461: Stress Overload, Decision Fatigue, and Why Your Runs Feel So Hard

Have your runs been feeling harder lately… even when your training hasn’t changed?

Maybe your legs feel heavy for no obvious reason. Your motivation disappears by the end of the day. Easy runs suddenly feel exhausting. Or you find yourself overthinking every workout, nutrition choice, and race decision until your brain feels completely fried.

In this episode of the Real Life Runners Podcast, Angie and Kevin unpack two major factors that runners often overlook: stress overload and decision fatigue.

Because here’s the truth: your body doesn’t separate training stress from life stress.

You’ll learn why stress can make runs feel harder than they should, how decision fatigue quietly drains your energy and consistency, and why this can become even more noticeable during perimenopause due to hormonal shifts and brain fog.

Angie and Kevin also share a simple but powerful framework to help you reduce overwhelm, protect your energy, and make running feel lighter and more sustainable again—without needing more motivation or discipline.

Inside this episode, we cover:

• Why your body reacts to all stress the same way
• What decision fatigue actually is and how it affects runners
• The connection between stress, recovery, sleep, and performance
• How perimenopause can amplify mental fatigue and overwhelm
• Why hard workouts and important decisions should happen earlier in the day
• Why recovery weeks and nervous system recovery matter more than you think
• How to adjust your training during high-stress seasons without losing progress

If you’ve been feeling exhausted, unmotivated, emotionally drained, or frustrated that running suddenly feels harder than it used to, this episode will help you understand what’s really going on—and what you can do about it.

Because sometimes the answer isn’t pushing harder.
It’s reducing the load your body and brain are already carrying.

Listen now and learn how to work with your stress instead of constantly fighting against it.

10:50 Sneaky Signs Your Body Is Overloaded
12:49 What Decision Fatigue Really Means
16:22 Race Decisions + Running Mental Load
24:44 Decision Lever One: Reduce Daily Choices
27:25 Simplifying Your Training Plan
29:08 Decision Lever Two: Timing Matters
31:36 Decision Lever Three: Build Real Recovery
32:13 What True Recovery Actually Looks Like
37:18 Why Running Suddenly Feels Harder
38:43 The Importance Of Recovery Weeks
42:49 How To Adjust Training On Stressful Days

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.

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Don't forget: The information on this website is not intended to treat or diagnose any medical condition or to provide medical advice. It is intended for general education in the areas of health and wellness. All information contained in this site is intended to be educational in nature. Nothing should be considered medical advice for your specific situation.

