer period without getting tired, often achieved through activities like running, cycling, or high-repetition weight training. This training improves the efficiency of oxygen use in muscles and increases the capacity of energy-producing mitochondria within muscle cells.

Muscle endurance differs from strength and hypertrophy, as it’s more about lasting longer rather than lifting heavier or increasing muscle size. Endurance training contrasts with power/speed training, which focuses on quick, explosive movements and maximizing force in a short time.

As distance runners we want to have it all… kinda. I’d say mainly we want muscle endurance, power/speed, strength and if hypertrophy (muscle growth) is a byproduct, but it’s not the main objective. Fat loss would be more ideal as the more muscle we have the more efficient we will be overall systemically.

Typically with your resistance training/gym/weight training, you will end up getting some hypertrophy. This is good. This means you’ll be more efficient when you run (muscle is way better than fat at everything especially being fat-adapted/aerobic.

But trying to gain a lot of muscle mass (hypertrophy) and strength and power and speed are close to impossible and this is why you need to be specific and this is why I needed this focus instead of going into the gym and doing what I’ve been doing for years.

If that is what you do (ie: go to the gym to get big) that is better than nothing – but there comes a time when you gotta sit down, get a strategy, work your plan and get 1% better every day.

So how do you go about making a laser-focused strategy? A 3rd party objective sports professional!

Why you need an objective 3rd party sports professional

Who are they and why is it important?

They are physio/physical therapists, personal trainers, and folks who live and breathe this stuff. They can assess your needs, prescribe the right program, and guide you every step of the way. Sure, it’s easy to stick to what you know, but sometimes, stepping outside of your comfort zone can lead to incredible results.

For starters, you need to remember it’s not about getting that pump but about training smarter, not harder.

I thought my routine was solid until I went in for an assessment and a minor adjustment completely changed my workout game. It was harder and different, yes, but it was much more effective.

What happened first in my assessment? Baseline Testing

As with any experiment… I started with baseline tests to see where my fitness was. At Axis Performance Lab I used GymAware’s equipment and Vald Performance ForceDecks to measure the power I was putting out and to be honest this was weird AF.

We tested the below to name a few;

CMJ – counter movement jump – aka standing vertical jump – which was weird – because I had to jump with hands on my hips

To control the testing protocols and keep everything constant, I had to do different jumps with my hands on my hips. This is weird. But, like anything can be trained and I’ve already started training
Hop Test – RSI – This is pogos but with your hands on your hips AND you have to jump in the same spot landing on the force plates AND time in the air is NOT the objective, it’s how much force you can make by having less time on the ground – again… weird AF
Isometric mid-thigh pull – I pulled up as hard as possible in a deadlift position and it measured the force, not weight… WEIRD but accurate. I love exercise sports science
A few other trap/hex/Olympic bar lifts for speed strength (not testing for weight) to calculate my speed – the goal is to lift between .75 and 1 meter per second
And a few bodyweight muscular endurance failure tests for single-leg hamstring, hip thrust and single-legged calf raise. This was about the only thing that I did that felt “normal”.
A quick note on muscular endurance testing from Dave – These link to your muscular endurance and give us an idea of what the ability of an isolated muscle group can tolerate. So for endurance runners in particular we need resilient calf muscles to deal with the demands of high running volumes.

What happened next?

I was given a training plan based on my test scores to improve my fitness and ultimately perform better as I age.

It was specifically designed to work on my goals, improve areas that need more focus and then to also maintain areas in which you’re naturally good at. The program looked at what type of runner I was and for example, if I was a quad dominant runner, kept exercises like that in the program. As I’ve been lifting for about 25+ years I was cocky and thought I woud know everything. I was wrong as about 70% of workouts and exercises I had never heard about or done.

It was a 2 day per week training plan as they stressed getting in high quality and fast lifts with overall low volume/load (again focusing on speed strength and strength speed). With about a 70/15/15 spits of legs/arms/core they had me doing trap bar deadlifts, trap bar jumps, dumbbell rows, double booms, vertical jumps + broad jumps, pogos, calf raises, and a few other exercises that made me feel uncomfortable… but I leaned into it.

After a few weeks of probably doing some drills wrong, I went back to Axis Performance, David and Mike so they could show me what to do and how to do it

And after you get a training plan, what’s the next logical step?

Executing an almost 10-week training block, of course!! This was fun. I was excited to just do something different as I’ve been doing the same familiar workouts over the last 5 years and these workouts seem drastically different to what I was used to.

Then what happened? Testing After 10 Weeks To See if these worked

This was similar to the first time I got tested but I’d say even better as I was not only more fit I was better as the test (yes it’s a thing).

And after my first 10 weeks, I have to say some huge gains here. I went up 5% for a few tests which is great. I’ll take 5% every 10 weeks for sure. What about my running? Well in the last few weeks leading up to the test, my running has been feeling quite strong and I’m lifting the most amount I’ve ever lifted in my life. Not only did I improve my power I improved my top speed, my v02max (70-85%), my tempo runs and my strength.

I’m about to go into the section of what happens next and I forgot something really important – I now have a new tool in my toolkit of workouts and phases that I never had before. This is a great pre-season kind of workout for me to build up my speed and power and then endurance. I used to do it the other way (endurance then speed and power) and this new sequencing could help me play to my strengths.

