Overtrained vs Undertrained – Which One Actually Wins on Race Day?

[00:00:00] Which would you rather go into a race slightly overtrained or go into a race Slightly. Undertrained. Remy, what do you think? What I’m actually thinking is, it’s wintertime over there in Australia, but beautiful sunshine here in Ethiopia. You wanna just, uh, alright, here I come.

[00:00:24] All right, everyone. Darren here. 1% better runner. I got Remy. What’s going on? Be real. We are in Ethiopia. IZ ba over here at the uh, what, what suburb are we in? What area? This is Bessette Gabriel. We talk about polarizing things with this or that. So you might’ve seen past previous episodes where we talked about would you rather be training cold or hot?

[00:00:47] Weather you gather, uh, mornings or evenings, uh, run a bike, commute, et cetera. And this one, as we alluded to early on, is about over training versus under training. There we go. You’re stepping in puddles right now, running on this track. I’m gonna take the side of over training and a bit more of under training.

[00:01:06] And the reason why, because you need to sometimes go hard and you sometimes need to swing that pendulum all the way over to the right. Overcommit to everything to find out your maximum limits, right? With that upper limit, you then learn, okay, that’s a bit too much for me. Next time I can’t do that. But there’s a risk in Overtraining and coming into a race overcooked, as we said earlier, and that risk is burning out too quickly.

[00:01:34] Uhhuh, um. And then not being able to recover. So it’s like the dose is the poison and it’s like if you go too much over, you now can be out for 2, 3, 4 weeks, months and sabotage that race day before. Absolutely. You might not be able to be fresh for race day. So yes, you don’t know how much over it is if you’re new.

[00:01:55] But pros, they really, really need to make sure that they go as hard as possible and they know the risk. The risk reward is that absolutely they’ll hurt themselves. But the reward is that they’ll win the race, they’ll win $200,000, they’ll get that Nike contract. So it’s worth it for pros, for amateurs. I don’t think being overtrained and overcooked going to a race is, is worth it personally, absolutely not.

[00:02:18] But in that same breath, I’m gonna, I went into my last race, overtrained my marathon at Ballarat Great times. Try to go self three, et cetera. But I tried to do too much volume and I actually didn’t burn myself out by going. Too hard. I did too much volume, which it’s either volume or going too fast. Course one of ’em gonna burn you out of both of them at the same time, right?

[00:02:40] So I think I have a theory. I’m one of one. I’m my only experiment. As much as I love science, I can’t experiment myself and create controls and variables. I think that I could have done the same race time I overcooked myself going into the race. When I should have done less for sure. Now the problem with less is, are you ready?

[00:03:03] Are you ready? And that is an experience thing that’s a trust in the process. So I’m gonna whip it over to Mr. Remy and he’s gonna talk about undercooked because we actually need to slow down right now. And the reason being is Remy. Is in a bit of a training, a little bit less stage of his life. Phase of his life.

[00:03:21] Season of his life. Yeah. And you can talk a bit more about that, man. So we’re also at altitude. So at altitude it is undefeated, man. Yeah. And talking about properly training versus exercising. Sounds the same, very different, but undertrained, sometimes you can race yourself into fitness. It’s, uh, may not work for everybody.

[00:03:47] But on the risk reward side, I would much rather go in knowing that I have. Of the headroom to push a little bit more on race day, I can really see, hey, this could be a hell of a day and go push my upper limits versus going in already taxed. My upper limit is already at maybe 70, 80% capacity. Mm-hmm. Maybe I had a, a protracted training cycle.

[00:04:15] Mm-hmm. Or life happens sometimes, and being a father, a professional, all these things, so many variables. I have yet to have a perfect training cycle this time last year. I ran two marathons and a half Ironman in the span of four months. And you also getting ready to, I was also doing this, planning, the logistics move his whole life to move across the Atlantic Ocean.

[00:04:41] So a lot of stress, which meant I had to go and undertrained. But you know what? By being slightly undertrained, I was able to stay in the game for all three of those events. That’s a good point. Sorry. You stay alive. Because that’s the point. Yeah. Stay alive, stay uninjured. You give yourself, you can just keep going.

