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Welcome!
Running Capacity is a podcast for exhausted runners working 50+ hour weeks, aiming to give you the no BS tools to keep you running, when work and life have other plans.
Hosted by me, Chevy Rough, a Running & Strength Coach since 2015.
Learn more at www.chevyrough.com
Chevy: Welcome to episode number
three of your best run with me.
Your host, chevy Ruff, your
running and strength coach In
this episode.
Thank you for coming back, if
you're back.
You've listened to episode one
and two.
In this episode we're going to
talk about left foot braking, a
concept that I have and
absolutely I'm going to ruin, uh
, from a uh well, currently a
dear friend I'm not sure if he's
going to be a friend after this
a dear friend, a mentor of mine
, rob Wilson, who is also a
fantastic coach, and I will let
you know how.
You can find out a little bit
more about Rob in a second.
But this episode is for people
who struggle to stay consistent
within with training, with
running.
Um, maybe it looks like you're
coming back to running.
You put your foot in the
accelerator, you find you've got
the energy and motivation to
train for a few weeks and then,
boom, your body slams on the
brakes for you and you're on the
couch staring at your trainers
kicking the crap out of yourself
.
Or maybe you're someone who is
able to put your foot on the
accelerator for a long period of
time, but you do have this
relationship with burning out or
with repetitive injury and if
that is the case, this is for
you.
Or maybe you're someone who is
a real high achiever, a real
high performer who sets the bar
high, and you're someone who is
able to train really hard.
But you kind of know deep down
you should have a healthier,
better relationship with rest
and recovery.
But you don't really like the
conversation around rest and
recovery as it is online.
I you know you don't want to
sit in the corner of a room and
meditate for an hour because if
you close your eyes, all kinds
of things, crazy things start to
happen.
Or maybe you're someone who
hasn't got the time to take full
on rest days every weekend and
that's just not your jam.
But you do want to understand
how to apply the breaks here and
there so you can perform better
, because you want to get more
out of your running, you want to
get faster, you want to get
further and you want to
understand the way rest and
recovery plays into that, but in
a language that works for you.
So if you're kind of sitting in
those buckets, hopefully you'll
take something away from today
that is going to get you
thinking a little bit
differently and we're going to
take this concept from race car
driving called left foot braking
, um.
But just before that, let me
just go back to rob for a second
.
So, rob, um, if well, let me go
back to Rob for a second.
So, rob, well, let me go back
to me for a second.
If you're someone who's worked
with me before or followed me
for lack of a better, I hate
that word but someone who has
known of me for a long period of
time now and you are aware that
I have been hugely interested
in conversations around energy,
stress management, breathing
state control, the role of
physiology before psychology,
and how we use all these tools
that we actually have at our
disposable right here, right now
, within us, to shift and change
how we feel and regulate our
nervous systems from the
onslaught of everyday life, then
basically anything that I've
ever spoken about has been
stolen from rob and the great
art of breath team, um.
They've now disbanded the
breathing avengers, the workshop
avengers, uh, danny kev and
then the likes of wonderful
charles oxley all great coaches,
but I mean back in 2018, 2019,
I basically followed them around
like a lost puppy coach, if
that's the thing.
Um, follow them around the
states, following around europe,
just going to all their
seminars on repeat, just
learning, soaking up as much
knowledge as possible.
Um, and I just cannot stress
how much they have influenced,
and rob in particular has
influenced my work and
influenced me as a coach.
He's always given me permission
to be me and I'm super grateful
for that.
And if you are listening, rob,
thank you.
And so Rob has got a book coming
out.
Rob works now.
He does a lot with the Navy
SEAL Foundation.
He works at the top end of high
performance but he really is
great in breaking down the
systems and tools that he
develops at that end of the
spectrum to everyday people.
And he's releasing a book
called Check Engine Light and
it's all about tuning your body
and mind for performance
longevity, because that's the
thing right, performing is great
, performing to the point of
running a marathon is great, but
I'm interested in you being
able to run the next day.
I'm interested in longevity and
I talk a lot about movement
longevity and again, I've just
stolen that and changed the word
from performance to movement,
because that work those two
words together.
Performance longevity really
resonates with me and my mission
is always to think about
movement slash running longevity
, because I want to make sure
that people have the tools in
place to keep running into the
next decade, the next decade,
the decade after that, the
decade after that, the decade
after that, because when you run
, you are a better version of
yourself, for the world around
you, for the people around you,
for yourself, um, and you're
able to achieve so much, whether
it's organizing your day,
having the energy for your kids,
having the energy to show up
for work, de-stressing, you know
, feeling like you actually have
agency of something in your
life, because the rest of life
feels outside out, so out of
control.
