The Dailey Edge Podcast
Join hosts Trent, TJ, and Todd Dailey as they explore the intersections of technology, culture, fitness, and personal growth. Through engaging discussions and personal anecdotes, the trio dives into topics ranging from childhood gaming nostalgia and cutting-edge fitness tech to the pursuit of happiness and lifestyle choices. Whether reminiscing about epic gaming marathons, sharing tips for staying on the forefront of fitness trends, or unraveling the complexities of modern life, The Dailey Edge delivers thoughtful insights, lively debates, and relatable stories for listeners of all walks of life.
The Dailey Edge Podcast
Episode 1: Building Resilience: The Dailey Approach to Fitness, Family, and the Future
This episode explores the fitness journeys of three brothers, detailing their shared experiences in running marathons and how these pursuits shape their lives. They discuss the importance of community, personal growth, and goal setting as they look ahead to their fitness ambitions for 2025.
• Individual fitness journeys and initial motivations
• Importance of setting goals to drive progress
• Community's impact on maintaining fitness consistency
• The role of mental resilience in overcoming barriers
• Lessons learned from racing experiences
• Techniques for establishing a balanced fitness routine
• Emphasizing energy levels through consistent exercise
• The value of supporting one another in fitness endeavors
• Thoughts on upcoming goals for 2025 which drive motivation
• The idea that every small effort contributes to larger achievements
Welcome to the Daily Edge, where we bring you the latest insights, opinions and thought-provoking conversations to give you that competitive edge in life, business and beyond. Let's go Well, everyone. Welcome to the Daily Edge. I'm here with my brothers TJ Daly, todd Daly and this is episode one. So we've wanted to do this for quite some time, wanted to get together and talk about several things. We've got a lot going on here. I think we're going to start off with 2025 goals, particularly in the fitness realm. I have two sub three-hour marathoners sitting next to me, and so we've got a lot of experience in fitness, health and nutrition. So why don't we just start off by you guys giving us a little bit of history about your journey and maybe some of your fitness goals for 2025.?
Speaker 2:Why don't you go first? Okay?
Speaker 1:Should be quicker. I would say my fitness journey started in 2012. I sent TJ a text and I've always wanted to do a marathon and I sent him a text and asked him if he would do it with me. He had done one in 2007, right, so seven. You had done Seattle and I think you were out of shape from that and he said let's go. So I think that was in February or March, I feel like.
Speaker 2:March, I think, you sent me the text and I started training in May.
Speaker 1:Okay, and so I did the marathon. And then TJ and I did that in November, the monumental. And. And then, shortly after you, Trent, you said, well, I, you know, I want to do a marathon. And TJ was like well, we all three got to do it together. So we did another one same one, that following year, right 2013. You were talking about being one and done there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh, I was one, and done.
Speaker 1:I didn't train for six months. It's like you ever see that Goodwill commercial where it's like a running thing.
Speaker 2:The treadmills that got the hangers on it. Yes, oh yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1:That was totally me. And then, unfortunately, I had to start training again in I don't know May or June. And we did another marathon, the one where Trent wanted to walk.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I remember that, the very end.
Speaker 1:I am third. Literally what I remember about that is I remember watching you guys cross the finish line and at that time I had Roman, I had one kid and I was like it was almost like a scene out of Rudy. I was like tearing up Everybody's like cheering on, and I'm like it was almost like a scene out of Rudy. I was like tearing up Everybody's like cheering on and I'm like I'll never be able to do this and I was like kind of that proud moment you guys had accomplished something. You broke four hours, I think, on your first one. So it was just cool watching you guys come across the finish line. And then TJ, later that next year he decided to do a 100 miler and once I saw that I just it's like if he can run 100, I can run 26. So the competitive brother spirit came out and I think that's where I decided to give it a shot.
Speaker 2:Well, that had to be weird for you because you were always the like there had to be an element of that competitiveness, even seeing us cross the line, I would think, because you were always the stellar athlete, like, like you know, head and shoulders above us when it came to traditional ball sports, like basketball and things like that. So you know that had to be an interesting thing. Um, and when I get to my journey, that played in I think you guys have heard me tell that story before, but that had to be kind of interesting from your perspective yeah, I was used to being one of the better uh, especially cause me, and you are only two years apart.
Speaker 1:So when we competed, um, as as kids, that that was the case. Now that's Todd came up, I mean, we were so far apart with that gap we didn't probably compete as much Um, but yeah it, uh, uh, luckily these days, uh, I can, I can settle in being being the third, the third fastest in the family, but definitely was a dynamic that, um, uh, there, there at first, you know, and then when we started training for the three-hour marathon, was kind of the other thing that how fast are we capable of running, and that that's been a obviously a goal. That, uh, you two have both crossed over, which I know is a pretty big uh, you two are both crossed over, which I know is a pretty big milestone as well.
Speaker 2:You shouldn't ride three wheelers.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's, you had it. Yeah, it's. Possible.
Speaker 2:You know, I think one of the things to kind of talk about as you continue telling your story is you're one of the first people you know there's this big wave right now in fitness of being this balanced athlete, and so you have new things like high rocks, right, which is a lot of lifting and a lot of running. So you're doing a workout circuit and you're running a kilometer and there's a CrossFit, obviously, which is a little more on the strength side than high rocks is. But you were one of the first people you know we're talking. When did you start Orange Theory?
Speaker 1:I want to say it was in the fall of 17. It was shortly after they had opened. I had started that and that's certainly been a huge part of my journey.
Speaker 2:So I think it's worth. Obviously, orange Theory has grown and boutique fitness has grown substantially over the last seven or eight years and is really kind of still leading the way, I think, in terms of fitness journeys for people. That's normally where they start, but you had a pretty significant impact in Orange Theory in your local community and I think that's important to kind of call out.
Speaker 1:I don't want to put you on the spot, but I think I'm going to Well, I think you were there for one of those, so I'll let you get into that a little bit. I was just going to kind of know my journey after that second marathon. Then we decided to run a half and then you never quite got away from it. Um, I don't think I ran another marathon for several years actually after that, but, uh, then halves and 10 Ks and five Ks are very digestible and, um, you know, it was fun to run a little bit faster and never quite got away from it. Yeah, I want to 16 or 2016 or 17.
Speaker 1:I started an orange theory and it was just for me. It was a fantastic community, a lot of great people that I'm still very close with, and certainly other elements of fitness that I felt like even to this day. You know, I can run 50 miles a week but I don't quite feel as strong. Just in general and balanced, uh, unless I'm doing orange theory, there's just the core work, um, the rower, the, the weight floor, um, and it was something. There's a little bit of competitiveness to it too. I mean, I think we're all kind of oriented to that a little bit and so, um, you know, I've really, really enjoyed that part of it.
Speaker 2:Well, I will say yes, I was, cause they do have those of you who do orange theory fitness. They do have the dry try and turn it into a competition where people from the local studio get together and they see how fast they can complete that. And then in Indiana specifically and I know it's done different in different areas of the country, but they do regionals and they do a state championship, which you've won twice.
Speaker 1:One state once I've won the dry try a few times in Carmel.
Speaker 2:Okay, so state once, state once.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we did. They did in 2019. I don't think they did it again until 23. Cause, obviously, fall of 2019 was when I had won it. And then COVID here's what's interesting about that, just from a fitness perspective.
Speaker 1:I growing up, I think for me, and just the dynamic of our family and the way things operated I was very much searching to be the most talented. I found when we were younger, for better or worse, there was a lot of oh, you're so smart or you've got a lot of natural ability and that sort of thing, and so I found myself orienting just to that. I didn't really care what level I got to, but I, for whatever reason, I just tried to me to not do any studying and get an A minus than to like completely put my best effort forward and get an A, and so it was interesting. I bring that just to circle this back to that state championship. For the first time, about a couple months before that, I actually started to prepare. It was like the first time. That was a really hard thing for me to do, because the more you prepare and put into something, the more vulnerable, like you know, like the failures hurt that much worse, and I remember being in my living room doing the exercises. So the dry try is a 2000 meter row and then you have 300 reps on the weight floor and then you get on the treadmill and run a 5k and I remember for I don't know probably the better part of six weeks. You know, maybe four or five nights a week. I would do some of these exercises. Well, in the dry try I was the last one. You start with the rower. I was the last one off the rower. I think, tj, you saw that I got over to the weight floor and I probably had the fastest, fastest time on the weight floor by a minute, minute and a half. I was the first one off of the weight floor and so for me it was just a, it was a really, it was a spiritual moment, it was a life all changing. I mean just perspective, to have actually been willing to and had the vulnerability to practice as weird as that sounds and then to see that pay off was really interesting and pivotal part in my journey. Pay off was really interesting and pivotal part in my journey.