[00:04:59] And if you, for sure if you burn out, you can’t keep going. So keep going, man. That was, that was another point. The, the time to recover would’ve meant I would’ve missed my last races in the United States. I did not wanna jeopardize that. So by all means, play it safe, play it smart, and live to race another day.

[00:05:18] Love it. Look, I think there’s more to this ’cause we want to talk about being a whole human. Because obviously we’re runners and you know, endurance athletes and partners and workers and students or whatever. You are complete humans for sure. And you know what, with this, this elevation and uh, me adjusting a jet lag and all that, I think we need to go take a quick rest.

[00:05:41] Let’s take this inside. Yeah. That altitude will get you. I’m defeated. I know. So somehow ended up. On the, the balcony of this apartment. Now we’re gonna go into the new section, healthy, creative wise, and I’m gonna talk about something. We’re both gonna talk about something healthy that’s affecting us, fitness, life, whatever, business, work, school, something creative that we are really leaning into and not just doing it.

[00:06:07] For business sake, but because we enjoy it, love to share the creativity. That’s the purpose of the, the start of all of this really. And something wise. ’cause we’re all learning experiences, failures, lot of failures. Way you should fail 10 times and succeed once. Yeah. Growing and evolving, man. Yeah. So. What you start first.

[00:06:28] What’s something, uh, healthy? Oh. Are you doing healthy? Oh, man. Uh, in the last two months I’ve been challenging myself to do things that I wouldn’t normally do. Now, Schwartz version, I am not a group exercise kind of guy. Mm-hmm. Which is exactly why I feel like I need to introduce that because in these group hit classes, I’m happy to just lift weights and do my things.

[00:06:55] Sets and reps every time. But once a week, get out, do one of these classes, shake it up, do something that I would not normally do, introduce some new movement and the upside of it, I can do it with my wife. Mm-hmm. And that’s been real, real healthy, uh, not just from the physical but from the emotional standpoint too.

[00:07:17] So really leaning into that these days. I love that. I love the bringing in the partner with, with the fitness ’cause I do. My partner and I do a lot of fitness together. Sorry, we, we do fitness separate. We had the kid, we actually don’t do fitness together. And when we do, it’s awesome. So, uh, we, as he’s getting older, as we’re getting more babysitters, it is nice to run with my partner.

[00:07:39] ’cause she’s actually a very hardcore runner. She’s more hardcore than me, but that’s not my healthy thing. So my healthy thing though is. I’m not training for a marathon right now. I feel so healthy. I’m able to eat vegetables and I know you’re like, what? It’s like, yo, I stopped eating veg, uh, veggies and fiber and fats and heavy protein.

[00:07:58] I love that. Like that’s actually, I actually eat, I’d say a low to moderate carb diet. I’m not a hard, high carb person the way I’m made up, and you cannot be. Low carb going into marathon distance running. Yeah. And without carbs. Yeah. Right. Yeah. You, you can try it, but you’re not gonna perform to, you’re a hundred percent.

[00:08:14] Feel free to flame me in the comments. A all you low, low carb people come outta nowhere all the time. Every time I say that, it’s like you were waiting. Boom, boom, boom. I ran my fastest marathon and keto. Sure, sure. And I’m so happy for you, by the way. Yes, yes. But I’ve learned that high carbs out perform better, but I feel like trash, so.

[00:08:29] Mm-hmm. Pretty much the two to three days before I was carving up like crazy. Simple carbs too. So I like complex carbs. When do carbs, I can do sweet potatoes, but they’re not the best to be absorbed in your kidneys, liver, muscles, et cetera. Sure. Uh, to be used as glycogen. So the carbohydrates, the glycogen is not a nutrition lesson, but the eating killed me.

[00:08:48] And then also the general like anxiety and stress of the marathon. Oh my gosh. It takes over your entire life. Yes. And that just didn’t feel like I love balance and I 1% better runner. Everything’s incremental habits, et cetera. You can’t be unbalanced and have habits, and have systems and process and whatnot.

