How to Train for an Ultra Obstacle Course Race.

 

 

 

 

 

Full Transcript

Rich Ryan: [00:00:00] Today, we talk about running and preparing for long races ultras, as they say. And the time to start building volume for these ultra events is right now. So Josh and I, we sit down and talk about how you can increase your volume in a sustainable way to prepare for these ultras. And more specifically, the ultra in the obstacle course racing community.

[00:00:24] Also, what kind of intensity, if any. You should look to add fruit training and also the mentality when tackling an ultra event in a 24 hour races specifically, we also talk about some other stuff. It was a great time. So Josh is an accomplished ultra athlete. So he has a ton of knowledge on how you can implement this stuff into your training and how you can also become an accomplished ultra athlete.

[00:00:50] So I hope you enjoy it. Here we go.

[00:00:58] Hello, Josh, my friend

[00:01:00] Josh Ried: [00:01:00] Morgan, my brother.

[00:01:02] Rich Ryan: [00:01:02] Yeah. We were just talking off air and we were just going to like, just go and not press record, or we’re just going to like, make it happen and like, Oh shit, we got to reschedule this because

[00:01:09] Josh Ried: [00:01:09] we’re just

[00:01:10] Rich Ryan: [00:01:10] hitting record. Yeah, it was, it was, it would’ve been, it would have been great.

[00:01:13] The lost, the lost tapes, but we were just talking interesting, interesting question, because he’s racist have been canceled or postponed, and now they’re all kind of stacked together. I think. What is it? Palmerton, New Jersey, I think OCR world championships. And like there’s a Ragnar relay. That’s all in the Northeast that are all the same weekend now.

[00:01:32] Right. if you had to do one of those, which one would you do?

[00:01:36] Josh Ried: [00:01:36] Definitely New Jersey. The question is though, are they doing the beast super and ultra all on the same day?

[00:01:45] Rich Ryan: [00:01:45] That is a good question. Is it the same day as the super was that with the day initially was for the super, I think it was earlier this year, right.

[00:01:52] It was supposed to be in October.

[00:01:53] Josh Ried: [00:01:53] It was earlier, which I think was cool because like last year, like they were saying, they just couldn’t, they run downhill fast because of all the leaves and it’s just dangerous. So I don’t. Yeah, I don’t blame them. I love it, but it totally makes sense, but yeah, that was the super and they were moving the beast and the ultra, I think to that time.

[00:02:10] So I’d pro I would, if I did, I’d want to do the beast, I just love, I love that distance that I keep taking second to Ryan Clemson. So not that he’d be there, but I still take a w there

[00:02:21] Rich Ryan: [00:02:21] because he might be there. Why wouldn’t he be there? Because

[00:02:23] Josh Ried: [00:02:23] he’s going to go to OCR world champs. Oh,

[00:02:26] Rich Ryan: [00:02:26] that’s right in Vermont.

[00:02:27] Josh Ried: [00:02:27] Yeah. That’s his hometown. And honestly, I would be torn between that as well. Like that’s the obstacles there. The competition would all be there. I mean that honestly I’d probably go there

[00:02:38] Rich Ryan: [00:02:38] getting they’re all in different States. So it’s weird about what.

[00:02:41] Josh Ried: [00:02:41] Like

[00:02:41] Rich Ryan: [00:02:41] how the different counties and everything are opening up because it’s New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Vermont, and then like, who’s going to be more conservative and what’s what’s going to happen.

[00:02:49] So I don’t even know how that would play out. But you would, do you do world champs?

[00:02:53] Josh Ried: [00:02:53] I’ll do OCR world champs. Yeah. There’s man, I just, I had. Even though I had kind of a hard race last year. Just things didn’t, I don’t know. Some days you’re on Sundays, you’re off. I remember going down the Hill and my legs just didn’t feel spot on.

[00:03:06] And usually down the holes are my strengths and that day my quads were like, we don’t want to work too well. So the next climb was brutal, the downhill there. but yeah, man, it’s such an awesome vivid memory of, cause the race starts out with a massive climb, right? It starts out your, I think it’s like 3000 feet.

[00:03:23] A 3000 foot climb, right. To the top. And

[00:03:25] Rich Ryan: [00:03:25] on this day it was 3000 jump

[00:03:29] Josh Ried: [00:03:29] through from the job. Yeah, it is. I think, yeah, it was like 40 something minutes to get to the top where like your first grip obstacle was, and it was so cool. Cause it was up in the clouds, but I just remember seeing the lead pack of like, like Atkins of Newell and Kempson woods and just watching those guys slowly disappear as they.

[00:03:46] We’re literally running up these incredibly steep grades while I was like doing intermittent power, hiking and running. And it’s just, and also had a similar format, like the course layout to Lake Tahoe, where it starts out with like a sustained. Good size climb, and then you go down and then it’s like a smaller client, smaller, secondary client have to do it, a bunch of obstacles.

[00:04:04] So I just want to get better at that style, just cause I’ve found that I have, those are the courses where I haven’t done quite as well. So I’m trying to work on the climbing gains and also the obstacles there are just rad, you know, they’re there, there’s no burpees. It’s a must complete. And so you can try and try again.

[00:04:23] And there are some real, there’s some really fun obstacles, like, Ryan’s brother, Matt made a school call it underdog, which was so simple, but it was, so it was so fun. Cause it was like one of those kind of obstacles where it could either take you like 30 seconds or two seconds, depending on how to use your momentum and get through.

[00:04:42] Rich Ryan: [00:04:42] Did you do the jumping leap and like. Come underneath or do you go slow?

[00:04:46] Josh Ried: [00:04:46] No, do I Tarzan the shit out of it?

[00:04:49] Rich Ryan: [00:04:49] Nice. Really cool. cause he’s, cause Matt’s building a rig for DECA yeah. For DECA fit as well. And I don’t wonder why that, what that’s gonna look like. It’ll probably be a similar concept. Cause he was actually on the podcast months ago and he was kind of his things like athleticism should be rewarded and having obstacles like an underdog that you could still do.

[00:05:09] But it just is slower. It’s an interesting concept. So I wonder what that’s going to look like for DECA fit, having a rig in there, but I wonder what deck, if it’s going to look like at all, because it hasn’t happened yet.

[00:05:19] Josh Ried: [00:05:19] Yeah. Yeah. Let’s do that, man. I want to hop on one of those two. I want, I want to just like check out the new format.

[00:05:26] Rich Ryan: [00:05:26] They’re doing this weekend. Yeah. Jacksonville’s happening this weekend. So they’re going to do like a deck of at mile. But yeah, the it’s interesting with that, with that, I forgot about OCR world champs.

[00:05:36] Josh Ried: [00:05:36] Just a mile,

[00:05:36] Rich Ryan: [00:05:36] just a mile. Yeah. I mean, they’re just going to do like the obstacles essentially, or the workout stations and then run and then do another one.

[00:05:42] So it’s gonna be more like a workout. It’s not really a running event at all. the, yeah, cause splitting between Palmerton, New Jersey and OCR world champs, like I would want to go where the most competition was. but I don’t know. I didn’t even, I forgot about with star world champs. Maybe I don’t, I don’t know if I would go there.

[00:06:01] Maybe it’s just a little bit further. I liked the idea of being, having something close and, there’s some that I’m familiar with it. Cause it might be like our first race, you know, like to bust some rust on obstacles like that,

[00:06:12] Josh Ried: [00:06:12] I think would probably do well there for a couple of reasons. One, I, we didn’t.

[00:06:16] I don’t think we went and water and it won’t be that cold. And you’re a strong climber and it’s not super technical, even though it’s like on a, on an East coast mountain. It really wasn’t really it wasn’t

[00:06:27] Rich Ryan: [00:06:27] technical. Yeah. I can hit, I can hit some downloads as long as they’re not technical, but yeah, those obstacles, I mean, I, I’m not that great.

[00:06:35] It’s something like that, that

[00:06:37] Josh Ried: [00:06:37] for a couple months leading into it,

[00:06:39] Rich Ryan: [00:06:39] but there’s no Boulder gyms. There’s nothing. So, I don’t know. I’d probably, I was thinking of project do Palmerton, just cause it’s close, you know, but I liked New Jersey and I was going to check where you guys were going to go, like where, where you’d be L the other East coast people where Kempson would go and just do that.

[00:06:53] I didn’t even think about it, everybody going, Oh, CRW.

[00:06:57] Josh Ried: [00:06:57] But this year it’s world championship. So, I mean, you would think it’s going to be even denser granted their RNA traveling issues at that time.

[00:07:06] Rich Ryan: [00:07:06] Yeah. Like there’s going to be travel issue. That’s the other thing they need to just cancel that thing.

[00:07:10] They can’t like just drag the world

[00:07:12] Josh Ried: [00:07:12] championship balance. Like the last second.

[00:07:14] Rich Ryan: [00:07:14] I can’t imagine that’s going to

[00:07:15] Josh Ried: [00:07:15] hit sending positive vibes to OCR. WC.

[00:07:19] Rich Ryan: [00:07:19] I’ll send the vibes. I’ll send them out, but I’m just being, I’m being real. Okay. I mean, I’m really a real

[00:07:26] Josh Ried: [00:07:26] obstacle, at that venue, like 20 minutes away, dude, there’s a burger joint called honey pie.

[00:07:31] Best Dan burger I’ve had in my life, in my life. I ate one after eating more food and I was like, I was full, but I still ate another one. It was just so damn delicious. They had like, they put kimchi on it, man.

[00:07:42] Rich Ryan: [00:07:42] Brilliant. I’ll really

[00:07:43] Josh Ried: [00:07:43] be on this damn thing. All like the bitters and the different, the different flavors together.

[00:07:48] Rich Ryan: [00:07:48] I like, I like kimchi, but it’s just really overpowering. Sometimes it’s such a polarizing flavor. Did it work? Did it work with the, with the

[00:07:55] Josh Ried: [00:07:55] grill? It worked so well.

[00:07:58] Rich Ryan: [00:07:58] Hmm.

[00:07:58] Josh Ried: [00:07:58] And they had their like special sauce, but I trusted it because they made it in front of you. What was it? Open kitchen. Pretty much like, like big Mac sauce, just a little something extra.

[00:08:10] Rich Ryan: [00:08:10] Allows an Island

[00:08:11] Josh Ried: [00:08:11] pretty much. Yeah, it was orange

[00:08:14] Rich Ryan: [00:08:14] honey, but honey pie,

[00:08:15] Josh Ried: [00:08:15] honey pie.