Speaker 1:Wow, for those that are listening that maybe haven't started a journey or like oh, here you are, you know, winning dry tries at the state. Take them back to when you first started running. Kind of tell the audience what that was like. I mean, I can tell you for me. I still remember I lived in Westfield, which looked very different at that time for anyone that's from the area. Keystone and 31 were all stoplights and I remember doing my.
Speaker 1:I had a loop in my neighborhood that was a mile and I ran that mile and I ran it fast Like it was every. I left it all out there. And I remember coming in and you know, like you couldn't even catch your breath and I remember thinking, gosh, you know cold turkey to be able to go out. I knew I had run somewhere in like the eight and a half, nine minute range. I was like you know, that's pretty good because I haven't run at all Like I've. You know I'm able to really push myself. I'm able to really push myself. I remember looking down and it was 11 minutes, 15-second mile. I had left it all out there. That was the start of it.
Speaker 1:I think that's important because running is really interesting and TJ is going to talk, hopefully, a lot about it. It's one of those that you can't. You can't really cheat it right. Like you, I think everyone starts. I was very similar um 12, 13 minute miles, like I wasn't a runner in high school, didn't run in college, I didn't really run at all. I mean, I played all sports where you would do some sprinting, but running was one of those things where I'm not even sure I knew how to run until you actually learn TJ's shorter cadence, longer strides. But I think in every single one of our journeys it started an 11, 12 minute mile and it's just incredible what the body can do over time.
Speaker 2:I think that's a great point. That was something that drove me. There were a number of things, but that was one of the continual motivators was how far can I take this body? Because I don't think any of us. From this perspective and the great thing about it is you kind of said it you can't run from it. You, it's one of the very few sports out there. It's linear for the most part. Uh, you know, you both play. You play fairly considerably golf. That is not a linear sport. You can go play 20 hours of golf a week and you're going to get better, but you're going to have days where you go out and it's just like you've never picked up a club before, whereas running, if you're consistent and you're smart about it, you're going to see continual improvement For the most part. You'll have bad days here and there, but your fitness will continue to grow and that was always something you know. I do say I do share similarities with the both of you as it relates to trying to find kind of my place.
Speaker 2:I wasn't the greatest basketball and soccer player. I wasn't the best golfer. Um, I really was relatively mediocre from a sports perspective. You know, I kicked on the football team which most people don't even consider kickers a position, pretty mediocre athlete, you know, throughout middle school and high school and as I kind of moved into this and saw that I could do, okay, you know, a sub four hour marathon is a great accomplishment. But then I learned about longer distance things and I'm like, oh wow, this could be my thing.
Speaker 2:And that was the first two years probably is like I'm going to do a 50K or a 50-miler or a 100-miler, and you know it was going. Longer was the first kind of path that I went down because I saw something that could help me really build an ego which, looking back, was really self-serving but got me started on where we are today. What we've done built a community. But that's why I like it. I like running because it's something that will give back to you if you put the time and you stay consistent. And so you know, I mean my journey is quite lengthy and we can loop back around and circle back around to that. But you know, I just wanted to throw that in.
Speaker 1:Well, you both said the word community. You talked about that in Orange Theory and you've talked about it in running. How important is a community when you're chasing fitness or really any goal?
Speaker 2:I think it's probably the most impactful thing, and the reason I say that is because you know we may go down this rabbit hole a couple of times or off. On this tangent, I look at children, and we all have children. We all have children that are active in sports in some capacity and that, nine times out of 10, is what motivates them to continue. You know, six, seven, eight, nine, 10 year olds aren't often curious as to how far they can push their bodies. That's not something that pops up, but if their friends are doing it. That is how, in my experience thus far, you plant that seed the first couple of years. Go hang out with your friends, go do something with your friends. That fire will grow as you experience different elements of whatever it is you're doing. And I think it's the exact same as an adult, if you're out there by yourself.
Speaker 2:Sure, we all know people that spend a lot of. John Faust, a good friend of ours, runs a lot by himself and we've talked about it. There's times that he struggled at times because he doesn't have somebody to call or somebody to hold him accountable, oftentimes because he's so far away from us geographically speaking, and when you're running at four, 30 in the morning. He's only an hour away, but that might as well be an eternity. So, anyways, I think it's just as important for adults as it is children. Um, I think it's vital.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I would agree with that a hundred percent. Uh, and I think some of that's our evolutionary wiring. I think we're wired to, and I think some of that's our evolutionary wiring I think we're wired to survive and be a part of the community. I think that goes very deep. There's a lot of our evolutionary wiring that is not really conducive for today's society and I'm sure at some point we'll get into that. But certainly, from a growth perspective, to be able to tap into that is absolutely critical.
Speaker 1:I mean, jim Rohn is one guy that comes to mind and there are multiple people that I think are credited with a similar type of saying. But you become the five people you spend the most time around and I think that just speaks to, I think, that psychological wiring to just that community that's around you. You know again, I can't explain psychologically exactly what's happening, but it's certainly you just find yourself when you're around other people who are in shape or running or doing a certain thing, you just find yourself having that itch to do it. Do you feel like? Well, like I know, at the beginning of this year, tj proposed that we would do a run streak, run every day, because it's a leap year.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we have to get all 366 days, and I pretty much told him I thought this was the worst idea he's ever had. Like I fought and kicked my way all the way into you wanted to make it to Easter.
Speaker 2:You're like oh, we'll make it, We'll just do Easter.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was convinced that Easter was it for me, but by the time Easter rolled around it was. It was no different than taking a shower, like I just do it. And now we're 350, I'm in the 350 range, you're, I know, probably seven or 800 at this point in time. But the consistency of doing something all the time actually makes it easier. I was really surprised from. I've ran about the same amount of miles this year as I did last year, but when I got my Strava stats said my, I've run 99% more, like more, more days, sure. So I've run twice as many days and just doing that has kept my lows out.
Speaker 1:You know I used to I'd run six or seven miles for two days in a row, feeling great. Then I would take two days off and I'd eat bad and then I'd feel lethargic. But now that I do it every day, it's made such a difference. So I think there's a part of it. That's consistency. Community has been huge having someone to run with. What would you tell somebody that is like, hey, I want to get into shape, where would they even start? Well, I want to step back, because I think when people start to get into shape or where?
Speaker 2:where would they even start? Well, I want to step back, because I think when people start to get into shape or start to think about it, they start to plant excuses. Oh well, I could and I really think it's important for you to expound a little bit on what it's taken for you to keep your streak alive. Um, you're not, and there's nothing wrong with this, you're not a stay at home dad, like you have a busier life than almost anybody I know, and there's a lot of travel involved there, and so you know I've seen runs, as recently as I think two weeks ago, where it's like early bird gets the worm and you're on the treadmill at 325 in the morning. You know like what. What has that been like?
Speaker 1:Yeah, there there's been sacrifices. I mean, I would think, if I look back at, the hardest time is when we went skiing and we were in Vail and I would ski all day and then I'm at altitude and I had to go out and run a mile and I mean it took everything. I had to run 13, 14 minute miles, just from like, and I'm just smoked and I'm just. You know, the the goal is is like you have to run at least a mile to for for it to count and I've had to do that a handful of times, especially in Vail, just cause I couldn't breathe up there. But yeah, I mean it's just, it's like I plan my day around it If I don't get it in. It's been a stress reliever for me and and I just even when I'm traveling.