[00:09:04] So I like craved it for the last, especially last week. And then afterwards I was sore. I was tired. I was so hungry for days, like I had to keep eating more carbs after the day. And luckily because I was so carb depleted. I could take down simple sugars and usually I can’t drink soda. I don’t like soda, I can’t eat, you know, just regular candy.

[00:09:23] But that like day or two after the marathon, I was taking it in. No sugar highs, no crashes. ’cause my body needed, the carb just needs, your brain needs it, right? Yeah. Brain needs it. So that was gross. And it gave me the past to just eat pizza and hot dogs and hamburgers because I could also eat the greasy foods.

[00:09:39] ’cause your body just needs carbs. But then about, yeah, three days after. We’re, we’re now three weeks after, about three weeks after, three days after I shifted back, started getting sleep better. I had time. That was healthy. I had time, bro. I was like, I was like, wait, I’m not going for an hour and a half run on a Wednesday.

[00:09:55] So listen, so yeah, it literally takes over everything. Yeah. Yeah. I was like, wait, I can be creative. I can just sit around and kind of do nothing, even though it’s hard for me to do nothing. I was like, I can do that fun thing. I can research something. I can work on these videos. Nice. So, yes, that was, uh, that was a nice little thing.

[00:10:10] I can go on a trip and come see you in. Ethiopia. Oh man. And that I couldn’t do that if I was training for the marathon. Absolutely. Uh, yeah, I could, but that wouldn’t be good. So yes, that is my, I love the ebbs and flows. It’s a rollercoaster. It’s you go really hard at one thing and then you come down to get balance and you probably swing to the, I’d say the, I call it being very healthy and not very fit side.

[00:10:31] And then I come back and get more fit and get less healthy. And it’s just this ebbs and flows. It’s funny how those are not the same thing, being healthy and being fit. That could have been an episode. Well, we decided to do, yeah. Uh, undertrained versus over. That actually is gonna be possibly a future episode I saw in our list of things.

[00:10:46] So like, and subscribe for future episodes right down below. That little bell future Darren here, and I won’t do that thing. You know the thing where people go, Hey, you should subscribe, rate, share. Give a thumbs up, rah. Now, while I’d love for you to do that anyways, please go ahead and do it. The next steps would be for you to transform your running life without free 1% better runner, 30 day base training habits, plan and newsletter.

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[00:11:36] All value, no fluff. Cancel anytime. Let’s get back into it. So something creative that you’re doing, uh, you tell me. I mean, we’re here, we’ve been, um. Talk and shop this whole time. What’s something creative? You said you talked to me about something real, real creative. I’m hyped about to see when it’s all said and done.

[00:11:56] The book? Yeah. Oh yes. I was like, which one was it? The Crazy publishing thing. Yes. So my book, the 1% Better Runner, that is most likely gonna be the title, 95% sure. I finished the manuscript. I have never written a book before and I love reading books. I love listening to audio books. I’m a long form content guy.

[00:12:13] I heard manuscript being floated around. I thought that was like the final thing. You have to have your manuscript turned into the publisher, da da. I don’t have a publisher yet. I probably won’t. It’s gonna be self-published, but I found out through a friend who actually, uh, she’s a consultant for book writers.

[00:12:27] She, she was gonna be a client with my production company. Found out she was a consultant and she went, oh, you have to. I said, oh. So I finally googled the manuscript learning how to write a book. So I actually was researching how to write a book, which is really meta reading a book on how to write a book.

[00:12:40] And it was like the manuscript is throw up. And I went, what? And it’s like it’s before the first draft. Just get it up. But you gotta get it all out. Like you’re putting all your chapters together, your transitions it, the transitions is rough. Uh, certain things are not making sense. But I put it together right before the trip.

[00:12:55] It was a huge rush to put the book together because I wanted to do a lot of work on this trip on the plane. I didn’t want to just watch videos and, and whatever. I guess that’s all you could do. Really play video games. What else? You can sleep. Sleep, which I need. I did half the time with sleeping, but uh, yeah, it’s just watching stuff.

