Running Lean with Patrick McGilvray
You’ve crossed the finish line, achieved something incredible, and then… it’s just over. Now what? This week on the Running Lean podcast, I’m diving deep into The In-Between: What Happens After …
Continue Reading about 304. The In-Between: What Happens After Your Big Race →
My name is Patrick McGilvray, and I’m an experienced marathoner, ultra runner sports nutritionist, master life coach, and weight loss coach. For runners, I’ve dedicated my life to helping runners just like you, properly fuel your body and your mind so you can get leaner, get stronger, run faster, and run longer than you ever thought. Possible. This is running Lean.
Hey there, and welcome to episode 304 of Running Lean. My name is Patrick McGill. Ray, the weight loss coach for runners. And today, the in-between. What happens after your big race? So you’ve crossed the finish line, you’ve achieved something incredible, and then it’s just over. Now what? Well, today I’m diving deep.
Into the in-between. What happens after you complete your big race? This is a space that few runners really talk about, that strange quiet period after your big event. When the structure disappears, the endorphins fade and your left feeling a little lost. I’m gonna walk you through what’s really happening mentally, emotionally, and physically.
During this time and how to handle it like an athlete with wisdom, with care, and long-term perspective, you’ll learn how to recover the right way, how to rebuild your mindset and reignite your purpose so you stay consistent and strong between seasons. ’cause running isn’t just about one race, it’s about who you become for life.
But first, if you’ve been feeling stuck lately, like running just isn’t clicking the way it used to rest assured you’re not alone. Maybe your energy feels low, your pace isn’t improving, or you just can’t seem to find that spark again. I get it and I can help. What most runners don’t realize is that running stronger, feeling lighter and performing your best isn’t about doing more.
It’s about doing the right things, the right nutrition, the right strength training, the right mindset, and that’s exactly what I teach inside my coaching program. It is a comprehensive, personalized approach that helps you transform your body and your mind, so running feels easier, more powerful. And more fun.
Again, you’ll rebuild your confidence, renew your energy, and start seeing results you didn’t think were possible. So if you’re ready to take your running and your life to the next level, go to running lean coaching.com. Click on work with me. Let’s get you running. Lean for Life. Okay, so let’s talk about the in-between.
What happens after your big race? So today’s topic is about something that almost every runner experiences, but a lot of people just don’t talk about it. It’s that strange, quiet sort of emotional space that happens after you finish a big event like a marathon or ultra marathon. Or maybe you just ran your first half marathon and suddenly you feel like you just.
Don’t know what to do next. You’ve spent months, maybe even years, training for this one thing. You’ve structured your entire life around it. Every run, every meal, every weekend long run, every early morning, wake up in the rain and the snow in the wind. Then you cross the finish line, you feel the joy, the pride, the relief, the pain, all of it.
And then it’s just over. And you wake up the next day and you’re like, okay, now what? So I want to talk about what happens in that place that’s. Base between mentally, emotionally, and physically, and you gotta learn how to navigate this with some grace and with some purpose. And this in-between time can be really hard, but it can also be beautiful.
You might feel lost, you might feel unmotivated, you might even feel a little depressed. But I want you to understand that this is normal and it’s necessary, and if you handle it right, if you can actually. Set yourself up for greater success in your next chapter, whatever that looks like for you. So I’m gonna walk through what’s really happening in your mind and in your body after a big race.
How to care for yourself physically and emotionally. How to get moving again, and how to set new goals for the future, all without losing your sense of direction or purpose. Because we’re not just doing this for one race, we do this for life. So let’s start with the emotional side of this, because that’s where most people feel this first.
So you’ve just come off of months of structure and focus and intensity, and you had a clear goal, a plan to follow, a purpose driving you every single day, and now it’s all gone. What most runners don’t realize is this, this creates. A very real emotional and chemical shift in your body and in your brain.
When you’re training, your brain is constant re constantly releasing feel good chemicals like dopamine, endorphin, serotonin. And every time you check off a workout or nail some long run, your brain gives you a hit of that reward system so you feel accomplished. You feel like you’re moving forward, and then suddenly.
You’re not chasing anything anymore. There’s no countdown. There’s no race on the calendar, no Saturday long run to prepare for, and your body’s not producing those same chemicals at the same level, and that’s why you can feel flat and unmotivated or even sad, even though you just achieve something amazing.
It’s a little like withdrawal. And if you’re not expecting it, it can kind of throw you off and you might start questioning yourself, like, why do I feel this way? Shouldn’t I be happy I just accomplished this major thing? How come I feel so depressed? But listen, there’s nothing wrong with you. It’s just a natural swing from a high intensity season back to a resting one.
And it’s the pen pendulum swinging back to the center. So one of my biggest emotional crashes came after I finished the Iron Man, uh, in Louisville in 2013. I had trained for more than a year for this event. And when I crossed that finish line, it was one of the most amazing moments of my life when I crossed the finish line and I heard the announcer say, Patrick McGill, you are an Ironman.
Every time I say that, I get chills. Like I got goosebumps right now. Definitely one of my most amazing moments, probably the proudest moment of my life up to that point anyway. And. I was reeling, you know, for a week or so afterwards, but the depression and the sadness kinda kicked in and I felt like I didn’t have any purpose anymore.
Like my sole purpose for more than a year had been, you know, preparing to cross that finish line. And then I did it and it was done, and I felt like I, I should have been so happy, but I wasn’t, I felt like. Something was wrong with me. So first and foremost, you gotta give yourself permission to feel all of this, right?
You don’t have to rush out of it. You don’t have to fix it. There’s nothing to fix. Just let yourself feel it and then let yourself sort of come down from that. Okay? Now let’s talk about the physical side, because this part is just as important and just as misunderstood. So most runners underestimate how much recovery they truly need after a big race.
Even if you’re feeling okay a few days later, your legs aren’t as sore. You can walk normally again, you can go downstairs without wincing, your body’s still dealing with. Massive stress. Your muscles have micro damage. Your glycogen stores are depleted. Your hormones and your immune system are out of balance.
Just because your mind wants to run again doesn’t mean your body is ready for it. And this is where a lot of runners get into trouble. They start running again too soon. They do too much too soon. They want to, they wanna get back on track. They want to get. That physical feeling again, of running, and they wanna fill that emotional void too with more training.
But if you push your body before it’s ready, you risk injury burnout and prolonged fatigue. So there’s a better approach. I’m gonna call the smart recovery timeline. So this is where the, for the first, you know, one to two weeks after a big event. Don’t do much running. Really, this is the time just to rest, sleep, recover and reflect.
Do some walking, some stretching, some yoga. If it feels good, maybe a short bike ride. I think walking is one of the best things you can do, but keep everything. Easy and restorative. And then once you start getting into weeks like three and four, you can start adding in a few easy runs, but only if your body feels ready.
Keep the pace slow, the distance short. Focus on just getting out there and moving, even if you’re doing a run walk thing, not. You know, increasing the mileage too fast. And then week four and beyond, you can start to gradually rebuild your running routine. A few easy runs, maybe one day of light strength training.
Still no, you know, intense speed work or long runs. Let your body reestablish some balance before you start, you know, building again. Okay. The rule of thumb I always share is this, you can’t rush recovery, you can only support it. And after my a hundred miler that I did back in 2017, I was feeling so kind of lost and stuff.
So I signed up for a trail marathon that was just like two months later and I figured this would give me enough time to recover. And I went into that event thinking it was gonna be pretty easy ’cause it’s just a marathon. I thought to myself, you know, I just ran a hundred miles, so this marathon’s gonna be super easy, but I, my body was not ready to run that much.
Um, I did a few easy training runs and I felt okay, so I figured, oh, it’s fine. I’ll run a marathon. I had such a terrible time out there. It was really hard. Every step was challenging. My legs, uh, were definitely not ready for this, and I had to make the tough decision to cut it short. It was a looped course.
Each loop was like six and a half miles, so they had a, a 10 k, a half marathon and a full marathon. I ended up doing three loops and then called it quits. It was around 20 miles, but that’s all I could do. That’s all I had in me. At that point, I had to just listen to my body and say, you know, um, I, I can’t finish this, and I shouldn’t really, I didn’t wanna get injured.
Uh, you know, I didn’t want to just burn myself out. Um, so I had to like squash my pride a little bit and call it quits around the 20 mile mark. And I, and I feel like that was the right decision. So remember your body, you know, you just did something extraordinary, but it was very stressful. Um. Probably for, for some of us, you know, if, if you ran your fastest marathon or your first marathon or whatever, it’s, it’s probably the most demanding thing you’ve ever done.
