Podcast - Best Mental Tricks to Run Longer
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The problem is our brains are wired to hold us back. Why? ~Well, physiologically, we are built, well, physiologically, ~we are built to keep enough energy within our body so that we can outrun harm. Think of the caveman. Think of early humanoids. What did we have to do? We had to outrun predators for survival. ~The saber toothed tiger, ~if a saber toothed tiger started chasing us, ~we had to do, if we encountered a saber toothed tiger, ~we would either have to fight it or outrun it. So our brains are literally wired to this day, even though most of us don't have saber tooth tigers running after us, our brains are still wired to always keep enough energy in the tank so that we can outrun that saber tooth tiger. Welcome to the athlete with asthma show. I'm your host, Johnny Havey, an ultra runner [00:01:00] endurance athlete. And yes, a guy who's had an inhaler prescribed since birth. Despite doctors telling me I could never play soccer, nor run a marathon, let alone 100 K ultra. I proved them all wrong. This show is where I share everything I've learned from breathing techniques to mindset shifts to help you become the athlete and the person you truly want to be.
So if you're ready to achieve your goals, despite limitations, let's get started.
Today. I want to share with you my five best mental tricks to run longer. Now, I didn't even like running until about five years ago, and I [00:02:00] grew up with asthma. When I was four years old, I had multiple doctors tell me that I will never be a runner.
So if I had aspirations, they told a four year old this, Hey, little four year old Johnny, if you want to run, if you want to be a runner in your life, that's not a good idea. You should not do that. Oh, you like to play soccer. There's a lot of running and soccer. You probably shouldn't do that either. The point is some people are runners their entire life.
They, in high school, joined the cross country team. Joined track. ~I actually did run track in high school. ~I ran track for one season. By the time I was in high school, I had built up my lung capacity so much that I was able to play soccer without using my inhaler. Well, when I was in high school, I decided that in the non soccer season, ~um, ~Which was the spring I would run track ~and I decided that I ~And one of my track coaches said hey, you would be really good at [00:03:00] running the 400 meter race.
I'm like, okay That doesn't sound too bad 400 meters. That is a fourth of a mile. Let's do it It's one lap around the track and those training sessions were so brutal. I hated it. ~I did not like track I Was technically I was technically on the team the entire year, but I, ~I was technically on the team the entire year, but I kind of just stopped showing up to practices.
I did not like running. I hated the whole experience. ~I definitely did not run track another year. So as a freshman, tried to run track and didn't go great. So as a freshman, so as a freshman, I tried to run track and didn't go great. So I've never really. So no, I have not been a runner my entire life. So ~other people ran cross country in the fall during soccer season.
I would never do that. ~And they run, and they, and, and they ran track in the spring.~
~ And they ran track in the spring. Some of my fellow students, even And they ran track and, ~and they ran track in the spring. Some of my fellow students even were talking about running half marathons and marathons. I thought it was all stupid. I'm like, no, why would you run unless you're playing a sport like soccer?
Like, why would you do it? Well, around the same time, I was getting into biking. So I started to understand the concept of doing these long distance rides. And I was like, okay, well, a long distance ride, I guess I can kind of conceptualize running. But it [00:04:00] wasn't until about five years ago that I got into running.
And it wasn't until about three to four years ago that I really started taking it seriously. Now I share all that because when you are told at four years old that you should not be a runner it is the last thing you should do with your life. That has impact and the reality is I don't know about you But when I'm told something that I shouldn't do and I'm very passionate about it. I'm gonna do it Anyway, I was not passionate about running at the time, But since running has become such an important part of my life, the seed was planted and it started growing. ~And I, ~and to this day, I tell myself, my four year old self, it's on.
I love it when people tell me that I can't do something and when I'm passionate about it, ~but when I started, I love it when someone tells me I can't do something and I love that thing cause ~I'm going to figure out how to do it. ~And the mental. And ~the mental tricks I'm going to share with you today, I have used and continue to use from [00:05:00] going from kid with asthma, adult with asthma, who would never even thought about being a runner, to being an ultra marathon runner, and a serious ultra marathon runner at that, I won my first 100k race this past year, and it was the most amazing experience ever.
~So when I first got into running. Which was ~so when I first got into running a few years ago, I had never ran more than five or six miles. Anything longer than five or six miles looked like, Oh my God, that is way too long.
