The Ultra- Recap, Reflect, and Lessons Learned

Hey, Athletes! New Cycle!! The Ultra- Recap, Reflect, and Lessons Learned - Episode of The Garage Gym Athlete Podcast is up! 

• The Ultra- Recap, Reflect, and Lessons Learned

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IN THIS 38-MINUTE EPISODE WE DISCUSS:

• Jerred and Joe are back for another podcast
• Jerred gives his total recap of the Death By 5k Ultra
• He also reflects on his performance and lessons learned for next time
• And A LOT MORE!!

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The Ultra- Recap, Reflect, and Lessons Learned

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To becoming better!

- Jerred

Podcast Transcript

Jerred: [00:00:00] This is the Garage Gym Athlete Podcast, and we're here to build autonomous athletes and put phenomenal programming into every garage, basement, and spare bedroom out there. I'm Jared Moon, and with Jill Courtney, we are strength and conditioning coaches who have turned over 20, 000 people into Garage Gym Athletes over the last decade.

And we're here to reduce the information overload that exists in the health and fitness industry today. We're going to do that by covering relevant science and give actionable takeaways, not only from the data, but from our years of experience. So let's dive in.

All right. I am back from the 50 K ultra marathon death by 5k in Memphis, Tennessee. Today, I'll be talking about lessons learned and answering any questions Joe might have.

Joe: Yeah, I, I definitely had a few when I was, um, listening to it, to everything that you sent me and excited to hear more behind the scenes about it.

Now that you've had some time to, to little [00:01:00] reflect on it and, um, even recover.

Jerred: Yeah, hopefully people enjoy. I, that podcast that was, uh, not something people normally do. That's why I wanted to do it. So last. Last week's podcast, uh, at the time of this publishing, you know, so that was like live. That was, uh, you know, we would finish a 5k and then pull up some little like travel mics and then record like a quick recap.

And I don't know how helpful it was or how much you could really take away, but. What I wanted was more of like a journal style, like in the moment, especially if things got tougher mentally or anything. If we were noticing anything, I wanted to kind of document those things. But those, to be honest, those things didn't really come up, um, that much.

So it was more like, Hey, here's what's going on. We're doing good. Like, here's how we're feeling. Um, but yeah, I, I've never heard of podcast style like that. So I want to try something new. So hopefully people got something out of it.

Joe: Yeah. It sounds like you guys need a bigger [00:02:00] challenge or something.

Jerred: Yeah, I do think, um, we, we, we could have gone further, we could have gone longer, uh, I think Mark and I both probably could have continued to do 5Ks for another 24 hours in all honesty, um, but not to take anything away from the race, uh, but yeah, I, I kind of, I had some time to sit and think about what some of my I Lessons learned were from running this, this style of race, uh, specifically, um, because it is a different kind of ultra marathon, right?

There's a lot of rest and recovery time in there. Um, and so I wanted to kind of document those things now that I have had that time to reflect. Now, like I said, answer any questions that you might have, but I'll, I'll start with, uh, one of my big, uh, lessons learned and that was pacing. Um, I, I came into this race.

Very like it was an ultra marathon, like, like it [00:03:00] was a marathon, you know, like I would like I would be running 31 miles straight and that's kind of the mindset. I came in with it. Um, and so that's also kind of how I paced, um, to be honest. And so, uh, I paced more like, hey, this is going to be long. Don't, don't burn yourself out.

Like I, cause those were, those were my fears. Um, like if I were to be running a 50 K just straight, like a normal ultra marathon, then I would have to be very mindful of that. I, you can't just like, or I wouldn't be able to just be in zone for that whole time, you know, for 31 miles and, and not burn out or bonk or something.

I'd probably finish, but like, I just wouldn't do well. Um, so. I paced incorrectly. I paced for what would have been a marathon. And that, that was towards the beginning, but I paced incorrectly going out the gate, um, and I honestly think I could have ran faster and I hate, hate finishing the race. Um, thinking that, but overall results wise, [00:04:00] uh, I came in, it says I came in 12th place, but I technically came in 11th place because the person above me, if you click on their profile, they.

