Perfect Your Running Race Morning Routine

Carrie: Hey everybody. Welcome to the RunDot podcast. Today we are turning our attention to race day, specifically talking through race morning. What should we do before the race, how should we time everything out and how can we start the race in the right headspace? And all of that will be discussed with coach Ben Sommerville. Coach Ben Sommerville works with runners and triathletes through Precision Coaching. Based in the UK, he is a two-time triathlon short course national champion and he's well on his way to his sub—his first sub—1:20 half marathon. I'm Carrie Tollefson, Olympian, broadcaster and your guide to the world of RunDot. We treat the show like any good workout. We'll start with a warmup question, settle into our main set conversation and then wind things down by having our coaches answer an audience question in the cooldown. Lots of good stuff for today, so let's get after it. Well, hey Ben, are you ready for the warm up?

Ben: I am indeed ready and raring to go.

Carrie: Oh, I love it. Okay, so the warmup question today, have you ever had your race morning go wrong? And if so, please tell us all about it.

Ben: I've had it go wrong a number of times. I think that the real lesson is, you know, you learn more from the failures than you do from often the successes. You know, failures only have a feedback and it's not a running race. Unfortunately, coming from a triathlon background, I completely missed a race start. I was at a triathlon here in the UK on the seaside. It was, I was there with my precision coaching team. It was, sun was out, it was a lovely afternoon. I was there on the beach, was halfway in my wetsuit. I was almost ready to go and then I just heard a starting gun go off. I thought, was that meant to be my wave? And then I looked across to the sea and they were wearing the same color swim cap I had in my hand. And so I had to rush down the beach getting this wetsuit on, you know, huffing and puffing, you know, a few expletives along the way. It was entirely my own fault, but luckily I was able just to get in the water in my own time. I started two and a half minutes late in the end.

Carrie: How did it go?

Ben: I came out the water fourth and I came in the top five overall at the end of the day.

Carrie: Oh my goodness. So like, were you kicking yourself or were you did you laugh about it?

Ben: I was kicking myself as I was running to the beach to the swim start, whilst I was trying to get my wetsuit on. And, you know, just double checking with the marshals whether I had just missed my race start. And then once I got in the water, I'm a swimmer at heart. I was just having a really great time. And then, you know, I finished the race and I realized I'd actually done all right in the end, even though I missed my swim start. So lesson learned. Whether it's a run event or a triathlon event or a cycling event, just keep an eye on the clock and don't get too lost in conversation, because it was very easy to lose track of time, and I have learned that the hard way.

Carrie: Well, it sounds like you like to talk like I do, but I really haven't had too many kind of moments like that. I mean, I remember back in high school running track, where you're taking off the last, like, layer of your sweats and you get them stuck on your spike or something like that. Like, that's crazy, you know, scary for me to even go back and think about that. But, you know, really, I think more for me. I ran my first marathon, like, four months to the day after having my first—my second child, and I got to the start line, was ready to go, had my GPS watch on, ready to, you know, kind of stick to my pace, because I wasn't going for the win. I was going for the pace and my Garmin was dead. And so I kind of panicked a bit. I know, like, I talk a lot about running by feel and going and running your race and competing. Right? But that was one of those first races, and this sounds a little bit, like, elitist, but I really wasn't going for the top, you know, podium finish or whatever. I was just going to try to run a certain time. I was trying to break through three hours, and I had no watch. So I went and on the sidelines, I said to someone, does anyone have a Timex? Does anyone have a watch I could borrow? And somebody did, and I at least had something to watch my pace. So that was scary. So make sure you got your Garmin or whatever, you know, device you're using charged up and then it's actually charging. Mine was on the charger, but it must have just slipped a little bit and it didn't quite get the full charge. So we want to ask you all that are listening here in our audience, tell us about your race mornings where you've gone had things go wrong. We want you to come on to all of our RunDot social media accounts and let us know. So tell us if you've had anything go wrong. Hopefully you have it. Hopefully you've been, you know, pretty good about it.

Announcer: Let's go.

Carrie: All right, let's get into the main set. I want to know a little bit, though, before I get into questions, who you are, Ben. I mean, a lot of people know you at Tridot, a lot of people know you in the triathlon world, but at Rondot, it might be a little bit new to some of our listeners that we have this great coach that's from the UK that is coming over from the triathlon world. So tell me a little bit about who you are and how you got into sport.