What happens after this? Conclusion

What now and did this help my running? Like everything in life, the rest is up to me.

I didn’t have an objective run test (1 mile or 5k time trial) to compare my before and after too as it was just all too complicated and I was in between fitness and seasons making it more complex. At the beginning of my training, I did do my fav workout which is 400 repeats at vo2max pacing or current 5k fitness. Because I haven’t increased my specific running load it’s a great test to see. And I have to say, I’ve seen a slight increase in power and speed at relatively same heart rate compared to 10 weeks before. I’ll take that.

While I am taking off from competitive type training and racing this year, I’m still running, lifting and training similar to how I do most of the year. I won’t be able to put this new-found speed and power into play for a bit but that’s fine. I want to focus on running 200s and 400 time trials soon so this will definetly help with that.

Remember: think about what your goals are and make a plan that’s specific to this. This is the difference between something that is generic and you staying at a plateau and something that is tailored to you where you start to make those consistent improvements you’ve been trying for so long to achieve.

You have to run close to how you want to race to see gains. Running without lifting fast and just lifting teh way I was lifting, isn’t the end of the world. It’s better than nothing but I’m not optimising for speed and force. Doing both is like super-charging your effort of doing one.

Interested in seeing how you can improve your power and speed and if you’re in Sydney Australia – Def head down to Axis Performance Labs in Surry Hills. If not in Sydney – Google or ask around to see who does this type of force plate testing and training in your city or town. If you’re stuck just hit me in the comments below, message me on Instagram, or email talk@dlakecreates.com and I’ll try to help you out.

Train smart – race and live easy.

Links & Learnings

📈 Get Yor Free Improve Running Speed Strength Training Plan Here: https://1betterrun.com/strengthfree
🎧 Listen, Read and Learn More Here https://1betterrun.com/axis
The ONLY 5 Strength Moves Runners Actually Need: https://1betterrun.com/10w2s-5
Instagram – https://instagram.com/dlakecreates
Strava – https://www.strava.com/athletes/120507

Daren DLake: 00:00

All right. I have the weirdest and craziest resistance training program that no one has ever heard of. You only need to do it once per week for 10 minutes, and it’s as easy as walking, but it will yield the results of what people did if they went to the gym five times per week for hours on end. No, I’m just with you. This does not exist in our reality that I know of. Today, you are going to find out what happens at the intersection where science meets the pavement, the quest for ultimate running performance. We’ll dissect the importance of power and speed in your resistance slash weight training. I’ll answer the question for runners, where does power, speed, strength, muscle endurance, and hypotrophy fit in to an already crowded training plan, especially for all of us super busy distance runners. I’ll even tell my own personal story of how I switched gears. in my training and embraced the fusion of lifting with speed and power. It wasn’t just a change in routine. It was a transformation in philosophy. This episode isn’t just about challenging how your muscles move. It’s about challenging that mindset. By the end of this, you’ll not only rethink your 1% better training habits approach, but you’ll also get ready for this laundry list. Become more resilient so you have less nagging injuries. generally more bounce, develop that extra gear in your running, become more efficient so your easy runs are close to the same speed as your more intense sessions, develop your secret weapon at the end of races, speed reserve, more on that later, I just found out, so dope, and overall take your training to the next level. Yes, that’s a big promise, so let’s see if I can deliver. Have you ever stopped to think if your resistance training routine is ideal for your own personal running goals? Like, have you really thought about it? All right, I’ll go and give you some time to go ahead and think about that in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Oh, and while we’re here, I’m going to label and name what most people say as strength training or strength and conditioning. And I’m going to call it resistance slash weight training and also call it lifting at times. They are different and I’ll tell you why shortly. You’re most likely a distance runner. Anything 5K or longer is considered distance in the track world. And I’m sure you’ve heard that runners need to resistance train. At the time of this recording, the evidence and science is clear on this. Resistance training benefits range from injury prevention, improved running economy and energy efficiency. Enhanced endurance is a whole lot of ease, better running form and technique and much more. But have you really thought about if you’re lifting the most optimal way for your personal needs and running goals? Not form wise. not even the magical number of reps in set wise. I’m talking about improving your running speed and POWER. I know what you might be thinking, well Darren, I’m the middle of the pack age group amateur runner, why the hell do I need to be improving my speed and Well, glad you asked because improving your speed and power will in return improve your ability to generate force and produce explosive movements. This can result in fast acceleration, improved sprinting speed, and a stronger finishing kick. So how would someone go about doing all this stuff? High reps, low weight? No. High weight, low reps? No, eight to 12 reps. No sir, ma’am, gender neutral, proper pronoun. Someone can improve their power and speed by lifting fast and no, not CrossFit lifting fast. I mean in a controlled manner, moving the weight through space and time, AKA the air as fast and controlled as possible. Three to five times in a set and then rest for two to five minutes. That’s a general protocol. You can do things outside of that boundaries and still improve your speed and power. And under improving your speed and power, it’s actually two cool things called speed strength and strength speed. They’re different, but both really important for athletes. A bit of a slight deep dive explanation about the two things, as this was something new that I never heard of before doing this whole episode, piece of content podcast. Speed strength is about moving super fast with the heaviest weight you can. It’s like when Olympic lifters lift really quickly or track and field athletes in shot put throw super hard. To get better at this, you do exercises that help you jump higher or move faster with some weight for runners, but not too heavy. Strength speed is a bit different. It’s like pushing really hard with a heavy weight, but also trying to move it quickly. Think of pushing a sled in a gym with a lot of weights loaded on it across the ground as fast as you can. You train for this by lifting heavy weights, but not the heaviest you can and still trying to move them fast. Both of these help you become powerful, which is super important in distance running. If you only train to be really strong, like lifting the heaviest weights you can, you won’t be fast. Runners need this. And if you only train to be super fast, you won’t be very strong. But if you train both, you’ll be strong and fast, which will give you all the benefits I talked about earlier. And that bonus, which is speed reserve, which again, I’ll get into later. Up until about a few months ago, I had never really knew how to resistance train and improve my power. To me, changing up resistance training routine meant doing some plyos and lateral side to side lunges. Or if I was feeling spicy, I do complex and contrast stuff like squat jumps right after doing heavy squats, back squats. It wasn’t bad, but I felt like I was missing the mark and not being very specific. So what do you think I was missing? Well, I had the fortunate meeting with a physio slash physical therapist during a weird ankle twist incident about two years ago, and through it, I was able to link with Axis Performance Labs. All right, look at that. We just found Mr. Mike Dale. How are y’all? Good, man. How are you? Axis is Sydney, Australia’s leading performance lab. They strive to elevate your athletic performance with tailored programs, just like pro athletes. And they put me on a program, which I’ll talk about in a second, that was just like the pros that I saw in all the movies and all the Instagram and YouTubes. And I was like, I’m actually training like a pro. Again, more on that in a second. I was able to work with exercise sports scientists in particular, the physiotherapists David Guest and Mike Dale.