Looks like they tapped out at the sixth interval and didn't finish, but for some reason they still have a placement above me. So I came in 11th place. I came in fifth place in my age division, and I'm just like blown away that that's even a thing. And, and Mark Bishop, who was one of the garage gym athletes.

Uh, who's the one who got me to do this race? He came in fifth place overall. Um, but after looking at the times and everything and really reflecting, I honestly think I could have taken sixth place right behind Mark. And because I was looking at everybody's times and it's not just because, Oh, Mark got fifth, I could get sixth.

If you actually look at the times. Like it was these five guys. It was like Mark and four other guys who were like, they were kind of on a different level. And you can just see the time breakdowns. It's like, like sixth place finished in four hours and 46 [00:05:00] minutes, and then dropping down to Mark's time was four hours and 22 minutes.

So like a huge drop from sixth to fifth. But then if you look at sixth and seventh, it's 4 46, 4 46, 4 48, 4 49, 4 50, and then me at 4 57. And I'm like, I couldn't have beat mark. Like I know that for certain, like Mark is a better runner than I, than I am. And I've kind of always known that since we've, I've been going back and forth on training and he was running much faster than all those guys above him.

Like they were, they were much faster than me, but I feel like I could have beat everyone else between me and Mark. Um, for a couple of reasons. One, the first lap I ran, uh, I took a wrong turn. And so I ended up running an extra, not a quarter mile, but up to a quarter mile. So it was like an extra 0. 18 miles.

Well, I guess, and then I had to backtrack to that. So anyway, I ran further and then I had to backtrack and then finish. And I still finished [00:06:00] that one with a decent time, but it should have been, I don't know, two, two minutes faster, three minutes faster, one and a half. I don't know. I don't know what the actual time would be.

So there's that. And then the third one, I was a little scared that my first two were a little too fast. And so I sandbagged the third one. It's the only one I sandbagged. And that one I could have, I could have ran four or five minutes faster than I did the on my third interval. So I say I think I could have gotten a higher placement just from like actual like, like math.

Like I said, there's no way I could have touched Mark or any of those other guys. Between 11th place and sixth place. I think I could have taken sixth place. And I, so anyway, my pacing was all wrong. I should have ran that like an interval race where, cause I had, there was so much recovery time. I should have treated it like intervals.

I should have gone hard, a little bit harder, every single one. And then just use that time afterwards to recover, because that's what I realized was like, Oh, this is an interval race. And I didn't realize that [00:07:00] until much, much too late in the race to make any significant time up. So. If you do anything like this, like, uh, these last man standing or whatever, these kinds of formats know that if you do one of these is that the pacing is very important.

You have to run fast. I mean, if you want to be competitive, and that's another thing I'll talk about in another lesson learned, but ultimately. I paced incorrectly and I'm slightly frustrated, but also happy. I mean, I go into endurance races like these typically, and I'm like, I don't look at the results because I'm like, I'm not an endurance athlete.

Like I'm going to get last place or bottom third. Like, I don't really care. I'm just here to finish. And that's also kind of like how I, how I came into this race.

Joe: Yeah. Just thinking of like a lot of those longer, like grindy workouts, like you never want to. Pace it too fast going going out and then even halfway through, you might eat me when you assess how how you pace and like that.

I think that's more of the mindset of what we're used to doing. Just like I'm going to do a workout and it's going to be nonstop workout. Not I'm going to do [00:08:00] a bunch of different workouts with a whole bunch of breaks in between. So I think we're just so used to you start a pace and then you may you might make it.

Small incremental increases, but you don't want to bite off too much because hitting that wall or hitting that, that point where you're just like, holy crap, I pushed it too much. I, I'm really slogging and I'm suffering now and I'm kind of, um, uh, yeah, I'm just, I'm just suffering. So I'm also wondering, and you haven't really quite gotten into it yet, but you didn't know what the train was going to be like, and the train was more steep, has steeper parts, and it was more trail with some roots.

So I'm wondering if you were even. Cautionary because like, okay, maybe, maybe the terrain and the elevation might eat away. We maybe because of the roots or the footing, I don't want to, you know, bite off too much so that later on the road, it might, it might come back to you. I don't know if that was also just like subconsciously could have been affecting you or maybe you just thought the second half you could push it.