Ben: Yes. So, yeah, thank you for having me on the RunDot podcast. Obviously, if anyone who has listened to the Tri Dot podcast, I featured a couple of times. So in the triathlon world, certainly here in the UK, I've been around the block a few times, but running for me was obviously, you know, as a triathlete was my least favorite. I was a swimmer to start with when I was a lot younger. I was a junior elite triathlete for a number of years into my late teens. And then just for me, getting into running and more and more now as I'm getting a little bit older, I'm not going to reveal my age for the sake of—for our other listeners and our other coaches who feature on this podcast, I'm on the younger side. But as I do get older, my priorities have changed and I really love the appeal of challenging myself over those longer distance running events, particularly the half marathon. I'm hard at work trying to get my first sub 1:20. I was almost there this year where I had to pull out of an event due to injury. And so I'm kind of going back next spring with that one goal in mind. And, yeah, so triathlon to running, obviously. I've been running for well over a decade, nearly a decade and a half, and it's just a constant journey. And so as I work with athletes, you know, triathletes or runners, I just try and embrace the fun in running because everyone gets so caught up in it being so intimidating. And I did too. I got injured quite a lot when I started because I kind of just took a swimming mindset and thought if I go really fast and really hard, I'll make myself better. And I've—I've learned over time that's just not the case. And you know, you gotta respect the run, you've gotta respect your body, you gotta respect your limits, gotta respect your time. And so yeah, for me, running is the, my greatest source of kind of learning at the moment, swimming and cycling. I'm very confident in my abilities, my capabilities, but running is kind of a mystery to me still. Like I've yet to do a marathon, I've yet to do an ultramarathon, but I can see those things in my future in the next kind of 12 to 24 months. And so it's just really exciting and I hope to be able to share that journey with a few more people and get some inspiration and some help. Certainly been listening to the previous episodes of the new RunDot podcast to get some expert advice as I try and channel my inner runner and you know, learn to be more than just a swimmer and a cyclist and get that, get that first marathon. Don't know where. I'd love to do London, but it's very difficult to get in. But fingers crossed, one day, London marathon home city. It would be just amazing to do.

Carrie: Oh you would love it. So talk a little bit about this goal of breaking 1:20. Like how is the journey getting there? When is that going to happen? When is the attempt happening?

Ben: Second attempt, unfortunately second attempt was, my first attempt was squashed by a last minute injury and so I pulled out of the race. Then I entered another half marathon later on in the spring this year which is a bit hillier, so I wasn't able to run sub 1:20. I ran just around the 1:23, 1:24 mark, which I was still over the moon with. And I can tell you for sure my legs were feeling it for a good few days afterwards. So it was a hard earned effort. But all my training, all my trial, my run up predictions were predicting on that flatter course that I was meant to have done the same course. I'm going back to next March in my local city of Bath in England for anywhere between a 1:17 and a 1:19. So you know, I'm just learning to get comfortable being uncomfortable, particularly over this kind of longer sort of sustainable intervals. And so yeah, and a little bit of gym work too. I've got, I've got to get some, some muscle to keep me strong and it's keeping me, keeping me busy because every day is a learning day. You know, running, running under fatigue is so hard and you just over 5Ks, you can kind of just brute force your way through it. But with a half marathon you've got to be smart. And so I'm learning to kind of hold myself back and be really, really clever about my effort and my efficiency. So it's just sub 1:20. I'm going there and I'm going to get it. I'm just that kind of person. If I set a goal, I'll get it.

Carrie: Okay. Okay. Who are you going to be running with on your own or do you have somebody that's helping you?

Ben: I do most of my training alone, unfortunately, just because of where I live. I live in the countryside so my only real kind of neighbors are cow and sheep of the local farms. So I do a lot of my run training on my own and on the race day I'll be surrounded by my teammates. So we're having a team day out. So lots of our coached athletes and our other coaches are racing. But I will likely be on the course on my own and just kind of sitting in the groups, you know, kind of bobbing and weaving, just trying to get, get on pace. And it's actually on Mother's Day here in the UK so I'm going to be running on the same day and hopefully my mum and dad will be there to watch as well. So running with their support to chase that sub 1:20 for the first time.

Carrie: Yeah. Oh, you're gonna do it. I have a good feeling. So let's talk a little bit about race day for you too and what you recommend to athletes, but also how you go about your race morning. So a lot of times, well, racing triathlons at the same time, I guess they we go in the morning for a lot of running races. There's very few longer races, maybe some 5Ks, some 10Ks at night, but not that half marathon, marathon distance. Unless in the States you go to Vegas and you run rock and roll. And that's in the evening. But let's talk about how you get up in the morning those first few steps out of bed. Are you doing a little pre race jog? What do you do before a big race?

Ben: In the morning other than panic and be nervous and excited all at the same time? My race morning starts the night before, if not the morning before. I am a perpetual planner. I have a life plan for the next three to five years, not least a race plan for the following morning. And so I reverse engineer the entire process and it's a process I go through with all of my athletes. Where ultimately is our final point we need to be on the start line, let's say 9 o'clock in the morning with our Garmin ready to go to hit start as the gun goes off. And I just work backwards all the way and until the first point where I will wake up or the first point where I can start to make a difference to my race day performance, to my race day routine. So the first thing I do is obviously set an alarm well in advance and that's usually dictated by when I want to eat food. As most runners will probably agree, eating food on the morning is kind of a bit of a touchy subject. Some people like to eat food, some people like to not eat food, some people like to eat more or less just depends on your sensitivity. And so I will plan my wake up the day before about when I want to eat the most substantial last meal before race, the actual race start. And so for me, that's usually I can kind of stomach an amount, a reasonable sort of portion of food anywhere between two and a half and three hours before race start. So I will usually try and wake up and eat straight away and then it's done. And that's kind of the first action that I will do. I don't really want to look at my phone or start getting dressed or start packing bags again or trying to think about my gym journey. I just could get up and get food and then we can go about the rest of the actions and the rest of the process.