David Guest (Axis): 05:48

David Guest is… I’m head of performance here at Axis Athletic Performance Lab. I run, obviously, our strength and conditioning classes and private sessions.

Daren DLake: 05:57

All right, Dave’s being super modest. He has a PhD in youth development, a master of science in strength and conditioning, and a bachelor’s sport and exercise science. He’s coached a few athletes to some super high-end levels, winning medals, and he himself Back in 2014, he got 8th in the decathlon in the Commonwealth Games. Dude is a beast. Still runs a 200 meter extremely fast. And Mike Dale, let me read this over here. He’s a physiotherapist and strength and conditioning coach, bachelor of sports and exercise science, has a master’s of physiotherapy. He’s worked in strength and conditioning for the past eight years and worked for the Parramatta Eels, Macquarie University’s women’s sevens, this is rugby related, or footy, Australian football, and Cabramatta Women’s Rugby League. And he’s been a physio for the last two years. So I went to them and they showed me how to become a more powerful distance runner that uses speed to help me get those 1% variables that will in turn help me perform better as I age, because that’s my only objective. All of us are getting older and I run literally, no pun intended, everything I do through the will this help me in 10 to 20 years and can I sustain this filter? If it’s a yes, then I sign up ASAP and this does. Please note, this whole thing, this whole content is a personalized documentation of what I’ve done to help my specific situation. This is not prescriptive advice for you. Consult a medical professional for your own individual needs and get a training plan specific for your goals from a certified and local physio slash physical therapist or personal trainer. what this won’t be about. At the top, I told you about what you will learn. This won’t be about convincing you to resistance train if you don’t already. This won’t be a guilt trip into why silly runners don’t resistance train and why you’re missing out. I’m sure you already do enough of that to yourself, guilt yourself, if you care about resistance training. So I’m assuming you already have a set in stone weight training routine. And to that, this won’t be a general how to resistance trade guide weight train for runners. There’s enough out there and I’ll be doing a bunch of deep dives in the future on the whole strength training topic. So stay tuned. This is very specific for improving power and speed in the gym, which translates to fast times out on the road. Sorry, out on the road, trail or track. And last, this won’t be about choosing exactly what workouts you do for your personal goals. Why I love you. I’m sorry, but I don’t know you. I also don’t know what your weaknesses are. This is why you need to see a professional to assess you, your goals, and get you the exact training plan that matches this. If you’re in Sydney, Australia, definitely go down to beautiful Surry Hills and see AXS Performance Labs. I’ve already spent hours there nerding out with the team and learning a ton. My background in particular as an athlete is probably different than most amateur distance and endurance athletes. I come from the track and basketball space when I was young, and I was focused on running fast for short periods of time, 10 to 20 seconds, up to two minutes max, and doing explosive things like jumping and changing directions. This has been a great thing to use as I get older and do more longer, slower running stuff because the power and speed can be a great foundation for endurance sports, marathons, 5Ks, and also allows me to enjoy this new type of training. you are most likely not like me and may not enjoy this resistance training, but you can, it just takes time. And I’ll tell you how later on. Right now is the part where I go, hey, if you’re not feeling this, make sure you subscribe, rate, share it out with your friends about how amazing this is, rah, rah, rah, rah, rah, all right. While you should go out and do that anyway, how about I actually give you something that will help you? Is the running, health and fitness, and endurance sport internet too much sometimes? Is it too much conflicting content on how to train right? Or you just don’t have time to read and watch the latest trends on how to, I don’t know, carb cycle for your next marathon? Don’t worry, I’ll take care of that for you by showing you how to train, race, and live 1% better consistently. To do this, just sign up for my free newsletter, OPB. I figure out this whole 1% better thing so you don’t have to by scouring the endurance sports deepest and darkest corners of the internet. Go to 1betterrun.com/ forward slash news, all spelled the normal way, to be inspired and motivated on the regular. Let’s get back into it. What is power and speed? So before I show you all the crazy testing protocols and new workouts that I’ve done, let’s define a few things so it all makes sense to you and make sure we are speaking the same language. I’ll try to keep it simple. Power and speed are two sides of the same coin, yet each with its own unique flair. Let’s unravel the terms. So power, imagine the explosive start of a sprinter or that powerful push up a steep hill. Speed, now speed is all about velocity. How fast can you sprint 100 meters? It’s about maintaining a swift pace, stride after stride. Fun bonus term, which I talked about earlier, speed reserve. Speed reserve is improving your maximal output with this type of resistance training. Also improves your submaximal output since you are now working at a lower intensity. All right, stay with me. Speed reserve is the difference between a runner’s maximum sprinting speed and the speed they maintain during a 5K, 10K, half marathon, marathon distance race. Imagine you’re a runner who can sprint super fast for a short time. Let’s say your top speed is like 100%, but in a long race like a 5K or marathon, you run at a lower speed, 60 to 70% of your top speed. This way you can keep going without getting too tired. Obviously you’re pacing yourself. The gap between your all out sprint speed and your long distance running is your speed reserve. It’s like having an extra speed you can use when you need it, such as sprinting to the finish line or overtaking another runner up a hill or through crowds and all that stuff. It’s that kick at the end, honestly. Difference between power, speed, strength and hypotrophy and muscle endurance in the weight room. So this confused me up until I finally dug in and asked a few people, what the **** are the differences? And I was able to read a bunch and then finally put it into practice. And now it makes sense. What is hypotrophy or it’s spelled hypertrophy? Hypotrophy is the growth of muscle cells from challenging exercises like weightlifting or intense activities. Side