There are two big questions underpinning this episode...

• Is mental strength innate or do you build it?
• What's the distance between your true limits and the perceived limits posed by your mind?

We discuss these questions to open the episode. We truly do believe that mental fortitude is built. AND, there is plenty of room to better match your perceived limits with your actual limits.

To do that, you have to work at it, and we break down how to do so. Know your plan. Bring your mental tools to race day. Build the mentality needed to give your all. Execute, apply, learn. And finally, do it with a team to best hone your mental skills.

We are turning the page (pun intended) to a new section of the book where we discuss the mental side of training and racing. And, as cheesy as it might sound, it all starts with knowing your purpose for the run.

Why do you run, and specifically why do run for performance?

For you, running might be about stress relief, health or longevity, but we would submit that there are likely deeper reasons as well, especially if you are listening to us talk.

In this episode, we encourage you to dig into your purpose by creating a statement of purpose for your running. We give you 6 tips and several thought starters for doing so. This might be a scary exercise for you, but we promise it will pay off when the going gets tough in training or racing!

If the long run "puts the tiger in the cat," then the long run workout puts the saber tooth in the tiger!

Yes, we need all of those easy long runs to build the aerobic foundation. Then, as you gain experience and appropriately timed in the cycle, it is important to add quality into your long runs to give you that extra edge for race day. We call these workouts race simulations or race preps because they give you the opportunity to practice that race-day feeling while still saving something for race day.

In this episode, we break down how to do that in an optimal way with all of the do's and don'ts, including example workouts. Are you ready to upgrade some of your long runs with speed? Then, this episode is for you!

There are 3 main pillars of recovery - sleep, nutrition/hydration, and easy movement.

In this episode, we talk about the third pillar. In our training programs, easy movement primarily manifests as recovery running. These are the glacially slow runs that enable blood flow which promote healing for the next long or hard thing. If you are skipping your recovery runs, then you are likely on the bullet train to injury.

So, get in those recovery runs and do them at paces that are slower than you think. Your body will thank you and so will your next PR.

Last week, we talked about the long run, and now this week, we talk about the medium long run.

I call it the "unsung hero" of fitness building, and it's a run that is often overlooked relative to the speed workout or primary long run. In this episode, we discuss why it's really the third leg or pillar in your training that should be given equal weight to those other two.

Listen in to learn about the why and the how of building a robust medium long run to help you smash your goals. It is more important than you think!

Mile for mile... the long run might just be the most important run of the week. It builds aerobic capacity, improves neuromuscular resilience, and facilitates metabolic flexibility - 3 of the most important tools you need as a distance runner.

In this episode, we discuss the benefits in detail and then break down the tactics by answering these 6 questions about the long run:

• How long?
• How many or how often?
• How fast?
• Can you go too fast?
• How do you fuel? Hydrate?
• How do you incorporate long run workouts?

Make sure you aren't wasting miles. Listen to this one before your next long run!

The word "tempo" might be one of the most commonly misunderstood words in coaching vernacular, even as it might be the most commonly prescribed type of workout.

It's also one of the most important and critical training efforts for distance runners, so it is critical to understand it well if you want to improve.

This episode is all about that tempo. We give you the what, the why, and the how of executing a solid tempo workout. Plus, you get a host of examples of how it might be done in different ways across all training phases. Don't fidget. Tempo!

400m reps at 5K pace. 800m reps at 10K pace. 1 mile repeats starting at HM pace and working down by 2-3 secs per rep.

Our vernacular in running is to use training paces based on what you could theoretically run at each distance. It is a useful tool for dialing into effort, but it IS NOT The end all and be all.

In this episode, we give you 9 truths about training paces and how to use them effectively while still keeping the big picture in mind!

We take a break from our book discussions to reflect on 400 episodes and nearly 10 years of podcasting.

Our hope with this one is simply to remind you and ourselves of why we do this. Thank you to everyone who has listened and downloaded through the years. We do it for you. One step at a time. Onward.

Recovery is how you build fitness. We need recovery after hard and long days, hence our emphasis on recovery running. You also need recovery after hard weeks, so in our programming, we do "down weeks" every third week to consolidate the fitness gains of the "up weeks." Two up, one down. That is the rhythm of working hard and then recovering from that work to actually get faster.

In this episode, we talk about the what, why, and how of down weeks. What do they look like? Why do we do them? And how do you make them as effective as possible with 6 key success factors?

Almost at 400 episodes!