Speaker 1:We were in Germany for 10 days and we were on a boat, but the good part was is, every time the boat pulled up there was a sidewalk and I got some of my best miles there and it's like it's an incredible way to explore. I love traveling to new places and going to run because you really get to see that area better than you would just walking around. So it definitely was challenging and it's been a big commitment. But now it's like I, I'm, I want to do it. I'm not having to go through where I don't want to do and then, once you get out there, um, there's just kind of a piece about it. So it's been a good transition.
Speaker 1:Mentally I'm in a much better place than what I was before, uh, because I, if you would ask me last year, it's like I don't really love running and I kind of I still probably tell people that but, um, I think the important thing for all of us is none of us were really runners and, um, also, from a weight standpoint, outside of Todd's always been slim. Um, me and you have always struggled with, with our weight, uh, and so that's something that I still we love to eat and that's the thing that I still struggle with. And so, for those of you that are listening, like we all had a starting point where you know TJ, at one point in time in his life, was 250, 250 pounds.
Speaker 1:What do you weigh?
Speaker 1:165, 160 so I just want to put that out there, that, um, I think we've all been at every phase of a journey for at least most people that are listening to the podcast and and we've we've had to overcome that with families, with kids, with businesses, with multiple jobs, and so community is a really big part of that, consistency is a big part of that. Is there any other components that you guys would like to? I would just say you've got to really understand your why, someone who says they want to get in shape. My first question is why? Because if the answer is, well, it would just be nice to be in a little better shape, you're going to have to dig deeper than that. I mean, in my experience, yeah, there, as you just talked through that, and not not everyone's going to be trying to run 366 days in a row or whatever, but we don't have a lot.
Speaker 1:I mean, in this society today, as busy as we are and running around, especially if you're a parent or you have, you know there's not a lot of discretionary time, right? So when you're talking about working out, let's just say someone wants to work out. You know, let's set a simple goal. I'm just going to work out 45 minutes a day. Right, it's really easy, sounds easy. And then you think about work and you think about making meals, taking care of kids, running practices.
Speaker 1:You maybe, maybe I would say a parent in today's society that maybe has a profession or is, you know, even those who are employed at their home doing all the things keeping the house up, maybe have a few hours of discretionary time, maybe. And then you think about that 45 minute workout and you think about getting ready. Maybe you're driving somewhere if you don't have a treadmill, maybe you're getting back, maybe you're showering after that turns into an hour and a half really quickly, and so, all of a sudden, 50% of your discretionary time on a daily basis is gone. We're not even talking about the mental hurdle of like you've got so much going on cognitively there's no space there and you got to get over that hurdle just to make the decision to go work out Sounds horrible. You're thinking about the pain, you're thinking about the you know, just the gasping for air.
Speaker 1:Just so for me, I think it's a really, really important thing to understand your why and I think, if you dig deep enough, there's a lot there. But I think a lot of people I use the phrase they want to want to get in shape, and I don't say that in a derogatory fashion, because there's a lot of areas in my life where I want to want to do something but I'm not. I'm just not in a place in my life. The timing's not right to put in the time and the energy and the effort into that.
Speaker 2:I think you've got to be. Also, I think there's three other elements here. Patience is a big thing and being honest with yourself, you know. Patience, you're not. This is fitness. You're not going to see quick results, you know. And and if you do, you need to be cognizant of the fact that that's not typically normal and that there are going to be ebbs and flows and there are going to be moments where you're not making the progress you think you should make. Right, because that's just not how the body works. We, we understand it a little bit, but, as most people know, we don't understand it to any real degree of uh, expertise, I guess I would say. So I think that's that's something you need to be patient. It's going to take, you know, from a, from a running perspective, you don't typically see major fitness gains for at least six weeks and I shouldn't even say major, I should just say fitness gains in general for six weeks. So don't think you're going to go out there and run three miles once and all of a sudden you're going to go from an 11-minute mile to a 730.
Speaker 2:Some people are very naturally gifted. There are always outliers, there are always anomalies, but you be patient with yourself. And then also and I say this, you with yourself. And then also and I say this you've got to be honest with yourself and you've got to understand you're going to uncover different layers of this onion as you're progressing. I say this as somebody who struggles with a lot of different things.
Speaker 2:You know I've been lucky to stay fairly healthy over the last decade 12 plus years and really improve my fitness. But I know I don't do everything right and I'm honest with myself about that. I know that I could eat better. I know that I could sleep better. I know that I could do more strength work there's all of these other things that I know I could do that would benefit me. But I'm honest with myself and you do have to make that, and this is kind of a little bit more in depth. You do have to make that and this is this is kind of a little bit more in depth.
Speaker 2:You do have to have that conversation with yourself like, look, I'm not gonna run a 230 marathon because I don't want to dedicate that, and I've had that conversation with myself. I don't want to go to bed at 7 30 every night. I don't want to eat completely perfectly, I don't want to do an extra hour and a half of lifting on top of my hour and a half of running every day. I just don't have that in me right now, at this point in time of my life, and so I'm honest with myself and I think that's a big conversation that you need to have and is somewhat relevant to the why. And then the last thing I'll mention I don't want to digress too much is fear, and you talked about like getting started, and I see that having founded a track club and and having you know more than a hundred members and having two races that we produce and having hundreds of people run those over the last couple of years, and then just having general conversations.
Speaker 2:As you know, as anybody listening to this knows, when you're passionate about something, a lot of the conversations you have typically revolve around that right. People meet you and have met somebody else that you know and they know running's a thing you do, and so that's always a topic of conversation, and one of the things that I've heard so often is oh, I can never run with you and what you don't realize and they're fearful. I can never run with you because I would feel inferior and I would feel slow and I would feel whatever. And what you don't realize is to somebody who's done this, that community is so important I would run. If you want to go walk 20 minute miles with me, I'd much rather do that than go run, you know, uh, eight minutes at five, 30 by myself, or eight miles at five minutes, 30 seconds by myself. So overcoming fear is another one of those big things. They're putting yourself out there having the honest conversation.
Speaker 1:We'll go back to that a little bit. Um, I was going to ask you just to follow up on your why, because I feel like you've shifted a lot and you even talked about maybe maybe there's going to be one or two more kind of goals levels that you want to achieve in terms of speed or distance. But you've talked about your why being helping people that are getting into this. So what's interesting about what you say there maybe expound upon it just a little bit is people allowing you to run with them who are just getting started can be huge for your why and keeping you motivated.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, and I think that's why, you know, I talked about two events we produce and one of the things I've always really enjoyed in a prior life I threw parties for a living, produced thousands of events, and I always love seeing a smile on a person's face. It was in a completely different environment, at nightclubs and things like that. But the races we produce are very specifically curated to help someone continue their journey onward and to find that next thing that's going to motivate or inspire them within running. So one of them is a 50 kilometer race that we put on on the Monon, which is an iconic trail in central Indiana. And you know, there are a lot of people that have that one and done mentality when it comes to marathoning and they kind of lose their why. I want to do this, because I want to accomplish it, because and we talk about inspiration and this is something that kind of crystallized for me years ago Inspiration can come in so many forms and a lot of the time it's jealousy If that guy can do that, then I can do that, you know. And so people are like oh so, so-and-so, down the street ran a marathon. Well, I'm going to run this marathon one time to prove to them that I'm as good as they are, or better, and then it's over with, unless you can catch them in that moment and give them something else to chase. That maybe isn't driven by that inspiration, if you will. The Fulmo is that it is a 31 mile race, so just five miles longer. It's a net downhill the entire way. Ultra races for the most part and I would I'm going to say 90 plus percent are run at a much more casual effort. When you're running a marathon, you're running as fast as you can. In most instances, if you're racing it, you're grabbing water, you're slamming water. In an ultra, you're running understanding that you have to run 31 miles ultimately. And so we've curated that race very specifically to help somebody find that next why? And help somebody kind of continue on through their journey. And the other one I want to talk about, you know, our other race is even more so curated and crafted in that manner. I do want to make one more statement, though, and I don't want to expound on this too much before going back down that rabbit hole on our other race.