[00:08:16] Rich Ryan: [00:08:16] All right, then, then it’s on. And a couple of like a month before this is. The Spartan world championships at Vermont, right. It’s not even a month. And

[00:08:30] Josh Ried: [00:08:30] so you bring up another point of convolution. It’s like if someone does ultra world championships, that would probably really, really take a good bite at their chances of doing well at any race two weeks after.

[00:08:45] Rich Ryan: [00:08:45] Yeah. Yeah. I know. And that’s, that’s kinda the thing and that’s what. A struggle right now. And there’s a lot of people who are kind of, I know a lot of athletes that I coach are kind of looking at at the Spartan ultra championships, like, okay, this might be the only chance to get a world championship or a championship event this year and it’s, and it’s domestic.

[00:09:03] And it might just be fun to give that a go. And right now it’s kind of.

[00:09:08] Josh Ried: [00:09:08] Okay.

[00:09:08] Rich Ryan: [00:09:08] And it’s going to be crazy at Killington and robot. So right now you kind of have to start preparing, right? Like

[00:09:13] Josh Ried: [00:09:13] for sure. We’re like what? 15 weeks out? 16 weeks out.

[00:09:16] Rich Ryan: [00:09:16] So I’m like that. Yeah. So, so now is really kind of time if you’re gonna look at that and, and that’s really like the next available race.

[00:09:22] Even if you’re just doing, are they doing an ultra the weekend after at Killington as well? Is that just a beast?

[00:09:28] Josh Ried: [00:09:28] No, man. They want to do it the week before, at least as one of those, what was scheduled and that’s a mountain series race, but I have no idea what series are looking like. So that’s, that’s another thing it’s like, Oh, if you want to do the ultra or the regular basic Killington the week before, again, that’ll affect your performance at the ultra world championship the week

[00:09:44] after.

[00:09:48] Rich Ryan: [00:09:48] Yeah, I almost wouldn’t count on the mountain series or any of the series. but the, but is it an ultra in Killington the week before? The actual

[00:09:56] Josh Ried: [00:09:56] traditionally, I mean, they do the beef and the ultra the same, like the second week of September or something like that.

[00:10:02] Rich Ryan: [00:10:02] So either way, like right now you’d probably have to prepare if you’re going to either one of those races and Josh, you’ve done both.

[00:10:07] You’ve done ultra distances and on trail on just kind of doing MKT stuff. You’ve been doing ultra you’ve done 24 hour races with tough Mudder world’s toughest. so you have a, A lot of knowledge and expansive knowledge when it comes to training for these types of events. And I think now’s a good time to talk about this because it is really, if you’re going to go after something like you have to prepare now and, and you can’t really hedge something like this, where on my end, like I’m going to prepare for like, I’m going to train at super distance, just so I can easily drop into something like a DECA fit or a.

[00:10:40]or a stadium if they happen. And if I need to have my volume, I can get to a beast, but I’m not gonna prepare for an ultrasound. I don’t really need to worry about that. I can kind of keep going how I’m going. But if you, if you’re looking to do an ultra, even if it’s just 50 K on a regular Spartan course, you probably have to start considering how to alter your training so that you’re prepared for these races that are, that are going to pop up in the fall.

[00:11:02] So if you were looking at it. And you are going to coach an athlete or you are going to do it yourself. What would be like the first thing that you would target when preparing for an ultra said that is. 1516, 17 weeks away.

[00:11:15] Josh Ried: [00:11:15] Yeah. Fortunately like 16 weeks away is probably the minimum that I even want to have.

[00:11:19] If I was going into a distance, especially one that I hadn’t done before. you know, like if you’ve done a 50 K and you’re going into a 24 hour race, for sure. You want to at least be active 16 weeks out to just like, keep yourself from dying. but the first thing to do would be definitely look at.

[00:11:35] Like what you’ve accomplished so far, look at your training history and your consistency. And then from there, you can, you are, the coach can, can figure out what’s like the wisest course of action, as far as progression goes over the next say 16 weeks. Cause that is a nice chunk of time. But for something, when it comes to ultra distance, it’s intensity plays so little of a role it’s really almost there more for like economy.

[00:11:56] And just to let your heart know how to. go hard at times, but ultimately it’s just, it’s just volume it’s volume. Getting your legs for, especially for a spot like Killington or really any mountainous, endurance race, no, like training your lights, be able to handle all the impact, the, of the sentence.

[00:12:12] All of that eccentric force. So we’re really just building volume in

[00:12:17] Rich Ryan: [00:12:17] just cranking a nub. Right. And like when I did, I just did a 50 K last year and, my volume is typically high. Like I’ll run in seventies or 80 mile weeks, just preparing for even like a super distance. So, I just kind of moved my volume around and just kind of placed it instead of maybe doing doubles, just put a couple of big, longer runs in the middle.

[00:12:33] And at the end I still did some intensity just cause the volume that I put in wasn’t too much more than what I was. Doing beforehand, but if you were going from say, I don’t know if you’re doing 40 miles a week and with like some speed workout, would you just drop the speed workout or would you, and just add volume on top and how would you kind of build that fine?

[00:12:50] Like you say, if you were at, you know, 30 or 40 miles per week, like, what would you, how would you progress yourself or an athlete that you’re coaching.

[00:13:01]Josh Ried: [00:13:01] so at this, at this point in time, say right now we are 16 weeks out on the calendar in front of me, but, you get your notepads out, everyone at this point in time.

[00:13:10] If you’re, if you’re just putting in, like 30, 40 miles a week right now and say you’re at like an 80, 20 split or a 70, 30 split, 30% of it is intensity. I probably would cut back a little bit on the intensity and start focusing more on increasing your overall volume. Right. And vertical gain. Cause the thing is, is like you have certain factors that are stressing your body out and intensity is one of them volumes, one of them.

[00:13:33] And that can be volume. And as far as distance or time on feet goes and vertical gain, especially if you’re also descending. So you want to be kind of careful with all those variables and if you’re going to increase in one field. You either want to keep the other field the same, which in this case would be saying increasing Bert, you want to either keep your intensity the same or even decrease it for this particular sentence.

[00:13:52] I would say lower down your intensity. Cause it’s not super necessary. if you’re like, if you’re running an economy, isn’t really great. Maybe keep working on intensity if you know, but it’s kinda up to you to figure if the intensity has been doing you well or not. So it’s going to take some self assessment, but ultimately start picking up volume with, with time on feet, including vertical gain and doing that at a, like really painted.

[00:14:16] To your body and seeing how it responds to those volume gains, because when it comes to like building volume, and I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, like I just listened to a podcast about like high running mileage and cycling and like other forms of cross training. And the thing is, is that sometimes, and I’m one of these people like, am I, my body doesn’t really like 80 mile weeks.

[00:14:38] And there are, you know, some ultra runners are doing that and 150, 200% of that, you know, I. But just increasing, like time moving if you can’t, if you don’t really feel good increasing your time on feet very much, whether it’s with running or if you can add in hiking, that’s awesome. But just getting your body moving, like hopping on the bike, I’m a pretty big advocate for just to get your legs moving.

[00:15:01] And as long as the stimulus of running is strong enough and you’re spending enough time running the biking, shouldn’t negatively impact your ability to run, especially at a slow speed.

[00:15:13] Rich Ryan: [00:15:13] A hundred percent. It could probably even benefit some of the climbing, the, the, and just building the strength for the ascent.

[00:15:20] And that’s something that I do like to kind of put into place as well, for athletes who are training and want to put in more volume is okay, because if you just try to ramp them up, like the first way is I started usually frequency. So if you’re doing 40 miles, if you’re doing 30 miles a week in, four days or whatever, Five days, I guess, just adding a six day and just adding something to light is a good way to just add that.

[00:15:37] Like add a little bit of frequency in there to get some volume without killing yourself and being able to accumulate fatigue over the weekend days is important from that respect, but also splitting things up the way that you’ve mentioned with, with the bike, I’ll even have people do. No three mile run and then finish on the bite to accumulate, you know, an hour and a half of work that day.

[00:15:56] So it’s not just a complete beat down because that’s something that I have found that that is a struggle, is maintaining the, trying to build that volume, to get people where they would feel comfortable. And then. Just staying healthy. Like it’s just a lot and just add things on. And like a lot of times it kind of seems rushed and people were like, Oh, I got this 30 mile race coming.

[00:16:15] I’m only at 12 miles from my long run. Like I need to like really start cranking. And then they start really just pounding on miles for the weekend. And that’s a hard way to kind of recover and do the rest of the week and get anything done. And so what did you like when you’re training for? Cause you’re not really a high mileage guy, right?

[00:16:31] Like a lot of high mileage

[00:16:33] Josh Ried: [00:16:33] guy.

[00:16:33] Rich Ryan: [00:16:33] Right? Like you’ll spend time out there, like you’ll spend time on your feet. so for, for the rest of like, for the sake of the rest of the podcast, let’s just go off of, time because I feel like that’s a better, A better target, especially when we’re talking about vertical gain and

[00:16:47] Josh Ried: [00:16:47] Taylor turning out, which was a good, good podcast by the way.

[00:16:50] Good guy. I, he, what was his like calculation in his head? How did he feel about elevation and how it equates to miles? Was it like,

[00:16:56] Rich Ryan: [00:16:56] it was really good. It was like every thousand feet was like, no, I forget. It was like every day, it, every, some thousand feet was like 10 miles of running onto it. Right. It couldn’t have been a thousand.

[00:17:10] It could have been maybe. Maybe five times every 5,000 feet. No, no, no. Cause that’s still. I don’t know. I’ll go back.

[00:17:18] Josh Ried: [00:17:18] I’ll have to go back. But yeah, I remember it sounded, it made me feel good about my mileage. It definitely like when I looked at my vert, it hit on, based on this calculation, I was like, Oh, I’m most 60, 70 mile guy.

[00:17:28] Rich Ryan: [00:17:28] Totally. And it made sense because basically what, what Taylor was talking about is episode something or other a little bit ago. I’m not good. I never remember the episode numbers, but it’s tailored journey. Go back and listen. But he talks about. But combining them also, if you want to have those hard numbers and since the language that runners use a lot is miles and weekly miles per week.

[00:17:46] Being able to have this kind of formula where it’s like, okay, I ran 40 miles, but it also did 15,000 feet of vert over these 40 miles. So that that’s really 70 miles. It was something like that. It was like 10, 10 miles per every 5,000 or something like that. Cause anything more would be kind of crazy.

