How’s Training Actually Going?

Training for a half marathon isn’t just about ticking boxes — and in this episode, we get real about what it actually looks like mid-block.

Sarah is deep in her build towards the HBF Run for a Reason Half Marathon, and we break down how training is reallyfeeling right now — the highs, the fatigue, the doubt, and the small wins that matter.

We talk about:

• What surprises people in a training block
• The reality of balancing life and running
• Sessions that build confidence (and the ones that humble you)
• The mental side of training — and how to work through it
• Why consistency always beats perfection

If you’re currently training for HBF — or any race — this episode will remind you that you’re not alone in how it feels.

This is the middle of the block. This is where the work happens.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hi, I'm Rochelle. And this is my co-host Sarah. And together we are Runversation, a conversational paced podcast for your easy-paced running journey. And we're here to chat about all things running, community, and everything in between.

SPEAKER_02 0:15

Hello, Sarah. Hello, Rochelle. And hello to listeners. Before we get into today's episode, Sarah, what did you see on your run or in the gym this week?

SPEAKER_01 0:24

Two days ago, when we did a session at Burzwood, there was a man with his bike and he had in the back a little basket. He put his dog there. And I've been doing a little bit of riding as a bit of cross-training. I thought, I wonder if I had to put my sausage dog in there. But then I also was like. I mean, only just started riding again. I was like, I don't know if I trust myself not to. What if you have an accident or something and your dog's then like flipped down? They're not like secured down into it. And then it made me think, like, would I actually feel comfortable doing that? I guess riding lazily around the river, not very far, might be okay. But yeah, it just made me think, would I Was it a basket or a trolley? No, it was a basket.

SPEAKER_02 1:10

The dog was stuck in the basket. You could get like one of those kid trolleys and you could put them in the trolley and you could like put the little seat belts on them.

SPEAKER_01 1:18

If you could clip them in that but then like then it would still be bad though if you had a, you know, and your bike falls down and the dog stuck because it jumps with it. Yeah. And then is stuck in the basket and can't get out. I thought, oh, I don't know. Risk there, but it would be pretty cool. But then I don't trust my dog to not sort of jump out like they've just jumped down now and go and chase something. Yeah. So it would be cute though. It would be cute sausage dogs. Yeah. Then the other issue is spitting two of them in it.

SPEAKER_02 1:50

I actually saw yesterday. I don't know where we were. We were like somewhere on the trail and there was two long-haired sausage dogs. And I remember saying to whoever was around at the time, Sarah would just froth at these right now.

SPEAKER_01 2:02

It would tempt me to stop my run um and have yeah and have a full actually.

SPEAKER_02 2:09

I think it was after our run and we went to go get a coffee. Oh, it was after your run, you're definitely stuck. Yeah, it was after, but we got stitched up. Christian stitched us up because the coffee shop wasn't open. So we did like a walk to the coffee shop after our long run. Then we had to turn around and come back and it was on the way back. I was like, Sarah would froth over there.

SPEAKER_01 2:25

I would. I just wouldn't have thrust the hills that Christian took you on. No, I've seen of a hue and my version of a hue was two very different things, is what I found. So you just been a huge was a mountain. I don't agree on that.

SPEAKER_02 2:38

Anything else that you saw, Rochelle? Yes. So I've recently been in Bali. So I've done a couple of runs outside over there. But this time that it was the humidity was quite thick, so I didn't get out too often. I did it a lot more on the treadmill. But when I was on one of my morning runs, heading to our accommodation from the airport, because I run out and back to the airport, I could see now I think you pronounce it gang, which means volcano. Oh, that's a distance. So that was really cool because there was like a little bit of cloud, but not enough to completely cover it. And I could just see the outline and the shape of this volcano in the distance. So that was if you take away the humidity, it would be a very cool place to run. Yeah. Well, normally I do run every day outside there, but for some reason the air was just so thick. And even Matt found it really hard to run outside. It was just not worth it because you weren't getting anything out of it. Like there was no benefit to running that heat. No, I'd hate that. Yeah. But let's dive into today's sec uh today's episode. I want to chat to you about how your training is actually going because you are training towards the HBF run for a reason. I am, yes. And for those who don't know what the HBF run for a reason is, if you don't live in Perth, it's one of our bigger runs on the calendar for the year. Um there's a half marathon, 12K, and a 4K. You're training for the half marathon. I am. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 4:09