Speaker 2:I, as I told you guys earlier, was always motivated by early on. Motivated by. This is my thing. This is my thing, is my thing. This is my thing. This is going to, like, you know, my dad is going to recognize me now because I'm doing this, or my mom is going to give you know, my sporting accomplishments kudos because I'm finally, you know, doing something different or better, or this is whatever. Um, and I was really heavily focused on myself, probably until we started training for sub three hour. Everybody and watching you finish at BQ too, I was always the one everybody else was watching finish like that, right away, like there was the feeling that I had back when I was throwing parties, watching somebody else accomplish and achieve something.
Speaker 2:And our other race, prairie on fire, which is run in September, is a race and I don't want to spend too much time talking about the details.
Speaker 2:But long story short, you can get somebody who has run as little as two or three. The way the race is structured, somebody who's run two or three miles can come and run four miles for the first time. They can run eight miles for the first time. So the way this race is broken up just so you know you guys do understand is you have the opportunity to run 4.167 miles every hour and if you complete it within the hour, you can get on the starting line at the top of the next hour and run it again Right, and then at the top of the next hour and run it again.
Speaker 2:So if you've run two miles before, you can come run four with us, or if you've run four, you can come run eight, or if you've run a half marathon, you can come run 16, and so on and so forth, and you get to see so many different people at so many different stages of their journeys accomplishing so many crazy things, seeing the smiles on their faces, hearing their stories, and that is definitely, for me, completely shifted my focus. You know, like you said, I've got one or two fast races left in me and then it's going to be on to really focusing on that.
Speaker 1:And as well as you know, my kids that are runners- Sure, I have a question for you Um, not a lot of not everyone's goal, goal oriented, right? Um, and I know you've kind of fallen into that camp at times that like it can be check a box thing and like that structure almost in and of itself can be overwhelming, like for people who aren't necessarily goal oriented, like certainly this year, right, the streak has been a part of that. But what's your journey been like there? Well, when we first started, there was a couple of goals. It was the to break the uh, 90 minutes on the half right, the sub sub 130, when we we hit that a couple of different times. Um, and then running Boston was obviously a goal.
Speaker 1:I think this goes back to what TJ was talking about, which is like I just I have four kids, as you guys well know. So the ages that my kids are, and I'm in one of the busiest times of my life and it is I'm not, I don't want to say because I think a lot of times we'll say, well, I don't have the time. It's like I'm not willing to sacrifice the time and I'm being honest with myself. It's like, look, you can run half marathons, I can run half marathons, we can go out and run one tomorrow, right, like that you can do that and not have to train a lot. When you're training for a marathon, it's a 50 miles a week and I'm not going out to run a marathon unless I'm going out to run a marathon. And so you know, the last one didn't work out as well, uh, as I wanted it to. But I realized right now, like I just don't have the desire and I think a lot of that is what you were also saying it's uh, I'm, I'm, I'm chasing it for myself, like I like. Okay, so then I run a three oh five and qualify for Boston, Like it just start some. Some of it has lost its importance to me. I was trying to get significance from it and now I'm just kind of like I just want to be healthy, I want to feel good, and so I've kind of settled into where, if I can feel good and I, you know, I just I don't know if I'll ever go for a sub three again I'll probably have different goals. We talked about maybe 2025 is the year I actually run one of TJ's races. I think there could be some fun stuff there, but I'm just not willing to sacrifice the time. Yeah, that's a tough one, I will say.
Speaker 1:Personally, I go back and forth because I do find, especially in training season, that it can be really, really healthy for other areas of your life too, right? So I I saw a meme the other day and it was like you should go out into nature for 20 minutes a day unless you're really busy, and then you should go out for an hour, right, which is, like you know, for me. I kind of translated sitting out in nature with prayer, right, or like spending time spiritually. But I think that's a really interesting thing because I think sometimes the busier we are, we a lot of times we squeeze out the important and we let the urgent in, and I think that can be a trap, and I fall in that trap on a daily basis still, and it's something that I think I bounce back and forth with.
Speaker 1:I struggle, I want to be healthy physically and mentally, and how do I do that? Is it like it's almost counterintuitive that, ooh, I should make sure I'm spending more time running Not to go too far down the spiritual rabbit hole. But I was at a conference a few months ago and the gist of the speech of the keynote speaker was that prayer actually multiplies time. It doesn't actually take time, it multiplies time and angle similar to fitness in that if you spend the time there, that can give you such clarity and such focus that your productivity in other areas of your life goes up exponentially. So I've always struggled going back and forth with that, but I think, tj, you were going to jump in.
Speaker 2:No, I just think you're spot on there. I think that's really important. I think one thing that you'll find whatever type of fitness journey you take, you never feel bad after a runner workout Right, like never 100%. You know, if you get it done, that is going to give you that. You know there's been a lot of discussion and there's this I don't even know, maybe it's a myth, maybe it's not.
Speaker 2:It's really hard to pinpoint the runner's high, if you will. You know there are times when you're running where you feel very, very fit and it feels effortless and it's enjoyable. But you know, I wouldn't say the runner's high is anything more than just feeling accomplished. It's like, man, I went out there and did that and the more difficult it is to get out, the better you feel afterwards. Or the more difficult the accomplishment, the better you feel afterwards. So I would I would kind of align with what you're saying there. You know, I love that feeling every single day, um, and I love the feeling that that again, you get out there and you get from the community and if you can, if you can accomplish a number of those things, if you have people to reach out, that you can go out there and you can be help them, help hold them accountable, and then vice versa. You're just accomplishing all of these different things and you're suffering for what's, what's. You know this, this greater good, if you will. So I just wanted to add that on.
Speaker 1:I want to go back to your question just for a second about those who are starting early. In addition to knowing your why and really understanding like, is this really worth it? As you guys have talked a couple of times, being honest with yourself, I would say start small. I think what some people forget is that when you're starting a journey like this, you've got physical hurdles to overcome and you have psychological hurdles to overcome, and I think doing those both at the same time is way more difficult than a lot of people give it credit for. It's extremely difficult.
Speaker 1:If you guys have read Atomic Habits by James Clear really good book he talks about when you're building, trying to build habits start small, start really small. Trying to build habits start small. Start really small. And it's like if you want to start working out, wake up and get dressed, and maybe that's all you do for a week is you wake up and you get dressed and then you go back to sleep or you do whatever, and then you show up at the gym and you go there for five minutes. You like walk in the door, maybe you get on a machine, maybe not, and then you go home for a week and it's because you're, you're knocking out in those times, you're knocking out the psychological hurdles that you're running into right Of like, oh, I don't want to get up, I don't want to do this. I don't know how many times have we started to train for something and we've gone completely all out, right out of the gate and then you flame out, right. So I would encourage people to not feel like they have to accomplish that all at once.
Speaker 1:The physical and the mental Start extremely slow and appreciate the fact that, even if your physical fitness is not changing at all, your psychological makeup is changing and that's really going to be huge in sustaining a journey. Well, and I think what a lot of times we do is, we come in 2025 hits and it's like okay, I'm making these physical commitments and then I'm completely changing my diet and then I'm going to completely change this habit, and you're like so you stack them right, um, which can make it even harder. You know they say the. You know the the pain of staying the same becomes greater than the pain of change will finally change, right, like you don't. And so to get that type of leverage and trying to do all those at once, it still isn't going to be feasible. I even know now with the running um, I'm trying to do some, some core and I'm trying to do some stretching, and so I've found people that understand that better. And I went and met with someone and I'm trying to do some stretching, and so I've found people that understand that better. And I went and met with someone and I said I'm not going to the gym, I need a five minute workout. And she gave me a three and a half minute workout I can do every day, and then I throw in 25 pushups. Like if I tried to say I'm going to hit the gym twice a day on top of running, it just wouldn't happen and I just know that I'm not going to make that sacrifice. So I think you're spot on with how do you take baby steps and I know a lot of people just start, get on a treadmill and do a mile, walk it, walk it and jog it, and then, like you know, if you want to get into running, if you're capable of running, and you get out there, what I would recommend is the same thing that John started with is like get on the treadmill and start walking and then jog, and then do a walk, jog, walk, jog until you can get to about three miles. If you can run three miles, you can run a half marathon and so just kind of building into that, realizing it doesn't have it doesn't need to happen overnight.