Jerred: Yeah. I think that was definitely a factor. Like I, a hundred percent of my runs were on the road training for this. Like [00:09:00] I did have some elevation. Uh, that I was able to use just in, like, my, like, kind of neighborhood, there is elevation loss and gain, uh, so I was able to use some of that, like, I'd run intervals uphill, so it's not like I had zero uphill training, but Yeah, it was, it was more of a trail run than I thought it was going to be.

Um, and when I say that I'm talking like, yeah, there were, there were some steep, sharp inclines, lots of roots, lots of branches, lots of twists, lots of turns. Um, and so I definitely. Went into that like, okay, this is, cause I talked to a guy who had ran like a five K competitively in this park. And he was like, I was like, is it going to be a trail runner?

Is it going to be like, like, what's it going to be like? And he, he told me it was more of like, uh, you know, single track, like something different than what I got. Like, like it was going to be. Not very traily, but it was very much a trail run so that I think that did [00:10:00] factor in probably for the first couple, you know, trying to, uh, learn my pacing and basically my first trail run in the last several years on, you know, for the race.

The second thing I want to get into is just my mindset. And this is probably my biggest takeaway. So the first one's pacing, know, know what, know what race you're attacking and pace correctly is big takeaway there, the mindset stuff. I had a lot of things that I learned. Um, and I kind of hit on some of this.

Like the first thing mindset wise is I went into survive when I could actually thrive in this race. And so. That was the incorrect, improper mindset from, and, and that changed at some point, but that's where I went in. It was like, to me, this wasn't, this wasn't my ball game. This wasn't my world. Like everyone else, there is an endurance athlete.

I'm just, uh, Pretend endurance athlete for the last year. And I don't plan to continue after this race is over. Like, it's just not my [00:11:00] world. So I kind of went in with the wrong mindset that I, Hey, you're just here to finish this thing, survive. Cause that's typically how I do everything with these longer, like a Spartan beast or like the a hundred, a hundred mile bike race, I was just like, I just want to finish this damn thing and learn something about myself in the process.

Uh, so I went in with the wrong mindset. Uh, that was a big thing. So if I did it again, that's definitely, I'd go in like, okay, no, I'm here to compete, um, and. That was the, you know, part of the issue is like, I didn't get a competitive mindset until probably number seven. And that's when I realized, so I had seven, eight, nine, and 10.

So I had four runs where I was actually like, I can be competitive here. But think about how late I realized that, right? Like I, on the seventh one, I was like, Oh crap. Like I can actually do this. So I had no competitive mindset whatsoever going in. And then I finally got one around the seventh. And that's because this is my, my biggest lesson learned was like when everyone else was showing [00:12:00] weakness and which was when the sun went down, like that's when I got incredibly motivated.

Because I was like, Oh, like you're all like day runners. It's not like I practice like running at night or anything, but it was insanity. What the difference between the day and the night, you know, people, people talk about night and day difference. Like this, this was it, right? Like this was, this was it because during the day, I mean.

Just running in the middle of the day. Like I had girls passing me. I had like, just like, I just wasn't running. I was like, man, these people are legit. But then the second the sun went down, it was just a different race. Mark and I would start at the front and then we'd finish at the front. Mark would obviously always finish faster than me, but he would finish with those like top five guys.

And then that's when I would come in like somewhere between sixth, seventh or eighth place. Like behind those, those top five, every single night run. And I just got [00:13:00] strong. And that like motivated me when I was like, Oh, you're all like tired. Like you're just. You're just tired and you don't, you don't want to run hard anymore.

Like that was the whole, like the whole group of competitors, everyone at the race, and I was like, I'm not like, I, well, I mean, not to say I wasn't tired, but I'm like, this isn't when I start to slow down, this is when I start to speed up is when things are getting hard for everyone else. And so that was awesome.

Uh, just to have, like, to feel that mindset, to actually be a part of it, because you can feel like you're mentally tough or whatever, like when you're sitting on the couch or, you know, laying in bed, but then it's like, When the rubber meets the road, what do you actually have? And, uh, it was just really cool to be like, kind of put myself to the test in that, in that, and realize like, yeah, you, you have the right mindset for, for getting these things done.

