453: Training Upgrade or Shiny Object Syndrome? How to Know the Difference

Have you ever felt the urge to switch plans, apps, races, or gear—thinking something new will finally move you forward?

In this episode, I’m talking about shiny object syndrome and how it quietly keeps runners stuck. I share a personal example from our business where we changed platforms to “fix” a problem, only to realize later that we didn’t need something new—we just needed to go deeper with what we already had.

It’s the same in running. Many runners jump from plan to plan after a tough race or when things start to feel boring. But more often than not, the issue isn’t the plan—it’s consistency.

Real progress comes from mastering the fundamentals: easy running, strength, mobility, fueling, and recovery. Speed work has its place, but it’s not the foundation—it’s the finishing touch.

There are times when change is necessary—like if you’re dealing with frequent injuries, running everything too hard, or don’t have a clear structure. But a lot of the time, we’re reacting instead of truly progressing.

In this episode, I also share four simple filters to help you decide whether it’s time to adjust—or stay the course.

If you’ve been feeling stuck or like you’re constantly starting over, this will help you refocus and build real, lasting progress.

00:49 Why Runners Chase Fixes

05:37 Blaming Plans After Races

07:02 Apps Metrics And Reality

08:34 Races As Distraction

11:39 Gear And Super Shoes

15:14 Four I Framework Explained

17:14 Basics Over Trends

21:58 When Overhauls Matter

25:55 Flexible Plan Structure

28:43 Spotting Shiny Objects

30:07 Escape Versus Improve

34:19 Implement What You Know

35:39 Simplify Training Basics

42:09 Speed Work As Seasoning

43:26 Focus On Big Rocks

Join the 30 Day Running Reset and get a plan that will help you build a strong and injury-proof body by combining running and strength training in a way that actually works for runners like you.

Gain access to my new secret podcast, Unbreakable: The Runner's Guide To Injury-Proofing Your Body After 40. Click here: https://www.realliferunners.com/secret

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Transcript

Speaker 0:00

Have you ever convinced yourself that the reason you're running isn't improving is because you just need a different training plan or a new app or a new coach, or maybe a different race or a new piece of gear? Definitely a new piece of gear. Today I wanna talk about something that we see runners doing all the time, and honestly, it's something that I just caught myself doing recently and that thing is shiny object syndrome, and that can keep you stuck. So today we're gonna talk about shiny object. Syndrome. How to know if what you're doing or the change that you want to make or the change that you're currently making is just another shiny object that you're chasing that's not actually going to move the needle and help you, or if it is actually an improvement in enhancement or an upgrade to your training. So stay tuned. What's up runners? Welcome back to the podcast. We're all the way up to podcast 4 53, Kev.

Speaker 2 1:20

4 53.

Speaker 1:21

Pretty fun. Shiny object syndrome. Kevin and I were talking about what we were gonna talk about on the podcast, like we like to do all the time

Speaker 2 1:28

as we're prone to doing

Speaker 1:29

it's, and so we were coming up a little short this week and trying to think of'cause one of the things that we like to do when we think of topics for the podcast is what's going on in our life? What's going on in the lives of our clients and the people that we coach? What are some of the trends that we're seeing with people recently? And so as I was thinking about it, I. this idea of shiny object syndrome popped into my head because this is definitely something that I have the trap that I've fallen into many a time in my life. And I think that it's one of those traps that we can easily fall into as runners, because there's a lot of shiny objects in the running world.

Speaker 2 2:09

yeah, there's tons of shiny objects. if you just look for, you could probably Google how to improve my running And come up with. Thousands of different shiny objects that will magically fix everything for you.

Speaker 2:19

Exactly. So that's actually what inspired this episode. So I'm just gonna be very honest with all of you and those of you that are listening to the podcast that are our current members inside of our team membership, you will know this firsthand. So recently I, Very periodically in the business. I like to evaluate. I'm always constantly evaluating how things are going in the business and whether or not the things that we're doing are serving our clients in the best way and that we're not also just getting stuck in shiny object syndrome. and turns out that's what happened to me, basically over the last couple of months. So one of the things that kind of came up in the platform that we were using to deliver our training plans. Was, I was not a huge fan of the strength training portion of the platform. It's a fantastic platform for running and structuring your workouts and it sinks to, to watches, and there's all these amazing features. For the running side of things, but for the strength side, one of the biggest things that it was missing was the ability to program sets reps and weights and really track progress over time. And so I started to look into different options for that and I chose a different platform and. That had a really good strength training platform, like built in. And so what we, what I decided to do is I started off with just a few people. I think I had five women at first that decided that, agreed to test out this platform and they liked it. they were, they gave me some feedback, but overall they liked it. I was like, okay, you know what, we're gonna give this a shot. So we migrated, the rest of our members over there, and. Spent months building this thing out, and as I was build, building it out and investing time and money and energy into this platform and doing this on a bigger scale with the rest of our members, I realized that this new platform had its own problems. And that really made me step back for a second and. Understand that the system that I was already using wasn't broken. It just needed improvements. And here I was like looking for some magic bullet essentially to fix the strength training programs and fix all the things. And I spent months trying to overhaul something that really just needed refinement. It. There was plenty of ways that I could take the system that we were using and make it better and. That's what I genuinely needed to do, and that's what I ended up doing in, in the end is I decided to migrate everyone back to our, the platform that we were using previously and. Just improve it because it, that's really what needed to happen. It just needed to take the system that I was already using and make it even better, make it more simple, make it more user friendly, and I had the ability to do that in the system that I was currently using. I didn't need to overhaul and. Create a whole new system and I think that this is what we see runners trying to do all the time.

Speaker 2 5:19

Yeah. I think it also reflects the beginning of our relationship. You didn't need a whole new person, you just needed to refine the boyfriend that you were with so that it was more user friendly. Oh my

Speaker 5:30

goodness.

