Realize your self-worth is independent of performance to reduce pressure and foster fearlessness in pursuing goals. This mindset helps overcome depression and embrace challenges without personalizing failure, allowing you to take risks and learn from setbacks.
Adopt a mindset where failure is seen as a natural part of the process, not a personal indictment. This allows for greater risk-taking and resilience, encouraging you to ‘get up and go again the next time’ without taking setbacks personally.
When overwhelmed by a challenge, bring your mind back to the immediate task at hand. By focusing on ’this moment’ or ’this mile,’ you’ll find you always have enough to get through it, preventing mental shutdown from the scope of the challenge.
Actively change your perspective on difficult situations to find excitement and beauty in them. This mental tactic helps transform negative thoughts into an embracing of the experience, even when things don’t go as planned.
Recognize that consistency is the most crucial element in both running and weightlifting for achieving significant physical adaptation and growth. Make the bar low and easy to maintain consistency, such as short daily sessions, to ensure long-term adherence.
Avoid training in a ‘garbage zone’ of moderate intensity; instead, make hard days ‘super hard’ and easy days ‘super chill.’ This extreme variance in pace is essential for building both aerobic foundation (Zone 2) and glycolytic stress (Zone 5) for optimal progress.
Perform all leg stressors, including hard runs and weightlifting, on the same day. This allows for more complete recovery on subsequent easy days, ensuring you’re fresh for the next intense session.
Treat sleep as a professional athlete would, aiming for 9-10 hours nightly and incorporating daily naps (e.g., 2 hours) to maximize recovery. Additionally, minimize non-training energy expenditure by staying off your feet to conserve energy for workouts.
Integrate heavy lifting into your routine to offset the depleting effects of cardio, especially as you age, benefiting hormonal health, bone density, and overall body strength. This helps build up the body rather than just breaking it down.
For runners, focus on exercises like hex bar deadlifts (with handles up) and half squats to build running-specific strength and power, particularly in hip extension. These lifts allow for heavy loading and hormonal benefits with reduced injury risk compared to full squats.
Shift your foot contact to a mid-foot strike, focusing on ‘stomping the ground’ and pushing force into it, rather than ‘pawing’ or rolling from heel to toe. This technique better utilizes glutes and generates more power for an efficient stride.
Continuously challenge your body by increasing weight, sets, reps, or decreasing rest time in your training. This fundamental principle drives adaptation and prevents plateaus in any physical discipline.
Consider Blood Flow Restriction (BFR) training as a method to progressively overload muscles using lighter weights. This technique can be beneficial for runners to gain strength without the high impact or injury risk of very heavy lifting.
Implement a two-day carbohydrate loading strategy before endurance events, adding 400 extra calories of simple carbohydrates daily. During the race, start with less concentrated fluids, gradually increase concentration, use a caffeinated gel at 30k, and consider a ‘spit-out’ tactic for a mental boost near the end.
Always experiment with new fueling strategies, supplements, or foods during training, never immediately before a race. This prevents adverse reactions and ensures your body is accustomed to what you’ll consume during competition.
Experiment with taking 1000mg of Tylenol an hour before endurance races, as it may offer a 1-3% performance boost through pain or temperature reduction. Always be mindful of dosage due to potential liver toxicity.
Use Palmer cooling techniques, such as holding cold packs or putting hands in cool water between lifting sets or before/after runs, to lower core body temperature. This can enhance performance in both strength and endurance activities by optimizing internal temperature.
Strategically consume caffeine primarily before hard training days to maximize its performance-enhancing effects. Reduce or eliminate caffeine on easy days to avoid reliance and allow for natural recovery.
Begin runs with a 20-minute easy jog, followed by dynamic flexibility/mobility work (avoiding excessive static stretching to maintain muscle tension), and then 5-10 minutes of drills and 6x100m strides before the main workout.
Conclude every hard running session with a 20-minute easy cool-down jog to aid recovery.
For optimal adaptation, cycle between periods of living at high altitude (e.g., two months) and training at sea level (e.g., one month). This strategy leverages the initial hematocrit boost from altitude exposure and the ability to perform high-intensity work at sea level.
Include long threshold runs (e.g., 15 miles straight at slightly faster than marathon pace) three times during a 12-week marathon buildup. These serve as key indicator workouts for predicting race pace.
Incorporate ‘fartlek style’ running (practicing changing gears) during the second half of long runs (1.75-2.5 hours) on tired legs. This builds mental and physical resilience for late-race efforts.
For advanced marathon training, implement a workout of 20x1000m repeats with a 200m easy jog recovery, aiming for a pace about 5 seconds per kilometer faster than target marathon pace. This helps drive down your threshold.
If experiencing chronic injuries or overtraining, consider taking a complete break from running for an extended period (e.g., three months) to allow the body to fully recover and rebuild. This can restore hormonal balance and physical health.
Push your cardiovascular system hard during teenage years (formative years) with both aerobic and anaerobic training. This early development can provide long-lasting fitness benefits that are harder to develop later in life.
Utilize a G flight device to measure vertical jump height and ground contact time, especially during depth jumps. Aim for a higher vertical jump off a box than static, with ground contact time below 0.28 seconds, as indicators of efficient force generation.
When training in a group, communicate your intentions (e.g., going a little quicker) to maintain positive group dynamics and ensure everyone is comfortable with the session’s flow.
Cultivate strong belief in your coach and their prescribed training plan. A strong belief that the training will work is crucial for its effectiveness, regardless of the specific exercises.
As life seasons change or athletic careers transition, actively seek new mechanisms (e.g., different sports, creative pursuits) to express your core self and passions. This helps prevent identity loss and fosters continued happiness.
For inspiration and to witness extreme feats of strength and endurance, check out Ryan Hall’s Instagram account.