So how's training going right now? Uh a bit mixed, I think. Some parts good, some parts hard. But I suppose when I think back on every block, it's probably been similar and just in different ways. You know, I don't think it ever goes perfect, and it certainly isn't this time either. But I guess um the challenges are what builds us into a into a better runner, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 4:34

Yeah, so you're saying things haven't been going perfectly where you're expecting to be at this point compared to where you feel like you are.

SPEAKER_01 4:41

I guess you want to be in a spot a position of confidence, but I guess thinking back, I always find it hard in the middle of a block to be in a position of confidence. So it sort of is traveling on like most other blocks in a way. I've just had to work around some things um that have made it a little bit harder. I guess you probably haven't been as consistent this block as some other blocks, but I've had those challenges before.

SPEAKER_02 5:10

Yeah. I think consistency has still been there. It's just the quality of what you've been able to produce that's been slightly different. Yeah, that would be a good way of saying it, yeah. Yeah, I think people see a training plan and assume it's like just ticking boxes. But what has surprised you most about the block so far? And which week are you in?

SPEAKER_01 5:31

Oh, that is a I I don't even know what week we're in. Six? Yeah. Uh well, I guess yeah, life has made ticking those boxes a little bit more difficult. Uh first had an iron infusion, which actually has helped, but it took a bit of time for the system to absorb that. Um, but uh other things in my life have drastically improved with iron, so general tiredness. So I didn't even realise that I was battling and brain fog and things I didn't realise wasn't normal, but I'd passed as normal. Yeah. It was obviously starting to impact my running, particularly after Bastelston. I exhausted myself in that one PB, and after that it all sort of fell apart a little bit. But I've had that sorted now. But then I also had a planned eye surgery that I knew was coming for a while, and it was two surgeries across two weeks with three and four days of not being able to run, and then trying to tick off the other parts of the runs that I was meant to do that week. Yeah, which was hard.

SPEAKER_02 6:34

And I think probably hard about that for you. It wasn't the fact that you had to have the rest, it was all of the toxins that were going through the body from the local anesthetic and things like that.

SPEAKER_01 6:44

Yeah, and I think I thought it would I'd feel really good after a couple of days off, but I actually didn't really, in fact, as well with some of them, with one of them I jumped straight into doing like a 17k run, and I actually felt really fatigued after that. And then I had some trouble with a lot of fatigue after that because I just went straight from doing nothing for a couple of days, forced to, and then just trying to do all or nothing again. Sh you know, in hindsight, I probably could have just eased a little bit more back into running and respected um that having, even though it was a quick surgery, having surgery itself is um not just a simple thing all the time. And there's rate on the body and my sleep and other things like that.

SPEAKER_02 7:29

And also like your intake of food will change because you're not exercising, you're not gonna eat as much. I didn't know what to because you weren't eating as much when you went into that first run, you probably had didn't have enough like fuel to get you through, which you think, oh yes, I can run 17Ks, which we know that you can, but with all of the things combined and not having enough to eat, it probably was yes, setting you up to And then I knew that normally on a Sunday if I did a long run with the sort of Monday recovery day, Tuesday I'd be fine to jump into a session.

SPEAKER_01 8:01

I found just finding that Tuesday I was not limited aerobically, but I just couldn't move my legs from fatigue. And that's when I started mixing in some cross-training with writing to give that a little bit of a chance to get rid of that fatigue before jumping into trying to force my body to run fast again.

SPEAKER_02 8:22

It was not enjoyable, yeah. No, so do you feel like the mental side has been harder than the physical this time around?