And I'll honestly, in all honesty, I think if I pursued this further, I think I might make a decent ultra athlete just because of my mindset. I think [00:14:00] once, once all the other things are stripped away and it's just like, It's grit and a little bit of fitness. I think I would survive better than it being all fitness.

Cause there are a lot of people who are just straight better runners than me, better, uh, you know, everything. But I think when it gets down to just like, who can, who can suffer more? Um, I think that I'm, I'm comfortable doing that to be honest.

Joe: So when you go for your next. Either ultra or endurance race, just do sprints to get rid of it, to get ready for it, to prepare your muscles and then push through with grit, you know, you got to, your, your muscles will survive and you'll just, you'll just figure it out from, you know,

Jerred: I mean, I think that there's, it's like 50, 50 there, but I do think, um, I thought about like, okay, doing a second ultra or something like that.

What are my thoughts? I think I would only do an ultra in this format if I did another one, like, and it doesn't have to be death by five K with, you know, every two and a half hours or something like that, but these death by or [00:15:00] last man standing ultras that have really started to pop up and gain popularity.

I think those are the only ones I'm interested in. Like I have, I have absolutely zero interest in running a marathon for time. Or running an ultra marathon on the street, you know, like just zero interest. I I'll never do that. Um, but I think these new formats are really like. They're a lot more fun. And, um, I think that if I ever did one again, it would, it would only ever be in this kind of format.

And there, there are all sorts of them. If people aren't familiar, like there's one where like you, there are several where you can, like you run one mile every 20 minutes and then it's just like, whoever, whoever lasts the longest there, there's that one. There are these five K ones. Um, I've heard of the two mile one.

My friend's friend just did, uh, it was like two miles every 20 minutes. 30 minutes or something like that. And I've just heard of all these different things and I'm like, yeah, I think these are more interesting to me than just running [00:16:00] in a straight line for a really long time, you know, so that there's a lot of, uh, It's more suited for the type of person.

I am.

Joe: I was gonna say, I think it's more suited and practical for the type of training we do as well.

Jerred: Yeah.

Joe: I think it'd be easier for us to not completely derail our normal training. Be like, Oh, well, I can't, you know, lift or do this workout today because I have to go run for two hours. It's just, Hey, okay.

I can still do my running and my sprints and my lifting, but maybe I'll just throw in an extra longer zone to run or some extra intervals.

Jerred: Yeah, yeah. And that's what the, that's the hardest thing with ultra stuff in general is it can start to affect your training. And if I were to just like try and, you know, run a hundred mile race or run a 50 K per time, not like interval based.

Yeah, I don't, my body would not respond well to that and I don't think I would mentally respond well to the type of training that's required.

Joe: Um, I want, I wanted to do a Ragnar for a long time and some of those races, like that format race, I would totally be, um, down to do it. I think it'd be fun with, [00:17:00] with a group as well.

So that's definitely something I would be open to.

Jerred: How do those go again? It's like, uh, it's a, it's a relay. So like you would go, you have to run the course, it's a couple of miles and then like it comes to me and then I have to run the course and it's a couple of miles. Is that, Isn't that how it works?

Joe: So there's, from what I remember, you can do it for, I think you can do it for two different teams. I think there's the regular group, which I think you can do with a group of eight or, and then there's the, uh, the ultra group where you can do it with a group of four and every person, there's three different lengths and three different loops.

And I think with the group of eight, you each do the loop once. So there's like a, a short, medium and long loops and each of them are different, there's a different lengths and they're different terrain. And you just, you just mix and match of. You know who goes when and then if you do one loop, then you've already done that one loop.

You don't have to do that loop again. And then the difference with so you have an either an eight great team, eight person group, or I think with the ultra group, the four person team, you just do that twice. So you do every loop twice. And so you always have a team member running. [00:18:00] And then you're just resting and then the next person goes whenever that person comes back and then you're just, it's completely going the entire time.

So there's basically three different loops, you know, the distance don't, I think it goes between, I think they're, they're like between three to six miles each loop. It is doable. So like three, four and a half, six or three, five, seven, something like that.