Carrie: Yeah, when you talk about what you do the night before, let's talk, let's get into that a little bit. Because I'm the same way and not even just on race morning. I have to do it for these early morning. Like this morning I was up at 5:45 running and I kind of had my everything laid out. So what do you do? Do you take it all out of your bag, lay it out from start to finish? I did that when I was racing and I haven't put a race on the calendar for a while, so I need to get back doing this. But I had like a race kit. Not only my uniform, my race kit, which you guys say in the UK, but I had like my backpack that had everything I needed it needed in it and also extras of times before, you know, where I'd raced before. And it just stayed in that same backpack, but I had extra gloves, extra socks, like, things like that. So how do you go about that race kit?

Ben: Yeah, so I do exactly the same thing the night before the race, whether I'd pack the bags or not. And I say bags plural, because I will have more than one bag, much to the dismay of usually my partner or my dad, who's carrying them on the race day for me. And so I will have clothes set aside for what I'm going to wear in the morning to get to the race. I will have the clothes that I will then be wearing to race and I will have the clothes to wear after the race. And depending on whether it's a cold day or a warm day, there may be less or more clothes. Usually it's just an extra jacket to keep me warm. And so those are the first things I will lay out and I'll double check and then I'll pack into there the sort of correct bags. The clothes I'm going to wear in the morning I'll just leave to one side because they're the first things I'm going to put on when I get up and then when I'm having some food. And so other than that, beyond the actual kit, I then just sort of think, right, where do I need to be and when? Again, working backwards. And then that's just about saying, okay, if I'm going to get up at this time, I'm going to eat at this time, and then when do I need to leave to travel to the race start? And so, you know, I've usually planned that well in advance based on where I'm staying and where the race start is. So I can take into account travel times and things like that. But I'm very much a fan of, even in training, having your kit out the day, the night before. So it's right there in your face. You don't have to worry about it. The decision fatigue, that that issue is taken out the equation completely. And all you have to do is about focus on just getting yourself to the next place, to the next thing. It just keeps the whole process simple, achievable and a lot less scary. If you're waking up on race morning, you're going, where's my kit? Where's my food? What time should I be here? What time shall I be there? It just adds an extra level of panic and stress that you probably won't realize externally is actually going to have an impact on your race, but internally it's just bubbling up. It's bubbling up, it's bubbling up and just that stress will hit you when you hit the start line and then you'll either go off too hard or you just have nothing when you start because your body's already fatigued and tired and stressed from just getting yourself to that start line in the first place.

Carrie: Let's keep the heart rates down as much as possible before that gun goes.

Ben: Exactly.

Carrie: Let's talk a little bit about what you eat and drink before a race. And I always think of a race and a huge workout because you kind of have to practice, right with your big workouts, you want to be able to practice how the gut handles it and all of that. So what do you recommend or what do you eat and drink before a big race?

Ben: My first and most important recommendation to anybody and even to myself is don't eat or drink anything on race morning that you haven't already practiced or you're not already used to having. Now this can be tricky if you've traveled a great distance. Perhaps you're staying in a hotel where they're providing the food for you. Sometimes you have to kind of improvise, but as much as you can control it, please do. And so stick to what you, what you know, both in brain and also in body. And by body, I mean your gut. Your gut can be incredibly sensitive if you're nervous and stressed, you know, and nervous, being stressed can be a good thing. You just have to frame it positively about your race. And so again, depending on when you can eat that, keep it simple, simple carbs, you know, a little bit of protein, less on the fiber if possible. And depending on your sensitivity to either gluten and, or lactose, you may want to reduce the amounts of those in your food. I kind of have a hybrid, sort of gluten free, not gluten free diet these days as my partner is gluten intolerant. So I kind of, I kind of play for both teams in that respect with gluten. And so for me, I'm quite a simple creature. I'm British born and bred. So it's porridge in the morning. Very, very simple with a little bit of milk. So I'll have just a little bit. And if there's no access to milk or I choose, I don't want to have milk. I'll just have water. So just boiling water and sort of oatmeal, porridge, oats, and I may add an extra sprinkle of potentially some jam or jelly, as you'd say in the States, or honey or golden syrup, maple syrup. Just something to kind of give you that instant wake up. I'm quite sensitive to caffeine, so I leave caffeine for within the final few moments before the race. So if I'm eating my porridge three hours before, some nice oatmeal, some nice porridge, plenty of sort of slow acting carbohydrates, a little bit of milk or water and just like a pinch of sugar on the top just to kind of wake me up. Because if I'm racing at nine, I'll be waking up at around about six o'clock in the morning, which is quite early. So I need a bit of sugar to give me a bit of life and some energy to take on the day.

Carrie: Yeah, I mean that's, it's so true. So you eat about three hours in advance before a race?

Ben: Yes, yeah.

Carrie: If you're running an early race like 7:00am, is it just still 4:00am porridge?

Ben: No, I don't like getting up at 4 o'clock in the morning. So I will probably get up, you know, a couple two to two and a half hours before the race and I'll either reduce the amount of food that I'm going to eat or depending on the type of the race that I'm doing, if it's a longer race and a race that's later on in the morning, I will have porridge. If it's a shorter race or a race that's just earlier on in the morning, I may either just have less porridge or opt for bagels or toasted bread with a bit of jam or some banana. Just things that I know I really like to eat. I enjoy to eat whether I'm tired or whether I'm energized and feeling fresh and ready to go. The things that I enjoy to eat and that I know are just simple carbohydrates. They're easy to digest certainly for me and my stomach. So it's all about trial and error. When you've prepared, you've entered the race nine months in advance, you've got nine months to test out what food you like. So make the most of every opportunity, before every hard long workout, before every little practice race that you do. Just try things. Eventually you'll find things that work and you'll find things that don't work. And so you just kind of have to listen to your body and just play it by ear and trust your instincts. If it's going to be an earlier start, maybe just eat a little bit less and graze as you go along before the race rather than having one big meal too close to the race.