And you’ve gotta give your body time and respect and care, um, just like you do in your training. You know, you respect your body and your, and your, um, and your physical state in your training. You gotta respect it in your recovery as well. So let’s shift gears a little bit. I wanna talk about something a little bit deeper.
Something that catches a lot of runners off guard, and this is the identity shift. So when you’re training for a big race, your identity gets wrapped up in that process. I’m a marathoner in training. I’m a. I’m an ultra marathoner in training. I’m an Ironman in training, and you’re, you’ve got this mission, you got a big goal.
You got this mission, your schedule, your nutrition, your mindset, everything orbits around that one big goal, and then suddenly that’s all gone, that identity. Disappears. Uh, you’re still a runner, of course. Um, but that structure, the drive, the sense of purpose is gone. It’s like you’ve lost your compass and it can feel really unsettling.
Some people start overcompensating by signing up for another race right away. Others just stop running altogether for a while either. Extreme kind of misses the point though. The truth is this, in-between time is a chance to reconnect with yourself, not as someone chasing a race, but someone who runs because you love it, because it’s part of who you are.
And this is your opportunity to remember why you started in the first place. Training for those big races for me. It took years of my life and, and during those years, my identity was all about being an Ironman or being that a hundred mile finisher. And after those events were over, I had to accept that.
Yes, that is a part of who I am, but I’m also so much more than that. I’m more than an ultra runner. I’m more than an Iron man. In fact, it was shortly after I did that Iron Man and I finished that, that I decided to quit my corporate job and start, uh, my own business. And I started coaching ’cause I wanted to share everything I learned about, um, running and identity and purpose and nutrition with other runners who might also need help navigating all that stuff.
So that was really. The thing that made me sort of shift my identity. Okay, so I want you to ask yourself, what do I love most about running when I’m not training for anything? Like what is it that’s really driving you and what else in my life lights me up that maybe got pushed aside during the training?
Who am I outside of this event or this particular finish time? This is the identity work that turns you from a. Seasonal athlete into a lifelong athlete because when you truly identify as an athlete, as someone who values health and strength and growth year round, then you don’t really lose that sense of direction or identity.
When one race ends, you just move into a different season with a different intention. Okay, so once the dust settles, once your body starts to heal and your emotions start to level out, this is the perfect time for a mental and emotional reboot. It’s not about setting the next big goal yet. It’s about reflection.
Learning and gratitude. Here’s a few things I recommend to every runner after a big race. Reflect on your race honestly. So what went well? What didn’t go so well? What’d you learn about yourself? What are you gonna do differently? Next time, write it all down while it’s still fresh. This kind of reflection gives you valuable insights that you can bring into your next training cycle.
So definitely do that reflection. That’s very, very important. Number two, celebrate. Celebrate your accomplishment. Do not skip this step. Most runners finish a race. Immediately think, okay, what’s next? But you just did something incredible. You earn that moment. So go out to dinner, eat some ice cream, frame your medal, share your story.
Take pride in that. Uh, number three, practice some gratitude. Thank your body for carrying you that far. Thank your mind for staying strong. Thank the people who supported you. Gratitude is very powerful. It helps you shift out of self-criticism and into appreciation for everything that you have. And then number four, check in on some other areas of your life when you’re training.
A lot of things can fall by the wayside, like relationships, hobbies. Even simple rest. Take time now to reconnect. Spend more time with family, with friends, do something non-running related. And this is all part of your emotional recovery plan. It’s how you refill your cup. It’s not just so you can go run again.
It’s about so you feel balanced and whole as a person, as a human being. So now you’re a few weeks out from your race, you’re starting to feel a little more like yourself again. You’ve rested, reflected, maybe you’ve gotten in a few easy runs. Now what? When should you start planning your next big thing?
Well, my honest answer is this. Just do it when you feel ready, emotionally, mentally, not just physically. If you’re still feeling kind of burnt out, mentally tired, or like you’re. Forcing yourself to care about things, you’re probably not ready yet. Give it some time. Most runners do best when they take two to four weeks off before making any big training decisions or any big race decisions during that time.
Keep moving. Keep journaling and start asking yourself some other questions like, what do I love most about, uh, training? What did I love most about my last training block? What kind of challenge lights me up? What excites me? Um, what did I miss out on that I want to experience next time? When you do feel ready to choose your next event, choose from a place of curiosity and desire, not like.
Fear or peer pressure. Don’t sign up for something just to fill the void, which is what a lot of people do. They come down off a race and they immediately sign up for something else. ’cause they wanna get that feeling back. Right? Choose something that feels meaningful for you, something that lights a spark in you.
And it doesn’t have to be another marathon. Maybe it’s a trail race. Maybe it’s a shorter distance with more focus and speed. Maybe it’s something totally different like. Just doing some strength training or cycling. The point is, your next goal should support your growth, not distract you from your emotions.
So after my Iron Man finish, I, I was like, you know what? I never want to do that again. I did not love the bike. I love running. I, I did grow to love swimming, but I never really liked cycling. Training for the Ironman requires a lot of time in the saddle. So I hung up my tri bike and I decided what I really loved and what I was really passionate about was trail running.
It’s simple, it’s primal, it’s freeing, you know, just get out there on the trails and run, and there are no bikes involved at all. So I signed up for a trail ultra marathon. I think it was a 50 K that next spring, and I set my sights on, on this new purpose and, and that decision felt really good to me. Okay, so let’s talk about what to do in the meantime, because this is where a lot of runners lose momentum.
So when you don’t have a race on the calendar, it’s easy to just drift, sort of, you know, it is like a ship on the ocean without a rudder. You’re just, you’re just out there. You have no purpose, no direction, and a lot of people lose consistency. Um, they start skipping workouts because they tell theirselves it really doesn’t matter right now, but this is actually one of the most important seasons of your entire athletic life.
The off season. That’s when you build a strong foundation. That’s when you maintain your fitness, uh, keep your habits solid, take care of your body, build strength. Here’s how to stay consistent between big goals. Number one, keep a simple running routine. You don’t have to train like a maniac. Just a couple easy runs per week is plenty.
Just enough to keep your aerobic base strong and your body in that rhythm of running. Number two, keep lifting. Strength training is the best off season invest investment you can make. I think you should be training all year round. Um, but the, the off season is definitely a time where you can spend more time, uh, building a, a solid strength foundation.
This is gonna keep you strong all year long, prevent injuries and make you faster when you do ramp up your training again. Uh, number three. Eat well. Don’t fall into the trap of reward eating after your race. Your body still needs real nutrient dense food to recover, and this is the perfect time to dial in your nutrition again and rebuild that metabolism.
Number four, prioritize sleep and recovery. You may not be training hard, but your body is still catching up from months of stress, sleep, rest, mobility, all that stuff still matters. And then number five, stay connected. Whether it’s to a coach or a running group or an online community. You don’t have to go it alone.
Stay connected, um, and it’ll help you to stay accountable and remind you why you love this sport so much. Because remember, we’re not doing this just for one race. We’re doing this for life. The most successful, resilient runners are the ones who learn to manage these in between seasons with patience and purpose.
They don’t chase the next high. They build consistency slowly and intentionally. So if any of this resonates with you, if you’re sitting in that in-between right now, if you’re feeling lost or unmotivated after your big event, please hear me when I say this. You’re not broken, you’re not lazy, you’re not done.
You’re just in a different phase of the process, and this phase is just as important as all the others. This is where you rebuild, reflect, and you remember. Who you are at your core, not just as a runner, but as a human being who’s learning, growing, and evolving through this sport that we love so much. The race isn’t the end, it’s just one chapter, okay?
The space between races, that quiet, uncertain, uncomfortable space, that’s where you truly become the athlete that you’re meant to be. So take care of yourself right now, physically, mentally, emotionally. Be patient with your body. Be kind to your mind. Celebrate what you’ve done and trust that when the time is right, that next goal will find you.
Right? ’cause you’re not training for just one season, you’re training for life. Alright, that’s all I got for you today. Love you all. Keep on running lean and I’ll talk to you soon.
Most people think they need to feel motivated in order to eat healthy, work out, or stick to their running schedule. But here’s the truth—motivation is fleeting. It might get you started, but it …
Continue Reading about 292. Why Discipline Will Always Beat Motivation →
My name is Patrick McGilvray, and I’m an experienced marathoner, ultra runner sports nutritionist, master life coach, and weight loss coach. For runners, I’ve dedicated my life to helping runners just like you, properly fuel your body and your mind so you can get leaner, get stronger, run faster, and run longer than you ever thought. Possible. This is running Lean.