Jerred: So let's get Mark involved. I definitely want him on my team if we do something like that.

But, uh, that would, that'd be fun. That'd be, that'd be something I would do. Um, for sure. That's kind of racist. Sounds fun.

Joe: Yeah, I'll take it. I think I almost every year I'll go and look at him just to see what the locations are. So you could be where it would be cool to go and what would be the most logistically possible for to put a team together.

I think I think if we did that, it'd be it'd be a lot of fun to get it because you can go, you can hire if you can ask him for like a tent campsite like with it with a completely closed tent and like the little off sections where you can nap or whatever. But just to have your own your own crew and your whole [00:19:00] campsite would be would also be a lot of fun.

Yeah.

Jerred: Yeah, that would be fun. Um, next on my lessons learned. So lesson learned was pace. First one was pacing. Second one was just kind of mindset going in there to like be competitive and not just survive. The third one is nutrition. So I actually. Uh, this was kind of my fault. I kind of funny story. I, uh, we're trying to sell our house right now.

And when I needed to get some, basically some yard work done before I left the two days before I, I left for the race, uh, cause I drove from Dallas to Memphis where this race was at. And one of the things on my list was, um, to kind of fix this like drainage area. Cause we, we had a bunch of construction done in our house.

Like if you've been following along and so what happened was they had ripped up a bunch of grass and when you don't have any grass, like water can like shed a lot of [00:20:00] mud. So not to get into all that crap. Basically I had to put a bunch of rock down. That was it. That's the big project. And. They weigh it.

I had to do two different truckloads. So, and it was 10, 000 pounds of rocks. So I unloaded 10, 000 pounds of, of rock from my truck, one shovel load, one wheelbarrow load at a time by myself over the course of two days to this like drainage area. And that was probably not a good idea. And because I was doing that and I was busy and I was also trying to pack for this ultra.

I think it just drained me a little bit. Like I didn't eat enough those days. Cause it was like, sometimes I get busy and I just, I'm behind on calories. And it happened, I think two days in a row. And then I drive seven hours from Dallas to Memphis the day before the race. And again, I don't really eat that much that day.

I was sure to hydrate enough, so it wasn't dehydrated. But I think my glycogen stores were super low. And so after my [00:21:00] second 5k, I felt really bad. I mean, I did not feel good. And I was trying, I knew it was food related. I could just tell I was like blood sugar is like gotten too low. Like I'm just not, not feeling good.

And I was a little bit scared for the rest of the race, but I knew if I ate, but what I was trying to eat was like, Like peanut butter and jelly sandwich and like, uh, you know, a, a gel, like a carbohydrate gel and stuff. And it would, to be honest, it was just too clean. It wasn't calorie dense enough for like the activity that I was putting out and how far behind I was on calories.

And so after our third one, I think, um, they served up chicken quesadillas. And the, the race did. So they fed us four different times. I honestly could have brought no food and I would have been fine. Um, but I ate a lot of chicken quesadillas. I ate like, I don't know, six or seven chicken quesadillas. And that like fixed me up.

So the, the big takeaway [00:22:00] here is just eat, eat a lot. Um, I was, and part of the reason why I was, um, not at first going to eat like that was just because I didn't want the whole like stomach discomfort. Like I've talked about this on other podcasts, but the number one reason people DNF and ultra is GI distress.

That's the number one reason. And that would have pissed me off so hard. If I was like, I can't, I can't run this next 5k because I have to poop. You know what I'm saying? Like I, I, or like, it's just coming out, like whatever the reason I would have been so pissed or my, my stomach hurts too bad to run. Like, I don't know.

I would have had to walk like I would have just been so angry to have trained as much as I did. And then it just comes down to a stomach issue. So anyway, I had zero stomach issues and I ate everything that they served. They had pizza, they had chicken quesadillas, they had chocolate pancakes with bacon, like all these different things.

I just ate everything that they had. I only ended up eating like two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches of my own. [00:23:00] And then I'd have like a gel or protein bar that I, I brought every once in a while. Um, so again, that's, this has to do with this type of race. That was another thing that I realized. It's like, I was so unprepared for this style of race.