SPEAKER_01 8:28

I think so, because when you're forced to rest and sitting around, all I'm thinking about is how I want to be ticking off this and building towards this. And I guess it's easier as well when you're sitting around at home to look back over the last couple of weeks and go, oh, I had my infusion, but my sessions are still a bit average, or you start I guess there's more time to ruminate on everything over the past couple of weeks, which isn't always, you know, a good thing. And I think a lot of runners don't like rest. Not at all. Especially when it's forced rest. I mean, in a way, though, forced rest does make it easier in the sense that you're listening to like your surgeon tell you you can't do this is easier than deciding to give yourself rest because you need a break or something like that. I find is mentally hard. I find it easier if someone in authority is telling me that you can't run. And you know, the consequences of messing up eye surgery is obviously quite huge. So I was I was not tempted to run. No, it's well, I mean, you don't want to lose your vision. Right. So well, just when it's gotten so good. So I definitely was happy listening to my surgeon on that. I find that easier in that way, but it just gave me time to just ruminate on maybe you know how I feel like my fitness. I wasn't sure where my fitness is, and that I don't feel like the sessions have reflected where it actually is. And I'm just in a bit of a weird spot, is how it all feels.

SPEAKER_02 9:53

But yeah, it's just a bit of a a learning curve, this training block. And when you look back at it when it's done, you'll be able to compare the next training block that you do to this one. Yeah. And you'll have some evidence behind all of that.

SPEAKER_01 10:05

But and back to my last half marathon, some of the s I had my like worst half marathon specific session before that PB. And then you're nice PB. Sometimes I guess you can't always run as fast in the middle of a block when you're fatigued and things are going on. But when you have that taper and that rest, suddenly. And we know that race, pace and effort is a bit different. Like race, uh, pace can feel really hard in training, but in the with the environment of the run can feel a little bit easier actually. Yeah. And it feels almost impossible in training that that's the pace you're gonna run. But I felt like that before my last half-marathon. So I'm just trying to take it in my stride.

SPEAKER_02 10:42

Well, saying that, I'm gonna skip the next question and I'm gonna change what I have written down here. Because yes, we've talked a lot about like consistency of emotion motivation, but you've had a lot of doubt, which is what we talked about last episode. Next week, or actually at the end of this week, we have a time trial, which you have decided that you want to shift. Explain to the listeners how you're feeling about the time trial and why you're wanting to shift it a week.

SPEAKER_01 11:11

I don't really know what more a week will give, but it just feels too soon that it would be this weekend. And I guess I just felt like I haven't hit the the race pace that I need to do it to get a PB in training very well. And I think that's a matter of fatigue, not necessarily aerobic fitness. I don't think that's the issue, but I guess that's where the doubt comes into it that I guess I'm I'm more fearful of trying to go out with a B expectation, blowing up and then feeling worse, and then having that before HBS will obviously not help my confidence, even though realistically an extra week probably won't.

SPEAKER_02 11:49

But what happens if you get to the following week? Because if you get to the following week and you've signed up for this race and you get to it and you feel exactly the same as you did now.

SPEAKER_01 12:00

That's very true, and I probably still think next week that I haven't had enough time. You know, it as I said, I don't know how much a week, but it just feels it just feels way, way too soon. And I guess the time I want to take off is a lot of uh, you know, I'm thinking about trying to shave off 25 seconds or so is doesn't sound like a lot, but in a 5k It can be a lot. It can be a lot.

SPEAKER_02 12:24

But like when was the last time you did a 5K time trial? Last year, end of last year. Yeah, so it's been a good four or five months. Yeah. Do you feel like you've got pressure on you at the time trial because we'd organised for two people to pace you and you don't want to let them down?