Hey there and welcome to episode 292 of Running Lean. My name is Patrick McGilvray, the weight loss coach for runners. And today why discipline will always beat motivation, so most people think that they need to feel. Motivated in order to eat healthy, to work out, or to stick to their running schedule.
But here’s the truth, motivation is fleeting. It might get you started, but it won’t carry you through, especially on those tough days. What you really need is discip. So in this episode, I’m talking all about why discipline will always beat motivation. You’re gonna learn what each of these really means, how they apply to weight loss, and improving your health and fitness overall.
And how to stop relying on motivation and start building real lasting discipline instead. Also clear up some of the common myths around both motivation and discipline, and hopefully give you some practical tips that you can use right away to help you stay consistent even when you don’t feel like it.
So if you’ve been struggling to stick with Healthy Habits, this episode will help you shift your mindset and get results that last. But first, I know how hard it can be to stay consistent when you’re trying to lose weight, when you’re trying to get stronger, when you’re trying to become a better runner.
If you’re ready to stop relying on motivation. And start building real lasting discipline. Then I want to invite you to apply for coaching. In my coaching program, we don’t chase quick fixes or shirt, short bursts of inspiration. We build habits that last for life. You get the support, the structure, and the accountability that you need to hit your weight loss goals to help you get stronger and to help you become the healthiest version of yourself.
To learn more and apply, just head over to. Running Lean coaching.com. Click on work with me. Let’s get you where you want to be. Okay? Alright, let’s get into this. So a lot of people think that motivation and discipline are the same thing, but they’re really not. But. Motivation is a feeling. It’s something that you feel inside.
It’s, it’s an emotion, essentially. It’s that surge of energy that you get when you get excited about something. Like you, you’re excited about a new goal, or you’re inspired, uh, by something that you read, uh, on the internet or by a podcast that you listen to or by something you watch. Motivation is powerful, but it is just a, a feeling it’s fleeting and it fades pretty quickly, right?
So it comes and goes like all other feelings. Think about other emotions that you experience like a. You know, happiness or frustration or joy or excitement or, you know, uh, anger. All these things are temporary. They can be pretty powerful feelings, right? But they kind of come and go. Discipline, on the other hand, is more like a skill.
It’s your ability to do what needs to be done even when you don’t feel like it. That’s the important part. Because when it comes to motivation, having, you know that as a feeling and that’s something we have and we, we feel like doing something. When you’re motivated to go to the gym, it’s fine. You’re gonna go to the gym.
Discipline sort of kicks in when you don’t feel like doing something. So it’s your ability to do what you need to do when you don’t feel like it. So it’s like waking up early to go for that run. Even when it’s cold and rainy outside, it’s saying no to dessert even when everyone else is diving in.
Discipline is what you lean on when motivation disappears. So, let’s be honest, motivation, it’s, it’s a little overrated. I hear people talk all about, well, I need to be motivated. I need to be motivated, or I was so motivated and I’m not motivated anymore. Yeah, listen, it feels great when it’s there and it can give you a powerful push, especially in the beginning.
But the truth is you’re not going to feel motivated every single day. There will be days when you don’t feel like running. There’s gonna be days when you don’t feel like cooking a healthy meal. It would be so much easier to just order a pizza. There’s gonna be times where you would just wanna stay on the couch with a pint of Ben and Jerry’s or graders ice cream if you’re here in Cincinnati.
Best ice cream in the world, by the way. If motivation is the only thing you’re counting on to get you through those tough moments, then you’re gonna kind of fall short most of the time. Okay? You cannot rely on motivation to keep you going. You just can’t. Whereas discipline, it’s not with discipline.
You’re not relying on feelings. Discipline says, I don’t care if you’re tired. We’re doing this anyway. Discipline is consistent. It’s dependable. It’s built through action and repetition. Discipline is how you become the person that you want to be, essentially. When you look at people who’ve lost weight and kept it off, who’ve completely transformed their bodies, who run marathons or crush it in the gym every week, it’s not because they’re always motivated, it’s because they’ve trained themselves to be disciplined.
Okay, so this is the big takeaway I want you to understand here today, which is that motivation is fleeting. It’s kind of overrated. Um, there’s gonna be a lot of times where you don’t feel like doing the thing or not doing the. This is why discipline is everything. Discipline has to be in place. If you want to stay on track, if you want to get consistent with anything, if you wanna become that person that you ultimately wanna become, discipline is how you do it.
So there’s a couple of common myths or misconceptions around these, uh, ideas here. One of them is that really all you need is motivated, and I hear this from people. Like I said, people say, I just need to be motivated. ’cause if I’m not motivated and I’m not gonna do something, and that is just not true.
Motivation is great when it shows up, but it is not reliable. Discipline is reliable. Okay, so motivation is not all that you need. In fact, you really don’t need motivation. Um, you need discipline though. Okay, so that’s myth number one. That motivation is all you need. Myth number two. Is that some people are just more motivated than others?
Not. Not true either. Some people are just more disciplined. Okay. They’ve trained themselves to be more disciplined. They’ve trained themselves to show up for themselves when things get tough, they’ve trained themselves to continually do the hard thing when they didn’t feel like it. Um, a good example is, uh, going to the gym and a lot of people feel motivated at the beginning of the year, so tons of people join gyms in January, right?
I think we all know this. Uh, come February, March, the gyms are back to what I’d call normal Again. They’re back to not very busy because all those people lack motivation. They, they have not been training themselves to be disciplined. They just were motivated. It was a new year, you know, they’re, I should join a gym.
Yeah, let’s do it. And then they show up for a, a couple of weeks or a couple of months and then boom, they’re done. Because they haven’t been practicing discipline. There’s a couple days where they just didn’t feel like going to the gym, so they didn’t go. And then there was a couple more days and they didn’t go, and then they thought to themselves, well, why bother anyway, you know, I’ve missed all these other days.
And then they just stopped going altogether. That’s why gyms make a lot of money because there’s so many people that pay for the gym and never, ever go. If you’re one of those people, go, go to the gym. Okay. Uh, so that’s the second myth I wanted to kind of dispel, which is that some people are just more motivated than others.
And the third myth is that discipline means you have to be hard on yourself. So this is also false discipline isn’t punishment. I know the word discipline is synonymous. Punishment. Like if you’re going to discipline someone because they did something wrong, that is a form of punishment, but that’s not the kind of discipline we’re talking about here.
Okay? Discipline is a form of self-respect. It, it does not mean being hard on yourself. It’s doing what you know is best for you, even when you don’t feel like it, even when it’s uncomfortable. So discipline isn’t about beating yourself up, it’s not about punishing yourself. Um, it’s about showing up for yourself consistently, even when it’s hard, especially when it’s hard.
So motivation might get you started. It might get you to the gym that first time. Uh, motivation might get you out the door for a run once or twice, but discipline is what gets you to the finish line. You know, discipline is that thing that’s going to, um, keep you going and help you to stay consistent. You know, motivation might help you to sign up for that gym membership discipline is what’s going to get you there three times a week.
Motivation might help you start meal prepping every Sunday afternoon, but discipline’s, what’s gonna keep you doing it every single week, even when you don’t feel like it, even when it’s hard. Even when you got better things to do, then you know, cut up a bunch of vegetables and stick ’em in Tupperware. If you want real results.
If you want lasting change, you’ve got to train this discipline. Muscle. And that’s something else I wanted to make sure you understand is that you have discipline. You just haven’t trained yourself to do it. Um, we can all get strong, we can all improve our muscular strength. And you know what, how you do it, it requires going to the gym or, or whatever.
You don’t have to go to a gym, but it requires lifting heavy things, right? So if you wanna get stronger muscles, you need to train those muscles. If you want more discipline, you have to train that discipline muscle. So how do you do that? Like how do you train your discipline muscle? Well, first of all, I’m not saying that there’s anything wrong with motivation.
I’m not saying motivation is bad. Again, this can be a great Kickstarter. It’s like the fuel that gets the fire started. Um, and if you wanna keep motivation going, if you want to keep motivation alive, then there’s a few things that you can do. There’s a few tips I’m gonna give you to kind of stay motivated, um, and then I’ll give you some tips on how to become more disciplined.
So, how to stay more motivated. Um, first tip might be to set clear, meaningful, meaningful goals. Know your why. Like, why is this thing important to you? Why do you wanna lose weight? Why do you want to run that marathon? Know your why and keep those things front and center. This is like your North star. It keeps you moving in the direction of your goals.
It’s a constant reminder of why these things are so important to you. Most people don’t set clear meaningful goals. Most people go at things half-hearted, um, very vague. They say, I, I wanna join a gym so I can, you know, start lifting weights. Why? Why do you wanna join a gym? Why do you wanna lift weights?
