Run to the Top Podcast | The Ultimate Guide to Running

Wendy Wood - Habits to Automatically Improve Your Running   Is running a habit for you? If yes, do you believe your running is a conscious choice? If no, how long would it take you to form a running habit? (Hint: A lot longer than you probably think.) What are habits anyway, and how can they benefit you as a runner?    Psychologist Wendy Wood literally wrote the book on habits, appropriately called Good Habits, Bad Habits, and she shares with Coach Claire some of the knowledge she’s gained during her 30-plus years of researching habit-related behavior. She discusses how habits form and how they overcome your intentions, how you can create friction to make your bad habits less attractive, and how good habits can pave the way to expanding your goals and increasing your creativity.    Wendy is Provost Professor of Psychology and Business at the University of Southern California, where she also served as Vice Dean of Social Sciences. A 2008 Radcliffe Institute Fellow, and 2018 Distinguished Chair of Behavioral Science at the Sorbonne/INSEAD in Paris, Wendy has advised the World Bank, the Centers for Disease Control, and industries such as Procter & Gamble and Lever Bros. Wendy completed her graduate degree in psychology at the University of Massachusetts. She went on to be the James B. Duke Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke University. Having published over 100 scientific articles, she received numerous awards for her research and teaching. For the past 30 years, her research has been continuously funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Health, and the Templeton Foundation.   Questions Wendy is asked:   3:55 You are a research psychologist who has devoted the last 30 years to understanding how habits work and you are also a runner, so when I heard about your work and read your book Good Habits Bad Habits, I knew I wanted to have you on the show.  First off, what got you started in studying our habits?   5:54 In your book you said, "Intentions are no match for our habits."  Can you describe this and basically define what a habit is?   8:16 A running habit, for example, I can use my own experience. I can tell you the first year that I was a runner, I hated every second of it, and then eventually it became just a part of my identity, who I am. It’s obviously my job now, but it took forever for it to be something that I really identified with. Is that really a common experience for most people that you’ve found?   10:10 Does it take a lot less time to establish a running habit for example if you reduce decisions, like run at the same time every day, always have the same pair of shoes, always run the same routes? Is there a shortcut to getting a good habit?   12:46 We crave things that are new. We want to do new and exciting things. But you’re also saying that the repetition, the doing the thing over and over and over again is also what we crave?   16:48 I would love to talk about goals and how they relate to habit. You’ve said that when you’re forming a habit at the beginning a goal is absolutely critical, but as the habit becomes more established, you might not need the goal quite as much or perhaps not at all. And how that relates to running, especially this year so many of our running races, our big goals, have been canceled, and some of the runners react in one way and they completely stop training or almost stop training, and other runners just seem to find brand new goals, other ways to motivate. I would love to hear your thoughts on that and how these two groups are different.   21:30 One thing that I would love to get your thoughts on are how do you establish a habit that isn’t daily, like for example, strength training? I often tell my athletes that they should strength train, lift some weights twice a week or three times a week, and for some people that’s a lot harder than doing it every single day. How do we get ourselves to do more intermittent things on a regular basis, just not on a daily basis?   25:07 You’ve said that bad habits are not that different from good habits as far as the way the brain works. One study that you referenced in your book was the famous marshmallow study, which everybody has heard about where little kids are given a marshmallow, and if they don’t eat it within a certain period of time, they’ll get a second marshmallow. And of course all hilarity ensues and these poor little kids end up eating the marshmallow in most of the occasions, except for some very resilient little kids who end up getting both. What I wanted to ask about, you talk about hiding the marshmallow, hiding the temptation, getting it out of sight, out of mind. Can you talk a little bit about how we can change our bad habits?   31:28 Now that you’re a researcher and you’ve studied all of this about habits, does that mean you do everything perfectly in your life now that you know all this information?   34:01 Another great thing that I learned from your books is If you "remove the friction,” that is what can help you develop much better habits. Can you talk a little bit about the friction?    37:44 Another lesson from your book is that we need to take our thinking brains out of the picture. Is that what you’re saying?    39:19 Wendy, what’s next for you? What questions are you researching now? Questions I ask everyone:   41:13 If you could go back and talk to yourself when you first started running, what advice would you give yourself?   41:42 What is the greatest gift that running has given you?   42:46 Where can listeners connect with you?   Quotes by Wendy:   “I had two sons and like many women experienced a weight gain and I was very uncomfortable after they were born. I didn’t like being that heavy. And so I would try all kinds of different things to get myself out running, and it took about a year of trying different things to figure out exactly what was the right approach for me.”   “Once you become a habitual runner, it’s as if you can use that pattern in the service of a whole bunch of different goals.”   “We all have self control. It’s just self control is much more in our environment. It’s much more around us than in us.” Take a Listen on Your Next Run Want more awesome interviews and advice? Subscribe to our iTunes channel Mentioned in this podcast:    Email Wendy Wendy Wood at USC Good Habits Bad Habits Runners Connect Winner's Circle Facebook Community RunnersConnect Facebook page claire@runnersconnect.net   Follow Wendy on:   Twitter We really hope you’ve enjoyed this episode of Run to the Top. The best way you can show your support of the show is to share this podcast with your family and friends and share it on your Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media channel you use. The more people who know about the podcast and download the episodes, the more I can reach out to and get top running influencers, to bring them on and share their advice, which hopefully makes the show even more enjoyable for you!

Everyone has pre-race anxiety. But are you worried about the negative impact of pre-race jitters on your performance? What are the ways to calm your nerves and deal with performance anxiety? Coach Hayley discusses in today's podcast.