And I was way more prepared for like just running an ultra continuously. Um, because if I was running an ultra continuously, I'm not eating seven chicken quesadillas, you know, at mile nine in a, in a marathon, like while I'm running, this is not going to happen. But when you have two hours to sit and digest it and you eat it, this is second you like finished running, that's way, way different.

So again, my strategy was. Was way more 50 K continuous and not 50 K interval. Um, so anyway, if you do run these type of races, eat a lot more, you can eat a lot more than you think that you can. Um, and you can digest these things like. With enough time to to be perfectly perfectly fine. So that was a big lesson learned for me was just on the nutrition side And then hard to practice that

Joe: unless you're gonna actually do a trial run.

Jerred: Yeah, and mark did a trial run He [00:24:00] ran four or five days back in October just to kind of test this and a lot of people ask me if I did that if I was gonna do It and I just never did it and I should have like I should have just to see Because I think if I would have done that, I would have realized some of these things.

I would have realized that I could have gone a little bit faster if I'd done like four or five as a practice, or I realized, Oh, you can eat a lot more or you need to eat a lot more. So I definitely should have, uh, practice those things, but I kind of wanted to just experience the race. Uh, then another thing was just hydration in the nutrition section here is like, I had to make sure that I was on top of my, uh, hydration.

So I was consuming about a liter every 2. 5 hours with like electrolytes. Um, sometimes maybe a little bit more, sometimes maybe a little bit less, but that was about the sweet spot I found. Um, and then I would make sure that I would, I would pee every single time in the, those, that 2. 5 hour block. So in that 2.

5 hour block, you have to run a 5k and then fuel and like drink and all those kinds of things. But I found out about a liter in [00:25:00] that hour. Our 2. 5 hours was about what I needed and I would stay hydrated. I didn't feel dehydrated at all. And I, uh, like I said, I was peeing every single, every single interval.

I'd pee at least one time and, uh, the P wasn't like dark or scary or anything like that. So it was really good. I was happy with my electrolytes. And other than like, I didn't really even bonk. I just started to feel bad after that. I think it was, I said it was a second one. Um, so I got ahead, the calories thing ended up not being a problem cause it didn't really affect my times or performance or anything, but, um, cause I, I made a quick adjustment and it, and it worked out, so that's what I learned on the nutrition side.

All

right. And then the last one I have is just training helps. Um, I've done every single endurance race ever pretty much untrained, except for one of the a hundred mile bike rides I did that I've done in the past. I did like. Kind of trained, but still nowhere close to the amount of running I put into prep for this.[00:26:00]

Uh, so training helps a lot. And, and I have three different ways that helps one, the recovery between the intervals. So, uh, Mark and I were fully recovered, like ready to go for the next intervals, and that only showed, like I said, as the race went further into the night, like, I think ultra marathon, like endurance aside, I think our fitness level, Mark and I, our fitness levels are very high.

And when you have a high fitness level, you're like, that's one of the perks you get is your ability to recover. And so I think that as people were getting worn down, our bodies were not really getting that worn down. We were more like, no, we're recovered. We're ready for more exercise. Like our bodies can handle this.

And that, that comes from, from training, not just. Running not just that training, but just having trained consistently for as long as we have so that that was a big one and

Joe: and like how many days have we trained, but we're not feeling optimal or sore or tired or something like that. [00:27:00]

Jerred: Yeah, that's what I mean.

I was just blown away with how many people like. Weren't doing okay in the night time like I honestly want to talk to some of these people and just be like what's going on like are you hurt like does your does your body hurt are you just tired like a knife in the wound yeah well I just want to

Joe: why aren't you more fit what is it wasn't like

Jerred: but like I that's what I wanted to know I wanted to know I'm like is it fitness like are you like are you torn up right now or are you just tired and like Because it was either psychologically they were unprepared or physiologically they were unprepared.

And that's basically the question I wanted to answer, answer because during the daytime, like I said, whenever I was running fast, I was maybe finishing top third, maybe top half. I don't really know. It was probably top third because there were a lot of people were just like walking and stuff. Um, and so, But once the nighttime came around, like I said, I was finishing really high.