[00:18:02] Like how many, how many, how much are you getting like in a week? Like, say like leading up to your reason SKT. Congrats. Again, we went over it last episode, episode something I forget, but it’s a couple of episodes ago,

[00:18:13] Josh Ried: [00:18:13] but within all of them,

[00:18:15] Rich Ryan: [00:18:15] the whole catalog. Via, like, say like going into like peak volume weeks on that.

[00:18:19] Like how much were you going after those weeks?

[00:18:22] Josh Ried: [00:18:22] Yeah, so I like leading up a month into it. I was going up to like 10 to 13,000 and that just happened to feel good for my body. And I added an intensity. So rather than increasing verb, plain and simple, I brought up the intensity since, I mean like a four hour event is still pretty, pretty intense compared to like a 24 hour event.

[00:18:42] And then. Two weeks out. I reduced captain tensity up. And then the week, the week of I did like one intense Hill session, I ended up only getting like 3000 feet of gain in seven days leading up to it. And I just like hopped on the bike for some really long rides, which was all concentric, like no impact, but a long time of like legs under a under

[00:19:02] Rich Ryan: [00:19:02] effort.

[00:19:03] Hmm, that’s a, that’s a good way to do it. So it’s more of like a classic taper from that respect, right? Like usually a taper would be for an, a race would kind of be like three weeks out and like the first week would be a massive drop. So you would take it from you drop like 40% of your weekly, total volume.

[00:19:19]and either miles or, or vert for this, for the sake of this or time. And then from there you drop like another 20%. So that by the end, you’re at 20 to 30% of what your total volume would be. Was that, was that kind of where you were, you said you were only about three, 3000 feet of.

[00:19:33] Josh Ried: [00:19:33] So like my TA, as far as vertical gain goes and vertical loss, I definitely cut that dramatically.

[00:19:39] I can’t really think about what the percentage would be off the top of my head, but overall time on feet was still pretty comparable and actually overall mileage was even slightly more cause I. You know, in my self assessments, I know that my, my climbing and descending abilities are, are we’re good enough at the point in time.

[00:19:58] And it was most advantageous for me to work on running economy. So I actually went out on the road and did lots of like tempo and uptempo stuff, really focusing on Lake turnover and good running economy.

[00:20:08] Rich Ryan: [00:20:08] And

[00:20:09] Josh Ried: [00:20:09] which sounds counterintuitive. Cause I was doing a run in the mountains, but I felt like I already had that in the bank.

[00:20:13] So just having good running economy does translate to sections where you can open up like in the Hills.

[00:20:19] Rich Ryan: [00:20:19] Oh, totally. And it just makes everything easier. Right? Like, and I think that that’s a lot of times people want to keep doing speed work when they are going into the ultra. They’re trying to still work things in because they feel like running economy is important.

[00:20:29] And one thing I know we’re both fans of and, and working that is doing just like short sprints. and, and even in the case of just doing it on Hills, like doing like eight, 10, second, all out sprints for that running economy and kind of like in the middle of your long run, as opposed to doing. 12 four hundreds or three by mile threshold, just to hitting up some like really short sprints on some Hills might be a real good way to, just work on that economy a little bit.

[00:20:55] And just to feel out a little bit of that pop turning over and you like doing uphill and downhill sprints, right. Would you do much downhill and would you do downhill at all for sprints, with training for ultra or is there a really not

[00:21:08] Josh Ried: [00:21:08] a placement or whatever they call them? sprints. I think that being able to.

[00:21:13] I think it’s good to practice going downhill as fast as you can. And while being as relaxed as possible. So find this middle ground where it’s like, okay, how fast can I go before? I really feel myself, start to tense up as you really start to tense up. I think that’s when you start like that rigidity causes more impact and it causes your legs have to work a little bit harder.

[00:21:28] You’re not really going with the flow. So like trying to relax on downhills, even though that seems kind of weird, it’s kind of, it’s, it’s hard to explain part of you. It’s like slacklining. It’s like part of your body’s relaxed, but like your legs are still. Agile and make quick, quick movements, which are, everybody’s just kinda like along for the ride.

[00:21:44] So that takes some training, but it’s just like getting comfortable. But as far as like sprinting downhill goes, or like overspeed training on a really mellow, inclined, like 5% is absolutely plenty. And I’ll usually do that like barefoot on a grassy, small downhill. Hmm, just for like 15, 20 seconds. And that’s more for like turnover, like a neuromuscular adaptation and leaves you surprisingly sore, but like just, you’re getting your legs to like, especially like your hamstrings and hip lecturers to act really quickly to get that turnover, going to lift the heel, get the leg in front of you.

[00:22:16] And ultimately the. Quicker your body can do that. The less stress stressed, you’re going to feel going down like a steep Hill, trying to get your leg in front of you.

[00:22:25] Rich Ryan: [00:22:25] Hmm. That makes sense. Yeah. And I like that. And that’s, that’s both of those things like being able to run relaxed down a Hill and, and having that kind of be your.

[00:22:34] High end is speed, you know, is an interesting concept. So it’s not necessarily going as hard as you can or as fast as possible. It’s just as fast as possible. That is also functional because there’s rarely where you’re going to like sprint downhill and be able to maintain control and also feel comfortable.

[00:22:52]so I kind of like that idea

[00:22:53] Josh Ried: [00:22:53] of like for an ultra that’d be devastating. It’s like one or two Hills. You’re probably totally fine, but yeah, if you have to keep going up and down and up and down, it’s like, yo, you could, you could sabotage yourself getting too excited on those first downhills.

[00:23:06] Rich Ryan: [00:23:06] Yeah. And that’s a good way to kind of put it, especially for an ultra, like a Killington, like you’re going to need to go down a lot.

[00:23:12] So you’re going to have to really pay attention to how well you’re feeling going down and we’ll kind of, effort that is and making sure you’re not just ripping yourself to shreds. And on that end back to the, the volume piece, because like your total volume, you know, you should, should continue to build, And the classic example of something like this would be a thing I’m thinking of was like, if you’re training for a marathon, people always want to get to a 20 miler and a 20 mile is not necessarily the end all be all, but it kind of helps people mentally prepare.

[00:23:41] And, it’s just, it’s long enough that it’s really hard, but it’s not so long that it’s going to ruin you. It does ruin some people, but it doesn’t ruin. Everybody. And so people want to get this 20 miler in

[00:23:52] Josh Ried: [00:23:52] and makes a lot of sense. So let me ask you this during like a lot of those 20 milers, the intensity that they’re running at, are they running at marathon pace or like a little bit slower and thus it takes about as long as a marathon.

[00:24:02] Is there a fucking marathon?

[00:24:04] Rich Ryan: [00:24:04] Yeah, like if I was to go do a 20 miler, it would definitely be a price lower than a marathon even. I think, yeah, because we’re just being an easy pace. You could work in a temple run in that, like, so if you wanted to do 20 miles and 10 miles at tempo, you’d be an advanced runner at that.

[00:24:18] And like tempo I’m saying would be marathon pays for a merit for a marathon training. but mostly it’s going to be just getting the miles in from, for most of the B for the most of the first time marathoners or early marathoners. they were just going to be getting in that volume. And a lot of those people end up their race.

[00:24:34] Pace is kind of their long run pace. so. So they’re not taking it all the way to a marathon. You know,

[00:24:40] Josh Ried: [00:24:40] that’s the fun thing about ultra ultra distance is like, I think that once you get closer to that 24 hour Mark. It’s really just like a hike pace. It’s really, it’s your specificity for your long runs is just, just becomes spending a lots of time on your feet, moving really comfortable.

[00:24:57] Rich Ryan: [00:24:57] Yeah. And I want to, I do want to talk about that and how that can, can pertain to it as well, because. Yeah. That’s, what’s funny about the marathon back to the marathon. Like for some people, their marathon pace is probably gonna be a minute on a minute, 20 faster than their, their easy pace. Other people, it might actually be slower just because it is going to take them six hours, you know?

[00:25:15] So it’s just a matter of just getting out there and spending time on their feet. So hell

[00:25:20] Josh Ried: [00:25:20] yeah.

[00:25:22] Rich Ryan: [00:25:22] When you’re out there for that long, just putting it in, like nothing’s going to deter you big props. The, so like, I bring this up because there’s this target that people aim for. And they’re like, I’m not ready till I hit my 20 mile.

[00:25:34] I want to hit my 20 miler. I’ll be able to at least think that I’m ready. And sometimes were like, can I do a 22 and do 24 where it really doesn’t matter, but they just want to know like what it could potentially feel like. Is there a target like that for something for race that is. As long as 24 or even like a a hundred K or something like that.

[00:25:57] Like how long is too long or long enough when it comes to training for a, an an ultra

[00:26:04] Josh Ried: [00:26:04] man? I wish I had a super queer. And like really definitive answer for that. But that’s I say at the minimum, cause a lot of it like, like you just pointed out is mental people want to know like, okay, I want to feel comfortable at 22.

[00:26:17] That’s what I’ll need in order to like, feel confident going to 26. So a lot of it for sure is mental. I think after you get to four to six hours, cause it’s an ultra, you know, you’re not going out for like a hard, a hard two and a half hours. You’re really just going out and maybe you’re throwing in some like hard uphills.

[00:26:36] During, during being out there, but like, you gotta be out there four or five, six, maybe even up to like eight hours, easy movement, easy movement. You’re not going hard. And like, that’s your long run your long one’s no longer, like 30% of your week. It’s like, it’s gotta be 40% of your week. And like back to back days or back to back, at least moving, kinda like you were saying before, like you can go out for a big run

[00:26:58] Rich Ryan: [00:26:58] and then

[00:26:59] Josh Ried: [00:26:59] some bike after just to get, just to keep the heart rate up, just to feel the legs continuing to work.

[00:27:05] But, I mean, if you’re not spending six hours out there, you’re not going to know what it’s like to get, to get listers. You’re not going to know what it, what it’s like to like, have to go through nutrition and hydration and just, and just like, just be moving for that amount of time.

[00:27:18] Rich Ryan: [00:27:18] Yeah. You need to practice nutrition for that long.

[00:27:20] You need to know what you’re going to want to have on you and how you’re going to feel. Like physically and like what you’re going to crave after four hours or how like your body might like, are you gonna feel warm or cold? Like how, like, what’s your sweat rate going to be going back to the last thing?

[00:27:34] Like, you kind of need to do that just for practical perspective. And where would you aim for that to be say, you go out for six 66. Our effort where you’re, it’s like a jog hike. where in that plan, w would you put that as far as, how many weeks out before the goal race?

[00:27:50] Josh Ried: [00:27:50] As far as like that? So for salt for six hours, it depends on where the person’s at right now.