Like, running is so important
to who you are and your
well-being and your health that
we want to make sure that you
keep doing that decade after
decade.
So rob's got a great book
coming out and it's all about,
instead of outsourcing, how you
filter technology on your wrist
or in your phone, like how can
you create a dashboard, um, to
be able to better understand, um
, how you're feeling and, more
importantly, how to change that
feeling right, to be able to
change your state, to be able to
, um, develop a deeper
understanding of your individual
needs and about the array of
available tools to you.
And then, when you understand
all the tools that are available
to you, whether it's breath or
whatever it may be movement.
You can then chart your own
course for optimal wellbeing, um
using a structured approach
that I believe Rob will be going
through in the book.
So I hope I've done you justice
there, rob.
I'm definitely going to talk
about your book more and more
and more and more, because I
just know there's going to be so
much gold in there, so we'll
put a link for that in the show
notes and also to Rob Substack,
which is absolutely brilliant
Again, I'm hugely biased and his
Instagram, so have a look over
it.
Okay, let's talk about this
concept of left foot braking,
which is essentially teaching
runners how to regulate effort
and recovery like an F1 driver,
right, using micro adjustments,
not just slamming on the brakes
when the body forces you to, and
so I think, first of all,
there's an important element
here to introduce two formulas
that I look at.
Formula number one, which I
think I think this came from
Pavel Tostelini I can't remember
where I read it but basically
the formula of training right.
Training equals work plus rest.
And look, people are definitely
getting better about the
conversation of rest and
recovery, but recovery isn't
just something we kind of earn,
it's something we train for.
We have to train the recovery.
You know and I look at this on
the micro point of view, right.
So again, just to be clear on
that right, training equals work
plus rest, and I think we're
all very good at putting the
work in, but we're not
necessarily good at putting the
rest and recovery in.
And we also have to understand
that, again, rest and recovery
is something that you have to
train and develop over time.
You don't just show up at an
interval, do the work, do the
hard effort for a minute or two,
or three or four, and then slip
into the rest period for one
minute, two minute, three minute
, four minutes.
And your body understand what
you're trying to achieve.
If you've never trained your
body's ability to come back down
through the gears before before
learning to switch off on the
weekend.
If you're someone who is quite
a type busy, energized for life
you know.
If you're suddenly like I'm
going to take a full rest day
out of nowhere and you've never
done a rest day before, like
your head is just going to be
spinning right, it's something
that you have to train your
system to understand what to do.
Like we're very good at getting
stuck in these high gears and
staying there and then when we
try and do something different,
and I think there's actually a
good place that this shows up is
holiday.
You know how many times have you
thought, god, I really need a
holiday.
That's your body informing you
what it needs.
Right?
It's literally genetically,
your dna, your very system, your
subconscious, whatever you want
to call it, is telling you that
you need a break, that you need
the role of recovery in your
life.
You've done the work, but you
need some rest.
And then we go on holiday.
And then how many of you do you
struggle to switch off for
those first few days?
Right Again, it's something
that we've got to learn how to
do.
But training does equal work
plus rest.
We have to have rest within our
training for our body to adapt,
for it to grow stronger, and I
also talk about the principle of
energy equals stress plus rest.
If you want to be able to
manage your energy consistently
over time, you have to get
better understanding the role of
rest and recovery, and this is
starting to give you a little
bit of understanding now about
this left foot breaking.
It's not just about getting a
good night's sleep, it's not
just about taking the weekend
off, it's how do I, after
spending energy producing this
podcast, talking on this podcast
right now, spending energy,
being in a more what we call
sympathetic tone, more fight
flight, more focused and alert.
Right, my system is up right
now.
Right, I'm spending energy,
being in a more what we call
sympathetic tone, more fight
flight, more focused and alert.
Right, my system is up right
now.
Right, I'm spending energy.
What do I do after this?
Do I jump straight into
recording another episode?
Do I record?
Do I go straight into having a
conversation with my wife about
finances of the house, or do I
you know what I mean Like, do I
go straight into something else
that's going to require energy?
Or is there something I can do
for five to 10 minutes just to
help my system come back down
through the gears, just to help
create that nice like this nice
up and down, this nice ebb and
flow of my nervous system, and
that could just be going for a
walk, sitting on the doorstep
outside.
It could be doing some breath
work, it could just be doing
some light squats and a couple
of pushups, like I could be
reading the fiction book for
five minutes or just making a
cup of tea, making a cup of
coffee, without my phone in my
hand, right?
And so that is your first
example of kind of like how can
we just tap the breaker just a
little bit?
Okay, and why is this so
important?