[00:13:11] It’s just watching. That’s what you do on a plane. And I was like, you know what? I do that every time. How about I be productive, but I needed the manuscript to be done because I needed to work on other things. These are content related that are going to feed into the 1% better runner courses, group coaching email, like actual like, uh, email kind of lesson, sort of, it’s an email course in a way.

[00:13:32] Um. All these things were predicated on me understanding the 1% better, runner better because I needed to finish the manuscript. And that was such a push. And it was so, even though the book is like 50% done, it was like, oh my God. I got like the idea out. And that was steps man, you don’t get to mile 26.2 US crossing mile 10.

[00:13:50] Right. Exactly what the marathon starts at Mile 20, right At 30 32 Ks. So, uh, this was, it was cool. It was, I don’t know. A lot of people talk about finishing a book and I know I haven’t finished it yet. But I was like, yo, I got over the hump. I’m not writing the book anymore. Now I’m in editing phase. Yeah.

[00:14:05] Which is probably 50% of writing a book is editing. I gotta need to get an editor. Stacey might do it. Who’s actually been on here? She might help me edit early on. We’re gonna do a trial run. Uh, I got edit it. Being, having an editor for a book is like, uh, a relationship that’s, well, I, I need to see if we got about that.

[00:14:22] Yeah. So, uh, that, that’s really exciting. Um, some content related stuff I’ve got. A lot of episodes ready, um, and or in a half done state. So there’s gonna be a lot more, I wouldn’t say different content, a lot of the content that you may have liked alongside of new types of formats. Remy’s helping me edit more the, we call it running gun style or vlogger style, where it’s actually me out running and I do like that format, but it’s a lot of work for me.

[00:14:49] And it’s not my favorite thing to edit. Emmy, Remy loves this stuff, thankfully. That is so in my bag. Yes. So we’re actually collaborating. We work together with my business. And we’re learning a collaboration flow with some of the software. So you might see more of the, the Running Gun me out doing workouts, me out doing races.

[00:15:07] I don’t race that much, but probably more me out doing long runs with people. Yeah. Yeah. Conversation zone two, which this is, and I’m really excited about that creatively. So what are you doing? Great. Uh, a lot of the same actually. And it’s exactly an offshoot of that. Editing more content for others now. I just absolutely love to edit, uh, learning in some of our conversations, getting more of my, uh, content schedule put together and figuring out how I’m going to keep the subtle drip and infuse not just my travel vlogs, but also some of the behind the scenes, how I set up certain shots, how you can get it done as well.

[00:15:45] As well as here are some of the things that I’m working on with others and some. Handy tips that you can take away to level up your videos. Side note, I also take on clients if you want to have your videos edited. Travel videos. Travel videos. Travel videos. Yeah. I mean like, let’s focus on travel videos.

[00:16:04] Yeah, yeah, yeah. So if you, if you do traveling with your family or your solo. Please hit him up. He can help you edit it. So many people go off on a trip, buy a GoPro, Philip an SD card, and it sits in a drawer. So reaching out and talking some of that business strategy and really getting things off the ground, I just really love to tell stories and it’s nice to find a better avenue to put that forward and help others share their stories.

[00:16:29] Uh, and to your point about, you know, working with an editor. Being on the other side of it, I feel like I get to know people after you’ve listened to hours of their voice. Okay, I understand you now. And then also learning to take their feedback and criticism to rev make some revisions and deliver the final package.

[00:16:50] That’s been so much fun and very rewarding for me. What about y’all? Let me know what kind of things that you are doing creatively that are enriching your lives. Yeah. Put it in the comments like, I know that’s not running specific, but creativity fuels you as a human. You are a whole human outside of a runner.

[00:17:07] Yes. This is running content. No, I got some great thoughts while I’m out clearing my mind. Exactly. On a short run, during a workout, whatever is where inspiration usually strikes me. Exactly. Exactly. Which leads to wisdom. That’s a very wise. Statement a very wise thought like that, you know, when you go out on a easy run or whatever, a bike ride, et cetera, even swimming sometimes mm-hmm.