Transcript

0:00

Welcome back to the Real Life Runners Podcast. This is episode number 461. Today, we're talking all about stress overload and decision fatigue, and how it all affects your running. So, stay tuned. What's up, runners? Welcome back to the show today. If you're not sure, this topic is because this is how I'm feeling right now, hence the very long and drawn-out words as I try to figure out and let my brain catch up to what we're talking about today. Honestly, this is how both of us are feeling. I'm tired, y'all. I'm fried right now. we were debating, as we often do- Yeah what topic we're gonna do, and we had several topics, and neither one of us had the willpower to decide on one of those topics, essentially. Willpower, brainpower. Yeah. So we are definitely feeling this whole decision fatigue. I was like,"Why don't we talk about this?" So we came up with a whole idea and outline of stress overload, decision fatigue, and how it all affects your running and how you feel, because it very likely is affecting you more than you realize. And I did a whole, master class on this today. If you missed it, you can definitely sign up for the next one. I'll be running these, this month. So if you go over to realliferunners.com/brain, you can get yourself s- signed up, because it's all about the, how your nervous system affects your running and, how to really use the power and harness the power of your nervous system to feel better and improve your training, and finally see the results that you've been working so hard for. So today, we're talking about being tired. you guys, I'm sure, can all relate to this, that those days where you woke up tired, you have a full day ahead. You've got work and kids and a training session that you told yourself you'd do. And before you even have your wonderful sip of coffee, that first sip of coffee in the morning is so good, isn't it? Oh, yeah, it is. It's the best. Ugh. You've already made 14 decisions. What to eat, what to wear, what to respond to first, whether to check your phone, whether the run can wait. And by 3:00 PM, you're not just physically tired. You're a different kind of tired, a t- a tired that sleep doesn't fully fix, a tired that makes even small decisions feel enormous. Yeah. No, I f- I think we've all been there. We've all been there. this isn't physical fatigue. it is- No, it is, and it isn't but It's- something else too. Yes, it's something else. It's both. And it sometimes expresses- Yeah as so much physical fatigue, but you wind it up, is like before you've even had your first sip of coffee, and oh, that's the best. I honestly, I'm not sure how I drive to work before I have that. You don't even have one sip? No. No. Really? It's just full autopilot all the way. Oh, man. which we'll talk about. but yeah, no, all my students know the sound of the first sip of coffee. it's thoroughly enjoyed. So- it's vocally enjoyed. You like make a sip and then have a- Ah. That's so funny. so this is an interesting kind of aside that is related. So last week, maybe two weeks ago at this point, I was listening to a podcast, and my coach recommended paying attention to your morning thoughts. what is your brain saying to you first thing in the morning? And so over the last couple weeks, I actually have a journal on my bedside table, and I have been paying attention to what my brain is saying to me in the morning. what are those first morning thoughts? And it turns out, you, you probably will not be surprised by this, but it turns out my first morning thoughts are usually songs. And so have I told you this? That makes perfect sense. Yeah. Have I told you this yet? Yes. Okay. So yeah, pretty much every day when I have woken up and paid attention in the past week and a half to two weeks, it's been a song that has been in my head, and it's su- super interesting. So I'm writing them down because I'm trying to see what kind of theme they're giving me, if that has any sort of, deeper meaning for me that day or based on, what has been happening that week or going on, and it has been very interesting. But I will tell you that last week, I believe, or the week before, when I woke up on Tuesday morning at 5:00 AM, and the first song that popped into my head, this is, I know it sounds really random, but it was Genie in a Bottle- Yep by Christina Aguilera. Obviously. Because, there's the line of the song of,"My body's saying let's go, and my heart is saying no." Yep. And I was like, yeah, it's the opposite for me. My heart is saying let's go, and my body's saying no. My body's saying pull those covers back up. My body's saying,"Go back to bed, bitch." There are enough other people for the group run that group- Go back to bed, genie that group will still exist- It will and they will go for their run. It will be fine. So if you know what we're talking about, and if you had this different level of tired, we want you to understand that this is not weakness, and it's not getting old. It is your nervous system telling you that something is really important, and today Kevin and I are gonna help you understand what it's actually saying. So we really want to help you understand this idea of stress overload and decision fatigue because they're not just related, they're also feeding each other. So we're gonna talk about that, and also- Give you a framework for what to do about it'Cause Angie loves the Frameworks are the best. They- When I was creating this, masterclass that I gave today, I was talking to Kevin and, I've been stressed about it because I want it... everything I do, I always want it to be very good. And so I'm like,"But I've got this framework, and I've got this framework," and I'm trying to figure out how to put the frameworks together. And do I lead them through this one, or do I lead them through this one?'Cause both could work. And I'm like And Kevin was just sitting there I don't know. I don't know what you wanna do." I was- He's"I'm sure it's gonna be great." he's my cheerleader, thank God. I was a little tired listening to you explain the problem- that you were having. I know. Which is why I couldn't do that because I don't wanna confuse and, overcomplicate things for anybody that comes to the webinar because the whole point of the masterclass is to simplify things, right? To make- to take these concepts and really put them in frameworks to make them easier and more simple to understand. Yeah. But then you were having this conversation at the end of the day. Yeah. And by the end of the day, we're in the last few weeks of teaching. Oh, man. the number of decisions- Oh, yeah. You're fried that I make during the day, you're saying words, and I'm like,"Yes, I should really pay attention- and see if I can help her." Yeah. Nope. and I am a mom in May-cember right now. Yes. right now, the month of May, I don't know why I did this to myself, but I created this brand-new masterclass that I just launched today. And also am launching a brand-new app. And also am, like, promoting, a- I'm doing another masterclass with another program. And m- my, our youngest daughter is graduating eighth grade, and she's going to Disney, and she just got confirmed. And Kevin's parents are coming into town. And there is a lot. And Maddie has a dance competition, and our oldest daughter has her musical theater production. She just had that this past weekend. There's there's- there's been so much happening There's a lot going on. So what is stress overload? I think that's a perfect segue into what we're talking about today. Yes. So let's start with this. Yeah. The