So what's the problem with that mindset? The problem is our brains are wired to hold us back. Why? ~Well, physiologically, we are built, well, physiologically, ~we are built to keep enough energy within our body so that we can outrun harm. Think of the caveman. Think of early humanoids. What did we have to do? We [00:06:00] had to outrun predators for survival. ~The saber toothed tiger, ~if a saber toothed tiger started chasing us, ~we had to do, if we encountered a saber toothed tiger, ~we would either have to fight it or outrun it. So our brains are literally wired to this day, even though most of us don't have saber tooth tigers running after us, our brains are still wired to always keep enough energy in the tank so that we can outrun that saber tooth tiger.
So if you are not used to, just like I was not used to ever running more than five or six miles, your brain. is going to make it hard for you to run more than five or six miles. So the first mental trick I have for you is to just run. Instead of thinking about, I have to run seven miles today.
If you've never ran seven miles before, heck, if you've never ran a mile before. And you're trying to run for the first [00:07:00] time, just go out there and run. You could even tell your brain, I'm only going to run a quarter mile. Great. I do this to this day, even though I have ran 62 and a half miles in one day in 12 hours.
I still have days where I have zero desire to run, where I'm tired. My brain's like, I really don't want to run today. Well, those days, especially days where, ~you know, ~I'm like, Oh God, I got to run 30 miles a day, or I got to run 10 miles a day, and I don't even feel like getting off the couch. How I start is I just run.
And I tell my brain, you know, I'm only going to run a mile or two, because I know that ~when I start, ~once I start, once I warm up, once the endorphins start firing in the brain, my brain is going to stop telling me to, hey, yeah, you shouldn't run today, to ho. [00:08:00] What's another mile? Let's do another mile. Now it's different today versus before I had ran these longer distances because before it was more about the uncertainty, the mind uncertainty of, God, are we going to have enough energy in the tank to outrun the saber tooth tiger if we run seven miles today?
So you're training your body, you're literally rewiring your body. The best way to do it is to just run. Just start, tell yourself, I'm going to run a quarter mile. Whatever sounds easy to you, commit to that in your brain, start running. And then when you're two miles in. add the extra mile during my 100k run.
I had never ran 100k before I had run 50 and it was miserable. And my brain remembered that there was no outrunning a saber tooth tiger after my 50 mile race. Now I bet you my body could have figured it out could [00:09:00] have pumped my muscles up with adrenaline and I could have done it. But ~I was lit. ~I wasn't just limping after my 50 mile race in 2023.
I was crawling around. Well, when I did my hundred K race, instead of thinking about it on a mile to mile basis, I thought about it from a lap to lap basis. The hundred K was five laps around this 20 K park or 12 and a half mile park. My 50 mile race was four laps. around this 12 and a half mile park ~or 20k park.~
So in my head, I told myself, all I have to do today is run five laps. I'd never ran 100k before. I just have to do five laps. So I told my brain, you just have to do one lap at a time. So what did I do? I just went and ran. And instead of counting miles, I counted laps. So you have to play these mind games with yourself.
Just go out there and run. ~Just run tell yourself ~Tell your [00:10:00] brain whatever you need to to get yourself ~out there once you're ~out there once you get started you can add the mileage and That brings me to the second mental trick breaking down your runs so when you first get started and You're starting out with maybe you've never ran before and you want to run your first mile How do you break it up? You break it up into multiple parts Four quarter miles quarter mile. It's not too much Now once you get to running your first 5k You can break that down into a mile at a time a 5k is a little over three miles So you knock out one mile at a time ~Then ~when you get to a 10K, same thing, knock out a mile at a time, break it up. When you get to your half marathon, you can break it up into three mile or four mile segments, ~half marathon. If you run a half marathon race. ~When you run your half marathon race, they are literally going to break it up and have aid stations along the way.
They may even do that in a 5k and a [00:11:00] 10k. There's a reason why when you sign up for a race, the race has aid stations. The 100k race I did wasn't only a lap course. So there was a start finish line where we refueled after every lap. There were two aid stations along the way. It was about 5. 7 miles. Then the first aid station, then another 3.
7 miles in the second aid station. And another 3. 7 miles, we get back to the start finish line. There's a reason why races break it up like that. Because not only does it make it easier to mentally conceptualize, okay, I just need to get to the next aid station and then I can eat something. I can refuel.
It's also very good for you to refuel throughout the race. So break up your runs. Now, as you take running more and more seriously, you're not only going to need to break up your runs, you're gonna need to break up the amount of mileage that you are going to run in a week.