[00:27:54]if the person is doing like 30 or 40 miles a week, or maybe they’re doing, let’s see, what do they end up putting out? Maybe they’re doing like six or seven hours. I would definitely they’d probably cause. Again, they’re not straight up running. There are a lot of us going to be hiking. So it’s going to be, I tend to really say that it’s going to be a lot safer for them to add in that easy volume, because it’s not pounding the pavement.

[00:28:16]if it’s in the mountains, yes, there’s gonna be more downhill, but you’re gonna be moving overall slower. So. Two hours of hiking is not equal to two hours running on the pavement. So I think that would be fine to increase volume kind of right off the bat a little bit more than your typical 10% per week.

[00:28:30] And just cause it’s going to be so easy. So probably I think that just about anybody, if you can go out and run 30, 40 miles, like on the road right now, you’re probably not going to have a problem putting in a three, four hour hike. Right, right, right now on the weekend. So doing that and then doing like back to back days to start.

[00:28:47] And then if that feels pretty good, starting to, increase the length of like your single day

[00:28:53] Rich Ryan: [00:28:53] and where would you, and, and that’s something that I’ve. Kind of battle back and forth with is how to progress people into these longer efforts and, and having them being able to recover properly because it’s like, okay, should we do a four hour run in the next week, do a four and a half hour.

[00:29:10] And the next week after I do a five hour run or should just be. Two hour runs and then do some really super long effort for them to, to spend that time on their feet and for, to figure out how the nutrition is going to be. And then just give them a full week of recovery after, instead of just constantly progressing and constantly doing these big, long efforts or back to back efforts over the weekend.

[00:29:30] What’s your typical thought on that? Would you, would you progress somebody or would you give them a chance just to kind of go out and do a six hour effort and then see how that went and then just kind of pull back to, you know, two, two and a half or something.

[00:29:42] Josh Ried: [00:29:42] Oh, like two and a half during the week, or like the next weekend

[00:29:45] Rich Ryan: [00:29:45] two, a two and a half hour walk next weekend.

[00:29:47] Or even like the following weekend. I’ll give him a down week in the fall and we can bring the volume back.

[00:29:50] Josh Ried: [00:29:50] I keep tabs on him. I mean, if I’m working, if I’m going to tell someone right off the bat, I would just tell them to like, keep tabs on themselves. Stay really self-aware keep your long run fairly long and like really pay attention to yourself throughout the week.

[00:30:03] You know, and like, don’t be afraid to take things really easily. you don’t have to, because again, we’re not really going for intensity. So just keep moving your body, you know, hop on the bike, go out for a hike, go out for a run. you know, like if your Achilles is bothering, you just go for like an easy spin.

[00:30:19] So, and if I’m working with someone I’m going to, I’m going to want to keep them at a long weekend, a well run hike. But still, still every third or fourth week, I’m going to drop them down their long Lindell at their shortest week. If they were doing like five, six hours, they’re only going to go down like three hours.

[00:30:38] Because again, it’s not, it’s not super intense. So overall it’s not incredibly taxing. And the idea is to get their body to a point where they get so familiar with continuing to move. I mean, here’s a crazy thing to think about, man. It’s like some people go out on the Appalachian trail, the Pacific crest trail, continental divide, whatever, and they.

[00:30:56] Some people get right off the couch and they hop into doing maybe 10 miles a day, every single day, just hiking, but with a pack, you know, 30, 40, 60 pound pack. And by the end of the trip, even a person that started out not being super fit, they’re doing 20, 30 miles a day. Maybe they got smart, their packs a little bit lighter, but they’re way fitter.

[00:31:13] And the thing is the body, depending on the level of stress. And if the body can adapt. Really well at handling it. So they’re not doing super duper intense stuff where they’re really damaging their body. They’re just giving it like constant little trickles of effort. And the body has a typically in the, in that scenario does a pretty good job at kind of moving with the demand.

[00:31:36] So you’re not giving it massive overload all at once. You just keep increasing the amount of easy work you’re doing.

[00:31:43] Rich Ryan: [00:31:43] So it’s less about. Like undulating the volume and more about restricting intensity in those points. And like, so it’s not like, okay, you’re going to do a five hour. Run hike. And next weekend I to be okay now it’s a three hour road run because that would be so much more tense than be so much more damaging.

[00:32:01] It’d be like, no matter what you’re doing and needs to be in is very low and type of intensity, but we want to make sure this volume stays off and that you are not, cause that’s another thing, right? When people are shamed for these things, they’re, they’re restricted by what they can do because of their family lives or like where they live, you know?

[00:32:17] So they, they are, they live. On the road. So there ended up running a lot out there, but that intensity is just high. So is that more what you would do? Okay. Well, no matter what, and this needs to be really, really. Easy.

[00:32:29] Josh Ried: [00:32:29] Yeah. Yeah. And actually that’s a good point. So like for those, those folks that live on in like a flat place, or like just really only rows, there’s no really trails around there that that could be difficult, especially if you’re a person that can’t handle high mileage right off the bat.

[00:32:43]or like at all, I mean, I’ve been running for a long time and I still, I’m not going to do 60, 70 miles on the road. I’m just not going to do it. but it would be wiser for that person to like, change. The, the mode of exercise, that’s that that person would probably benefit massively, especially if they don’t have Hills or anything from like getting a heavy tire and dragging it.

[00:33:01] Cause that’s going to simulate like a small incline and that’s going to be far less impactful level of strength. You know, even if their heart rate is like, well below math, they’re still, they’re still moving. They’re still moving. Their legs are still building strength and it’s just time on feet. And it’s like, And, and like, even with that, they could get the experience of like hydration and blisters and like what, what their body’s going to want, because it’s going to be kind of uncomfortable.

[00:33:25] So I think there’s a mental fortitude aspects, something like that to something as monotonous is dragging a tire behind you. I mean, we’re talking about worse.

[00:33:34] Rich Ryan: [00:33:34] Yeah, that’s probably worse than just going on to the trail for several days, way worse. yeah, that, and that that’s a good point too. Cause a lot of people aren’t gonna have that, you know, like I, I am close enough to some trails where I’m actually fortunate enough to live in an urban area.

[00:33:46] I get up, I have trails. I can run all day and it’s like five mile run from here. So like that, that is not a problem, but some people are just, you know, out in the middle. In the burbs where there’s nothing at all. but they still one that they still wanna go out there and do that. So that, that, that’s a good point with that.

[00:34:01] And do you, and like, so you would kind of build up three weeks at a time when everything has been pretty consistent and like what I’ve read about ultras and how it trained for myself and the athletes. I coach it’s, it’s still a pretty standard. training protocol of like the recovery, like the buildup and the recovery and the building recovery.

[00:34:18] It doesn’t seem to be anything that is outside of, the norm aside from just the volume. Right. And just making sure that you’re, you’re just going slower and spending a lot of time out there. and so. What are some of like the things that will inhibit recovery with these, should people feel banged up or should it feel better or in your case, do you feel better or worse?

[00:34:40] Like say you’re training for like a beast versus training for like an ultra, What’s that kind of like for you?

[00:34:45]Josh Ried: [00:34:45] I personally feel more banged up training for a beast than an ultra, for sure. Just because overall the intensity is higher. Like volume volume is fantastic. Like across the board, the more volume you can handle and you have the time to put in overall, that’s probably going to pay good dividends to you.

[00:35:00] Just like, depending on the specificity of your event. Did you know, that changes the amount of like intensity and type of intensity you put on top of it, but really high volumes, like really great. But I, but yeah, when it comes to beasts with the intensity being higher, that that would beat me up more.

[00:35:14] Cause again, like with, with an ultra it’s just about kind of moving a lot at an easy pace. And what you said before about if you want to increase volume for somebody it’s, you would like to do so by like adding in a six day, just adding in more on the other day

[00:35:26] Rich Ryan: [00:35:26] frequency. Yeah.

[00:35:27] Josh Ried: [00:35:27] Yeah, dude. And that’s exactly it.

[00:35:28] It’s like consistency, frequency, even on a, on a down week, every third or fourth week, the overall like volume in the mountains might decrease. But their time moving, we’ll be just about the same. You’ll just be replaced with like more tire drags and biking. So impact is reduced a bit, but overall time moving is pretty comparable.

[00:35:50] That’s how I like to

[00:35:51] Rich Ryan: [00:35:51] approach it. Yeah. Okay. That, that makes, that makes sense for sure. And that’s a good way to kind of approach your training in general is like, if you want to improve on your running volumes, probably the first place you should start. And like I said, you don’t have to be running 80 miles a week or doing 10 hours of running a week, you know, but just adding a little bit at a time, that’s probably going to be where you’re going to get the most bang for your buck, because then when you layer in volume, maybe for training for something like a sprint or 5k, you’re gonna be able to handle more intensity once your volume is raised.

[00:36:23] So volume first is always kind of the way to go or something like that. and that’s, and that’s where. I guess just trying to make sure people are healthy. And, and is that just like the pitfalls of the training here is just making sure the intensity is just not crazy.

[00:36:41] Josh Ried: [00:36:41] Yeah, because again, it’s like, depending on the person maybe intensity will do them really well.

[00:36:44] Or sometimes it is pretty cool for an ultra to like, do a, do an intensity block, maybe. you know, 12 weeks out and cause again, there’s this like running economy, there are good benefits that will help with your lower intensity stuff, but it’s just like, it’s not, it’s not super imperative. And ultimately the most important thing is building volume.

[00:37:01] Cause like if you’re training specifically for an event, I mean, for an ultra, that specificity is just shit at the time, hot feet, comfortably hard

[00:37:09] Rich Ryan: [00:37:09] pace. And when it comes to other aspects outside of just aerobic volume, would you still work in things like. Lifting in the gym or yeah, big time. Matt, would you prioritize that over intensity, like of running or where would that fall into place?

[00:37:26] Cause that seems to be another thing. Cause I mean, if you’re training for an ultra, you’re already spending a lot of time, like, like what would be a general, like would you say someone, how many hours per week we think they’d be trained, in terms of aerobic for a. Along a bit like that.

[00:37:42] Josh Ried: [00:37:42] Like what, like 24 hour?

[00:37:44] Rich Ryan: [00:37:44] Yeah. Let’s just say yeah. 24 hour race. Yeah. Well, we’ll talk about that, man.

[00:37:48] Josh Ried: [00:37:48] I mean, I wonder how much time folks really have in their week. I would say if you would expect to do well and to just like, avoid totally shutting down. I think that if you can get eight to 10 hours of aerobic, To fairly comfortable, like I’ll throw in comfortably hard.