SPEAKER_01 12:42

Yeah, a little bit, or not necessarily waste their time, but you they pace you and then you pull out at 3K, you're like, oh, like they obviously don't they want you to succeed, and then if you don't, like then two people are gonna be disappointed. But I think I've just got to change the goalpost to not having a specific, like try and shave off those 25 seconds and just try and and get 10 seconds of a PB would also help me feel very confident that uh next goal is then in sight. Or maybe not, you know, taking it conservative at the front. Similar to how most of my PBs are run, actually, is sort of in that negative split. Yeah. More of a progressive run than a solid hit out. But I guess also I don't want to feel disappointed because I don't get the the sub-20 time. But if I still got 20 and 10 seconds, honestly, I'd be pretty stoked.

SPEAKER_02 13:28

I mean it's still a PB. Yeah. Unless you're getting closer to that sort of marker that you're trying to reach.

SPEAKER_01 13:34

So I guess I just don't want to I don't want to focus too much on that sub-20 because I then don't want to set myself up to be disappointed if I still get a PB, because at the end of the day, that's I guess it's kind of similar in a marathon when people dream of the sub-three and they get through a five, and it could be a 20-minute PB and people still aren't happy because they didn't hit that magic number. Yeah. I think a PB, regardless, should be celebrated. Exactly. But then people still get down after not getting that sub, whatever time it may be. And then there's the excuses that come after that.

SPEAKER_02 14:11

And even before going into the race, like this turnaround, you're also talking negatively about the time trial where going into Bustleton, you never spoke negatively.

SPEAKER_01 14:20

But the time trial at the point of Bastleton was so far away, I don't think I was really focused on it at all. So what do you think that you have learned about yourself as a runner in this block? I think I've been a lot wiser with paying attention to my body as well. Like I've made decisions to not miss a run but just change a session into an easy run, which is something I've probably never done did before. I would just do it and obviously have a poor session because I was too fatigued and then still end up fatigued for the rest of the week because I'm trying to do a session that I wasn't ready for. And this time jumping on the bike and doing other things to still exercise and keep that aerobic base growing, but um not stressing my body out. Yeah. To the point where then I just can't, you know, do a session properly. You don't get much out of that, do you, rather than sometimes the wiser option is to change. Just move the gulf just that little bit. And then you might still get one good session in that week instead of two poor sessions. I suppose there's looking over quality, over quantity. If if like doing that session, you know, that would have only made Saturday worse or more fatigued, that I wouldn't got anything out of that. There's two poor sessions, you know, versus one quality session, I feel like is is better. And then just making up the difference with a little bit of cycling.

SPEAKER_02 15:44

Do you feel like the episodes that we've done in the past have made you realize that you can start to shift and move and listen to your body more than you did yourself?

SPEAKER_01 15:55

I think the one we did about, you know, I'm very good at telling other people when their fatigue is too much, but then realizing that, yeah, I think I realized I'm on that run when I still had fatigue carrying two days later that that was a sign. Yeah. That normally I would have recovered in that time and I would have felt a lot better that I was not quite, you know. I know, you know, when you feel normal and you know when you don't, and yeah. I needed to actually listen to that. And yeah, sometimes I guess in the past I'd always want to tick the box and say that I'd ticked off every session and then get to and do that. Because I like being accountable to my program as well. Yeah. I don't like changing it if I don't have to, but But you still are ticking boxes, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:40

Just changing the effort that you're normally required to do to get it done.

SPEAKER_01 16:46

And you know, it's better off in the long run, isn't it? Because, you know, years gone by, I've spent six weeks not running at all.

SPEAKER_02 16:52

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 16:52

And because I've had horrendous shin pain or something when I could have just started altering a few things here and there earlier. Yes. And still kept myself fit.

SPEAKER_02 17:01

But that's being that's the stubborn part of a runner. And I think every runner has that in them. Everyone never wants to listen, never wants to stop or push through it. Oh, it'll be right, she'll be right. But then realistically it's not. And now that you've learned that, you know, you've got a better understanding of what I'm saying to you as a coach when those scenarios do pop up.

SPEAKER_01 17:25

Yeah, it makes a lot more sense in the long run as well. I guess you've got to think about the long term, not just oh, my week, I'm not gonna hit whatever many K's I normally do. Yeah, but I'm also not gonna lose fitness because I only did two or three runs that week and an extra bit of bike or whatever else I did.