note, this is what most people want from lifting weights, but as distance runners, we don’t really need or want the bulk. What is muscular endurance and how do we improve this? Increasing muscle endurance scientifically means enhancing your muscles ability to perform repeated actions over a longer period without getting tired. Often achieved through activities like running, cycling, or high repetition weight training. This training improves the efficiency of oxygen use in muscles and increases the capacity of energy producing mitochondria, the powerhouse of cells within muscle cells. So this is the whole Z1 aerobic base zone two training. That’s where muscle endurance works in that space. Muscle endurance differs from strength and hypotrophy as it’s more about lasting longer rather than lifting heavier or increasing muscle size. Endurance training contrasts with power speed training, which focuses on quick explosive movements and maximizing force in a short time. Now, as distance runners, we want to have it all, kinda. I’d say mainly we want muscle endurance, power, speed, strength, and if hypotrophy is a byproduct, but it’s not the main objective. So hypotrophy is okay if we’re losing body fat, but we obviously don’t want the extra bulk. No one really wants it because you have to move that extra bulk, which means that it actually technically slows you down. But if that is what you do, I go to the gym to get big, that is better than nothing. But there comes a time when you got to sit down, get a strategy, work your plan and get 1% better every day. I’m gonna keep saying that. I love it. So how do you go about making a laser focused strategy? You need a third party objective sports professional. Why you need an objective third party sports professional. Who are they and why is it important? Well, they are a physio slash physical therapist, personal trainers who live and breathe all of this stuff. They can assess your needs, prescribe the right program and guide you every step of the way. Sure, it’s easy to stick to what you know, but sometimes stepping outside of your comfort zone can lead to incredible results. For starters, it’s not about getting the pump. It’s about training smarter, not harder. I thought my routine was solid until I went in for an assessment and a minor adjustment completely changed my workout game. It was harder and different, yes, but it should be, hopefully, much more effective. What happened in my first assessment? The baseline testing. As with any experiment, I started with a baseline test, a series of tests to see where my fitness was. At AXS Performance Lab, I used GymAware’s equipment, but yeah, I ended up using the force plates and I measured the power I was putting out, which, to be honest, was weird AF. trying to actually jump on the plates and be on the plates and do the activities for the plate, the test, was really, really weird. We tested the below to name a few. CMJ, counter movement jump, aka standing vertical jump, which was weird. And it was weird because we had to make a control out of the test and I had to jump with my hands on my hips, which is super disconcerting. but like anything it can be trained and i’ve already started training doing jumps on my hand on my hips so it feels kind of natural next we tested a hop test rsi this is basically pogos with your hands on your hips again and you have to jump in the same spot landing on the force plates so time in the air is not the objective it’s actually how much force you’re putting down on every pogo jump again weird af because i’m not used to doing that Next was isometric mid-thigh pull. I basically pulled up as hard as I could in a deadlift position, and it measured the force. Yes, not the weight. Again, weird, but super accurate. I love exercise sports science. And yes, I’ve used the word weird a lot because it’s the only way. Awkward, uncomfortable, different than I’m used to, whatever. You could use whatever word you want. A few other tests, Trap Hex Olympic Bar Lifts for speed strength, not really testing for weight to calculate my speed. Goal is a lift between 0.75 and one meter per second. And a few body weight muscle endurance failure tests for single leg hamstring, hip thrusts, and single leg calf raise. This was about the only thing that I did that felt normal. Quick note on muscular endurance testing from David Guest. These link to your muscular endurance and gives you an idea of what the ability of an isolated muscle group can tolerate. So for endurance runners in particular, we really need resilient calf muscles to deal with the demands of high volumes of running. So specific to me. So what do you think happened next? Well, obviously I was given a training plan based on my test scores to improve my fitness and ultimately perform better as I age. It was specifically designed to work on my goals, improve areas which need more focus, and then also to maintain areas which are naturally good at. The program looked at what type of runner I was, and for example, if I was quad dominant runner, kept exercises like that in the program, so catering to my strengths. As I’ve been lifting for about 25 years, I was cocky and thought I would know everything. I was wrong, as about 70% of the workouts and exercises that they gave me, I’d never heard about or done before. It was a two day per week training plan as they stressed getting in high quality and fast lifts, overall low volume load. Again, focusing on strength, speed and speed strength. With about a 70-15-15 split of legs, arms and core, they had me doing trap bar deadlifts, trap bar jumps, dumbbell rows, double booms, triple booms, vertical jumps, broad jumps, pogos, calf raises, and a few other exercises that made me feel weird and uncomfortable, but I leaned into it. After a few weeks of probably doing some drills wrong, I went back to Axis Performance, David and Mike, so they could show me what to do and how to do it. And after you get a training plan, what’s the next logical step? Executing an almost 10-week training block, of course, and also progressing it. This was fun. I was excited to just do something totally different as I’ve been really doing the same familiar workouts over the last five years. And these workouts seem drastically different to what I was used to. My only two questions were one, what would the progression in weight slash resistance look like? And two, why no back squats? It was basically for progression. Number one, just do it at your own means. Like this is actually up to you. And because I know what I’m doing and I have a lot of experience, I can actually progress and I can either progress with more reps, probably not more sets, but more reps and or, uh, more, more weights, probably want to do more weights rather than more reps, reps. You don’t want to do too many reps. And the answer to number two, why no back squats?