body doesn't really distinguish between types of stress. Yeah. Whether it's training stress or work stress, emotional, poor sleep, difficult conversations that you're gonna have. Yeah. Even thinking about the difficult conversation before you even have it creates some stress in the body. It all goes into your stress bucket, and your nervous system essentially just keeps a running tab of all of this stress coming in. So I really like to think of this as a bucket, and you have one bucket with a certain capacity. Everybody has a stress bucket. And like Kevin said, every single type of stress, whether it's physical stress like running and working out and training, work stress, family stress, financial stress, it all goes into the same bucket. And when it overflows, the body responds, often with things like fatigue, irritability, poor sleep, injury, illness, a run that just feels awful for no good reason. And- For women over 40, th- this becomes even more important because of perimenopause, essentially you can imagine that your bucket is getting smaller than it used to be, not because something is wrong, but because the hormonal shifts that we are experiencing, specifically our estrogen and progesterone levels that are declining, are reducing our body's ability to buffer stress. So essentially, your nervous system, like we have all these stresses coming in and they're all filling our stress bucket, and your nervous system helps to adapt and buffer and offload some of that. And that's one of the things that estrogen does. It helps to buffer the effe- effects of cortisol. And so that's why the same life load that felt manageable when you were 30 or 35 may genuinely exceed your capacity when you're 48. And that's because of physiology, not because you are failing in any way. So you're- And also, like it... We also tend to have a lot more stress when we're 48 versus 35 too. Yes. You said that this is not an age-related thing. I'd argue that it is- it is and it isn't because we tend to have greater stresses- We have- at this age of life. Yeah. We have different things in our life. But to be fair, I, I'm around teenagers all day long. And if you listen to the teenagers, they have the greatest stresses- Oh my God of anybody. It's the funniest thing ever. But that's the thing is- You think you have problems? You're so cute most people think that whatever stage they're in- Yeah has the most intense problems. Of course, because that's the way we protect ourselves. That, like that's what we're supposed to do. Yeah, makes sense. so would you argue in this metaphor, in the bucket of stress metaphor, that your nervous system essentially puts holes in the bottom of it- so that it can then let the stress back out? Yeah. So we- Like stress goes in the top, and then your nervous system handles it, and it all kind of shoots- out the bottom. It's when it overflows over the top- that we've got issues. So- Yeah. So essentially your bucket's getting smaller and there's less holes. Yeah. Or those- Or the holes are getting smaller the holes are getting smaller- Yep and clogged up. that's what I was thinking. Yeah. The holes are getting smaller. And so it's really our job to figure out how to poke more holes in the bucket, or to even sometimes, like when we do those full recharges where maybe you go on like an amazing vacation or you just spend a day by the pool, you're really taking the bu- bucket and kinda dumping it out. Yeah. Not- and kinda resetting the whole system not adding more things to the bucket- during the, quote-unquote,"amazing vacation." Yeah. And so the sneaky part here, l- specifically vacations, right? Especially if you're going on a vacation with your family where especially if you have kids, and then you have to figure out what everyone's doing and what the daily activities are and all of the- I don't. I'm the dad. You have to figure out what everybody's doing. The food and the snacks and all the things, right? Sometimes those things that are supposed to relieve stress can actually just add more in. And then we compound it too because th- there's the stress of the situation, and then there are your thoughts about the situation. You're like,"I'm supposed to be having fun. I'm on vacation." So then it makes those situations even more stressful. And- Sometimes also, so there's sneaky situations there, and then there's also other ways that stress overload can show up in a very sneaky way. And it doesn't always feel like stress. It doesn't always feel like irritability or this feeling of overload. Sometimes it feels like numbness or apathy, craving sugar or caffeine, dreading things that you used to love, or feeling like you're just going through the motions and not really gaining enjoyment from the things that used to make you happy. Yeah, that's the tricky one, where you're not feeling fried. You've passed fried. Yeah. And you're just- And you're just done yes. Yeah. it's apathetic. I'm freaking done. It's ennui, which was one of my favorite characters- Ennui from, what was that? Inside Out 2. Inside Out. Yeah, that was- I am ennui such a good movie. So if you think of your nervous system, okay, I want you to first of all think of, your body as that stress bucket, and think of your nervous system like a phone battery. So when you have multiple apps running in the background, even the ones that you're not actively using, that's draining your phone battery pretty much all the time. And so stress overload is not usually about one big thing. It's about too many things running at once without enough time to recharge. It's having too many tabs open. So a lot of us are living our life that way. Yeah, and then those thoughts running in the background. It's like accidentally keeping Spotify open on your phone. By the way, leave us five stars on Spotify. It's the best. it'd be really helpful for all things involved. Yay. But having that run in the background just drains the battery sometimes. Having those thoughts- especially when you have an iPhone 8 like you had until a couple of months ago. Don't need to judge that either. I could listen to two songs, and then my phone was dead. That was it. Kevin had an iPhone 8, and the guy at the Apple, or at the AT&T store, was like, that's just gonna stop working soon." And Kevin's"What do you mean it's gonna stop working?" He's"That's what Apple does. They just sunset your phone." Yeah. It just, it won't do anything anymore. Okay, so that's the concept of stress overload, right? We've got all these different things all filling up our stress bucket. Now, what is decision fatigue? Okay, decision fatigue is a very real thing, a very real phenomenon that happens, and it is the deterioration of decision-making quality after a long session of making decisions, after a long day. So the mental energy that is required for you to make choices is actually a finite resource, and every mother knows that this is the one of the truest statements that I have ever said because it is. And once it's depleted, the brain starts taking shortcuts, and those shortcuts look like impulsive choices, avoidance, not, just not deciding. I- that's typically the one that I default to is, I'm just freaking not doing it. I'm not gonna s- I'm just gonna sit on my couch and not do anything. or defaulting to Whatever is easiest or most familiar, or even just complete paralysis, where even small decisions feel overwhelming. just what to make for dinner. if you've had a really tough day, the decision on what to make for dinner becomes just way too much, and this is one of the reasons