Carrie: I think it's so interesting that you just talk about something simple like porridge, which is, it's such a good carb, like you said, a slow release carb too. Kind of works as it goes through you. But for me, like, I don't know, you probably think this, like, of all Americans over here, like, do you think peanut butter and jelly is gross?

Ben: I personally do because I don't like peanut butter at all. I love the jelly.

Carrie: What is wrong with you?

Ben: I'm English. I'm sorry.

Carrie: So is it the texture? Is it the taste? What is it?

Ben: It's a—it's—it's unfortunately a bit of everything. It's the taste, texture, aftertaste, the smell. It's just not. It's like my—that and Marmite and Vegemite. Can't stand either any of those. So I keep it nice and simple. Fruit jams, plenty of sugar, not very good for your teeth, but everything in moderation. It's only for race day, so it's fine.

Carrie: And how about Nutella?

Ben: Oh, love Nutella.

Carrie: See, that's so weird.

Ben: I like chocolate. I've got a sweet tooth, so anything that's got chocolate involved, I will—I will eat a couple of cubes of Cadbury Dairy milk chocolate. A bar of chocolate before a race with a bit of caffeine gel is quite common for me. Again, just super, super simple carbohydrates, simple sugars that are easy to digest, that taste nice. I've had some really rainy race starts and cold race starts, and the last thing I want to do is try and force myself to eat something that I actually don't enjoy. So a bar of chocolate, a banana, some jam, I will eat that whether it's 30 degrees Celsius or 3 degrees Celsius. It's just—I know it will work and it's enjoyable to eat.

Carrie: I think that's a really good point, too. You keep saying enjoyable, and that's what I always tell athletes that I'm talking to or coaching. For me, food is obviously a necessity and we need to do that, but I also really want to enjoy it. And so I love that you keep saying that because we aren't probably going to perform at our best if we don't really enjoy what we're doing. And so I think a big thing for nutrition is to love and to, well, maybe not love, but like what you're putting in. And especially race days, like, we are nervous, we are trying to get hyped up. We want to make sure that we're enjoying the process and that is heavily weighed on what we're eating, because it's kind of like it's like your last supper or your last breakfast. Before you go out there and hammer yourself harder than you ever have, you want to make sure that that's like, oh, I feel good. I've done this before. It's, you know, it's something, it's routine and now I'm ready to go.

Ben: Yeah, you know, food is fuel. At the end of the day, I, I, that's the old thing I have in the back of my head, front of my head every day is food is fuel. I'm quite lucky that I have quite an active lifestyle and quite an active appetite. And so food is fuel, but also food is fun at the same time for me, I know that mindset is, you know, quite rare. There are a lot of people who have more difficult relationship with food and obviously that's another challenge in itself. But certainly when it comes to taking on an endurance challenge of any kind, if you can find ways to make food fun and also understand that it is fuel, then you will ultimately and sort of exponentially have a better and better experience and you'll just love running more and more. There's nothing worse than getting halfway through a run or even before you started a run and just going, I've got no energy. And then to be honest, sometimes it's just because you haven't eaten enough or you've just eaten the wrong thing.

Carrie: Yep, exactly. I want to know a little bit about how far in advance you actually arrive to races because—let me back up for a sec. When we were talking a little bit about early, early races, like a 7am start, I used to eat three, three and a half hours beforehand and then I would actually go back to sleep for a little bit longer, especially for those really early ones. But I was able to wake up pretty quick. A lot of people can't do that, so they have to get their body up and at it. So that is one quick tip. If you are someone that wakes up and you're pretty bright right away and, you know, springy, you can get your fueling in and shut your eyes for another 20, 30 minutes and be okay. So I did want to talk about that. But how far in advance do you actually arrive to races?

Ben: I guess it depends. This is a such a coach's answer. It depends and it's not a lazy answer. But it does, it does depend. You know, I like to arrive earlier rather than later. I am quite an anxious person when it comes to being at places at particular times, particularly if they're new places that I've never been before. There's only so much planning that you can do that can prepare you and there's only so many things that you can. And so for a running event, you know, anywhere between 5K and sort of half marathons, where my biggest experience lies certainly in that running world, I like to arrive 90 minutes before the race starts. So if I know that I'm going to start at 9 o'clock, I want to make sure that I'm at the race venue and I might still be in my car with the heater on, keeping warm and maybe just shutting my eyes just to rest my eyes. But as long as I'm there 90 minutes before I've registered, I am, I'm happy, I'm comfortable knowing that I'm there. Nothing else can go wrong. I'm there and that's the first kind of stress and the first obstacle, the first blocker that I can just go, do you know what? I'm there, I'm registered, I've had food. I'm going to go and sit in my car with the heater on and just stay nice and warm and comfortable. There's not much more you can do at that point. And then we can start to look at the next stage of the process, i.e. getting changed and then doing your warm ups and things like that. But we'll talk about that in a minute. I'm getting ahead of myself. But just give yourself enough time to arrive at a venue and do the things that you know you have to do. That is register and then any extra time you can then make the most of to do all the other important things but just take that stress away and arrive there early, particularly if it's a big race because traffic will probably be quite busy. So get there earlier rather than later, even if it means hanging around a bit longer.