Speaker 2 5:30

and able to interact with others. That

Speaker 5:32

is not in the outline. I did not see that one coming. What you

Speaker 2 5:34

talking

Speaker 5:35

about didn't

Speaker 2 5:35

into I, I was ready for that one. Her story's going. I'm like, this is gonna be fantastic. She's. Teeing up a wonderful joke here and I'm going for it.

Speaker 5:43

Just needed to refine the current way for they had

Speaker 2 5:45

just, you just needed a little bit of refinement on me so that I would be able to interact with those around me. With those around you. Those

Speaker 5:52

around me,

Speaker 2 5:53

yeah. Yeah. So that I can use user ca interactions I think is really

Speaker 5:58

perfect.

Speaker 2 5:59

Yeah.

Speaker 5:59

Excellent.

Speaker 2 6:00

But to be more serious. This does happen all the time with runners. coming off of my last race, one of the big things is like, that plan didn't work because my race wasn't as successful as I wanted to be. Something went wrong. Do I need to just completely scrap it and overhaul the plan and start from scratch? And that happens to runners all the time, especially after a race that doesn't go exactly how they want. They're like, that plan was bad. I need a completely new plan.

Speaker 6:27

Yeah. And a lot of times. You can gain a lot of benefits from repeating the same plan that you were on, depending on what kind of plan it is, what your goal is, all that kind of thing. But a lot of times what we see is people will, they love to blame the plan, but if they get truly honest with themselves, and we've had our clients fall into this trap. I know other people fall into this trap all the time. If they're honest, they didn't actually follow the plan the way that it was written. They missed things or they modified things and they didn't actually follow the plan. So it wasn't that the plan wasn't working, it was that there was other things that kept getting in their way.

Speaker 2 7:02

Yeah. if you're only doing 60% of whatever plan, is it ever really the plan's fault? Yeah, it's probably not. Or if people, if it's not necessarily because of a race, people just get bored on a plan and they try a new one, then no plan's gonna be successful because you never give it long enough to actually. Work its way through into your body doesn't adapt immediately. Yeah. It'll adapt to almost anything. Takes time, but it takes a little bit of time.

Speaker 7:25

Yeah, and I think that kind of goes along with. The whole idea of downloading new apps. Also, it's not just the training plan. Oh, it must be the app. oh, I need a Garmin plan, or a Nike plan, or Runa or Strava, or these AI training plans, but none of them are solving the core issue. If you're not being consistent, then that's the core issue. Or if you don't have an actual system that works, it's not just about the training plan, it's your whole system that goes into your training. We talk about your training system all the time here on the podcast. It involves everything that's going on in your life. It's not just about what's written in the plan or what's in the app in your phone.

Speaker 2 8:03

Yeah. And all those different apps, they all try and integrate what's going on in your body with various metrics they're measuring. But a lot of them essentially look at what you're currently doing and then whether it's a Garmin that's like taking your heart rate and various other. quote unquote recovery metrics that it may or may not be measuring accurately and says, this is how prepared you are to run on the day. But if you wake up feeling amazing and your watch thinks that you're not feeling amazing, it's not going to even have a plan that makes sense for you. It's gonna be like, oh, we need a recovery day. It's no, I feel awesome. But two, two years back when I ran a hundred miles fastest, a hundred miles, I ran my watch, told me I was at zero was my training for the day.

Speaker 8:41

Yeah, you were at baseline. I

Speaker 2 8:41

was at baseline. It wasn't gonna be a good day. It wasn't gonna be a bad day. It was at a zero and it was the first zero that I'd had in probably six months. It was like, that's an unfortunate time to get a zero, but. I think the recommendation on the day was like 30 minutes easy. It's man, I'm gonna go for 18 hours. So let's see what it thinks about that.

Speaker 8:58

That's too happens there. So speaking of races, that, that's also another shiny object that we see a lot of runners get distracted by, which is constantly changing races or constantly need thinking that they need to pick a race in order to have motivation. But the problem isn't motivation, it's consistency with. Your training, and there's a lot of people that think, oh, I have to have a plan in order to be consistent. And I would offer that. Plans are, or, races can be great. Races can be very helpful, but they don't solve the problem of consistency. They can be great for you to measure how you're doing and measure progress, but. Consistency needs to come first if you want to have success in your races.

Speaker 2 9:41

Yeah. If races are just going on your calendar to build consistency, it's tricky to maintain consistent improvement if you're constantly racing. Like it gets to a point where there's too many races on a calendar where it's tough to even schedule good progress. Yeah. Because unless you're looking at several of the races as I'm just training through that. Or that actually fits into my training schedule because. Races are races and while they can be like a b race that builds you up towards your a race, if you're racing every weekend, it's tough to fit in most of the training plan.

Speaker 10:13

It's not only tough to fit it in, it's tough to optimize. and if you, like Kevin said, if you have the right mindset going into it and you understand that, okay, this is just part of my training and you don't get mad if you don't hit a PR or a time or a pace that you want, then it's fine. But there's a lot of runners out there. That we talk to that want to optimize for every race, and that's just not how the body works. That's not how adaptation works. We have to know what the actual goal is and train for that race, especially if you're doing races of different distances because the body adapts differently when it comes to, say, a 5K versus a marathon. And that training should be different. The. The foundational pieces are the same. There always needs to be a certain amount of running. There needs to be strength training. There needs to be mobility. There needs to be some speed work and make sure you're getting enough fuel and recovery. However, the distances and the amount, and intensity of speed work needs to be different, and it's hard to optimize for two very different things at the same time.

Speaker 2 11:12

Yeah. And I

Speaker 11:12

should say it's not really possible.