SPEAKER_02 17:43

You're still moving, you're still getting your heart, you're still doing all of that. So let's um let's talk sessions because I think that flows in quite nicely. People get curious about what training programs I do and plan for my athletes. So let's talk about what's your hardest session been so far.

SPEAKER_01 18:01

I personally think any session where the reps are long, by that I mean like the the one I find always hardest times 2k, 2 times 1k. What do you find challenging about that? I think just monitoring your effort because you can feel good in the first 2K, but if you've gone out slightly too fast, that second 2K, and then you're really just not ready at all for the blow up next to one K. And just being mindful of that is hard when you feel pretty good for the first one.

SPEAKER_02 18:32

Well, that's like anything, you always feel fresh at the start. Yeah, a race, evening sessions, even life in general. You go out to a party, you've had only one drink, you still feel fresh, you have another, and it just gets worse and worse and worse. So you can kind of relate that to running as long as you boggle out too hard. Well, you're only gonna like land on your face later on.

SPEAKER_01 18:54

I guess maybe with shorter ones like 400 metres. I can be tired but or out of breath, but you can still power through for that short amount of time. 2K is just a long enough time. So anything also like three times a mile, 1600 metres. Although I think personally my least favourite session was three times ten minutes. Why? I don't know. I feel like I like the idea of distance better. Okay, so the time the time thing for a session for me. Like I love time for for easy runs. Yeah. Because it's e like how far you Yeah, you you turn around at half an hour, you know, and and you know how you feel the distance you cover is is whatever it may be. The trails makes it a little bit different. But there's something about when it's on hard enough, but where you just don't really know how far you're running because it's hard, yeah. I need to like I convert it back into distance. So I do the first one and go, well, I I reached like 2.3k. So I know that rough running. That's very bad. But I just find the time. Yeah. Yeah. I don't mind actually some of the half marathon specific sessions, maybe because it's not as a fast of a pace, even though in that scenario the reps are also long. Yeah. Doing like, you know, 6k easy, 6k steady, 6k temperature.

SPEAKER_02 20:11

Yeah, those ones are hard, but those ones are all about the pre-fatigue. Yeah. So it's really holding you back at the start, which you know, you can take that theory into those sessions and you know, your 2Ks really ideally they should be slightly slower than your 1k effort. So if you've done it right, you can think, right, if I run five to ten seconds slower for these efforts, come my 1K's, I should be able to pick it up and think strong.

SPEAKER_01 20:38

I guess what I always forget is you never really have a bad session if your first ret is five seconds slower and you build up nicely, whereas you go five seconds faster and you hate to have to session.

SPEAKER_02 20:53

So on the flip side then, what has been the session that's given you the most confidence? I had a really good 800 meter session in this block.

SPEAKER_01 21:02

Six hours. Yeah. I traditionally also hate like just hate a lot of intervals. Um with the group, I guess I managed my fastest 800 meter ever, even though we did six of them. And it was um, yeah, it surprised me. It was the best I'd felt at speed. Yeah. In a while. And 800 metres is still long enough that once again it's hard to just power through if you do go too fast.

SPEAKER_02 21:26

Was that the one where you finished and you said it was like three minutes, yeah. Three minutes, and then we're like all looking at you. Yeah, like you just want like three-minute pace because that's like bloody fast. Yeah. But you meant three because you were so tired from doing it and excited by what you'd done. You're like, I just did three minutes for my eight hundred.

SPEAKER_01 21:45

I've never done a one off eight hundred meter, so I wouldn't know how fast I could really go. But that just kind of yeah, surprised me that I haven't well, it's one of those like P V things at such a small distance that you just don't really do. Often? No, it's not. Because you're usually doing them in a big session. Like seven to four hundred metres. It's hard to PB 400 metres when your session is like 12 to 14 times 400 metres. That's it. We almost need to do like a mini sports carnival. Yeah. And so sometimes it is hard to know, but I just truly it was hard, but I truly felt good. And I think the group environment obviously helps. I think I was running them with Rav.