Carrie: Yeah, I do think that's a big note that traffic and parking, that's something that I would think of as part of my kit. Right the night before or two days before, maybe it's well in advance but knowing where we should park, knowing what the traffic and the road closures are like, that's pretty critical. People a lot of times just think I'm just going to pull right up there or someone will be able to drop me off. Well, road closures are no joke. So you have to know how you can get in and around. You have to know where you can park or your loved ones can park because sometimes they do drop runners off but they might have that last minute, you know, water or that last minute, you know, nutrition or whatever. So you have to really have that plan. So know your race course that you're gonna run, but really know the race course, too, around how you're gonna get into the start line and into the finish line and even for your spectators as well, like, your parents are coming to watch you race, you're gonna want to help them figure out where they're going to park, where they're going to be able to watch you along the race. So lots of things go into that, and that's why getting there a little earlier is always helpful, because you never know what traffic is going to be like.

Ben: Exactly. That. Yeah, just—yeah, be—just be a perpetual planner. Do it so far in advance. It almost feels silly. But on race morning, you'll—you'll kind of—you'll thank yourself for it.

Carrie: Yeah, you will. Okay, bathrooms, we're going to just go straight into this because I not only think parking is huge, but knowing where there's bathrooms and not just the porta potties, like, if there are other establishments open around there that you can get into, great. If your hotel is close to the start line and you have the ability to run back to the hotel, like, have that be a part of your plan. So let's talk a little bit about bathrooms and maybe like, knowing when the last one, last stop is good. All that.

Ben: It's probably the least elegant and graceful part of the entire life of a runner we can talk about, but it's probably the most important. We've all been there where we've been stuck in a toilet, stuck in a bathroom queue for far too long, and we're worried, actually, will we make it to the start line in time? And so just like we've prepped our kits today before, we've prepped what food we're going to have on the morning. We've prepped when and where we're going to park and how to get to the venue. Take a look at the race venue, the race location, and go, where are your available bathrooms? And just anticipate that it's probably going to be busy no matter what time you arrive. And so this is why I like to eat my largest meal as early as possible. Because knowing how nerves affects me no matter what I've eaten and when, by the time I turn up to the race venue and see a bathroom, I'm just going to go there as soon as possible, straight away. And I recommend this to my friends, to my athletes, to my fellow coach colleagues, we all talk about it. Just get there as soon as you possibly can. It's difficult, particularly if you're not a morning person. You're still waking up and you're struggling to digest or take on any foods to then want to go to the bathroom, to go to the toilet that you know, that early or that far in advance, you know, that worry of, will I need to go again? Just get—just go as soon as possible. I'm trying not to go into the gory details, but I keep it really, really simple. Just sooner is always going to be better. Otherwise you end up just sort of with the endless cycle in your head of if not now, when. And by the time it's arrived, when has happened, you know, an hour later, there's a thousand other people trying to queue for the same three bathrooms, you know, on the corner. And so it's part of the planning process and it's part of just the life process. Sometimes you just got to take yourself to the bathroom and go, well, I'm going to sit here, I'm going to get it done and then we're going to move on with the rest of our race morning. Knowing that this is over and so, you know, making sure your body is ready to go. Have something to drink, have something to eat, make sure you're nice and awake. Perhaps just go for a little bit of a jog. Once you've gone to the race venue, you know, you've registered, go for a little jog around, the nerves might start to kick in. A little bit of movement in your body may just help you feel like you're able to go to the bathroom and just get—yeah, without—without going too much again, into the gory details. I'll save everyone's ears. Go sooner rather than later. You won't regret it.

Carrie: Oh, Ben, if you only knew. I mean, I kind of just say it how it is so I could get there, I could get it out if you want me to talk about it. But I agree. And also where—the next question I was going to ask you was a little bit about the warmup. And I do think that this is one of those things that go hand in hand. A lot of times people ask me about warming up for a marathon, for instance, and I'm like, yeah, I do some warmups and a lot of times, partly why I get there. And I usually start my stretching and warmups and things about an hour in advance. So I will have another time or two that I can sneak into the bathroom. So that does if you're, if your stomach hasn't fully gotten rid of everything that you need to, right, when you get to the course from the nerves in itself, then maybe going for a little bit of a jog, a little bit of a walk, maybe doing some drills or some jumping jacks, things like that, to get the body moving a little bit. And usually during that warmup, your body will say, oh, okay, I'm going to try and do this again. So let's talk about warming up for you. What kind of warmup do you recommend and what do you do, but also what do you recommend to your athletes?