The first [00:12:00] couple of marathons I trained for, I worried less about how much mileage I was getting done in a week and much more about how much mileage I was getting done in my one big day of training every week. ~Well, I'll tell you this, when you're first getting ~Well, I'll tell you this, when you first get started, it is important to focus on the long run because the long run is the most important run of the week.
If you are going to only do one of the runs that week, you need to do the long run. I highly recommend that you do other runs throughout the week as well. But if there's one run you're going to do in a week, you need to do the long run. But as you get more and more into it, and as you increase the mileage that you're training for to run a 50 mile race, your peak week, most likely needs to be at least 50, but more likely 70 miles plus, if you are planning on running 100 K race, same thing, your peak week better be 70 miles.
~So ~how you break up [00:13:00] that 100 miles that 50 miles that 30 miles is up to you in that week. I've had friends train for marathons where they didn't have time to do a long run on Saturday or Sunday. They didn't have time to run 20 miles, but they did have time to still run 30 or 35 miles in a ~week throughout the ~week, and they still completed their marathon in less than five hours.
~So,~ So if you are struggling to mentally wrap your head around doing your long runs, let's say you've never ran 10 miles before. ~I feel you. ~It seems like this big, massive thing until you do it. ~But if you break it up,~ but if you break up that 10 mile run to, I'm just going to run two miles at a time, it starts mentally becoming a lot easier.
~And you know, if, and if you're training for a marathon and. There's no way that ~and if you're training for a marathon, and you are like my friend, Ben, who didn't have time to run 20 miles in one day, because he's a dentist, he works six days a week. ~And he ~and the last thing he wanted to do is run 20 miles on his off day. So what did he do? He ran 35 miles in a [00:14:00] week, ~and he just~ and he just spread it out across the week. You can do that too. ~Might be a lot easier for you to conceptualize running five miles. It ~might be a lot easier for you to conceptualize running six miles a day for six days in a week, instead of running that 20 mile long run on the weekend.
~And this is how we train for these. ~And this is how we train for these long runs. If you're running a 50 mile run for the first time, the longest run you're going to do during that training cycle is about 30 miles. Same thing with 100 K, the longest run you're going to do on a training cycle is about 30 miles.
My peak week for my 100 K, I did 100 miles in the week. And what did that mean? Well, I didn't have as much time earlier in the week. So what I did is on Friday, I ran 22 miles on Saturday, I ran 31. And then on Sunday, I ran 22. Now I'm about four years into my serious running journey, my ultra running journey.
So it took me four years to get to the point ~where. ~Where I could mentally conceptualize running [00:15:00] 75 miles in three days, 22, 31, 22, and a hundred miles in a week. But it took time. It took retraining my brain to realize that, Hey, I can do this run and still outrun the saber tooth tiger. ~So break that. ~So make sure to go out there and just run and then break down your runs into segments. Best mental trick. Number three, the power of multitasking. I don't know about you, but I have a lot of responsibilities in my life. And there's also a lot of things I want to do in my life. So multitasking, not only from a running perspective, but from a life perspective really helps aid my life. So how the heck am I going to get 100 miles in for my peak week of training for running 100k run how the heck are you going to get your 30 to 40 miles in ~for your peak week ~for your peak week running a marathon how the heck are you going to get the miles in [00:16:00] you need to to run your 5k your 10k I don't care how much you love running.
At some point, you are going to need to multitask in one degree or another.
For me, I don't really have time to read. I also don't have time to watch videos. ~I don't have time.~ Don't have time to take courses. But what I do have time for is to listen to them while running in order to become a better business owner, a better yoga instructor, and just a better person overall. maybe you're listening to this right now. Maybe you're watching the YouTube video and you just got the idea, Oh, I could listen to this while running.
That's a great idea. I invite you to do that. If you are watching this on YouTube, I highly recommend that you not only subscribe to the YouTube channel, but ~follow ~Follow the podcast on your favorite podcasting platform and go out and run. This is how I consume most of my media is by listening to it while running.
It not only allows me to [00:17:00] multitask and learn, it also takes my mind. off of running ~a two hour run, ~a two hour run mentally becomes a lot less of me focusing on how long I'm out there. It's a lot less of me focusing on Oh, how many miles have I ran, and a lot more of me focusing on what I'm learning in The audio book or the podcast that I'm listening to, it takes your mind off of what you're doing.
