Improve Your Run
BONUS EPISODE 1
LISTEN ON APPLE PODCASTS | GOOGLE | STITCHER | SPOTIFY
These show notes are a very brief overview of the Podcast episode. So if you want to hear all the details, be sure to listen on your favorite player or watch on youtube.
IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER:
THE INFORMATION ON THIS WEBSITE IS FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. FOR ALL WATER CONFIDENCE EVENTS, DO NOT PERFORM ANY WITHOUT A MEDICAL KIT AND A BUDDY WHO IS CERTIFIED CPR/FIRST AID. ANY ATTEMPT AT PERFORMING THESE DRILLS FOR ANY EXERCISE IS AT YOUR OWN RISK. ONES READY LLC DOES NOT ACCEPT ANY RESPONSIBILITY FOR DAMAGES OR LIABILITIES, PERCEIVED OR REAL AS A RESULT OF THE INFORMATION PROVIDED ON THIS WEBSITE. BE SMART.
Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means we get a small commission if you go through them to make a purchase. We only link these companies and their products because we believe in the quality and use these products ourselves.
Welcome to another info-packed episode of the Ones Ready Podcast! On this episode we’ll talk about hitting that training plateau where you can’t seem to gain any speed and some of the ways you can break through to get your speed back!
Peaches:
Hey everybody, welcome to the Ones Ready podcast. You're in the Team Room. Today we want to talk to you guys about your training regime and when you happen to hit plateaus specifically with your running, so how do you get your, your run times down? How do you get quicker and all that kind of good stuff, right? Everybody gets plateaus and don't worry about it. It's just a matter of what you do to, you know, increase and improvement or, or bust through that, that barrier, right? So before we talk about it and go into depth with all the guys here, uh, we're brought to you guys by Alpha Brew Coffee and Strike Force Energy. If you go over their websites and enter the promo code ONESREADY, you guys will be able to get a sweet deal on some swag. So again, how do we, you know, improve once we hit a plateau or a barrier in our training regime, whether it be running bench press, squatting, dead lifting, anything within our, our training regime, right? Once we hit that plateau, how do we bust through it and continue to improve, especially if we haven't met the standards or, or the end goal that we want to get to. Right? So there are ways to do that and we're going to talk about today, but first we're going to go over to Aaron. Aaron, you were an instructor. What are some of the pitfalls and bad habits that you would see from students when they would come to you? Uh, whether it was as they were preparing for their, their pipeline or maybe while they were in the pipeline and in between schools or something like that.
What are some bad habits and pitfalls you have seen from students?
Aaron:
Yeah. So the number one, and this is a big thing for me, right, is never switching it up. So guys are like, I've been running the same and I'm going to have the same two mile, the same three mile and I'm not increasing on my time. So you kind of dig into it a little bit deep and you're like, all right, well, well what are you doing to get there? And they're like, well, I'm just running a mile and a half and I'm just running two miles. I'm running three miles. I'm trying to get as fast as I can. Listen, you got to switch it up. So all of the top level strength and conditioning coaches, all these people that are on the cutting edge of fitness for a lot of the things they're doing, things like when you look at NFL athletes, they go all the way back. NFL athletes, what do they do? They put them in ballet, they put them in some of their words. They're using their bodies that aren't the same for the thing that are actually training for in order to shore up those weaknesses. Right. So for me it was the same thing. Like I've always been a hard gains runner. I can be a good runner if I try at it. But to be honest with you, I hate it so badly. Like I hate, I hate running for any amount of long distance so that all my friends know this. Like cardio is hardio, I don't like doing those things. Like it's, it's not one of the things that I enjoy, right? But one of the things I do enjoy is strength and conditioning drills that are focus, like focused on um, turning or cutting speed ladders. If you're doing full field suicides when you're talking about running like, you know, 10 meters touching a line, coming back 20 meters, touching the line, coming back, those things that you need to switch up and kind of alter your routine, it can have really, really good gains. Um, doing things like faster running, slower running, you know, for a thing for me that we were talking before we even got on here, it was paced running like your race pace. So I had a coach that was really good that said, Hey, you want to get to six miles and you want to be able to run in a seven minute pace. Why don't you run a seven minute pace for one mile and start there? And once you get through that gate, then go to the next gate, then run seven miles for a seven minute mile for a mile and a half, seven minute mile for two miles every once in a while spicing those things up into your workout, getting those sprints in, doing those Hills sprints, doing those things that are really cardio intensive but might not necessarily be running. I know for me, when I hit a plateau, that was really important for me. Number one for the mental break, because I'm not just running, I'm not just pounding pavement. And like constantly failing. Like that was always really demoralizing to me was I'm not getting any faster. And that can kind of play into your head space to his right. Uh, as well. Right.