Well, we have to understand that
life is rhythmic.
If we've worked hard throughout
the day, what do we do?
We go to bed.
When we've worked hard during
the weekend we've had a big week
what do we do?
We have a weekend.
That should be for rest and
recovery.
It should be for us, it should
be about coming down through the
gears.
You know, when we've been
working hard for three months,
should we try and maybe get away
?
It's a luxury for some people.
I appreciate that it's a
privilege.
But should we be trying to get
away and have a little bit of a
holiday, have a little bit of a
break?
After winter hibernation,
there's the summer buzz.
After autumn comes christmas.
After doing 400 meter intervals
comes rest after doing a hard
marathon.
Should there be a couple of
weeks, a few weeks of just
letting the body recover?
We have to understand that
there is rhythm in life.
But the problem is the lot of
us just keep pushing, we keep
slamming down the accelerator,
we get heavy on the accelerator,
we go, go, go until we burn out
.
And often the burnout is our
body's way of putting on the
brakes.
For us, it's our body's way of
saying like, hey, I'm taking
over the steering wheel, I'm
taking over the driving right
now, because you kind of can't
be entrusted, because you've
just been putting your foot on
the accelerator for day after
day, week after week, month
after month or even potentially,
year after year.
And I think, at this stage, when
we are inconsistent with our
training, when we are
inconsistent with life, and we
try and push, and then we're in
the safe of burnout, or we're
injured or we get ill, or we
just feel this lack of
motivation or lethargic.
Be it feeling lethargic, we can
end up kicking the crap out of
ourselves.
We think we're broken, we think
we're not good enough, we think
we haven't got the secret sauce
, like other people do on the
internet hustle culture, like it
goes on and on and on and on.
Why are they able to run a
marathons?
I'm not.
We kick the crap out of
ourselves and it's like hold on
a sec, look, I know that you're
motivated to do these things,
but actually, maybe the reason
that you're not able to do them
anymore, the reason that you're
burning out is because your
body's just saying you need to
get better at applying the
brakes.
And so, as runners, as humans,
how can we start to think about
getting better at using the
brakes?
And this is where we talk about
this race car analogy, because I
think again I kind of mentioned
this at the beginning of the
podcast when we talk about the
role in recovery and in health
and wellbeing everyone's talking
about you must get eight or
nine hours sleep.
That's really great, but I
haven't got the time to get
eight, nine hours sleep.
Like it's hard for me to switch
off to be able to get eight,
nine hours sleep.
Know, I'm lucky if I get six or
seven.
Or people tell us we should go
and meditate and it's like well,
hold on a sec.
If I go and sit in the corner
of the room and light a candle
and close my eyes, I just don't
really feel comfortable.
Um, with the amount of thoughts
come whirring into my head.
And, to be clear, with that,
you're not broken.
If that is you, there's not
something wrong with you, like.
Like the reason that you're
those thoughts are coming
flooding in at that moment is
because your brain is finally
having a moment to process the
inbox right.
It's kind of suddenly not
stimulated by you know you being
out on a walk and listening to
podcasts and not being able to
go on your commute without your
headphones in, or being
stimulated by screens or work,
or being out with mates all the
time or running with podcast
headphones in.
Like as soon as you close your
eyes, your brain's just trying
to process.
It's just trying to do what
it's designed to do.
It's just process things so it
can file them away, store them
away nice and safely and use
that data further down the line
when, when, needed um.
But we, you know, we look at
culture and it tells us that we
need to take more rest and
recovery, but there's just so
many of us that just don't
necessarily identify with what
it's serving up on that menu.
I don't want to sit in front of
a red light.
I don't want to, you know, go
on a retreat for a couple of
days and listen to my own
thoughts, whatever it may be.
But what we can start to think
about is this f this, this left
foot braking right.
And if you've ever looked at,
you know, definitely go on
youtube and look at um race car
drivers and how they brake and
they basically use both feet,
one on the gas and one of the
brake at the same time.
It's not about full stop
braking, it's kind of feathering
.
It's touching the system
lightly right.
It's tapping the brakes when
needed, it's dancing between
accelerator and brake.
And so when I'm working with my
athletes, what I'm starting to
think about is where can they
left foot brake throughout, not
only their training, as in the
specific session itself, the
hour long that they might commit
to it, but also throughout the
day and throughout the week?
So, for example, let's first of
all look at the week as a whole
.
Right, where can we start to
left foot break?
Well, let's say I'm doing an
hour of work and I've just been
in a meeting.
What am I going to do for five
or 10 minutes before I
transition to the next meeting?