Speaker 1:Let me ask you guys a question about goals. I've been thinking about mine for 2025, and I've been struggling a little bit. My mantra has always been goals breed habits and habits breed change. So I've always been goal-oriented, right. But what I'm really struggling with this year is maybe not setting a goal of like a pace target or a distance target, but setting a goal of like I want to maybe run five hours a week or do something fitness wise five hours a week. But I'm thinking about that, just trying to be thoughtful and mindful about will I be able to sustain that? Is there enough motivation there? Versus I want to run, I want to qualify for Boston the next year, at Boston this year I want to run the Fulmo and sub four, you know, like an actual time goal that's going to have a workout accountability and mileage accountability to it, versus just like a habit focused goal, like how do you guys set your goals, like what's worked well for you and getting advice for me.
Speaker 2:I just I don't know I'm not, as I'm definitely not as goal oriented as you guys, but I try to keep it fun and try to keep it unique. You know, I look at a lot of people uh, you know, in the running community and Strava, for those of you who don't know, is a big social media platform for endurance athletes and I look at bios and typically you see a bio. If they're a trail runner, it'll have their 50K time, their 50 mile time, their 100 mile time or how far they've gone from a distance perspective, and if they're a road runner, it's going to have their 5K, 10k, half marathon, marathon times and that's pretty standard for people. What I like to do is accomplish other stuff within whatever it is that I'm passionate about. That's strange Running every road in the city of Westfield, running every road in the city of Carmel, running relays with my buddies in different states across the country, going and crewing or supporting somebody or pacing somebody in a big race, doing things, running a streak, something that you haven't ever done before, and it requires a little bit of pre-planning, a little bit of exploring, like, as opposed to because the grind is awful and the better you get at something, the more arbitrary your goals become.
Speaker 2:You know like, okay, I broke five in the mile at 44 years old, what's next? Who cares? You know, same thing with. You know you break 240, whatever in the marathon. Nobody knows what that means. And again, that, I guess, guess, assumes that you're doing whatever you're doing for other people. But you get to these levels and it becomes just so arbitrary, unless you're again competing at a level where you're one of the best in the country or one of the best in the world. At whatever it is you do, there's different things that drive you there, but I don't know. You know, I think that keeping it unique and fun and trying to find different things that you've never done before, um, and being open to and this is this is an achilles heel of mine I say yes a lot when it comes to that, like I'll have ran a good buddy of mine we call him the unicorn he'll call up be like hey, you want to go around 50k today just on a whim.
Speaker 2:Probably not the smartest thing to do, but it keeps it fun and that brings your weekly average up. You've got your five hours in one shot, so that's my approach.
Speaker 1:I'm trying to think about the last time I set a fitness goal and I think it's honestly, I just do what TJ tells me to because I'm afraid of being kicked out of the family. So I think most of my fitness goals have come through peer pressure. It's just been hey, let's go do this, let's go chase this, and I think I've. I generally start being, you know, I come kicking and screaming and then I eventually kind of settle in and part of that is just, I don't know, I don't have a lot of motivation in that area, but what I can say is what keeps me in there is community. Like I've got a couple of people in Marion that we run and it's like if I know someone there is waiting for me, I'm there. It's just. There's that level of community and trying to anytime you can do something with other people makes it that much better.
Speaker 1:But I haven't done a really good job on the goal-setting side. I focus that probably more on the business side. But I think it's great to have other people around you, the five people around you that challenge you. They need to challenge you mentally, spiritually and physically when you talk about your different circles and the different big, big buckets, having the right people around you. Sometimes you're pulling and sometimes they're pulling, but definitely important.
Speaker 2:One thing that I've started to recognize as we get older. I'm the oldest of the three, so I'm in my mid forties, and one of the other things that's driving goals for me is quality of life. Finally, we're getting to an era. So I ran today with a 17 year old and it was, let me tell you, um. The kid is. He's amazing, but I am facing things that are considerably different than what he faces on a daily basis. And so, trying to architect a plan like, hey, my goal is to be able to get out of bed and not hobble for the first 30 seconds. And one thing you do get, you know, and I, I. This is kind of crazy. This is an interesting moment, but I had a conversation with our dad the other day. He's in his seventies and I was having issues with my knees. No, it's not because of the running, um.
Speaker 2:I was having some systemic things that we thought was potentially rheumatoid arthritis, and so I reached out to him to see do you have any issues like this that were very acute in your mid forties? Luckily he hadn't. So I feel fairly confident from a genetic predisposition that it wasn't that issue and it's since subsided. But he said as you do get older, you do. He's like I am tight the first couple steps in the morning and it does loosen up after a time. But he's also started riding his bike again. Considerable amounts of time an hour, an hour and a half a day.
Speaker 2:So I think for me, doing some of these extra things, making sure that I'm more mobile, that adds extra time.
Speaker 2:One of the things that I've been guilty of in the past is monster workout and then I just sit the rest of the day and the next morning I can barely walk. But getting a little bit more mobile, that's going to add time in and just being more present about, yeah, lean mass and we can go down that rabbit hole all day is the longevity guys talk about all of the metrics that are very important. We say longevity guys, you're Peter Attias of the world. All of the other metrics that contribute to greater quality of life as you get older. So I started lifting again for the first time a couple of months ago, and so that's a big focus for me and it's compounding my focus on fitness. But I feel better in the morning. I'm able to do things with my kids that I probably couldn't have done as easily running only 70 miles a week and not doing any other types of movements. So that's something that's also helped me grow the breadth of my fitness journey.
Speaker 1:I want you to talk about one thing, because the number one indicator for longevity of life, vo2 max. Talk a little bit about that.
Speaker 2:Sure. So VO2 max is the ability of your body how quickly or how much oxygen can your body intake and then process out through your bloodstream? And it's extremely important and that's achieved through fast interval work. So you guys, you know those of you watching if you've ever heard of high intensity interval training, hit or what, some of the stuff you do at Orange Theory where you have your different tiers and you're doing sprints or 400 meters. So it's stuff that doesn't necessarily feel great, um, but that is a huge piece of the puzzle. You know, the more, the more capability you have cardiovascularly to intake oxygen, the um more dense your capillaries are, the more higher, the higher your mitochondria density is, the better those things function. All of that comes through different types of endurance, uh, activity, but, um, it's extremely important. So you know that actually kind of plays to your point about starting small.
Speaker 2:If you can get on the treadmill and sprint for 30 seconds, 10 times, with a minute in between, or a minute with with a minute in between, 10 times, um, you know, 30 seconds sprint might feel like a lot. Some people that's most people, frankly, it's probably less than a hundred meters. So think about running the a hundred meters in high school. You do that a couple of times a week. That's going to improve your VO2 max significantly and really help you from a longevity perspective. I mean, I forget what the number is, but it's like five times or 10 times less likely to die from all cause mortality If you have a VO2 max in the top 10% of your and don't quote me on that, but I think that's what it is, we can throw up a graphic or something but top 10% of your age range.
Speaker 1:And that, I think, is just so important because you said endurance. So that could be swimming, that could be cycling, that could be running. I know a lot of this conversation has been about running, because that's the activity that we're involved in, but the one thing that I will say since I started running in 2014 and I was probably 20, 25 pounds heavier than what I am now the key factor to all this is energy, and what I noticed, doing this as much as I like to do, if I wasn't taking care of my body, if I wasn't sleeping well, if I wasn't exercising all the time, I didn't have enough energy to be able to be a good father, to be able to run several businesses. And so there's one component as you start your journey into getting in shape if that is one of your goals is really to raise your energy level, because, at the end of the day, if you have more energy, you can accomplish more, and so that's something that I think I took for granted or I probably didn't even know at the time that I didn't have energy because I didn't know any better and when you start to get in shape, you start to lower your heart rate, your heart starts to beat less and your body becomes more efficient.