What do you to “change it up”?
So one of the things that I like to do is just do something else. Just go on. Nothing but a sprint day. Nothing. But I'm going to run only in eight mile pace, but I'm going to run five times longer today or whatever's appropriate for you to avoid injury. I'm going to run three times longer today than I normally do. Today's my one mile day, I'm gonna run four miles. I'm going to back the pace off and I'm really just going to take the clock away and not worry about it. So, um, a couple of things for me. I, I think the number one thing for me that I saw for students is just repeating the same behavior over and over and over again. They're like, I'm not getting any faster at my one and a half mile. Okay, well what are you running? Well, I'm just running the one and a half mile man. Run a 400 at a pace that you don't think you can touch like you. Maybe you're a seven minute mile or pace. Like that was me. I ran every, every single like evaluated, run. I didn't run very much faster than about a six 30 pace cause I just couldn't, I'm just, I'm a bigger dude. I don't run that fast. Um, but you know what I did do is every once in a while to spice it up I'd be like, okay, well I'm going to run a 200 but I'm going to run a 200 at a straight up six minute pace. Like I'm going to get after it, I'm going to go run hard. So I think for one, the number one thing I saw from students especially was just doing the same thing over and over again. Step out of your routine, add some different stresses, try to really push yourself in those shorter distances and try to get those sprints in. Um, try to get those, those different pace runs in and then, you know, make sure I'd say number two for me is make sure you know your pace. I've given a lot of evaluations that people where I'm like, Hey, you were running like an eight minute pace. And they were like, Oh, I thought I was running way faster. I thought I had plenty of time. Unless you're out on the clock and you're figuring out, no kidding. This is what it feels like to run this pace. You're not going to know. So I think those are my two, my two big ones. Peach. What else you got?
Peaches:
No, I mean I I agree completely and I'm actually glad that you brought up the whole pace thing because if not I was going to bring it up or at least ask you about it but like it, I know we were kind of BSing and about it before the podcast, but the amount of people that, that don't actually know their pace and, the bad thing is that they're, they are training for the pipeline that, you know, there are milestones that have to be hit and, and it just kind of blows my mind that you wouldn't at least I identify, Hey, this is my pace right now. I'm running a seven 30 I know I need to get the sub seven. Like even even that kind of knowledge would be fantastic. But to just go in blindly, I mean that's, that's ballsy. See how it works out for Cotton.
Aaron:
I'll be I. Yeah, exactly. And I'll be honest with you, I've been on runs, I'll be like, all right, cool, let's go, let's go talk about it. When we're on a run, I know what my pace is, but again, it's because I'm not a good runner. I know exactly how I feel when I'm at seven 30. When I'm at seven minutes. When I'm at faster than that, I know exactly like how hard I can push it, how, how much I need to kind of bring it back. So when I'm having a conversation with somebody at a pace that they say, Oh, I can run this all day and they're huffing and puffing and I'm like, Hey, we have a problem bud. You know, that's what I, that's kind of usually where I go. So, and again, for me, I'm not a good runner. Never have been. I, I do not like running. Um, I can be good at it when I focus on it, but thank goodness for those Northeast Ohio genes.