So I'm just like, I want to know what happened to all of you people. Like, is it, is it, is it mindset or is [00:28:00] it, is it fitness? So anyway, um, also. The so the second thing I learned from how training helps is the recovery post race was minimal. Like we finished Monday, uh, or we finished Sunday and then I felt 85, 90 percent by Monday.

So that was like, hadn't slept for 24 hours, got a nap on short nap on Sunday. slept Sunday night, woke up Monday morning. And then I was like, well, I could probably train today, but I'll take one extra day off. And then by Tuesday I was a hundred percent. So no injuries, body felt great. Wasn't very sore. And that's one of the things I was most surprised about.

Cause that's not generally what happens when I do some endurance event. I haven't really trained for. Um, and then the third thing was strength training is Like a superpower and we kind of mentioned that I think in our race recap, because Mark and I were realizing it, um, [00:29:00] there was this one portion, there were a lot of like steep inclines, like, were you talking like, it'd be equivalent to going up like 10 stairs.

Like, uh, at a building, you know, like just some quick ones. I would pass people on those because they would like either walk or like, they wouldn't be able to shoot up them. Mark. And I would be able to shoot up those. And then on the second mile, there was a really, it was like a steep, long incline. So it was probably, I don't know, this thing probably lasted somewhere between a quarter mile to a half mile.

If you included all of it, it was for sure a half mile. Um, and it was just basically uphill that whole time. That's where you gained a lot of the elevation. And that's where I would just start passing people. Like people would start walking on it or they would greatly slow down. And I would just be like, I'm just keeping my pace.

Like I'm going to keep my same pace that I was running before this incline happened all the way up this incline. And I would just pass so many people. Um, on these inclines and that [00:30:00] has nothing to do with my run training. It has everything to do with just strength training and being strong. And so, like, you know, going into these from my background, probably stronger than most anyone in the race.

And I think it really showed on these, like these inclines. So I think those three things is like putting in the training, like the actual training for running, I think helped with all of my recovery, uh, post race and even during the race. And then, uh, Also, just having a lot of strength training in there made going uphill and all those kind of things a lot easier than other people could handle.

Joe: Yeah, that was pretty interesting when you guys said that, um, and that, like, how much better the, uh, you guys were at the hills and, uh, I remember I talked to Mark afterwards and he said, I guess he got to got to know some of the top guys that two of two of the three of the top guys were pretty strong guys too.

Like even like the top five guys were pretty strong.

Jerred: Yeah. They, and they, they weren't like true, like they weren't like strength athletes. [00:31:00] I wouldn't say, um, not like, you know, that level of strong, but you could tell just from their body types and what they look like, they included strength training into their runs, you know what I'm saying?

Like they were not, cause I feel like there are the runners who run and that's all they do is run. And then there are the runners who do strength training. Who, you know, they embrace it. And all the, those top five, including Mark, obviously, um, they include strength training with their running. But I said that you could tell also by their body types, they are predominantly runners like they are a runner.

I mean, I'm talking like I probably had 40 on every single guy in the top five, you know, um, at least. And so and then there were, you know, then there's like concurrent training where you're through like blend of like 50 50 strength and endurance. Um, and so strength training was really important and it showed for anybody who was doing a little bit better in the race.

Joe: Yeah, that's definitely great. And [00:32:00] I mean, like, you don't go to those things to win it, but like how you guys did was still really great with, with this sort of, with the concurrent chain that we do for an ultra.

Jerred: Yeah. I mean, I was super surprised and that's what, like I said, I didn't really catch on until number seven that I was like, I was coming in so much higher place than everybody.

I was like, Oh wow. And then I got so motivated. I just started running faster. Everything. I started running like negative splits from then to the end of the race. And I was like, man, I could have, and that's what I realized when I did my 10th one. My 10th one was my fastest one. That's when I realized one, I could have kept going.

Like if they were like, Hey, we're doing another 5k in two hours. I would have been like, that's fine. Um, two, I could have probably held a much faster pace that whole time. That's why I think I could have come in sixth place, right behind Mark. Like I said, I couldn't have touched Mark's time. There's too much of a gap, but I could have passed all those other people.