~It takes your mind off of what you're doing. ~You start getting in a flow state, your brain starts focusing on what you're learning instead of the pain ~that ~you're feeling. There's actual research that shows that listening to something while you run ~is a pain killer. It Literally, it ~is a painkiller.
There's a reason why David Goggins refuses to listen to music while he runs.
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Now, let's get back to the rest of the show.
He looks at it as cheating. And hey, if you are a purist like that, I understand. Go and do that. Don't opt in for the music. For my 100k run, I did the first two laps, or 25 miles, without anything. And it's because I knew that I could mentally do the first 25 miles without any help.
Then once I started the third lap, I started listening to a podcast. I had my podcast set up. I had different books set up, including can't hurt me by David Goggins. I had these things lined up and I started listening to the podcast and it helped take my mind off of things. . Well, the other thing that helps take your mind off of things, and that will actually create a [00:20:00] physiological response ~in your mind, ~in your body, is listening to music. Listening to music is another form of multitasking while running, and it is a mental activity.
trick that you can use when you listen to music. It not only acts as a painkiller, it not only helps take your mind off of what you're doing in the moment, listening to music may even release different chemicals in your brain. On lap three of my hundred K this past year, it was really hot. We started the race at 5 30 am in the dark.
I had my headlamp. I felt really good. I trained all summer wearing long sleeves, wearing a hoodie. ~And I, uh,~ And even though I was ready for the midday heat that I was eventually going to hit, I celebrated the fact that I would be able to do the first lap in the dark without the sun. And the second lap would still be relatively cooler outside.
because the sun wouldn't be out for very long. Well, my first [00:21:00] 12 and a half miles took me about two hours and five minutes. My second 12 and a half miles took me two hours and 10 minutes. My third 12 and a half miles is when the sun really started beating down. And yes, I multitask by listening to a podcast and ~listening to ~one of my running books, ~listening to ~specifically rise of the ultra runner.
~I also, Listening to specifically the rise of the ultra runners and ~I even started listening to can't hurt me by David Goggins ~well once it was Well, it did get to the well the problem is ~Well, the problem is, even though this was helping a little bit, it was getting really hot. So what did I do? I turned on music.
I turned it on earlier than I wanted to. I turned it on around mile 28. I was trying to wait until I got into the 30s or 40s. Or like I said, I wasn't thinking about miles. I was thinking about laps. So I was really trying to wait until lap four. My goal was to get through lap three by listening to a podcast.
~Problem is ~The problem is, as I was leaving the start finish station, going into lap three, one of the volunteers [00:22:00] of the event thought it would be funny to say, Hey, you're starting the hardest lap. This is the hardest lap. They knew I was running the hundred K. They knew that I had five laps to do, and they knew that the third lap would be the hardest ~lap.~
Cause this is the getting over the hump lap. This is the getting past the middle point lap. So they said this. And I knew the second they said this that I would have to try and push this thought as far away from my brain as possible, otherwise it was going to start mentally messing with me. I really did not appreciate them saying this.
I know they were trying to be funny, and really how they said it is they're like, Hey, All you have to do is get through this lap and you're good. This is the hardest lap. And I'm like, yes. This is what I've been preparing for months, is that this is gonna be the hardest lap. So what did I do? Mile 28, about three miles into my third lap, I turned music on.
~I needed it. ~I had trained to it. I had not only trained running [00:23:00] to music, I had trained. doing other workouts to music, doing something called yoga sculpt, which I also teach yoga sculpt for me ~is a very mental and emotional, ~is a very mental and emotional exercise because it's done to music. So I have specific songs that I know, turn something on mentally in my mind that say It's on.
I'm ready. Let's go. So I knew that these volunteers had planted this mental block in my head, and I knew, hey, I'm gonna do this earlier than I wanted to, and I know David Goggins wouldn't approve, but I'm gonna do it, I know my body, I know I mentally need it.
So I turned on the songs. Specifically, I went to Seven Nation Army by the White Stripes. One of the variations of the song. There's been a lot of remixes over the years. There's a specific remix that I love right now. Once I turned it on, it shut my mind down. I no longer was [00:24:00] thinking this is the hardest lap.
I started thinking, let's go. I'm ready. Bring it on. And I made it through. ~So you can use multitasking. ~So you can use music as a multitasking tool. You can use this podcast as a multitasking tool. What I like to do is listen to inspirational podcasts, podcasts that push me to be my best. So I invite you to take this podcast with you on your runs or any workouts that you have.