Ben: Yeah, so other than, you know, getting there in the right place at the right time, the warmup is the next most important thing. And so for me, I have a tried and tested process that works for me. I could do with my eyes closed, I could do it backwards, I could do it while standing on one leg. Something that's simple, it's easy to remember. And for me as well, that doesn't take up a lot of space. I don't really want to be getting in amongst some of the crowds around race venues. I'm not a huge fan of that, you know, of that kind of noise and that sort of people in my, in my space. And so when I work with my athletes, when I certainly, you know, I've developed my process on my own, if I hadn't already been to the bathroom or perhaps I've tried to go to the bathroom and it hasn't been particularly successful, I will just make sure I've got some layers on. So my run kit, my race day kit will be on and I might just put some tracksuit bottoms and a light jacket, maybe some hats and some gloves on. I'll just go for a quick 2, 3, maybe 5 minute max jog around the car park or you know, down a street. If there's a street that's away from the race, I'll just go somewhere where it's quieter and I'll just go for a little bit of a jog and then again making the bathroom part of the warmup. If I'm then ready to go to the bathroom, I'll try and do it straight away. My actual warmup, I'll do some dynamic exercises. I'll probably start anywhere between 45 to kind of 50 minutes before my race starts. I'll do some sort of dynamic exercises, some jumping on the spot. If I've got a skipping rope with me, I'll take my skipping rope and I'll do some sort of some skipping just to kind of get all those contact points with the ground just really alive and awake. Some leg swings, you know, both forward and sideways, just some high knees or some heel flicks, things that I can do in a small space, just in my own space, in my own time that are really easy to do that get your heart and your lungs working, that give you a sense of warmth. We're also just kind of priming those key muscles, those key joints to do what we're about to do, which is to go for a run and then I'll do that for anywhere between kind of like 15 to 20 minutes and then I'll go for another jog and then that's just my way of just shaking off that warm up energy, shaking off that final bit of stress and those final bits of nerves. Because knowing I started 45 to 50 minutes, I've done 20 minutes of exercises, I've gone for maybe a five, 10 minute jog. I've then gotten probably the most amount of—I've probably got no more than 30 minutes or 20, 25 minutes before my race start, at which point I'm probably having to start walking into the start corral, into the start pen or moving towards the starting area. They may be doing kind of a demo or they may be doing a sort of—some events do warm ups with everybody. They have like an instructor on a stage and they'll take you through a warmup or they'll just take you through the course, they'll remind you of the safety information, things like that while still got my layers on. And that's when I then look at my final part of the process, which is that final nutrition that I'm going to take on in the final 20 minutes. So everything kind of is in its own little phases, its own little chunks. So I give myself 45 minutes to do all of my warmup and then when that's done, I'm in the start pen, I'm having my final gel or caffeine gel or banana or something. And then I'm just trying to stay as warm as possible. And so just keep it really, really simple is the single most important recommendation I or any coach can make. I'm curious to sort of hear what your warmup was like or the warm ups of potentially some of your athletes or other pro runners that you've known or worked with. Because everyone's different and mine might work for me, but it might not work for everybody else. So what your experience may inspire someone else to try that for themselves and could be a really good warmup for their, for their race.

Carrie: Yeah, well, I mean, I always recommend warming up and a lot of people are like, Carrie, I'm just doing my first 5K, like, why do I need to warm up to go and do the 5K? And I think that there are different types of warmups that each athlete can do, but I think that no matter what race and distance you do, you need to get your heart kind of ready to go. And you mentioned it, you know, doing some jogging, doing some light walking, doing some kind of drills, whether that's while you're in the corral or outside of it. I always love to do some hard, high knees. You talked about high knees or some strides. You know, if I have an open space and I know I can get back to my spot, I usually do three to five strides and they might be 20 meters long, but they get my heart rate up to the point where I probably will get my heart rate up too in the first three, four minutes. So that's, it's not such a shock to the body and also to my breath. Like, I don't love breathing so heavy in the first stages of a race where you're like, oh my goodness, I'm going way too hard. If you do some short bursts or some really hard high knees, your heart rate will get up there and your breath will kind of labor a little bit. So you're used to what that race pace feels like. But I agree, I think having 45 to 50 minutes of being able to move your body, have that last minute bathroom break, being able to get into the corral, and whether you're doing warmups with the instructors on the stage or you're doing them on your own, even if you have to get in the crowd before you can actually jog around, you can jog in place, you can do a boxer shuffle. All of the things that we would do before a workout you should do during your race prep as well. So, yeah, I agree with you on all of that. And I always felt better when I almost was a little bit sweaty going into a race, whether it was hot out or cold out. Just making sure that my body was fully warmed up. And again, there's a lot of places where you'll be in your full warm up outfit before you actually get into your race kit and your warm ups and things, and you can toss those off to your loved ones or they might have something that you can donate. Do you guys have that in the UK where you can throw off a shirt and they'll donate all those shirts? Yeah.

Ben: So just not as frequently as events elsewhere. But we do have those available for people who do need to sort of offload extra bits of kit.

Carrie: Exactly. And I think always if you're a little bit chilly having those, you know, simple little gloves on that you can toss off and you won't care if you don't get them back, that's great to have too. So I like to stay warm. I like to have my warmup even if I'm in the corral, the starting corral. I just like to stay, stay loose and have some fun. Let's talk a little bit about the last minute bits of nutrition, if you're one to have that. There are races where we're going to be eating throughout the race and drinking throughout the race. But some of those races, the shorter races, do you take something, you know, 20 minutes out, 30 minutes out, or do you just rely on that last bit of breakfast or whatever you had three hours in advance?