What is that gonna do for you? Do you wanna build bigger muscles? Do you wanna improve your body composition? Do you wanna be able to lift 300 pounds? You know, do you wanna lose weight? Do you wanna, uh, just get stronger? Do you wanna stay injury-free? Why do you wanna lift weights? Why is this important to have clear, meaningful goals?
Another tip is to visualize your future self. Who do you wanna become? What does that version of you in the future look like? Because when you can see that clearly, when, when you can see who it is that you wanna become, it’s much easier to stay, uh, motivated and moving in that direction. It’s much easier to, for that motivation to kind of just linger and stay there.
That feeling of staying motivated. So when you think about your future self, that can be a good motivator for you. Okay? Another way to stay motivated is to celebrate the small wins. Progress equals motivation. You know, taking consistent, aligned action gets you results. Results keeps you motivated.
Celebrate the little victories. Don’t focus on where you’re not focus on, on, on the progress that you’ve made. And a lot of us do this. We like look at where we’re not, well I, I still need 40 pounds to lose. I’m still 40 pounds overweight. And that’s what they focus on where you’re not, instead of, Hey, I’ve already lost 15 pounds.
Hey, you know, I, I wanna be able to run a marathon and, you know, all I can do is run a a half marathon. I’ve never been able to run farther than that. Well, but you ran a half marathon, you know, and you’re consistently showing up and doing the work to progress. Okay? Celebrate the small wins. Focus on the, the wins, the progress that you’re making, the results that you’re seeing.
They’re little victories, but they add up. Another tip to stay motivated is to surround yourself with support, uh, coaching, community accountability. These are all huge motivators. This is one of the things that people say about my group coaching, uh, program. They love the, the group coaching calls because it helps them to not only stay accountable and to share wins and, and to learn some things and hear from others, but they feel like they’re, uh, surrounded with all of this, uh, support from like-minded people, and it helps ’em to stay motivated.
So when they attend the group coaching calls, they feel more motivated to keep going. Um, and ano. And another tip to stay motivated is to just keep learning. Read books, listen to podcasts, watch videos, keep feeding the fire. I always say total immersion. You know, surround yourself with support, you know, read books, listen to podcasts, watch shows, all these things that are going to help you to, um, you know, help immerse yourself in that world of health and fitness.
But again, all these things are great and these, these are things that will help you to stay motivated, which is great. But again, when the fire starts to burn low, when the motivation starts to lack discipline. Has to take over. Okay, so here’s the good stuff. How to become more disciplined. How do you actually build more discipline into your life?
You know, I said earlier, like, think of it like building muscle. It takes time, it takes consistency, and it takes repetition. You gotta get your reps in, you know, you can’t just expect to go to the gym one time and then expect to get bigger muscles or to get stronger. It doesn’t work that way. It takes time, it takes consistency.
So here’s how we become more disciplined. Number one, start small. Don’t try to overhaul your entire life overnight. Build one habit at a time. Go for a short walk each day. Cook one healthy meal today. How can you win the day? Start there and then tomorrow. Just show up and do the same thing. Win tomorrow.
That’s it. It doesn’t have to be anything huge and overwhelming. People think that they need to make these huge sweeping changes in order to become, you know, leaner, to become stronger, to become faster. You don’t, you need to make tiny changes. Consistently over time. Number two, create routines. So discipline, loves, structure.
Plan your workouts, prep your meals, set your bedtime, go to bed at the same time every night. Wake up at the same time every day. Be routine, you know, um, people are like, oh, I just wanna be spontaneous. Well, you can at times, but for the most part, you need to stay, you need to have some structure. One of the reasons that a lot of people, um, do well.
During the week, and they don’t do well on the weekend when it comes to like sticking with their food plan is because they have lots of structure and routine during the week. They go to work at certain times to gotta get the kids to school. Um, you know, certain bedtimes, uh, everything is pretty well structured, but on the weekends things fall apart because they lack that structure.
They lack the routine on the weekends. So my suggestion is always to create some structure around the weekends as well, right? Just because it’s Saturday doesn’t mean. You can’t have some structure, of course, you can have a little bit more flexibility, but maintain some level of structure even on the weekends.
So that come Monday, you haven’t, you know, undone everything that you, you did the first five days of the week there. Okay? Third tip to become more disciplined is to remove obstacles. So make it easier to do your thing. Maybe lay your clothes out the night before. If you need to go for a run in the morning, you know, get your clothes ready.
Uh. Uh, get your coffee made. If that’s something you do in the morning, um, set yourself up for success. Uh, make it easier to stay on track and to do the thing that you maybe don’t wanna do. Pre-cut your veggies. Um. For a while there I was making a big salad every night and I love making a big salad. I put like a, some grilled chicken on it or some salmon or something like that.
And what I would do is once a week I would buy all these veggies and I would cut ’em all up and put ’em into whatever Tupperware containers and, and then when I go to make my salad each night, I don’t have to like prep each individual vegetable or whatever. I just grab my four or five containers in. Just put the stuff on my salad.
It makes making a salad like literally two minutes and, and I’m done. So with just a little bit of prep work, uh, you can make things so much easier for yourself. Again, we’re removing obstacles. Don’t make it harder for yourself. Number four, and this is the big one. This is the do it anyway suggestion. Okay?
If you want to be more disciplined, you have to do it even when you don’t feel like it. That is the whole point here. You show up, you do your thing. When you do that consistently, you start to build trust with yourself. You start to build confidence in yourself, and then you are more likely to show up the next day and do it again.
This is the part that you have to do. It’s gonna be uncomfortable. I’m just gonna tell you right now, but you have to do this part. You gotta do it even when you don’t feel like it. That is the whole point of being disciplined, is showing up when you don’t feel like it. You can practice this every single day.
Just pick one thing you don’t feel like doing today and do it anyway. It can be something small, you know, I gotta pay the bills or I gotta cut the grass, or you know, I gotta, uh, you know, do homework with the kids or whatever. It’s, there’s something you really don’t feel like doing. Do kids still have homework?
I don’t know. My kids are kind of grown up, but I think kids still have homework. Do you help your kids with your homework? That used to be a thing. My parents would help me. It was always very frustrating. Um, but you gotta show up and do those things that you don’t feel like doing and saying this out loud.
I’m like, yeah, nobody wants to do homework with their kids. You know, we’ve all had a long day. The kids have been in school all day. You’ve been at work all day. The last thing you wanna do is sit down and like do a bunch of like math equations with your kid, especially when they do math. Like, totally different now than we used to do back in the day.
I don’t know. Sounds like it’s more complicated, but maybe it’s easier. I don’t know. I guess it’s on how you learn it, but these things are hard. We don’t feel like doing them, do them anyway. Set your alarm early, that alarm’s gonna go off. You’re not gonna feel like getting up, turn off the alarm. You gotta get the feet on the floor.
That’s step number one. If you can get the feet on the floor, you’re golden. I, years ago I tried to train myself to, um. Or I shouldn’t say try. I trained myself to get up earlier because I was sleeping till whenever I felt like it, and I was like, this is not working for me. Like, I need to start setting alarm and getting up, you know, whatever, 5 30, 6 o’clock every single day.
And I started, um, training myself by setting my alarm maybe 15 minutes earlier. And then as soon as the alarm went off, the rule was I just, I had to turn it off and my feet had to hit the floor. That was it. Once I’m sitting up in bed and the feet are on the ground, like. I’m good. I’m good. Um, so do it anyway.
You won’t feel like it do it anyway. This is the most important part of building discipline, and the last little tip here is just be kind to yourself. Discipline isn’t about disciplining yourself. It’s not about beating yourself up. It’s not also about being perfect. Nobody does this stuff perfectly.
Nobody’s completely, perfectly disciplined all the time. No matter what. You know, if you can hit about. 80, 90% of the time, that’s amazing, right? It’s not about being perfect. It’s not about never failing. It’s not about, you know, never having a bad day or, or missing a workout. It’s about showing up even when it’s hard, and then doing that consistently.
That’s it. So it’s not about perfection, it’s about consistency more than anything else. Okay? So don’t beat yourself up. Be kind to yourself, just like lifting weights. You gotta lift weights and it takes a long time and you’re not gonna do it sometimes, and you’re gonna have some progress, and then you’re gonna not have some progress or, or running faster.
It’s a good example because in order to run faster, you gotta practice running faster, but there’s gonna be some races where you don’t have it. And it doesn’t feel good and you, you don’t hit that PR and other times you crush it. Um, and so it’s a process of like continuing to show up for yourself even when it’s hard and you’re gonna fail sometimes.