Peaches:
No, that's good. Yeah, that's good input. So Brian, I'm sure you know, uh, in your training when you were doing, when you were an instructor and also, you know, as you were training for the pipeline and once you got on team you absolutely hit a plateau because I know all three of us have, everybody hits them. So what, we're one of the plateaus that you hit specific they're running and then like what did you do specifically to, you know, overcome that or break through that barrier?
What is a functional weight?
Brian:
Yeah, so Jared, I mean a lot of the things that you know I saw as an instructor and I've experienced through the time that I've been conditioning because I ran track and cross country whenever I was kind of in high school and that whole thing cause that was my foundation kind of thing when I was a lot younger and a lot lighter. You know, I was 140 or whatever and that, that helped me with that. Well barrel chest. Exactly. No, but it was way a lot more. The a important thing here is that, you know, when you're back there, you're training for cross country, you're training just to run that specific three mile or two mile or whatever. You're not training to do all these other things that like functional fitness wise that you need to also be able to do. So I think that's an important aspect to keep in mind. Like you're not going to just try and go for a five minute mile and then let your pushups and let your uh, rucking and all that other stuff fall the wayside. So that's a really important thing to keep. Keep in mind. And if you were those one of those guys that were just, you know, dead lifting 600 pounds or whatever, but you can't run and you're 190 pounds, like that was what I was gonna talk about. You know, I got up to on one of the deployments, 180 something and I was just way too heavy for being able to run for my friend, because I'm not a big dude like we were talking about. I'm not huge or anything like that. But having that extra weight on my frame, just even, you know, the addition of five pounds or whatever would really take away from my ability to run. And I was not able to run under like a sub eight at that point. So, um, like keeping in mind all the factors of the things that are required of you, especially with the PAST test in mind and with grad standards that are going to be changing, um, just know that you're, you're shooting for that functional. So back to like what Aaron was saying and Peach, you want to add in those sprints so you can actually perform the things that are going to be asking you, because you're gonna be doing grass and gorilla drills, you're going to be doing, you know, rucking and you're gonna have to sprint to cover and do all that kind of stuff with kit on and gear on. So you need to be able to do those functional things. And you know, leads me into my next thing. You need to find your functional weight. So for me, and I know all of you guys have the same thing, you've experienced it. Like, you know, if I go up to this this way, you know, I'm a little bit too heavy. If I go down this too low, then I'm a little too weak. So, you know, for me like 175 is a pretty good functional weight to be able to have the strength to, to running and cardio ratio, you know, based on your frame and figure out whatever it is and uh, kinda go towards that. So diet's a huge thing on that. And then as far as plateaus, same thing like you guys are talking about, if you're over there just running, you know, 1.5 miles to do a 1.5 mile pace, you're not going to get any better. You're not going to get anything different out of that. I usually run like, um, so kind of my run week looks like running on Monday. Um, usually it's a more difficult workout, like some kind of interval work and then Wednesday will be a more calm, like three miles or whatever kinda thing. Friday, again, intervals. And then one day over the weekend, whichever, I have more time for, um, like an eight mile run. And that's just like a tempo. Get my straight up pace in there and know what that feels like and know it like usually around eight minutes, what I do for eight miles. So I'll just get, get an exactly what, you know, the distance, keep that same pace and don't stop running. That's one of the key things also is guys get used to having that break. Like you get, you know, the guys say break every mile or something like that. And then if you're doing a three mile at CRO selection or something, you're going to expect your body's going to expect to have that break whenever you'd come up onto the mile. So, you know, practice that and make sure you don't give yourself that break so you can pass through it whenever you actually come time for the test. So those are the really key things that kind of get me through some of the, uh, plateaus that I've had in the past is just that diet and making sure I find a functional way. And then, like you guys were talking about varying up your training and making sure you're getting in that aerobic capacity as well as the sprint capacity kind of thing.
Is Yoga a good idea?