[00:38:07] They’re like maybe if you’re running it math, you’re doing a lot of stuff in math. Maybe like up to 10 beats over and, you know, that’s maybe that’s just like an uphill and stuff, but overall pretty, pretty low end comfortable work. I mean, you’ll probably be in a decent position at eight to 10 hours, which is kind a lot for a lot of, you know, those who only have, you know, or have families and maybe they can only allocate.

[00:38:28]like an hour a day. I mean, by the way, if you can allocate an hour a day, that’s, that’s awesome. That’s fantastic. Yeah. And if, and if you’re looking for where the best place to put your money in, is it is probably just like doing some quick, heavy lifts and going out for an easy run down and get some strides.

[00:38:45]but you know, spend 50 of those minutes. Out dragon, the dragon, the tire or running, and then on the weekends, like take the family out, put the kid in the pack, be I got a little kid get some weight training in that way and go for a long hike, spend hours out there.

[00:38:59] Rich Ryan: [00:38:59] Yeah. Cause it’s kind of those things it’s like, you always want to have lifting and strength training as part of the equation, but sometimes it just isn’t really going to make or break your race.

[00:39:09] And like you want it for the longevity of things. You, it will probably make you feel better. It will probably help your, Overall recovery and everything. So in that case, I would probably recommend that people start with the strength training in early stages and just see how it makes them feel. And if it needs to drop it later than, than you can for the volume and for the sake of spending time on your feet.

[00:39:30] But you want to make sure that you do know how that lifting and how it’s strength training does make you feel, just because if that does help and does make me feel better and it helps with your recovery and just your overall sense of like enjoyment of training. Then you’ll kind of make a, make a place for it to fit, you know, and that’s kinda how people can expand their capacity is just by like learning what this, w the byproduct of did the exercise is going to do, and then they will make sure to do it.

[00:39:55] Like you can always find time. And I hate saying that because sometimes, like, you really can’t, especially now people are, you know, at home with the kids, the kids aren’t at school. And like, work is crazy for a lot of people.

[00:40:05] Josh Ried: [00:40:05] like jump in, I’ll jump in and be the hard ass it’s like with every single person listening.

[00:40:09] You can, you can allocate three minutes of your day to doing some pushups and pull ups or like whatever you got dropped down 10 seconds, plus as many pushups as you can. Simple as that as all that shit adds up that grease in the group. And man, does that add up

[00:40:23] Rich Ryan: [00:40:23] and just seeing how it makes you feel, right?

[00:40:25] Like if you don’t do for weekend, God, why what’s going on? What’s wrong with me? He’s like, Oh, I’m I haven’t done strength training for 10 days. It’s like, Oh, okay. Well, let me put that back in to see how that feels. Even if it’s just doing. Two minutes of lunges after my run or something. I perform, I perform, I run.

[00:40:39] It’s like just learning how that makes you feel is going to help even more than just like that guilt of thinking you should be doing it because I feel like that’s what I go out to runners like, Oh, I know I need to do strength training, but not really sure where to start. And I don’t really, I want to make sure my runs are, are first, but if you put that effort and you make sure you are doing it, you know how it makes you feel?

[00:40:57] It’s like the same thing with like eating nutritious, like, Oh, I feel better when I eat more vegetables. Like if you didn’t know, if you didn’t know that, like why would you just. Assume that, you know, you think, Oh, I should eat more vegetables, but like bug, why? Like, feel it first and figure it out. I think that’s the same way with the strength training, but like I said, when you need to do six hours on your feet, that’s going to make, make a break.

[00:41:19] That the difference for that,

[00:41:20] Josh Ried: [00:41:20] I will say I do. I do agree with you, man. It’s like the weight training is going to do so much for them, especially in a, and not only like a long distance event. where your body’s just getting beat up and like your full body integrity is just kind of diminishing over the course of the event, but like an obstacle course racing, for sure.

[00:41:36] Like you, you can’t, you know, there’s a reason why like, look at the bites out of an obstacle course racer and see why some of the best pure, like marathoners and mountain runners don’t even end up doing that. Well, like they go out of the gun and they look great. And after a few obstacles, they’re, they’re in rough shape.

[00:41:51] Yeah. And ended up dropping out or fall to the back of the pack. So yeah, I mean the weight lifting that’ll definitely improve like your full body integrity has the ability to like maintain just to good, strong structure as you move it through space over time.

[00:42:05] Rich Ryan: [00:42:05] He, and just, you know how to move it. You, you know how to move it.

[00:42:08] You’re moving in different ways. And I think that’s where some runners and mountain runners and tremors. Don’t like to do that. And they’re not, they don’t, they don’t have those movement patterns down. So when they come up to an obstacle, I became really jumble for walls, just cause they’ve never done it, even though it’s two, it’s like, they’ve done it before, but they’re not consistently doing it.

[00:42:25] They don’t know what that’s actually going to feel like, but that is a good point. Right? Cause I like, for some reason I forgot, we were talking about obstacle course racing. I was just thinking of as longer races, but yes, like we need to still train our grip and our upper body because that’s going to be, that’s a worry with a lot of people who I talked to just like, I don’t know.

[00:42:40] I think I can go out and cut it out for a long time, but like. My grip might just go. And if I’m out there for eight hours and like, I can’t grip anything, I’m gonna be doing burpees all day. So where does that kind of fall in line with this? Like how would you, would you kind of keep that in the same? the same, like having specific days we are doing grip, like how do you put in grip and upper body volume to match the volume of an ultra event?

[00:43:06] Josh Ried: [00:43:06] Well, so actually the grease, the groove tactic. Actually, it was almost even more applicable to ultra cause with ultra, or I should say ultra obstacle course racing. You’re doing laps and you’re just running for a little bit and then you’re doing something and then you’re running for a little bit and you’re doing something that’s just repeats and repeats as the hours go by.

[00:43:23] So if you’re trickling that stuff in throughout the day, your body gets so used to just like you were just saying, I mean, your body gets used to these movements. You needed to know how to lift something. If you’re doing exercises every day, just like real quick, your body gets so used to just like. Drop it into an exercise and then go on throughout the day again and get into it again and getting out of it.

[00:43:39] So I think that that, that style of just kind of trickling and exercise throughout the day, just a tiny little bit is, I mean, it’s going to help you massively in a event like the ultra world championships.

[00:43:50] Rich Ryan: [00:43:50] That’s a good point. I think that having a target even is like, okay, I’m going to do a throw the day, do five sets of.

[00:43:58] Two to four pull-ups somewhere in my day. And then, and then you can have something to check off. Cause I find like if I don’t have any type of structure like that, I know I’ll just be like, I think I did two or three. I’ll just like, forget. so kind of like what we’re talking about, the hydration last episode, like having a Mark or having somewhere to kinda like check off, would be helpful for that.

[00:44:14] Even if it’s on your phone, like there’s, there’s apps that you can just click on things, then it becomes. Kind of addictive and you see it and then you have a streak going, it’s like, okay, I’m do five. I’m gonna do three pull ups five times a day. And like you click it and does it, and it gives you that those feel goods.

[00:44:27] So you can definitely find apps like that to help if you wanted to take the squeeze, the groups things. I mean, I think I’ve talked about before having those like iron, The Catholic, they call him captain of crushed their iron sport. Like just like the hand grippers.

[00:44:40] Josh Ried: [00:44:40] I had one of those, like in high school give myself like tendonitis and that day,

[00:44:43] Rich Ryan: [00:44:43] dude, they’re hard, man.

[00:44:45] I just ordered two of them. Cause I ha I have one and I just thought it was on a really light one. And I’m just crushing the one I got now, brochures, light,

[00:44:51] Josh Ried: [00:44:51] like worry, just squeezing them while you’re running.

[00:44:55] Rich Ryan: [00:44:55] I bet I’ve thought about that. I have thought about bringing out for run, trying to squeeze it while I’m running.

[00:45:00] I haven’t maybe I’ll try it, but I’m trying to buy two new ones to have your ones. And I ordered the same one that I had and a lighter one. It was like devastating to me. I’m doing terrible with ordering stuff online that pull up bar. I bought that didn’t fit. That was such a bummer for me too. So I’m trying to grease the grooves cause we don’t got, we don’t have gym situations here.

[00:45:17] But, but I do like that idea of, of working in the grease and the bruise type of, strategy for ultra, because it is overwhelming sometimes to try to then do 45 minutes of strength work on top of eight hours of endurance work.

[00:45:33] Josh Ried: [00:45:33] I, I’d recommend unless, unless someone’s just like really married to the idea of like doing splits where you do, like, I used to do it back one day chest the other day, run this day sort of thing.

[00:45:43] I mean, that’s. That’s not terrible, but it’s, I think that you’d get more out of it in the long run of the, with the grease degree of tactic. If you like had a kettlebell, you did a few moves, you swung it around for like 10, 15 minutes and then go for a run or vice versa, you know, and you’re doing that five, six days a week.

[00:45:58] I think you’ll see the best results from that. By the way, everyone should have a kettlebell. Everybody should have a kettlebell.

[00:46:04] Rich Ryan: [00:46:04] They’re impossible to find a road. Dude. I’ve been, I’ve been signed. I signed up for, like the alert me and rogue actually did just get a couple of men, but they’re like the competition ones, the ones that are all big and bubbly.

[00:46:15]no, I don’t want that one. I want

[00:46:18] Josh Ried: [00:46:18] to, you have like a 10 pound one, but it’s the same size. It’s like the same

[00:46:22] Rich Ryan: [00:46:22] huge. Yeah. Yeah. so do like that. I mean, that’s a way to kind of take the effort off because. Ultimately, you’re really not. You probably, aren’t going to know how these obstacles are going to go, and there’s no way you can really repeat doing, her COIST 12 hours into an event, you know, like you’re just going to have to hope that the frequency and the consistency of doing things every single day would help things kind of pay off.

[00:46:44] So I do like that approach when it comes to, and it kind of takes some of the pressure off because ultimately it’s still. Going to be an endurance event. And then to dude, I don’t know his name. I’m sorry. The guy who got second or second or third? No second. I think at, Spartan world chance last year in Sweden, wasn’t he doing like 200 burpees, a lap or something?

[00:47:04] He’s doing like a

[00:47:05] Josh Ried: [00:47:05] lot of burpees, man.

[00:47:06] Rich Ryan: [00:47:06] He was just doing crazy burpees.

[00:47:08] Josh Ried: [00:47:08] Didn’t Miriam do over a thousand.