Ben: I will always have something rather than nothing. I see food as fuel. I don't like running with that worry of am I hungry, am I about to be hungry, have I had enough, am I going to be fueled enough? And you know, for a shorter race, it's not necessarily required. I just do so because it's just part of my, my process. It keeps me confident that I've got everything under control. I'm fueled up, I'm fresh, I'm warm, I'm excited, I'm going to have fun and I'm ready to go. And so part of that warm up process is, yes, getting those bathroom breaks done, getting those dynamic exercises done and it's all—and there's little chunks. So by the time I reach the starting corral, I'm moving through. I've got 20 minutes to go. And for me it's really, really simple. It's a caffeine gel, just a—

Carrie: Okay.

Ben: Some simple carbohydrates and a small amount of caffeine. As I said, I'm quite sensitive to caffeine in the sense that I respond really well to it. But I can't have a lot of it and I certainly can't have it too far in advance, you know, just last minute. And then it will just carry me through the duration of the race, particularly if it's 5k up to a half marathon. You know, I can, I feel the benefits of caffeine for upwards of about an hour and a half afterwards. So for me, it's kind of perfect to have it 20 minutes before the race, but in the past if I haven't had a caffeine gel or a gel of something, a couple of cubes of a chocolate bar, maybe a little bit of a banana, some extra bread, some toast with some jam, just something that I've packed the night before. And you know, when I said I was packing my clothes to wear the night before, I also pack the food that I'm going to take with me. And it's not just nutrition as in what I'll eat, it's also the hydration I'll have as well. So from the moment I arrive at a race venue, I'll have a water bottle in my hands until the last minute where I'll hand it off to my supporter and in there I'll have water and an electrolyte solution and I will just sip little and often. I don't want to take on too much in one go because that will probably just go right through me and I need another bathroom break. So I just sip little and often water with electrolytes and then the last 20 minutes, just some really, really simple carbohydrates, no more than 30 grams, which in non sports product money, a medium sized banana is around about 30 grams-ish. And so that's the most I will have. And again, I've practiced so many different things. I've had lots of different types of gels, I've had different types of breads and bagels and bananas and chocolate. And I've been doing endurance sport for 15 years and I just know what works for me. So just give it a go. But if they're offering free gels at the start line, you've never had them before, please don't have one. It's not worth it because the likelihood is it may taste nice, but your gut may turn around in five minutes time when you're running at full tilt up the first hill, it will probably have something to say about it and it won't be something particularly nice.

Carrie: No, it won't be. I tell a lot of athletes on top of what you've said, even just having some graham crackers or a half of a granola bar or a half of a Clif bar or whatever you like, just having a couple bites kind of stimulates your brain to think, okay, I'm ready to go, I've got some nutrition. It doesn't have to be a lot in there, but enough to get you through especially like a 5K, something short like that. You don't have to have a bunch right before, but you could have just a bite or two. And so for me, like I said earlier on that in my backpack, my race backpack, I used to have extra gloves, extra socks, always had a few things that I could eat just right before the race because I never wanted to go to a race where my stomach was growling. It always left me nervous that I didn't have enough energy in there and I didn't like that feeling. So graham crackers for me worked really well because I could have one or two. It never disrupts my stomach and it just, it tasted good again and I needed to enjoy that last little bit. So yeah, I agree with you though. It's always nice to have things on hand. You don't have to use it, but if you have it there, it's good. Let's talk a little bit about the mental part of race day. I think that that is always something that we have to go through, right? I mean it's what makes us tough individuals. I think a lot of people, they don't really love that part of the run or part of triathlon or whatever because you are nervous. It's the unknown, it's going to hurt. Are we prepared enough? All of these things go through our mind. So what do you tell your athletes to help them get into the right headspace before a race?

Ben: I tell them the first thing that I always tell myself and is it's that we get to do this, this is fun and we're going to have a great time regardless of what our goal is. I like to separate enjoyment from any outcome or even sort of performance based goal or even a process goal because our enjoyment is separate. I've never been a pro athlete. The athletes I work with are not pro athletes either. So we're choosing to do this. We're more often than not not getting anything, you know, in return other than a medal and a finish time. And so I just want myself and my athletes to tune into the reasons why we're doing it. And again, that could be a process goal. It could be an outcome based goal, you know, at this particular time or a particular average pace. Or the process could be having, you know, a gel every 30 minutes if you're taking on a half marathon or a full marathon. Those could be the things that we remember in the final moments that distract us from the stress and the nerves because we're just looking inwards and going right what do I need to do next? We're just thinking about what's the next step. Rather than going, oh, my goodness, I'm at the start line, I've got to run a marathon. Because all of a sudden you're overwhelmed with 26.2 miles worth of possible stress. It's not even real stress yet because you haven't even started. And so remember your why, why you're there, you're choosing to do this, you're having fun, and then just let that energy channel through you. And it sounds really weird. I'm not—I consider myself an extroverted introvert and I do like my own time on my own space. But race day mornings where I haven't known as many people or I haven't talked to as many people or been actively having conversations and trying to relax when I've just been in my own headspace, I have a worse performance, both in feeling and in actual output. So the race mornings where I've known people or I've had conversations, or I've just tried to really lean into the fun and the enjoyment of the experience, that's when I've done the best. So if we can shift our mindset of the butterfly nerves in our tummy from being, oh, my goodness, this is really scary and intimidating. Am I even going to finish? Am I going to hit my goal? Turn that into—actually, that's my body just telling me, we're ready to go, we're ready to have fun and then just soak up the atmosphere, have conversations with people. You know, if you see someone with some really cool socks, just have a conversation, go, they're cool socks. Where did you get them? Just distract yourself, kind of. You almost have to trick yourself into thinking you're not about to do something scary. And at the end of the day, we're all quite simple creatures. So if we know we've done all the things that we've practiced, we've done our warmup, we've got there in good time, we've been to the bathroom, we've had some food, at the end of the day, all we've got to do is put our feet in front of each other one at a time, many times, and have just a load of fun doing it. Because this is why we do it. We're not professional athletes. We're just having fun, challenging ourselves and doing that with really cool people in really cool places. You know, I've been lucky to travel to some really cool places to do sport, and that's what keeps me going. I'm not really worried now about if I come first or if I hit this time. I'm kind of more driven. And when I work with athletes, let's just have fun, because that's why we do it.