I can kind of get a couple of
little five minute breaks in
there just to help the system
come down through the gears, and
then maybe at lunch, if I can
just take a 15 minute walk, sit
outside, get some fresh air
without my phone, and then maybe
, if I can just get through the
afternoon, again thinking about
this rhythm of focused work,
rest five minutes, focused work,
rest five minutes.
But I'm talking true recovery
here.
I'm talking in the sense of
like not sitting on the toilet
in your office on your phone,
scrolling social media, which
never brings anyone down through
the gears.
I'm talking about how do you
find these micro moments
throughout the day, just to be
able to tap the brake, just to
be able to help the nervous
system settle.
And if you are someone who can
get into taking five, 10, 15
breaths in that moment, whether
it's sitting on the toilet, in
the toilets, you know, know,
hiding away with the door locked
from the world, then amazing,
because you're doing an even
better job.
If you're, somebody can go and
walk around a park for five
minutes, amazing, great.
If you can just go and stand
outside the office and look up
at the sky, amazing.
All these things will very much
impact and influence your
physiology.
So where can you start to get
those moments throughout the day
?
Things like your commute on the
way in, on the way home.
Can you maybe get off the train
a little bit earlier?
Can you walk for 10-15 minutes
just help your system settle,
before getting home and having
to spend time with your kids or
loved ones, and again, that
should be time that is relaxing
for you, but maybe you have got
two very young kids and it isn't
so.
Where can you find small
moments of time and how will
those small moments of time
compound over the days and weeks
and months?
It all counts, and so we look
at that.
And then we look at things like,
even within your training, you
know when you're showing up to a
run, if you've had a really
stressful day and you're just
going into a really stressful
run, like, how is stress on
stress going to impact your body
and your body's desire to keep
moving, moving forward and to
also not get injured?
Well, what if you maybe went to
the gym, you ran from your gym,
but you spent 10 minutes
walking to the gym and just
breathing and coming down
through the gears, not on your
phone, not with your headphones
in, but just slowly walking and
helping your system settle.
Or maybe, if you turn up to
track, can you do a couple of
laps on the track, just walking,
slow breathing, helping your
system come down through the
gears.
When you are doing your
interval session during your
recovery pieces, how good are
you at actually focusing on
breathing as opposed to just
checking your phone during the
intervals and waiting for the
time to be up, like, how much
are you actually practicing the
ability to slow your nervous
system down after your run?
Are you spending 5, 10, 15
minutes helping the system
settle?
So again, these are these micro
moments of just tapping the
brakes.
And we can really get into the
small detail here of how to
breathe when running to be able
to do this and all these kind of
things.
And there are things that we
can do.
But we'll small detail here of
how to breathe when running to
be able to do this and all these
kind of things.
And there are things that we
can do, but we'll talk about
that another day.
But it's, how can you find these
minute to five minute moments
throughout the day, throughout
your training, throughout your
week, where you're just tapping
the brakes to be able to keep
moving forward, to have the
energy to do that, so you're not
taking such a hard toll, so
you're not just redlining the
engine all the time and you know
you will be making the journey
much more enjoyable?
You know, I look there are
different ways up the mountain.
I can drive from here to
Scotland in my car and stay in
first gear.
Right, I can do it.
I don't know how good it's
going to be on my fuel economy
or my engine long-term.
Or I can realize that I've got
other gears right and I've got
to accelerate.
I've got a break, I've got
other gears and I can find a
much more comfortable gear to
drive in to go on that journey
and isn't going to ruin the
engine and ruin the car.
So what I want you to think
about is where can you left foot
break throughout the day if
you've got a busy life?
Think about your breathing
within, your cool downs and your
warm ups.
What are you doing?
It will let you train harder
more often without hitting the
wall, and it will better be able
to recover from the hard work
that you put in to be the
athlete that you want to be and
it will repair and you're less
likely to get injured.
But I think the most important
thing is you need to your body.
You need to have your body,
want to train.
I think that's where we go.
So wrong is a lot of people are
sitting on the couch, not
motivated, because their
training does not match their
capability and their deep down
subconscious.
Their body is just going.
I'm not going to give you the
juice that you need to go do
that session again because we
can't afford the cost.
If you've got any questions,
send them to chevy at
chasingprojectscom.
Let's start the conversation.
Definitely check out rob's book
check engine light and let me
know what questions have you got
that you would love answered
within.
This podcast is meant to be a
conversation, so please do
message me.
Let me know what questions
you've got and I promise you I
will either answer them back via
email I answer everything
myself or I will do an episode
just for you, discussing the
subject that you want to cover.
For now, stay strong out on the
road and I'll catch you on the
next episode.
That's the third time I've got
that wrong.
I will catch you on the next
episode.
Take care, my friend.