And it’s okay. It’s all part of the process. It’s all part of the process. We have to fail in order to succeed. We fail our way to success. Okay, so the bottom line here is that motivation is what gets you started. Discipline is what keeps you going. If you rely on motivation, you are going to struggle to stay consistent.
But if you build discipline, you can crush any goal that you set for yourself, no matter how you feel. So don’t wait around to feel motivated. Train yourself to become disciplined. And if you do this, you’ll become unstoppable. And if you’re ready to stop relying on fleeting motivation and start building real lasting habits that lead to real lasting results, let’s work together.
Just go to my website, running lean coaching.com, click on work with me, and apply for coaching today. That’s all I got for you today. Love you all. Keep on running lean and I’ll talk to you soon.
My name is Patrick McGray, and I’m an experienced marathoner, ultra runner sports nutritionist, master life coach, and weight loss coach. For runners, I’ve dedicated my life to helping runners just like you, properly fuel your body and your mind so you can get leaner, get stronger, run faster, and run longer than you ever thought.
Possible. This is running Lean.
Hey there and welcome to episode 2 92 of Running Lean. My name is Patrick McGill. Ray, the weight loss coach for runners. And today why? Discipline will always beat motivation, so most people think that they need to feel. Motivated in order to eat healthy, to work out, or to stick to their running schedule.
But here’s the truth, motivation is fleeting. It might get you started, but it won’t carry you through, especially on those tough days. What you really need is discip. So in this episode, I’m talking all about why discipline will always beat motivation. You’re gonna learn what each of these really means, how they apply to weight loss, and improving your health and fitness overall.
And how to stop relying on motivation and start building real lasting discipline instead. Also clear up some of the common myths around both motivation and discipline, and hopefully give you some practical tips that you can use right away to help you stay consistent even when you don’t feel like it.
So if you’ve been struggling to stick with Healthy Habits, this episode will help you shift your mindset and get results that last. But first, I know how hard it can be to stay consistent when you’re trying to lose weight, when you’re trying to get stronger, when you’re trying to become a better runner.
If you’re ready to stop relying on motivation. And start building real lasting discipline. Then I want to invite you to apply for coaching. In my coaching program, we don’t chase quick fixes or shirt, short bursts of inspiration. We build habits that last for life. You get the support, the structure, and the accountability that you need to hit your weight loss goals to help you get stronger and to help you become the healthiest version of yourself.
To learn more and apply, just head over to. Running Lean coaching.com. Click on work with me. Let’s get you where you want to be. Okay? Alright, let’s get into this. So a lot of people think that motivation and discipline are the same thing, but they’re really not. But. Motivation is a feeling. It’s something that you feel inside.
It’s, it’s an emotion, essentially. It’s that surge of energy that you get when you get excited about something. Like you, you’re excited about a new goal, or you’re inspired, uh, by something that you read, uh, on the internet or by a podcast that you listen to or by something you watch. Motivation is powerful, but it is just a, a feeling it’s fleeting and it fades pretty quickly, right?
So it comes and goes like all other feelings. Think about other emotions that you experience like a. You know, happiness or frustration or joy or excitement or, you know, uh, anger. All these things are temporary. They can be pretty powerful feelings, right? But they kind of come and go. Discipline, on the other hand, is more like a skill.
It’s your ability to do what needs to be done even when you don’t feel like it. That’s the important part. Because when it comes to motivation, having, you know that as a feeling and that’s something we have and we, we feel like doing something. When you’re motivated to go to the gym, it’s fine. You’re gonna go to the gym.
Discipline sort of kicks in when you don’t feel like doing something. So it’s your ability to do what you need to do when you don’t feel like it. So it’s like waking up early to go for that run. Even when it’s cold and rainy outside, it’s saying no to dessert even when everyone else is diving in.
Discipline is what you lean on when motivation disappears. So, let’s be honest, motivation, it’s, it’s a little overrated. I hear people talk all about, well, I need to be motivated. I need to be motivated, or I was so motivated and I’m not motivated anymore. Yeah, listen, it feels great when it’s there and it can give you a powerful push, especially in the beginning.
But the truth is you’re not going to feel motivated every single day. There will be days when you don’t feel like running. There’s gonna be days when you don’t feel like cooking a healthy meal. It would be so much easier to just order a pizza. There’s gonna be times where you would just wanna stay on the couch with a pint of Ben and Jerry’s or graders ice cream if you’re here in Cincinnati.
Best ice cream in the world, by the way. If motivation is the only thing you’re counting on to get you through those tough moments, then you’re gonna kind of fall short most of the time. Okay? You cannot rely on motivation to keep you going. You just can’t. Whereas discipline, it’s not with discipline.
You’re not relying on feelings. Discipline says, I don’t care if you’re tired. We’re doing this anyway. Discipline is consistent. It’s dependable. It’s built through action and repetition. Discipline is how you become the person that you want to be, essentially. When you look at people who’ve lost weight and kept it off, who’ve completely transformed their bodies, who run marathons or crush it in the gym every week, it’s not because they’re always motivated, it’s because they’ve trained themselves to be disciplined.
Okay, so this is the big takeaway I want you to understand here today, which is that motivation is fleeting. It’s kind of overrated. Um, there’s gonna be a lot of times where you don’t feel like doing the thing or not doing the. This is why discipline is everything. Discipline has to be in place. If you want to stay on track, if you want to get consistent with anything, if you wanna become that person that you ultimately wanna become, discipline is how you do it.
So there’s a couple of common myths or misconceptions around these, uh, ideas here. One of them is that really all you need is motivated, and I hear this from people. Like I said, people say, I just need to be motivated. ’cause if I’m not motivated and I’m not gonna do something, and that is just not true.
Motivation is great when it shows up, but it is not reliable. Discipline is reliable. Okay, so motivation is not all that you need. In fact, you really don’t need motivation. Um, you need discipline though. Okay, so that’s myth number one. That motivation is all you need. Myth number two. Is that some people are just more motivated than others?
Not. Not true either. Some people are just more disciplined. Okay. They’ve trained themselves to be more disciplined. They’ve trained themselves to show up for themselves when things get tough, they’ve trained themselves to continually do the hard thing when they didn’t feel like it. Um, a good example is, uh, going to the gym and a lot of people feel motivated at the beginning of the year, so tons of people join gyms in January, right?
I think we all know this. Uh, come February, March, the gyms are back to what I’d call normal Again. They’re back to not very busy because all those people lack motivation. They, they have not been training themselves to be disciplined. They just were motivated. It was a new year, you know, they’re, I should join a gym.
Yeah, let’s do it. And then they show up for a, a couple of weeks or a couple of months and then boom, they’re done. Because they haven’t been practicing discipline. There’s a couple days where they just didn’t feel like going to the gym, so they didn’t go. And then there was a couple more days and they didn’t go, and then they thought to themselves, well, why bother anyway, you know, I’ve missed all these other days.
And then they just stopped going altogether. That’s why gyms make a lot of money because there’s so many people that pay for the gym and never, ever go. If you’re one of those people, go, go to the gym. Okay. Uh, so that’s the second myth I wanted to kind of dispel, which is that some people are just more motivated than others.
And the third myth is that discipline means you have to be hard on yourself. So this is also false discipline isn’t punishment. I know the word discipline is synonymous. Punishment. Like if you’re going to discipline someone because they did something wrong, that is a form of punishment, but that’s not the kind of discipline we’re talking about here.
Okay? Discipline is a form of self-respect. It, it does not mean being hard on yourself. It’s doing what you know is best for you, even when you don’t feel like it, even when it’s uncomfortable. So discipline isn’t about beating yourself up, it’s not about punishing yourself. Um, it’s about showing up for yourself consistently, even when it’s hard, especially when it’s hard.
So motivation might get you started. It might get you to the gym that first time. Uh, motivation might get you out the door for a run once or twice, but discipline is what gets you to the finish line. You know, discipline is that thing that’s going to, um, keep you going and help you to stay consistent. You know, motivation might help you to sign up for that gym membership discipline is what’s going to get you there three times a week.
Motivation might help you start meal prepping every Sunday afternoon, but discipline’s, what’s gonna keep you doing it every single week, even when you don’t feel like it, even when it’s hard. Even when you got better things to do, then you know, cut up a bunch of vegetables and stick ’em in Tupperware. If you want real results.
If you want lasting change, you’ve got to train this discipline. Muscle. And that’s something else I wanted to make sure you understand is that you have discipline. You just haven’t trained yourself to do it. Um, we can all get strong, we can all improve our muscular strength. And you know what, how you do it, it requires going to the gym or, or whatever.