[00:47:10] Rich Ryan: [00:47:10] Are you serious? I’m pretty

[00:47:12] Josh Ried: [00:47:12] sure dude. She did. Yeah. Yeah. It was a big deal. And this just goes to show a man like the, the fitness, like the endurance running fitness of these athletes out of this world.

[00:47:24] So this is

[00:47:25] Rich Ryan: [00:47:25] ultimately, it’s still, that’s still, what’s going to make or break. So you can also have some endurance athletes that I coach who were like, I don’t know how well it’s going to go. I don’t know how well it’s going to do. Doing it like getting over, like, what’s that one that the cargo net with the, with the platform that was so hard that they put it in this year.

[00:47:42] There’s like, it’s not, it’s not going to happen. I can do burpees. I’ll be fine. So maybe even just practicing your burpees and doing actual burpee runs where it’s like during this run, I’m going to accumulate 150 burpees over this two hours. And however you can get in those, those 150 50 burpees, if it’s like 30 at a time, it’s like 10 at a time spread out throughout, might be a good way again, to help train that upper body.

[00:48:02] And while doing.

[00:48:04] Josh Ried: [00:48:04] Totally. They’re awesome. They’re awesome. They’re like, I even, I still look at them a lot of the time as punishment, but like they’re. Actually a really good move,

[00:48:11] Rich Ryan: [00:48:11] the really good cause they do just fatigue, everything. Like you call up your upper body’s kind of pumped. You’re a little bit exhausted.

[00:48:16] Like they’re a real good workout for like transitioning

[00:48:19] Josh Ried: [00:48:19] workouts to plyometric. If you do them in short bursts. Totally.

[00:48:23] Rich Ryan: [00:48:23] Yeah. We’ll do a whole episode on how to, how to do burpees with workouts. Cause remember when I talked about like, Oh, start again, transition workouts or anything like that. So we’ll do that.

[00:48:30]but, but that is also race specific for ultra cause you’re probably going to be doing some burpees. In an in and even in an ultra, like, I guess you’ve never done a Spartan 24. Have you known a spot every minute? Spartan, ultra I’ve done

[00:48:45] Josh Ried: [00:48:45] sparring. Ultra.

[00:48:46] Rich Ryan: [00:48:46] Yeah. Were you missing obstacles?

[00:48:48]Josh Ried: [00:48:48] I’ve never, I’ve never missed a grip obstacle in my life humblebrag.

[00:48:52] Like world’s not 24 hours.

[00:48:54] Rich Ryan: [00:48:54] No way.

[00:48:55] Josh Ried: [00:48:55] Really? No. Wow. I love the dude.

[00:48:59] Rich Ryan: [00:48:59] Which way did you do the Vegas year or did you do the,

[00:49:01] That

[00:49:01] Josh Ried: [00:49:01] was a, that was a Georgia.

[00:49:03] Rich Ryan: [00:49:03] Oh, that was in Georgia. So it was cold.

[00:49:04] Josh Ried: [00:49:04] It was muddy and cold. Yeah. Yeah. I love it. Cool man.

[00:49:07] Rich Ryan: [00:49:07] Nice dude. well, yeah, but, but burpees can end up being very race specific.

[00:49:11] Like you’re probably gonna do burpees, like, like, I don’t think Aaron, I don’t think Aaron knew. I don’t think I considered very many burpees cause they just don’t.

[00:49:18] Josh Ried: [00:49:18] I don’t think Aaron knew missed any obstacles. He didn’t do any burpees.

[00:49:20] Rich Ryan: [00:49:20] Yeah. And I think, I think what, Atkins missed the spear twice or something like that.

[00:49:25] Yeah. so yeah, so even that, like you’ll, you’ll probably be doing burpees. So adding burpees in your runs is probably a good way to be a little bit specific and get that upper body fatigue as well, because that’s going to play into what the, how fresh you’re gonna feel going into obstacles is how many burpees you’ve done.

[00:49:40]For that, for that sake. So, so I would be remiss if we didn’t bring this up, because this is a huge part about, ultra endeavors in general is just the mentality of things. And the training is, is. It’s somewhat simple, you know, it is like we talked about kind of over and over. It’s like get volume and don’t worry about it to get volume in and making sure that you are used to moving your body for long periods of time and increasing frequency, doing all that stuff.

[00:50:08] But like the mentality of going into an ultra event is different and you get to a point where you’re going to have to overcome a literal obstacles and just like mental obstacles as well. So yeah. How does that change for you in particular, when, when going into an ultra event versus something like a super Arby’s or even something shorter, do you have specific things that you go to, or does it feel different for you or is it all kind of the same?

[00:50:33] Josh Ried: [00:50:33] You know, that’s, that’s a good question, man. It’s, it’s, they’re, they’re such different events for both physically and absolutely mentally, I mean, The amount of time you spend in like, say a sprint or a super compared to an ultra. I mean, you’re out upon an ultra tenfold the time and, you, if there’s more time to think there’s more time for ups and downs and like self doubt or, or, Or bursts of positivity to come in.

[00:51:00] I mean, I think that going into it, if you haven’t done one before, they’re going to be shocked no matter what, and you might be shocked in like a really positive way, or you might, it might not have been like what you were expecting and you were thinking of, so if you, if you want to meet yourself and you were going into it, looking to.

[00:51:19] Purely like do something you’ve never done before. I don’t think you can go wrong, but it’s definitely not going to be all like sunshine and rainbows as they, as they say. So I would definitely figure out your why before you go into it. I mean, like, we’ve talked about the why, and I mean, when you go into a short race, that’s also really important.

[00:51:36] Cause like when you’re red lining and you’re neck to neck with two other people, the person with the stronger wise, probably going to have the. The kick at the end, you know, instead of just like caving to the burn, but like, likewise, having that Y while you’re out and ultra is, what’ll keep you moving at, you know, maybe like three and a half miles an hour instead of three miles per hour, kind of like that little lecture of behind it.

[00:51:57] So as far as a tactic goes, like, sit, like some sort of preparation goes, I mean, That’s going to be so, so unbelievably different for, for everybody. I don’t even really know where to point somebody other than to just like, see where your, your mind is. you know, maybe if the ma if it calls to you and you you’re, you meditate at this point in time and you’re into physical discipline.

[00:52:19] Rich Ryan: [00:52:19] I don’t see how you couldn’t like

[00:52:21] Josh Ried: [00:52:21] the. The places you go in an ultra, cause it’s a, it is a hard and moving

[00:52:25] Rich Ryan: [00:52:25] meditation. That’s a good point. And, when I did my longer runs and races, I had way more fun. I just was like much more loose, you know, and was just like, you know, this isn’t as big of a deal just out here and join and having a good time.

[00:52:41] And then when, and, but it did kind of turn. Kind of turns crooked. Sometimes it comes back up and move moves in and out of being fun and being terrible. but you’re right about like the difference in the, in the, in the races, like I would say like the, the kind of quit that comes is different. Like you can quit in a shorter race and still finish and kind of just like points your fitness and be like, Oh, I just wasn’t as fit as that person when I was redlining.

[00:53:04] Like he read line later when maybe that person just didn’t quit. Didn’t succumb to that. And you kind of did. Well, you still finish your time. Could probably still been good. You probably could still leave and be like, Oh, I’m proud of that effort. But like to quit in an ultra, you are probably going to stop.

[00:53:19] You’re probably going to walk off the course, right? Like it’s a longer slower burn to just like, continue to just move at this slow pace and something that you can do. But it’s just this thing in the back of your head is like, do I really want to keep doing this? Like, can I just stop here? And you’re given that option, especially in the 24 hour race, like.

[00:53:38] Like most people do. Like a lot of people don’t finish those races. so does that

[00:53:43] Josh Ried: [00:53:43] like, yeah, that’s a good differentiation.

[00:53:46] Rich Ryan: [00:53:46] Yeah. And like, when, like, do you have like a mantra or anything you use for those or how, when it’s, when you’re out there for so long and it does come to those, those moments where it’s just like, dude, fuck this.

[00:53:58] Like, what do you, where do you go,

[00:54:00] Josh Ried: [00:54:00] dude? That’s. That bring back some funny memories. Cause the mantra is, is different. There there’s one that’s pretty repetitive that comes back. And then there are others that just like come in and out and maybe you can call them mantras. Or maybe they’re just like funny sayings or weird sayings that come in.

[00:54:16] I happen to do the job on that particular day, but I remember my first ultra man, it was a New Jersey in 2017. like Josh Fjord. It was awesome. It was an awesome race. That was New Jersey yet. And going down, I was like trying to get into Headspace. I was putting on motivational music, you know, trying to listen to all the right stuff, like going through quotes in my head.

[00:54:37] Like I, I prepped, I put too big of a deal. I think. On trying to find something external to boost me

[00:54:44] Rich Ryan: [00:54:44] trying to will it.

[00:54:45] Josh Ried: [00:54:45] Yeah. Yeah. And my girlfriend sent me this video, this ridiculous video of this guy. You look it up on YouTube. It’s dumb, but it’ll probably stick in your head. So I’m sorry, not sorry. and it’s about Stonehenge.

[00:54:59] This guy’s like who builds a Stonehedge and there’s a song about it. And I was like annoyed by it. Cause I’m like, I’m trying to get in a good head space and do like when, when shit hit the fan with like an hour and a half left and the ultra, I was on a climb, a brutal, steep climb, power hike, and just having a shitty time.

[00:55:18] And that came into my head like, Oh, Part of the song, the chorus came into my head and I just started laughing and it made me feel so good. And like, that was exactly what I needed when I thought that I was just trying, I wanted to get out of my head before that. But up to that, like at that point I was like, that’s absolutely perfect.

[00:55:34] Rich Ryan: [00:55:34] So just being able to like relax a little bit, just taking the stress off as, you know, like a smiling, someone just being able to just keep doing it for the enjoyment instead of just like. Cause, yeah, you can easily circle the toilet and something like that, where it’s like, Oh, I’m the worst. Like, I’m such a pussy.

[00:55:50] Like, come on, man. Like stay up, but what are you doing? but if you’re just like laughing about it and then out there enjoying it, having fun. Really takes that kind of edge off

[00:56:01] Josh Ried: [00:56:01] on having fun, definitely helps know the other people that take things super seriously and like that’s their dry, like the, the Dave Goggins type, like curse everything and like, ah, I’m not weak kind of thing.

[00:56:11] I mean, I follow value or other people would like though the most consistent thing I think that helps me is if I’m having a shitty time, just remember how much of a blessing it is and like how amazing it is to be able to move my feet underneath me and like how privileged. I am and how the experience is fleeting.

[00:56:26] Like good experiences and bad experiences are fleeting. So just take it for what it is and experience it.