Speaker 2 11:14

Yeah.

Speaker 11:14

To optimize

Speaker 2 11:15

it would be, that's why so many people at the last Olympics, I forget, which I think he was the. Nordic skier. Like the distances that he won golds in. Someone suggested that'd be basically like somebody lining up at the Olympics and winning every distance race from the 1500 through the marathon.

Speaker 11:34

Yeah. That's insane.

Speaker 2 11:34

Like you just don't see that. And one, there's a different level of recovery that's required with running versus. Like CrossCountry skiing. There's Yeah. Because of the impact.'cause of the impact, but you just don't see somebody, Yakob Inger ran a half marathon, I wanna say last, somewhere within the last year. And he did not win it. And he crossed the finish line and it was like, this was terrible. I never want to do this thing again. And he's one of the best milers in the entire world. Yeah. But suddenly you put in at 13 miles, let alone 2026. And it's no, this is not what I signed up for.

Speaker 12:04

exactly. So one other area of shiny objects that. We often see a lot of runners falling into as well. And again, y'all, we've done all of these things, so don't think that we're sitting up here on our high horses by any means. we're mentioning these things because we know we've done them. and this is, it's

Speaker 2 12:20

the view from the high horse.

Speaker 12:20

Yeah. and this is a fun one, which is buying more gear, right? Buying different gear, thinking, oh, it's just, it must just be my shoes, or I need a new watch. Because like we've mentioned on the podcast before, Kevin's oh, what is your sleep score? And I'm like, my watch is too. Old to even give me a sleep score, but if I thought that a sleep score is possible and that it was not possible, if I thought it was important, then maybe I should buy. A new watch or I should buy the aura ring that will give me that information because that will actually help my training when in reality I know I just need more sleep.

Speaker 2 12:55

No, one of the best indicators of how well you've slept is how you feel when you wake up.

Speaker 12:58

Totally.

Speaker 2 12:59

Not necessarily what number your watch or ring spits out at you. Yeah.

Speaker 13:03

Sometimes I look at that number and I don't have a sleep score, but I do have a body battery and sometimes I look at the number and I'm like. Says who? what are you talking about? Like a, I feel great. I don't know where this number came from, or the opposite, like sometimes it'll give me a number like in the nineties, and I like, am exhausted, like I feel exhausted when I wake up. So

Speaker 2 13:20

that, that's why I like to be up for a little while before I check in and figure out what my watch says about how I feel. Yeah. Like I like to actually get an idea of how I feel. but it's nice. I like the information. Because I don't get so bogged down in the information. Yeah. And I love new shoes, like I love. Back when I used to work in shoe stores, gear was amazing. New shoes and new tools and new watches. It's like Christmas every time.

Speaker 13:45

It's so fun.

Speaker 2 13:45

every year that the shoes would come out with their new models,

Speaker 13:48

right?

Speaker 2 13:48

It's oh yes. Let me try on all of these things so I can see which one's going just because it was fun and exciting to me.

Speaker 13:54

Yeah, and there's nothing wrong with new shoes. We love new shoes. It's when you think that the shoes are the reason that you're not. Getting the results that you want and you just have to find the right shoe, and you end up spending a thousand dollars trying to find the right shoe that's going to make you as fast as you think you should be.

Speaker 2 14:11

I, I think 400 is where they max out right now.

Speaker 14:13

$400.

Speaker 2 14:14

Yeah.

Speaker 14:14

I know. I just meant because you're buying multiple shoes.

Speaker 2 14:17

yeah.

Speaker 14:17

So if you buy five pairs of shoes, you're easily at about a thousand dollars.

Speaker 2 14:20

Yeah. if you buy a couple of Super racer shoes, and I think the one that's$400 is quote unquote designed to last for one race. Like you run one marathon in it and then it's done. that might be a little much. That might be a little much it. It's also, I don't think that the shoe's magic. It's a great shoe. Yeah. And there is something to be said about super shoes that they are in fact, better for most people as long as your body responds to them. But they're not necessarily the tool that's going to move the needle more than consistent training.

Speaker 14:45

And so that was me with this training platform. I thought that this new strength training platform was going to give me. the easy way out. I'm not gonna be, I'm not gonna lie to you guys, like I am gonna be 100% transparent and honest, because I wanted like an easy way to track all these strength metrics. And I also wanted a bigger strength library because I had a ton of videos filmed, but I had, so I still have so many videos on my phone of strength exercises that I have filmed that I just needed to go back and do the voiceovers for. And I never did it. And it was just like, oh, if I, but if I transfer over to this. Platform, it'll already have it done like it, it already has thousands of videos built into this platform so I don't have to build out my own video library. But that ended up being a problem and I was avoiding the real problem. And that's what we see so many runners doing and things that we've done in the past as well. Which is avoiding some of the basics. it's not that we, most runners nowadays are not lacking information, and we've talked about that in the last couple of episodes. We introduced our four I framework. It's that they are avoiding the integration and the execution. So if you missed the last couple of episodes, it wasn't last week, it was the, I think the two weeks before that, we talked about a new framework, which is the four I framework, which. Is the key to any sort of change. So the four eyes are information, intention, implementation, and integration. So when, anytime you wanna make a change in your life, you need to gather information that's. The information phase, then your intention, you have to decide what you want to do with that information. Implementation is when you take that and put that into action, and then integration is actually making that a part of your real life or making that thing a part of who you are. And when we get stuck in shiny object syndrome, it keeps us in two different modes. It can keep us in information mode. So some shiny objects are just trying to gain more and more information, thinking that you don't know enough, or thinking that you don't know enough to take action yet, so you just gain more and more information. So information can be the shiny object. The other thing people get stuck in is implementation and information. So they'll learn something new. And then they'll move into implementation mode. They'll put that thing into action, and then they don't get the results that they want fast enough. So then they go back to information and try to find something else, and then they implement something else, and then they go back and forth and back and forth between implementation and. Before between information and implementation, but they never actually move it into integration. That's one of the biggest issues here.

