Episode 139: Western States Takeaways, Adapting to Training, and Goal Pivots
In this week’s episode, we unpack the biggest lessons from a record-breaking Western States, including what the performances of Jennifer Lichter, Vincent Bouillard, and the rest of the elite field can teach us about smarter endurance training. We also discuss why making your easy days truly easy can unlock better recovery and long-term adaptation, how to know if you're actually absorbing your training, when it's okay to pivot a big goal that no longer fits your season of life, and practical ways to recalibrate your training if you're feeling stretched. We wrap with a simple but powerful race-day mantra from one of our listeners and our challenges of the week. Check it out!
Elena:
Western States!!!
Jenn Lichter being SO fast
The advantage of your first 100 miler and what it shows us about what’s possible
Training switch up– to hours instead of miles, a little easier, and more fueling. Tale as old as time now!
Vincent Boulliard annihilating Jim’s record, along with 4 other men (fifth place Zach Miller is the 10th fastest time in history).
Cooler temps making a difference, but so is training (imo, time now compounding with better training)
A good segue to flip an idea on its head→ when outcome goals beat process goals (or perhaps just a reframe when it comes to training). Instead of focusing on the daily miles, what if we focused on the outcome→ did I absorb that training? Did I recover?
That allows us to make the goal adaptation rather than accomplishment, so that we can build the great fitness by what we consider “normal” instead of what we consider “extraordinary”. I.e. I can now do a 10 hour training week no problem instead of I survived a 20 hour training week.
How can you tell? Sleep, HRV, feel
Let’s stack 4 lower volume weeks well instead of having to reach and recover. Then when you do that consistently for a long time, that’s when the real elite fitness kicks in. I think many of the top Western States runners have been doing this for a long time, maintaining it with great fueling and effort adjustments, and that’s showing in what’s possible for fitness
Practical interventions:
Take a look at your normal training week. How do you feel? Are you able to stay consistent or does it vary a lot?
If at all strained, try reducing volume but doing it really, really well. Then after a few weeks of that, layer on a little bit. Returning to fundamentals.
I think it’s very easy for experienced athletes to actually lose touch with fundamentals, not because they don’t know it, but because habit is an incredibly strong bias
What are the fundamentals?
Easy is easy! Let it be, especially with summer heat.
Threshold is max 1 hour effort. It shouldn’t feel all out at all
These will vary based on where you’re at with training! Not always at the peak, and that’s ok
HR is an extremely helpful tool with this
Katie:
Pivoting goals mid-season / asking why in practice
Originally/ all through pregnancy and early PP had the goal of running a marathon in the fall, with A goal of going sub 3
Went to go register for the race last week and realized it was sold out with a huge waitlist! (This hasn’t happened historically this early and it caught me by surprise)
Initially did a bunch of digging for other flattish races in good weather window that worked with my life, and wasn’t feeling excited about the ones I found → all would require travel, which is SO much harder with a baby and becomes an entire family affair
And I noticed as I was looking at the other races that I really just wasn’t feeling excited about them → not a hell yes. Several reasons why:
I am still EBF and thought I would be winding that down, but it’s actually going really well and I don’t want to stop just for a race goal; this also means I can’t really be away from Luke for more than 2.5 hours
Super early morning runs are not my favorite for a variety of reasons, and my sleep is still bad enough that I can’t realistically wake up at 4am on top of multiple overnight wake ups
Even for weather reasons alone, long runs in the summer sound daunting and not fun
More broadly: Luke is only going to be little for this long and I don’t want to miss it. “Missing it” is not just about hours spent training, it’s about mental load allocated to a really big undertaking - PR or sub 3 marathon. I know that that goal could be possible, but it will require my full focus and attention to achieve it, and that means stress/mental load over when and how to get the workouts in, physical energy output into the training itself, and accordingly less devoted to other more important things in my life right now
And going down that path brought me back to my why:
Learn, push myself, take on new challenges, have the structure of a plan —> none of this is specific to marathon distance
It also reminded me to ask myself what sounds fun. Currently, what sounds fun is:
Another 5k and/or 10k
30th bday trail adventure
Maybe a sprint tri in the fall that my FIL is signed up for
(Most of which I prob wouldn’t do in the context of a super dialed marathon plan, given how hard it is to swing the logistics of literally anything with a baby)
So the solution: race a HM at Baystate instead of the marathon! Haven’t raced one in years and excited to just put a time on the board without the pressure of a really ambitious A goal. And then build to Boston Marathon 2027 when Luke is a little older
Mantra: “After months of listening to you talk about the power of mantras, I sort of stumbled into one early in the race and it literally kept me focused and moving throughout the whole thing. I was finding myself starting to think about what was coming next, if I could maintain my pace, if I would hit my goal… And it created a lot of anxiety and pressure that I didn’t need! So my mantra became “you are where you are” to continue to ground myself in the moment and not looking ahead. The idea of you are exactly where you’re supposed to be, and you can only control what you do in that precise moment.”
Challenge of the week:
Katie: mid season check in → do you feel in alignment with your goals/ goal event/ original purpose?
Elena: check in on your training discipline→ is easy easy? Is threshold threshold?
Gear pick of the week:
Katie: On performance tight shorts
Elena: Shupatto foldable bag