You don’t have to go to a gym, but it requires lifting heavy things, right? So if you wanna get stronger muscles, you need to train those muscles. If you want more discipline, you have to train that discipline muscle. So how do you do that? Like how do you train your discipline muscle? Well, first of all, I’m not saying that there’s anything wrong with motivation.
I’m not saying motivation is bad. Again, this can be a great Kickstarter. It’s like the fuel that gets the fire started. Um, and if you wanna keep motivation going, if you want to keep motivation alive, then there’s a few things that you can do. There’s a few tips I’m gonna give you to kind of stay motivated, um, and then I’ll give you some tips on how to become more disciplined.
So, how to stay more motivated. Um, first tip might be to set clear, meaningful, meaningful goals. Know your why. Like, why is this thing important to you? Why do you wanna lose weight? Why do you want to run that marathon? Know your why and keep those things front and center. This is like your North star. It keeps you moving in the direction of your goals.
It’s a constant reminder of why these things are so important to you. Most people don’t set clear meaningful goals. Most people go at things half-hearted, um, very vague. They say, I, I wanna join a gym so I can, you know, start lifting weights. Why? Why do you wanna join a gym? Why do you wanna lift weights?
What is that gonna do for you? Do you wanna build bigger muscles? Do you wanna improve your body composition? Do you wanna be able to lift 300 pounds? You know, do you wanna lose weight? Do you wanna, uh, just get stronger? Do you wanna stay injury-free? Why do you wanna lift weights? Why is this important to have clear, meaningful goals?
Another tip is to visualize your future self. Who do you wanna become? What does that version of you in the future look like? Because when you can see that clearly, when, when you can see who it is that you wanna become, it’s much easier to stay, uh, motivated and moving in that direction. It’s much easier to, for that motivation to kind of just linger and stay there.
That feeling of staying motivated. So when you think about your future self, that can be a good motivator for you. Okay? Another way to stay motivated is to celebrate the small wins. Progress equals motivation. You know, taking consistent, aligned action gets you results. Results keeps you motivated.
Celebrate the little victories. Don’t focus on where you’re not focus on, on, on the progress that you’ve made. And a lot of us do this. We like look at where we’re not, well I, I still need 40 pounds to lose. I’m still 40 pounds overweight. And that’s what they focus on where you’re not, instead of, Hey, I’ve already lost 15 pounds.
Hey, you know, I, I wanna be able to run a marathon and, you know, all I can do is run a a half marathon. I’ve never been able to run farther than that. Well, but you ran a half marathon, you know, and you’re consistently showing up and doing the work to progress. Okay? Celebrate the small wins. Focus on the, the wins, the progress that you’re making, the results that you’re seeing.
They’re little victories, but they add up. Another tip to stay motivated is to surround yourself with support, uh, coaching, community accountability. These are all huge motivators. This is one of the things that people say about my group coaching, uh, program. They love the, the group coaching calls because it helps them to not only stay accountable and to share wins and, and to learn some things and hear from others, but they feel like they’re, uh, surrounded with all of this, uh, support from like-minded people, and it helps ’em to stay motivated.
So when they attend the group coaching calls, they feel more motivated to keep going. Um, and ano. And another tip to stay motivated is to just keep learning. Read books, listen to podcasts, watch videos, keep feeding the fire. I always say total immersion. You know, surround yourself with support, you know, read books, listen to podcasts, watch shows, all these things that are going to help you to, um, you know, help immerse yourself in that world of health and fitness.
But again, all these things are great and these, these are things that will help you to stay motivated, which is great. But again, when the fire starts to burn low, when the motivation starts to lack discipline. Has to take over. Okay, so here’s the good stuff. How to become more disciplined. How do you actually build more discipline into your life?
You know, I said earlier, like, think of it like building muscle. It takes time, it takes consistency, and it takes repetition. You gotta get your reps in, you know, you can’t just expect to go to the gym one time and then expect to get bigger muscles or to get stronger. It doesn’t work that way. It takes time, it takes consistency.
So here’s how we become more disciplined. Number one, start small. Don’t try to overhaul your entire life overnight. Build one habit at a time. Go for a short walk each day. Cook one healthy meal today. How can you win the day? Start there and then tomorrow. Just show up and do the same thing. Win tomorrow.
That’s it. It doesn’t have to be anything huge and overwhelming. People think that they need to make these huge sweeping changes in order to become, you know, leaner, to become stronger, to become faster. You don’t, you need to make tiny changes. Consistently over time. Number two, create routines. So discipline, loves, structure.
Plan your workouts, prep your meals, set your bedtime, go to bed at the same time every night. Wake up at the same time every day. Be routine, you know, um, people are like, oh, I just wanna be spontaneous. Well, you can at times, but for the most part, you need to stay, you need to have some structure. One of the reasons that a lot of people, um, do well.
During the week, and they don’t do well on the weekend when it comes to like sticking with their food plan is because they have lots of structure and routine during the week. They go to work at certain times to gotta get the kids to school. Um, you know, certain bedtimes, uh, everything is pretty well structured, but on the weekends things fall apart because they lack that structure.
They lack the routine on the weekends. So my suggestion is always to create some structure around the weekends as well, right? Just because it’s Saturday doesn’t mean. You can’t have some structure, of course, you can have a little bit more flexibility, but maintain some level of structure even on the weekends.
So that come Monday, you haven’t, you know, undone everything that you, you did the first five days of the week there. Okay? Third tip to become more disciplined is to remove obstacles. So make it easier to do your thing. Maybe lay your clothes out the night before. If you need to go for a run in the morning, you know, get your clothes ready.
Uh. Uh, get your coffee made. If that’s something you do in the morning, um, set yourself up for success. Uh, make it easier to stay on track and to do the thing that you maybe don’t wanna do. Pre-cut your veggies. Um. For a while there I was making a big salad every night and I love making a big salad. I put like a, some grilled chicken on it or some salmon or something like that.
And what I would do is once a week I would buy all these veggies and I would cut ’em all up and put ’em into whatever Tupperware containers and, and then when I go to make my salad each night, I don’t have to like prep each individual vegetable or whatever. I just grab my four or five containers in. Just put the stuff on my salad.
It makes making a salad like literally two minutes and, and I’m done. So with just a little bit of prep work, uh, you can make things so much easier for yourself. Again, we’re removing obstacles. Don’t make it harder for yourself. Number four, and this is the big one. This is the do it anyway suggestion. Okay?
If you want to be more disciplined, you have to do it even when you don’t feel like it. That is the whole point here. You show up, you do your thing. When you do that consistently, you start to build trust with yourself. You start to build confidence in yourself, and then you are more likely to show up the next day and do it again.
This is the part that you have to do. It’s gonna be uncomfortable. I’m just gonna tell you right now, but you have to do this part. You gotta do it even when you don’t feel like it. That is the whole point of being disciplined, is showing up when you don’t feel like it. You can practice this every single day.
Just pick one thing you don’t feel like doing today and do it anyway. It can be something small, you know, I gotta pay the bills or I gotta cut the grass, or you know, I gotta, uh, you know, do homework with the kids or whatever. It’s, there’s something you really don’t feel like doing. Do kids still have homework?
I don’t know. My kids are kind of grown up, but I think kids still have homework. Do you help your kids with your homework? That used to be a thing. My parents would help me. It was always very frustrating. Um, but you gotta show up and do those things that you don’t feel like doing and saying this out loud.
I’m like, yeah, nobody wants to do homework with their kids. You know, we’ve all had a long day. The kids have been in school all day. You’ve been at work all day. The last thing you wanna do is sit down and like do a bunch of like math equations with your kid, especially when they do math. Like, totally different now than we used to do back in the day.
I don’t know. Sounds like it’s more complicated, but maybe it’s easier. I don’t know. I guess it’s on how you learn it, but these things are hard. We don’t feel like doing them, do them anyway. Set your alarm early, that alarm’s gonna go off. You’re not gonna feel like getting up, turn off the alarm. You gotta get the feet on the floor.
That’s step number one. If you can get the feet on the floor, you’re golden. I, years ago I tried to train myself to, um. Or I shouldn’t say try. I trained myself to get up earlier because I was sleeping till whenever I felt like it, and I was like, this is not working for me. Like, I need to start setting alarm and getting up, you know, whatever, 5 30, 6 o’clock every single day.
And I started, um, training myself by setting my alarm maybe 15 minutes earlier. And then as soon as the alarm went off, the rule was I just, I had to turn it off and my feet had to hit the floor. That was it. Once I’m sitting up in bed and the feet are on the ground, like. I’m good. I’m good. Um, so do it anyway.