[00:17:29] Swimming’s tougher. ’cause you can’t write it, write the idea down. At least when I’m cycling money, I can say it. No, it blocks everything out. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But, uh, yeah, we, we like to end it on something wise, because again, we’re whole humans. And I’m constantly learning as I’m failing and I’m failing way more than I succeed.

[00:17:46] The, the most wise thing I’ve been doing this quarter, we’re doing this every few months, every quarter, every season is, I’m not doing a marathon again. I know like this is very marathon. The marathon took over my life way more than I thought it would. So I learned so much from that marathon. And honestly, I’m only gonna do one a year.

[00:18:06] I might break that rule this year because of the. Top of this episode where we talked about under training versus o versus over training. Mm-hmm. I actually want to see one, if I could hold my fitness for this year, maintaining a level of pretty decent fitness and then only ramping up for six weeks, as I said before, because I learned so much of how not to do the marathon.

[00:18:29] Yeah. And it was like, it was so many failures where I was like, even the water, water for the marathon, because I don’t do. Long races. I don’t do, that was my first marathon in seven years. I totally forgot how I was going to fill up my water bottle. It was about a week before, because when I do long runs, I could fill my water bottle at every water fountain, every water station on the park runs that I do.

[00:18:52] I would go, that’s the water station. And I went, I can’t stop and fill up my water. I’m gonna lose 30 seconds, 45 seconds. I gotta make sure that water random volunteer can pour the thing they have, the, the, the jug, the pitcher ready. Mm-hmm. Like I’d have to put multiple cups in. I’m like. Yo, I can’t do that.

[00:19:05] I had one of those, uh, gel flas fla, the soft flas. That thing ain’t gonna stand, so I have to open it. I was like, whoa, how am I gonna, so then I said, oh, cool. I’m just not gonna have a water bottle. I’ll just go to the drink chasing after 13 miles, 21 Ks, because that’s when it would, it would run out. It was a cool day.

[00:19:20] So I didn’t actually need that much water, but with the gels, I needed the water. So I’m at, you know, 20 5K mark. What’s that? 14, 15 miles I run for my first water. I get it. I’m Newing, 6 54, 15 sub three hour pace, splashing. There’s no walking. ’cause every time I walk, I’m gonna lose 15 seconds. So I’m like, splash, splash, splash, splash, splash.

[00:19:41] I go. So 10 seconds in I go, okay, I’m gonna drink. And I’ve got literally 50 meals, like a little. I was like, what am I doing? Okay. I was like, next time I’ll get a full one and I’ll like run like this. Like so I’ll run so that it doesn’t jump right. Yeah. So I’m running like this almost trip. Goes out, I’m Dr.

[00:19:59] I’m like, I literally taking down gels at the 30 5K mark or, or 20, 22 miles in taking down the chew, sorry, not even gels, because I decided to go with chew. Yeah, the blocks. Yeah. The, uh, cliff blocks the, the, the, the cliff bar blocks dry. I’m like, I, I missed the water dry. And I’m like, I went, do I go with no, no cards or do I go with no water?

[00:20:22] And I said. I think I need the carbs, yo. So I’m running dry mouth. I’m like, and I’m just like, oh my God, where’s the water station? Where’s the water station? Where’s the water? So yes, I have learned that I’m gonna run with actually a water belt because I saw the pacer. Yeah, I went, he has a belt and I hated the belt before ’cause I was like, oh, the water actually hated the water flask.

[00:20:42] ’cause it was something I had to hold. And I was like, I’m gonna do the bell as much as I hate the bells. So I’ve learned so much from that. Uh, that’s one thing, the training, et cetera. I don’t need as much volume. As I thought to be fit. This is still in the test phase. I’m still experimenting. Well, I’ll let you know come, uh, October, November if I do it.

[00:20:58] So that’s another thing. Um, I wouldn’t say I’m wise on, but I’m experimenting on. I actually can get away with less volume, probably 25 to 35% less volume, and which is time, which is great, and I probably won’t be as tired and reduces the risk of injury. Yes. Who? Yes. Or just absolute burnout? Burnout and just over, over training, which I actually did hit some, uh, mild over training syndrome.