David Guest (Axis): 17:47

I think it just comes down to what outcome are you looking to get? So rather than just going, I want to do a squat, kind of shoehorning it into a program, going, what specifically do I need to work on? And then picking your exercise.

Mike Dale (Axis): 17:59

The gym is a means to an end so we’re going to choose things that are suited to you that are going to get the outcome that you want. So a good example is like you’ve sort of said like you’ve had some back issues sort of like in the gym before so if we were to then give you like back squats and deadlifts that’s potentially going to overload your back and mean that you’re then going to be having time off running or gyms. If your back squat is limited by how strong your back is, that’s defeating the whole purpose of why we would actually give you that particular exercise.

Daren DLake: 18:31

Then what happened? Well, I tested after 10 weeks to see if this actually worked. This was similar to the first time I got tested, but I’d say even better as I was not only more fit, I was actually better at the test. Yes, it’s a thing. Alright, so I think I think we did alright, and I think I nailed it not quite sure but The numbers were looking good. I was feeling good Things are moving so we can say that it worked so that ten weeks worked and We will be moving into more of a focus on my new numbers the cool thing is that this is now a tool that I can use in my arsenal for training and it’s like a part of Strength and it’s a part of muscular endurance and it’s like this thing. It’s like I can do it in the preseason I can look to maybe even Do it in the offseason if I’m just I can do it on a week where I’m like now I can do a certain workout once a week Super grateful for access for letting me kind of train with them train like a pro and figure out that my body actually can can handle lifting with power and speed. It’s fun. Hopefully it’s fun for you. All right, go back to present day, Darren. What now and did this actually help my running? Because that’s what we want to know and that’s what we want answered. Well, the rest is up to me like everything in life. I didn’t have an objective run test, like a one mile, 5K time trial to compare myself to. It was just a bit too complicated. And I was in between seasons and it just was too complex. At the beginning of my training, I did do my favorite workout, which was 500, sorry, 400 meter repeats, which is like a VO2 max fitness test. And because I haven’t increased my specific running load, I’ve been doing the same type of running. It’s actually a great test to see if this works. And I have to say, I have seen a slight increase in power and speed at a relatively the same heart rate compared to 10 weeks before that. So I’ll take that. While I’m taking off from competitive type training and racing this year, I’m still running, lifting and training, similar to how I’ve done it most of the year. I won’t be able to put this newfound speed and power into play for a bit, but that is fine. I actually want to focus on running 200 and 400 time trials in the near future. So I know this will definitely help with that. Remember, think about what your goals are and make a plan that’s specific to this. This is the difference between something that’s generic and you staying at a plateau and something that is tailored to you where you start to make those consistent improvements you’ve been trying for so long to achieve. You have to run close to how you want to race to see gains. Running without lifting fast and just lifting The way I was lifting isn’t the end of the world. It’s better than nothing, but I’m not optimizing for speed and force. Doing both is like supercharging your effort of doing one. Interested in seeing how you can improve your power and speed and you’re in Sydney, Australia, definitely head down to Axis Performance Labs in Surry Hills and see Dave uh mike or anyone tower anyone in in that crew that’s available and they’ll love to help you if you’re not in sydney australia google acts around to see who does this type of force plate testing and training in your own city or town if you’re stuck just hit me in the comments below message me on instagram or email talk at d lake crates.com and i’ll try to help you out uh i guess to end this all if you’re like on the fence you’re like i’m bored i don’t know if i want to do this stuff this is lame honestly Just try it. Just try to find what works for you and work with a professional and try to cater your training program to something that you find fun, because that’s the only way you’ll stay with something, something that’s fun and sustainable for as long as possible. I know it will benefit you in the end. And I’m just going to end it there because I think this is such, such a great thing. And I’m going to be doing so much more content on this in the future. Train smart, race easy. Peace. Okay, so you stayed on this long. A bit of a bonus for you. I’ll play some, this is a podcast bonus only. I will play some of an interviews that I’ve had with Mike and David over the last, oh my God, it’s going on like eight months, with them as I’ve been visiting them and just ask them questions about certain things and they can explain it a bit better than me. They’re certified to do all this stuff. They have degrees and all that stuff and experience. So definitely listen to that if you want some more tidbit insights. Thanks again for rocking with me. Question was, why do runners not like to lift? And you have two theories, right? Like to do strength training and lift weights. You have two theories. Tell me those two.