Another way to multitask is let's say you are a busy parent and you have a treadmill at home. Why not turn that treadmill on? And watch Netflix, turn that treadmill on and work out at home. Maybe you need to be home so that you are available. If your kids need you, that this is a form of multitasking.
You can get that run in and watch Netflix. and be home for your kids. It's a way to do it. ~I personally don't like running on treadmills, but ~I personally don't like running on treadmills. But if it was the only option, if it was the way that I knew I could mentally get running, I would do [00:25:00] it. And I recommend that for you as well.
Maybe in the wintertime you want to run but you don't like running in the snow like I do. I actually love running in the snow and I invite you to carefully go outside, run in the snow on trails when it freshly snows.
My favorite time to run, hands down, no comparisons, not even close, throughout the year is when it has freshly snowed in my opinion, there's nothing better than running on fresh snow. I don't care how cold it is. The cold doesn't mean anything to me when there's fresh snow on trails.
First of all, there's no one out there. Second of all. It's beautiful. And third of all, there is no better feeling on your feet as a runner than running through the pillowy snow during the winter. And the fourth bonus thing is that our dog doesn't overheat when we run in the winter.
Unlike humans, dogs don't [00:26:00] sweat. Humans sweat. That's how we release our heat. We release it through our mouth and our nose as well, but we release it through our skin. We sweat. Dogs only release it through their mouth. This is why we are known as the running people.
Humans are known as the running people. ~We actually became humans because we,~ we actually evolved into humans because we learned how to run down our prey without ~even ~using weapons. We could literally run our prey to death. If you don't believe me, read the book, born to run. ~And ~there's a lot of research out there supporting this, that before we had weapons, we actually ran down our food so if you are not ready to go outside and run during the winter, then yes, You can run on a treadmill and get some other things done. You can watch Netflix. ~You can be available for your families for your, you can be available for your families. ~You can be available for your families and get that multitasking in all in one.
And it will help you mentally by multitasking. And if you eventually want to be as hardcore as David [00:27:00] Goggins, I get it, you can work up to that point. ~Two years ago, I could not run a marathon without music.~ Two years ago, I could not run ~a marathon without music, but uh, Two years ago, I was not able to, two years ago, I could not conceptualize running ~a marathon without music.
Just this past year, I not only finished my a hundred K run, I PR'd on my marathon on my way to finishing 62 and a half miles. And I didn't listen to anything. ~I literally PR'd. I had my fastest marathon time ever. I had my, I had my fastest marathon time ever on on trail. I had my fastest. I had my fastest mare.~
So you can build your way up. Or jump into the deep end like David Goggins if you can mentally get there. If you can't use the multitasking, it will help you get there. The fourth best mental trick that I use to run longer is the run walk. ~Now the run walk is ~now you can use the run walk for so many different things. I teach people how to run walk to build up your lungs, your lung capacity as an athlete with asthma. I use this throughout my entire life.
Think about it when I played soccer, you're not running the entire soccer game. Sometimes you're sprinting, sometimes you're jogging, sometimes you're walking. Well, in [00:28:00] soccer, how I train myself to no longer need my inhaler is first of all, I stopped taking it at the beginning of the game, I would wait for my lungs to actually need it. And 10, 15 minutes into the first practice that I did this, I needed my inhaler. Great. Took it. Next day it took me 17 minutes until I needed it. Next day it took me 20 minutes until I needed it. Eventually I got to the point where I realized that instead of using my inhaler, I could calm things down.
I could sprint and then catch my breath while walking, do my. Extended exhales. Do my audible exhales. That's what I learned how to do. Same thing with running and your mentality, your mental shift, how to mentally trick yourself to go farther. Once your brain has done a certain mileage, it doesn't matter if you ran it or walked it.
Your brain [00:29:00] remembers doing that mileage. So let's say that you're struggling to get to that next level. Maybe you were like me and you had never ran 10 miles before and you did your first 10 mile training run and it was debilitating thinking about it. You've never ran double digit miles before. Well, you know what I did for the first 10 mile run I ever did?
I walked half of it. Now there's a reason why I walked half of it. ~It wasn't just the, ~it wasn't just a mental thing. It was a physical thing. I not only mentally couldn't wrap my head around running 10 miles, ~my knee, ~my right knee was bothering me five miles in.