why a lot of people default to takeout- on those types of days. which is why, from a running perspective, there's often much greater consistency if you work out in the morning. Yeah. Because by the time it gets to the evening and you have to decide when or what or how you're gonna fit your run in- the option of not doing it becomes far more likely because it's easier than trying to- figure out how you're gonna be able to get the run in. It's a lot easier to just say,"No." Yeah. And if you look at the research, they show this, the decision fatigue is a very real thing across lots of diver- different areas. So there's studies that show that judges give out harsher rulings later in the day, that doctors order more unnecessary tests toward the end of a shift. That one's tricky because you don't quite know when the doctor's shift is ending. it is. The doctor knows, but also because they're so tired and they're not thinking as clearly, they probably order more tests so they can cover more bases. they can cover themselves. So that, yeah, so that they're not missing anything,'cause they know that they're not thinking as fresh as they probably were. Yep. and they also have shown that, excuse me, people make worse food and exercise choices by evening, like what you were just saying, Kevin, and it's not because anything is wrong with you or you don't have the motivation or so there's some sort of innate character flaw. It's because of depleted cognitive resources. You just don't have the same decision-making capability in the evening, especially after a long, stressful day, than you do in the morning. certainly on the food and exercise front- Yeah if you're trying to change a pattern- if you're trying to introduce an exercise- Oh, yeah or change the way you're exercising- Yeah your body's going to default to what it has always done. Yep, absolutely. So if it's, if you're trying to be like,"Oh, I'm gonna add in an extra day of running. I'm gonna add lifting to my routine," whatever the new thing is, by evening, your body's"Nope, not doing new things.""We are staying with what is the most familiar. We're repeating the pattern that we did last week and the week before and the week before," because it's just so much cognitively easier. Yeah. And this becomes even more apparent in perimenopause because we- Because of the changing hormones that we have, we are already experiencing things like brain fog, memory lapses, and reduced cognitive sharpness. So these are real documented symptoms of the hormonal fluctuation that is happening during perimenopause. So then all of a sudden, you add more stress to your system, and you go to the end of the day, and decision fatigue hits faster and harder when your baseline cognitive resources are already lower. Yeah, 100%. within running, like this happens both whether you're going to go for a run, but it also happens in the middle of races. you have to make these decisions from like a training perspective. Do you know, is this just like a little niggle that I can still go out for my run or not? Yeah. Is this, am I tired? Am I hurt? Should I do my long run today, or was my week too much? Is my overall stress load too much? Can I build my mileage? Am I building mileage and strength? Is that good? Is that bad? Yeah. Within a race, especially as the race gets longer, you can make some poor choices at the end of the race because you're not thinking clearly about what the best move is. Yeah. That's, it's one of the great ways of racing, is trying to get whoever you're racing against- to do something dumb. Yeah, especially, if you're doing a longer race that r- requires fueling. I know there's a lot of people that kind of tend to fall off their fueling pattern towards the end of the race because they just wanna be done. They're just, they're so done with the race, they just wanna be over with, so then they don't give their bodies the fuel, which then makes it even worse. Yeah, because your brain is using the most fuel possible. And if you stop feeding it, your brain is gonna just even, get even more foggy. Yeah. Like at, after hour, I don't know, 12-ish of- all of my super long races, I'm so done. I, like, when I get back to the car- After hour 12-ish? Is that what you just said? That's what I said. When I get back to the car, I'm like,"I don't know what decision is. Angie, tell me what I need to eat on my next loop." Yeah. that's where I get to. And that's what, I know that as crew chief,'cause at first I did not know that, but now I know that it is my job to make decisions for you. Yeah. You have to eat- Especially after a certain point in time. Yeah. You have to eat these things now. Yeah. You have to eat this before you even leave. And you're like,"I don't want to." I'm like,"I don't care." It doesn't matter. You're not leaving me until you eat this. Yeah. So yeah. So what a good way to think about this is imagine, imagining your decision-making capability like a jar of coins. So every, like you start the day and that jar is full. And every decision that you make, big or small, costs you a coin. And so by the end of the day, that jar is nearly empty. Because we don't realize all of the thousands of decisions that we make every single day. definitely hundreds. I would say especially if you're a woman and a mother, you're probably in the thousands. But just the simple things of getting up and getting a glass of water, you have to decide to do that. You have to decide to go to the bathroom. You have to decide to make the phone call. There's so many decisions. You have to decide how to get to, to work. Even though you are on autopilot, those are still decisions that are, excuse me, running in the background. So by the end of the day, that jar is nearly empty. And the problem is not that you're weak or you're indecisive, the jar just genuinely has less in it than it did in the morning. Yeah, especially if you don't get good sleep and fill the jar up overnight. Yeah. Yeah, do you notice this as a teacher? does your decision quality change throughout the school day? Or like you said, it's May now, by the end of the school year... Kevin, he's over here just shaking his head.'cause I, during off periods, I often am grading tests. Yeah. And grading tests is literally deciding how many points each question should be, should count for- yeah based off of what the kid did. So- I'm still waiting for you to just make all your tests Scantron. Yeah, I know. It's just not happening. and so the number, you'd think that in between classes I'd be able to recharge and recuperate, but the kids come in and I'm like,"Oh my God, they're, now I have to think about what I'm going to do with this group of humans inside of the room," and I'm usually shot. by period seven I am, I'm pretty tired. I'm a better teacher in period three and four,'cause I'm awake and the caffeine is going, much better than I am in period seven. Yeah.'Cause I then have had, I've had lunch, I can recharge during lunch usually. Yeah. especially when you get that, put that food in your body because that's, helps your bo- your brain to actually operate better. Yes.'Cause I eat and I don't grade while I eat'cause I don't- wanna get food all over kids' stuff. And so that period right after lunch, I'm usually good to go, and then I start fading again, So how are these two things connected, right? So there's stress overload and decis- decision fatigue, and they do coexist and they also amplify each other. So when you are in stress overload, every decision actually costs more cognitive energy than it normally