You won’t feel like it do it anyway. This is the most important part of building discipline, and the last little tip here is just be kind to yourself. Discipline isn’t about disciplining yourself. It’s not about beating yourself up. It’s not also about being perfect. Nobody does this stuff perfectly.
Nobody’s completely, perfectly disciplined all the time. No matter what. You know, if you can hit about. 80, 90% of the time, that’s amazing, right? It’s not about being perfect. It’s not about never failing. It’s not about, you know, never having a bad day or, or missing a workout. It’s about showing up even when it’s hard, and then doing that consistently.
That’s it. So it’s not about perfection, it’s about consistency more than anything else. Okay? So don’t beat yourself up. Be kind to yourself, just like lifting weights. You gotta lift weights and it takes a long time and you’re not gonna do it sometimes, and you’re gonna have some progress, and then you’re gonna not have some progress or, or running faster.
It’s a good example because in order to run faster, you gotta practice running faster, but there’s gonna be some races where you don’t have it. And it doesn’t feel good and you, you don’t hit that PR and other times you crush it. Um, and so it’s a process of like continuing to show up for yourself even when it’s hard and you’re gonna fail sometimes.
And it’s okay. It’s all part of the process. It’s all part of the process. We have to fail in order to succeed. We fail our way to success. Okay, so the bottom line here is that motivation is what gets you started. Discipline is what keeps you going. If you rely on motivation, you are going to struggle to stay consistent.
But if you build discipline, you can crush any goal that you set for yourself, no matter how you feel. So don’t wait around to feel motivated. Train yourself to become disciplined. And if you do this, you’ll become unstoppable. And if you’re ready to stop relying on fleeting motivation and start building real lasting habits that lead to real lasting results, let’s work together.
Just go to my website, running lean coaching.com, click on work with me, and apply for coaching today. That’s all I got for you today. Love you all. Keep on running lean and I’ll talk to you soon.
Mental toughness is one of the most powerful tools you can develop as a runner — and also one of the most overlooked. Physical training is important, sure. But if you don’t also train your …
Continue Reading about 290. 3 Keys to Building Mental Toughness for Endurance Athletes →
My name is Patrick McGilvray, and I’m an experienced marathoner, ultra runner sports nutritionist, master life coach, and weight loss coach. For runners, I’ve dedicated my life to helping runners just like you, properly fuel your body and your mind so you can get leaner, get stronger, run faster, and run longer than you ever thought. Possible. This is running Lean.
Hey there, and welcome to episode two 90 of Running Lean. My name is Patrick McGilvray, the weight loss coach for runners. And today three keys to building mental toughness for endurance athletes. So mental toughness is one of the most powerful tools that you can develop as a runner and also one of the most overlooked.
Physical training is important, [00:01:00] sure, but if you don’t also train your mindset, you’ll keep hitting the same walls over and over again. You’ll quit when things get hard. You’ll doubt yourself when you need confidence the most. And you’ll never quite live up to your true potential. So in this episode, I’m sharing the three keys to building mental toughness for you, endurance athletes.
And these are the exact same strategies that I’ve used in my own training and that I teach every runner that I work with. If you wanna run stronger. Go longer and finally stop giving up when the going gets tough. ’cause it always gets tough. This one is for you. But before we dive in, I wanna remind you that the real work of building mental toughness doesn’t happen.
Just from listening to a podcast, it comes from applying what you learn, and that’s exactly [00:02:00] what we do in my coaching program. You don’t have to figure it all out on your own. If you want support, accountability, and a solid plan. To help you hit your weight loss and your running goals without burning out or giving up.
When things get tough because it does get tough, then come check out my coaching program. Just head over to running lean podcast.com/apply. Let’s get you started. All right, let’s get into this. So the first thing I wanna do is kind of define what it is that we are actually talking about here. What is mental toughness?
What does it mean to be mentally tough? So mental toughness is your ability to stay focused, to stay positive, and to keep going even when things get hard, especially when things get hard. And listen, it’s not about being emotionless or never struggling. It’s about being willing to [00:03:00] feel discomfort and keep going anyway.
And another thing I wanted to say is that, um, the best, one of the best parts of this whole topic of building mental toughness is that it is a skill that you can learn. It’s not something you’re born with or not born with. It’s not something that’s just baked into your DNA. You know, we look at people like David Goggins and we think that dude is mentally tough.
He’s got more mental toughness than anybody, and that might be true, but that’s not always been the case for him. He built that. You’re not born with mental toughness. We develop it over time. Okay. It’s something that you can train, that you can learn, that you develop, just like you develop your, uh, VO two max or you get faster as a runner or you can lift more weight, you know, you can increase your deadlift pr.[00:04:00]
These are all things that you can learn to change and develop and build and, and get stronger and grow over time. Same with your mental toughness, same with your mindset in general, but when you’re running and your legs are burning, when your brain is screaming at you to stop when everything says you should quit.
Mental toughness is that thing that you’ve learned over time. It’s that part of you that says, not today. I’m going to keep going anyway. And there are so many examples of, uh, people myself especially, who have. Uh, proven to myself that I can do hard things, not because there’s anything special about me, because I’ve practiced being mentally tough over time.
So we’re gonna get into three sort of keys to developing mental toughness. [00:05:00] Um, and just a little sidebar here is that part of my coaching program is, uh, a twice weekly group coaching calls that we do, and on those group coaching calls every Tuesday night, we, we discuss a topic and we pick a different topic each month.
And this whole month of July, we’re talking about building mental toughness. And we’ve, it’s been a great conversation and a, and a great, uh, month of calls so far. But we are taking a very deep dive into how to build mental toughness. Um, everybody’s been getting some homework assignments to do and some worksheets to kind of go through, um, all kinds of things.
So what I’m talking about today is just scratching the surface of this. I can’t get into, you know, the depth of, of knowledge and everything that. That I’m imparting on the people in the group over the span of five Tuesdays this month. But just [00:06:00] keep in mind that we talk about this kind of stuff a lot.
This is a big part of what I do in my coaching program, is help people to develop, uh, the right mindset, to stay on track, to, to do hard things, to accomplish things that maybe you think are impossible for you. Okay? So just keep that in mind. So the first key I wanna talk about is learning to get comfortable being uncomfortable.
Like you have to get good at being uncomfortable. And, you know, I’ve talked about this a lot in the past. We talk about things like embracing the suck, you know, um, and the, the cost of your success is discomfort. Well, those things are very, very true. If you’re going after some big goal, like maybe you want to run your first marathon or lose 50 pounds, or maybe you want to qualify for Boston, whatever that goal that you have for yourself is, if it’s anything significant for you, if it’s gonna be meaningful for you, then it’s [00:07:00] gonna require some discomfort.
You know, think about discomfort as the cost of accomplishing these things. It’s, it’s the price you pay. So there’s no way around the discomfort it’s going to be there, and your brain at some point is gonna tell you, this sucks. I don’t like this. This doesn’t feel good. We should stop. You should just quit.
Go back to being comfortable. And that is normal. That is a part of being a human being. Our brain is designed. To keep us safe, to keep you from dying. Your brain is there to say, this is uncomfortable. Let’s move towards something that’s more comfortable. This is unfamiliar. We should go back to what we know, what’s familiar to us.
This doesn’t feel safe. We need to seek safety. This feels dangerous, or this is painful. Let’s go for something that brings us pleasure instead. So that’s your, that’s your brain. That’s the normal [00:08:00] functioning of your brain. Your job is to kind of override that. Voice, you know what your brain is telling you.
What’s normal is not being mentally tough. What’s normal is to constantly seek comfort. And I think to a degree this has become something that is, uh, a problem in society today, especially in the western world, the developed world. And where we’ve gotten so comfortable with everything, you know, we can sit on the couch and have food literally delivered to us without having to leave the couch.
You know, maybe just to get up to answer the door and grab the food from the delivery person. You know, we order things from Amazon that it can be there the same day. Um, you know, we don’t have to take the stairs. There’s elevators and escalators and little scooters you can drive around the grocery store if you need to or whatever.
So we’ve, we’ve really like moved away from hard things and we, we moved [00:09:00] towards what’s easier and we’ve done that over millennia. And some of that is good. I mean, it’s good that we can be more comfortable. We don’t have to be afraid of saber tooth tigers and, and you know, small face bears and things like that.
But at the same time, we have gotten a little too comfortable, right? So mental toughness means you recognize that voice in your head that says, this is hard, this is uncomfortable. We should stop. So you, you, it’s not like that voice is gonna go away that ’cause your brain is hardwired in that way.