Speaker 2 17:28

Yeah, because the intent isn't ever really there, right? It's never with the idea of how is this gonna become a worthwhile component of my overall training? It's this is the most important thing. And so I think one of the things that happens with shiny object syndrome is you keep adding more things to a training plan. And some of the core pieces fall away. And this is why, as I'm trying to build up a whole bunch of strength, I wanna make sure that my strength plan fits in with my running plan. Yeah. It's not, I'm not gonna go all in on strength to the detriment of my running plan. and I think that's where people are like, oh. they, you look on social media, everything's oh, it has to be zone two, or it has to be all these different, things that pop up. It was HIIT training for a little while and people went. All in on HIIT training and they lost everything else from their training, and now it's L two and it's only L two, and you lose everything else from your training and it's missing a lot of, how does this all come together into an overall cohesive training plan? Shiny object can just be like, this is the one thing that's going to magically fix it all. Where it's no, it's one extra component. Like when you're baking, you have to make sure that you actually put baking powder in, but if all you add is baking powder and there's no. Flour in it. It's not gonna magically rise because baking powder doesn't rise. It adds the air and the fluffiness to the actual cake. You can't just make the cake outta baking powder. It's not gonna work. Yeah.

Speaker 18:56

Yeah, that would be a really gross cake. I would not like that cake at all.

Speaker 2 18:59

That's I feel like it's missing some components there. But I think that sometimes that's what shiny object does. Is it becomes the main component of the training plan, because it's the new thing. So it looks like the coolest part of your training program. Yeah. Just'cause it's new.

Speaker 19:14

and that's what shiny objects do. They create excitement and so when they create excitement, they feel very productive, but they rarely create progress, especially if you are caught in that loop of either just learning information and not actually taking action. Or you learn new information and then you take action and you learn new information and you take action over here and then you take action over there and then you take action. Over here, you're not actually moving. Forward and you're not actually making progress. You're just moving in a whole bunch of different scattered directions, and then people under, or they don't understand why they're not making the progress because it feels very productive. It feels like they're doing things all the time and they're doing the latest and greatest trends that they're seeing on the internet or on social media, but that's. Part of the problem is that when you want sustainable progress, you need the basics. You need strength training, you need easy running. You need mobility. You need to recover from that, and you need consistency. Yes, you do need some speed work. You do need some high intensity, but not. In the amount that you probably think, like Kevin was saying, it's not all HIIT workouts. Like you don't need all high intensity interval training. You just need a little bit of baking powder. That's what you know, a little bit of seasoning, a little bit of salt, like I think about it. Like especially intensity types of workouts that needs to be the seasoning because if you put a little bit of salt on something, you make it taste better. But if you put too much salt, it quickly becomes inedible. And that's what so many people are doing with their training. They're trying to overload their training with some of these things that really belong as more of a seasoning. Like this is one of the things that I teach in my live workshop. If you guys haven't. Come and join me in my live workshop. I would love to invite you. I'm holding them, every Thursday in March. So Thursday this week it's at 2:00 PM I don't know what time you're listening to this, but if it's not, you can go over to real life runners.com/march and you can get the class times there. So when you register, you're gonna put in your name and your email address, and then it'll take you to the page that shows you all of the current class dates and times. I'd love to see you on one of my live workshops this month because this is one of the things I'm talking about and I talk about. The concept of the training pyramid and how we have to build a very strong foundation and a strong base in that level one before we start living in level two or level three. And so many runners are trying to live in level two and level three because those are, the sexy pieces that people like to put on TikTok or on Instagram, but they forget about building that base. And you can't do levels two and three without level one. So if that's you, if you find yourself getting stuck in. Shiny object syndrome, we would, we're gonna give you guys a couple questions here in a little bit to filter out and figure this out. if you are. Caught in shiny object syndrome or if some of the changes that you're trying to make are actually going to help you move the needle.

Speaker 2 22:14

Yeah. I like the salt analogy better because you need salt in baking, but you don't need a lot. Otherwise, it's not baking anymore. It's just salty food and that. That's not gonna necessarily work for you.

Speaker 22:23

But there are times that you do need an overhaul. And I think that's, IM, it's important for us to point that out too before we move into our question filter, because here we are saying, oh, most likely you don't need an overhaul, you just are gonna get stuck in shiny object syndrome. But there are some times where you do need an overhaul of your training.

Speaker 2 22:41

Yeah. Like your plan may in fact have some issues with it. Yeah. this is not a never change your plan. This isn't adhere to the same plan for the next decade because. sometimes new information comes in and actually it is super important. Yes, it does stick around. Sometimes people think that something is new and it's actually just a training method from the 1950s that we've already determined that you shouldn't do intervals five days outta the week. But that's a side tangent. anyway, so this isn't just never change anything. Sometimes you do need the big change. For instance, should I steal your thunder? No, go for it. I'm gonna go

Speaker 23:14

seal it.

Speaker 2 23:15

If you don't have strength training in your training plan, you have to overhaul your training plan to fit it in.

Speaker 23:23

Amen.

Speaker 2 23:23

It ha it has to be there.

Speaker 23:25

Say it louder for the people in the back.

Speaker 2 23:27

it has to come in right. And you, that doesn't mean that you have to give up running and that your only strength training. You have to find a way to fit strength training at least two times a week into your training plan.