Carrie: Yeah, it's really good to hear you say that, though, because there's a lot of people that are very nervous. They spend a lot of time training and doing things. And I think one of the best things to do is just tell somebody on the start line, you know, like, look next and say, I'm really nervous for this. And usually, you know, endurance athletes are pretty compassionate people. They understand the journey that everyone has to go on to be able to compete and—or go to a race. And so I think that just being honest and having those open conversations like you said, or commenting on their socks or if they're waving to someone, like, just start a little bit of a conversation. It doesn't have to be long. But that really has always helped me as well. What I was thinking when we were talking about what we bring in our backpacks, you talking about maybe the outfit that you wear before you put your kit on, your uniform on? I always tell athletes to bring a dry sports bra, dry socks to put on afterwards, and yes, like a dry sweatshirt, dry, because you're always cold. No matter what type of day it is, you're still cold. So bring that dry stuff to put on after because you definitely want to be able to, you know, warm up and have the most fun after races. It is not fun going to breakfast and, you know, worrying about staying warm and trying to be able to talk through your teeth chattering. So, yeah, I think that's a big thing.

Ben: It's always better to have more layers than not enough, even if it means getting really, really warm before the race start because you're wearing multiple layers, but then you get to take them off, and then you're still warm when you've taken them off. And when you start the race, you're already warm. It's like you've already done the race because your body's warm and ready to go.

Carrie: Well, let's do the cool down. So this is a question from our audience, and Alana wrote this in. She was wondering, how do you determine which pain niggles, injuries, whatever you call them, you should be able to train through? Do you have your athletes do less volume, less intensity, versus doing something where you might run through the pain just a little bit? Do you let the pain dictate? How do you determine this coach, when you have pain niggles or even a full on injury?

Ben: This is a very good question and I get asked this question a lot by other coaches, by other runners, by just people who are looking inwards to the running and the endurance world going, why do you do this? How do you do this? My first recommendation for me particularly is I'm not a physiotherapist, I'm not a strength and conditioning coach. And so the level of my prescription or my advice, my recommendation will only go so far because it's not necessarily my 100% qualified area and I'm happy enough to say that that's not my area. With my own personal experience of working with athletes who have been injured for a variety of reasons and my own experience of being injured myself, it's a very individual conversation to have and you have to have that conversation with yourself first and then the second person you have that conversation with is someone who's qualified to have that conversation with you, that is a physiotherapist, anyone in that field who is qualified to make those recommendations.

I don't like personally and I don't recommend to a lot of people to run through any pain niggles or injuries, even if they are minor, just because I've had significant—I've got a significant injury history and so I'm a very cautious person and I never want to put someone else in that position. Whereas in the past I have trained through injuries out of bravado and ego because I wanted to keep up with my teammates. And even if you're not in a team environment, please don't put yourself through that just for the sake of uploading something to Strava. Because at the end of the day, your health, your well being, your longevity physically and emotionally is more important than a number and a graph that gets uploaded to an app and to a number that you can have on your watch screen. And so when it comes to understanding what you can and can't do, you have to tune into your body. If something is not normal, you'll probably notice it very quickly. And if you want to look at a pain scale of 0 to 10, 10 being the most pain you'll ever experience in your life and zero being absolutely nothing, it's as if you're floating in the clouds. If at any point you feel you're beyond maybe a three or a four, reduce the volume, reduce the intensity, take extra rest. And not just in your run, but actually just outside of your runs, just take a day off, you know, just do some walking or some cross training on an elliptical in the gym if you've got access to that, and then seek advice. If you don't have a coach, obviously you don't have the opportunity to have a conversation with them about it to get their initial advice, seek a specialist, someone you know or someone in your local area, someone that your running club, if you're part of a running club, would recommend and they'll be able to help diagnose the actual issue. If it's just some minor pain or a minor niggle, again, it could just be a few days rest or reduced volume and intensity. But if it feels any more severe or chronic than 2 to 3, 4 out of 10 on that kind of rough pain scale, please do stop what you're doing and get some professional help. It really isn't worth—I don't like training through and I don't like recommending people to train through. I've been there, done that, and it just results in worse and worse outcomes that will then actually take longer to deal with than if you just took a couple of days off, got some help in the first place and dealt with it properly.

Carrie: Agreed. I think people always do better with a little bit of rest, so don't forget about that. And then if you're healthy enough to get back, we can go a little harder, maybe.

Ben: Maybe.

Carrie: If you shut it down early enough. So great advice. Hey, go get that sub 1:20. You got this, dude.

Ben: Let's do it. I'll let you all know.

Carrie: Yeah.

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