In this week's Audio Blog, Coach Claire talks about the relationship between hip strength and running injuries. What's the latest research say? Are core workouts helpful to distance runners? What can you do to improve hip strength? Find out now!

In this episode, Coach Michael talks about one on our fascinating athletes - Bjorg Klem.  Find out how she handles the pandemic in terms of training/racing and creates positive influence in our RC community.

In this week's episode, we have a fun new segment where Coaches Dylan and Ruairi walk through some of the interesting running events happened in the last weeks. Tune in now!

Brian Reynolds -  World Record Powerhouse on Prosthetics   Brian Reynolds is a world record holder in several running distances despite not running until after college, and oh yeah, he’s a double amputee. Brian initially didn’t even walk much, never mind run, because he was convinced it just wasn’t possible for him. Instead he pursued powerlifting, accomplishing a deadlift of 485 pounds while weighing only 135 pounds himself.   How did Brian morph from powerlifter to running record holder? It all started with a fundraising hiking challenge in the Grand Canyon, an epic setting for a life-changing experience. Brian discovered a love for endurance, which eventually led him to running despite his prosthetic legs not being remotely suitable for athletic pursuits. He persevered through the pain, and incredibly, just three weeks after he ran his first mile, he ran his first marathon. Brian emphatically recommends you not follow this training plan.   Brian’s story is truly fascinating, and he also shares with Coach Claire how he’s staying inspired and finding meaning during the pandemic. He’s definitely not short on motivation! Brian also discusses his approach to alcohol and training and talks about his current work for the nonalcoholic brewing company, Athletic Brewing, who is generously offering a 15% discount for listeners of this podcast until August 10th. See the list of resources mentioned in this podcast for the discount code. Questions Brian is asked:   2:54 You have an amazing story of starting off in weightlifting then transitioning to endurance running.  Your accomplishments would be interesting in their own right, but they are even more fascinating because you are a double amputee.  Can you talk about your history, beginning with how you lost your lower legs as a child?   4:29 Were you into sports and activities right away or did that happen later in life?   5:51 How much could you lift?   6:08 What did you like most about weightlifting?  What did it do for you?   6:43 What were the challenges of walking during the time you were weightlifting?   7:40 How did all that change for you?   9:50 Why didn’t you quit running given the effects of running with prosthetics not designed for a lot of activity? What was inside your head that made you want to keep going through all that pain?   10:44 When did you finally get new prosthetics that didn’t cause you running-related problems?   11:39 Was running a marathon a few weeks after getting your new prosthetic legs a good idea?   11:49 Tell me what that first marathon was like.   12:53  How sore were you afterward?   13:08 You’ve made a lot of progress since that first marathon. You actually broke the world record at the time for a double amputee in the marathon with a time of 3:03 in Chicago.  Can you talk about your progress and how you went from four-and-a-half hours to almost three hours?    15:51 What have you done as far as training? Have you gotten a coach, or how have you really managed to lower your time so much?   17:49 How has your training changed since the pandemic?   18:23 Do you have any tips for runners that are struggling right now with motivation with no races?   20:23 You work for Athletica Brewing, a non-alcoholic beer company that is becoming super popular lately.  Can you talk a little bit about the company and what you do there?   22:38 What gave you the idea to not drink during training cycles?   23:29 Do you find it’s easier to be black and white about drinking/not drinking versus trying to moderate drinking during training?   24:24 Do you miss powerlifting at all?    24:45 What is the line between lifting too heavy and just right for an endurance athlete?   25:49 How many days a week are you lifting when you’re in running training?   26:08 Are gyms opening up yet in New Jersey?   26:24 What is on your plans next? Any running-related goals that you have in the future? Questions I ask everyone:   27:26 If you could go back and talk to yourself when you first started running, what advice would you give yourself?   28:17 What is the greatest gift that running has given you?   28:27 Where can listeners connect with you?   Quotes by Brian:   “It was definitely for me one of the hardest things I’ve ever done going from not really walking more than a block here and there to I think it was a 16 or a 17-mile hike in the Grand Canyon.”   “The prosthetist said, ‘What do you want to do?’ and I said, ‘I want to be the best runner an amputee can be,’ and he said, ‘We can make that happen.’”   “The half marathon has always been my favorite distance. It’s like the blend between the speed and the endurance.”   Take a Listen on Your Next Run   Want more awesome interviews and advice? Subscribe to our iTunes channel Mentioned in this podcast:    A Step Ahead Prosthetics Team in Training City Coach Use code CLAIRE for a 15% discount at Athletic Brewing until August 10th, 2020. Runners Connect Winner's Circle Facebook Community RunnersConnect Facebook page claire@runnersconnect.net   Follow Brian on:   Instagram We really hope you’ve enjoyed this episode of Run to the Top. The best way you can show your support of the show is to share this podcast with your family and friends and share it on your Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media channel you use. The more people who know about the podcast and download the episodes, the more I can reach out to and get top running influencers, to bring them on and share their advice, which hopefully makes the show even more enjoyable for you!

How to avoid emotional eating and curb unhealthy snacking during the pandemic? Coach Hayley shares some great tips to manage stress eating in today's podcast. Listen now!

Should you eat or fast before you run? What and when to eat to set yourself up for a great workout? What are the pros and cons of eating or skipping food before your workout? Find out the arguments for and against eating before a run from Coach Claire. Tune in now!

In this week's Team RC Update, Coach Michael talks about our RC athlete, Bjorg Klem - How she has such a positive influence in our community and what she suggests when it comes to moving forward with your training during this pandemic time.

In this week's episode, Coach Ruairi and Coach Dylan talk about 3 things that some runners do often. What's the hype around them? Why are runners doing that? What is the science behind them and are they worth trying? Find out now!