Speaker 23:39

And that might mean that you need to run less, and there's a lot of runners that don't want to hear that, but especially at the beginning when you're adding strength training in, this is one of the biggest mistakes that I see people making is that they don't adjust their running at all, and then they just add strength training on top of what they're already doing, and they wonder, why am I so sore? Or why am I. Tired all the time, and then they stopped strength training because that was the extra ingredient that they added in. And then they didn't feel good because they just added more load to their system, but they didn't increase their recovery, they didn't reduce their running so that their body could actually adapt to the new training load. So it does require an actual system upgrade for when you do this. Like you have to change things around. You can't just keep doing what you're doing and then add this on top of it.

Speaker 2 24:26

Yeah. it has to, it goes back to what we were just talking about of your four I, you have to be able to integrate it. And when I made a significant upgrade to how I was putting strength training into my plan, I also pulled back drastically on volume. And now that I've figured out how to integrate it, I still, I'm not gonna start ramping volume up huge. But I could get back to where I wanted my volume for a few weeks. I was not really excited about my volume levels, but I knew that I needed it. So that I could really get my strength working the way it was supposed to go. Yeah. And now that I've got that back, I can bring my running, not necessarily to the volume that I, I. I'm aiming for, but to a volume that I can also be able to focus on increasing strength while still running amount that keeps me happy. Does that make sense?

Speaker 25:11

Yes, it does. And another time you might need a complete overhaul is if that you're going out and running all of your runs to hard. So if all of your runs feel like a five, outta 10 or above, if you are renting. All of your runs at a medium effort or a moderate or a medium hard effort level, you need an overhaul of your plan because that is not the best or most sustainable way to train at all. That's a road to injury. It's an a road to exhaustion. It's a road to burnout, especially if you're a run over 40.

Speaker 2 25:41

Yeah. You say running ever run too hard, but that's also not ever running runs hard enough.

Speaker 25:45

Absolutely.

Speaker 2 25:46

If everything's a five, if there's nothing above five and nothing really below five, it all just is a blend of five. So sometimes you're like, sometimes it's four, sometimes it's six. Now you're just, you're living in five. Yeah. You gotta have some ities.'cause it, you're right. it doesn't progress and it often leads to injuries. Yeah. Which is the next one of. You have constant injuries. Yeah. If you're injured all the time, there may be something seriously wrong with your training plan. And it needs a massive overhaul.

Speaker 26:08

Or if you just don't have a plan, it's time to upgrade your entire operating system like you need to be on. Some sort of plan. It doesn't have to be strict, it doesn't have to be rigid. Like we very much are proponents of having a flexible plan and having ideas for what you want to do throughout the week. Like it's not that you need to have your pace for every single run planned out. We actually advise against that. If you have a goal pace for every single run, that can get rigid really fast, and that can lead to a lot of mental. Burnout and just setting yourself up for failure. But if you don't have any sort of plan, it's important for you to get on a plan.

Speaker 2 26:47

Yeah. Do you think the plan needs flexibility or mobility?

Speaker 26:51

Good one, Kev.

Speaker 2 26:52

Thank you.

Speaker 26:52

Good one. You can define it however you want.

Speaker 2 26:55

Okay, perfect. but yeah, like you said, when you are upgrading your plan, it still needs to have all these things. There needs to be a structure to it. Yeah. So that, that, that base level of structure allows you the flexibility to move things around when you need it. It allows you the opportunity to be like, oh, I was sick for these three days, so here's how I make the adjustments. If you're just winging it every single day, then you never are quite sure how to make adjustments. If you have some basic structure to the plan, you can move things around. You can adjust things from one weight to the next,

Speaker 27:27

right? And so you might need to cut back mileage. You might need to change your schedule, you might need to build a new structure. And those things are not shiny object syndrome. That's foundational level improvement. And that's what I thought I was doing when I was doing this whole platform upgrade. Going back to, my example and my story. I thought that's what I was doing. It turns out that's not actually what was happening. It I needed to take the current system that I was using because our current system was great. It, it is great. And now we're back to it. So it is great. And one of the things that I realized is that I was going for the shortcut. I, in my mind, this was gonna be the easy way to. I have all the videos already done. I didn't feel like filming and editing and voiceover and doing all the work that was required to rebuild the video library and update the video library from where it was. And what I realized was that's what actually needed to happen. I needed to have a foundational improvement to the system that I was already using. It wasn't that I needed a whole new system. So that's what I'm doing now, like I'm just taking what I have and making it. Even better. And so far our members are absolutely loving it and very happy.

Speaker 2 28:40

Yeah. You had the running or the, real life equivalent of being like, I'd like to train like 50% for this marathon. Yeah. And then buy super shoes and that's gonna make it work.

Speaker 28:50

Sounds like a good plan.

Speaker 2 28:51

it's not a good plan. Not a good plan. It's not a good. It's also trending on social media. The number of people that are like, watch me run a marathon on no training. Why is that a thing that should not

Speaker 29:01

a good idea.

Speaker 2 29:02

Should not be a thing

Speaker 29:03

couch to marathon. This does not seem like a good idea.

Speaker 2 29:06

It's, but it's all over the social media.

Speaker 29:07

Oh no. Good. Alright, so how can you decide, like, how do you know is this shiny object, this new thing that I'm bringing in or this new thing that I'm focusing on? Is this just another shiny object or is. This a fundamental thing that I'm actually trying to improve is this an enhancement, an improvement, an upgrade. So the first question that you wanna ask yourself is this improving a fundamental skill? So fundamental skills are strength, mobility, your running or your aerobic base recovery. Consistency. All of these things are fundamental skills, so if you can answer yes, it's likely an upgrade, and if not, it could be a distraction.

Speaker 2 29:50

also is it creating a fundamental, are you missing any of those things?

Speaker 29:53

Yes.