would. So going back to that jar we were just talking about, if every decision costs you a coin, if you're already in stress overload and your nervous system is already fried and your bucket is full, now every decision that you're making is costing you two coins. And so you're, when you're in decision fatigue, then your ability to manage stress response deteriorates as well. So you see how these two, two things are essentially feeding off each other. it's this vicious cycle. one makes that one worse, and then that again makes the other one worse. So you become more reactive and you become more emotionally volatile, especially if you're in perimenopause. I know this is one of the things they ta- they talk about is, meno-rage. as a woman, all of a sudden you're just, fried out of nowhere and you're just like,"Oh my God!" you just flip because you just don't have the same ability to control the emotions because it, there's just too much going on. And it's, we have less ability- To use the rational parts of our brains to help regulate ourselves Yeah, no. By the end of the day, w- rational thought go- has generally gone out. Yeah Generally, not genuinely. Generally gone away. You can do it, but it takes so much. to try and make a nice, calm, rational decision, you're like,"This is not taking a coin. This is four coins now." Yeah. For runners, this shows up very often in this all or nothing kind of attitude. Yeah You're not making very thoughtful decisions, and so you go to one of the extremes. You either are going to push so hard and be like,"All right. I'm tired, but I'm doing it. And not only am I doing it, I'm going big," which is this like overall just too much if I'm gonna do it, I might as well go really big reflex, or,"I'm doing nothing. I've completely given up. This is too much and I can't decide. I'm just going to do nothing." My blanket is the best. I know, but the problem is that both of them are like, if I just get, really ramped up, then I can do the thing and I can push through, I can grind through. Yeah And that's probably not a good choice. Right But doing nothing, it can't always be the choice also. Sometimes that's the appropriate choice. Sometimes that is the rational choice. But giving up can't be your reflex also,'cause then you're just never working out. Yeah. this can look like not working out. It's skipping those training sessions and then feeling guilty. Snapping at people that you love because you don't have the ability to emotionally regulate yourself, especially at the end of the day. Eating in a way that doesn't align with your goals and not understanding why. Feeling like you used to be able to handle so much more than you currently are, or deciding to record a podcast on stress overload and decision fatigue because you can't decide what to record about, so you're gonna record about something that you're going through right now and you don't actually wanna be doing this. I think we're doing great on this episode. I think this episode is going really so far. I'm really proud of you. What do you, listeners, what do you think? Will you check in with us and write us a review right now and let us know how awesome- Yeah this episode is? Exactly. Just make sure you don't drain the battery too much. and that's what stress overload and decision fa- fatigue are. Like, it's two people draining the same bank account. you might not realize how low the balance is until something bounces, and then it feels sudden even though the withdrawals have been happening all along. But they've both been coming from different, two different sides, and you're like,"Oh, wait, what? How the heck did that just happen?" Yeah, bank account's doing fine- Yeah and then your teenager is also connected to the bank account, and they're like, they're just getting things. Well- And you're like,"Wait, where did the money disappear to?" No, that's not happening. that's definitely not how it works, but- That's definitely not happening but you could see the issues that would come up from that very rapidly. Yeah. Oh, wait, suddenly all the money go- disappeared. I know. It's fun now, like with, especially with our 16-year-old who now has her own debit card, and she's got, like we're making her pay for more things. the best was the conversation that we had with her a couple of years a- maybe a year or two ago, I think when she entered high school. might have been in middle school, when I basically told her that it's not my job to pay for her social life, and she like didn't know what to do with that information. I'm like,"It's my job to buy you food, make sure that you have clothing," I said,"but it's not my job to pay for your social life. So if you want to go out and do things with your friends, like you're gonna have to start earning money, and I've got plenty of ways for you to do that. but just so you know." Her money aspect is so funny- She is because she goes from,"I've got so much money," to,"I'm broke." Those are the only two options. That's welcome to being 16. All right. We're like, we are, people, humans of extremes, t- teenagers are. Yes. And I just became Yoda because, why not?'Cause obviously. All right. Humans of extremes, teenagers are. That was excellent. I like it. All right. So let's get into the framework because there are three levers that you can pull to help when you find yourself in this situation because you cannot eliminate stress, as much as we would like to, and we can't eliminate decisions from our lives either, again, as much as I would want to. But you can get strategic about protecting your resources. So there's three levers that we're going to talk about. Lever number one that you can pull is to reduce the number of decisions that you need to make. This is where systems and processes and automations come in big time. Now, I as a business owner love systems and processes. I love trying to systematize the low-stakes stuff so that cognitive energy is available for what matters, taking those little things, getting them off my plate so that I actually have the time to create content and to plan out, better things to help my clients. So for you, this is actually for me too, I eat the same thing pretty much every day. Like- Yep these are low stake decisions that I know I need to fuel my body. And so I have a number of handful of things that I eat for breakfast. I pretty much eat the same lunch every day. dinner's a different story. But I, for the, for breakfast and lunch and my snacks throughout the day, I pretty much eat the same thing so that I don't have to waste my decision-making capacity on those types of things, on what am I eating today? Yeah, my, my breakfast Monday through Friday is the exact same thing- every single day. Yeah. There, there's no thought on it. Yeah, you've had that breakfast for years now. Yeah, c- because I'm up so early and off and running- and then out the door. I'm telling you, I don't really have to start thinking until after I finish attendance with my first class period. Yeah. That's the first, big major thought. I drive the same route to school. do I I stay in the left lane all the way. Sometimes that lane's backed up. Man, I might miss that light, because literally I'm not even deciding should I go around this car- and be able to cut back in. I don't. And sometimes it drives our daughter nuts because she's like- That would drive me insane when's she g- oh, 100%. Oh. You could not- That's one of the worst th- that's one of the things that drives me the most bonkers about driving- about the way- When you drive I drive? Yeah. Yes. I