Speaker 1:And now, all of a sudden, I was finding that I could do so much more mentally and physically. And so when I talk to people that own businesses and we talk about different things, about like you know, how hard you have to work and things you have to do is like one of the primary things you have to do is you have to take care of yourself, because, at the end of the day, if you don't take care of yourself, you're not going to have good energy and you're not going to be able to last a long, over a long period of time. I mean, anybody can grind it out for a decade or two, but that's been probably the biggest change for me.
Speaker 2:I like that comment, though, that you just made about grinding it out a decade or two. I think that you know I had heard this discussed in the past around the term grit I think. I think I forget the name of the lady who wrote the book, but I remember reading that book and her saying that there are so many people who have misconceptions of what grit is.
Speaker 2:You know, like going and working on Wall Street and working 90 hour weeks for a year to. You know, elevate yourself in the New York, that is not grit. You know, doing stuff for 20 years, showing up every day and it's. I think it's become so much more difficult with the instant gratification culture and we've I mean you've been having this discussion for a decade now, right, because we've continued to see the evolution of technology and the ability to get things much, much quicker, and so I think being able to fly in the face of that is really, really important. You know, for us as humans, and you know there's there's nothing more gratifying than being able to show up consistently for yourself and show up consistently for other people. The reward that comes with that is is greater than anything you would ever get from an instant gratification pathway. So I think that's that's important to call out.
Speaker 1:True. Why don't you continue on? You were talking a little bit of just about getting started in this in your journey. Is there anything else? I mean some of this I think for both of you we've touched on, but what gaps would you fill in just about your journey? I don't think I ever would have started this on my own, so I would go back to community, and Community is what has continued to allow me to focus on my physical fitness. It's an area that I don't love by nature, and so it's one that I have to have a really strong community in and grateful. Talk about that a little bit.
Speaker 1:You mentioned just briefly that you went and watched TJ run 100 that summer. Yeah, which was crazy, that was crazy. And then he ran a 500K, which was even it might be the most impressive thing I've ever seen. But go ahead. Yeah, there's probably a whole nother podcast for those. But talk to me a little bit about that experience. I think, when a lot of people think about getting into something, going and spectating is probably not the first thing that they think of, especially someone that you might know or is close to you. But talk a little bit about that experience and what that was like and how that maybe you know expound a little bit on how that lit a fire under you. Yeah, so it started when you two ran the marathon together. There was some emotion there and that kind of piqued my curiosity Like there's no way I have the time. I have a newborn child. And I kind of piqued my curiosity Like there's no way I have the time to. I have a new newborn child.
Speaker 1:And then when it came to TJ decided to do the hundred miler. We were all going to go out and support that and we could pace him right, we could pace him for a certain amount of miles and it was like, okay, well, I'll start running so we don't have to worry about pace, cause it's half minute miles, so it wasn't a pace thing. So you may have even encouraged me like hey, why don't you get in shape? And like start running. And you know you can run six to eight to 10 miles with me. You know kind of jump on and off the course. And that was kind of the first time like, okay, well, I can get in shape, because running six miles felt a heck of a lot easier than 13, instead of like and then because when I saw you guys do the marathon, I was like, oh, I got to do 26. And that just that, that dream was too big for me. I just couldn't swallow that.
Speaker 1:So when I saw TJ do the hundred and I got to participate and I think there's even a time where I did like eight to 10 with him and and I was like I think I can go more and you're like, you know, you hadn't been been on the field yet but I was like I was already getting that, that energy from being out there with him and kind of being a part of it and seeing him accomplish this and what he was going through. I saw him at 48 or 50 miles. He um had been taking gels for the first 50 miles and he never done it for that long, and so at 50 miles he literally puked all his gels up and started eating some really real food. And I'm like and he has 50 miles left and I'm looking at this like he's insane, which I've already known that but like it was one of the wildest things to see the mental perseverance and how he brought himself back together and finished. So like he finished a hundred miles and I think we, you know, took him to the airport in a wheelchair the next day and so, seeing the mental toughness from that, I walked back and like I can't, not right. And part of it was the competitiveness. It's like if my brother can run a hundred, surely I can run 26. He's not that much more physically gifted brother can run a hundred Surely I can run 26. He's not that much more physically gifted. And what it was is he's mentally stronger and proven to be. Ever since then, like the mental toughness that I saw in the 500 K was beyond anything. I mean, dude had like shin splints and had 170 miles left.
Speaker 1:In some it was just, and so so much of life is mental that I needed to see that type of accomplishment. I needed to see that type of drive to let me know that I was capable of it. You mentioned there for a second. If he could do this, I could do this. We both have talked about this a little bit that and I'd love for you guys to expand on it just a little bit. It's just an interesting observation that all three of us, the reason we started running and the reason we, you know, started setting the goals and wanted it so bad, has really nothing to do with why we're still doing it today. Like it's been really interesting observation how that has evolved over time, whether it was the competitiveness of, well, he can do that and I'm a better athlete than him, or I can do this, or this is going to be my thing, like anything that you guys would add to that evolving over time, because I don't know, it just jumped out. It's interesting to me.
Speaker 2:I wouldn't say evolving over time, but I'd say don't be afraid to use it, don't be afraid to find, don't be afraid to find something and use that. There's a good friend of ours I'll name him in a later episode but he creates completely fake competitions with people that don't even know he exists. But it's to fuel that fire and he's not afraid. He'll admit to his friends. You know so-and-so doesn't know my name or who I am, but they're my target and they're my target for X reason. So I would say that don't be afraid to use that to get you in the door. Use whatever you need to use to get you in the door and then it will. It will evolve out of necessity because you can only go back to the same well so many times. Like you said, you don't really have the desire to go sub three For whatever reason.
Speaker 2:I went back to that well for seven years. It took seven years to break three hours in the marathon and as that. But that's coming to an end and I can see that. You hear a lot of NFL players or PGA tour players that are in the twilight of that career. You know, I can see the 19th hole right, like I know I'm done, um, not because I've lost the passion for it, but like I'm done, I'm not interested in going to that well anymore. I want to find a new well to tap into, so get in any way you can. If you want to look better than the lady down the street, then there's your motivation and you start there and I promise you you'll eventually get to where you want to be.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think for me as I get older it's just most of the drive of a young man is competitiveness and I just don't care, because I don't identify as that as much anymore. It's not important that I have to be the best, and maybe that comes because I'm in my early 40s, or maybe that's because I'm more focused on my kids. But where I have been more internally focused is been because I want to be better than someone else sitting next to me or across from me, and I've kind of realized that that's not my identity and I don't need that to feel good about myself Although when I do it I still feel good about myself. So it's still there, but it's not driving me like it was when I was younger. Tj, what about we haven't talked? I mean you've?
Speaker 1:touched on parts of your journey. So it's still there, but it's not driving me like it was when I was younger.
Speaker 2:TJ. What about?
Speaker 1:we haven't talked I mean you've touched on parts of your journey. There's obviously a lot of content here, but what would you?
Speaker 2:add to kind of what you've already touched on. You know, I was on X the other day and a buddy of mine tweeted which is weird to call it X and not Twitter but you just tweeted whatever out. What is something you wish you would have done in your twenties and it was my thing was I wish I would have explored the full potential of my fitness in my 20s. I would have loved to have seen where I could have gone if I had continued from Seattle onward without a break. That would have been awesome. But as it relates to my journey, it's really just.
Speaker 2:I've had a great time continuing to explore the different aspects of my being through running. So initially it was I knew that I've always had this kind of ability to just lock on like, say I won't, and just do something. Um, where you know, when I cross the starting line, the only option is finish or death, and I mean that almost as literally, as literally as I can. You know whether it's throwing up, whether it's having perineal tendonitis or something like that in a race and still having over 150 miles to go like there's, there's nothing that so early on it was. Let's take advantage and explore how far we can push this mentally, and then, once we've kind of gone through that, we've run 300 miles in a six day period, then it was okay physiologically how far can I push this? And exploring different things. And then you know, we've talked about utilizing different forms of motivation throughout.