David Guest (Axis): 22:55

I think the first one probably would be related to the worry about getting too big, about putting on too much muscle mass, being too heavy. But my experience in the gym and seeing what the research says is the fact that it’s actually really difficult to put on muscle mass. certainly to the degree where you’re looking like a bodybuilder. You need to eat too much, you need to train too much, you probably need a little bit of help as well, which we won’t go into, but probably the biggest worry is when I come in here, certainly with runners or people who do run recreationally, they’ll come in and they’ll say, oh, I’m lifting, I’m lifting so much weight, I’m worried that I’m then I’m going to put on too much muscle mass. And yeah, just the reality is you’re going to get stronger or you can certainly get stronger without getting heavier at all. A lot of the changes are actually happening inside the muscle rather than by putting on mass. And the second one would probably be around DOM, so delayed onset muscle soreness and just generally feeling tired and sore post your gym session. So if you’re doing one session, every now and then, and it’s sporadic and it’s not consistent, then you’re gonna get a lot of pain, a lot of muscle soreness, a lot of DOMS, probably for two to three days afterwards. Generally, it’ll come on between 28 and 48 hours, and then you’ll still feel sluggish by the third day as well. something called the Repeated Bowel Effect. And this is the same with everything. This is the same with running. You’ll notice if you haven’t run in six weeks, you go for that first run, it’s like, oh, my body’s a little bit sore now. It’s the same with the gym, but it’s probably a little bit more pronounced. So with the gym, if you train once, pretty sore. If you train twice, again, still pretty sore. But then once you start being consistent week in, week out, you can start even training little and often, maybe even twice a week, different programs. you’ll notice that your recovery period from each session is just so minimal. So you’re getting the gains, you’re getting that almost resiliency built up so you can do more running, you can increase your mileage, you can increase the quality of each session by doing your gym work. But then also, every time that you come in, You’re building that resilience, so you’re not having that constant up and down, constant up and down of train, soar, train, soar. It’s more of a smooth. Another word that we like to use is load monitoring. So we’re managing our load. What’s it called? Load what? Load monitoring. Load monitoring, okay. So we’re kind of like planning our training out and periodizing our training across a week so that we’re not having big peaks and troughs. What we really want is a consistent load. So as soon as you go and this is where it comes back to that consistency of training if you’ve got a consistently high consistently high training load where we’re consistently training it might be it might be as much as six days a week but because it’s consistent You’re not going to get those peaks and troughs of DOMS and muscle fullness. Whereas if you’re training once every now and then, and even if you train really hard for a block, so say six days on, but then you have a month off, and then you come back to it. It’s those peaks and troughs where you’re not being consistent with your training. So you’re trying to monitor your load, trying to make sure that you’re consistent. And those kind of things, whether it be about effects, with your load monitoring, with your periodization, that’s things that we can really help you, certainly here at Axis, but also things that you’re doing yourself as well.

Daren DLake: 26:33

What is the objective of today?

Mike Dale (Axis): 26:36

Yeah, cool, so I guess the main thing today is we just want to establish some baseline numbers, so force-velocity profiling. So basically what that means is we want to see how strong you are, and then also how quickly you can produce that force. So if we look at what’s called the force-velocity curve, so if you have force and velocity, so there’s basically an exponential curve where if you want to produce more force, it takes more time. the essence of running time in that exact

Daren DLake: 27:10

exercise or?

Mike Dale (Axis): 27:11

Just in general, like the quality to produce like more force, it takes more time for like the muscles to like contract and cross bridge to create that force. So basically the essence of like any physical performance is through power production. So if you can produce more force quickly, you then basically have like more displacement of your body. So, and that just goes across like any sport. So for example, in running, if you can apply more force into the ground faster, then you’re technically going to propel yourself further each stride for less energy cost. So the whole goal of running is to be as efficient per stride as possible for whatever distance you’re running. Through like taking these measures then, we can then basically create you a program specific to you and the things that you need to then work on to then ideally then get some sort of conversion over like to your running to then go, okay, like, you know, for example, this is like your 5K distance. We start doing these particular exercises in a certain way and then ideally then your time comes down so you can then start to like be really specific in regards to like what loads and stuff you have on the bar to then move at a certain speed basically and then the things then that complement that as you know going off injury history and that sort of stuff so you’ve had injuries in the past we then look at those particular areas so for example if you had some achilles issues it might be a matter of we look at then like doing an endurance calf raise test. We see if there’s much discrepancy between sides and then we can obviously then work on that. But you’re sort of already like doing some heavy calf raises sort of in there. So you’re already sort of addressing that. So that’s sort of the whole goal of today.

