Episode 149: Big Adventure Days, Racing Non-Negotiables, and Building Resilience
In this week's episode, we catch up on Elena's recent 40-mile adventure on the John Muir Trail and talk about planning big adventure days, managing risk, and taking some of the pressure and perfectionism out of training. We also discuss approaching sport with more curiosity, finding motivation through supporting other athletes, and how to be a great crew member or pacer when a friend is tackling a big goal. Then, we dig into race-day non-negotiables, building a cookie jar of resilience data points from hard experiences, and why the races that don't go according to plan can sometimes become your most valuable mental training. Finally, we talk about recovering and fueling after big training days before wrapping up with this week's challenges and gear picks. Check it out!
Insights
Elena:
Reflections from my own mini adventure volume camp
Different forms of perfectionist mitigation:
Separating real risk from anxious risk and trusting in your ability to figure it out. Reminds me of the Japanese tradition (Hajimete no Otsukai) of sending a young child out on their first independent errand→ building self confidence through figuring it out
Certainty Burnout→ when trying to control for every outcome creates planning fatigue
Taking all pressure off of “performance” in an adventure context. Huge difference mentally in having completion goals which is another reason why it’s so helpful to switch up the context entirely so you can’t have many comparison points
Brief Flashings in the Phenomenal World book→ Zen mindset of not judging anything as good or bad, just what is. Not trying to control for good or bad outcomes, just approach each situation in the moment
The extra motivation of having such a beautiful place to explore! And the contrast of doing that with a group slowly after having done it quickly
The Support Role: what goes into pacing a friend for a 100 mile race
Physical planning→ what does she need at each aid station, on her person, or at the ready
Scenario planning→ if this, then what?
Mental planning→ what headspace should we try to nudge her in? What’s helpful vs unhelpful to hear?
The feeling of making an individual sport a team sport→ for me its perhaps the purest form of a team because the goal is so concrete and wholesome, supporting one person to be their best on that day
I think playing the support role helps put sport in much better perspective, both in terms of the challenges we actually undertake (if she’s doing 100 I can do 31) and also in terms of the most positive forces in sport (community, vulnerability, determination, etc.)
On big days followed by big rest→
Anecdotal:
40 mile big day felt hard towards the end, I didn’t want to run (and haven’t been training for this, no long runs at all since April).
Day 2, another 3.5 hours on trail but felt great, felt like shuffling towards the end but then kicked it into gear and could run really well. Sometimes a mental limitation. Felt like I had great on the feet endurance for the rest of the week with hiking.
Science:
Energy availability risk so this is the most important thing to focus on intentionally
Seemingly not much research on this but…
Fatigue and Recovery after Single-Stage versus Multistage Ultramarathon Running (2020): Multistage running produced longer-lasting peripheral impairment than the same distance in one stage; single-stage produced more central fatigue→ longer events hit more central fatigue, consecutive training hits more peripheral fatigue, which makes intuitive sense.
Challenge of the week
Elena: plan an imperfect adventure day – an objective, enough safety to feel secure, but enough unknown to feel challenged and excited
Katie: Sleep challenge! Try to get in bed 10-15 mins earlier, bonus points for establishing a wind-down routine
Gear pick of the week
Elena: BeFree Filter flask
Katie: Bringing a favorite back! Patagonia micro puff