stay behind people- Like, why are you- but I'm like- not changing lanes? Because I have to turn left in a half a mile. Oh, God. You're like,"You have plenty of time to go around this person." You have plenty of time. Not in the morning. I have not, I'm not thinking. Yeah. I am complete autopilot, and because it's gonna be fine. Yeah. Am I gonna get to school two minutes later this way? Yes. But that way there are fewer thoughts going in. And the more stuff that you can consider low stakes- Yeah and just put on autopilot, the better it is. Yeah. You are making decisions, but you're using like half a coin to do it. Yeah, so food choices are a really good thing to put on autopilot. Your training plan, like having a training plan written in advance so that you are not deciding what to do every single morning. That is huge. You already know what your week looks like. Monday is a strength day, Tuesday is speed, Wednesday is an easy day. You know exactly what time you're training. You don't have to figure it out. Plan that stuff in advance so that you don't have to decide. Lay out your clothes the night before. the goal here is not being rigid. It's protecting your bandwidth. It's taking those decisions out'cause you don't need to make them. They're silly little decisions. Just- Make them ahead of time In terms of training, there is so much that you can repeat within training. Oh, yeah. I, like I haven't changed my strength plan in a long time. And I could. I could mix it up and get new things, but I don't need to. I'm still gaining benefits from it- and until I stop getting benefits from it, I'm just gonna stick with it. Yeah. I just copy and paste and put it down again. Totally. And I'm gonna go ahead and plug our Real Life Runners training team r- here because, this is one of the biggest things that we do for all of our members in our team. You get a customized plan. You don't have to figure this out. All of your runs, all of your strength sessions, everything is planned out for you so that all you have to do is decide what time of day to do it. it's all there for you, And we a- are actually running a membership special this month, so head over to realliferunners.com/team and you guys can get... I'm running a huge discount and special for annual memberships right now, Is it so huge that my dad wouldn't even say the H on it? Yes, it would be huge. It'd be huge. Huge. So you're gonna wanna check that out. If you've been waiting and you've been thinking about joining the team, now is the time. you are not going to get a better deal than you are gonna get this month. So check that out. Okay. The second lever that you're gonna wanna pull, other than reducing the number of decisions, is to time your hardest decisions and your hardest training intentionally. So make those big calls, make those big decisions like the training adjustments or the nutrition ch- choices or those difficult conversations earlier in the day when your cognitive resources are the highest. And maybe it's not first thing in the morning. Maybe you're somebody that kinda needs a little bit of time to, to get in the flow and to have your coffee and your breakfast, and so maybe it's 10:00 AM- is like your peak time. That's when you schedule the meetings. That's when you block out that hour or two on your calendar to do that deeper work that's going to require the most cognitive resources. Yeah. And then, put your hard training sessions at times where your stress bucket isn't loaded up. Yeah. There is a big difference between running in the morning and running in the afternoon. Mentally, in the morning I can operate a whole heck of a lot better because I'm going, I'm rested from the night's sleep, versus at the end of a school day- especially if it's like a school day and then running practice and then trying to do it. Like- Yeah I am spent. There's been so many decisions, and I've got just too much mental load already to try and go out and do a thing. Now, the problem is that physically I tend to run better in the afternoon. So how do we play these things together? Yeah. those are the things that training is going to help you fig- kinda sort out, right? I think that you have to make that decision maybe day by day and figure out, so if you do want to do an afternoon training session because you feel like your body is better physically at that time, then maybe you can try to keep the mental and cognitive load lighter throughout that day.'Cause you're probably not gonna do all of your runs and all of your training sessions at 4:00 PM, but maybe you wanna do, a specific speed session because your body's already warmed up that day. So then you can try to do your best, whether or not it works out or not because of life, to kinda keep the rest of the day before that a little bit lighter. Yeah, that's the thing is, or you gotta make sure that you really do a nice job of a warmup and a mobility and all this stuff early. And you fuel really well. And you're fueling early in the morning. Because some- like, if you just wake up and you're out the door, and you're like,"I just gotta get in my run as fast as possible"- Yeah it might not go as well as it does later in the day. I also don't sit at a desk all day long, so- Yeah I'm usually physically more ready to go- if I could knock it out, if I could somehow run at 1:00, that'd be so nice. Yeah. All right. So moving on to the third lever that you can pull, okay? So just as a little reminder, lever one, reduce the number of decisions. Number two, time those decisions well. And then lever, lever number three that you can pull is to build real recovery into your week. So not just physical recovery. Physical recovery is very important, but rest is not just about muscles. It is about your nervous system and helping your entire nervous system to reset and restore and replenish, essentially. Yeah. So your biggest thing on this is literally sleep. Yeah. Okay? That's a non-negotiable. But there's also just time where you don't have an agenda, where you can- just actually be restful. Yeah. Where- That is one of the hardest things, at least for me, to do, is to just sit around and do nothing. Yeah. But it's not sit a- it's literally sitting around and do nothing, not immediately picking up your phone and scrolling. Yeah. That doesn't count as a recovery. that's- that's a different box because then you're in a whole different brain pattern because you're just scrolling things. Things where you can just naturally get into, a calming flow state. Yeah. So for some people, that's reading. Reading. floating around in the pool is a- Ooh is a good way for me. That's a good one for you. Yeah, for me, like- That's literally your float state. Yeah. My fl- Yes. When I float in the pool, because I don't have my phone in the pool, so that's a good thing. I'm more, I'm naturally just taking that out. I'm outside in nature, fresh air, sunshine, palm trees, beauty. that is one of, and that's one of the reasons I love the beach so much also- because it's just that natural time for me to... Even if I'm walking, I'm walking and relaxed. I'm not- speed walking on the beach. No, you're not walking. I'm relaxed. I'm walking down the beach. I'm listening to the ocean and feeling the sand, and I'm very present in that time. Yeah. I think a non-exercise walk in nature is- So good 100% what- Yes counts as recovery. Oh, absolutely. As soon as it starts being like,"No, I gotta push this walk," then it's- and it's also- not recovery anymore if you're walking and on your phone. there's so many people nowadays, like