So I got to Mount Carbon, this hill slash mountain that I train on frequently. And I felt pretty good going into it. I'm like, Oh, I got this. I can run 10 miles. ~I got this. ~I got to mile five. I had ran eight miles before at this point, right? I progressively overloaded ~progressive overload. ~I talked about this in a lot of episodes and videos on this channel, [00:30:00] progressive overload, getting to 10 miles.
I had done eight had never done 10. I felt great at five. ~I I was feeling great. ~I'm like, I'm at this hill. We're going to get after it. Like clockwork. ~It felt ~I hit five miles going up the hill. My knee starts hurting. So what does my brain say? My brain says you've never ran 10 miles before.
This was a stupid idea. What are you doing? Your knee's hurting. How the heck are we going to outrun the saber tooth tiger? ~What are you doing?~ And yeah, I really started questioning and I'm like, well, my knee hurts. I could just give up right now. I'm not that far from a pickup location. Someone can pick me up.
But then I also told myself, what if I just walk it? If you're a 5k runner or a 10k runner, and maybe you've done it a few times, you're probably like, well, why the heck would I walk? Maybe you've never done a 5k before, you know, you can walk a 5k. And that counts. People do it. You know, you can walk a 10k.
~You can walk a, ~you can walk a half marathon. Heck, you can walk a marathon. If you want a [00:31:00] marathon to walk and you can afford ~and you want ~to go to Hawaii, go run the Hawaii marathon. There is no cutoff time for the Hawaii marathon. One of the biggest marathons in the world, and it doesn't have a cutoff time.
You can take as long as you want. They leave the finish line open for the last runner to finish. As long as you stay in the race, you will finish. You can walk these things. I learned this as I became an ultrarunner. The best ultrarunners in the world walk. It's just how it goes. At some point, if you're doing a hundred mile run, and there's 000 feet of vertical, you're going to be walking at some point.
Now you may be power walking, power hiking, walking really fast, but you are going to walk, walking counts. So five miles in my knees hurting my brain saying, how the heck are we going to outrun the saber tooth tiger? You should give up. Why are you even trying at four years old? You were told that you should never be a runner.
For some reason you did it anyway. You don't even like this in high school. You didn't like, did you stop? running [00:32:00] track in high school. You never ran cross country in high school. What the heck are you doing? And I said, shut up. ~I'm going to fricking walk. ~I'm going to walk because I know that by doing this for the first time, I ran half of it.
I'm going to walk the other half. I'm going to teach my brain that I can do this. So I walked and I walked and I walked. And I told myself, okay, how long can I walk a mile? How long is it going to take? 15 minutes? 20 minutes? I have five miles left. So five miles times 20 minutes, let's say I walk a 20 minute pace.
I'm going to be out here for an hour and 40 minutes. That pissed me off too, because my brain started thinking, okay, well, he's committed. He's going to walk now. He's going to walk the rest of this, run for some reason he's walking. I mean, I've told him that the saber tooth tiger is going to get him and then his knee hurts if he doesn't stop right now, but he's still walking.
Why are you doing this? And then it was like, Oh God, he's committed. We're going to be out here for another hour and 40 minutes. [00:33:00] Well, guess what? Once my brain conceptualized that it was like, well, how could we get this done faster? We could run. Oh, maybe my knee doesn't hurt. And then I ran the last mile.
It's crazy how our brains work. That's why we're going through best mental tricks today. That's why I'm talking you through the exact conversations I have with my brain. Walk running counts. Guess what? I finished that 10 mile walk run.
~And ~guess what? The next week I had to run 12 miles. I never ran 12 miles before and I did it ~because I had ran because I had walked 10. Well, ~because I had finished the walk run of 10 and I told myself going into the next run, you're going to be able to do 12 even if you walk it. You gotta rewire the brain and tell it walking counts.
You can do this going into your run. You don't have to get to a point where your brain's yelling at you. You could literally say, you know what? I'm gonna do interval training [00:34:00] here. I'm gonna run a mile walka mile, run a mile, walka mile. That's how I'm gonna get it done. The first 50 mile race that I did, I walked probably a quarter of it.
The a hundred KI just did. Maybe I walked one or two miles. Progressive overload. I progressively got to this point and so can you walking is your friend. And if you are an athlete with asthma out there, and you're hearing everything that I'm saying, and you're like, wow, I can never even conceptualize running, but I can walk and walk my way up to running.