Uh, I could have ran much faster. And then I kind of realized that. and number 10. Like I just, I could have gone faster. Um, but I don't, I know, honestly, I don't regret it. Like I [00:33:00] didn't go in there to be competitive. I wanted to just learn a little bit more about ultra and my body. And I accomplished all my.

Things that I wanted. I got sub five hours, which is kind of a, a goal I set in the middle of the race. I was like, I think I can actually do this. Uh, and now looking back on it, um, that's about it. I probably would just gone in more competitive, but at the same time, like I know that there are probably races where the, the pool of people are just way more competitive, right?

Like I probably couldn't have touched them. Um, but yeah, that's basically it. I, will I do another ultra? It's not in the. And the cards right now, I, I never say never, like, I think I'm, I got pretty motivated from doing this one because. Like I said, during the nighttime portions, I was like, Oh, I'd love to do more like stuff in the night and see if this holds against other ultra athletes or people trying to do ultras.

Um, so it definitely, I would say I got a little bit more of the bug than I had. Pre like, if you heard all my podcasts [00:34:00] before this, I'm like, Hey, running, don't want to run, never want to do this again, was kind of my mindset. And that's still kind of is my mindset, but I leave the door open to like, I could do it again.

But it's not like I'm going to turn around here and, uh, just keep training and like get another race on the calendar. I'm done. I'm done for the next 12 weeks. I probably won't run more than two to three miles at any given time. I definitely want to like regain some of my strength and just get back to a lot of strength training and interval weight training, all the things that we're doing in this cycle, that's what I'm, I'm going after, but it was cool to dedicate a lot of run volume to one thing, not get really injured, got a little bit injured in the training with my back, but like bounce back from that.

Did the race, no injuries recovered. Well, uh, learned a lot. So overall, I'm really happy with my performance and doing it. And then who knows if I, if I do another endurance race, to be honest, it's probably going to be the a hundred mile bike race, uh, 2025. I'm not going to do it this year, but like. That that's [00:35:00] already in the back of my mind because I just I enjoy that race so much um, and I there's no you can't you can't come out of that race without without learning something about yourself because There's the endurance element of that 100 mile bike race and then there's the the heat element.

So if it's It doesn't matter how much you trained if it's 114 degrees that day in August when they do that race. It doesn't matter. Like you're going to learn something about yourself and it's going to be awful. So that's, that's why I do like that race. Uh, and I didn't get as much of that in this one, even though I did, I did learn some stuff, uh, but it was all way different than like having to go deep and push myself and like continue on.

So it wasn't, it wasn't like that. But it was a good race. I had a lot of fun. So you're doing the hundred in August? Is August. No, 2025. That would be yeah, like I'm going to be done with anything for the rest of this year. Other than just garage gym athlete training. That's all I want to do. I want to train in my garage.

I want to climb some ropes. I want to [00:36:00] flip some tires. I want to do some, um, Throw some kettlebells around, get under the barbell again a little bit. Like that's, that's my goal and all I really want to do right now. Cool. All right. We will, uh, wrap this one up. Hopefully you learned something and you know, you could stomach all the ultra content that I've been putting out over the last couple of months in preparation for this.

We go back to regularly scheduled programming. Um, And also getting back on more scientific studies and getting back into what we do here at garage gym athlete. Uh, but I appreciate everyone's support. Got a lot of messages on Instagram as I was running, uh, the race from a lot of you garage gym athletes.

So I really do appreciate the support there. Got a lot of text messages from friends and families during the race as very motivating, really did push me, um, in the later hour. So I do appreciate all that support. Uh, and then supporting garage gym athlete. Thanks for everyone who is an athlete doing our training.

Um, go get out there and push yourself. [00:37:00] Like do it doesn't have to be an ultra. I mean, it could be a local 5k. It could be a short Spartan, mid Spartan, the super, the beast do something. I do think you learn something about yourself and. What you're capable of in these races and I think they're well worth doing so put something on the calendar and train for it Um, and then if you want to be a part of garage gym athlete and learn what we're all about go to garagegymathlete.

com Sign up for a free trial and we would love to have you that's it for this one Remember if you don't kill comfort, comfort will kill you.