SPEAKER_02 22:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:29

And he always pushes you. Yeah. You push him. And him in Frankway just that was, yeah, the fastest I'd done at 800. And I was like, wow.

SPEAKER_02 22:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:37

Pretty cool.

SPEAKER_02 22:38

Yeah. I mean, when you finished and how excited you were, you were like jumping up and down almost out of your skin.

SPEAKER_01 22:44

But that's running, isn't it? The highest of highs and then the lowest of lows, you know, struggling to complete a session or with that fatigue. So, you know, it's it is definitely a bit of a roller coaster sometimes.

SPEAKER_02 22:56

And and if it wasn't a roller coaster, then you're not doing it right. Or we wouldn't be human if it wasn't. Exactly. You're roller coaster. There's so many factors, isn't there? Exactly. Let's go into doubt. Has there been a moment where you doubt yourself in this build besides having that or besides the 5K? But removing the surgery and the infusion. Has there been a moment where you've doubted yourself?

SPEAKER_01 23:23

If that wasn't the fact, is I wouldn't have nearly as much. Yeah, I think. But then I sometimes I just have to remember that those are factors that also once once these things have happened, you can't go back and change. The session that happened three weeks ago. So I just try not to talk about, you know, when I had that time off being a look back on stuff, but just trying to look forward instead of looking back at these things because you can't change that anyway. You can't change how the last five weeks have gone, regardless. It is what it is. Yeah, it is what it is. I can only look forward to now and just focus on completing the rest of the build, trusting the process that I, you know, and I haven't stopped since bustled in any way. I've just had a few slightly different weeks. But you know, things have still been coming along okay. And I just have to keep reminding myself of that, even though I've had there these really good sessions and really bad sessions. But that happens, I'm sure, every block. And I think sometimes you forget that with the next one, like what the previous block was like, and that you would have had bad sessions the previous block, but you've forgotten about them. And so it seems more important now that you're having those bad sessions that things are not going to work out or well, you're zoned in on a different goal, and so you've achieved the previous goal.

SPEAKER_02 24:39

So now that you're on to the next one, you're kind of like excited on that. So anything that you're in the motion of doing is going to be more negative at that point than what it might have been previously, or you've forgotten about it. So when those thoughts start to creep in, what does that sort of sound like?

SPEAKER_01 24:54

I think for me, I usually just start to predict that it that it won't be a good race or come up with reasons why it won't be a good race and already have that play out in my mind four weeks out, which is so silly, isn't it? But I just sort of predict I just I guess it's just predicting the worst and you start going, well, if I do fail that race or whatever, it's because X, Y, and Z. And you sort of have it already lined up, which is really not a good way to think of things. But I think that's where if I'm in that negative space, that's where I tend to think I just predict that it'll be a bad race and I predict I or make up reasons in advance why.

SPEAKER_02 25:33

Yeah. So you you've done that in the past. You didn't do that for Bustleton. How did you pull yourself out of that and get yourself into more of a positive outlook?

SPEAKER_01 25:42

I I guess once again, I don't try and move I think I was with Bastelton. I was very good at just if I had a bad session like just moving on from it. Yeah. And not really thinking back on it too much and not letting it sort of yeah, fester just moving on to the next week. And I think that's the difference that time is. Yeah, I definitely had ups and downs during that build that I've totally probably forgotten about. Yeah. But I just moved on from it really quickly. Yeah. And just sort of went, oh well, the next, you know, let's just put that one to the side. And I didn't achieve what I wanted to with that session, but the next one will be good. Yeah. That's true. That sort of I was a lot I was a lot better at. I suppose this block it's been hard when I haven't been able to run and then things have backed up, and I've probably had more on a row that have been poor, then it's hard to just keep thinking, oh, the next one would be good because a lot it hasn't been. Yeah. I'm still waiting for that next one to be good. Whereas Buster and I was really good at just putting that to the side, and then the next five would be better.