Daren DLake: 28:56

All right, sounds good. I still kind of don’t know what we’re doing, but I looked at the machines, and I was like, okay, I’m just going to be doing, it’s not one rep maxes, right? We’re not doing that today, right?

Mike Dale (Axis): 29:08

So basically, like the main tests that we’re doing today, so we’re going to do a series of jump tests. we’re going to do a squat jump, we’re going to do a counter-movement jump, and then we’re going to do a hop test. Okay? So that is sort of slightly different in their regard to what they’re sort of measuring. And then the last thing we’re then going to do on the force test is a isometric mid-fly pull test. So that is like technically like a 1RM, but it’s an isometric based test. So you’re basically like pulling the bar. I can sort of like demonstrate for you. So you’re basically pulling the bar. up against the bar. So it is like a maximal exertion, but you’re not actually like changing your position or anything like that. And that’s getting the power. Correct. So that will measure how much force you produce. That’s a wacky test. Yeah, it’s cool. So basically like this is measuring how much force you can apply in the ground. Whereas the other test is sort of looking at like how quickly you can produce that force. So, you know, measures like how high you can jump and then how quickly you can then like get off the ground and that sort of stuff.

Daren DLake: 30:21

Give me the basic parameters for why you programmed the training plan as you did for me specifically and make it brief because we’re going to go into more detail.

David Guest (Axis): 30:34

So what we like to do is when we get any new client in with us, we’ll go through an initial strength assessment. So that’ll be seeing how you move, but then we’ll also, for our higher level athletes, we’ll get them in on some focus testing. So we’ll actually see some real numbers as to what you’re like in terms of your power output, your strength numbers, some of your capacities, some of your endurance, base markers. And then we’ll have some real objective data to be able to then go in and then program effectively. So, for example, if you’re pretty strong, for example, in a trackball or in more of a conventional lift, then that may be something that we look to kind of obviously maintain, but then you might then have deficits, for example, let’s say. a hop test, so looking in more specifically on RSI or maybe on your kind of movement jump, just really being specific as to what you need to work on.

Mike Dale (Axis): 31:36

Yeah, I’d probably say just from like a physio perspective, we look at injury history, like what your training loads are currently at, to then give you some things to complement, like the things that are really training those physical qualities. So for example, if you’ve had Achilles problems or you’ve had calf issues, then obviously you’re going to want to have some calf specific work in your program where they’re going to want to then probably manage like how many contacts in regards to your intensive plyos you’re sort of getting and then that then obviously works around your current sort of training.

Daren DLake: 32:09

Alright, would the training plan that you prescribed to me be any different if I was not a distance runner? Like, let’s say I was a 400, 800, no sorry, let’s just say I’m 100, 200, 400 meters sprint to a hurdle. Would you have tap run or de-tap run? De-tap. Yeah, de-tap run is crazy. If I was more in that range, does it not matter?

David Guest (Axis): 32:31

I think it would change a lot. Some of it might come down in frequency, some of it might come down in density, so how often we’re trading, how much we’re doing in each specific session as well. potentially some of the specific exercises as well. But again, a lot of it comes down to these answers. So what do you need to be able to do really well as a distance runner? What do you need to be able to do really well as a sprinter? And then designing the programs around, again, your testing results, but then also what you need to be really good at as well. So if you’re really good at something, if You see, for example, with athletes, you might get certain athletic types. So you might be a speed-based, endurance athlete, right? So you always want to be catering towards that. But again, if there’s certain things that you need to be able to improve to get you to the next level, can we try and target that as well? Can we try and focus in on some of the things which allow you to do your event at a higher level?

Mike Dale (Axis): 33:27

Yeah and I’d say like across all sports there’s some common threads in regards to physical capacities that are sort of important. So even though there is going to be a difference there will then probably be some similarities there but the amount of specific things you do may vary. So a good example would be like obviously a sprinter acceleration you want to put as much force into the ground and you have time to do that but then if we can then do that in regards like distance runner that’s going to mean that their efficiency is going to improve their stride distance is going to improve if you’re putting more force into the ground so it’s sort of one of those things that they may have similar things within their program but their outcomes get a bit different sort of depending on their sport and then obviously yeah your volume is going to change if you said endurance or sprint time.

Daren DLake: 34:31

How would this plan that you gave me differ from a general strength plan that you might give to a runner? So, does that make sense? Because that’s what I’m saying, does that make sense? Basically, Regular runner Joe comes in I am a different run. I’m not that one. Yeah, but I’m a different runner. I’m somewhat highly trained I have different like you were saying specific Strengths that and talent in certain areas that’s different than a regular runner that comes plotting in Would it would it be is it different once you give them this plan?

David Guest (Axis): 35:06

Yes, so I think they just like to touch on that so I Your training history is probably going to come down. It’s probably not the biggest effect. So, for example, do you have a big training history in the gym? Because you might be a really good athlete, but you may never have trained in the gym. So I’m not going to give you particularly advanced exercises if you’ve never stepped foot in the gym. I’m going to tailor it towards your actual training age within the gym.