most of the time I take my phone with me. I, sometimes I don't. sometimes I try to just leave my phone at home. But I know that when my kids are not with me or when you're not home and my kids aren't, don't have one of us near them, I always wanna have my phone just in case they need me. so I will often take it with me and just keep it in my pocket. And I do notice a desire, like when I'm thinking about something,'cause I'll be out walking and thinking and wondering something. I'm like,"Oh, I should look that up." Like the just natural inclination to grab the phone and then pull it out, and now all of a sudden I'm on Instagram and I'm scrolling, right? and when I'm walking around the lake, I do see a lot of people like on their phones and staring at their phones. And I'm always like,"Why are we doing this to ourselves?" Because now we're taking this activity that can be very restorative and very relaxing in this walk in nature, and we're scrolling. And so that is not, th- that's, that doesn't count in this category. this, that is not recovery because your brain is not in a recovery state. It's in a very much a state of stress and overstimulation. No. To get a little more woo, like you're looking for grounding activities. Yeah. You're looking for activities where you literally are connecting yourself to the natural world around you. And you can't do it while holding a phone. It's just not going to work. You can't do it while watching TV and just scrolling through your email just to- No see if anything needs to get responded to. that's not counting. Just watching TV is pretty good. Sure. Yeah. if you're sitting and watching TV, like this, on Mother's Day, one of the things that I did was my daughter did my nails, which was, they're so cute. They really are. if you follow me on Instagram over@drangiebrown, you might have seen these already. I'm sure I'll post another picture of them, this week sometime, so follow me over there if you're not already. So she did my nails, and I put on a movie. We, I w- watched a movie. I wanted to watch this movie based on a book that I had read last summer. It's called Remarkably Bright Creatures. It has Sally Field in it. I love Sally Field. And, I was very much looking forward to watching this movie, so I sat and watched a movie while my daughter did my nails. And I pretty much was not on my phone. Every, like I did check it a couple of times, but- But overall I was not, and that was very nice. Yes. Also, the movie requires Kleenex, just as a- Oh, yes just in case it's a good- I'd recommend it sobbing when I read the book last summer, and the movie very much e- evoked similar emotions. Yeah, I was not just sitting and watching the movie, I was doing some other things also. Yeah. but the- I did catch a good chunk of it and, yeah, bring some Kleenex. Bring some Kleenex. So remember that rest is not just what you do when training is done. Rest is part of the training. It is where adaptation, both physical and mental, actually happens, and this is one of the topics that I dove really deeper into in my master class today. So if you're interested in the idea of stress recovery and adaptation, this is one of the big things that I talk about. So again, you can access that i- either my live, workshop, or you can catch the replay if you go over to realliferunners.com/brain. Yeah, I think one of the things that you do with this- is reading before bed I think helps you make sure that you're flipping over into a restful state- Yeah before- a- and it's a prayer book that I have n- that I've been using now too. sometimes it's a book that I used to read a little bit before bed, but I finished that book. I need to find another book to keep on my nightstand. I know, but the prayer book helped- But it's- but even the prayer book is fantastic because then your brain isn't still thinking about 1,000 things from the day. Yeah. And the phone stays out in the kitchen too. So we do not have pho- we've implemented that rule years ago. Yeah, that, that's been out there for a while now. No phones in the bedroom, which is such a good one. If you're not doing that one, highly recommend that one. Excellent. So what does this all mean for your running specifically, right? I think hopefully you guys have an idea of what this concept of stress overload is. Hopefully you understand how decision fatigue is affecting your running and how these two things end up in a vicious cycle together. So what this means for your running is to help you understand that a run that feels terrible is not always a fitness problem. Oftentimes it is a resource problem. Because when your nervous system is overloaded and your decision tank is empty, your perceived effort goes up, okay? We talk a lot about effort-based training and making sure that your easy runs feel easy and going by the rating of perceived exertion, or RPE. So when your nervous system is overloaded and you've got no decisions left, your runs are just automatically going to feel harder, and it's gonna be harder to find motivation. And those easy runs that are supposed to feel easy just feel absolutely miserable. That is not a problem with your fitness. That is a problem with the overload on your nervous system. Yeah, and depending on what type of run it is, or your favorite run, just a solid 20-minute tempo run- Said n- Angie never. But- My favorite run that would just be brutal- Yeah because the motivation to keep going within the hard part drains so low- Oh, so low when you're feeling a little bit overloaded. Well- But- and I did one of my favorite workouts this morning, because I was like,"Oh, it's my eas- it's my down week this week." Oh, I forgot to talk about that. I do wanna talk about the building recovery. So I just talked about building, real recovery into your week. It's also important to build recovery weeks into your overall plan, into your overall cycle. Because, this week for example, I've been following, the six-week strength cycle that we have inside of the membership. So I've been doing these new s- six-week strength cycles so that, we mix it up and keep it a little bit fresher inside the membership, and help you guys get stronger and understand how to kinda cycle through. And the sixth week is a down week, where you're supposed to decrease your training load. You decrease the weights, you decrease the reps and the sets, and I... That is this week for me, and I am so grateful that it is hitting this week because of how fried I feel right now. And I'm not, the, it's one of those things where I'm not... I say that I don't know why I'm feeling this way, and there's also a thousand reasons that I'm feeling this way, but there's not, one big reason. It's like all these little things that are adding up into it. And I'm very glad. And an- anyway, back to my run, I did 4 by 500, 4 by 200, which normally I love, and normally it's, just, such a good little speed session. And literally on the first 500 repetition, I was like,"Why is this so long?" And it wasn't just me. It was my training partner too. She's"Is this over yet?" Like- and it was 500 meters. That is, a little bit more than one lap of the track. That is not a long distance. But for some reason it just felt so hard today. for lots of reasons, right? Yeah. and that's so much of what it is. Yeah. Especially'cause you're doing it in the dark, so it's not like you're literally on a track and like- Yeah"All right, I gotta do a lap and a turn." No. I was doing five- But I, looked down at my watch, and it was still at,.2 something, and I was like,"Oh, shoot, this is not... That's not should be- Yeah feeling this way." that's always the thing is how far into the hard section- Yeah before you glance down at your watch. Oh. I- I try to extend that. That's one of the mental games I play with myself. So I like to check and see, every once... So if I'm feeling good, I'm like,"All right. I'm not gonna look down until I feel like I'm pretty tired. I'd like this rep to be done." And I was doing five minutes this morning, and on, the first one- Yeah, you were moving when you ran by me this morning. I was on the back part where I was just doing one-twos at that point. Nice. So they were very- Oh, did you do five two one-twos? I did es- essentially. Yeah. That's a good one. Yeah. I like that one. so I was doing five-minute repeats, and on my first one, I didn't look down until 4:30. And I'm like,"All right. This is good." And then on my second one, I looked down, and it was, 4. 