Speaker 2 29:53

Because if you're missing any of those, this is just an upgrade because these are things that need to be in your plan. If you're already covering those things and you feel like you're pretty competent at it, then maybe that new recovery tool is not actually. An upgrade to your recovery. Maybe it's just a new thing that you're like, this will magically, drastically improve my recovery. Yeah, and it's not, it's just a new tool that you could buy,

Speaker 30:16

right? if it's too good to be true and you're looking for it, will this magically improve it? That's probably a good sign that it's a shiny object.

Speaker 2 30:24

Yeah. You don't necessarily need the recovery tool as much as you could. Use

Speaker 30:27

some extra sleep, and some hi. Some water

Speaker 2 30:29

and protein,

Speaker 30:30

some extra food. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Question number two. Am I trying to improve something or escape something?

Speaker 2 30:40

Oh, that sounds like it actually makes you do some mental work on that one.

Speaker 30:44

I know,

Speaker 2 30:44

like the whole, am I trying to escape something?

Speaker 30:46

I know, but I'll always throw myself under the bus. I'll use myself as an example. So escape examples are you trying to escape boredom or discomfort? Or discipline or slow progress? are you trying to escape from those things? Are you just not being patient? So for me, I was trying to escape refiling all of my videos and all of the work that came along with that because I thought that the new exercise library was going to help. That, that work that I was not gonna need to do.

Speaker 2 31:18

Okay. So where does starting to run ultra marathons? Because you're approaching midlife and you're not sure if you're ever gonna hit a PR again, fall into this category.

Speaker 31:27

I think that you should answer that question. Not

Speaker 2 31:29

me. I'm not, maybe

Speaker 31:30

I know I have not yet taken that step in my own life and training.

Speaker 2 31:35

Is that, is it possible that was trying to escape something? I feel like that was a better route than buying a Ferrari.

Speaker 31:44

that's debatable.

Speaker 2 31:45

Okay, sure. Fine.

Speaker 31:47

what is it? Do you have an answer or are you just trying to make a joke?

Speaker 2 31:50

both. I feel like there was certainly flipping to, it goes back to what we said at the beginning. Are you going to a new race? Just because it's a new thing. And I think that the effect of, I don't think that I was ever really going to hit another PR again. I think maybe I had a chance at pring in a marathon. Again,

Speaker 32:09

I think you could have. I still think you probably still can.

Speaker 2 32:12

I think I probably could if I bought super shoes.

Speaker 32:14

Maybe. there you go. That's cheaper than a Ferrari.

Speaker 2 32:16

There you go. but yeah, I think that there was definitely, an aspect of, trying to escape aging.

Speaker 32:22

Yeah. But I think that all runners do this, like this is just the natural progression of running. if you watch Olympic level runners, the older they get, the longer their distances are typically.

Speaker 2 32:32

'cause your body naturally flips over to more and more slow twitch muscle fibers. Correct. So it's hard to maintain.

Speaker 32:37

because otherwise you're just fighting biology also.

Speaker 2 32:40

Yes. But isn't that kind of just what running is. In a

Speaker 32:43

way

Speaker 2 32:43

we're fighting biology and physics.

Speaker 32:45

Yes and no. I think that we're not necessarily fighting biology because the whole, part of our whole messaging is learning how to work with your body and not against it.

Speaker 2 32:53

Yeah.

Speaker 32:53

So it's not that we're fighting biology. It's really understanding what changes are happening and doing what we can to work with those changes instead of trying to run away from them or fight them.

Speaker 2 33:05

Yeah.

Speaker 33:05

But I think that. switching over, switching distances and changing up your goals based on what you want to achieve is a smart training decision.

Speaker 2 33:17

there was part of my race change came from definitely my age and recovery from seizures and now see what else I can do. that is certainly an aspect of it, but there was also like, I think that this would be fun. And I think if fun is driving it. And fun is important to you?

Speaker 33:37

Yeah.

Speaker 2 33:38

Like I think that there's a level where that helps keep the consistency.

Speaker 33:41

Yeah.

Speaker 2 33:41

There is certainly pursuit of fun. Just for fun's sake, that screams shiny object syndrome. Of now this seems like the most interesting thing and this seems like the most interesting thing, but if at the end of the day you're not trying to hit a PR in every race, you are simply going for pure enjoyment, and it does actually help you maintain consistency in physical fitness. that's a lifelong win.

Speaker 34:05

Yeah, that's great. Yeah. That's not shiny object syndrome. That's just. Having fun with life.

Speaker 2 34:10

That's seeing that the fun can be the goal.

Speaker 34:13

Correct.

Speaker 2 34:13

And that's not, but

Speaker 34:14

that goes back to your intention.

Speaker 2 34:15

Yes.

Speaker 34:16

if your intention is just to see how many different things you can do and have fun with it in the process. Fantastic. Like you're. Goal does not, I'm really glad you said this too, because your goal does not have to always be a pr. It doesn't have to be getting faster. It doesn't have to be running longer. It doesn't have to always be these physically measurable goals. It could just be, man, that sounds fun. I'm gonna go do that. that is not what I would consider a shiny object at all.

Speaker 2 34:42

Okay, good. then I'm good to go. All

Speaker 34:43

right. not at all. All right. Question number three. Have I fully implemented what I already know?

Speaker 2 34:50

This one might be the most important question that we've had so far.

Speaker 34:53

Yes.

Speaker 2 34:53

All right. Have I fully implemented what I already know?

Speaker 34:57

And if the answer is no. Then you don't need a new system. You just need to integrate the system that you have because it means that, like if you're, if oh, like I should probably be running easier, more often or more of the time, or I probably should be, I know I need to strength train, but I'm not really being consistent with my strength training. I'll usually get strength training like. Once a week, but I really need to be doing it twice a week. You just need to integrate that and you need to like actually do the plan. So it's not about finding something else that's gonna work better, it's actually doing the thing that you already are doing. And actually. Carrying it out.