Daren DLake: 35:32

Was this plan that you gave me an advanced plan, like advanced exercises?

David Guest (Axis): 35:36

I would say so because we’ve had you in three times now, so we’ve come to know each other relatively well. We’ve probably had about five hours of communication now, so we know relatively what you’re good at, things that we need to improve on. We’ve seen all your testing results, so for you, It’s probably quite an advanced endurance program, so there’s probably not going to be loads of recreational athletes who are doing their four-hour marathons who are going to come in and do a program to what you’ve been doing, but definitely there will be a big, big difference. And I probably compare it to something like a youth athlete when they’re going through like a long-term athlete development model, where they’re starting off with the basics, they’re learning how to move, they’re learning basic fundamental movement patterns, squatting, hinging, pushing, pulling, and then once you get into it, once you’ve been doing it for a number of years, then suddenly they become more specific. So with you, we try and target on strength and power, we try and work on some of those deficiencies in terms of the things that you need to be able to do to be able to keep you running and be able to get that training volume in as well. So yeah, definitely big, big difference between a recreational and a more advanced level. Absolutely.

Mike Dale (Axis): 36:59

Yeah, like training manages the biggest one. So I guess like all our gym work is trying to develop general sort of quality, so strength, power, speed. You obviously then want to exhaust the basics for as long as you can. You want to, as you said, like with some of your content, you know, you want to drip the lemon dry. you know, until you actually need to change anything. So, you know, if someone hasn’t done any gym work before coming to the site doing some stuff, just by automatically coming in, that’s going to make them better. And you obviously can then, like, tailor that to be a little bit more efficient and more specific to what they want to do. But then, obviously, they want to, like, keep doing that general stuff for as long as you can, and then start changing and becoming more specific down the track. But there’s no point of getting too specific too early on, because then you’re just like wasting all those newbie techniques you could have gotten just from doing some basic stuff really well.

Daren DLake: 37:55

All right, so this is the inverse of everything. How come there were no back squats in this? Because in my head, I’m like, runners need to do back squats. I like giving them. And I was like, no back squats. And why was there no? It’s a loaded question. Single leg work. Mainly the Bulgarian school to water. Thank you train lunches. How come you didn’t prescribe that to me?

David Guest (Axis): 38:22

I think it just comes down to What outcome are you looking to get? So rather than just going, I want to do a squat, kind of shoehorning it into a program, going, what specifically do I need to work on, then picking your exercise. So a lot of people get kind of boxed in into that thinking of, I need a black squat, I need to do a rear foot, I need a bench, I need to do all these specific exercises because that’s what I know, that’s what I like. And there’s definitely a degree of picking exercises which you know and enjoy, but then also, Once you get to this level, once you get to the level where you’re really trying to get those kind of diminishing returns, can we try and be really selective with our exercises, pick exercises based on needs rather than just on wants?

Mike Dale (Axis): 39:08

yeah I think like once again the gym is a means to an end so we’re going to choose things that are suited to you that are going to get the outcome that you want so a good example is like you’ve sort of said like you’ve had some back issues sort of like in the gym before so if we were to then give you like back squats and deadlifts that’s potentially going to overload your back and mean that you then have time off in running or gym. So we don’t want that. We want this stuff to complement what you’re trying to do in regards to your running. So we might pick a variation in that reduces the loads off the back but we’re still going to get that high force output through the legs. The same thing like if your back squat is limited by how strong your back is, that’s the beating the whole purpose and why we would actually give you that particular exercise and like saying like deadlifting and stuff right so then i’m saying like in regards to like the unilateral stuff like you know you can always add that sort of stuff in there but if our goal for example is like we just want to maximize force reduction then probably a double leg variation is going to be better because there’s less balance to meet it so You know, there’s no technically no right or wrong. It’s like, well, why, what do we want to achieve? And then choosing something specific to the individual and like what they’re sort of wanting to do.

Daren DLake: 40:22You’ve made it to the end. Thank you so much for listening to all this stuff on how we try to make running and training and life and all that stuff work. Because time is a resource that no one can make more of. Not yet, at least. So we appreciate you taking the time out of your day to listen, watch and generally consume all this stuff. Accessibility is pretty cool nowadays, so we have a transcript for all the episodes. Make sure you go to the show notes section of this episode on whatever podcast player you’re listening to, or you can go to the description of the YouTube video, or just go to podcast.delaycreates.com to find the episode and the transcript. All of this was produced in Sydney, Australia, so I acknowledge the Gadigal of the Eora Nation, who are the traditional custodians of the land. I pay my respects to elders, past, present, and emerging. A lot of people ask how they can support us, and I think the easiest way is to just share this out to people you know that would like this. So whether it’s a podcast link from Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, whatever you’re listening to, or watching on YouTube, send them a link, just flick it to them. Email it, text it, you know, Instagram, whatever. Send them a link of this episode, or my newsletter, or whatever you can, the YouTube link, whatever you can. The second easiest way is to rate, like, or subscribe to this podcast and or video on YouTube, or even subscribe to my newsletter. If you have any feedback, feel free to hit me up. Talk at 1betterrun.com/. That’s T-A-L-K at 1betterrun.com/. Spelled the normal way, train smart, race, and live easy. Peace.