1:30. And then on my third one, I glanced down, and it was at two minutes. Oh, no. I just- You, you- fell off a cliff. Oh, that is the worst when you're not even halfway. I was not at the halfway. I'm like,"Ha-ha. Good one." That's the game that I always try to play is, I don't look at my watch at least until I think I'm halfway through. I know roughly how far five minutes is gonna get me. Yeah. And I've run this loop so many times- so I knew where I should be, and I'm like,"I feel... Th- am I off on the distance on this one? I feel like I'm... I've gotta be pretty far." Oh, man. And I glanced down. No, I was at two minutes. wow. You're like- Three it's May. Three, three minutes to go. I guess we're g- gonna keep going. Yeah. And this is why two identical training sessions can feel completely different on different days. I loved the workout that I did this morning. Normally, I feel super strong on it. Today I did not. So comparing them is rarely useful. Somet- we've talked in the past about com- doing the same workout and then comparing your progress over time, but it's also important to realize that your body and your nervous system are in two different places on those different days. And so it's not al- it's usually not an equal comparison. Yeah. you can compare them, but you can compare them especially if you put notes in around it- Yeah of this is how I felt, and this is likely some reasoning behind why- Yeah I felt great, why I felt not so great.'cause that's helpful. Yeah. what was my stress load going into this workout? How many decisions had I already made? What time of day was this? How was my sleep this week? Did I wake up already feeling exhausted before I even started? And that answer, those answers to those questions are gonna tell you a lot more than the specific pace that you were able to hit on those repeats. Yeah, 100%. And that's gonna let you then- understand, okay, if I answer these questions before I even start running, let's take a look. Am I feeling super high stress? Have I made a thousand decisions today? It might be the preferred choice, the actual well-reasoned, logical choice to take a shorter, easier run- Yeah instead of the workout that's planned on your calendar al- already. Yeah, because on those high-stress, high-decision days, doing less is not giving up. It's not taking the easy way out. It's understanding accurate load management. you are doing a good job managing the load because you are recognizing that your body and your nervous system is already overloaded from all of the other stuff that's going on, and for you to do that hard workout or that longer workout is likely just going to lead to an overflowing bucket. And so the better choice is for you to actually do that shorter, easier run on a day that you're already feeling depleted. Yeah, especially if that shorter, easier run is then gonna give you more time to focus on the rest and recovery- Absolutely and allow that bucket to actually start emptying out. Absolutely. We made it, Kev. Thank goodness. We made it to the end of the episode, I know, but it's still only Tuesday. it's only Tuesday? Yeah. All right. Oh. Yeah, see, it- we, I think we t- told you guys last week, normally we record on Mondays, but this week we did not. Oh, I have so many things going this week- We're not able to rec- with graduation. Oh yeah,'cause Kevin's got all the graduation festivities this week, Oh, yeah. Hoopla. So stress overload and decision fatigue are real things. They are not character flaws, they are not motivation problems, and they're not signs that you cannot handle your life. These are physiological states with physiological solutions, and that is a good sign. So the three things that we want you to take away from today's episode Number one, your nervous system keeps score even when you don't. Okay? When your nervous system, that bucket is always filling and emptying. So it is keeping score even when you think,"Oh, I've got this. I've got this. I'm totally under control." Your nervous system's Just gonna have some extra coffee and grind through. Yeah. Your nervous system's no you aren't." Yeah. The second thing is that protecting your decision-making energy is a training strategy. Okay? You wanna protect that decision-making energy. You wanna try to automate as much as you can. Take as many decisions off of your plate as you can so that you have more energy available for you during your training. And number three, which is so big, rest is not the reward for the hard work. It is the mechanism that makes hard work actually worthwhile. Yeah. That makes hard work effective as part of your training. Rest is part of the training. It's not just a reward that you get because you did something hard. Yep, absolutely. So if this resonated with you, if you want help, if you want help automating, if you want help figuring out how to regulate your nervous system, this is what we do inside the team. Inside the Running Reconnected method, we go deep on nervous system regulation, training load management, and helping you build a training practice that is going to work with your life and not against it. So check that out. Again, I'm running a huge membership special this month of May 2026, if you're listening to this when this is released. So head over to realliferunners.com/team and check that out. We would love, love, love to coach you and help you. we've got an amazing community over there. We've got a ton of fantastic training plans, fantastic resources. I love coaching you on the mindset and the mental stuff. If you don't wanna go into that, please don't join the team. Okay? I'll just tell you that. you can, but you don't- just don't come to the coaching calls. Because- I wanna tell I, I shouldn't say things like that, but- There, there goes the decision fatigue. And we're over 45 minutes at the end of the recording. I'm s- I'm saying all the things. No, but I truly do think that, if you're someone that just wants to follow a training plan, that's we do that. Of course we have the training plans. But we do so much more than that inside the Real Life Runners team that you can't get in just a free app. and we really help you to s- see the big picture and the holistic view of all the things that are going on in your life. So if that is interesting to you, then you are probably a very good fit for our team. So come check us out. And, if you haven't yet, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or on Spotify or whatever your favorite podcast player is. And as always, thanks for joining us. This has been the Real Life Runners podcast, episode number 461. Now get out there and run your life.