Speaker 2:But you know, for me, I and I know this sounds redundant because we've talked about it a bunch when it comes to community, but you know, there are people out there that surround us that are wired in a way that they will never lose that competitive fire and that they will burn it to the ground. Um, and I think we see those people in a lot of different sports. You're Michael Jordan's of the world, you're Kobe Bryant's of the world, and I don't take that for granted, I don't take that lightly. I see people out there doing that, and that does allow me to say, if they can, then, like you said earlier, if he can do this, then I can at least do this, you know.
Speaker 2:So being thankful that we're able to have people in our group that have, that are wired like that and that show, that can show us, you know, the art of, or what is possible, I think those have all been things that have kind of contributed to. You know we will talk about my journey and some of the specifics of different things, I'm sure throughout these next couple of episodes, but just staying somewhat high level for now. That's a weaving kind of all over the place and I know I'm kind of here and there with it. But if I were to add anything in for my journey, those are the kind of highlights and the things that stick out, testing those different elements of my being Let me ask you a question about the human body, but this is to both of you.
Speaker 1:I can tell you one thing that I've been through my 12 year journey.
Speaker 1:I've been blown away at the capability of the human body and it's triggered me at times to think about the times in history right 30, 40, 50,000 years ago, like you think, about the conditions and the lack of resources that people had to survive in that time and times where you know we've evolved from that right, where we the I feel like in my, you know, in just thinking about this, I think we leverage in today's society a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of the capability of the human body.
Speaker 1:We live such in a convenient world and you think about some of the thresholds and levels that the human body was pushed to historically. We never achieve that unless it's volunteered right, unless we actually engage in it by choice these days, right? So talk to me like maybe just things that you've learned about the human body, cause you mentioned this, I think a lot of people are thinking this like I can't do that, like that's not me, my body's not right, but like talk a little bit about what you've learned about maybe your own body, but just the human body in general.
Speaker 2:I just think it's, it's I just think it's it's, it can do so much more than you think it can do. You know I've got a. You know from a personal example, my story is very similar to Trent's when I started back in 2012,. I ran a mile or two at 11.52 pace, or your story in that regard. And again, I mentioned it earlier. Um, now I'm going to say this, and this is relative, again, the people you surround yourself with is an amalgamation of who you will ultimately be so like.
Speaker 2:I'm not as proud of these numbers as I would be because my context has changed so much. But you know, for from a guy who couldn't break 1130 in a mile to at 44 breaking five, that doesn't make any sense, right? Or a guy who it took seven years to run three hours in a marathon, who his first marathon was four hours and seven minutes to be able to run in the 240s All of these things you know to be able to run a 10 K in five, 40 pace, I never know. There we don't have any genetic history, there we don't have any relatives that were phenomenal road runners or phenomenal cross country or track runners zero. And to it's taken 12 years and I just think people quit before they ever get there, but the things you can do. You know, I have a good friend that I've been hanging out with a little bit more recently and you know I think oftentimes you paint yourself into a corner. Like you said, I'm this type of person and that's it. You know, I'm predispositioned for whatever it is.
Speaker 2:This individual held a few world records in the powerlifting side of things. So at 183 pounds he could pull a 705 pound deadlift three times. So a guy like that you would never think could run. I mean, his body's obviously built for one thing and it's lifting heavy weights, bench pressing 500 pounds. Um, he went out to that race I talked about earlier, prairie on fire. This year ran 70 miles. So you know, when you you think that you're a particular type of person or that you can't do something, that's, you just have to give it time. You just have to show up and be consistent, because it's such a phenomenal.
Speaker 1:I'll add a little bit to that. I think the mind gives up way before the body right, like that's been clear in all of our journeys. If you've run a marathon, you know the mind's given up, it's called the wall and it hurts. But the other part of that that I think is so important is the way to get through. That is the group of people. So, like, um, you maybe want to talk about the track club that you started, but I always try to put myself in a room where I'm close to the bottom, like I want to be part. I want to be the slowest guy in the room, the guy that does the least amount of mileage in the room, because that's what helps me elevate. And so when you know I'm doing 25 to 30 miles a week right now, kind of in maintenance mode, and there's other people doing 60, it's inspiring, like it's good to see those. If I'm leading the pack at three, four, five miles a day, I'm going to be at one or two miles at some point, like I need to see those. Oh man, that dude ran nine or 10. So I think, finding those groups and finding groups to where you're just barely hanging in there, because that's going to eventually, I think, elevate and it has me. It's elevated me to do more.
Speaker 1:You recently did that. You ran a hundred miles at the prairie. So talk about the mental toughness there and kind of what you worked through during that process. Yeah, that was a journey. You mentioned the mind quits first, and there's 100% truth to that. What was interesting about the 100, in running a marathon, your mind quits on you two or three times. Your muscles, I feel like, were kind of the second to give up and then your joints start to hurt, especially around 20 to 22. The new level for me in the 100 was your organs.
Speaker 2:Like, you can like feel it internally.
Speaker 1:You could feel the exhaustion and it was a mental battle. I don't know how else to describe it, but there was a level of exhaustion there. I've never been able to relate to someone just in the fortune I'll say fortune of my life. I've never been able to relate to someone who says I stood up and I was exhausted right After that hundred mile race. I remember going home at nine in the morning it was about just shy of 24 hours, went home, I took a sleep or took a nap for six hours. I remember going to mass that afternoon and I couldn't stand up.
Speaker 1:I stood up and I was doubled over the pew in front of me and when I was kneeling I literally was leaning my body weight on the pew in front of me because I couldn't fully stand up without losing my breath, and I think it's context right, you reach these new levels of exhaustion. That puts everything else in context.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 1:TJ, you've talked about this a lot.
Speaker 1:One of the things that I feel like in my fitness journey just some of this has happened. Naturally, some of it's been intentional, but each year there's usually something that I kind of push beyond my previous knowledge boundaries and it sets a completely new context for what tired is or what it means to be exhausted. I mean, we all have young kids, right, and I think sometimes we experience this frustration when they run 100 meters or whatever and they're like, oh my gosh, I'm so tired and like I can't do anymore, my legs hurt, you know that kind of thing. And when you've run 100 miles or 20, and certainly there are different thresholds for kids, I'm not saying but you know, there's some other factors and we were that same way at that age, right. So, trying to relate to their context and help them push through that, something I've actually been giving a lot of thought to is there's a lot of people now doing, I think one of the groups that runs our races do hard things, guys, right, and I think is I, the groups?
Speaker 1:that runs our race is Do Hard Things, guys right, and I think it was. I wish I could remember the name of it, but there's sort of a tradition that sources back to a Japanese tradition where it's like this isn't exactly what it is. I think we have changed it a little bit, but doing one hard thing a year. And what's been really neat about that and me just piecing all this together is it reframes your confidence or your context for whatever that happens to be and I started to think about that for kids, for my kids or our kids or can we help them, in whatever facet they're potentially interested in or passionate, and achieve one hard thing in a year just to help them reframe that context? Because until you again reframe those boundaries, it's very hard, it's very very hard.
Speaker 2:We talked about that on the drive up here. Yeah, was exactly that. And again, this entire podcast, this entire group of podcasts, won't only be about running. But I do have an old. My oldest daughter is a runner. I think she's the one out of our 10 total kids that is a runner. Um, it is, I think she's the one out of our 10 total kids that is a runner. Um, but I was asking her this the other day. She ran the same race he did and she ran seven yards. So she ran almost 30 miles. Uh, she's 10. Um, now, uh, disclaimer, this was on her own accord and she has worked up to this, but anyways, um, I asked her.
Speaker 2:I said you know, is going out there and running and running cross country and running track and doing these things. Does that change your perspective on school? Because she's doing really well in school, and if anybody who knows me personally, this was not a strong suit of mine, it was awful in school, but she's doing really well. I said well is doing these hard things. Is this just change your perspective on you know, if you can go run 30 miles, how hard is doing homework? It becomes nothing.