Yes. That's how I did it. That's how I played soccer without my inhaler. That's how I worked my lungs. You can do it too. Just make sure you check with your health care professional. I have a disclaimer in the show notes and in the description. Always check with your health care professional. Asthma is a serious thing.
Always make sure you have your handy dandy inhaler with you [00:35:00] and strengthen your lungs. ~You can do that with a rock. ~You can do that with a walk run. ~Okay. ~And speaking of asthma, my fifth mental trick, and this is probably my favorite one, is focusing on your breath. ~How many people say this? So many people say focus on your breath.~
And you've probably heard this before. but when I say focus on your breath, I don't mean just think about it, I mean make noise. When you're running, Make noise. Literally try and make your breath as loud as possible. Along with this being a mental trick, because once you get into a pattern, once you get into a sequence where you're focusing on your exhales and you're breathing like this,
Your mind will zone into the run. Your mind will stop focusing on what mile you're on. Your mind will stop saying, Hey, Sabertooth Tiger, Sabertooth Tiger, Sabertooth Tiger, what are you doing? ~And it will, ~and it will center yourself on your breath. Another thing [00:36:00] happens here. You will literally be bringing more oxygen into your body.
You will literally be making your body more efficient at energy output. Research shows that when you push out air, when you focus on audible exhales, when you do a single or even better, a double audible exhale, you push out more CO2, making space in your lungs to take in more oxygen.
And when you take in more oxygen, Your body is more efficient with energy. You not only help yourself as a runner, ~create this mental trick. It's not even a mental trick. ~This is physiology. This is science. Your body is becoming more efficient. You will also strengthen your lungs as an athlete with asthma.
~If you are an athlete with asthma, you will be strengthening your lungs. ~You will be empowering your lungs to be stronger, to be more [00:37:00] efficient. When runs get hard and my brain is fighting me and it's saying, what are you doing?
I always come back to my breath. The fifth and final lap of my 100k race. I had 20k left, 12 and a half miles left. I was tired. My brain had not yet told my body it's okay to run It's okay to let loose For me at some point in every run my brain gets to the point where it's like, okay, there's just enough left I believe you we can do it and then it's on When I first got into running, it was maybe the last half mile.
Now, I don't know when it's going to turn on. I don't know if it's going to turn on at 10 miles left. I don't know if it's going to turn on in seven and five on three. I don't know when it's going to turn on. I'll tell you this. my brain did not tell my body. It's okay to empty the tank when there was 12 and a half miles left. I had 50 miles down. I had done 50 before. I wasn't even thinking about that. I just knew that I had one lap [00:38:00] left and I had to keep moving. I had to forward as a pace, forward is a pace, but I was not ready to empty the tank. So what did I do? I came back to my breath. I always fall back on my breath in anything, in any workout, in anything in life.
I fall back to my breath and I just make these really obnoxious, loud exhales. Well, that's what I did. beginning of this final lap, I had my music on, I was using music as my mental trick. Now I had been listening to these songs for a while because I needed it earlier in the race that I wanted to use it.
But I came back to my breath. I had not used breath fully as a mental trick yet.
So I started looping my favorite song to not only pump me up and give me energy, but to breathe to. Seven Nation Army. the glitch mob remix. Okay. So I got this going and I use this to inform my breath. So my brain was focusing on the song [00:39:00] and focusing on my breath being on the beat of the song.
So I not only was able to manage my asthma because I had never ran 50 miles before. I didn't know how my lungs were going to react. I also. zoned in, fell back on my breath and made it to the point where my brain finally decided we're gonna finish this. And it actually happened later than I thought. When I did my 50 mile race, it happened seven miles from the finish.
Seven miles from the finish. I got all this energy and I sprinted the last seven miles. Now, a little different comparison. I had been walking a lot more in that race. I also had been walking for about three or four miles ~when the brain ~[00:40:00] when the switch flipped in my brain telling myself that I could run in my 100k I had been running almost the entire time.
~Okay, and I was running a high and I was running a faster pace than I was ever used to it. And I was running a faster pace than I ever had before this you ~And I was running a faster pace than I ever had before this far into a race. At the time I was in second place, male, first place, male. I've been chasing him all day.
He passed me about two hours into the race and I've been chasing him for the last nine hours. So I was also in third place overall at this point. So I was worried about someone coming and passing me and knocking me out of ~the race. ~my place. So a lot of mental things going on here. So I fell back to music and my breath and my training.