[00:56:34] Rich Ryan: [00:56:34] Yeah, that’s that’s and that’s an important thing to note as well. It’s just making, is, is it is fleeting, is it it’s going to pass? And even in terms of 24 hour race, it’s a ridiculously long race, but 24 hours in, in the scheme of things for your life is miniscule.

[00:56:49] It’s nothing. And I remind myself of that when doing like marathons, like, okay, this race is going to be less than three hours. This is going to suck the life. I have a whole lot of day left. I can do a bunch of stuff after this,

[00:57:03] Josh Ried: [00:57:03] even, even when we did our last race, like when, the doll, you and I were doing the stadium race.

[00:57:08] I, what was that in Pennsylvania? Yeah, I think that was Pittsburgh or something. Anyways, we were, you know, that’s a short race. It’s super

[00:57:18] Rich Ryan: [00:57:18] and broad.

[00:57:21] Josh Ried: [00:57:21] Oh, down there when we did the stadium race down in, I think Pennsylvania in Pennsylvania, it was

[00:57:25] Rich Ryan: [00:57:25] like,

[00:57:26] Josh Ried: [00:57:26] you were right behind him. Yeah. Yeah. It was like, Vidala you and I, and I was just trying to keep up with you guys.

[00:57:32] And even though everybody was super short, what was that like? 25 minutes. Yeah like that. Right. That was super duper short. And even still, I wanted it just burned so bad. I wanted to stop. I’m like, it’s going to be over soon. Like don’t, don’t try to escape it now. It’ll be done when it’s done. Like it’s still there even with the shorter races, but yeah, don’t try to, don’t try to get out of the experience, signed up for a reason, stick to it.

[00:57:55] Rich Ryan: [00:57:55] And it’s for a race like that. You only have really one time for you to either. Push through or to slow down. Like that moment comes and you have to be ready for it because when it shows up, you’ve got to be ready to go. And because in a race like that, it’s, if you back off, like, that’s the race, like you screwed, you screwed it up.

[00:58:12] You could still get some back, but you still succumb like succumbed to that overbearing fatigue for a little bit. And that’s really the opposite of what we want to do. We’re in a longer race, it’s going to happen. Like. It could potentially happen over and over, you know, it could be like, here it comes or it’s here again.

[00:58:29] Fuck. Like, I got to keep pushing like w like I got to keep summoning this. I got to smile. I got to remember like the song or whatever. I got to keep, keep my wine in place

[00:58:39] Josh Ried: [00:58:39] the song. Yeah. Oh my God. I’ll tell you what no, what they need to have at some of these races, they need more bagpipes at world’s toughest, Mudder.

[00:58:45] They had bagpipes that played like right before sunrise. Dude. I was so emotional.

[00:58:50] Rich Ryan: [00:58:50] Oh my God. That’s awesome.

[00:58:52] Josh Ried: [00:58:52] I’ve been running for 16 hours or something, 18 hours. And also like the bagpipes cobalt. It’s just like the mist on the field. Oh, that’s exactly what I needed, man. Like it’s so

[00:59:03] Rich Ryan: [00:59:03] are you thinking about the time, like how much time you’re out there?

[00:59:07] I mean, like I said, I’ve only done a 50 K and I. I think I didn’t, I didn’t think about it as much as I thought it was going to, I thought it was going to be like looking at the miles and be like, okay, when it’s over, like I’m going to start ticking them off. It’s going to be in my head like, Oh crap, I got six more miles or whatever.

[00:59:21]were you thinking about time in the 24 hour race where like, Oh my God, it’s I have 10 hours left or was it just like one step at a time?

[00:59:30] Josh Ried: [00:59:30] I, I have this weird mentality with pretty much every race I’ve ever done. And even like with jobs and stuff, Light like a contractor jobs, whatever. Like when I’m a third of the way through the job or the race in my head, I’m more than halfway done.

[00:59:44] Like, I’ll be doing an alternate, I’ll hit mile 10 and be like, I’m more than halfway there. So yeah. I don’t know. It’s some strange coping mechanism that happens to work really well, but at an event like world’s toughest, it honestly was just. It was a lot of fun. It was a really sweet event. And although there were points in time where I was looking forward to morning, I also, a part of me is wanting it to keep going.

[01:00:05] Cause I want multiple, I wanted to get more miles. Like I want to hit a hundred miles. I need more time.

[01:00:09] Rich Ryan: [01:00:09] Yeah. Yeah. That’s cool. And there is that point of kind of no return, I guess I’ll call it when, if something’s going well for me, I know that I’ve already got it in the bag and maybe it’s not a third.

[01:00:22] Maybe it’s over half. Maybe it’s two thirds. I’m like, I’m already here. My fitness is already at a point where I know that I can keep going. Now it’s just like mental. And if like, I can keep it together for this last third of this race, like I know I can physically do it. And just mentally, just knowing that I’m already at that like point for you, it sounds like it’s one third, which is great.

[01:00:41] But like, I think for me it’s more like half her or, two thirds where it’s like, it’s going well. So I’m here. So there’s no reason for it to not to continue to go. Well, like if

[01:00:49] Josh Ried: [01:00:49] I’m ready for the ultra.

[01:00:54]Rich Ryan: [01:00:54] I don’t know, the ultra is different. I didn’t like I only, I only have one shot at it, so it wasn’t about like doing it well, and it didn’t race it very well.

[01:01:00]so I, I can’t really, say about that, but that’s more for shorter races and for, my harder workouts, I do that a lot. It’s like, okay, I’m already here. Like I got this, like, this is just going. If I, if I screw up this workout, it’s going to be my own fault at this point. Like, whereas if you screw up early, like it could just be you, your fitness is not there.

[01:01:19] Or the workout was miswritten or you did just kind of give up early. But I think it’s like two thirds of workout. Like I know I got it. Or a hard racer or any race. It’s like just holding it together, mentally that last third, for the ultra, I think it was just, I was just waiting for things to go wrong.

[01:01:35] I was just waiting for the, the, the, like that pain to come in and just that wanting this to quit. And it didn’t really, and that race was stupid. It was just so muddy and ridiculous that like, I want it to be done. Cause it just wasn’t fun anymore. It just like wasn’t I wasn’t really moving. Like I had to go so slow.

[01:01:53] I was just falling down all the time. I was like, this is just stupid. Like, I don’t like that. I’m not having fun. I didn’t like it, but like, there’s really not that much running. And you know, I like running.

[01:02:05] Josh Ried: [01:02:05] I just do like running. You just wanted to run.

[01:02:08] Rich Ryan: [01:02:08] I just wanted to

[01:02:08] run

[01:02:08] Josh Ried: [01:02:08] in the mud. Just boy, walk and run.

[01:02:10] Do you feel though, now that you did that, that other races are like the prospect of another race? Almost like anything seems

[01:02:17] Rich Ryan: [01:02:17] better than, than the ultra? Yeah, not necessarily like saying like, Oh, that, that was. Like I’d rather do any other race than that. Well,

[01:02:27] Josh Ried: [01:02:27] I guess more along the lines of like, sometimes we do things and that scolding about like ultra is, are like really hard, really hard things.

[01:02:34] Is it kinda changes the bar and everything it’s like better and easier after.

[01:02:40]Rich Ryan: [01:02:40] not really, because like I said, it didn’t really, I’m sure it would have, if it was, if I did just to handle the conditions better. because it just kind of left it feeling kind of like robbed of it a little bit, just being like, I just.

[01:02:50] I don’t me. I either don’t have the right gear or didn’t have the right approach. I wasn’t ready for this mud. I just like,

[01:02:54] Josh Ried: [01:02:54] well, I’ll tell you what’s on. I think that because I still have to qualify for the world champion.

[01:03:00] Rich Ryan: [01:03:00] There’s not going to be any racist,

[01:03:03] Josh Ried: [01:03:03] odd their role right now. I think it’s where the where’s Fayetteville

[01:03:07] Rich Ryan: [01:03:07] is that

[01:03:07] Josh Ried: [01:03:07] Carolina brand.

[01:03:08] How is that? There’s there. There’s gonna, there’s gotta be an ultra and we should go qualify together. That’s what we should do.

[01:03:16] Rich Ryan: [01:03:16] They, all the research cancel canceled till like September. I don’t think there’s an ultra until Killington.

[01:03:24] Josh Ried: [01:03:24] I think they’re all kids. You imagine if I had to do the Killington ultra to qualify for the world, ultra

[01:03:32] Rich Ryan: [01:03:32] good luck.

[01:03:33] Josh Ried: [01:03:33] I,

[01:03:34] Rich Ryan: [01:03:34] I wouldn’t do that. I’d imagine there’s going to be some sort of writing process if they still have

[01:03:39] Josh Ried: [01:03:39] it, that would be awesome. And cause I’ll tell you what some of the races, I like their format, how they say, Hey, we have a hundred slots for this race or send in your, you have to send it to like a qualifying feat with the application, like culture or something you did recently.

[01:03:54] You aren’t gonna die out there. Right?

[01:03:59] Rich Ryan: [01:03:59] I would imagine that’s what it’s going to be. If anything, if they, if they do have it. but that might be like the only chance, like, like I said, to have a championship event, that might be it. So yeah. We’re hoping,

[01:04:10] Josh Ried: [01:04:10] do you have any athletes that are planning on doing the ultra world championship?

[01:04:14] Did you say

[01:04:15] Rich Ryan: [01:04:15] a couple? And, but we’re just trying to figure out, we’re trying to figure out the same thing. It’s like, what’s going to happen with the, qualifying process. Like, is this all going to be the same? Is it gonna be competitive? Like what does that really gonna look like? Cause some of them are first timers.

[01:04:27] Like they want to do it and that could be their first time doing any, any ultra in. And Spartan in general. So it’s like,

[01:04:33] Josh Ried: [01:04:33] Holy cow,

[01:04:35] Rich Ryan: [01:04:35] we got to figure out how to get this, how to get this training in at the same time as getting you into the race. And what is that going to look like? And we just don’t know. So, It’s kind of a shitty spot now,

[01:04:44] Josh Ried: [01:04:44] but I like their intentions there.

[01:04:45] So kudos.

[01:04:47] Rich Ryan: [01:04:47] Totally, totally, totally. yeah, be fun. I’ll probably, I’ll try. I’ll try to go up, but I don’t know. I don’t know, run something like that.

[01:04:56] Josh Ried: [01:04:56] I think they’re doing a super on the day of the ultra world championship. Oh, really? Going to do a super

[01:05:03] Rich Ryan: [01:05:03] nice I’ve actually never done Killington,

[01:05:06] Josh Ried: [01:05:06] through the last year.