Speaker 2 35:34

Yeah. So that goes back to you don't need a new plan if you're only doing 60% of the plan. Yeah. Just boost that up.

Speaker 35:41

See if you could be doing, even if it's just a 75 or 80%.

Speaker 2 35:42

That's what I was gonna say. You don't even have to get to a hundred.

Speaker 35:45

Yeah.

Speaker 2 35:45

Because if the only way that you can achieve, quote unquote success from your plan is by knocking out a hundred percent of the things. I don't think it's a good plan. No. I feel like I

Speaker 35:54

agree.

Speaker 2 35:55

Every plan has to have some wiggle room. If you can get, If you can get a B on the plan. if you're scoring in the eighties, you should be able to be successful off of it.

Speaker 36:04

Yeah. Absolutely. And then question number four, and this one is really important, will this make my training simpler? Or will it make it more complicated? Because oftentimes real improvements often simplify things. There might be some extra work at the beginning, but overall they're gonna keep things more simple. Whereas shiny objects add more complexity oftentimes to things. So is this going to make it overall more simple, or is this going to make it overall more complex? And this is one of the things that actually I. A good time, I think to mention there's new recommendations that came out from the American Academy of Sports Medicine and, I'm sorry, the American College of Sports Medicine, A CSM. And they've, this week, recently, this week they updated their strength training recommendations. And it's like the first time they've done this in over a decade. And if you look at what their recommendations are, it really is. Going back to the basics and the basics are you need to strength train. You need to be to strength training consistently at least two to three times per week. You need to use progressive overload on the body. That's how you're gonna actually build strength and build muscle, and you need to be doing something. That you're actually going to carry out, and follow through with. So consistency is going to, is one of the most important things. And everything else, like the exact exercises that you're doing or the way that those exercises are structured, or the rest, or the sets or the super sets, or if you're lifting heavy or light, or if you're using dumbbells or barbells or resistance bands, like all these different things that social media loves, loves. To point out and to show you that this one's better than this. Kettlebells are better than barbells and kettlebells are better than dumbbells. That everybody wants you to know that their thing that they want to teach you or to sell you is the best thing.

Speaker 2 38:03

And everything else is not just is

Speaker 38:04

and everything else is terrible.

Speaker 2 38:05

Everything else is terrible, right? It's not just that theirs is best. No.

Speaker 38:08

It's all, everything else might kill you else is terrible, right? And and then they try to make it even more complex while you have to do two sets at 70% of this and blah, blah, blah. Because when you add complexity, it sounds like they know what they're talking about. And it sounds like they know more than you. And in reality, the more simple that you can make things, the more consistent you will be, and the more consistent you will be, the better results you will have. And When you upgrade and when you truly improve what's going on, that's going to oftentimes be a simple adjustment.

Speaker 2 38:46

Yes. Small. It

Speaker 38:47

might not be like easy to do at first because you might be breaking patterns and things, there's other layers of complication, but. When you actually go through with it, it's gonna help simplify.

Speaker 2 38:57

Yeah. The, if the complication is pattern interruption to what your routine normally looks like. Yeah. That's allowed to be the complication. The complication should not be that in order to do this exercise, you need to have it written down on like the front and back of a laminated piece of paper, because that's how many steps there are. Yeah. that's just too complicated.

Speaker 39:16

Like I pick things up and put them down.

Speaker 2 39:18

Yes. that's strength training.

Speaker 39:20

Pick up heavy things.

Speaker 2 39:20

that's what it is. put that down. You've summed it up because there's various movements that you need, like you have to be able to push things and pull things and Hinge things. And I don't remember all of the terms, but there's not that many of them.

Speaker 39:31

Yeah.

Speaker 2 39:32

And

Speaker 39:32

I have six to seven core components that I put in every strength training program.

Speaker 2 39:37

And. But those are their core components. She doesn't have six exercises. She has various movements. You're like, oh, I prefer doing squats. I prefer doing this thing. okay, great. They're both fine. that's what the recommendations were. The recommendations came out and it just said consistency repeatedly. Like it needs to be something that you're going to do. And like we pointed out earlier, there may be big things that you need to change in your plan. if you're not doing strength training, if you're always running too hard, if you're not. eating and sleeping enough, like that's not even in most training plans, but if you are trying

Speaker 40:09

But that can completely derail and affect your results.

Speaker 2 40:12

It's like below the foundation of your training plan. if you're like, yeah, I've got my foundation pretty good, but I also fast on all of my runs and I'm only sleeping four hours a night. It doesn't matter what your training plan looks like. Yeah. It's going to crumble. Like it may work

Speaker 40:26

at some time. At some point. Yeah.

Speaker 2 40:28

it may work for a small window.

Speaker 40:29

Yeah.

Speaker 2 40:30

But it is not a good long-term approach. Like your plan needs to actually be a good long-term approach, which is something that you can do day upon day, and that's my issue with dieting also. Yeah. Is diets work for a small window because whatever they restrict immediately makes it more difficult to follow. And as soon as you figure out how you can follow it easily, and then as soon as you can follow it. And it's easy. You can probably start figuring out how to bend rules and then it's not gonna work for you anymore.