Unfortunately, mental toughness is recognizing that voice and choosing not to listen. Recogni, uh, recognizing that your, your brain is trying to tell you should stop and continuing on anyway. So this is very key. Some people think, oh, you, you know, if you’re mentally tough, that just means that none of this stuff is hard for you.
That is not true, and I remember when I [00:10:00] was, um, training for my, uh, a hundred miler because this is one of the most uncomfortable things I’ve ever done. Running a hundred miles, very uncomfortable. And I remember getting to, uh, it was a 16 mile looped course, so we had to run that 16 plus miles six times.
And I finished the fifth loop. I had one more 16 mile loop to do. So I was like, like mile 84. And I was done. My, my inner voice was like, we can’t do this. You’re going to die. This is terrible. Okay, so that mental, the mental toughness was there, but that voice was very, very strong. And I had to like decide in that moment, do I continue or not had to choose to either listen to that voice and say, this is gonna be too hard.
I should stop. Or just go. I mean, I’ve, I’ve come this far. Do I want to quit now? I chose not to listen to the voice and [00:11:00] I chose to. Persevere. I chose to continue on even though everything hurt, even though it sucked bad, even though I was in a lot of pain, even though it was very uncomfortable, I, I don’t think I’ve ever been more uncomfortable, but I kept going anyway.
I chose not to listen to that voice. The voice was still there. And the way you get better at this is that you practice it and. The way that I practiced this was in my training. I continually did long runs that were very difficult. I would do, uh, like a, a a 30 mile run on a Saturday and a 20 mile run on a Sunday.
Um, and I did kind of a lot of those ki types of distances as part of my training. And so you do something very long and difficult on a Saturday. You get up the next day, so you’re a little bit. Recovered but not [00:12:00] fully. Your legs hurt, your body hurts. You’re tired, exhausted at times, and you gotta run like 20 miles.
So I did that a lot and those were tough runs, I will tell you. But that’s how you practice the mental toughness. That’s how you practice being uncomfortable. You purposely put yourself in uncomfortable situations. That’s why we do things like, you know, hill repeats, um, fasted runs, cold showers, strength training.
Even if you’re sore, you teach yourself that being uncomfortable. It won’t kill you, that it actually makes you stronger because you can show up for yourself in a way that, um, is really powerful. It’s very powerful to show up for yourself and do something, even though it feels incredibly uncomfortable to do it.
Something that you can kind of do is, um. [00:13:00] Practice the 92nd rule. The 92nd rule is that when something feels uncomfortable, so maybe you have, uh, you’re in a, in the middle of a tough run, you’re in a moment of doubt, or you have a craving for some ice cream or some pizza or something like that. It’s okay to have those cravings, to have those moments of doubt.
Just give it like 90 seconds, feel the feeling that you’re experiencing. Breathe through it, and most of the time it just passes. You know, 90 seconds is not a lot of time, but you’d be surprised how if you just allow yourself to feel that discomfort, um, you start to build that trust with yourself. You start to see that every time you face a little discomfort, you don’t have to give into it.
You don’t have to back down. You can continue anyway. Okay. So that’s number one, which is just getting comfortable, being uncomfortable. Uh, key number two is training that inner voice. So your inner voice is that nonstop mental chatter, [00:14:00] and this can be, uh, your worst enemy or your greatest weapon. Um, so ask yourself kind of like, what are you saying to yourself during the tough moments?
Are you saying things like, I’m not strong enough, I can’t do this. This always happens to me. I always fail. I always fall apart. I always quit. That is not inner strength, but that inner voice is going to make it very difficult for you to have confidence and believe in yourself and keep going. If you’re saying things like, oh, this is really tough, but I’ve done harder things.
Or this is really hard, but you know, I got this. Or you know, I feel very uncomfortable. I’m just gonna take this one step at a time, one aid station at a time. Whatever the words that you say to yourself matter way more than you think, and you gotta train that voice. You [00:15:00] have to notice. Those default thoughts.
Notice when you’re having these thoughts and these, and you’re saying these things to yourself, you know, that inner dialogue, um, and, and just have, have some self-awareness of like, what am I saying to myself? Um, and then maybe challenge some of those thoughts like, is this actually true? Is this helpful to me at all?
And then maybe replace some of those thoughts with something more empowering. You know, like, Hey, I got this. I can do, I’ve done harder things. It’s not about lying to yourself. It’s about choosing thoughts that support your goals instead of sabotaging them. One of my favorites is that I do hard things.
That’s who I am. That, that’s just a statement that I say to myself all the time, and part of me running a hundred miles and finishing that last loop was like, I do hard things. That’s who I am. I have done this kind of [00:16:00] thing before, like I’ve, I’ve run this distance before 16 miles. It’s not that far. I can do this.
I’ve done hard things. I continually push myself. I challenge myself. I see what I’m capable of. That’s baked into my DNA. That’s who I am today. Say that often to yourself. It can become part of your identity too, but this is one of those things that you have to train yourself. You can’t just show up one day and say, oh, I got this, and think that that is going to be enough.
This is like lifting weights. You gotta get your reps in. Uh, we wanna say it enough until it becomes part of our identity. Okay? That’s key Number two, train your inner voice. And there’s lots of things that you can say to yourself to kind of that, that mean something to you, that are gonna help you to, uh, overcome some of those moments, those o overcome some of that discomfort and push through it.
Um, and, and it’s personal. You gotta come up with some of [00:17:00] these things for yourself. Think about that. Maybe jot some things down. And then use that as ammunition. Use that as something that is going to help you to develop that strong, uh, mental toughness. It’s like building a muscle. You gotta, you gotta get your reps in.
The third key is playing the long game. So mental toughness isn’t just about getting through. You know, one tough run or one event or, um, you know, I talk about this a hundred miler that I did. Mental toughness wasn’t about that one event. It’s about being consistent with this stuff, showing up for yourself consistently, especially when you don’t feel like it.
So for months and months and months, I was developing mental toughness actually for years. You know, I had done a lot of other hard things prior to signing up and running that a hundred mile. I did a bunch of ultra marathons. I did it Iron Man. I did a 50 mile run, a bunch of, you know, 50 Ks. [00:18:00] And in every single event, there’s gonna be some time where you have to push through the discomfort, you gotta push through the pain.
You’re gonna feel like quitting, but you don’t. So mental toughness, for me, if it’s about playing this longer game, about developing it over time, so many runners are all in, like they feel mentally tough when they’re motivated, you know? But the real test is when you don’t have the motivation, when that motivation disappears, that’s where the discipline and the practice of getting your reps in comes into play.
Discipline is saying things to yourself like, I don’t feel like running today, but I’m gonna do it anyway. Or, I don’t feel like prepping my meals today, but I’ve got big goals. Or, you know, I’m not seeing results yet. The scale isn’t really moving, but I’m not giving up on myself. This is being [00:19:00] disciplined.
That’s what it looks like. And if you can learn to detach from the outcome and just focus on the process day after day after day after day, that’s where the real transformation happens. Mental toughness is built through repetition, not through inspiration. It’s not about one epic run, it’s about stacking small wins over time.
So ask yourself, what does the mentally tough version of me do today? And then go do that thing. Okay, so we’re playing the long game. We’re we are at this because this is how we wanna live our life. We want to be mentally tough. We’re gonna continue to build that mental toughness, and it takes time, and we are okay with that.
But the more you do it, the more you keep showing up for yourself, the stronger you become. And what a great [00:20:00] skill to learn, to become more mentally tough, to become more resilient, to push through When things get hard, listen, life gets hard. This isn’t just about running. This is about life in general, and this stuff all bleeds over into all these different areas of your life.
Um, so just understand that when you build mental toughness in one area, you build it in all areas of your life. So quick recap here. The three keys to building mental toughness. Get comfortable being uncomfortable. Train that inner voice, and then remember you’re playing the long game. These are simple. I know that, but they’re not always easy.
Which is why they work. ’cause if you want to build, you know, a mental toughness, it does require you to show up for yourself and do this work. If you wanna build endurance, if you wanna burn fat, if you wanna run stronger, if you actually wanna stick with something long term, you gotta build your mindset just as much as you.
Train yourself to, to [00:21:00] build your mileage, you know, or, or lift heavier weights. You gotta build that mindset as well. And if you’re ready to stop quitting on yourself, if you’re ready to finally stay consistent, even when life gets tough. Check out my coaching program. We work on all this stuff, not just the physical stuff, but the mental and emotional stuff too.
’cause that’s where the real change starts. Just go to running lean podcast.com/apply. Fill out that application and let’s do it. Okay, that’s all I got for you today. Love you all. Keep on running lean and I will talk to you soon.
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