Speaker 2:And I think there's there's something that you said that's that's kind of a two birds with one stone thing. If you're able to, through community, get kids started early in these endeavors and have them experience these one or two hard things a year, you're doing a couple of things. First of all, they're going to experience the things that maybe somebody else missed out on because they didn't start early enough. So they're going to see where their physiology could go. So that's going to be a really cool thing for them.
Speaker 2:But they're also, like you said, going to have this phenomenal context for what really hard is, and that is something that you know from a life lessons perspective. I mean, man, I'm sure you guys and I'm going to go on this tangent because I'm sure you felt this way, I know I did because we grew up in the area where technology was booming and I can remember getting my first job and you, you know, back then people stayed at places for a long time and I remember hearing people say, oh, I waited five years, or I got this promotion six years in and just could not comprehend, like you mean, locking in for more than six months, and that's because, no fault of our, we grew up in an environment that where we didn't have these contextual things that helped us understand what real hard, long endeavors took from a mental fortitude perspective, and so so, man, to that point, just invaluable to set that context early if you can do it through the method that works for your family or for your kids.
Speaker 1:But that plays in just to everyday life, like if you're getting up at 6am and you're running four to six miles like how many people are doing that? Less than 1%. Four to six miles, like how many people are doing that? Less than 1%. And once you do that, like everything else for the day seems easier. I remember, like if it's a Saturday, I get up and go run six miles. And I get home and my wife's like hey, can you do the laundry and do do this, do that? Like yeah, like that's like I mean I got to walk, versus if I don't do that, everything's like ah. So I think there's the broad contextual reset. But each day, when you choose something hard or choose to do something, or you put in 30 minutes of workout, I think it makes the rest of the day go a lot smoother, it makes it easier, it makes it all seem much more digestible.
Speaker 2:I want to go back to something that you reminded me when you were talking about doing the hundred at Prairie. Again, this is the race that we talked about earlier, where you run four miles every hour. So he was awake for 24 hours. We did a documentary on this particular event and you've both seen it. But there's an element, there's a moment in there where we're talking about kind of your journey.
Speaker 2:I think that that hundred potentially and I'd like for you to talk about this a little bit more was a microcosm of everything we've talked about that has gotten us to where we are on our journey. Like, I think, coming into that day, we had talked a couple of weeks earlier about your goal and it was a hundred K, something to that effect, and in the morning of you had talked to our co-race director, corey, and you're like yo, I don't even know if I can run four today, like I just don't feel good. But there were a number of different things I think you used throughout that 24 hours to whether it be compartmentalize or motivate yourself, and I'd like you to talk about that because I think they're all of the elements of that journey packed into 24 hours.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'll try and hit on them. Uh, I think the fir, the one of the earliest ones, was helping k. She, I think she was, she had hit four, which is what she had hit last year. And she, um, she was struggling with that and you said, hey, I need you to run with k and pull her through. And uh, they gave me a why? Uh, because it can get boring out there, like, right, I mean, that was the thing.
Speaker 1:I had the conversation with corey. After a couple of laps, I'm just like I've been out here for two hours, I've run eight miles, like what am I doing? Like why, why am I here? Um, this is, and there's, there's more of that. But uh, I feel like, as we get older and we've we've alluded to a little bit of that, but but helping k got her to her fifth lap. She liked it. She's like, hey, can we do that again? And so we went out for the six yard and did the same thing.
Speaker 1:And this is the interesting thing about running right and TG you've talked about this is you hit these second wins and third wins and so that's not win, as in W I N S, but W I N D S right, like you stay up late enough and you hit, hit that next wind and that kind of got me into that next uh hurdle, um, and I was able to kind of stretch that to around 50 miles, um, through community, which we had two other guys. So one of the elements of the race is teamwork. You've got, you have five man teams and and you're trying to go as far as you can, um, and that got me to my 50 mile mark and that's what I had done before, and that got me in reach of a hundred K, which was a, which was a big goal. And I had gotten to 100K and I had had an opportunity to shower. I had run that lap quick enough to jump in the shower and kind of clean up and I was just feeling fresh enough to keep going. Right, it was that.
Speaker 1:And I got into the mid-70s and I hit another wall and again it came back to community. So one of the guys running with us was Cameron Balzer, and to go back to another thing we've pulled on is context. Okay, so one of the guys I was running with was Cameron Balzer, who had just finished a 12,000 mile run around the perimeter of the United States, and so when you're running next to that guy and you're at mile 75 and thinking, gosh, and we weren't running fast, you're not running fast miles, necessarily, you're just trying to get it in right and I'm thinking, 4.167 miles in an hour. If I could run five more of these, I think at that time, or if maybe it was four, it could get me to daylight, right. And so I set this, I set a bar out there, enough that I was close enough that I could grab it and run next to Cam. And having that context like if he can run 12,000 miles, run basically 40, 50 miles a day for nine months straight, I think my body's capable of this. And so then you get into.
Speaker 1:I remember laying on the ground at 88 miles and you would think at that point it'd be like, well, you've run 88 miles, you could just run, you can get to a hundred, right, that's. And that's when the, the org, like the, just every part of you, you can't. You can't even keep food down. That was another thing. That was like you can't eat because your digestive system, you're running, and you're basically losing 500 calories an hour. If you're running, 125 calories a mile give or take and you're trying to replenish that right. Think about eating 500 calories an hour and you've got about 10 minutes to shove that in if you're running a decent pace. You know, maybe if you're running fast you got a little more time, but after about 15 laps of that your body starts to so. So then you're talking about just again. That's where you're talking about all aspects that you just hit this level of exhaustion and and then then you just start to think about. You know, and maybe you said, use whatever you can right.
Speaker 1:Another thing to draw back, not going to lie, there was some ego that played into I'm a few laps from saying I'm a hundred mile ultra marathoner, right, I can run a hundred, which is completely egotistical and whatever. But like I used it, right, and so you do. I did. I did another one and the sun started to come up and we were seeing camera and I he talks about this in the documentary we were seeing all kinds of things out there. You start to hallucinate, right, and like some of the signs and the way they were positioned, the things that we saw and the people we saw out there, that disappeared as you got closer, um was wild, um, but it's again, it's more context, like I'd never been to a point where I was so sleep deprived and had my body to a point of exhaustion. I was seeing things that weren't there, and then we got to daylight and that was enough to get me there. But, to your point, there's probably half a dozen things that we've talked about that you just kind of try and piece together. Well, that's probably the best story to end on right there.
Speaker 1:Do you guys have anything else related to goals or fitness or encouragement that you'd like to leave with? I would love for you guys to finish with what are you thinking about for 2025? If you guys really didn't hit, have you given thought to any of your goals? I think that'd be a good place to wrap up. You want to set mine for me as in true fashion. That's actually a little dangerous.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know We'll cross that bridge. We have a couple things this year that I think would be really fun. My goal I think I mentioned it earlier, which is just quality of life Not ready to go full balanced yet but I have a few more big things I want to do in the road running world in the next couple of months. One of the big things I want to accomplish this year, which you will be involved in, is we've made it habit of doing a big thing together every year. Last year, I think the first year we've missed it since I turned 40. So the first year and five years where we missed it, we will not be missing that this year. You do need to run Prairie on Fire in 2025. So I think that's a big one.
Speaker 1:I would love to see you out there for that. Is that more important than the full mill? If I had to pick one, is Prairie on Fire the one. The good news is they're like four months apart, so you could probably probably do both. Probably do both, yeah probably do both.
Speaker 2:You know, I mean you got an ant that flies all the way in from arizona. I mean I'd really disappoint her if you didn't do the full moon, and then the community at prairie is phenomenal. So I think you should do both of those things. But yeah, mine's, mine's quality of life, continuing to explore, um a little bit of lifting and grow some things together in our community.
Speaker 1:And it sounds like I'll be running the full mowing prairie in 2025. We'll call that a wrap on episode one. Thank you guys for tuning in. Hopefully you picked up some good knowledge and you feel inspired and ready to take on 2025. Thanks you guys for tuning in. Hopefully you picked up some good knowledge and you feel inspired and ready to take on 2025. Thanks guys.