Peaches:
Yeah. And I, I agree and I like the fact that you actually added in, you know, recovery or of, uh, because a lot of people that every single time they go out and run, they just, they hammer it as fast as they can, you know, uh, whether it's, you know, if they're doing a three mile run, they just go keep going and going and they never, one, they never sprint, you know, or do sprints, but also they never do a recovery run or an active recovery event that's gonna end up hurting them in the long run. Um, so I would say, and I'll leave with three things for me. Uh, and both you guys brought it up, strength training, right? Um, Hey, it's great that I can run all the time, but I've got to throw in some kind of strength to help build the muscle. Um, I think that's important. I also think yoga is important. Um, and I think it is often overlooked and maybe even frowned upon in the SOF community. But I think as we're starting to get outta here. Get outta here.
Aaron:
What man? We're supposed to like, uh, we're supposed to pay homage to the patron Saint and podcasting, right? Joe Rogan said that yoga is a martial art that you do against yourself. You actually, you're, you're completing things that you never thought your body could do in an hour session. Mobility, durability, yoga. So important. It's so underlooked like people just, man, when was the last time you saw a lion stretch to go get his prey? Get outta here with that.
Peaches:
Yeah, you're not, you're not a lion. You're not a lion. You're a human, I've heard that so many times. Like, yeah, no kidding. Get outta here. I'm not a lion. I'm a, I'm a person. I'm a human. Of course. Hot yoga.
Aaron:
I'll tell you what, if there's one you want to change your week in one session, go to hot yoga, start your week off. Hit that bad boy on a Sunday or a Monday. See how your week feels different.
Peaches:
You bet. You better pack some water though. Hey, you better pack a lunch guy.
Aaron:
Try to get out here and work. Yeah.
Peaches:
Uh, okay. So the third one though, and, and I know we've, we've said Hey, vary up stuff, but I actually want to leave the listeners with a no kid and work out, right? So if you, if the listeners are, and you guys can try this obviously, but since we're not running right very much, right, Aaron,
Aaron:
there's a lot of jujitsu. Not a lot of running in one direction. That's just, that's my mind state. I'm sorry. I am getting my cardio and it's important. I do run a little bit more now. Well that's all right. I got Maggie and I don't want her to get fat. And so everybody knows Maggie's my German shepherd, right? It's not like I'm talking about somebody.
Aaron:
How dare you.
Peaches:
So here's what I want to leave with you guys. And it's a, it's a, it's a quick 12 minute workout, right? And it's a Tabata sprint workout. So you do four minutes warm up at a nice just relaxing kind of pace just to get warmed up, right? And then for four minutes, you're going to do eight rounds of 20 seconds on and 10 seconds off. Now that 20 seconds on is an all out 100% sprint as fast as you can go. And then once you hit, once that 20 seconds is over and you start that 10 second rest, it is literally a walk. You just walk and then 10 seconds goes by and then it's go time again, 20 seconds on 100% so you're going to do that eight times, that equals four minutes, right? And then for the final four minutes is just a nice cool down so that you don't just, you know, do sprints it, and all of a sudden you stop doing something. So if you're short on time or you want to change up your regime and just give it a shot and it'll help you get faster and it'll, it'll build some, you may even have that little, that kind of dry cough at the end of it as well. I know sometimes I do depending on where I do this workout, but I'm short on time and it'll get you quick. So that's what I throw out there. I don't know if you guys have any quick ones you want to, you want to throw in there. I know Brian, you've got a bunch from a How To Be A PJ.