[01:05:07] For the first time. Cause I wanted to do the year before, but like that’s people talk about it for a reason. It’s pretty, it’s pretty freaking

[01:05:12] Rich Ryan: [01:05:12] Epic. Yeah. I would like to go check it out. and same, same with Stratton. That’d be fun to

[01:05:18] Josh Ried: [01:05:18] Stratton again. I think you really like Stratton cause it’s a really similar layout, to Tahoe as far as like large climb to set.

[01:05:26] Smaller climb descent.

[01:05:27] Rich Ryan: [01:05:27] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, we’ll see. W what do you got going on this week, dude,

[01:05:32] Josh Ried: [01:05:32] man, this week has been busy. I’m still working on that, Berry garden out there. That’s coming to fruition pretty well. And I’m going to go, I got some other work to do, but I’m going to hop up to the Adirondacks and do some scouting on some trails up there.

[01:05:45] Stay tuned.

[01:05:46] Rich Ryan: [01:05:46] Let’s go. We got in mind.

[01:05:49] Josh Ried: [01:05:49] I I’m going to go. So I’m hop up there on Saturday. I’m going to meet my boy. Frankie, Frankie,

[01:05:55] Rich Ryan: [01:05:55] Frankie, Shasta, Frankie,

[01:05:57] Josh Ried: [01:05:57] Frankie, and a boy. Steve, who is a crazy athlete. And we’re trying to coax him into coming into OCR. I mean, he’s yeah, he’s a, he’s a monster. He’s a strong, he’s a very strong, road runner and mountain runner alike.

[01:06:10] So if you just worked on his grip strength, he’ll be a pretty damn good competitor. Anyways, we’re going to go up to a, to the Dax. Just some climb, scout out something that’s like just right now, 20 miles, several thousand feet of gain. And then we’ll go for like a nice bike ride. Cause there’s wide shoulders out there.

[01:06:24] Rolling Hills. Hell yeah,

[01:06:26] Rich Ryan: [01:06:26] that sounds awesome, man. It’s going to be great. It sounds fun. Did I was on the FKC website? just cause I was looking at it and I pulled up the devil’s path. Your name’s up there. It’s already. I was already up there.

[01:06:36] Josh Ried: [01:06:36] Peter Balkans. The man he’s a, yeah, he’s on top stuff. You send something in and out of like that evening or the next day.

[01:06:42] He’s got stuff off. He’s gotta be so busy right now. I mean, cause MKTs are just going through the roof. They’re so popular. People are so freaking hungry. They’re just itching to run hard and compete. So lots of MKTs are going in.

[01:06:53] Rich Ryan: [01:06:53] I started, I looked at the ones, I was like, Oh, cause it has like a map, right?

[01:06:56] So you can kind of zoom in and see what’s already been established and there’s one. Here in Philadelphia at the Wissahickon state park is, like our trail system. And then there’s one, it’s called four points. So it’s like you touch, touch all the points of these trails, like 21 miles and change. elevation.

[01:07:11] Wasn’t crazy. Maybe 3000, 2000. Maybe it’s not, I mean, it’s not a mountain. It’s just up and downs, right. For 21, 21 miles.

[01:07:19] Josh Ried: [01:07:19] You’re going to do what you say and you’re going to do it. Is that what I hear it?

[01:07:21] Rich Ryan: [01:07:21] I was like, cause the time, the time was like, all right, it was like, yeah. Three and a half hours, 21 miles or something like that.

[01:07:28] Like the trails are runnable enough. They’re not that nasty. Like you can get out there and go three hours in the course of my day, I’ll go to brunch after I was thinking about it. But like,

[01:07:43] Josh Ried: [01:07:43] you got to go do it

[01:07:44] Rich Ryan: [01:07:44] right straight up. Cause I’m like, I’m to, I need to go scout. Like I need to figure out what’s what, like you were saying, the last episodes, like, Oh, there’s things there’s like turns or make a break and.

[01:07:54] I don’t really know the chills that well, like I’ll go and just goof around, but I’m not really paying attention. They’re not that big that I can like get lost for forever and like die. Like I’ll always find like a main road, cause it’s still in the city. Like I can just find myself somewhere. I’m like, Oh, I kind of know where I am.

[01:08:06]So, I don’t really know the trails that well, so I’m going to have to go scout them a little bit, which I’m not that pumped about.

[01:08:11] Josh Ried: [01:08:11] Yeah. Scouting is great. If it’s like super competitive and it’s kind of crazy, but you can go, I think in the rock climbing world, they call it flashing where you just show up and do it.

[01:08:19] You’ve never seen anyone climate. You’ve never

[01:08:21] Rich Ryan: [01:08:21] seen that.

[01:08:22] Josh Ried: [01:08:22] You just flash it, dude.

[01:08:23] Rich Ryan: [01:08:23] It was just am trying to flesh it.

[01:08:24] Josh Ried: [01:08:24] Yeah. If you flash out, give you mad props. Good style. That’d be

[01:08:27] Rich Ryan: [01:08:27] sweet. Cause yeah, I just don’t. I just don’t know what the terms would be. I’ve got to like study the map and like, I don’t know how well it’s marked.

[01:08:34] I was like, remember this stuff,

[01:08:36] Josh Ried: [01:08:36] dude. You know how, so you could download maps for your watch and your phone and stuff and kind of follow it. Right. They got like a compass or

[01:08:44] Rich Ryan: [01:08:44] something on your watch. Like you had the,

[01:08:47] Josh Ried: [01:08:47] I didn’t have no, the only time I’ve ever used that was when I was bushwhacking. And it was just, Hey, awesome.

[01:08:54] Thank God you have it, man. Cause literally you go 20 feet and it’s so hard to spot a point. Cause you’re like, look at a point and be like, I’m going to go there. And then after knocking branched out of the way and trying to watch your step, you lose your point and then you’re 180 degrees turned around.

[01:09:08] So it’s just it’s. Yeah. socks, socks, and spend a lot. It takes like five hours to go a couple miles. And it, but what I was going to say is like, they have those Google glasses and stuff. I’m telling you in the future, we’re just going to have like maps in front of us. And it’ll be like a video game where like it’ll, it’ll flash in front of us and be like,

[01:09:24] Rich Ryan: [01:09:24] right.

[01:09:25] Turn. Yeah, totally. Totally. That’d be great. It’d be great for . We’ll be in trouble then. do you watch black mirror? Have you seen black mirror?

[01:09:33] Josh Ried: [01:09:33] I don’t do black mirror anymore. I, after I watched the episode, heavy metal with like the dogs.

[01:09:42] Rich Ryan: [01:09:42] Oh, thanks. No, thanks. I Oh yeah. Like that’s one of the more recent seasons anyway. I don’t think, I think there’s only a couple of more episodes that you haven’t seen, but yeah, man, when I, when I see like what the, what is it? the it’s called Boston something. the one that the group that are making these robots that are similar to that, they actually have things that look like that that will kind of move the same exact way and like jump side to side and be up and down.

[01:10:05] Josh Ried: [01:10:05] Dynamics are

[01:10:06] Rich Ryan: [01:10:06] also dynamics. That’s what it is. Yeah. Like they, they. Or making those things do that episode was terrifying.

[01:10:13] Josh Ried: [01:10:13] Terrifying. Yeah. The one I like the soul with the Boston dynamics, they show videos where they’re like kicking these things and they’re like amazing. And they’re balanced. And yeah, they made one do a back backflip.

[01:10:23] I was so happy and relieved to hear that. Although it’s just like a matter of time before they actually can do this, but there was a video that was totally fabricated robot holding a pistol and it’s shooting targets with perfect accuracy as it’s getting hit with like a baseball bat.

[01:10:40] Rich Ryan: [01:10:40] And it was, it was fake, but.

[01:10:44] It won’t be fake for long

[01:10:46] Josh Ried: [01:10:46] said it was fake. So I trust him,

[01:10:47] Rich Ryan: [01:10:47] you know, whatever he says do, sometimes people I’ll talk to people who I just met and they start saying things that I know they heard on Joe Rogan’s podcast. And they don’t say that they heard it on Joe Rogan’s podcast. They’re just trying to like, talk about that.

[01:10:59] They’re smart. It’s like, if you hear anything, if you hear anything or even on this podcast, say it’s from a podcast because. You should probably fact check no matter what, but especially if it’s on a podcast like that and they’re just talking and bullshit and it’s like, Oh yeah, I heard this and that.

[01:11:12] It’s like, where did you read it somewhere? You didn’t don’t

[01:11:16] Josh Ried: [01:11:16] don’t, it’s like, it’s like telling someone to study about like, about mitochondria and then following it up with, and this was from the university and in 2007 from this doctor, It’s like, let’s give it a little bit

[01:11:28] Rich Ryan: [01:11:28] packing. Like, where’d you get that from?

[01:11:29] Did you hear it from a friend of a friend who, who, who heard it on Joe Rogan or something like that? Definitely true disaster. And it’s a disaster. well, any everything and all things we say are facts. no need to check on us, just go out and do everything we say, because

[01:11:45] Josh Ried: [01:11:45] for sure, although you’re curious about stuff, you should always message us,

[01:11:49] Rich Ryan: [01:11:49] message us just work.

[01:11:50] They find

[01:11:50] Josh Ried: [01:11:50] you. Odd J a underscore S H U a underscore R I E D on the Insta. Haven’t been too active on it lately, but I still answer messages.

[01:12:01] Rich Ryan: [01:12:01] He’s still on it still. They’re creeping he’s there. I’m cruising then. Same, same, same, same on, on Instagram reinforce, underscore running underscore rich, hit me up.

[01:12:12] Let us know burning questions. If you have any follow up for these type of things, we will be happy to answer your questions.

[01:12:18] Josh Ried: [01:12:18] Yeah, I like talking and you couldn’t tell from this podcast, just talk.

[01:12:23] Rich Ryan: [01:12:23] And

[01:12:23] Josh Ried: [01:12:23] if anyone’s looking to do a, you know, an event coming up in September, which is what we are looking at, perhaps happening, especially the ultra it’s the perfect amount of time to start getting on a good schedule, start getting some good programming going in with ya.

[01:12:37] So. Hit us up for that.

[01:12:39] Rich Ryan: [01:12:39] Let us know we can help you structure that. very cool, man. All right. Well, thanks for coming on. Thanks for joining us peoples we’ll talk to you today

[01:12:45] Josh Ried: [01:12:45] and people you’re, the people appreciate you.