~Okay, I had a lot of mental things going on here. I even replayed the script of when I was four year old. ~I even replayed the script of when I was four years old being told I would never be a runner. I replayed the script that I was told three months prior that I should not run in September because I was just diagnosed with a hole in my heart.
cardiologist told me this. Now, it was an initial opinion from a cardiologist, not a cardiologist who had [00:41:00] actually sat down and looked at all the details. And then they ultimately gave me the okay to do what I did. But the initial cardiologist told me, you are not going to be running in September. So I was playing all these things because I'm like, you know what, I am running right now and I have the opportunity to place I don't just have the opportunity to place I could even win this thing. So I was pushing hard the switch in my brain had not flipped yet to tell me that it was on though.
It didn't happen until about three miles out and didn't truly happen until a mile and a half out. I was nervous. I was a lot at stake. I didn't want to mess it up a mile and a half out. I knew I had it. And that's when I ran a sub seven minute mile for the last mile and a half and I won the race, but you don't know when that's going to turn on.
So you gotta. You gotta use them throughout, you gotta combine them like I combined breath and music, you gotta combine them like I combined walk running. There was a point in the race where my hamstring [00:42:00] seized up. I was about 37 miles in, my hamstring seized up, and I couldn't run.
So what did I do? I didn't stop, I walked. I told myself, I'm gonna keep moving. ~As ~long as I keep moving, I have a chance to place. I have a chance to win this thing. I got to keep moving. So I gave myself every opportunity as I possibly could. I didn't get down on myself. Like I'm going to walk. So what I did, I walk, ran in that race.
I broke down that race. Instead of thinking about it as 62. 2 miles or a hundred K, I thought about it one lap at a time. I counted laps, not miles. And I just ran.
Now, I appreciate you being here. We've talked about a lot today and that's why I want to give you a gift. I have created this guide step by step guide, the three pillars of healthy living that I live by to this day. ~Believe it or not. asthma has had effect. ~Believe it or not, asthma has had an effect on my weight throughout my life.
I have found it hard to keep weight off because my asthma has limited me in some ways. In addition, believe it or not, in 2022, when [00:43:00] I ran the Honolulu marathon, when I first became an ultra ~runner, when I first became a ~runner, I put on weight. And this happens to people where you start working out and you actually put on weight instead of losing it.
Well, I put on weight because I thought I could eat anything I wanted. Now, I was eating healthy. My girlfriend and my mom were doing most of the cooking, and then I would cook too, and we had healthy stuff around the house. But I still put 40 pounds on when I first became a runner. And it's because I thought I could eat as much as I wanted.
Because that's what I was told, you're a runner, you're working out, you can eat as much as you want. Well, that wasn't the case. ~So, So even though I was using the first pillar of healthy living, which is movement and movement is, and ~even though I was using the first pillar of healthy living, which is movement, which I highly recommend all of you do ~is movement.~
~It is ~research shows that movement Movement alone, exercise alone, consistent exercise alone decreases all cause mortality rates by 35%. This is better than any drug that you can buy. ~This is the best solution to all of that. ~In the book, Outlived by M. D. Peter Attia, he digs [00:44:00] even deeper into this and all sorts of other things you can do for your longevity and your health.
But movement is the one silver bullet. If you're going to do one thing, well, even if you do that one thing, you can still gain weight. And that's why I've put this guide together where I go through my other two pillars of healthy living. Tracking and accountability. When you combine movement tracking and accountability, you are able to not only drop weight, but sustainably keep it off and live a healthier life.
Even if you are okay with your current weight ~by combining these three pillars, you are going to~ by combining these three pillars, you're going to start living an even healthier life. So put this guide together, it's easy for you to integrate into your life immediately. It's gonna take you less than three minutes to even read it.
You can skim it, it's gonna be really easy. I gave you the three pillars just now it's just going to outline it more in detail, give you some strategies of how to integrate them into your life so you can do it today. You can grab that guide in the show notes, you can grab it in the description or you can go to www.
athletewithasthma. com [00:45:00] forward slash healthy dash living. Dash guide to grab your free guide, and I'll see you in the next episode
Thanks for tuning in to the athlete with asthma show. I hope today's episode inspired you to overcome any perceived limitations you may have. Remember, your health and wellness journey isn't about perfection. It's about progress. So I invite you to take a small step right now towards your goals. And if you found something helpful here, make sure to subscribe, leave a review and share the podcast with others on a similar path.
Until next time, keep challenging yourself and redefining what's possible.