Workout:
4 minute - warm up pace
4 minute - Sprints: 8x :20 sprint at 100% // :10 walk
4 minute - cool down pace
Brian:
Yeah. So I got a, you know, you guys can check out the workouts that I have and beapj.com. Um, the biggest things that I do for you, I do some of the tempo runs, like you were talking about, you know, just doing the 10x 20 second intervals and you know, slowing down at a 50% to 80% kind of thing. And that is really important. Um, another thing that is really, you know, really helps me whenever I plateaued was running on Hills. So if you go and find a Hill somewhere and then you find one that's hopefully about 100 to 200 meters at least, and then you can time yourself based on that interval and then see how long it takes you to get up to the top, give yourself about 30 seconds of rest if you're doing like a 200 meter type of thing. And then you start again on the next 30 seconds after your rest. So keep on doing that and then build yourself up, you know, on those Hills because that is really key, especially if you're building up your rucking strength. We'll talk about rucking in a future episode. And then for these exercises like the one that Peaches just said, make sure that you check down below on the website. If you go to ones ready.com you click on the episode and you look below on the show notes, you can check out that actual workout, that Peach just saying. So we write all the important stuff down there. And the highlights from each episode so you guys can go down there and check it out. Um, the other thing that I would say is like I said, get in there and get a distance. I'm a big believer and I've been doing it for, I don't know how many years now, just running six to eight miles one day out of the week and that keeps up your cardio even if you have no time to do any other like type of running. Once you build yourself up to maintain, you can, you can do a decent job by doing like six to eight miles each week. Um, we'll talk about shin splints and all that other stuff that comes with, uh, and the injuries that come with running and doing all this in a future episode. That's recovery. But recovery in general, make sure you guys are stretching and foam rolling like these guys were talking about. Like it doesn't have to always be yoga. You don't have to like show up every day for hot yoga or whatever. But stretching is key to making that you're ready to go and perform and you don't break something later on when you go and do those sprints, especially kind of thing. Uh, that being said, dynamic stretches before you actually perform. And then static stretching once all of your stuff is done and you are ready to stay stagnant after that or whatever. So a static stretching after not before. Um, so those are the, my, uh, key points for running on my end. You got anything else Peach?
Peaches:
No. So I want to, you know, thank the listeners for tuning in or watching us on the podcast. We really appreciate the support. The whole purpose behind this specific episode is because we've gotten a lot of questions about how do I get my run time down. So I wanted to address it during this episode and hopefully we've done that and it'll help you improve your training regime and if you've plateaued or hit any kind of barriers that will help you break through those. So, uh, Brian, you want to close this out?
Brian:
All right. So, you know, take all these, uh, things that we said into consideration. Next time you go out for your run and you're planning your week, uh, take at least one tip implemented into the program that you're writing for yourself or go check out any of the workouts that are, that are out there. Um, you know, the thing that, the common thing that we're talking about here is if you keep on doing the same thing, which is like the 1.5 mile run over and over and over again, if you're not going to get any better, uh, Albert Einstein once said, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. And that's kind of what you're doing. If you are, like you said, doing that 1.5 mile over and over again. So make sure that that is not you. Vary up your training and make sure you use all the, the resources out there that you have at your disposal on the Internet. Um, and then at onesready.com you guys can check out all the show notes and the episodes. Make sure you check out Peaches workout. If you do it, make sure you come over to Instagram, drop us a note, let us know how you guys did it and check out @cctpeaches. Hit him up, let him know how you did with that workout. So we appreciate you guys. Again listening to another episode. You guys have ideas or things that you want to hear us talk about. Make sure you hit us up, let us know. Go to onesready.com check it out for these awesome shirts that we got. Tri-blend material and then hit up our partners, Alpha Brew Coffee Company and Strike Force Energy for and use the code ONESREADY for a discount on that. So again, I appreciate you guys listening and I'm watching it. You're doing the YouTube thing and leaves a comment. We will catch you next time and go make sure you go out there, get your run on and earn each breath. All right, later guys, later.
LEARN MORE ABOUT our sponsors: Strike force Energy & Alphabrew coffee!
PROMO CODE: ONESREADY
LEAVE A REVIEW
It’s our collective goal at Ones Ready to help Special Warfare candidates get through Selection and become better Operators than we ever were. By leaving us a review, it helps our podcast get in front of more candidates just like you.
So thanks in advance for leaving a review, we truly appreciate it.