[00:21:21] I’ve had it really bad. That was a mild one. And luckily so, yes. That’s a lot, a lot of, a lot of learnings from, from that marathon. How about you, man? Yes, for sure. Well, I mean, even just on that. I too was very against carrying anything until I’ve had trip up going to the aid station. It’s like, oh, this would’ve all been solved if I just carried my, okay, I get it now.

[00:21:42] Mm-hmm. I get it now. But what I’m really leaning into is a statement I heard from a friend. Would you rather be right or would you rather be successful? Or write a Rich, rich, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry. Yeah. Successful. Let’s just say Rich, we’ll just want Yeah, yeah. Sorry. And, and however you wanna slice it ’cause.

[00:22:00] In a lot of cases you may know that, like, eh, and it becomes an argument and you’re back and forth and then, you know what? I don’t wanna do business with you anymore, or this is gonna sour the relationship. And sometimes it is just best to swallow that pride. Mm-hmm. And say, you know what? I know I’m right, but that doesn’t actually matter right now.

[00:22:19] Mm-hmm. How can we push forward anyway and still achieve the same goal? Mm-hmm. And it, it’s, it’s like sage wisdom from. A man who has definitely been here before a few years, my senior, and you know, kind of imparting that down. It’s like, ’cause once upon a time, uh, a younger, more, more opinionated, Remy would make, not only insist that he’s right, but outline exactly why I’m right.

[00:22:45] Yeah. And then I’d not see you for another year, two years, or whatever. ’cause I had to prove to you. Yeah. Or. You know what, that’s fine. If we come back around to it, we can agree to disagree. How can we still move forward? Mm-hmm. And that has done so much for relationships, partnerships, business, all around just to keep things moving and keep trending up.

[00:23:09] I’m happier and certainly wiser for it. So again, absolutely agree with that. And one thing that if you try to be right. The, the crazy thing is that you’re never gonna know, or you, you’ll rarely know if you piss someone off. Right. And if you piss someone off, they then won’t give you another opportunity later.

[00:23:29] So, outside of relationships or outside of your main partner or family, whatever, like, I guess if you piss them off, they just won’t talk to you. But if you like, have like maybe like a a, a business, a part, someone that you do business with on a semi-regular basis, every six to 12 months, someone you work with.

[00:23:46] Mm-hmm. They now won’t, they will subconsciously not invite you to the next thing or give you an opportunity. And you won’t know that you and you, they might not even know that they’re not gonna sub, they’re not gonna consciously know that. But now you have lost any chances of luck, any chance of serendipity happening because you were a jerk.

[00:24:04] So, right. Any, any referrals, any future run-ins? Yeah. Any possibilities. And they might not be doing it on purpose ’cause just like. Just like marathon times, the people that really care about you don’t care about the time. Mm-hmm. They care about how you feel. Mm-hmm. And how you make them feel. That’s good about it.

[00:24:22] That’s good. Right. So take that to heart. It’s not really about the, oh well, this and that, and I have to throw in. It has to be this and that. Like, no, let’s focus on the human side of it. In fitness, in business and relationships. Let’s just be good people. With that said, man, thank you for doing another episode with us of this or that.

[00:24:43] Hey, thanks. Coming out, man. Appreciate having you. This is Season X. Now we, uh, there’s no more seasons anyway. There’s on season three, if you’ve been following along, I don’t know. This is like the 15th one we’ve done. Yeah. About, yeah. Six and eight. 6, 8 40. Yeah. This is like 16. This is number 16 here. I’m not even counting anymore.

[00:24:57] We’re doing these every few months. And I flew all the way to Ethiopia for this. Again, I’m probably say that multiple times here and with Darren being here, you know, I had to show him around. So check out Remy burial to see the vlog. Yes. As we go around, see some of the sites, try some of the food. Yes. And get some of Darren’s raw reactions of being here.

[00:25:17] And Addis Baba. Yes. Till next time y’all. It’s been real.