SPEAKER_02 26:43

So if you could describe your fitness now in one word, what would that be? I think it's stable.

SPEAKER_01 26:49

I think I keep wanting to think that it's less than what it has been, but just because I've had a few different weeks, I keep wanting to think that. But I know that, you know, and this the scientist in me knows your VO2 Max doesn't change unless you have like two or more weeks of doing absolutely nothing. And I know that the yeah, the scientist in me knows that's and want previously the negative part of me want to say that it feels like it's worse, but I don't think that's the case.

SPEAKER_02 27:23

So do you feel like race day is feeling close, or does it still feel quite far away and you feel like you've got enough time?

SPEAKER_01 27:32

It is quite close. But I'm still eager to do some half marathon specific sessions considering how they went last block, that if I was to do a better one this block, that would really make me feel pretty good.

SPEAKER_02 27:44

So, what's one thing that you want to improve on or lock in over the next few weeks?

SPEAKER_01 27:50

I think just um continuing to listen to my body, but also getting back to a little bit more consistency and building the confidence, sort of trying to get back to that mindset I had before Bustleton, I think.

SPEAKER_02 28:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:02

Is the the plan.

SPEAKER_02 28:03

That's the plan. And what would what would a successful HBF look like for you? Not time-wise, but more of a an emotional or a feeling.

SPEAKER_01 28:14

I think if I can feel like I did during my last half marathon at Buston, I'd be really happy. I knew on that run at 6K I was gonna do a PB. I felt good. Even I kept telling myself that halfway I still want to feel good, and then you know, allowed myself the rein to build and get faster. When I think back to uh a bad one I've had, I I felt like in the 11th K I felt like I was in the 18th K. Yeah. The 19th K. That's how already fatigued I was at that point in the race, which was too fatigued to have a success, you know, a good, a good race. So if I can just replicate how I felt during Bustleton and finish, you know, really strong, but also be good at holding myself back in that first half, yeah. Um, and being able to then give myself the rein to speed up, I'll feel pretty good.

SPEAKER_02 29:03

So I'm gonna ask you, give me a word that describes how you felt in Bartleton. Just strong. I want you to now carry strong, even though you haven't felt like that into HBF because that was a positive outcome.

SPEAKER_01 29:19

Yeah, it it was. I did feel strong. And I just uh it's almost and I felt so confident. I knew that this was I don't guess there was other factors in that as well. It was a good uh weather that day, there was other things. But I had a good HBF last year and that was like raining and people complained about that.

SPEAKER_02 29:38

So Oh well it it poured down before it even started when you're standing in the like chute waiting to go. So I don't know about you, but rain doesn't bother me. I don't know how you feel about race conditions, but I mean if everyone's in the same boat, then it's fine. But if I was to go out for a run on my own, obviously there's gonna be some kind of procrastination, but then at the end of the day, skin's waterproof, so it shouldn't really make too much of a difference. Do you procrastinate if it is raining? Of course, and you know, now that I've got the option of running inside on a treadmill, yeah, I'll pick and choose. Like if it's raining and it's cold, I'm more likely to run on my treadmill if it's like then if it's raining and it's humid. Because if it's humid, then my treadmill room is going to be humid.

SPEAKER_01 30:21

Yeah, okay. I was thinking more like I hate humidity, I run the treadmill, but you're right, humidity doesn't escape you even on the treadmill.

SPEAKER_02 30:28

No, it definitely does not escape you on the treadmill, not in your garage anyway. So I think this has been like a really important conversation to have because you're my athlete and I'm so um nothing always looks completely perfect, polished, but you've just been showing up. And sort of I have been figuring it out as I go. Exactly. So if you are listening today and you're in your own training block right now, whether it's HVFRAN for a reason or something else, this is a reminder that you're probably doing better than you actually think. So keep showing up. Yeah. And if this episode has resonated with you, make sure you share it with a fellow running friend. Um, and make sure you subscribe so that you don't miss an episode. And until next time, let's keep the conversation going.