Speaker 40:57

And so that's why. Progress in running, in dieting, in anything usually comes from doing the boring things better. It's making sure that your easy runs are truly easy. It's making sure that your strength training is consistent and you are consistently getting in. Those foundational movements two to three times per week. It comes from fueling your body properly and making sure that you're getting enough sleep and doing some mobility work so that your body keeps moving fluidly and you don't have tightness and restrictions. It doesn't come from all the shiny new apps or the new plan every single month. They're chasing the next best thing. It's the boring things and taking those boring things and doing them better. And like I said, sometimes that does require a little bit of an overhaul. Sometimes it does require more effort in the beginning to build the foundation, to then make it much easier to the future. And that's really, again, taking it back to. What I built inside of our membership. I am, I've been rerecording all of the videos and improving the queuing and the voiceovers and like the instructions and making sure that things are very clear and having the everything, the way it's all laid out inside of our member area. Improving all of that, which is a lot of work right now, but creating that foundation is going to make. Everything in the future is so much easier and so much more simple and so much easier for our members to follow. Like it's going to make everyone's lives easier.

Speaker 2 42:34

Yes, and I, we keep going through this list and it, I just, I need to say something on it because we keep covering making sure that your strength training and that your easy runs are easy. And one of the things that it seems like we might be poo-pooing on is the whole idea of speed work. Oh,

42:49

gosh,

Speaker 42:50

no,

Speaker 2 42:50

it's necessary.

Speaker 42:51

Oh, we love speed work.

Speaker 2 42:53

It's just that. Every day you go out, can't be like, oh, I have to get in this workout. Oh, the Norwegian training method is super important, and now it has to be the hit thing, and you're just trying to shove in so many cool workouts during the week. It's that easy. Runs are easy enough,

Speaker 43:08

or you're following one. Plan for three weeks and then jumping to another plan for three weeks.

Speaker 2 43:12

Yeah. But it's that easy runs are easy enough so that when you do the small amount of speed work during the week, that is also super important. You can get in quality speed sessions, like that's the thing. It's not just, oh, you has to only be super easy runs.

Speaker 43:28

No, definitely

Speaker 2 43:28

not that, that's not the whole idea. Like you have to get in all the components, but the foundation is, and

Speaker 43:33

speed work is one of the components. Yeah. But it's one of the ones at the top of the pyramid that we use as. Seasoning like the salt.

Speaker 2 43:39

Yes.

Speaker 43:39

But you have to like,

Speaker 2 43:40

it's not a foundational piece.

Speaker 43:42

It's not a foundational piece, but it is a necessary piece if you want to get better.

Speaker 2 43:46

Yes.

Speaker 43:46

But you can't add that until the foundation is solid.

Speaker 2 43:49

Yes.

Speaker 43:50

Yeah, for sure. So when you're listening to this episode, I want you guys to ask yourself, what is one thing that is coming up for you? That you, maybe, you should be doing it, but maybe you haven't fully integrated that yet. Or maybe, you need to make a little change or a slight improvement in a certain area, but you're, you haven't really done that yet. And maybe you've gotten distracted by other shiny objects like. We all do this. And so the point of this episode is never, ever to make you feel guilty or to point a finger because like they say, if you 0.1 finger, there's three fingers pointing back at you. We've all done this. It's just to again, bring that awareness and that reminder of okay, let me take a look at this and let me see, is this actually serving me? Is this the thing that is actually going to help me move forward? Or is this just keeping me stuck because I'm focusing on things that I think. Matter, but they actually don't really.

Speaker 2 44:45

Yeah, because working on the, like the final 1% sounds really cool, but it's the final 1% for a reason.

Speaker 44:53

that's what is all over social media right now too. It's and it's what? People are focusing on with nutrition and things as well, like we have to eliminate this one food diet from our, American diet. But yet most Americans don't meet the just basic nutritional guidelines of getting enough fruits and vegetables or enough protein in, in a day, or enough calcium. there's so many other huge boulders and rocks that we need to. Address before we start to look at some of those tiny things.

Speaker 2 45:23

Yeah. So figuring out exactly what your speed workout needs to look like is far less important than all the other days where you're doing mostly easy running. But the mostly easy running is really boring. Like we can't sit here and have a whole podcast and be like, can easy run and lift heavy things. I feel like we just did have that episode. So we'll see how this one plays,

Speaker 45:42

but it doesn't even have to be heavy things, and it shouldn't be heavy things at first. so if we're gonna go to lift heavy things like, yes, heavy lifting is great for runners. And so is light lifting with other, there's, and you have to build the foundation by doing light lifts first before you get into heavy lifting. Otherwise you're gonna hurt yourself.

Speaker 2 45:59

yeah, and ideally you put in as much easy running as you can, but that varies. You lift what you can, you lift what's heavy for. You and at first that might not be very much because your body isn't used to the motion. Yeah. Like adding in a, a large amount of easy running for me looks different than adding in a large amount of easy running for you. Like even if we were training for the same race, we would train in different manners. Yes. Because we are different people.

Speaker 46:24

Yeah. And what it basically comes down to, it's just stop over complicating it and be consistent with. The basic stuff. Yeah. be consistent with those foundational pieces and then you can start to add in the fun stuff. And if you have questions, come talk to us. Like we're here to help you guys. yes, we love talking. Through the podcast with you every single week, but we would love to have some two-way conversations. So come find us on Instagram at real life runners. Send us a dm. You can send us an email hello@realliferunners.com. We would love to hear from you. We'd love to hear, what's going on in your life? Where are you struggling? what? What do you need help with? Do you have. Podcast topics you would like us to talk about. we love to hear all that stuff. So if you listen on Spotify, you can also leave comments under each individual episode. So if you have a comment on this episode, we would love to, to talk to you over on Spotify as well. And as always, if you know someone that can benefit from this, please share this episode. Leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. Let us, help us to find more runners that we can help to. Remember the basics and really start to make progress in their training instead of getting stuck in shiny object syndrome. So ke, have you got anything else to leave us with?

Speaker 2 47:37

No, I think that's about it.

Speaker 47:38

Alright. Thanks for joining us. This has been The Real Life Runners podcast, episode number 453. Now get out there and run your life.